Trials of Nature - StormySky1005 (2024)

Chapter 1: School Night

Chapter Text

A/N: Okay, so I love the Spider-Verse movies and saw a few stories with similar premises to this, loved the idea, and decided to try my hand at it. If you don't like the way I do it but are interested in the idea, I would definitely recommend some of those other stories. And just to make it clear, most of this story will be in third person from either Miles or Gwen's perspective, unless stated otherwise. Anyway, as usual, I own nothing except any original content. All rights to existing characters and whatnot belongs to Sony/Marvel, whatever that whole deal is about. If you really want to know the details, Google them. Now, on with the story!

Chapter 1

Gwen POV - First Person

My name is Gwen Stacy. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last year, I've been the one and only Spider-Woman. And trust me, "one and only" isn't as fun as it sounds. In this life of work, of course I was gonna end up a solo act.

I was in a band for a while, but I quit so I could focus on being a superhero. I have my dad, Captain George Stacy of the PDNY, but just like everyone else, he can't know my secret. Worse, he actively hunts me for my illegal vigilantism.

I used to have one friend, Peter Parker. He wasn't exactly what you'd call "popular" at our school, so long before I got powers, I was standing up for him. Apparently, I didn't do as great at that as I thought. I didn't even know him as well as I thought. Didn't understand his true pain. When a giant lizard attacked my school's prom dance and tried to kill Peter's biggest bully, Ned Leeds, Spider-Woman came to the rescue.

I… I didn't know it was him. I didn't even try to kill the lizard monster. I would never hurt Peter. But I did.

My dad found Spider-Woman holding Peter's body and began to hunt her, trying to avenge the murder of his daughter's closest friend. Didn't make things any easier for me. I never really made another friend after that. Neither Gwen nor Spider-Woman can have any friends. They'd only distract me.

But I guess there's nothing I can do about that, huh? My city still needs protecting, and daydreaming isn't going to change that. I stole one of my dad's police radios so I can know when I need to rush to the rescue, and he just received a call about a late-night break-in. I guess it's time for Spider-Woman to save the day again, even though I'm sure J. Jonah Jameson from the Daily Bugle will find a way to blame the break-in on me anyway.

Gwen POV

The Spider-Woman of Chelsea, New York, swung up into a high arc and did a slow backflip as she came down to land in a perched position on top of a rooftop overlooking a building owned by the Roxxon Corporation, the building that was supposedly being broken into right now.

Her first instinct had been to simply go in, find the criminals, and take them out, but in the last year, she'd learned better habits than that. She'd been lured into too many traps, set by ordinary criminals or the police or even supervillains hoping to take her out. Ordinary criminals or the police she could usually handle, but the trouble started when supervillains lured her somewhere simply to have a fight, especially because the villains usually didn't care about the damage or civilian casualties caused by their battle. Now, these supervillains were usually pretty rare, but she'd learned that she could never be too careful.

Watching from afar, she detected no evidence of any forced entry. There were no walls blown in, no doors knocked off their hinges, and no shattered windows, indicating that this was most likely not the work of any supervillain, who had a tendency to be rather dramatic.

Letting out a deep breath of relief, Gwen shot another web line from her wrist-mounted web-shooters (which she designed herself, to her pride), and swung down to the building below, landing on one of the ceiling windows and trying to find a way to open it. As she searched for a handle of some sort, she muttered to herself, "Come on, please. The cops are covering the doors and I really don't need any more bad publicity for breaking a window."

Suddenly, Gwen's inbuilt early warning system, which she called her Spider-Sense, tingled in her head, alerting her to something about to happen. However, she didn't even have time to look around for the source of the indicated threat before the glass beneath her was suddenly blasted outwards, the window getting destroyed as it was hit with immense force from inside the building, and then Gwen was knocked away with it, barely registering a purple and green blur blowing past her before she hit the ground, rolling and landing on her face.

Sighing with annoyance as she pulled herself back up to her hands and knees, Gwen told her brain, "You know, a little more warning would be nice, Spider-Sense."

Seeing quick movement out the corner of her eye, Gwen looked over to her side and saw the source of the blast, a grown man in a purple costume and mask running away from the area without giving her a second thought, moving faster than she thought any non-powered human should be able to, metal boots and clawed gauntlets glinting on his feet and hands as he went. The green she'd seen earlier came from a large, strange green symbol on the man's chest, almost like some sort of animal with sharp fangs.

Gwen's eyes widened at the sheer speed and efficiency of this unfamiliar criminal (clearly a supervillain), the eye lenses of her mask widening to reflect her true facial expression, and she immediately shot a web to grab onto the man's back. As soon as the web hit him, the man spun around and used his claws to quickly cut through the web line like it was nothing, even though the web was actually stronger than steel.

Having lost her hold on the man himself, Gwen instead spun her body around and back into a standing position, her younger years of ballet coming into use, then shot a web line from either wrist onto either side of the man in purple, stepping backwards to pull the lines tight, then launched herself at him like the projectile from a slingshot. His head turned to face her just before she arrived, and the eyes of his mask widened in surprise a moment before she crashed into him, tackling him to the ground and immediately using webs to pin his hands to his chest.

As she webbed the criminal up, Gwen commented, "You know, purple's a really bold fashion statement. Isn't the idea of being a criminal to not get spotted?"

As the man in purple began to struggle against her webbing, Gwen dropped to the ground and spun around with one of her legs out to trip the man onto the ground, making him grunt as he landed, then stood over him and gloated, "You can keep fighting that webbing all night. It's kind of a miracle material, and I should know, I made it myself. Strong, light, compact, flexible. You're never going to-" She abruptly broke off as she noticed several purple rods inside the man's gauntlets begin to glow, and she cursed, "Oh, me and my big mouth."

Immediately after she'd said that, the man thrust his arms out to his sides with a yell, and Gwen cautiously backed away from this guy who was proving to be much stronger than she'd ever imagined he could be. Not many of her enemies could break her webbing with sheer force. It seemed like he was getting his abilities from his gadgets rather than actual powers like she possessed, but that only meant that those gauntlets were able to create hundreds of pounds of force. Admittedly, it was some of the most impressive technology she'd ever seen, but she still wasn't too keen on the idea of letting it hit her.

Panting heavily, the man in purple got back to his feet, towering over Gwen as he was an adult and she was just a teenager, and said in a deep, modulated voice, "So, you're the Spider-Woman I've been seeing on the news?"

Tilting her head, Gwen cautiously responded, "Uh, that depends. If I say yes, are you going to turn yourself in or try to kill me?"

The man in purple didn't answer her question vocally, instead just lunged towards her with his gauntlets humming with energy and tried to hit her in the face. Gwen dodged the first punch, then another, but then she was quickly kneed in the gut before he grabbed one of her arms with one hand and turned to throw her bodily over his head and off the edge of the building.

Gwen was surprised at how this purple guy was actually managing to keep up with her, especially if he didn't have any real powers. Between her Spider-Sense and her superpowered strength and agility, almost no normal criminal could ever land a hit on her, but this guy was faster than her Spider-Sense or reflexes. It was too dangerous to get in close. She was going to have to improvise.

Shooting a web line onto the roof above to stop her descent, Gwen swung herself back upwards towards the roof just in time to see the purple guy jumping off of it, the bottoms of his boots glowing with a bright purple light. Just before she got to the roof, Gwen shot a second web to catch the falling criminal and pulled him back up with her, saying, "Did you jump off the building to save me? Aw, you missed me!"

As she pulled him along, Gwen noticed a small package with a Roxxon logo hanging on the back of his belt and shot a web to pull it off of him before webbing it securely to the side of the building near the roof's edge. Gwen landed on her feet on top of the Roxxon building and whipped her other web line around in front of her in an attempt to slam the purple guy onto the ground, trusting his technology to help him survive the impact.

However, the purple guy stopped her plan by spinning around in midair to use his claws to once again cut her web line off of himself. He then landed on his feet in a defensive position, facing her with his claws extended threateningly and the insides of his gauntlets glowing brightly. "Don't be stupid, kid," he told her. "Just let me go. You don't want this fight."

Gwen stood in her own defensive stance, but then looked behind the man in purple to see a tall, metal relay tower right next to him. These towers were held up by strong, metal bolts to keep them from tipping over in the wind or even if they were accidentally bumped by heavy machinery. If a stronger force were applied to them, however…

Gwen looked back down at the purple guy and said, "You're right. I don't."

The criminal slightly lowered his fists, obviously surprised by what seemed to be her acceptance of defeat, and Gwen used his moment of confusion against him. Shooting several web lines up at the sides of the relay tower in quick succession, Gwen then combined all of the lines into one and placed the lines over her shoulder before she turned and pulled with all of her might.

No normal human could've budged the tower, but Gwen had the proportionate strength of a spider, which she'd discovered made her capable of lifting several tons, and she still hadn't reached her limits. With the strong web lines as her tools to gain leverage, Gwen was quickly able to move the tower enough to make it fall down, heading straight towards the supercriminal in front of Gwen.

The purple guy turned and looked towards the falling relay tower just seconds before it would land on him, and his eyes went wide before he turned back towards Gwen and ran towards her at full speed. However, even with his technologically-advanced speed capabilities, he wasn't able to get entirely out of the way of the tower before it crashed down. He tried to make one last desperate leap out of the way, but the tower shifted towards him as he dodged over a rooftop vent unit, crashing down onto the vent and pinning his right arm underneath the massively heavy beam, making him let out a distorted scream of agony as his arm was bent backwards over the edge of the vent unit and his other arm flailed helplessly as he tried in vain to lift the tower off of himself.

Her eyes wide, Gwen swiftly ran over to where the man lay and put her hands underneath the edge of the tower to help him lift it. She had only tried to knock him down and maybe scare him a bit! She certainly hadn't intended to inflict such a grievous injury on him, even if he was a criminal. Not to mention, this fate was chillingly similar to what had happened to her friend Peter, getting crushed underneath a massive metal structure.

She groaned with effort as she pulled up on the tower, her incredible strength just managing to lift the tower a few inches off of the purple man's destroyed arm, and he quickly shifted out from underneath the tower before she had to release it, and then they both fell onto the ground next to each other, breathing hard from the strenuous experience.

They laid there for a few seconds, and then the purple man abruptly held up his non-damaged left arm and clenched his fist in his gauntlet, which caused it to immediately emit a thick cloud of smoke that obscured his entire body in an instant. Gwen's eyes went wide once more before she flipped over and tried to grab the criminal before he could escape, but her hands grasped only at empty air, and she flipped up to her feet, out of the smoke, and looked all around for any sign of the purple man. Unfortunately, she saw nothing.

Sighing to herself, Gwen spoke to the empty night air and said, "Alright, I may have deserved that." Still,she thought to herself, there was one small victory tonight .

Walking over to the edge of the roof, Gwen reached down and pulled the stolen Roxxon package off of the wall below, then held it up to look at it. Part of her wanted to open it, just to see what that purple guy had been trying to steal, but then she thought about what her dad would say. He'd always taught her to follow the law, to do things by the book. Well, maybe she didn't fight crime the same way he did, but she still had to follow certain rules, and it wasn't her business to know what was being stolen.

Keeping the package in her hand, Gwen jumped off of the edge of the building and towards the PDNY squad cars parked at the front door. Knowing that they wouldn't take kindly to seeing Spider-Woman here, Gwen simply threw the package onto the hood of what she recognized as her dad's car, then shot a web to stick it in place to ensure that no one else stole it, then swung away.

As always, there was one final part to the mission: acting like she had been home the whole time for when her dad got back. Oh, and she should probably get finished packing for tomorrow, when the new year would start at her school, Brooklyn Visions Academy. It would be difficult to get back into the habit of balancing her Spider-ing and her schoolwork, but she'd done it before.

Besides, despite losing the bad guy, tonight had been a big win. Spider-Woman had stopped the robbery and saved the day with minimal property damage (at least for fighting a supervillain). Now she just had to hope that school went as well as tonight had, especially now that her one friend would no longer be there. Without Peter, school would only remind her of how lonely she felt, but she pushed that thought out of her mind. She'd already decided that the rest of tonight would be dedicated to celebrating saving the day.

Miles POV - First Person

My name is Miles Morales. I was born here in Brooklyn, New York, to Jefferson Davis, a PDNY officer, and Rio Morales, a nurse at our local hospital.

I used to be a happy, carefree kid. My parents made my life sheltered, oblivious to the horrors of the world. Every day for over fourteen years, I would watch my dad strap a gun to his hip before leaving our apartment, and I never questioned why. I always expected him to come home at the end of his day. Sometimes I would wait longer than others, but I never doubted.

Then, eight months ago, I sat in my room late at night, just drawing in my sketchbook or something stupid like that, when I suddenly realized that my dad still hadn't come home. It felt weird, but I just waited. He was late sometimes. It was fine.

I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. I eventually fell asleep, but I was woken up early in the morning, way before the sun was up. I remember two officers on my front porch, neither of them my dad, their hats in their hands with sad eyes looking at the ground. I remember my mother's tears as they gave us the news, that my dad wasn't going to come home anymore. And I remember… feeling numb. I couldn't process what I was hearing. I didn't cry that night. I couldn't feel anything. It was later that morning when I cried.

My mom called my Uncle Aaron, my dad's estranged brother, to help me get through it. She was too busy grieving herself. My uncle told me that he was sorry, that he missed him too, that he was gonna take care of everything. And he did. He does. I took a break from school for the rest of the year, and my mom took a break from work for a week. She couldn't grieve longer than that. We had bills to pay, and my dad couldn't help her anymore. She couldn't get enough hours at the hospital for us to live on, so my Uncle Aaron stepped in and helped us make the payments. He always had the money.

I eventually asked him how he got paid so much even though he said he couldn't hold a job. And he showed me. He showed me what he really did. He's a thief called the Prowler, and he uses some high-tech stuff to do some jobs for people. Sometimes he just steals to make ends meet. Sometimes he's hired to hurt someone. And he's the coolest guy I know.

He's like Robin Hood, kinda. He steals from bad people, he sometimes hurts people to do it, but he's a good guy. Not a hero, but a good guy. My dad's death taught me that heroes get killed. My dad's death taught me that the world is a tough place. And my uncle taught me that you've gotta be tougher.

Since I wasn't in school, my uncle started letting me join him on his jobs sometimes. We never told my mom what we were really doing. But I learned a whole lot of cool stuff, and we make quite the team. And who knows? Maybe one day, I'll be able to join him all the time, and together, we'll save more than just our family. We'll save everyone.

Miles POV

Miles' eyes snapped open at the distant sound of his apartment's front door being opened quietly. His uncle had taught him to be a light sleeper. They'll try to get you when you're down,he'd said. It had taken them months of practice, but Miles had eventually learned how to control his subconscious mind. He could wake up from even the deepest sleep in an instant.

His brain immediately began to process little details from the apartment's entrance. The way that the door slid back into the frame without even clicking, the low number of times he heard the floorboards creak… Whoever had just entered the apartment was deliberately trying to avoid making noise, and Miles knew that his mom was already in the kitchen, putting away groceries as she clearly hadn't heard the new arrival.

Miles stealthily crept out of bed and towards his bedroom door, his defensive instincts kicking in as he imagined someone trying to attack his mom. He placed his fingers on his room's door knob and opened the door just a crack, but then he stopped as he recognized the male voice that began to speak to his mother.

"Hey, Rio, I, uh- got a confession to make."

Uncle Aaron! Miles exclaimed in his mind.

He then heard his mom gasp and say, "¿Aaron, qué pasó? Your arm!"

Hearing that his uncle may be in pain was all Miles needed, and he quickly opened his bedroom door to walk out and join them, asking, "What's wrong?" He then froze as he looked at his uncle, standing next to his mom in the kitchen. Uncle Aaron had a large, white cast running down his right arm, holding it in position across his chest.

His mother was trying to examine it, but she looked up when Miles entered and chastised, "Miles, you should be asleep! You start at school again tomorrow!"

Stepping up to Uncle Aaron's opposite side, Miles asked, "Are you seriously worried about school right now? Uncle Aaron, what happened?"

Uncle Aaron winced as Rio lightly gripped his injured arm and pulled it away from her to say, "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just an accident with some heavy machinery at work. It could've been a lot worse."

As he mentioned the "heavy machinery at work", Aaron gave Miles a meaningful look that Rio didn't quite catch, and Miles nodded in understanding. Whatever had happened, it had happened while Uncle Aaron was out being the Prowler.

Aaron then turned back to Rio and continued, "Since I'm kind of… beaten up right now, I need to take a break from work."

"You take all the time you need," Rio instantly told him.

Aaron nodded gratefully, then added, "But I'm telling you this because I'm not gonna be able to help you with your bills for a bit… At least, not working alone."

Rio's expression grew darker as her concern grew, and she looked up at the tall, slender Uncle Aaron to ask, "What do you mean?"

Looking over to Miles, Aaron explained, "Well, I have a few smaller jobs that I think Miles could easily take on for me, if you'll let him-"

Rio was immediately shaking her head, adamantly refusing, "No, Aaron. ¡Míralo! He's still just a boy! And with your injury, I don't think I want him working around all that heavy-"

"Mom!" Miles suddenly cut her off. He then gently continued, "I'll be fine. You know Uncle Aaron won't let me get hurt."

Rio still looked hesitant, but she looked at Aaron, and he gave her an encouraging nod before she sighed in defeat and told him, "If he gets injured-"

"It's not gonna happen," Aaron said confidently, then began to walk towards Miles' open bedroom and said, "I'm going to talk to Miles in private for a minute, if that's good with you."

Rio nodded her acceptance and responded, "Alright. I've got to finish putting these groceries away anyway. But Miles, I want you in bed as soon as you and Uncle Aaron are done talking, okay?"

"I'll make sure he's asleep before I go," Aaron reassured her as he escorted Miles into his bedroom, then added, "Good night, Rio," just before he closed the bedroom door.

Once they were closed inside the room together, Miles sat on the edge of his bed and quietly asked, "So what really happened?"

Sitting next to him, Aaron answered, "I had a little run-in with that vigilante on the news. Spider-Woman. I don't know if she just wanted the score or if she was trying to be some kind of hero, but she nearly dropped a tower on me trying to steal your mom's next couple paychecks from me. Only managed to pin my arm instead."

Miles' eyes went wide and he asked, "How'd you get away?"

Seeming confused himself, Aaron answered, "Actually, she helped me lift it off of my arm before I managed to smoke-bomb my way out of there."

"Why?" Miles asked, not understanding why someone would drop a tower on a guy just to lift it off of them.

Aaron shook his head, evidently clueless, and said, "Doesn't matter. What does matter is that I wasn't lying about this arm. When she dropped that tower on me, she took down the Prowler, at least for a few months, and you and your mom can't wait that long. Now, you need to do what I've been teaching you to do."

"Which is what?" Miles asked.

Aaron looked him in the eyes and answered, "To be me. To be the Prowler, better than I ever was."

Thinking he was joking, Miles began to laugh, but his laughs slowly got weaker and weaker as he noticed that his uncle remained stony-faced throughout it all. Then, realizing that his uncle was indeed serious, Miles asked, "Wait, you're serious, man? How am I supposed to be the Prowler, let alone better than you?"

Aaron placed his left hand on Miles' shoulder and insistently told him, "Because I've seen you out there, Miles. Out in the field. Sure, it took me a minute to get you to jump off a roof your first time, but ever since? You're faster than me. Smarter than me. More agile. More fearless. You can think on the fly in a way that I can't. You learned like crazy for eight months, and now? With the right tools, I think you could be better at this than I ever was. No Spider-Woman is gonna stop you like she did me. And you can do a lot more good than I ever did."

Looking down, Miles protested, "Uncle Aaron… I'm not like you. You're my hero, man."

Aaron looked both flattered and surprised at the compliment. A wide grin then formed on his face, and he chuckled as he said, "Well, what a coincidence, because you're my hero, Miles." Miles returned his uncle's look of surprise, but Aaron wrapped his free arm around Miles to pull him into a close hug and added, "And no, you're not like me. You're better. And by the time you're done, you're gonna be a whole lot of other people's hero too."

Miles chuckled along with his uncle for another few seconds, and then Uncle Aaron stood up from the bed to say, "Alright, come on, let's roll. Out the window. We gotta go back to my place and get your new suit worked out."

His laughter stopping abruptly at the reminder, Miles looked up at his uncle and protested, "But my mom said that I need to get to sleep. She's not gonna let me go out before the first day of school."

Uncle Aaron just pulled Miles' window open, then looked back over his shoulder to say, "She's not gonna know. And I said I would make sure you were asleep before I left, and I will… later tonight. Besides, Miles, the Prowler doesn't have a bedtime."

And with that said, Uncle Aaron pulled himself out the open window and slipped down into the darkness, leaving Miles alone to make his decision. Miles hesitated for a moment, then chuckled once more to himself at his uncle's antics before getting up to follow after him.

A/N: Welcome, my dear readers, to Earth-107 in my latest story, Trials of Nature. Now, this is just a teaser chapter for now, designed so I can discover the level of interest you all have in this idea, and also to ask you all a question. I don’t plan on this story being too long, though I usually make my stories a bit longer than I originally intended, but I would like to know if any of you are interested in me including a romance element in this story (specifically between Miles and Gwen). As some of you may know, I recently completed my fanfic entitled “Seeking Justice”, which was my first attempt at writing romance, and I have yet to receive any negative comments about how I wrote it. Anyway, I personally ship Miles and Gwen together, and either way, the plan is for Miles and Gwen to at least be friends, but I’ll take a poll of popular opinion to decide if I will make this story another romance. Now, finally, I leave you with my thanks for taking the time to read my story as well as the hope that you all enjoyed this first chapter!

Chapter 2: Rebirth

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Gwen POV

Gwen felt that she had achieved disguise perfection.

Her school uniform for Brooklyn Visions included a white shirt and dark blue tie, as well as a gray sweater with the Visions Academy logo over the left breast and a dark blue, plaid skirt. However, she'd discovered that she could easily wear her Spider-Woman suit underneath the uniform by simply taking off her gloves and mask and putting them in her school bag, then rolling up her shirt sleeves to hide the white of her suit's sleeves. Then, the only part of her suit that was visible was the legs and feet, and her legs were almost entirely just black spandex while she wore cyan ballet slippers on her feet, which were both perfectly normal to wear beneath her uniform.

In short, even with part of her suit completely visible, Gwen's appearance was entirely passible for her to go to school in, and she could become Spider-Woman at a moment's notice by simply taking off her shirt and sweater and putting on her mask and gloves from her bag. She wasn't nervous about getting caught in the slightest.

As she stepped out of her bedroom with her bag slung over her shoulder, passing by her dad as he was reading the newspaper at the table while drinking his morning coffee, she heard her dad ask, "Hey, Gwen-"

"It's not what it looks like!" Gwen quickly exclaimed as she spun around to face him. Okay, maybe she was alittlenervous.

Looking up and raising an eyebrow at his daughter, George Stacy said, "I was just going to offer you a ride to school. It's a long walk. What does 'it' look like?"

Gwen looked around and pondered, "Umm…" If he hadn't actually noticed her suit showing beneath the hem of her skirt, she now needed a quick excuse to get out of this hole she'd just dug for herself.

Sighing, George said, "It's the ballet slippers, isn't it? I told you that you need to start wearing shoes with better arch support, Gwen."

Laughing nervously, Gwen told him, "Yep, that's what I was worried you would notice! And you know, you're totally right, I'm going to look for better shoes really soon. It's just… they help build the foot muscles and-"

"You know, the Spider-Woman wears ballet slippers," Captain Stacy cautioned her. "One of the main reasons I stopped letting you take ballet classes is because I don't want you to start considering her a role model or something."

Waving him off, Gwen responded, "Pfft, what, me? Looking up to that… dangerous vigilante? No way, Dad. Never in a million-"

"Gwen," George cut off his daughter's rambling. She fell silent and looked at him, and George pointed out the window before asking, "Do you want a ride to school, or not?"

Quickly nodding, Gwen answered hum, "Yeah, Dad, I'd like that."

Immediately, George sipped up the last of his coffee and grabbed his car keys before leading the way out of the apartment, grabbing his PDNY jacket off of a wall hook as he passed it, and Gwen followed right behind him.

Line Break

As Gwen neared the end of her first day back at Visions Academy for her second year, she recognized that everything seemed perfectly normal, which set off her nerves like nothing else could. She always got nervous when things felt like they were going too easily.

Part of her wished that she still had her bag with her mask and gloves, but they had been left in her locker so that she only had to carry the books she needed for each class. The odds of her needing to do anything Spider-Woman-related in her school were slim anyway. Then again, perhaps she could do something as Gwen Stacy without needing the mask.

She walked into her last out of seven daily class periods, Physics, and sat down in the third row before pulling out her phone and discreetly began researching criminals that had been spotted in New York, specifically searching for terms regarding the man she'd accidentally lost last night, hoping to find something to help her find him when Spider-Woman went out looking for him later. She searched online for any mention of a "purple man" or a "high-tech criminal" or "purple guy with claws".

Eventually, she thought she found a webpage where people were discussing the guy she was interested in. Apparently, someone at theDaily Buglehad been researching him for some time, a criminal with high-tech gadgets that had been around for a few years and was known as the Prowler. Even the name sent shivers down Gwen's spine, and she remembered how quick and deadly the man had been. If she hadn't found a way to stop him quickly, she felt sure that he would've managed to escape without injury and probably with that package he'd tried to take from Roxxon.

She could hardly believe that she'd nearly had this guy, ending his years-long career of thievery, sabotage, property damage, and numerous other charges, even including multiple unconfirmed reports of murder. But then again… Maybe shehadstopped him. That arm injury he'd sustained last night would keep him down for at least a few months. Maybe it would be enough to make him give up that life? Gwen was hesitant to get her hopes up, but still, she was cautiously optimistic.

Gwen remained deep in her research for several minutes after class had started, but just as she finally decided that she could not get any more information and began to put her phone away, she looked up to the front of the room as the teacher greeted a student who was arriving late. "Mr. Morales, how nice of you to join-"

"Yeah, yeah," the newly-arrived Mr. Morales cut the teacher off rather rudely as he walked into the room and slumped into the chair to Gwen's left before leaning on his arm and looking up at the teacher in a bored kind of way.

Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen examined this Mr. Morales, surprised to determine that she'd never seen him before despite this teacher's obvious familiarity with him. He was slightly taller than her and had a youthful face with striking brown eyes and wore his hair back in two long braids. He wore the school's typical male uniform of a white shirt with dark blue pants and a matching suit jacket, as well as a black tie.

He didn't even look at anyone in the room as he entered the room, and Gwen could tell that he wasn't really focused on the teacher either. For some reason, that last fact slightly angered her. Perhaps it was because her deceased friend, Peter, had been a verified nerd that had always loved paying attention in school. She'd never liked those kids who didn't pay attention in class, thinking that they were "too cool for school" or something like that.

However, as Gwen thought about it further, she realized that this couldn't be the case with Mr. Morales. Visions Academy was a very prestigious school, and he wouldn't be here if he didn't have a gifted mind. Those cool kids she'd never liked, she hadn't realized it last year, but she had never seen any such kids at Brooklyn Visions. Such characters simply weren't tolerated here. There had to be more to Morales's story than she was able to see, and like it had been with Peter, Morales was a mystery that part of her felt determined to solve.

Suddenly, Morales turned to her with a completely neutral expression and told her, "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

Gwen blushed and quickly averted her eyes from him. She hadn't even realized that she'd been staring until he pointed it out. Or at least, she'd thought that she was being discreet about it, only watching him out of the corner of her eyes without even turning her head to face him. How he'd caught her, she honestly had no idea. She noticed that he was now the one staring at her as though daring her to look at him again, but she refused to acknowledge his gaze whatsoever, even when it began to feel uncomfortable.

After a few minutes, however, the teacher singled the young man out once more to sarcastically ask, "Mr. Morales, is there something you'd like to share with Ms. Stacy? Perhaps your declaration of undying love and devotion?"

The whole class except for Morales and Gwen cracked up at the teacher's joke, but Morales just calmly looked up at the teacher and answered, "No, sir."

Within a few seconds, everyone fell silent as Morales failed to take the bait, instantly ending the joke, and the teacher sternly said, "Then please pay attention, Mr. Morales. Your vacation from last year is over, so we'd like you to join us in class again, both physically and mentally."

Gwen noticed Morales's eye twitch at the mention of his "vacation" before he looked up at the teacher and said, "Yes, sir."

The rest of the class period passed in relative silence, with Gwen deliberately avoiding looking at Morales while he continued to ignore everyone entirely. By the end of the class period, Gwen was convinced that Morales would have already forgotten all about her staring at him, but shortly after they walked out of the classroom, she heard a voice call out, "Stacy!"

Gwen turned at the sound of her name and saw Morales stalking towards her through the crowd of students flowing around them. When he stopped in front of her, he asked, "What is it?"

Blinking her eyes in surprise, Gwen asked, "What do you-"

"You were staring at me, and I want to know why," Morales explained.

Gwen mouthed, "Oh…" as she recalled him catching her staring and said, "I was just… curious about you. That's all. I don't think I saw you last year."

Sighing, Morales asked, "Alright, who put you up to this? Allan?"

Confused, Gwen answered, "No one put me up to anything. I just… didn't recognize you, and I thought it was interesting."

Morales gave her a suspicious look, clearly not believing her, then sternly said, "I'm not interesting. There's nothing special about me. I don't do interviews. I don't do questions. I don't do friends. So stay away from me, got it?"

Not waiting for an answer, Morales then walked past Gwen carelessly, and by the time she turned around to watch him go, he had already disappeared into the crowd. Still, what he had said stuck with her. He wasn't special? One of the last things Peter told her was that he had just wanted to be special. And what interviews was Morales talking about? What was he hiding, and why did he assume that she wanted him to talk about it?

And… no friends. She hadn't been trying to be his friend, but she knew what it was like to not have any. In the end, him telling her to stay away from him only made Gwen more determined to learn whatever she could about this Mr. Morales. And if nothing else, she would have something for Gwen Stacy to work on when she wasn't being Spider-Woman.

Miles POV

Not one day into the new school year, Miles already had someone snooping into his business. That Ms. Stacy… she was more observant than most people in this school, which could be dangerous for him as he now had more to hide than ever before.

It didn't help that he felt oddly drawn to her himself. When he'd told her to stay away from him, he'd done it almost more for his own sake than for hers. His uncle used to advise him that "smart girls is where it's at", which may explain why Miles had developed a certain attraction towards the more intelligent females. After all, he figured that if he had a crush on someone, he'd want them to have their own brain and not just fall all over the first person to approach them. And Ms. Stacy was a perfect combination of pretty and smart, the only one that had noticed something off about him despite having never met him before.

Not that he had any sort of crush on Ms. Stacy, of course. That "smart girls" advice his uncle had given him was old, from before his dad had died. Now that he was going to be the Prowler, he didn't have time for things like romantic interests. He had his mom to take care of, and also his uncle, and a whole lot of other people in his community that needed someone looking out for them.

His thoughts drifted to his after-school plans for the day. When his Uncle Aaron had determined that Miles' new suit would take longer to create than planned, he'd insisted that Miles come by his apartment later tonight to try on the finished product and show him how it looked. After he had the suit and the gear worked out, Miles would finally be the Prowler. After that, it would just be a matter of using his new tools and his months of experience and training to do what his uncle had done for years.

Miles was quickly making his way back to his dorm room, keeping his eyes glued to the ground in front of himself, when suddenly someone appeared directly in his path, nearly making him run into them before he managed to stop himself. Looking up to stare them in the eyes, Miles was surprised to find that same Stacy girl from earlier standing in front of him, aggressively shoving a hand out towards him.

Evidently, she hadn't felt particularly inclined to listen to his warning for her to stay away from him. However, though he was annoyed, he had to admit that it was pretty impressive that she had managed to follow him without him noticing, sneaking up on him like a ghost.

Holding her outstretched hand up to his face, probably just making sure that he had no excuse not to take it, Stacy said, "I think that maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Gwen Stacy."

Narrowing his eyes at her, Miles reached up to take her hand and shook it once firmly before releasing it and insincerely said, "Nice to meet you."

He then tried to walk around to her right, but she sidestepped so that she was in front of him once again and asked, "And you are?"

"Supposed to be somewhere else," Miles answered sarcastically, then once again tried to step around her, this time to her left, but she stepped into his path one final time and suddenly glared at him as she sternly said, "Look, I don't normally do this. Going out of my way to talk to people, I mean. But I told you my name. Could you at least tell me yours?"

Sighing deeply, Miles responded, "Look, my name is Miles Morales, alright? Now, can I go? Or do you want my middle name too?"

Smirking at him, Gwen said, "Well, I mean, I wouldn't object if you really wanted to tell me- Hey, wait up!" She'd broken off as Miles immediately got fed up with her humor and walked right past her, swiftly ducking under her arm to go past her before she could even react.

A moment later, however, Gwen fell in line by his side and began to walk with him, still trying to talk to him while he did his best to ignore her. "You nearly lost me back there. You're pretty fast. And quiet, too. Like, seriously, you barely talk at all. That's fine. I don't talk much either. Usually. Other times, I talk quite a lot. Some people even say that I talktoo much. Can you believe that? Anyway, Miles, where are we going?"

Finally snapping, Miles turned to her and said, "You want the truth?Iam going to sneak out to my uncle's place and grab something I left behind, something important, and you'renotcoming with me. You got that?"

Gwen seemed surprised by his outburst for a moment, but then her expression turned to one of determination as she said, "Alright. The school's head of security will try to stop you. I'll distract him, you sneak out your bedroom window."

And just like that, Gwen turned in the direction of the security office and began to make her way towards it like a woman on a mission, but Miles hurriedly reached out to grab her shoulder, stopping her, and asked, "Wait, Gwen, what are you talking about? What are you doing?"

Seeming confused by the question, Gwen repeated slowly, "I'm going to distract the security guard while you head out your dorm room's window."

Miles just stared at her for a moment, mentally trying to reassure himself that she had said what he'd thought he heard. When he finally managed it, he scowled and said, "I didn't ask for help."

"And yet I offered it anyway," Gwen added for him with a mischievous wink, then turned once again and walked swiftly down the hall towards the security room before Miles could protest any further.

As he watched her go, Miles remained frozen in place for a few seconds before his body seemed to remember that he had somewhere to be and automatically began to continue walking back to his dorm room. His mind, however, was still far away from his current objective, too distracted to act on any level above his subconscious.

This Gwen Stacy, what was her problem? He'd barely said anything to each other during this single day where they'd first met, yet she seemed completely determined to talk to him. He didn't understand how he had repeatedly failed to scare her off. He thought that he'd made it perfectly clear that he wasn't interested in being her friend or sharing any part of his life story with her.

Yet, she hadn't really asked for either of those things when she'd cornered him in the halls after school, had she? She just wanted to introduce herself and also get his own… Oh, no. Did he seriously tell her his name? Great, now she'd be impossible to get rid of. Miles oddly found himself feeling not-entirely-displeased at the thought, but easily passed it off as simple gratitude for the way that she had jumped in to help him with the guard.

That had been the strangest thing, when she had heard what he was planning on doing and instantly resolved to help him instead of trying to stop him or turn him in, and all without even asking for anything in return (at least, not yet). Even if he truly hadn't needed Gwen's help to sneak out of the building, it was still convenient to have, especially as she would increase the odds of him leaving the building without being noticed. Yes, that had to be the reason. She was useful to him. Unless he was indeed developing a small crush on her… But he couldn't do that. His new responsibilities had to come first. At the same time, though, he had to admit that he kind of enjoyed seeing that this girl had a rebellious side…

Despite his attempts at rationalizing Gwen's actions and his own resulting behavior, Miles continued to be distracted throughout his whole trip to his uncle's apartment. He remained lost in thought as he changed clothes in his dorm room, out of his school uniform and into casual clothes topped off by a dark green jacket with purple inner lining and a hood, climbed out his bedroom window to avoid being seen by anyone, and walked through the streets down to his uncle's apartment before climbing the fire escape to enter through his window like he had done many times before.

When he entered, however, he found the apartment darkened, all the lights switched off. Uncle Aaron usually liked to stay up late at night. He didn't require much sleep. It was one of his natural habits, and it had helped him to do a lot of work as the Prowler for several years. Every time Miles had visited his uncle late at night in the past, he would usually find him just hanging out, watching a movie, hitting his punching bag, listening to music, or numerous other things.

Miles usually only ever found the apartment darkened when his uncle wasn't home, meaning that he was probably at work or "out of town", which Miles now knew were both excuses for him to be out being the Prowler. Miles quietly slid his way into the apartment through the window, looking around through the shadows curiously, wondering if maybe Uncle Aaron had somehow been forced to leave his apartment for some reason. He wouldn't have left voluntarily, not when he was expecting Miles to arrive shortly, and Miles was right on time, having come here right after school just as his uncle had told him to.

Miles nearly jumped with surprise when a deep voice suddenly spoke from near the wall, saying,"You gotta work on your discretion, Miles."A small lamp in the corner was turned on, revealing Uncle Aaron sitting on his couch with his Prowler mask on and his arm draped over the back of the couch, easily reclining against the firm, red leather.

In the darkness, only the white eye slits in the mask had been just barely visible, yet small enough that Miles hadn't recognized them for what they were. With the light on, he could see the full mask covering the entirety of his uncle's face, mostly just a solid dark purple color except for the black, angular linings surrounding the glowing white eye slits, though the purple mask contrasted very strangely with the white t-shirt that his uncle wore.

Uncle Aaron stood up from the couch and used his good arm to pull off his mask before he continued, "Lucky for you, your mask's gonna help you see in the dark. Infrared too, when you want it, along with a few other scan options. You ready to try it on?"

Miles answered with a nod, and Aaron nodded back with satisfaction before saying, "Well, I've been looking forward to seeing it. It's all in the other room, right where you left it, so put it on, then come back out here and show me. And I'm gonna have a few more things to give you when you get back, so don't take too long."

Excitedly, Miles rushed over into his uncle's bedroom, where Miles had left his developing costume after working on it late last night. Uncle Aaron had slept on his couch last night to avoid having any part of the suit revealed to him before Miles was finished making it. Miles had finished most of the suit itself last night, but one particular part had been more tricky, requiring delicate programming, and he'd had to leave it to finish automatically overnight. Miles quickly stripped off his current clothes and began to don the pieces of his new costume.

The first layer of clothing was a pair of long, black pants with a couple of pairs of large pockets on the sides and a black shirt with the Prowler logo drawn in a bright magenta across the chest, partially covered at the bottom by a strap that ran just underneath his pectoral muscles. In place of the purple that his uncle had always preferred, Miles had decided to combine the purple with his much-loved red coloring to create the brighter color of magenta, which would help to make his own look more distinctive.

Next was a custom-made, open, black leather jacket with a large collar that was cut into five wide spikes around his neck, the three in the back slightly longer than the two in the front and black on the outside of the collar but magenta on the inside. The sleeves were rolled up just slightly while the elbows were covered with protective pads and the jacket was held in place by a leather harness that was worn over his back and housed a pair of long daggers.

Finally, Miles picked up the last piece of the costume, the part that he'd needed to program overnight: a small, rectangular box with a number of tiny, purple dots along the internal circuitry. Miles reached up and attached the box onto the back of his head, wincing slightly as several small needles on the back of the device stabbed into his skin, then used a nearby mirror to ensure that the device was effectively hidden beneath his hair, flattening it all down to make it look natural.

Once Miles was satisfied with the device's position, he squared his shoulders and walked confidently back to the room where his uncle was still waiting. As Miles entered the room in his new outfit, he found Uncle Aaron hunched over something on his kitchen table, wearing welding goggles as his non-injured arm worked on something, sparks shooting into the air as he went.

Even though Miles made barely any noise as he entered, Aaron seemed to immediately recognize his returning presence and turned around in his seat while pulling his goggles off. He looked Miles up and down and whistled, saying, "Wow, Miles. A whole new style."

"Gotta be me," Miles said with a smirk.

Nodding, Aaron agreed, "Yeah, you do. But, uh, one small problem. Where's the mask?"

Miles' grin only got wider at that, having anticipated this moment, and mentally ordered,Mask on. With that simple thought from its wearer, the lights in the device on the back of Miles' began to glow brightly for a second before the sides opened and automatically unfolded numerous plates of overlaid metal and glass.

The plates wrapped themselves perfectly around Miles' head, pulling his long braids up to rest safely inside the plating of the device before connecting to one another from both sides of Miles' face over the center of his face, hiding his identity behind a darkened screen. Then, with another thought from its wearer, glowing lights appeared on the face of the screen to reveal the same eye shapes that his Uncle Aaron's mask had, except that now the white eye slits were lined with glowing magenta surrounded by black instead of black surrounded by purple.

Miles had also added two air filters to the mask, resting down by the bottom of the mask and lined with magenta LED lights. These filters would allow him to easily pass through any smoke or gasses without being bothered. Besides, they just added extra distinction to the mask, making the whole thing look even cooler.

At this unexpected sight, Uncle Aaron stood up from his chair with wide eyes and just stared in amazement for a minute. Then, he shook his head and chuckled, "And you thought you couldn't be the Prowler. You've already got the 'dramatic' thing down. Now, all that's left is for me to give you a few gifts."

Uncle Aaron walked over to his couch and picked up what appeared to be a shoebox from off of it. He then carried it over to Miles and handed it to him before saying, "Come on. Open it up."

Miles immediately did as ordered. Admittedly, he hadn't expected to find actual shoes inside this shoebox, but that was exactly what it was. Inside the box rested a brand-new pair of Nikes. While that was a nice gift, Miles couldn't help but be somewhat let down. His uncle usually liked to give more exotic gifts, and he'd expected something far more… unusual, especially when Miles was currently wearing relatively new Nikes already. In fact, looking down at his own shoes, Miles realized that this new pair was exactly the same as the pair he had on, except that the colors had been changed, the white to black and the red to a dark purple.

Still, trying to show that he wasn't ungrateful, Miles quickly retracted his mask with a thought and said, "Uh, thanks, man! I mean, these shoes are darker than the ones I have on, they'll help me sneak around better."

Chuckling, Uncle Aaron said, "You really think that's all there is to these shoes? You're a smart kid, Miles, but you got a lot to learn."

Uncle Aaron then lifted one of the shoes out of the box and turned it around so that the bottom of the shoe was facing Miles, and Miles' eyes widened as he noticed two glowing purple lights on the bottom of the shoe, one in the front and another towards the back.

"These shoes are like my suit's boots, Miles," Aaron explained to his nephew. "These purple emitters are anti-grav projectors. They'll let you move dozens of times faster, run on walls, jump large distances, even make midair jumps for a limited time, almost like flying. And since I put them in these Jordans, you'll be able to wear them at any time during the day. Not to mention, I lined the soles with some vibranium I took from an old job. I didn't have much, but it's enough to make these shoes completely vibration-absorbent, meaning ultra-soft landings and no noise."

Raising an eyebrow, Miles joked, "No noise, huh? So, you're saying that they're… sneak-ers?"

Uncle Aaron looked down with a sigh and said, "I don't know why I didn't expect you to say something like that when given state-of-the-art tech. Anyway, why don't you try them on? I'm gonna finish what I was working on, and then I got one more thing to give you."

Miles nodded his acceptance and took the shoes before going over to the couch while Uncle Aaron returned to his project on the table. He removed his current pair of shoes from his feet and put on the new ones before standing up to see how they felt. To his pleasure, they were every bit as comfortable and supportive as regular Jordans, yet he could also feel a tremendous amount of power just waiting beneath his feet, almost urging him to get moving and never need to stop. While training with his uncle, he'd been allowed to use his uncle's anti-grav boots on occasion, but these new shoes felt infinitely more comfortable and sturdy, fitting him just right while also being flexible.

While he continued to admire his new shoes, Miles suddenly heard his uncle call out, "Miles, catch!"

Looking up, Miles quickly noticed the small piece of metal flying towards him, and with his trained reflexes, he reached out like a striking viper to grab it out of the air with one hand before looking down at it and realizing what it was. It was a metal gauntlet with clawed fingers and glowing purple rods shining around the wrist inside a protective shell. It was an exact copy of one of his uncle's Prowler gauntlets, but slightly smaller and slimmer.

With a look of surprise at his uncle, who was wearing a look of deep pride, Miles instinctively placed the gauntlet on his opposite hand and immediately felt a connection to it. It fit him perfectly, and he pulled his fingers in one by one to make a fist with the gauntlet and heard the power coils lowly hum with charged-up energy. He then flicked his fingers outward as he'd seen his uncle do with his own gauntlet many times, and the claws at the ends of his fingers snapped out, extending slightly further until they were long and sharp enough that they could easily shred through solid steel.

He then looked back up at his uncle once again, and Aaron gave him a smirk before he tossed a second gauntlet to Miles, which he also caught and slipped onto his opposite hand, feeling the locking mechanism automatically close around his wrist and connect the device to his bodily reflexes. As he now closed both hands into fists, Miles heard his uncle say, "They have all the same functions as my gauntlets, along with a few new ideas I thought to add. I'll let you figure them out. But how do you feel about trying out your new toys tonight?"

Miles looked up at his uncle with determination and just silently willed his mask back on. Understanding his gesture of willingness, Aaron nodded his satisfaction and continued, "I have your first job. The first thing that the new Prowler is going to do is finish what the old one couldn't."

Miles didn't respond, just stared ahead in silent determination. His months of training had all amounted to this, the night that the Prowler was reborn, stronger than ever before.

A/N: I know that the wait's been long, but I seem to have less and less time to write these days. Still, I'll update this story as often as I can. I know that this chapter didn't feature any action, but it was to introduce Miles and Gwen to one another, and the next one will introduce Spider-Woman to the new Prowler. Speaking of, the popular vote was for me to make this story a romance, so be ready for that! Leave a comment if you enjoyed or have questions or suggestions, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 3: Uncanny Resemblance

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Gwen POV

"And today's top story, a piece of valuable technology was stolen from a Roxxon Corporation warehouse last night. But that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the technology, a developing clean energy source, had nearly been stolen the previous night as well, so it was under heavy guard by the PDNY, yet none of our City's Finest even caught a glimpse of the thief during the robbery.

"Now, this level of stealth requires a very specific skill set, so I think we all know who the culprit is, right? This was clearly the work of the public menace that we all know and loathe, the Spider-Woman! In fact, Captain George Stacy of the PDNY publicly announced that Spider-Woman was confirmed present at the robbery attempt two nights ago. You heard it here first, folks!"

It didn't take long for Gwen to grow tired of hearing Jameson's ranting on the news, the sound coming from a student's phone at the table right behind her. She'd sat here for breakfast today specifically to discreetly listen in on this morning's breaking news after she'd noticed a small group of students gathered around a single cell phone and watching theDaily Bugle's latest story. Now, though, her fist was clenched so tightly with barely-concealed annoyance that she accidentally snapped her plastic spoon in half.

She quickly looked around to see if she'd gotten anyone's attention before she reached down beneath the table and picked up the broken half of the spoon and set both halves on her breakfast tray. She'd lost her appetite anyway. She was just glad that it hadn't been a metal spoon, as she might have broken that too with how angry she felt right now.

Jameson blaming everything on her, she could handle. She had over a year's worth of experience with that paranoid old man using every opportunity to point fingers at Spider-Woman, regardless of how far-fetched his stories got. No, right now she felt angry at herself and at the Prowler. She was almost certain that the same thief from a couple nights ago had decided to return and finish the job last night, this time not setting off any alarms and allowing her to rush to the rescue.

She was annoyed at herself for letting Prowler get away, and for thinking that his injury would stop him from coming back to steal his prize. Now, she had no choice but to go after him, and late nights spent searching for a super-criminal that could rarely ever be seen didn't exactly sound enticing to her. She had homework to do, after all. But she hadn't been chosen for this school or saved the city multiple times by being a quitter, and she was determined to accomplish the task ahead of her regardless of how impossible it seemed.

She pushed her tray away and glumly began to plan for the task she would take on later tonight, but she was surprised when a voice in front of her asked, "Mind if I interrupt your brooding?"

She looked up and found Miles standing across the table from her, holding his own breakfast tray and looking down at her questioningly. She was so shocked by his apparent willingness to speak to her after their charged meetings yesterday that she didn't respond to his question. Either taking her silence as a positive response or simply not caring, Miles sat down across from her and began to eat his breakfast.

Watching him curiously, Gwen said, "I didn't think you'd want to sit by me."

Miles shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of his food before he responded, "You've got this… sort of aura around you, like you're telling everyone to 'Leave me alone!' Your table was empty except for you, and I… Well, I don't really like crowds."

Looking around, Gwen realized that he was right. The table was completely empty except for herself and Miles, even while all the other tables were practically full of students eating together. Apparently, she'd just gotten so used to being alone that she no longer even noticed when she was by herself.

Looking back at Miles, she asked, "And my 'aura' doesn't affect you?"

Miles looked up at her with surprise and answered, "Nah. I'm harder to intimidate than most people. Besides, I'm having a pretty good day so far."

Gwen quietly scoffed at that. When Miles noticed, he asked, "What? Not having such a great day yourself?"

Gwen knew she couldn't explain the truth of the situation to him, so she simply said, "It's just… this robbery last night. The news is saying Spider-Woman stole something from Roxxon. My dad was there, and she could've hurt him."

Almost seeming offended at the thought, Miles argued, "You don't really believe that, do you? That this 'Spider-Woman' was the thief last night? I mean, she wouldn't do anything like that, would she?Couldshe even pull off something as big as that?"

Gwen shrugged and said, "I'm sure my dad thinks she would. He's not exactly a fan. But I'm sure shecould, if she wanted to. My dad told me that she's… pretty capable, even if she is a dangerous vigilante."

"You keep mentioning your father," Miles noted. "Has he, like, met her or something?"

"He's the captain of the PDNY," Gwen answered.

Nodding in understanding, Miles said, "Ah, right. Captain Stacy. My dad used to-"

His expression suddenly fell as he broke off mid-sentence, and Gwen abruptly figured out something about him in her mind. She recognized the darkness filling Miles' eyes. It was the look of someone that had lost someone close to them and still struggled to cope with it. A look that Gwen saw every time she looked in the mirror.

"Your dad died, didn't he?" she asked sympathetically. Miles glared up at her, but she pressed further, "That's why you took some time away from school last year. He was a cop?"

Miles started to breathe more heavily, and Gwen became slightly worried that she may have overstepped, but then Miles just firmly told her, "Don'tpity me."

Looking down at the table, Gwen sadly said, "I won't. I know how it feels. My mother died when I was young. I never liked when people said that they were sorry."

Miles scowled at the table with apparent agreement and added, "Like their apology is supposed to make it better, easier or something. I mean, what are they even sorry for?"

They remained like that for a few minutes, both of them silently remembering their lost loved ones, until Miles finally sighed out, "Well, I guess you got what you wanted. You know my sob story. So much for my great day. Nice meeting you, Gwen Stacy."

He stood up from his seat and made to leave, leaving half of his breakfast untouched, but Gwen processed what he'd said and thought to herself,Wait. That can't be it. Did I really just want to dredge up his bad memories?

Ultimately, she decided that she couldn't possibly leave it at that and quickly said, "Miles, wait."

Miles had just grabbed his tray and begun to walk away, but at the sound of her voice, he looked down in a defeated sort of way and turned back around to face her one more time, looking at her expectantly, and that was when Gwen realized that she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to tell him.

She uncomfortably rubbed her hands together, contemplating her next words. The obvious thing to do here would be to offer to actually be his friend. It hadn't been her original plan, but now that she'd pried into his personal life and also unexpectedly offered up details about her own life to him in exchange, it almost seemed unavoidable, especially if she didn't want him to think that she'd just been after his story.

But could she even do such a thing? Have a friend again? Her last friend had gotten killed, and she'd vowed to never make another friend again, yet… She found something about Miles to be just so appealing. She could already tell that she truly was interested in him for more than just the secret he'd carried. And really, she was just so tired of being alone.

And her secret identity? She'd always been able to keep her secret from Peter… Or at least, she'd thought so. Right before his death, Peter revealed that he'd known who Spider-Woman was under the mask, though she didn't know for how long. But then again, Peter had known Gwen better than anyone, almost her whole life. Surely she would have an easier time keeping such a secret from Miles, who she'd only met yesterday. But could Miles take care of himself if her secret identity ever put him in danger? Giving him a quick look-over, she immediately decided that he could do so better than Peter ever had.

In the end, she realized that it all came down to one thing: Did she think that she could risk another friend dying, if it came to it? The hardest lesson she'd learned in her first year of Spider-ing was that even with all her powers, she couldn't always save everyone. More often than not, someone would get hurt. Was she willing to let Miles get close to her with the knowledge that her secrets could potentially put him in harm's way?

It was a tough decision, but Gwen finally thought she'd figured out a perfect compromise. She would take a risk with him as Gwen Stacy, but she wouldn't allow her life as Spider-Woman to become entangled with him.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen said, "Miles, I wasn't just trying to learn about whatever bad things happened to you. I don't do this often, because most people can't handle my… weird kind of friendship, but if you think you can, I'd like us to be friends."

Seeming hesitant, Miles nevertheless said, "Go on."

"We'd need to lay down some ground rules," Gwen began to explain, but suddenly Miles cut her off and said, "The first one is that you leave me alone when I tell you to. I don't like being forced to be social and sometimes I have work I need to do on my own. I'll honestly tell you when I need some alone time, but you've got to let me have it when I ask for it, got it?"

Gwen blinked in surprise. All of what he'd just said was… oddly in line with what Gwen had been about to say. This arrangement would actually work perfectly with herotherlife. Clearing her throat, Gwen responded, "Yeah, I got it. And… me too. I like my alone time as well. So… conditional friends?"

Miles looked her in the eyes for a few seconds, then simply reached down onto his tray and picked up his unused spoon before tossing it to her. As Gwen caught it, Miles told her, "Conditional friends. Try not to break that spoon. I don't have another spare for you."

And with that, he walked out of the cafeteria, throwing away the remaining contents of his tray and depositing it on a stack of other trays on the way out. Gwen watched him leave before she looked at the spoon in her hand, then back at her uneaten food tray sitting in front of her, and finally decided to dig in. Even if she still didn't have much of an appetite, she decided that she could probably still use some energy for the school day, along with the significantly more difficult task that she'd set for herself after school.Then again, she thought to herself,I doubt I'm going to do anything today that's harder than what I just did.

And indeed, it did feel like she'd just accomplished a miracle. Either that, or a really big mistake. Making another friend still felt as dangerous as ever, but maybe the fact that her friend was someone like Miles Morales, someone much more distant than Peter had been, would make it all okay. At least, that was the hope.

Line Break

At the end of school that day, Gwen was on her way back to her dorm room to change into her Spider-Woman persona when Miles' voice suddenly called out to her from down the hall, "Gwen!"

Remembering their new arrangement too late, Gwen quietly cursed to herself before turning around to face her new friend as he jogged up to her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him and said, "Sorry, Miles, but that 'me time' we talked about? I actually need some of it right now. Whatever it is, you can tell me about it tomorrow morning."

Miles' words seemed to fail him for a moment before he confusedly said, "Actually, that's what I came to tell you about. I need some 'me time' myself."

They stared at each other in disbelief for a moment, then both began to laugh at the same time, mutually amused by the awkwardness of the situation. Or rather, she laughed while Miles smirked and made a small chuckling sound in the back of his throat, but it was still something special, considering that Gwen had never seen him even come close to smiling before this.

With a shock, Gwen realized that this was the first time she'd had a genuine laugh in several months, almost since Peter had died. Already, having a friend once again was getting her back into her old habits. Hopefully, that was a good thing.

When they eventually stopped laughing, Miles said, "I think we need a better way to stay in touch. Just so we're not chasing each other through the building to talk about this kind of stuff."

Gwen waved him off and said, "Hand me your phone, I'll give you my number."

Miles silently handed her his phone, and Gwen handed him hers. Gwen opened the phone in her hands before she began to put her number in his contacts while he put his number into her own phone. Then, just before she handed his phone back to him, she saw him receive a notification, and she instinctively read it quickly before she could stop herself.

Uncle A.: Oscorp has a new collapsible electrode riot shield. Pretty cool, huh?

Hearing his phone vibrate in Gwen's hand as it received the notification, Miles suddenly reached out and snatched the phone away from her and read the message himself before muttering, "Oh, man…"

Confused by Miles' behavior, Gwen said, "O…kay, then. Well, you have my number now, so…"

Looking up and seeming to realize that he had been rather rude just now, Miles quickly excused himself, "Sorry, Gwen, I just- It's my uncle. He's… kind of a tech nut. Oscorp's got this new project, and he's probably gonna want me to go try to look at it with him sometime."

Nodding in understanding, Gwen said, "It's fine, Miles. I just got kind of surprised when you jumped out to take your phone back. Anyway, you have my number now, so we can text each other anytime."

Handing Gwen's phone back to her, Miles added, "And you have my number too. And… one more thing." He looked down at the ground for a moment in hesitation, then looked back up to meet her eyes as he said, "Gwen, when you helped me yesterday, I wasn't expecting it, but I appreciated it anyway. So, I guess I just wanted to say… Thank you."

Gwen smiled at him and responded, "Happy to help, Miles. If you ever need me again, just ask."

With that said, Gwen turned and quickly walked back to her dorm while still trying her best to appear casual. While she was happy to talk to Miles, she still had to go after Prowler, and she'd already been here too long. Prowler could already be on the hunt for his next score, and Spider-Woman needed to be there to catch him.

Line Break

Gwen perched on top of a building's rooftop corner and sighed as she looked out over the enormous city. She knew what she needed to do, but if she was honest with herself, she had no idea how to do it. Her best chance of locating Prowler was to hope that he screwed up on one of his heists and got the PDNY's attention. It may not be a likely scenario, but it was the best she had to work with.

She'd brought her favorite stuffed penguin with her on this particular outing, and she held it up to her face and unzipped the back before reaching in and pulling out her stolen police radio. While this penguin usually stayed in her room at home and now belonged in her school dorm, Gwen usually had to keep the radio muted to prevent anyone from finding it, and now she'd needed to bring it along with her tonight so that she could listen in on police broadcasts.

She turned the knob on the top of the radio to turn on the sound, then stood up and walked back towards a line of rooftop vent boxes. She used her webs to create a small hammock for herself, then laid down on top of it to rest while keeping the penguin held against her chest, listening intently to any and all police signals that came over the radio. Her hammock swung back and forth soothingly in the breeze, yet Gwen couldn't allow herself to relax, unwilling to let herself get too comfortable with the ever-present need to be ready to go after Prowler as soon as she heard anything that sounded like it could be him.

As she waited, she heard a few reports of regular crimes happening, and while her instincts told her to intervene, she decided that she had more important things going on right now. Most of these other crimes were halfway across the city, and the police should be able to handle most of it. Even with all her powers, she couldn't be everywhere. If the police were there, it was probably for the best that she didn't distract them with her presence anyway, and definitely for the best that she took down a guy like Prowler instead, someone that the police couldn't possibly handle by themselves.

She waited for about half an hour after the sun had completely set before she sat up and told herself, "Alright, this is ridiculous."

She swung around her hammock, turning it into a thin, taut line with her momentum, then pressed down on it with her weight and slingshotted herself into the air and off the edge of the building, falling backwards towards the ground with her arms spread out to her sides to catch the wind. She fell headfirst for several dozen floors, the air whipping her hood around in her peripheral vision as her descent quickly accelerated, and shot a web line to catch herself at the very last second, swinging between two cars on the road below, her feet just a few inches from the ground.

She loved doing things like this. While her job usually wasn't all that great, she never got tired of all the daring feats she was able to accomplish with her powers.

She swung over the roads of New York City, which were always crowded with traffic, even this late at night, and landed on top of a passing public transit bus before laying down once more on her back. She laid her stuffed penguin on the metal surface next to her, and while it continued to report useless information, Gwen looked up at the city skyline, already bored and losing hope for this evening.

Then, as fate would have it, the bus drove underneath the famed Oscorp Tower, the company name running down the side of the wall in enormous letters. However, Gwen noticed something wrong with this image. She'd snuck into Oscorp at night once last year, and she'd been forced to deactivate security systems around the building in order to do so. One of those systems going down had turned off the orange glow that the building's logo was supposed to have, and that same glow was missing right now.

She could see Oscorp technicians getting into the power lines in the street beneath the building, probably trying to fix the problem, but while they worked, it was probably a safe bet that the security systems were currently offline. Then, Gwen's eyes widened as she remembered what she'd seen Miles' uncle text him about, that Oscorp had some fancy new technology in this building. Fancy enough to get a certain someone's attention, perhaps? After all, the first time Gwen had fought the Prowler, he'd been stealing experimental technology.

Gwen decided that it was at least worth a closer look. She grabbed her stuffed penguin and threw it towards the Oscorp Tower's exterior wall, then shot a web to stick it to the surface. She then fired a web line up towards the top of the building and quietly said, "Thanks for the tip, Miles," as she pulled herself to the building to sneak her way in.

Miles POV

Scanning the room for his target with his mask's inbuilt visors, Miles mentally thanked Uncle Aaron's genius engineering feats. While Miles had been expected to build all of his own equipment to use as the Prowler, he had done so with technology provided to him by his uncle, and built it with the skills that his uncle had taught him. And all the work he'd had to personally put in to create his new identity only meant that he felt even closer to it, knowing his suit's functions inside and out.

His gaze finally landed on one particular Oscorp project, which looked to him like it was simply a pile of overlapping plates and coils, but his mask automatically outlined the device in red, identifying it as the piece of technology that Miles was here for.

He stepped forward and reached for the device with one of his clawed hands, but suddenly he heard a smallthwipsound, and a second later, the device was covered in a thin layer of white, glistening threads, like hundreds of spiders had decided to suddenly stick the device to the table. From behind himself, the same place he'd seen the webbing come from, Miles heard a voice say, "Sorry, but I don't think that belongs to you!"

Miles slowly turned around to face the speaker, his eyes narrowing in apprehension, and for the first time saw the famed Spider-Woman, crouched on top of a desk on her toes. Her suit was mostly black from the chest down, save only for cyan-blue ballet slippers on her feet, and mostly white from the chest up. The arms of her costume were entirely white except for the insides of the elbows, which were pink with a cyan design over the top, like a net or, more likely, a spider's web. The same design filled the inside of the white hood that the Spider-Woman wore over her mask, which was entirely white except for a thin lining of dark pink around the reflective eye lenses, which shifted to show a look of confusion when she saw him.

"Uh, okay," she said hesitantly, "Well, definitely Prowler, but not Prowler. Um, hey, bud! Love the new look! It kinda makes you look… smaller, but that's alright. Looks like your arm is healing well, so that's good, right?"

The reminder of what this Spider-Woman had done to his uncle caused a pit of rage to erupt within Miles, and he glared at her furiously before he activated the emitters on his shoes and sprung towards her. The walls around Miles blurred as he flew towards his target at incredible speed, barely giving her time to widen her eyes before Miles crashed into her. Miles had never really done single combat before this, but he was pleased to immediately find himself winning, mostly due to the training that his uncle had given him as well as his Prowler equipment helping to assist with all of those things.

Strike fast, strike hard.

Miles crashed into Spider-Woman with all of his body weight, then immediately followed up with a punch aimed at her chest. She moved swiftly, redirecting his punch to barely miss her, but he then charged up his gauntlet and attacked her once again before she could recover, his gauntlet overpowering her grip and allowing him to swat her aside like she weighed nothing, sending her crashing through the laboratory's interior window.

Don't give your enemy a chance to move.

With his shoes still powered up, Miles ran after Spider-Woman before she even hit the ground, then launched into the air and reared back a fist to punch her into the ground. She saw this move coming, however, and as soon as her back landed on the floor, she leapt into a backwards handspring, getting out of his way just in time as his fist cracked the floor where her head had been a moment earlier.

However, while she was still completing her dodge, Miles landed on the ground and instantly launched forward once again, knocking her aside bodily once more as he hit her in midair. This time, she crashed through two walls, the first drywall and the second glass, and fell into the building's massive stairwell.

Take everything they got, and throw it back twice as hard.

As Spider-Woman fell once again, this time into the marble-and-glass stairwell going all the way to the ground, 96 floors below, Miles immediately leapt after her through the hole in the wall, not at all afraid of the fall, his clawed hands extended towards her.

This time, however, Spider-Woman seemed to have finally recovered enough to fight back, and she angled her body so that she was looking up at Miles and repeatedly shot small bursts of webbing from her wrists. Unfortunately for her, Miles' reflexes were up to the task of defending from her attacks, and he clawed his way through all of her webbing and shot into her, grabbing her by one of the wrists and forcefully throwing her downward. She fell two stories before she landed on one of the stairways hard enough to crack the marble with her body, then just lay there groaning in agony.

Make 'em stay down.

Still not done with the Spider-Woman even if she did appear beaten, Miles angled his body in midair so that he was upright, then fell down to land right on top of Spider-Woman's midriff. When he landed on her, his shoes emitted a blast of energy that pushed her body right through the marble stairs and made them both fall down below. In midair, Miles grabbed Spider-Woman by the front of her neck with one of his hands, then angled his body sideways and launched them over to another wall before shoving Spider-Woman face-first through the glass to let them both onto the 52nd floor. Dropping to the ground, Miles hit the floor running, dragging Spider-Woman along with him, and held her out in front of himself as he crashed through one wall, then another, then another, allowing the spider-themed vigilante's body to take the brunt of every impact.

Finally, he was forced to stop as he shoved Spider-Woman into a reinforced wall that refused to break under this level of strain, but he still slammed her body into the wall hard enough to dent it and held her there. He then held up his free hand and extended the claws on it to appear more intimidating, then told her, "I'm not the Prowler you knew."

Spider-Woman, whose suit was now largely destroyed, torn in numerous places including a large tear in her mask that revealed part of her mouth, coughed and said, "Yeah, I kinda put that together."

Beneath his own mask, Miles scowled. Even in this state, Spider-Woman was joking? As annoying as it was, he had to admit that it was rather admirable.

"Unlike the other Prowler, I can and will permanently end you,"Miles threatened further, trying to get a better reaction out of the masked girl.

Looking him directly in the eyes, Spider-Woman questioned, "Yeah? Then why aren't you doing it?"

Miles opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it as he processed her question. Why shouldn't he kill her? She hurt Uncle Aaron, maybe put an end to his uncle's days as the Prowler entirely. Now, she'd attempted to attack Miles as well. Now that he'd turned the tables on her and placed her at his mercy, what was stopping him from killing her?

Staring at her and seeing blood coming from many places all over her face and body, he realized that she was far more injured than she was letting on. Now, granted, it was a miracle that she was alive after the beating he'd placed on her, but he may have slightly overestimated her level of invulnerability, and he decided that this wasn't what he'd signed up for. He became the Prowler to help people, not to get revenge on the person that hurt his uncle. And he'd already more than avenged his uncle's injury during this fight anyway.

Holding Spider-Woman more firmly against the wall, raising her off of her feet, Miles told her, "A little girl like you isn't worth my time. But if youeverinterfere in my business again…"

Miles charged up his free gauntlet and slammed it against the reinforced wall right next to Spider-Woman's head, hitting it so hard that the wall gave way and opened up a hole in the side of the building, allowing Miles to hold Spider-Woman out in empty air, more than fifty stories above the ground, and making his point clear without another word. He then turned and threw Spider-Woman to the floor and walked silently past her fallen form. Now that this wannabe heroine was dealt with, he still had to retrieve his prize.

Gwen POV

Ow.

Ow.

Ow.

Every small movement is pure torture, but Gwen knows what's coming, and she knows that she has to get out of here. She knows that this new Prowler is probably stealing whatever technology he came here for right now, but she also knows that she's in no condition to stop him, annoying as it is to admit. She knows that she messed up, that she underestimated this guy even more than she did the first Prowler, and she knows that she's now paying a much heavier price than she did then as a result.

She knows that the destruction in the building will bring the police here soon. She knows that her dad will be leading the charge. She knows that he'll try to arrest Spider-Woman if he finds her, her numerous injuries only making his job easier.

And she knows that she's gonna need a lot of concealer in school tomorrow, even with her powers accelerating the healing process.

She took a beating tonight, and she's going to have to find a way to deal with the mess she made, but first she needs to work on getting out of here alive. Luckily, Gwen was left lying next to a big hole in the wall, so all she has to do is crawl out onto the wall and-

Ow!

Okay, not easy, but possible. Just small movements. Slowly but surely, she can get away from here without being spotted… After she crawls down to the bottom of the building to get her penguin.

Of course I left my penguin down there, Gwen thinks to herself.Now I just have to climb down a building, stealthily grab my penguin off the side of the building, then climb backupthe building, swing around the city, get back to my dorm, change clothes and hide my suit, and try to fall asleep through all this excruciating pain… All without the police or school security guards seeing me.

The very thought of it is enough to make her consider calling Miles for help, but she quickly dismisses the thought. They'd only officially become friendstoday, after all, and she doesn't know how he would take to finding out that she's Spider-Woman on Day 1, assuming that she even wanted to share such a thing with him… Which she didn't. She promised herself to keep Miles away from this part of her life.

Besides, what could he do to help her? He doesn't have his own car and probably doesn't even know how to drive (itisNew York, after all), so he couldn't pick her up. Maybe he could try to distract the police, but probably wouldn't have much success. He was probably already asleep anyway.

But that's besides the point. Miles isGwen'sfriend, not Spider-Woman's, and she didn't plan on that changing anytime soon, so she just needs to get out of here by herself.

Yet she'd already decided on her next move. In Gwen's experience, the most important part of being Spider-Woman is that she never stays down, no matter how many times she gets hit. So she already determined that as soon as she's back to full strength, her priority is gonna go right back to chasing down this new Prowler.

He surprised her this time, but Spider-Woman isn't going to stop until she finally has him caught in her web.

Chapter 4: Aftermath

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Miles POV

After the events of last night, for the first time since his father's death six months ago, Miles had decided to pull out his old sketchbook. Sitting alone in a corner in the crowded entrance hall of Visions Academy shortly before the school day was supposed to begin, Miles pulled out a few of his markers and began to artistically recreate the image of the girl he'd met last night, the Spider-Woman.

After he'd gotten his anger towards her out last night, he'd been able to look back on their encounter in a new light, and while he certainly didn't like the masked heroine, he had difficulty trying not to admire her. As an artist and now an aspiring engineer as well, Miles couldn't help but appreciate the Spider-Woman as a figure of intrigue.

Not only had she proven to be incredibly durable last night, but he'd also noticed some of her other impressive qualities. She was quick, agile, and resourceful. Her every movement demonstrated a careful poise and innate flexibility.

She was smart, as demonstrated when she locked down his target first before attempting to fight him, even if her efforts had proven futile when his claws allowed him to effortlessly cut through her webbing after defeating her.

She was experienced, which he'd seen most clearly when he'd knocked her across the building and she'd recovered in midair mere seconds later to defend herself. Without his technology helping him stay a step ahead of her, Miles couldn't even imagine that he would've lasted very long in that fight.

And she was tough, not just physically, but also on the inside, which she'd shown him when her immediate response after being thrown through a building like a ragdoll was to keep her head and tell a joke. And that was just her character, not even mentioning her abilities. While she hadn't been able to keep up with most of Miles' attacks, between his sheer speed and strength, she had reacted much faster than anyone should've been able to do, and if he hadn't kept moving, he was certain that she might've turned the tables on him in an instant.

Her webs had been another point of interest to Miles. Whatever that stuff was, it was remarkably strong and adherent. Also, it seemed to come… out of her wrists? That certainly seemed like a useful tool, but Miles couldn't begin to imagine how he might replicate an ability like that.

And then there was her suit! While Spider-Woman's suit was certainly a different style than Miles would personally choose to wear (he preferred to wear more black), he had to admit that it looked simply amazing, and it was clear that a lot of artistic expression had been included in the creation of that outfit. It actually made him feel kind of guilty for destroying it last night.

That was why he was here now, doing his best to recreate the image of that suit in the pages of his sketchbook. He didn't expect to ever see the Spider-Woman again, but he at least wanted to preserve the memory of his encounter with her, and also preserve that awe-inspiring outfit she'd worn.

Suddenly, he looked up as he noticed someone coming towards him, and he saw his new friend Gwen slowly walking over to him with a small pile of books held in one hand while the other one rubbed her eyes tiredly. She looked terrible. Her back was slumped forward slightly, her shoulder-length blond hair was disheveled, and her eyes were bloodshot from exhaustion. Miles' eyes followed her as she slumped over by him, pressed her back against the wall with a groan, and slid down to sit next to him.

Deciding to tease her a bit, after a moment Miles asked, "So… Did you sleep good?"

Gwen looked up at the ceiling and rolled her eyes as she answered, "Yeah, I slept great, Miles. After I stayed up until early this morning and barely managed to get myself into bed, I slept great."

Miles checked his watch, and seeing that the first bell was about to ring, closed his sketchbook and responded, "Well, I stay up pretty late most nights, but that's just my time of day. Maybe you should think about going to sleep earlier. Maybe you're a morning person, and you should do your homework early instead of late."

Miles put his sketchbook into his backpack, then stood up and offered Gwen a hand back to her feet. She looked at it, then let out a deep sigh and accepted it, and as Miles helped her up, Gwen said, "I don't think I'm a morning or night person. It's more like… I just have a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

As Gwen finally got to her feet, someone suddenly bumped into her from behind, nearly knocking her over, but Miles reached out and steadied her. He glared over his shoulder at the kid that had bumped into her, a large teenage boy with a wave of dyed blond hair and a navy blue jean jacket worn over a yellow hoodie, and sternly said, "Hey, maybe watch where you're going?"

The kid just gave a small shrug with a grin and insincerely said, "Sorry. Guess Stacy was just 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Like usual." Letting out a chuckle at his own little joke, the large kid then began to walk away without another word.

Now knowing that this guy had hit Gwen on purpose and was also completely unapologetic about it, Miles glared at the larger teen's retreating back and considered going after him to teach this guy a lesson, but he remembered Uncle Aaron's warning that he wasn't supposed to get into fights outside of costume, so he simply clenched his fists tightly and determinedly stayed still.

As Miles watched the guy fade into the crowd, feeling helpless, Gwen grabbed her books off the ground behind him and began to walk off to her first class, telling him in passing, "It's fine, Miles."

Miles watched her leave, then turned to head to his own first class, but as he went, he could only think about how it definitely wasn't fine. Miles hadn't had a friend in a long time, but he knew that he wasn't about to let someone pick on the most understanding (and only) one he had now.

Miles went through most of his school day with his mind largely distracted. He couldn't stop thinking about how that guy had treated Gwen, and how he had just stood there and let it happen. He became the Prowler to help people… but if he couldn't protect his friends, he wasn't much of a good guy, was he? So during their last class of the day, Miles came into the room with his mind already made up to find out more about the situation, regardless of how much Gwen tried to play it off like it was nothing.

He sat next to Gwen, as he usually did, and before class could start, he leaned over to her and quietly asked, "Who was that guy that bumped you?"

Sighing like she'd expected this, Gwen begged, "Miles, would you just drop it? I'm fine. He does stuff like that every once in a while. It's no big deal."

"You mean this has happened before?" Miles asked, his anger only becoming greater.

Her silence was enough of an answer for him.

Refusing to speak to Miles further about this, Gwen turned her head away from him, which turned out to be a mistake as the new position of her head showed off a long and jagged but faded cut along the side of her neck, nearly invisible beneath the collar of her shirt, but Miles' well-trained eyes were able to notice it immediately. He could also easily tell that this wound had not been the result of some mere slip-up with a pair of scissors or anything of the like. Something had deeply cut her, recently, and she had been trying to cover up the evidence.

Miles' angry expression quickly fell and his eyebrows instead furrowed in concern, and he slowly reached towards the cut while asking, "Gwen, what happened here?"

Looking out the corner of her eye, Gwen realized what he was looking at and let out a small gasp before she roughly shoved his hand away and quickly pulled the collar of her shirt up to cover the cut. She then looked straight ahead while she hurriedly explained, "Look, his name's Ned, all right? Edward Leeds. I had another friend here last year, Peter Parker, and Ned used to bully him. Terribly. I stood up for Peter, so after Peter… left, I became Ned's new favorite victim. Happy now?"

That wasn't exactly the word Miles would use, but at least he was getting the information he wanted. Along with a few other things.

Miles remembered Peter Parker. He was a quiet but brilliant kid who came to Visions Academy in the same year as Miles. They'd had two classes together, but Miles hadn't paid him much attention. He hadn't even noticed that Peter hadn't returned this year, and he certainly hadn't known that Peter had any friends. For someone as observant as Miles, not realizing that Peter Parker had disappeared was like a punch in the gut. But not knowing or caring that Parker had been so relentlessly bullied felt even worse.

Though it felt inadequate considering what she must have felt when she lost her only friend, Miles told Gwen, "I'm sorry about your friend."

Gwen looked down sadly, no doubt also remembering their discussion about how apologies didn't make the pain go away, but she recognized the sentiment and responded, "Thanks, Miles."

After a moment of silence, Miles asked, "Did Ned do something that got rid of Peter?"

Gwen let out a deep breath and didn't meet his eyes as she said, "He wasn't the only one responsible, but… in a way, yeah."

Miles looked down at his desk and idly clenched one of his hands into a fist. This kid, Ned Leeds, had apparently been a big enough bully to Peter Parker that he made him leave the school. In doing so, he'd left Gwen alone here without any friends. And now he was targeting Gwen herself?

Miles imagined that Gwen was plenty capable of taking care of herself, definitely way tougher than Peter Parker had ever seemed, but still… Miles couldn't let Ned drive someone else away. Not only for Gwen's sake, but also for Miles' own. Maybe they hadn't known each other very long, but Miles already felt very protective of his one and only real friend.

No matter how much Miles tried to pretend that he didn't need Gwen's friendship, he knew that a friend like her, someone who could accept his odd behavior and not expect anything from him, was rare. Even Uncle Aaron wasn't a friend like she was. Miles loved his uncle, and Uncle Aaron was a great guy and a wonderful mentor, but Gwen was Miles' own age and didn't require anything from him in exchange for her devotion and pleasant company. Miles wasn't about to let a guy like Ned Leeds take that away from him.

Looking back at the cut on Gwen's neck, Miles' rage came back, stronger than ever, as he realized that Ned had probably been the one that had hurt her. In fact, looking over her more closely, he was able to pick out a number of other small injuries that Gwen had done her best to hide, including a small scar on the inside of her wrist and a dark spot under one of her eyes that Miles determined must be a well-disguised bruise.

All of these injuries looked several days or weeks old, and that fact combined with the exceptional job Gwen had done covering them up with clothing or makeup meant that almost no one was likely to notice them. Even Miles, with all his training in observation, had taken a long time to notice it. It seemed that Ned had been getting away with injuring Gwen for weeks, months, maybe even years, and all because Gwen hadn’t done anything to stop him, most likely because she was afraid of what he might do if he caught her. At the very thought of someone hurting his friend, Miles felt ready to fight anyone that would try such a thing.

Miles bowed his head low and remained mostly quiet for the rest of the class, only speaking in response to questions from the teacher. At the end of the class, Miles walked out of the room without even a word to Gwen. He walked through the halls of the school, slipping through the crowds of students leaving their rooms, until he found a secluded corner. Once he was safely hidden in the corner, Miles pulled out his phone and texted his uncle.

Miles: I can't do any jobs tonight. I need to take care of some personal stuff.

A few seconds later, he got a response.

Uncle A: Alright. But clear your schedule for tomorrow night. Someone wants to talk to you.

Miles tilted his head in curiosity. Who wanted to talk to him? He wondered what his uncle meant, but he couldn't think about it for long, as another one of his texting threads sent him a message.

GhostGirl: We need to talk.

Gwen POV

After Miles left their Physics class at the end of the day without a word to her, Gwen watched him go with concern. She could tell that he was distressed, but she didn’t know why. Her best guess would be that he felt angry about Ned bothering Peter and now her, but he also felt helpless to do anything about it. After all, Ned was a very large, strong person, and while it had been no shock that Peter, as thin and frail as he had been, couldn’t stand up to Ned, Miles didn’t stand any better chance.

Of course, Gwen could easily handle Ned herself if she chose to. With her powers, he couldn’t even really hurt her whereas she could effortlessly throw him across a New York city block, but she had a cover to maintain and wouldn’t risk it to get rid of a pesky bully.

Anyway, fighting was forbidden on the Visions Academy campus, and even if Ned took every opportunity to bump the unpopular kids in the halls, she wasn’t willing to run the risk of getting caught doing anything aggressive, because she knew that her father would find out and be quick to question her about it. She could never sit back and watch Ned bully Peter, but she was willing to be his main prey herself if it meant that he wasn’t targeting someone else, someone less capable of enduring the abuse.

Still, Gwen recognized that Miles was in a delicate state of mind right now, and she didn’t want him to do anything crazy, so she determined that she would have to distract him instead. Once she got back to her dorm room, Gwen set her books down on her desk and got out her phone before pulling up her contact for Miles.

Gwen: We need to talk.

A few seconds later, she got a response.

MilesInSilence: Abt what?

Gwen: Just meet me in the downstairs south common room.

There was a pause, certainly longer than it should’ve taken Miles to write his response, but then he answered.

MilesInSilence: Fine. omw

Relieved that he had agreed to meet with her, Gwen let out a deep breath and grabbed her laptop off her desk before she turned to leave the room.

Miles made it to the common room before Gwen did, as when she arrived, she found him in one corner of the room lying on the ground next to a single armchair, his hands folded over his stomach while he stared up at the ceiling. Gwen walked over and stepped over him before sinking into the armchair next to him, then opened her laptop and began to put in her password as she distractedly said, “Thanks for agreeing to meet me.”

Not taking his eyes off the ceiling, Miles responded, “You said we needed to talk. What is it?”

As she opened a program on her laptop, Gwen answered, “I’m working on something, a school project, and I wanted to see if you had any input for me.”

Tilting his head to look at her, Miles raised an eyebrow and asked, “‘We need to talk’ about your school project? You needed my help with that?”

“I wanted it,” Gwen quickly corrected, then met his eyes for a moment to admit, “Also, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid, like go after Ned. Ned’s tough, and what happened with Peter is in the past. It’s not worth you getting yourself killed over.”

Looking back at the ceiling, Miles said, “What he’s doing to you isn’t in the past. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not going after Ned. My mom would never let me hear the end of it.”

Gwen nodded in agreement, but truthfully, she didn’t really believe his reasoning. She expected that he was just trying to sound tough, but Miles really understood how strong Ned was and that he would probably get crushed if he tried to fight the larger teen.

After a few seconds of silence, Miles began to get to his feet, saying, “Alright, well, I guess we’d better get to work. What is this project?”

Before he could stand up fully, Gwen quickly reached down to place a hand on Miles’ shoulder, keeping him on the ground, and hurriedly explained, “It’s, er, kind of a surprise! I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but you’ll see it when it’s done!” On TV, maybe, Gwen finished in her mind.

In truth, she was using her laptop to design a new suit for herself, seeing as her last one got destroyed in her fight against the Prowler 2.0. To prevent anyone potentially accessing her laptop’s files and finding the schematics for her original suit, she had deleted her old suit’s design after making it. Still, she imagined that she could still probably make a new suit that was at the very least close to being an exact copy of her old one, after wearing it for over a year. She had already recreated an almost exact model of her original suit on the screen. However, she had decided that she would take this opportunity to try out a new look.

Looking at Gwen in confusion, Miles asked, “How am I supposed to help you make it if I can’t know what it is?”

Smirking back down at Miles, Gwen answered, “Well, I already have the form and dimensions of the project worked out, but I still need to customize it. I saw you drawing something in your sketchbook this morning, so I figure you probably have some experience with art. Am I right?”

Miles blushed slightly and looked away from her before admitting, “A little.”

“Can I see some of your drawings?” Gwen asked, interested to see how good he was.

To her surprise, Miles glared at her and firmly said, “No!” Then, he seemed to notice the shock on her face and sat up as he lowered his voice and continued, “I mean… Sorry, but not now. My art… I mostly just do it for me, you know? It’s sorta how I get my thoughts out, so some of it is pretty personal. Maybe some other time.”

Gwen’s expression relaxed and she nodded her acceptance. Then, she gestured to her laptop and said, “Alright, but you can still help me with this, right?”

Miles laid back down on the floor, trying to get comfortable, and responded, “Sure. Just tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll do my best to help.”

Gwen looked down at the model of her old suit on the screen in front of herself and chose her words carefully before she began to explain. “The project is for my Fashion Design class, and I’m making a motorcycling jacket for my dad. He’s been thinking of learning how to ride one for years. The design needs to flow easily all the way around, kind of like racing stripes or something. Nothing too showy, but still distinctive. I’ve already got the colors worked out. No symbols or logos. I just need your help learning how to add some texture to it.”

Miles thought about it in silence for a minute, then asked, “What are the angles on the front like?”

Gwen gave the design another look, then reported, “There’s a pair of acute angles pointing upwards on the chest, right over the pectoral area. Another pair of even sharper angles down by the hips.”

“Leave the ones on the hips, but raise the angles on the chest and change their direction so that they come inwards,” Miles suggested. “It’ll create more contrast.”

Gwen did as he said, changing the design on the chest to reflect Miles’ vision as best as she could. After a few minutes spent making the proposed alterations, she scrolled around the image to look at it from all sides, and she had to admit that it looked pretty good.

“Better?” Miles questioned as he watched her expression for any sign of displeasure.

Gwen nodded and said, “Actually, I think so.”

Miles nodded in satisfaction and told her, “Now the back.”

Gwen turned the model on the screen around and told him, “The hip angles from the front are reflected on the back, and just below the shoulder blades are a pair of mirrored shapes like lightning bolts.”

“Get rid of the lightning and translate the hip shapes up there instead, but keep the hip angles where they are again,” Miles immediately ordered, clearly more confident now that she had admitted to liking his first change.

This time, however, Gwen wasn’t quite so pleased by the change he was making. Frowning to herself, Gwen protested, “But I like the lightning.”

Miles just put his hands behind his head and shrugged at her, saying, “Hey, you were the one that told me not to make it too showy. You asked for my advice, but you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.”

Gwen scowled, but ultimately just sighed in defeat and did as Miles said. To her frustration, she saw that he was right once again. She still liked the look of the lightning bolts, but this new design was noticeably more reserved than before, yet managed to maintain the style.

Looking down at the smug little smirk appearing on Miles’ face while he closed his eyes in relaxed confidence, Gwen rolled her eyes and forced out, “It… looks good.”

Miles opened his eyes to look at her once again, still smirking, and asked, “What, you didn’t believe me?”

“It’s not that I didn’t believe you, I just really wanted you to be wrong about that one,” Gwen corrected him.

Miles gave her a knowing grin, but suddenly his wristwatch let out a little beep. The smile fell from Miles’ face, and he looked at his watch for a moment before he looked back up at Gwen and said, “I gotta get going soon. We need to hurry. Alright, last part, the sleeves.”

Gwen wanted to question why Miles needed to be elsewhere anytime soon, but his sudden rush clearly indicated that he didn’t have time for questions. He’d probably just been given a lot of homework to do, even though it was only a few days into a new school year. Anyway, Gwen didn’t have any room to ask such questions, not when she was currently pretending to be working on a made-up school project.

Gwen examined her model one more time, then told Miles, “Well, the sleeves are all one color except for the inside of the elbows.”

This time, as she waited for a response, Gwen found herself waiting in silence for an unnaturally long time, and she looked down at Miles to find him lying there with his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

“Miles? Are you alright?” Gwen asked him.

At the sound of her voice, Miles shook himself out of his thoughts and said, “Sorry, it’s just… All this sounds kind of familiar. Did you get inspiration from another brand or something?”

Slightly worried, Gwen quickly lied, “Uh, yeah! It’s this one brand online that my dad really likes. I don’t remember what it’s called, but lots of people use it. Like, so many. I just used a bunch of really popular online designs, you know? That’s why I needed your help!”

Miles seemed to think it over for a minute, still lost in thought, but then he just shook his head and said, “Yeah. Right. Okay, so the sleeves. The single-color base with a different design inside the elbows. Like you said, that’s really popular. Too popular. So take that different color out of the elbows and instead run it all the way up the forearms.”

Relieved to have dissuaded Miles’ questions, Gwen remained silent as she once again began to follow his instructions. She was pleased but no longer surprised to find that Miles’ suggested design change once more looked amazing, but she spent a few extra minutes on this particular change as she needed to account for the gloves as well as the sleeves, seeing as Miles didn’t know that the suit even had gloves.

At first, she just put the pink with cyan webbing design on the forearms, leaving the gloves white, but then decided that she needed to change the gloves as well to make it all blend together. Then, she covered the entire glove with the pink-and-cyan design, but decided that that was a bit too much. Finally, she was satisfied after she left the pink-and-cyan covering most of the hands, but turned the fingers back to their original white.

She then zoomed out to look at the full completed product. In her opinion, the new suit actually looked far better than her original one.

When she looked up to thank Miles’ for his useful input, however, Gwen saw that he had already stood up and begun to walk out of the room, leaving stealthily and allowing her to continue admiring the work they had done together.

Unfortunately for him, Gwen wasn’t going to let him get away that easily. Closing her laptop, Gwen ran after him and grabbed his shoulder to get his attention.

Miles sighed in annoyance as he turned around while saying, “Gwen, I really need to-” However, he broke off as Gwen abruptly leaned in and wrapped Miles in a tight hug. After she’d pulled away once again, she found Miles standing as stiff as a board, his eyes staring unblinkingly at her as if she’d just stabbed her friend instead of hugging him.

To be honest, Gwen was a bit surprised by her own actions. She normally wasn’t much of a hugger. The only person she hugged regularly was her dad. One of the only times she could remember hugging Peter was when he’d been about to die. Still, her own surprise seemed to be nothing compared to Miles’.

After about twenty seconds of complete silence, Gwen told him, “Thanks for helping me with my project. It means a lot, Miles.”

At the sound of his name, Miles finally managed to at least partially unfreeze, and he struggled to say, “You- You don’t have to… thank me.”

Amused, Gwen let out a small laugh and told him, “Miles, one day you’re going to figure out that I like spending time with you. I want to talk to you. I want to help you with your problems. And I want to thank you when you help me , so deal with it. Now, I’m gonna go get started on making our project, and you should probably go do your other thing. See you tomorrow, Miles!”

With that, Gwen walked past Miles towards her dorm. Before she left, however, she hid around the corner and looked back to make sure that Miles actually moved, not wanting him to be late to get started on whatever he was working on. It took about half a minute, but Miles finally managed to recover his senses and awkwardly began walking in the other direction, leaving Gwen smirking as she walked him go. Ah, how she’d missed having a socially-awkward friend to torture.

Third Person POV

Late at night, Ned Leeds awoke in his bed and looked around his pitch-black dorm room. He wasn’t sure exactly what had woken him from his slumber, only that something felt unnatural. Looking around the room, however, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Not that he could see much anyway, of course.

Suddenly, a deep, modulated, resonating voice spoke from right in front of him. “Edward Leeds.”

Right after the voice spoke, two shapes appeared in the darkness in front of him. Two white slits for eyes, surrounded by mirrored, twisted shapes in a bright magenta, which lit up the room just enough that Ned could see the form of a man sitting in his desk chair, his legs dangling over the back with his arms crossed on top of the backrest to allow him to watch Ned while he slept.

Instantly terrified, Ned instinctively reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his football before throwing it as hard as he could at the face of the glowing-eyed demon that had appeared in his room, hoping to stun it and give him a chance to run away.

However, fast as light, a clawed hand shot up to catch the football an inch away from the demon’s face. The demon lowered the football and gave it an unimpressed look, then directed its gaze back at Ned.

Narrowing its eyes, the demon said, “There’s no escaping me, Edward. You have a debt to pay.” Then, its clawed hand holding the football closed inward into a fist, crushing the ball and popping it seemingly with hardly any effort.

Scared out of his senses, Ned briefly imagined what that kind of strength could do to his bones, and he sat up in his bed and tried his best to scoot away from the demon, pressing his back against the wall, but in a blur of movement, Ned's desk chair was forcefully shoved to the ground before the dark figure was suddenly upon him, and the last thing Ned saw before it all went dark was a flash of magenta light.

Chapter 5: Job Interview

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Gwen POV

The next school day was mostly average, at least while school was still going on. Gwen rushed through all of her classes as fast as she could, eager to get done with it so that she could return to working on her new suit.

While it was true that not many crimes in the city reallyneededSpider-Woman's intervention, she still felt quite a lot of pressure to have her costume ready as soon as possible, just in case. You never knew when a supervillain would show up, after all. Besides, she was practically fully healed by now and would soon be able to resume her hunt for Prowler, and this time, he wouldn't be able to catch her off guard… assuming she could find him again.

She'd gotten lucky both times that she'd managed to find the Prowler… OraProwler. She really hoped that there were only two of them. Even more, she hoped that the first one was indeed going to stay down. The last thing she needed was to have to deal with two Prowlers at once. The new one was even worse than the first one, and the first one hadn't exactly been a pushover. If she had to fight both supervillains at the same time, she didn't like her chances.

The first odd thing to happen to her today was when Miles walked by her side as they left their last class. Not that it wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was a rather unexpected one. Before now, she had always been the one to initiate any sort of time that they spent with each other. Even now, he didn't say much, just kept his hands in his pockets and walked by her side, but Gwen would be lying if she said that she didn't appreciate the way that he seemed to be warming up to her. Perhaps it had been the hug that she gave him yesterday. If she remembered correctly, Gwen thought that she'd read somewhere that physical contact helps to strengthen relationships. Whatever the case, she was happy to enjoy his company, at least for a while.

Unfortunately, though, she did have other things to take care of today, things that Miles couldn't be present for. Luckily, they had promised to give each other their space whenever one of them asked for it. However, just before she was going to tell Miles that she needed a day of privacy, the second strange thing for the day occurred.

From down the hall, she heard a familiar voice call out, "Stacy!"

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Gwen turned towards the source of the yell and saw Ned Leeds running through the halls towards her. Now, the running by itself was unusual. Usually, Ned would just casually strut through the halls and "accidentally" bump into any kids that he considered "uncool". But it certainly wasn't the weirdest part.

The really weird part washowhe was running. He seemed panicked, and had an expression on his face like he suddenly had a desperate need to talk to her, like it was life-or-death. Normally, Gwen would probably just chalk it up to some elaborate prank he was doing, acting like he had something really important to tell her when he really just wanted to pretend to trip and knock her over or something.

But once again, it got even stranger. Despite his apparent panic, Ned was being extremely careful in the hallway so as to not even come close to running into anyone. For a large guy like him, this slowed him down quite a bit, but apparently he thought it was well worth it. Every time he nearly ran into someone in his path, he would come to a screeching halt and look down at them with an expression of terror, like he'd come close to running off the edge of a cliff, then hold up his hands and slowly inch his way around them while everyone in the hallway watched him with shock and wonderment on their faces.

After a considerable time, during which Gwen and Miles just stood watching Ned's slow approach with confusion, Ned stopped in front of Gwen and gulped before he began to speak. "Look, Stacy… I mean, Gwen! Gwen!"

Already, Ned seemed to have lost his concentration, as his eyes suddenly widened and he began to look around at the walls, sweating with agitation.

Seeing that he looked like he was about to faint, and certainly didn't seem like he was about to shove or insult her, Gwen quickly told him, "Ned! It's okay. Whatever it is you have to say, just say it."

Ned looked down and nodded repeatedly, like he was trying to convince himself that she was right. Gwen had no idea what was going on with Ned, but as much dislike as she held for him, she was distressed to see him looking so… rattled.

Still nodding to himself, Ned took a few deep breaths and muttered, "It's okay. It's okay." Gwen gave Miles a questioning look, but he just shrugged and looked back at Ned, waiting for him to go on.

Finally, Ned seemed to collect himself slightly, and looked up at Gwen as he spoke, sounding like he'd rehearsed what he said. "Gwen, I am deeply sorry for the way I treated you and Peter Parker. You are both good, decent people and deserve to be treated with respect. I will never do such a thing again. If there's any way I can repay you for the unkindness I've shown you, I'll do it."

Shocked and confused by this change of behavior, Gwen began to say, "Uh… Thanks, Ned, but I don't think I need-"

"PLEASE!" Ned begged loudly, apparently unwilling to accept her denial.

Several more students looked over at his sudden outburst, and Gwen hurriedly said, "Okay! Okay, Ned, you can… Er, take my books back to my locker for me."

Immediately, Ned snatched Gwen's books out of her hands, and when she instinctively lurched forward to try to stop them from being stolen from her (partially due to her fingers automatically sticking to the covers), Ned wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up in a big hug, his eyes glistening with tears as he told her, "Thank you! Thank you so much."

Pulling her face out of Ned's oversized yellow sweater, Gwen gasped out, "You're welcome!" She wasn't quite sure exactly what he was thanking her for, but at the moment, she could only think about trying to get him to let go. As tight as he was hugging her right now, he was managing to hurt her even despite her powers, re-bruising some of the places where she had been injured during her fight with the Prowler at Oscorp.

A moment later, Ned released her and rushed off to find her locker. Meanwhile, Gwen rubbed her sore sides and turned back to Miles before asking, "What was that about?"

Miles just shrugged as he watched Ned go and responded, "I guess Ned must've had a spiritual awakening of sorts last night. Anyway, Gwen, were you about to tell me something before he showed up?"

Suddenly remembering why she had opened her mouth right before Ned had called her name, Gwen agreed, "Oh, right! Well, Miles, I'm sorry, but I need to take a personal day. I have some things I need to work out, even more now that Ned's acting so… different, but I might see you tonight just before lights out."

To her surprise, Miles shook his head and said, "No, you won't. My uncle's going to come take me out of school soon so I can help him with something, but we'll talk tomorrow, alright? After school's over, before we go home."

Gwen nodded her acceptance and agreed, "Deal. See you tomorrow."

"Hasta mañana," Miles said with a wave and turned to walk away, but as Gwen turned to leave as well, he suddenly ran back over to her and said, "Sorry, I meant 'See you tomorrow.' That was what I said. In Spanish. I was just saying-"

"Miles," Gwen suddenly cut him off with a smile. She thought it was cute how- Cute? No, not cute. Since when did she think anything was cute? She found itamusinghow Miles was tripping over his words like this, but she needed to be on her way and so decided to relieve him of his misery by informing him, "I have a Spanish class, Miles, and I'm pretty fluent by now. I understood you."

Miles seemed surprised and his expression soon changed to embarrassment, shifting uncomfortably on his feet as he said, "Right. Of course you do. I just didn't want to assume… But alright. Good. I'll, uh, quiz you on that some more then. Yep, that's what I'll do. I'll just talk to you in Spanish some more to… help you. If you need it. Which you probably don't, but-"

"Thanks, Miles," Gwen cut him off once more, still smiling at him.

Miles gave her one last serious nod, then saluted her, turned around, and walked off into the crowd, leaving Gwen chuckling as she began to head back to her dorm room.

Miles POV

I saluted her!Miles lamented in his mind as he allowed his feet to automatically take him towards his destination.

Why did he always have to act so weird around Gwen? Why couldn't he just act suave and cool, maybe play with her heartstrings in the way that he had managed to do before with other girls, flirting shamelessly just for the fun of it? Instead, with Gwen, Miles felt like he was always just embarrassing himself.

Ever since Gwen had hugged Miles yesterday, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about how he'd frozen like an idiot. It wasn't weird for friends to hug each other. He knew this. He'd had friends once. Before Gwen, that is. So why had he reacted in that way?

The answer was simple, yet so incredibly complicated. None of his previous friends had been Gwen. None of them had ever taken note of his own interests and asked for his help as they tried to do it themselves. None of them had ever taken his personal opinions and preferences to heart despite their own disagreements. None of them had ever gone out of their way to thank him, especially not for something so trivial as art tips. None of them had ever held onto him like his mere presence meant the world to them.

But maybe that was what made Gwen feel so much more special than any of his previous friendships. When a friendship as rare as theirs existed, it made it so much more valuable, and so it felt better to have one true, reliable friend than a dozen friends of a lesser quality. Of course, he'd loved the friends that he'd had before, but… none of them were like Gwen. The hug she'd given him hadn't felt like it came from a friend. It felt like it came from family. Maybe something stronger than family.

All he knew was that he felt like he could trust her. He felt that he could safely confide anything in Gwen… Except one thing.

Miles and his Uncle Aaron walked up the steps of an enormous skyscraper, Aaron with his injured arm still wrapped in a sling over his chest and his left hand in his jacket pocket while Miles carried a small duffel bag over his shoulder. As they climbed, Miles looked up at the side of the building and read the name written in large, gold letters over the doorway: Fisk Tower.

They stepped into the building through a double-wide glass doorway and walked up to a long receptionist's desk, behind which sat a young, female secretary. She looked up at the two as they entered, and as Uncle Aaron was the adult here, her eyes immediately drifted to him as she said pleasantly, "Hello and welcome to New York City's esteemed Fisk Tower. How can I help you today?"

Aaron gave the woman a smile as he pulled a card from inside his jacket and held it out to her to examine, then said, "We have an appointment."

The secretary took the card and looked it over carefully, then handed it back to Aaron and said, "That does seem to be in order. Please take the VIP elevator to your left, and have a nice day."

Aaron accepted the card back, then nodded to the woman gratefully and stepped over to an out-of-the-way elevator directly to the left, and Miles walked dutifully after him. There was no button on the elevator, but Uncle Aaron swiped his card in a card-reader device mounted on the wall like he'd done it many times before, and the door immediately opened for them. After they stepped inside and the doors closed behind them, Uncle Aaron inserted his card into a slot in the wall, which sucked the card inside, and then the elevator began to move upwards. Just like on the outside, the inside of this elevator had no buttons and seemed to operate solely on whatever that card was.

While they went upwards, Uncle Aaron told Miles, "Suit up."

Immediately, Miles set his duffel bag on the ground and opened it, then pulled off his school jacket, shirt, and pants. He then reached into the duffel bag and pulled out the pants, shirt, and jacket for his Prowler uniform before putting them all on and putting his school clothes into the bag instead. Then, he reached into the bag one more time and pulled out his clawed gauntlets before putting them on. Finally, he willed his mask to form over his face, but the second that he put it on, Uncle Aaron said, "No. You won't need the mask here, man."

Miles gave him a look of surprise, but didn't ask questions as his mask folded back into the device on the back of his head.

By now, they were only a few floors away from the top, and Aaron used the last bit of time they had left to say, "I've done some work for this guy before, Miles. He's one of my best contractors, and now, he wants to talk to you. They call him the Kingpin. You don't want to get on his bad side. But he'll be polite if you are. Just show him the proper respect and we'll be fine."

As soon as he'd finished speaking, the elevator doors in front of them opened, and Aaron led the way as he and Miles stepped into an enormous room. It almost seemed like the entire floor had been entirely devoted to a single massive office space, with only one enormous desk at the back of the room and four thick pillars holding up the ceiling, forty feet above them. The only things that broke the illusion of how big this room seemed was a set of beautifully-carved wooden double doors at the front of the room and a massive glass wall in the back behind the desk, through which the words "Fisk Tower" could be seen, once again written on the wall in massive golden letters, revealing that this floor did indeed have other rooms, small as they must be.

As they stepped out of the elevator from along one of the black marble walls, Miles looked back and saw the doors of the elevator close behind them to show that they had been designed to blend in perfectly with the wall itself, making it seem like the elevator wasn't even there.

Miles followed behind his uncle as they walked up to stand in front of the overly large desk, behind which sat an even larger man, writing something on a piece of paper that was itself abnormally large, yet still seemed like it would easily fit in this man's palm. The man was wearing a crisp white suit coat and pants with a rich black dress shirt underneath, all of it without a single crease in the fabric. He was bald with a hard expression on his face, and so well-built that one could easily confuse his sheer size and muscle as fat. He appeared to be about as solid as a brick wall, yet far more immovable. Miles had destroyed a few brick walls in his time, but he didn't imagine that this guy would go down so easily.

Miles and his uncle stood silently in front of the colossal man's desk for a few minutes, waiting for him to finish whatever he was writing. When he finally did look up, he looked directly at Uncle Aaron, and a flicker of recognition crossed his face as he said, "Aaron Davis. It's been a while. It's good to see you. Come to offer your services again?"

Aaron shook his head and wrapped an arm around Miles as he responded, "No. To offerhis."

The enormous man seemed to realize that Miles was there for the first time, as though he was a mere flea not worth his time, and raised his eyebrows as he questioned, "This kid?"

Ignoring the question, Uncle Aaron told his nephew, "Miles, this is Mr. Wilson Fisk. He owns Fisk Industries and by extension, about a quarter of New York."

"Closer to a third," Fisk corrected, but leaned forward and offered a hand to Miles, which the younger man took as he said, "Mr. Fisk, I look forward to working with you and helping any way I can."

Fisk smiled at him and said, "Oh, do you? That's very good, Miles. In my experience, there is nothing as valuable to a warrior as their desire to serve the cause. Commitment. Responsibility. Willpower. I like that. Hm. You're very young, but maybe you do have what it takes. I suppose we'll find out."

Fisk reached over to press a button on the top of his desk and spoke into a microphone, saying, "They're ready for you, Son." He then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small remote, then pressed a button. Immediately, the glass wall behind Fisk retracted upwards into the ceiling.

During all this, Uncle Aaron remained stone-faced like this was all normal, but though Miles kept his expression neutral, his mind was suddenly filled with questions. Leaning over to ask his uncle the most prevalent one, Miles questioned, "Fisk isn't the Kingpin?"

Aaron shook his head and answered, "Nah. Not anymore. He used to be, but these days, it's his kid."

Able to tell that his uncle didn't seem to plan on elaborating further, Miles didn't ask any more questions, knowing that he would meet the true Kingpin in a moment.

From around the left corner behind where the glass wall had been, a young man with straight, blonde hair coming down past his neck and wearing a gray suit with a blue tie stepped into view and stood at attention while looking at them, clearly waiting for them to approach.Maybe this is the Kingpin?Miles wondered to himself, but he rather doubted it. This guy didn't look like much, certainly not compared to Fisk. He guessed that this guy was here to escort them to therealKingpin, though why anyone would need this much deception as security, Miles couldn't guess.

At the unspoken prompt for them to approach, both Miles and Uncle Aaron stepped around Fisk's desk and walked over to the man in the gray suit, who looked them over and asked, "Do you two have weapons?"

Aaron looked at Miles, who declared, "I have two extendable daggers, several mini-explosives, anti-gravity and force-projecting shoes, and clawed gauntlets that can punch through a steel wall."

The man nodded his understanding, then looked at Aaron, but Aaron shrugged and said, "I forgot mine."

The gray-suited man let out a sigh, then, to Miles' shock, pulled a folded-up pocket knife out of his pocket and tossed it to Uncle Aaron, who caught it with his uninjured arm and slipped it into his own pocket. Seeing Miles' look of confusion, the long-haired man explained, "The Kingpin doesn't allow anyone to enter his presence unarmed."

That seemed like a strange rule to Miles, but he just nodded his acceptance and allowed the man to lead him and his uncle around the corner and into another room.

This new room was much smaller than Fisk's office just outside, only about twenty by thirty feet with a 15-foot ceiling, and nowhere near as grand. Whereas Fisk's office had looked like a majestic throne room, this room looked more like a mostly-unused cafeteria, complete with only one small, square-topped table with four chairs positioned around the sides. Still, the room was far more beautiful than most places that Miles had ever visited, with smooth floors of polished black marble and floor-to-ceiling windows along the walls that allowed one to look out at a gorgeous view of the New York City skyline, which the one person already in the room was doing right now, standing right by the window looking outwards. His back was facing them but Miles could see that he had brown, combed hair and wore a clean, black suit, though it was far more wrinkled than Fisk's or the blonde-haired man's suits were, and he had his hands clasped in front of himself like he was praying.

Miles didn't want to seem rude, but if this guy was the Kingpin, he felt kind of underwhelmed. This guy was smaller than either of the other potential Kingpins Miles had met in the last few minutes.

As they entered, the gray-suited man that had led them in here stood against the wall, his hands clasped behind his back, and announced, "They're here, sir."

"Thank you, Foggy," the man at the window responded, but still didn't turn to face them. The man in the gray suit gave a small bow, then turned and left the room, closing the door behind himself.

They stood there in silence for a few minutes, until Miles began to think that maybe this guy had forgotten that he had visitors. Trying to begin some sort of conversation, Miles followed the man's gaze out the window and said casually, "Nice view."

Immediately, his uncle elbowed him in the side, and when Miles looked up at him questioningly, he saw his Uncle Aaron vigorously shaking his head in warning. Miles was confused, but the man at the window just chuckled and asked, "Is it?"

Then he finally turned around to face them, and Miles' heart dropped as he realized why his uncle had seemed so eager to stop him from complimenting the view. Now that he was facing them, Miles could see that the man wore glasses with circular lenses that had been tinted a dark red, a color that matched the tie he wore over his white shirt, and the hands that he held clutched in front of himself were holding a long, red and white collapsible cane.

The Kingpin was blind.

Desperately trying to excuse his unintentional rudeness, not just because his uncle had warned him not to insult the Kingpin but also because he was truly appalled to be insensitive to a disabled man, Miles quickly said, "I- I am so sorry, Mr. Kingpin. I had no idea that you were-"

To his surprise, the man just grinned widely at him and said, "I believe you. Actually, it's my fault. Teasing people by making them think I'm looking out the window is my favorite way to meet new people. Yes, I'm blind, but please don't pity me. There's plenty of ways to experience this city besides the sights."

The man walked over to the single table in the room, tapping his cane around on the ground to avoid running into it, and reached across the table to offer his hand to empty air, introducing himself, "Matthew Murdock. Call me Matt."

Stepping over to where his hand was, Miles removed one of his gauntlets to shake the man's hand, and returned, "Miles Morales."

They then both took seats sitting directly across from each other, and Uncle Aaron came to sit in a seat between them as he said, "Aaron Davis. I don't have a double 'M' name. But you both already knew that."

Both Miles and Matt laughed at Aaron's joke. When they were done, Matt smiled and said, "I always enjoy your visits, Aaron. I'll miss working with you."

"With any luck, my break from work is just temporary," Uncle Aaron said hopefully.

Matt grinned at him and said, "But if youdosuccessfully rebound, you'll have the challenge of keeping up with some competition for once. The Prowler was always my favorite, but now I understand that there's a new Prowler, and from what I hear, he's even better."

Aaron nodded and looked at Miles proudly, saying, "You heard correctly, Mr. Murdock. My nephew is settling in nicely. Only a couple days into the job, he's done several jobs that I never could."

Turning to smile directly at Miles, Matt said, "Which is why we're here, of course."

Miles remained silent, as he was currently lost in thought, and he was only brought back to reality when his uncle reached over and gently shook his shoulder, asking, "Miles?"

Not having paid attention to the last bit of their conversation, Miles said, "Sorry, what?"

Still smiling pleasantly, Matt asked him, "Is there something you'd like to ask me, Miles?"

Looking down at the table with shame at how he'd already embarrassed himself twice in front of his potential future employer, Miles admitted, "Yeah. I heard Mr. Fisk call you 'Son' earlier. Are you-"

"-actually related?" Matt finished for him, then shook his head. "No. Wilson Fisk is my adopted father. My biological father was killed due to gang violence, and Mr. Fisk took me in from Hell's Kitchen and helped me avenge my father. When I was old enough, he wanted me to help him run Fisk Industries, but I decided to start my own law firm in my old neighborhood. So instead, Mr. Fisk taught me to take over for him from hisotherjob, controlling the criminal element in our city."

Surprised, Miles asked, "That's what you do? The Kingpin's job is to… be some sort of mob boss?"

Shaking his head calmly, Matt explained, "No, no. We don'tencouragecrime. We simply know that it's inevitable, so the Kingpin's job is to oversee and control the more civilized criminals so that they don't run rampant. Take yourself and your uncle, for example. You aren't bad people. You just aren't afraid to do bad things for good reasons. Because of the things you do to make ends meet, you are considered 'criminals', but we all know that it's much more complicated than that. The other criminals, the lowlifes and scum that are simply a cancer to the world, we use our power to help take them down. Does that help you understand?"

It sounded somewhat complicated to Miles, but it also made some kind of sense. Frankly, he was mostly just relieved. For a moment, he'd thought that his uncle had been trying to hire him out as some kind of enforcer.

Miles nodded in response to Matt's question, and then looked down embarrassedly as Uncle Aaron told the man, "He nodded, Mr. Murdock."

Matt must've been familiar with people forgetting about his blindness, because he managed to keep his smile on his face as he nodded in understanding. He then looked directly at Miles and said, "Well, then we can get down to business. First of all, Miles, I want to hear what it is exactly that you're looking for with this job. Not necessarily the work environment, but what it is that you hope to accomplish."

Never having been interviewed for a job before now, Miles looked nervously at his uncle, but Aaron just shrugged and gestured for him to answer the question. Only able to hope that his answer would be satisfactory, Miles honestly told him, "Well, I've got these abilities, skills and powers that no one else has. And I just feel like I've gotta use them to help people, whatever it takes. My dad taught me to be there for people. My mom taught me to take care of my community. And my uncle taught me how to do it. So whatever job you need me to do, I'll do it. You want me to steal, destroy, sabotage, even torture or kill, I'll do it. I'll doallthe wrong things for all the right reasons and won't let anyone or anything get in my way, because the one thing no one ever taught me was how to quit."

At the end of his passion-filled response, Miles felt his Uncle Aaron clap a hand onto his shoulder, smiling with pride over the man that his nephew was becoming. Matt was also smiling, looking not only satisfied but also somewhat impressed, leaning back in his chair as he stared at Miles for a moment.

Then, after a few seconds had passed in silence, Matt stood up and walked back towards the window, tapping his cane around as he went, and said, "Aaron, can you give us a minute? Close the door behind you, please."

Uncle Aaron winked at Miles and stood up from his seat as he answered, "Of course, Mr. Murdock. I'll be right outside, Miles." Uncle Aaron then walked over to the door and opened it to step outside, shutting the door firmly behind himself.

Once the door was closed, Matt stopped next to the window and called behind himself, "Miles, will you come here for a minute?"

Without a word, Miles stood up from his seat and walked over to stand next to Mr. Murdock at the window, looking out at a view of New York from a higher point than Miles had ever been on. As he walked, at first he tried to make his footsteps louder so that Matt could hear when he arrived next to him, but he'd forgotten that his shoes absorbed all sound upon impact with the ground, so instead he just tapped the glass once he reached it.

Upon hearing the glass thud, Matt's head suddenly jerked sideways to look at Miles, clearly surprised by his new location, then he cleared his throat and said, "Look out at the city, Miles."

Miles did as ordered, admiring the beautiful view outside the window, which showed almost the entire city at this height and angle.

"Now, you may have noticed that due to my blindness, I don't really care for the same luxuries as my father enjoys," Matt said. "As such, you may wonder why a blind man has this sort of view outside his office window."

Miles almost nodded again, but this time he caught himself first and instead said, "Yes, sir."

Matt looked out the window and continued, "The reason is kind of complicated. The truth is, I love this city, Miles. My father taught me to love this city as he does, but I know it better than he ever could. I may be blind, but my eyes are everywhere in this city, and I know itsinnerbeauty. Because of my love for this city, I have made a point of knowing everything about it. I know every movement of every food vendor in the city. I know where every single citizen lives. I know that you drank a slightly expired carton of chocolate milk this morning with your school-provided breakfast of bacon and eggs."

For most of Matt's speech, Miles had listened politely, but had internally been thinking that the man was being a bit dramatic and was greatly exaggerating his knowledge. But that last sentence had brought Miles' mind to a screeching halt. He hadn't evenrememberedwhat he'd had for breakfast today, but when Matt had told him, the memory had come rushing back to Miles in perfect clarity. Matt was completely correct about what Miles had eaten this morning, even down to the slightly strange but largely unnoticeable taste of his milk.

Looking at Mr. Murdock in amazement, Miles asked, "How did you-"

"Like I said," Matt said seriously, "I know everything about my city. Or at least,almosteverything."

Taking one of his hands off of his cane, Matt reached into the folds of his suit jacket and suddenly pulled out a small pile of colored images before holding them out in front of Miles. Miles gently took the images from Matt and began to browse through them one by one.

Every image was taken in a different place, from different angles and heights, but they all had one thing in common. Each picture showed the familiar shape and colors of the Spider-Woman, the vigilante that Miles had defeated a couple nights ago. Combined, the pictures allowed Miles to see every imaginable angle of Spider-Woman, sometimes in the air and sometimes on the ground, but always showing her at the top of her game. In some she was swinging high above the buildings of New York, in others she was seen knocking out criminals in the middle of their illegal activities (and Miles noted with interest that some of the images were from PDNY-owned surveillance footage, which Matt shouldn't have been able to access). Every image made her look majestic and untouchable, far from the sight Miles had seen the other night when he'd nearly killed her.

"I have hooks in every influential figure in this city… except Spider-Woman," Matt said with mixed bitterness and grudging admiration.

A lump growing in his throat as he thought he saw where this was going, Miles hesitantly asked, "And you want me to kill her?"

The smirk came back to Matt's face as he said with amusem*nt, "Kill her? Of course not! I don't want the Spider-Woman dead. She's much too unique for that. No, I just want tocontrolher."

"Didn't you say that you already control most of the people in the city?" Miles asked in confusion.

"The Kingpin needs to controlallof the pieces. 'Most' isn't enough," Matt said. "The trick is, to control anyone, I need leverage, and despite a year's worth of effort, I don't have anything on Spider-Woman. Everyone and everything that's ever fought her has been defeated. I had hoped that the Prowler might manage it… but the first time your uncle encounters her, she puts him out of commission, maybe permanently. But then, I hear that there's a new Prowler, one who's not only considered better than the original, but hasalreadygone toe-to-toe with Spider-Woman andwon. I immediately knew that I had to meet him."

"So you want me to capture her?" Miles asked, still trying to get a feel for what he was being asked to do.

However, Matt once again responded in the negative, shaking his head and saying, "Not at all. Or at least, not yet. I don't want you to capture her. I want you tojoinher."

Thinking that he must've misheard, Miles asked, "Sorry, what?"

Matt placed a hand on Miles' shoulder and turned the younger man to face him, then explained, "I want you to join her on her little crusade. Sympathize with her as a fellow vigilante trying to save the city. Earn her trust… and find out who she is. Get her to reveal her identity to you, then tellmeher secret, and I'll finally be able to control her. And if we can't do it the easy way… Well, you've beaten her before. You can do it again."

Miles was uncertain about the plan, but he mustered his courage and formed a look of determination on his face as he said, "I'll do my best, Mr. Murdock."

Matt smiled at him and said, "You know, Miles, you make a fine Prowler. The thing I liked best about your uncle was that he was always reliable. It's good to see that you have that too. In that case, you're hired. Welcome to the family, Miles Morales."

A/N: Okay, so several people have now told me that I need to incorporate more Spanish dialogue in this story as a result of Miles' closer relationship with his mother. To those of you who have experienced that concern, I want to assure you that I will attempt to meet that expectation, but I also don't want there to betoomuch Spanish dialogue. Many readers of this story may not know Spanish and I don't want them to have to translate every few sentences. Besides, even if Spanish is now spoken much more in his house, it's still been less than a year since Miles became closer to his Puerto Rican heritage. However, as I said, I will be including more Spanish-speaking from Miles from here on out, and maybe a bit from Gwen as well. That said, I also want to make it clear that I myself am not particularly fluent in Spanish, even though I am learning it. If I make a mistake in how I write Spanish dialogue, please inform me so that I can make the necessary alterations. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 6: Hunter and Prey

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

Miles POV

Following his meeting with the Kingpin last night, Miles had asked if he could keep the pictures of the Spider-Woman that had been shown to him, claiming that he wanted them for reference material. Assuming that Miles had simply wanted to examine the images closer in preparation for his new mission, Mr. Murdock had generously allowed him to take them, but that wasn't quite what Miles had in mind when he'd made his request.

He'd stayed up late last night examining the images that were currently in his backpack, trying to memorize every detail not for his mission, but for what he was doing now, right after the school day had ended, trying to recreate those images of Spider-Woman in his sketchbook. With the new reference material he'd acquired last night, he was now drawing a multitude of all-new images and poses to join the ones that he'd done just after he'd first met the spider-themed vigilante.

By now, he had several pages dedicated solely to her, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. In the Spider-Woman, he almost found what he felt was a kindred spirit. When Mr. Murdock had asked Miles to relate to her, he'd internally been thinking that in some ways, he already did. Whoever was beneath that mask was strangely similar to him in several ways. Like him, she seemed to be young and fairly inexperienced but still skilled and possessing a natural talent for the job.

As much as Miles had been upset when he'd seen what Spider-Woman had done to his uncle's arm, he had also internally felt rather impressed by what she'd accomplished. Miles had seen his uncle as the Prowler in action, even sparred with him on occasion, and he knew that Uncle Aaron was no easy enemy to defeat, yet Spider-Woman had managed to take him down hard the first time she'd encountered him, earning Miles' respect before he'd even met her himself. And when he did meet her… she'd been even more spectacular, even if he did win by quite a large margin.

In fact, not that he would ever admit it, but Miles felt that he may actually be developing a small crush on the heroine… Still, it was better than him having a crush on-

In the middle of his latest drawing, Miles' marker came to a sudden stop as he abruptly realized that his drawing was not turning out as he'd expected. At some point after he'd turned to a new page and begun drawing a simple picture of Spider-Woman, just standing in place with her arms crossed over her chest, he had accidentally started drawing a different girl. He hadn't finished the coloring yet, but the outline was in place, and there was no mistaking those curls of hair that came down just to her neck, or the way that she always liked to tuck it behind her right ear but allowed it to hang freely on the left (not that he'd ever noticed, of course). Nor could he confuse those eyes where he’d miraculously managed to capture the sparkle inside them when she looked at him, or that lopsided smirk that barely tugged at the corners of her mouth like she was holding back her laugh at a hilarious joke, as if she knew that her smile was too infectious to be out in the open.

His eyes wide in shock, Miles recognized the figure that he'd been drawing as his best friend, Gwen Stacy, and muttered to himself, "Oh, estoy en problemas…"

"Why are you in trouble?" came a familiar voice from a few feet in front of Miles, and his face blanched before he snapped his sketchbook closed and looked up in deepening horror to see the real Gwen, standing in front of him with a hand on her hip as she looked at him curiously.

Quickly thinking up an excuse, Miles said, "I, uh… I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang out over the weekend, but I just remembered that I'm gonna be busy."

Leaning against the wall next to him, Gwen sighed and said, "Quite the friendship we have, huh? We both always seem to be busy."

"We did talk about that before," Miles defended, not wanting to raise suspicion but also hoping that she wasn't having second thoughts about their friendship.

Nodding slowly in acceptance, Gwen said in a resigned sort of way, "Yeah. But we do need to find some time when we're not both busy. I need to do some stuff over the weekend too, but… Tell you what, we can text each other. If we find a break in our weekend plans, we’ll text each other and decide on somewhere we can go to relax. If my weekend is as productive as I’m hoping it’ll be, I don’t know about you, but I’ll bet I could really use some relaxation at the end of it.”

You have no idea, Miles thought to himself, but out loud he said, “Sounds good. I’ll keep you posted.”

Line Break

Gwen POV

Perched on a ledge on the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building, her favorite lookout point, late at night and wearing her brand-new suit, Gwen pulled out her phone and began to browse the web, searching for news about any sort of advanced technology that had been created in New York lately.

This was her new method for searching for the Prowler. Both times she'd encountered one of them, the Prowler had been stealing some sort of technology, first from Roxxon and then from Oscorp. Maybe it was part of how they made their own gadgets, or maybe it was just something for them to sell to criminals willing to pay a hefty sum or even rival companies. Either way, by now Gwen believed that the best way for her to track the Prowler was to track his targets instead.

Unfortunately, to her frustration, she quickly found herself unable to find any company in New York that had recently created any sort of important technological advancement. "Seriously?" she muttered to herself. "This is New York City, and no one is working on a… super-laser or something?"

Of course, she couldn't completely rule out the possibility that Prowler would be going after a smaller score or even changing his usual focus for the night. The news didn't mention everything, after all, and she had no idea how he usually picked his targets.

Sighing to herself, Gwen idly stood up and walked over the edge of the building and stuck her feet to the wall so that she was standing horizontally, then leaned back and pressed her back against the wall, trying to get comfortable. She had a feeling that she may be in for a long night. What had she been thinking, coming out here and hoping to catch the Prowler red-handed on the first night of her search? "It beats doing my homework," Gwen mumbled, trying to cheer herself up.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated. As she'd set her phone to notify her of important news updates on pretty much every technological company in New York that she could find, Gwen immediately pulled her phone up once again to look at the notification, but sighed in disappointment when she saw that it was just a text from Miles. Not that she wasn't pleased to hear from her friend, but it was a bit annoying to get her hopes up for something else only for those hopes to be dashed.

Still, Miles' text was a welcome distraction from her current predicament. Opening her messaging app, she read what Miles had sent her.

MilesInSilence: What r u doing?

Gwen looked down at the busy street hundreds of meters beneath her, a height that could easily kill her even with her powers, all while a strong wind whipped at her face and she held onto the wall with merely the sticky fibers that covered her entire body. She was currently in a position that most people would probably have a heart attack trying to replicate even if they had a rope.

Gwen: Just relaxing. You?

MilesInSilence: Getting in my steps for the day, climbing a building.

Gwen: How many flights?

MilesInSilence: Flights?

Gwen: Of stairs.

MilesInSilence: I'm not exactly counting.

Fair point, Gwen had to admit. No one counts stairs. But she had been looking for an excuse to prolong their conversation, seeing as her night was starting to look maddeningly uneventful. This made Miles' next text even more painful.

MilesInSilence: Hold on, my mom's calling me. brb.

Gwen sighed to herself and pocketed her phone before laying her head back against the wall. At this rate, she was going to be busy/bored all weekend and probably still wouldn't find Prowler. Well, tonight was a bust anyway. Maybe she could get her dad to let her do her homework on the roof of their apartment building, somewhere that she could bring her penguin and listen to the police broadcasts.

She was just about to get up and make her way back towards home when suddenly a voice came from above her. "I hoped I'd find you up here."

The voice was familiar and sent a chill up Gwen's spine as the deep, modulated tones reached her ears. Immediately after she'd recognized the voice, Gwen's eyes widened and she jumped off the side of the building, falling for a few seconds before she stuck herself to the wall again so that she could get some distance on Prowler.

Turning around before she even touched the building's surface so that she could look up towards the source of the voice, Gwen quickly took note of the sight that greeted her. The speaker had been the younger, new Prowler that had defeated her at Oscorp, yet she was surprised to see that even as she dodged away from him, he didn't move from where he was. In fact, he almost seemed to be relaxing, slouching lazily on top of one of the building's eagle sculptures with his legs propped up in front of himself, resting his chin on the knuckles of one of his clawed gauntlets while he watched her jump away from him.

He probably thinks I'm scared, Gwen thought to herself angrily. After their first meeting hadn't ended well for her, this Prowler probably didn't think too highly of her ability to defend herself. Fine. She could use that fact to her advantage.

Standing horizontally on the wall and aiming her wrists up at Prowler, Gwen rapidly fired numerous small balls of webbing at the dark figure, trying to stun and/or restrain him. To her annoyance, however, he just moved his free hand into the path of the webs and caught all of them in his palm, then stood up with a sigh and used his other hand's claws to tear the webbing off of himself before he cast it aside like it was nothing.

Not giving him a chance to counter, Gwen shot a web line at the wall above him and pulled herself upwards to kick him in the face before bouncing off of his chest and shooting a second web line right over his shoulder, then pulled herself in again with her arm pulled back in preparation to punch him, but one of his hands suddenly shot out and seized her by the throat to stop her dead before she could reach him.

Holding her out over the empty abyss beneath them, Prowler growled, "Could you, like, not do that for a second?"

"Well, I'm not exactly trying to make this easy for you!" Gwen gasped out before Prowler spun around and tossed her back onto the ledge. However, Gwen didn't even allow her feet to touch the ground, instead just bouncing off the ground with her hands towards the wall, then using her feet to launch herself off the wall and tackle Prowler off the edge. As they fell together, Prowler grunted as he fought to extricate himself from her grip, but Gwen held on tightly, needing to resort to using her sticking powers to keep ahold of him.

Prowler suddenly directed his legs downwards, and then a burst of magenta light from beneath his feet launched them both back up to the ledge from where they had fallen. He then firmly grabbed Gwen by the wrists and used the strength of his gauntlets to overpower her sticking and roughly pull himself out of her grip, then pulled his legs up to kick her away, blasting her into the wall with whatever sort of emitters were on the bottoms of his feet.

Reacting quickly, Gwen reached out her hands to desperately stick them to the floor before her body hit the wall, both to avoid damaging the famous tower and also because hitting that wall would just really suck. Prowler landed on his feet right in front of Gwen, the eyes of his mask narrowing at her in apprehension as she climbed back to her feet, but before he could attack her again, Gwen held out a warning hand towards him and asked, “I don’t suppose we could take this somewhere else? It’s just, this building is kinda famous and I really don’t want to get blamed for it getting damaged just because you attacked me.”

Gwen had a habit of trying to enter some sort of conversation or banter during a fight with her enemies, but they usually didn’t respond. She certainly hadn’t imagined that the Prowler would be among the few exceptions, given his usual “dark and silent” behavior, so she was surprised when after his eyes narrowed even further into the thinnest of white slits, he said, “I attacked you? Uh, no.”

Confused, Gwen slightly lowered her guard and tilted her head as she asked, “No?”

“We both know that it was you who attacked me,” Prowler insisted.

Gwen opened her mouth to respond, then realized that, technically, it could be argued that she struck first by shooting webbing at him and kicking him in the face. Scoffing as she threw her hands up in exasperation, Gwen tried to excuse herself, “Well… I mean, you just showed up out of nowhere and tried to get the drop on me!”

“If I wanted to get the drop on you, do you really think I would’ve announced my presence like that?” Prowler questioned like it was obvious.

Folding her arms over her chest defiantly, Gwen said, “Uh, excuse me, but which one of us has tried to kill the other in the past?”

“I didn’t try to kill you.”

“My crushed bones are evidence to the contrary.”

“You know what’s better evidence? You’re still alive.”

Gwen huffed in annoyance, but she had to admit that that was a pretty good point. He had technically spared her after their first encounter. She may not like it, but if he had chosen to kill her after breaking her so badly, she couldn’t possibly have stopped him. “Fine, I attacked you, but only preemptively before you could attack me,” Gwen admitted.

“I wasn’t going to attack you,” Prowler said.

“Riiiight, my mistake. The claws were obviously for a pool party later tonight,” Gwen said sarcastically, not believing him.

Holding up his hands and retracting his claws to show that he meant no harm, Prowler said, “Look, I think you and I got off on the wrong foot. And yeah, that’s largely my fault, but now I think that we actually have a lot in common.”

Still doubtful, Gwen asked, “Yeah? Like what?”

“We’re both vigilantes in a city that hates us even though it doesn’t know us,” Prowler explained. “We can both run on walls. We’re fast, strong, apparently out of our minds, and probably both stay out way past curfew. Yeah, that’s another thing I noticed. Most people we fight probably don’t really notice how small we both are. We move too fast, too much. But when we’re standing still like this… I’m willing to bet you’re like me, just a teenager that gets a real thrill from being in over my head.”

Annoyed that he had managed to figure out her approximate age range, something that none of her previous enemies had ever done, Gwen said, "Yeah, and I bet you're gonna make me some offer about how ‘Together, we can rule New York!’ Hate to break it to you, Cloud City, but I've heard that one before."

"Why would I want to rule the city?" Prowler asked. "I don't care about power or authority. I'm just out to protect my home, and I think you are too."

Gwen scoffed and said, "We're nothing alike. I'm trying to do some real good. You… You're just a criminal. And I stop criminals."

Putting a hand on his chest in mock pain, Prowler said, "You wound me. 'Just a criminal?' Clearly, you didn't do your homework."

Bad choice of words, Gwen thought to herself as her mind suddenly got distracted by the image of her week's worth of unfinished homework back in her bedroom at home. However, she quickly shoved that thought aside and instead remained silent as she listened to what Prowler said as he began to pace in front of her.

"Roxxon's clean power source I stole? Not nearly as clean as they claimed. Anyone exposed to it for too long would develop a fatal sickness. The man who developed it died trying to destroy it," Prowler explained. "And Norman Osborn's electrode riot shield? He was selling it to foreign nation terrorists and pretending that the weapons were just stolen, profiting off selling to both sides. The man's committing war crimes, but he's too rich to get caught. Trust me, both Roxxon and Oscorp deserved a bit of misery."

This was all new information to Gwen. She'd never heard any of this, nor had she actually cared to research any of the things that Prowler had stolen. She'd figured that all she needed to know was that a criminal was running free and needed to be stopped.

Of course, he could be lying. Nothing suggested that he could be trusted to be telling the truth, except for perhaps the fact that she couldn't imagine why he would bother lying about something like this.

Gwen took a deep breath and said, "Look, even if I believed you - which I'm not saying I do! - you're still a criminal that needs to be brought to justice."

"You know that the police think the same thing about you, right?" Prowler asked. "This city isn't kind to people like us, but that doesn't stop us from doing what we believe in because people need us. How about a deal? You can join me on one of my missions, but this time you'll have the full story. Then you can decide what kind of person I am."

When she eventually managed to process what Prowler had said, Gwen looked at him in confusion and asked, “Wait, are you- Are you asking me to help you steal something?”

“Something that needs to be stolen,” Prowler assured her. “You’ve been trying to protect this city for months, and this is a perfect-”

“Let me just stop you right there,” Gwen said as she waved a hand to cut him off. She then glared at him and added, “I don’t care why you claim that you do this. You’re still a thief, stealing from people that can’t stop you and hurting anyone that tries to get in your way. You dropped a building on me!”

“Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. And I said I was sorry!” Prowler tried to excuse himself.

“No, you didn’t!” Gwen argued.

“Okay, well then, I’m sorry!” Prowler hurriedly said.

“Oh, thanks. Now it’s all better!” Gwen said sarcastically. Before he could say anything else to try to change her opinion of him, Gwen held up a hand to stop him and continued, “I don’t care about your apologies or your supposedly moral crusade. All I care about is that you’re the bad guy, so I will never work with you. I’m just here to take you down.”

And with that, Gwen leapt into action, shooting a web line at Prowler’s chest and quickly pulling herself to him with her foot aimed to kick him in the face. However, one of his hands abruptly shot up and caught her foot in midair just before it hit him. Oh, come on!, Gwen just barely had time to think before Prowler spun all the way around, pulling her with him, and threw her back towards the wall. Even though this throw had been noticeably softer than before, not enough force behind it to damage the building when she hit it, Gwen once again had to use her sticky fingers to attach herself to the wall rather than smack her face against it, and then she hurriedly looked up worriedly as she felt her Spider-Sense tingle in warning while she was still recovering from the near miss.

She quickly pulled herself off the wall and turned to face Prowler once more in preparation for whatever was about to happen, and saw him holding out one of his gauntlets towards her before he quickly clenched his hand into a fist. From the sides all the way around his gauntlet, at least a dozen small, pointed shapes like arrowheads glowing a bright magenta hovered upwards to float around the wrist. Then, in an instant, all of them launched themselves towards Gwen at the same time.

Expecting to need to dodge them as individual projectiles, Gwen crouched and prepared to flip her way through all of them, creating a simulation of what was about to happen in her mind, ending with her giving Prowler a powerful uppercut. However, she was caught off guard when just before they reached her, all of the arrowheads spread outwards to avoid her and blinked in unison as they emitted lines of glowing light to connect themselves to one another before forming inwards to create a solid wall.

Gwen's eyes widened as she recognized the new shape, and she tried to dodge out of the way a fraction of a second before it hit her but was too late, and the glowing net wrapped itself tightly around her as the arrowheads along the edges impaled themselves into the wall behind her to keep her trapped. Immediately, Gwen began to struggle and writhe, attempting to push the net off of her, but it only seemed to get tighter the more she fought it, pressing her arms and legs down tightly and keeping her from being able to use most of her strength.

Meanwhile, Prowler lowered his fist and said apologetically, "I didn't want things to be like this, but I can't let you take me in. I don't really wanna fight you either. This net will turn off in an hour. Maybe you should use that time to rethink my offer."

With that said, Prowler turned to walk off, shaking his head in disappointment and muttering to himself, and stepped off the ledge of the building as easily as a normal person may walk down the stairs, disappearing from sight.

Once he was gone, Gwen continued to struggle against her bonds, desperately wanting to break free and go after Prowler before he could escape yet again, even though she knew deep down that it was already hopeless. If this one was anything like the first Prowler she’d fought (and in her experience, he was even better), he was already long gone.

Not to mention, this net he’d created was extremely effective at keeping her in place. It seemed to be made out of some sort of hard-light, and being a rather gifted physics student, Gwen knew full well that hard-light was incredibly tough, at least when created properly, and judging by the state of the rest of Prowler’s tech, he probably knew what he was doing when he made it. If he had said that it would disappear in an hour, then that was probably exactly what was going to happen.

Gwen looked around at the net trapping her and said, "So this is what it feels like when I web someone up. Gotta say, not a fan. This guy’s going to make me feel guilty about how I do things.” Unfortunately, Gwen’s attempts to amuse herself were all in vain as her jokes faded into the wind, never to be heard by anyone. She was unable to move her head much, but her eyes looked left and right as she asked, “Anyone? Anyone at all? Does no one like a good joke anymore? Come on, anyone?”

Suddenly, with a soft hooting, a pigeon flew down from above to land on top of Gwen’s head, perching itself comfortably as she couldn’t move to shake it off, and began to snuggle up into the fabric of her hood. Her face falling in annoyance, Gwen muttered, “Anyone except you.”

After this, Gwen managed to hold out another few minutes. She waited and waited, unable to move and no longer even trying to fill the silence with her words, lest the universe should take it as an opportunity to make her situation even more miserable. Eventually, however, she simply broke.

“All right, that’s it!” she abruptly snapped out, then began to push her body against the net to the best of her ability. Very slowly, she felt the net begin to pull away from the wall, even as she could also feel it tightening itself back down to try to keep her in place. Her muscles strained from the effort, but as she began to feel them weaken, wanting to take a rest, she growled and forced herself to continue pushing, knowing that stopping for a single moment would allow the net to shove her back down and rob her of all of her progress.

The net continued to be pushed outwards by Gwen’s superpowered strength, and even though her progress was a mere crawl, it was progress nonetheless. She kept pushing and pushing, and just as her muscles finally felt like they were about to give out entirely, Gwen shoved her shoulder against the surface of the net and let out a mighty yell as she used the small amount of space that she’d made for her legs to run forwards.

Unfortunately, she’d put a bit too much power into that last push, and though she succeeded in pushing the net off of herself, the entire hard-light structure faded out of existence the moment that it was loosened and disengaged from the wall, allowing her momentum to carry her in running headlong off the edge of the building.

For a moment after freeing herself, Gwen looked down below in shock, but then recognized the familiar feeling of falling and instinctively shot a web line upwards to catch herself. Then, after deeply inhaling and exhaling a few times to get her breath back after what had been one of the harder workouts she’d had to do since getting her powers, Gwen looked out over the city and considered trying to go after Prowler once more, but soon just sighed and told herself, “Maybe that’s enough excitement for one night. I’ve still got two more days in the weekend… And I really need to finish my homework.”

Seriously, though, Gwen thought to herself, is there anything more annoying than underestimating someone again after you told yourself not to? She’d thought that she would be able to get the drop on Prowler this time instead of the other way around, yet he’d been running circles around her all night. First, he’d found her and snuck up on her while she was trying to find him.

She should’ve assumed that a guy called “the Prowler” would be some sort of hunter himself, but in her defense, she had never expected herself to be the prey in this situation. Plenty of her superpowered enemies tried to track her down to destroy her, but she hadn’t expected it of a sneak thief. Of course, Prowler hadn’t exactly been trying to attack her…

Now that she thought of it, why hadn’t her Spider-Sense alerted her to his arrival before he’d announced himself? Her Spider-Sense could warn her of bad things happening even when they weren’t happening to her. Even if Prowler hadn’t been there with hostile intentions, her Spider-Sense should’ve been able to feel if there was an enemy nearby. It was usually very sensitive and reacted to anything even remotely unfamiliar or potentially unfriendly, even street food! Maybe he had something that blocked her Spider-Sense from- But no, it had always worked whenever he actually attacked her. Hmm…

Deciding that it was a problem for another day, Gwen moved on to critiquing her other mistakes. Her biggest one seemed to be trying her old moves. The first Prowler had been able to instantly cut through her webbing, which had been new and challenging, but the younger one was just too fast for her in general. It was like he didn’t even need to think, he just moved. Not only could he react to her webs, but he could also counter each of her attacks with one of his own. In fact, Gwen was annoyed to admit to herself that after a year of being Spider-Woman, she had never dealt with an opponent that matched her as well as this new Prowler, and he didn’t even have powers!

Finally, she had been foolish to underestimate his wrist darts. She had never seen that net thing before, not from either Prowler, and now it made her worry to consider what other tricks this guy had up his sleeves. Sadly, she imagined that there was really only one way to find out.

A/N: Alright, so I know that many of you will be wanting to know why Miles didn't recognize the new designs of her costume. Now, I could just say that Gwen wasn't very specific about her designs when getting his help (which is true), but I'd also like to point out the simple fact that many of you may already know, which is that any variants of Miles and Gwen and every other Spider-person share exactly half of a brain cell across the entire multiverse. In the words of Spider-Man himself, "Just because I had Spider-Sense doesn't mean I had common sense." Also, Miles has no reason to believe that Gwen would lie to him and is too trusting to doubt her. If he thought he recognized the design of Spider-Woman's new suit, he'd probably think something along the lines of "Hey, that looks kinda familiar… But nah. Gwen said it was for her dad's motorcycling jacket." However, to those of you who were expecting the big confrontation from this meeting, fear not. This moment will certainly come back to bite Miles eventually, but for now, there's still a bit more fun to be had. Next, I want to tell you all that I am starting to write longer chapters in preference of additional chapters, and while I will attempt to keep posting them fairly regularly, it may take a little bit longer if my time runs short. The chapter after this is already about twice as long as normal and the next is three times as long. Final note, to any of you to whom it may concern (specifically the readers of my story Seeking Justice), please note that an image of Ezra's painted armor has been made available at the end of Chapter 10 if you weren't able to see it before. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 7: Working Weekend

Chapter Text

A/N: So, I may be incorrect on this, but when I posted the last chapter, I didn't receive a notification like I usually do, so it's possible that many of you may have missed it as well if you were following the story. Then again, maybe I'm just getting worried over nothing, but fair warning. Also, just to relieve any potential concerns you all may have, I just wanted to make you aware that I will be gone for a couple weeks following the posting of this chapter. As always, fear not, I will not abandon my story and will be back shortly. However, this chapter is twice as long as normal, so please enjoy in my absence!

Chapter 7

Miles POV

Ugh. Last night was the worst. Just… the worst.

When Miles woke up on Saturday morning, this was the first thing to go through his mind. And indeed, the previous night had been a very irksome time for him. He spent all day and well into the night looking for Spider-Woman so he could begin his new mission for Mr. Murdock. If it wasn't so exhilarating to jump between buildings and run up walls, he would've died of boredom hours before he found anything.

As it was, he had eventually gotten bored anyway after convincing himself that he had checked every square inch of the New York City skyline and had begun to text Gwen while searching, which made his job significantly more enjoyable, at least for a few moments.

Then, to his annoyance, he'd found Spider-Woman lounging on the side of the Chrysler Building mere minutes into his conversation with Gwen. Having to cut his conversation short had been bothersome, but he had a mission to do, and though Mr. Murdock hadn't emphasized any sort of rush, Miles still imagined that the Kingpin would appreciate promptness.

So he had gone over to the Chrysler Building himself and tried to make himself appear as relaxed as Spider-Woman seemed. Of course, as she was stuck to the side of the wall and Miles could only run on walls, not stick to them, he'd been forced to lay down on one of the eagle sculptures just above her, then offered a friendly greeting.

She didn't seem too inclined to return it. She had attacked him fiercely, actually throwing them both off the building at one point, apparently more willing to let them both die than to listen to what he had to say. Then she'd blamedhimfor attackingher, along with a few other things. He'd been forced to make a few apologies for things that he wasn't sure he agreed were entirely his fault, then tried to get them back on topic.

He'd made his offer for Spider-Woman to join him, but for some reason she refused and tried to attack him again! Apparently that girl just had a serious problem with wanting to hit everything.

As a result, he'd been forced to use one of his suit's special features, a "Constrictor'' as his uncle called it, which was basically just a hard-light net that could hold any enemy in place, capable of only the slightest movements, but any movement at all gave the net a reason to tighten itself around you. Unfortunately, as it formed a self-sustaining hard-light projection, the net only lasted an hour and took twice that long to reload in the gauntlets.

Still, that was a long time to be able to restrain even superhuman enemies, up to two at a time. Last night had been the first time that Miles had tested out the Constrictor in the field, and honestly, it had been kind of satisfying to tie Spider-Woman up at the top of the Chrysler Building after she had wasted his time that he otherwise could've spent talking to Gwen. Or, you know, Uncle Aaron. Or his mom.

Suddenly, the door to his room burst open and Miles' eyes were assaulted with a blast of light from the hallway, causing him to hurriedly put up a hand to block it out with a groan.

The only reason that Miles had not leapt into action at the sudden intrusion was that he knew it could only be his mom coming to check on him. Such was his faith in his well-honed skills of observation, that he refused to believe that anyone could have broken or snuck into their apartment without his notice, even while he was sleeping. Not even Uncle Aaron could've done it anymore.

He was proven correct when, though his eyes were still shielded, he heard his mom's voice as she entered his room. "Miles!¿Todavía estás en la cama?Get up!"

If there is one thing in life that no self-preserving soul would ever do, it is to disobey their mother. Miles knew this, and so despite his desire to simply pull his pillow over his face and go back to bed, he immediately sat up in bed and began to rub the tiredness out of his eyes, responding, "Yes,Mami."

As Miles threw off his blankets and turned to place his feet on the ground, Rio crossed to the window and opened the blinds, allowing fresh sunlight to spill into the room, causing Miles to wince once more in pain, though he managed to refrain from making any sounds this time.

Once that was done, Rio turned back around to leave, but as she was going through the doorway, she turned back and said with a smirk, "Oh, and there's someone on the phone for you. And I think it's agirl."

At that, Miles' head perked up, suddenly feeling much more awake. There was only one person he would expect to be calling him: Gwen. They had already discussed possibly hanging out over the weekend, and this must be it, the opportunity that he had been looking forward to even though he would never admit it out loud.

Unfortunately, his mom noticed his reaction and decided to comment on it. Her eyes widening in realization, Rio asked, "Oh, you know her, don't you? Spill."

Looking down embarrassedly, Miles said, "It's just a girl in one of my classes. She's just a friend. It's nothing."

Seeming unconvinced, Rio folded her arms with a smirk and said, "Uh-huh. Sure it's nothing. What's her name?"

"Gwen. Gwen Stacy."

Frowning, Rio noted, "That's not a Spanish name."

"Well, it's Celtic, and both languages have some… Latin roots," Miles defended, then when his mom raised her eyebrows at him, he weakly added, "I may have… looked it up. On accident."

Rio pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation and shook her head, saying, "Right. Well, get the phone,mijo. You never make a woman wait on you.¡Andale!"

As ordered, Miles quickly sprung up from his bed and moved out into the kitchen to pick up the phone from the tabletop and held it against his ear to ask, "Hello?"

Immediately, Gwen's familiar voice responded, "Miles? Oh, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."

"Same," Miles responded, though he was partially distracted by his mom standing in front of him and repeatedly pointing at the phone, then mouthing,Turn it on speaker!Miles put up a finger to temporarily deter his mother by telling her to wait, and continued, "I had alongnight last night."

Gwen let out a chuckle on the other end, causing Miles to picture her smirk in his mind, and said, "Yeah, me too. Actually, I, uh… I couldn't finish my Physics homework last night, so I thought maybe you could help me with-"

"I didn't finish it either," Miles abruptly cut her off, now in the middle of a strange chase with his mother around their kitchen table as she tried to catch him and turn the phone onto speaker herself.

A short pause followed this statement, and then Gwen said despondently, "Oh, okay. Well, then… I guess I'll see you-"

"I wasn't saying that we can't hang out!" Miles cut her off once again, this time much more urgently. Hearing that, Miles' mom finally stopped chasing him and just stood in place across the table from him, watching with interest and listening carefully. "Maybe we can work on our homework together?" Miles suggested hesitantly, shrugging at his mom, but she just put her hands up questioningly, not exactly helping him as he'd hoped for.

Fortunately, it didn't seem to be necessary, as after a short silence, Gwen said, "Yeah. Yeah, totally. That sounds great. So we'll meet at-"

"You can come over to me and my mom's apartment," Miles suggested. "Here, let me just give you the address…"

After Miles had shared his home address with Gwen and made sure that she had it written down correctly, Gwen said, "Alright, Miles. I'll head right over. I should be there in under half an hour."

Smiling to himself subconsciously, Miles responded, "Sounds good. See you then."

"See you."

The moment Gwen hung up and Miles lowered the phone from his ear, he looked up and shockingly found his mom wiping a tear from one of her eyes. "Mom?" Miles asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Rio let out a small chuckle and said, "Estoy bien, Miles. Just… Your father would be soworriedright now. And he'd act angry to hide it. He'd act all protective and authoritative, and his voice would be cracking when he starts trying to explain himself to me. But really, he'd be happy. It's just… I wish he could be here to see this."

"Me doing my homework?" Miles asked, confused.

At that, Rio let out a loud laugh, making Miles back up in slight concern for his mom's mental state, but then she calmed down enough to say, "No, Miles. Your first date."

Even more confused now, Miles shook his head and said, "Mom, it's not a date. We're just studying together. I don't think homework is even a thing that you candofor a date."

Shaking her head with an amused smile on her face, Rio said, "Ah, Miles. You have so much to learn. Now, your 'study buddy' is on her way over and you're still in your pajamas, so you may want to get changed."

Miles looked down at himself to see that he was indeed wearing only the clothes he had slept in, a black tank top and dark purple polyester shorts. Looking up at the clock with worry, Miles swiftly darted back into his bedroom and shut the door behind himself with a hurried, "Thanksmomloveyou!"

However, the door had barely closed before it burst open once again and Miles came running back into the room and down the hall to enter the bathroom. A moment later, Rio heard the shower begin running.

The shower only ran for a few minutes before it turned off and Miles came running out of the room and back into his bedroom, slipping across the floor with his feet still wet while he struggled to tie a towel around his waist while off-balance. Once he'd closed himself in his room once again, he swiftly began to sweep all of his more childish belongings out of sight, like his action figures and piggy bank, things he'd held onto all his life without really knowing why he couldn't let go of them, stuffing them into drawers or under the bed or wherever he could.

He then grabbed some clothes and threw them on his bed, but just as he began to picked up his new shirt to change, he suddenly saw himself in the mirror and thought, …Maybe I should do my morning exercises, try to get more fit. I mean… the Prowler should probably look a bit bigger, right?

His Uncle Aaron had assigned him a series of exercises that he was supposed to do every morning, but seeing as he usually got plenty of exercise doing his actual "Prowler thing", Miles hadn't really been following that advice too often. Today, though, it just felt like the right thing to do.

After pulling his shirt off completely and quietly moving over to his bedroom door to lock it, Miles stepped into the center of his room and began to do his exercises as fast as he could. He ran in place, did push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups (the last one done on the pull-up bar that Uncle Aaron had just recently installed in his room and disguised as a new shelf for Miles' books), and ended off by putting on his soundless shoes and repeatedly running up the wall and backflipping off of it to land on his feet, trying to remember all of the tips that his uncle had given him in order to execute it perfectly.

Then, once he was done, he moved over to the bed to grab his new clothes once again but abruptly froze in horror and realized,I'm all sweaty.

Scrambling madly, Miles wrapped his towel around his waist once again and dashed down the hall for the second time this morning and entered the bathroom before turning on the shower. This one was slightly longer, as he wanted to wash off the smell of sweat that had built up during his exercises, but he still hurried through it, knowing that Gwen would be arriving in about ten minutes. However, once he finally finished, he stepped out of the shower and began to take deep breaths. He still had plenty of time. There was no reason to worry.

He calmly wrapped himself up in the towel for the third time and stepped out of the bathroom, completely at ease. Then, as soon as she heard the door open, Rio called down the hall, "Oh, Miles! Your friend's here!"

Miles was immediately seized by panic, and with a rather unflattering yelp, he ran through the kitchen and slammed himself inside his room, hearing two female voices laughing in the kitchen. His face red, Miles quickly turned back to his bed and began to get dressed, putting on dark gray cargo shorts and a black shirt with a blue basketball jersey over it, then came back into the kitchen with a glare on his face.

He found his mom and Gwen sitting across the table from one another, still struggling to stifle their giggles, which only got worse when he entered the room again. Gwen was wearing her usual black leggings and blue ballet slippers, though she'd traded in her school uniform for a simple zipped-up white coat with a hood hanging on the back and drawstrings dangling in the front. Personally, Miles thought that the color suited her more than her usual, darker style. Not that he really cared either way.

Directing his glare primarily at Rio, Miles said, "Mom, youknewI was taking a shower. You couldn't have told me when she got here?"

Looking up at him innocently, Rio smiled and said, "But Miles, she got here just a minute ago and came in through the window. How was I supposed to know she'd show up like that?"

Raising an eyebrow at Gwen, Miles asked, "You came in through the window? And how'd you get here so fast?"

Gwen shrugged and answered, "Well, my dad had to drop me off early and go deal with a problem at the station, and you know how it is. It's much faster to walk than to drive in New York's morning traffic. Then, when I got here, I just wanted to surprise you, so I came in on the fire escape."

Miles groaned and said, "Well, you definitely surprised me."

"Gwen, your dad wouldn't happen to be Captain George Stacy, would he?" Rio asked with sudden interest. Gwen nodded, and Rio exclaimed, "¿En serio?Of course you are! My Jeff used to talk about your father all the time!"

"Jeff," Gwen said, trying out the name. "Was that Miles' dad's name?"

"Yes, he was," Rio said as her eyes flicked over to the mantelpiece in the back of the room, where a folded-up American flag in a glass case sat with a framed picture on either side.

To the right was a picture of Miles' dad standing at attention in his full police uniform, staring ahead determinedly, his eyes stern and vigilant behind his glasses. The picture on the left showed the other side of him, showing Jeff with his arm wrapped around his wife to pull her in close as they sat side-by-side on the couch, pressing the sides of their faces together to fit into the frame while their expressions were both frozen in happiness and laughter. Miles stood at the front of the image, his hair worn in a tangled afro on top of his head as this had been from over a year ago, one of his arms partially out of view as he held the camera and smiled brightly to complete the image.

Seeing this herself, Gwen looked back at Miles and asked, "Does your mouth still do that? The smiling?"

Rio looked at her son as well and tried to stifle a laugh, starting to like Gwen more and more.

However, Miles remained completely stone-faced and answered, "No. Now, can we get to work?"

Recognizing her cue, Rio stood up from her seat and said, "Yes, you two had better get working, and I need to get to work myself. Miles, I'll be back tonight, but I might have to work late again. If Gwen needs a ride home, call your uncle. And Gwen… Don't you take him from me while I'm gone."

"Mom!" Miles complained with embarrassment. Rio didn't respond, just winked at Miles on her way out the door.

Once his mother was gone, Miles chuckled nervously and told Gwen, "My mom is… She's a joker. Kinda crazy, you know."

Gwen just shrugged with a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth and said, "I think she's cool."

Miles sighed sadly and turned to go back into his room, muttering, "Of course you do. This time tomorrow, you'll know all of the embarrassing 'baby Miles' stories and my life will officially be over."

Gwen could no longer even hear him at this point, but it made Miles feel marginally better to speak his worries out loud. He grabbed his backpack and walked back into the kitchen before spreading his work across the surface of the table and taking a seat next to Gwen.

He picked up his pencil and looked at the worksheet, then asked, "Alright… Did you look at number-?"

"Miles," Gwen suddenly cut him off. "I don't think either of us actually need help, especially with the first weekend assignment of the year. This is really just an excuse for us to hang out, relax after the weird night that we both apparently had."

"Oh. Right," Miles acknowledged, feeling rather foolish for not realizing it earlier. To fill the silence, he asked, "So, what happened to your night?"

Gwen winced and hesitated to answer, then finally said, "Well, I decided to go out for a walk and worry about my homework today instead. I ended up staying out a bit longer than I planned, and I ran into this guy who started pushing me around a bit."

Miles' expression darkened at that, and he asked, "Ned? Or one of his friends?"

Gwen shook her head and answered, "No, this guy was smaller than any of them, but still tough. Actually, I think Ned's been avoiding me since the whole 'apology' thing. I haven't seen him. This guy, though… Probably even worse than Ned." She noticed Miles looking disturbed and quickly added, "It's fine, Miles. He didn't hurt me, just tried to scare me a bit."

"Did you see his face?" Miles asked, not to be deterred from what he now planned to do: replicating the effect of what he had done to scare off Ned. He didn't know why Gwen attracted so much negative attention. Maybe guys just noticed that she was a pretty young woman and couldn't help but to try to draw her eye. Of course, in the end, it didn't matter. The Prowler would scare off every predatory figure in the city if he had to.

"No, he was wearing a mask," Gwen answered, now with some caution in her eyes. "Didn't you hear what I said, Miles? This guy may be even worse than Ned. Like… a real criminal type. Don't do anything stupid and risk getting hurt over this."

"Alright, alright," Miles pretended to agree, but his mind was otherwise distracted. The fact that this guy had been wearing a mask wasn't going to stop Miles from finding him.No onegot to hurt his friend, not Ned Leeds and not even the worst kind of criminal scum that New York had to offer. Maybe Mr. Murdock would be able to help him find and punish the man responsible.

Still, Miles was furious at himself for having been out there, wearing his full gear and all, when Gwen was harassed yet doing nothing to stop it because he was wasting his time with the Spider-Woman. Hoping to atone for that, he made a silent vow to himself that he would do a nightly patrol, during which he would make sure that Gwen was safe, not willing to let what happened to her last night eventually become something worse.

Scowling, Miles said, "I just hate that this city is the kind of place where stuff like that can happen. People need protecting, and there's just so few people that can orwillhelp them when they need it most."

Gwen's face was expressionless as she looked down at the table and said, "I agree more than you know." Then, after a moment she seemed to break free from her thoughts and asked, "Anyway, what happened toyoulast night?"

His eyes suddenly going wide, Miles said, "Oh, right! That reminds me…" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up his texts. Last night, after his failure of getting Spider-Woman to join him, he had sent a text to his mission organizer.

Miles: Failed to acquire package. Denied repeatedly.

Now, he seemed to have gotten a response at some point during the night.

Avocado: Understood. We'll sort it out. Standby.

Leaning over Miles' shoulder to look at the contact he was texting, Gwen questioned, "Why are you texting an avocado?"

Refusing to acknowledge her joke, Miles simply answered, "It's my boss… Well, technically my uncle's boss, I'm just helping while my uncle's injured. Anyway, it's my boss, Mr. Nelson. He insisted on being saved in my contacts as 'Avocado'. I asked him why, but he wouldn't say."

Gwen nodded slowly, then asked, "So… Can I know what happened last night?"

Just now remembering her question, Miles quickly thought up a Gwen-friendly version of the story and explained, "Alright, so I was on this job for my boss. Well, my uncle's boss, but- You know what I mean!" Miles said irritably as he watched Gwen try not to laugh.

Pushing onwards, he continued, "So I was supposed to pick up this package for him, but I didn't really know exactly where it was. So I was just going around Manhattan all night trying to find it. Then, when I finallydofind it, there's this girl that just completelyrefusesto let me have it. To tell you the truth, things actually got kinda heated between us…" Gwen raised an eyebrow at him, and Miles quickly added, "In, like, the violent way, of course! She tried to attack me a few times, but I wasn't about to hit a girl, my mom would kill me. So instead I just… got out of there."

At the end of the story, Gwen's face appeared neutral, but when she spoke, she seemed rather demented. "Can you please lead me to this girl? I want to talk to her about trying to attack my friend. And then I think I'd like to tear her hair out."

Miles chuckled and continued to work on his Physics assignment. He appreciated the way that Gwen was trying to be supportive of him, but he didn't want to say anything about her chances against Spider-Woman.

They continued working for another few minutes, both of them occasionally sharing distasteful comments about the people that had bothered the other during their night. It seemed to have been mutually beneficial for them to share the details of their night with one another, as they now both seemed too preoccupied feeling defensive of one another to worry about their own problems. It certainly made Miles feel more comfortable to be able to worry about "normal people problems" than to deal with his issues as the Prowler.

However, they were broken from their conversation as well as their homework when Gwen suddenly broke off in the middle of a sentence and turned to squint out the kitchen window. Miles, not knowing what had brought this about yet also knowing that it couldn't be nothing, asked, "Gwen? What's wro-"

He also broke off in the middle of his sentence as he felt something: a sudden rumbling in his bones, like the floor had shaken beneath him. The first time he felt it, it was very faint, and he might not have even believed it was real if it hadn't also created ripples in the water of his mom's glass flower vase sitting on the table right in front of him. But then there was another jolt, then another, then another, each time getting progressively stronger and soon accompanied by the sound of loud crashes and distant yelling and screaming.

Then, Gwen abruptly called out, "Miles, get down!" and leapt across the table to tackle him to the floor. Not a moment too soon, it seemed, as another mighty crash suddenly sounded right beneath them, shaking the whole building and causing the kitchen window to shatter in its frame and send broken glass flying into the room to scatter across the tabletop.

Shaken more from Gwen's surprise attack than from the building getting rocked on its foundations, Miles took a moment to recover his senses and climb back to his feet as the sounds of chaos from outside moved right past them.

Fortunately, Gwen had already gotten off him, dashing over to the broken window as soon as the dust had settled. Miles moved over next to her and stared out at whatever she was looking at, which seemed to be some giant gray… something that was bouldering its way through one apartment building after the next, leaving only massive holes in walls and large clouds of dust in its wake.

"It's the Rhino," Gwen said grimly.

Miles shook his head to help himself recover from the shock of whatever had just happened and asked, "Rhino? That supervillain that Spider-Woman took down? I thought he was in the Raft!"

The Raft was the name for the super maximum security prison island near Ryker's Island on the East River of Manhattan. It was widely considered to be the only place on earth capable of holding super-powered prisoners.

"He was!" Gwen agreed frustratedly, watching the destruction below with building horror.

Miles was in a similar state of shock, and finally set his expression with determination before placing a hand on Gwen's shoulder and turning her to face him, then said firmly, "Gwen, I need you to stay right here, all right? I'm going to go find my mom and make sure she's okay, but you need to stay here where it's safe, and I'll be back soon."

Gwen seemed alarmed by the prospect and said, "No! Miles, you can't go out there!Ineed to go find my dad and make sure he's not chasing after that thing, he'd only get himself killed. I'll check on your mom and call you to let you know that she's safe."

Gwen turned around and grabbed her backpack off a chair before she walked over to the apartment door, but suddenly Miles jumped in front of her with his arms spread out wide. "No, Gwen, wait.I'llcheck on your dad. While you're visiting my house, I can't let you get yourself hurt. So could you… just sit down, please?"

Smiling affectionately, Gwen stepped towards him and placed a hand on his cheek, then said, "Thanks, Miles… But I really don't have time to debate this."

And with that, the hand on his cheek swiftly fell down to his shoulder and grabbed it firmly, then, with a surprising amount of strength, she quickly shoved him aside and ran out the apartment door, yelling, "Sorry, Miles! I'll tell your mom you said 'Hi!'"

He helplessly watched her go for a minute, then realized that she'd made a wrong turn and called out, "Hey, that elevator only goes… to the roof."

But she had already disappeared from sight, so Miles just said to himself, "Unbelievable. You know what? She'll figure it out. I have something else I need to do." With that, he turned and walked into his room to change into his "work clothes".

Gwen POV

"Justonequiet weekend. Is that so much to ask?" Gwen muttered to herself as she took off her jacket and shoved it into her backpack while pulling out her mask and gloves instead. She then pulled the gloves over her hands and threw her backpack behind a rooftop vent opening and stuck it against the metal surface with a thick blast of webbing.

She'd learned that she could never be too liberal with the amount of webbing she used to hold down her backpacks after she'd lost almost half a dozen in the last year. Like, seriously, who steals a backpack?

Gwen crouched down and looked out over the city, watching and listening closely for the next area that was definitely being besieged by Rhino. It wasn't an easy task now that the streets were filled with countless people screaming or crying as well as sirens blaring from all manner of emergency service vehicles.

However, she eventually saw a large fireball erupt into the sky, followed by a long string of unintelligible Russian curses, and she sighed to herself, "There's our boy." She then pulled on her mask and pulled her hood over it, then shot out a web line to stick to a building across the street.

Before she left, however, a bright image on the wall to her right caught her eye, and she looked over to see an enormous graffiti drawing on the next building over showing Miles' dad, wearing his glasses, police uniform, and a wide smile, with his name, "Officer Jeff Morales", written on the left. On the right, words in the same style said, "Husband, Hero, Father", and beneath it all in larger letters was written, "Rest in Power".

Miles must've really loved his dad, Gwen thought to herself as she realized that he must've been the one to create this mural. As Miles had been hesitant to show her any of his current drawings, this piece, dedicated to his father, may have been the last public work of art that Miles had ever created. It reminded her of the picture of Miles with his family in his apartment. If he was this kindhearted now, she could only imagine what a blessing it would've been to know him back when he was that kid that felt like he had something to smile about. It was heartbreaking to think that someone as innocent and kind as Miles had to carry such pain with him.

Looking back at the rooftop entrance doorway, Gwen quietly said, "I really am sorry, Miles." Then, focusing back towards her destination with determination, Gwen jumped off the building and began to swing as fast as she could towards Rhino's location. She knew that she would have to give Miles a better apology at some point, but that would have to wait until innocent people weren't getting trampled.

Having fought Rhino in the past, Gwen knew that her first priority had to be stopping him. As long as Rhino was on the move, he would be doing untold levels of damage as almost no force could stop him when traveling at his enhanced running speeds.

But first, she would have to get him somewhere a bit less crowded. She swung on her webs around the buildings of New York, cutting corners when necessary in order to intercept Rhino on his path, not bothering to just follow the trail of destruction and hope to catch him. Then, as soon as she got him in her sights, she shot a web straight onto him and pulled herself onto his massive back, sticking her feet and trying to hold on like she was riding an extremely temperamental bull.

As Rhino wore a thick suit of reinforced metal armor and had all the strength that came with it, he didn't even feel her landing. Next was her favorite part of fighting any enemy, the part where she got to have fun while effectively drawing their attention onto her instead of the city or its inhabitants: the antagonizing, extra emphasis on the "agonizing" part.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to pull over and show me your license. Either a CDL or a circus license, from the look of things."

Looking over his shoulder at her and just realizing that Spider-Woman was on his back, Rhino growled and said in a thick Russian accent, "It's you!"

"Well, look at you, Aleksei! I guess you took a 'Deductive Reasoning' class in the Raft, huh?"

Rhino's real name was Aleksei Sytsevich, a Russian gangster that had permanently locked himself inside a suit of experimental armor in order to compete with the Spider-Woman after she stopped one of his attempted heists. Like many of her enemies, he hated it when she called him by his real name. Like withallof her enemies, this only made her want to do it more.

With his face now turned towards her, Gwen shot a line of webbing to stick over the darkened eye lenses in his mask, causing him to shake and struggle against them, but if he attempted to pull them off, he would risk losing his momentum, so instead he just continued to run with his vision slightly impaired.

She then stood up tall on his back and held the lines of webbing in her hands like reins on a horse, then began trying to steer him to a less busy area. It wasn't an easy task. Rhino was moving fast, and if she didn't steer him down the right streets, he would end up crashing through more walls, potentially knocking her off of him but definitely costing the city a fortune in repair fees.

"Where am I gonna put you?" Gwen wondered to herself as she tried to figure out a plan while simultaneously focusing on steering Rhino out of the path of civilians. Still wanting to antagonize Aleksei further, she pondered out loud, "Did you ever hear about the 1874 Central Park Zoo Escape Hoax? They claimed that an escaped rhino got stuck in a sewer. You enjoy irony, Aleksei?"

Although he couldn't see her well, Aleksei turned his head up to look in her direction and said, "You wouldn'tdare."

"I would," Gwen assured him, "But you have a point. I wouldn't give the cops the job of trying to pull you out of the sewer. Hmm… You know any big, empty spaces in this city, Aleksei?"

"I know of the perfect place," Rhino drawled, then slid into an abrupt turn that would've shaken Gwen off if she hadn't been sticking her feet to his back, then ran headlong towards the entrance of a wide building.

Unfortunately, the building was very recognizable to Gwen, even though she'd only ever personally visited it once. "Uh, Aleksei, maybe not this-!" Gwen tried to protest, but she was cut off as Rhino carelessly plowed through the wall, giving Gwen a facefull of brick, and dropped down to the floor inside Grand Central Station.

The brick wall that Gwen just ate combined with Rhino's sudden stop upon landing on the ground was enough to knock her off of his back and send her sliding along the polished floor, coming to a complete stop a couple dozen feet away from where Rhino now stood pulling her webs off of his eyes.

Looking around, Gwen could see crowds of people crammed inside the station, looking down between her and Rhino with surprise, clearly too shocked by their explosive arrival to even react to it yet. However, all that changed when Gwen groaned out, "Yeah, you should all probably get out of here."

Immediately, people began to rush towards any exits they could find pushing and shoving and generally making a ruckus, panicked screams and yells of "I hate this city!" somehow rising above the din.

Fortunately, Rhino made no move to stop anyone from leaving, meaning that Gwen must've successfully drawn all of his attention onto her. That was the good news. The bad news was… Well, that she had all of his attention on her.

"Oh, no. Did I already squash you, spider?" Rhino said mockingly as he watched Gwen struggle to get back to her feet.

Dazed, Gwen nevertheless managed to say, "Who, me? No, this is… all part of my plan. Seriously, though, Aleksei, didn't you hear me say a big,emptyspace?"

Spreading his arms to gesture to the quickly clearing station, Rhino defended, "Well, it will be empty in a moment. But perhaps you want to get to the fun sooner than that,da?" Then, before Gwen could stop him, he quickly picked up a nearby heavy wooden bench and threw it towards the destroyed doorway, where a large crowd of panicked civilians were gathered.

Her eyes going wide, Gwen immediately shot web line after web line above the crowd, interweaving them together to make a safety net that caught the bench just inches above their heads, though they only seemed to panic even more as they realized that they were now being directly attacked.

Gwen then turned back to Rhino and angrily called out, "Hey! This is between you and me!"

"Sorry, I missed," Rhino said sarcastically, then slammed one of his fists into the ground and aimed the razor-sharp horn on his head towards her as he prepared to charge. "Here, this will help me to aim better." Then, with a bellowing roar, he charged towards Gwen with speed like a freight train.

Instead of running, however, Gwen just got into a crouched position and prepared to jump over him. She waited until the last minute, letting him get as close as she could risk, then swiftly jumped up right over his horn, stepping off the back of his head, and jumped higher into the air, trying to find a wall that she could stick to.

However, Rhino didn't give her that chance as she suddenly felt one of his massive hands reach up and grab her leg. Gwen just had time to curse, "Ah, rhino doo-doo," before she felt herself violently yanked backwards and slammed onto the floor on her back, where Rhino began trying to smash her with his fists. She expertly rolled back and forth on the ground, dodging one blow after another, then took a second's pause to fire webbing onto Rhino's eyes, blinding him.

With his vision impaired, Gwen shot a web line at one of the building's support pillars and tried to pull herself away from him, but she was once again stopped as Rhino blindly groped at the floor and grabbed her around the waist, then threw her across the room to crash into the opposite wall.

She coughed in the dust that had been kicked up by the rubble, then weakly said, "You know… I read somewhere rhinos are usually pretty harmless. I'm starting to think you're not a real rhino."

Rhino laughed and stomped slowly towards her, saying, "You make joke, little spider? You find humor in your death?"

"You don't?" Gwen asked disbelievingly, trying to stall while she tried to think out a plan. "You think I'm a bad opponent, but once you kill me, your next enemy is going to be PETA."

Rhino grinned and smashed his hand into the floor once again, aiming his horn dead ahead, and said, "I will take my chances. Say goodnight, spider."

Rhino barrelled towards Gwen, who managed to pull herself partially out of the wall and braced herself to jump away from his charge once again to avoid getting impaled, but Rhino didn't manage to reach her. Instead, he only got within a few yards of her before a blur of black with magenta light suddenly shot towards him from the side. Then, with a flash of silver, something hit Rhino in the face so hard that he was knocked off his path, spittle flying from his mouth as his jaw nearly snapped out of place.

After it hit him, the blur came to a stop right in front of Gwen, and she looked up in amazement to see the Prowler (the younger one) standing next to her with a clawed hand outstretched towards her. He didn't say a word, but it was clear that he was offering her help in getting back on her feet.

Of course, Gwen was hesitant to accept any gesture of assistance from a supervillain, but given that he had just shaken the unstoppable Rhino with a single punch, she decided that she could make an exception. Whatever Prowler may be playing at, Rhino was the biggest problem right now, and if the lesser of two evils offered her help in trying to save lives, she'd be a fool not to take it.

She took Prowler's hand and allowed him to pull her out of the wall and down to her feet, and then they both began to approach the Rhino, who massaged his jaw with one massive hand before grinning back at both of them. "So, the spider has a friend now, eh?" he questioned with delight. He stood up tall, his larger-than-life scale allowing him to easily tower high above the teenage vigilantes. "Good. More to crush!"

"Does he always talk like this?"Prowler asked, seeming merely curious and not at all afraid.

"You have no idea," Gwen answered wearily.

Rhino roared and charged towards them, causing Gwen and Prowler to scatter to either side of the enormous supervillain, and Gwen heard Prowler call out,"Hold his arms!"

Not wasting a moment to question the order, Gwen immediately fired a line of webbing onto either of Rhino's hands, then tethered the line onto a pair of support pillars behind him. It wouldn't hold him long, nor would it stop his charge, but that didn't seem to be Prowler's intention. He simply ran full speed directly towards Rhino like he was going to meet his charge, but then at the last second fell down and slid beneath Rhino's feet on the waxed floor. Once he was behind Rhino, he then jumped back to his feet, and with Rhino's arms restrained to keep him from turning around, Prowler charged up one of his gauntlets and punched him hard in the back, right between the shoulder blades.

The force of Prowler's punch combined with the momentum of Rhino's running not only destroyed the webbing holding Rhino's hands, but also sent the villain flying all the way across the room with a yell. As Rhino crashed into the wall, both Gwen and Prowler immediately began to close in on him before he had a chance to recover. However, as Rhino began to climb back to his feet, he punched the wall behind himself, damaging it greatly, and grabbed a large boulder from the rubble before throwing it at Prowler, apparently more wary of him now than he was of Gwen, which was kind of irritating.

Deciding to voice this injustice, Gwen jumped into the air and webbed up the thrown boulder before swinging around in midair and throwing it right back at Rhino while saying, "Hey, ladies and old enemies first, Aleksei, and I'm both!"

The boulder hit Rhino directly in the head but merely shattered to pieces against his horn and only slightly dazed him. When he recovered, Rhino growled in frustration and picked up two more boulders before throwing one each at both Gwen and Prowler.

Still in the air, Gwen stuck to the side of the boulder just before it hit her and did a handspring to bounce off of it and towards Rhino, trying to maintain her speed.

However, Prowler moved even faster as he simply shot forward with a burst of light from his feet and hit the boulder with one of his fists before it could hit him instead, causing it to burst into many tiny pieces before he flew through the debris towards Rhino's head.

When he got close, Rhino tried to grab him, but Prowler grabbed onto the enormous man's horn and swung around it to land on his back, then raised his other hand and snapped out his claws before stabbing them into Rhino's neck, penetrating through Aleksei's armor and causing him to let out a yell of shock and pain, which only became prolonged as both of Prowler's gauntlets suddenly hummed before a jolt of electricity flowed from the gauntlets to cover Rhino's body.

Quickly determining that Prowler was the source of his newfound agony, Rhino reached up and grabbed Prowler by the collar of his jacket before roughly throwing him across the length of the open room. Before Prowler could crash into the wall (as Gwen knew from experience that it felt extremely painful), she pulled herself over to intercept him in midair, shooting a web line onto his front and sticking to the ceiling before pulling the line tight to stop his momentum.

Then, when he came to a complete stop and fell downwards to dangle by the front of his shirt beneath her, he glared up at her and said, "I had that under control."

"A simple 'thank you' would work too, you know," Gwen responded irritably. "What did you just hit him with, anyway?"

"Inbuilt taser in my gauntlets,"Prowler answered, holding up the gauntlet that had done it as though trying to help her see the feature built into it. "But it only stunned him, and I won't be able to do it again for a while. So let go of the ceiling and get ready to hit hard."

Gwen had questions about what exactly Prowler's plan was, but decided to trust him on this one and just unstuck her free hand and feet from the ceiling, allowing both herself and Prowler to fall towards the floor. However, rather than them getting back to solid ground, Prowler tilted himself in midair so that he was lying horizontal with his head facing Rhino, then a blast from his feet launched him at incredible speeds towards the colossal villain, pulling Gwen along for the ride as she continued to hold on to the web attached to him.

Before they reached Rhino, Prowler grabbed the web line with one of his hands and yanked on it hard so that Gwen was thrown in front of him, just in time for her to pull back a fist and launch it forward into Aleksei's face. Her punch stunned him as his head was knocked backwards, and then as Gwen flipped over Rhino's shoulder and landed in a crouch behind him, Prowler followed right behind her, landing another powerful punch to the same spot that Gwen had hit, making Rhino stumble where he stood as Prowler dived over his other shoulder and landed steadily on his feet next to Gwen.

With a silent nod from Prowler that instantly let Gwen in on the plan, they let Rhino turn around to face them only to receive a double uppercut to the chin that sent him flying across the room. Then, as he landed on the ground and lay there groaning and aching all over, both Gwen and Prowler seemed to realize that he wasn't getting back up and wordlessly gave each other a small fist bump.

Unfortunately, they weren't given long to revel in their victory, as mere moments after Rhino had fallen, numerous men wearing full sets of kevlar body armor and carrying automatic rifles with flashlight attachments began to enter the building through the destroyed doorway, yelling out orders like, "Move, move, move!", "Surround the Rhino!", and "Watch out for Spider-Woman!"

One bright light fell on Prowler and Gwen before a voice called out, "Over here! Two targets sighted!"

Gwen was about to make her usual desperate escape attempt when suddenly Prowler grabbed her and said, "Come here…"before he abruptly lifted her off her feet and threw her over his shoulder. The only reason that Gwen didn't do anything to stop him was that she was shocked by this suddenly turn of events, but within a second, she'd recovered enough to blush furiously beneath her mask at the indignity of this image and tried to push him away while saying, "What do you think you're-"

However, she broke off as Prowler's shoes hummed for a second before he suddenly took off at a run, still carrying Gwen. As this was happening, Gwen's first thought was how very different it was to watch Prowler's movement from this perspective. She'd been shoved, thrown, pulled, hit, and blasted by Prowler's power-enhancing technology in the past, but she'd never quite experienced it like this.

Light seemed to bend around them as they moved, yet everything was thrown into sharp focus as they moved so fast that it was almost like the rest of the world stood still. Was this what it was like to move as he did? It was actually rather peaceful to see the world like this, almost beautiful.

Yet sadly, it lasted only moments, as Prowler ran across the room, jumped up onto a wall, bounced off of it and onto a second floor platform, then ran them down the hall and set her down once they were inside a janitorial closet, all within a matter of seconds.

He turned to close the door behind them, then turned to the wall and absently ordered, "Barricade that door. I need a few minutes to make a way for us to get out of here."

Confused, Gwen asked, "What are you talking about? I can swing us out through one of the windows. Or you can run us out the front door. Or, do you have any idea how many transit points there are in Grand Central Station?"

Turning to glare at her while he pulled two small disks from the front of his belt, Prowler argued, "Not during a police lockdown, there aren't. We're in the middle of Manhattan, if you haven't noticed. The police are only late to the party because they've been setting up a barricade around this place. So we can either sneak out or go fight the cops, and I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not to hurt any of them if I can avoid it."

Slightly embarrassed, Gwen looked down and agreed, "Right, right, sorry."

Gesturing with his head, Prowler repeated, "Barricade the door."He then turned back to the wall and placed the two disks on it right next to each other, then tapped them on the base, causing them to begin to hum. Prowler then began to pull the disks in opposite directions in a circular motion, leaving trails of scorch marks behind each device, revealing that they were burning through the wall. Meanwhile, Gwen turned around to face the door and began to shoot webs along the edges, tightly sealing them inside.

And it was fortunate that she'd done so, because not two minutes later, the doorknob turned and weight was thrown against the door, though it refused to open. The doorknob twisted a few more times as whoever was outside continued trying to open the door in vain, and then an authoritative voice yelled, "Spider-Woman and unknown vigilante! We know you're in there! Come out with your hands up!"

At the sound of the voice, Gwen winced. Just her luck, the speaker was easily recognizable as her dad.

Turning to face the doorway and reeling back like he was insulted, Prowler questioned, "'Unknown vigilante'? I was on the news just the other day!"

"Can you focus, please?" Gwen begged, unwilling to let her dad catch her not only being Spider-Woman, but also locked in a broom closet with the Prowler of all things.

Prowler nodded and returned his gaze to his work, saying, "Just buy me one more minute."

"This is NYPD!" Gwen's dad's voice called through the door. "I'm ordering you to open up RIGHT NOW!"

"Alright, but you asked for it!" Gwen responded, quickly thinking up a way to stall so Prowler could make their escape route. She took a deep breath and said, "I think some of my issues started with losing several people who were close to me at a young age. And there was this one time where I thought I was going to die of radiation poisoning, but I ended up getting superpowers instead. Then my powers started making me feel separate from everyone else around me, making it pretty hard for me to make friends. So anyway, it's all been a really tough time, you know?"

There was a silence from the other side of the door, during which Gwen amused herself by imagining her dad's befuddled expression, before his voice suddenly protested, "No, that's not what I-... OPEN THIS DOOR!"

"Ay, por dios.This guy's such a tool,"Prowler muttered as he worked.

Suddenly defensive, Gwen protested, "Hey, show a little respect. He may be a little… high-strung, but he's still a good cop and a respectable captain."

Looking up at that, Prowler glanced around at her in shock and asked, "Wait,that'sCaptain George Stacy?"

"Are you nearly done over there?" Gwen asked impatiently, ignoring his question.

Prowler turned back to the hole he was making in the wall and spent a few more seconds cutting before he'd finally created a complete circle large enough for them to slip through. He then turned off his laser cutting disks and clipped them back onto his belt before kicking the circle out of the wall and revealing an empty drop into the city on the other side. He swept a hand graciously towards the wall and offered, "Ladies and old enemies first?"

Gwen put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at him with amusem*nt, recognizing the reference to the joke she'd made earlier, but the moment was ruined almost immediately as Gwen's dad seemed to hear them and yelled out, "No! You arenotgetting away again! Everyone, stand back! Aim at the door!"

Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled, and she placed a hand in front of Prowler as she warned, "Look out!" However, Prowler ignored her warning and shoved her hand aside before running up to the doorway and kicking at the closed door. When his foot made contact with the door, there was a burst of light from his feet, and the door was suddenly ripped straight off of its hinges, even despite the webbing that Gwen had used to hold it in place, and Gwen heard it crash into several people as it flew across the corridor.

"Sorry, Captain Stacy!"Prowler called as he turned back to the hole in the wall and grabbed Gwen's wrist as he leapt outside. They heard the sound of gunshots behind them shortly after they jumped out of the building, and Gwen could sense bullets flying past their heads, but then Prowler stretched one hand upwards, snapping his fingers outwards, and fired a cable from the underside of his gauntlet which stuck to the side of a building and allowed them to swing out of the area.

He only swung them around the block before retracting the cable and allowing them to drop onto a rooftop, but at least they were out of the sight of the police. When they landed, they were both breathing hard as the excitement of the day caught up to them while the adrenaline wore off, but finally Gwen groaned to herself and said, "Jameson's gonna have a field day with this one. I can see the headline now. 'Spider-Woman and Known Criminal Destroy the City'."

Prowler just chuckled and said, "Hey, at least I'm 'known' this time."

"If that's your idea of a joke, maybe you should just leave the humor to me," Gwen rebuked him with a glare. "This city already didn't like me. Now they're going to say that I'm working with the Prowler!"

Gwen continued to glare at him for a few moments while he stared back at her silently, and then she let out a deep sigh of resignation and said, "Which means that my reputation can't really sink lower than this. Alright, Prowler. I'll doonejob with you, but if I find out that whatever we do is… bad guy stuff, I'm taking you down."

"Sounds like a deal,"Prowler responded, then reached into one of the many pockets on his pants and pulled something out before tossing it to her.

It wasn't until after Gwen had caught it that she realized it was a flip phone. Staring at the device in her hand, Gwen asked, "Is this how I'm supposed to contact you? Do I need to carry this around everywhere? I mean, it's not exactly in style…" She looked back up to look Prowler in the face once again, but stopped talking as she realized that he was no longer on the rooftop with her.

Shrugging weakly and turning around to try to figure out where he went, Gwen muttered to herself, "How does everyone keep managing to disappear on me like that?"And what am I getting myself into?she finished in her mind.

Chapter 8: Not So Black and White

Chapter Text

A/N: So, contrary to the message I left in the last chapter, I managed to prepare one more chapter for you guys before my trip. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 8

Miles POV

The dim lights of his mask brightened the space ahead of himself just barely enough to see, which was fortunate as while the Prowler crawled through the ventilation system, his mask's scanners would prove mostly useless among all this textureless material. Still, he imagined that he would've felt more comfortable if hecoulduse his scanners, as it could be extremely nerve-racking to sneak into potentially hostile territory without his full range of technological abilities accessible to him.

Yet the temporary inconvenience would surely prove worthwhile, as he didn't want to find out what would happen if he were to be caught here. He eventually crawled to a fitted grate in the wall and shoved it open to find himself inside of an elevator shaft, going both up and down so far that he could not see either end.

Finally able to activate his scanners, Miles looked around the shaft for any sort of security measures, but surprisingly found nothing in his path. Now the trick would simply be getting up to the top floor.

Climbing out of the vent, one of his hands with its clawed fingers impaled in the wall to hold himself in place, Miles positioned himself against the wall and looked upwards before leaping out towards the ceiling. As he jumped, his shoes emitted a blast of light that launched him much higher, allowing him to scale about a dozen floors with a single jump before he landed on the other side of the elevator shaft with his feet against the wall, then immediately did another jump back to the other side.

He repeated these actions again and again until he eventually had the ceiling of the shaft in sight, at which point he did one final jump but spun around halfway so that he was upside-down before he activated his shoes once again to stick his feet to the ceiling, the anti-grav emitters in his shoes firing a continuous stream to keep him there.

Looking around from his place on the ceiling, Miles could see at least four different access vents going in different directions. With a thought from its wearer, the lenses in his mask extended the range of their scanners and allowed Miles to see that only one of the vents, the one to his right, would take him in the direction he wanted to go.

He then shifted to his infrared scanners for a moment and located three heat signatures at the other end of the ventilation shaft, two standing near each other with a third shape separate from the others, a bit further back.

Miles swung forward while deactivating his shoes to impale his claws into the ceiling before doing another full flip before launching himself into the vent. He crawled forward through the vent until he reached another grate cover in the bottom of the shaft, where he swiftly swung forward and kicked the grate open from under himself to fall into an open hallway.

Miles landed on the floor soundlessly in a crouched position, his legs spread out behind him with one hand touching the floor with his fingers and the other held up high with his claws extended threateningly, then winced to himself. This was a new type of landing for him, but he recognized where he'd seen it before immediately after doing it.I guess one night with Spider-Woman is one too many, Miles thought to himself, then quickly added,One nightworkingwith her, of course.

Anyway, annoying as it was that he had accidentally copied one of Spider-Woman's landings, he had to admit that it was understandable why she did it like that. The landing felt natural and simple, and could easily become a habit if he wasn't careful.

It also placed him low to the ground, out of danger of immediate response from enemy gunfire, though that didn't seem to be a problem on this particular mission as the two men in the room with him, wearing identical gray-and-purple uniforms including bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles across their chests as they stood defensively in front of a large set of beautifully carved wooden double doors, seemed too surprised by his sudden appearance to react to his presence at first, though it didn't last long.

Both guards began to raise their rifles to aim at Miles, but before they could even get their weapons up, Miles flew towards the one on the left and bent his legs in midair to hit him with both knees right in the face, instantly knocking him unconscious. He then landed on his feet and spun around to smack the gun out of the other guard's hands, accidentally ripping the gun open with his claws and causing dozens of bullets to fall to the ground as he did so.

The guard reacted quickly to being disarmed and instead pulled a small stick from his belt before swinging it outwards and causing it to extend into a metal baton with arcs of electricity flowing down the sides. He then swung it at Miles, who simply caught the baton before it could hit him, and his gauntlet whirred before the guard quietly gasped and involuntarily shuddered in place as the electricity of his weapon was redirected back at its wielder.

With the man stunned for a moment, Miles dropped to the ground and swept his leg out from under him, then grabbed him midair before he could fall to the ground and tossed him bodily at the set of doors. The doors burst open under the weight of the guard's body, and Miles leapt through them and glided back to his feet at the other side of the room beyond, where his third heat signature was waiting at his desk, looking calmly at the fallen form of his guard upon the ground.

"You know, there are easier ways to make an appointment with me, Mr. Morales," Wilson Fisk told the Prowler with mild annoyance evident in his voice, yet not the slightest hint of concern for his wellbeing or that of his unconscious employees.

"I'm not here for you, Fisk,"Miles said with a glare, all of the respect he'd shown during their first meeting now absent."I want to talk to Mr.-"

"We DON'T say his name!" Fisk yelled, aggressively getting up from his chair and pounding one of his oversized hands on the surface of his desk with an echoing BOOM while his other hand pointed a firm finger at the teenager in front of himself. "And you were given a means of contacting us. You are expected to use it."

Miles stepped forward menacingly to meet Fisk's unspoken challenge and insisted,"I don't want to talk to Mr. Nelson either. I want to see the Kingpin. I want to talk to him face-to-face, and you're going to make it happen.Now."

Fisk didn't respond, only deepened the intensity of his own glare. However, even under the threat of this goliath of a man trying to attack him, Miles refused to back down. He had expected this sort of reaction if he barged in here and started making demands, but he was adamant about talking to Matt. If that meant that he had to go through Fisk to get what he wanted, then so be it.

Miles clenched one of his hands into a fist, his gauntlet beginning to whir with building energy, and Fisk made a sort of growling sound in the back of his throat as Miles noticed one of his hands slip under his desk, probably thinking that he could sneakily grab a gun with which to defend himself. Not that it'd help him much,Miles thought to himself confidently, by now resigned to having to fight his way to the Kingpin.

However, at the last moment before Miles would've made his first move, the glass wall behind Fisk suddenly began to retract into the ceiling, and with a familiar tapping sound, Matt Murdock walked into the room, his cane going back and forth in front of himself as he walked into the open space and said, "Foggy said Prowler wanted to speak to me?"

"Matthew," Fisk said before Miles could respond, looking at Matt in shock, "What are you doing out here? Someone could see you!"

"Only if they had a drone illegally flying in our airspace, Father, we're over sixty stories up," Matt responded smoothly with a slight inclination of his head in the general direction of his adopted father's voice. "Besides, if they did, all they'd see is Wilson Fisk meeting with his lawyer, who also happens to be his son."

"With a supervillain in the room!" Fisk added, gesturing at Miles.

Matt gave Fisk an unimpressed look and said, "If you were really worried about that, you wouldn't allowyourselfto be in here either, would you? If Miles wants to talk to me, he can. Actually, I've been expecting him. I gave your receptionist a picture of him and told her to give him a key to come up here if he showed up. I didn't really plan on him sneaking his way in, of course, but this still works."

Before Fisk could try to argue further, Miles retracted his mask from his face and said, "Mr. Murdock, I really need to talk to you about something."

"Is it about how you finally managed to get the Spider-Woman to give you a chance?" Matt asked, clearly having already been briefed by Mr. Nelson on what Miles had reported last night.

"Not exactly," Miles responded. "I just want to know what happened yesterday. You said you know everything about this city. This is your chance to prove it. A supervillain escaped from the Raft for the first time ever yesterday. How did it happen?"

Matt walked forward until his cane tapped Miles' shoe, then he stopped and held his cane in front of himself as he looked at the ground and answered, "The Kingpin has ways of getting whatever he wants. Arranging Mr. Sytsevich's escape took less than an hour."

At first, Miles didn't understand what Matt meant by that. When he finally figured it out, he reared back and asked disbelievingly, "It wasyou? You let Rhino out?"

"More accurately, we simply created the necessary conditions for Mr. Sytsevich to lethimselfout," Matt corrected. "When we received your message about how Spider-Woman had denied you, we knew that we had to take more drastic measures. Some of the strongest bonds are forged in the heat of battle."

"But people got hurt!" Miles protested, gesturing with one hand out the window at the city below. "Over a hundred people died! My mom's working overtime at the hospital trying to save some of the thousands more that got injured! People lost their homes, their families, and all so that I could get closer to Spider-Woman?"

"Before he escaped, one of the guards at the Raft gave Mr. Sytsevich the message that he was supposed to minimize collateral damage," Matt explained calmly. "Clearly, he didn't follow orders, and he will suffer consequences for his actions. But his overall mission was a success; he managed to create the perfect scenario for you to team up with the Spider-Woman."

"That fact isn't worth much if innocent people got hurt in the process," Miles argued in a low, dangerous voice.

"Fisk Industries will head the relief effort in the wake of Rhino's attack and ensure that the city is back on its feet in no time," Mr. Fisk told him.

Matt nodded his agreement and said, "When you work for the Kingpin, Miles, you don't just get paid well for it. You also have access to all of his resources. We will handle the damage control aspect of this, and all you need to do is focus on your mission. Speaking of, now that you've made the first big leap in reaching your objective, expect a pretty big bonus coming your way soon."

"I still haven't spent any of the money you already gave me," Miles muttered somewhat embarrassedly. And true enough, he still had yet to spend any of the "down payment" that Mr. Murdock had given him just a couple days ago when Miles had first offered his services, which by itself had been a pretty hefty sum of several thousand dollars.

Matt just waved him off and said, "The Kingpin rewards those who do him a service, and you've accomplished what no one else could've done. And next time, Miles, just use the door. Now, Mr. Nelson will call you later today with information on your first target, and I want you and Spider-Woman to hit it tonight, understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Murdock," Miles responded with his head down, somewhat embarrassed now about the way that he had barged in here. At the time, he had thought that it would be a good idea to make a show of force when showing up with the intention of interrogating the Kingpin, but now Mr. Murdock had reminded him forcefully that he was still Miles' boss and deserved more respect than this. He had managed to refrain from acting at all angry over Miles' actions, but there was a look of disappointment on his face that almost actually seemed worse.

What had he been thinking? Had he seriously planned on threatening a blind man for answers? Then again, apparently Matt had been the one to permit Rhino's escape… But he had been trying to mend Miles' failure to acquire Spider-Woman's services, so it was really Miles' own fault that people had gotten hurt. There was no one to blame but himself.

He would just have to get better at the job, make sure that he didn't slip up anymore. There could be no room for error. Mr. Murdock was counting on him, and he had to prove to him, to himself, to Uncle Aaron, toeveryone, that he was truly the Prowler, the very best at what he did.

Line Break

Later that night, Miles crouched on the edge of a building's rooftop across from his latest target, a well-kept warehouse belonging to a famous philanthropist, his claws clinging onto the ledge tightly. Suddenly, upon sensing a presence behind himself, he spun around and raised one of his fists to arm his Constrictor launcher, but only found Spider-Woman standing there, her arms crossed over her chest with no signs of fear showing in her face.

Of course, his view of her expression was limited only to what he could interpret from her body language and the shape of her eye lenses, but it was still pretty impressive that she didn't even flinch, especially when one realized that she'd had a taste of this particular weapon in the past. However, the sight of her like this somewhat threw off his concentration as it made him subconsciously think of the image he'd drawn in his sketchbook, the one that had been supposed to look just as Spider-Woman did now, but had instead turned into a picture of Gwen in this position.

After he remained silent for a moment, however, Spider-Woman waved a hand in front of his face and asked, "Hello? Prowler, you still in there? Did you bring me out here just to trap me in one of your evil nets again?"

"It's tempting,"Miles responded, then lowered his fist, the hard-light arrowheads floating back down to his wrist as he stood up,"But we have a job to do, unless you've changed your mind."

Spider-Woman walked forward to stand next to him by the edge of the building and looked down at the gleaming warehouse on the opposite side of the street. Then she asked, "That's the target? I kinda thought it would look a bit more… villain-ey, you know? Unless, of course, we're not actually here to attack bad guys…"

"First of all, we're not here to attack anyone,"Miles said impatiently, folding his arms across his chest as he watched Spider-Woman examine the warehouse. This would be the hard part of the job, he felt, trying to make Spider-Woman follow orders without letting her know that he wasgettingorders from someone. But Mr. Nelson had specifically told him that they were just to get in, get what they were after, and get out without starting a fight."We're here to steal intel that can put these guys out of business. This warehouse receives shipments from the rivers, then moves them all throughout the city."

"And you justassumethat they've got to be moving drugs or guns or something like that in those trucks, huh?" Spider-Woman asked with obvious disbelief.

By now getting tired of her constant doubt in him, Miles said,"No. I know for afactthat they're using their supply of trucks for human trafficking, dealing mostly in kids."

At that, Spider-Woman fell silent, and Miles tried not to feel too proud of how he'd done the impossible and gotten this quick-witted heroine to finally shut up.

Of course, it only lasted a moment, and Spider-Woman cleared her throat before asking, "How do you know?"

Glaring down towards the warehouse hatefully, Miles answered,"I've been following them all day-"

"And you didn't invite me?" Spider-Woman asked in mock hurt.

Miles temporarily shifted his glare onto her and responded,"I had a feeling that if I did, you'd just want to talk and talk and I would want to strangle you within a few minutes. Turns out, I was right."

"Understandable," Spider-Woman said with a nod, then gestured for him to go on.

Miles sighed deeply and began again,"I've been following them all day. They just received a new shipment this afternoon, three trucks full of heat signatures. Twenty total captives, three adults and seventeen kids, all of them with weak heartbeats and low body temperatures, indicating mild starvation. They were supplied by Martin Li's secret connections in the Triad, the Chinese Mafia. Li's a philanthropist by day, but the criminal underworld calls him 'Mister Negative' because he always manages to pay less than the asking price."

Spider-Woman remained quiet for another moment, then asked, "Were they already taken somewhere else?"

Miles shook his head and responded,"I can still see them from here. They're being held in a secret chamber ten feet below the ground floor. They won't attempt escape. It's so cold down there that they're all huddled in a big group just to survive. And if we want to stop it from continuing, we need to get in there and quietly steal their shipping records. Li's too smart not to have records while dealing with the Triad. I managed to locate a safe in the back of the main office. That's probably where they'll be."

Spider-Woman stared silently down at the building for a while. Miles knew that she was probably trying to come up with some sort of plan, so he gave her a few moments of uninterrupted silence. When she finally did speak, she said, "Alright, I'm in. And I have a plan. Hold out your arm to your side."

Beneath his mask, Miles raised an eyebrow, though his surprise to Spider-Woman's perspective would only show as a slight widening of his eye slits along with the tilt of his head. However, he wordlessly did as she ordered and raised his right arm, holding it straight with his fist directed sideways.

If he'd thought that what she did next would explain why she'd wanted him to raise his arm, he was wrong. Instead, she just stepped up behind him before jumping up and landing on both feet balancing on his gauntlet, making him look like he had some kind of bird perched on the back of his hand, albeit one that was sized and shaped like a human. He just barely had time to process how surprisingly light she was before she suddenly leapt off of his arm and off the edge of the building, doing a flip in midair as she fell before shooting out one of her web lines and swinging across the street to land on her feet on the roof of the warehouse.

More confused than ever, Miles took a few steps back, then ran forward and leapt off the building. Immediately when he jumped, his shoes activated and launched him across the street to land in the same spot that Spider-Woman had. Of course, by the time he caught up to her, she had already walked over to a ventilation grate and begun to pull the cover off.

One of these days I'm gonna sneak into a building some other way than the vents, Miles thought to himself, but right now he had bigger concerns. Walking up to Spider-Woman, Miles asked,"Uh, quick question. Why did you need to jump off my arm?"

Spider-Woman didn't respond at first, as the grate she was trying to pry open had been bolted closed, and she was currently only succeeding in slowly bending the metal into a hole big enough for them to get through. Reaching out, Miles quickly extended the claws on one finger and instantly sliced through one of the bolts, allowing her efforts to easily bend the grate open.

Once that was done, Spider-Woman let out a sigh and nodded to him gratefully, then answered, "Well, I didn'tneedto, technically. It was really just for fun."

"Fun,"Miles repeated in disbelief.

She just winked shamelessly at him and whacked him lightly on the shoulder as she said, "Hey, at least now you know that your arm makes a good springboard."

"My arm… is a good springboard?"Miles repeated in confusion once again. He then slapped a hand to his face and muttered,"Esta chica araña loca…"

"...You know I speak Spanish, right?" Spider-Woman asked in an offended sort of way.

However, far from being embarrassed, Miles just groaned in annoyance and said,"Of course you do. Whodoesn'tin this city anymore?"

Spider-Woman shrugged as she turned to climb into the vent and responded, "Allmyfriends do."

Well, technically that was true for Miles as well, though he supposed it would be cheap to say so about the single friend he had. Besides, it probably wouldn't be wise for him to say anything about his personal life…

That thought helped Miles to suddenly realize that Spider-Woman had just voluntarily offered a sneak peak at her alter ego's life. That was progress in his mission! If he could just get her to open up a bit more…

After giving Spider-Woman a few seconds to crawl ahead, Miles climbed into the vent himself and began to creep after her. When they eventually found themselves facing a long, vertical drop in the shaft, below which they could hear men yelling in the other room, Miles stayed back while Spider-Woman shimmied her way down it, crawling along the wall downwards impressively just like a spider would.

However, after she'd gotten out of the way and Miles simply dropped down the shaft after her and landed on his silencing shoes, he quietly asked,"Hey, while we're on the subject, what exactly are your friends like?"

Turning abruptly to face him, Spider-Woman hissed rather loudly, "What did you say?!"

Miles didn't answer right away, however, as both he and Spider-Woman froze upon hearing a voice just below them stop in the middle of his sentence. It was obvious that he had heard Spider-Woman's outburst, but perhaps if they stayed quiet they would be able to make him think it was just his imagination.

They stayed completely still for around a minute before another man's voice rebuked as though nothing had happened, and Miles and Spider-Woman both let out deep breaths of relief that no alarms had been sounded.

They crawled a bit further ahead, and once they could no longer hear anyone near them, Spider-Woman turned her head back to him and said, "What do you care what my friends are like? You're not going anywhere near them!"

"I know, I know!"Miles hurriedly defended himself,"I just… wondered how you do the whole 'secret ID' thing. I mean, I just know that it can be tough sometimes."

Spider-Woman's expression seemed to soften slightly as she realized that he wasn't planning on harming any of her friends, and then she slowly managed to answer while still moving forward. "Well, I mean… You know, it's not so bad. The lying's kind of hard sometimes, but it's nothing I can't handle. You?"

Quickly thinking up a lie, Miles answered,"Oh, well, I'm alright. I've got tons of friends."

"Yeah, me too," Spider-Woman agreed.

Miles thought her voice sounded a bit weak when she said it, but then again, theyweretrying to be quiet. Trying to validate his lie and also give Spider-Woman an incentive to go on, Miles added,"Yeah, there's… Jim. And Derek. And… a bunch of others. And you? Are you sure you have other friends than me?"

Spider-Woman scoffed and said, "I don't know that we're exactlyfriends, Prowler. Not yet, at least. More like… business acquaintances."

"But?"Miles pressured her, desperate to get something out of her that he could work with.

She looked away and lowered her voice as she admitted, "Well, yeah. I've got tons of friends, like… Well, it doesn't matter."

"I'm starting to think you're not being truthful,"Miles teased."You can't think of asingleclose friend?"

Finally, Spider-Woman seemed to give in and said, "Well, I have a… boyfriend. I mean, not so much a boyfriend, more like-!"

"A boyfriend!"Miles exclaimed with mixed emotions as he commented on her slip-up. Some part of him was excited that he had uncovered this potentially useful information. The other part of him felt… something else that he didn't really want to name. Forcing himself to stay focused, Miles continued,"Well, good for you! What's his name? Does he know about your secret double life? Is he-"

"I don't really want to talk about him!" Spider-Woman cut him off, seeming extremely flustered. "I already said too much!"

Nodding but still trying to pursue the topic, Miles said,"I'm sorry, I didn't realize your boyfriend was such a sensitive topic. Whoever he is, I just hope he doesn't find out that you'reashamedto talk about him-"

"I'm not ashamed of him!" Spider-Woman argued, struggling to remain quiet and still be threatening at the same time. "In fact, I'll tell you that he's the best guy I know! And he's smart, and creative, and handsome, and- ugh!"

That last adjective seemed to throw her off, and Miles fought hard to contain a laugh as he watched her shake her head and angrily crawl away from him. Unfortunately, none of what she'd said would be all that helpful in finding whoever her boyfriend was, but Miles had done his best (and better yet, he'd gotten a moment of immense amusem*nt from watching Spider-Woman stew in her embarrassment).

They crawled a bit further forward, and then Spider-Woman stopped suddenly, looking down at something beneath her. She then looked back and told Miles, "I think this is the main office."

Anxious, Miles immediately took her at her word and tried to crawl up by her side, saying, "Let me see!"

Unfortunately, the vent was a rather tight chamber for them both to be side-by-side, and so, Spider-Woman tried to fight him and push him back, saying, "No, there's no room up here! Just go back and-"

Miles just ignored her, of course, and elbowed her aside to make room for himself. The two of them squashed together by the walls of the vent shaft with their arms pressed tightly together and their heads mere inches apart, Spider-Woman angrily said, "Okay, so you couldn't wait two seconds for me to move? You're stepping on my foot!"

Miles continued to practice his developing habit of tuning out most of what Spider-Woman said and looked down through the grate below them. Spider-Woman had been right, this room was definitely the main office, positioned on the second floor and currently empty, but there was a wide window panel along the front wall, allowing one to look down on the warehouse workroom below, though anyone that happened to look up at the office would be able to see through the glass just the same. Simple enough. All they had to do was be quick and quiet.

Turning to Spider-Woman, Miles said, "This is it. Back up, and I'll get us in there."

Though she was doubtless still angry at him, Spider-Woman obeyed without question. Meanwhile, Miles placed both hands on the bars of the grate beneath him, then threw his full body weight onto the metal bars and dropped into the room below, still holding the grate in his hands. He soundlessly landed on the ground and looked around warily before directing his gaze upwards and nodding to Spider-Woman, who was now peering down after him, ready to jump into a fight if necessary.

A second after Miles gave the signal that the room was clear, Spider-Woman jumped down into the room with him and rolled into a crouch upon landing.

"Check the desk while I open the safe, just in case,"Miles ordered.

Spider-Woman nodded her acceptance, and while she sneakily moved over to the desk and began to go through the drawers, Miles walked casually over to the safe in the back of the room, not needing to worry about making noise, and extended a claw from one of his fingers. He then inserted it into the slit running down the side of the safe and slid it downwards, easily cutting through the metal bolts holding the safe closed.

Of course, his claws were just barely too large to fit in the slit properly, so he ended up also tearing through the entire side of the safe as well, leaving jagged metal in the wake of his finger, but he was satisfied just to have gotten inside. He then pulled the safe door open to reveal large stacks of green American dollars along with a clipboard with several yellow sheets of paper pinned to the surface.

Picking up the clipboard and ignoring the money entirely, Miles began to flip through the pages and reported, "Spider-Woman, I found it. It's definitely the list. Listen to this. 'Male, 26, $90. Female, 22, $95. Female, 19, $95. Female, 16, $100. Male, 16, $100. Female, 11, $110…' It keeps going. This is repulsive. I'd guess the numbers are the age and selling price, but it's written just vaguely enough that there's no real proof. Well, at least we got what we came for. Now we need to get out of-"

Unfortunately, Miles was broken off there by the sudden sound of a window shattering and looked towards the front of the room just in time to see Spider-Woman jump out of the office window and dive down into the workroom. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"Miles yelled after her, newly panicked.

Gwen POV

After jumping out of the office window into the workroom below, shocking all of the workers below into frozen silence as she landed in a crouch on the table at the top of the room, Gwen said pleasantly, "Hi. I'm part of the Committee trying to get people to stop living in their parents' basem*nts, and I heard that there are some people downstairs." Her voice then dropped to a dangerous tone and continued, "So which one of you is going to show me the way down there?"

Finally recovering from their shock, one of the workers suddenly reached for his gun holster and responded, "I'll help you into the ground! I'll get you down six feet under!"

However, before he could even draw his weapon, Gwen shot a web line onto his chest and pulled herself to him, kicking him in the chest so that he fell unconscious onto a table, where she perched once again on top of him, and said, "Appreciate it, but I heard it's actually ten feet, so I need someone who can get me alittlebit further."

At that, everyone else in the room scrambled to grab their weapons. Some, like the first guy, had been wearing holsters. Most were disguised as actual workers and carried no visible weapons, though when they sensed a fight coming, they all reached underneath tables or under tarmacs and withdrew all manner of weapons, including pistols, automatic rifles, and swords.

Gwen crouched low in preparation, unwilling to try to run away even when she was outnumbered like this while the people beneath this room needed her help, then sprang up into the air as the workers with the automatic rifles attacked first.

Spinning in the air, Gwen narrowly dodged the first few dozen bullets to come her way, then shot a web line from each wrist to grab onto the chests of two of the people shooting at her. She then swiftly pulled her wrists inward, pulling the two enemies together so that they involuntarily slammed face-first into each other and were instantly knocked unconscious.

However, upon landing on yet another table, all weapons in the room were quick to resume aiming at her, and as Gwen dodged away once more she asked, "So this is what it means to be a 'hostile workplace', huh? Did you guys seriously hide all those weapons around the room? How do you know who owns which one? No, wait, don't tell me. You guys are Communists."

As usual, Gwen's jokes only seemed to make her enemies more determined to kill her, if only to shut her up. Also as usual, this caused them to make foolish mistakes that were going to cost them, like when they angrily shoved each other aside in an attempt to give themselves a shot at hitting her, or when the people using ranged weapons came closer to her in hopes of diminishing their chances of missing. Of course, these mistakes that they made would only make Gwen's job easier.

When she'd started, there had been over 40 people in the room for her to fight. Now, it would be impossible to count amidst all the chaos, but they began to drop quickly, whether it be caused by Gwen bouncing over to them to knock them across the room or when they were simply trampled by their own numbers.

One well-dressed guard ran over behind Gwen and swung a sword towards her neck, but Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled just in time and she leapt upwards, turning around in the air, and knocked the man off his feet with a knee to the chin. As he fell, he also dropped his sword, which Gwen caught and examined closely before asking, "Is this a real antique? Where'd you guys get these? Do you have any idea what a sword like this would sell for?"

Rather than answering, the entire crowd of bad guys all let out a collective challenging yell and began to close in around Gwen, blocking off all directions for escape. "You just can't find a gentleman anymore," Gwen complained quietly as she quickly improvised, impaling the tip of the sword into the ground before jumping up on the pommel and springing off of it to fly over the heads of the large group surrounding her.

As though in response to her claim, however, Prowler chose that moment to jump out of the office window above and land right in the middle of the circle that Gwen had just escaped, slamming a fist into the floor upon landing and causing the entire building to rock, knocking many of Martin Li's men to the ground as they were shaken by the shockwave.

Not bad, Gwen thought to herself, admiring his capabilities,but I personally still prefer Miles.

At that thought, Gwen mentally groaned and fought down the instinct to embarrassedly cover her face as she was forced to recall what she'd said about Miles while in the vent with Prowler. Obviously Prowler had pressured her into simply telling a lie about her "friends", yet she had so clearly pictured Miles in her mind when she'd lied about having a boyfriend. Why had she even let him talk to her about her personal life? She should've known it couldn't end well. Whatever. It was fine. As long as Miles never heard what she'd said, it wouldn't matter that she'd made a fool of herself like that.

In any case, Gwen was starting to think that maybe Prowler wasn't exactly here to save her, as right after knocking all of the slave traders to the ground, he began to approach her with slow, deliberate footfalls and a steady glare on his face."¡Estar al garete!"he yelled at her."What were you thinking coming down here? This isn't the plan!"

Pointing down to the floor beneath them, Gwen argued, "Hey, there are people down there, and they need help!"

Suddenly, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled to warn her of a small group of the criminals that were helping each other get back to their feet behind her. However, before she could react, Prowler raised a fist and launched one of his hard-light nets at them with barely a glance, instantly pinning them all to the far wall while ignoring their panicked yells.

Holding up the clipboard in his opposite hand and shaking it in her face, Prowler said, "Wearehelping them. This list can shut this place down, but we need to get it out of here first!"

Over Prowler's shoulder, Gwen saw another criminal climb shakily to his feet and try to reach for his pistol, but she stopped him by quickly shooting a web line onto his legs, then tethering the other end onto the rooftop, where he began to dangle helplessly upside-down. Then, returning her attention to her argument with Prowler, Gwen insisted, "Well, the people in the basem*nt right now could be gone before the police come to shut this place down. They need helpnow, and we should do it while we're here!"

Prowler made an annoyed growling noise from behind his mask, then turned and kicked a table over, knocking it off the ground. While it was in the air, he punched its surface and blasted it across the room, where it collided with two other slave traders trying to recover and knocked them into the wall.

Prowler then held up a clawed finger in Gwen's face and said,"Fine. Now that we've started, I guess we'd better finish this. But wewillfinish this discussion later."

"Good with me," Gwen responded with a grin.

By now, the rest of Li's men were getting to their feet, at least two dozen of them remaining, but if their chances against Spider-Woman alone had looked bad, the odds of their loss had only doubled with Prowler by her side.

Prowler looked over his shoulder at the criminals getting to their feet, then looked back at Gwen just long enough to tell her,"Close your eyes for a second."He then turned around to face their enemies and Gwen saw the lights on his mask begin to shine brighter, the intensity of the magenta glow growing by the second.

Then, remembering the warning he'd given her, Gwen shut her eyes tight a split second before there was a bright blast of light that she could even faintly see from beneath her eyelids, followed immediately by several yells of pain. It lasted only a second, after which the glow died away, and Gwen hesitantly opened her eyes again to see everyone except for her and Prowler stumbling around the room, clutching their hands over their eyes and groping blindly at the tables for something to hold onto.

"What was that?" Gwen asked Prowler in shock.

"Essentially a rechargeable flashbang,"Prowler answered calmly."It doesn't affect me through my mask unless I had my infrared turned on, in which case it'd probably blind me permanently, but it's bright enough that even standing behind me, your retinas would've been burned pretty bad without your eyes closed."

Worriedly watching one of Li's workers slump over a table and let out a scream as he fiercely rubbed at his eyes, Gwen asked, "Will they be alright?"

"If I did it in a darkened room, they wouldn't be, but this dose should wear off in a few minutes,"Prowler answered.

Gwen nodded her acceptance and said, "Well, we could always make the transition easier by letting them sleep while their eyes recover."

"My thoughts exactly,"Prowler responded as he held up an outstretched hand and waved it through the air as it suddenly emitted a soft hissing sound. It continued to hiss for a few seconds, during which Gwen noticed a fluctuation in the air around his palm and determined that he was spraying some sort of gas into the air.

When he finally stopped spraying the gas, Prowler reached down into one of his pockets and withdrew a small, chin-cupping respirator, which he offered to her without looking. "I just sprayed a low concentration of halothane into the air,"Prowler told her as he held out the filtering half-mask. "Unless you want to be asleep in a few seconds, I'd recommend putting this on."

Somewhat wary, Gwen nevertheless noticed that several of Li's men were now beginning to become slow and woozy, some of them already falling over unconscious, and thankfully took the mask from Prowler. She had to lift her own mask up a bit to put the respirator on over her mouth and nose, but she noted that Prowler respectfully continued looking away as she put it on. Of course, he would've only seen half of her face if he had chosen to watch, not enough for him to determine her identity, but she appreciated the gesture all the same.

One of her greater concerns with this… essentially a partnership, if perhaps only a temporary one, was how she and Prowler were supposed to work together without revealing their secret identities to one another. It would certainly create a minor trust issue between them if they could not share their true names, but being former enemies, Gwen supposed that they already had that anyway. And of course, while she didn't care whoever was under Prowler's mask, Gwen would be lying if she said that she wasn't curious to see his real face.

However, luckily for Prowler, it seemed that he couldn't care less who she was under the mask. She supposed that that fact should make her feel some sense of relief, yet for some reason she felt that it instead made her almost… angry? Ever since Prowler had defeated Gwen during their first meeting, which also happened to be the first time that she'd actually ever lost a fight in this job, he'd been able to make Gwen feel rather insecure about herself without even trying.

She knew that she was being irrational, that Prowler didn't seem to have any intentions of deliberately making her feel less capable than she was, and that his ability to match her skills didn't actually make her any less proficient at what she did, but he still seemed to undermine her at every turn. He swatted her webs away like they were nothing. He defeated her at Oscorp and on the Chrysler Building, leaving her beaten yet spared both times. He may well have saved her life when she was fighting Rhino. And now he was the first person in the city who didn't care who she was under her mask? Gwen couldn't help but wonder if that was because he thought that she was somehow… beneath him. Again, she was probably just overreacting, but it still filled her with the odd desire to prove herself to Prowler and earn his respect.

Oh, and one more thing he'd outdone her at, he'd just blinded a room full of Martin Li's evil goons without lifting a finger, then knocked them out with a wave of his hand while protecting her from the same fate. Once the respirator was secured over Gwen's lower face, she tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice as she told Prowler, "Thanks." Her voice was slightly muffled by the mask, though not electronically distorted like Prowler's was.

"Don't mention it,"he responded easily as he calmly watched Li's men begin to fall down one by one.

Turning her head to view the same thing, Gwen complimented Prowler, "Nice trick. Normally I just punch everyone in the room until they're unconscious."

Prowler shrugged and said,"I don't have much of this gas, so normally I would too. But I draw a line at beating up blind people."

"Touché," Gwen admitted as she watched one criminal walk straight into a wall, knocking himself out without the need for the halothane.

After a few seconds, Prowler seemed to get bored and turned towards the exit, Gwen quickly falling in line behind him. However, instead of just leaving, Prowler's eyes roamed around on the floor for a few seconds before they landed on something specific on the ground right in front of them. He took a few more steps forward before getting down on one knee and extending his claws before sliding the thin blades underneath a grout line in the floor.

He pushed his fingers further in, Gwen watching curiously, and lifted as soon as he found a grip. Gwen realized what he was doing, remembering what she'd originally come down here for at the same time, just as Prowler managed to lift up the entire disguised section of the floor, his gauntlets humming quietly as they managed to break through multiple metal locks with sheer strength.

Just as Gwen had been promised, there were nearly two dozen people huddled together in a group approximately ten feet below the ground level, mostly young children, all clutching each other tightly and shivering with fear and cold.

One of the three older people in the hole, the only adult male present, was badly bruised and sported two black eyes, but it seemed that he had successfully taken all of the beatings himself in preference of any of his fellow prisoners, who all seemed relatively unharmed save for their clearly-underfed bodies and the terror evident on their faces, including the faded tear streaks running down each of their cheeks.

At the sight of Prowler looming over them, single-handedly lifting a weight that could normally only be lifted by at least two full-grown men, they only became more frightened, several of the kids letting out loud screams.

Quickly rushing forward, Gwen knelt down by the edge and held up her hands to calm them, gingerly telling them, "Hey, no, no! It's okay! We're here to help!"

With that, the screams stopped, but the trafficked innocents still seemed hesitant to trust them. The two adult women had the adult man's arms wrapped around their shoulders, and though he wasn't in any shape to speak or even look at Gwen and Prowler in any manner, the two women looked up at them warily.

Then, Gwen realized that part of the reason they were afraid of her was due to the gas mask she was still wearing and the way it made her voice deeper and more disguised.

She looked up at Prowler to ask if she could take it off yet, but he seemed to read her mind as he immediately told her, "The gas should've dissipated enough by now."

Gwen immediately took off her respirator and handed it back to Prowler, then pulled her own mask back down over the bottom half of her face, leaned back down into the hole, then held out a hand towards the civilians and said gently, "Here, let's get you out of there. Then we can get you back to your families."

The children all collectively backed away from Gwen's hand, making her heart fall as she hoped that she wouldn't have to pull them out of there by force, but then she noticed one of the kids, a girl of about six or seven, who had stayed frozen in place rather than backing away, looking at Gwen's hand with hopeful longing, as though desperate to believe that she was really being offered a way out of this.

Gwen immediately singled her out and said, "Hey. What's your name?"

Looking nervously away from Gwen, the girl quietly responded, "Mina."

"That's a nice name," Gwen complimented softly. "We want to help you out of here, Mina. Will you let us do that?"

The girl looked cautiously back at her fellow captives as though silently asking for their opinion, but when they neither encouraged nor forbade her, Mina turned back to Gwen and gulped before nodding in response.

Mina stepped forward and reached up towards Gwen, but she couldn't reach nearly high enough, so Gwen shot a web onto the floor next to herself and jumped down into the hole before grabbing Mina around the waist and bouncing back up to the ground level, Mina letting out a nervous squeal as she was lifted away.

However, not wanting to worry any of them, Gwen set Mina down on her feet as soon as they reached the ground, then placed her hands on the girl's shoulders and asked, "Are you alright? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Mina shook her head with wide eyes, still too shy to speak.

"You're very brave to volunteer first, Mina," Gwen told her encouragingly.

Mina nodded shyly and slowly looked over her shoulder at Prowler, who still stood tall above them, but when he looked down to meet her eyes, Mina quickly looked away so she wouldn't have to look at the intimidating white slits of his mask.

Shaking her head amusedly, Gwen told her, "Don't worry, Mina. He's my friend. He's not dangerous." Apparently doubtful, Mina looked around the room at the piles of unconscious guards and workers filling the room, and Gwen quickly corrected herself, "Well, he won't hurt you. Trust me."

Just then, Prowler jumped down into the hole with the remaining captives, startling them into trying to back away from him and causing the kids to let out another short scream.

Not sure what he was up to, Gwen worriedly called out, "Prowler!"

Turning back to face her and holding up his hands innocently, Prowler told her, "I thought you trusted me not to hurt them."

Gwen still had some concerns, but hesitantly nodded to him. As soon as he received her approval, Prowler stepped towards the group of three adults, ignoring the way that the kids scrambled to the opposite side of the chamber as he approached, and looked the man over before saying, "This man has internal bruising and three cracked ribs."He then held up a finger, from which a small needle extended just underneath his claw, and added, "He needs immediate medical attention. If you'll let me, I can give him anesthetic to make the journey easier."

The two women exchanged cautious glances with one another, looked back and forth between Prowler and Gwen, then ultimately told Prowler in broken English, "Do it."

Without hesitation, Prowler stepped right up next to the man and jabbed the needle into his arm. A second later, the needle retracted back into the gauntlet and the man quickly fell limp.

Prowler then ordered the two women, "Lay him down on the ground, gently, or you'll aggravate his injuries. Spider-Woman, come down here and use your webs to make him a tight full-body wrap, especially around his ribs. Make him a cocoon and I'll get him out of here. Then you get everyone else here out and take them to the nearest hospital."

Gwen nodded in acceptance of this sound plan and jumped down into the hole to carefully wrap up the wounded man with her webs. As soon as she was done, Prowler leaned down to pick him up, carrying him conscientiously so as not to damage him further.

However, before he left, he turned to Gwen and told her, "After I drop him off, I'll make sure all of them reach treatment safely, but this will be the last time you see me tonight. I'll stay in touch. If you want to join me again or… come after me, that's up to you. But good job tonight. I hope we can do this again."

With that, Prowler leapt up out of the hole and disappeared in a blur of magenta light. Watching him go, Gwen had to admit to herself that tonight had been more than worthwhile. At first, she'd been worried about the prospect of working with one of her enemies, but maybe she and Prowler reallyweren'tso different after all. Whatever the case, she could honestly say that she was looking forward to her next mission with the Prowler.

A/N: I don't know how much this really matters, but let it be known that any mention of a name or names mentioned in this story as original characters that are the same or similar to anyone or anything's real name is completely coincidental. Legal, legal, blah, blah, blah. Now, I'm not going to put this note on other chapters that have the same sort of stuff with random names I pulled out of a hat, so just keep it in mind that this goes for the whole story. Anyway, please leave a comment with thoughts or concerns and thanks for reading!

Chapter 9: Partners

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

Miles POV

Maybe Matt had a point, Miles had to admit as he leaned back in his chair during his first class the next day.

While his teacher rambled on about some important date in history, Miles only pretended to listen while his mind was still stuck in last night’s adventure. Maybe the Rhino thing had been worth it. It had given him a unique connection to the Spider-Woman, which was what his job was all about, right?

No, he corrected himself mentally. I became the Prowler to help people.

But hadn’t that been what he’d done last night? Only really because Spider-Woman had forced his hand, but he’d be fooling himself to say that he hadn’t enjoyed what they’d done, freeing those trafficked innocents. Of course, it hadn’t been the mission, and Mr. Nelson had already texted him about wanting him to call after school to discuss what had happened, but it had still felt good to do it. It had felt… right, and Miles had no qualms about his actions.

Besides, somehow working with Spider-Woman almost felt better than working with his Uncle Aaron, perhaps because his uncle had always been so keen on staying silent during missions for the most part, a trait that Miles had never quite mastered nor enjoyed, and Spider-Woman was always so eager to talk. He could pretend that he didn’t enjoy her light-hearted attitude in the field, and he could recognize that it probably wasn’t always wise for a vigilante to act that way, but her enthusiasm was just so infectious. Her company just made things more enjoyable, if only because she livened up the place in a way that the dark and brooding Prowler couldn’t.

In fact, Miles almost felt a bit jealous of her. He had chosen a life where he fought monsters by becoming a worse monster. Spider-Woman had chosen the same life, yet she overcame the demons of this city with her own special brand of optimism and light. Before meeting her, Miles wouldn’t have thought that such a thing would be possible.

Whoever her boyfriend was, Miles hoped that he had some idea of how lucky he was to have such a person in his life. If Miles had been her boyfriend, he would be sure to give her everything she could ever want, make her the happiest she could possibly be just to keep her with him.

Not that Miles would allow himself to fantasize about being "with" the Spider-Woman. As of last night, when she'd mentioned that she had a boyfriend, Miles had officially decided to abandon any sort of crush he may have had on her before that, instead choosing to be happy for her good fortune. It would certainly make his confused feelings for two different girls at once easier to deal with to have one of them out of the picture. A person with a soul like Spider-Woman's deserved better than him anyway.

But still, when she'd called him her friend last night, even in just an off-handed, distracted way, Miles had silently vowed that if Spider-Woman's boyfriend ever hurt her, that guy would be in for a whole new world of hurt himself… But he didn't want to think about that today. Even with his impending talk with Mr. Nelson coming up, nothing could ruin how well Miles' day was going so far.

Suddenly, his professor at the front of the class told them, “Don’t forget, everyone, this Friday is the school’s Homecoming dance and I hope to see you all there, so get asking. Alright, class dismissed.”

His timing was perfect, and right after he finished what he’d said, the bell rang to excuse them to their next class. Still, that was quite the bombshell to drop on everyone on their second Monday morning of the school year, especially considering that they could normally expect longer than a week’s notice for the date of Homecoming and Miles was certain that it hadn’t been on the school’s notice board.

Still, as Miles gathered up his pencil and notebook and shoved them into his backpack, then began to leave the room, he decided that it didn’t really matter either way. It wasn’t as though he planned on going to the dance. He was “the quiet kid” and didn’t even know anyone that he could ask to the dance. Except Gwen, maybe, but that would be… weird, right?

Even if he did have a crush on her (which there was no real proof that he did, as the first time he’d drawn her in his sketchbook had been an accident and the ones after that had been… refining his skills), he certainly had no intention of making it seem obvious for her, or worse, embarrassing himself because he’d never been to a dance and wouldn’t know the first thing about attending such an event, let alone inviting someone to it, especially Gwen, who he could only imagine was about as classy as a teenage girl could be.

Besides, he was supposed to be on-call for his Prowler duties. Of course, Mr. Murdock had made it clear that Miles could ask for a night off anytime and he would give it unless they had an emergency… But would Gwen even want to go with him? Not that Miles was considering going, but he was still curious. Was his maybe-crush even worth pursuing? After all, if Spider-Woman was too decent a person for Miles to get close to, Gwen definitely was.

What kind of friend would he be if he was so selfish as to let good, innocent Gwen Stacy get tangled up in the complicated life of the Prowler? It was tough enough for him to lie to her, but how could he ever attempt to tell her the truth? Or worse still, attempt to create a relationship with her that went beyond friendship without letting her ever find out what he really did with his nights? No, he couldn’t hurt her like that. He’d just have to avoid the dance entirely, because he’d sooner ask out Spider-Woman herself than risk getting Gwen Stacy hurt by his reckless double-life.

Gwen POV

Homecoming? Gwen thought to herself with a sinking feeling in her gut. Following the announcement made at the beginning of her first class on Monday morning regarding the dance that was apparently going to take place at the end of the week, Gwen’s mind was immediately busied with numerous thoughts, none of them good.

First of all was a painful flashback to the last dance she had attended, the only one she’d ever actually agreed to, which had been the complete opposite of what her teachers had assured them all would be “a pleasant experience”. True, that dance had been for Prom rather than Homecoming, but in her mind, it made little difference. Peter had asked her to that dance towards the end of last year, and despite the fact that she was normally a bit of a loner, she’d gone along with it for Peter’s sake.

Of course, she’d been teased relentlessly for weeks when people began to catch wind of the fact that she was going to Prom with Visions Academy’s champion geek, but Gwen had easily shrugged all that off as she’d always done. Neither she nor Peter had ever been very popular in school, largely due to the fact that they hung around each other so much and got bullied even worse over their friendship, but they’d always been okay as long as they had each other.

Or at least, Gwen had been.

For some reason, even with her Spider-Sense, Gwen had never been able to tell how badly affected Peter was by all the bullying he’d suffered. He always acted like he was alright around Gwen, and she’d thought that he was just as capable of enduring the abuse as she was, but apparently she’d never really understood him as well as she’d thought. Maybe it was because he was always visibly weaker than her and thus suffered a bit more teasing, especially from Ned, but for some reason, Gwen had never noticed how very... angry it made him. When she’d walked into the gym on Prom night, she’d planned to make it as enjoyable as she could for her best friend, a night that Peter would remember for the rest of his life. Well… she’d managed the last part.

How was Gwen supposed to walk into that same gym once again, to risk repeating that night? Worse still was the realization that Miles was her new best friend and probably the only person that would conceivably ask her to the dance. She knew it was crazy, but she couldn’t help worrying that somehow she would end up reliving her disastrous Prom night, and she knew that she couldn’t possibly bear what happened to Peter happening to Miles.

But you know, maybe she was just overreacting. Maybe she didn’t even have to worry about it. Maybe Miles wouldn’t try to ask her to the dance at all. After all, he wasn’t the most social person. She had a hard time imagining him being enthusiastic about something like a school dance.

But what if he does ask me? some part of Gwen thought worriedly. Could she tell him no without explaining why? An image of Miles’ disappointed face flashed briefly through Gwen’s mind and she quickly decided that there was no chance, especially since she knew that he’d take the rejection with such quiet dignity, kindly playing it off like it was no big deal just to make her feel better when it actually just made her feel worse.

It was incredible that he didn’t seem to realize how much more adorable it made him when he acted so understanding like that. Not that Gwen thought of him as adorable, of course, she just thought that it was fun to watch him acting all respectful and understanding, and even more enjoyable to watch when he was being awkward in the process.

If he did ask her to the dance, one thing she could be sure about was that the night would be memorable with Miles by her side, and assuming that nothing reptilian-related happened, would almost certainly bring a smile to her face whenever she thought about it for years to come.

In any case, she probably shouldn’t even be considering this. Prowler had told her that he’d stay in touch about their next target. What if he wanted them to steal something from some place on Friday night? What would she do, give some half-thought-out excuse and abandon Miles for the rest of the night? Not gonna happen, not even to go save people with Prowler. He would have to handle it himself, because no way would Gwen leave Miles alone after he asked her to accompany him somewhere.

Unfortunately, this debate continued in Gwen’s mind all throughout the day despite how many times she tried to reach a conclusion. She kept going back and forth, wondering if she should expect Miles to ask her to the dance, if it was something she wanted, if it was something she should want, how she would respond if he did ask her, and many other contributing factors.

Finally, she settled on the resolution that she wouldn’t ask Miles to the dance herself, nor would she expect him to ask her, but if he did, she would have no choice but to accept his request.

And so it was that Gwen walked into her last class of the day with her head held high, finally relaxed in her decision. However, as soon as she took her seat next to Miles, he leaned over towards her and whispered, “Hey, Gwen-”

Having never dreamed that he would ask her so soon if, indeed, he asked her at all, Gwen abruptly cut him off by sharply saying, “Miles, could you hold on a second? I just barely sat down.”

She’d said it a bit louder than she’d meant to, and a few of the students around them started to quietly chuckle under their breaths, and one boy on Miles’ left grinned at him and teased, “Oooo, you’re in trouble, Morales.”

Both Miles and Gwen immediately turned to scowl at the boy, who blushed and turned away to start up a conversation with a few of his friends. After he was dealt with, Miles swiftly retreated out of Gwen’s personal space and told her, “Sorry.”

Feeling guilty for her unintentional rudeness, Gwen told him, “No, I’m sorry. I was just a bit… preoccupied. What did you want to ask me?”

Miles shrugged and reached into his backpack to pull out a paper before saying, “It’s not really something I wanted to ‘ask’ you, just something I wanted to give back to you. You left this in my apartment the other night.”

Looking down at what he was holding out to her, Gwen recognized the paper as her Physics homework, which she must’ve left unfinished on Miles’ table when she’d gone to chase Rhino. She hadn’t even realized that she’d left it behind. Feeling blood rush to her face as she embarrassedly accepted the paper from Miles, Gwen quietly told him, “Thanks.”

Seeing as the homework was supposed to be turned in today at the beginning of class and they could already see the teacher walking around to collect them from each student, Gwen didn’t bother trying to answer any more questions in the few seconds she had left. She had only finished about half of the paper in Miles’ apartment, which wasn’t going to look good on her grades this early in the year, but there wasn’t anything that she could do about it now.

Gwen was so certain about her early-year failing grade that when the teacher called her up to his desk in the middle of their reading period, she could only imagine that it was something bad. Nervously getting up from her seat, Gwen walked up to the teacher’s desk. As expected, he pulled the homework sheet with her name on it from the pile of papers he was grading and began, “Ms. Stacy, this paper-”

Quickly trying to explain herself, Gwen cut him off, saying, “Look, I just got a little-”

“-carried away?” her teacher asked with a smile, cutting her off just as she’d done with him. He then continued quietly, “I just wanted to say that you did a great job, Gwen. Your answers are incredibly detailed and stunningly well-written. You’re also the only person in the class that correctly answered my extra-credit question, so…” He leaned down over the paper and wrote a large “A+” on the front with a red pen, then winked at her and said, “Exceptional work, Ms. Stacy. You can retake your seat now.”

Confused, Gwen opened her mouth to protest, but suddenly had a sneaking suspicion and closed her mouth again before nodding silently and going back to her seat as ordered. She resumed her studying for the rest of class and tried to act normal, but when the bell rang at the end of the day, Gwen noted the way that Miles quickly packed up his things and was the first one out the door.

Hastily stuffing her book and pen into her backpack, Gwen slipped and shoved her way through the crowd of students trying to follow Miles out the doorway and ran after him. She caught up to him in the main lobby and placed a hand on his shoulder to spin him around. When he met her eyes, he gave an infuriating little self-satisfied smirk and said casually, “Oh, hey, Gwen. What’s up?”

Poking him in the chest with an accusing finger, Gwen told him sternly, “Don’t play dumb with me, Morales. You finished my homework for me! I can’t turn in work that wasn’t my own!”

Seeming unconcerned, Miles just shrugged and responded, “You already knew it all anyway. It’s not your fault that you had to go check on your dad. I mean, a supervillain was on the loose. Even if I was kinda upset at you for running off when I told you to stay where it was safe, I would’ve done the same thing.”

Great, so now my new best friend is going to get himself killed trying to follow my example, a voice in the back of Gwen’s mind said, but she ignored it and instead asked, “But how did you fool the teacher? I finished about half of my assignment, he would’ve been able to compare our handwriting pretty easily.”

Miles’ smirk grew and he said, “I don’t like to brag, but I’m good enough of an artist that I can easily forge your handwriting given enough time, and I had hours of free time over the weekend.”

Placing a hand on her head in exasperation at how he wasn’t taking this seriously, Gwen tried to get through to him, “Miles, you still turned in an assignment for me that I didn’t-” Suddenly, another thought occurred to her and she switched mid-sentence into questioning, “Wait, you finished my assignment, but Professor Blake said that I was the only one who got the extra-credit question right.”

Finally seeming to get bothered, Miles looked down and admitted, “Yeah, I, uh… Couldn’t think how to rephrase it on my paper. It would’ve been suspicious if we both had the same answer. But it’s fine, I think my mom will be alright with me getting only 100%.”

Gwen remained silent for a moment, then sighed in resignation and asked, “Miles, why do you have to be the most likable idiot I’ve ever met? It makes it really hard to be mad at you!”

Miles just chuckled and told her, “You know, if you wanted to repay me, you could always go with me to-” Miles suddenly broke off there as his eyes went wide before he grabbed the straps of his backpack and told her, “See you tomorrow.”

He then began to walk away from her, but Gwen quickly grabbed his arm, amused by his behavior and somewhat eager to hear the rest of what he’d been about to say, and asked, “Wait, Miles, what were you saying a second ago? You want me to go with you… where?”

Miles gulped down a lump in his throat and said, “I was just inviting you… to come play video games with me after school tomorrow! I have a console and a couple controllers in my room, but then I realized that maybe that’s not your thing, so…”

Fairly certain that this had not been what he was actually planning to ask her about, Gwen nevertheless told him, “No, I’d love to do that!”

Seeming genuinely surprised, Miles asked, “Really?”

“Yeah, I think that could be really fun,” Gwen confirmed with an enthusiastic grin. And truly, it did sound enjoyable. They couldn’t spend much time with each other during school hours, at nights when Gwen was usually out playing hero, or even on weekends, so this would be a perfect opportunity. Except… “Well, one thing, students aren’t really allowed to be in each other’s dorms together,” Gwen said.

Miles put his hands up innocently and said, “I promise not to do anything. Although how you are supposed to keep your hands off this sexy body of mine, I have no idea."

Gwen laughed at his joke, causing Miles to look pleased with himself, though as always, he still refused to truly smile. Nonetheless, Gwen remained as determined as ever to eventually coax one out of him, and so remained unfazed.

"Alright, I'll clear my schedule for a few hours tomorrow afternoon," Gwen told him. "But if we get caught, you get to explain to my dad."

"Oh, please," Miles responded, confidently waving her off. "On the unlikely chance we did get caught, I think I could swing it easily enough. Like you said, I'm a very likable idiot."

And before Gwen could respond to that, Miles turned and began to walk away. Once again, she tried to follow him, but one of their fellow students walked between them and momentarily blocked Miles from her view, and by the time he had passed, Miles had disappeared from sight.

Miles POV

Retreating into his usual secluded corner of the building, out of both line of sight and range of hearing behind the empty cafeteria, Miles pulled out his phone and went to the contact he had most recently received a message from: Avocado, otherwise known as Mr. Nelson's number. For "security reasons", everyone who wanted to receive orders from the Kingpin got them through the contact of his trusted assistant, which Miles supposed made sense as he had a day job working as Mr. Murdock's partner at their law firm, meaning that he had 24-hour access to him even when Matt couldn't be at his father's office building.

For this reason, Miles was surprised when after he called Mr. Nelson, the voice that spoke to him, picking up after a single ring, was actually that of Mr. Murdock himself. "Hello, Miles. Thanks for calling back."

Still recovering from his surprise, Miles said, "Uh, hi. I wasn't expecting to be speaking to you, Mr.-"

"In the interest of keeping this conversation private, for the moment please continue to refer to me as Mr. Nelson. It's a far more common name," Matt requested. “Now, before anything else, I wanted to hear with my own ears the most important subject of our discussion: Did you find out who Spider-Woman is?”

“No,” Miles admitted.

Matt tutted regretfully, but said, “Unfortunate, but admittedly not particularly surprising. Spider-Woman didn’t get this far by being an amateur. It will take time for you to gain her trust at that level, but you’re off to a good start. Which brings us to our next topic, the… shall we call it last night’s ‘fiasco’.”

Wincing to himself at the mention of his mistake, Miles defended, “Look, Mr… Nelson, I really tried to follow instructions, but there was a… complication. We didn’t count on Martin Li having trafficking victims in the building.”

“Yes, I understand the trouble, Miles, and my sources suggest that you tried to stay on mission anyway, which is admirable,” Matt said gently. “But the biggest problem is Spider-Woman. She went against your orders and chose to pick a fight with every one of Li’s men to free those innocents, leaving you with no choice but to support her to protect your cover.”

Well, that hadn’t been the whole reason Miles had helped her. Part of him had wanted to help the victims anyway, and Spider-Woman had simply set the spark that launched Miles into action, but it was probably good that Mr. Murdock didn't know about Miles having such independent thoughts during a mission.

“So you want me to keep her on a closer leash, but isn’t that exactly what we need the leverage on her for?” Miles questioned.

“Yes, it is,” Matt said wearily. There were a few seconds of silence, and then Matt continued, “Perhaps instead of restraining her, we simply need to allow her to let loose for a while. I have just the thing for that. Keep your phone close, Miles, and Foggy will send you the details on your next mission later tonight.”

“Understood, sir,” Miles responded, and pocketed his phone as he heard Matt hang up.

Line Break

Later that same night, Miles stood in a dark alley with one of his palms placed on the brick wall next to him, listening intently as it transmitted audio from inside the building on the other side of the wall directly into his mask’s headset. He enjoyed this part of the job, the stakeouts. It really made him feel like a “Prowler” to be hiding in the shadows and secretly spying on the city like this. So much of his job was about stealing some valuable piece of whatever that he didn’t really care about, or picking a fight with anyone stupid enough to get in his way. Out here, it was just him, his thoughts, and the mission.

Suddenly, the steady stream of speech from inside the building was largely blocked out by the sound of a loud groan in his earpiece followed by the question, “How much longer are we stuck here?”

Make that himself, his thoughts, the mission, and Spider-Woman.

Looking away from the wall, Miles ignored her question and instead said, “You know, for someone who bases her superhero persona on a spider, you’re terribly impatient.”

“How is this impatient?” she asked. “We’ve been sitting outside this place for over an hour!”

“Well, we could’ve taken the direct approach, but after you caused that big revolú at Martin Li’s place, I’m hesitant to let you get too close this time,” Miles said.

There was a short pause, and the Spider-Woman said, "What does 'revolú' mean? I know quite a bit of Spanish, but I don't know that word."

"It's a slang word that means 'disaster'," Miles explained.

Sounding suddenly affronted, Spider-Woman protested, "But we saved all those people!"

"Yes, we did do that," Miles admitted. “But that wasn't the mission, not yet at least, and you making rash decisions like that could've prevented us from accomplishing our mission. I don’t know how you usually do things, but my missions are too sensitive to have a spider keep jumping in the middle of things. This bar is full of criminals, and while I’m sure you’d like to take them all down, we’re not here for them. We’re here for information, not a fight.”

“But couldn’t we do a bit of both?” Spider-Woman’s voice begged. “I’m losing it out here! I’m getting a whole new set of cramps I didn’t even know I could get! Can we please go in? Ugh, fine! I’ll follow your lead!”

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” Miles finally said, then reared back his free hand and punched his way through the brick wall, immediately causing panic throughout the entire building as he entered, and though the criminals closest to him all tried to scramble away, Miles swiftly grabbed one of them by the throat and lifted him into the air before he could escape, both to have someone to question first and to intimidate the rest.

Looking up at the terrified face of the man in his hands, Miles asked, “Alonzo Thompson Lincoln. More commonly known as ‘Lonnie’, but these days he uses the street name ‘Tombstone’. His auto body shop supplied most of your bikes and cars out front. Where can I find him?”

As expected, he received no answer immediately, but the room’s collective silence instead of a denial was proof that several people here must have information he could work with. Further evidence was how right after Miles finished making his statement, about half a dozen bikers made a wild sprint towards the door.

Touching his earpiece with his free hand, Miles ordered, “Block the escape routes.”

The response was immediate, as when the bikers reached the bar’s front doorway, Spider-Woman suddenly swung in while holding onto the top of the doorframe to kick the front one into the others, knocking them all over under each other’s weight. She then released the doorframe and did a backflip before landing on her feet on the wooden floor. “Sorry I’m late, boys, traffic was tough, but at least I beat the evening rush, right?” she said, then gestured to the six collapsed men and added, “ Literally beat the rush out, that is.”

Miles sighed deeply to himself, though the corners of his mouth slightly curved upwards underneath his mask, amused by Spider-Woman’s jokes though he wouldn't admit it. Not during a mission, at least. He was supposed to act more professional than that. To show said professional behavior, Miles asked, "The back door?"

"Webbed shut from the outside," Spider-Woman instantly responded. Miles nodded in satisfaction, internally thinking that tonight should satisfy Mr. Murdock's desire to have Spider-Woman follow orders better. Then, with Spider-Woman standing guard over the door, Miles returned his attention to the man whose throat he still held in his hand and said, "I'll ask you one more time. Where's Tombstone?"

Gasping desperately for breath, the man said, "Please don't! If we tell you, he'll kill us!"

Apparently they need to be intimidated a bit more, Miles thought before he suddenly pulled his arm back before throwing the man bodily across the room, yelling, "And what do you think we'll do if you don't tell us?!"

As the man crashed to the floor, several other hardened-looking criminals moving out of his way rather than risking getting hit by him, Miles noticed Spider-Woman take a cautious step towards him, but he stopped her with a discreet wave of his hand. He knew that as much as she wanted these guys brought down, she didn't want to hurt them and certainly didn't plan on killing them. To be honest, Miles was thinking along the same lines, but she couldn't ruin it now. Everything was still going according to plan.

At least, it was until the fall of the man Miles had thrown caused him to bleed from the head as he crashed headfirst into the table. Now, being able to see his vital signs, Miles knew that the man was injured but really only knocked out. To his friends, however, it appeared as though Miles had just killed him.

Desperation and outrage is a tricky combination, as Miles found out when every single criminal in that bar reacted to the apparent death of their comrade by letting out a yell and picking up the nearest things they could reach to use as weapons. Some grabbed shot glasses or beer bottles, others grabbed pool cues or baseball bats. It didn't seem like any of them had guns, but that was a small mercy when they seemed murderous just the same.

The angry mob automatically divided themselves approximately in half before each group ran towards either Miles or Spider-Woman, seeming equally determined to kill both of them. As the first person reached Miles, swinging a metal baseball bat from the side like he was going for the home run of his life, Miles didn't even flinch. Instead, he simply reached out and grabbed the baseball bat mid-swing with one of his gauntlets, then used the man's own momentum against him to flip him over a table and into the wall while yanking the bat from his hands. As the second person got close, Miles shoved the handle of the bat forcefully into his gut to stop him, then lifted the blunt end up to knock the man in the face.

Across the room, he could see Spider-Woman holding her own just as well, leaping over a large man that tried to tackle her, then shooting a web line mid-jump to grab a beer bottle that had been thrown at her. She then swung the bottle around her head once before throwing it back to hit the man who had thrown it first in the nose, knocking him onto his backside as she called out, "Nope! Sorry, but I say 'no' to underage drinking!"

Miles still wanted to convince himself that Spider-Woman's jokes were going to get her killed one day, but as an infuriated-looking woman took an overhead swing at her with a wooden baseball bat and Spider-Woman blocked the attack by simply raising an arm to let the bat shatter over her, then flipped around to kick the woman away while taunting, "Sssstrike! You're out!", he couldn't help but admit that she seemed to have things pretty well under control.

However, Miles had his own problems that he needed to be focusing on, as he was reminded when he looked up to see one man who was strangely well-dressed for a bar approaching him with a wooden chair held high above his head. In response, Miles launched up from the ground and jumped over the man entirely, grabbing the back of the chair and slamming the backrest over the man's head along the way, causing him to fall down unconscious, his outfit no longer able to make him look quite so dignified with half a chair hanging around his neck.

At that moment, Miles' scanners picked up movement in the corner, and he looked towards it to see one person, who he recognized as the barkeep, sneaking away through the front door while Spider-Woman busied herself with the crowd a few feet in front of it, not watching the doorway as she ought to have been, too busy enjoying herself with kicking butts and making her jokes to remember her job.

Mentally cursing himself for not curbing Spider-Woman’s unprofessional attitude before, as he’d momentarily thought that he should, Miles powered up his gauntlets and roughly shoved his entire portion of the crowd away from himself, probably injuring many of them as they crashed through anything in their path as they flew away, but right now, Miles couldn’t allow himself to care.

“Bochinche!” he called across the room to Spider-Woman. When she looked his way inquisitively, he pointed towards the doorway and exclaimed, “We’ve got a runner! I’ll handle these guys, you stop him!”

Gwen POV

What’d he call me? Gwen asked herself mentally, never having heard the Spanish word that Prowler directed at her now. Given that this was the second unfamiliar word she heard from him tonight, she could only assume that he was using slang words again, but maybe now wasn’t the best time to be asking Prowler such questions.

Looking towards where he indicated, Spider-Woman quickly responded to her new order and ran towards the doorway. A large man placed himself in her path, but she simply vaulted straight over him, crossing her wrists in mid-air to shoot a web line onto the shirts of two more men to her left and right, then forcefully pulled them both in to crush the man she’d jumped over between their bodies, knocking all three out in one move, and then rushed out the door.

Once outside in an open area, Gwen was free to use her powers to their full extent, and began to run across the street before leaping up high to get to a vantage point from which to survey the scene. While her jumps weren’t nearly as powerful as Prowler’s, she was still able to get up several stories in a single bound and stuck to the wall across the street before turning around to look around with one hand still holding fast to the vertical surface.

Fortunately for her, in addition to the street being mostly empty this late at night in this run-down part of the city, if the man she was chasing was trying to flee the scene, he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. She spotted him almost immediately, not even requiring the assistance of her Spider-Sense though it tingled annoyingly just the same.

He was high-tailing it down the sidewalk in such a rush that he was repeatedly tripping over his own shoes, frankly lucky not to have fallen on his face yet. Or perhaps she’d thought that too soon, as immediately after it had gone through her mind, the man took a particularly rough tumble over his own feet and began to fall forward.

Fortunately for him, there just so happened to be a superhero in the area, and Gwen shot a web line to grab his ankle just before he could hit the ground, then pulled him up to dangle upside-down next to her. “Woah, slow down there, buddy. Slip’n’slide sidewalk season isn’t until at least November,” she told him.

Hanging inverted with his eyes level with the lenses of Gwen’s mask, the man let out a frightened yell and begged, “Please, no! Look, I didn’t mean to run, but I don’t want anything to do with you superpowered freaks! New York’s crazy enough already! Please don’t kill me!”

“Give us a reason not to,” came a voice from above them, and both Gwen and the man looked up to see the shape of Prowler crouching on a windowsill above them, the magenta outlines of his eyes shining menacingly, the only clear part of his outfit amidst the shadows, though the tri-point collar behind his head and the faint glint of metal on his hands certainly added to the effect. “Tell us where we can find the man they call Tombstone,” Prowler added.

Despite the cool night air, sweat ran up the man’s face instead of down due to his position as he responded, “I- I can’t. You don’t understand. He’ll kill me!”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” Prowler asked. “Fine. I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

With that, Prowler snapped out the claws on one of his hands and held a single claw up next to the web line suspending the man twenty feet above the ground, hanging in the perfect position to snap his neck immediately upon landing. Gwen opened her mouth to protest what Prowler was insinuating that he would do, but then decided to remain quiet for now and trust him. Perhaps it was merely a trick meant to make the man talk. She didn’t know if she would've been able to resort to such means of intimidation to get her enemies to cooperate, but surely Prowler wouldn’t actually try to follow through on his threat, not after how gentle he had seemed to the trafficked people they’d saved last night. But if he did… Well, she’d just have to stay ready to save the man if Prowler made the wrong move.

Upon seeing Prowler’s claws next to the web, the man’s eyes widened as he entered a new level of terror and he desperately yelled out, “WAIT! Please, stop, I’ll tell you everything!”

“And you’ll make it quick, yes? Because my patience is wearing thin already,” Prowler said, moving his claw even closer to the web line as he emphasized the word “thin”, as though to remind the man of how very easily the web could be cut to drop him to his doom.

Nodding furiously, the man replied, “Yes, of course! Tombstone’s set up in Harlem, place called Abe’s Auto Repair. And I have it on good authority that he doesn't leave the place much! Just… don’t tell him I told you, or he’ll have my head!”

“I’ll consider it,” Prowler said cryptically, then to Gwen’s surprise, immediately proceeded to cut the web line. The man let out a yell as he began to fall, and Gwen instantly jumped after him as she’d prepared herself to do, though she was still mentally trying to recover from her shock and honest disappointment that Prowler had turned out to be a heartless criminal after all.

However, before she could reach the man to save him from his fall, a blur of black shot past her and snatched the man away from her clutches. A second later, Prowler landed on his feet on the ground holding the man by the front of his shirt, and though he distastefully shoved the man away as soon as they reached the earth, Gwen recognized that he had still saved the man from the very fate that she’d believed he’d condemned him to.

Then, as he watched the terrified man stumble away as Gwen shot a web upwards to slowly lower herself down just behind Prowler, she heard him say, “Abe’s Auto Repair, Harlem. I’ll get our trap set up. Meet me there tomorrow at 10 p.m., sharp.”

He then began to walk off, but Gwen called after him, “Hey, wait a second!”

“Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow,” Prowler told her without turning to face her.

“No, actually it can’t, because I may not be there!” Gwen told him irritably.

That made him stop in place, appearing to think over her words before he looked back over his shoulder and asked, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m starting to wonder about our arrangement,” Gwen said with a glare as she stepped towards him. “Yesterday we did things my way, so I was willing to give it a shot doing it yours tonight. I followed orders, I played by your rules, and I got the bad guy.”

“After you let him escape,” Prowler added as he turned to face her fully, wearing a glare of his own.

However, Gwen didn’t back down and firmly retorted, “So the job gets rough sometimes, big deal! I still caught him. But I’m not alright with the way you’re acting. You’ve been threatening people all night, putting pressure on normal humans to make them give you what you want. Well, they can’t do what we can, and you can’t just use your power to manipulate them while they’re helpless to do anything to stop you!”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my home,” Prowler growled back at her.

Gesturing up at the remains of her broken web line hanging from the wall above them, Gwen argued, “‘Anything’, huh? Like killing that guy?”

“He was in no danger,” Prowler insisted.

“Oh, really?” Gwen asked sarcastically, folding her arms over her chest as she looked at him doubtfully. “Well, at the very least, you wanted to scare him by making him think you were going to do it.”

Prowler spread his arms and angrily told her, “Well, what did you expect? Scaring people is what I do. I’m the Prowler, not some witty smart-mouth Spider-person. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I don’t have your abilities, Spider-Woman. That means I have to do things differently. You think having Jameson on your back every night is bad? I have to spend the rest of my vigilante career being worse than my enemies in order to beat them. So you can complain all you want about how I do things, but I get results, and I do it without all your fancy powers.”

Gwen hadn’t thought of it like that before. When she’d first gotten her powers and felt the need to separate herself from normal people, she’d considered her abilities a curse. They’d forced her to quit her band, they’d strained her relationship with her father… And of course, they’d taken her best friend from her forever.

Now, Prowler was basically telling her that her powers were in fact a blessing that helped her do what she did every night. After all, Prowler did the same thing she did, but he’d had to work for every part of it. He’d put in effort rather than just getting bit by some spider, yet continued to do the right thing, and now Gwen was trying to criticize him for his methods?

Looking down, Gwen sadly said, “That’s not right.”

“That’s reality,” Prowler responded sternly. “Wishing things were better isn’t going to make them that way. Take it from me, Spider-Woman, this world eats up good people just because they show a soft side.”

Shrugging to herself helplessly, Gwen asked, “So I just give up on people? On the world?”

Prowler leaned forward as though he was about to answer, but then he hesitated and sighed before saying, “No. That’s my job. The world needs idealists like you to keep realists like me in check. So you can do things your way, but let me do them mine.”

Gwen wasn’t entirely sure how to process what she was hearing. For the last year, she’d thought that she must be the loneliest person in the city. Now… she thought that Prowler could easily be a worthy contender for the title. She wondered what had happened in his life to make him like this, just so full of pain and rage at the world that he went out every night and protected people by directing his suffering onto criminals. She’d never before wanted so badly to know who was behind Prowler’s mask than in this moment, to know his story that must be nearly equally as bad as either hers or Miles’.

However, she knew that he wouldn’t be sharing that secret with her (at least not anytime soon), so she simply took a deep breath and nodded before agreeing, “Okay. I may not like the way you do things, but I can accept it. As long as you don’t actually kill anyone.”

“I make no promises,” Prowler said warningly, and a knot formed in Gwen’s chest, but then quickly unraveled again as he added, “But I’ll do my best. I never saw the old Prowler kill anyone, and I’m trying to live up to his legacy.”

Interested by this piece of information, as Gwen had completely forgotten about this Prowler mentioning that he knew the other one during their first meeting, she asked, “How exactly do you know the other Prowler? Were you partners or something? Are you his son?”

Suddenly looking uncomfortable, Prowler looked around and said, “We should probably be leaving now. The cops could be here any second.”

Noticing that he hadn’t answered her question, Gwen said, “Okay. But can we still talk about this on the way… wherever? I don’t know about you, but I still have to cross the East River tonight.” Seeing him fidgeting as she said that, Gwen happily determined, “You’re going that way too, aren’t you?”

Sighing to himself, Prowler said, “I have to make a stop in Brooklyn, somewhere that you will not follow me. But fine, you can ask a couple questions about the other Prowler on the way, but nothing about his identity, alright?”

Excited to hear this, Gwen immediately nodded her agreement. Unfortunately, at that very moment, a police squad car started to come down the road towards them, blaring its sirens.

Looking towards it, Prowler muttered, “I told you that we should’ve left sooner.”

Shrugging to herself without concern, Gwen shot a web line towards the rooftop across the street from them and responded, “What are you talking about? We’re already gone.” And with that said, she yanked on her line and pulled herself into the air, using her other hand to shoot another line backwards to grab onto the back of Prowler’s jacket as she did so, who got pulled along with her with a surprised grunt and numerous mumbled curses in Spanish.

Gwen continued to drag him for a while until she eventually set down to run along a wall between two buildings, and Prowler cut the web off of himself as he fell down to run along the opposite wall. Then, narrowing his eyes as he looked across the divide at her, he said, “Could you not pull me around with your webs again? That was a terrible experience.”

Smirking to herself beneath her mask, Gwen just responded, “Just consider it payback for when you grabbed me at GCT.”

As they began to run out of space to run on the walls, Prowler looked over to her and held out a hand invitingly. Barely thinking about it, Gwen jumped over towards him and grabbed his hand, and he immediately jumped off the wall, his shoes hovering over the rail of a fire escape railing for a few seconds, then launched them upwards and forwards so that they landed on the roof of a building across the street, from which point they continued to run onwards and continued their conversation as though there had been no break.

“I don’t seem to recall dangling you from a rope when I dragged you out of there,” Prowler said.

“Yet I definitely recall you forcefully throwing me over your shoulder like a bag of turnips, so I think this makes us even,” Gwen replied. “But back to our earlier conversation, what’s up with the other Prowler?”

They reached the edge of the rooftop and Prowler looked like he was preparing to jump across the street once again, but Gwen tapped his shoulder to get his attention and pointed instead towards a large yellow crane hanging high above them. Nodding in understanding, Prowler changed the aim of his jump so that he launched up onto the extending arm of the crane, Gwen swinging up right after him on her webs.

They began to run through the inside of the crane arm, still heading southeast, and Prowler told her, “Well, first of all, me and the other Prowler are… related, but I’m not gonna say how.”

“Understandable, go on,” Gwen prompted.

“Well, I trained with him for a few months, but I didn’t become the Prowler myself until the night after he fought you. When you messed up his arm, he said that he couldn’t do it anymore and told me that I would have to take his place,” Prowler continued.

Wincing at the memory, Gwen said, “Yeah, well, if you see him again, tell him that the thing with the tower was a total accident. Not that it helps much, I guess, but still. But if you became the new Prowler, does that mean that he isn’t the Prowler anymore?”

“Well, he hopes that he’ll recover eventually, but for now, it looks like his days of being the Prowler are over,” Prowler said regretfully.

Gwen let out a deep breath and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m kind of glad for that. Definitely don’t take this the wrong way, but frankly, I like you better than the old one. Besides, can you imagine if there were two of you going by the same name? Oh, it’d get so confusing! One Prowler is plenty.”

Prowler chuckled to himself, his voice modulator making it sound oddly sinister, and leapt off the end of the crane with Gwen following closely behind as they dived fearlessly back towards the ground.

Their shared journey took them across the East River and into Brooklyn, and Gwen found herself oddly comfortable in Prowler’s presence. Maybe not “Miles” levels of comfort, but he was strangely enjoyable company and rather easy for her to relate to. For one, she’d never been able to swing around the city with someone by her side, given that hardly anyone could ever keep up with her and the few that could were usually trying to kill her.

However, the excitement began to wear off and was slowly replaced by building nervousness as they got closer and closer to Visions Academy and Prowler still hadn’t made any indication of leaving her side any time soon. The tension was causing her to get quieter as time went on and they continued to get closer to the academy, though this was fortunately covered up as Prowler also seemed to have run out of things to talk about and had gone rather silent himself. Soon enough, they passed right by the school, yet Gwen didn’t dare to stop here and risk letting Prowler figure out where she went to school each day, so she just silently continued following him right past the building.

They went a few blocks past Visions Academy, and Gwen was just about to come up with some random excuse to hang back so that Prowler wouldn’t see her go back towards the school when he finally said, “Alright, here’s far enough. I should be getting back to my secret base now. Do you think you can find your way home from here?”

Inwardly laughing at her good fortune as well as the irony of his question, Gwen responded, “Yeah, I think I’ll be alright.”

Prowler nodded at her and said, “Alright then. In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow at 10 p.m., Spider-Woman. If you’re still on board with our partnership, of course.”

Without hesitation, Gwen responded, “I’ll be there.”

Prowler nodded to her one more time, then walked towards the left side of the rooftop they were on and dropped out of sight.

Letting out a deep breath that held all of her built-up fear from the last ten minutes, Gwen turned around and walked instead off the right side of the roof before swinging towards the school. She wasn’t worried about being followed. Even if she had doubts about Prowler’s respect for her secret identity at this point, which she didn’t, he had gone north whereas she was heading towards the south side of the school, where all the female dorms of Visions Academy were located.

Still, she would have to be more careful about suggesting where she and Prowler could go together. Tonight, it had gotten too close to disaster, though she thought that she’d played it off quite well overall.

Chapter 10: Night in the Light

Chapter Text

A/N: Oh, how I spoil you. Two chapters in one day yet again. But in my defense, this chapter is really just a continuation of the last one. (And I just really enjoy doing this.) Anyway, consider this compensation for me missing last week, and enjoy!

Chapter 10

Gwen POV

On Tuesday night, Gwen arrived on the rooftop across the street from the shop called Abe's Auto Repair five minutes early for her rendezvous with Prowler, the eyes of her mask angled downwards in an imitation of the glare she wore on her face. She wanted to have a little talk with Prowler before they started their mission, and as she'd expected, he'd arrived early to survey the location before they made their move.

As she stopped behind where he was crouched on the edge of the rooftop, he didn't look at her as he said, "Much as I appreciate an effort to impress, punctuality means you get here when I tell you, not sooner or later."

Folding her arms, Gwen told him, "I know. I had a bone to pick with you."

This afternoon, she had taken Miles up on his offer to teach her some Spanish terms that she didn't yet know and asked him to educate her on some slang terms while they competed against each other on several of Miles' video games in his room. They'd only been able to get in an hour-long lesson, but during it, Miles had just happened to mention the word that Prowler had called her last night, and to put it simply, she hadn't been pleased to find out what it meant.

"Last night, you called me 'Bochinche', meaning 'gossip'. Seriously?" she asked with annoyance.

Her anger only got greater when Prowler turned to face her and responded, "Well, in your case it was meant to mean something more like 'chatterbox', and the more I think about it, the more it seems to fit you perfectly. Now, are we going to keep talking about your new nickname or are we going to take down a crime lord?"

Gwen huffed angrily but nevertheless stepped forward and crouched right next to Prowler before saying, "Fine. Crime lord first, but then we need to work out a bad nickname foryou, alright?"

"Just find us the best way inside,Bochinche,"Prowler told her impatiently, obviously adding the last word just to incense her.

Gwen just shook her head and ignored it before giving the repair shop a quick look-over before her eyes zeroed in on a ventilation cover on one of the walls. Turning to raise an eyebrow at Prowler, she said, "Well, I know an oldie but a goodie."

Scanning the building himself and quickly locating the vent, Prowler sighed and asked, "Couldn't we do something a bit more… original? You know, one of these days, every criminal in the city is going to have more security in their vents than they do on the doors if we keep doing this."

"At which point we'll start just sneaking in the back," Gwen agreed, then added, "Now, suck it up and get going."

Prowler gave one last resigned sigh before he jumped off the building and flew over to the vent before slipping inside, and Gwen swung across the street to join him.

Third Person POV

Alonzo "Lonnie" Lincoln, better known by the street name Tombstone, was one of the most powerful and feared men in the city. A large part of this was simply due to his appearance. He was unnaturally pale and had white hair, making him almost look like a walking decaying corpse, and the tailored gray suit he wore at all times made him look like he could've just climbed out of a coffin. He was over seven feet tall and had fists that looked like they could crush stones.

And to top it all off, he was the city's foremost supplier of criminal vehicles, whether for assaults, kidnappings, getaways, or whatever else was needed, Tombstone was happy to supply it. Hundreds of vehicles went through modification or even full-scale production in his busy auto body shop every day, some from legitimate buyers to keep his business somewhat respectable, but many others being prepared to be sold anonymously to criminals from various professions. This meant that he dealt mostly with low-end criminals, but they served their purpose well as his own veritable army sweeping across the city and bringing him only good business.

As Tombstone saw it, he didn't care who was buying the vehicles or what they were used for as long as he got paid well for it, and he got paidverywell for his dealings with people who needed quality vehicles sold to them for less-than-reputable deeds and above all, kept quiet.

And he was paid in more than just money. Those who bought from Tombstone were bound not to tell anyone where they had gotten their assets, though all records of the sales were kept in secret locations anyway so that there was no proof of the deal, and they also had to swear their loyalty to Tombstone for the rest of their criminal career, giving him a percentage of every score they obtained.

There were only two ways out of the deal. First was the more common occurrence, that the criminal in question would be killed for trying to cross Tombstone. The second option was something Lincoln loathed, that some of the people that owed their lives to him would run away and offer their services to his competitors in return for their protection. Due to this fact, Tombstone had long been at war with practically every mob boss in the city, killing some to get back at his traitorous ex-employees, but others continued to manage to evade him. For now.

Speaking of, one of his men walked up to him now with news from a call he'd just received from one of his said competitors. Stopping cautiously just out of reach of his boss's arm reach, as if that would save him if Tombstone decided to attack him, Lincoln's right-hand man told him, "Sir, he said that he's run out of patience. He told us to surrender all of our assets to him, and said that it was our last chance to give up."

"About time he started playing hard," Tombstone said with amusem*nt. "And what'd you tell him?"

"Same thing we always tell him, sir," his lieutenant replied. "That if he wants a fight, he can come get us or wait forusto come gethim."

Lincoln let out a laugh and told him, "That's right, my boy! This man thinks he can intimidate us? Order us around? Well, I want him to know that I ain't scared o' him. Even if he found out where we were, it'd be impossible for anyone to get to us in here."

As though they'd been waiting for the cue, no sooner had those words left Tombstone's mouth before the vent cover above them fell to the floor just a few yards away and two figures jumped down from above.

As one didn't gain power in New York City without staying well-informed, Tombstone immediately recognized both of them, though before this moment, he had honestly believed them both to be mere hoaxes. The first one was the Spider-Woman, a vigilante heroine that had supposedly been fighting criminals for over a year now. Any time Tombstone's men had used her name as an excuse for not delivering one of his shipments, he'd immediately killed them in the belief that they were lying and trying to cheat him. Now, he silently gave rare apologies to each of them, though it was rather impersonal as he hadn't bothered to remember any of their names.

The second figure was considerably more surprising to see here, especially standing alongside Spider-Woman when Tombstone was quite certain that both of them were loners. The second figure was the legendary thief known as the Prowler, though it was truthfully only his signature eyes and claws that gave it away as his appearance wasn't widely known.

Yet while their entrance had been plenty dramatic (and annoyingly well-timed), Tombstone had only one thing to say to them as he laid eyes on the two mythical figures for the first time. "You're both a lot shorter than I imagined you'd be," he told them without the slightest trace of fear.

Upon hearing that, Spider-Woman sighed and turned to Prowler to say, "Iknewwe should've worn stilts."

"Shut up,"Prowler responded, keeping his glare directed at Tombstone.

"Just trying to live up to my new nickname," Spider-Woman said as she stood back-to-back with Prowler and faced Lincoln's men throughout the workshop, who were quickly recovering from their shock and getting ready to use their manufacturing tools as weapons, but were waiting for Tombstone's order before they attacked.

Looking up at the open vent above them, from which Spider-Woman and Prowler had just entered, Tombstone asked, "Just out of curiosity, how long exactly were you two waiting in my ventilation shafts?"

Shrugging, Spider-Woman kept her eyes on the workers as she answered, "What can I say? We're teenagers. We like tovent."

"How dare you include me in such a bad pun,"Prowler growled back at her.

"You're right, that was terrible," Spider-Woman agreed. "Just trying to keeps thingsairy."

"I hate you so much."

Not sure what they were talking about, Tombstone yelled out, "Enough!" He then pointed a finger at Prowler and said, "You, Prowler. I've heard you will work for money. I will pay you $5,000 in cash right now to kill the girl and leave this place. And who knows? Perhaps I will be inclined to employ you again in the future."

Rather than giving him the reaction he'd hoped for, Prowler just stared Tombstone down and said, "Sorry, but my services aren't available right now. I'm already busy with a job, one Ireallywant to do."

"Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to get bloodstains out of this suit? Worse than gettingthisoff!" Spider-Woman asked, then spun around and fired something from her wrist that splattered all over Tombstone's eyes, blinding him.

Rearing back in pain and rage, Tombstone let out a yell and heard his workers jump into action all throughout the room, though he couldn't see them. He heard the sounds of metal striking concrete surfaces, wood splintering, the hum of energy and the occasional oddthwipsound, all of which were constantly accompanied by the challenging yells and terrified screams of his employees.

Reaching out blindly to his side with one hand while the other hand clawed at whatever sticky substance was blocking out his sight, Tombstone grabbed the arm of his lieutenant and ordered, "Help me out of here. Get me to the train, we must retreat to our safehouse. If half the legends about either of these vigilantes are true, we can't fight one of them, let alone both at once."

Though he couldn't see his lieutenant's nod, he assumed that he must've agreed as he immediately took Tombstone's arm and began to quickly escort him away from the area. As they snuck out the back door in Tombstone's office, Lincoln could still hear the chaos behind them that was the sound of his most loyal men being destroyed in harmony with numerous terrible puns.

Tombstone finally managed to pull the sticky substance off of his eyes after they reached the stairway leading up to the elevated train track near the workshop. Looking down at whatever it was, he saw it to be merely some tightly woven white substance, like hundreds of spiders had created a net of webbing to attach to his face. And it had come… out of Spider-Woman's wrists?

Throwing the webbing to the side in revulsion, Lincoln commented, "Disgustingcreatures, these superpowered freaks." Then, looking up and seeing a train arrive just in time, he shook his lieutenant's hand off of himself and said, "Quickly, we must get on the train. Escort me there immediately."

At that moment, a thin white line shot out of the darkness behind them and grabbed onto his lieutenant's leg before yanking it out from under him, causing him to fall onto his front, and then the line pulled once more and dragged him out of sight with a yell of fear, madly grasping towards Lincoln as though looking for help.

However, Tombstone just watched him go for a second before saying, "Fine, I'll escort myself."

He then grabbed onto the stairway railing and began to run upwards as fast as he could. About halfway up, he stopped and ducked down low to reach beneath the stairs and pulled a double-barreled shotgun from beneath the walkway. He checked to make sure that it was loaded, then ran up the remainder of the stairs and ducked into the train as fast as he could, just in time before the doors closed.

There weren't many people on the subways this late at night, but the few people that remained inside the wagon with Tombstone when they saw him come in with a shotgun in hand all let out screams and ran away into the next car. He let them go, too focused on watching out for meddling vigilantes to worry about the insignificant civilians or what they may tell the police.

Suddenly, the back door of the car slid open, though there was nothing visibly in the doorway. Panicking, Tombstone aimed his shotgun and fired out the back of the train, predictably hitting nothing that he could see, but how could he know if one of these freaks couldn't turn invisible or something?

Reloading his gun once again with trembling hands, Tombstone looked all around himself and quietly asked, "Whatareyou?"

Instantly, the window to his side shattered as a pair of legs swung through the pane to allow someone to enter the train car, and despite his great size and strength, Tombstone was knocked onto his back by a far smaller body before he looked up into the eyes of Spider-Woman, crouched on his chest, as she responded to his question in a deep voice.

"I'm Batman."

Realizing that this was all just a game to her, Tombstone became enraged and pushed her off of him with all of his strength before he stood up and raised his shotgun at her. He fired at her once, which she impossibly just dodged with a graceful flip, but he continued to fire again and again, reloading his gun in a matter of seconds each time he ran out of ammo, and yelled, "Oh, yeah?! Is that right, 'Batman'?! Well, if you thought I'd go down easy, you've got another thing-"

However, he broke off as he realized that Spider-Woman wasn't even trying to approach him anymore, and as he stopped shooting for a second, he saw her point upwards in warning. Looking upwards as directed, Tombstone heard metal crumple as a sharp metal point jabbed itself into the ceiling above them, followed by another, then another and another, and so on until ten sharp claws had punctured the roof of the train car. "No…" Tombstone muttered to himself weakly as he realized what was happening.

A moment later, the claws all moved themselves sideways at once, ripping the roof open like the metal was stubborn Christmas gift wrapping to reveal the crouching silhouette of the Prowler, his magenta eye outlines glaring down on Tombstone like a spotlight.

Now feeling terror like he'd never known, Tombstone aimed his shotgun straight upwards at Prowler, but the young man jumped down from the roof too quickly and kicked the gun aside on the way down before landing on his feet right in front of Lincoln. Desperate, Tombstone aimed the gun towards Prowler once again, but in a flash of silver, the entire barrel of the shotgun was cut into six different pieces, leaving Tombstone holding a useless trigger as his bullets fell to the ground.

Now helpless, Tombstone began to back up deeper into the train car, and Prowler told him, "Alonzo Lincoln. It's time for you to pay."

"Yeah, for that new skylight he just installed," Spider-Woman added as she leaned her head over Prowler's shoulder.

Looking down and sighing, Prowler asked, "Why do you have to ruin this moment?"

Putting up her hands in surrender and backing away, Spider-Woman said, "Right, sorry. Do your thing. 'Oh, you're in for it now, Lincoln. I'm the Prowler! Rawr!'"

Prowler looked back at her, then glared at Lincoln one last time before he just turned and began to walk away, saying, "You know what, I don't even care anymore. Just take him."

"Thank you!" Spider-Woman exclaimed before she reared back a fist and thrust it towards Tombstone's face, and then everything went black.

Line Break

Time Skip - Friday Afternoon

Gwen POV

The last few days had been amazing. As Spider-Woman's working relationship with the Prowler had continued to develop, Gwen had grown more and more to anticipate the nights spent hunting down criminals with him, which she now enjoyed almost as much as her days spent with Miles.

After taking down Tombstone, they'd moved on to taking down another mob boss named Hammerhead (whose real name was unknown) on Wednesday. The next night, it had been Leland Owlsley, better known as The Owl, after which they'd celebrated by attacking Martin Li (whose charges had not stuck after the trafficking business) in his home and left him to the police with all the evidence needed to put him away for at least the next two years.

Tonight they were scheduled to take down Silvio Manfredi, otherwise known as Silvermane, and Gwen was enjoying riding high for once. Even Jameson couldn't make her feel any worse as she overheard him ranting about her irresponsible destruction of property from other students' phones. Working with Prowler, Gwen had been able to work faster, stronger, more efficient. They'd become a close team that had yet to fail a mission, all of which so far had included taking down crime bosses rather than just stopping petty criminals.

Of course, Gwen still never missed a chance to stop some thug or mugger if she caught them in the act, and Prowler had been happy to help her on the occasions when he was with her when she noticed such things happening, but she felt like for the first time, she was finally dealing with the root of the criminal element in the city. Operating on Prowler's information and with their increasingly effective teamwork, the two teenage vigilantes had never failed to get their mark, and always staying ahead of the police by throwing the first punch themselves instead of simply reacting to crimes, which gave Gwen an extra thrill to know that she wouldn't have to deal with her dad. However, she couldn't have predicted that for better or worse, her plans for tonight were about to be radically adjusted.

She was still thinking about her plans for tonight in her mind, going over the plan and remembering the layout of Manfredi's home that Prowler had shown her last night, on the way back to her dorm to pack her things for the weekend after school on Friday exactly at noon.

They had been let out of school early today so that students could go home and prepare for the Homecoming dance later tonight, but as Gwen didn't have any plans to participate in the event, she had instead opted to go straight home and try to warm up for hers and Prowler's attack on Silvermane's mansion by getting in some early Spider-ing before her dad got home from work.

Though she'd stayed ready for the possibility all week, Miles had not once asked her to accompany him to the dance tonight, and so she had instead devoted her mental faculties to focusing on the superhero side of her life for the most part of the week, even as the prospect of doing something as normal as a dance became more and more enticing as the week went on with Gwen spending more and more time in her mask. At one point, she'd even considered asking Prowler to the dance, the mildly amusing image of Prowler in his mask and a black and purple suit while she wore her own mask with a matching white dress as the two of them danced on the roof above the gymnasium flashing through her mind for a brief moment, but she knew it was ridiculous.

So instead, she had resolved to just get home and prepare for yet another night of productive superhero work. Unfortunately, she was stopped before she could even leave the building by a large Senior kid she vaguely recognized as one of Ned's friends sticking his arm out in front of her as she walked down a crowded hallway, slamming his hand against the locker right next to her head with a loudclangto get her attention.

"Hey, Stacy," he said with a grin as he leered down at her, "You're looking pretty good these days."

Gwen raised an eyebrow at him in an unimpressed sort of way. If this was his attempt at flirting, it was falling short due to more than simply his rude method of approaching her. Most notably because she was certain that if she was still getting teased by Ned as she had before, this kid wouldn't have been caught dead talking to her, certainly not so politely. Whatever he was trying to show her now was nothing more than an insincere attempt at masking his true behavior, a ruse she could see through easily.

Still, she could hardly just ignore him as she so mightily desired to, so she was forced to simply respond, "Thanks. Now, excuse me, but I actually have to get going, so-"

She tried to slip around the kid's other side, but he thrust out his other hand and grabbed her shoulder before holding her back, saying, "Hey, hold on, Stacy…"

Looking down at the kid's hand on her shoulder, Gwen felt the powerful urge to grab hold of it and break it. It would be so quick, soeasyfor her to do it, just one simple twist, and no one could possibly stop her. But irksome as this kid's touch was, it was not worth it for her to give away her powers just to get him off of her.

So she just silently bore the mild irritation and allowed the kid to believe that he had some leverage over her as he continued, "Look, Stacy, I know it's short notice, but I was thinking that maybe you'd want to go to Homecoming with me? Iguaranteeit would elevate your social status quite a bit."

Glaring into the boy's eyes, Gwen said, "You thought wrong, and I don't care about my stupid 'social status'. I'm not going to the dance or anywhere else with you, soget your hand off me."

"Oh, come on," the kid said as his grin widened while he ignored her demands. "Why wouldn't you be my date? You even settled for Parker last year!"

Upon hearing this loathsome child mention Peter with such disrespect, Gwen was about to snap his entire arm with one hand, revealing her powers or not, when suddenly the kid's hand was smacked off of her as Miles stepped in between them out of nowhere and stared the kid down as he said, "Because she already has a date. Now, I believe the lady was pretty clearly telling you to leave her alone."

The kid stared at Miles in shock for a moment, then let out a laugh and asked, "You? Please, Morales, you expect me to believe that Stacy was going to the dance withyou?"

"Believe what you want, but touch her or mention Peter Parker again, and I swear you will regret it,Baboso," Miles responded, standing his ground.

The kid continued to look down on Miles for a moment, who admirably didn't even flinch despite the fact that this Senior kid was almost a foot taller than him, before the kid scowled and waved him off as he began to walk away, saying, "Whatever. Enjoy going to the dance with Visions Academy's biggest loser, Morales."

Miles glared at the kid's back the whole time he was walking away to make sure that he actually left, ignoring the strange looks that everyone else in the hallway was giving him, then his expression softened as he turned around to face Gwen and asked, "Did he hurt you?"

"No," Gwen responded immediately.

Even after she'd said it, she saw Miles' eyes look her over once as though he expected her to be lying before he nodded in satisfaction and began to walk away towards the north side of the building, heading back to his own dorm. However, he didn't get far before Gwen called after him, "Miles, wait!"

As her stopping him in the middle of his departure was becoming a regular occurrence by now, Miles managed to refrain from letting out his usual deep sigh and began turning to face her once again as soon as he heard her start to call his name. "What?" he asked with forced patience.

Looking down shyly, Gwen ignored the thought of how she'd promised herself not to interfere in this as she asked, "Did you… actually want to go to the dance with me?"

Miles' eyes widened upon hearing her question and repeated, "What?"

Shrugging and looking up to meet Miles' gaze, Gwen said, "What you told that kid to get him to leave me alone, about how I was already going to the dance with you. Do you actually want to?"

Miles seemed speechless for a moment, but then cleared his throat and said, "Uh, sure. Yeah, why not? Er… Just as friends?"

Smiling, Gwen responded, "Yeah, just friends. I mean, no pressure or anything, just… for fun, you know?"

"But… the notice is kind of late. Will you-" Miles began to ask, but Gwen answered before he'd even finished, "I can throw something together for myself. And you don't need to worry about a corsage or anything, just wear something nice and be there, alright?"

His mind finally seeing to catch up with his words, Miles said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll… Corsage? I mean, uh, yeah, I'll wear something and… get a ride. I'll pick you up at… eight?"

"Sounds good," Gwen said with an honest smile, then waved goodbye to him as she pulled out her phone and began to walk away backwards, saying, "I need to call my dad, but I'll see you then!"

As soon as she was out of sight of Miles, she looked down at her phone, but abruptly remembered that it was the wrong phone to contact who she really wanted to talk to and pocketed her own cell phone again before pulling out the flip phone Prowler had given her and began to text him. However, to her surprise, as soon as she hit the send button, the phone vibrated as it received a message at the same time as it sent one.

S-W: Can't do the mission tonight. Sry! 😢

P: We need to delay the mission until tomorrow.

P: What the?

P: How did you send an emoji with a flip phone?

S-W: I made some modifications.

P: Right. Well, I need to double-check the mansion's security before we move. U?

S-W: Headache. Hung upside-down too long.

P: Alright. c u tomorrow.

Once the conversation was concluded, Gwen let out a breath of relief, unable to believe how convenient it was that Prowler wouldn't be ready for the mission tonight of all nights. That left her night completely free so that she could attend the dance. As such, she was able to relax, having nothing more to concern herself with.

Line Break

Miles POV

Miles burst through the doors of the hospital ward where Rio Morales was supposedly working and was immediately grabbed by his mother as she tried to usher him onto a bed.

"I came as soon as I got your message,mijo," Rio said as she fussed over Miles, pressing her stethoscope onto every part of his body that she could reach for no reason that Miles could determine and not giving him any room to speak. "When you said it was an emergency, I got this bed all set up for you. Was it something that happened at work? You still have both your arms? Where does it hurt?"

Pushing away his mother's medical examination tools, Miles stopped her by saying, "Mom! I'm fine. I'm not hurt."

Rio's expression of concern immediately shifting to disapproval as she processed his statement, Miles' mother said, "Wait, what?" She then sighed and put a hand on her head as she chided, "Miles, you can't just demand to come see me at the hospital for an emergenciawithout actually having a problem for me to fix."

"Idohave a problem!" Miles corrected her. "A big one!"

Folding her arms, Rio said, "It had better be a big one, because I just left Mr. Alvarez to adjust his own bed height because you asked for my help, and he never stops playing with the remote."

"You don't get it, Mom," Miles said in a panic, "I'm in big trouble! I just agreed to take Gwen to tonight's Homecoming dance!"

Her eyes widening, Rio said, "Oh, you're right. Thisisan emergency." Her gaze then set itself with determination and she said, "Alright, Miles, on your feet! We have a lot to do! Call your uncle and ask him for help with the suit and car, and I'll be back in a minute to teach you how to dance!"

Rio began to walk purposefully out of the room as Miles stood up from the bed, and as she passed another nurse in the hallway, Miles heard his mom say, "Not now, Maria, Mr. Alvarez can wait. I have a code red on my hands!"

Pulling out his phone, Miles didn't call his uncle just yet and instead did what he probably should've done before even agreeing to go to the dance, which was to call his boss. He pulled up the contact "Avocado" and called the number, and the phone was picked up on the second ring before Mr. Nelson's voice said, "Did you figure out her real-?"

"Mr. Nelson, listen!" Miles cut him off panickedly. "Look, just tell the boss that I can't do the Manfredi job tonight. I already arranged with our girl to do it tomorrow instead, but I'm gonna be busy tonight working on… something really important to the plan."

"The boss is going to want to hear this himself,"Mr. Nelson said in an annoyingly calm voice. "Please hold-"

But Miles had already hung up on him. His time was running short and he still had lots to do. Mr. Nelson would just have to get over it.

Calling his uncle next, Miles tapped his foot impatiently through three rings until Aaron's voice answered and said,"Yo, little man! I was actually gonna hit you later tonight! Look, Miles, you gotta come visit over the weekend, I got something to show you."

"Well, you don't have to wait, you can show me tonight," Miles responded. "I need you you drive me somewhere."

There was a short silence, then Uncle Aaron asked,"Drive you somewhere? Uh, where you going?"

"Alright, don't laugh, but I asked a girl to the Homecoming dance," Miles explained. "Or… maybe she asked me? Or I just assumed… Nevermind! Point is, I need a chauffeur to the dance, and my mom said to ask you."

There was another pause, then Aaron said,"Nice to see you finally got some game, man, but, uh… Now's kind of an awkward time. It's got to do with that good news I wanted to tell you about."

Annoyed, Miles asked, "Can you drive us to the dance or not?"

"Yeah, sure, but it might not be pretty,"Aaron said, finally giving him a straight answer.

Breathing out in relief, Miles said, "Okay, great. I'm at my mom's workplace, you can come pick me up here after you figure out a ride, and we need to be at the girl's house by eight. Oh, and I also wanted to ask, do you know any good places to get a nice suit? Like… a normal-person suit?"

"You still got your first bonus money from work?"Uncle Aaron asked.

"Yeah," Miles responded hesitantly.

"Then I know just the spot,"his uncle said before he hung up, and it was clear from the tone of his voice that he'd been smiling when he'd said it, which Miles didn't know if it made him feel more or less worried.

A few seconds later, his mom came rushing back into the room with a handheld speaker and set it on the floor before she pulled out her phone and began to connect the two devices wireless as she said, "Alright, so you got ahold of your uncle?Eso esta bueno,but we still need to work out a few more things. Okay, you've got your suit, your car, we're about to figure out the dancing… Do you have a corsage? Most people do a rose, or orchids…"

"Actually, Mom, I have a different idea for the corsage," Miles admitted shyly as one of his favorite songs rose unbidden to the forefront of his mind.

Gwen POV

Looking herself over for the fourth time in the bathroom mirror, Gwen could only wonder to herself what must've possessed her to think that this might be a good idea. One could easily argue that she'd never actually been to a dance, given that she hadn't actually had time to do anydancing at the last event or even get a drink of punch. And if one argued the opposite point, that she hadtechnically been to a dance once before… Well, that wasn't much better considering that her date hadn't exactly been available for comment on how he thought it went.

For tonight, Gwen had worn a pink dress with a black leather jacket and a thick leather belt over the top, the same outfit she'd brought to the last dance, and though she was trying to convince herself that it didn't bring back bad memories, she'd added a small handbag containing her Spider-Woman suit as a new part of her outfit.

Apparently her dad was thinking somewhat along the same lines for his worries for the night as he told her from where he leaned against the doorframe, "I can't believe you're doing this again. If Spider-Woman shows up and ruins two of your dances in a row, I'm putting a security detail on you."

Gwen nodded in response idly, trying to tune out most of what he was saying so she could focus, and grabbed the ends of her hair, where she'd dyed the tips a faint pink for the occasion, before holding them up and nervously asking, "Do you think Miles will like this? Or is it too much?"

Throwing up his hands helplessly before placing them on his hips, George responded, "How should I know? I don't even know who the kid is, which by the way, is really stressing me out! How could you think I'd be okay with this? With Peter, it was fine, but only because we both knew him, and his aunt, and where he lived, and we both knew he wouldn't try anything funny. With this kid-"

"-we know exactly the same thing," Gwen finished for him, somewhat exasperated by her dad's protective behavior. "Look, his name's Miles Morales and he's the nicest guy absolutely anywhere. He lives alone with his mom and already helps to provide for his family with his own job because his dad, who was a police officerwho served under you, died in the line of duty. He's been teaching me some extra Spanish, he helped me design… an art project of mine, he sits next to me in Physics-"

Just then, Gwen was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing, causing her to jump in fright. She already knew that it must be Miles, mostly due to the fact that her Spider-Sense hadn't tingled in warning, as it never did around Miles, though the fact that the clock had just struck eight o'clock helped as well.

Well, he was certainly punctual, but Gwen couldn't help but wonder to herself about how long he might've stood out there just to make sure he arrived right when he said he would. At the same time, part of her was silently praying that he hadn't accidentally overheard any of what she'd said to chat him up to her dad before he'd arrived.

Turning to raise an eyebrow at Gwen, George told her, "Well, I guess I'll get to find out. But if I have reason to believe he's anything less than the perfect gentleman you've described him as, I'm throwing him out."

Gwen once again nodded her agreement without really listening as she was currently busy furiously brushing down her hair with her hands, pushing it back over her shoulders so that she made a good first impression, though she wasn't really sure why she was so worried about it. She'd carefully emphasized this afternoon that there was 'no pressure' on this little outing of theirs. This didn't exactly feel… no-pressure-y.

She remembered how she'd told Miles not to be too worried with his appearance, just to wear something nice but casual, and she was sure that whatever he wore, she would still find him handsome as ever, but she could only pray that her own appearance would prove satisfactory for his tastes. But then… he'd never seen the "emo" side of her, never seen her wearing leather or dying her hair. What if he didn't like it? Oh, what was she thinking?

Gwen's dad stepped up to the apartment door and paused for a moment to put a forced friendly smile on his face, then reached for the knob and pulled the door open quickly to try to get a "shock and awe" reaction out of the person on the other side.

Gwen couldn't see past her dad as the door opened, but she heard Miles' voice say, "Uh, hi. I'm Miles. Miles Morales. And, uh, I'm here for your daughter, Captain Stacy. I mean, for the Homecoming dance! Which I… hope she told you about."

Given that her dad was usually a very well-spoken man, as he ought to be when he gave orders in pressured situations every day at work, Gwen was surprised when George didn't say anything in response and simply turned to enter the apartment again with a perplexed look on his face, silently gesturing for Miles to follow behind him.

George walked over to Gwen and leaned down slightly to ask, "Uh, Gwen? What did you say he did for work again?"

Confused by this question, Gwen looked around her dad's shoulder to see Miles and upon seeing what had rendered her dad speechless immediately gained a matching look of shock on her own face.

Miles had not only dismissed her advice to wear something simple, but he had gone far overboard in dressing himself for the occasion. He was wearing the cleanest black suit that Gwen had ever seen, a tuxedo that looked like it was made of satin, along with a white silk shirt and yellow silk bow tie. Doubtless, he would be by far the best dressed person at the dance, as she highly doubted anyone else would be able to get close to buying a suit or dress half this nice.

However, upon seeing her, Miles' eyes gleamed before he said, "Oh, wow. Gwen, you look amazing."

Though Gwen blushed at the compliment, Miles' words were just the right thing to finally sober her up enough to speak as she said, "Me? Miles, have you seen yourself? What are you wearing?"

Looking down at himself self-consciously, Miles asked, "What? Is there something wrong with it? My dad's old suit is still too big for me!"

Shaking her head, Gwen responded, "No, there's nothing wrong with it. You look incredible! It's just… where did you get a tux like that?"

Uncomfortably tugging on the hem of his jacket, Miles answered, "Um… Armani, I think. My boss gave me a bonus at work for helping him with something, and I couldn't figure out what to do with the money until my uncle took me shopping for the dance."

"What do you do?" Gwen's dad suddenly interjected, finally getting his own voice back as he placed his hands on Gwen's shoulders. "Deal drugs?"

"Dad!" Gwen called out, massively embarrassed by her dad's outrageous claim.

Miles just held up a hand to calm her however and calmly answered, "Actually, I help my uncle with his old job, doing some advanced engineering for some big companies. He's… not really in a great condition to do it himself anymore, but it pays pretty good."

George looked uncertain for another moment until he looked down at Gwen to see his daughter glaring at him firmly, repeatedly gesturing with her head towards Miles. Finally, the police captain gave in and told Miles, "Alright, I'm sorry, Mr. Morales. That was completely out of line for me. I just… I just wanted to make sure my daughter's going to be alright tonight. Last time she went to a dance was last year's Prom."

Looking confused, Miles asked, "What happened?"

Now confused himself, George looked at Gwen for an explanation, and she informed him, "Miles was out of school for most of last year."

Nodding in understanding, George turned back to Miles and said, "Well, long story short, the place got trashed when the Spider-Woman showed up and killed a kid, someone my daughter knew pretty well. Really traumatic for everyone involved."

Gwen winced at the way her dad explained it, but was surprised when Miles said, "No offense, sir, but I don't think Spider-Woman would do that." He then hastily added, "I mean, on the news it looks like she's trying to be a hero, and if she hasn't killed any criminals I don't see why she would-"

"She hasn't killed anyone else because we haven't given her a chance," George cut him off. "Trust me, if she weren't worried about what new measures the cops would be able to take to stop her if she killed someone else, she'd probably have gone on a killing spree long ago."

"'Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth,'" Miles recited.

Frowning, George asked, "What's that? Emerson?"

"Jefferson," Miles corrected respectfully.

Looking impressed, George said, "Well, that's a very… philosophical view to take on the matter. I guess we'll all see the truth eventually, huh? I'm very sorry my daughter hasn't introduced you to me before, Miles."

"Actually, we met once, sir," Miles told him, surprising both Gwen and her dad. "Nothing major, I just, uh… opened a door for you."

George raised an eyebrow at his daughter and smiled at her as he said, "The mark of every true gentleman: the holding-the-door test. Alright, Gwen, I'll give him a chance. You two go have fun."

Smiling widely, Gwen hugged her dad tightly before walking over to Miles, who held out his arm so she could take it. Then, as Miles escorted her out of her apartment and down to the street outside, she didn't think that she'd ever seen him look as pleased as he did now, her presence next to him very nearly causing him to finally show her a real smile, though she hoped to make it real at some point tonight.

Once they were outside, Miles gestured down towards the end of the road and said, "There's our ride. Sorry, they wouldn't let us park for more than a couple minutes."

Looking down towards where Miles pointed, Gwen's eyes widened once again as she instantly took in the sight of a long black limo approaching them. It swerved off the road to slide to a stop right in front of them before the driver's door opened and a tall man with a nicely-trimmed goatee and wearing a full chauffeur uniform including a little front-brimmed hat suddenly burst out to run around the other side of the car and stood on the curb holding a white sign with black writing on it that read "Miles Morales' Girlfriend".

Miles sighed as they approached the man and told him, "Uncle Aaron, what did I say about the sign? We're just going as friends."

Grinning, the man, Aaron, responded, "Oh, come on, man. You gotta let me have my fun. And this must be your lovely lady?" He directed the last part at Gwen and gave her a roguish wink, but Gwen was currently distracted looking at Aaron's physical appearance. When he'd held up his sign, Gwen had noticed that he'd only used his left arm, and now, looking at his limply hanging, empty right sleeve, she determined why. Aaron was missing his right arm.

Noticing her gaze, Aaron chuckled and said, "Yeah, you should see the other guy."

Shocked, Gwen asked, "You lost it in a fight?"

Letting out a laugh, Aaron responded, "No, no. That was just a joke. It was an accident at work. I wore a cast for a while, but then the doctors decided that it wasn't going to heal and I asked them to cut it off. Actually, I got back from the hospital just earlier today. Kind of bad timing for Miles, but I can still drive just fine."

Looking at the car behind Aaron, Gwen asked hesitantly, "And you drive… a limo?"

Looking back himself as though just barely remembering the car, Aaron said, "Nah, this is just a rental. Which, now I think about it, we might want to get back on the road. After all, from what Miles has told me, I gather that there's a cop in the area and we don't want to overextend our parking limit. Everyone in!"

Aaron reached behind himself and held the back door open for them to climb in. Miles stepped forward and offered a hand to Gwen to help her into the vehicle, and she smirked as she accepted the unnecessary but gentlemanly offer before Miles climbed in after her and sat by her side, and Aaron shut the door to rush back around to the driver's seat.

As the car began to move, Miles leaned over to her and quietly said, "I'm sorry about my uncle. He can be a bit… eccentric. He has a flair for dramatics."

Smiling to herself as her thoughts drifted to the message on Aaron's sign, Gwen responded, "Actually, I think it's just the right level of drama. I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when the two biggest losers in Visions Academy show up together in alimo. And you in that suit!"

"Trust me, my suit will only get people's attention if they don't seeyoufirst," Miles said with a smirk.

Blushing, Gwen shyly looked away to hide her reddening face but nevertheless gave Miles' arm a soft squeeze to let him know that she'd appreciated his comment. After another second, however, her hands fell off his arm as he abruptly leaned forward to pick up a small box from the table in front of them, then said, "Actually, I forgot to bring this in with me, but, uh… I have a corsage for you. If you want it."

Not having worn a corsage at the last dance she attended, Gwen didn't know much about the custom but was still willing to try it for Miles and replied, "Sure, why not?"

Miles opened the box to show what he had for her and Gwen's head tilted in interest at what she saw. As Miles pulled the flower-adorned bracelet out of the box, Gwen commented, "I don't think sunflowers are very common for a corsage."

Holding up the yellow flower somewhat bashfully, Miles said, "Yeah, well, you're not a common girl either. And this flower… let's just say that like you, it has some significance to me."

Though she was curious to know what exactly this significance was, when Gwen looked at Miles' hopeful expression, she decided not to question it and simply nodded enthusiastically as she held out her left hand. Seeming pleased, Miles slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, after which Gwen reached into the box and pulled out a second sunflower, this time with a clip on the back, and pinned it onto Miles shirt just above his jacket's breast pocket, where it matched perfectly with his bow tie.

Once she was finished, he spread his arms and asked, "So? Do I look amazing in yellow, or what?"

Smirking at him, Gwen decided to play his game and answered, "Yes, Miles, you look very nice."

"Only 'nice'?" he questioned.

Rolling her eyes, Gwen amended, "Fine, you look 'amazing'. Happy now?"

"I'm getting there," Miles responded, but he looked like he was enjoying himself, which, tonight, was all Gwen cared about.

Miles POV

Their arrival at the academy was just as Gwen had predicted. Practically every other student arriving at the dance turned to look in surprise at the arrival of the slim, black limo. Then, when Uncle Aaron rushed around the side after parking at the curb to open the door for them, Miles climbed out first and placed one arm behind his back as he held out his other hand to help Gwen exit the vehicle.

The whispering started as soon as Miles came into view and only doubled when Gwen joined him. Both of them continued to ignore it as Gwen took Miles' arm again and allowed him to escort her inside. Everyone around them had looks of evident jealousy on their faces, coming from both male and female students who laid eyes on either him or Gwen, people either wishing that they could've arrived so stylishly or admiring the fantastic appearances of Visions Academy's undisputed two least popular students. For the first time in his life, Miles had dozens of girls looking at him with longing in spite of their own dates, but their dates themselves weren't much better, as they looked at Miles as though they would give anything to be in his place, whether for his expensive, shiny new suit, the limo he'd arrived in, or the beautiful woman on his arm.

It was like something out of a movie, yet as much as Miles enjoyed getting to show off Gwen, who he felt deserved a red carpet just to get into the building and made him feel like he'd been given a great privilege to walk by her side, he was also quickly growing uncomfortable from all the staring they were receiving. Neither he nor Gwen were used to being in the spotlight, and looking at her, he could see that she looked like she felt a little out of place as well. However, when she met his eyes, they both silently let their arms drop down to grasp each other's hands tightly and pressed on into the building.

However, they'd barely made it into the gym when Gwen abruptly stopped in place, pulling Miles to a halt as well. Turning to face her concernedly, Miles asked, "Gwen? What's wrong?"

She didn't answer, but he could see that she was staring wide-eyed at the roof just above the DJ's booth as though it was threatening to collapse inward. Her eyes began to dart around the room worriedly and her breathing began to get faster. Recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack, Miles hurriedly stepped right in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders as he pulled her in close and quietly said, "Hey, Gwen, stay with me, all right? Just take a deep breath in through your nose, counting to five, then out through your mouth, another five. Here, like this…"

He began to demonstrate the slow, controlled breathing exercise for her, keeping her eyes on him and him alone as he continued to breathe at an even pace. Soon, she began to join in with him, and they took five deep breaths together before Gwen seemed to calm down and looked at the ground embarrassedly.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. There's nothing to be worried about,mi pana," Miles tried to console her, letting her know that whatever had happened, there was nothing for her to be ashamed about.

After a moment of silence, Gwen asked with a shaky voice, "'Pana'? Wouldn't that be… some kind of bread?"

"No," Miles said with an amused smirk, then corrected himself, "Well, actually… it's a word for breadfruit, a fruit popular in Puerto Rico, but that's not what I was saying. It also means 'friend'."

Gwen nodded in understanding and looked around the room with a deep exhale, her eyes still wary. Deciding that it should now be safe to bring up what had happened a few seconds ago, Miles asked, "What had you so scared a minute ago? Was it the last dance?"

Gwen nodded again, this time in agreement, though she still wouldn't meet Miles' eyes. This seemed a bit strange to Miles, that she should react this way to something that had happened so long ago. Surely she didn't expect Spider-Woman to show up here again tonight? That is, if she had even really been here the first time. Miles wouldn't easily be convinced of her involvement in the murder of whoever had died here last year, not after having met her.

Captain Stacy had mentioned that the event had been traumatic, but many other students here tonight must've also been present at last year's Prom, and as none of them were having such frightening memories of that night and Miles would be willing to bet that Gwen was emotionally stronger than anyone else in this room possibly including even himself, he couldn't imagine why Gwen would be falling apart like this. Perhaps her dad had instilled her with an intense, irrational fear of Spider-Woman? Or maybe…

Suddenly getting seized by a terrible thought, Miles looked at Gwen sympathetically and asked, "Peter Parker was the kid who died last year, wasn't he?"

Miles' heart practically broke upon seeing her nod at him a third time, his soul aching at the sight of the suppressed pain on her face. Suddenly, Miles felt guilty for taking her here and dredging up those old memories. Even now, she could be expecting Spider-Woman (or some imposter, at least) to drop into the room and stab someone right in front of her, perhaps Miles himself as he was essentially becoming the new "Peter Parker" in her life. He had to get her out of here, and fast. He couldn't let Gwen continue to mentally suffer like this. But he also couldn't exactly call off the whole night at this point. Suddenly, he thought he'd had the perfect idea.

Line Break

With the simple flick of a switch, hundreds of lightbulbs hanging along long lines crossing back and forth a few feet above Miles and Gwen's heads burst to life, casting a dim orange glow across the empty rooftop. Gwen slowly rotated in place as she looked in awe at all the lights around them, and Miles smirked as he approached her with his hands in his pockets.

"So, what do you think?" he asked, though he thought that her wonderstruck expression said it all.

"It's beautiful," Gwen answered with a wide smile.

It's not the only thing, Miles thought to himself as he watched Gwen admire the sights. Deciding against calling Uncle Aaron back, he and Gwen had hailed a taxi back to Miles' apartment building, but instead of trying to go inside, he had brought her, pulling her excitedly by the hand, up to the rooftop.

Noticing numerous chairs set up around the edges of the building, Gwen asked, "What is this place?"

"My dad and some of our neighbors set it up," Miles responded. "It took them a while to secure enough public approval to permanently decorate the area, and longer to hang up all the lights and stuff, but now we use it every now and then for a community celebration, barbecues and parties and stuff. Actually one of the last things my dad and my uncle worked on together."

Gwen cast a sad look at the wall across the street, where there was an enormous graffiti art piece that Miles had worked on for several weeks after his dad's death as a lasting tribute. She then commented, "It seems like you really miss him. Your dad, I mean."

Sighing, Miles shrugged and said, "When you lose someone like that, you don't forget it." He then met her eyes and added regretfully, "Like Peter Parker. Gwen, I'm so sorry about what happened tonight. I had no idea what happened last year. I even assumed that Peter was still alive, just… gone somewhere, and I'm sorry, that was stupid-"

Suddenly, Gwen cut him off as she swiftly approached him and grabbed one of his hands to tell him, "Miles. It's alright. To be honest, I didn't think it would still affect me so bad after all this time, so it's kind of my fault-"

It was now Miles' turn to cut her off, arguing, "No, you're not to blame for what happened tonight, you couldn't have-" This time, Miles broke off by himself before he looked around and said, "You know what, nevermind. We shouldn't be acting like us leaving the Homecoming dance is the end of the world. I just wanted to make tonight memorable for you, it doesn't matter where I do that."

Smiling, Gwen told him, "Oh, you've already made tonightverymemorable, Morales."

Releasing her hand and backing into the center of the rooftop with his usual smirk on his face, Miles held out a hand towards her as an offering and said, "Maybe, but I believe I still owe you a dance. If you'll grant me the honor."

Chuckling at his attempts at being charming, Gwen stepped forward to happily take his hand and played along with the formality as she said, "Why, of course, my good sir. But we don't have any music."

"That's fine, I failed my dancing class earlier today anyway," Miles said with a grin. "Maybe… let's just sway for now?"

Nodding, Gwen let Miles guide her hands behind his neck before he placed his own hands on her hips. Then, holding each other close, they began to sway slowly back and forth on the rooftop, dancing without music as they looked into each other's eyes, gleaming in the orange glow and both of them feeling a mutual sense of contentment.

In this moment, Miles could hardly believe that only this morning, he'd had no intentions of asking Gwen to the dance tonight, and had instead intended to waste his time fighting some crime boss. Maybe even monsters deserved a little peace and quiet every now and then.

After a short time, Gwen ended up relaxing her head against Miles' chest, seeming comfortable as she closed her eyes like she could be sleeping, but the small smile on her face remained the whole time.Hermosa, Miles thought to himself as he examined her face and cherished the fact that he had been the one to put that smile there. With that knowledge, Miles closed his own eyes as he rested his head over her own and allowed himself to give a real smile of his own, the first true smile he could remember having since his dad had died.

Both Miles and Gwen were so lost in their rare moment of peace that neither of them noticed a slim figure in a skintight dark red suit standing in the shadows on a rooftop a few buildings away, staring directly at them intently from across the large divide.

A/N: I don't own Batman. Surprising, I know. But Batman is owned by DC, so there you are. Anyway, please leave a comment if you enjoyed and thanks for reading!

Chapter 11: Two Victories and Defeat

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

Gwen POV

"Spider-Woman! Mind paying attention?"Prowler asked as he glared at Gwen, who only just now realized that she had been zoning out. However, she had rudely been broken out of replaying the fond memories of the previous night, where she'd spent a night of breathtaking moments with Miles.

Annoyed as she was to be interrupted in the middle of these thoughts, Gwen tartly replied, "Well, I'm sorry if I don't want to go over Silvermane's house's layout for the third time today! I barely got any sleep last night, and now I'm pretty sure you're trying to bring back my headache!"

Narrowing his white eyes at her, Prowler told her, "Glossing over the fact that you have been giving me a headache since we started working together, I'll have you know that I stayed up until six this morning getting these additional scans on the mansion, then woke up fifteen minutes later."

Somewhat abashed by this comment, Gwen quietly apologized, "Sorry."

"Do not presume that you are the only one here with a personal life, Spider-Woman,"Prowler chided. "But we have a job to do, and we've already put off our attack by a whole day. If we don't make our move tonight, we'll be falling behind schedule. I don't know about you, but I want to take care of as many of our criminal targets as possible, as soon as possible."

"Fine, fine," Gwen accepted, waving for him to go on.

Looking back at the holographic map floating between them, Prowler reiterated, "So, the main thing you need to know is that the building has four different exits on the ground, one in each wing, as well as an additional fifty-four opening windows around the building. I want you to block them all off a couple minutes before we move in so that Manfredi can't try to run. After that, there's only four guards in the building, all of which we can handle easily, and Manfredi himself."

"And is Manfredi armed?" Gwen asked as she examined a holographic image that appeared featuring Silvio Manfredi waving cheerfully at a crowd of his public supporters.

Shaking his head as he deactivated the device in his hand with a touch, making the hologram vanish, Prowler responded, "No. The biggest threat he's got on him is a heavy belt buckle. He won't be a problem."

Gwen nodded in acceptance and leaned back to stretch with her back against a small brick wall. "Then let's catch us a Silvermane," she said with a grin.

A couple hours later, with a nod from Prowler, Gwen sprung into action and shot all around the building in a complete circuit, using her webs to secure all of the exterior doors and opening windows around the mansion, working from memory based on Prowler's hologram. She was finished in less than a minute, and by the time she landed next to Prowler right in front of the last remaining open doorway, she said proudly, "Proportionate speed of a spider!"

"What does that even mean?"Prowler asked as he walked up to the locked double-wide front door and knocked both doors off their hinges with a single punch.

Following right behind him and after shooting out a large web-net to cover the doorway once again to keep Silvermane and his people in and anyone else out, Gwen answered, "You know, I've never actually figured out theexactlimits of it, but… pretty freakin' fast."

Prowler didn't respond to that, just continued to silently creep deeper into the house, occasionally casting a wary look into each room. After a few seconds of this going unsuccessfully, however, he growled and looked up at the ceiling before announcing, "All five targets are on the third floor."

Immediately cupping her hands around her mouth, Gwen yelled, "Well, we're here to rob this rich guy's place! I sure hope no one catches us!"

Prowler jumped a little as she began to yell right next to his ear, and after she was finished, he hissed at her, "What are you doing?!"

Not answering right away, Gwen asked, "When you get scared, do you ever accidentally do your little 'super-jump' thing and just fly right into the ceiling?"

"We're trying not to be noticed here! Why are you yelling?"Prowler asked angrily.

Gwen simply held up a finger for quiet and said, "Wait for it…"

A moment later, four grown men wearing suits and wielding submachine guns in their hands charged into the room ready for action before freezing in place as they saw the two vigilantes.

"Huh,"Prowler said with interest."Well, I guess that works."He then reached out and grabbed Spider-Woman's wrist before quickly spinning around and throwing her forcefully at one of the men, allowing her to kick off his chest, knocking him down, then bounce over to a second guard and punch him down to the floor as well. Meanwhile, Prowler dashed across the room and smacked a third guard across the room, where he crashed into a china cabinet and smashed the glass with his body before falling down unconscious.

The last guard managed to shakily raise his gun to aim at Prowler, but Prowler simply began to slowly stalk towards the man, showing no indication of fear whatsoever. The man pulled back the trigger on his gun in fright, causing the gun to quickly fire numerous bullets in quick succession, but Prowler just raised his hand and stopped all of the bullets against his palm before ripping the gun out of the man's hands and tearing it in two.

Now unarmed, the final guard tried to run away from them as fast as he could, but Gwen shot a web line onto each of his shoulders and pulled him backwards onto the ground before shooting a net of webbing to restrain him on the floor. Gwen and Prowler shared a nod of satisfaction, then turned back towards the building's stairway and began to make their way up to the third floor, where Silvio Manfredi was still seated in his study.

Walking into the room where Manfredi was waiting for them, Gwen laid eyes on the man and quickly determined that time had been hard on him since the days of that picture she'd seen of him. In the picture, he had seemed energetic and proud, and while his hair was still as silver-gray as it had been back then, all the fight seemed to have drained out of him over the years.

Gwen could hardly believe that a guy like this could be the head of one of New York's biggest crime families. His skin was wrinkled and his throat was sagging. There were dark shadows beneath his pale, unfocused eyes. She wasn't surprised to see that despite the many books lining the shelves in this room, he had no book on the table next to his chair, as he seemed so weak that she didn't know if he'd be able to turn the pages.

He was seated in a red velvet armchair a few feet away from a large fire, staring into the flames. He didn't react to their arrival as the doors opened, perhaps because he believed that it was just his guards returning, or perhaps because he was too helpless to do anything about it anyway.

Or perhaps it was neither of those things, as when they entered, Manfredi said in a surprisingly steady voice, "I've been expecting you two." Pausing in place when they heard this, Prowler and Gwen shared another glance with one another, then walked around the sides of Silvermane's armchair to stand in front of him, their backs towards the fire.

"And you didn't make us cookies?" Gwen asked before Prowler could say anything.

Sighing to himself, Prowler stared the old man down and said,"Silvio Manfredi, your days of running crime in this city are over."

His eyes twitching upwards to glare at them both, Manfredi said, "I knew you vigilantes would come for me sooner or later. You've become infamous. New York's despised web-slinging wall-crawler and perhaps the most capable thief in the world, two super-powered punks, former enemies, no less, working as a team to take down their fellow criminals. It's quite the story."

"See, even this guy sees the novelty, and yet Jameson's still running the same anti-Spider-Woman angle as always," Spider-Woman muttered to herself.

However, Manfredi wasn't done with his monologue, and ignoring his cane as he climbed shakily to his feet, the old man continued as if there had been no interruption, "They say you can't be bought, begged, bribed, or bullied. So instead… I guess I'll just have to try my hand at 'beating!'"

Then before either Gwen or Prowler could react, Manfredi reached down and pressed his index finger to the surface of his silver-outlined orange belt bucket, bringing it to their attention from where it had previously been mostly hidden beneath his large suit jacket. This small, seemingly innocent movement was enough to let Gwen realize that something bad was about to happen even before her Spider-Sense tingled in warning.

As soon as Manfredi touched his belt buckle, the buckle began to unfold plates of thick metal that strapped themselves piece by piece around Manfredi's body, first around his hips, then his legs and torso, then his arms and head, covering him head to toe in metal except for a small open place on his face, and extra plating on his shoulders and knees to protect his joints. Then, with a whir of hydraulics emitting from inside the suit, the previously frail-looking old man stood tall and scowled down at them menacingly.

At the same time, Prowler muttered, "Oh, sothat'swhy they call him Silvermane,"and Gwen commented confusedly, "Were you wearing all that metal on your waist? How does that even work?"

Evidently having hoped for a more intimidated reaction from both of them, Manfredi exclaimed in anger and launched forward towards them much faster than he should've been able to, spreading his arms out to his sides as he did so to knock them both off their feet and carry them through the wall behind them, clouds of dust getting kicked up in their wake.

On the other side of the wall, Gwen and Prowler both fell away from Silvermane and backed up to opposite sides of the now-dust covered sunroom. Looking around at all the mess, Gwen glared at Silvermane and said, "Hey! If we fight in here, you'll need to pay your cleaners extra! Wouldn't it be easier just to surrender?"

Sadly, it seemed that Manfredi didn't want to heed her warning, and he simply reacted to it by grabbing the nearest object, which happened to be an expensive-looking couch, and threw it at her with one hand. Of course, it proved to be no challenge for Gwen to avoid, jumping up to stick to one side of the couch and staying on it for half of a mid-air rotation before jumping off of it towards Silvermane to punch him in the chest.

To her surprise, however, her fist didn't seem to do any damage. Now, she almost always had to pull her punches by about 95% of her strength when fighting any normal human enemy, essentially anyone except for a few choice supervillains. In fact, she normally tried to focus mostly on her more controllable kicks and web-related attacks so as not to risk causing permanent damage to her enemies in a fight. Not to mention, she was currently holding back a little extra considering that her enemy was a rather aged regular guy in a suit, but this punch still should've been enough to create some sort of dent in most metals. Silvermane's suit must be stronger than she'd thought.

As though to demonstrate just how strong it really was, Silvermane responded to her attack by grinning and smacking her aside as though she were a pesky fly. She flew across the room just as the couch had done, but in a blur of movement, Prowler had crossed the room and grabbed her before she could crash into the wall. He glared at Silvermane, who was looking particularly smug and confident, then released Gwen and told her, "Stay here. I'll handle this guy."

Gwen processed his meaning a split second later as he held up one of his gauntlets to let it charge up, then launched himself towards Manfredi at full speed. However, as fast as Prowler was, Gwen just barely managed to grab ahold of his arm before he could leave and quickly redirected his charge so that he just barely missed Manfredi and instead blasted them both down through the floor.

Landing in the billiard room and destroying the snooker table, Gwen quickly released Prowler as he stood up and looked at her in confusion to ask, "What was that? Why'd you stop me?"

Holding up her hands in an attempt to keep him calm, Gwen responded, "Look, I know you want to take this guy down, and so do I. But remember, you said it yourself, he's just a normal old guy whose biggest threat is his heavy belt buckle."

"Well, when I said that, I wasn't expecting his belt buckle to be a weapon of mass destruction!"Prowler defended himself.

"Alright, but we still don't want to hurt this guy," Gwen persisted.

"Speak for yourself,"Prowler said darkly.

Suddenly, as Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled again at the same time as hydraulics whirred above them, both herself and Prowler instinctively jumped back just in time to avoid getting crushed by Silvermane jumping down through the hole in the ceiling to land right in between them.

Dodging back to stand next to one another, Prowler quietly told her, "If you can restrain him, I think I can figure out how to disable his hydraulic servos. No hydraulics, no power, and his armor becomes a few hundred pounds of dead weight."

Grateful that he seemed to be accepting her plan of not hurting Manfredi too badly, Gwen nodded and whispered back, "Got it. I can buy you a few seconds, at least."

"That's all I need."

"You children don't honestly still hope to win this fight, do you?" Silvermane asked with a sneer. Then, not giving them a chance to answer, he grabbed a pair of stools from around a polished wooden table behind himself and threw one at each of them.

However, Gwen jumped up between them and shot a web line onto both stools before whipping them back at Silvermane himself, who held up his forearms to protect his unarmored face, and as the pair of seats shattered against the man, Gwen commented, "You know, you could have a very lucrative future in moving heavy furniture if you could just kick your nasty habit of throwing it everywhere."

Looking up at her and scowling, Silvermane abruptly jumped up next to her and wrapped his arms tightly around Gwen's waist before he landed back on the ground and began to squeeze her tightly against his chest, causing her to let out an involuntary breath as her ribs began to get overloaded with pain as she was slowly crushed. Fortunately for Gwen, it lasted only a moment as Prowler hastily rushed forward and grabbed Silvermane's wrists to pull his arms off of her, then kicked him away.

Whether through his sheer strength or just luck, Silvermane managed to stay on his feet as he was knocked away from them, simply skidding across the ground and leaving long cracks in the plank floor beneath them. He then grinned up at them once more, still as sure of himself as ever, and when Prowler followed up by flipping the wooden table at him, Silvermane simply bowed his head to let it shatter against his body before he told them, "You'll have to do better than that to bring me down."

"Spider-Woman, anytime now,"Prowler prompted impatiently.

Nodding, Gwen ran towards Silvermane and called out, "Hey, Silvio! Isn't the whole 'dumb guy in a tough metal suit' usually Rhino's schtick?" to get his attention on her.

Thinking that she was getting ready to punch him, Silvermane positioned his feet to brace himself to meet the attack, but he was surprised when at the last second, she jumped up to stick her feet onto the ceiling instead, then stood vertically upside-down and began to hastily fire large globs of webbing to restrain Silvermane's arms and legs. Once she'd done all she could, she called to Prowler, "Hurry! That'll only hold him for a few more seconds!"

"Less than that," Silvermane responded as he yanked his arms upwards and ripped away Gwen's webbing with seemingly hardly any effort.

"Oh, come on!" Gwen complained. "They just don't make this stuff like they used to."

She then jumped down to distract him further, but this time Silvermane grabbed her by the arms to stop her in place, and as his enhanced strength started to squeeze inwards on her wrists, Gwen felt both of her web-shooters shatter beneath her gloves. Suddenly desperate, she kicked off of Silvermane's chest and forced him to release her, but the damage was done.

Fortunately, it hadn't been for nothing. "It was enough!"Prowler announced as he pressed a finger to the side of his mask, presumably to analyze his scan of Silvermane's armor through his lenses, though Gwen couldn't see whatever he was seeing. "Beneath the extra armor plating on his joints! Rip that plating off, and his hydraulics will shut down!"

Realizing their plan too late, Manfredi's eyes widened before he said, "Wait, no! You can't!"

"I guess we skipped introductions," Gwen told him as she leapt over to stick onto Manfredi's back. "Spider-Woman's the name, doing the impossible's my game." She then stuck her hands onto the flat surfaces of both of the plates covering his knees and roughly tugged upwards.

As soon as the servos within the plating were out in the open, his legs locked up and began to power down. Falling helplessly to his knees, Manfredi began to panic and exclaimed, "No! This cannot be how it ends! I will not let decades of my hard work end like this!"

Then, at the very moment that Gwen also tore off the plating on his shoulders to shut down his arms as well, Silvermane managed to press a pair of buttons, one on each of his palms. Instantly, every part of Silvermane's suit emitted some sort of energy blastwave that knocked Gwen off of him, causing her to crash bodily against the ceiling then bounce back to land hard a second time against the floor while pieces of wood and drywall fell down onto her.

However, whatever Manfredi had just activated had been far more powerful than simply to knock her away. It had extended much further and had not only blasted Prowler through the exterior wall of the mansion next to them, but had also blown away the entire section of the wall itself.

Still recovering from the blast, Gwen muttered to herself, "Oh, comeon," as her Spider-Sense suddenly tingled once more in warning. It prompted her to look outside the building, and down on the ground level below them, just jogging innocently on the sidewalk next to the mansion, Gwen could see a young woman with wireless earbuds in her ears, completely unaware of the threat of falling debris quickly approaching her.

Knowing that her time was short to react and she was still injured, Gwen loudly called down to her, "Look out!" It seemed that Gwen had yelled loud enough to get the woman's attention, but when she looked up and saw what looked like half of a building about to fall on her, the woman just stopped in place and held up her hands as she let out a frightened scream. "No!" Gwen yelled as she forcefully shoved all of the pieces of the ceiling off of herself and quickly jumped over to the edge of the building, but she already knew that she would be too slow to save the woman on the ground.

Then, at the last second, Prowler dashed in from the side in a blur to pick the woman up before launching out of the way once again, taking her just outside of the danger zone before setting her down gently on the ground and starting to walk back towards the house. However, though he acted as though what he'd done was no big deal, Gwen heard the woman call after him before he could get very far.

"You- You're a hero!" the grateful civilian exclaimed with awe.

Hearing that, Prowler stopped in place and paused before looking back over his shoulder and firmly declared, "I'm no hero."

He then resumed his departure, looking up at Gwen as he did so, who held onto the remains of the exterior wall as she gave him a nod of appreciation. He returned the nod hesitantly before he began to walk casually back towards the house, not in any rush now that he knew that the danger had passed.

Or perhaps not, as a moment later, Gwen's Spider-Sense warned her of danger approaching from behind. Her eyes going wide, Gwen spun around and attempted to shoot webs to restrain her would-be attacker, but her web-shooters did nothing as she had momentarily forgotten that they were now broken. Gwen exclaimed in pained exasperation as she continued trying to use them to no avail, knowing that she was in trouble when she didn't have her most useful tools at her disposal.

Meanwhile, a large figure stepped out of the shadows behind her, steadily aiming a gun at her, and ordered, "Hands in the air!"

Gwen recognized the face of her dad directing his weapon at her, the cop that had the biggest grudge against Spider-Woman, and she tried to remain calm as she asked, "What-? How could you possibly be here already?"

"I predicted you'd come after Manfredi soon enough, and I've been waiting for you," George responded, never letting his hands holding his gun waver from aiming at her chest.

Knowing she was trapped, unable to escape from this situation without injuring her dad or perhaps actually getting herself killed when her dad had her in his sights at point-blank range, Gwen pleaded, "Captain, come on…"

Speaking into the radio clipped to his chest, Captain Stacy reported, "I have Spider-Woman at Manfredi Manor. Be advised, suspect is armed!"

Slightly outraged at the lie and even more frightened to imagine what he would use it for, Gwen argued, "With what? I'm- I'm out of webs!"

"Get down on the ground!" Captain Stacy roughly ordered.

"Which is it? Hands in the air, or get down on the ground?" Gwen asked confusedly.

"You're under arrest," the large man said, ignoring Gwen's question.

"I just took down a crime boss!" Gwen protested, gesturing at the helpless form of Silvermane stuck in the corner.

"For the murder of Peter Parker," Stacy then clarified.

"Captain, come on. I-"

"You have the right to remain silent," Captain Stacy began to recite loudly over her. "Anything you say can-"

"You don't understand!" Gwen finally begged, then flinched back as her dad fired a warning shot into the air.

He then aimed his gun back down at her, his eyes filled with loathing that showed how personal this had gotten for him, and said, "Youdon't understand."

Gwen was panting hard, overwhelmed by the intense emotion of the situation as her own dad had her trapped and seemed more than willing to kill her. Still, she decided that she couldn't let him shoot her without even knowing who he was really killing, so she finally made a decision that would change her life forever, though she hoped that it would also change Captain Stacy's views about her and keep her from getting shot or arrested. Slowly putting her hands up as she'd been ordered, Gwen was careful to make no threatening moves as she slowly reached down to grab the bottom of her mask, then started to pull it upwards.

However, just then, Prowler appeared, jumping over her dad from behind to land in a crouch in front of Gwen, then swiftly turned around and aimed one of his gauntlets at the police captain before launching one of his volleys of hard-light arrowheads at him. Before either Gwen or George could react, the arrowheads spread out and formed a net of glowing magenta energy that knocked Captain Stacy off of his feet and pinned him against the wall, his arms pinned to the sides and his gun dangling uselessly in his hand.

He struggled against the net for a few seconds, and upon determining that he could not hope to push it off of himself, he looked in horror at the immensely strong material holding him in place and exclaimed, "No. No! Not when I'm so close!"

Prowler glared at the man as he approached him, and to his credit, George met his glare with equal intensity as he told the younger man, "I swear I'll get you for this. If it's the last thing I do, both you and Spider-Woman will spend the rest of your lives in cells!"

Prowler remained silent, not taking the bait as he stepped forward and reached through the net to forcefully pull the gun from Gwen's dad's hand, who was unable to even try to prevent it when his entire arm was incapable of movement. Prowler then threw the gun aside carelessly and began to walk back towards Gwen. As he passed her, he softly asked, "Did he hurt you?"

Emotionally, maybe, Gwen admitted to herself in her mind, but on the outside, she shook her head as a negative response.

He suddenly reached up towards her face with one hand, and Gwen was surprised when she didn't even feel the slightest instinct to lurch away from him as she felt him grab onto the bottom of her mask with two fingers, the cool metal of his gauntlets making her shiver from the strangely not-unpleasant sensation. She wasn't sure what she was expecting him to do, but then he suddenly pulled her mask back down to cover the rest of her face, as she'd momentarily forgotten that she'd pulled it up above her chin before Prowler had arrived.

Once her mask fully concealed her face once again, Prowler looked Gwen in the eyes and told her, "Be careful who you show your face."And with that said, he walked over to the hole in the wall and launched himself over to the rooftop across the street, easily avoiding the gazes of the additional police officers arriving down on the ground.

Gwen walked over to the destroyed wall as well and looked out after Prowler, feeling a strong upsurge of affection for her hardworking partner. Just as she was about to go after him, she heard her dad's voice behind her say, "You know I'll get you one day. It's only a matter of time until I get you, and your dark friend as well. You can't protect each other forever, and I'm gonna-"

He was cut off as Gwen turned abruptly to stare him in the face, silencing him, and responded in the usual deep voice she reserved for speaking to her dad as Spider-Woman, "Maybe you're right. But I know we'll keep trying. Which means that judging by the current progress of your manhunt, you'd better start trying harder. G'night, Captain." And ignoring her dad's fading yells of fury, Gwen got a running start at the hole in the wall and jumped powerfully after Prowler.

When she arrived on the rooftop directly across the street from Manfredi's house, she found Prowler standing on the edge of the building with his arms crossed and looking back at the house. "The cops arriving so soon could've been a problem,"he reported. "Of course, we got lucky. Manfredi's suit will be enough evidence for the cops to investigate him further, and they'll find enough evidence in his house to put him away, if only for a while. But next time, we'll need to be more careful. Maybe motion sensors positioned a few blocks around the target-"

"Prowler," Gwen cut him off as she approached him.

Turning to look at her, Prowler asked, "What?"

Gwen stopped next to Prowler and sat down, swinging her legs over the edge of the building to dangle below. She then patted the ground next to herself, prompting Prowler to sit with her. After a moment's hesitation, he sighed and did as she'd requested, sitting down next to her. As soon as he did, he let out a groan of relief and began to rub his feet through his shoes, and Gwen remembered what he'd said about how he had gotten barely any sleep the previous night, preparing for their mission.

Gwen leaned back on her hands and looked down at the line of cops trying to keep back a hastily-gathered crowd of reporters trying to approach Manfredi Manor and casually said, "I heard what you told that lady you saved."

Prowler was silent for a moment, keeping his eyes on his sore feet, then asked, "And?"

"You told her you weren't a hero," Gwen went on. "I just wanted you to know, you're wrong."

Prowler scoffed and said sarcastically,"Yeah, right. Listen,Bochinche, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I've known real heroes, and I ain't one of 'em."

"Really?" Gwen asked disbelievingly. "Because you saved that woman without a second thought. Whether you wanted to be her hero or not, tonight you were the most important thing in her life just by being there for her."

There was a moment of silence, then Prowler said,"I know why Captain Stacy doesn't like you. The 'Peter Parker' incident. Do you know who that was?"

Beneath her mask, Gwen blinked in surprise and looked at Prowler curiously. She knew that her dad had made a big announcement about Peter's death in a largely successful attempt to get the entire city to consider her a dangerous menace, but somehow she found it completely unexpected for Prowler to mention her deceased friend's name. She'd worked so hard to separate her two different lives, after all, trying to be either Spider-Woman or Gwen Stacy, but never both, and the casual mention of Peter while she was wearing the mask felt like a collision of those two worlds.

Still, she reminded herself about the true reason that Prowler was bringing this up right now, confident that he still remained ignorant of her identity, and looked down sadly as she answered, "Yeah, I know who he was."

There was another short, uncomfortable silence following this statement. Then, when Prowler spoke again, there was a slight accusatory tone in his voice."Did you really kill him?"

Gwen hesitated for a moment, then shed a tear beneath her mask as she admitted the truth she'd managed to avoid saying until this very moment. "Yes. I did."

Prowler didn't say anything to that at first, but merely looked across the street intently, though Gwen thought that she saw him start breathing faster and got the sense that he was barely managing to restrain himself from attacking her. Feeling a fresh wave of guilt for what she'd done at the moment, Gwen didn't think that she could blame him if he did.

Then, after a few seconds, Prowler sighed and said,"I still don't believe it. Someone like you doesn't just randomly kill a kid. You're too good for that. You must've had a reason. So tell me what happened."

Touched by his faith in her, Gwen looked at Prowler inquisitively, then took a deep breath and began to explain the story. "I was supposed to be taking a break that night. Just… trying to relax for once after a hard week of Spider-ing. So I went to this Prom dance-"

"At Visions Academy,"Prowler suddenly cut her off. "That's the school where Peter Parker died. Are you saying you go there?"

"Well, I-" Gwen began to try to excuse herself, knowing that she'd let something big slip, but then just resignedly admitted, "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Prowler tilted his head at her curiously and simply said, "Huh. Well, what happened next?"

Somewhat relieved by the way that he easily moved on from the information of her school, Gwen hurriedly resumed her story. "Anyway, during the party, this giant… thing came crashing in through the ceiling. It was like some sort of enormous lizard monster, bigger than the bleachers, wearing a ripped-up jacket over its upper body. Maybe when I saw that, I should've realized that something was wrong, but… Anyway, it tore through everything in its path, and it looked hungry. Everyone ran away, but the Lizard went after one kid, so I quickly put on my suit and started to fight the Lizard so everyone could get away. It tried to eat me, and I kicked it across the room, but it knocked one of the rafters out of the ceiling, and when the Lizard came towards me again, half the ceiling fell and-"

At that point, Gwen had to take a pause, unable to finish the sentence. While she was silent, Prowler quietly asked, "So the Lizard… Are you saying that Peterwas-"

"He was the Lizard, yeah," Gwen admitted. "I had no idea it was him or… or anyone. But either way, I wasn't trying to kill the Lizard. I didn't see what I'd done until it was too late. I saw the Lizard turning back into a human, and I tried to dig him out to save him if I could, but he was too badly injured. He died in my arms, and I was helpless to do anything for him. Captain Stacy found me holding him and assumed that I had murdered his daughter's best friend. And you know the worst part? I don't think I'd care so much about what he thought if he wasn't right," she finished bitterly.

"He's not,"Prowler suddenly spat out. Gwen looked at him in confusion, but Prowler went on to say,"What happened to Peter Parker, it wasn't your fault. You tried to save him, and his death was an accident. You were just doing your job, being a hero, protecting people. You didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, not even your enemy. And if Peter Parker was anything like I've heard, I bet he would've been proud of you for stopping him. In a fight, someone's always going to get hurt, sometimes an innocent. But that's why we do this, right? We protect everyone we can, simplybecausewe can. Maybe we will fail to save someone, but we never stop trying, and this city's better today because of people like you."

After Prowler had finished saying his piece, Gwen thought that she felt some invisible burden being lifted from her shoulders as she processed his words. Somehow, in a matter of seconds Prowler had managed to help to ease her mind from an internal struggle she'd been dealing with for over a year now. What he'd said about Peter, assuring her that he would've held no ill will towards her for hurting him and that she had handled her grief admirably by becoming an even better hero, was doing more to help her emotional state than she'd ever managed to do for herself.

For whatever reason, she now found some of the greatest comfort and sincerity she'd ever known coming from the Prowler. It was almost laughable to face the fact, but one of her former worst enemies had quickly evolved into one of the people she trusted most in this world, second only to Miles.

Gwen smiled beneath her mask and playfully punched Prowler on the arm as she responded, "I think you mean people likeus, partner. IfIcan be considered a hero, then you certainly are as well."

Hearing that, Prowler looked away and his glowing eyes fell sadly, looking as though he wanted to believe her but couldn't quite manage it, and responded,"Gracias, pero no gracias.I don't work like you do. You're the funny one, I'm the scary one. You see what I want you to see, but there's a darker side of me that doesn't belong to a good guy. If you really knew me, you wouldn't think I was a hero, so please don't try to convince me that I am one."

Distressed by her friend's inability to believe in his own goodness in the same way that she did, Gwen stared at Prowler for a moment, then took a deep, slow breath and resolutely made a decision. Raising a hand towards her neck, Gwen felt around with her fingers for a second and parted the folds of her suit's fabric where her bodysuit met her mask, then grabbed the bottom of her mask firmly.

Looking over when he noticed her movement, Prowler looked at the position of her hand and quickly realized what she was doing, starting to say,"Hey, wait, Spider-Woman-!"But he didn't have time to get any further than that before Gwen pulled her mask upwards, pushing back her hood to reveal her face and let her shoulder-length blond hair fall free.

Still holding her mask in her hand as she turned to look at Prowler face-to-face once more, Gwen tried to contain her nerves as she said, "Then you can get to know the realmefirst. I trust you. My name is Gwen Stacy, which… you may notice kind of makes my relationship with Captain Stacy even more complicated."

She had tried to play off the tension of the moment with a light-hearted joke, but maybe Prowler had just gotten really good at ignoring her attempts at humor, because for all the reaction he showed, he might've not even heard her at all.

Staring into her face until Gwen started to feel slightly uncomfortable, Prowler repeated, "Gwen Stacy."That was all he said, which seemed a little weird to Gwen, but then again, she'd never done this before, revealing her identity to someone. Maybe this should've been an expected reaction, for all she knew.

"Uh, yeah!" Gwen responded with a brave attempt at a smile, but when Prowler still just continued to stare at her, his white eyes almost comically wide, she continued uncertainly, "Is there… something wrong with that?"

Prowler remained silent for another few seconds, then abruptly tore his eyes away from her with a visible effort and said,"I think I need to go."

Shocked by this sudden claim, Gwen asked, "What? Why?"

Climbing to his feet, Prowler began to back away from her and said,"You know, it's probably no big deal, but I've had a long night… Well, long couple of nights."He suddenly stretched widely and let out a long yawn, still backing away as he said,"Oh, yep, you see that? I should probably go lay down now. But you know what? You did a great job tonight, and I will probably- No, definitely! Definitely call you soon about the next mission, alright? So… see you!"

And with that, not giving her a chance to speak or ask any further questions, Prowler turned and leapt away, disappearing within seconds in a blur of magenta light. Gwen watched him go, then sighed and pulled her mask back on before standing up and starting to run away from the area, knowing that she needed to get home quick if she wanted to fix her web-shooters before her dad got back. As she ran away as fast as she could, she was internally thinking to herself about how now that she had shared her secret identity with Prowler, hopefully it wouldn't be too long until he did the same for her.

Sadly, between her distracted thoughts and her rush to get home, Gwen didn't notice one of the shadowy gargoyles perched around the exterior of Silvermane's mansion raise its head to watch her leave.

Miles POV

When he arrived stealthily back at his home, Miles snuck into the apartment through his bedroom window and quickly but quietly pushed his slightly ajar door closed and locked it. His mom should still be at work, as she was still required to work late at the hospital as the staff there continued to struggle to accommodate a massively boosted number of patients following Rhino's rampage, but he still didn't want to take any chances.

Once Miles was sure that his bedroom was secure, he walked over to his wide, wooden desk and leaned against it, his clawed hands gripping the edge as he held himself up with his arms and released a deep breath. Then, he abruptly lunged towards one side of the desk and swept his arm across the entire tabletop, knocking everything off of it and onto the floor in a fit of unbridled rage. Textbooks, sketchbooks, markers, worksheets, action figures, everything on the desk received the same treatment, getting knocked down carelessly and left in a big pile on the floor.

Deciding that this wasn't enough to vent his anger, Miles grabbed the lamp from his nightstand and turned to throw it roughly across the room, where it hit the wall and caused the bulb to shatter.

Still unrelieved, Miles nevertheless tried to reel in his emotions using his uncle's teachings of self-control, placing his hands back on his desk and bowing his head as he took in a deep breath, but quickly lost his concentration and let out a yell of denial as his hands involuntarily clenched, and he heard the wooden lip of the tabletop splinter beneath his hands.

Finally, that was enough to snap Miles back to his senses, knowing that the damage he was doing to his room would only get harder to explain to his mom if he continued, and Miles backed up and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, placing his head inside the palms of his hands.

It just couldn't be possible. There was no way that Gwen could be Spider-Woman… right? But the more Miles thought it over, the more possible it seemed. He remembered all the times that she had already been otherwise occupied when he had made an excuse to go out and be the Prowler. Like a fool, he had always believed every word she told him, even asherepeatedly lied to her day after day. Naturally Gwen could've been doing the same the whole time.

He remembered when Gwen had gone towards the roof when Rhino had attacked. Miles had simply ignored it at the time, deeming it a harmless mistake she had made and putting it out of his mind so that he could go fight Rhino himself. He had been surprised to find Spider-Woman already fighting the villain when he arrived, but again, Miles hadn't questioned it. He had simply remembered his mission, to gain Spider-Woman's trust, and had taken the opportunity without wondering about any of the suspicious circ*mstances.

Of course, he had later resolved to find out how Rhino had escaped in an effort to prevent it from happening again, but somehow he had never wondered about where Gwen had truly wound up after she left his apartment. He knew that she had not reached her father during that event, after all. Or rather, only now did he see that she had. Thinking back on it now, he realized that even their voices were practically the same, the only difference being the slight muffling that Spider-Woman's mask added to her words. How could he have been sostupid?

Suddenly, a soft beep in Miles' earpiece inside his mask told him that he was receiving a call. Expecting that it was Spider-Woman... Gwencalling him wanting to know why he had disappeared like that, Miles narrowed his eyes and pressed a finger to the side of his mask to answer the call as he said, "I told you that I'll stay in touch."

"Actually, that's whatwetoldyou, Mr. Morales,"responded a voice from the other end. However, the voice was not Spider-Woman's, but Mr. Nelson's.

Surprised, Miles' tone became much less forceful as he said, "Mr. Nelson? I… didn't realize that this was you calling."

"Your confusion is understandable, Mr. Morales, but perhaps in the future you should be more careful about who you speak to and how,"Mr. Nelson reprimanded him, then added, "But that's not why I'm calling. The boss wants to speak to you. Immediately."

Looking around uncomfortably, Miles said, "Er… I'm a bit busy with work at the moment, this isn't really a great time-"

"If the boss wants to speak to you, he clearly feels that what he has to say is more urgent than whatever else you're doing at the moment,"Mr. Nelson cut him off, then repeated, "He wishes to speak to you immediately."

Sighing in defeat, Miles said, "Alright, fine. Put him on."

However, Mr. Nelson denied this request, saying, "No. If he wanted to speak to you on the phone, he would've called himself. He wants to see you in person. The usual meeting place in half an hour."

And with that simple message, Mr. Nelson hung up, leaving Miles with no opportunity to say anything else now that he had all the information he needed. Then again, Miles doubted that he would've gotten more information on why Mr. Murdock suddenly wanted to talk to him by continuing his conversation with Mr. Nelson.

If he wanted to see what Matt wanted, the only choice was to go to the indicated location and find out, and if he only had half an hour to reach Matt's office across the city, Miles decided that he had better get going as soon as possible. And so, putting aside his thoughts about Gwen's dual lives for now, Miles got up and quickly climbed back out the window, leaving his room in a shambles for him to clean up after he got back.

Line Break

The journey to Fisk Tower had given Miles plenty of time to think about his situation, and he now thought that he knew what was really bothering him.

Gwen's secret double-life as a spider-themed superpowered vigilante he could accept. After all, he'd be a bit of a hypocrite to judge her for it, or even for all the lies she'd told him. Of course, he now had more questions than ever and was still plenty mad at himself for letting her fool him for so long, but he'd now been forced to face the fact that it made sense. Gwen possessed a powerful combination of a brilliant mind and a uniquely determined and ethnic spirit that was full of integrity, and she was too benevolent to have kept her secret from him with the intention of excluding him from such an important part of her life.

No, he couldn't bring himself to continue being angry with her. But this situation certainly complicated things for him.

Miles stepped into Wilson Fisk's office and casually walked right past the big man's desk. Fisk didn't say a word to Miles as the younger man passed, but it was still clear that he had noticed him despite Miles' silent footsteps, as Fisk discreetly pressed the button to retract the glass wall behind himself into the ceiling, allowing Miles to go right through and walk right into Mr. Murdock's office.

The Kingpin was sitting at the same table where Miles had been given his first job interview, blindly facing the door and clearly waiting for Miles to enter the room, naturally unable to see that Miles had already arrived. Taking pity on the man, Miles stopped in front of the table and said, "You called, Mr. Murdock?"

Matt looked up in surprise at the sound of his voice, but quickly recovered and smiled as he said, "Welcome back, Miles. Please, take a seat."

Miles sat down in the seat right across from Matt and retracted his mask. The soft hissing of the metal plates must've clued Matt in on the fact that Miles had taken his seat, as he then proceeded to begin their discussion. "So, Miles, how was last night? Productive, I hope?"

Freezing in place as his thoughts immediately went to the previous night, particularly his dance with Gwen on top of his apartment at the end of the night, Miles asked, "Excuse me?"

"You told Foggy that you needed a night off to work on something, and the mission needed to be delayed," Matt explained patiently. "He said that you made it sound urgent."

Relieved that this was about something easily explained away, Miles responded, "Oh, yeah. Yes, sir. I, uh, wanted to scout out Silvio Manfredi's house a little extra before we went in."

"Of course," Matt said with a smile. "Well, that was very sensible of you, Miles. I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. Now that I know you're okay, you'd better get home. I'm sure you could use some sleep. Although… While you're here, could I ask you one more question?"

"Of course, sir," Miles immediately responded, relieved that his lie had been found believable.

"Has Spider-Woman revealed her identity to you yet?" Matt asked.

At that, Miles blanched with worry and indecision, a small part of his brain that was still working momentarily thinking how glad he was at this moment that Matt couldn't see him, because in this moment, all of Miles' training on maintaining a neutral expression was completely lost to him as he had a silent mental battle with himself.

It lasted barely a second, as there wasn't really much of a choice to be made in the end, though perhaps the decision he made shouldn't have been the one that was easier to lean towards. He'd been hired by the Kingpin to prioritize one job above all others, to discover Spider-Woman's identity. Well, now he'd done that, and if it had been anyone else underneath her mask, Miles probably still would've been on board with the second part of his mission, to report Spider-Woman's identity to his employer. After all, he'd been assured by his uncle that Mr. Murdock could be trusted.

But now… it was more personal than Miles ever could've dreamed, and so though he wasn't quite sure why he said it, Miles looked Matt directly in the eyes and answered, "No. Nothing yet."

There was a short pause, during which Matt continued to stare into Miles' eyes from behind his circular glasses and their dark red lenses. Then, Matt leaned back in his chair and looked towards the ceiling as he said, "Well, I must say that it is… rather disappointing to hear that. Have a nice night, Miles."

Miles sat there for another moment, internally unable to decide if he had just achieved more of a success or failure, but the dismissal had been clear, and so Miles quickly stood up from his seat and walked out of the room rather awkwardly.

As the door swung shut behind him, however, it was caught before it could close and Foggy poked his head into the room to look intently at his boss and questioned, "Matt?"

Matt didn't say anything to him, but he did look directly towards the doorway and gave a quick nod to his friend. Nodding back in understanding, Foggy quickly withdrew from the room and shut the door snugly, then pulled his phone out of his pocket as he walked away, putting it up by his ear to make a call.

Chapter 12: Seeing Purple, Seeing Red

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

Miles POV

Sunday night, as usual, Miles was assigned his next mission, but for the first time, he hesitated on whether he wanted to follow through on it.

Before this, every night he got to spend working with Spider-Woman had been highly anticipated, but with his newfound knowledge of her identity, Miles knew that everything would now feel different. He would no longer be able to look at Spider-Woman without seeing Gwen and vice versa.

But then, he still had a job to do, one that he couldn't easily quit, and bringing Spider-Woman along with him was certainly not optional. Still, that fact didn't stop him from determinedly keeping his eyes averted from Spider-Woman when he heard her drop onto the rooftop behind him, instead keeping his gaze focused on the entrance to a club across the street, where a large bouncer stood in front with his arms crossed, surveying the street and occasionally allowing certain people into the building.

When Spider-Woman arrived and Miles didn't even acknowledge her presence, she seemed to sense that something was wrong and asked, "What? No 'hello'? No, 'hey, Gwen, how's it-'"

"Nice as it was for you to reveal your identity to me, let's stick with the codenames while we're in the field, alright?"Miles cut her off, and though he asked it like a question, his tone was firm enough to make it clear that it was really an order.

Spider-Woman blinked at him in surprise at being interrupted like that, but recovered quickly and nodded, saying, "Alright, I got it. I mean, I guess you probably just want to keep it fair because I don't knowyourname, but whatever. That's cool."

"You know my name,"Miles corrected her. "It's Prowler, and for now, that's all you need to know."

Spider-Woman put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes at him, then said, "Right. Well, then I guess I'll at least still have to learn your last name. Or is it just 'Prowler'?"

Ignoring her joke, Miles cast her a short glance over his shoulder and asked, "Could you just get over here? We need to get to work."

Despite her general unprofessional behavior, no one could say that Spider-Woman was whatsoever negligent when she put her mind to something, and she predictably immediately acceded to Miles' order once he made it clear that they needed to get on the move. Walking up by his side and perching on the ledge next to where he stood, Spider-Woman looked down at the club entrance and asked, "Alright, who's getting a pest problem tonight?"

"Whitney Frost, otherwise known as Maggia leader Madame Masque,"Miles responded. "Born in Rome and most of her criminal empire is mainly in Europe. She wasn't our original target, but she's taking a short break out of Madripoor and I figured that we could take her down while she's here in New York."

"So… Jameson's going to be ranting about us attacking a woman on her vacation tomorrow?" Spider-Woman asked.

Shrugging, Miles responded, "Pretty much, but we can't worry about that right now. Frost leaves tomorrow morning, so this will be our only chance to take her down."

"Which is why we can't leave anything to chance,"came another voice almost identical to Miles' own from behind them, and both he and Spider-Woman spun around to face the source of the voice, Miles snapping out his claws defensively while Spider-Woman fired a small burst of webbing from her wrist. Her web struck the hand of the man that had snuck up on them, creating a small clang of metal on metal as the man's hand was stuck onto the side of a vent fan.

However, at that moment, both Miles and Spider-Woman recognized the man, and despite their shared familiarity with him, they were both equally surprised at his presence. The man looked down at his hand trapped in the webbing, then sighed and said, "Right. I didn't miss this stuff."Then, he effortlessly pulled his arm free of the webbing, ripping part of the fan off with it with the sound of tearing metal, then used his free hand to pluck the webbing off of himself as Miles' Uncle Aaron continued, "And it's good to see you again too, Spider-Woman."

Momentarily stupified by his uncle's surprise arrival, Miles asked, "Unc- I mean… Prowler. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help with the mission,"Uncle Aaron replied like it should be obvious.

Spider-Woman stared wide-eyed at Aaron for a moment, taking in his own easily recognizable Prowler uniform, despite the fact that she'd only seen him wearing it once, and said, "Wait, what?¿Dos Prowleros?" She then looked at Miles and questioned, "I thought you said that he was done permanently?"

Aaron looked at Miles and asked, "Really? You said that? Not gonna lie, kinda offended by that, man."

"I said youmightbe!"Miles corrected hurriedly. "Which I thought you were! Why- How are you here? I thought your arm-"

Hearing that, Aaron raised his right arm to show them, which Miles now noticed was some sort of advanced prosthetic, made completely of metal and painted black and purple except for the ends of the fingers, which were tipped with silver claws that looked smaller yet just as sharp as the claws of the gauntlet he wore on his other hand. "Honestly, I thought I was done too, but last night, I managed to get this thing. A prosthetic arm more responsive, more advanced than anything they sell anywhere, and custom-made specifically for the Prowler. And it comes with some improvements, watch."

And with that, Uncle Aaron walked over to the ledge next to them, stretched out his new prosthetic arm towards the building across the street, and his hand suddenly separated from the rest of the arm at the wrist, getting launched across the street while trailing a thin wire, and impaled its claws into the roof of the club. Then, before either Miles or Spider-Woman could react to this, Aaron jumped off the roof and got reeled in quickly by his cord, crossing the street and landing on the opposite roof with his arm once again wholly intact in a mere couple seconds, then looked back and waved for them to follow him.

Well, while Uncle Aaron's arrival may have been unexpected and he probably wasn't necessary for the success of this mission, Miles couldn't see any reason why he should be unwelcome. And so, getting ready to follow after his uncle, Miles took a couple steps back and prepared to jump across the street, but then noticed that Spider-Woman seemed distracted, simply looking at Aaron with his eyes furrowed in concentration.

Trying to snap her out of it, Miles told her, "Spider-Woman! Come on, let's go!"

It almost seemed like she didn't hear him, however, and after a few more seconds she turned to Miles and said, "You never mentioned that the other Prowler lost his arm."

At that moment, Miles suddenly recalled that Gwen had met his uncle when he had just barely had his arm removed, which had probably been the last time that she had met anyone with such an affliction, and he could practically sense the memory of the moment going through her mind. Well, it seemed that Miles had found a reason for his uncle to be unwelcome.

But he was probably just overreacting. There were plenty of amputees in the world, certainly no shortage of them in New York City, and there was no reason why Gwen should assume that his uncle had anything to do with the Prowler just because they were missing the same arm. Now he just needed to convince her of that.

"Didn't I?"Miles asked, acting like he was surprised at this information. Then, remembering that Uncle Aaron had told them that he had lost it just last Friday, he added, "Well, he got it removed a few weeks ago, just after it got crushed in your fight. It wasn't going to just heal, so he just had it amputated."

Spider-Woman seemed to think about it for a few seconds, then nodded to him and said, "Let's go. Frost isn't going to arrest herself."

Relieved that she had dismissed the thought of his uncle's arm, Miles watched her jump off the side of the building and pull herself over to the other rooftop next to Aaron, and then Miles followed behind her, leaping off of the rooftop and bouncing once again in midair to land gently on top of the club. Once his feet touched the ground again, Miles turned to Spider-Woman and told her, "Spider-Woman, look around and find us the best way inside."

Spider-Woman nodded to him again, this time in acceptance, and immediately jumped off the edge and began to crawl around the sides of the building, carefully staying in the shadows. After she was gone, Uncle Aaron began to turn away to begin his own search for an entrance, but Miles stopped him by quickly grabbing his arm and hissing, "Uncle Aaron, you can't be here."

"Why not?"Aaron responded quietly. "Look, man, this was always the plan, for me to eventually get back in. And yeah, for a minute it didn't look so good, but I'm here now. Mr. Murdock wanted me here, he gave me the arm so I could come help you. Now we can get back to being a team. And now that you're the Prowler as well, you're not my sidekick anymore. You're mypartner."

"I already have a partner,"Miles responded before he could stop himself.

Uncle Aaron scoffed and pointed back towards the ledge as he said disbelievingly, "Spider-Woman? She's just a job, Miles, whereas me and you, we're family. The two Prowlers, we're a natural team."

"I don't care, you can't be here right now. You're interfering with my mission,"Miles protested.

Spreading his arms, Uncle Aaron demanded, "Oh, really? How? Because last I checked, your 'mission' wasn't going too well."

Miles opened his mouth to explain exactly how complicated the situation had become, wanting to tell his uncle about how he had already accomplished his mission but just couldn't bring himself to turn over incriminating information on his best friend, but just as they had with Mr. Murdock, Miles' instincts suddenly kicked in and silenced him before he could tell Aaron anything, though once again, he couldn't say why he was so hesitant to share this information with someone he should be able to trust.

Luckily, his inability to respond to Uncle Aaron's question was covered up by the sudden reappearance of Spider-Woman, who had a disappointed look on her face as she reported the unfortunate news that, "There doesn't seem to be any open entrance except the front door. We won't be sneaking in."

Aaron looked straight down at the floor beneath them and added, "And Madame Masque is on the middle floor, so we can't get to her any easier through the rooftop or the main entrance."

Miles thought it over for a second, then said, "Then we'll do both. We'll attack from above and below at the same time, pin Frost down and minimize any chance of escape."

"Or you and I could just blow open the wall right next to Masque and grab her,"Uncle Aaron suggested, but Miles quickly shut him down.

"We're trying to avoid collateral damage if possible,"he told his uncle firmly.

At that, Uncle Aaron folded his arms across his chest grumpily, clearly not much enjoying taking Miles' orders instead of the other way around, but consented and said, "Alright, fine. So we have our plan, let's get moving. Me and mini-Prowler will go in through the rooftop entrance, and Spider-Woman, you take the front door."

"Actually, the front door will probably be the best protected," Spider-Woman quickly pointed out, "so I think maybe mini-Prowler should come with me instead, and macro-Prowler can handle the roof by himself."

"Okay, first of all, both of you stop calling me 'mini-Prowler',"Miles spoke up before Uncle Aaron could argue, as he clearly wanted to. "Second, Spider-Woman's right. Me and her will take the front entrance, and Prowler, you go in through the roof."

Judging by the glare that Uncle Aaron gave Miles upon hearing this, he clearly didn't like that he had taken Gwen's side, but what was Miles supposed to say? It was true that the fight from the bottom up would probably be harder than fighting one's way down, and Miles had to make the practical decision for the sake of the mission.

"And what if extra backup comes my way when they see that there's two of you downstairs?"Uncle Aaron asked in one final attempt to change Miles' mind.

However, Miles just shrugged and responded, "Then I guess you'll get to find out what that fancy new arm of yours can do, huh?"

Aaron didn't respond to that, merely growled and cast one last glare at Spider-Woman and walked over towards the rooftop doorway. Meanwhile, Miles and Spider-Woman began to walk in the other direction, and Spider-Woman leaned over towards him to whisper, "I don't think he likes me very much."

"Maybe he's bitter that after you crushed his arm, you didn't offer him a 'hand'. Or maybe because I wouldn't be surprised if youdid,"Miles responded.

Spider-Woman looked at him in surprise and asked, "Did you just make a joke?"

"If you ever tell anyone, I will deny it,"Miles answered, though he gave a slight smirk beneath his mask as he saw the evident glee on Spider-Woman's face reflected through the eyes of her mask in the way they furrowed upwards excitedly.

Looking down over the edge of the building, they could see the club's bouncer still standing in front of the building's entrance, looking around menacingly and flexing the large muscles on his arms like an unspoken challenge to all of the few people actually on the street. Sadly for him, no number of times that he visited the gym would prepare him for what he was about to face.

Miles looked at Spider-Woman and asked, "You want this one?"

She just shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

Nodding in acceptance, Miles jumped down and landed silently right behind the bouncer, then leaned casually against the doorway to the nightclub. Once he was satisfied with his positioning, Miles cleared his throat to get the bouncer's attention and as the large man spun around in shock to see Miles standing behind him, Miles held up two fingers and said, "Party of two, please. Sorry, we didn't bring our invitations, but will this do?"

With that, Miles gestured with his head over the bouncer's shoulder, and the man looked around in confusion just in time to get hit in the chest by a swinging kick from Spider-Woman that knocked him off of his feet and sent him flying into the open doorway of the club. The bouncer's unconscious body collapsed hard on the floor and instantly drew the attention of every person in the room, though their eyes quickly shifted instead to Miles and Spider-Woman as they stepped into the doorway and Gwen said, "Well, that was kinda disappointing. He just stayed there on the ground. Why even call him a 'bouncer', then?"

Whether due to the shock that came with the sight of the giant, unconscious, muscular man on the floor, the outlandish and unique appearances of Miles and his companion, or simply speechlessness following Spider-Woman's terrible joke, no one in the club reacted to their arrival at first.

Noticing that most of the people in here looked relatively innocent and not particularly like criminals, Miles used the silence to his benefit as he softly but firmly ordered, "Everyone out.Now."

There was an instant panicked outrush of people swarming past Miles and Spider-Woman on their way out the door, some sounding annoyed or frightened or just generally scandalized, but within less than a minute, practically everyone had left the building. The only people that remained were a group of gruff-looking men in matching blue suits and holding an assortment of pistols and stun batons in their hands.

"Is it just me, or do all evil goons look the same?" Spider-Woman asked with a slight inclination of her head, sounding genuinely curious as she watched the men approach with no trace of fear.

"You'll have to submit a complaint at the next criminal convention,"Miles told her as he began to close the distance with Frost's bodyguards himself. "But for now, we have a job to do."

"Right, right," Spider-Woman agreed with a nod, then crouched down in preparation for a fight.

However, Miles decided that they didn't have time to fight these guys individually, and as the half-dozen men surrounded him in a semicircle, he looked back at Spider-Woman to say, "Shoot me a web, then hold on."

Apparently trusting his plan, Spider-Woman immediately shot a web line straight at him, which Miles easily sidestepped and grabbed ahold of with one hand, then used his strength to whip it around in front of himself. With Spider-Woman holding onto the other end, this allowed him to swing her straight into each of them and kick them all unconscious one by one within seconds and before any of them could even try to fire a shot.

Once this was done, Spider-Woman looked around as though expecting more guards to arrive, but when none did, she remarked, "Huh. Have I finally run into a bad guy whose hired guns don't grow on trees? I guess they just don't make 'em like they used to."

"Frost's security is weaker here, in a city outside her control,"Miles explained. "Honestly, there was no chance that you really needed my help getting in here."

Spider-Woman looked at him fondly and said, "Maybe not, but I bet you enjoyed our team-up anyway, huh? I know I did."

Looking away, Miles managed to keep a straight face as he answered, "No,"even as both his heart and mind disagreed with him most strongly.

Perhaps Spider-Woman didn't believe his denial, or perhaps she was just having too much fun to care, because she ignored him and said, "We should work on that combo move again some time. That was so cool! And when you swung me around like that, it was so much fun!"

Trying to maintain his focus, Miles looked up and activated his infrared scanner to locate Madame Masque, then said, "Frost is still on the second floor, and it looks like Prowler's dealt with most of the other security team. We'd better get up there, and fast."

At that, perhaps on instinct, he looked at Spider-Woman questioningly, silently wondering if he could get away with picking her up to carry her up there again, as that was certainly the fastest way for them to get upstairs. However, she noticed him looking and apparently managed to piece together what he was debating, because she glared at him and vehemently said, "Don't even think about it."

Miles put up his hands innocently, though part of him was actually somewhat relieved that she had forbidden him to carry her again, as he imagined it would feel slightly more awkward now that he knew she was Gwen under that mask. But with that option eliminated, Miles looked resignedly towards a door along one wall labeled "Stairs" and said, "Alright, walking it is."

With no further words, he and Spider-Woman both ran towards the stairway door and Miles wrenched it open to allow Gwen to step through first, then he followed closely behind her. With his scanner still active, Miles could see Uncle Aaron enter Frost's room before they finished climbing the stairs, but they burst into the room as well mere seconds after Aaron had arrived.

The woman who must be Whitney Frost stood in the back of the room, her hands folded behind her back as she looked back and forth between the two entrances on either side of her, seeming perfectly at ease despite the three masked vigilantes that had just invaded her private parlor. She was a slim woman with long, black, silky hair flowing down her back and wearing a form-fitting bodysuit with a belt covered in numerous small pockets around her waist.

However, the most striking part of her appearance was a mask that looked like it was made of solid gold that covered her entire face, only open in a pair of small eye holes and textured with a pair of lips engraved in the gold right above where her real mouth should be, the whole thing contrasting greatly against her black and white uniform.

Upon seeing Miles and Spider-Woman arrive, Frost began to say, "Well, well, well. So three fools thinking themselves some kind of heroes show up to challenge-"

However, at that moment, Spider-Woman cut her off by pointing at her face and saying, "Oh, I get it! MadameMasque, like MadameMask! Because… your mask!"

Frost paused in stunned silence for a moment, then said, "Er, yes. Now, as I was saying, you all have come here thinking that you could intimidate the mighty Madame Masque with your masks and-"

"I don't think you're really in any position to judge us for that," Spider-Woman once again interrupted her, Miles trying and failing to suppress a smirk beneath his own mask next to her as she did so.

Frost took a deep breath to calm herself and continued, "But you made a grave mistake, for I am Madame Masque, international scourge and master of crime, and I will not be bested by you and your cheap parlor tricks." She then whipped her hands out from behind herself, drawing two pistols to direct one at each of their groups on either side of her, and challenged, "So take your best shot, then beg for mercy from-"

But that was as far as she got before a burst of webbing landed over her eyes, obscuring her vision and making her grunt in pain. At the same time as Gwen, it seemed, Miles had run out of interest and now pulled a device from one of his pants pockets and threw it onto the ground in front of Frost. As soon as it hit the ground, the device lit up and emitted a powerful if momentary magnetic wave that pulled both guns out of Madame Masque's hands, also making her stumble forward as her arms were pulled inwards by the magnet. While she was off-balance, Spider-Woman shot a web onto one of her ankles, then tethered the other end to the ceiling to dangle Frost upside-down, the older woman letting out a yell as she was blindly pulled into an inverted position. Then, Miles mercifully ended Madame Masque's torture by firing one of his Constrictors to pin her to the wall, pressed firmly face-first and upended against the vertical surface a few feet off the ground.

Satisfied with their work, Spider-Woman lowered the hand that she had used to fire her webs and said, "Thank goodness. We managed to stop her from saying her terrible nickname again."

"Then this city will sleep a little more soundly tonight,"Miles agreed.

He then winced to himself at the same time as Spider-Woman looked at him with amusem*nt and said, "You should joke more often, you're pretty good at it."

"No,"Miles simply responded once again, though he once again experienced a few internal misgivings about the matter.

After a few seconds, Uncle Aaron stepped forward and looked at the results of Miles and Gwen's handiwork, then looked back at the two of them and said, "You know, you two make a good team. I can see why you like working together."

At that, Miles' expression fell with annoyance, knowing what was coming, and sure enough, Spider-Woman turned to look at him with mock flattery and asked, "Aww, did you tell him that you like being my partner? Oh, Prowly, I knew you liked me."

"Yet you're constantly reminding me why I shouldn't,"Miles told her in return.

Apparently enjoying their banter, Uncle Aaron chuckled at them as he held open the door on his side of the room and allowed them to walk past him, heading back towards the roof. The whole way, Miles continually tried to vocally deny his fondness for Spider-Woman while she managed to ignore all of it, possibly due to a fact that Miles knew deep within himself: that his heart wasn't in his argument.

When they arrived back on the rooftop, Miles and Spider-Woman walking side-by-side with Uncle Aaron trailing a short distance behind them, Spider-Woman turned to face Miles and cut off his latest protest by saying, "Alright, say whatever you want, we both know the truth. I need to get going, it's a school night, but I'll see you for the next mission, yeah?"

Miles nodded his affirmation and Spider-Woman gave him a wink and a soft tap on the shoulder before running over to jump off the edge of the building and swing out of sight.

Miles watched her go until she disappeared from view, and Uncle Aaron soon stepped up by his side. "Do you know where she goes to school?"Uncle Aaron asked, staring into the distance also.

Once again, Miles felt the inexplicable urge not to be truthful about this matter and answered, "No. I can't ask too many personal questions without risking her getting suspicious."

Uncle Aaron nodded in understanding, then said, "Well, it looks like you've made good progress. You two seem like you've gotten close."

Miles shrugged. "I guess you could say that. All part of the mission, right?"

Aaron chuckled and shook his head to himself, then said, "Oh, Miles. I know you too well for that. This is more than the mission, isn't it? You like her! And I meanreallylike her!"

Rearing back in shock, Miles questioned, "What? No no no. She's just a friend-"

Still obviously not believing him, Uncle Aaron said, "Yeah, you like her. Man. First the girl from your school, now the Spider-Woman? And your mission of all people? And the best part, they both like you, too! Finally, my nephew's got some game!"

Scowling to himself, Miles pushed his uncle away and said, "Man, get out of here. You don't even know about either of them."

"Well, we'll see,"Uncle Aaron claimed, sounding supremely confident. "Just make sure you watch how much the spider one messes with your head. She could be dangerous to you, Miles. Still, it was fun to watch you two together. I hope I get to work with you guys again at some point."

Picking up on the implication of that last line, Miles asked, "Wait, what does that mean? Are you not planning on sticking around?"

Aaron shook his head and answered, "No, the boss told me to help you for one night, and one night only. After tonight, he said he was gonna put me on 'standby' for a while, whatever that means."

Miles was confused by this information. Why would Mr. Murdock only want Uncle Aaron to help him for one night? It hadn't been enough time for him to do much good, but it had been just enough to nearly cause a big problem for Miles, almost allowing Gwen an opportunity to discover both Miles' and Aaron's secret identities. And yes, they had managed to relieve her suspicions, but they had been very fortunate to do so, and it had been a big risk to take.

Then again, Miles couldn't blame Matt for making such a mistake. He had no idea how close Spider-Woman was to Miles, so it could only be an unfortunate coincidence. Yet it had unquestionably been mere luck that had saved them tonight, and they couldn't rely on luck to protect their identities for long, especially not from someone as smart as Gwen.

Gwen POV

Gwen couldn't focus at all in school the next day. Her mind was distracted with a crucial question that she just couldn't answer, no matter how hard she tried.

Finally, she decided that there was nothing else to do than to simply talk to her best friend about it. And so, after the last bell rang at the end of the day and Miles walked out of the classroom, Gwen ran after him and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He looked around and saw her, then raised an eyebrow and quickly stepped to the side of the hallway so they could have a private conversation out of the way of the other students going past them. "What's up?" he asked once they had come to a complete stop.

"I need to ask you something," Gwen told him seriously.

Miles shifted his backpack on his shoulder and looked around almost nervously before saying, "Alright, what is it?"

Gwen took a deep breath, somewhat embarrassed about having to ask him this at all, and questioned, "What's scarier? Encountering a hippo or a lion right in front of you?"

There was a pause, then Miles asked her, "Are you serious?"

Nodding with determination, Gwen confirmed, "Dead serious."

Miles sighed as though her question had underwhelmed him and answered, "Obviously the hippo. Do you have any idea how many lions a single hippo could take down?"

And with that, he began to walk away, causing Gwen to hurry to keep up with him as she said, "Maybe, but it's not about which one would win in a fight, it's about which one you'd rather encounter. And, I mean, lions have sharper teeth and those claws!"

"Look, I enjoy claws as much as the next guy, but hippos have an average bite force of over 1800 PSI, nearly twice that of a lion. And their body weight and thick skin make them way harder to kill or even survive getting close to them," Miles responded, seeming uninterested in the conversation even as he made good contributions to it.

Seeing his point but still not entirely sure that she would agree with his opinion, Gwen asked for clarification. "So you would definitely prefer to fight the lion if you had to?"

Miles shook his head and muttered, "Somehow I imagine that either of us would be fine fighting either one."

Gwen wasn't sure how much of that he had meant for her to hear, but the comment did interest her. She would've thought that Miles was too smart to believe that their minds alone would be able to save them if they were cornered by one of those creatures, but that did seem to be the assumption he was working under. Of course, Gwen could undoubtedly manage against either creature physically with her spider-powers, but she wouldn't bet too highly on Gwen Stacy or Miles Morales being quite as capable as Spider-Woman.

Gwen began to fall behind as Miles didn't slow his pace while he continued to walk out of the building, but she still followed after him, having nothing better to do at the moment. Eventually, Miles walked outside and slumped down against Visions Academy's exterior wall, in a nice shady corner that was out of sight and technically still on campus yet far enough away from the crowds that their fellow students' voices were faded into the far-off background, then let out a deep breath as he pulled one of his engineering textbooks out of his backpack and began to read through his latest couple chapters of homework, apparently eager to get a head start on it.

He also seemed to think that he had left Gwen behind, judging by the way that he looked up in surprise when Gwen walked over and sat down next to him with an identical groan of relief as she settled against the wall, then said, "Oof. You sure know how to pick a spot to relax, Miles."

For a moment, Miles looked as though he were about to protest her presence here, but then he changed his mind and simply looked at her for a moment curiously, then went back to his textbook and noted, "You kept the pink in your hair."

Gwen reached up and grabbed a lock of her hair to examine the pink tips she had dyed in for Homecoming night, which she had indeed kept as they were, and shyly said, "Yeah, I, uh… decided to keep trying it for a while." She paused for a moment, then nervously asked, "Do you like it?"

To her elation, Miles nodded in response, though he didn't look at her again as he said, "I didn't trust myself to bring it up on Friday night. My mom told me not to be too forward, and I think I may have said too much about how great you looked already."

Smiling to herself at the memory, Gwen responded, "Well, I thought it was just the right amount."

Miles smirked smugly at that, but then his expression fell as he asked, "But didn't you have more important things to be doing that night?"

Tilting her head at him curiously, Gwen asked, "Like what?"

Miles shrugged and responded, "Well, I mean, I can't be the only person in this city that occupies your time, right?"

Gwen stared at him in confusion for a moment, then reminded him, "Miles, we spend most of our days stuck in the same school."

"And what about the nights?" Miles questioned, but before she could respond, he looked away and groaned as he buried his face in his book and said, "Actually, forget I said that."

Gwen smirked at him with amusem*nt. He seemed to have realized what a foolish-sounding question it was right after asking it, but the irony of the situation still was not lost on her. If only Miles knew what she really did with her nights…

They sat there for another couple moments in silence, until Miles seemed to feel safe enough to go back to studying his textbook, apparently satisfied that Gwen wasn't going to tease him about his shortsighted question.

However, shortly thereafter, Gwen began to get bored with nothing of her own to do to occupy her time, and instinctively pulled out her flip phone and opened it up to stare at her contacts, waiting impatiently for a call or text from Prowler. He usually texted her around this time of day, shortly after school had ended, and she was eager to hear about their next job.

Unfortunately, Miles apparently hadn't been as distracted as she had thought, as he looked over at the phone in her hands and abruptly leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the sky and mouthing something to himself in Spanish while he shook his head.

Seeing him obviously in some sort of distress, Gwen asked him, "What is it?"

He looked back over at her in an unimpressed way, then glanced at her phone once again and said, "It's just… that's not your phone."

Acting innocent to throw off his suspicion, Gwen nervously threw the phone back into her backpack and zipped it shut as she responded, "What are you talking about? Sure it is!"

"You handed me your cell phone last week," Miles reminded her. "It definitely didn't look like that."

Now even more flustered, Gwen said, "Well, er… my other one broke! So I'm using this one while I get it replaced."

After she'd said it, however, Gwen could see in Miles' eyes that he didn't believe her, even as he nodded and responded, "I see."

Knowing that she was trapped in dangerous waters, Gwen took that as her cue to leave and hurriedly stood up while saying, "Well, anyway, this was nice. We should do this again sometime. I'll see you tomorrow, Miles."

And with that, Gwen began to speed-walk away from Miles, but she stopped upon hearing her friend call after her, "Gwen!"

Slightly worried, Gwen turned back around and found some small object flying towards her, almost moving too fast for her to catch. However, with her spider-proportionate reflexes, Gwen just barely managed to catch the object right in front of her face, though she immediately mentally chided herself for using her powers right in front of someone, her best friend, no less. Hopefully Miles would simply attribute the improbable catch to luck or perhaps a sudden rush of adrenaline. After all, hehadthrown it rather forcefully.

While these thoughts were going through Gwen's mind, Miles put his textbook back in his backpack and stood up to walk away from the area as well. However, as he passed her, he leaned over and quickly told her, "Better not forget this."

And then he was gone, walking right by her without another word, and Gwen spun around to watch him leave, but as soon as a crowd of students walked past in front of Gwen's sight line, by the time they had passed, Miles' back had vanished from view, a trick he had demonstrated in front of Gwen before, but only now did she realize for the first time that he was disappearing on her deliberately. It was odd to come to that conclusion, both because she still didn't know how he'd managed it and because she couldn't imagine why Miles would want to leave her behind like that.

But rather than wondering about that in her mind at the moment, Gwen decided to instead focus on whatever Miles had given her. Looking down at the object still clutched tightly in her hand, Gwen turned it around for a second before she recognized it; it was her personal cell phone, the one that she had been sure was safely hidden in her back pants pocket while she talked to Miles about it being broken. How could he have taken it from her, especially without her notice?

However he'd done it, his point was made clear, that he obviously knew that she had lied about her phone being broken. Looking back sadly towards the spot where Miles had disappeared, Gwen thought guiltily about how it must've made Miles feel to know that she had told a lie straight to his face. Of course, she had never expected him to be able to find out about her lie, but that didn't make her feel any less like a terrible friend.

Line Break

Late that night, long after the building's lights had gone out, Gwen laid awake in her bed staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. For the first time since she had started working with Prowler (not counting Homecoming as that had been special circ*mstances), Gwen had not been called or texted about a mission, and it was setting off her nerves, especially considering that she had not even been given an explanation.

She briefly wondered if maybe he had gone on his latest mission with that other, original Prowler, but she still felt like she would've at least been told about that. Unless her preferred Prowler thought that he no longer needed her as a partner now that his old mentor was back?

Now that her thoughts drifted back to that original Prowler, Gwen decided to use her free time trying to complete some of the mental debates she'd had about him last night. The return of the first Prowler she had ever encountered had been confusing, and not just because she'd suddenly found herself working with two guys who had the same name, nor because of the awkward reunion with someone that she had accidentally dropped a tower on.

His appearance had simply been unexpected, especially considering how confident Prowler (That is, her Prowler. Well, notherProwler, but… Whatever!) had been that his mentor would not be returning to the job. She had figured that mini-Prowler would know one way or another, despite how surprised he had seemed when macro-Prowler had showed up. After all, he'd said that they were family…

Gwen abruptly sat up in her bed, her eyes wide. She wasn't sure what she'd just stumbled upon, but her mind suddenly seemed convinced that it had been crucially important.

Trying to recall the thought process she'd just been following, Gwen thought back to the older Prowler and traced back her mental faculties regarding him, soon settling on what she'd been thinking last night. Prowler (the old one) had arrived, and she recognized him instantly. She could hardly believe that he was there, but she had certainly recognized him. There was no forgetting his costume, so similar yet so different to Prowler 2.0's, those dark eyes with narrowed white slits that seemed to stare into her soul at all times, no matter what expression was on his face beneath the mask.

He had looked exactly as she'd remembered him… except for the arm. Yes, that was it! His new prosthetic arm had gotten her attention, she remembered getting distracted by it, wondering where it had come from, if he'd gotten it from the same place as the rest of his gear judging by how advanced it looked. But then… her thoughts had been left unfinished, because the other Prowler had reminded her of their mission, prompting Gwen to put the thought aside until the job was done, but she had forgotten it until this moment.

Seeing Prowler's prosthetic arm, she had briefly wondered if she could somehow acquire one from the same designer, but why? What could she have wanted with an arm? She didn't remember thinking about the possibility of needing it for herself… So for someone else? Well, she only knew one person that needed an arm, Miles' Uncle Aaron.

Poor Aaron, who had lost his arm in an unfortunate accident with some heavy machinery on Friday- Wait, that wasn't right. Miles had started helping his uncle at work around the same time Gwen had met him, right at the beginning of the school year. So his injury must've happened sooner than that, and his arm just wasn't amputated until last Friday. And if his injury had happened just before the school year started… then it would've happened around the same time that Prowler had been injured. In the same place on his body…

Gwen's eyes widened as she received yet another revelation. Could Miles' uncle… possibly be the Prowler, the one she had accidentally hurt? Miles had mentioned that he had a career in advanced mechanics, the perfect background to design some unique tech like the stuff Prowler used. He had the Prowler's same lanky frame, the same speech patterns, the same sense of humor.

Of course, Gwen realized that she couldn't assume that any one amputee was necessarily like any other, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense for Aaron Morales to be the original Prowler. Even the comment Miles had made about his uncle's flair for the dramatic fit.Oh, no. Miles, Gwen suddenly thought to herself.

If she was right about this (and she now found herself hoping that she wasn't), then Miles' uncle, some of the only family he had left, was a superpowered thief. If it came to it, could Spider-Woman possibly fight him again with this suspicion in the back of her mind?

She couldn't send Aaron to prison, he was her best friend's uncle, her best friend who practically idolized his uncle, who was currently helping him with work at night and was taking advanced engineering classes to help himself become more like Aaron.

Wait a minute…

A terrible thought struck Gwen, something so mind-melting that her head began to hurt just thinking about it, causing her to put her head in her hands to try to ease the pain. She recalled how Miles had pickpocketed her this afternoon, and how he could vanish on her despite all of her enhanced senses. She remembered the younger Prowler freezing and quickly leaving her alone after she revealed her identity to him.

All the times Miles and her had taken "personal time" at the same times while she secretly snuck out to work with Prowler, the night that she and Prowler had gone back to Brooklyn together and stopped right next to the academy, the way Gwen's Spider-Sense never reacted to the new Prowler, even before she had ever considered him a friend. The evidence continued to mount up in Gwen's mind, even more than she'd had for her theory about Aaron being the original Prowler, and she thought to herself,It can't be. Could it?

But if it were possible, if Miles could somehow be… the other guy, then he already knew her secret identity. Could that explain why he had acted so strangely towards her today?

Part of Gwen didn't even want to find out, perhaps because she was afraid of what she may find if she investigated further, but she also got the sense that she may already be too late. Now that she'd considered the possibility, she wouldn't be able to rest without knowing for sure if she was right or wrong.

And so, just like that, the decision was made for her. Climbing off of her bed, Gwen walked over to her desk and got down on one knee to reach beneath the desktop and grabbed her bundled-up Spider-Woman suit from underneath the wooden surface, then stood up once again while quickly brushing leftover residue of her web fluid off of the surface of the suit. She then took off her pajamas and pulled on her suit, then pulled on her hood before walking over to open her dorm's window.

As she climbed out the window, Gwen shook her head and muttered to herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this." She reached up and pulled her mask on beneath her hood, then jumped away from the wall and began to swing around to the north side of the building.

She'd been inside Miles' dorm before, on the day that she had gone to play video games with him last week, and though she recalled the view outside his window fairly well, it still took her a few moments to figure out which window was his. When she did eventually locate it, she stuck to the wall outside and looked within to see Miles sleeping in his bed, his face not currently visible to her as he was rolled over on his side and facing the wall, but his lights were out, he was underneath his covers, and his breathing looked steady and slow, so Gwen decided that it was safe to assume that he was already unconscious.

Still, she was careful not to make a sound as she stuck the tips of her fingers on one hand to the surface of the glass and slowly pulled it open, then climbed inside and began to crawl through the room on the ceiling, looking around for any evidence that could prove her reluctant suspicions, the glow of magenta eyes or the glint of silver claws.

To her disappointment (or perhaps her relief), she found nothing whatsoever out of the ordinary. Miles' room looked completely average for a Brooklyn Visions dorm, almost exactly the same as her own. He didn't have much here, just a few pairs of clothes, his backpack resting against the door, and the standard single-person bed with a desk in the corner with a computer screen on it, on which he and Gwen had played video games together not even a week ago.

At that thought, Gwen felt a quick rush of shame for suspecting her friend of lying to her, and turned to go, but suddenly noticed something else lying on the desk, something that hadn't been there last time: Miles' sketchbook.

After a moment's hesitation, Gwen's curiosity won out and she picked up the sketchbook and began to flip through the pages one by one. Her shame continued to build as she found nothing suspicious in any of the first few dozen pages, featuring only exceptional pieces of what looked like graffiti art, done in the same style as Jeff Morales' mural outside Miles' apartment.

However, she didn't stop looking through each and every page, some including things like grocery lists placed carelessly next to amazingly stylized words or phrases, or astonishingly accurate drawings of people such as his mom, dad, or his Uncle Aaron (still possessing both of his arms).

Then, as she turned one page, she froze in shock as the tone of his drawings shifted drastically. Instead of light-hearted representations of his hobbies or recreations of his family, a familiar symbol popped out at Gwen from the center of the page. It was the symbol that she had always known both Prowlers to wear on their chests, drawn in a dripping magenta that looked just like the one that the younger Prowler wore.

Silently praying that this was some kind of nightmare, Gwen muttered to herself, "No…" Trying to convince herself that this was all in her imagination, Gwen turned to the next page, then the next, and the next, but rather than convincing her that this was a lie, each page only further convinced her that it was true.

She saw schematics for advanced technology including a clawed gauntlet, broken down into masterfully drawn, detailed pieces that were all labeled in Miles' handwriting. There were drawings that looked like early designs for a Prowler suit, including a reference model that was a perfect replica of the older Prowler's suit followed by numerous new designs such as one that had V-shaped eye lenses or one that had a cape.

Soon, Gwen didn't see how much worse things could seem, but then she turned to the final section of the sketchbook and had her question answered.

Stretched across the pages of both sides, Gwen saw dozens of drawings of herself. Or, at least, of Spider-Woman. In each drawing, she was wearing her original suit, frozen in dozens of different positions, some looking like she was fighting an invisible adversary while others featured her simply swinging from a web or even just standing still and looking up sideways back at the real Gwen.

She dreaded what she would find on the next page, and sure enough, Gwen turned the page to find yet more drawings of her, but it got even worse. Gwen felt herself blush beneath her mask as she recognized the last picture on the pair of pages to be not Spider-Woman, but Gwen Stacy herself, back before her hair tips had been dyed, wearing her school uniform and smirking upwards humorously, one hand on her hip while she smiled with amusem*nt, and Gwen embarrassedly noted how Miles had even carefully replicated the small gap between her two front teeth that Gwen had disliked for so long.

Turning the page yet again, Gwen found more drawings of herself alongside drawings of Spider-Woman, and on the next page as well. On the page after that, however, she saw something interesting; a drawing that seemed to have combined the two of them, featuring Gwen Stacy's face on top of Spider-Woman's costumed body, holding her mask in one hand as she gave a mischievous smirk over her shoulder. Miles always seemed to draw her smiling, Gwen noticed as she continued to look through each of his creations, which were now growing in the number of pictures featuring both Gwen and Spider-Woman combined.

Each new image that Gwen laid eyes on made her feel more and more conflicted. Regardless of whether Miles had drawn either Gwen Stacy or Spider-Woman, she couldn't help but notice that he also drew each of them in the best possible light. In these pages, Miles had captured the best parts of both girls and had completely left out all the bad, almost as if in his eyes, there simplywereno flaws in either of them. It made Gwen feel… conflicted, to say the least.

Strange as it was for her to find these pictures hand-drawn in her best friend's sketchbook, it was also somewhat… flattering? If these pictures suggested about Miles what she thought they did… she'd never imagined that he'd felt that way about her.

Finally, Gwen reached the last page, which featured only a single drawing. It showed a masterfully drawn image of a single figure in a simple standing position, but split perfectly down the middle to create two different sides of the person. The left side was clearly Gwen Stacy, her hair tucked behind her ear save for a few strands that hung down by her eyebrow piercing as she smirked up at the real Gwen. The right side of the image, however, was wearing the Spider-Woman suit, mask, and hood. Across the top of the image were large words in artistic cursive that spelled out, "Mis ángeles".

"You know, oddly enough, all of the pictures of you mixed with theotheryou were drawn before I knew that you were both of them," said a low voice behind Gwen.

Jumping slightly at the unexpected announcement, Gwen quickly spun around to see Miles sitting on the edge of his bed with his arms hanging down over his knees and his hands crossed in the middle, still wearing his school uniform as he calmly watched her examine his sketchbook.

"Miles…" Gwen asked in shock as she stared at him, almost afraid to ask what she knew she had to. "You- You're-"

"Yeah," he sighed out in response as he looked down at the ground sadly. A moment later, metal plates began to unfold from the back of his head and wrapped all the way around to form a mask over his face. Then, as magenta shapes lit up to form the familiar eyes on the mask that Gwen had grown so used to while working with him, Miles continued, "I guess neither of us has been completely honest with each other."

Hardly able to believe her own eyes and ears, Gwen asked, "Miles? You're the Prowler?"

Looking down regretfully, the Prowler mask wearing her best friend's body responded, "This isn't how I would've wanted you to find out, but I'm glad you know now."

Gwen looked him up and down, then was forced to face the facts and weakly asked, "How? How could you keep such an important part of your life a secret from me, Miles?"

There was a pause, then Miles tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at her and asked, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not kidding!" Gwen told him fiercely, pushing down her hood and pulling off her mask to have a more personal conversation, then took a deep breath and mentally reminded herself that the building was supposed to stay quiet at this time of night, before continuing, "You dropped a building on me, Miles!"

"Okay, first of all, we've already been over this, and I already apologized,"Miles reminded her. "But knowing who you are now, I agree that I definitely owe you another apology, so I'm sorry!"

Hardly even listening to his apology, Gwen asked, "How am I supposed to process this, Miles? After weeks of becoming friends with both youandProwler, I suddenly find out that they're the same person?"

Miles' mask retracted from his face before he responded, "Well, I mean, I dealt with the same thing, so-"

"No, you didn't, Miles!" Gwen argued over him. "You don't get it! You were supposed to be the onenormalpart of my life! Miles Morales was the only thing I had that didn't come with any sort of baggage, and now… this!"

Suddenly getting defensive, Miles glared at her and said, "Hey, don't think that this isfácilfor me either. I never expected this to happen. I never even planned on working with Spider-Woman at all. But I did, and now, everything that I did with Spider-Woman, I only found out a couple days ago that it was allyou. I didn't want to believe it, but you know what? I haven't had a normal life in a long time, and I'm starting to think it's seriously overrated."

Glaring back at him, Gwen asked, "What happened?"

Miles paused at that, confused by her question, and asked, "What do you-"

"You said that you didn't originally plan on working with me," Gwen noted. "So what happened to make you do it? Because you were the one that came tomeand offered to work together."

Miles shifted uncomfortably in place, but when Gwen didn't let up on her look of determination, he sighed and admitted, "Okay, look, I was given a job. I was supposed to figure out your identity for someone."

Letting out a low snarl in the back of her throat, Gwen asked, "And who was this 'someone'?"

"Look, Gwen, once I found out who you were-"

"Who was it?!" Gwen repeated firmly.

Rearing back under Gwen's anger, Miles informed her, "Okay, fine. His name is Matt Murdock. People call him the Kingpin."

"You sold my identity to some mob boss?!" Gwen asked furiously.

"No!" Miles denied. "I mean, I wasgoing to, but things got- And he's not exactly-"

"Where is this 'Kingpin'?" Gwen cut him off angrily.

"He's in Fisk Tower, in an office hidden behind a glass wall in Wilson's Fisk's office, but you don't get it, Gwen," Miles said, trying to calm her down, but Gwen was already turning back towards the window, prompting Miles to get up from his bed and go after her while saying, "Look, he's not a bad guy, he's-"

He broke off as Gwen abruptly spun around and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, angrily lifting him off of his feet with one hand, and she forcefully told him, "If this guy sent you after me, he's a bad guy, whether you see it or not. So I'm gonna go take him down, and after that, I don't want to see the 'Prowler' in my city ever again. I need a partner that I cantrust."

Looking down at Gwen sympathetically, Miles responded, "Youcantrust me, Gwen. If nothing else, you can trust that I'm always going to be there for you, no matter what."

Those words left a pang in Gwen's heart, sounding so sincere that it instantly decreased her anger, not quite making it disappear, but certainly causing the intense fire in her eyes to fade a little. Miles had a point that was difficult to argue against. Whether as Miles Morales or as the Prowler, regardless of how much she had wanted to keep those two people separate, he had always been there for Gwen, even before he'd known about her own dual identities. With that realization, it became much harder for her to blame Miles for being the Prowler this whole time under her nose, no matter how much she wanted to place the blame on someone.

Then, holding her friend up by the front of his shirt as she glared at him, Gwen abruptly surprised them both by pulling Miles down to her level and pressing a quick, hard kiss to his lips. It lasted only a couple seconds, and after it was done, Gwen lowered Miles back down to the ground and pushed him back so that he sat on his bed, where he looked at her in astonishment with his expression unfocused. Then, she told him, "After I get back, we'll talk. About all of it."

Miles nodded vaguely in response to her claim, but Gwen had already turned back to the window and pulled on her mask before swinging away in the direction of Manhattan. Gwen Stacy may have a whole mess of complications to deal with right now, but she was leaving them all behind for the moment. Spider-Woman had one more thing to do tonight, and she would afford no distractions.

Line Break

To Gwen's great surprise, Wilson Fisk's office, if it could even be called that as it took up an entire floor of Fisk Tower almost by itself, was left completely empty when she arrived. She was unable to find a way into Murdock's secret office through the ventilation shafts she snuck in through, but she was able to get right outside Fisk's office and practically walk straight in from there.

Wilson Fisk and his security had all gone home for the night, apparently, even though the lights in the office were left on. The security cameras were still active throughout the building, but Gwen was able to easily avoid them by crawling on walls and ceilings only.

She found the glass wall behind Wilson Fisk's desk immediately, and she considered breaking it for a moment to get inside, but then found a little remote with only one button on it laying on Fisk's desk. Curious, she picked it up and pressed the button, which immediately began to raise the glass wall into the ceiling. Amazed by her good fortune, Gwen walked through the back wall entrance and closed the glass wall behind her once again, just in case the Kingpin tried to make a run for it, then tossed the remote carelessly aside.

She walked down the hallway to the left and soon arrived outside a darkened room that Gwen couldn't see anything inside, but she heard a repetitive tapping sound emanating from within. Deciding to investigate, Gwen opened the door a crack and poked her head into the room to ask, "Mr. Murdock?"

"Yes?" came a voice from the darkness.

Excited to have reached her target so easily, Gwen stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, then felt around on the wall to her side for a light switch, knowing that a sudden bright light in darkness could have massive disorienting effects on whoever saw it. Once she found it, Gwen smirked confidently and taunted, "You know, Mr. Kingpin, I'm disappointed. Madame Masque had better security, and not nearly as cool a nickname."

She then threw the light switch upwards, making sure to brace herself for the sudden flash first so that it wouldn't affect her, then looked ahead of herself and got her first glance at the Kingpin. He was a handsome, thin man with sideswept brown hair and wearing a black suit. He didn't react whatsoever to the sudden flash of light, perhaps because he was wearing circular-framed, red-tinted sunglasses despite the darkness of the night, almost like he had been expecting her plan.

Then Gwen noticed that the sound of the repetitive tapping she'd heard was coming from a thin red and white cane that the man held in his hand, still tapping it around on the floor, and she realized the real reason why he had been unaffected by the light. Murdock was blind. However, Gwen wasn't going to let this man's blindness allow him to get away with whatever crimes he had committed.

"I will choose to only acknowledge the complimentary part of that statement, and thank you," Murdock said. "Now, if you don't mind my asking, who exactly is speaking?"

Stepping into the room, Gwen answered, "The name's Spider-Woman, and your reign is over, Kingpin."

Upon hearing that, however, Murdock simply smiled, which Gwen had never known to be a good sign with bad guys. He then said, "Spider-Woman, you say? TheAmazing Spider-Woman. The Spectacular Spider-Woman. The SensationalSpider-Woman."

Starting to get annoyed by this guy's casual attitude, Gwen said, "And a few other choice adjectives Jameson uses, yes. But did you not hear me? I'm here to stop you!"

"Oh, but Spider-Woman, you are the one that gave me much of my power," Murdock told her.

Confused, Gwen asked, "What?"

"Well, not just you," Murdock quickly amended. "You and your partner, my agent, Prowler. All those big bad mob bosses you took down? Didn't you ever wonder what happened to the bodies after you and Prowler cut off the heads? After all, you put hundreds of criminals out of business. They were bound to end up somewhere."

Gwen thought about it for a moment, then realized, "You?"

Murdock stood up and spread his arms, then agreed, "Me. Power hates a vacuum, and the Kingpin was perfect to fill the hole left behind by those criminals' former employers, myformer competitors."

Gwen was appalled by the revelation of what she and Miles had truly been getting encouraged to do, but then shook her head and began to walk even closer to Murdock as she said, "It doesn't matter. You can act as smug as you want, but you didn't win, not yet."

"Agree to disagree," Murdock told her with a smirk.

"I found you!" Gwen angrily said, trying to convince him that there was nothing to disagree on. "I'm here now, and I caught you! Unless you want to try to stop me with another glass wall!"

"It's reinforced sheets of polycarbonate strong enough to stop a rocket, actually," Murdock corrected, "and it was never supposed to stop you, Ms. Stacy."

Gwen opened her mouth to retaliate, then froze and quietly asked, "What did you just say?"

Murdock nodded in an immensely satisfied way and said, "Yes, I know who you are, Gwendolyn Stacy. And before you ask, no, Mr. Morales didn't turn you in. It seems that he's developed a certain protective urge for you. Sadly, he will have to be punished for that. It's a shame, really, I rather liked him. Having a younger, faster, smarter, and more adaptable Prowler at my disposal is something I will sorely miss, but… ah, the old one was more loyal. Still, he was useful while it lasted. And he accomplished his mission, more or less. He gained your trust. He helped me discover who you really are. And, of course, he brought you to me. It was no easy task getting you here with my operative on your side. I had to give you a way to uncover both Prowler's identities in order to do it, but I think it was well worth the cost."

"If you wanted me here, I don't think you really thought this moment through too well," Gwen spat at the tall, blind man, instinctively acting defensive in the face of the first of her enemies to ever uncover her secret identity.

However, Murdock's infuriatingly confident smirk didn't waver as he argued, "Once again, Ms. Stacy, I'm going to have to disagree with you."

Suddenly, though Gwen didn't hear the door open nor did she see anyone near the light switch, the lights in the room abruptly turned back off. Immediately, Gwen went into combat mode, backing away from Murdock, and looked around herself warily, but all she could see was darkness.

Suddenly, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled in warning, but a split-second later, before she could even react, something struck her across the face. It was the size of a fist but a hundred times more forceful, nearly comparable to the average punch that the Prowler could deliver, but whatever hit her had not been wearing metal gauntlets. Then, before Gwen's head had even finished getting knocked to one side, a second attack struck her on the opposite cheek, this time even harder, and sent her flying off her feet to land in one corner of the room.

Upon hitting the ground, Gwen drew in a rattling gasp of air to get over her surprise, then hurriedly climbed back to her feet and jumped up to stick to the ceiling. She couldn't see what was attacking her, but she could still vaguely tell which way was up, and in her experience, the ceiling was usually a pretty safe place.

In the few seconds-long pause that Gwen received, she mentally questioned if it were possible for Murdock to have been the one that attacked her, but in addition to his blindness making the notion ridiculous, he suddenly spoke up, seemingly from the same place he had been standing originally, and said, "You know, Ms. Stacy, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."

Suddenly, what felt like a gloved hand wrapped around Gwen's ankle and tugged her roughly back towards the floor. However, despite how surprised Gwen was that someone had managed to grab her while she was on the ceiling, she was currently stressed enough that her sticking powers kept her hands and feet firmly pressed against the surface of the ceiling, not letting go. Yet that fact didn't seem to stop whatever was insistently tugging on her ankle, and Gwen felt and heard the pieces of plaster that she was clinging to get ripped out of the ceiling right along with her before she was thrown to the floor.

Before she could hit the ground, however, someone caught her in their arms from underneath her own arms and set her down gently on her feet. Woozy, Gwen was about to offer thanks to the unseen figure that had saved her, but then her Spider-Sense tingled once again just before the hands released her and she felt herself get hit in the face yet again, first by a right hook, then a left hook, then a powerful uppercut to her chin that lifted her a few inches off the ground. Then, with a soft whoosh of the air in front of her, Gwen felt a foot catch her in the gut and kick her right through the wall behind her.

She flew bodily down the hall and grunted as she crashed into the glass wall separating this chamber from Wilson Fisk's office, though the polycarbonate didn't even crack under the force with which she hit it.

Whatever was happening, it was reminding Gwen uncomfortably of when she had first met the second Prowler, who she was still having trouble mentally connecting to Miles. Flying through walls and getting knocked around by an opponent that her Spider-Sense seemed unable to account for was something that she had first experienced while fighting Miles at Oscorp, but this was almost worse because she could tell that her enemy (or perhapsenemiesjudging by the number of fists she'd felt hit her in the last couple seconds) wasn't pulling any punches.

Speaking of, Gwen saw a shadowy figure leap out of the darkness in front of her, moving so fast that she was unable to register more than a blur before it was upon her. However, a small amount of light was shining through the window behind Gwen, so this time, she was able to move out of the way of the first punch, though she needed to react faster than her Spider-Sense in order to do so.

She moved her head to the side as a fist landed where she had been a moment earlier, just barely dodging the attack even with her advanced speed, but Gwen heard the ballistic glass behind her crack under the force of the punch that missed her.

Okay, she was definitely dealing with some superpowered opponent here. That meant that she got to let loose a little bit.

Whoever was attacking her was still moving too fast for Gwen to register much about their appearance in this light, but they threw a left cross punch, then another right cross, both of which Gwen dodged as well with simple movements of her head, then lunged forward and tried to throw a punch of her own, but her enemy suddenly grabbed her fist in their gloved palm, stopping her dead, and Gwen looked at her trapped hand in shock.

Apparently not nearly as surprised by their achievement as Gwen was, her opponent pushed Gwen's hand backwards to make her hit herself in the face, then they threw a few extra punches of their own, twisting their hips back and forth while their fists flew into Gwen again and again, striking her in the gut, then the gut again, then the jaw, then doing another uppercut to her chin, repeatedly bouncing her body against the nearly indestructible glass surface behind her with every hit.

They then took a step back and braced themselves against the floor, then did a backflip more graceful than any professional gymnast and kicked Gwen with both feet halfway through the move, this time sending her crashing straight through the glass and finally letting her collapse on the floor right behind Fisk's desk, groaning to herself in pain with her eyes tightly closed but feeling physically incapable of movement. One side of the lower half of Gwen's mask had been ripped off, revealing part of her mouth, and she could see the edges of her hood were frayed and full of holes caused by the broken glass ripping through it. With her current head position, she couldn't tell what state the rest of her costume was in, but she doubted it was anything good.

After a few seconds, Gwen heard two figures walk over to stand over her fallen form. One of them, whom she recognized as Murdock by his voice, taunted, "Alright, Ms. Stacy, I give. By all means, go ahead and arrest me."

Determined not to let herself be beaten like this, Gwen strained to get back up, but to her horror, her body refused to respond to her whatsoever. The most she could do was to open her eyes to look at the two figures next to her, Murdock right in front of her with his arms held out towards her like he was waiting for her to slap on the handcuffs and the second figure standing just out of sight behind him.

After a few seconds in which Gwen was still unable to respond in any way, Murdock lowered his hands and stared blindly down at her as he said, "Shame. Beaten so easily. But perhaps you want to meet the one who beat you, at least? The two of you will be spending quite a bit of time together, after all."

Apparently interpreting Gwen's silence as an affirmative response, Murdock then stepped back and waved for the other figure to step forward, and they wordlessly did so, revealing themselves to Gwen's full view for the first time, prompting her to stare at them helplessly in disbelief.

Standing above her was an image that was both startlingly familiar and completely unique. It was a man, clearly a full adult and significantly older than herself, yet wearing a skintight costume disturbingly similar to her own. It was mostly black from the head down except for some dark blood-red color on the palms of his hands as well as across the upper torso, though the large shape of a spider was drawn across his chest in black, and he also had silver vambraces running up the back of his forearms, perhaps his imitation of a web shooter instead of the compact version that Gwen wore underneath her gloves.

His mask was also almost entirely red except for the eyes, which were similar to the reflective lenses that Gwen used, except that the lenses were a dark gray instead of white and surrounded by black instead of pink. All across the red of his suit was the same web design Gwen used along her forearms and on the inside of her hood, though drawn in black instead of cyan, and his suit didn't include a hood as hers did.

"Spider-Woman, meet Spider-Man," Murdock said, obviously relishing the moment.

At that moment, the stress of the moment must've finally gotten to Gwen, or perhaps her body simply shut down under the pain of all her injuries, because the next thing Gwen knew, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and then all she saw was darkness.

Chapter 13: Storming the Castle

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

Gwen POV

Her eyes fluttering open and immediately squinting against a bright light shining down on her, Gwen woke after what felt like a long sleep. She was lying down on her back on a horizontal surface, but when she groggily tried to sit up, something thick and made of metal tugged back on her wrists and ankles, forcing her to stay down.

Confused, Gwen looked down and tried to lift her arms back up a few more times, once again to no avail, but she could now see that she was wearing some kind of blue hospital gown which had been folded closed in the front. Gwen quickly tried to recall why she would be in a hospital, though her thoughts and memories felt sluggish and disorganized, but suddenly she noticed little tingles all over her body that were moving around up and down her legs and arms in little waves that felt almost ticklish.

Looking down to see what the sources of these sensations were, Gwen almost let out a scream, instead managing to limit it to a soft yelp of fear. Crawling all over her body were at least half a dozen tiny robots with metal dome cores painted a bright red and eight pointed, spindly legs coming out beneath them to carry them along, four on each side. They also each had four eyes on one side to determine which side was the front, each eye shining a dim red to let them see as they worked quickly and efficiently on… whatever they were doing.

Instinctively, Gwen tried to push them all off of her, but her hands were still restrained tightly to her sides, so all she could do was to try her best to scoot upwards to try to get them off, but the robots didn't seem fazed in the slightest and simply clung onto her hospital gown effortlessly and continued their work.

Apparently hearing Gwen's quiet cry of terror, a male voice coming from somewhere above Gwen said, "They won't harm you."

Unable to see who had spoken due to the blinding light above her eyes, Gwen tried to squint to see whoever had spoken, but quickly found it impossible. Fortunately, it turned out that she didn't have to, as a moment later, a form jumped down from above her and landed on the floor next to where she lay in a crouch, then stood up and tapped something on their wrist with their opposite hand, and suddenly the single bright light above Gwen shut off as other, less-intense artificial ceiling lights turned on to fill the room.

The figure then turned to push the lamp that had been blinding Gwen away from her face, sending it swinging to the side and out of her field of view, then said, "There. That should be calibrated correctly now. And I'll have to have a word with Murdock about who he allows to tamper with my equipment in the future."

The figure then began to walk away without another word to Gwen, seeming distracted, but Gwen noticed his unusual outfit and said, "Wait. I… remember you."

Turning to stare back at Gwen with undisguised indifference showing through dark gray lenses that obscured his eyes, the man asked, "Do you? How interesting."

Gwen was trying to remember exactly where she had seen this person before, sure that she should remember his black and red mask and skintight costume through which she could see his incredible build of a slim physique yet with numerous well-defined muscles all across his body, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her arm that made her exclaim in surprise.

Looking down, she saw that it had come from one of the eight-legged miniature robots stabbing a tiny silver needle into her arm, though the needle retracted back into the underside of the robot's dome body after only a couple seconds, taking the momentary stab of pain with it. Then, once it had finished whatever it was doing, the robot turned towards the masked man next to Gwen and jumped onto his chest, then crawled up his torso and back down one of his arms to rest itself inside his palm.

The man held the little robot up and reached inside it with his free hand to withdraw a small vial of some red liquid - which Gwen realized with shock was her blood that had been extracted - and said to himself, "Ah. Perfect." Then, seeing the distressed look on Gwen's face, the man told her apologetically, "Yes, I know that I said they wouldn't hurt you, but I needed to dosomething. Ultra-compressed hydraulics were the only solution, my needles were having trouble piercing your skin without it."

Looking at the robot in the man's hand, then at the man's mask that Gwen realized looked so similar to her own, then at the large symbol across the man's chest that looked like some enormous spider, Gwen suddenly remembered, "You! You're that… Spider-Man! We had a fight, and…"

But at that, Gwen broke off as she recalled with shame what had happened during their "fight", how she had been beaten within an inch of her life with hardly any chance of retaliation. Now, she reasoned that she must have been taken prisoner, meaning whatever she was laying on was not so much a bed as an examination table for her enemy's evil experiments.

Spider-Man, however, seemed satisfied with her recollection and held up the vial of Gwen's blood to examine it closely as he flicked the vial and responded, "Yes, I'm glad you remember, Ms. Stacy. Mr. Murdock presented me with his concerns that I may have caused you lasting brain damage, but he will be pleased to hear that they were unwarranted. Of course, I assured him that I had taken special care to leave you mostly intact, but no doubt the evidence will relieve any doubts he may have had. Not that there is any logical reason he should've doubted me in the first place."

And with that, Spider-Man began to walk away, pressing a button on the silver vambrace on the back of his wrist as he went, and all of the little mechanical creepy-crawlies covering Gwen instantly jumped off of her, some of them simply crawling off the side of the table while others shot miniscule copies of webs like the ones Gwen used from their tiny legs and swung away across the room.

Meanwhile, the one in Spider-Man's palm crawled up onto his shoulder and sat there like some sort of strange approximation of a pet parrot, and though its glowing red eyes didn't visibly move, Gwen couldn't ignore the feeling that it was watching her.

Trying to relieve some of her stress through humor, Gwen asked, "So, you bad guys are really going for the full 'mad scientist' thing these days, huh? I thought that was just in movies. If you couldn't tell, though, this is my first time being a prisoner. Do I get a pin or something?"

Ignoring everything she said expertly, Spider-Man walked past the foot of Gwen's bed and stood in front of a metal worktable, seemingly putting Gwen out of his mind completely as he began to silently work on something in his hands that Gwen couldn't see, occasionally grabbing tools from around the room to assist him, sometimes firing a quick web line from his wrists to pull something into his hand from across the room.

Watching him silently for a few minutes, Gwen managed to determine that in addition to his suit being similar to her own (which she now saw hanging on a mannequin next to Spider-Man's worktable, repaired and surrounded by large magnifying glasses), Spider-Man's webs also seemed to be the same as her own and he even did the same hand gesture in order to fire them. Wondering about the significance of these similarities, Gwen pointed out, "You're like me."

"Your acumen is astounding," Spider-Man responded sarcastically without looking back at her. "Alas, your assumption is vastly flawed. We are not nearly as alike as you would undoubtedly like to believe."

Unconvinced, Gwen argued, "I don't know about that. We both have spider powers, we both shoot webs from our wrists. Even our costumes are kinda similar!"

There was a short silence, then Spider-Man said, "These supposed likenesses were intentional, and of my own design. You gained your powers and began using them publicly before I did. I based my equipment, style, and combative prowess on the fashions that youoriginally devised, then perfected each of them through my personal alteration process."

"Perfected, huh?" Gwen asked, starting to get a bit of an arrogant vibe from this guy. "Like there was something wrong with the way I did things?"

Reinforcing Gwen's impression of this guy's egotistic behavior, Spider-Man simply nodded and said, "Of course there is. Much of what you've done is… admittedly impressive, but only for your youth and ignorance. I not only replicated your general approach to possessing these abilities, but I improved upon every aspect of it, making myself into the ultimate version of what a Spider-Man can be. ThesuperiorSpider."

Gwen stared at the man's back for a moment, then said, "Alright, come on. How many times have you rehearsed that one in the shower? Be honest."

Finally looking back at Gwen for the first time in this conversation to give her an annoyed glare, Spider-Man ignored her question as he added, "I've also done away with your insufferable sense of humor. Unlike you, I will not be found jesting like a loon in the midst of battle, which is yet another justification for why I am the greater between the two of us."

"If you're so great, why haven't I seen you before?" Gwen asked, curious as to how there could've been another Spider-person that she didn't know about for however long this guy had been "perfecting" his powers. "You say you wanted to be better than me, but I haven't seen or heard of you for however long you've been around. What's wrong? Figured you'd have a little actual competition if you tried to take me on in the 'hero' part of the job? Or did you think you'd just be too sensitive to handle Jameson on your back for everything?"

"Neither," Spider-Man responded easily, returning to his work. "I chose temporary anonymity over inane attempts at heroics. Here, I am appreciated. Here, I have authority. Here, I am supplied with all the resources I can ask for and am free to fulfill my one true obligation to this world, one that a rare visionary man such as Murdock alone can share! To create the future!"

"Murdock being a 'visionary' metaphorically, right?" Gwen asked.

At that, Spider-Man slumped forward over his table and groaned to himself, giving Gwen a great deal of amusem*nt. Then, Gwen asked, "Are you saying that you don't do the 'hero' thing at all? But… There're so many people that need help! And with powers like ours, we have the power to give them that help!"

"What then?" Spider-Man asked, finally turning around fully in his chair to face her with a glare. "Should I do as you do? Dress up each night and pretend to be a hero? Saving one life or a hundred each night, but all of it ultimately fruitless?"

Determined to convince him, Gwen began to say, "Well, yeah! Having these powers isn't a blessing forus, it allows us to protect other people when they can't protect themselves. And even if we can't save everyone, we at least need to-"

"'NEED'?!" Spider-Man demanded with a thunderous roar, leaping to his feet. He then marched over to Gwen and leaned down over her face to yell, "I don't 'need' to do anything for anyone! You want to convince me that because I have power, I 'need' to also take some kind of responsibility for everyone else?! Of all your witticisms, Spider-Woman,thatis your funniest one yet, because no powerful figure in my life ever seemed to take responsibility forme! My father beat me! My mother drove away the first woman I ever thought I could love! I was bullied relentlessly all throughout my education! Every so-called 'brilliant' scientist I ever tried to work with shunned me, dismissed me, stole from me, mocked me,ruinedme! Osborn, Stark, Smythe, Twaki, Pym, Trask, all of them! Every last one of them! And they all hadpower, but they used that power to trample me under their boots! And now, I'm one of the most powerful people on the planet, working alongside the first person to ever truly appreciate my genius! And while I have a little power of my own for the first time in my miserable existence, power I earned formyself, I have no intention of wasting it, as you have, onresponsibility."

Once Spider-Man had finished saying all this, Gwen had her head leaned as far away from him as she could get it, but her ears were still ringing from all the yelling right next to her ear.

Luckily, now that she had finally been silenced and Spider-Man had finished getting out some of his anger, he gave her one last distasteful look and held up a hand. Immediately, the little spider-bot on his shoulder jumped down to land in his palm once again, then Spider-Man lowered it down onto Gwen's chest and said, "I custom-made your restraints to contain even your superhuman strength, but from now on, any and all attempts at escape will be punished."

Then, without another word, he walked back over to his worktable. However, him being back there did not make Gwen feel any more safe while she was stuck here on this table. She once again tugged as hard as she could against her restraints, but whatever they were made of, they held her down well. Also, this time, when she pulled against the restraints, the spider-bot on her chest suddenly buzzed and Gwen felt a painful surge of electricity surge through her body, explaining what Spider-Man had meant about punishing her attempts to escape.

Knowing that she would need to figure out some other plan if she wanted to get out of here, Gwen laid her head back and tried to think. She didn't even know where she was being held right now, nor did she currently have any way of finding out, but she suddenly felt really foolish for leaving Miles behind when she went after the Kingpin, silently thinking to herself about what she would give right now not to be alone in this.

Miles POV

After the night when Miles had made two of his favorite people mad at him and watched them both disappear out his window, leaving him behind while they went to go fight his boss, Gwen wasn't in school the next day, which Miles couldn't help but feel like was kind of his fault for some reason or another.

Last night, his exceptionally well-trained senses had caused him to wake up to the sound of pages turning. Then, rolling over in his bed silently, he had been surprised and somewhat embarrassed to find Spider-Woman (who he now knew to secretly be his best friend, Gwen Stacy) standing by his desk and facing away from him as she flipped freely through the pages of his personal sketchbook.

A sketchbook he hadtold herpreviously was very private to him, seeing as it contained depictions of some of his innermost thoughts and feelings, including a complete recording of how his interest and emotional attachment had evolved into two conflicting teenage crushes on both Gwen Stacy and Spider-Woman before he even knew that they were the same person, never expecting either of them to look through his personal belongings and find the evidence of his feelings, and then, like a nightmare, they were both doing it at the same time.

Then again, it had already been too late to stop her from seeing it, and to add to the awkwardness of the situation, Spider-Woman had informed Miles (in his own alter-ego as the Prowler) that she already had a boyfriend.

Sadly, that information had not been enough to make Miles stop thinking of her in the way he did, sometimes daydreaming foolishly of a scenario where Spider-Woman's boyfriend pushed her away, though of course he'd have to be crazy to do so, and Prowler would be the one that she turned to for comfort. And the one who rained down judgment on her new ex-boyfriend, but that was besides the point.

Soon enough, he had forced himself to face the fact that her boyfriend was certainly never likely to let her go or hurt her in any way, not if he truly understood the blessing he had, and the best thing Miles could do for Spider-Woman would be to put her (at least mostly) out of his mind and be happy for her own happiness. So he had tried to move on, going so far as to begin to actively pursue his other crush on Gwen Stacy, though he imagined that his double life would make that relationship significantly more difficult than one with Spider-Woman.

He had… more-or-less asked Gwen to the Homecoming dance and had found her presence incredibly comfortable and peaceful on that night. Of course, he had already known before then of the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect his best friend, but after that night, he wasn't quite sure what he wouldn't be willing to do whatsoever for Gwen Stacy.

But then… Everything had gone wrong the very next night, when Spider-Woman decided to take off her mask in front of him for the first time. With that small act, she had simultaneously solved one big problem for him and given him two more problems of equal to even greater size.

On the one hand, she had helped him accomplish his mission to discover Spider-Woman's identity. On the other, due to who she was, he couldn't possibly bring himself to turn over that information to the man who had hired him to figure it out, which put his well-enjoyed and good-paying job in a rut that he didn't know how to get out of.

And the other problem was even worse, mostly because of how much more personal it was. If Gwen was Spider-Woman… then she had Spider-Woman's boyfriend, meaning both of Miles' crushes were beyond his reach. He'd foolishly allowed himself to get his hopes up at Homecoming that Gwen was still available. He'd never seen her talking to anyone other than him, and the only other friend she'd ever mentioned was gone. How had Miles been so foolish to think that just because she didn't have any other "friends", that meant she didn't have anyone who was… more? The realization had felt like it was ripping his heart out of his chest.

But then, with him being the Prowler, maybe it was also for the best. He'd told himself before that both Spider-Woman and Gwen were too good for him. Maybe he didn't have much of a heart to break anyway.

Yet for all the pain that Gwen had unintentionally brought Miles, he felt like he had done far worse to her. Last night, she had discovered, as he knew she eventually would, that he was the Prowler, and she had been enraged. At first, he had thought that she was just mad at him for lying to her, even just two days longer than when she had revealed her own identity, but then she'd explained further.

As it turned out, Gwen had been looking for a very specific kind of friend in Miles Morales. She had wanted someone… normal. Someone who made her feel less unusual, who had been able to accept her as the normal person that they thought she was.

I should've realized it before, Miles thought to himself shamefully. Gwen had never been accepted as Spider-Woman. She'd been chased, threatened, and generally persecuted by her dad for over a year, hated by the city she protected, and blamed endlessly for the murder of the only person who had ever accepted her as Gwen Stacy. Both Miles and Prowler had tried to be there for Gwen and Spider-Woman, remaining convinced to this day of the perfection they hid inside them, but she didn't want Miles to be a part of her other world, and she'd been angry at him for doing it anyway.

And worse still, in the heat of the moment of last night, Gwen had accidentally… kissed him. Miles still could hardly believe that it had happened, but after pinching himself repeatedly after she had gone, he'd been forced to conclude that it had not been a dream. It had been Miles' first kiss, and such an amazing experience to be able to share it with both of his crushes at once, but now Miles felt a devastating rush of guilt.

Gwen had rushed off immediately after kissing him, and Miles thought he knew why. Whether she had held a secret (and probably involuntary) attraction towards Miles, Prowler, or both, he had pressured her into cheating on her mysterious boyfriend. Of course, Miles knew the truth, that he was the only one deserving any of the blame, but he also knew Gwen well enough to know that she would be feeling culpable herself, and while some part of him had secretly enjoyed the unexpected show of desire, making Gwen Stacy feel the remorse that rightly belonged to Miles was unforgivable.

No doubt that very regret was what had kept Gwen from returning to her mandatory school day, and all thanks to Miles' carelessness. So as he walked out of his Physics class at the end of the day, alone for the first time since this school year had started, he knew that he deserved it.

One of the last things Gwen had told him before leaving was that she didn't want to see him be the Prowler ever again, and Miles could see why. The Prowler only brought pain to those around him, especially good people that deserved better. He couldn't do "partners", and Miles Morales must've been crazy to think that he could do "friends".

After school ended, Miles walked around the back of the school and looked around cautiously before turning and running straight up the wall of the building, getting to the roof in seconds. Once he was atop the school, Miles walked over and slumped down next to a railing, leaning his back against it and setting his backpack to the side, then tucked his legs in towards his chest and bowed his head into his crossed arms on top of them.

He needed to get away from the crowds for a while, get some peace and quiet, and his uncle had told him to refrain from using his shoes as much as possible outside of his costume, but where else could he go?

His normal thinking spot on the school grounds? He and Gwen had talked there yesterday.

His dorm room? Gwen had kissed him there, then left him behind in his shame.

The school commons? He had helped Gwen with her "art project" there, which he only now realized had not been a new motorcycling jacket for her dad, as she'd claimed, but for Spider-Woman's new suit that he must've looked at hundreds of times in the last couple weeks without putting the pieces together.

It was like every part of this place was now tainted with memories of him and Gwen, which may have been pleasant to think about before last night, but now they were only a source of deep emotional pain.

Suddenly, Miles' phone buzzed in his pocket, and Miles sighed before he pulled it out to answer it. He knew it wouldn't be Gwen, no matter how much he wanted it to be, so why should he even bother right now? Maybe it was Mr. Nelson calling with his next mission, which could be a pretty big one seeing as he hadn't been given one last night. If so, Miles had every intention of making whatever excuse he had to in order to avoid even attempting the job. Even if he had been in the mood for work right now, he knew that his "partner" currently wanted nothing to do with him.

Fortunately, when Miles pulled out his phone and looked at the caller ID, he could see that he was actually being contacted not by the expected "Avocado", but rather by "Uncle A". Rubbing his temple tiredly as he picked up the call, Miles held the phone to his ear and greeted, "Hey, Uncle Aaron."

"Hey, little man,"his uncle's voice responded pleasantly. "You good? You sound a little down."

Sitting up straighter against the railing, Miles responded, "No, no, I'm good. What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to head out with me tonight,"Aaron said. "It's been a while since we last did a job together, just the two of us. So what do you say? Like old times?"

His uncle certainly sounded enthusiastic about the prospect, but Miles wasn't quite sure that he shared the feeling. While it was true that he hadn't done a mission with just his uncle since before Miles had even become the Prowler, he now thought that it would feel a bit more… weird.

It would be too alike yet too different to what Miles had grown used to, and grown to enjoy, his missions with Spider-Woman, which he was currently worried may be over for good. They had become a powerful team, learning each other's strengths and weaknesses in combat and compensating for one another. Now, at the thought of going back into the field without the expectation of having Gwen to watch his back, knowing that he wouldn't have her voice to fill the silence with her terrible jokes and their playful repartee, he wasn't sure if he could do it.

He had worked with his uncle first, and they had always been successful, but… Uncle Aaron didn't know how to includefunin the job, and that had been fine for a darker, angrier version of Miles, but now he didn't know how to go back to his work feeling like actualworkand no play. Then again, if he wasn't going to be working with Spider-Woman again anyway…

Suddenly, Miles had a brilliant idea and quickly told his uncle, "No, sorry, Uncle Aaron, I can't tonight. Actually, probably can't for a while."

There was a short silence, and then Uncle Aaron's voice spoke again, now sounding almost incensed. "This is about that girl, Spider-Woman, isn't it? I told you not to let her mess with your mind, Miles."

"She's not messing with my-," Miles argued.

As though he hadn't heard him, Aaron cut him off, "You're letting that girl in your head, man, and worse, in your heart. You can't do that. She's your mission, not your friend."

"I trust her," Miles insisted.

"Then you're acting stupid,"Aaron told him. "What does she even matter to you? What doesshecontribute thatIapparently can't? I thought you couldn't stand her!"

At that reminder, Miles looked down and played his memories with Spider-Woman over in his mind. "She never stops talking, she's reckless, unprofessional, and impulsive, and she's nearly gotten me killedseveraltimes," Miles recalled, glaring at the floor. He then smiled fondly to himself and added, "She's the best."

Over the phone, Aaron groaned and said, "Miles, you're letting her manipulate you! This is exactly what I trained you against! If you want to do this job, you gotta learn how to let go of people like her!"

Finally losing his cool, Miles exclaimed, "Then maybe Idon'twant to do this anymore!"

Once again, there was a silence following that statement, though this one was longer and deeper than the last. Finally, Uncle Aaron repeated softly, "You… don't want to do this anymore?"

"Let me make myself clear," Miles told him angrily, firmly standing by what he'd said. "You trained me to be like you, to let out my anger at the world by putting on a mask and knocking aside everything in my path just because I could. I was hurting, and you showed me a way to get that hurt out. But your way isn't theonlyway that I can relieve that pain.

"Being Prowler made me strong enough to overcome that pain, but it also alienated me fromeveryone, including myself. I want to be able to trust people. I want to express myself, to show off what I can do in the daylight. I want to have friends, I want to tell jokes, I want to laugh, I want to smile while I still have a reason to. I'm moving on. I'll always be grateful to you for what you did for me, Uncle Aaron, but now I'm done. You can be the Prowler again. The only one. Consider me retired."

With that, Miles hung up the phone and let out a deep breath. He didn't know how his uncle would take this, if he would be impressed by Miles growing up and making his own choices or if he would consider it practically a betrayal, but right now, Miles didn't really care. He knew that he'd eventually have to face his uncle's reaction to Miles abandoning his preferred path, but at the moment, Miles felt like an enormous weight had just been lifted off his shoulders.

For so long now, he'd followed in his uncle's footsteps, wanting nothing more than to be like him, but now Miles felt truly free from his pain for the first time in nearly a year. Instead of bottling it up to throw back at his enemies, Miles was finally shrugging off the chains of pain and rage that had held him back for so long, and he suddenly felt like he could do anything he wanted.

And with one thing that he wanted to do rising above all others, Miles felt a grin rise to his face as he looked towards the southern edge of the building, then quickly stood up, and after putting his backpack back on and pulling the straps tight around his shoulders, he sprinted towards the ledge and jumped off, then fell a couple stories until he saw an open dorm room window and launched himself sideways into it, landing in Spider-Woman's three-point crouching pose as he had developed the habit of doing.

Looking around, he was relieved to discover that whichever girl's dorm this was wasn't currently present, as he'd hoped would be the case this early in the afternoon. Otherwise, he might've had a difficult time trying to explain his sudden appearance through the window on a building with no exterior fire escape.

Miles exited the dorm room easily, but he instantly grabbed the attention of the numerous people currently walking through the halls, all of whom were surely currently taking note of a boy, Miles Morales, no less, exiting a girl's room without any explanation.

Ignoring the muffled guffaws and quiet giggles that followed his surprise appearance, Miles walked over to the nearest girl he saw and asked her, "Do you know where Gwen Stacy's room is?"

Once again, Miles had to tune out the way that the girl and her friends shared a look of hilarity and held their hands over their mouths to hide wide smiles filled with mirth, but then the girl he had been addressing turned to him and temporarily managed to stifle her laughter so that she could ask, "And, uh, what's it worth to you?"

His eyes narrowing slightly at the girl's unhelpful behavior, Miles looked away from her and turned hopefully instead to her friends. Most of them just giggled at him, but one smiled at him and pointed down the hall to say, "She's one floor up, then head west, and the fourth door on the right."

Immediately, her other friends turned to her looking mutinous, angry at her for ruining their moment of fun, but Miles nodded to her gratefully all the same and began to walk off in the indicated direction, heading up the stairs one floor then down the hall until he found the door that was supposedly Gwen's. Excitement built in Miles as he raised one fist and rapped on the door with his knuckles.

He was now free to do whatever he wanted, free from his mission and his uncle's expectations, and he intended to use that freedom to the fullest. He was going to do what Gwen wanted him to do, be who she wanted him to be. He didn't have to be the Prowler anymore. He could be her normal, supportive friend, and hopefully eventually make amends for making her kiss him. He could earn back her trust, earn back her friendship. He could be normal, even keep himself from talking about anything Spider-Woman-related, if that was what she wanted. As long as Miles had his friend back, he couldn't imagine anything that he couldn't do.

However, after a moment with no answer from the other side of the door, Miles decided that he had to give her a better reason to open the door and called out, "Gwen? Are you in there? It's Miles!"

Immediately after saying it, Miles had to refrain from slapping his hand to his face in annoyance for his foolishness. Like telling her that it was him would make her want to open the door. She was probably hiding in there simply to avoid him.

Pleading, Miles said, "Gwen, please open the door. I know I have a lot to apologize for, but I… I need to tell you something."

Still no answer.

"Come on, Gwen, you said we would talk!" Miles begged one last time.

Once again, he was simply ignored. However, Miles would not allow himself to be dismissed that easily. Sighing to himself, Miles pulled off his backpack and rifled through its contents for a second before pulling out a small card, one of his lighter and more easily-disguised tools from being the Prowler. Inserting it into the card-reader on the room's door lock, the device flashed red repeatedly for a second, then turned to a bright green as he heard the door unlock.

Slipping inside the room and closing the door behind him, Miles began to explain, "Gwen, look, I know you're-" But he suddenly broke off upon finding the room empty of anyone except himself. For a moment, he wondered if this was really Gwen's room, but with a quick glance at the desk, he instantly recognized both of her phones lying on the surface, both her personal cell phone and the flip phone that Prowler had given her.

Looking around, he could see further evidence that Gwen must still be around here somewhere, such as her suitcase and laptop still lying around, but not having seen her anywhere in the school today, he didn't know where she could be currently if not in here. Perhaps she had switched her last class to something else? But he would think that he'd still have seen her around. Then maybe she'd asked her dad to take her out of school for the day or something.

Deciding to make sure, Miles picked up Gwen's phone and turned it on. Her lock screen showed a picture of her smiling and making a peace sign for the selfie while an uncaring-looking Miles raised an eyebrow at her in the background. How he had ever managed to act so gloomy in her presence for so long, he couldn't say, but he hoped to be able to change it soon. He still had a lot of darkness inside him, but Gwen had a way of making it go away, and he didn't want to continue being a burden to her. If Gwen Stacy wanted him to smile, he should be able to easily do that for her, because she gave him so many reasons to.

Swiping up on the screen and inputting Gwen's password (which he guessed correctly as her birthday on the first try), Miles went to her contacts and scrolled down to call her dad, then held the phone to his ear.

After a few rings, George Stacy picked up and asked, "Hey, Gwen, honey, what's up?"

Annoyed at the implication that Gwen's dad definitely didn't have his daughter with him, Miles nevertheless responded, "Captain Stacy, this is Miles Morales. Gwen went with me to Homecoming."

There was a pause, then Captain Stacy gained a note of concern in his voice as he said, "Uh, yeah, I remember you, Miles. Is this about Gwen? Is she alright?"

Trying to sound reassuring, Miles said, "Uh, yeah, she's probably fine. Listen, has she… talked to you at all since last night?"

Sounding confused, George responded, "Er, no, not really. Why? Did something happen at school or-"

Suddenly having a thought, Miles cut him off and asked, "No, nothing, but one more question, did the police hear about anything happening at Fisk Tower? An alarm or something?"

There was another pause, then George said in an even more agitated tone, "No, nothing. Is something wrong, Miles?"

Miles opened his mouth to respond, closed it hesitantly for a moment, then replied, "No, Captain Stacy. We just heard… that there might be fireworks there later. Sorry to waste your time, sir."

Miles then prepared to hang up, but George hurriedly said, "Miles, wait! Gwen's okay, right? If she's not there… just ask her to call me when she gets a chance, okay?"

Nodding determinedly in acceptance even though George couldn't see him, Miles responded, "Don't worry, Captain Stacy. I'll make sure your daughter gets back to you real soon."

And with that said, Miles hung up the phone and set it back down, then turned to exit the room. Once again, he got a number of strange looks from the students who saw him exiting a girl's dorm, but this time Miles cared even less than before about what they thought.

He crossed the entire building and ended up back inside his own room, and once the door had closed behind him, Miles leaned down next to his bed and reached beneath it to drag out what looked like nothing, but then with the press of a button on Miles' phone screen, the air he had just grabbed from beneath the bed flickered and unveiled a large duffel bag on the ground, which Miles unzipped to reveal his Prowler uniform and claws.

He didn't want to do this, but the last time he had seen Gwen, she had been going to take on the Kingpin at Fisk Tower, and now he was starting to think that maybe she hadn't returned. Despite Murdock's blindness, his Uncle Aaron had always assured Miles that Murdock was the most dangerous person in the city, and if he had done something to Gwen, then he'd better hope that part of his control as the Kingpin was that he owned all the hospitals in the city, because he was going to need every single one of them. And even if he hadn't done anything to Gwen, Murdock probably still knew what had happened to her. Either way, Miles needed answers, and he wasn't going to get them as Miles Morales.

Slipping on one of his gauntlets and clenching it into a fist one finger at a time as he heard the device begin to hum with energy, Miles sighed to himself and said, "One last time."

Then, knowing that he couldn't waste any time, Miles quickly removed his school uniform and changed into his Prowler costume, feeling ashamed as he did it for already breaking his promise to Gwen to stop being the Prowler. Then again, he technically hadn't made the promise yet, right?

Securing both of his gauntlets on his wrists once he was fully dressed, Miles willed his mask back over his face and said, "Guess I'm not good at retirement."

The words felt strange on his tongue, seeing as Miles had hardly made any jokes since his dad had died, but it was also somewhat familiar, like an old friend that he hadn't seen in many months. And speaking of friends, it was time for him to find out what happened to the only one he had left, and get her back so she could make better bad jokes for him.

Gwen POV

Whoever this "Spider-Man" guy was, he was good. Gwen hadn't been able to fight his methods of restraining her when she was at full strength, and everything he did seemed to only weaken her further. Throughout the day, he'd continued to have his spider-bots siphon out more and more of her blood, weakening her with every extraction to the point that she could now barely feel her limbs, even as her powers allowed her to stay mostly awake throughout the entire process of the involuntary blood drive.

Several more times throughout the day, she had tried to escape, but even the smallest movements caused her to get practically fried alive by the robot programmed to shock her without hesitation or mercy, which weakened her further still.

She had not said another word to Spider-Man since their little discussion hours ago, nor had he said anything more to her, and while that may be nice for keeping him from yelling at her, it was alsoreallyboring. Of course, the last part of Gwen to run out of energy would naturally be her mouth, so despite her exhaustion, she decided to finally break the silence as she saw Spider-Man walk back into the workshop from another connected room.

"Just out of curiosity, what do you want so much of my blood for?" Gwen asked him, and though Spider-Man gave no visible sign that he had heard her, she knew that she had gotten his attention. He loved to talk about his work, as she'd discovered this morning. "Because if you're looking for preserved dinosaur DNA, it's supposed to be mosquitos, not spiders."

Raising a single vial of Gwen's blood high, one of the many he'd collected today, Spider-Man answered, "What I'm looking for is far more valuable than the secret to recreating extinct species, Spider-Woman." Looking over his shoulder and seeing Gwen's surprise on her face that he had gotten her reference, Spider-Man continued, "Yes, I've seen theTriassic Parkmovies. Disturbingly abundant with scientific inaccuracies, but enjoyable nonetheless. But as I say, I do not seek to replicate the mistakes of the past. Even if I had an interest in such primitive creatures equivalent to an uneducated toddler, such wonders have already been worked, so why would I wish to do it again? No, as I told you before, I am in the business of creating the future."

He stopped talking at that point, and so Gwen was forced to prompt him, "And… do you actually know what you'redoingwith the future, Mr. Spider-Man?"

"Doctor," Spider-Man corrected firmly. "And certainly I know what I'm doing! Of course, it's an entirely esoteric subject that you couldn't begin to comprehend, but if you insist, I shall attempt to convey my vision, and if you are lucky, I shall concurrently edify your mind with the expanse of my staggering intellect!"

"Oh, boy, here we go," Gwen muttered to herself quietly, privately thinking that she may be just about to fall asleep yet again, and not due to how tired she was at the moment.

Looking back at her, Spider-Man began his story, "Just over a year ago, I was a scientist running my own start-up company. However, as always, I was unappreciated by my peers in the fields of my study, and so I was forced to make certain… compromises to keep my company above water, so to speak. One of these compromises was when I had to venture outside my personal expertise of cybernetics and instead work on a genetics project.

"However, I not only met that challenge with dignity, but I excelled in it even past the boundaries of all other so-called experts in the study. Working alongside a partner who naturally took all of the credit as soon as I had finished the job, I created a miracle that other scientists couldn't have even imagined: a genetically altered radioactive spider with a unique genetic marker that allowed its cells to interweave compatibly with human DNA."

Suddenly interested, Gwen asked, "Wait, so the spider that bit me and gave me my powers… you created it?"

Nodding to her, Spider-Man responded, "Yes, I created it, and I should've tested it earlier. The spider was only ever going to have a short life, and I knew that if it could work, my experiment to transfer spider-like abilities into a human, it could only work once. But I hesitated a moment too long, and the spider escaped and bit someone else just before it died.You, Gwen Stacy, and in allowing yourself to be bitten, you robbed me of my life's greatest achievement! I came so close to being the first and only Spider, and you stole it from me!"

Spider-Man was now glaring down at Gwen hatefully, and though she knew she was risking making him start yelling again, she said thoughtfully, "Man, you gotta be real careful these days about which bugs you let bite you."

Thankfully, Spider-Man ignored her ill-timed joke, and holding up the vial of Gwen's blood again like it was the Holy Grail, he said, "When I replicated the experiment for myself… I wanted to be the only one with this power, but I also want recognition for my accomplishment. So by studying your physiology compared to my own, I will unlock the secrets of this power in their entirety! I will uncover cures to diseases that no man has ever been able to find! I will find every hole in our biological structure and experiment to fill them as I please! And when I find no further use in keeping you alive, I'll dissect you and unveil the even deeper secrets hidden within our uniquely modified bodies. And with you gone, I will finally achieve my goal of being the only Spider-Man left on this planet!"

Looking at him in shock, Gwen commented, "And I thought frog dissections sounded freaky."

"Get all your jokes out, little spider," Spider-Man told her quietly, stepping forward and leaning over her menacingly with his dark mask lenses letting her see her own agitated reflection. "You won't get to make them for much longer."

Suddenly, there was a large rumble that shook the entire room, causing dozens of spider-bots to instantly swing over to Spider-Man's worktable and lock down all of his supplies with their bodies so that none of his projects got shifted by the abrupt shuddering of the walls.

Once he was sure that his work was all safe, Spider-Man raised one of his arms and pressed a finger to a circle of red glass on his vambrace, apparently the focal point of the device as it was the only part of the vambrace that wasn't silver. "Give me sitrep.Now," he ordered.

Immediately, a voice responded, speaking from the gauntlet as it said, "We don't know what happened! There's explosions all throughout the building, even on the top floor! Mr. Murdock's been evacuated, but Mr. Fisk is still unaccounted for."

Clearly unhappy with what he was hearing, Spider-Man glared and returned, "Clear the area as much as you can and begin putting out fires. My spider-bots will join you shortly. I will handle Mr. Fisk." With that, Spider-Man hung up the call and turned back to Gwen to quickly tell her, "Don't go anywhere while I'm gone, Ms. Stacy."

Ha ha, Gwen thought to herself bitterly as Spider-Man shot a pair of webs to the ceiling and pulled himself up to the nearest vent opening before disappearing through it. Most of his spider-bots followed right behind him, dozens moving towards the vents as he had done while others went through the doorway to the left of Gwen, presumably heading to the stairs.

However, one of the spider-bots had refused to move an inch, which was of course the one on Gwen's chest. Still, knowing that she might never have a better opportunity like this, Gwen glared down at the robot and said challengingly, "Alright,nowwe're in the future. Because every movie about the future has humans versus robots. So give me your best shot."

The spider-bot didn't react whatsoever, just sat there and kept staring at her. Satisfied that her lone guard was clearly drowsy and unattentive, Gwen tried a sneak attack and swiftly tried to bring up her arm, managing to shift the most she had since arriving here.

Sadly, it still was not enough to break her restraints, and upon feeling Gwen's movement, the spider-bot predictably sent a powerful shock through Gwen's body, causing her to gasp out and lean her head back, nearly knocked unconscious by this simple attack from the tiny robot. Her eyelids fluttering, Gwen fought to stay awake and momentarily thought about what she would give right now to be able to crush this little spider-bot in her hands.

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than through her unfocused eyes, she thought she saw the spider-bot abruptly crumple inwards and explode in a shower of sparks. Frowning to herself uncertainly, Gwen wondered,Did I do that? Or am I hallucinating?

The next second, though, she was forced to conclude that it had been neither, as she then saw the clawed, metal hand that was grasping the spider-bot tightly, crushing it more thoroughly than an empty soda can, and despite her disoriented brain, Gwen was still fairly certain that her hands didn't have claws on them. Nor were they made from metal, as far as she remembered.

Then, someone stepped up next to Gwen, who tried to focus on their face through her confusion. Looking up, Gwen was surprised to see not the dark red and black mask of Spider-Man that she'd grown to expect throughout the day, but a dark mask with dimly glowing magenta lights around white slits for eyes blocking out the ceiling lights above her.

"You came," she noted weakly, recognizing the new arrival with an instinctive smile.

A moment later, there was a flash of silver and the sound of metal tearing, and Gwen felt her wrists and ankles get freed before Prowler held out a hand towards her to help her up as he said, "Looks like just in the nick of time."

Gratefully accepting his help in sitting upright on the table, Gwen jokingly responded, "A couple of minutes ago wouldn't have been so bad either."

Miles POV

Though he hadn't known what to expect when he'd come to Fisk Tower with the intention of finding Gwen no matter the cost, Miles would never have imagined this. Though he'd been the first to actually manage it, Miles knew firsthand that Spider-Woman was not an easy opponent to defeat, so he had certainly not doubted her ability to take down his blind boss. What he'd found from her instead of the expected victory, however, he was still trying to process.

Miles wondered to himself about what sort of manpower Matt must secretly have at his disposal if he not only managed to defeat Spider-Woman, but somehow keep her locked up in his basem*nt for a whole day. The basem*nt itself was nothing to scoff at, either. The way Gwen was being held down on a table with her limbs restrained and some little spider-themed robot on her that was in terrible taste, Miles felt like he had walked into some mad scientist's lab in a movie and left the world of sanity behind. Like, seriously, a spider robot that electrocuted people? What kind of spider had electric powers?

Anyway, Miles had arrived at Fisk Tower just a few minutes ago and had scanned the building for any abnormalities, which had revealed Wilson Fisk's almost unhealthy love of hidden doors. Like,somany hidden doors. Fortunately for Miles, his Prowler suit was equipped perfectly for the task of locating these secret doors as well as figuring out how they worked.

He'd scanned a hidden chamber beneath a statue in the lobby and decided to investigate, but after seeing a heat signature trapped and immobile inside the hidden chamber that Miles wasn't going to leave there even if it were someone other than Gwen, he decided against knocking politely and instead turned the statue to rubble to get inside.

Oh, and he had also hacked and activated some of the bombs Fisk had planted throughout his tower, especially the ones in his office. Of course, he felt kind of sorry knowing that Mr. Murdock was probably up there and would have a tough time getting out uninjured with his blindness, but by now he was also starting to get the sense that maybe Matt wasn't such a great guy after all. And hey, it was kind of Fisk's fault for filling his own building with remote-controlled explosives.

Anyway, now that he'd saved Gwen from her tiny mechanized cousin, Miles knew that they needed to get out of here, and soon. However, looking at Gwen's unsteady legs and the way that she winced as she tried to stand up, Miles shook his head and gently pushed her back down as he said, "Okay, that's not gonna work."

"I can handle it," Gwen argued stubbornly.

However, Miles fought back, "If things get rough while we try to get out of here, I'm not going to have much use for a partner that can barely stand."

Fortunately not wasting any more time and conceding to his point, Gwen looked down for a moment, biting her lip in thought, then her eyes widened as she looked up and asked him, "Wait, this is still Fisk Tower? Isn't this your workplace?"

Confused, Miles told her, "Yeah, but if you're counting on a warm welcome from my boss, I hope you're thinking of flamethrowers."

Tilting her head at him, Gwen asked, "Are you… joking? Right now? As the Prowler?"

"I blame you for giving me the instinct,"Miles excused hurriedly. He wanted to assure her that the Prowler thing was only temporary, that he hoped to become simply a more light-hearted version of her friend Miles once they were out of this, but now wasn't the time to talk about it. "Anyway, you were saying?"

As Miles reminded Gwen of what she'd been talking about, she continued, "Right! What I meant was, you work here! Do you know a shortcut to get to the top floor? I heard they're evacuating everyone up there. We can jump from the roof and swing away!"

Wincing to himself, Miles responded, "Oh, yeah. That's… convenient. And I think I know the perfect way up, but how can we move you?"

Gwen looked at him with determination, then pointed towards Spider-Man's workbench and said, "I have an idea. Grab my web-shooters and suit from by that table over there."

Miles did as she'd asked, not sure what she had in mind, and though it took him a moment to find Gwen's "web-shooters" considering that he'd never known how she fired webs from her wrists and had no clue what they looked like, he soon found them and handed them to their rightful owner. Gwen pressed her web-shooters onto each of her wrists, snapping them in place, then took her suit from Miles as well and donned her mask only before bundling up the rest of the suit and webbing it onto her back so that it stayed in place there.

She then sighed and said, "The things I do for this job. Alright, Prowler, there's only one way we get out of this. I need you to do… that thing I told you never to do again. But this time, it's gonna be even worse for both of us."

Line Break

Gwen hadn't been lying. In their current position, Gwen webbed to Miles with their backs pressed against each other, it was far more uncomfortable than the last time he had carried her. The only small blessings to make it slightly more bearable were Gwen's suit on her back providing some padding so that their shoulder blades didn't rub against each other too much, and the fact that Miles was naturally a bit taller than Gwen so that her legs didn't quite manage to touch the floor as they dangled low behind him.

However, that was small comfort when they were found immediately upon exiting the underground lab and instantly found themselves under heavy automatic fire from Fisk Tower security personnel. Luckily, Miles managed to work his way over to the VIP express elevator entrance where he had first gone up to Fisk's office and pulled the heavy doors apart with his gauntlets before stepping into the elevator and looking around for something he could hack into to get the elevator moving while Gwen fired bursts of webbing back behind them to blind and disorient their attackers.

However, it was slow work, as in addition to his frustrating lack of progress and stray bullets hitting the walls around Miles' head, Gwen's constant movement on his back was incredibly uncomfortable, and Miles shifted her body with annoyance and muttered, "Is there any way you could defend us a bit better?"

"Is there any way you couldget us upstairsa bitfaster?" Gwen retorted.

Looking straight up and noticing a maintenance hatch in the roof of the elevator car, Miles muttered to himself, "Well, I guess there's always theexpressexpress elevator."Then, Miles crouched low and launched straight upwards towards the ceiling on a blast from his shoes, though while he and Gwen together couldn't fit through the maintenance hatch, Miles was forced to punch straight through the ceiling in order to get into the elevator shaft, where he landed on top of the elevator car and looked up to mentally chart a course to his destination.

He heard Gwen start to say something on his back, but whatever it had been, she broke off as Miles jumped up suddenly yet again and began to run up the vertical surface of the shaft. This was a far more comfortable type of transport for Miles, he found, as though he could feel Gwen's body weight added to his own whenever he stood still, his shoes had no trouble carrying her added mass straight up the shaft, and thus she became almost weightless like this.

Soon, though, facing backwards, Gwen announced, "Miles! The elevator's coming!"

Though he couldn't risk looking backwards while moving like this, Miles' eyes shifted to the hoisting lines in the center of the shaft and noted the way that they were quickly moving up and down, swiftly raising the car towards them.

With a glance, Miles could instantly tell that the line wasn't moving nearly fast enough to catch up to them, but he still didn't want any armed guards to arrive on the office floor with him and Gwen, so he promptly dashed across the shaft, rotating around in midair to land on his feet on the opposite wall with one hand gripping the ledge, and used his claws to cut the cable lines halfway across.

Immediately, the elevator car beneath them lost all automated power and kept rising on momentum for a few more seconds, then fell back down the few stories it had risen to the ground below, accompanied by several voices yelling in panic followed by a crash.

"Do you think they're okay?" Gwen asked, looking down the shaft worriedly.

Not nearly so concerned about the wellbeing of the guys that had been trying to kill them, Miles shrugged and responded, "If so, it's on them. They should know better than to take the elevator during an emergency."

Gwen gave Miles an exasperated look and commented, "I think I liked it better when you left the jokes to me."

Smirking to himself beneath his mask, Miles resumed his climb and responded, "And now you know how I feel."

Moments later, they arrived on the top floor, and Miles pulled open the heavy doors once again to let them out. However, instead of getting the free getaway that they had anticipated, they found three people already waiting for them, standing in a line in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, though there wasn't much left of it as most of the glass had been shattered by the bombs that had gone off on this floor recently.

In the middle stood Mr. Murdock, his cane clutched in his hands held in front of himself, and looking completely immaculate and perfectly composed despite the rest of the room looking like it had just been through a terrorist attack… which, Miles supposed, it kind of had.

To Matt's right stood Mr. Fisk, who unlike his adopted son had dust all over his somewhat ripped white suit and had a large cut going down one of his cheeks, his bald head a bright red with barely-suppressed anger.

And on Murdock's left was a new figure that Miles had never seen before, though he was wearing a skintight costume and mask that reminded Miles of Gwen's Spider-Woman outfit, but in a dark red and black and sporting the large stylized symbol of a giant spider on his chest, silver vambraces on the backs of his wrists surprisingly complimenting the whole look quite well.

It was a rather intimidating sight to walk into, even if one of the guys was blind and another one was wearing spandex, but the moment was ruined as Gwen suddenly said, "Uh, why are we stopping?"

Having momentarily forgotten that Gwen couldn't see what he was seeing as she was facing the opposite way, Miles hurriedly turned sideways so that both he and Gwen could share sideways glances at the three men in their path. "Ohhhhhhhh. That's why," Gwen said with dawning understanding as she looked at each of the party-crashers in turn.

After giving Gwen a moment to process the situation, Matt spoke first and said, "Mr. Morales, what a pleasure to see you again. Or, not see, but… You understand. Anyway, Miles, what brings you back?"

His tone sounded convincingly polite and friendly, but Miles could sense the new hostility radiating off the Kingpin and for the first time since meeting him felt that Matt was truly someone not to trifle with. However, it would take more than that to make Miles back off during a rescue mission.

"Mr. Murdock, I'm here to officially tender my resignation,"Miles answered casually like he wasn't standing in the middle of the destroyed remains of his now-former employer's office.

Tilting his head with interest, Matt said, "Really? Well, you'll be missed. In that case, Miles, you're free to go, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave any and all company property here. And I'm afraid that that includes Ms. Stacy."

"Hey, I'm not your 'property',Grid 3," Gwen asserted. When everyone in the room looked at her curiously, even Miles, Gwen threw up her arms disbelievingly and said, "Come on! The thirdGridmovie! Where the guy was blinded!"

"I'm afraid you are wrong, Ms. Stacy," the man in red and black suddenly said, speaking for the first time that Miles had heard and quickly drawing his attention away from Gwen's ill-timed movie reference. "I'm afraid that youdobelong to me. Spider-Woman is mine!"

Taking note of this guy's possessive behavior, Miles quietly asked Gwen, "This guy isn't your boyfriend, is he?"

Casting Miles an incredulous look, Gwen asked back, "You're joking, right?"

Actually not joking this time, Miles wasn't quite sure if that response was supposed to be affirmative or negative, but he didn't have time to find out as Matt suddenly said, "Alright, Miles, time's up. Give up Spider-Woman and I'll let you go back to your life, free and clear. If you don't, I guarantee I can make your life… let's say, complicated."

Not even needing to think about it, Miles responded, "I amneverlosing her again."

Matt sighed in resignation and replied, "Then you will loseeverything." He then turned to the guy with the bad Spider-Woman cosplay and ordered, "Get her."

The man in red, who had apparently just been waiting for permission to attack, instantly leapt high into the air and flew towards Miles with his fist reared back.

Though Miles was surprised to see that this guy actually had powers like Gwen's to match his costume, it seemed that both he and Gwen had expected him to do something like this, as Gwen instantly fired a burst of webbing from both wrists that the man had to raise his arms in front of his face to block, and while his sight was temporarily limited, Miles dashed forward and out of range of the man's crushing attack, then spun around and fired a Constrictor from his wrist that struck Gwen's biggest fan in the back and pinned him face first against the wall behind them.

However, though Miles knew that his nets should be able to pin anyone down indefinitely, he wasn't willing to run the risk with an unknown factor like this guy, so as soon as spider-guy was trapped, he turned back around and ran towards the open window behind Matt.

Unable to see what was coming for him with Miles' footsteps being silent, Matt didn't even flinch, but Fisk abruptly ran forward to meet Miles' charge. Sadly for him, that was a foolish decision, as Miles had directly met the charge of the Rhino in the past, and now even had to dial back the power he put into his gauntlet as he punched Fisk in the face to avoid killing him, instead only sending him flying back into a stone pillar that cracked beneath the man's weight.

Then, still unwilling to directly attack a blind man, Miles simply jumped over Matt's head to get past him, then landed on the floor once more before jumping out the open window. However, it appeared that Miles' Constrictor had held the man in red for even less time than Miles had anticipated, as he suddenly felt himself get pulled backwards in midair and looked back to see the man holding onto Gwen's ankle with a firm grip, glaring at them both through dark lenses as he fell with them and said, "You do not escape me, Spider-Woman! If I must, I will pursue you to the ends of the earth!"

Glaring back with equal intensity, Miles told him, "Yeah, try it and see what happens, fanboy."

He then forcefully kicked the man in the face with a mighty burst of energy from his shoes, simultaneously knocking the man back towards Fisk Tower, where he crashed through one of the few unbroken windows and disappeared from sight, and also launching himself and Gwen sideways to fly away from the building.

Falling from this height, they flew horizontally over several city blocks, getting far away from the still-smoking Fisk Tower, and Miles thought that they were in the clear until Gwen told him, "Uh, Miles? We're about to land on that roof, and I can't web-swing up here!"

Looking beneath them to see that Gwen was indeed correct, Miles thought about the problem for a second and came up with a crazy solution, but perhaps the only one they had. Moving quickly, he turned and used his claws to shred the webbing holding Gwen onto his back, then pulled her around and held her up above his head as he angled his feet straight down towards the rooftop.

When they struck, for the first time since getting these shoes, Miles actually felt the impact on his feet, but as they rolled and he did his best to keep Gwen from hitting the ground herself, he knew that at the very least, his plan had worked. It had been close, but his shoes had allowed them to survive a fall that even Spider-Woman never could've managed, and mostly uninjured as well.

However, as soon as they came to a stop, Gwen pulling up her mask and looking around in amazement, Miles looked around warily then extended an arm to help Gwen back to her feet, knowing that they still had big trouble on their heels.

Chapter 14: Mirrors

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

Gwen POV

After pulling open what appeared to be a fuse box mounted on a wall on the rooftop they stood on, Miles placed his gauntlet-covered palm on the surface of the screen inside the fuse box, which scanned his hand quickly then flashed green as the brick wall next to them popped open quietly.

Miles grabbed the edge of the swinging wall and pulled it open a little more until it was wide enough for them to slip through, revealing hidden hinges on the other side, and he helped Gwen step through the hole where there had previously been a solid wall and into a dark room, then closed the door behind them and flipped a switch to turn on dim lights. Looking around now that there was just enough light to do so, Gwen found herself standing in a small room with minimal accommodations, just a small, black leather couch and one additional seat in the form of a stool set up by a worktable with a large computer monitor on it, another single, even smaller room connected to this one leading into a basic bathroom.

Though Gwen could feel her limbs already beginning to regain their strength after her ordeal in Fisk Tower, she continued to allow herself to lean against Miles' sturdy form as he helped her over to the couch and sat her down before he began to look her over more closely, probably checking for injuries, holding her hand comfortingly while he did so, perhaps unthinkingly. When he didn't find anything too serious, he turned and began to walk away silently, though Gwen instinctively didn't let his hand go for another second before her hand slipped easily out of his loosened grip.

Grateful for Miles' calming presence here with her after what she'd been through the last couple days, Gwen told him, "Thank you. For coming for me."

Miles just nodded in response and walked over to the worktable and began to pull off his gauntlets one at a time before throwing them down onto the table's surface.

Noticing that he seemed rather comfortable here, Gwen asked, "What is this place?"

"One of my uncle's Prowler stashes,"Miles responded without looking at her."We hid out in here for two days once after robbing the place across the street. Security didn't die down for a while. They were convinced we were still in the area. But they didn't find us, and I doubt Murdock will either."

Once both of his gauntlets were removed, Miles' mask automatically retracted from his face and folded onto the back of his head, then Miles began to walk over to the bathroom, calling behind himself, "Television, on. News."

For a moment, Gwen didn't know what he was talking about, but immediately after he'd finished giving the order, the computer screen on the worktable activated on its own and began to play the latest New York Breaking News story, which currently featured the smoky remains of Fisk Tower from a panning helicopter view."The fires have finally been put out, but we're being told that the damage to the tower is severe and though the foundations are secure, the building is being cordoned off indefinitely until further notice,"a woman's voice said as a voiceover to what was being shown on the screen."But the big question on everyone's minds is, of course, exactly what happened here. Wilson Fisk has publicly assured the media that he doesn't know of any rival company that he believes would do such a thing as an act of corporate espionage, and if this was instead some unanticipated act of terrorism, the PDNY has confirmed that the department received no threat, warning, or demands prior to the attack."

The image in the background suddenly changed to show a shaky recording, probably taken on a phone, of the smoking Fisk Tower before a streak of magenta light cut across the sky high above, and the woman continued,"However, this recording, confirmed un-doctored by the PDNY, suggests that the attack may not have been committed by either rival businesses or any recognized terrorist group, but instead by one of New York City's most dangerous under-the-radar figures: the super-criminal known as the Prowler. This video does not show conclusive proof, as the source that provided these images was unable to capture much detail from this distance on their phone, but Captain George Stacy has gone on record officially blaming the attack on 'the Spider-Woman's new partner in crime', claiming that the lights in the sky seen in this video match the trademark colors used by the Prowler that Captain Stacy saw when he fought the vigilante a few days ago.

"However, if it was the Prowler that did this terrible deed, it gets even more disturbing. Viewers advised, the following images may be inappropriate for younger children. If we zoom in closely on this video and play it frame by frame, we can see a dark spot thatcouldbe the presumed Prowler flying away, and then we see another vaguely-human figure get thrown away from 'Prowler' back towards the building, where they surely would've died upon landing. With this information, Captain Stacy has warned the public that Prowler is highly dangerous and, if found, should not be approached under any-"

"Mute," came Miles' voice from the side of the room as Miles walked back in. Immediately, all volume from the screen dropped before Miles looked back at the screen and commented, "You know, I actually expected worse."

He then looked at Gwen as though waiting for her to agree with him, but when Gwen didn't say anything and just stared back at him, Miles added in a concerned voice, "Gwen?"

Gwen wanted to say something to him in response, but she suddenly found herself unable to get a word out as she stared at Miles. When he'd come back into the room, his face was slightly wet from splashing water on himself to cool down and he was currently drying off his hands with a small black towel. However, neither of those facts had been what had gotten Gwen's attention. No, what had drawn Gwen's eyes was the fact that while in the bathroom, Miles had removed his leather jacket that he always wore as the Prowler, leaving him in only a sleeveless black undershirt with the Prowler logo painted on the front, and with his bare arms revealed to Gwen for the first time, she could see large muscles running up the length of Miles' arms, so well-defined already that she could hardly believe that his body was still developing, the very image of peak human capability for his age.

Distracted by this, it took Gwen a few seconds to snap out of it even after Miles walked over and kneeled in front of her worriedly, repeating, "Gwen? Are you alright?"

Finally coming back to her senses, Gwen pulled her eyes off of Miles' arms to instead look him in the face (which, admittedly, wasn't much better) and blushed embarrassedly before she recalled what they'd been talking about and asked, "What do you mean it's not that bad? They're blaming this attack on the Prowler!"

"Which, technically, itwasme," Miles told her, then shrugged and added, "I mean, unless you blame Fisk. Which, it was really mostly on him seeing as he was the guy crazy enough to put remote-detonated bombs in every corner of his building. But that's not the point. The important thing is that they're not blamingyou. Even Jameson can't deny that."

"Don't be so sure," Gwen warned. "Jameson will find a way to spin this so that it was my fault, I'll bet you anything."

Shrugging again, still apparently unconcerned, Miles responded, "Okay, fine. EveryoneexceptJameson is blaming me. That still leaves you relatively in the clear."

Confused, Gwen pointed out, "Butyouaren't. Spider-Woman may not be getting in trouble for this one, but Prowler is."

"True," Miles admitted as he got up from his knees and sat down on the opposite side of the couch, reclining against the armrest as he faced Gwen. "But I have a funny feeling they might not have much luck finding him."

Gwen raised an eyebrow at Miles' claim. He seemed pretty confident that he would be able to handle a city-wide manhunt for the Prowler, and though, having seen Prowler in action, Gwen would be forced to agree that his odds of evading the police were pretty good, it still seemed unlike Miles to say something so self-assured. Perhaps he had a trick up his sleeve for when they came for him. Either way, Gwen knew that just as he had been there for her earlier this afternoon and so many other times before then, so would she be right by his side when all of New York started hunting the Prowler, even when it caused her to face her father as Spider-Woman again, though such interactions were never comfortable.

While she was thinking about this, Miles had reached over to the worktable and grabbed one of his gauntlets as well as a small bottle of cleaner, then held the gauntlet in his lap as he began to shine up the metal with practiced ease. As Gwen watched him do this, she decided to ask Miles one of the questions that still resided in the back of her mind. "How did we survive the fall from Fisk Tower, Miles?" Gwen questioned.

Miles didn't look back at her and continued to focus on his work for another moment. Then, he answered, "In my shoes is a rare substance called vibranium. It's supposedly the strongest metal on earth, but I don't have enough to make any sort of proper weapon with it. Still, my uncle found a use for what little amount he had. He's the one who gave me the shoes. The metal is completely vibration-absorbent, so I can land from any height with complete silence and even relatively softly. And since it absorbs the energy from every footfall, I can also charge up my shoes just by using them."

By now having finished with polishing the first gauntlet, Miles set it back down on the worktable and picked up the other one to do the same to it, then looked at Gwen and said, "But the way the Prowler does what he does is pretty obvious just from looking at him. WhatIwant to know is howyoudo what you do. I saw the web-shooters, but what else do you have in your suit? Anti-gravity soles like mine? Super-adhesive micro-fibers in the gloves? Three-sixty-degree early warning system? Strength enhancers?"

Never having talked about her powers openly before, Gwen tried to figure out how best to explain them and responded, "Er… no, none of that. I can just… do it. Here, watch."

And with that, Gwen gently took the gauntlet out of Miles' hands and placed it on top of one of her own, laying it flat on her bare, open palm. She then turned her hand over so that her palm was facing downwards, where the gauntlet should naturally fall down onto the couch, but at Gwen's will, it instead stuck firmly to the surface of her hand, eluding gravity.

His eyes wide, Miles leaned down to look at the inside of her palm between it and the gauntlet, looking for some sort of trick. When he didn't find anything, he looked at Gwen in amazement and asked, "So you… have, like, actual superpowers."

"Yeah," Gwen responded as she turned her hand upright once again and tossed the gauntlet back to Miles, who caught it. She had the sense that with anyone else, she would feel a bit uneasy to talk about her powers like this, but with Miles, her friend who still supported her even after finding out about her dual identities and, like her, was a young scientist who seemed merely fascinated by her abilities rather than appalled by them, all of the tension disappeared from her mind, as it always had with him before she'd found out about his own secret double-life.

Seeing this, Gwen silently wondered to herself if maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that her two friends had turned out to be the same person, if they could still make her feel this way. She recalled one of the last things her last friend, Peter, had told her before he'd passed, that he had become the Lizard because he'd wanted to be "special" like Spider-Woman. Perhaps, then, the best thing to protect Miles from a similar fate would be for him to already be "special" as the Prowler?

She was broken from these thoughts when Miles shook his head, still struggling to comprehend her abilities, and asked, "How? How can you do these things?"

Now, this question was much easier for Gwen to answer. She recalled the moment like it was yesterday, and she imagined that she would always vividly remember the day that had changed her life so completely. "It was at the end of my last year in Junior High," Gwen disclosed. "My science class took a field trip to this genetic research center owned by Oscorp. One of their specimens, a radioactive spider, got loose while we were there and bit me. The next morning, I was feeling really weird. My body had changed overnight. I woke up and found myself looking like I'd been hitting the gym for months. I didn't tell anyone about it, especially not after things got even weirder.

"Over time, I found out that I could do things like stick to any surface with any part of my body, lift weights there was no way I could actually lift, vastly outstrip national champion records in every sports event, sense danger coming before it arrived. I eventually started wanting to use these powers for something more, wanting to test my limits, and I chose to do what my dad did. I mean, in my own unique way, of course, but still. I went from dodging dodgeballs to bullets in a matter of days, and I soon found that I couldn't stop. So I made myself a costume and started doing it every night, and I kept doing it, even when… certain circ*mstances sometimes made me question if it was worth it."

Miles looked at her sympathetically, of course knowing what circ*mstances she was referring to, and reached over to place his hand comfortingly on hers. Gwen smiled at him, grateful for the way that his physical touch kept her grounded.

Then, Miles smirked back at her and said, "Okay, the story's great, but really? Aspiderbite? You totally made that part up."

Laughing, Gwen insisted, "No, it's true! It was a spider, some kind of experiment-" However, Gwen suddenly broke off as a new part of the story that she had recently discovered came to mind, and the smile fell from her face as she added the detail, "And that spider was created by the guy who kidnapped me."

Gwen felt Miles abruptly pull his hand from hers, causing her to look at him in confusion, but Miles didn't meet her eyes, blushing as he looked straight ahead and recalled, "The guy in red."

Still wondering why Miles had so abruptly pulled away from her, Gwen responded, "Yeah. He calls himself Spider-Man, obviously a play on my name. Actually, he got a lot of his stuff from me."

Miles was silent for a moment, then asked, "So, he likes- I mean, he's like you?"

"We have the same powers and gear, as far as I could tell," Gwen confirmed. "Other than that, there's a few differences. Obviously, I'm a not-quite-adult girl while he's a grown man. I think he might be able to see in the dark. And he's, like,seriouslynarcissistic. But he has pretty good reason to be. I'll admit, he's really smart. More than just 'gifted-kids-at-Visions-Academy' kind of smart. He built that spider-bot you crushed, and dozens more just like it. And I think he's the one who told Murdock who I was. He already knew when I went after him."

Miles was quiet for another moment, then said casually, "Sounds like this 'Spider-Man' has Spider-Woman impressed."

Gwen blinked at him in confusion, then replied, "Uh, yeah. I guess that's one way of putting it. He seems pretty capable to me."

Finally looking back at Gwen, Miles gave her an odd look that held for several uncomfortable seconds, then he asked, "Seriously, is he your boyfriend?"

Following this question, Gwen was momentarily speechless as she tried to process what she'd heard. Miles was asking ifwhowas herwhat now? She remembered him asking this same question at Fisk Tower, but she'd passed it off as one of his less-funny jokes at the moment. Now, looking into Miles' pleading eyes, so desperate for knowledge, she finally considered that he may actually not know the answer.

Hadn't he figured out by now to whom she'd been referring when she'd foolishly told Prowler that she had a boyfriend, unknowing that the very person she'd spoken of had been underneath that dark mask the whole time? Yes, the situation had turned out even more awkward than Gwen could've ever believed possible, but hadn't she already handled it anyway? Hadn't she conveyed all of her pent-up, denied feelings for Miles in the kiss she had unexpectedly given him right before heading off to Fisk Tower? After all that, how could he still not know what she felt for him?

Answering Miles' question, Gwen replied, "No, of course not! Miles, there's not even auniversewhere I would like a guy like Spider-Man! Why would you even think that?"

Looking both relieved and embarrassed, Miles looked away from her again and bowed his head to answer sheepishly, "You said he impresses you. And he got all his gear from you. And you guys have matching names!"

"I'm impressed by him as in 'intimidated by him!'" Gwen clarified. "He beat me up and I'm acknowledging that he's a tough opponent! And the gear he got from me, he stolemydesigns to make, then had the audacity to claim that he 'improved' them! As for our names, how is it my fault that he chose to mess with me? If you ever got spider powers, you could be 'Spider-Man' for all I care!"

Getting defensive in the face of Gwen's angry disbelief, Miles asked, "And would you prefer that to me being the Prowler? Or would you want me to givethatup too?"

Cooling down as she was once again thrown off by Miles talking about something she didn't understand, Gwen asked, "What? What are you giving up?"

Holding the metal gauntlet in his hand in front of Gwen's face, Miles sat on the edge of the couch and answered, "Being the Prowler!"

Shocked, Gwen stuttered as she asked him, "You're… giving up being Prowler? But- Why? Why would you stop helping people?"

"Iamhelping someone," Miles assured her. "The most important one. You wanted Miles Morales to be your friend, but you don't want him to be the Prowler. It hurt you when you found out. Well… I'm not going to be someone who hurts you. Never again. So if you need me to be just Miles so that you can be happier, then that's who I'm going to be. Someone you can trust."

Following this adamant claim from Miles, Gwen was frozen in bewilderment. When had Miles made this decision, or become so firmly set in it? Because no matter how much Gwen felt that she must be imagining what she was hearing, here was Miles Morales, telling her resolutely that he was going to stop being the Prowler… for her? But what had Gwen ever done for him to deserve such a sacrifice? Miles had become the Prowler to help people, and to overcome some sense of powerlessness following his dad's death. It must surely make up at least half of Miles' whole life.

Unable to understand, Gwen asked, "Miles… How could you ever want to give up that part of yourself? This cityneedsyou."

Shaking his head, Miles argued, "It needsyoumore. And if I can do anything to improve the lives of both Gwen Stacy and Spider-Woman, then that's probably the most value my life could ever have."

Touched by that sentiment, Gwen nevertheless wanted to make sure to correct it. And so, scooting over on the couch until she was right by Miles' side, Gwen grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers tightly, and turned his chin to make him look at her as she told him, "Your life has more value than that tome, Miles. And I don't want to be the reason that you sacrifice any part of it. I'm sorry for making you feel this way, because I don't care what face you want to wear, Spider-Man or Prowler or Miles or whatever. I trust you. You're my friend, and more than that, you're a good person, even if you don't see it, and I know that I can always count on you."

Miles continued to stare into her eyes for a moment, then said softly, "Can you please tell me who your boyfriend is? I need to make sure they know how lucky they are to have you."

Letting out a deep sigh of exasperation, Gwen told him, "Seriously, Miles? Alright, look, I don't actuallyhavea boyfriend, okay?"

Rearing back from her in confusion, Miles wondered, "Wait, what? But you said-"

"Yeah, and I also said that I had tons of friends," Gwen reminded him, cutting him off. "Clearly, we were both lying at the time."

"But you were getting all… flustered about it!" Miles defended. "Unless you're just a really good actor, there has to have been some truth in that!"

Wow. Somehow, he still didn't get it. It seemed like Gwen was going to have to actually spell it out for him, to straight-up tell Miles that she had been referring to her feelings forhim, but then she hesitated. Was it possible that the reason he was so determined to believe that she had a boyfriend who was not him… was because he didn't feel the same way?

After all, she'd been the one to initiate the one and only kiss that she'd shared with him, actually kind of forcing Miles into it, and he had not reacted or spoken of it since, almost like it was something that he considered a mistake that he would rather forget. If that was true, much as it hurt Gwen to imagine her powerful emotions being unreciprocated, then perhaps the best thing for her friendship with Miles would be to lie and say that there was nothing in what she'd said about having a boyfriend in order to make Miles feel more comfortable around her.

On the other hand, she'd already kissed him and revealed her hidden feelings. And Miles had just said that whoever her boyfriend was was lucky to have her. But she could pass off the kiss as a "heat of the moment" thing, and just because Miles thought her imaginary boyfriend was lucky didn't mean that he wished hewerethat lucky person. If Miles would rather have her as just a friend, surely Gwen should be able to make a sacrifice to let him have that. After all, Miles had been willing to do the same for her.

Or maybe, if Miles kept being Prowler and continued to work with her, they would grow closer as they continued to connect through their similar yet unique life experiences, mutually sharing the details of their double-lives and secrets exclusively with one another, and perhaps in that way, Miles wouldgrowto like her in the same way she liked him. Or… he'd start thinking of her as a sister or something. Ugh! Why was this so complicated? Why couldn't Miles just already share her feelings? Her luck had always been bad, but couldn't she ever catch a break?

Apparently not, as the next moment, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled, and then the door to the stash was kicked open by a man in a black uniform with red gloves, boots, and belt, along with a small red spider symbol on the chest and red goggles with yellow angular lenses obscuring his eyes over an open-faced, tight-fitting balaclava over his head, and wielding some sort of futuristic-looking rifle. Behind him, Gwen could see at least three more men of similar size and build equipped exactly the same way, making them look like four clones of the same person with their upper faces hidden.

However, as the first soldier stood threateningly in the doorway with his weapon aimed at them, Miles reacted quickly and leaned over to press a button on the worktable. Like it was angry at the man for kicking it, the stash's door abruptly swung back with a vengeance and shut itself once more, forcefully crashing into the man as it went so that he was closed outside with a loudcrackas the steel door collided with him.

As soon as that was done, Miles jumped up, grabbing both of his gauntlets, and dashed back into the other room while saying, "Time for a bathroom break. Gwen, you'd better get changed."

Gwen quickly got to her own feet, nearly stumbling as she was still just slightly woozy, but her reflexes were still quick enough to catch her Spider-Woman costume when Miles tossed it to her as he came out of the bathroom carrying his jacket, then shoved her inside and closed the door so that she could change privately.

Then, as Gwen pulled off her hospital gown and began to don her Spider-Woman suit in record time, she called outside, "I thought you said they wouldn't find us here!"

On the other side of the bathroom door, Gwen heard a loud sizzling sound that Miles had to yell over to respond, "I don't know how they did it! No one knows about this place! But we'll have to worry about that later! I'm welding the door closed, but I doubt it'll keep these guys out long!"

Gwen pulled her mask down over her face and stepped out of the bathroom, then pointed out, "Or they could all just be looking for the bathroom. The one we have here is actually pretty nice."

At that moment, the metal door that Miles was kneeling next to as he welded it shut with the same electric torch that he'd used to cut their way out of GCT suddenly burst inwards, knocked completely off its hinges to land flat on the floor and forcing Miles to jump backwards before he was hit by it. Then, the familiar silhouette of Spider-Man appeared in the doorway, stepping over the fallen door to look at the two teenagers triumphantly.

However, despite the intimidating reappearance of her recent tormentor, Gwen couldn't resist making one more joke. Gesturing at the destroyed door and nodding to Spider-Man in understanding, Gwen asked, "Constipation, huh?"

The atmosphere of tension that Spider-Man had created was instantly destroyed by that comment, and with the eye lenses of his mask mimicking his face's expression of newfound confusion, Spider-Man asked, "What?"

Miles' Prowler mask formed over his face before he responded, "Inside joke. Now, listen, 'cause I'm only gonna warn you one time. If you leave right now, maybe I'll let you get away with killing my favorite door. If not, you'll be fighting both of us at the same time, and from what I hear, you seem smart enough to find out that we have you outnumbered."

"You clearly underestimate my capacity," Spider-Man observed, seeming completely unsurprised and maybe even somewhat pleased. "No matter, you are hardly the first to do so. But while your interpretation of the situation is admirably compendious though expectably denigrative, it is also erroneous on several counts."

At that, there was a momentary silence, then Miles said, "Er… okay."

To be honest, Gwen couldn't blame him for reacting this way to Spider-Man's long speeches and use of unnecessarily complicated words. She was hardly following along with what he was saying either, and she'd had a whole day to get used to listening to him.

Gesturing back over his shoulder, Spider-Man continued, "Evenifthe two of you truly did present any sort of genuine threat to me, I am certainly not alone. I believe you've already had the pleasure of meeting a few of my Spiderlings, and there are far more where they came from, each equipped with the very latest in handheld repulsor launchers designed by myself, decades ahead of anything Stark Industries has ever created."

"Please tell me you don't actually call your evil goons 'Spiderlings'," Gwen begged.

"They're not 'goons', they're mercenaries, patrols, minions, henchmen!" Spider-Man argued.

"What's the difference?" Gwen questioned.

"Being a henchman is a time-honored, respectable, reputable occupation of deliberate intimidation and demonstration of force!" Spider-Man explained. "Calling someone a 'goon' is… It sounds far more offensive!"

"Uh-huh," Gwen responded, not believing him. "And in their 'respectable occupation', does their boss even know who they are?"

"Of course I do!" Spider-Man insisted. "In point of fact, I'll have you know that I'm particularly fond of #23! He's the best at following orders!"

Gwen and Miles shared a short look of disbelief, then, as Gwen looked down at the ground and slapped a hand to her face, Miles told Spider-Man, "Whatever. Point is, we've taken down goons or henchmen or whatever before, and you're going to need more than that to fight both of us at once, no matter what guns you've given your pet army."

"Well, if that's how you feel, then it shall be a boon that I brought along a littleextrahelp, yes?" Spider-Man responded, sounding very pleased with himself.

Right on cue, a second figure walked into the room to stand right beside him, a figure that both Gwen and Miles unfortunately recognized. Wearing his mask of purple and black and the same symbol on his chest that Miles wore on his own, Miles' Uncle Aaron, the original Prowler, made his presence known with a chilling revelation.

There was quiet for a moment, then Miles said, "Uncle Aaron… Come on, man.Eres mejor que esto.Help us take these guys down!"

Spider-Man laughed harshly at that and said, "But he brought us to you, Mr. Morales! He's here to help the winning side. Now, I understand that you two are supposed to be 'gifted students', so hopefullyyouare smart enough to see thatyouare outnumbered."

It didn't take Gwen long to mull over her options. Looking over at Miles, she said, "Maybe we should take this talk outside."

"You read my mind,"Miles responded, still glaring angrily at his uncle, who held up his hands and began to say, "Miles, don't do anything stupid-"

Miles promptly proceeded to do the stupid thing, grabbing Gwen's arm to pull her tightly against him, then charged up his gauntlet, aimed towards the sky, and launched both of them out of the roof.

Following Spider-Man's warning about his goons - Sorry,henchmen- , Gwen assumed that they would be surrounded the moment that they exited the stash and reacted by shooting four web lines, one in each direction, and tugged hard on all of the lines once she felt them all grab ahold of four different bodies. Four human forms wearing the same Spiderling uniform surrounded herself and Miles in a protective ring, a human shield that was immediately tested as numerous yellow bolts of energy flew at them from below and repeatedly struck the now-unconscious bodies of the mercenaries around them.

Knowing that this protection would hold for only a moment, as soon as she and Miles landed back on their feet on top of the rooftop, they locked eyes and exchanged a nod, then Gwen leapt high out of the way, dodging laser fire in the air, while beneath her, Miles fired a shockwave of energy from his gauntlets that sent the bodies they'd used to hide flying in all directions at great speed, each of them crashing into and knocking over at least one of their other comrades.

However, Gwen could easily see that they still had a massive disadvantage. Whoever these soldiers were, they were professionally trained and there were still dozens of them. Even with her powers, Gwen couldn't dodge them forever. With every move she made, she took out another soldier or two, knocking them over, pulling their weapons from their hands, but they kept coming like their numbers were endless, causing Gwen's vision to begin blurring Spiderlings with their identical partners as they closed in around her.

Knowing that she couldn't afford to get tunnel vision now and risk her Spider-Sense becoming useless to her, Gwen shook her head to clear it and leapt away from the crowds, trying to get a change of scenery.

However, as soon as she was in the air, Spider-Man suddenly intercepted her from the side and tackled her off the edge of the rooftop. As they fell, the wind rippling Gwen's hood in her peripheral vision as she descended backwards towards the ground, Spider-Man grabbed her wrists with both of his hands and held them to the side to keep her from defending herself.

Using her ballerina-trained flexibility, Gwen folded her legs up against her chest and spun them around so she was on top then roughly kicked Spider-Man away from her, and he nearly hit the ground himself before he shot a quick web-line to catch himself, Gwen doing the same as she began to swing between buildings, trying to get him to make a mistake before she did.

The Spiderlings on the roof had stopped shooting at her now, probably not wanting to risk hitting their boss, but Gwen knew that they would probably all be focusing on Miles now, which kept her from feeling any sort of relief to be out of their sights. She just hoped that Miles was doing all right down there.

Miles POV

Miles was having a great time, mostly because he currently had plenty of targets for him to let out his frustration on. It had been foolish of these Spiderlings (still a terrible name) to attack the Prowler at night, on his home turf, but even more dangerous for them was to face the Prowler when he was as angry as Miles currently was.

He couldn't believe that his uncle had been the one to lead these guys here. Uncle Aaron had always taken care of him in the past, always stood by his side, and now out of nowhere he decided to help Spider-Man to fight him? What was his uncle selling out his family for? A paycheck?

The thought enraged Miles, prompting him to tear through these mercenaries and their stupidpew-pewlaser guns with more ferocity than he'd shown Spider-Woman during their first encounter. Several times, he barely even remembered to pull his punches so that he could only assume that he hadn't killed anyone yet, but he was definitely putting dozens of Spider-Man's guys out of commission permanently, regularly crushing bones with every one he took down.

He'd disappeared into the shadows as soon as he'd gotten the chance, and as they were now all spreading out to search for him across the large rooftop with miniature flashlights attached to their guns, Miles ducked around the side of a brick smokestack and peered cautiously around the side. The magenta lights around his eyes on his mask had turned to a dark gray temporarily so that he could hide himself more effectively, and no one noticed him as Miles' scanners allowed him to easily pick out two soldiers coming near him.

Flattening himself against the wall, Miles held up one hand and extended the claws, then slowly scratched his hand across the bricks behind himself, just loud enough for the two men to hear it. Turning on his thermal scanner, Miles turned around and could see through the smokestack as one of the Spiderlings nudged the other and gestured silently towards the wall behind which Miles hid. The second soldier nodded in agreement, and then they both began to slowly walk closer to him, just as Miles had wanted.

Extending the claws on his other gauntlet, Miles turned his back to the wall once again and leapt upwards about twenty feet before stabbing his claws into the brick to hold himself there. The Spiderlings came around both sides of the smokestack, both of them jumping out at the last second, hoping to catch him off guard, but they both froze when they found themselves merely aiming at each other. Then, both of them realizing too late that they'd been tricked, they both slowly raised their weapons to point their flashlights right up at Miles.

Neither of them even had time to scream before Miles launched himself down towards them and grabbed both of their faces with his clawed hands before slamming them down to the floor and instantly knocking them both unconscious if not comatose, the shapes around his eyes shifting back to magenta the moment he attacked so that his masked face would be burned into their minds as they slept.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for Miles, one of the mercenaries instinctively pulled back on his gun's trigger as he entered an unconscious state, causing his gun to fire a yellow laser bolt sideways, where it hit a wall and dissipated harmlessly but still made a loud sound and lit up the area with a quick burst of light.

In a matter of seconds, the other Spiderlings on the roof began to run towards the source of the shot, but Miles only allowed them to catch a glimpse of him standing over their fallen comrades before he clenched one fist quickly and was immediately shrouded in darkness. He heard and saw the Spiderlings firing at the spot where he had just been a moment ago, but he had already disappeared, the lights in his mask dimming once more as he slipped away unseen, unheard, unfelt.

To the soldiers, it would appear like he had just vanished, his body evaporating into a cloud of smoke that soon spread out to surround all of them, making them squint and cough through the overwhelming gas that didn't affect Miles whatsoever while they stubbornly continued trying to complete their mission despite their mounting disadvantages, and that was just what Miles wanted. To them, he was like a ghost, made to haunt and hunt them from the shadows, and the ultimate predator was the one whose prey couldn't see it coming.

The soldiers were well-trained and experienced, Miles would guess ex-military, but none of them were prepared for what they faced now. They quickly divided up into groups of two or three, all of them standing back-to-back with their partner or partners as they aimed their weapons in every direction, not wanting to get snuck up on again. Sadly for them, that was exactly what Miles would have expected them to do if he lost the element of surprise, and he had something better than protocol: adaptability.

Falling down in a crouch behind a pair of soldiers, Miles marked the locations of two more groups on either side of them, the only one here still able to see through the smoke, and roughly shoved them both unexpectedly, launching them off their feet so that they collided bodily with the two other groups, causing a general commotion as everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the sounds of scuffling and yells of fear and anger, no one quite sure what had happened.

Next, with numerous soldiers crowding around the areas he had just attacked to find out what had caused the noise, Miles armed the Constrictor launchers on both of his gauntlets and fired them right into the middle of each group, restraining four soldiers to the ground with one and five with the other. The remaining soldiers yelled out to one another and pointed blindly in the general direction of where the glowing nets had come from, but once again, Miles was already long gone by the time they started firing at him.

Standing on top of the smokestack that he'd hid behind before as he watched the "professionals" on the ground bicker and panic in general terrified chaos, Miles admired his handiwork as he prepared to finish them off and muttered to himself, "Almost too easy."

"Then here, I'll give you a more worthy challenge!"came a voice very like his own from behind him, and Miles spun around just in time to be grabbed by his Uncle Aaron as the older man threw them both off the edge of the building.

Fighting against Aaron's grip on him as they fell, Miles' anger renewed itself as he looked back into his uncle's face and said, "'Worthy'? What doyouknow about being worthy?"

Aaron had sent them flying farther than just back onto the rooftop, and Miles only managed to kick his uncle off of him when they were inside an enclosed alleyway, landing on opposite sides of the alley in sets of high-up fire escapes. Standing up and gripping the railing, Aaron asked, "What doyou, Miles? What's wrong, man? Got bored of retirement?"

"Earlyretirement, at least,"Miles joked back, though his face beneath his mask showed no signs of humor as he glared at his uncle. "Figured I'd try to get full benefits."

"You know what I think it really is?"Aaron demanded. "I don't think you got tired of the game, you just didn't want to do it withmeanymore. But what do you care how that makes me feel? Long as you got your little girlfriend, you're good, right?"

"Is that what this is about?"Miles raged. "You're mad because I didn't want to do the 'super-thief' stuff anymore, and you thought working with the guys who want to kill me was gonna make me change my mind?"

Throwing his hands up in exasperation, Aaron argued, "I'm not gonna let them kill you, Miles, no matter what the Kingpin says. But you made an enemy of a lot of powerful people, and you ain't got me to watch your back anymore. And yeah, I'm hurt because you said you were done and now you're not just because that Stacy girl needed you. Well, I needed you too! I needed my partner, and he quit on me the day after I got back!"

Ignoring the fact that Matt had obviously shared Spider-Woman's identity with his uncle, Miles shot back, "Iwasdone, man! But now I'm not, and I'm still willing to work with you! All you have to do is choose the right side!"

At that, there was a pause, and Miles hoped that his uncle was thinking over the offer. But sadly, at the end of Aaron's mental debate, he just shook his head sadly and said, "Nah. I'm sorry, Miles, but I made a promise over my brother's dead body to protect his kid. Well… I think this is the best way I can do that, so I'm gonna keep you from bein' stupid even if I have to drag you all the way home myself."

Fighting to keep his expression neutral as he watched his last hope go down the drain, Miles asked, "So that's how it is? We're just gonna be enemies, and you're fine with us fighting each other no matter what it costs?"

"Face it, man,"Uncle Aaron told him, "I'm clearly the one with the most to lose here. That wasmystash we just destroyed."

"Not what I meant, but at least you showed me how little you really care,"Miles responded cuttingly.

Clearly wounded by the insult, Aaron glowered at Miles and finally made the first move in their now-inevitable battle, jumping up onto the railing of the fire escape before launching across the alleyway towards Miles. However, Miles reacted quickly, jumping up to grab onto the higher platform above his head and pulling his feet off the ground to kick his uncle back away from him, back to the first platform.

Uncle Aaron crashed against the wall with a grunt then fell back down onto his knees, but as Miles made his own jump across the alley to deliver a strike, Aaron's arm abruptly snapped upwards to grab Miles' throat just before he reached him, then launched both of them upwards into the air, dragging Miles along with a firm grip.

In midair, Miles flipped his body upside-down and countered with a burst from his own shoes that drove them back towards the fire escape. Just before he could drive Aaron back-first into one of the railings, however, the older man flipped them around so that Miles was the one that hit into it.

The blow knocked the wind out of Miles for a second, but he still managed to move quickly when he saw both of his uncle's fists about to fall on him. Reaching behind himself, Miles used his claws to cut the fire escape railing loose then grabbed the free bar of metal and flipped it around, holding it with both hands in front of himself to shove Aaron's hands upwards, then shifted his hands to one side and swung it like a bat to strike his uncle across the face, knocking him away and sending him flying downwards, where he barely managed to catch himself on a lower platform just above the ground, crouching on the railing and meeting Miles' eyes with a challenging look of determination.

Equally committed to his own path, Miles matched his expressions and charged up one of his gauntlets before rearing his fist back and jumping down towards his uncle, who readied his own gauntlet and leapt upwards to meet him.

Gwen POV

Knowing that she'd be disappointed but ever hoping that she might be wrong, Gwen looked back and, upon seeing the expected sight of Spider-Man right behind her, commented, "You know, our swinging rhythm is actually really similar. This doesn't look like it's ending any time soon. Don't suppose you'd consider settling this with a three-legged race? Pie-eating contest? Ooh, how about sewing? Did you know I make my own thread?"

Immediately growing tired of her jokes, Spider-Man shot a web line straight ahead so that it stuck to the side of a skyscraper in front of Gwen, then pulled himself forcefully forward to grab onto her before he kept flying forward so that they both landed on the wall. The window behind Gwen cracked significantly under their combined weight and momentum before Spider-Man kneeled against the wall with his knees sticking on either side of Gwen's hips to keep her from moving as he punched her hard in the face and asked, "Do youeverstop-"

"No," Gwen answered before he'd finished asking, shooting a web onto his face to blind him, and though she knew she'd only bought herself a second, she used that second to extricate herself from underneath Spider-Man and kicked him away as she bounced upwards to stick her feet against the surface of a higher window.

Looking down past her feet, Gwen could see a man inside the building beneath her leaning towards the window and staring up at her in shock.

"Oh, come on, surely you've seen weirder stuff in New York, right?" Gwen asked him, unsure of if he could hear her through the window even before he didn't react whatsoever to her question.

Soon getting annoyed by this, Gwen stomped on the window a couple times to get his attention and said, "Hey, dude, haven't you heard it's rude to-?"

Gwen didn't manage to finish her question and the next sound out of her mouth was approximately what one could assume someone would emit when they are abruptly seized forcefully by the throat. Mostly because that's exactly what happened, Spider-Man grabbing her throat mid-sentence then jumping away from the building before shooting a web line above him to swing them outwards, then back towards the wall with extra power to throw Gwen back onto the glass headfirst.

However, this time, Gwen was prepared and angled her body sideways just before impact so that she could stick to the wall and flip away unharmed. "And it's even ruder to interrupt someone in the middle of a sentence," Gwen finished, addressing this last part to Spider-Man.

"I liked you better as an experiment, you insufferable insect," Spider-Man responded, annoyingly refusing to acknowledge Gwen's sense of humor.

However, Gwen got her comeuppance by telling yet another joke, one that she'd actually used several times before on past enemies. "Actually, spiders aren't insects, Mr. Self-ProclaimedSpider-Man," Gwen told him, insulted by his lacking knowledge of the very creature he was trying to represent.

"It'sDoctor!" Spider-Man reminded her fiercely as he suddenly jumped towards her, and though Gwen tried to dodge, he shot a web onto her and pulled her closer before punching her through the window beneath them.

As glass fell all around her, Gwen rolled to a stop on top of some sort of large conference table, and as Spider-Man jumped into the room to stand in front of her, he commented, "I must admit, I find it very therapeutic to defenestrate you, Ms. Stacy."

Finally understanding one of the big words Spider-Man used, Gwen asked, "Is it still defenestration if you throw someoneinthrough a window?"

Snarling in frustration, Spider-Man exclaimed, "Can't you take this seriously for just a moment? You're the second-strongest being on this planet, but you're ruining this fight for me! You're making this too easy!"

While Spider-Man couldn't see the little smirk playing at the edges of Gwen's mouth, she responded, "Maybe that's all part of my plan."

"Your plan?" Spider-Man scoffed. "Enough with the posturing, Spider-Woman. Admit what we both know. I've beaten you yet again! I am clearly superior!"

"You know, the first time was kind of unfair," Gwen told him. "We were fighting in a dark room, kind of like this one, and you could see and I couldn't. Almost like…" And finally, Gwen grinned fully as she looked up at Spider-Man and said, "Almost like you equipped your lenses with night vision."

Then, before Spider-Man could process what she'd said, Gwen shot a web across the room to hit the conference room's light switch, flipping the lights on.

With her eyes adjusted to the darkness up to that point, the light temporarily faded out the corners of Gwen's vision even if she had been expecting it. Spider-Man, however, was not nearly so lucky.

Miles had reminded her of this little trick when he'd used his "rechargeable flashbang" against a crowd of criminals, how even the smallest light in the darkness could be blinding, especially when one was using night-vision. She'd tried doing this same thing to Murdock, but his blindness had protected him. Spider-Man, however, didn't have such an advantage (which is probably the first and last time that Gwen would ever consider blindness to be an "advantage").

Just as Gwen had predicted, Spider-Man must've had his night vision scanners turned on inside his mask to give himself the ultimate combat advantage in a dark room like this after following her around in the middle of the night, and as a result, the lights blared in his vision, causing him to rear back as soon as they turned on, clutching his hands over his eyes and screaming in pain.

Not knowing if his powers would be enough to heal him from this or how soon they might be able to manage it but not waiting to find out, Gwen did a handspring back onto her feet and swung around to sweep Spider-Man's legs out from under him, then spun and kicked him back out the window while he was in midair.

Yes, she knew that she'd said she wouldn't attack a blind person, but she had decided that she could make an exception. Besides, it was good practice for when she planned to make another exception later.

As the newly-blind Spider-Man fell at least forty stories out of a skyscraper, Gwen jumped right after him, but for once, having no instinct to save the person who was falling. Instead, she shot a web line onto another building and began to swing in the most direct path back to where she'd left Miles.

She arrived back by the Prowler's stash building in mere minutes and her Spider-Sense tingled to direct her gaze into a nearby alleyway, where she could see Miles engaged in heated combat against his uncle, both of them jumping and floating back and forth in the air, their every punch creating miniature seismic events like a battle of demigods.

Fortunately, they were limiting the direct damage mostly to each other, otherwise Gwen would imagine that the buildings surrounding them would be completely leveled, but they both must've been well-protected against their own weapons, because glancing hits appeared not to hurt them too terribly while the alley was practically destroyed just from being the battleground for their fight.

Still, Gwen decided to put a stop to it and swung in to deliver a swift kick to Aaron's face, knocking him over just before he could attack Miles again, then swung upwards to stick to the wall above.

Miles looked up at her in surprise and asked, "You beat Spider-Man?"

"No need to sound so surprised," Gwen chided him, then gestured with her head and asked, "You want to get out of here?"

Miles gave his uncle one last look of disappointment, clearly torn between wanting to leave and wanting to finish this, but then looked back at Gwen and gave her a nod.

He jumped up and began to run up the side of the wall next to Gwen, and when they heard Aaron begin to follow them, Miles reached onto the back of his belt and withdrew a pair of what looked like small shards of magenta light. He threw the shards behind them as he and Gwen jumped up over the rooftop, and they exploded right in front of the original Prowler, momentarily forcing him to stay back and obscuring his view, and by the time he could see clearly again, Miles and Gwen had disappeared deeper into the city.

Chapter 15: In the Jungle

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

Third Person POV

The sound of a cane tapping on the floor echoed throughout the Kingpin's new office as Matt Murdock sat at his new desk, thinking over what he was going to say and trying to keep his composure despite the bad news he was receiving. Finally, looking up at the two figures Foggy had announced moments before even though he couldn't see them, Matt said softly, "Alright, let's hear it. What happened?"

Speaking as soon as he was given the opportunity, Spider-Man cleared his throat and said, "I believe I can explain, Mr. Murdock, in the most elaborate and comprehensive way that this situation allows." He then leaned back in his chair and drew a deep breath, then abruptly pointed at the man in the other seat next to him and said, "It was all his fault."

Glaring back at him, insulted, Aaron Davis, the original Prowler, demanded, "Myfault?"

"Yes, that is what I said. Do try to keep up, you ignoramus," Spider-Man confirmed confidently.

Aaron began to get up from his seat, his prosthetic arm whirring as it began to charge with power in its clenched fist, and Spider-Man started to stand as well, looking only too eager to meet the threat, but Murdock stopped them both by raising a hand and saying, "I urge both of you to curb your egos temporarily so that we can have a civilized discussion. I want to hear what happened, from both of you, and Iwillhear it. So take your seats."

He spoke softly, but it was clear to both Prowler and Spider-Man that his words were in fact not a request, but an order, one that they both immediately followed though they continued to glare at one another.

Once they were both seated once more, Aaron asked, "How exactly can you blame me for this?"

"Well, it's quite unambiguous," Spider-Man responded. "You see, Prowler, after you gave us the location of your recently-accessed stash, you insisted that you should accompany me there. You may recall that I denied the request, at which point you pled your case to Mr. Murdock. I knew that you would only get in the way if you came along, and manifestly, I was most veracious."

"And which one of us actually lost the primary target, Doctor?" Aaron asked, his words starting to get heated again.

"Which one of us never even tried to capture her?" Spider-Man shot back.

They were both kept from attempting to begin another fight when Matt abruptly slammed one of his hands down on the desk, creating a loud boom that instantly silenced them. Then, he leaned over the desktop and said, "I understand that neither of you want to admit fault. I understand that it's your instinct to point fingers, but I don't care who you feel messed up the worst. I understand that the situation was… complicated. But what Idon'tunderstand is how my two best operatives, working together, failed to best two teenagers with theirsame powers, especially when you were assisted by three dozen of our best men, most of whom are now in the hospital!"

Throughout his rant, Matt's voice had slowly grown more and more intense and angry until he was actually on his feet and yelling at the end, a rare and intimidating sight for anyone who was familiar with the usual, much more reserved Kingpin, and both Prowler and Spider-Man were now sitting straight-backed in their seats as a result, leaning as far away from Matt as possible.

After a few seconds of silence, Spider-Man cleared his throat again and began, "Yes, of course. We're being unprofessional. Well, Mr. Murdock, as you know, I fought Spider-Woman while Prowler fought Morales. During the fight, Ms. Stacy began to leave the rooftop and I pursued. It was an intimidation tactic on my part, of course, a clever plan-"

"Lies," Matt suddenly hissed at him, cutting Spider-Man off and causing Aaron to nervously glance at the other man as though warning him to backtrack.

Doing just that, Spider-Man paused and corrected himself, "Well… Very well, I confess that I acted rashly. I underestimated Spider-Woman, and she led me away in her own moment of sudden brilliance. Naturally, nowhere near as brilliant as myself, I saw through her plot quickly, but I-"

"LIES!" Murdock said again, this time in a furious yell, punching his glass tabletop so hard that it cracked and split Matt's knuckles, but he didn't seem to notice or care about his blood dripping onto the desk. His yell instantly quelled Spider-Man, stopping the story quite abruptly and making the masked man look down in enraged silence.

Noticing Spider-Man's obvious anger, Matt lowered his voice and asked, "Now, Doctor, do you recall our arrangement?"

His expression settling down quickly, Spider-Man sighed and responded, "Yes, Mr. Murdock. I asked you to keep my ego under control."

"And part of that is calling out your fabrications and exaggerations, yes?" Matt asked. Spider-Man nodded in agreement and Matt continued, "You came back here early this morning mostly blind, Doctor. Mr. Davis, you were scarred and bruised, though your suit protected you for the most part, but I will still assume that both of you have learned from your mistakes last night. Mr. Davis, no hesitating next time. Doctor, a littlemorehesitation. These particular teenagers are more capable than any of us would like to believe, but we cannot afford to ignore the facts."

Both Spider-Man and Aaron bowed their heads, acknowledging Matt's admonition, and Matt sat back down in his chair to continue in his normal, calm voice, "Good. Now, let's stay focused. What was our greatest error during last night's attack?"

There was silence for a moment, then Aaron answered, "It might be that we chose to attack during the night. Both Spider-Woman and my nephew usually work during the nighttime, and, especially in Miles' case, the Spiderlings didn't stand a chance against them in that environment."

Matt leaned his cane against the desk and intertwined his fingers on top of the desktop as he said, "I see. Doctor?"

"Unfortunately, the Spiderlings seem inadequately equipped for combatting superpowered opponents," Spider-Man said, giving his own analysis. "Their military experience doesn't prepare them for something so far beyond anything they've ever encountered or trained against, and my repulsor rifles can only do so much. They are perfect for stunning our specialized adversaries, but only if the soldiers can actuallyhitthem."

Leaning back in his seat, Matt said, "There's also the matter offindingthem. As expected, Mr. Morales and Ms. Stacy have both disappeared completely. They haven't returned to school, nor have they tried to access any more of Aaron's stashes now that they know where his true loyalties lie."

"Then we must simply draw them out of hiding," Spider-Man suggested. "If they fancy themselves 'heroes', then the solution is simple. We know where their loved ones are, Captain George Stacy and Rio Morales-"

"Hey!" Aaron suddenly cut him off, firmly pointing a finger at the other man. "Whatever's going on between me and Miles, Rio's still innocent! And she's my sister-in-law! We're not touching her!"

Spider-Man's mouth moved beneath his mask like he was about to make a contention, but Matt stopped him by saying, "Aaron is correct. For now, Rio is off-limits. We are not yet that desperate. Captain Stacy, as well. We are not such fools as to kidnap or intentionally harm the captain of the police at this time. For now, we shall be content to continue simply monitoring them at all times. However… Perhaps with the surprise disappearance of Captain Stacy's daughter, we could isolate our enemies further by anonymously giving the captain certain information that would nudge him quietly into the fray."

He gave Spider-Man a meaningful look, and the masked man nodded in understanding and said, "I'll take care of it."

"Perfect," Matt grinned in satisfaction. "As for the remaining problem of drawing them out… Well, we know how to do that, and how to make both Spider-Woman and Prowler operate during the day, we've done it before." He turned to face Aaron and told him, "Prowler, I'm going to need you to oversee another prisoner release. Someone other than Mr. Sytsevich this time, but choose wisely. Pick someone… savage. I'll trust your judgment. Our employees at the Raft will assist you if necessary."

"Yes, sir," Aaron said with a bow of his head.

"Then you're excused. Spider-Man, stay for another moment, I want a private word with you."

Prowler wordlessly stood up and pulled on his mask before he walked out of the room, and with a push of a button on Matt's desk, the door automatically locked behind him.

Matt then turned to Spider-Man and said softly, "Doctor, about Rio Morales… I would agree with you, but we can't risk losing Mr. Davis right now. As always, his loyalty is strong and very valuable to me, but I worry that it may be shaken from fighting his nephew. He's on our side for now, and we would like to keep it that way. Going after his deceased brother's wife would surely be crossing a line with him."

"If you have concerns about Mr. Davis, then why not allow me to deal with him now?" Spider-Man asked.

"Because the death of his family has a tendency to only strengthen Miles Morales' resolve, and that's not something we want when he's on the wrong side," Matt explained. "Also, Aaron is notyetan enemy. In fact, he has even truthfully informed me of his hope to convince Miles back to our side."

Spider-Man scoffed at that suggestion and asked, "Does Davis truly believe that he is capable of such a thing? My analysis of Mr. Morales suggests that he is… rather stubborn in supporting what he believes."

"That's exactly why we want him back, and why we're willing to run such a risk to get him. For now, Doctor, we must allow Prowler his chance to persuade Mr. Morales against continuing to clash with us," Matt argued.

"And if he can't?" Spider-Man asked.

Sighing in resignation, the Kingpin responded, "Then you, my friend, will give Miles the same treatment as the last Morales who became too curious in our business."

Nodding in understanding, Spider-Man confirmed, "Understood, Mr. Murdock."

Gwen POV

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Gwen had her eyebrows furrowed in concentration while she fitted new technology onto her mask lenses, the mask itself turned inside-out while she worked on it.

This was a new experience for her, implementing technology into her suit when she'd previously only used her powers and custom-made web-shooters, but she felt that this particular upgrade would be useful to have. She'd foregone many of the fancier gadgets that Miles had offered to help her add, thinking that many of them would be too heavy or clunky for her agility-based fighting style, but she had decided to add one new addition to her suit: optional flashlights in the lenses.

It wasn't much, but it was useful and was neither a weapon (like many of the things Miles had offered her) nor something that she would be terribly weakened to be without. She hadn't wanted anything that she would become too reliant on, and this had seemed perfect, if a bit simple. When it was finished, it would allow her to emit lights from her suit's eyes to brighten a dark room, and she could also use it as a mobile defensive measure against the Spider-Man's night vision.

Of course, it was unlikely that Gwen would be able to get him with the same trick twice, but if he tried to get her somewhere where he thought he was safe from it, she would have a new move that he wouldn't see coming, and Gwen had the feeling that she and Miles could use as many advantages as they could get with the Kingpin's forces after them.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something crackling above her, followed by a soft curse muttered in Spanish, and Gwen quickly looked up to see Miles sitting upside-down in a rolling chair on the ceiling as he poked around with a small tool inside the circuitry of one of his gauntlets, which had just shot sparks across his hands.

Of course, he only appeared to be on the ceiling from Gwen's inverted point of view, as she was really the one on the ceiling while he was on the ground.

Seeing his expression of annoyance, Gwen asked, "Everything alright down there?"

Gesturing at his gauntlet, Miles responded, "It's this inversion matrix, it keeps overloading every time the ammeter reads a certain amplidyne, but I can't figure out how to safely redirect the bound charge into the boost converter with this overlay fold! And I can't rely solely on the Epstein frame, but I also can't risk interfering with the marginal stability-" He abruptly broke off in the middle of whatever he was saying and looked up at Gwen to ask, "You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Shrugging, Gwen responded, "Not really, no, but I'm all for listening to you talk about it if it'll help you to get it out."

Shaking his head, Miles said, "Thanks, but you don't want to hear what's going on in my head right now. It's a mixture of engineering terms you wouldn't understand and a disturbing amount of silent arguments with inanimate objects."

Smirking at Miles' newly-aroused sense of humor, Gwen nonetheless followed his wishes and changed the subject, pointing out, "You know, we've been here for a couple hours now and I still don't really know where we are. It looks like one of your uncle's stashes again, but… way less nice than the last one. Are we safer here just because this is his most dingy base?"

"This is actuallymystash," Miles corrected without looking at her.

Hearing that, Gwen quickly recognized that she had rather put her foot in her mouth and began to say, "Er… I mean, this place has potential. It's kind of nice if you-"

"No, it's not," Miles interrupted her. "After I became the new Prowler, I decided to continue making bases around the city like my uncle did, but this is the only one I managed to create for now. Not much in here, just a couch, desk, chair, and a basic laptop. A bathroom that doesn't even have its own lightbulb and minimal security on the stash itself. But it's the one place I know of that my uncle doesn't, so I figure it's the safest place we're gonna find."

"Miles, I wasn't trying to-" Gwen tried to explain herself, seeing that Miles looked apologetic about their circ*mstances when she was really just grateful that he'd been able to find themsomewheresafe to go, but Miles once again cut her off.

"It's alright, I know," Miles told her, but Gwen still felt like her careless joking question had made him feel like his efforts had gone unappreciated.

Hoping to reestablish a more comfortable atmosphere between them, Gwen spent a few seconds in silence to choose her words wisely before asking Miles, "So what are you working on?"

Miles was currently looking through a diagram on his laptop, but he still readily responded, "My gauntlets are my main weapon, above even my vibranium-powered shoes, butunlikemy shoes, I can't wear them in public and I have to carry them everywhere in a bag. So far it's been fine, but I want to make them into more compact versions using the same compression tech I use in my mask, maybe something I can wear on my wrists beneath my sleeves. Trouble is, it requires some seriously advanced programming work and it'll take some time assuming I can even actually make it work."

"Aw, so you want to disguise your weapons as bracelets? And where'd you get an idea like that?" Gwen asked, flattered by Miles' interest in her handiwork.

"Simple," Miles responded. "That Spider-Man guy, you said he was impressive, so I- Hey!"

His exclamation that cut him off in the middle of his sentence was in response to him feeling a sudden sharp pain on the back of his head, where he had been hit by Gwen throwing one of her web-shooters at him in retaliation for his joke.

Gwen smirked at Miles with amusem*nt at his indignation, enjoying messing with him while she was up out of his reach, but her confident expression quickly fell when Miles set his laptop aside and jumped purposefully out of his seat. He then reached down next to his chair and grabbed the web-shooter that Gwen had thrown at him. It would be too small to fit on his wrists, but Miles aimed the web-shooter up at Gwen anyway and pressed the button to fire a web line to stick to her front, then roughly pulled her down.

Not wanting to damage the roof of Miles' stash and enjoying the game too much to really consider it anyway, Gwen didn't keep herself stuck to the ceiling when she was pulled off the roof as she could've done. Instead, she fell down towards the ground with an entertained squeal of surprise, but Miles caught her in his arms before she could land and smirked as he looked her in the eyes and said, "That wasn't very heroic behavior, Spider-Woman."

Returning his expression of mirth, Gwen let out a laugh and responded, "Well, then it's a good thing you were here to catch me, Prowler."

She and Miles continued to gaze affectionately into each other's faces for a moment, causing a certain memory to come automatically to Gwen's mind, the memory of the last time their faces had been this close together.

Just as Gwen was replaying this memory fondly in her brain, Miles' smile abruptly began to slip off of his face, and then he quickly turned her around and set her down on her feet before starting to walk back towards his laptop while saying, "Sorry. We should get back to work."

As Miles went back over to sit in his seat, Gwen remained frozen in place behind him, feeling slightly crestfallen after the abrupt end of what she'd been sure they had both considered fun. Yes, they did have things to work on, and yes, they had powerful enemies that they had to worry about, but they were still teenagers, teenagers who uniquely spent much of their entire lives working. Even more importantly, they were best friends, and they could certainly afford to take a short break to spend some time doing something enjoyable together.

We…arestill best friends, right?Gwen questioned mentally. Both she and Miles seemed to enjoy each other's company now as much as they ever did, if not more so, but it seemed to Gwen like Miles was still treating her differently than usual, and it had been going on for a while now, ever since he had found out that she was Spider-Woman. But he didn't seem conflicted about her dual identities, not anymore. In fact, he seemed completely content to share this double-life with her now that they both knew each other's secrets. So why was he still so hesitant about spending quality time with her? Was it the boyfriend thing they'd discussed last night?

She remembered telling him that she had lied about having a boyfriend, and Miles had insisted that she was still hiding something before they'd been interrupted by the arrival of Murdock's lackeys. Well, shewasn'thiding anything else… except that she'd been referring to Miles when she'd mentioned a boyfriend, but she'd decided that their friendship would be better off with Miles not knowing that, hadn't she?

What use would it be to tell Miles that anyway? If he didn't like her like that, it would only make things complicated between them for Gwen to tell him that shedidfeel that way about him. It would all be pointless if he didn't share those feelings, if he hadn't been reminded just now, as Gwen had been, of the time she had kissed him a few nights ago… Unless maybe he did, and he had been.

OrmaybeI should stop fooling myself!Gwen chastised herself mentally. Miles wasn't going to start sharing her feelings just because she wanted him to, and she was only hurting both of them to continue believing any differently.

But at that moment, another memory came to Gwen's mind, of Miles' many various drawings of her in his treasured sketchbook, especially the one in which he had depicted her and Spider-Woman together and written above it, "Mis ángeles", cognates that Gwen could've easily translated even if she hadn't already known the Spanish words to mean "My angels". Looking through those pictures had been the first time that Gwen had really considered the possibility that Miles really did share her feelings.

Part of her suggested that Miles had merely called Gwen and Spider-Woman his angels because he thought that they had "saved" him. After all, Gwen knew him to be remarkably humble. But the other part of her recalled how she'd noted that Miles drew her as a vision of perfection in every image, never changing her appearance from what she really looked like yet still conveying a sense of awe and adoration in every drawing. Gwen knew that she definitely didn't really look like that, but she couldn't deny that she had looked somehow both completely real and completely unworldly in every one of Miles' depictions of her.

If that was supposed to represent the way that he saw her… Well, maybe Gwen wasn't as good an artist as Miles, but if she could accurately draw pictures of him from her perspective, she had a feeling that they would end up conveying a similar sense of majesty to what Miles had given her. And if that was true… then maybe Milesdidfeel something more for her than she'd understood up to this point.

Of course, the thought raised questions she'd already asked herself and thought that she'd answered, such as why Miles had seemed okay with her having a boyfriend if he cared about her like that or why he still seemed uninterested in her even now, but Gwen thought she knew the answer. Miles was almost pathologically selfless, extremely generous and self-sacrificial to an almost unhealthy degree, and Gwen wouldn't put it past him to think that she was "too good for him" or something like that.

After all, she'd done the same thing when considering her feelings towards Miles before she'd known that he was the Prowler. Now that shedidknow, she thought that they could potentially be perfect for each other, able to connect to one another in a way that no one else would ever be able to if Miles would have her, but it would be just like his infuriatingly good-hearted self to still consider himself somehow "unworthy" of her love that he had said her boyfriend would be so lucky to possess, especially while Gwen never gave him a reason to speak of those feelings he may have. If that theory was correct, then both Gwen and Miles may have been skirting around each other for some time now, both feeling a mutual attraction that they never spoke of out of fear that it would be unrequited.

Finally, Gwen decided that maybe it was time for both of them to stop assuming in silence that there was no unspoken thing between them and just talk about it. Part of Gwen was still terrified to bring up the subject, but she also could tell by now that she would never have another peaceful moment until she got closure on this matter. It would be risky business, but if they wanted the truth, certain cautions would need to be done away with so they could finally get some straight answers out of each other.

And so, taking one of those aforementioned risks, Gwen asked hesitantly, "Miles… Do you remember what happened the other night?"

"At Fisk Tower?"

"No, before that," Gwen corrected.

She could see Miles tense up at that and knew that he was putting together the pieces, but still he asked, "You mean when my uncle showed up at Madame Masque's place?"

Not letting him continue to dodge around the subject, Gwen told him firmly, "Come on, Miles. You know I'm talking about Monday night."

Slumping forward in defeat, Miles admitted, "Yeah, I know. I just didn't want to talk about it."

"Why not?" Gwen questioned.

"Because I figured you would want to forget about it," Miles answered, causing Gwen's heart to spike for an instant at the way he had phrased it and how it matched with her theory. "It was a tough time for both of us, I understand, and I don't hold the…otherthing against you."

To make sure that they were talking about the same thing, Gwen spread her arms and asked for clarification. "What would you hold against me?"

"You know!" Miles said, finally spinning around in his chair to face her with a flustered expression.

When Gwen continued to act like she did not, in fact, know what he spoke of, Miles sighed and explained, "The… kiss. You kissed me. But I'm just saying that it's okay. I know it was an accident, and I didn't want to make you feel weird about it."

Well, an accident it may have been, but not in the way Miles was thinking.

Still shy to be the first one to say something, Gwen asked, "I just wanted to know… What did you think about it?"

Miles was silent for a moment, then asked disbelievingly, "What did I think about… the kiss? When you kissed me?"

"Yeah," Gwen confirmed with a noncommittal shrug.

"Like… when you did it on the cheek or-" Miles began to ask.

Losing patience in her desperation to have this conversation finish, Gwen cut him off, "No, therealkiss, Miles! On Monday! Three days ago! I'm wondering what you thought about it!"

Leaning back in his chair under the sudden intensity with which Gwen repeated her question, Miles blushed as he quietly said, "Well, I mean… It was nice, you know, just… really surprising."

Feeling her heart beating faster in her chest, Gwen asked, "But, like, you would do it again?"

Miles didn't answer for a moment, but then closed his eyes and seemed to steel his nerves before looking up at her and answering, "Yeah, I would. When you kissed me, Gwen, it was like something out of someone else's life.Anyoneelse's life. Because for the last eight months, I haven't even been sure what my lifewasanymore, or if I even still had one. But being around you… I don't feel that way, I feel like I have someone who listens to me and cares about who I am and what I do. I feel both normal and exceptional, like I can be myself and so muchmorewhen I'm with you. And I don't ever talk about my feelings and I'm probably really bad at it, but I know this much for sure: You saved me, Gwen Stacy. Every part of you makes me better, and I like who I am around you. You'remis ángeles, both of my heroes in one, and the thought of your smile means I can do anything, so just try toimaginewhat your kiss did to me."

At the end of Miles' speech, finally announcing the feelings that he must've kept hidden for some time now, Gwen was temporarily speechless, having been struck dumb with amazement and emotion at his words. She had been hopeful that Miles might have some small level of concealed attraction to her that she might be able to work on, building and developing it over time to the best of her ability. Instead she'd gotten…this? This was far more than she had ever expected. Hopefully not more than she knew how to handle.

With a low voice, Gwen asked, "So you were okay with it? You don't have any regrets or misgivings?"

Lowering his head, Miles confessed, "I do have one. Even if something like thiswasever going to happen, I didn't want it to happen like this. I like you, Gwen. Like, like-like you. But if you don't feel the same way, I don't want this to make things weird between us. I'm more than happy (lucky, really), just to be your friend. I admit that part of me hoped that maybe you'd eventually see me the same way I see you, so our first kiss wouldn't be just some accident, but-"

At that moment, Gwen abruptly cut him off by using her remaining web-shooter to shoot a web line onto Miles' hip, then forcefully tugged him over to her before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him down into a deep kiss. At first, he was surprised, but then Miles began to melt into it and placed his hands on her arms as he kissed her back.

As it went on for a few seconds, the height difference between them began to disappear until their heads were almost level with one another, causing Gwen to idly wonder why until she realized that she had instinctively risen up on her toes until she was en pointe, such was her contentment and joy in this moment.

When they finally broke apart, both of them out of breath from the shock of what had just happened but still holding each other close, Miles said with bewilderment, "So… you too?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Gwen confirmed.

Another short silence, then Miles started to ask, "How long-?"

"Since Homecoming. At least. Maybe sooner," Gwen answered before he could even finish asking.

Sighing, Miles said, "So I made you wait that long? I'll do something to make it up to you."

Smiling with amusem*nt, Gwen told him, "You don't need to do anything for me, Miles."

"Iwantto," Miles insisted. "I want to do anything I possibly can to improve your life, Gwen. Consider it my way of repaying you for doing the same for me."

"Miles, I doubt that you can make my life much better than you already are," Gwen informed him, then smirked humorously and added, "But if you must, Idohave a certain liking for chocolate. My dad gets it for me sometimes from this great place on Allen Street."

"Sounds good," Miles said with a grin. "Next time we're not being chased by my uncle, his blind boss, or a mad scientist in head-to-toe spandex, I'll get you some chocolate."

Gwen laughed at that, then both she and Miles leaned in once again for another affectionate kiss, but they were stopped as Miles' phone suddenly began buzzing loudly and repeatedly in short intervals.

Both of them bowing their heads in disappointment at getting interrupted, Gwen asked, "That's probably important, isn't it?"

"It had better be," Miles growled in response before he released Gwen and turned around to pick up his phone from the desk.

He opened the phone to see what had set off his alarm and stared at it for a few seconds, frozen by something that Gwen couldn't see. Then, he set the phone down and instead hurriedly opened his laptop's internet browser, typed something in, then turned the screen so that Gwen could also see as a news broadcast appeared. "...second escapee from the Raft not only in history, but in recent weeks, MacDonald 'Mac' Gargan, otherwise known as the supervillain called the Scorpion, has made a shocking appearance in the middle of Times Square, where we've received confirmation that he killed several people in broad daylight before the PDNY could evacuate the area. Exact number of casualties is unclear for the moment, but we can confirm that it was at least a dozen people including a patrol officer. Fortunately, the PDNY has now formed a powerful perimeter around the area, effectively trapping Gargan, but they are taking no risks. Even the airspace is being temporarily restricted from public use while the PDNY contacts additional law enforcement to combat the criminal that only the Spider-Woman has been able to defeat in the past."

At that point, Miles muted the broadcast, but on the screen, Gwen could still see a picture of the Scorpion, yet another old villain she'd put away.

Ugh, she hated this guy. The image showed him in all his terrifying glory, yellow lenses covering his eyes as part of his mask and a dark green bodysuit that was so tight that it appeared like it could actually be part of his skin, but Gwen knew that beneath that strong material that only appeared to be fabric covering his body rested a surprising amount of technological tools to aid him in combat. His feet were equipped with boosters that allowed him to pounce over twenty feet in any direction within a matter of seconds (not quite as impressive as Miles' Prowler shoes, but still really annoying to fight against). His gloves were equipped with hydraulic grip-assists in the fingers to allow him to recreate the proportionate crushing power of a scorpion's pincers.

But most distinctive of all was his large trademark spiked tail that trailed behind him, hanging from the back of his lumbar region, which Gargan could control with his mind from inside his suit. Oh, and Mac had a tendency to fill the tip of that tail in nasty poisons or painful hallucinogens that he loved to inject into innocent (albeit terribly chatty) spiders. Did she already mention that she hated this guy?

Regardless, it seemed that she and Miles had nothing to discuss on the matter, so with a simple silent glance at each other that conveyed their shared determination, Miles quickly closed his laptop and tossed Gwen her other web-shooter before they each turned to ready themselves for the coming fight.

Miles POV

As Miles and Gwen landed atop the Palace Theater overlooking the center of Times Square, they could easily pick out Scorpion beneath them. This was mainly due to two particular facts. For one, the area being cordoned off meant that the usual crowds were all gone from the area, though they could see with disgust that several bodies were still laying motionless around the merciless killer. And the second reason… Well, come on. It was a grown man dressed as a giant green scorpion. It was the sort of sight that would've drawn people's attention even in the middle of Comix-Con.

However, the most concerning thing about Scorpion at the present moment was neither the bodies surrounding him nor his fashion sense, but the fact that he was just standing there, looking completely relaxed, and Miles got the sense that he was here for more than a desire to be on TV, especially with all of the press cleared out of the area.

Standing up as he faced his partner and pointed accusingly down at Scorpion, Miles pointed out, "Okay, this is a trap."

"What gave it away, the guy's nickname or the way he looks excited to be standing alone in the middle of the street?" Spider-Woman asked.

Ignoring her joke, Miles added, "This is Murdock's work, I'd bet anything. He released Rhino to draw you out before, now he's clearly done the same with Scorpion."

Shrugging in an unimpressed way, Gwen said, "Meh. I beat Spider-Man last night. After that, Gargan's not even a villain of the week, especially not when there's two of us."

"Which is probably exactly what Murdock wants us to think,"Miles warned.

"Well, the police are going to start closing in on him soon, so if we're going to do this, we'd better get started and worry about the trap later," Gwen advised.

Knowing that she was right even if he didn't like the idea of them willingly walking into one of Murdock's traps, Miles yielded and said, "Alright, fine. Any suggestions?"

"Watch out for his tail and follow my lead," Gwen responded, then jumped off the edge of the building towards the ground below.

Miles watched her go, then sighed and asked himself, "¿Que esperabas, Miles?A plan? Since when has she done that?"

All the same, try as he might to be annoyed by Gwen's desire to rush into the fight with minimal preparation, he also found it rather endearing. Not unlike everything else about her. Like the glint in her eyes that he had such trouble recreating in his sketches-

Whoa, hold on there, Miles. Stop the bad guy first,thenfantasize about the girl of your dreams.

As ever, it would be a difficult task, even more so now that he and Gwen were… something? But Miles had been well-trained to focus on the job at hand, and so without further ado, he jumped down after Gwen, but upon seeing that she had already engaged Scorpion in conversation on the ground, Miles decided to let her keep his attention for now and rocketed sideways in the air to land silently in a crouch a few yards behind Scorpion.

While Gwen continued talking to Scorpion, who naturally seemed to be getting more and more agitated as time went on, no doubt because he was being treated to some of Spider-Woman's natural charm, Miles began to casually walk up behind Scorpion, intending to take him down using the element of surprise. He didn't need to worry about his footsteps making sound so he didn't even have to bother with moving slowly.

The only slight issue he met in coming up behind the bug-themed villain was the man's large tail that Gwen had mentioned waving around behind him. Miles had no idea what the tail actually was, but before he'd been the Prowler, he'd been one of many civilians in the city who had watched it effortlessly crush a car on the news. It was about ten feet long and thicker than Miles' torso, and of course also had to have a giant spike sticking out the end. So Miles wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of getting close to it, but it seemed to be little more than a fancy addition to the guy's suit, so once Gargan went down, his tail would go down, right?

Stepping up behind Gargan and quietly powering up one of his fists to send a powerful punch onto the back of Scorpion's head that would instantly knock him out, Miles used his other hand to smack the swinging tail aside as he reared back his fist for the hit.

Unfortunately, that simple move turned out to be a big mistake. As soon as Miles knocked the tip of Scorpion's tail aside, it turned back to aim directly at him like a particularly offended camera and suddenly shot a jet of some sort of green liquid at him. Miles wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he kind of doubted it was Mountain Drizzle, and so he reacted by using his shoes to launch himself backwards, barely avoiding the splash of the green liquid, which he watched as it hit the ground near Scorpion and immediately began to melt a small crater in the concrete.

"Even if thatwasMountain Drizzle, I'm not sure about the carbonation count,"Miles muttered to himself as the green liquid faded away.

Scorpion turned with interest to see who had angered his strangely lively prosthetic tail and smirked at Miles, asking, "Thought you could sneak up on the Scorpion, did you?"

"Okay, first of all, don't refer to yourself in the third person like that, it's really weird,"Miles rebuked him, then defended, "And second, it was working just fine until your stupid tail got in the way!"

"That's its job," Gargan said with a disturbingly pleased grin.

Standing in the background and waving her arms for attention, Gwen suddenly called out, "Hey, Mac! I don't suppose we could just go back to our conversation so my partner can try that again?"

"No, I don't think so, Spider-Woman," Scorpion told her. "You see, I rotted in prison for a long time wanting to get out so I could finish you. Having two of you just means I have more to kill!"

"Or it could mean more friends, more fun?" Gwen suggested alternatively, but Scorpion responded by simply whipping his tail around and shooting another small burst of acid towards her.

Gwen did a backwards somersault to avoid the liquid, then jumped back towards Scorpion with a fist reared back while saying, "Oh, you've done it now! I'm totally un-following you on social media now!"

Apparently Gargan didn't think much of her threat, however, as he placed his large tail in front of himself to block Gwen's attack, and when Gwen was forced to dodge sideways midair to avoid getting impaled on his poisonous spike, the tail flew after her and smacked her aside, knocking her over towards a street food vendor stand, which collapsed under her momentum.

Angered by seeing Scorpion hurt his… friend or whatever Gwen was to him now, Miles thrust his hands out to his sides, extending all of his claws with a snapping sound that instantly got Gargan's attention, then began to run quickly towards the supervillain fearlessly.

As Miles was quickly determining to be his style, Scorpion placed his tail in front of himself once more to defend himself, sending the stabby end flying over his back and straight towards Miles at high speed. However, Miles' reflexes were fast enough to counter this particular move, and he stabbed his claws into the tail's metal casing as he grabbed it with both hands just before it could reach his chest.

Sadly, Scorpion was also capable of adapting quickly, and while Miles was still holding onto the tail, Gargan caused the tail to rise into the air, pulling Miles off his feet, then slammed it suddenly and forcefully back down to the ground, crushing Miles beneath the tail's considerable weight. Grunting in pain as he was flattened against the ground, Miles felt and saw the tip of the tail begin to rise up again above him, but he held on tight to keep it from going anywhere. When the tail realized that it couldn't escape Miles' super-strong grip, it directed its spike downwards and tried to stab him in the face, but Miles dodged it at the last second and instead forced the spike to stab itself into the ground next to him, then held it there where it couldn't do any more damage.

Climbing back to his feet while carefully continuing to hold the tail down, Miles looked back towards Gargan himself, who was currently once again occupied fighting Spider-Woman, using his surprisingly-quick hands and armored body to combat her while he couldn't rely on his tail, which continued to struggle in Miles' hands like it had a mind of its own.

Having an idea, Miles called out, "Spider-Woman!" Gwen looked his way in the middle of flipping over Scorpion's head to avoid getting grabbed by him, and Miles gestured with his head towards the straining tail beneath his hands.

Understanding instantly, Gwen dodged further away from Scorpion to buy herself a moment, then turned and fired webbing from both wrists to restrain the tail on the ground.

Knowing that her webs would only buy him a moment, Miles immediately released the tail and instead used his shoes to launch himself towards Gargan, who didn't even have time to turn to face the blur that was Miles before the younger man's gauntleted fist slammed into the side of his face so hard that Miles felt his jaw dislocate beneath it before Gargan was launched into the air, pulling his tail along behind him.

Scorpion crashed through the window of a nearby building, and was clearly dazed when he managed to get back to his feet, grabbing his hanging jaw with one hand to examine the damage before he glared back out at Miles, who was approaching slowly with narrowed eyes. Scorpion pulled his jaw back in place with an audible cracking sound that Miles could hear from several yards away, then demanded, "Howdareyou strike me? Do you have any idea who I am, you second-rate vigilante?"

"Some guy who's got a bad fashion sense,waytoo much pride for someone dressed as a bug, and judging by the size of his tail, is absolutely compensating for something,"Miles responded easily.

Snarling, Gargan exclaimed, "I'll kill you!"

As Gwen stepped up to Miles' side, Miles extended one hand and gave Gargan a "come here" gesture, and responded, "Bring it on, then. I hear some scorpions lose their tails when they're attacked, and I'm eager to make you one of them."

Miles' voice modulator made this threat sound extra intimidating, which was apparently enough to snap Gargan back to his senses, as he looked back and forth between Miles and Gwen and seemed to finally realize how incredibly outmatched he was. Scorpion then began to look around himself, trying and failing to be discreet as he tried to map out an escape route.

Warning him not to try anything, Gwen told him, "You're going back to prison, Mac. There's no way you walk away from this."

Despite Gwen's discouraging words, however, Scorpion was apparently too desperate to come quietly, and shot one final spray of acid out the shattered window, making Miles and Gwen dodge to either side to avoid it. While they did this, Gargan took his short opening and jumped back outside himself, then tried to jump upwards along the wall behind him, clearly hoping to slip away to freedom.

Unfortunately for him, Miles' shoes allowed him to get around much faster, and he launched upwards right behind Scorpion and grabbed him by the throat, pulling him close to growl at him, "Pathetic."He then spun around in midair and tossed Scorpion back to the ground, where he landed in a heap.

Then, as Miles landed back on the ground behind him and began to approach the trapped supervillain, Scorpion's tail suddenly shot out to try to stab him. Miles caught the tail with one hand, stabbing his claws once more into the metal shell, then tugged hard on it to pull Scorpion roughly towards him. Gargan flew towards Prowler in the air only to be met with a powerful gauntleted backhand across the face that knocked him away yet again.

Then, as Scorpion still didn't appear quite thoroughly beaten, Miles held onto the end of his tail tightly and looked back at Gwen to ask, "Spider-Woman? You ever play baseball?"

Quickly understanding the plan, Gwen nodded and took a few extra steps back to get some distance. Once he had deemed that she'd gone far enough for their purposes, Miles powered up his gauntlets and began to spin around, pulling Gargan along as he went and twisting the Scorpion bodily around in a wide circle. Miles turned all the way around once, twice, three times before he finally let go of Scorpion to throw him directly at Gwen, who met him with a punch to the gut that made Gargan fold inwards and sent him flying across the street ten feet over Miles' head, where he crashed mightily on the pavement and stayed there.

Throwing her arms up in celebration, Gwen exclaimed, "Aaaand it's out of the park!"

Miles chuckled at Gwen's joke and called over to her, "Is that it? Are we done here?"

Right on cue, a voice Miles had only recently learned to recognize and dislike called out from behind him, "Actually, I'm afraid that your toil here is just getting started."

Sighing in annoyance, Miles turned around to look up at the speaker, Spider-Man, who was relaxedly reclining on the top step of the iconic Red Stairs, his arms folded across his chest as he looked down on them, and said, "Really? Did you just say 'toil'? Would it kill you to talk like a normal person and say 'work'?"

"I am anything but a 'normal person', Mr. Morales," Spider-Man responded as Gwen walked over to stand at Miles' side. "And furthermore, I am here with yet another rather extraordinary individual."

Just then, there was the sound of metal against metal behind them, and Miles and Gwen both looked towards the source of the noise to see Miles' Uncle Aaron in his Prowler suit landing on top of a metal advertising stand, posed in a low crouch with one arm on his lap and the other hand cutting large gashes in the side of the stand beneath him while he glared at them menacingly.

However, as intimidating as Aaron was clearly trying to be, Miles thought he might have overdone it a bit, as the advertisem*nt beneath Aaron was for a horror movie and read "The scariest thing you've ever seen!"

So dramatic, Miles mentally rebuked his uncle with exasperation. However, he didn't get the chance to actually say anything about it out loud before Gwen cut him off as she looked back and forth between Spider-Man and Aaron.

Slapping her palms to the sides of her face and letting out a very melodramatically over-exaggerated fake gasp, Gwen exclaimed, "Atrap! Oh, goodness gracious, not a trap! We've been duped! Hornswoggled! Bamboozled! This is completely unexpected! Prowler, did you know that this was atrap?!"

"Please stop,"Miles begged her.

"Just trying to make them feel better about themselves," Gwen excused herself, then took up a defensive stance facing Spider-Man, letting Miles focus on his uncle.

"That isn't necessary, Ms. Stacy," Spider-Man told Gwen with a smug tone in his voice. "I already feel quite good about myself at the moment. You see, it was through my insightful genius that you have been lured here, the both of you, out in the open, in the light of day, ripe for-"

"Yeah, I think we get it,"Miles cut him off, not wanting to listen to another speech.

After he'd said it, he could practically feel Spider-Man's glare on his back as the older man said, "Indeed. Well, perhaps you are correct, Mr. Morales. I believe we've delayed your demise quite long enough."

Looking back over his shoulder, Miles whispered to Gwen, "Hey, assoluta. Do you know whatjeté actually means in French?"He purposefully made his message cryptic just in case Uncle Aaron was using his mask to listen to them even from this distance, but fortunately Gwen caught on quickly and nodded as she bent her knees slightly in preparation.

Their timing couldn't have been better, as immediately after they made the plan, Spider-Man stood up abruptly and pounced towards Gwen. However, just before he reached her, Miles grabbed Gwen's wrist and spun her around in a circle before forcefully tossing her up at Spider-Man, who barely had time to widen his eyes in shock before his heroic counterpart crashed into him and launched both of them back over onto the Red Stairs, where Spider-Man crashed and flattened several of the steps before he began needing to defend himself from further attacks from Gwen.

Meanwhile, already knowing what his uncle's opening move would be, Miles jumped straight upwards to avoid getting grabbed by a dashing Aaron, then landed right behind the taller Prowler and punched him in the back to knock him away before he could process that he'd been outmaneuvered.

Unfortunately, though his attack knocked Aaron down, Miles' uncle was back on his feet in an instant and sped back towards Miles, who was forced to meet him in the middle as they both raised their fists to hit one another, but each managed to catch the other's attack at the same time, trapping them in a combat lock as they each struggled against superpowered strength equal to their own.

As this was happening, Aaron looked up to meet his nephew's eyes and told him, "Miles, this is crazy!"

Tilting his head at his uncle with disbelief, Miles asked, "Oh, this is the crazy part? Because you just sent a serial killer in a scorpion costume after me. But yeah, clearlyI'mthe one acting crazy."

"You got no idea what the Kingpin can do to you, what he'swillingto do!"the older Prowler tried to convince the younger one. "What's your plan? Deliver the most successful lawyer in the city to the cops? Put him in front of a court? You honestly think a trial could go against him?"

"Doyouhonestly see anything else I can do?"Miles asked. "Murdock is worse than every other bad guy I've taken down, yet exactly the same, a plague on this city. And so long as a single person needs the kind of help that I can offer, I'm gonna give it to 'em."

"Then I'm gonna give youthis!"Aaron announced, finally pushing away from Miles, then quickly following up with a powerful punch to his momentarily undefended chest, knocking Miles back across the street, where he was forced to stop himself by impaling his claws into the asphalt beneath him, leaving long scars in the road to slow down his momentum.

Still catching his breath while down on one knee, Miles raised his head again to look up at Aaron as he approached with his arms spread as he demanded, "Can't you see that I'm trying to save you, man?"

Slowly getting back to his feet, Miles responded, "Can'tyousee that I'm trying to save everyone else?"

"What, do you think you're some kind of hero now?!"Uncle Aaron demanded angrily.

Retracting his mask for a moment to wipe blood from the corner of his mouth, Miles glared at his former idol and responded, "I thoughtyouwere."

"Don't you remember what happened to your dad?"Aaron asked. "Heroes die, Miles! Stop trying to be something you're not, before you get yourself killed like he did! I thought I taught you this!"

Miles narrowed his eyes at his uncle and put his mask back on before saying, "You taught me to bebetterthan you. I was just a better student than you were a mentor."

At that, Aaron finally seemed to lose all control and stopped trying to reason with Miles, instead just letting out a yell while he thrust out his prosthetic arm towards him. Faster than Miles could react, the hand separated from the arm and launched towards Miles with a thin cable trailing behind it, then grabbed the front of Miles' shirt when it reached him.

Miles tried to quickly cut the wire, but Aaron acted faster, reeling in the cable to pull Miles towards him, then lifted his nephew off his feet and threw him backwards, making him land hard on the ground a moment before Gwen landed right next to him, looking equally roughed-up as she landed on her back with a groan.

Looking at her, Miles greeted, "How's it going? You get thrown here often?"

Sitting up and rubbing her sore backside, Gwen answered, "Surprisingly so, and to be honest? It's not going the best. I don't think Spider-Man liked my suggestion that he should change his name to 'Burgundy Bug-Eye.'"

"Yeah, I would've thrown you too if I heard that, that's a terrible name,"Miles admitted.

Turning to look at him, Gwen defended herself, "It was improv! I can come up with something better!"

"Maybe just leave it as Spider-Man for now,"Miles suggested instead.

Sighing, Gwen gave in and said, "Fine. But I need some new material if we're gonna keep doing this, 'cause I'm running out of quips."

Shrugging, Miles pointed out, "We could always switch dance partners."

Gwen thought about it for a second, then said, then said, "Alright, why not? I haven't fought the Prowler in a while, could be fun."

And with that decision made, Gwen rolled backwards and launched upwards in a handstand that carried her towards Aaron, who had been approaching them menacingly but now stopped as he unexpectedly began to fight Spider-Woman rather than the other Prowler.

Sadly, Miles may not have thought this plan through very well, because while Gwen was engaged in combat with his uncle, that left Miles with the task of dealing with Spider-Man. Terrific. Still, not one to shy away from a challenge, Miles simply squared his shoulders and turned towards Spider-Man before launching towards him.

However, to Miles' great confusion, Spider-Man simply flipped over his charge, letting Miles pass beneath him harmlessly. Then, as he landed back on the ground and continued approaching Gwen without giving Miles a second glance, Spider-Man commented, "One side, Mr. Morales. You are not worthy of my time or attention. Indeed, you are entirely beneath me."

Insulted by this claim and also determined to keep Gwen from ending up fighting both of these supervillains at once, Miles quickly thought up the first clever retort to come to his mind and called after him, "Racist!"

Upon hearing that, Spider-Man abruptly stopped in his tracks and turned around to glare at Miles, asking, "I beg your pardon?"

Not entirely on board with what he had just said but knowing that he now had to run with it, Miles repeated, "You heard me. You're racist. I bet that under that mask is a privileged white dude, that's why you're talking down on me."

Appearing thunderstruck at this claim, Spider-Man reared back from Miles in shock and argued, "I wouldnever- Well, yes, I am white… Caucasian, I mean- It doesn't matter! Howdareyou suggest- Just because I-"

"Let me guess, you have black friends?"Miles asked with an unimpressed voice, slowly gaining confidence in this ridiculous plan that miraculously seemed to be working. "I bet you don't even speak Spanish."

"Extraneous!" Spider-Man cried furiously. "I speak several languages! Greek! French! Japanese! Italian! I'm also pretty good with German!"

Barely able to hope, Miles prompted, "But no Spanish?"

Spider-Man hesitated for a moment, then shifted uneasily and quietly admitted, "I- I am notfluent, I admit…"

"Then you're racist,"Miles reaffirmed with finality.

Pointing an angrily-shaking finger at Miles, Spider-Man objected, "That doesn't even make any sense! Your argument is invalid! Illogical! Baseless!"

"That's exactly what a racist person would say,"Miles pointed out.

Finally letting out a yell of rage, Spider-Man seemed to forget all about Gwen as he jumped towards Miles while announcing, "Enough! I will silence your preposterous lies, you impudent whelp!"

"Yeah, a demonstration of racial violence will prove me wrong!"Miles called back to further enrage Spider-Man as he powered up his gauntlets and prepared to meet him.

Gwen POV

Gwen could vaguely hear Miles and Spider-Man's version of a fight across the street, which seemed to consist of something along the lines of seeing how many languages Spider-Man could list. Maybe Miles challenged him to a "trial by trivia" or something, she didn't know. Nor did she believe that she would get the opportunity to join in, or even find out exactly what they were really doing, because she was currently preoccupied with fighting Miles' uncle, who seemed very eager to kill her.

Unfortunately for him, Gwen's Spider-Sense worked around him whereas it didn't with Miles, and though he could sometimes move too fast for her to react to her senses, her experiences fighting Miles and Spider-Man had given her an incentive to hone her reflexes with this particular skill. So long as her other senses worked along with her Spider-Sense (which is to say that she could see and hear Aaron as well as sense his attacks), the purple-clad man was having a difficult time hitting her.

Even more unfortunately for him, if he couldn't hit her, he stood absolutely no chance of shutting her up.

Doing a powerful handspring to stick to the side of a wall out of reach of Prowler's fists, Gwen commented, "You know, you and Miles sharing a name is really difficult for me sometimes. You know, it just gets awkward to say 'Prowler' and then have to specify which one I'm talking about. Do you think you could change your name? I suggested the same thing to Spider-Man. Maybe you could also change the costume to match? If it helps, I loved your chauffeur outfit on Homecoming night. Maybe you could start there and see where it goes? Justtryto tell me that 'the Chaperone' isn't a scary nickname."

With a low grunt of mixed exertion and annoyance, Aaron leapt up towards the wall where Gwen was and smashed his fist into it, the spider-themed heroine just barely managing to get out of the way before Prowler obliterated the place she'd been a moment before.

However, she didn't get far, and Aaron swiftly pulled his fist out of the wall and switched targets to jump towards Gwen once again while she was in midair, grabbing her by the throat with his prosthetic arm as he pulled her back down to the ground with him. Gwen placed both hands on Aaron's offending wrist and tried to pull him off of her, but his grip proved immovable. Changing her method of escape, Gwen instead raised one fist and punched Aaron's arm in the side to make him loosen his grip, but he once again didn't budge and simply continued to glare mercilessly into Gwen's eyes.

Clearly, whatever Aaron's prosthetic was made of was tough, and Gwen waved her sore hand to try to bring some of the feeling back into it as she struggled to say, "Well… someone's clearly been eating their greens."

Aaron didn't seem amused, and merely tightened his grip on her throat further, and Gwen made one final desperate bid for freedom, raising both arms and bringing them down hard on Aaron's arm right inside the elbow. This finally seemed to do something, not making him release her, but bending the arm just enough that Gwen was able to plant one foot on Aaron's knee to push herself away from him, jumping several yards away before rolling to a landing on her feet before rubbing her throat tenderly and looking towards Aaron as she said, "You might want to watch where you put those hands, you could hurt someone."

Aaron didn't respond, just glared at her in silence and narrowed his eyes even more at her with intense not-niceness. Suddenly curious, Gwen asked, "Is there, like, a limit on how much your eyes can narrow at me? Like, if I get you angry enough, will you just eventually not be able to see anything anymore? That's not what happened to Murdock, is it?"

"Do you ever stop treating everything like a joke?"Aaron asked, finally speaking to her for the first time in this fight.

Completely unashamed, Gwen honestly answered, "Well, I can either be constantly joking or constantly panicking. I like the first option better."

Aaron scoffed and said, "I can't believe I ever thought you would be good for Miles. That kid's had a tough time in his life, and you don't help him. You just make things crazier for him."

Gwen hesitated for a moment upon hearing that, then asked, "You know that your nephew jumps off rooftops every night for fun, right? I think he had a taste for 'crazy' before I even met him."

"But hecando those things!"the OG Prowler protested. "And you…Youput it in his head that he should be doing things hecan'tdo! You made him think he's something real special, that he's gotta be some sort of hero!"

Shrugging, Gwen responded, "Well, if the ridiculously tricked-out sneaker fits-"

"Prowlers aren't heroes, we're survivors!"Aaron asserted. "My nephew isn't like you, he's like me! Just a little man playing big in a big world, and it's only a matter of time before he gets himself killed trying to be something he's not, trying to be like you and my stupid, selfless brother. And it's gonna happen to you too! If there's one thing that all heroes have got in common, it's that they die!"

"Then maybe that's just the legacy we choose, Prowler!" Gwen argued. The things Aaron was saying, it reminded Gwen of a similar conversation she'd had with herself in the past. She knew that the path she'd chosen was a dangerous one, but that had never stopped her pursuing it. At this point, she didn't know if she evencouldstop if she wanted to, but she knew the risks that came with her choice and knew that Miles did as well, and it was time for Aaron to stop thinking otherwise. "Maybe we're willing to die if it comes down to it, as long as we go out taking down one last bad guy, saving one more life. I can't stand by when people need me and I can do something about it, and neither can Miles. But that doesn't mean he's like me. He's likehimselffor once. He chose this path, I didn't push him into it. Like it or not, Miles is a hero. And I won't let you take that away from him."

After Gwen made that statement, there was a momentary silence during which Gwen thought she saw some of the fight go out of Prowler as he looked past her towards Miles. Perhaps Gwen had succeeded and Aaron was finally coming to grips with the fact that this was Miles' decision, and he couldn't keep redirecting the blame. It was an odd experience, to watch a parent figure in the process of realizing how much their kid was growing up, but Gwen also found it really touching, maybe even the kind of thing that could convince Aaron to stop fighting them.

Or perhaps not, as the next moment, Aaron looked towards Gwen once more and growled out, "You took my partner - my nephew - away from me."

Sighing to herself, Gwen muttered, "Well,Ithought it was a good speech."

A moment later, Aaron jumped towards Gwen once more, but this time she was ready for him. The last part of her speech still stuck with her, giving her a new determination to win this fight. Miles had come a long way since his days of being just a follow-up Prowler to his uncle, and now Aaron wanted to revert that progress? No way was Gwen going to let that happen.

Aaron spread his hands to his sides as he charged towards Gwen, his claws extending with a snap while his heavy metal boots pounded against the ground, one step after the other in quick succession. He moved quickly, too quickly for any person to even follow his movements with the naked eye, but Gwen's body had the powerful ability of moving faster than her mind sometimes. Without even needing to think through her movements before she found herself performing them, Gwen flipped backwards just as Prowler attempted to pounce on her, his arms sweeping in front of himself and only managing to grab empty air.

While she was in the air, Gwen fired a line of webbing towards Prowler, and being familiar with his ability to cut her webs almost as soon as she could stick them to him, Gwen was careful to only allow the web to stick to his chest at the same moment as she landed on her feet on the ground once again, standing a few feet away from him. Then, as soon as she landed, Gwen stuck her feet in place and quickly tugged hard on the web line, yanking Aaron off his feet and towards her before his mind could even process that he'd been grabbed. The moment he reached her, Gwen thrust her free hand forward to punch Aaron away once again.

Landing on the ground painfully, Prowler nonetheless climbed back to his feet in a rush and cut the web off of himself then looked at Gwen more warily this time, letting her make the first move. More to prompt him than anything, Gwen answered Aaron's unspoken challenge by running towards him at full speed, and Aaron predictably avoided her unknown attack by jumping straight upwards into the air.

What he couldn't have known was that that had been exactly what Gwen had wanted him to do, and she shot a second web line up after him, this time to pull herself to him rather than the other way around. Seeing Gwen coming towards him, Aaron used his claws to slice this line off of himself as well, then flew slightly backwards in the air so that Gwen soared upwards right past him, placing himself out of her reach.

However, Gwen reacted to this move admirably just as well, letting herself be carried upwards, then shooting two more webs down to stick to each of Prowler's shoulders. Then, before he could cut these lines as well, Gwen pulled the webs taut and suddenly slingshotted herself back towards him to kick Aaron in the face hard enough to knock him back down towards the ground. Once Gwen had him on the floor, she quickly shot two different web lines onto Aaron's wrists and pinned him to his sides, but she didn't stop there. Remembering how he had broken free of her webbing with sheer strength in the past, Gwen continued to fire web after web onto every part of Aaron's body, tethering each one onto a different nearby surface, whether it be a wall, a mounted sign, the floor, anything she could find.

Aaron began to struggle against his bonds while Gwen was still in the process of putting them on, but Gwen acted quicker than he could and had dozens of web lines holding him in place within a matter of seconds, so many that even his gauntlets and boots seemed unable to save him.

And apparently just in time, because at that very moment, as Gwen examined her handiwork for any flaws or improvements she could make, her ears picked up the familiar sound of sirens approaching and suddenly remembered that the police were supposed to be sending in everything they had to capture Scorpion.

Whether or not they had brought enough to actually take him down (if Gargan had still been up at this point), however, Gwen didn't plan on waiting to find out, as she imagined that the cops would be only too happy to turn their extra firepower on her instead once they arrived.

With her time short, Gwen left Miles' uncle as he was, needing to forego further securing the webs holding him, and instead ran towards Miles, who was still engaged in combat with Spider-Man. Their fight had now escalated from the trivia into the usual "punching each other repeatedly" phase, and though Gwen saw that Miles was holding his own for now, it was also clear that he was struggling to do so.

Though Gwen hadn't intentionally tried to give Miles the harder job, Spider-Man certainly seemed to be a tougher opponent than Aaron was, just as quick and strong and hard to hit as Gwen was, but with none of her humor or holding back. Watching the fight, it was clear that it was all Miles could do to keep up with the older man, and though he actually managed to get in a few of his own hits, Gwen figured that he would soon tire from this fight and make a mistake, which would be all Spider-Man would need to finish him.

Fortunately, he was no longer fighting alone. As Gwen ran up behind Spider-Man, Miles must've seen her coming, because he set her up for an attack by dashing towards Spider-Man and jumping towards his midsection like he wanted to grab the villain around the waist.

When Spider-Man jumped upwards to avoid it, however, a web line suddenly appeared on either side of him, shooting over his shoulders, and he looked around just in time to receive a kick to the face from Gwen that knocked him across Broadway and into the side of a building, where Gwen began to punch him repeatedly into the wall to keep him in place for a second while Miles made the next move. And Miles did so admirably, thinking quickly and jumping towards the enormous advertising screen above Spider-Man instead of at Spider-Man himself.

While Gwen kept Spider-Man momentarily distracted, Miles jumped behind the screen and began to use his claws to tear off supports around it, then planted his feet firmly against the wall and used his gauntlet-enhanced strength to slowly begin to pry the entire screen off the side of the building.

With a mighty groan of metal, the screen began to tilt forward, an electrically-powered box about half the size of Gwen's entire apartment building, the spectacle of which made Gwen pause just long enough for Spider-Man to suddenly smack her away from him, gleefully telling her, "Foolish girl! You think that you can bestme? You cannot even fathom the transience of your miniscule triumph!"

Shrugging, Gwen responded, "Yeah, but I only have to do so much. In my experience, New York does a pretty good job squashing spiders on its own."

Upon hearing that, Spider-Man squinted at her and asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Gwen innocently pointed upwards with one finger, and Spider-Man followed her prompting to look in shock at the enormous screen right above him, like he was really just a regular spider about to be crushed beneath the shadow of a giant boot, albeit one that ironically had a picture of a winking Tony Stark on the bottom saying "The future's gonna hit you so hard, you won't know what happened!"

Spider-Man did his best to run out of the way before the screen could fall on him, but it was simply too wide, and a moment later, Spider-Man was crushed beneath several thousand pounds of metal and glass.

Right behind it, Miles jumped down and landed on top of the wreckage, then looked around and announced, "Well, I think that's our pest problem handled."

Smirking, Gwen responded, "Annoying as he was, I hope he's not dead under there. But the police are nearly here, so we should probably get going."

Miles gave her a nod of acknowledgement and jumped back upwards to begin running up the wall, Gwen shooting a web to follow right behind him. As they left the scene, however, neither of them noticed the other Prowler slip out from around the corner of the Red Stairs, newly freed from his web prison, and rush over to the fallen advertisem*nt screen before he impaled his claws into the side and began to tear his way into it.

Line Break

Spider-Man POV

Glaring down at the screen that he had just recently nearly been flattened by from where he stood on top of a building overlooking Times Square, Spider-Man growled out, "And that's thesecondtime Tony Stark had tried to bury me."

Behind him, he could hear Prowler speaking with Mr. Murdock over his earpiece, giving the report on their mission, but Spider-Man couldn't really bring himself to care at the moment. He was currently caught up in his feelings of rage, unwilling to accept that they had lost their quarry…again. Even more embarrassing, they'd nearly been caught by the police after those two teenage vigilantes had left both himself and Prowler trapped.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man had a tendency to forget that despite all his strength, evenhewas not invincible, and this negligence got him in trouble on occasion. A prime example of this was what had just happened. He'd had no hope of digging himself out from under that screen, not when it took all his strength just to keep it from falling down the extra foot it would take to kill him. And if the police had reached him before Prowler had… Oh, the horror! Even with all his powers, he would've been helpless against their numbers and firepower, specially ameliorated by his own choice to free Scorpion.

They could've easily hit him with a tasing dart or similarly powerful tranquilizer, which they surely would've had on hand to combat Gargan unless they were truly,completelyincompetent, and then… He would've been arrested. Unmasked. Revealed. Taken away to the Raft like some common criminal, and no doubt placed under security that would require him to rely on Matt's assistance to escape, waiting for a savior amongst Spider-Woman's other disgraced, fallen enemies.

No. That simply could not be allowed to happen. He was one of the most brilliant minds on the planet! He was above these errors he continually seemed to make! How could it be that after all he had accomplished in life, he kept being outwitted by a pair of teenagers?

Suddenly, the obvious answer made itself known to him. How could he have been so foolish? So hasty to make assumptions? It wasn'thisfault that he had been overpowered today. It wasProwler's.

As though he'd heard his name mentioned in Spider-Man's mind, Prowler chose that very moment to speak up, ending the call over his headset and telling Spider-Man, "Well, that's it. The Kingpin confirmed it. The mission was a bust."

Glaring at the slightly taller man over his shoulder, Spider-Man questioned, "And whose fault is that, Mr. Davis?"

There was a small silence, then Prowler began to say, "If you're trying to imply that this wasmyfault-"

"That's precisely what I'm saying!" Spider-Man cut him off, turning around to get right in Davis's face. He then poked the man in the chest, right in the center of that ridiculous, meaningless symbol on his chest, and continued, "You halfwitted, vacuous, miserable excuse for a super-criminal! I decided not to bring any more soldiers this time because I felt that they would only get in the way! But when you insisted once more on accompanying me, I permitted it as a gesture of goodwill! And you did nothing!Lessthan nothing!"

"Is that what you think?"Prowler asked, folding his arms across his chest and looking completely unaffected by what Spider-Man said.

Standing by his point, Spider-Man persisted, "It is what Iknowto be true, you dolt! You made me lower my guard in the midst of a fight by making me think I wasn't alone, but I most certainly was! And why? Becauseyouallowed yourself to be beaten, leaving me to bear both of our burdens by myself!"

"Speaking of bearing each other's burdens, I didn't hear you complaining when I dug you out from under several tons of metal,"Prowler reminded him.

However, Spider-Man just waved the comment off and said, "Oh, I don't deny that you have your uses. But you're all brawn and no brains, Davis. So how about this? Next time, you stay back and try to learn something, maybe read a book for once in your life if you can even recognize one, and I'll call you if I need you to punch something."

By the end of that request, Prowler looked like he would very much like to punch something, but he just looked down and took a deep breath (clearly smarter than he seemed if he knew better than to pick a fight with Spider-Man in a place that Murdock couldn't save him), then said, "Alright, whatever, Doc. Right now isn't the time for this. Right now, we need to focus on finding those two kids, because I'm not going back to Murdock empty handed again."

"The ignorance of childish minds never ceases to amuse," Spider-Man taunted with a smirk, then raised one wrist towards Prowler. Out of the projector on his vambrace, a hologram appeared featuring a map of part of the city, along with one bright red dot moving across the rooftops. As Davis examined the map with confusion, Spider-Man then explained, "I set one of my spider-bots on a nearby rooftop, programmed with the order to follow Spider-Woman and the other Prowler if they somehow escaped again."

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice to Spider-Man's left spoke, saying, "Ah, so you know where they are? Man in red, I could kiss you."

Turning to look at the speaker, Spider-Man and Prowler were both surprised to see Mac Gargan, AKA the Scorpion, standing on the rooftop next to them, his spiked tail hanging over his back as he looked at the red dot in Spider-Man's hologram hungrily.

Rather possessive of his inventions, Spider-Man quickly deactivated the hologram to keep it away from Scorpion's prying eyes as he greeted the man, "Gargan. I thought you were still unconscious on the ground."

"Well, when I saw two people who seem to hate those kids as much as I do, I knew we had to talk," Gargan responded with an unsettling smirk. "So here's my proposal. Me and you, I think we should team up. Work together to get Spider-Woman off the board permanently, and her new boyfriend too. What do you say?"

Spider-Man remained frozen in silence for a moment. He may have committed certain… questionable acts in his time, but he was still a man with standards, and Scorpion was just a basic superpowered thief, a mere career criminal, and an unprincipled killer, all characteristics that Spider-Man refused to tolerate.

Turning away from the man in disgust, Spider-Man began to walk away while informing him, "No, I don't think so, Gargan. We have everything we need. Now, enjoy your freedom, I suppose you've earned it, and let us both pray we never cross paths again. Prowler, let's go."

Spider-Man heard Prowler turn away from Gargan as well, obediently following after him, but then his Spider-Sense erupted with warning in his head, and Spider-man ducked sideways just in time to dodge a quick surprise stabbing attempt from Scorpion's tail as the green-costumed man yelled out, "Where do you think you're going? No one refuses the Scorpion!"

Immediately going into combat mode after Gargan's attempt on his life, Spider-Man spun around furiously and shot a web onto the murderer's chest before pulling him in close and grabbing Gargan by the throat, lifting him off his feet with one hand. As Spider-Man squeezed Scorpion's throat tightly, Gargan thrashed against his grip and struggled to draw in air, and Spider-Man's Spider-Sense tingled once again as the man's tail flew upwards to try to stab him in the shoulder.

However, just before it could reach him, Spider-Man's hand shot out and caught it around the edges of the stinger and forcefully tugged it further forwards before stabbing it into Scorpion's gut. As he was impaled by his own weapon, Scorpion's eyes widened and he grunted with shock and horror, but he didn't manage to say anything as Spider-Man pulled him back down to his level and muttered in his ear, "Evidently,Ido, Mr. Gargan. You should've taken your freedom when you had the chance."

He then shot one final burst of webbing to hold the poisoned stinger deep inside Gargan's stomach before throwing him unceremoniously off the side of the building, then carelessly turned once again to leave. Ignoring the way that Prowler watched the supervillain fall with a look almost like pity, Spider-Man announced, "The police can have the body, they worked hard to gather the resources to capture him. Now, Mr. Davis, I will follow the trail of my spider-bot while you return to the Kingpin and ready the cells for when I come back, for I will return bearing fruit. These upstart children, they think that they'resosmart, but they will soon be humbled by my incomprehensible might and unmatchable intellect! And if it comes to it, I will leave them both in the same state as poor Mr. Gargan, because they will not go unscathed against me any longer!"

And with that firm declaration, Spider-Man jumped away from the area with determination in his heart, leaving Prowler behind as he set out to seek his enemies.

Chapter 16: Meant To Be

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

Miles POV

"I know I said you should smile more, but this isn't what I meant," Gwen told Miles worriedly as she watched him work.

However, due to the nature of his current project, Miles couldn't keep the wide, anticipatory grin off his face as he typed on his holographic keyboard, inputting a series of complex commands, even though he knew that he must look quite deranged. He was too busy imagining the madness that his plan would surely cause, and his face reflected that madness perfectly at the moment.

Shortly after he and Gwen had left Times Square, Gwen had told him that she felt like something was off, and after Miles had taken special care to scan around them until he could relieve that feeling, they had discovered that they were being followed by one of Spider-Man's spider-bots, of which Gwen told him there were apparently quite a few.

Miles had captured and deactivated it before it could run away after it realized that it had been spotted, then brought it back over to Gwen to ask what she thought they should do with it. Possessing a greater hatred for the things, Gwen had suggested that they simply destroy it, but after Miles had opened its circuitry and used it to send out a ping to make sure that there were no more following them, Miles had recognized the potential in its connection to Spider-Man's immense, citywide spy network, and so he had vetoed Gwen's suggestion, telling her that he had something better in mind but not having explained the details just yet. That was why he now had the deactivated robot plugged into his gauntlet as it underwent some… cathartic changes.

Also, they were currently near the top of the Chrysler Building while they took a rare moment of relief. Not because they were worried about the robot giving away the location of their base or anything like that (Miles had removed the spider-bot's tracker almost immediately after they acquired it), but simply because they wanted to get some fresh air and Gwen had suggested this place.

Part of Miles wondered if it had anything to do with the time that he used one of his Constrictors to trap her up here for an hour, but Gwen didn't seem to have any malice behind this choice. In fact, she seemed incredibly comfortable up here, relaxing on the eagle head in front of where Miles sat while she looked back at him. Despite what she said, however, she appeared greatly content and amused to see Miles' enthusiasm with his work.

Looking up at Gwen for a moment with a smirk to acknowledge her comment, Miles' mind automatically snapped a picture of what he saw before him, the image of Spider-Woman, unmasked to reveal her face's beauty, smiling happily back at him from where she sat on the edge of the building with the city's majestic skyscape spread out behind her, and once again reminded himself that he would soon have to get himself a new sketchbook so he could draw this picture out with his last sketchbook now full.

Quickly snapping himself out of those thoughts for now so he could focus on his project, however, Miles looked back down at his newly written-out programming, carefully examining it for any errors, then nodded in satisfaction and hit the enter button to begin the upload, saying, "Well, that should do it."

Interested, Gwen quickly stood up and walked over before sitting down by Miles' side and looking at his work while she asked, "Ooh, what'd you do? Did you upload a bunch of cat videos into its memory? Did you add an auto-correct program to the coding?"

"Please, I wouldn't give him auto-correct. I'm trying to be a good guy now, remember?" Miles joked before Gwen could continue making guesses, then explained, "I actually did alotmore than either of those things. You see, while I was taking this thing apart, I realized a couple things, like that it had three-sixty degree vision, its own built-in taser, it can move fast and mostly unseen, stuff like that. And most importantly, this spider-bot and all of its little friends are all connected to the same network, so if I can access the network through one of them-"

"You can do something to affect all of them!" Gwen finished with amazement. She then looked at Miles and asked, "So theyallhave cat videos now?"

Chuckling, Miles said, "No. Maybe I'll add that later. No, what I did is I actually rewrote the entire code. I gave all of the spider-bots new orders. I can't make it too obvious, so they still follow Spider-Man's orders, but anytime they're just patrolling the city on their own now, they should do their best to incapacitate minor criminals, or at least report them to the police. And I switched around their programming regardingus, so they should pretty much just ignore us any time they're told to hunt us. Instead, a random bot will send out a fake alert every once in a while, just to keep Murdock's people guessing. And just in case Spider-Man eventually finds the problem… I may or may not have rewritten the code in Spanish, which he told me he doesn't speak, so if he wanted to reset their programming, he'd have to start again from scratch."

Her eyes wide, Gwen exclaimed, "Miles… this is amazing!"

Shrugging modestly but inwardly very proud of his accomplishment and even more so with Gwen's praise, Miles said, "Yeah, well, I realized that these things could help protect the city while we're… You know. Being hunted and whatnot. It would've been better if I could've tapped into their surveillance and audio so we could spy on Spider-Man, but it was complicated, well-protected programming, and I didn't want to-"

"Miles," Gwen cut him off sternly, then leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek before telling him, "This is great. You did an incredible job."

Miles smiled upon hearing Gwen's reassurance and deactivated his hologram, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer against his side and prompting Gwen to lay back and relax her head against his chest, one of her hands idly twirling one of his braids of hair around her finger. They stayed like that for a while, both just enjoying not being chased or having to work for once, winding down in the tranquility of the moment as the sun went down on their left, casting an orange glow over the tops of the skyscrapers in front of them.

After a while, Gwen asked, "Miles? What are we?"

Letting out a deep sigh, Miles answered, "Well, people have been asking that question for a long time. Are we just the product of stardust, drifting aimlessly in a wide open universe? Or are we-"

He broke off as Gwen suddenly gave his hair a sharp tug, sending a brief burst of pain through his head, and grumbled, "Stop it. You know what I mean."

Chuckling to himself, Miles thought over the true meaning of her question. They had now both revealed their feelings to each other, but they hadn't given it any official designation yet. Were they now an "item"? That seemed far too simple a term for what they had between them. And how did this work? Did they just say it and assume that their words would make it true? Miles had never done anything like this before, and was at a complete loss for what the procedure was. Relationships were much more complicated than machines, it seemed.

Speaking hesitantly, Miles responded, "I guess we're… boyfriend and girlfriend? Maybe?"

Her eyebrows furrowing, Gwen asked, "Boyfriend and girlfriend? Isn't that one of those 'normal people' things? How does that work with people likeus? I mean, there's not exactly a precedent for superheroes dating."

Shrugging cluelessly, Miles smirked and said, "Well, there's a first time for everything, right?"

Gwen gave a light chuckle at that and raised her head off of him to remind him, "Only if we handle this situation with the Kingpin. And I'm getting excited to introduce my dad to my new boyfriend, so let's get to work."

Propping himself up so he was sitting straight, Miles nodded in agreement and said, "Right. The sooner Murdock's taken care of, the sooner we can get back to our lives. I'm already dreading the amount of extra homework I'm going to have to do."

"Maybe let's focus on the more pressing sides of our lives for now," Gwen prompted. "I know it's a tough choice, putting saving the world above homework, but this is part of the job."

Smiling at Gwen's joke but also trying to think up their first order of business, Miles finally said, "I think our first move needs to be preparing for another fight with Murdock's enforcers. If we're lucky, both Prowler and Spider-Man are currently being taken to the Raft, but I'm betting it won't hold them very long."

"Maybe they'll reveal Spider-Man's real identity on the news!" Gwen added enthusiastically.

Nodding, Miles opened his gauntlet's hologram once more and opened a news channel where he saw a report being given on the attack in Times Square.

Turning on the volume, he and Gwen huddled together to watch the video as the commentating voice of J. Jonah Jameson announced, "The destruction done to one of New York City's most beloved tourism magnets is severe, but restorers from the mayor's office have stated that they have hopes to have the debris cleared and Broadway once again open for business within two weeks. However, one crime committed tonight thatcannotbe fixed is the brutal (though not entirely unexpected) murder of Mac Gargan, AKA the Scorpion by the Spider-Woman!"

Appalled by what he was hearing, Miles exclaimed, "No!" at the same time as Gwen, both of them staring at the screen with wide, horrified eyes as an picture appeared of the limp form of Scorpion laying on a stretcher, his own tail embedded deep in his gut and held in place by webs that the medics attending his body had evidently been unable to remove.

As though speaking in response to Miles and Gwen's outburst, Jameson continued with a gleeful, triumphant tone, "Ooooh, yes! You heard me! New York's web-headed wallcrawler, the Spider-Woman, has finally committed her second murder in just over a year's time! At least it was a criminal this time, so I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm celebrating! If you look at this image, you can clearly see the proof of what Yours Truly has been telling you all for the last year! I told the truth from the beginning, people! 'Spider-Woman: Threat or Menace', still our best-selling newspaper after all this time, and available now at your nearest Daily Bugle store! And those of you who've been calling me with theoutrageousclaims that you think Spider-Woman is some kind of hero, trying to change after her murder of Peter Parker? Oh-ho-ho, I want to hear what you have to say about her now! And don't worry, I won't make you beg for forgiveness. But you can't deny that I deserve it!"

Turning to look at Gwen, Miles pointed out, "Spider-Man must've killed Gargan. And after he stabbed him, he shot webs onto him to implicateyou. He must've managed to escape."

"And we just left Gargan there for the police," Gwen added, sounding angry at herself. "It's our fault he's dead."

Miles opened his mouth to contradict her claim, hoping to relieve her guilt, but then he was silenced when he noticed Gwen's dad appear on the holographic screen, making a statement on the events.

"What happened here was a tragedy, and I'm not denying that some of the blame belongs to our police department for our lack of preparedness for handling super-criminal events,"Captain Stacy said, his hands on his hips, then took a deep breath and continued, "However, we can't afford to jump to conclusions. All cameras in the area were taken down during the whole thing, so we don't know the details, meaning that we can't just assume that this was the Spider-Woman's doing. No matter what the evidence suggests, the PDNY is going to stay open to multiple possibilities pending a formal and thorough investigation. For all we know, Spider-Woman could've been the hero here. She might've had no choice, or maybe she's being framed. But rest easy, New York. If nothing else, the death of Mac Gargan leaves this city a little bit safer."

Miles turned to Gwen to see her staring at her dad in shock. After a few seconds of this, Gwen asked, "He'snotblaming me? 'Stay open to multiple possibilities pending investigation'? Since when?"

Miles took the optimistic approach and suggested, "Maybe he finally realized that killing isn't Spider-Woman's style. At least, not anymore, from his perspective."

However, Gwen just shook her head in confusion and said, "No way. My dad's too stubborn for that. After Peter, he never would've changed his mind about Spider-Woman."

Miles thought about it for a moment, wondering what could've affected Captain Stacy in this way, but finally just set the thought aside for now and said, "Well, it's a problem for another time. Right now, let's focus on our respective darker halves. We should assume that both Spider-Man and Aaron escaped capture, otherwise the news would've taken the opportunity to report some good news. I think either of us can handle my uncle well enough if it comes to it, but…"

He trailed off there, obviously not wanting to sound offensive, but Gwen got the message anyway and finished for him, "Yeah, I know. Spider-Man presents a bigger problem for both of us. We need to identify his weaknesses. But we still know so little about him!"

"We know that he's white," Miles interjected.

Gwen blinked at Miles with confusion, clearly curious as to how exactly he came by this particular piece of information, but decided that now wasn't the time to ask and quickly tried to recall her train of thought before saying, "Okay, he's white. That narrows it down to about three and a half million people in this city. What else do we know? Ummm… Oh, I know! He's a doctor!"

Now it was Miles' turn to look at Gwen in confusion, asking, "Really? Adoctorchose to get involved in our crazy world of super-people? Sounds a bit… strange to me."

"Did you think the evil lab was just for show?" Gwen asked rhetorically. That comment brought another thought to her mind, prompting her to continue, "Maybe that's it! Wherever he worked before he went to work for Murdock, we need to find his old lab! It's bound to have enough evidence for us to figure out his identity ourselves!"

Leaning back against the wall and looking straight ahead in thought, Miles added, "Well, that should be easy enough. We only know of one thing that he did before he was Spider-Man, and that was making the spiders that bit both of you. So that Oscorp research center where you were bit, he must've worked there. And I'd guess he was pretty important there too."

Gwen considered the prospect and questioned, "Isn't there a simpler, faster way we could deal with him?"

"Not unless you have any suggestions," Miles answered.

Gwen was silent for a moment as she tried to come up with something, then asked, "Do you have an apple?"

Confused, Miles looked at her and asked her to repeat it, wanting to make sure he'd heard her right. "An apple?"

"Yeah, an apple," Gwen affirmed.

"How would an apple help us?" Miles questioned. He recognized that he had opened the conversation to any and all suggestions, but if a few hundred thousand pounds of metal couldn't stop Spider-Man, he was hesitant to believe that a high amount of fiber would do much better.

Shrugging, Gwen explained, "Well, Spider-Man told me that he's a doctor, and you know what they say. 'An apple a day-'"

"I'm just gonna stop you right there," Miles quickly cut her off, holding up a hand to silence her before she could finish the sentence. As amusing as her joke was, this really wasn't the time for it. Then, avoiding Gwen's eyes to help himself to keep a smirk from rising to his face, Miles climbed to his feet and offered her a hand as he said, "It sounds like our plan is decided. Hope you're ready for a trip down memory lane,mi vida. I'm taking you on a date to the science fair."

Line Break

Gwen POV

Calling Oscorp's most prestigious public exhibition center a "science fair" was pushing things a bit, but Gwen didn't dwell on that part of what Miles had said for too long. No, she was more intrigued by how he'd referred to their current excursion.

Of course, an argument could be made that their Homecoming night had been hers and Miles' first technical date, but this was the first time that Miles had made it official, which made this Gwen's first official dateever, and while she wouldn't have chosen to share it with anyone else, the timing and circ*mstances were somewhat questionable.

Standing next to Miles at the back of their tour group, Gwen leaned over next to her new boyfriend and whispered, "Not that this isn't nice, but please tell me that notallof our dates are going to not-so-secretly be about work."

"Tell you what,thisdate will be about saving the city, and the next one will be a nice Italian dinner," Miles reassured her quietly out of the corner of his mouth as he pretended to focus on what their tour guide was telling them.

Gwen fiddled with Miles' leather jacket sleeve idly to get his attention as she told him, "Yes on the Italian, no on the nice. I know you could afford some really fancy dinner if we really wanted it, but we're still just teenagers, Miles. A normal pizza lunch would be plenty."

Still not looking at her, Miles responded, "Pizza. You got it."

Smiling brightly, Gwen stood up on the tips of her toes and placed a quiet kiss to Miles' cheek, which finally caused his face to lose some of its composure as the corners of his mouth involuntarily curved upward.

Just then, the tour group began to move onwards, and as Gwen and Miles hung back as the rest of the group moved on, he abruptly grabbed her hand to get her attention and gestured discreetly towards a door behind them that was labeled, "Security".

Getting the message, Gwen and Miles slowed down drastically as they pretended to keep following the group for a moment, but as soon as the group passed out of sight, they both turned around swiftly and walked back towards the door. Gwen stood guard next to the door as Miles held a small card over the electronic lock above the handle, which began to blink red repeatedly as it read whatever signal the card was sending it.

As this was happening, Miles pulled off the backpack that he wore with his free hand and reached inside to slip on one of his gauntlets, Gwen hearing the mechanism lock into place around his wrist just as the lock on the door finally turned to a bright green. Once that was done, Miles pocketed the card and handed the backpack off to Gwen, then his mask formed over his face as he opened the security room door and slipped inside before the door closed again behind him. While she waited for Miles, Gwen kept her head bowed low beneath her hood as she tried to ignore the sounds of scuffling and muffled chaos emanating from behind the door, impatiently waiting to get inside as she didn't want to be seen here by anyone.

Fortunately, she only needed to wait for a few seconds before all fell silent and the door was opened once again from the inside, at which point Gwen quickly slipped inside and shut the door behind herself, then turned to find Miles already working on erasing the building's recent security footage.

Ignoring the small pile of unconscious security guards in the corner of the room, Gwen pulled off the black windbreaker that she had been wearing over the upper part of her costume and threw it aside, then reached into the backpack she was holding to grab her mask and gloves, all of which she put on before also grabbing Miles' other gauntlet, which she brought over to set on the table next to Miles, not disturbing his concentration as she reached around his front to unzip his jacket and pulled on the back with her other hand to make his tri-point collar pop up in the back, restoring his disguised civilian attire to looking like his usual Prowler costume.

By the time she was done with that, Miles had finished with his own work, and with one final keystroke, he proceeded to lean over the desk and pull down on a fire alarm switch, which immediately caused a loud, constant ringing sound to blare through the entire building. Then, as Miles grabbed his other gauntlet off the table to slip onto his free hand, he turned back to Gwen and said, "Alright, Spider-Woman. In about thirty seconds, everyone should've been evacuated from the building, and then we'll have ten minutes tops to search the building for anything on Spider-Man."

"Ten minutes?" Gwen questioned. "That's not much time to search a building as big as this."

"I can give most of the building a quick sweep with my scanners, but you should head up to the genetics lab to give it a more thorough look. That's where the evidence will most likely be,"Miles advised her.

Then, with their thirty seconds up, Miles walked over and opened the door to step outside, preparing to begin his own search as he gave Gwen one last look and told her, "Good luck."

And then, in a blur of magenta light, Miles had disappeared, and after giving the wall-mounted clock next to herself a quick glance to mark how much time they had left, Gwen left the room as well, though she ran in the opposite direction from where Miles had gone. She leapt powerfully across the expanse of the entire lobby and stuck to the side of a stone pillar across the room before beginning to run up it. Even after all this time, she remembered her first visit to this building and could easily recall where every single room that they'd visited was without even needing to look at any of the maps and signs that had been put up for tour groups, particularly the genetics lab that she was going towards.

How could she not remember it? Ever since the day that she had gotten her powers, she had never visited the place where it had happened, but inside this building, her life had changed forever.

She recalled every moment like it was yesterday, her and Peter standing in the back of their group to avoid drawing negative attention, listening intently to the teacher while other students like Flash Thompson and his buddies quietly shoved each other around and lowly chuckled at themselves like they were actually doing something amusing instead of just being rude.

Then, Flash pushed one of his friends a bit too hard and caused them to fall backwards and bump Peter with their full body weight while Peter was in the middle of trying to draw the scientist's attention to the fact that one of their specimens seemed to be missing, nearly knocking him over while he was speaking, and he would have done if Gwen had not quickly caught her friend by the arm to steady him.

Gwen threw an angry glare over at Flash while Peter straightened his glasses and blushed furiously, his ears burning as his barely-existent dignity was damaged in public once again, this time in front of numerous accomplished scientists who were everything Peter had always aspired to be, one of whom now turned her head away from Peter to hide her humorous smile and instantly forgot all about what Peter had been saying.

As their class had begun to move on with the tour, Gwen and Peter had hung back for a moment as Peter looked down and gritted his teeth helplessly, and Gwen had placed her hand on his shoulder to try to comfort him, but she wouldn't manage to get a word out before a small spider that had been lowering itself from the ceiling on a thin web had landed on her hand, and Gwen instantly felt a momentary but sharp pain erupt in the back of her hand, which she had exclaimed at as she tossed the spider away.

Peter had instantly forgotten his own troubles upon hearing Gwen's cry of pain, but she had waved him off, saying that it was nothing. At that time, neither of them had known that that bite was indeednotnothing. It was very muchsomething, despite how innocent or natural it had seemed at the moment.

But now wasn't the time to be dwelling on the past. Gwen needed to focus on the here and now and get her job done. A lot depended on Spider-Woman, whether or not most people in this city could see it, but Gwen was still determined to do whatever she could, even without recognition or praise, and just trust that it would all be worth it in the end. And right now,thiswas the best good thing that she could do.

Once Gwen was outside the genetics lab, she flipped off the wall and landed in front of the lab's door before firing a burst of webbing at the hand-scanner mounted on the wall, which immediately beeped softly as the door unlocked. This was a trick that Gwen had discovered earlier in her career as Spider-Woman, that her extremely pliable webs could fill any imprint scanner perfectly so that it was read affirmatively. It was a maneuver that had served her well on several occasions, and this time was no exception.

Stepping forward and pulling the door open as she stepped inside the lab, Gwen immediately began to look around the room for anything that met the requirements of her search. She saw nothing at first glance, but that was expected. This room had been well-kept over the last year, and most of the equipment in here was brand new and top of the line, though Gwen's hopes were lifted upon seeing that the old glass exhibits that had once held the genetically-altered spiders were still here, though they had been shoved into the back of the room and were now empty.

Going over near the glass cases, Gwen opened the drawer beneath them to see a small display of the scientists involved in the making of the old specimens, of which there were fortunately only two. Gwen was in the middle of silently cheering at their good luck when her smile abruptly fell from her face as she realized that one of the scientists, labeled as an assistant on the project, was a woman. The other, labeled as the head scientist, was Norman Osborn, founder and CEO of Oscorp and supposedly one of many people that had employed and eventually tried to destroy Spider-Man.

Her hopes falling, Gwen was just barely closing the drawer in disappointment when an unfamiliar logo caught her eye, written in tiny font in the very corner of the display. It was the shape of a yellow octagon next to the words, "Made in collaboration with Octavius Industries".

Gwen had never heard of Octavius Industries, but recognizing that they had just this one last hope unless Miles found something more concrete, she shut the drawer quickly and instead pulled out her cell phone and opened her web browser to search for the name of this mysterious company.

As she was looking through the results, she nearly jumped in surprise when she suddenly heard Miles' voice approaching her from behind, saying, "There's nothing. No evidence throughout the rest of the building, not even an employment log that goes back further than four months. I hope you found something."

"I might've," Gwen responded hesitantly, and Miles paused in his tracks for a moment before he suddenly rushed over to her side, trying to see what she was looking at.

Tilting her phone to show Miles what she'd found, particularly an image of a rather overweight, chubby man in glasses, Gwen explained, "I found evidence connecting the altered spider project to a company called Octavius Industries. It was a small start-up company before it collapsed, just a few employees during its time, and it dealt mostly in robotics, prosthetics and business automation, that sort of thing."

"Doesn't sound like the sort of company you'd usually bring in for a genetics experiment,"Miles commented.

Nodding in agreement, Gwen said, "That's exactly what I thought. But when I dug into the founder's history, I found out that Norman Osborn has worked with him before. They were even at school together! Lab partners and whatnot."

"So Osborn would've been familiar with the guy's work inmorethan just robotics, even if no one else knew his name,"Miles recognized.

Nodding again, Gwen agreed, "Yeah, and get this. Two months after the spider bite that gave me my powers, Octavius Industries was destroyed by numerous undisclosed lawsuits from Oscorp, and the founder of the company disappeared and hasn't been heard from since."

Looking down at the picture of the man on Gwen's screen, seeming slightly doubtful now, Miles asked, "Wait, so you're saying…Thisguy? I don't know, Gwen. He doesn't exactly have… You know, the right build to be Spider-Man."

"When I got my powers, it changed my body to be more lean and muscled," Gwen reminded him. "And yeah, I get that this guy doesn't look quite right for the part, but honestly, neither of us really know the limits of how much those spider bites can change you to suit your new abilities. But I think this is it, Miles. All the evidence points to this: that Spider-Man's real name is Dr. Otto Octavius."

Whether or not Miles still had questions or concerns about this claim, Gwen did not get to find out, however, as her Spider-Sense abruptly tingled powerfully in her head. She instinctively pushed Miles to the side, but before she could jump out of the way herself, a long white table suddenly came flying towards her from behind, flipping end over end until it crashed into her and knocked her back through the wall.

Gwen was launched out of the genetics lab and crashed to the floor in another room that she could only assume was the geology department, given the number of rocks spread across all of the tables around her. Climbing back to her feet with a groan, Gwen looked up towards the hole in the wall, where Spider-Man could be seen easily climbing through to follow after her, and not bothering to wonder how he'd found them this time, said, "You know, I'm pretty sure there's a rule against roughhousing in the lab."

While her enemy was momentarily distracted by her comment, Gwen immediately followed it up by springing back towards Spider-Man to go on the offensive, shooting a web line behind herself as she did so to grab a large rock off an examination table, intending to swing it around to hit Spider-Man.

However, to her surprise,shewas the one that was pulled backwards instead as the rock proved to be much heavier than expected, resulting in Gwen being yanked backwards by her own web as the rock was merely pulled off of the table and fell rather anticlimactically to the ground.

Gwen got back to her feet once again and looked in confusion at the rock. It was only about three times the size of her head, which she figured that she would easily be able to lift with her superpowered strength. Then, she looked around the room for an answer and suddenly noticed that a bucket full of rocks on another table was labeled "moon rocks".

Apparently, this wasn't the geology room after all, and what Gwen had just tried to grab with her web was not, as she had originally believed, a regular boulder.

Gesturing in annoyance at the ridiculously heavy rock on the ground, Gwen exclaimed, "Seriously? All the rocks in here I could have grabbed, and I grabbed anasteroid?The odds of that have to be… astronomical."

Still standing on the other side of the room, Spider-Man looked upwards and let out a sigh of annoyance before he was suddenly hit in the back by a dashing (in more ways than one) Miles, who watched Spider-Man soar into the back of the room before he narrowed his eyes at Gwen and told her, "If you're waiting on a rim shot sound effect for your pun, you're going to need to make it yourself."

Putting a hand on her hip, Gwen responded, "I'd be happy to. But do you have a drum?"

Miles gestured with his head at Spider-Man and answered, "Not on me, no. But maybe the good doctor here can give you something to hit."

Taking his cue perfectly, Spider-Man began to slowly and menacingly rise back to his feet as he narrowed his eyes at Miles and told him, "No need to act so disingenuous, Mr. Morales. Surely someone of your mental aptitude has determined by now that neither of you will be walking away from this most recent encounter of ours."

"Didn't I bury you alive last time we fought? Like... five hours ago?"Miles asked rhetorically, more to remind Spider-Man of the circ*mstances than seeking an actual answer.

"The result of a stroke of luck and an unworthy trick, nothing more!" Spider-Man argued.

"The 'trick' was called gravity, Doc,"Miles told him. "Look it up."

Flabbergasted by this comment, Spider-Man was rendered speechless as Gwen and Miles watched his mouth open and close helplessly beneath his mask repeatedly, apparently too angry for even a witty retort. Frankly Gwen was impressed by this accomplishment from Miles, which is why she now chose to remain silent and watch on in amusem*nt when she usually would've joined in on the conversation by now.

Spider-Man glared at Miles uncomprehendingly for a few moments longer, then apparently decided to simplify the equation and flicked his hands, causing the tips of his fingers to extend into small claws within his gloves with a smoothshktsound.

"Are those claws?"Miles asked, sounding insulted. He looked at his own clawed gauntlets, then asked the man, "Dude, are you sure you're really 'Spider-Man'? Spider-Womandoesn't have those!"

"I'm not trying to be Spider-Woman," Spider-Man responded smugly, finally getting his voice back. "I am the superior Spider in every way!"

"You know, that would be a really weird thing to brag about out of context," Gwen pointed out, also taking the opportunity to speak once again.

Clearly upset that his new claws weren't quite getting the reaction he had hoped for, Spider-Man fumed in place as he looked back and forth between them and slowly declared, "You children… the both of you… I promise that you will both suffer as you die."

"Forgot your Hippocratic Oath, Otto?" Gwen asked.

By now, Spider-Man was practically growling at them both in rage and looked like he was just about to pounce on Gwen to begin putting his fancy claws to good use, but then he suddenly froze completely, his eyes going wide as he asked, "What did you call me?"

"She called you Otto, as in Dr. Otto Octavius,"Miles answered for Gwen, apparently taking great pleasure in the way that Spider-Man seemed to flinch every time the name was said.

Also taking note of this reaction, Gwen asked, "That's your real name. Isn't it?"

At this point, Spider-Man was actually shaking with barely-suppressed anger as he hissed out, "That name… meansnothingto me anymore."

"It's because of the coincidence of a guy named 'Octavius' becoming a supervillain themed after an eight-legged bug, isn't it?"Miles asked.

"You imbeciles!" Spider-Man yelled at them abruptly, his fury finally exploding. "Fakes! Poseurs! Do you not understand the awesome might, the frightfulness of your greatest enemy? Next to my resolve, the both of you appear pusillanimous!"

"Joke's on you, I don't even know what that means!" Gwen retorted smartly.

Now entirely fed up with the both of them refusing to take him seriously, Spider-Man let out a roaring battle cry and leapt towards Gwen with his hands outstretched like he wanted to throttle her. Just before he could reach her, however, Miles suddenly appeared in a blur between them and grabbed Spider-Man by the throat instead before launching upwards, leaving a large hole in the ceiling where they had both exited, seemingly going towards the roof.

Sighing as she looked up through the hole, Gwen fired a web line from both wrists onto the ceiling and slingshotted herself after the two other super-people, quietly muttering to herself as she went about how all three of them could probably use some counseling instead of trying to solve every problem with their fists.

Just as Spider-Man shoved Miles off of himself and kicked him backwards, falling down through the air back towards the roof of the building, Gwen flew like an arrow right between the two of them and shot a web onto Miles to swing him back around so that he could return Spider-Man's punch, which sent both of them flying even higher.

However, after hitting Spider-Man, Miles had reached the vertex of his jump and began to fall back downwards once again, but he used his short moment of weightlessness to grab onto Gwen's web line with his free hand before throwing her at Spider-Man as well, which she had anticipated and responded to by giving Spider-Man a powerful punch to the face, sending him flying higher still, all of them having been in the air for this entire fight so far.

While he was being thrown upwards, though, Miles jumped up above him, bouncing off the air to get there, then blasted him back down towards the ground with a second burst of energy from his shoes. Below themselves, Gwen and Miles watched, disappointed but unsurprised, as Spider-Man shot a web to catch himself just before he would've crashed into the rooftop, allowing himself to land on his feet, not softly but not badly (to their annoyance), and look back up at Gwen and Miles with a look that was clearly anticipatory for when they came back down to join him.

As they fell back towards Spider-Man, Gwen looked around, able to see quite a lot from up here, and noticed that a large crowd was gathered outside Oscorp's exhibition center, probably even more people than had been inside the building when she and Miles had emptied it and slowly growing in number, looking up at the scene taking place over the roof with awe and concern.

Gwen hoped that these people would just assume what was going on up here was nothing more than a publicity stunt arranged by Oscorp, that they wouldn't be able to see what it really was, but numerous camera flashes from the crowd told her that that would probably not be the case. It looked like she would be making the news again tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. Hooray. Even more importantly, she wished that the people would have the sense to get out of the area, the memory of too many times that she'd needed to save innocent bystanders from supervillains coming to mind.

Speaking of the supervillain in question, Spider-Man didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was currently being caught on camera, in broad daylight, for the first time in his career. At first glance, such a fact may seem like it would be to Gwen and Miles' benefit, for the world to finally find out about Spider-Man's existence, but at the moment, it just meant that Spider-Man was too angry and determined to even worry about his own problems, which wasn't really great news for his two teenage adversaries.

Their only advantage against an enraged Spider-Man seemed to be their superior numbers, making them feel lucky that Miles' Uncle Aaron wasn't here, but that was a small comfort against a foe as relentless as the one they were currently fighting. Still, they worked with what they had, focusing on team combos to outmaneuver Spider-Man.

As they landed on the roof once again, they were careful to land on either side of him, Miles a few yards in front of him and Gwen a few yards behind. Immediately recognizing that he was surrounded, Spider-Man narrowed his eyes and crouched low in preparation to defend from an attack, though he kept his eyes on Miles.

Gwen waited patiently for Prowler to make the first move, which he did after only a few seconds, dashing towards Spider-Man faster than his Spider-Senses could warn him. However, Spider-Man's preparation for the attack proved even more effective than his Spider-Sense, and he sidestepped Miles' charge before forcefully backhanding him away, throwing Miles back into his original position with hardly any effort as he taunted, "You're so predictable, Mr. Morales. I've been studying the Prowler's fighting style since before you even held the mantle, and your charge is easily anticipated."

While Spider-Man's attention was off of her, Gwen fired a web line at his shoulder, and this time Spider-Man did use his Spider-Sense as he tilted his body just slightly to dodge it without even looking, then looked back over his shoulder with an expression of amusem*nt as he added, "Andyouare every bit as predictable as he is, Ms. Stacy."

Suddenly, the web line next to Spider-Man's head was pulled taut, drawing his attention onto it before he looked back around and saw that Miles had grabbed the other end of the line, keeping a firm hold on it as he said mockingly, "Yet you didn't predict that, did you?"

Then, Miles gave the web a firm tug with all the strength in his gauntlet, resulting in Gwen getting pulled towards Spider-Man faster than he could react, and bigger than he could dodge, delivering a powerful mid-air kick to his gut that sent him sprawling across the rooftop, all the air knocked out of him extremely forcefully, finally coming to a stop laying on his front.

Before he could get back to his feet, Miles ran up next to him and armed the net launchers on both of his gauntlets before firing them onto Spider-Man, holding him down with double the strength that had once restrained Gwen for over half an hour. He immediately began to struggle against his bonds, but Gwen knew that not even Spider-Man stood a chance against two of Miles' nets at once.

Standing over their fallen adversary triumphantly, Gwen told him, "It's over, Octavius."

Still grunting with effort, the muscles of his shoulders currently able to easily be seen bulging against the skin-tight fabric of his suit, Spider-Man turned his head sideways to glare at Gwen and managed to get out in labored breaths, "This… isn't over… untilIsay… it is…. And my name… is… Spider-Man!"

With that final word, Spider-Man suddenly stopped pushing back against the nets covering him and instead curled inward, and then something unexpected happened. The large red symbol on his back that vaguely resembled a spider (though it was far different from the symbol on his chest) opened up four small holes positioned around it, two on the left of his spine and two on the right.

All at once, out of each of these holes emerged four long, red pieces of metal. Each one was of equal length as they unfolded out as far as they could, each one far too large for Gwen to understand how even one of them could've fit inside the back of his suit. They were all shaped exactly the same as well, artificially jointed along the sides several times for freedom of movement, extensive and tapered at the ends while the very tips were pointed, like each one was essentially just a technologically advanced, automated spike that was clearly designed to mimic the appearance of an actual spider's legs.

Before either Gwen or Miles could react to this new and unforeseeable occurrence, all four of Spider-Man's new legs impaled themselves through the holes in the nets covering him and pulled outwards, quickly doing the impossible and actually pulling both nets apart, where they faded out of existence as soon as they lost their connection to their other power sources.

Gwen and Prowler both took a few steps back, becoming defensive again when faced with this new show of strength, and as Spider-Man stood tall above them, he ignored them both for a moment as he examined the workmanship of his new arms casually and commented, "Ah. Perfect. I had hoped that my latest project was field-ready. I thank you, Spider-Woman and Prowler, for giving me an incentive to test them." He then turned towards them with a devious smirk and added, "Now, let us beginfurthertesting and see what these new toys of mine can do."

Holding up a finger to make him wait for a moment, Gwen pointed out, "Don't we have to sign an experimental consent form first?"

Rather than answering, Spider-Man suddenly leapt towards them, his four spike-ended mechanical legs held out in front of himself like he was going to impale them, and Miles quickly grabbed Gwen and pulled both of them sideways to avoid the attack. But missing the first time didn't deter Spider-Man whatsoever, sadly, and he immediately began to eagerly give chase after them, apparently still reveling in the success of his latest creation.

As Gwen and Miles kept running back across the rooftop to avoid the crazed scientist, Miles commented, "I guess he's not too stressed about the red tape. Probably because he now has everything he needs to cut through it all."

Looking over at him suspiciously, Gwen asked, "You're not still bitter that he has claws, are you?"

Throwing his hands up in exasperation, Miles said, "Why does he need claws? He'sSpider-Man! Claws are my thing! And now he has thoseestúpidoleg things, which actually fits his style. He doesn't need extra spiked limbsandclaws!"

"You know, I see your point, but could we maybe talk about this later?" Gwen asked, trying to remind Miles that they were kind of busy right now trying not to die.

Just in time, Miles looked back over his shoulder to check on Spider-Man and found him jumping towards them looking like he was about ready to stab them both with his legs. Just before he could accomplish this, however, Miles charged up his right gauntlet and spun around to punch Spider-Man away from them. Unfortunately, before the older man could hit the ground, his legs folded around him protectively to take the brunt of the impact, helping him to roll quickly to a stop before he stood back up looking completely unfazed and resumed the chase.

Miles then turned to Gwen and admitted, "Alright, fair enough. I'll save my complaining untilafterwe deal with this guy."

At that point, however, they ran out of places that they could run on the rooftop, and seeing as this science center was along the shore and somewhat separated from any other buildings, they had nowhere to go, at least not if they wanted to keep this fight contained. Spider-Man had pushed them into a corner, and he was beginning to close in on them yet again.

To solve the issue, both Gwen and Miles silently came to an agreement to stop running and turned around to face Spider-Man's charge instead. As the red and black-clad supervillain approached them, Gwen fired bursts of webbing at him to slow him down, but Spider-Man didn't even slow down as his four metal limbs placed themselves in front of him to catch the webbing before they ripped it apart. However, while the legs were occupied momentarily, Miles took his split-second opportunity to dash towards Spider-Man and kick him away forcefully as soon as the metal legs were out of the way, knocking him back yet again with a blast from his shoes.

Sadly, this still didn't seem to deter Spider-Man and only bought them a few seconds to work out what they would do next.

"You have any ideas?" Gwen asked Miles as they crouched low defensively and warily watched Spider-Man trying to recover.

Miles was silent for a second, then answered, "If the legs weren't considered battle-ready before this, then they're probably unfinished… I might be able to do something, but you'll need to buy me some time. A minute. Maybe a little more."

Sighing to herself in resignation, Gwen shook her head and muttered, "I had a bad feeling you'd say something like that."

Still, she recognized the necessity of her task and began running forward to carry it out without any further protest. One she'd determined that she had enough momentum, she leapt at Spider-Man while calling out, "Hey, Doc! I think we need to have a talk about your anger issues! Have you tried yoga?"

Just before she reached him, Gwen saw Spider-Man strike out towards her with all six of his arms, showing how he had developed a strong desire to silence her jokes, just as Gwen had always expected, but before he could hit her, Gwen demonstrated some of the yoga she had just mentioned and how it could be applied in combat, grabbing onto and flipping around Spider-Man's bottom left arm so that she landed on the ground on her back right beneath him, though she positioned the lower half of her body upwards and did the splits in an impressive show of gymnastic ability that planted a powerful kick in Spider-Man's gut, slipping right through all of his defenses.

As he was kicked away, Spider-Man was knocked off his feet and into the air, but he reacted to it quickly and did a backflip in midair before landing in perfect execution of Gwen's three-point landing, his metal legs all impaling themselves into the ground around him to stabilize his landing.

However, Gwen didn't give him a moment to recover and immediately did a handspring back to her feet before firing a web line on either side of him and slingshotting herself right into him once again, sending them both flying back to the other side of the rooftop.

Spider-Man landed on his back the first time they touched the ground again, grunting as he was shoved down into the stone beneath his back by Gwen kneeling atop him, but as they bounced and rolled in the air again, this time Spider-Man made sure that Gwen was the one to slam into the ground, his legs grabbing the ground on either side of them to drag them to a stop with Gwen's head dangling off the edge of the building.

Not at all caring about the crowd beneath them that would surely be seeing every moment of their battle, Spider-Man then began to pummel Gwen furiously, striking her repeatedly across the face as she lay practically helpless beneath him, Gwen hearing the ground beneath her begin to crack from the force of the blows.

Whether because he trusted his mechanized limbs to protect him if necessary or because he was just too angry to even remember Miles' presence at the moment, Spider-Man didn't even bother glancing back at where Prowler was hopefully getting close to finishing whatever he was working on. Instead, he focused completely on hurting Gwen as badly as he could while Gwen focused on taking as much punishment as her enemy could give her to buy Miles as much time as possible to put his plan into effect.

And it seemed to be working, because the pain continued to build for several more seconds, and just when Gwen thought that she may be about to black out, it all stopped quite abruptly as Spider-Man suddenly let out a yell indicating that he had been surprised by some pain of his own, and then all of his body weight disappeared off of Gwen in the next moment.

Hesitantly opening her eyes despite the strain of the effort, Gwen propped herself up on her elbows and looked over towards where Spider-Man's exclamations of shock, affliction, and anger were still coming and saw a rather strange sight that might've been funny if it weren't such a terrible thing to watch.

Spider-Man's legs that had previously seemed to respond to his every mental command were now viciously attacking their master, all four spiked limbs repeatedly curling inwards to stab at Spider-Man himself, who clearly needed all of his strength and concentration to fend off the attacks before they could kill him. Still, despite his best efforts, the legs were too fast and powerful for even Spider-Man to counter, resulting in him already having several deep cuts across his costume, bleeding openly and steadily growing in number as the masked doctor tried to back away from this new threat, but his efforts were all in vain as this particular threat was quite literally connected to him.

Turning her gaze onto Miles, who was looking quite proud even with his mask obscuring his facial expression, Gwen allowed herself a small smile as she noted how Miles had turned Spider-Man's greatest advantage in this fight into his greatest disadvantage and thus returned the upper hand to them. Perhaps this fight would be a victory after all!

However, the fight was not over quite yet. As Gwen was getting back to her feet, she nearly fell over again as the entire building was shaken by a powerful tremor. At first she was worried that it may have indicated the arrival of Spider-Man's noticeably absent partner, Miles' Uncle Aaron. Thankfully though, that concern was relieved a moment later when she recognized that it had instead been caused by Spider-Man's robotic arms striking out to hit the building in between their attacks on the man whose back they were attached to, each one as strong as an actual Spider-person's arm and apparently not content with simply one target.

Gwen looked at Miles questioningly about this, who met her gaze and called to her, "The best I could do was activate some kind of 'frenzy mode'. They're not targeting Spider-Man specifically, it's more like they're just attacking everything they can reach, so keep your distance."

Gwen nodded in understanding, saying a silent apology to whoever would have to fix the damage being done to the building, and returned to watching Spider-Man getting torn apart by his own creations, awaiting the moment that he was finally injured enough for her and Miles to come in and easily apprehend their defeated enemy.

But then, at that moment, Spider-Man also seemed to realize the same thing, that even if he were to defeat his arms, he would be in no condition to fight Prowler and Spider-Woman by the time he managed it. And so, with one final glare at Gwen, Spider-Man suddenly turned and began to run off towards the opposite end of the rooftop, moving somewhat awkwardly as he still had to keep fighting for his life as he did all this, but even when Miles tried to get in his way, Spider-Man just pushed him forcefully aside, sending him flying twenty feet with one hand, and jumped away from the building upon reaching the edge of the rooftop, shooting a web with one hand to swing away while his other hand kept the metal arms from impaling their creator.

Not willing to let Spider-Man get away when they had him at his weakest point, Gwen and Miles began to run after him, intending to pursue him across the city if they had to, but suddenly a loud cracking sound behind them caught their attention instead, and they both spun around to see the front of the science center beginning to break into pieces, cracks spider-webbing their way through the stone as what looked like the entire front wall began threatening to collapse, no doubt due to how it had been damaged by Spider-Man's destructive powers and creations. Then, the sound of screams echoed up the side of the building from the ground below, reminding Gwen forcefully of the crowd that was currently gathered below the building, some of whom may not be able to escape if this wall fell down.

Realizing the same thing, Miles thrust out both of his hands and tried to fire his hard light nets at the breaking edge of the rooftop, hoping to delay its fall, but he had forgotten that he had already used both of his nets trying to restrain Spider-Man and they wouldn't be recharged for some time, causing them to simply whir pitifully back at him as a notice that they had insufficient power.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to do much here, Gwen turned to Miles and pointed after Spider-Man to say, "Go! Follow Octavius, he'll lead us to where Murdock's hiding! I'll handle this and meet you back at the stash!"

With that said, Gwen didn't wait to see if Miles would listen to her and instead ran over to the edge of the rooftop herself and began shooting out wide stretches of webbing, trying to fill in the cracks in the stone to slow the building's collapse, though she could see that it was already too late to stop it completely. One way or another, this wall was coming down now.

Jumping off the edge once she'd done as much as she could from up here, Gwen shot a web line onto the wall and began swinging around it, securing hundreds of huge pieces of stone in place, but it still wasn't enough.

Fortunately, she wasn't working alone, as her Spider-Sense clued her in on the fact that the numerous squad cars had finally arrived, probably originally to break up the fight on the rooftop, but the police were now instead working to usher the crowds out of the area as fast as they could, doing their best to keep everyone calm as they moved them out of harm's way, unaware that they were currently being aided by their most-hated vigilante target who swung back and forth above their heads entangling hundreds of falling stones. Still, some were escaping Gwen's grasp, falling to the ground with thunderous crashes, and though they hadn't hit anyone yet, they had gotten close several times, prompting Gwen to double her efforts yet again, pushing herself to her maximum limits.

However, her task suddenly became much harder all at once as much of the webbing holding the wall intact began to break under the strain all at once. Looking below, Gwen could see a few more people that still needed to move out of the way and looked back at the wall while muttering to herself, "No, no, no…"

Deciding that she only had one option, Gwen swung in front of the wall and pressed her back against it while shooting a line of webbing out onto either side of herself, holding the lines tightly as she strained to hold up the entire wall with merely the strength of her own body.

This bought a few more seconds and allowed almost everyone else to get out of the way, but one final figure was still beneath her, a small boy, maybe about seven or eight years old, who was staring enraptured at the sight of what must've looked to him like an entire building toppling over above him while one person held it up, amazed out of his senses by the sight.

Gwen struggled desperately to keep the wall from falling on the boy as she looked downwards and called out, "Hey, little guy! You need to move, okay?"

The boy didn't seem to hear her warning, but still, despite how painful it was for Gwen to keep holding this massive wall up, she didn't alow herself to falter for a moment. No matter what, she wouldnotlet this little boy get hurt.

But perhaps it wouldn't be up to her, as a moment later, a few large pieces of marble broke free from the rest of the wall beneath her and began falling downwards right towards the boy. "No!" Gwen called out in panic, but it was already too late for her to do anything to stop it.

Then, right on time, one figure broke free from the rest of the crowd that was retreating away from the building, a cop that had finally noticed the last remaining danger. However, as the figure jumped towards the boy to push him out of the way of the falling debris, Gwen caught a glimpse of his face and realized that it wasn't just any cop. It was her dad, Captain George Stacy, and with a desperate tackle, he just barely managed to push the boy out of the way before the rubble finished its descent.

But Gwen couldn't feel relief at the child's safety, because at the same moment, she was overwhelmed with horror as she watched the stones instead fall down right on top of her dad, burying him beneath at least a foot of rock.

Knowing that time was of the essence and she couldn't afford to freeze now, Gwen pulled her arms inwards as far as she could, lacing her webs against the wall, then released the two lines and fell down below. She knew that she had only seconds before her webs would fail again and the wall would come crashing down on them, so Gwen acted quickly and began roughly digging through the large rocks covering her dad, her superhuman strength allowing her to easily lift the impossible weight of each stone.

Once she had successfully unearthed him, she gingerly picked him up and threw him over her shoulder, then leapt away from the Oscorp building while firing a web line behind herself to grab the little boy and pull him out of the way. She managed to get all of them clear just before her webs failed and the entire wall behind them collapsed, Gwen landing on the ground first and gently laying her injured dad back on the ground before standing back up to quickly catch the flying boy, who ran back towards the crowd as soon as Gwen set him back on his feet, but she couldn't worry about anything else going on around her at the moment.

Kneeling down next to her father, Gwen tried her best to prop him up in a sitting position as she examined a large, deep cut on his forehead. Beyond that bad-looking cut, Captain Stacy had also clearly sustained several other severe wounds, many of them internal, as Gwen found out when she tried to place a hand on his chest to check his heartbeat, but her dad closed his eyes and leaned back with a sharp intake of breath through clenched teeth, after which Gwen determined that his chest had been crushed, meaning he probably had a collapsed lung. This theory was proven correct when Captain Stacy abruptly coughed roughly and spat up large globs of blood out of his mouth.

Groaning out in pain, George looked around with unfocused, rapidly-blinking eyes and asked, "Sp- Spider-Woman?"

Wanting to reassure her dad to keep him from talking and aggravating his injuries, Gwen moved her hand to his shoulder and confirmed, "It's me, Captain. Now, please, just… stay still, alright? You're gonna be alright."

Gwen looked back towards the crowd of people, most of whom seemed hesitant to approach the scene, but one woman, probably the mother of the boy that Gwen's dad had saved judging by the way that she had rushed forward and now kneeled and embraced the child while clutching his head against her chest, crying tears of relief.

At the moment, the sight of the woman's joy only served to anger Gwen, wondering how anyone could be acting like the danger had passed when someone was clearly hurt on the ground not ten feet from her. Looking the woman in the eyes, Gwen ordered fiercely, "Call an ambulance! This man needs help!"

Startled, the woman looked Gwen in the eyes, then down at the man who had saved her child, then back at Gwen, and nodded before shifting her son into one of her arms while she used the other to pull out her phone and make an emergency call.

Once she was assured that this had been done, Gwen returned her own attention to her dad, who was now trying to pull himself upwards despite not being in any condition to move, but Gwen held him down easily with her great strength and told him, "Sit tight, Captain, EMTs are on their way."

"No," her dad protested weakly as he continued to fight her. "I need- If they don't get here in time, I need-"

"They'll get here," Gwen insisted, trying to convince herself as much as her dad while she held back tears beneath her mask. Her dad wasnotgoing to die, not here, not like this, so similar to how Peter had died. "They're on their way, you're going to be fine."

"But Gwen," George pled, causing Gwen to fall silent in shock before he continued, "Gwen, she's my daughter, and I need to tell her-"

"Whatever it is, you can tell her yourself, just stay still until we can get you help, okay?" Gwen cut him off sternly, her vision starting to swim as she looked him over for something - anything! - that she could do to help him, but nothing came to mind.

Looking up at her with an expression full of sad resignation, George said, "Spider-Woman… I guess you get a chance to prove me wrong. Find my daughter and tell her…"

No.

"Captain, just hold on!" Gwen demanded.

"Tell Gwen… to stay away from Miles Morales," her dad finished.

Shocked, Gwen asked, "...What? Miles-?"

"She won't understand, but he's dangerous. He'll hurt her," George explained, taking her hand and pressing a tightly folded piece of paper into it before closing her fingers around it tightly. "Just… Please promise me that you'll get her away from him, and keep her safe. Please. Please, Spider-..."

At that, Captain Stacy's voice trailed off, and with one final deep exhale, his eyes fluttered closed and his head fell backwards, and then he was still.

Terrified, Gwen asked, "Da- Captain Stacy? Captain?"

She received no answer, and Gwen placed a hand on her dad's chest as she desperately repeated, "Captain? Captain Stacy! Captain, say something! Move your finger! Your eyelid! Come on, something! Anything!"

Still, there was no response, neither verbally nor through any kind of movement, and Gwen began lightly shaking him and yelling madly as tears began to stain the inside of her mask, "Captain! Come on! Say something! Move!Breathe! Anything! PLEASE!"

Despite Gwen's pleas, however, nothing she did or said drew any sort of reaction from her dad's still form. The truth of what was happening finally starting to set in, Gwen threw her arms around her dad's body and pulled him close against herself as her tears began to flow even more freely and she started whispering quiet apologies to the man that she now suspected couldn't hear her at all.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Captain Stacy. Please. Don't go."

She stayed there for what felt like an eternity as Gwen hugged her dad's motionless body against her chest, but it was really only a couple seconds before soft footsteps began approaching Gwen from behind, and then her Spider-Sense tingled in warning just before she heard a woman's voice call out, "Spider-Woman! Stay right where you are, and put your hands in the air!"

Looking back over her shoulder worriedly, Gwen saw that the speaker was her dad's long-time devoted friend and ally on the force, Lieutenant Yuri Watanabe. Once, Gwen had met her out of her costume and the two had been quite friendly with one another, but while Gwen's face was hidden beneath her mask, there was nothing to prompt Yuri to lower the pistol in her hands, nor to order the two other officers on either side of her to do the same.

When Gwen didn't obey the orders she'd been given, Yuri co*cked her gun threateningly and continued to aim at Gwen as she added, "Last chance, Spider-Woman! Drop Captain Stacy and put your hands up!"

Though Gwen by no means wanted to be arrested, the harder part of this command was actually for her to release her dad, and she instead instinctively pulled him even closer to herself, which made Yuri's eyes narrow angrily, but still, neither she or her officers approached Gwen or fired their weapons, clearly both apprehensive of Spider-Woman's abilities and not wanting to risk shooting their captain.

But then, to Gwen's shock, the woman who was still standing to the side holding on tightly to her recently-rescued son pointed at Gwen's dad in her hands and announced, "She's tricking you! Captain Stacy's dead, she killed him! She's using his body as a shield!"

Gwen was appalled by this outrageous claim, but before she could argue against it, she saw Yuri's eyes shift to give Gwen's dad's body a closer look before realizing that he indeed wasn't breathing. A second later, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled again, much more powerfully this time, as Yuri yelled to her officers, "She's right! Spider-Woman killed the captain! Open fire!"

Seeing Spider-Woman holding a dead body and finally having an opportunity and an excuse to do what they'd always wanted, the cops immediately began shooting at Gwen, their pistol muzzles flashing with flame repeatedly as they continually fired at her.

Not having a chance to explain herself or try to plead for understanding, Gwen was forced to immediately drop her dad's body to the ground as she leapt backwards to avoid the bullets, twisting her body in midair as she felt the tiny projectiles speed past her, and as soon as the police officers stopped for a moment to reload, Gwen dropped back to the ground on her feet and shot a web line upwards to pull herself away from the area.

More bullets began to follow after her, signifying how the Yuri and her fellow policemen were eager to prevent Gwen's escape, but hitting her in the air was even harder than hitting her on the ground, and within a matter of seconds, Gwen had swung out of their range and landed atop the nearest rooftop to look back down at the wrecked science center.

Gwen couldn't see her dad anymore from up here, and for that she didn't know if she was sorrowful or grateful. But as she finally pulled off the mask that clung tightly to her tearstained face and stared back towards where her last remaining family had just left her forever, Gwen's face scrunched up in a vain effort to suppress her pain and ultimately fell to her knees as quiet sobs racked her body.

A/N: Sorry to leave you guys on a cliffhanger, but just so you know, it's possible (not guaranteed, but possible) that the next chapter may not come out for another two weeks instead of one. With the holidays going on, I'm extremely busy at the moment. Still, I'm continuing to write on this story whenever I get the chance, but I'll need to ask you all for some patience in order to provide you all with the best-quality writing I can offer. Thank you for your understanding, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 17: Infighting

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

Third Person POV

No matter what news station one looked at, they were all telling the same story, even many channels situated outside of New York. Everyone was interested in the news of another superhuman, another Spider-person, no less, and one who seemed not too unlike the Spider-Woman.

The only real difference that anyone could determine so far was in the very different appearances of their costumes. Other than that, they seemed quite similar at a glance, from the webs they swung from to the main features of their suits. And, of course, the fact that they both seemed to hate each other, if the images of their fight on the news were any indication.

Occasionally, the news would also mention that the captain of the PDNY had been killed during the event when Spider-Woman dropped a wall on him, even if it had seemed like collateral damage rather than anything intentional, but the news stations didn't dwell on that fact for long. They knew that their audiences were more interested in hearing about this new “Spider-Man” figure, and any talk about the police captain's death was easily glossed over with simple excuses. It was always, “Police die every day,” or “He's probably already been replaced! Get back to the Spiders video!”

The most common claim, however, was that it had been an error on the captain's part. Public opinion seemed mostly agreed upon the fact that “He should've known better than to get in between two super-freaks who wouldn't care if he got hurt.” And indeed, it appeared like he had made a most foolish decision in putting himself between two superhumans who were too focused on trying to kill each other to worry about what happened to the “lesser mortals” around them. Seeing as the captain had been one of the most vocal against Spider-Woman, most people thought that he should've known that she wouldn't care if someone like him got in the way.

In fact, it seemed like there might be only one person in the whole city who was even slightly bothered by the unexpected death of Captain George Stacy, and it wasn't for the reasons that one would expect.

Holding his head in his hands, his fingers running through his combed hair and ruining his immaculate appearance, Matthew Murdock looked up as his operative, Aaron Davis or the Prowler, turned off his phone to silence the latest news story. Both Aaron and Matt's adopted father, Wilson Fisk, stood silently on either side of the Kingpin of Crime as he processed this latest news, neither of them wanting to disturb his thought process.

When he finally spoke, he said something that neither of them had expected. “Enter,” Matt ordered, apparently speaking to the empty room.

A second later though, the reason for him to say what he had said was made clear as the command was obeyed, the office door opening to permit entrance to a familiar figure that neither Prowler nor Fisk had known was outside.

Spider-Man looked terrible. His suit was torn all over and covered in bloodstains, the few remaining pieces of the suit hanging in rags from his body. Through the rips in the suit, one could see Caucasian skin running up the arms and brown hair poking through the top of the damaged mask. But most notably, coming out of a metal plate on his back were four stumps of metal and wiring, all of which were waving around in the air frantically, like destroyed mechanized arms from an assembly line that were all eager to get back to work. In each of his hands, Spider-Man was holding the remaining parts of the destroyed arms, two long strips of metal in each hand.

Still, despite the shockingly spent appearance of the Kingpin’s foremost operative, he stood tall and proud as he approached his boss’s desk. When he arrived in front of Murdock, Spider-Man halted and waited in silence for Matt to speak first. However, to his dismay, Aaron would be the first one to speak, folding his arms across his chest as he smirked smugly at Spider-Man and said, “The cells are ready, Doc. So where’s the ‘fruit’ you promised to return bearing?”

Spider-Man glared at Prowler but did not respond, and soon returned his gaze to Matt, who had his hands clasped in front of himself as he deliberated what to say.

Finally, Matt let out a deep breath and said, “You know, Otto, you’ve always been impressive. But going out and doing precisely what I told you not to? That takes a special kind of bravery.”

Having flinched upon hearing the name that Matt called him, Spider-Man corrected, “My name is Spi-”

“Your NAME is OTTO OCTAVIUS!” Matt yelled, slamming a fist down on his desk. Then he stood up, placing one palm down on the desk and leaning forward as he pointed a finger into Spider-Man’s face and continued, “You’re not Spider-Man! Because Spider-Man doesn’t fail me! Otto Octavius is the failure!”

Faster than the eye could follow, Spider-Man dropped the destroyed metal arms in his hands before one of his fists abruptly shot out and punched Matt in the face with a right cross that knocked the Kingpin backwards and onto the ground several yards away, his circular glasses falling off his face as his head was whipped backwards.

Immediately, Fisk and the unmasked Prowler stepped protectively in front of their boss, Fisk cracking his knuckles and Prowler snapping out his claws in challenge to Spider-Man, but then they stopped and turned around for further orders upon hearing Matt sitting up on the ground. To their confusion, Matt just waved them off and told them, “No. Do nothing.”

Aaron and Fisk shared a look of concern but quickly obeyed without question, stepping aside once more to allow Spider-Man a clear path.

Spider-Man wasn't fazed by any of this, however, and kept his eyes on Matt as he silently stepped forward and slammed one of his hands down on Matt's desk, sticking his fingers to the wooden surface, and roughly threw it aside with his great strength, causing the desk to crash into the corner and crumble under its own weight. Spider-Man then continued walking towards Matt as the Kingpin slowly climbed back to his feet, and once he got close to him, he reared back a fist to hit the crime boss once again, even harder this time.

But this time, the most incredible thing happened. As Spider-Man let his fist fly forward, his blind target suddenly reached upwards with his own hand to catch Spider-Man's arm by the wrist, then pulled him forward under his own momentum, flipping him involuntarily by the arm, and then kicked Spider-Man sideways while he was in the air, ripping the costumed man's glove off as he sent him flying across the room and into a glass case holding an expensive ceramic vase, all of which shattered under Spider-Man's body.

Completely uncaring about all the money he'd just thrown down the drain, Matt smoothed down the creases in his suit with a sigh, tilting his neck to the sides to make his neck crack in preparation for what would come next, and began approaching Spider-Man, kicking his red-and-white cane aside as he went and stopping next to where his glasses lay on the floor. With a single precise movement, Matt stepped on the wire temples of his glasses, causing them to flip upwards into the air, where Matt effortlessly caught them with the hand not holding Spider-Man's glove before placing them casually back over his eyes, obscuring the unseeing organs once again behind the circular red lenses.

Spider-Man laid chest-down on the floor and watched Matt do this with a glare of deepest loathing being conveyed through the damaged lenses of his mask. Not seeming at all intimidated, the physically-impaired man spread his arms at the superpowered one and said, “Come on, Otto. Give me your best shot.”

All too eager to do just that, Spider-Man launched himself towards Matt with a yell of rage, but just before he could tackle him, Matt dropped down to the ground on his back in a smooth dodge, and after Spider-Man had finished soaring right over his head, Matt flipped back up onto his feet and tugged lightly on the ends of his sleeves in a bored sort of way, showing how unimpressed he was.

Further angered at that, Spider-Man spun around and yelled once more as he thrust a powerful fist at the back of Matt's head. Still not even facing Spider-Man, Matt tilted his head sideways to avoid the punch and once again grabbed Spider-Man's wrist before tugging hard and flipping the man over his shoulder. Not one to go down so easily, Spider-Man used the grace that his powers afforded him to do a flip and land on his feet despite being thrown off-balance and spun around once more to face Murdock, but Matt interrupted whatever move he was going to do next by flicking Spider-Man's torn glove in his hand, automatically extending the claws in the fingers, then threw the glove forcefully at Spider-Man so that it impaled itself into the man's shoulder and caused him to stumble backwards in pain.

As Spider-Man was still trying to recover from this injury, Matt stood up straight and told him, “When I was a boy, my biological father was a boxer. ‘Battlin’ Jack Murdock’, they called him. After he died, I took up boxing myself. To this day, I still practice my punches every morning.”

Spider-Man pulled the clawed glove out of his shoulder with a low grunt, trying to act like he wasn't listening.

Matt, however, knew that he was in fact hearing every word and continued, “When I became the Kingpin, I used my new fortune to employ all of the best fighters I could get ahold of around the world, training me in more forms of combat than I could ever actually need to use. I even took part in ancient ceremonies and rituals to allow me to surpass the physical limits of humanity. But despite all my training, I still don't have the kind of power that you possess, Spider-Man. You could pulverize me with one punch if you wanted to. You could avoid every single move I make against you. You could break every bone in my body with one arm tied behind your back. But not if you can't hit me. And it's easy for me to avoid your attacks when you're angry. Now, Doctor, you asked me to keep your ego in check, and that's what I'm going to do. Even if I have to humble you by letting Spider-Man get beaten up by a blind man.”

Spider-Man definitely didn’t look happy about it, but after a moment of silence during which Matt’s expression was frozen in confident determination, Spider-Man finally lowered his head in concession and spat out, “Yes, Mr. Murdock.”

Nodding his head with satisfaction, Matt turned around and walked back over to his chair, which now sat in the back of the room without a desk in front of it, and sat down in it as he said, “Good. Because we have business to discuss.”

Spider-Man stood up and pulled his torn glove, still dripping with own blood, back onto his hand as he walked over to stand between Fisk and Prowler, facing Murdock and ignoring the glances from the other two men.

Meanwhile, Matt continued, “The world now knows about Spider-Man, making our usual, more secretive methods of operating less useful to us. The death of Captain Stacy, while somewhat enabling for a limited time, will soon make things even more difficult for us. This city, particularly the PDNY, will begin arming itself against enhanced individuals, knowing that their number is growing. I predict that practically as soon as Captain Stacy’s replacement has been sworn in, they will begin a purge of the city to wipe out the growing number of threats. The Raft will likely be moved to a more secure location. Criminals and superhumans alike will be dealt with swiftly and harshly, and that … would be bad for business, seeing as we deal in both of them.”

There was a short silence, and then Aaron asked, “So what do we do? Move out of New York?”

Shaking his head, Matt answered, “No, we’ve built too much here. Worked too hard, for too long, to acquire all that we have. We will have to fight for our right to remain.”

At that, Fisk cleared his throat softly and said, “Matthew. We have a certain amount of influence over the police, but Captain Stacy always stopped our advances in the higher levels of authority. We simply don’t have enough power-”

“Not with the police, no, but we also have an army,” Spider-Man cut him off.

Gesturing gratefully at Spider-Man, Matt agreed, “Exactly. With the combined efforts of Spider-Man, Prowler, and Mr. Morales and Ms. Stacy, we’ve successfully taken command of over eighty-seven percent of all organized crime in New York City. Combined, that’s more than enough chaos to turn the entire city on its head, especially with Captain Stacy out of the picture. And with Spider-Man, Prowler, and any other superhumans that join us at the forefront of the assault, we can take the entire city for ourselves, lock down Manhattan under our control.”

“We’d need to coordinate the takeover from here,” Fisk pointed out cautiously, but Matt could sense his excitement building beneath the surface. “If we did this, our criminal enterprise would no longer remain hidden. The police would have all the evidence they’d need to walk right in here and arrest us.”

“If we wait, it’ll only be a matter of time until we’re evicted or arrested anyway,” Matt reminded him. “This way, we can strike first, while the police are vulnerable, and gain a firm foothold in this war before most people even know that it’s begun. By that time, the police won’t be able to get anywhere near here. They’ll be too busy putting out fires.”

“Spider-Woman and her pet Prowler will try to stop us,” Spider-Man added. “And with Captain Stacy dead, we no longer have our leverage over the former. Our ruse from a few days ago is now useless to us.”

Looking at him, Prowler said, “Not entirely true. She and my nephew matter to each other. If we can find a way to get ahold of him , that’s how we can control her .”

Matt thought about it for a moment, then stood and said, “Then that’s what we’ll do. Spider-Man. Go repair your suit, then get me that weapon we discussed. Prowler, head down to the Raft. Disengage the communications with the mainland, hot-wire the all-clear signal, then kill all of the guards and free every prisoner.”

Prowler was silent for a moment, then asked, “Kill the guards?”

“As I said, their positions there are about to be terminated anyway. We’ll be doing them a favor,” Matt excused easily, then turned finally to his foster father and said, “And Mr. Fisk, if you would be so kind, please make the appropriate preaparations for my familiar friend. Just in case.”

Fisk gave a nod of agreement, clearly knowing what Matt was speaking about without any further elaboration being necessary.

Finally, Matt looked at all three of them and announced, “This is what we’ve all worked for. The end of the road we chose to pave. Each of us has a role to play, and if we play it well, we’ll be in full control of the greatest city on earth within 48 hours from now. So go, my friends. It’s time to defend our kingdom.”

Miles POV

“Victory!” Miles cried as he opened the door and stepped inside the stash, wearing his civilian attire and triumphantly holding aloft a heart-shaped box filled with various pieces of chocolate, already having been informed by his scanners that Gwen was awake and waiting for him inside despite the fact that it was early morning, before the sun had even risen.

As he closed the door again behind himself, he then began to narrate dramatically, “Fresh from his quest, the daring knight returned bearing gifts for his lady, from the spoils of treasure he acquired along his way. And rightly so, for his quest was most successful, and he cried, ‘Though I can give you only treasure, I ask for something far more valuable in return. A kiss, mi jeva,I beseech thee for a kiss, and I’ll-’”

He broke off quite abruptly at that as he entered the room and laid eyes on a sight that was most unnatural for him; Gwen was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall and her arms hugging around her knees, which were tucked in close to her chest. In one of her hands, she held a small, unfolded piece of paper while the other hand held her mask, and though her face was practically expressionless beneath the hood she still had pulled over the top of her head and she refused to even look at Miles, he could still see the red around her eyes and the wet streaks of tears running down her cheeks.

Immediately forgetting his playful monologue, Miles took a few long strides until he was by Gwen’s side, then kneeled next to her and set the box of chocolates down on the room’s single chair next to himself. Miles gave Gwen a quick glance up and down her body looking for any injuries, trying to determine why she had been crying, but found only a few scratches and scrapes on her suit, probably all from their recent fight with Spider-Man. Okay, so she wasn’t crying because she was hurt, but then why was she?

Not acknowledging the way that Gwen still wouldn’t look at him, Miles asked her, “Gwen? What’s wrong? Cuéntame, y lo haré mejor.”

Gwen remained silent for another moment, then said in a monotone voice, “You can’t fix this, Miles. But what you can do is tell me where I can find Murdock and his band of psychos.”

Miles hesitated, then asked, “You just want to hear about Murdock’s base?”

“You said you found it, right?” Gwen asked, finally turning to face Miles with a glare replacing her usual smile.

Rather unnerved by the sight, Miles responded, “Well… Yes, but hold on just a second, Gwen. I’m kinda getting the sense that there’s something we need to talk about before we-”

“No time for talking. You need to tell me where Murdock’s hiding, and you need to do it now,” Gwen demanded, cutting him off as she climbed to her feet. “You’re going to tell me, and then you’re going to wait here while I go kill them.”

Miles opened his mouth to request more details, but paused as he processed the last thing she’d said and questioned, “‘Kill them’? Like… with jokes? ‘Aah, please stop with the puns! You’re killing us!’”

He smiled at her and tried to play it off as a joke of his own, but Gwen didn’t smile. Instead, she just continued to stare at him angrily and said, “No. I mean that I’m actually going to kill them, and good riddance. They’ve all done too much damage to this city, hurt too many people. And prison’s too good for them after all that. Even your uncle, Miles.”

Perhaps it was the completely serious way that Gwen was saying all this, a behavior that she never exhibited. Maybe it was how she threatened Miles’ uncle’s life without even a twitch in her facial expression. But whatever the reason, Miles finally began to consider that maybe this whole thing of Gwen’s was not actually just some joke, that maybe she actually meant it. And that idea only confused him even more.

Looking at her uncomprehendingly as he stood up, Miles said, “O…kay, I think I’m missing something here.” Suddenly having an idea to get back into a world that made sense, Miles turned around and grabbed the box of chocolates that he had gotten for Gwen and held it out towards her, saying, “Here, maybe you should take one of these first, and then we can talk. Remember how I promised to get you chocolate? Well, I did! And I’m pretty sure it’s from the same place your dad gets it, I can’t really be certain.”

Gwen looked down at the box sadly, perhaps due to how hard it was to resist partaking from it, and took a deep breath before she said, “Yeah, it’s from the same place. But there’s no time for that now. Miles, just tell me where-”

Starting to get annoyed with Gwen’s insistence on this single matter while he still had no idea what was going on with her or how to help, Miles set the box aside and cut her off by quickly saying, “Okay, look. I don’t know what’s happening here, but before I tell you anything, I just have one question: Since when does Spider-Woman suggest killing anyone? I’m supposed to be the scary one. You’re kind of stealing my thunder right now, Gwen.”

“Look, we can talk about it later, okay?” Gwen argued impatiently. “Right now, I need to go and finish this.”

“You know, you’ve already tried going after Murdock alone once, and it didn’t end so well,” Miles reminded her. “That’s why we were going to go together this time.”

“Yeah, well, the plan’s changed, because you’re not coming with me,” Gwen insisted sternly.

Throwing up his hands in exasperation, Miles asked, “ Why ? Why would we change the plan and lower our chances of winning? Look, no offense, but if you run into Spider-Man, you’re going to need help, even if you were fighting to kill (which I still don’t really understand). And between a crazy genius that can do everything you can and more, my uncle whose powers are almost the same as mine, Murdock’s dad, and whatever else he has protecting him, neither of us are getting close to the Kingpin alone. You need me.”

“You’re right, Miles, I do need you,” Gwen agreed, stepping towards him and making him back away under her glare. “I need you right here , where I know that I can come back to you. Where I know that you’re not going to get hurt.”

“Gwen, if you went alone, you wouldn’t be coming back at all. And me potentially getting hurt trying to prevent that from happening is what I signed up for,” Miles said determinedly, planting himself in place to keep himself from continuing to be pushed back by her.

However, Gwen didn’t seem to appreciate that response and prodded him in the chest with her finger as she said fiercely, “That is not part of this. You don’t get to let yourself get hurt protecting me, Miles!”

“Why not?” he questioned. “We’re partners, and I know you’d do the same for me.”

“But I’m-!” Gwen started to argue, but stopped herself before she could finish it.

Still, Miles predicted what she’d been about to say and finished for her, “You have superpowers and I don’t. Is that it?”

Gwen looked away, and after a few seconds drew in a deep breath and admitted, “Miles, beneath all your gadgets and armor, you’re still just a normal human. A normal human that I really care about. And if I’m going to walk into the lion’s den, I’d rather do so knowing that the people I care about are somewhere safe, far away.”

“Well, too bad. Because no matter where you’re going, I’d always choose to be right by your side while it’s happening, where I belong,” Miles disputed. Then, when she still looked dubious about his claim, Miles added unthinkingly, “Wherever you’re going, I’m following. I’m just gonna follow you everywhere, the rest of my life. I love you, Gwen Stacy, and no number of crazy, superpowered criminals and murderers is going to keep me from facing each and every one of them with you.”

For a moment, Gwen was speechless, and Miles knew why. He’d just said the dreaded “L word”, the day right after they officially started dating. Many would certainly say that it was much too soon for that, but despite how it had just slipped out, Miles didn’t regret saying it. He knew it was true, and he’d done this job long enough to know that every day they survived was a blessing to be cherished. Like Gwen, he’d also considered the very real possibility that one of them might not survive their war with the Kingpin and his forces, and this was perhaps what he most wanted Gwen to hear before such a thing could happen.

After a brief moment of silence, Gwen stepped up closer to Miles, looking at him with her shining eyes that were still beautiful even when they were ringed with red, then bowed her head sadly as she extended the piece of paper in her hand towards him.

Accepting the unspoken offering, Miles reached out and took the paper, then turned around and held it up in front of his face as he began to pace through the room while he read the words written on the surface of the page.

The note read, Captain George Stacy. You’ve irked me for the last time. You slander mine and Spider-Woman’s names in the public eye, calling us criminals, detestable, dangerous. Well, now I’m going to show you how dangerous I really am. If you venture to Brooklyn Visions Academy, you will find two students missing. The first is me. The second is someone very close to you. If you get the police involved, she dies. If you continue to pursue and harass myself or Spider-Woman, or damage our names any further, she dies. You will make no demands of me and trust only my word that she will remain alive so long as you behave yourself. And don’t test me, or I’ll start sending her back piece by piece to keep you content. Signed, the Prowler.

As he finished reading, Miles lowered the page in shock, understanding its implications, and asked Gwen without meeting her eyes, “Is this why you were crying? Where did you get this?”

After a second’s pause, Gwen quietly answered, “My dad had it. I took it from him when he… He was at the science center yesterday.”

Disgusted by what he was seeing and hearing, Miles asked, “So Murdock’s people (probably Spider-Man, he’s the only person who talks like this) gave your dad this note to… What? Blackmail him?”

“It’s why my dad was being nice when talking about us for once yesterday,” Gwen explained in a voice devoid of all emotion. “Spider-Man threatened him by saying that his daughter was in danger.”

His face blanching upon realizing something else, Miles looked back at the note and added, “And he let him confirm that you were missing by going to our school. So he must’ve seen that you were gone… and also-”

“You,” Gwen finished for him. “Spider-Man helped my dad realize that you were the Prowler, and told him that you kidnapped me.”

His head spinning from this new information, Miles backed up on unsteady legs until he fell down on the couch behind himself, then placed his head in his hands and said in horror, “Your dad knows who I am. I think I get why you were crying now. How can we possibly fix this?”

However, Gwen surprisingly told him in a pained voice, “That’s not what I was crying about. And honestly, I doubt it’s going to be a problem.”

Still missing the emotion that he was so used to Gwen exhibiting, Miles looked up at her and asked, “Oh, really? Your dad almost didn’t let me take you to Homecoming because my outfit looked too nice. But yeah, I bet he’ll be thrilled to hear that you’re dating a supervillain.”

“You’re not a supervillain,” Gwen argued instinctively.

Scoffing, Miles said, “Even if I’m not, have fun convincing your dad of it.”

That sentence seemed to snap Gwen back to the original conversation, and she shook her head as she began walking towards Miles and said, “Whatever. You got your answers, Miles, now give me mine.”

“‘I got my answers’?” Miles asked disbelievingly. “I asked you why you were crying and all you told me was that your dad knows I’m the Prowler, but apparently that’s not-”

He abruptly broke off in the middle of his sentence however as Gwen suddenly grabbed him by the sides, her hands on his shoulders, and lifted him off the couch and into the air, holding him firmly in place as she shook him and sternly ordered, “Miles, just tell me where Murdock is! Tell me NOW!”

Startled into speech, Miles finally gave in and said, “Alright, alright! He’s in a complex in Hell’s Kitchen. It’s his and Foggy Nelson’s office building, this huge law firm place called the King’s Counselors. It’s a little on the nose, if you ask me, but-”

Once again, Miles was silenced as Gwen threw him back down onto the couch and began walking towards the doorway, apparently having heard everything she wanted to hear. However, Miles wouldn’t make it that easy, and remembering the last time Gwen had gotten this mad at him in oddly similar circ*mstances, he looked after her and asked, “Hey, don’t I at least get a kiss goodbye?”

“I’ll give you a kiss after I get back, when Murdock and Spider-Man and Prowler are all dead,” Gwen responded, not pausing to glance back at Miles.

Rolling his eyes and getting to his feet to follow after her, Miles said, “Alright, can you stop being so dramatic? We both know you’re not actually going to kill them, you’re just going to flick them on the nose, maybe smack their hands and scold them a little, and send them to prison.”

“Not this time,” Gwen said, finally turning to face Miles as she opened the door, raising the previously-faint sound of the rain falling onto the roof, and began to step outside. “The time for half-measures is over.”

And then she was gone, closing the door with a sharp crack behind herself, and Miles was left staring after her in growing trepidation. Surely she didn’t… actually mean that, right? No matter how hard he tried, Miles couldn’t imagine that Gwen, his Gwen, would actually take a life. It just wouldn’t be like her. But then, something had messed with her badly during his short absence, and while he didn’t even know what it had been, he couldn’t know to what extent it might have affected her.

Wanting to make sure just in case, Miles suddenly made a quick dash for the doorknob and pulled it open to step outside as well, immediately getting soaked by the downpour, where he could see Gwen approaching the edge of the rooftop, getting ready to swing away towards Murdock’s base.

Before she could get away, however, Miles began walking purposefully after her and called out, “Gwen, wait!” Then, to his surprise, as Gwen spun quickly around to face him, he felt both of his hands get tugged upwards by something that pushed his entire body backwards with the force of it. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, but then he looked up at his hands pinned to the wall behind his back, both of them held up and to his sides by a large glob of webbing that covered his palms.

Confused, he looked back at Gwen to see her lowering the arm that she’d used to shoot the webbing from, and he asked her, “Gwen? What are you-?”

“You’re not coming, Miles,” Gwen cut him off. “You’re staying here, and I’ll explain everything when I get back.”

Concerned by this new behavior, Miles asked, “Gwen, you’re not… Are you really going to kill them?”

“I’m going to try. And if I can manage to do it, I’ll have saved the world and… my world, all before breakfast,” Gwen responded, sounding scarily determined.

Touched as Miles was to be considered one of the primary reasons that she felt she had to do this, he also knew that he had to get the message through to her that she didn’t. Spider-Woman was his hero because she was supposed to be an ideal, something better than he was and everything he strove to be. The fact that she didn’t kill was probably the only reason that Miles had yet to actually take a life despite his aggressive fighting style, at least knowingly. Killing had always been a questionable task to Miles, but Spider-Woman doing it? The very idea was just… wrong, unthinkable.

Trying to plead to the better side of Gwen that he knew must still be inside her somewhere, Miles said, “Look, Gwen, just hold on a minute. This isn’t the sort of thing that we can just rush into, we need to think about this…”

“I have thought about it. And it’s not our decision, Miles, it’s mine. I’m going to kill Murdock and all of his crazy followers, and I’m not going to let anything get in my way.”

She sounded so certain, so set on this path that she’d chosen, and Miles could tell that he wasn’t managing to convince her. Perhaps he would be able to connect to her better if he got closer, but she wouldn’t be letting that happen if she could prevent it. There was only one option.

Trying one last time to make Gwen change her mind, desperate for the situation not to escalate, Miles told her, “Gwen, I can’t let you do this.”

She regarded him for a moment, then turned away and began to resume her departure as she threw back, “I can’t let you stop me.”

Looking down sadly, Miles quietly said, “Then I’ll just have to do it anyway.”

He couldn’t move his arms in their current position as they were held by Gwen’s webbing, but fortunately, he didn’t need to. He simply gave a mental order to the device implanted in the back of his neck. However, this order was not the usual one. Instead of forming the Prowler mask over Miles’ face, the device simply blinked with magenta light underneath his hair. It was sending out a silent signal, one that was received by two different devices. On each of Miles’ wrists beneath the sleeves of his jacket, dual silver bracelets suddenly began blinking with magenta light in a dotted line all the way around the bands, in sync with the device on his neck.

Truly, they were actually somewhat larger than Miles would’ve liked, more like Spider-Man’s vambraces - though they were slightly more compact - than they were like Gwen’s web-shooters, but Miles hadn’t been able to figure out how to make them any smaller than this. They served his purposes well, however.

In the next second, the wristbands opened up on the sides and began to rapidly unfold thin plates of metal, one after the other, climbing up and wrapping around Miles’ hands, then the fingers. As thin as the plates were, they easily cut through the webs holding Miles’ hands against the wall even before he had his claws ready, and he finally donned his mask as well as he stepped away from the wall and stood tall and firm as he began approaching a stunned-looking Gwen, the magenta lights around his eyes and wrists glowing brightly in the rain and darkness. He had been hoping to surprise her with the news that he had completed his new compact gauntlets design, and while this certainly wasn’t how he foresaw it happening, Miles was glad that he’d had a trick up his sleeve to combat Gwen’s new knowledge of his own abilities, as she had clearly thought him unarmed when she stuck him there.

Stopping a few yards from Gwen, Miles pointed a finger at her and said, “You’re not going anywhere. Not alone. Come with me, and we can talk this through, and then we’ll go after Murdock together.”

Unfortunately, Gwen didn’t seem willing to accept that deal, and she quietly said, “No,” before turning around and attempting to shoot a web to get away. However, she wasn’t the only one who’d gained an extensive knowledge of her partner’s abilities, including their limits. In a blur of light, Miles jumped towards her and leapt over her head to cut the web line before it could be used to get her more than a few feet into the air.

He then landed once again on his feet in front of her and turned to narrow his eyes at her as he said, “Perhaps you didn’t hear me. You’re staying here. I’m not gonna let you leave until we discuss what’s going on with you like two civilized teenagers in ridiculous costumes.”

Gwen looked him in the eyes and said hesitantly, “Miles, I was serious when I said that I couldn’t let you stop me.”

“What a coincidence, I was being serious too,” Miles responded. “And if there’s one thing that my Gwen would know, it’s that telling jokes doesn’t mean I’m not taking things seriously. You ’re the one who taught me that, Gwen, and if you forgot? I’ll have no choice but to remind you.”

Gwen took a deep breath and looked down as she said, “I don’t want to do this, Miles. But I hope you’ll understand soon that you left me no other choice.”

And with that, Gwen shot a web onto Miles’ chest from less than two feet away and quickly pulled herself towards him before kicking him in the chest, knocking him backwards and making him flip over onto his front, where he dragged himself to a stop with his claws stabbing into the ground beneath him, creating some sparks between the stone and the metal grinding together, sparks which were quickly snuffed out as they fell on the now-soaked rooftop.

He was still in shock as he looked back up at Gwen, not just because of the mind-boggling speed of her attack, but also because he honestly hadn’t expected Gwen to actually attack him. He knew that normally, she never would, after all they’d been through together. Whatever was going on with her, it was messing with her much more than he’d suspected.

He didn’t have long to think about it, however, as Gwen swiftly followed up her first attack with another, tackling Miles before he could recover and sending them both rolling across the rooftop. His defensive instincts kicking in, Miles waited until he landed on his back, then tucked in his legs and kicked Gwen off of him and straight up into the air with a blast from his shoes.

While she was in the air, Miles then brought his feet down beneath him and slammed them against the ground so that they fired and picked him up before automatically making him do a backflip in the air before he landed back on his feet. Gwen also managed to stick her landing in her usual three-point crouch, which was unexpected as Miles had put minimal power into the blast he’d hit her with, not wanting to hurt her.

Miles held out a hand towards her like he was warding off a wild animal, a comparison he hated making though he knew that that was exactly what was happening here with Gwen not in her right mind, and tried to reason with her. “Gwen, look, this is crazy. I don’t want to hurt you, and I know that you don’t want to hurt me. Why can’t we just talk about this? What would your dad say if he saw you acting like-?”

Gwen didn’t let him get any further than that, however, as she leapt towards him once again with a yell of rage. Great, she’s been taking anger-not-management classes from Spider-Man , Miles thought to himself sarcastically just before Gwen reached him.

However, once she got there, he didn’t attempt to meet or return her strike with one of his own. Instead, he just sidestepped, letting Gwen’s fist go harmlessly through the air where he’d been a moment before, then dashed behind her and grabbed both of her wrists to hold her in place as he whispered next to her ear, “Gwen, this isn’t you, and you know it. Spider-Woman’s not a killer, and you’d never forgive me if I let you become one.”

“Isn’t she?!” Gwen cried angrily, fighting his strength-enhanced grip futilely. “They’re all so quick to believe that I kill everyone who happens to die around me! Why shouldn’t I just give them all what they want?!”

“You can’t let people like Jameson get to you, Gwen,” Miles warned her.

However, just then, Gwen figured out a way to escape, jumping up and aiming her body away from Miles as she placed her feet on his chest, then sprang away from him, forcing him to release her so he wouldn’t hurt her. She rolled back to her feet upon getting away from him, then glared back at Miles and said, “It’s not just Jameson! It’s everyone! No matter how many lives I save, even my enemies’, this whole city still calls me a killer! And I’m tired of being blamed for destroying this city when all I do is sacrifice EVERYTHING to protect it! At least this way, they’ll have a real reason to hate me!”

And with that said, Gwen ran towards Miles yet again, but this time, when he tried to dodge, she shot a web to either side of him so that one was bound to grab him, and one did, which Miles tried unsuccessfully to cut off of himself before Gwen yanked on the cord hard, pulling Miles through the air towards her, then gave him a downwards punch to the face that planted him headfirst into the ground.

Of course, his mask protected him for the most part, being designed to handle the repercussions of seismic tremors, but the pain (not just physical) of the punch that would’ve killed him without his suit awoke some terrible, uncontrollable anger inside Miles. He remembered the last time he’d hurt like this, just under a year ago, and he remembered the promise he’d made himself then.

I will never let someone hurt like this again.

Yet here he was, feeling such incredible pain on the outside and the inside, and his rage welled up inside him as he recalled the steps he’d taken to ensure that he could protect those who got hurt like this.

Gwen POV

Oh, no. What’d I do?

That was what went through Gwen’s mind immediately after she’d committed an unthinkable act: Hurting Miles Morales, her sole friend and beloved boyfriend, the last person she had left in this world.

Planting his fists against the concrete beneath him, Miles began to slowly lift himself back off the ground as he heard Gwen above him stuttering, “I… I’m sorry, Miles, I didn’t mean-”

He didn’t hear her, however, and she was cut off as one of Miles’ clawed hands shot upwards to grasp her by the throat, pulling her off the ground as he climbed back to his feet. Gwen began clutching desperately at his hand, trying to make him release her and let her draw in another breath, or perhaps to let her speak, but it was too late for that.

She had chosen violence over words, a language that Miles Morales tried to avoid, but one that the Prowler was well acquainted with. And the chill that now went through the air as Miles held Spider-Woman up high and glared at her with narrowed eyes signaled the arrival of the real Prowler, a being that didn’t need words or jokes and certainly never listened to the pleas of his enemy.

He pulled Gwen’s masked face up close to his own and let out an instinctive growl that his mask changed to make it sound like it belonged to something inhuman, the worst of all predators, then tossed her aside roughly. Gwen rolled back to her feet on landing and unsteadily tried to once again find her balance as her anger began returning, her regret fading away as Miles had now been the one to attack her.

She turned back around to face Miles just in time to step aside and dodge a flying kick from him. After he’d missed, however, he immediately landed back on his feet and turned back around to stare Gwen down menacingly, who raised her arms defensively and tried to ignore the memory of how Miles had technically defeated her in all of their previous encounters. But then, she also remembered what had happened yesterday, and why she needed to reach Murdock. Miles’ life may depend on her getting to the Kingpin, even if he was the one trying to stop her, and that thought filled Gwen with a fresh resolve to win this particular fight above all others.

Miles looked at her silently for a moment, then gave her a “come at me” gesture with one of his hands and said, “So you’re a killer now? Show me.”

Aggravated and determined, Gwen didn’t hesitate to meet his challenge and quickly closed the distance between them before throwing a punch at Miles’ chest, then his head, both of which he dodged with his infuriatingly speedy reflexes. Then, on her third punch, Miles’ hand reached up to catch her attack before it could reach him, her fist making a pitiful clang against the metal covering his palm, and then he leaned in and told her, “You’re stronger than this. Stop insulting me. Stop holding back. Or you’ll die.”

His other arm then shot up and hit her in the gut hard, not enough to send her flying away as he could’ve done, but still enough to daze her. His hand holding her fist released her and instead hit her with a right hook across the face, knocking her head sideways and causing Gwen’s anger to build.

With a yell, she reared back a punch and threw it towards Miles’ ribs with the hope of knocking him away under the power of her rage, but his hand grabbed her wrist before she could hit him and pulled her arm down before one of his legs flew upwards to knee her in the stomach, making her double over, and then his free hand hit her in the chin with an uppercut that launched her painfully upwards. Then, while she was in the air, Miles jumped up above her and blasted her back down into the ground with his shoes.

Gwen landed in agony on her back, making a wide splash of water around herself from the impact, and a moment later, Miles fell down to land in a crouch over her, then grabbed her by the throat and made her look at him as he growled, “You think that saying you’re now a killer makes it true? You think it’s a simple choice? You think taking a life is easy, something that just anyone can do? It’s not.”

Hardly able to listen to what Miles was saying as her vision began swimming from loss of oxygen, Gwen opened her mouth and tried to say something to him, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.

After another second, Miles looked down at his hand on Gwen’s throat before his narrowed eyes lessened in intensity and instead widened in realization before he released her abruptly and said, “Wait. This isn’t-”

He didn’t get any further than that, however, as Gwen took her opportunity to roll back underneath Miles and plant her hands on the ground next to her head before planting her feet on Miles’ chest and launching herself upwards, kicking him off of her. As Miles crashed to the ground several feet away, Gwen landed on her feet and began walking towards him swiftly, now breathing heavily and eager to even the score.

Seeing her ominous approach, Miles pushed himself up into a sitting position with one hand as he held out his other hand towards her and said, “Gwen, wait-”

But at this point, Gwen was done listening. Shooting a web onto Miles’ chest, Gwen pulled him upwards and caused him to stumble towards her as he landed on his feet only for Gwen to stick out her arm as she rushed to meet Miles, his face crashing forcefully against her super-strong arm and causing him to get knocked down once again onto his back, crashing to the ground with a grunt of surprised pain.

Once again, Gwen didn’t let him get his bearings and began walking away from him while she casually shot a web line backwards to stick to the front of his mask before she tugged on it and once again pulled him back to his feet. She then turned around to face him with a glare and ordered, “You want to see what I can really do? Then fight me.”

When Miles didn’t immediately follow the command, instead just approaching her cautiously and saying, “Gwen-” , Gwen responded by stepping towards him and heave-kicking him in the chest, knocking him backwards and sending him skidding across the wet rooftop.

Before he could even come to a stop, however, Gwen shot another web onto his front and pulled him back towards her but then spun around and punched him back in the other direction, then repeated, “Fight me.”

Stubbornly getting back to his feet, Miles looked sideways at her and said simply, “No.”

Spreading her arms out to her sides and approaching him, Gwen said, “You want to see how I become a killer? Then give me an excuse to let it out! Fight me!”

He still made no move against her, and as Gwen got impatient, she let out a roar of anger and jumped towards Miles, grabbing him by the shoulders and tackling him to the ground. She then kneeled over him just as he had done to her, but instead of choking him, she began to punch him across the face, back and forth as she yelled at him, “Fight me, Prowler! FIGHT ME!”

Finally, he made a move of his own, but rather than doing as Gwen had ordered him, Miles did something unexpected. With a mental command, the armored mask covering Miles’ face and protecting him from the worst of Gwen’s strikes hissed open and folded back around into its casing on the back of his head, revealing Miles’ bare face to Gwen’s view, immediately making her instinctively halt her attacks as she stopped seeing the face of the Prowler and instead saw only her friend.

Miles looked back up at her with confident resolution, ignoring the heavy rain falling on his unprotected face, and said, “No. Because you’re not my enemy. You’re mis ángeles,and I promised I wasn’t going to hurt you anymore.”

For a second, Gwen was frozen, her fist still raised helplessly in the air, though she knew that she could no longer use it. And without any means of venting her frustration, her anger fading away and thus taking her only remaining defense from her pain with it, Gwen lowered her arm and tears filled her eyes as she fell down and began crying on Miles’ shoulder.

Despite him not knowing why she was falling apart like this, Miles immediately wrapped his arms around her, one around her waist and the other holding her head close to him as he began doing his best to comfort her, softly muttering things like, “It’s okay, Bochinche ,” and “I’m here. I’m always here.”

Well, the former may not be true, as Gwen knew that it was most certainly not okay and perhaps never would be, but the latter was comfort enough. Having Miles here with her as she went through this meant the world to Gwen.

After a few minutes, Gwen found the strength to climb off of Miles, though he grabbed and held onto her hand as she moved to his side and pulled up her mask to let her tears escape her face. She then looked over at him, and seeing the bruises on his face, she winced and began apologizing, “Oh, Miles. I'm so sorry, I wasn't-”

“Gwen,” he cut her off quickly. “Are you okay? Or are you going to be? Mentally or emotionally or whatever this is?”

Knowing what he was really asking, wanting to know if he could trust her not to lash out in anger again, Gwen looked down at Miles’ fingers intertwined with her own and gave his hand a light squeeze, nodding as she quietly responded, “Yes. Yeah, I think I'll be alright.”

Nodding back in satisfaction, Miles said, “Then I'm fine. If you're okay, then I'm okay.” He then smirked at her and said, “Besides, I got in a few hits of my own. Sorry about that.”

Not wanting to hear his apologies though after what they'd both just been through, Gwen looked back towards the stash behind them and told Miles, “We should probably get back inside before we get sick or something.”

Miles looked at her in confusion and asked, “Aren't we going after Murdock?”

“It can wait until it's not raining like this, maybe even during the daytime later today,” Gwen answered as she got back on her feet and offered a hand down to Miles, which he accepted gratefully after looking at Gwen in surprise for a moment. Frankly, that was understandable. A moment before, Gwen had seemed impossibly determined to reach Murdock and Spider-Man and the rest of the criminal empire taking root in this city as soon as possible. But while that was still true, Gwen also knew that they had worn each other out by fighting one another needlessly and they would both need to be at the top of their game for what came next.

Besides, Gwen still felt rather emotionally unstable and would certainly appreciate getting to spend some more time being relaxed by Miles’ presence. And speaking of Miles, he probably needed some answers about what was going on with her, and while Gwen knew that it would probably be difficult for her to talk about it, she also felt that Miles had to know, and at this point, he more than deserved it as well.

As they were both somewhat injured from their fight, Miles and Gwen both put their arms around each other to help one another stand upright less painfully as they walked back into the stash, their other hands holding onto each other in the front, though that was for a different kind of support.

When they’d gotten inside and closed the door behind them, they walked over to the couch before finally releasing each other, Gwen lowering her hood and Miles’ gauntlets folding off of his hands and back inside his sleeves before he pulled off his jacket and draped it over the back of the room’s chair so it could dry before falling on the couch with a light groan, unknowing and uncaring that by taking off his jacket, he had once again revealed his impressive arms to Gwen’s sight.

Blushing slightly as she tried to ignore it and sat down by Miles’ side, Gwen looked down at the metal vambraces running up Miles’ forearms. She’d seen how Miles had realized his objective of making it so that his gauntlets could shrink down into bracelets, and decided to comment on it in a hopeful attempt to delay the conversation she knew she really had to have with him. Also to distract herself from the feeling of Miles’ firm arm muscles pressing up against her side before she lost control and said or did something stupid.

“The bracelets look like they’re working nicely,” Gwen told him.

Looking down at his new vambraces himself, Miles said, “Yeah, I guess. I was kinda hoping I’d be able to make them more… bracelet-y, but it was just too much metal. It would’ve looked like I was wearing heavy-duty weighted bracelets or something. These ones don’t look quite as normal as I wanted, but I can easily hide them under long sleeves and most importantly, they work.”

Gwen nodded in agreement and continued pretending to examine the workmanship of the gauntlets in their dormant form for a moment as she tried to think of something else to talk about, but too late.

“So, Gwen… Can I ask you something now?” Miles questioned.

Gwen wanted to refuse, already knowing what the question was going to be and that she didn’t want to have to talk about it. She also appreciated the way that Miles indicated that he would be patient to wait for answers if she didn’t want to talk about it now, but if not now, when? She doubted that the prospect of having this talk would ever get any easier, and it was something that Miles certainly had to know.

And so, looking down in silent resignation, Gwen nodded her head and closed her eyes to fight back the tears that just kept threatening to return like they would never end.

Speaking cautiously, Miles asked, “Gwen, when I came back here earlier, you were clearly… a bit upset. And I get that you probably don’t want to talk about why, but if I want to try to help, I need to-”

Feeling like her composure was about to be lost entirely, Gwen cut him off with a whisper. “My dad’s dead.”

Stopping what he was saying immediately, Miles asked quietly, “What?”

“My dad’s dead,” Gwen repeated in a slightly louder, but much more hoarse voice, some tears managing to escape her eyes again as her saying the words made it feel much more true, the reality of it coming crashing down upon her. Still, she tried to hold out despite how she began to tremble from the pain inside her and began to explain to a shocked Miles, “The wall… Last night, that wall I told you I could… I couldn’t, and now, because of me, my dad’s-”

She couldn’t say any more past that point and her voice broke off as the dam finally broke, and Gwen could no longer hold it all in. Her tears began flowing freely, Gwen no longer being strong enough to stop them, but as she began to fall forward in an attempt to hide her face in her hands, Miles abruptly reached out and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head against his chest just like he had done outside, and though part of Gwen wanted to push him away and keep him from seeing her in this state, the other, stronger part of Gwen was just desperate for something to hold onto right now, and there was nothing she could think of better for the job than Miles.

She remembered her dad’s final words, words that she would never repeat aloud, especially not in front of Miles. Not knowing her situation, he had begged Gwen that his daughter should be kept away from Miles, and Miles could never know it, or else Gwen knew that he would blame himself for George being there yesterday, trying to catch him. Besides, what good would it do to tell him? Gwen was never going to stay away from Miles, or make him think that he had to stay away from her. She couldn’t. He was all she had now.

After a few minutes, after Gwen had managed to calm down somewhat in Miles’ protective embrace, he quietly told her, “It’s not on you, Gwen. What happened to your dad? It’s not on you.”

Struggling to believe him, Gwen scoffed and told him, “He died saving a little boy’s life. That boy’s mom said that I… I killed him, and… maybe she’s right.”

“She’s not,” Miles firmly argued.

Shaking her head, Gwen said, “I was there, I should’ve done more, I should’ve-”

“Hey, hey,” Miles cut her off, reaching up to tilt her chin up and make her look at him in his eyes that still showed nothing but sympathy and love. “Even Spider-Woman has her limits. You did everything you could and more. And you know how I know? Because you always do. Even if your dad hadn’t been there, you would’ve killed yourself before you let anything happen to any of those complete strangers. But you can’t do everything, not alone. So no more splitting up, yeah?”

Gwen smirked slightly at that, grateful for Miles’ efforts to help calm her mind, but said, “Miles, we can’t do that. Being able to do two jobs at once is one of our biggest advantages.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Miles said sternly. “I don’t want something like this happening again. I want to be able to keep my eyes on you at all times.” He then shrugged and added, “Besides, it’s good material for my sketchbook.”

Raising an eyebrow at that, Gwen she asked him in a voice that was equal parts flattered and exasperated, “Miles, you’re not seriously still drawing me in your sketchbook, are you? You see me all the time now.”

His eyes suddenly brightening, Miles said, “Oh, that reminds me!” He got off of the couch abruptly, making Gwen fall over in surprise with him no longer underneath her, and crossed the room before grabbing something from underneath the box of chocolates he’d gotten for Gwen, then came back over to her and kneeled down in front of her to hold up the brand-new sketchbook in his hands.

“I got a new one!” Miles announced excitedly, grinning widely, but his expression soon fell as he looked at Gwen’s unimpressed face and he realized, “But… this… probably isn’t the time for that, is it?”

“Not really, no,” Gwen answered with a shake of her head, propping herself up on her elbow.

Now embarrassed, Miles gestured weakly back at the box of chocolates on the chair behind him and tried to excuse himself by asking her, “Do you want some chocolate now?”

Oh, he was so adorably out of his element now, acting like a child caught drawing on the walls, it made Gwen want to laugh despite her grief. Or perhaps that was the point? Maybe Miles was trying to distract her mind from her recent loss? Or maybe he was just managing it accidentally.

Either way, it helped Gwen realize something about Miles that she might actually have known for some time now and had never admitted it aloud: She shared the feeling he’d declared about half an hour ago. She loved Miles Morales, a different kind of love than she was familiar with, but one that she knew couldn’t be anything less. He didn’t make the pain of her dad’s death vanish, no more than he had done when he had assured her of her innocence in Peter’s death, but he definitely made it significantly easier to bear.

But now, the number of tears Gwen had shed in the last few hours were starting to get to her, bringing on a powerful headache, and she knew that she needed it dealt with if they indeed hoped to defeat Murdock and bring down his criminal empire later today. She also knew that she would have an easier time falling asleep on her trusty comfort cushion.

And so, acting annoyed to hide her amusem*nt at Miles’ behavior, Gwen sat up and glared at Miles as she roughly pulled his new sketchbook out of his hands before setting it aside and telling him, “No, Miles, I don’t want some chocolate.”

He looked at her in surprise and perhaps some wariness, probably worried that despite her apparent progress, she may be reverting back to her more aggressive, angry self, but then, Gwen just patted the cushion next to her, the spot that Miles had just vacated, and continued, “I want your butt back in this seat, and then I want you to stay still while I take a nap. Think you can do that?”

Miles continued to look shocked for another second, but then he just smirked and told her, “Yeah, I think so.”

“Good,” Gwen said as she moved aside so Miles could get back in his seat, then laid her head down on his lap once he'd done so and closed her eyes as her breathing immediately began to slow, her body eager to get some rest after the extremely taxing last few hours.

Before she could doze off completely, however, Miles reminded her, “I love you, mis ángeles.”

Smiling in satisfaction and newfound comfort, finally able to temporarily put her dark thoughts and instincts away with Miles being with her, Gwen quietly responded, “Yo también te amo, mis demonios.”

She felt Miles shift to look down at her upon hearing that, probably processing her own declaration with stunned disbelief as well as trying to connect the dots as to why she had called him what she had, and she imagined that he smiled down at her before she felt his hand come up to begin gently rubbing up and down her back, helping to soothe her into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Third Person POV

Wilson Fisk entered his adopted son’s office inside the King’s Counselors compound, doing his best to hold in his excitement, and predictably found Matt staring out the window at the city. That was how almost everyone would find him, which many would consider to be odd for a blind man, but Wilson was one of the few people who knew why he really did it.

In truth, Matt wasn’t looking at the city. He was indeed as sightless as a person could be and thus could not experience the city with his eyes. But he had found a different way to accomplish it. Here, in Matt’s office at the compound, and also in his now-demolished office back at Fisk Tower, Matt had requested special vented frames to be put around his windows.

It would be a strange request to any experienced designer of such fancy yet natural buildings, but few architects would be foolish enough to argue with Matthew Murdock’s bank account. One of the many privileges of being the most accomplished lawyer on the face of the planet, as well as the son of one of New York City’s most celebrated philanthropic billionaires.

The custom vented windows were shaped to capture and amplify echoed sounds for several blocks around the buildings, and even allowed small amounts of all different kinds of scents to penetrate the room. Of course, the builders had warned their rich contractor beforehand that by the time the sounds or smells reached the room, they would be too faint to register with anything less sensitive than advanced scientific equipment, but Matt had insisted that he wanted to experience the city he loved at all times of the day, in any way possible. So he had overridden their protests and gotten his special window frames put in, and those who installed them could hardly complain. They’d been paid well to humor the blind man’s unrealistic dreams.

Fisk could also see Foggy standing to the side of the room with one of his hands grasping the other in front of himself, indicating that Matt would soon be attending to some matter of business, but since he did not stop Fisk or give him any warning, the larger man just continued to step forward until he was standing right behind Matt. Not bothering to announce himself as he knew that Matt surely already knew he was here, Fisk informed him, “Your 'familiar friend' is ready, should we need his help, Son. And I also took the liberty of sending all of your daytime employees home before we begin.”

“Thank you, Dad,” Matt acknowledged without moving from where he stood.

Following Matt’s gaze out the window, gazing over the city below (though with a view that didn’t quite compare to the one from Fisk Tower), Fisk commented, “This is the day, then. Isn’t it, Matthew? The one we’ve all been waiting for?”

“The one both Kingpins always foresaw, the one we both worked towards for years,” Matt finished for him, clearly in an equal measure of awe at the thought of what they were about to do.

Wanting to relieve himself of his final concerns, Fisk hesitantly said, “You know, Matthew… This was originally my vision. And I’m happy to share it with you, the last family I have now that your mother has passed, but this could be your last chance to back out and leave it to me to finish this. After all, unlike me, you have somewhere else to go. You have a home.”

Matt was silent for a moment, then said, “ This is home too. My city. I’ve worked long and hard to get here.”

“But if this plan doesn’t work, the Kingpin will be gone,” Fisk warned. “If Ms. Stacy and Mr. Morales manage to interfere, we will lose all of this.”

Matt processed those words for a second, but remained silent.

Knowing that his boss was deep in thought but would ultimately decide that he could never abandon this plan when he was this close to potential victory, so close to succeeding on the path that his adopted father had started and thus giving himself permission to go home as Wilson knew he truly wanted to, Fisk turned to leave the room.

However, turning his head to the side and speaking to get Fisk's attention before he could leave, Matt asked, “Actually, Dad, if I could ask you to do something?”

“Of course, Matthew,” Fisk responded immediately, freezing in place to hear the Kingpin’s request.

Looking back out the window, Matt said, “Just in case… Do you remember that one case me and Foggy couldn't win in court? I'd like you to make a call to Ryker's. Remind Officer Suarez of that file we have, and ask him to do me a favor. Quietly. And then ask Wesley to arrange an ambulance for Officer Suarez. I get the feeling he’s going to overdose on his medication tonight, and we’ll need to be ready to pick him up fast. Sadly, he won’t make it to the hospital, but with him will die any uncontrolled knowledge of our new friend on the outside. On the off chance we need to move along with Operation: Checkmate, I want to have my rook in place beforehand, preferably without my enemies seeing it.”

Immediately understanding, Fisk opened his mouth to protest this plan, being familiar and not particularly fond of the “rook” Matt spoke of, but then just bowed his head in acceptance of his son’s wisdom and authority and said, “Of course, Matthew,” before he turned and left the room in a hurry to carry out this new order despite his own misgivings.

After he was gone, Matt stared outside in silent reflection. He was not the type of person to rush into decisions, yet he could also be extremely decisive when it came down to it. Both of those qualities were necessary for an effective Kingpin. He needed to be ready to make tough choices that would have massive impacts when certain crucial times arose, and this was certainly one of those times.

As soon as he gave the order, the world, particularly his world, would change forever. Matthew Murdock would make a dramatic transformation from a world-renowned lawyer into the greatest crime boss in history. Though the preparation had taken years, it would take less than 48 hours for Matt’s plan to assume complete control over the city.

Of course, the transition wouldn’t be quite as smooth as he had once hoped. He had hoped to control all of the city’s police, or at least enough of them to order the synchronized executions of all the ones that continued to resist him. Instead, there was a legitimate concern that some of the police may actually survive the inter-precinct shootouts with their dirty fellow cops that had successfully been bought and try to fight Murdock’s conquest.

One of the Raft’s inmates, the Scorpion, was now dead at the hand of Matt’s own right hand man. Without him, the number of supervillains Matt could employ for this venture had fallen by a considerable percentage taking into account the fact that there weren’t many people in the Raft to begin with, the city having been introduced to supervillains less than a year ago at this point.

And the Spiderlings, one of Spider-Man’s side projects that had eventually become essentially the Kingpin’s personal army, had been reduced to half of their maximum strength and numbers by their fight with Spider-Woman and the new Prowler.

Those two individuals were Matt’s greatest concern. The reason he was choosing to act now was because he knew he would likely not get a better chance, and not just because of Captain Stacy’s death. Mr. Morales and Ms. Stacy continued to elude and frustrate him, and every effort taken so far to capture or at least defeat them had ended in failure and cost Matt valuable resources. Ultimately, it had all been a waste.

Part of Matt was frustrated with himself for even continuing to pursue this once he had determined that Spider-Woman would prove uncontrollable to him. But he’d been unable to accept that thought, the idea of anything in this city, in his city, being beyond his reach and influence. So instead he’d tried to eliminate her as a threat, only for her to escape his best operative’s custody and begin continuing to threaten his plans.

Wherever they were now, Spider-Woman and Prowler would certainly try to stand in the way of Matt’s plan. But at this point, Matt was content to let them come. Perhaps they would be flattened by the scale of Matt’s takeover. The Kingpin felt that even with his resources depleted, he was still on course to win this war. The surviving refractory cops, if indeed there were any, would still stand no chance against the rest of Matt’s forces. The combined powers of the supervillains that remained in the Raft would be more than enough to subdue the city. And the Spiderlings, even with their power reduced, were completely loyal to Matt, proven through questioning periods with each of them given by Matt himself, and were all carrying some of the most powerful weapons ever designed, stronger than any of the hardware the United States military used, capable of leveling entire city blocks when given some time and set to decently high power levels.

And even if anyone, superpowered teenage vigilantes or otherwise, managed to get anywhere close to Matt… Well, they would be in for a surprise. But the rest of the game was now prepared, so it was time for Matt to stop thinking and make his opening move.

Matt tilted his head and quietly called, “Foggy.”

Immediately, his dutiful partner in their shared law firm walked over to Matt while pulling out his phone and calling a number, then handed the phone to Matt so that the taller man could hold it up by his face. The phone rang for only a single beat before it was picked up, and a distorted voice asked, “Yes?”

Smiling pleasantly, Matt said, “Prowler. Are you ready at the Raft?”

There was a second's pause, then Prowler's voice responded, “Yes, sir. If you want to wait, this is our last chance.”

However, with his mind already made up, Matt simply said, “Do it,” then hung up the phone and handed it back to Foggy, who pocketed the device and exited swiftly with his task accomplished while Matt kept facing towards the window, seemingly looking outside to anyone who didn't already know that he was blind.

However, a moment later, massive bursts of flame began launching out from all sides of the Raft super-prison on its secluded island, and though even the startled screams of numerous civilians outside were muffled from in here, Murdock seemed to know exactly what had happened anyway. A grin gracing the face of the blind man as he faced the explosions that he could hear all the way from here, the fiery light reflecting off the red lenses of his glasses, Murdock recited, “‘And he saw the light, and it was good.’”

Chapter 18: Revelation 12:12

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

Gwen POV

New York City had been through a lot of things, much of which had fallen on Spider-Woman's shoulders in the last year. At this point, supervillains were not only widely known to be a real concern, the city had its own prison just outside the city specifically for the purpose of moving those supervillains somewhere that could hold them in a hurry. New York even offered supervillain insurance now, for heaven's sake. But even if everyone in the city had it, Gwen knew that it would be little help against what was happening now.

Seriously, she took a nap for one hour after one of the most taxing days of her life, and somehow the city managed to fall into complete chaos during that time. What seemed like every criminal in the city had crawled out of their holes and were now laying waste to everything in sight, looting and pillaging and destroying, and Gwen's best efforts could barely stem the tide. There was brawling and fires and even killing on apparently every street in Manhattan, which Gwen tried to clean up one by one, but it was slow-going work.

Even the Raft had been blown wide open, quite possibly freeing all three of the surviving supervillains that Gwen had put away in the last year. Oh, sorry. Of course, she meant the supervillains that thePDNYhad put away while Spider-Woman danced uselessly in the background and destroyed everything, according to Jameson.

Still, she wouldn't mind actually having the help of the cops with something like this, even if they did hate her, but of course, theonetime Gwen actually wanted the police around, they were nowhere to be found. Typical.

Usually, this would be an even more impossible task than it seemed at the moment, but fortunately, even without the police, Gwen still wasn't entirely alone in fighting to save the city for once.

As Gwen jumped down in front of a group of civilians running from about half a dozen men armed with automatic rifles, hoping to attract their attention onto her instead of the innocent people, they smiled and co*cked their guns with pleasure upon seeing her, clearly eager for a clear shot at Spider-Woman. But their smiles disappeared quickly as they suddenly heard the screeching of tires coming from behind them, and they all turned around to see the terrifying sight of a car rolling towards them at high speeds, apparently with no driver behind the wheel.

All six of them instantly panicking and trying to shove each other out of their way so they could avoid the vehicle approaching them, they had all lost sight of the threat of Spider-Woman, who took advantage of their confusion to run forward and tether two of them to the walls of the buildings on either side of her. She took down another one by punching him into the air and jumping up with him to yank his gun from his hand before she tied him up with webbing and used a web line to leave him hanging upside-down from an overhanging streetlight.

At this point, two more of them, both of whom had made it to the sidewalks on either side of the street surrounding Gwen, had been reminded of her presence, and now that they were out of the path of the car, they shared a nod with one another and both raised their rifles to aim at her, hoping to box her in. Unfortunately for them, Gwen's Spider-Sense alerted her to the danger on both sides, and she ran towards the last criminal still standing in the middle of the street and jumped off his chest into the air, momentarily staggering the one she'd bounced off and causing the others to hesitate to shoot.

Using that moment to her advantage, Gwen crouched in midair, making the target (herself) smaller as she looked back towards the cross-firing pair of enemies and crossed her wrists to shoot a web line onto both of their guns, then uncrossed her wrists to roughly pull them both back inwards, tugged forward by their own weapons, and back onto the street, where they bumped into each other under their momentum and exclaimed shortly in pain before Gwen landed between them and slammed their heads together, knocking them both out.

She then looked to the last criminal, who was just barely recovering enough to turn and see the speeding car about to hit him, prompting him to drop his rifle and put up his hands over his face in fear.

However, at the last moment, a blur of magenta light indicated the arrival of a figure who dropped in front of the car and held out one gauntleted hand to stop the car dead a foot away from hitting the criminal. The Prowler then vaulted on top of the car's hood so he could stand taller and glared down at the man while saying, "I would surrender if I were you."

Sadly, with his nerves as frayed as they were from his near-death experience and now coming face-to-masked-face with perhaps the scariest thing he'd ever seen, the criminal no longer had the sense to surrender and instead simply turned and began to run away.

Letting out a sigh of exasperation, Miles raised one of his hands and opened his hand to fire a grappling cable with a spiked end, which impaled itself through the man's shoulder before he could get far, causing him to scream out in agony, but he was quickly put out of his misery as Miles tugged on the line, pulling the criminal to fly backwards through the air and crash onto the hood of the car at Miles' feet, instantly knocking him out.

Miles turned the man over with his foot and released the grappling line to pull it out of his shoulder and reel it back into the gauntlet, then stepped down from the car and approached Gwen while complaining, "Why is it that they never just surrender when I tell them to?"

"In fairness, fight or flight is averypowerful thing," Gwen defended as she shot a web line onto a wall high above herself and began to swing herself away from this area, knowing that they needed to quickly get to the next.

A moment later, Miles appeared by her side, running up the wall then along the roof above her, and said, "I know that the whole city's on fire and everything, but shouldn't we be trying to get to the root cause of all this?"

Gwen didn't answer immediately, as she swung around the side of the building and ended up soaring above another group made up of a couple dozen criminals throwing homemade firebombs at surrounding buildings. Deciding to put a stop to it, Gwen released her web line and allowed herself to fall down towards them. While she still had yet to be spotted by this group, Gwen waited until they threw their next molotov towards an apartment window before she shot a web to catch it, then pulled it back so that it fell and exploded in front of the criminals themselves, who winced from the light and heat and took a few steps back to avoid the surprisingly returned attack.

Not all of them got away unscathed, either. A couple of gangb*ngers got some of the fire on their clothes, which they quickly began trying to put out. Most importantly, though, they had been distracted by the panic among their own ranks into ceasing their attacks on the homes and businesses around them. That meant that Gwen could now focus on dealing with the criminals themselves.

Shooting a web onto one's back while she was still above them, Gwen pulled herself down to him and grabbed his head before slamming it roughly to the ground, though she was careful to only knock him out despite the anger that still flowed through her from her dad's recent passing. As soon as Gwen had that thought, she tried to put it out of her mind, but she could only do so much, as was evidenced by the way that as she stood up to face the remaining, now-alerted arsonists around her, she didn't make her usual joke and instead just glared silently at them all.

Admittedly, this behavior seemed to unnerve some of them, no doubt the ones that had encountered Spider-Woman before, as she noticed them exchanging glances of confusion and nervousness.Good. They should be nervous, Gwen thought to herself, reveling in the way they all hesitated to attack her.

However, the moment was ruined when Miles suddenly leapt down from above, landing behind the group who were all now facing Gwen, and said, "Sorry, boys. We had a dry season this summer, so fireworks and firebombs are both off the table."

Sadly, the pyromaniacs didn't care for the warning and all began to ready themselves to attack. Some of them began walking towards Miles, who narrowed his eyes at them and began his own approach, just as intent on standing his ground as they were with theirs.

Unfortunately for them, they weren't quite as well-equipped for the task as Miles was, and as he neared the criminal at the front of the line, he reached an arm out to his side to stab his claws into the side door of a car parked on the edge of the road, then thrust his arm forward forcefully to rip the door off of its hinges and send it flying into the taller man, who was thrown off his feet. Then, Miles dashed forward in a blur and began tearing his way through the rest of them, regularly tossing bodies into the air with every hit.

Soon, some of the firebugs towards the back of the group began getting nervous as Miles relentlessly fought his way closer to them and apparently decided that they'd rather take their chances with Spider-Woman. However, when they turned around to face her once again, they would find that fighting her was indeed not much better than fighting Prowler.

Shooting a web line onto a pair of them standing next to each other, Gwen tugged on the web lines to pull the two criminals closer to her, then fell on her back just as they arrived so she could kick them both in the gut, launching them straight upwards. While they were airborne, Gwen did a handspring back onto her feet and instantly darted forward, running towards another pair of criminals while they were still reaching for some sort of weapons inside their jackets.

They tensed up upon seeing Spider-Woman's rapid approach as they realized that they wouldn't have enough time to counter her attack, but they were both surprised when Gwen simply ran right between them, not even trying to hit them. However, their relief was short-lived as Gwen kept going until she was right beneath a traffic light pole hanging over the road, then fired two web lines behind herself to stick onto the feet of the pair of criminals. Then, before they could react to it in any way, Gwen jumped upwards in a 15-foot high backflip, tugging the pair off of their feet so that they could dangle upside-down from the pole that the web lines were now tethered to, Gwen sticking her landing perfectly on the ground beneath them.

At that moment, Gwen's Spider-Sense tingled to remind her of the other pair of criminals that she'd launched upwards, who were now currently on their way back to the ground. Jumping up, Gwen bounced off the chests of the two men hanging above her, causing them to grunt in surprise and a pistol to fall out of each of their jackets, but Gwen ignored all that and focused on getting back across the street just in time to catch the other two men, holding them a few inches above the asphalt by the backs of their shirts.

If they'd been allowed to hit the ground after falling from that height, it undoubtedly would've been extremely painful for them, probably meaning quite a few broken bones, and to be honest, the angrier part of Gwen was almost tempted to let it happen. She knew that they would've both lived, even if it was possible that they might get paralyzed or something. But Miles was still just a dozen yards from her, acting as a replacement for her currently-damaged moral compass, and Gwen knew that letting these people, despicable crooks as they were, get too badly hurt was not like her.

That didn't mean that she was just going to let them off easy, either. As they were both mumbling their thanks to Spider-Woman for sparing them from where they hung in her hands, Gwen spun around and tossed them bodily, making them roll roughly to a stop sitting on the ground with their backs against the wall of the apartment building to the side of the road, where Gwen proceeded to pin them in place with quick blasts of webbing to restrain their hands and cover their mouths.

And she also followed up by shooting a ball of webbing to hit them both in the groin, making both men groan in muffled pain.

Okay, okay, maybe it wasn't the most heroic takedown she'd ever done, and Gwen recognized it, but she was doing her best. And she'd saved them from a much worse fate before she'd hurt them. Still, Gwen knew that she had to do better. Allowinganyoneto get hurt when it could be avoided, even the bad guys, was against Gwen's philosophy. It wasn't something Miles would approve of, nor Peter, and not… not her dad.

The thought of her dad still hung heavy over Gwen's mind, and of course it always would, but Miles was right. The city still needed Spider-Woman, meaning Gwen would have to get over her current dilemma if she wanted to focus on being the good guy and helping people. It was a tall order, one that the city didn't even know it was asking of her, but Gwen knew that she needed to recover from her loss. Good, innocent people were counting on her to do it.

Besides, with Miles sticking by her side, it would definitely be quite a bit easier. And maybe, given time, the death of Gwen's dad would help inspire her to save even more people, just as Peter's death had done. Besides, Gwen couldn't let theProwlerbecome the main funny one. Gwen had a reputation to uphold, and she'd seen what a Spider-person without a sense of humor was like. All of the weird and none of the fun.

Making an attempt to get back into her more sociable behavior, Gwen ran over to where Miles was nearly finished dealing with the rest of the arsonists and webbed onto the face of one right next to Miles before pulling herself towards him and kicking the criminal in the stomach, knocking him down.

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd get over your stage fright,"Miles told her in greeting.

Trying to resume their earlier conversation, Gwen shot a web line onto another nearby criminal and pulled him in as she said, "If we want to get at the root of this invasion, we need to head after Murdock. Unless you know someone else that could've started something like this?"

"Every thug in Manhattan randomly decided to destroy everything in sight all at once? Yeah, I'm betting it's the Kingpin,"Miles responded as he knocked the bad guy Gwen had grabbed to the ground, knocking him out with a single punch. "Only trouble is, at this rate, this city would be gone by the time we had Murdock in custody. We wouldn't have saved anything."

Gwen thought it over for a second, then suggested, "Maybe we just need to buy enough time for reinforcements."

"The police?"Miles scoffed. "They're no-shows, and honestly? With how much they don't like us, I'm wondering if maybe that's for the best."

Scrambling for hope, Gwen said, "The army, then. Someone's got to come, they can't just let New York City get taken over!"

Miles considered it, then shrugged and sighed, "I guess we don't really have much choice, do we? But the army wouldn't stand a chance against the supervillains. We need to stem the tide. Who do we have?"

Thinking through her old villains, recalling her bad encounters with each of them as she named them off, Gwen answered, "No more Scorpion just leaves Rhino, Vulture, and Shocker."

"So super-strength, flight, and vibrations,"Miles noted. "Alright, how hard could it be? Shall we finish up here and go hang out with the 'in' crowd?"

"Yeah, these guys are getting kind of boring," Gwen agreed. "You want to do the honors?"

Miles POV

Nodding his acceptance, Miles turned and began to set out to end this while Gwen just punched him in the shoulder as he passed and encouraged him, "Go get 'em, tiger!"

By now, there were only nine firebugs left to deal with, all of whom instantly got tagged on Miles' HUD with a thought, allowing him to track all of their movements. Once that was done and Miles was sure that his enemies wouldn't be able to sneak up on him, he started his task of trying to intimidate them all into submission.

To start, he focused his glare on one particular criminal standing to the side of the street, the only one who had successfully managed to pull out his pistol so far, and began approaching him slowly and menacingly. Seeing this, the criminal raised his pistol and fired at Miles, and even with how bad his hands were shaking in terror, the bullet flew straight and true towards its target, but Miles just raised one hand and let the bullet flatten itself against his protected palm before falling to the ground.

Even more frightened now, the criminal took a few steps back until he was pressed against a car parked on the side of the road, which he quickly moved around to get on the sidewalk, placing the car between himself and Prowler as a form of meager protection. However, his defenses were even more feeble than he knew, and Miles just walked right up to the car and kicked it in the side so that it mounted the curb and slammed into the criminal, knocking him into the wall of the building behind himself before he fell down, unconscious.

With that job done, Miles turned back around to see that several more of the arsonists had drawn their guns now, but they seemed hesitant to use them, no doubt because of what had happened to their friend when he had tried the same thing, especially the fact that they now knew that Miles could deflect bullets with his hands and had the reflexes to do it as well. However, one particularly bold vandal, who seemed to be a woman underneath the mask she wore over the lower half of her face, lit one of her firebombs and threw it at Miles instead of trying to use her gun, hoping that this would do the trick.

However, to all of their collective surprise, Miles simply caught the molotov with one hand and effortlessly crushed the bottle in his grip, then kept holding his hand up for them all to see as the alcohol caused fire to cover his hand, but Miles didn't even wince as he simply let the flames burn out and leave his gauntlet slightly blackened but undamaged. Then, while the remaining criminals were all still frozen in shock, Miles looked around at them all and asked, "Anyone else?"

As if they had coordinated it, all of the arsonists began to hesitantly throw down their weapons and put up their hands in surrender, none of them willing to continue fighting the demon with his super-strength and immunity to bullets and fire. Once that had been done, Gwen approached them all and ordered them to stand around in a close circle, after which Gwen used her webbing to tie them all together and restrain them in place on the ground.

With another street cleaned up, Gwen walked towards Miles and told him, "Good work, Prowler. Now, the supervillains. Do you know where we can find one to start with?"

Instantly turning around to face into the heart of the city, Miles extended the range of his scanners, which would help him examine a larger area but also reduced the amount of detail. However, he didn't look for anyone in particular, just anomalies in the area that could indicate the nearby presence of a supervillain, and he quickly found one. "I'm reading huge dust clouds about twelve hundred meters northwest of here."

Gwen looked at him in confusion for a moment, then asked, "And… What's that in feet?"

"Does it matter, Ms. Does-Whatever-A-Spider-Can?"Miles asked in exasperation.

Shrugging as she shot a web upwards and began to swing northwest, Gwen responded, "Not really, I'm just kinda curious."

Joining her on the journey, Miles sighed but ultimately gave in and answered, "It's a little under four thousand feet. Happy?"

"Spectacular," Gwen responded as she shot a web onto two separate poles holding up a rooftop water tower and did a horizontal corkscrew spin as she slingshotted herself through it, the very image of grace as she narrowly slipped between all of the metal poles holding it up.

Yes, you are, Miles thought as he watched Gwen move, not able to stay annoyed at her as he'd already forgotten what they were talking about while he admired her instead.

However, he was soon broken out of his thoughts when Gwen called out, "Prowler! Watch out, traffic's rough!"

Confused, Miles looked at Gwen, then looked ahead of them just in time to recognize his need to dodge out of the way to avoid a car flipping end over end towards him in the air. Reaching out a hand in front of himself, Miles stabbed his claws into the roof of the car and held onto it as it flipped around, waiting until it was above the roof of an apartment building, then fired a burst of energy from his feet to slow the vehicle's descent, succeeding at the last moment in slowing it down enough so that he could land on his feet on the rooftop and set the car down harmlessly next to himself.

A moment later, while Miles was still trying to recover from what he'd just done, breathing hard, Gwen landed next to him and looked at the car as she commented, "You know, whoever owns this car should be relieved to find it alright, but they're going to bereallyconfused when they find it up here of all places."

Walking over to the edge of the rooftop and looking below to see how the car had been thrown upwards, Miles looked at a familiar, overlarge silhouette and said sarcastically, "Oh, look. We found Rhino. Hooray."

Walking up by his side to look at Rhino as well, Gwen sighed, "And he seems even angrier than last time. Probably didn't appreciate getting beaten twice. That means extra fun for us."

"You know, you'd think I'd get used to this guy throwing giant things at me, but I never do,"Miles continued complaining, still somewhat miffed about getting surprised with needing to catch a car.

Gwen just shrugged and ran forward to jump off the edge of the roof towards Rhino while saying, "Hey, at least he finally fulfilled the promise of flying cars. We've been waiting on that one for years."

Miles watched her go, not entirely thrilled about having to fight this guy again, but it was only his second time and Gwen's third, so he could hardly complain about it. And speaking of Gwen, a small smirk crossed Miles' face beneath his mask as he recalled what she'd said and thought to himself that maybe she was getting better.

He'd been somewhat concerned about Gwen needing to go be Spider-Woman again so soon after losing her dad. It wasn't fair for her, but oddly enough, getting back into a familiar environment with the simple job of saving as many people as possible actually seemed to be helping Gwen. With no time to think, she was acting more like herself, making jokes and saving lives. It seemed kind of weird to Miles, but then again, his own track record for dealing with grief was disturbingly similar. So with a sigh of resignation, Miles walked forward and stepped off the edge of the roof before using his shoes to launch himself at Rhino from above.

As Gwen had gone in slightly before, she'd already gotten Rhino's attention, leaving Miles open for an attack while the big guy was distracted, an opportunity that Miles took advantage of. Flying forward in a blur of movement, Miles reared back a fist as he approached Rhino and punched him hard in the back upon reaching him, making Rhino arch his back forward and let out a yell of mixed anger and pain.

However, Miles hadn't hit him quite hard enough to do any real damage through Rhino's armored suit, and the enormous, lumbering man turned around slowly to tower over Miles and stare him down with a glare that Miles met with equal intensity as he said, "Sir, I'm going to need you to come with me. Your half-brother, the Minotaur, wants to talk to you back at the station."

Rhino looked at Miles uncomprehendingly for a moment, then pointed one giant finger at him and said, "I remember you. The one with the zappy-pops in my neck. But you didn't make the jokes. Spider-Woman makes the jokes!"

"Yeah, she rubbed off on me a bit,"Miles defended himself. "But you're right. I guess I kind of gave the impression before that I prefer to let my actions speak for me. Don't worry, I can still do that too."

Scowling, Rhino said, "I preferred you quiet."

Then, before Miles could react, he lifted one giant leg and kicked the teenage vigilante away from him, Miles flying backwards until he crashed into the side of a car, which flipped under his momentum and came crashing down on top of him, the interior of the vehicle getting destroyed as it was crushed under its own weight against the asphalt.

Flattened underneath a few thousand pounds of metal, Miles gritted his teeth and used his gauntlet-enhanced strength to keep the weight from crushing him while he heard Gwen resume her fight with Rhino, though it thankfully sounded like she was staying calm while she did so, meaning that she must assume that Miles was still alive down here despite the heavy hit he'd taken. Still, that didn't mean that Miles was going to stay down here. The fight hadn't started off too well for him, but Miles was far from being done.

With a low grunt of effort, Miles managed to get his legs underneath himself, then slowly began to stand back up while lifting the car upwards above himself, military pressing it once he had successfully managed to stand once again. In front of himself, he could see Gwen still fighting Rhino, though she was currently trapped with one of the giant man's hands wrapped around her waist to keep her from moving.

Knowing what to do next, Miles yelled out, "Spider-Woman! Get clear!"Gwen looked back at him, then at the destroyed car he was still holding over his head, and seemed to get a sense of the urgency of the situation. In response, Gwen curled her body up in a ball and used both her arms and legs to loosen Rhino's grip on her, then jumped up onto his arm and flipped out of the way.

Rhino looked enraged at losing Spider-Woman, but his expression of disappointment soon disappeared a second later as his face, and indeed, the rest of his body, disappeared behind the wrecked chassis of the car that Miles had thrown at him. Fortunately, his reflexes had been fast enough for him to catch the car before it could hit him fully, but that didn't mean much when Miles launched towards it from the other side and thrust one superpowered fist straight through the car to punch Rhino in the face so hard that he dropped the car and was sent tumbling backwards.

When he finally managed to plant one of his massive fists into the ground and drag himself to a stop, Rhino glared up at Miles from his place on his knees and used his free hand to wipe blood from his upper lip, where it was dripping onto from his nose, which was now bent at an odd angle. Then, pulling his fist out of the ground, Rhino instead slammed it to the ground right next to the hole and aimed the sharp metal horn on his head towards Miles as he said, "I will deal with the spider after you. I tire of you,durak."

"Yeah, well, the feeling's mutual,"Miles responded, recognizing the signs that Rhino was readying himself to charge but refusing to back down from it.

His eyes wild with anger, Rhino let out a yell and ran towards Miles at full speed. Preparing to meet it, Miles looked back and asked Gwen, "Spider-Woman, mind giving me a boost?"

Gwen looked at Rhino closing in swiftly, seemingly in disbelief at her understanding that Miles actually intended to meet the Rhino's charge head-on. Still, knowing that she had no time to question it or change Miles' mind, Gwen just fired a line of webbing onto the walls of the buildings on either side of her, then pulled them together to form a single taut line in front of herself, then stepped back and nodded to Miles.

As soon as Miles knew that the improvised launcher was ready for him, he turned and dashed away from Rhino, then jumped up and launched himself into the web line Gwen had prepared with as much speed as he could muster, pulling the line backwards like some giant crossbow and Miles was the projectile to be fired.

All in less than a second, the web was pulled backwards and shot back again, firing Miles through the air towards Rhino at speeds even faster than he could achieve on his own, which ended with Miles punching the Rhino in the chest with such power that not only was the supervillain bested at his own game and thrown off his feet, but Miles' gauntlet had actually left a small crater in the chestplate of Aleksei's supposedly-indestructible suit of armor, making him land hard and leave a large crack in the road beneath him.

After it was done, Miles stood over his fallen enemy and watched him helplessly attempt to lift his hands to no avail, his eyes flitting around and staring at nothing in particular, clearly too dazed by the hit he'd taken for any sort of deliberate movement. Then, satisfied that Rhino had been thoroughly brought down, Miles turned and began to walk away from him, his gaze set with determination to bring the other criminals in the city down just as hard, again and again until they all ran for the hills and left Miles a clear path straight to the man behind all this.

Gwen POV

There was nothing quite like the feeling of bringing down Aleksei Sytsevich, as Gwen knew from multiple experiences. As strong as he was, it was impossible to defeat the rampaging Rhino and not feel like you'd just become the dominant life form on the planet, maybe even making you a bit arrogant. It'd happened to Gwen before, after the first and only time she'd ever taken him down single-handedly. Rhino had been the third supervillain she'd fought in her career as Spider-Woman, and after beating him, she'd gotten somewhat overconfident for a time with a three-time winning streak under her belt along with being able to honestly say that she'd overpowered the strongest force on the planet (at least physically).

Of course, her next encounter with another supervillain would knock some sense back into her, but still, for a time there, she'd felt invincible, like the most accomplished person in the history of the planet, no matter what anyone said about her. And to some degree, it was understandable that she'd start thinking that way, given what she'd done.

Hopefully, that same thing wouldn't happen to Miles, but Gwen thought she detected a slight swagger in the way he walked away from the crater in which laid the defeated Rhino, making her smirk beneath her mask and fold her arms over her chest as Miles approached her, amused by his subconscious shift in behavior. And yes, he hadn'texactlydone it all by himself, but Gwen had only really supported him during the fight, keeping Rhino's attention for a few seconds and helping Miles get lined up for the finishing blow. In the end, it had been the Prowler who practically planted Aleksei, and anyone would have a hard time disputing that it was one of his more impressive heroic wins thus far.

As Miles arrived next to Gwen, he looked at her and asked, "So who's next?"

Scoffing, Gwen nodded towards Rhino and responded to Miles' question with a question of her own. "You take down the strongest guy on the planet and that's the first thing you say?"

"Rhino's the strongest there is, but not the most powerful,"Miles said as he stepped past her, then looked back and added, "The mostpowerfulman is currently in his office, reclining in his chair while his forces tear the city down. And I'm aiming to take him down today too, and if that's going to happen, we better get back to work."

Shamelessly confident, scarily determined, and unrealistically ambitious. Gwen's boyfriend was just like her in all the right ways, and she loved him for it. (Along with more than a few other reasons.) His inspirational speeches could use a little work, but at least he was staying focused on their objective.

Sadly, even though Miles was helping to keep her focused on the task at hand, Gwen didn't know how to respond to his question of who they should go after next. Usually, it took her a couple days or at least several hours before she could intercept these supervillains (unless they wanted to be found, which was never good), and that was when the rest of the city wasn't currently being attacked on every single street at once. Besides, they didn't have that kind of time.

Throwing up her arms helplessly, Gwen hopefully suggested, "I don't know, could you… Maybe just do that scanning thing you did. Try to find some irregularities again."

Nodding in agreement, Miles looked around at the surrounding buildings, clearly using his mask to scan for anything unnatural, but soon just looked down and shook his head as he said apologetically, "There's too much interference. All I can see is destruction everywhere, explosions and fires and buildings crumbling."

Having an idea, Gwen asked, "Can you check for patterns? Maybe a path, something moving fast, quick hit-and-runs?"

Placing a hand to the side of his mask and activating his scanner again, Miles did as Gwen had suggested, looking around more slowly this time, then finally said, "I think I've found something. A line of explosions, going down one street after another, way faster than any car or even a bike."

"That's got to be Vulture," Gwen said with certainty, recognizing the behavior despite not being able to see it herself.

Looking up and sighing with exasperation, Miles wondered aloud, "Rhino, Scorpion, now Vulture? Why do so many people in this city insist on naming themselves after animals?"He then looked at Gwen and hurriedly added, "No offense."

Gwen tried not to be offended by what he'd said, but having gained a certain defensive instinct for spiders in the last year, she couldn't stop herself from telling him, "You're just jealous that we could actually pick a specific animal to be themed after,Prowler."

Miles bowed his head at that, apparently having resigned himself to hearing something along those lines, but gave in and told her, "Alright, fair enough. But moving on, can we go after Vulture now?"

Waving him on, Gwen answered, "Lead the way, my ambiguous friend."

Grumbling to himself in low Spanish, Miles nevertheless turned and leapt upwards to begin leading the way towards where he'd located Vulture, and Gwen followed right behind him.

As they flew over the city streets, Gwen looked below and could see only terror and destruction everywhere in sight. The citywide panic was palpable, and Gwen wondered how many people they were passing by when they could be saving them. Every single innocent soul on the entire island needed saving right now, yet Spider-Woman was passing many of them by. When Gwen had started this, she'd promised to saveeveryoneshe could, that no one would get hurt while Spider-Woman was around. Now, she felt like she was breaking that promise.

Then, her mask of being unmoved by the scenes below, the illusion she'd tried to maintain, all fell away when her Spider-Sense tingled and she looked down and noticed an old man carrying a little boy in one arm while his other hand held tightly to a cane as he tried to hobble down the street as fast as he could to escape a group of four criminals, one of whom was using a baseball bat to destroy the man's store window while the others cheered, but one of them grinned maliciously and aimed a pistol at the old man's back.

Unable to keep herself from intervening, Gwen called out, "Prowler!" to let Miles know that she was stopping, then shot a web line from each of her wrists, one to grab the pistol from the man beneath herself and the other to pull herself to a stop, then allow her to swing down to kick the newly-disarmed criminal in the gut, knocking him away.

Then, as Gwen landed on the ground in front of the three remaining vandals and as the two of them directly in front of her recovered from their shock and leapt towards her at the same time, Gwen stood up straight just in time to catch one of their fists as it was thrust towards her before she redirected the punch into the face of his friend, who clutched at his nose and stumbled backwards in pain.

Appalled by what he'd been forced to do, the criminal whose fist Gwen had grabbed turned to his injured partner and began trying to apologize, but Gwen didn't give him a chance before she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his head, then threw herself into a backflip that pulled the man roughly along with her so that he flipped forward and landed hard on his back, knocked unconscious.

Not wasting a second, Gwen then turned to the last criminal, the one who held the bat, and ran towards him. Seeing her coming, the armed thief took a mighty swing at her head with his bat, but Gwen dodged it and shot a web onto the bat before pulling it from his hands and throwing it behind herself, where it hit the second criminal right in his already-damaged nose, making him curse and fall backwards once again as a fresh spurt of blood burst from his nose onto his face.

Meanwhile, when the wrongdoer currently engaged in combat with Gwen found himself disarmed, he quickly lost all of the confidence in his expression, but he still hesitantly put up his hands to defend himself and threw a punch at Gwen, which she also dodged by falling onto her back, then kicked her legs upwards to catch the criminal in the stomach and launch him up into the roof of the store, wooden planks cracking under his weight before he fell back to the floor in a groaning heap.

Finally, Gwen turned back to the second criminal she'd attacked, the one who now had a twice-broken nose, the last man standing. However, this one understandably seemed wary about facing her and was simply looking terrified as he tried to collect the blood dripping off of his face. Not really wanting to hurt this guy anymore either after seeing how defeated he already appeared, Gwen sighed and was about to simply web him up when suddenly a metal hand appeared on his shoulder before the man screamed out in pain and twitched uncontrollably as waves of electricity rushed over his body, and then he collapsed unconscious on the floor to reveal Miles standing behind him, looking at Gwen with exasperation.

Already knowing what it was about, Gwen began to say, "Look, I know, I know, we shouldn't have stopped. But these guys were going to-"

Miles put up a hand to stop her, then said, "Vulture's getting away while we're here, and you and I are the only ones who can stop him."

Confused as to why he seemed annoyed with her actions, Gwen defended herself, "I was saving lives!"

Miles gave her a sympathetic look but said, "I get it, Gwen. There were people in danger, and I don't blame you for wanting to save them. I really do understand. My mom is somewhere in the middle of all this, and trust me, I desperately want to find her and make sure she's safe. Buteveryonein the city has the same problems right now, and we need to keep moving. We're the only ones that can end this."

Gwen looked down shamefully. She didn't regret saving the old man and the boy he'd been carrying, but Miles was right. They didn't have time to save everyone, not yet. The supervillains were the biggest problems right now, and they were problems that would require other super-people to be solved.

Seeing her distress, Miles walked over to Gwen and placed a hand on her shoulder as he told her, "Don't worry. We're going to save everyone we can. I'm not gonna rest until this city's back to normal, its usual semblance of sanity."

Scoffing, Gwen said, "It's gonna be alongday, isn't it?"

"Long night too, most likely,"Miles added. "But we can't keep stopping. We'll come back and help everyone else after all the most dangerous people are dealt with. Just… try to close your ears to it for now. I know it's hard, but until people like the supervillains and Murdock are gone, a dozen people are going to die for every one we save."

Much as it hurt Gwen to admit, she knew that Miles was right, and she took a deep breath before giving him a nod of acceptance, a nod that Miles mirrored before he turned around and launched back into the air to continue their pursuit of Vulture, now in a different direction from where they'd been going originally, and Gwen shot a web line to pull herself after him.

The journey to where Vulture was busy freely destroying and pilfering things to his heart's content was a difficult one. Everywhere they went, the sounds of suffering mounted in Gwen's ears, and though she did her best to tune it all out, she couldn't help but whisper quiet apologies to each and every person on every street that they passed by.

She'd seen some horrible things in her time doing this job, but this? It felt like the whole world was falling apart, and for the first time, even Spider-Woman felt small compared to it. Even with two superheroes now on the job, they could only do so much to hold the city together. At this rate, New York might not last until tomorrow, but as always, Gwen's mind was on the individual citizens of the city, so many of whom she was now leaving behind, and the only thing that made it bearable was the thought of how she was going to get the man behind this, Matthew Murdock, and personally ensure that he didn't get away with this.

The coordination of these attacks had to be regulated, most likely directly from Murdock's place of business, meaning that the police (if there were any to be found) would surely be able to track the source of those orders back to the man himself. If Gwen and Miles could manage to get the city back under control, Murdock would be revealed as what he really was for all the world to see, and he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. But there was a long way to go before that time.

They finally caught up to Vulture somewhere in the middle of Alphabet City, where they found him carpet-bombing a long line of vehicles that had been abandoned on the road in civilians' panic and desperate but fruitless attempts to escape the horror that was now befalling the island.

The Vulture, AKA Adrian Toomes, didn't seem particularly intimidating at first sight, considering that he was an older man, in his mid-fifties, bald, and liked to dress out by wearing a giant chicken suit. Okay, maybe calling it a chicken suit was selling it a bit short. It was a green bodysuit with clawed hands and feet (for cutting or latching onto things, as well as increasing his strength somewhat), and most notably, had large wings of a dark green that matched the bodysuit lined with black, coming out on the back with a twenty-foot wingspan. The edges of the wings (as Gwen knew from experience) were sharp as swords, and he could fly at speeds of ninety-five miles per hour and over two miles high.

He had been the first supervillain that Gwen had fought not counting Peter, and she had held back against him upon realizing that unlike Peter, he was merely a regular (and old) guy in a suit that gave him power to do bad things. Sadly, he hadn't given her the same courtesy.

Unfortunately, Vulture managed to spot Gwen and Miles at the same time that they saw him. Looking over to view their arrival, Toomes called out, "Spider-Woman! My old nemesis!"

Both Miles and Gwen landed on a rooftop next to Vulture, and as Miles narrowed his eyes at Adrian and began analyzing him, Gwen returned the greeting. "Yeah, it's me. Although I'm not sure if you're exactly my 'nemesis', per se."

"Nonsense!" Vulture insisted. "Our battles are the stuff of legends, my old foe! The tales of our countless conflicts will be told for centuries to come!"

Confused, Gwen told him, "We foughtonetime. Like, ten months ago. But let's not dwell on that. Let's try this again. Adrian, you old buzzard, you! How've you been? It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, just long enough for me to plot my revenge!" Vulture cried, his great wings flapping around him as he spoke, which was frankly more interesting to Gwen than the man's deluded rantings. "For nearly a year, I plotted for this moment, Spider-Woman. And now, I am ready to-"

"So you mean you spent ten months…hatchingthis plan?" Gwen cut him off.

Beside her, Miles sighed and stepped forward as he said, "Look, this reunion's cute and all, but can we wrap this up? The city's kind of on fire and we have a lot to do today."

Looking at Miles like he was just barely realizing that the younger man was here, Vulture asked, "Who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm the Prowler,"Miles answered with a glare.

Seeming puzzled by that, Toomes looked back and forth between Miles and Gwen for a moment, then finally settled his gaze on Gwen and asked, "Really? You needed help andhewas the best you could get? A novice?"

Miles' expression fell at that as Gwen gave him a sideways look of amusem*nt, and then he leaned towards Gwen to warn, "I'm going to hurt this guy now."

Waving a hand to make him wait a second, Gwen looked back up at Toomes and said, "Look, Adrian, we both know this is going to end in a fight. But I beat you last time, and this time, you're outnumbered. So I'm going to give you one chance to do the smart thing and just surrender, and if you escape prison again, we'll pick this up some other time."

Following Gwen's words, Vulture looked at Miles again and seemed to realize that he was indeed at a disadvantage. Gwen saw him then tense up before he slowly began reaching one hand back towards the metal-covered pack on his back, saying, "You're saying that you want to… fight me again? You think you can just defeat me again and lock me back up? No… I won't make it so easy for you."

"Adrian, don't do anything crazy," Gwen warned him, predicting that he was setting himself up for a trick.

Sadly, Gwen would be proven correct a second later, as Vulture did not heed her request and chose to do something crazy. A slot opened up in the bottom of Vulture's flight pack and a small silver ball dropped into his open palm before he spun around and hurled the ball across the street, where it shattered through a window in the building adjacent to them, and then an orange light began to glow from inside the building, a light that Gwen recognized as the glow of a flame, steadily growing in size and intensity.

Sighing in annoyance, Gwen said, "Alright, take him."

Immediately, Miles pounced towards Vulture and used his claws to climb around him onto his back while the older man flailed about in a panic, trying to shake Miles off. Miles himself, on the other hand, looked all too pleased about getting to attack Toomes and exclaimed, "A 'novice', am I? Forget the police, I'm dropping you off at the nearest KFC once I'm done with you, andthenwe'll see who's a novice!"

Whether he was afraid at the thought of Gwen joining in to help Miles take him down or intimidated by the threat of being turned into a culinary delight, Vulture gave Gwen one last terrified look, then took off down the street, taking Miles with him, looking like some giant bird with a similarly oversized cat hanging onto his wings. However, he needn't have worried about Gwen. She trusted Miles to handle Vulture, and she currently had other business.

Running towards the edge of the rooftop in front of herself, Gwen leapt across the street and crashed through a window in the now-burning apartment building that Vulture had just lit up. She rolled to a landing inside the apartment of a couple who seemed to have taken cover here but now were finding themselves in even greater danger indoors and were incapable of getting themselves out. Without a word, Gwen wrapped the two of them up in lines of webbing and pulled them over to herself, then lifted them both off of their feet and jumped back out the window. She ignored their screaming as she got them both to safety, content that they were currently unable to flail around and potentially hurt themselves, and set them down on the sidewalk outside before she jumped back upwards and pulled herself back into the building to go rescue anyone else who she could find inside.

This time, finding more people to save wasn't quite as easy. She had to go door to door, busting through multiple locks to get into each apartment as she searched for anyone who might still be in the building. As she went, she got a call from Miles on the earpiece she was wearing under her mask, and she quickly reached up and tapped it to answer the call before saying, "Now's not really a great time, Miles."

Immediately, Miles' voice spoke back, "Oh, you want to talk about a bad time? How does 'hundreds of feet up and getting crushed against everything in sight' sound to you?"

"Oddly familiar, and I didn't have a protective suit or shoes that can absorb all impacts when I did it," Gwen responded somewhat testily as she finally broke into an apartment with people in it, a man and woman huddled in a corner with their crying baby.

Gwen quickly tied them all together with webbing, then ran to the window. Deciding that she couldn't get the whole family through the window, Gwen just ceded the fact that the building would soon be destroyed anyway and punched the wall hard enough to blow a large hole out of it. She then pulled the bundled-up family towards herself and attached them to a web line before throwing them out of the hole in the wall and lowering her web line until they were all on the ground.

Then, as she ran back out of the apartment and began climbing the next flight of stairs, now starting to really feel the heat of the spreading flames, Miles' voice said, "Alright, fair point. But where are you? Are you trying to catch up?"

Deciding to just be honest as she didn't have the presence of mind for anything else right now, Gwen explained, "I stayed back to get everyone away from the fire Toomes started."

There was a short silence, then Miles said, "Oh. Well, that's… Do you need help?"

Already knowing where this was going, Gwen kicked in another door and answered, "No."

Having found another family, Gwen began working on getting them out while she heard Miles say, "Are you sure? I mean, last time… We promised we weren't going to split up anymore."

"And we both knew that that plan wouldn't last long, even if we didn't want to say it," Gwen reminded him. "We don't get to choose when people need our help, Miles. I'll be fine, you just handle Vulture."

There was another pause, then Miles said, "Alright, if you're sure. I'm almost done here anyway, and then I'll-¡Ay de mí!"The distant sound of crashing and explosions emanated from Miles' end of their connection, and then he continued, "Estoy a nada- Nevermind, Gwen, you're right. I'll see you soon, right after I finish plucking this big, annoying bird."

"If you're referring to his wings, he can hover without them. They just allow him steering and acceleration," Gwen advised him.

"Really? Well, that gives me an idea. I'll see you soon."

Miles hung up with that last comment, and just in time, because right then, Gwen finally arrived on the top floor of the apartment building, where the fire had risen to, and it was at its worst up here, consuming the whole hallway in such a way that Gwen wouldn't have been able to even hear Miles if they'd continued their conversation. The flames would make it nearly impossible for Gwen to be able to traverse this level. She wouldn't be able to check each door as she'd done before.

Still, if anyone was up here, Gwen was the best candidate to get them out when the floor was off-limits like this, seeing as she didn't actually need to use the floor. Knowing that she couldn't check for people in the normal way, Gwen closed her eyes and allowed her Spider-Sense to take over. It was an ability that she had learned to trust, an inbuilt danger sensor that was attuned not just for her own benefit and safety, but also for those that she cared about, giving her an opportunity to locate and save everyone as long as she cared enough about protecting them, and that was what she was counting on right now.

However, she got more than she bargained for when she opened herself up to it. Her Spider-Sense clued her in on something big that was about to happen. The flames were only the beginning. She didn't know the cause or what exactly the threat was, but she knew it was imminent. And on top of it, she could sense that there were indeed a couple more people left in the building.

She opened her eyes but continued to act on instinct, jumping forward and over the raging fires to stick to a wall, then bounced off the wall to knock down the apartment door across from her. However, Gwen could sense that she had only seconds to act, as the sudden outrush of fresh air fed the flames outside and made them spread even more.

A wall of fire rose up behind Gwen as she ran into the room and shot web lines to grab a woman and her son from one side of the room, and then Gwen pulled them towards her as she dashed forward and punched her way through the exterior wall and pulled the two civilians outside with her, jumping clear of the building just as a massive explosion went off inside of it, making the top few floors collapse immediately.

Most likely, it had been a gas leak, Gwen figured, but that wasn't what was important right now. Instead, she looked around at all of the civilians she'd pulled out of the building. They all still had some of Gwen's webbing stuck to them and were trying to free themselves from it, and many of them were crying as they looked up at their burning homes, but no one had died.

Gwen let out a deep breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. Deep down, she supposed that she was always terrified that she was going to mess up and someone would get hurt despite her presence. It had happened plenty of times before, after all, usually during supervillain attacks. For all Gwen's power, she couldn't protect everyone, and of course, one particular failure haunted her most of all. But this? This was what she had always striven for. Yet again, Miles had been right. This was what she did, doing her best to protect everyone in her power. Sometimes she was successful. Other times, she wasn't. But shealwaystried.

Suddenly, a voice spoke from next to Gwen, asking, "Why?"

Surprised out of her silent musings, Gwen turned to look at the speaker, who turned out to be the woman that she had just saved, whose hands were on her son's shoulders as tears of relief ran down both of their faces, and Gwen was shocked to realize that she recognized them both. Even more shocking were their identities themselves. It was the boy that her dad had died saving from the falling rubble and his mother, the woman who had told the police that Gwen had killed her dad.

The woman was now looking at Gwen with wide, wet eyes that held clear awe, confusion, and more than a little fear as she repeated, "Why? Why would you save… us? Me?"

Looking at her curiously, Gwen asked, "Why wouldn't I?"

Seeming to think that she was trapped, the woman's eyes darted sideways before she embarrassedly asked, "Do you remember me? We met… just last night. I was terrified for my son's life, and… for hismindafter the trauma of having Captain Stacy sacrifice himself for him, and I was… I wanted to blame someone, anyone but myself, for putting them both in that position, and I said… horrible things about you. I- Why would you saveme?"

Stepping towards the woman, Gwen told her, "Because I protect people. Everyone, with no exceptions. I help them, and you know who inspired me to do it? Captain George Stacy."

Hearing that, the woman's eyes brimmed with fresh tears once again and Gwen reached out to place a comforting hand on the woman's hand on top of her son's shoulder. As the woman began to relax a little, Gwen looked down at her son, who was staring at her in speechless amazement, and gave him a wink. She then looked back at the mother of the boy and told her, "Stay close to your child, ma'am. You don't want to lose your kid. And trust me, the kids don't want to lose their parents, either."

And with that said, Gwen turned away and ran across the street before running up the side of the nearest building, getting ready to try to find Miles and see if he still needed her help.

When she reached the rooftop, however, Miles was arriving at the same time, skidding to a stop in front of her after appearing in a blur. Looking around and not seeing Vulture tailing him, Gwen asked, "What happened to Toomes?"

Looking quite pleased with himself, Miles answered, "Well, he didn't exactly end up at KFC like I said earlier, but I'm satisfied with what he got instead."

Raising an intrigued eyebrow beneath her mask, Gwen said, "Well, now Ihaveto know. Details, man, details!"

Chuckling, Miles said, "In a minute. During my tour of the city, I think I saw where Shocker is."

Impatient to hear the story of what happened with Vulture, Gwen waved him on and said, "Alright, whatever. Lead the way. You can tell me about Vulture while we're moving."

Immediately doing as ordered, Miles began running northwards and Gwen sprinted and began swinging after him, doing her best to stay by his side as he began telling the story.

"So, at first, it was just a matter of holding onto Toomes, you know?"Miles began. "But soon, he started trying to shake me off, and I eventually let him do it. I figured I could keep up with him on foot, just running on buildings and stuff, and for a while, I did. Of course, his flying made things hard sometimes, but I stayed close by taking a few shortcuts."

"And by 'shortcuts', you mean…" Gwen prompted.

"I may or may not have blasted my way through a few buildings,"Miles admitted, but then quickly added, "but the city's falling apart anyway! I did what I had to, and it's not like anyone's going to notice if a few buildings get holes in them in the middle of all this!"

Sighing but knowing that there was nothing to be done about it, Gwen said, "Continue."

Resuming his story, Miles said, "Yeah, so anyway, Toomes eventually starts getting smart and starts throwing explosives back at me. And you know, you'd think his arthritis would start kicking in eventually, butnoooo. That guy has a throwing arm like Satchel Paige. So that was the worst, but then you tell me about his wings, and I get an idea. I taunt him, tease him a bit, you know, get him nice and angry, then I run out in front of him and get him to chase me up the Empire State Building. Then, once we reach the top, I jump on him and tear off his wings. And just like you said, he could float without them, but not control. So…"

Finally understanding, Gwen said, "You didnotleave Vulture hovering over a thousand feet above the ground."

"I most certainly did,"Miles argued, then defended, "He threw bombs at me! So I reacted in the sensible way and left him dangling in the sky hundreds of meters up without a rope. Don't worry. I deactivated his weapons and made sure his flight pack had enough power for a few days."

"Miles, we are not leaving him floating there for a few days," Gwen insisted.

"He set an apartment building full of innocent people on fire just as a distraction,"Miles reminded her.

Gwen thought about it for a second, then gave in and said, "Fine. But if Jameson asks, I knew nothing about it."

"As if JJ would ask before blaming you,"Miles said, a point that Gwen couldn't deny was completely accurate.

Miles POV

When Miles had first gotten an aerial view of the disaster zone that he'd assumed must be Shocker's doing, a wrecked block surrounding the heliport on East 34th Street, it had been easy to determine his plan: getting out of the city. Apparently this particular criminal, Herman Schultz, didn't care for Murdock's hostile takeover plan, and felt no obligation to the man that had gotten him out of the Raft. He was using his new freedom for only one thing, an opportunity to escape.

One could easily think that Miles and Gwen should just let him go if leaving the city was their only plan, but Miles knew that they couldn't do that. He had a sentence to serve, and while he was armed with his gear, he would be just as dangerous anywhere else in the world. They couldn't afford to make Schultz some other city's problem. The world only had one superhero that was known to be able to stand in Shocker's way, and she wasn't big on travel. Neither was Miles, really, if it turned out that he could be included among those that could defeat Shocker. Or even among the "superheroes" of the world. No, even if all Herman wanted was out, they needed to stop him here and now.

Anyway, despite Shocker's plan being obvious, Miles hadn't been able to work out exactly why he was having trouble getting to the heliport, but suddenly it became clear. Ahead of them, Miles and Gwen could see Shocker facing off against what looked like half of the cops and SWAT operatives in the New York State. And though they'd held him off quite well so far, it was clear that they were losing. The entire area had been shaken badly. Dozens of squad cars and armored trucks that were serving as the only protection for the police were dented badly and the roads and walls all the way up the block had chipped stone instead of smooth, like the whole place had eroded by fifty years in the last few hours.

As Gwen saw the police, she commented, "Well, I guess we found out where the cops have been this whole time."

However, Miles' mask zoomed in on the police before he said, "No. All of these officers, PDNY and SWAT alike, they're all injured. Most of them have bullet wounds instead of just the concussions. Shocker didn't do that. They got here recently. They've been busy with something else."

Gwen thought it over and said, "They weren't on the streets with us, we would've seen them. Infighting? You think Murdock could've gotten to some of them?"

"Maybe. For a blind man, he's awfully hard to outmaneuver. But it doesn't matter. New York needs these cops back on the streets to keep order, so let's clear the path,"Miles responded, then glared down at Shocker. Truly, they didn't have time to worry about whatever was going on with the police at the moment, and right now, Miles just wanted to finish fighting his way through all of these obstacles Murdock had set up to protect himself and get to the man at the top. And Shocker was the next obstacle in his path, so Miles was eager to take him down and do it quickly.

A quick scan of Shocker's appearance gave Miles all the information he needed for a swift strike. He was wearing long pants, gray work boots, and a brown leather jacket over a padded yellow shirt. Coming out from under the sleeves of his jacket were two silver gauntlets extending over the back of his hands, sparking with yellow arcs of electricity at the ends to signify the great vibrational power held within them. But what caught Miles' eyes most was the golden helmet that Shocker wore over his head, protecting him from glancing hits of his own power. A power rather similar to what Miles possessed with his own gauntlets. Perfect.

Looking to Gwen, Miles quickly informed her, "I'll be back in a second."

Then, ignoring the way that Gwen called after him to wait, Miles jumped off the roof and leapt down to the ground in seconds before running towards Shocker and jumping up into the air for a flying punch. He got in close before Schultz even had a chance to turn around, and Miles thought that he had already won, but then, as soon as he got within a foot of the quake-causing villain, a thin wall of yellow energy appeared in front of Miles, and he crashed hard into it before getting shot backwards unexpectedly, flying over thirty feet before he finally hit the ground and rolled, grunting as he finally came to a stop laying on his back in the middle of the road, all the breath knocked out of him.

A second later, Gwen appeared at the edge of his vision, leaning over him, and said, "I tried to warn you."

"Thanks, I needed an 'I told you so' right at this moment,"Miles responded sarcastically, his voice still strained with effort.

Looking amused, Gwen offered a hand down to Miles, which he accepted and allowed her to help him back to his feet. They then began walking back down the street towards Shocker, who was still focused on the police barricade and didn't seem to have noticed the sneak attack his power suit had just repelled. Miles supposed that he should've considered that lucky, but instead he just felt rather insulted that Shocker hadn't even been bothered by him.

Deciding to be a bit more cautious this time, Miles asked Gwen, "Alright, could you maybe give me some pointers on this guy? Like how you took him down last time? He was the only villain whose defeat wasn't caught on camera."

"That's because I couldn't have anyone around when I beat this one," Gwen said. "I had to drop a building on him, and I couldn't have any innocent people getting in the way."

Looking at her disbelievingly, Miles asked, "A building?"

"A mall's rooftop, to be precise," Gwen continued. "His suit has a protective shield that can defend against just about anything, but enough weight distributed along the surface will cause the shield to overload and disable the whole thing."

Tilting his head thoughtfully, Miles said, "So we just have to bury him beneath something heavy? Well, I'm getting pretty good at that."

And with that said, Miles walked up to a car parked on the road ahead of them and grabbed the rear fender before pulling up on it roughly, flipping the car onto its front and sending it skidding along the road towards Shocker. Hearing the commotion behind himself, the sound of metal dragging against unyielding asphalt, Schultz turned around to see what was causing it and looked up in surprise to find the sight of a car about to fall down on top of him.

At the last second though, the car crashed against the energy shield surrounding him, making the protective bubble visible for a moment, and then he threw up his arms to knock the car away from himself with a pair of vibrational blasts from his gauntlets.

Once the show was over, Shocker finally spotted Miles and Gwen and glared at them angrily through the eye slits of his helmet as Gwen turned to Miles and said, "I could've told you that that wouldn't work."

"It wasn't supposed to,"Miles responded, meeting Shocker's look with one of equal dislike. "I just wanted to get his attention. And what do you know? I'd say it worked out perfectly."

Looking at Miles with anxious anticipation, Gwen told him, "Well, have fun finding out exactly what that means."

Miles wasn't sure if "fun" was the right word for it, but as soon as Schultz saw Gwen, he proceeded to demonstrate what it entailed to have his attention by throwing out his arms towards them and firing another couple vibrational blasts. Miles and Gwen dodged to either side of the road, both ducking behind different abandoned cars, and the blasts flew past them to instead crash into a large garbage truck, the front of which was flattened by the force that hit it until it looked like it had crashed in a solid wall at full speed.

Looking at the destroyed truck, Miles commented, "Oof. I don't think that's gonna buff out."

"Not really the time, Miles," Gwen reminded him.

"Oh, please. As ifyouever hesitate to make a joke in a bad situation. You're just mad that I beat you to the punch,"Miles retorted.

"Speaking of beating me to the punch, why exactly did you antagonize Shocker before we were ready for him?" Gwen yelled back as another blast of energy destroyed a bus stop behind her.

"Hey, he attacked us when he sawyou, so I'm pretty sure it's kinda your fault. Guess he doesn't like you for putting him in prison. Go figure."

Gwen took a deep breath and continued in a much calmer but still urgent tone, "Nevermind. We need to get Shocker somewhere relatively enclosed so we can box him in. Any ideas?"

With his task made clear, Miles activated his scanners and looked inside the surrounding buildings, trying to find one that could be safely brought down on Schultz, but they all had people inside them. He considered how quickly and efficiently they could potentially evacuate one of them, but then he spotted another option just ahead of them.

Looking back at Gwen, Miles jerked his head towards the police barricade and said, "Dead ahead. Just behind the police barricade, in the direction Shocker's trying to go, just before you get to the river, there's that overpass. If we get him under it, the two of us can drop the road on him."

Gwen looked around the corner of her car to see what Miles was talking about, nearly getting her head taken off by another blast when Shocker saw her, then said, "We'd need to convince the police to back up and let Shocker advance. They'll never listen to us."

"I'll persuade them, if you can distract Shocker for a few minutes,"Miles told her confidently.

Gwen looked back towards Shocker worriedly, then shook her head to herself and muttered, "Fine. I'll hold off the walking earthquake, but only because I think you took the harder job."

Then, with her thoughts on the matter made clear, Gwen jumped up onto the roof of the car she'd been hiding behind and cupped her hands by her mouth before calling out, "Hey, Herman! I'm gonna have to ask you to surrender now, because you're now well past the limit for community service hours that can be fit into a single lifetime!"

As expected, Schultz did not accept the offer and instead fired dual vibrational blasts at the car Gwen was standing on, prompting her to jump off of it just before it exploded before she began swinging around in the air, trying most successfully to keep Shocker's attention on her.

In the meantime, he seemed to have forgotten all about Miles, probably due to his familiarity of Gwen's ability to defeat him and his lack of any such knowledge regarding Miles. Sometimes it paid to be the guy no one knew anything about. Not that Miles was content to maintain his disreputable status for much longer, but he figured that he may as well make the most of it while it lasted.

Not wasting a moment of the time that Gwen was so painstakingly buying him, Miles launched vaulted over the top of his own car and launched himself high into the air, jumping towards the front of the police lines.

The cops that had dug in here were defending themselves with battered defenses and had done no real harm to Shocker as of yet, and they didn't seem to be doing any better even when Schultz was distracted. They kept firing their guns at Shocker's back while he shot his blasts of vibrational shocks at Gwen, doing considerable damage to the surrounding property every time Gwen managed to evade him, but even with Shocker's attention being elsewhere, the police's bullets just kept getting deflected harmlessly away from the supervillain by his suit's energy shield. Still, that didn't deter the cops from continuing with their efforts in an attempt to eventually overwhelm him, clearly feeling that they had no other alternative but to keep trying their best.

When Miles arrived, however, it sounded to him like they were finally planning on switching up their strategy, but unfortunately not in any way that he approved of. He landed, unnoticed, on top of one of their trucks and heard the cops below him on the front lines speaking to each other as they watched the fight in front of them.

Lowering his pistol as he looked in shock at the sight of Gwen swinging and dodging around Shocker, one of the cops said in shock, "Hey, that- That's Spider-Woman! All units, stop shooting at Shocker and focus your fire on Spider-Woman! She killed Captain-!"

However, the officer broke off suddenly at that point as Miles suddenly landed on the hood of his squad car in front of him and forcefully seized his throat with one large, metal-coated hand, lifting him a few inches off the ground with that single hand. The man's partner standing next to him, a woman wielding a shotgun, saw her partner in danger and quickly brought up her gun to shoot at the dark figure holding him, but Miles just held up his other hand, letting the bullets crash against his palm and get flattened before the hand shot out to grab the shotgun from the woman's hands and clenched his fist to crush the barrel of the gun before tossing it aside.

He then glared around at the now-terrified cops all around him, looking at them with narrowed white slits for eyes surrounded by a glowing magenta as though daring more of them to attack him. When no one did, all of them too afraid for their lives against this dark figure that could stop bullets with his hands, the Prowler looked back at the man whose neck was still clutched in his hand and said, "Spider-Womandidn'tdo it. She didn't kill Captain Stacy. Not Peter Parker, either. The next person to say otherwise loses their tongue. Shedoesn'tkill people. And I expect you to spread the word. Got it?"

The man nodded furiously as best as he could with his neck being held as it was, and Miles set him down on the ground and shoved him back a bit before hopping off of the car, ignoring the way that the police all backed away and aimed their guns at him again warily, and continued, "You're right about one thing, though. You should stop shooting. You couldn't really hurt Shocker with a missile, your guns are useless against him. But if you want to help, I have a way that you can. Spider-Woman and I have a plan to take Shocker down, but for it to work, you all need to back up this barricade. If you can get Shocker underneath the overpass just ahead, we can take him down."

Stepping forward, one of the SWAT team members present, the leader here by the look of his uniform, glared at Miles and bravely asked, "Why should we trust you? Even if Spider-Woman didn't kill anyone, which I'm not so sure I believe, you and her are still vigilantes. Like Captain Stacy always said, cops and vigilantes are enemies."

"In case you haven't noticed, sergeant, you already have plenty of enemies today. Maybe you should accept an ally when someone offers to help you while the city you swore to protect is on fire,"Miles told him firmly. "In short, neither of us have much choice but to work together if we want to get through this. And if you refuse? Our plan will still work even if we have to take down Shocker after he's mowed his way through every last one of you."

The SWAT officer looked at Miles suspiciously for a moment, fingering the trigger of the rifle he held across his chest. Miles was just wondering if he was going to have to force the cops out of the way, fighting them for the sake of their own safety, when suddenly a woman with short dark hair stepped out of the crowd and said, "He's right. All units, fall back to behind the overpass!"

The SWAT sergeant gave the woman a disbelieving look and asked, "What? What are you trying to pull, lieutenant?"

"It'sActing CaptainWatanabe now, actually, sergeant," the woman said. "And if you forgot why, it's because of these vigilantes and their madness. Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Prowler, whoever they are, they're all part of the same problem. But it's a problem that's here now, and it's here to stay. Captain Stacy spent a year trying to fight 'the super-people problem', and it only ever got worse. Eventually, it got him killed. Well, I'm not going to make the same mistake. I say, if one of these freaks wants to help us take down another one, it'd be a waste of resources to try and stop them, resources we can't afford to waste right now. If one super-person's trying to destroy us and another one's trying to beatthem, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the lesser evil."

The SWAT officer stared angrily at Acting Captain Watanabe for a second, then gave Miles a glare of deepest loathing before he turned and began to order his own men, "What are you all standing around for? You heard the captain, move this barricade back to the overpass! New positions in t-minus two minutes!"

The SWAT forces immediately began following his orders, speeding up the work that had already been started by the men and women of the PDNY, and Miles told him, "Thank you, sergeant."

Turning sideways to point a finger at Miles' chest, the officer said, "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for the city. You say you can take out Schultz and get us back on the streets? You'd better deliver."

"Yes, sir,"Miles told him with a short salute, then nodded gratefully at Acting Captain Watanabe before he turned around and began running back towards where Shocker was still preoccupied with the ever-elusive target that was Gwen.

Wanting to get Schultz's attention quickly to give Gwen a short reprieve, Miles ran over to the nearest parking meter by the side of the road and reached down to grasp it at the base before he ripped it straight out of the ground, leaving a sizeable amount of concrete still holding on at the bottom. He then yelled out, "Herman! This thing says your time here's up!"and tossed it like a spear at Shocker.

As expected, it merely bounced harmlessly off of his shield, the concrete on the end getting blown off as it was tossed away, but it succeeded in making Shocker turn his attention onto Miles. Meanwhile, Gwen landed on the rooftop above him, finally able to stop moving for the first time in several minutes, and looked at Miles with a silent question, prompting him to look back up at her and nod in confirmation that he had managed to make the police move.

Miles then looked back down at Shocker as the super-criminal spoke, his helmet slightly altering his voice but not enough to keep the surprise and amusem*nt from his tone. "So, you didn't run away like I thought. What are you supposed to be, kid? Spider-Woman's sidekick?"

"Her partner, actually,"Miles responded. "Now, stand down, Shocker. It's been a long day, and we've already beaten two other supervillains just this morning. You're not getting away, not if we have anything to say about it."

Stepping forward menacingly, Shocker asked, "And what makes you think I'm gonna leave that up for you to decide?"

Unfortunately for Shocker, he didn't know that Miles actually thought just the opposite. Despite his arrogant behavior, Miles knew that Schultz was actually getting quite worried, knowing that he was pinned down by both the heroine who had defeated him before as well as a second, unknown power that had effortlessly thrown a car at him moments before.

Miles could see Shocker starting to twitch, subconsciously rocking around on his legs, his fingers and head instinctively making tiny movements as he sensed a coming fight. He also noticed Shocker trying to discreetly look in the direction of the heliport, noticing that the police barricade had retreated further back, and Miles could practically feel the desperate plan forming in Shocker's head. Now, all that was left was to get him moving, and Miles had an idea about how to do it. A bad idea, but an idea nonetheless.

Mentally activating his comm, Miles quietly told Gwen, "Come save me. Let Shocker run."

Then, before Gwen could even finish processing the plan he'd told her, Miles launched himself into the air, flying towards Shocker from above with one arm reared back for a powerful punch. However, when Mils predictably failed to punch through Shocker's shield and instead bounced off of it in the opposite direction, getting launched bodily towards the building that Gwen was standing on, Shocker decided to double the pain by firing a blast of vibrational energy that hit Miles mid-air and accelerated the speed of his crash even more.

Miles burst through the wall of the building, flailing wildly and out of control, and rolled to a stop on the ground in a family's apartment, a family of four made up of a mom and dad and two little girls, the younger two of which let out a short scream and rushed to their parents when Miles arrived.

Looking up painfully to see all four members of the family staring at him in horror, Miles hesitantly said, "Uh, hi. Sorry to barge in, but do you guys have, like, an ice pack or something?"

Judging from the silent looks they all continued to give him, however, Miles didn't exactly feel particularly welcome. He supposed it was fair. He hadn't exactly entered in the conventional way, after all.

A moment later, though, Gwen swung her way into the building through the hole Miles had left in the wall, causing the two little girls to let out another shrill scream. Miles groaned and threw his head back in pain at the noise and held out a hand to stop them, soothingly saying, "Hey, hey. Even if you don't have an ice pack, could you at least please stop screaming? No offense, but my head is killing me."

The kids fell quiet immediately at Miles' words, apparently thrown by how Miles spoke to them like just a regular person. Miles tried to avoid their gazes. He knew his appearance was frightening. It had been designed to be, but he had done it to intimidate his enemies, not innocent people, and he always felt uncomfortable whenever he was around them in his costume.

Gwen walked over to Miles and gave him her hand so she could help him back to his feet, though he stood up again with a quiet grunt of pain. His suit didn't protect him from everything, and getting hit directly and repeatedly by ultra-powerful vibrational blasts was sure to leave a few bruises.

Still, a lot of people needed him at the moment, so he couldn't afford to take any breaks just yet. Besides, Gwen had to be feeling tired as well at this point, even with her powers, and some protective or perhaps just proud part of Miles refused to give in to the pain until she also appeared to be on the brink of collapse. He could accept Gwen being physically stronger than him, but he wouldn't allow himself to be considered exactlyweakcompared to her.

However, as Miles began walking back towards the hole in the wall so they could leave and go finish with Shocker, who he could see was indeed doing as he'd expected and was running towards the overpass, one of the little girls who lived in the apartment stepped towards him, holding an apple in her outstretched hand. Miles looked at it questioningly, then looked into the girl's face for an explanation, and she told him, "It's for your head. So you can feel better."

Miles remained frozen for a second, then hesitantly reached out and gently took the apple from the girl, his gauntleted hand dwarfing her small one greatly as he did so. He could feel Gwen next to him looking on in amusem*nt, but Miles just examined the apple in confusion for a moment before he slipped it into one of his pants pockets and told the girl, "Uh, thanks. I would eat it now, but… You know, the mask. But later, I'll definitely-"

"I hope it helps," the girl shyly cut him off, then stepped back towards her family.

Still surprised by this unprecedented turn of events, Miles stared at the girl for a moment, then cleared his throat and looked ahead once again before running forward and dashing out of the apartment, leaping towards where he knew Shocker would be.

They could once again hear the sounds of gunfire as the police just behind the overpass engaged Schultz in combat once again, trying their best to slow his advance. Miles knew that they wouldn't be able to stop him, but at least they were keeping him in position. They might not be able to do much against a supervillain, but no one could deny that they were all incredibly brave.

However, Miles and Gwen now had their perfect opportunity to do some real damage. Gwen arrived underneath the road first and stuck to one of the support pillars on the police's side before yelling out to them, "Alright, everyone, time to clear out! This bridge is scheduled for a surprise demolition! Don't worry if you haven't heard of those yet, they're new!"

The cops seemed confused by what exactly Gwen was telling them, but it all became clear when Miles appeared a second later and blasted through the two support pillars at the other end of the overpass, behind Shocker, causing the whole structure to begin to shake. Understanding now that Gwen had meant exactly what she'd said, the cops all quickly yelled out in panic and began backing up out of the tunnel.

Of course, Shocker had also noticed the place beginning to collapse and seemed to quickly realize what their plan was, but since Miles had closed off his rear exit, the only remaining way out was forward. Ceasing his slow and deliberate approach, Shocker began to pick up speed and began running right after the cops, not even trying to blast them anymore.

Miles took out a few more support pillars himself, but Gwen was doing much more of the work by shooting web lines onto as many of the remaining ones as she could, so Miles instead began helping to move the police out from underneath the road. With his accelerated speed, he was done in a matter of seconds, and just in time as Gwen finished grabbing hold of all of the remaining support pillars and threw the web lines over her shoulder before sticking her feet in place and pulling as hard as she could.

Already damaged, the remaining supports began to bend and crack immediately, and Miles leapt upwards to punch the top of the bridge with one mighty, charged-up fist that cracked the entire thing into pieces and sent an avalanche of rocks tumbling down onto Shocker while Miles jumped free and landed back on the ground next to Gwen to watch the show.

Still desperately trying to escape, Shocker ran as fast as he could towards the open end of the tunnel, his bubble shield of yellow energy surrounding him on all sides to deflect falling debris, but he soon became trapped in place as giant stones fell down all around him and finally began to overwhelm his shield, and Shocker let out one final scream before the stones closed in around him and buried him beneath it all, unable to move, fight, or even make a sound.

A/N: I do not own KFC. Otherwise I would give you all a bucket of chicken. Leave a comment if you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!

Chapter 19: And Then There Was One

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

Aaron POV

Sitting alone on his leather couch in his darkened apartment, the curtains closed to block out the glare of fires outside, Aaron Davis held his head in his hands, his freshly-polished, single remaining gauntlet laying on the coffee table in front of him, wondering how his life had come to this.

After returning from the Raft, where he'd committed several of the worst crimes he'd ever allowed himself to be a part of, he'd taken special care to clean off every part of his suit. He'd worked until it was done as thoroughly as possible and then some, ignoring the sounds of explosions on the streets outside as he'd gone along, trying to remove every trace of the blood that he'd covered himself in, but even after his suit was left cleaner than it'd been in years, Aaron still felt… tainted somehow. Even with his suit, gauntlet, and mask removed completely, Aaron felt like he could still feel the blood covering him, the blood of the dozens of guards at the Raft that he'd killed.

He'd never done anything like that before. To his shame, he'd killed more than a few people during his career as the Prowler, people he'd never told Miles about while he was training him, but this was different. He'd been sent to the Raft with direct orders to release every prisoner on the island and kill everyone else. For the first time in his life, Aaron had gone somewhere with the actualintentionof taking numerous lives, and of course, the Raft guards had stood no chance of stopping him.

On his journey there, he'd tried to convince himself that it was really no different from just killing someone who got in his way on a job. The whole time, he knew that he was lying to himself, but the thought had gotten him into the building. After that… It had been a blur, but now each second replayed itself over and over again in Aaron's mind. The sound of tearing flesh echoed in his ears, accompanied by final screams of agony. Pools of blood covered every surface each time he opened his eyes. He could still feel throats getting crushed beneath his fingers, the last rattling breaths of so many innocent people flowing onto his face.

Worst of all the moments that now remained burned forever into Aaron's brain, he remembered that he could've stopped himself at any time. All it would've taken was a single moment, a second's hesitation at any time during it all, and Aaron might've been able to prevent the horror from continuing to unfold. Or if not him, maybe one of the guards would've managed to hit him with a lucky shot. Part of him was sorry now that he hadn't had that moment.

While was busy with his thoughts, Aaron suddenly heard a low buzzing sound coming from the inside of his mask. Taking a deep breath to calm himself and clearing his throat, Aaron lowered his hands from his face and reached inside the mask to grab his communicator, which he then pressed to his ear and tapped it to answer the call. "This is Prowler," he said, his voice still somewhat weak.

"Prowler, where are you?"the voice of Mr. Nelson, Mr. Murdock's assistant, asked.

Trying to discreetly clear his throat again to get it sounding normal, Aaron asked, "Why? Does… Mr. Murdock need me again?"

"No, no, we just want to make sure you're safely out of the way,"Mr. Nelson responded.

Intrigued at that, Aaron asked, "Out of the way for what?"

"Spider-Man's finally narrowing down Mr. Morales and Ms. Stacy's location. And about time, too. What those drones of his are supposed to be good for, I have no idea,"Nelson explained. "Anyway, as soon as he's found them, he's going after them personally with everything he has."

An uncomfortable feeling rose up within Aaron. He'd always been against the idea of letting Spider-Man go after those two, especially Miles, on his own. In his eyes, the doctor was prideful at best, but unstable at worst, and possessed some of the greatest power on the planet along with one of its greatest minds. While he understood that those things made him incredibly useful to the Kingpin, Aaron didn't think that the doctor should be trusted with as much as he was. Especially not when it came to Aaron's nephew.

Leaning forward, Aaron said, "Maybe I should go along with him. Last time, those two tore him apart, almost literally."

"No. The boss is giving this one to Spider-Man, and Spider-Man alone."

Disappointed, Aaron looked around his apartment helplessly. Suddenly, his eyes fell on a framed picture mounted on top of his records shelf. The picture showed him and Miles, clearly before this whole deal with Spider-Woman and Murdock due to the way that they were actually together. Aaron had his arm wrapped around Miles' neck while he pulled him in close, and even though Miles was clearly shown trying to escape his uncle's grasp, both of them were smiling widely, showing that it was all just a fun game to them and they were really perfectly content just to be enjoying each other's company.

Next to it was a picture of Aaron and his brother Jeff, showing the two of them in their middle teenage years, back when they were closest. Back then, Jeff had been more playful, less businesslike, and the picture showed that side of him through the way that Jeff stood on the tips of his toes, trying to make himself as tall as his younger brother who had outgrown him just a year or so before this picture had been taken. In the background was a freshly graffitied wall that the two brothers had worked on together, one of the times that they had felt the most like a real family.

A subconscious smile starting to show on Aaron's face as he remembered better days, he then looked down at the coffee table and saw his mask and gauntlet laying on the table in front of him, the eyes of his mask looking up at him as though expectantly.

Knowing what he needed to do, Aaron picked the mask up and asked over the phone, "And what about security at the Counselors' office? Does the boss need me as protection?"

"No,"Mr. Nelson repeated. "Wherever you are right now? Home, I'm guessing? That's where the boss wants you. You've done your part. Now, just lie low until this thing's over. Although, if you get bored, it looks like SWAT showed up early and helped a few police precincts survive our purge. If you wanted, you could go finish them off."

Aaron's stomach crawled at the idea of further murder after what he'd just been through, but he said, "Yeah, sounds good. I might do that."

"If you do, you might want to hurry. After Spider-Man's done with the kids, the police will probably be his next mission. And you don't want him to steal all the glory for himself, do you?"

Letting out a fake chuckle, Aaron responded, "No, definitely not. I'll talk to you later."

Mr. Nelson gave a farewell of his own, but Aaron barely even heard it as he hurriedly hung up the phone after saying his own goodbye, not wanting to talk to him anymore. Not ever again, if he could help it. How could he have missed how sad*stic Nelson was? Or Fisk or Murdock, for that matter? He'd always thought that Spider-Man was a bit off, but how long had the rest of them been just as bloodthirsty? Maybe the fruition of their plans was bringing out the worst in them. Or maybe it had always been there, and Aaron had just chosen not to acknowledge it when he could instead focus on all the zeros on the checks he received for stealing things. Could Miles have been right about him? Was Aaron really so caught up in this business that he was willing to ignore his better instincts?

After all, Aaron was a genius engineer. He had personally designed one-of-a-kind pieces of tech that would've made worldwide tech giants drool. Even Spider-Man, with all his knowledge of robotics, had never been able to replicate Aaron's work. Over years of working for people like Murdock as one of the highest-priced thieves on the planet, he had amassed tens of millions of dollars, having acquired and put aside years ago plenty enough to retire on several times over while still paying the rent for Miles and his mom through the rest of their lives, and probably through the lives of Miles' grandchildren too, if it came to that.

So why had he stuck to this job? Because he loved it. He loved the thrill and the action, all the unique things he knew he could do. He loved it all. At least… hehadloved it. But after this morning, he didn't know if he could do it anymore. He could've been so many things, as Miles had shown him. He could've been a hero. But he chose to be a criminal. So maybe after today, there should only be one Prowler again. But before that could happen, Aaron needed to do one last mission.

Looking back up at the picture of himself and Jeff, Aaron told it, "Don't worry, bro. I haven't forgotten my promise."

Then, Aaron pulled on his mask before he grabbed his gauntlet and slipped it onto his hand before clenching his hand into a fist with a whir of the motors inside it. Miles was wrong about one thing, at least. Aarondidcare for his family more than his job, and he was going to prove it, both to his nephew and to himself.

Miles POV

Staring at the pile of destroyed stone that now held the trapped Shocker, Miles asked Gwen, "Is he going to be alright down there?"

Sure that Gwen wouldn't have allowed this plan if Shocker wouldn't have been able to survive it, Miles expected an affirmative response immediately, but after several seconds passed without one, he looked over at Gwen to see that she was staring enraptured at the pieces of the overpass. Looking back at the stones himself and trying to determine what was drawing her attention, Miles suddenly had a thought that he mentally cursed himself for not considering sooner. Just last night, Gwen had watched her dad get killed by a collapsing building, and now she'd had to intentionally bring one down on someone else. Odds were high that she was now experiencing certain misgivings about it for obvious reasons.

Trying to take her mind off those things, Miles turned to her and said, "My scanners suggest that we've stopped about half of the destruction in the city, and now that the cops are getting back to their patrols, they'll clean up even more of it. We can go after Murdock now, whenever you're ready, keep him from trying to run or anything."

Finally tearing her gaze away from the rubble in front of them, Gwen looked back at Miles and asked, "What about Murdock's cronies? Spider-Man and your uncle? Where are they in all of this?"

Shrugging, Miles replied, "Maybe they're protecting their boss. But for now, maybe we should just be grateful for the one thing we do know; wherever they are, they're not here."

One day, Miles might learn the wisdom to speak carefully, as to not summon down the wrath of the fates upon himself. Sadly, that day was not today, and the fates' wrath came swiftly.

As soon as he'd spoken, both he and Gwen let out a synchronized yell of pain as they were both hit hard in the back by a pair of massive blasts. For a split second as he and Gwen fell to the ground, Miles wondered if Shocker might have somehow escaped the wreckage of the overpass and snuck up behind them, but he quickly dismissed the thought as he realized that this attack had been very different from Shocker's. For one, the blasts that had hit them seemed slightly faster, as they had been quick enough to significantly outrace Gwen's danger senses. Additionally, these blasts were not yellow as Schultz's had been, but were instead a bright, lime green. And finally, they felt different, more electrical than vibrational. As a result, they hurt a lot less than Shocker's blasts had done, but were perfectly designed for quick incapacitation, and Miles could already feel his mind starting to shut down, his entire body beginning to feel fatigued.

He'd never seen an attack like this, but given the timing and efficiency, he had a suspicion about the one behind it, and he was proven correct when he used the last bits of his strength to look up to see a familiar mask much like his own, but with black within purple instead of magenta within black. Just before Miles' eyes fluttered closed, his Uncle Aaron stared down at him and said, "Sorry about this, nephew."

Line Break

When Miles woke up next, he was inside what appeared to be an old, run-down subway station below ground. He was still wearing his full costume and mask, given how they'd been designed to be irremovable from his body, but a quick check of his gear told him that he'd been stripped of all of his loose items, from his mini-explosives to his wall-cutters. In fact, despite how he appeared much as he always did when fully armed, all he'd really been left with from his extensive arsenal was his mask, his gauntlets and shoes (which appeared to have been deactivated given how their glow had disappeared), and the apple that he'd been given earlier tonight.

He briefly considered trying to pull a MacGyver with the apple but quickly decided that the seedy shrapnel would most likely kill him before it did anything to aid his escape, because in addition to being largely disarmed, Miles was also in what appeared to be an old bathroom with the front wall removed entirely. In its place, however, was a mostly-transparent wall of green energy, through which Miles could see four floating disks on the other side emitting the energy to hold the wall where it was.

Reaching out tentatively to touch the wall, Miles reared back with an abrupt grunt of pain as the wall fizzled beneath his fingers and gave him a mild shock. Clearly, his uncle had pulled out all the stops to keep him here… wherever he was. It didn't really look like the sort of place that would serve as Murdock's evil prison.

But as bad a situation as Miles currently found himself in, one particular problem stood out from all the rest, one he couldn't wait to voice at the soonest opportunity. He got his chance a moment later when his Uncle Aaron suddenly materialized out of thin air right in front of Miles, clearly having been using some sort of invisibility tech that Miles had never seen before.

So dramatic, Miles thought to himself in exasperation, though he could hardly judge the one that he'd learned his own habits from. However, out loud he asked, "Where's Gwen?"

Ignoring Miles' question, Aaron held up his hands placatingly and began his obviously pre-prepared spiel, "Look, Miles, I know this must look bad to you-"

"Where is she?"Miles repeated heatedly, not to be drawn off-topic.

Still ignoring him, however, Aaron continued, "I needed to get you here, alone, away from prying eyes. Murdock's everywhere, you don't even know-"

Leaning towards the energy wall between them with a glare, Miles threatened, "If I find out you laidonefinger on her-"

"Okay, look, your girlfriend's right where I left her, alright?"Aaron cut him off impatiently. "I just needed her out of the way, so I knocked you both out and took you but left her right where she was. She's fine."

Not sure if he could trust him, Miles backed away from the wall and continued giving his uncle a silent glare, knowing that he didn't have to say a word for Aaron to read his skepticism.

Clearly, he was correct, as Aaron saw his expression and said, "Don't look at me like that. After all we've been through together, you think I would lie to you about something like this?"

"I don't know,"Miles responded honestly. "There was a time when I didn't think you'd lie to me aboutanything. Those days are long gone."

Aaron looked rather hurt at that, but Miles could hardly care less. After all, it hurt Miles to have to fight his uncle, so he certainly deserved to experience a bit of pain himself. After a moment's silence, Aaron looked down and said, "If you don't trust me, that's your choice. But we're still family, Miles, and whether I like it or not, I know what that girl means to you. I'm telling you, man, she's safe."

Miles kept his eyes closely watching his uncle's face for any signs of lying, as he'd trained himself to do. It was practically impossible to judge by the minute changes of expression reflected through the eyes of his uncle's mask, but Miles finally decided that he would believe his uncle. This time, at least. He didn't really know why, but he chose to trust him.

Miles nodded his hesitant acceptance and averted his eyes from his uncle, but then Aaron began to pace in front of the wall as he muttered, "How long shestaysthat way is up for debate, but that's not our problem anymore."

Catching his quiet words and quickly growing wary at them once again, Miles asked, "What? What does that mean?"

Stopping his pacing and waving his hand idly, Aaron answered, "It's Spider-Man. He's hunting her and he's nearly found her, which means he nearly foundyouuntil I pulled your scrawny butt out of there. But this is it, Miles. Our chance to change things."

Starting to get a sense of why he'd been brought down here, Miles said, "Please tell me this isn't about you wanting to be partners again, because I don't think that's gonna work out."

Stepping up to the wall between them and shaking his head, Aaron responded, "No, no. Miles, you don't get it. This, all of this? The Prowler, the Kingpin, even New York? I grabbed you because this is the end of all of it. I'm leaving it all behind."

Confused, Miles asked, "Wait, what?"

Getting even more excited as he went along, clearly having thought this all out, Aaron continued, "You heard me. I'm done being the Prowler. I'm done with all of this, this… super-people craziness. I've got a plan. I've been stashing away millions of dollars for years, barely even tapping into any of it, but I worked something out for us. I bought a private jet a couple years ago for a job in Italy, and now, if we can just get to this one airfield in New Jersey, we can fly away from here. Just me, you, and your mom. You can even bring your girlfriend if you really want to, and we can go anywhere. We'll live new lives, get new identities. You can keep being the Prowler if you want to… somewhere else. Let's just go, get away from all this. So what do you say, little man?"

Miles was in shock for a moment. He'd expected plenty of things from his uncle, but this was one thing he never would've imagined. Uncle Aaron was suggesting… What, that they'd just pick up and move anywhere they wanted? He'd still have his family, Gwen, his life as the Prowler, he'd even get back his relationship with his uncle, free of Aaron's criminal ties, and he'd leave behind all of this madness with Murdock and Spider-Man and all the supervillains he'd been fighting all day, getting more annoyed and more hurt with every one he took down. To someone else, the idea might've seemed appealing, but to Miles…

"No,"Miles replied.

Uncle Aaron paused for a moment, then asked,"What?"

"No,"Miles repeated, more firmly this time. "Uncle Aaron, I know that you're trying to offer me a way out, but I don't do this just for myself, using these abilities of mine as an excuse to let out my anger and get rewarded for it. Not anymore. I found a higher purpose. People need me. Thiscityneeds me. When supervillains or guys like Murdock show up trying to hurt people, I can't just stand by and let it happen. I've gotta stop them."

Stepping closer to the wall and pointing a finger in Miles' face, Aaron argued, "No, you've gotta survive. I've been trying to teach you that, but you don't listen to me. You listen to that Spider-Woman, letting her convince you that you're some kind of hero, but you're not. You're not like her, Miles. You're human, like me, just a normal guy playing at being more than you are."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not like you?"Miles asked. "I'm not content with the world as it is, so I do what I can to change it! Isn't that why you taught me to be the Prowler in the first place?"

"I taught you to be the Prowler so you could make a differencein your own life!" Aaron corrected him irritably. "Not so you could get yourself involved in a war of super-people! You were supposed to follow the rules, the few simple rules that kept you safe! Instead you pick a fight with Spider-Man and the Rhino and every other super-strong murderer on the planet!"

"Most of whom I've beaten in the last couple days alone,"Miles pointed out.

Getting more and more distressed as he continually failed to change Miles' way of thinking, Aaron said, "You can only get lucky so many times, Miles! Look, I get it, you're letting the adrenaline go to your head, thinking that these tools and that suit make you invincible, but we're NOT! I watched Spider-Man kill a superpowered serial killer like Mac Gargan in a second, and you know what it reminded me? It reminded me that we're just fragile guys in a world that issomuch bigger than us! We're not built like those Spider-people. We're not heroes, we're justsurvivors. Because if we don't know when to accept that we're out of our league, we end up like Scorpion! Like Captain Stacy! Like yourfather, Miles! They found my brother's body in a dumpster because he didn't know where to draw the line, and I'm not letting the same thing happen to you!"

The mention of Miles' father stung him, but Miles remained firm and stepped forward until he and his uncle were standing face to face on either side of the wall and said, "You know what my dad once told me? He said that, 'A hero's just someone who doesn't give up.' And he followed that philosophy to his grave, but I know he'd be proud of how he died doing the right thing. And I could keep being like you, angry at him for leaving me like that, but I'm done with that. You can keep being stuck hating everything, full of nothing but anger and pain, but I'm not that way anymore. I choose to be proud of him too, and I'm following his example. I don't care if anyone ever calls me a hero. I just know that I'm not giving up trying to save people."

Aaron was silent for a moment, then replied, "Too bad for you, I'm not giving you a choice anymore. You're staying in here while I go get your mom, and then we're all leaving for New Jersey. End of discussion."

However, as Aaron turned and began to walk away, Miles called after him, "You really think you can keep me in here?"

"Yeah, I do,"Aaron said, turning back to Miles. "You forget, little man, I gave you your toys, I know how to take them away. I'm the one who taught you everything you know, and I know just how to counter it all."

"You didn't teach meeverythingI know,"Miles responded with a smirk, holding up one of his hands and clenching it into a fist, causing the gauntlet to activate and hum with gradually increasing volume as it powered up.

His eyes widening in shock, Aaron looked at Miles' hand and started to ask, "How did you-?"

"I recently had the opportunity to take my gauntlets apart, and I discovered your depowering failsafe. So I decided to create my own failsafe-failsafe,"Miles explained, holding up the small metal shard in his other hand that he'd been using as a makeshift screwdriver, then continued,"Next time, maybe you should watch the hands instead of the mouth. Not that there's likely tobea next time."

Then, before Aaron could react, Miles reared back his powered up fist and thrust it forward into the energy wall in front of him, which tried to shock him again but was unable to deter the power behind his fist from crashing into the wall and blowing it apart completely before Miles flew right through it and also punched his uncle in the face, knocking both of them down by the rusted train tracks below them.

Miles' shoes activated their own failsafe when he landed on the ground, the vibranium inside them absorbing the shock of his fall and powering his antigrav thrusters back on with the sudden inrush of energy, prompting Miles to follow up his first attack by launching himself at his uncle, once again knocking him back.

This time, Aaron had the sense of mind to roll upon landing so that he came back up standing on his feet. However, before he could counterattack or say anything, whichever might've come first, there was a soft and familiarthwipsound just before Aaron's face was suddenly covered by a thin veil of webbing, causing his head to get thrown back as he was hit by it. Then, as Aaron was using his claws to rip the ultra-sticky material off of himself, Spider-Woman began to lower from the ceiling, hanging upside-down from a web line, and introduced herself, "Hey, is this a party? What, is it 'Prowlers only', or did my invite just get lost in the mail?"

"Don't worry, you're right on time,"Miles told her as he kept his eyes on his uncle.

Gwen POV

Looking at the original Prowler as he tore the webbing off of his face and glared at both her and Miles, Gwen asked, "So, you know that kidnapping is still a thing with family members, right?"

"I was trying to keep him safe!"Aaron insisted. "And I offered to do the same for you too, but he's not making it easy! Andyouare interfering in a family matter, Ms. Stacy!"

Letting go of her web line and flipping as she dropped so that she landed on her feet, Gwen shrugged at him and said, "Cool motive. Still kidnapping."

As Gwen kept Aaron in place, Miles walked over to a broken down wooden table behind them, where the various missing pieces of his gear were laid out, and began to arm himself again as he called back, "Also, we must have different ideas of what 'safe' is, because I seem to recall that you were trying to take me to Jersey."

Glaring at Aaron, Gwen folded her arms across her chest and shook her head disappointedly as she told him, "Jersey? For shame."

Getting impatient and annoyed, Aaron returned her glare and said, "I don't have time for this."

He then raised his gauntleted hand to aim at Gwen before using his prosthetic hand to press a button on the back of the gauntlet, causing the purple light inside it to turn a lime green like the symbol on his chest. After a couple seconds, he clenched the hand into a fist, and it immediately emitted a massive blast of green energy just like the ones that had knocked out Gwen and Miles earlier.

However, having already guessed correctly what the new green option in his gauntlet was for, Gwen was ready this time and managed to dodge the blast, cartwheeling out of the way as she called out in warning, "Miles, look out!"

Fortunately, though Miles had been standing right behind her and had been facing away from them when the blast was fired, he finished gathering up his personal belongings from the table just in time and didn't hesitate to heed Gwen's warning, using his shoes to launch himself straight up into the air in a high backflip that allowed him to evade the green blast, which instead hit the table behind where Miles had been standing and immediately reduced it to splinters.

Perched in her three-point crouch on the ground, Gwen looked warily at Aaron and noted, "Touchy piece of hardware. You ever think about selling things like that?"

"Don't give him any ideas,"Miles rebuked her as he charged up both of his gauntlets and snapped them out to his sides as he made a sudden dash for his uncle.

At the same time, Gwen shot a web onto the wall behind Aaron and quickly pulled herself towards him, hoping to help Miles overwhelm whatever defenses he had up his sleeves. However, Aaron acknowledged his own limits when faced with the two of them at once and simply narrowed his eyes before he pressed a button on the inside of his prosthetic arm's wrist, causing his body to be instantly shrouded in waves of green energy before he abruptly disappeared.

Flying through the place that she'd seen Aaron a moment before and surprisingly only tackling thin air, Gwen hit the ground and rolled back to her feet before looking around wildly and asking Miles, "He cancloak? You didn't tell me that he could cloak!"

"Yeah, it's new,"Miles defended himself as he activated his scanners and looked around trying to locate his uncle. Unfortunately, his mask didn't help him see anything out of the ordinary. Apparently his uncle's cloaking tech had been designed to avoid any form of detection.

Disappointedly deactivating his scanner, Miles warned Gwen, "I can't get a bead on him."

Backing up until she and Miles were standing back-to-back defensively, Gwen said sarcastically, "So neither of us can see the super-strong bad guy. Great."

"Relax,"Miles told her. "Speaking as someone who's lived in the shadows for most of the past year, trust me, invisibility's overrated."

Immediately after he'd said it, Miles saw Uncle Aaron appear right in his field of view, becoming visible once more less than a foot in front of him, and before Miles could react, Aaron thrust a fist forward and hit Miles in the face, knocking him backwards and into Gwen, sending them both tumbling. Right after hitting the ground, both Miles and Gwen rolled into a landing on their hands and knees, looking back towards where Aaron had just appeared, but he disappeared once again before they could counterattack.

"'Invisibility's overrated', huh?" Gwen grumbled to Miles.

However, while she was talking, Miles was thinking. Narrowing his eyes as he looked around carefully, Miles abruptly called out, "Gwen, to your right!"

Just after he'd said it, Aaron appeared on Gwen's right, attempting to kick her from the side and send her flying into Miles, but Miles' warning combined with her Spider-Sense allowed Gwen to react to it in time to grab his leg and spin him around before throwing him at Miles, who punched his uncle down onto the floor. As he lay there in pain, Miles lifted his arm for another punch, but Aaron saw it coming and rolled out of the way at the last second before he was obscured by green light and vanished again.

Wondering how they could turn this fight around, preferably sooner rather than later, Gwen once again crouched defensively, trying to prepare herself for anything, and asked Miles, "You can see him now?"

"No, I just know how he likes to fight,"Miles responded."He'll try to keep the both of us off balance. I figured he would alternate which one of us he'd attack, but now he's going to switch it up. But at least we know now that he has to turn off his cloak to attack."

"So you admit that his invisibility thing is bothering you!" Gwen cried triumphantly.

However, Miles wouldn't make it that easy for her and shook his head as he looked around the room warily and said,"It's annoying, but ultimately just another challenge. Gwen, northeast corner. Destroy that water tank."

Looking in the direction that Miles had indicated, Gwen saw the water tank in question, hooked up to an old drinking fountain. Not sure why she was doing it, Gwen nevertheless instantly shot two lines of webbing onto the side of the water tank and began to tug on it as hard as she could. With the tank being made of a flexible plastic, it took a few seconds for it to give way beneath Gwen's strength, only bending at first before finally breaking, splashing great amounts of water onto the ground, spilling across the floor beneath them.

"Move towards the leak!"Miles ordered next.

Still unsure of where this was going but trusting Miles, Gwen began approaching the damaged water tank. However, she had hardly taken her first step when the air above Gwen fizzled with green light to reveal the elder Prowler, who fell towards her and kicked Gwen backwards before he once again disappeared. Fortunately, though, Miles caught Gwen before she could fly too far and set her back on her feet while reminding her,"I saidtowardsthe leak, Spider-Woman. You're going the wrong way."

"Oh, thanks. My mistake," Gwen responded sarcastically, pulling herself out of Miles' arms with annoyance while he chuckled at her.

Not taking any more chances of getting interrupted, Gwen shot a web line onto the ceiling this time and pulled herself upwards, getting off the tracks and onto the platform slightly above them, landing with her feet in the water that now coated the entire surface of the ground. She looked back to see Miles jumping off the tracks as well, landing next to her. He then turned to face the same direction that she was, and as he did so, he quietly told her, "Don't look behind you. When I say, jump onto the ceiling, and stay up there 'til it's over."

"What?" Gwen asked, confused. Then, she looked back down at the water at their feet and suddenly realized what Miles was planning to do. Looking at him in exasperation, she said, "You can't be serious."

Sadly, he was, and Gwen had no opportunity to protest further as her Spider-Sense began to tingle just as Miles abruptly told her, "Now!"

Having no choice now but to go along with Miles' crazy idea, Gwen jumped straight up and spun herself around so that she was crouched upside-down on the ceiling, looking down at the sight below her, which featured Aaron appearing out of the air behind Miles with one charged-up fist raised to punch him away. However, just as Gwen had predicted her would, Miles crouched down at the last second and placed his gauntleted palm into the water flowing beneath both himself and his uncle, then activated his gauntlet's inbuilt taser. In an instant, the electricity spread and was amplified by its contact with the water, and both Miles and Aaron were affected by standing in it. Their bodies seized up involuntarily and they began groaning and shaking uncontrollably, unable to move or speak of their own accord

The sight made Gwen wince in sympathy, but fortunately it lasted only a couple of seconds before the electricity faded away and both Miles and Aaron fell to their hands and knees, breathing heavily, looking more than ever like mirrored images of the same being with their movements so similar to one another.

Knowing that the danger beneath her was now over and gone, Gwen attached a web line to the ceiling beneath herself and began to slowly lower herself back down until she was hanging with her head equal to Miles'. She watched him struggle to regain his breath for a few seconds before she told him, "You know, I'm starting to think you have some self-preservation issues."

Miles struggled to come up with a rebuke for that statement and finally just told her, "Just… shut up and… hit my uncle for me… would you?Hard."

Smirking beneath her mask, Gwen acquiesced to his request and shot a second web line onto the wall behind Miles' uncle before she tugged herself towards him and gave him a powerful kick to the face. As winded as he already was, the hit knocked him out instantly, making the original Prowler collapse on his back, the white eye slits of his mask staring upwards blankly as his head layed there in the water.

Seeing that he was properly defeated, Gwen dusted off her hands after a job well done and walked back over to Miles to offer him a hand in getting back to his feet. As he gratefully accepted the offer and stood back up, Gwen told him, "Seriously, though, what were you thinking, Miles?"

Flexing his fingers in his gauntlets, making sure that he was once again in control of his motor functions, Miles responded,"Well, Iwaskinda hoping that the vibranium in my shoes would protect me. Instead, turns out it's conductive. Who knew, huh? I'll have to do some experiments."

Gwen stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, then just shook her head and said, "Okay, sure. You nearly knocked yourself out with that move, but fine. Go ahead and experiment all you want, but no more electrocuting yourself, okay?"

"You know I can't promise that,"Miles told her as he turned and began to walk towards his uncle. Gwen sighed to herself in resignation and followed after him. Yes, she knew that Miles wasn't likely to avoid further injury of various sorts. It was simply a part of this life they'd both chosen. But knowing that wouldn't stop her from trying her best to keep him safe.

The original Prowler, lying helpless on the ground, was unknowingly approached by both the first person to defeat him and the young man who had replaced him and his criminal ways with something new.

Gwen knew Miles well enough by now that she knew that he was hurting deep down inside, what he viewed as a betrayal from his uncle doing more damage than electrified water ever could, making this situation more personal for him than Gwen could imagine, and she knew that part of him wanted to punish Aaron for what he'd done now that he was at their mercy. After all, despite all that Aaron had put Miles through, all that they'd disagreed on, Gwen knew that they still cared about each other deeply, and from her experience with her dad, Gwen knew that no wounds were deeper than those caused by your own loved ones.

But she also knew that whatever he may feel, Miles was going to do the right thing and simply arrest him. That task wouldn't be particularly easy either, but she knew that he would still do it. That was simply who he was, who he'd become, and Gwen trusted him completely to do what was right.

However, they didn't quite manage to reach Aaron before a familiar and rather unwelcome voice spoke from behind them. "Thereyou are."

Upon hearing and recognizing the voice, Gwen looked up and sighed in annoyance, then shared an exasperated look with Miles. When they'd been woken up early this morning, they'd been able to easily tell with a single look at the city that it was going to be a long day, but now it was starting to get ridiculous. It was barely past noon and they'd already been forced to fight Rhino, Vulture, Shocker, and several dozen criminals. They'd dealt with fires and guns and robberies and kidnappings and just about every other imaginable manner of crime, and they still had to deal with Murdock and all the rest of the criminals currently running free in the city. And at the end of it, they'd probably be back to running away from the police again as well. As if yesterday hadn't been bad enough.

As a slight upside, if all went well, they might be able to go back to school after today (assuming it was still standing), but that thought didn't exactly lift Gwen's spirits either. And now, they'd also added their defeat of Miles' uncle to their list of accomplishments for the day, but of course that was the moment thatSpider-Mandecided to show up as well.

Gwen and Miles turned to face the superpowered mad scientist with silent resignation on their faces and saw him descending down the stairs heading into the subway station. His suit had been completely repaired after Gwen and Miles had left it ruined at the indecisive end of their fight last night, making him look like he was back to peak strength as he walked into the station with complete confidence in his steps.

Gwen and Miles took a few steps toward him and took up challenging stances about two dozen yards away from Spider-Man, but he remained unfazed and just continued his casual approach as he gestured around at the room they were in and asked them, "Is this where you've been hiding from me all this time? I must admit, it's a good place to conceal yourselves. In addition to being underground and abandoned, well out of sight, my spider-bots were only programmed to search… Er,habitableenvironments. It's little wonder they never found you down here."

Ignoring everything he was saying, Gwen met his eyes and told him firmly, "Spider-Man, look around you. Murdock's takeover of the city is falling apart. His supervillains are all down, the cops are back on the streets, and we've still got plenty of fight in us. It's over, Octavius."

"Yes, it is, but not in the way you think," Spider-Man told her, unruffled.

His self-assurance left Gwen feeling uncomfortable, unsure of why or how he could still be so calm when she'd just laid out the evidence of his boss's impending failure, but knowing that it couldn't be anything good.

With Gwen effectively silenced by her anxiety over the unknown, Spider-Man then proved her worries valid as he gave her one last pleased look before he turned his attention onto Miles and told him, "Mr. Morales, I'm going to temporarily revive your old contract. Your orders: Attack Spider-Woman. Do whatever it takes short of killing her to subdue her."

For a few seconds, Gwen and Miles both just stared at Spider-Man in shock, wondering if they'd heard him right and why he seemed to actually have thought that that would work. After that moment's silence had passed, Miles shook his head in confusion and asked, "Sorry, what?"

With the recognizable flair of a showman who only pretended to have made a mistake, Spider-Man waved him off and said, "Oh, right. Yes, my bad. I forgot to tell you the most important part." He then raised one of his arms and tapped the screen on his vambrace, causing it to emit a hologram above it, showing an image that shocked both Miles and Gwen. The hologram showed a small version of Miles' mom, easily recognizable to both of them, tied to a chair and gagged with a spider-bot sitting on her shoulder.

Seeming pleased by the wide-eyed expressions of horror on both Miles and Gwen's masks, Spider-Man began to speak to them once again, keeping his finger hovering over the button on his vambrace. "I see I've gotten your undivided attention. Excellent. Now, Mr. Morales, this is how this is going to work. As you can see, I have your mother in my custody, safely locked away in my new place of business, and I can order my spider-bot to give her a lethal shock and end her life with a push of this button on my wrist. Her life meansnothingto me, and I guarantee that I will do it, especially after all thatyouhave taken fromme. The only way she lives is if you doexactlyas I say. So you will hurt and beat and break Ms. Stacy for my enjoyment. You will give her to me. And then you will undo all the damage you've done to our work, years in the making, even if it kills you, so I can get back to my work in peace. You will kill all of the surviving police. You will release all of the captured criminals. At my word, you willflattenthis entire city, or else-"

He didn't finish whatever he was going to say, however, as in a blur of magenta light, Miles was suddenly in front of him, grabbing him by the throat and picking him up off the ground as he aggressively asked him, "You DARE to touch mymother?!"

Spider-Man choked with surprise at the abruptness with which he had been seized by the throat, then looked down at Miles sinisterly and held up his vambrace to tell him, "Tut-tut, Mr. Morales. Don't forget that I can-"

Once again, Miles cut him off, this time by shooting out his free hand to grab Spider-Man's vambrace and instantly crush it in his grip. Spider-Man's wrist was protected by the armor that he wore, but the armor itself was crushed and the technology inside it was ruined as well, the glass casing shattering and sparks shooting out of it as the hologram of Miles' mom disappeared. Miles then set Spider-Man back down on the ground and pushed him away, but not before grabbing his opposite wrist and doing the same to that vambrace as well. Spider-Man stumbled backwards, staring at Miles with all of his wit and control taken away from him along with his greatest trump card. He then raised his arms and looked at his destroyed vambraces before looking back up at Miles in complete disbelief.

Amused by the sight, Gwen walked forward and leaned around Miles to tell Spider-Man, "Yeah, you probably should've seen that one coming."

Finally finding his voice, Spider-Man's expression shifted to one of outrage as he exclaimed, "No! This wasn't how it was supposed to go! Morales, you imbecile, do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"I broke your toys,"Miles told him unapologetically as he began approaching the older man menacingly. "Now I'm going to break everything else."

Spider-Man took a few steps backward in worry before he seemed to remember that he wasn't exactly defenseless and said, "You- You- I will not be intimidated by you! You will suffer for this humiliation, both of you! And Morales, for this denial, I will make your mother suffer before I take her life!"

Hearing that threat, Miles narrowed his eyes before dashing forward in a blur once again. However, this time, Spider-Man's four robotic arms suddenly unfolded from his back and folded in front of their master protectively before smacking Miles away, somehow proving themselves capable of reacting to Miles' incredible speed.

Trying to take the smarter approach and start by slowing the arms down, Gwen shot several lines of webbing at Spider-Man, but the artificial limbs caught each of the lines and pulled them taut into a wall of webbing in front of Spider-Man, which he immediately proceeded to cut right through with his hands as he once again extended the claws in his gloves.

Triumphantly raising all six of his arms to the sky, Spider-Man declared, "Ha! Do you know why I no longer use the name of Otto Octavius, Spider-Woman? It's because Otto Octavius was weak! A fool despite his genius, a scapegoat to men who considered themselves above him! Smart enough to have it all, but without the will toseize it! Well, Iseized it, and now nothing and no one will ever be 'above me' again! No one will ever again be able to give themselves a leg up by stepping on Otto Octavius, a man too willing to be kept on the bottom when he belonged at the top!"

Looking at him sympathetically, Gwen responded, "Otto, I'm sorry for whatever injustices were committed against you throughout your life. From what you've told me, it sounds like you had a pretty bad time growing up, and I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to help you." Gwen then crouched low in preparation for a fight and continued, "But your own pain doesn't give you an excuse to hurt other people. Our circ*mstances were different, but you haveno ideahow easily I could've become like you. Instead, I do this. Whatever happened to you, youchoseto be the bad guy. No one made that choice for you. And Istopbad guys. So bring it on."

Spider-Man hesitated for a moment, perhaps somewhat affected by Gwen's words, but she'd spoken only the truth. She felt bad for him in some ways, saddened at the thought of what could've turned a good man so bitter and self-centered, but she was tired of him blaming everyone else for what he became. She had the same powers that he did and had suffered her own fair share of trauma, and while she may not exactly be the golden standard for coping with it, she'd never let it make her want to take over the world. True, it had actually made her consider killing after what happened last night, and maybe she would've had Miles not stopped her.

Or maybe he was right in what he'd said, that it wasn't quite so easy to become a killer, and she was the kind of person who would've failed if she'd tried. Either way, part of her wished that Octavius had had his own equivalent to Miles to regulate his behavior, but even without one, the choices he'd made had consequences, and Gwen wasn't going to let him get away with his crimes.

After his moment's pause, Spider-Man glared at Gwen and told her, "Your pity means nothing to me, Ms. Stacy, and as always, you talk too much. It's time I silenced you permanently. The die is cast!"

With that announcement, along with whatever that last part was supposed to mean, Spider-Man swiftly jumped towards Gwen, crouched in the air with his four mechanical arms spread out to his sides, his eight total limbs creating a shadow shaped oddly similarly to a real spider at Gwen's feet as she prepared to meet this attack. When Spider-Man began falling towards her, Gwen leapt upwards and tackled him in midair, getting in close before his extra arms could come to his defense.

With the use of their sticking powers and their webs, Gwen and Spider-Man exchanged a flurry of blows with one another in the air, going back and forth with both of them landing a few punches on the other, until finally, all four of Spider-Man's mechanical legs grabbed each of Gwen's limbs and spread them out to her sides so that Spider-Man could kick her with both of his feet, knocking her straight down onto the ground. He then fell down so that he was standing above her, his feet placed on either side of her torso to prevent her from moving before he raised one of his clawed hands, preparing to bring it down on her.

Before he could do so, though, Miles suddenly jumped on Spider-Man's back, placing his hands on either side of his head and pulling it back. Grunting in pain, Spider-Man reared back from Miles' surprise attack. Still, two of his limbs tried stabbing at Gwen, trying to finish the job, and Gwen just barely managed to roll backwards and do a handspring to get herself out of the way before the pair of spikes stabbed the ground where she had been a moment earlier, cracking the concrete as they missed their mark.

Despite having saved Gwen's life, Miles' distraction didn't last long, and Spider-Man made short work of prying the Prowler off of his back before holding him up for one of his mechanical limbs to impale. Returning the favor Miles had done her, Gwen shot a web line onto the moving metal arm and tugged on it hard before it could stab Miles, throwing Spider-Man off-balance and allowing Miles to pull himself free, jumping back towards where Gwen was.

Presenting a united front, Gwen and Miles stood side-by-side and prepared to meet whatever Spider-Man threw at them next, but Gwen knew that they could both see the simple truth that so far, they were losing. Even with their efforts combined, they currently stood little to no chance of defeating Spider-Man at the peak of his abilities, not without a major game-changer.

Part of Gwen's mind considered asking Miles why he hadn't employed the same method they'd used last time, turning Spider-Man's arms against him, but another part suspected that he may have already tried to no avail. She was proven correct when Spider-Man spread his arms as he proudly approached them while asking, "Are you starting to understand now? Yes, I can see that you are. Youcan'tbeat me, not even both of you together. I've reinforced the defenses of my programming, so you can't hack my arms anymore. I'm stronger, faster, smarter,superiorto you both! How could I not be? You two arechildren, mere byproducts of the monumental changes I've wrought upon this world.Luckyto be what you are, and nothing more."

"We have certain advantages over you," Gwen informed him, remaining determined to continue the fight to the end. "You can't beat us, not when we work together."

Spider-Man just laughed at that and argued, "Can't I? You see, even if Spider-Woman shares my powers, even if Prowler is slightly stronger or runs faster,Iam the only one here willing to do whatever it takes to win! And I have. I only ever grow more powerful while everything that stands in my way is eliminated!"

"What about Murdock?"Miles asked. "You act like you're independent, like you're in charge, but that's not true, is it? Murdock sends you to do his dirty work. You're not his partner, you're his enforcer. That makes you hisemployee. And what happens when he's done with you?"

Spider-Man paused for a second before responding to that one, and Gwen thought she saw his eye twitch a bit as he said, "Murdock is nothing without me. He would neverdareto betray me."

Trying to help encourage Miles' trick, Gwen cut in, "Not even when he has complete control, like he clearly wants? Come on, you're too smart not to see the truth. Once he's gotten all the use he can out of you, Murdock will throw you aside, just like all your previous employers."

"Then he'll die!" Spider-Man yelled, finally breaking his composure. "He'll die, because like I told you, I'm not weak anymore! He'll die, like everyone else who tried to control me or stand in my way since I got these powers! Like George Stacy! Like Mac Gargan! Like… Like Jefferson Morales!"

All fell quiet for a second, and Gwen's eyes went wide before she looked sideways at Miles questioningly, wondering if he had ever heard anything about this, but he seemed even more shocked than she was. Miles looked down for a second, apparently trying to process what he was being told, the looked back up at Spider-Man and said, "You- My dad, you-"

"Yes, Mr. Morales," Spider-man responded, acting pleased and not at all remorseful or even worried about his slip-up. "Captain Stacy wasn't the only nuisance for us among the police.Hehindered our efforts to buy the loyalty of the cops under his command, butyourfather? He was arguably even worse. He discovered that some of his fellow cops were being bought and decided toinvestigateit. He even found out who many of our people were in the department, but instead of turning them in, he opted tosavethem, knowing that many of them were serving us against their will. So he followed the trails, thin as they were, uncovering too much for our comfort. And he was careful about it. Even Murdock didn't learn about what he was up to until after I had already taken matters into my own hands."

Apparently still having trouble believing what he was hearing, Miles shook his head and said, "But- No, you couldn't have- They said… a couple of punks… they confessed…"

"The advantage of working with the man who owns everyone in the city, you can doanythingand have someone else take the fall," Spider-Man explained. "But a couple of punks wouldn't have the strength or the guts to beat up a police officer and throw him off the roof of a 10-story building. If it makes you feel better, I didn't try to throw him in that dumpster. That was just a happy little accident, him ending up among the rest of the past-its-time refuse."

Gwen could see Miles trembling with rage, staring at nothing in particular as he began to see the truth of what Spider-Man was telling him. Gwen wasn't sure what he was going to try to do next. The idea of fighting Miles again didn't exactly appeal to her, but Gwen knew that if Miles lost control trying to avenge his dad's death, she would do whatever she could to stop him just like he had done for her, knowing that deep down, Miles didn't actually want to kill anyone any more than she did.

He must've been trying to remind himself of that same fact at this very moment, as Gwen saw him look away from Spider-Man, taking deep breaths as he said, "No, if you…diddo that… you wouldn't have told me."

"Why not?" Spider-Man laughed, nearing them fearlessly. "I have nothing to fear from you, Mr. Morales. You know you're not a killer."

Suddenly, Gwen felt herself get pushed aside as she heard Miles' voice say, "Iam!"

For a second, Gwen was shocked at what had just happened, unable to believe that Miles had actually broken, but upon looking up once again, she saw that that wasn't the case. Someone was now tackling a surprised Spider-Man, but it wasn't Miles. Miles had been pushed aside just like Gwen had, and he had not been the one who'd spoken, either. Instead, the statement had been made by the only person who shared Miles' distorted Prowler voice.

Struggling to hold back one of the only pairs of hands that could overpower his own strength, Spider-Man noted, "Prowler! What are you doing here?"

Glaring into Spider-Man's eyes with deepest loathing, Miles' Uncle Aaron answered, "The only thing I'm good for anymore. Fighting for my family."

Seeming to realize that Aaron wouldn't let go and also that he was losing ground against the Prowler's strength, Spider-Man looked back into Aaron's eyes with furious determination and played a card of finality, stretching out his mechanical limbs before impaling all four of them through Aaron's back.

"NO!"Miles yelled, standing up straight and looking on at the scene helplessly.Gwen was similarly horrified, though of course not quite as much, but she still felt for Miles' pain.

As Aaron dangled from Spider-Man's automated limbs, grunting in pain and trying to control his breathing, Spider-Man pulled him in close and told him, "You chose the wrong side, Prowler. Now you end up just like your idiot brother."

Taking a deep breath, Aaron looked back up at Spider-Man and responded, "I'll take that… as a compliment."

And with that said, Aaron suddenly grabbed Spider-Man by the back of his neck with one hand and used the leverage to pull himself closer to Spider-Man until the tips of his spiked legs, poking out the front of Aaron's stomach, stabbed Spider-Man as well, causing him to let out a strangled gasp of shock and immediately push the elder Prowler away from himself, pulling his legs out of Aaron to let the man fall to the ground, but the damage was already done. And it wasn't over yet, either.

Only the very tips of the legs had stabbed Spider-Man, and Aaron didn't seem to have thought that that was enough, which was why he now pulled off his mask and grinned up at Spider-Man with bloody teeth as he held up a small trigger device in his hand. Even more worried now, Spider-Man looked down at his chest to see a small explosive device attached to his chest, glowing around the edges with a bright green light, but before he could try to pry it off, Aaron activated his detonator and caused the explosive to go off in a bright burst of energy that knocked Spider-Man back powerfully, making him crash into a wall before he was knocked back down onto his front.

However, even now, as Aaron laid his head back on the ground, both Gwen and Miles seemed to recognize that Spider-Man was injured but not yet down permanently. Walking over to him, Gwen and Miles watched as Spider-Man struggled onto his hands and knees and looked up at them. He looked even worse than he had last night despite the sped-up healing that Gwen knew he possessed, covered in bruises and cuts with half of his mask missing, one eye lens of the mask missing completely while the other one had been broken, the spider-symbol burned completely off of his chest by the explosive, and his metal limbs hanging limply with no mental input from their master.

He looked up at Spider-Woman and Prowler with mixed hatred and fear in his now-visible eyes, then started to threaten, "I will kill… everyone you two-"

Miles cut him off quite abruptly by seizing him once again by the throat and holding him up in the air. This time, however, Gwen could see Miles squeezing the man's throat, causing his eyes to bulge as his face started to flush with color and he kicked his legs helplessly to escape strangulation. Understanding Miles' feelings but not wanting him to strangle someone or break their neck - not even Spider-Man's - after all his progress, Gwen reached out and gently placed a hand on Miles' shoulder, ignoring the way he turned his glare onto her, and told him, "He's beaten, Miles. Let's bring him in right."

Miles hesitated for a moment, seeming torn between his two options, but finally threw Spider-Man on the ground roughly and kneeled down before starting to tear his bloodied mechanical limbs from his suit at the roots, causing Spider-Man to scream in pain as it happened.

Wincing at the sight, Gwen reminded her boyfriend, "Miles, if those things were neurally linked to him-"

"It's going to hurt him to break them,"Miles finished for her without stopping, clearly knowing exactly what he was doing."Good."

Despite still not enjoying the sight of Miles torturing someone, Gwen raised no further protest after that. At least he wasn't killing him, and she would have to content herself with that.

After Miles was done, Gwen dragged Spider-Man (who had reflexively fainted from the agony of having multiple brain-linked limbs violently removed in short succession) into a corner and webbed him down with an entire cartridge of his own webbing after she took away his entire stock, plugging his wounds with webs while she was at it (though not very well, to ensure that he wouldn't get far if he somehow escaped and tried to run). By the time she was done with that and had restocked her web-shooters, Gwen walked over to where Miles was now kneeling next to his Uncle Aaron. They'd both removed their right gauntlet and were now holding each other's hands tightly, Miles having also taken off his mask so they could look at one another's faces.

Miles looked up as he heard Gwen coming over to kneel next to Aaron as well and told her, "He doesn't have much longer. And there's nothing we can do about it." He tried to keep his voice firm, but Gwen could hear the shakiness in it that he tried to hide.

Whatever bad blood there was between Miles and his uncle, Gwen knew that they both still cared about each other, and a loss like this would affect him badly. Looking down at her web-shooters and wondering if she might be able to do something, maybe buy Aaron enough time to get him to a hospital or something, Gwen suggested, "Miles, maybe I could-"

"There'snothing… we can do," Miles repeated in a low hiss.

Knowing that he was really more hurt than angry, Gwen just nodded silently and let Miles have this moment, able to offer nothing more than her support in this trying time.

Aaron's eyes were starting to become unfocused, but he looked up and asked in a pained and somewhat confused voice, "Miles?"

"I'm here, Uncle Aaron," Miles told him immediately, clutching his uncle's hand tightly.

Aaron also tightened his grip and clenched his teeth through a groan before continuing, "Miles, I… I think I gotta tap out soon, little man. But I did it… right? I did… something good?"

Smiling weakly, Miles told him, "Yeah, man. You did good."

"About time," Aaron said with a low chuckle. "Oh, if your dad could see me now."Seeming to realize something else, Aaron furrowed his eyebrows and looked back up at Miles to say, "Miles, you and your mom-"

"We'll be alright, Uncle Aaron, just-"

"Iknowyou'll be alright," Aaron cut him off, then drew in a deep breath to add, "because I got something for you. In my apartment, in my bedroom, you'll find my will in my nightstand. I wrote it out years ago, Miles, back when I first started this thing, and I left everything I have to you. Now, how I got some of my money is… not the best, but I want you to use it for what Ishould'veput it into."

"A Prowler-mobile?" Miles joked with a teary smile, referencing one of the conversations he'd had with his uncle back during the first days of his training.

Aaron snickered weakly and winced as he said, "Maybe… one day. But for now, just use it tolive, and help others do the same. I'm sorry I never taught you the stuff that really mattered before, but here it is, so listen- Listen close. Take care of your mom, your girl, everyone else you care about. Finish school. And then do somethingamazingwith your life, Miles, because you've got this spark in you that I ain't been able to figure out, but now I know why. You're right. You're not like me. You- You've never been like me. You were right when you said that all I knew how to do anymore was be angry at the world. Today, I finally managed to put it to use. But you… You're the best of all of us, Miles. Better than me. A better Prowler… And well on your way to being a much bettermanthan I ever was. So just- Just keep goin'. Just keep-"

Aaron never managed to finish that last sentence, and he used the last vestiges of his strength to close his eyes as his head fell back and his hand loosened its grip on Miles', though Miles continued to hold on tightly. However, he still seemed to acknowledge what had truly just happened, and Gwen saw him gulp powerfully before his mask folded back onto his face while he lowered his uncle's hand to lay on his chest.

Knowing that the mask was currently hiding something much more valuable to Miles than his secret identity, Gwen did as he had done for her just this morning and pulled Miles in close as he tried to turn away from the sight of his uncle, holding his head against her chest while he clung desperately to her arms. And so, knowing that Miles wouldn't appreciate words right now, Gwen just silently held onto Miles while his body shook with silenced grief.

Chapter 20: Regicide

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

Third Person POV

If there was one thing that Wilson Fisk hated doing, it was delivering bad news to his adopted son, Matthew.

Not that the Kingpin had ever shown any inclination towards harming his father in any way. In fact, he almost never even showed any signs of anger, trying to maintain control of himself even and especially when things went wrong. But still, Fisk knew how dangerous Matt could really be better than almost anyone else, and most of the exceptions who knew even better than him were dead.

Even Spider-Man hadn’t been let in on most of Matt’s secrets. And he was a very secretive man. In fact, Fisk sometimes wondered if Matt had secrets that he kept from him as well, taking advantage of his father’s inability to believe that there could be even more to Matt’s story. But that inability was well-warranted. After all, much of what Matt had told his adoptive father, Fisk wouldn’t have believed had it not been Matt who was saying it. Or if he couldn’t back it up with hard evidence that was just as unbelievable to the eye as it was to the ear. Not to mention, Matt had gone on some sort of “spiritual retreat” during his younger years, a time that he still refused to talk about with Wilson or Foggy or anyone.

Put simply, Matt Murdock was much more than he ever allowed anyone to know, and Fisk had the uncomfortable suspicion that even after all he'd seen and heard, he was still included among that ignorant group. Even as children, mankind had known that there was nothing in the world more frightening than the unknown, hence fear of the dark or of the monsters under the bed, and Matt embodied that principle perfectly.

He was less than unassuming at a glance, which was likely all you'd take, with him being blind, but in truth, he was one of the most dangerous people to ever live. His anonymity, his ability to make people underestimate him effortlessly, was one of his greatest strengths. And if knowledge was power, then Matthew Murdock was the most powerful man on the planet, no super-strength required.

Matt proved the validity of that statement the moment that Fisk walked into his office, just getting off of a phone call as he entered to find Matt leaning back in his chair, facing away from the door and smiling in the direction of the window despite not being able to see what lay past the transparent surface.

Lowering the phone from his face, Fisk reported, “Matthew-”

However, he didn't get any further than that before Matt finished for him, “The Raft escapees have all been defeated. Some of the police survived and are back at work. Our Prowler's dead, and Spider-Man's been captured. Am I missing anything?”

Sighing, Fisk thought it over and said, “Yes, sir. A team of decorated SWAT officers have also broken through our defenses and are coming upstairs now.”

“Ah, yes. Let’s not forget that,” Matt said with a nod, sounding completely unconcerned and merely mildly inconvenienced by the thought of the heavily-armed soldiers on their way to arrest him.

Quickly moving on to other matters, Matt asked, "Our Prowler's death… Spider-Man?”

“Most likely,” Fisk answered.

Clenching his jaw for a moment, Matt spun around to face Fisk and said, “You see, this is why I didn’t want them working together. They have different drives, different interests, and I knew that neither would’ve backed down. And now, Spider-Man’s cost me not only one of my favorite operatives permanently, but also himself!”

Murdock leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh, trying to reign his emotions back in after his voice had risen steadily throughout that last monologue. He then took off his glasses and used his tie to clean the lenses as he said, “Ah, well. The doctor was a loose cannon, but he was useful while he lasted. In fact, we may want his services back at some point. Make sure we find a few people to be employed at the next super-prison and get them on the payroll, yes?”

“Certainly, Matthew,” Fisk responded with a nod, watching warily as Matt finished cleaning his glasses and put them back on his face with a sigh as he continued, “Police will arrive in about two minutes. And Ms. Stacy and Mr. Morales will be here soon. We can't beat them, but we can't exactly surrender, either. You know what I need to ask you to do, Dad.”

Bowing his head in resignation and wincing to himself, Fisk responded, “Yes, I… am not particularly fond of the prospect. But I will do my part, as I promised you I always would.”

Nodding in satisfaction, Matt moved on to the next order of business and said, “This unfortunate turn of events changes things. For the next phase, our rook won't be enough. With Spider-Man in the public eye… We need to set the board anew, Dad. I'll handle the cops, you send the remaining Spiderlings home. We’ll contact them with more work soon (discreetly, of course), but tell them to burn their uniforms and hide their weapons until further notice. Anyone who breaks that rule gets the usual punishment. Then, after the pawns are in place, call Wesley again and tell him to prepare the other knight, start his journey. Are we ready?”

Much more fond of the “knight” than the “rook”, Fisk nodded and proudly affirmed, “Yes. Ms. Barnes has been keeping his attention while we watch him, and she's ready to approach whenever you give the word.”

“Consider it given,” Matt said as he looked up from his case into his adopted father's eyes. “Operation: Checkmate will be needed on short notice, and we must begin the knight's process as soon as possible. But keep it personal. We don't want the rest of the FBI getting involved. Not yet.”

“Of course,” Fisk agreed with a bow of his head.

Matt waved his hand in dismissal of Fisk, who respectfully turned immediately and began to leave the room to carry out his next task.

Once Fisk had gone back to his own office, Matt rested his arms on the surface of his desk and simply waited for what came next, idly straightening his cane where it laid against the desk next to him.

After a few seconds, the sound of repeated booms started echoing from outside. Knowing that it must be the police trying to break down the stairwell door, Matt called out, “It’s unlocked! Come in!”

The sound of the battering ram immediately ceased, and Matt heard the SWAT team members instead hesitantly open the door before rushing onto the scene, scanning the floor with their weapons before reporting numerous shouts of “Clear!”

Not wanting them to bother with searching the individual offices, Matt yelled to them, “In here! Center office!”

Immediately after he’d said it, he heard several footsteps outside his office before the door was suddenly kicked in and four SWAT soldiers shuffled into the room in a single file line before spreading out to check every corner for threats. When they found none, they looked at Matt last and one of them yelled outside, “Room is clear! Murdock target located and in custody!”

Once the report had been given, one more soldier walked in, presumably the leader, a corporal, removing his helmet. He took a look at Murdock and turned to ask his men, “This is the guy behind all this?”

“Yes, sir,” one of the soldiers confirmed.

The corporal was surprised, but he ultimately just shook his head and resigned himself to the craziness of the world. Deciding to say something, Matt held up his hands and said, “Excuse me, who is that? Are you here about our firm? If so, I’m obligated to begin by telling you that we’re very prestigious, and thus somewhat particular about our clientele…”

Clearly unamused by what Matt was saying, the corporal nevertheless had no choice but to humor a blind man and responded, “Mr. Murdock, this is the police.”

“Oh!” Matt said with a look of surprise.

“Matthew Murdock, you’re under arrest for probable involvement in several counts of racketeering and domestic terrorism,” the corporal continued, gesturing with his head for two of his men to go cuff Murdock.

Standing up unsteadily, Matt grabbed his cane and said, “Well, officers, I assure you that I have no idea what this is all about, but I’ll help you in any way I can-”

“Leave the cane,” the corporal ordered, cutting Matt off.

“Oh, yes, of course,” Matt agreed, laying the cane down on the surface of his desk.

Once that had been done, most of the SWAT soldiers began leaving the room to secure the exit while the two officers approaching Matt arrived on either side of him, one of them dropping his gun to his side and pulling Matt’s hands behind him to place handcuffs on him while the other one kept Matt from moving by aiming his gun at him. Or at least, keeping his gun at the ready, held across his chest, not expecting trouble from a thus-far agreeable blind lawyer. Sadly, that would be his final mistake.

Just before the first officer could snap the cuffs on him, Matt’s hands suddenly shot upwards to grab the officer’s wrists before he snapped them both with a single, precise twist. He let out a yell of surprise and pain, startling the second soldier into hesitating, having not yet seen the trouble, and Matt used that moment to catch the handcuffs that the first soldier had now dropped, not even turning around to do it, and slapped a cuff onto one of the wrists of each of the soldiers, chaining them together.

Despite his surprise at suddenly finding himself half restrained to his partner, the second soldier finally managed to recover his senses enough to raise his gun towards Matt. However, Matt spun around much too quickly and jumped up to kick off the chest of the first soldier, pushing both of them backwards.

The first soldier was knocked out the window that had been behind him, pulling the second soldier with him as they were now connected and making that second soldier drop his gun in surprise as he now needed both hands to keep himself from getting pulled out the broken window by his fellow soldier’s weight and letting both himself and his friend fall to their deaths on the street below.

By now, the three SWAT team members who had been in the process of leaving had now heard the commotion and turned around to see what it was all about. However, Matt didn’t give them time to process any of it. After bouncing off of the first soldier’s chest, he had flown backwards over the top of his desk and grabbed his cane off of the wooden surface as he’d done so, before doing a backwards roll, landing on his knees facing his desk, his head bowed.

As the other three soldiers entered the room once again, Matt broke his cane over his knee, leaving the broken ends sharp where the cane had split in the middle, then threw each half of the cane behind himself at the walls to either side of the room. The cane pieces ricocheted off the wall and bounced back inwards to stab themselves into the necks of the two other SWAT operatives standing on either side of their commanding officer.

In shock, the corporal ducked to avoid the cane pieces that he saw coming towards him from either side, not knowing that they were never even going to hit him until after he heard the squelch of flesh being pierced followed by the sight of his two guards falling dead to the floor next to him. Then, looking around at the carnage spread on the floor around him, the corporal mumbled to himself, “What-? How-?”

The corporal didn't manage to finish asking any of his many new questions. In fact, after those two failed attempts, he would never say another word again, as Murdock suddenly dashed towards him and tackled him out the door, straddling him as they landed on the floor and delivering multiple punches to his face, drawing blood instantly but not stopping.

There were four more SWAT soldiers still in the hallway, and when they saw their CO getting seemingly beaten to death by a blind man, their instincts kicked in despite the confusion of the sight and they all raised their weapons.

However, Matt was faster, and he reached down to the belt of the corporal he was kneeling over and grabbed two things: a smoke grenade and the officer's sidearm. He pulled the pin out of the smoke grenade with his teeth before roughly shoving the spraying end into the open mouth of the corporal beneath him, making the man release muffled screams, spasming wildly, as compressed smoke began to fill his lungs.

In the meantime, Murdock took hold of the sidearm in his other hand and fired blindly all around himself, somehow firing a bullet through the protective goggles and into the eyes of all four soldiers surrounding him without even aiming, shooting through each of their brains and dropping them dead instantly.

After a few seconds, the corporal died last and most horribly, finally ceasing his twitching as he suffocated on the smoke that now filled every empty space in his body. When that happened, Murdock climbed off of the man and looked down on him as he sighed, “Sadly, all good things must come to an end.”

And with that, Murdock turned and walked casually back into his office, stepping expertly between the pools of blood spreading across the floor to avoid ruining his nice shoes, and sat back down at his desk, clearing his throat as he laid his arms on the desk once again and folded his fingers together.

Then, he tilted his head as he heard a low grunting behind himself and spun his chair slightly to face the soldier that he'd left half-dangling out the window. The man was bent over at the hip, one hand pressed against the flat surface of the remaining window for leverage while his other hand, the one that was cuffed, was dragging the top quarter of his body through the hole in the glass, his weapons all forgotten as he struggled to hold up his fellow soldier's body weight with all his strength. His right arm had several cuts near the elbow where it had rubbed against the edges of the hole in the wall, his forehead covered in perspiration while he fought to continue sustaining the weight.

Raising his legs to kick off his desk and make his rolling chair slide back by the window until he was sitting next to the soldier, Matt placed his arm on his armrest and rested his head on his hand as he looked at the man and noted, “You’re still here.” The soldier didn’t respond, too focused on trying to breathe through the strain.

Gesturing down at the red flesh surrounding the man’s wrist where the metal handcuffs had bit into it, Matt asked, “Do you want me to take that off for you?”

Looking at Matt in surprise, the man asked, “You- You’re not really blind?”

“No, I am,” Matt said without explanation. “But answer the question.”

Looking down at his own wrist, despite the pain he was obviously in, the soldier answered, “I… can’t. Reynolds, he’ll fall…”

“Trust me, your friend is already dead,” Matt told him. “Getting kicked through a window almost gave him a heart attack. And that was before the fall and the pain of dangling by a chain on his wrist for several minutes.”

The soldier’s eyes moistened at that, and he looked away and shed a tear as he said, “Then… Okay, fine. Please, do it. I can lift it up a bit, enough for you to get the key-”

Murdock laughed at that, cutting the other man off, and when the SWAT officer looked at him in confusion, Matt explained politely, “No, no, you misunderstand me. I wasn’t talking about the cuffs.”

The officer looked confused for another second, but then his eyes widened in horror as he looked at his wounded wrist. He then returned his gaze to Matt and begged, “No, please, don’t-”

Shrugging, Matt pushed off the window, rolling back towards his desk, and said, “Your choice. But this is a private office, and if you’re going to stay here, I’m going to need to ask you to stay quiet.”

Hearing that, the soldier quickly shut his mouth and fought to keep it closed, trying to muffle the sounds of agony that he was making so as not to antagonize the crazy man behind him.

After a few seconds of this, however, Matt sighed to himself and got up from his chair to walk back over to the soldier, chiding, “What did I say about the noise?”

“I didn’t do anything!” the soldier protested, seeing Matt approaching and desperately trying to jerk away from him to avoid whatever doubtlessly-horrible fate came with him.

“Yes, you did,” Matt corrected as he arrived next to the man. “You were keeping your sobs inside your throat. And you kept crying. I could hear your tears hit the floor. You are being much too loud, and I need that to stop so I can focus.”

And with that said, Matt didn’t explain any further but simply reached out and grabbed the man’s head before roughly shoving it sideways, causing the broken glass of the window to pierce his neck. It cut through a nerve on the side of his throat as it did so, causing the soldier’s body to seize up and shake violently while his mouth opened in a silent scream before he finally fell limp, allowing both himself and his fellow soldier to fall out the window, soon followed by a distant squishing sound.

Walking back over to his desk and pulling out a white handkerchief, Matt sat down in his chair and began to lightly dab the blood off of his face as he said to himself, “Ah. Finally, some peace and quiet.”

Gwen POV

The journey to the King’s Counselors’ office building was a long one. Not because they were going slowly. It was quite the opposite, actually. Both Gwen and Miles were going as fast as they could, pushing their limits, both of them eager to save Miles’ mom and finally put an end to Murdock’s reign of terror.

No, what made the journey feel so long was the fact that it was completely silent the whole way there, Miles refusing her every attempt to strike up a conversation with him.

Gwen knew that Miles was going to be badly affected by the loss of his uncle. She’d suffered a similar loss just last night, and now they were both trying to get through similar issues at the same time. But the difference was that Gwen had had an opportunity (short as it had been) to process the event and achieve some degree of acceptance before she’d had to throw herself back into her work.

Maybe that was what Miles was now trying to do for himself, but Gwen had known Miles long enough that she had the uncomfortable feeling that he was instead just choosing to bottle up his emotions. If that was the case, he may be right in thinking that it was probably the best choice for the sake of the mission, refusing to let himself get distracted, but it was potentially quite harmful to him as a person.

Since meeting Miles, Gwen had learned the difficult truth of how important it was to let oneself feel their emotions, confronting things like grief as soon as possible before you developed the habit of just continuing to push it down until it all came bursting outwards like water from a dam. That was what had happened with Gwen when Miles had recently forced her to face the deaths of both Peter and her dad. If Miles hadn’t been there for her when it had happened… Gwen didn’t know what might’ve become of her mental state. And she knew that it was her responsibility to do the same for him.

After, Gwen thought to herself, hating how she knew that she was putting off helping her boyfriend in one of his most raw times, but she had no choice. They needed to save the city and everyone in it, particularly Miles’ mom, before they would be able to have a heart-to-heart. But they would talk about it.

When they finally arrived outside the office building, they perched on top of a pair of streetlights hanging over the road in front of the building, and Gwen paused as she waited for Miles to finish doing what she knew he was, scanning the building to find their targets faster.

However, after she waited for almost a full minute in silence, Gwen looked at Miles to see him staring blankly at the building, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Thinking that maybe he was still just giving her the silent treatment, Gwen got his attention by loudly saying, “Hey, earth to Prowler! Care to caption this scene for me?”

Gwen’s voice seemed to break Miles out of his ruminations, and he looked at her before clearing his throat and saying, “Sorry, it’s just… I’m only reading three heat signatures.”

Shocked to hear that, Gwen asked, “In the whole building?”

Miles hummed an affirmative and Gwen looked up at the office building as though she too could see through the walls, trying to figure out Murdock’s game. She had expected them to be in the fight of their lives (if it hadn’t already happened today) when they arrived here to arrest the Kingpin. She’d expected an army of Spiderlings and organized legions of criminals waiting to stop them. Instead, three heat signatures accounted for Murdock himself, Miles’ mom (hopefully), and one other person.

When she was unable to determine what was going on here, what they were missing, Gwen looked down towards the entrance of the building and found a sight that horrified her. Somehow managing to keep herself from throwing up (mostly by mentally telling herself how badly she didn’t want to throw up in her mask), Gwen got Miles’ attention by gesturing at what she had seen and saying, “He can’t be completely unprotected.”

Miles followed the direction of Gwen’s gesture with his eyes and reared back in shock upon seeing what she had seen. On the stone steps leading up into the building was a pile of… something that probably wouldn’t have been recognizable were it not contained inside form-fitting uniforms.

Large splatterings of blood surrounded what was clearly a pair of New York SWAT officers. They had clearly fallen from a great height, their bodies having practically exploded upon impact with the ground, but strangely enough, they both still carried what looked to be their entire arsenal of weapons, four guns still between the two of them along with two pairs of full armor. Whatever had killed these two men hadn’t needed or bothered to disarm either of them in order to overpower some of the greatest forces that the police could muster.

Looking back at Gwen, Miles asked, “Spider-Man, maybe?”

However, Gwen shook her head and responded, “The police weren’t available then, right?”

“Maybe some of them came here early,” Miles suggested.

Gwen still thought it was a long shot, but also not wanting to imagine Murdock having even more supervillains up his sleeves that could do something like this, she just nodded and tried to believe that Miles was right.

Miles regarded the building in silence for another moment, then told Gwen, “I don’t know what Murdock’s game is here, but if I’ve ever seen an obvious trap, this is it. So let;s change the plan. We’ll both go up and secure Murdock’s office, then double back for my mom.”

Surprised, Gwen pointed out, “Miles… Are you sure? If she gets hurt because you made this choice-”

“I’ve done all I can for her right now,” Miles cut Gwen off, avoiding meeting her eyes. “She’s as safe as I can get her at the moment, and I’ll be keeping an eye on her. We’ll get her out, but first we’re going to figure out what Murdock’s up to and put a stop to it.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Gwen asked, concerned about the risk he might be taking. “You’ve already lost enough for one day, Miles.”

Bowing his head, Miles answered, “If I’m wrong… That’s on me. The city needs saving, and you have as much reason to walk away as I do, but we both signed up for this job. Murdock’s not getting away, not when we’re this close, and I’m not letting you spring his trap on your own. So let’s get to work.”

With that said, Miles jumped off of his streetlight and headed towards the front entrance of the building. Sighing, before Gwen followed him, she thought aloud, “I can’t tell if I like his all-business attitude or if I really hate it.”

Then, shooting a web line onto the wall of the building in front of herself, Gwen jumped off of her own streetlight and swung towards the front door. As she passed Miles, she quickly called to him, “Race ya inside!”

It turned out to be not much of a race, as Gwen kicked her way inside the doors a second after she’d announced the race, not giving Miles - who’d taken the stairs - much of a chance. When he finally caught up to her, walking casually into the building, he told her, “You’re lucky those doors weren’t rigged. We just talked about this being a trap.”

“And you’re just jealous that I won the race,” Gwen shot back.

“You cheated,” Miles responded, walking past her and towards the stairwell at the back of the room.

Smirking smugly beneath her mask, Gwen retorted, “I didn’t cheat, I was just smart about it. After all, my opponent had super-speed."

Tilting his head with interest at her statement, Miles said, “Huh. You know, you’re completely right.”

Suddenly having a bad feeling where this was going, Gwen started to warn him, “Wait, don’t-”

“Race you upstairs!” Miles told her, then suddenly disappeared in a blur of light heading up the stairs.

Not wanting to be outdone, at least not easily, Gwen ran forward until she stood at the bottom of the stairwell then began to jump upwards, leaping back and forth off the sides of the different flights of stairs to climb to the top floor as quickly as she could.

As she’d expected, she arrived at the top after Miles did, and she rolled to a stop in front of him on the top landing to point a finger in his face as she accused him, “Now who’s the cheater? You double cheated!”

However, Miles didn’t respond, and after a moment, Gwen realized that he wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, he was staring silently at something behind her, the eyes of his mask wide.

Curious as to what it was, Gwen turned her head to see what had gotten Miles’ attention and her eyes also grew wide as she saw a sight that immediately drove her playful argument with Miles completely from her mind.

Laying outside the office door directly across from the stairs were five bodies. They were all more intact than the ones the two vigilantes had seen outside, but were otherwise very similar, all of them wearing the same uniform. Four of them were arranged approximately equally around the fifth to form a sort of “X” shape on the ground, and strangely all sported the same wounds, a hole in their goggles, most likely indicating that they’d all been killed by a bullet through the eye.

The one in the center of the group seemed the worst off, however, laying right outside the center office with some sort of cylindrical metal canister jammed inside his mouth, holding it open, as unknown visible fumes exited his body through his nose, ears, and tear ducts.

After a moment’s silence, Miles walked forward until he stood next to the man in the center and held one of his gauntleted hands over where the fumes were exiting the man’s body, watching how the gas curled around his hand before finally reporting to Gwen, “It’s just smoke. Nothing harmful.”

“Yeah, tell that to him,” Gwen argued, gesturing with her head at the man below Miles whose cause of death had clearly been the smoke.

“I meant nothing toxic. He was asphyxiated, not poisoned,” Miles explained to her.

Giving the surrounding area a quick look, Gwen added, “Yeah. And whoever or whatever did this to these guys was fast.”

“How do you figure?” Miles asked, kneeling down by the man and closely examining the canister in his mouth.

“They were never this bad, but I’ve seen my fair share of post-fight crime scenes in the past,” Gwen answered. “Don’t you notice anything weird about this one?”

Looking around just as Gwen had done, Miles observed, “Hmm. You’re right. No bullets, casings, or holes. The police never managed to fire a single shot before they were all killed. And Spider-Man doesn’t use guns, especially not normal ones. What could’ve happened here?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” came a voice from their left, and Miles jumped back to his feet before backing up so that he stood side-by-side with Gwen, defensively facing the direction that the voice had emanated from.

Once Gwen had taken up her own defensive stance, she had the presence of mind to recognize who it was that she saw coming out of the office to the right of the one that she could only assume was Murdock’s. Having never heard this man speak before, Gwen hadn’t been able to place him by what he’d said, but upon seeing him, his identity came back to her in perfect clarity. After all, it was quite difficult for one to forget the enormous figure that belonged to Wilson Fisk.

“Ms. Stacy, Mr. Morales,” Fisk greeted the two teenagers as he stepped towards them, gingerly avoiding stepping on the bodies of the police on the floor, and folded his hands in front of himself calmly as he arrived a few feet in front of them. “I hope you know the punishment for breaking and entering in the state of New York?”

“Under a year in prison and a fine,” Miles responded, apparently having given it a bit of thought in the past.

Gwen then added, “Also, we didn’t exactly break in. The door was unlocked. But more importantly, do you know the punishment for domestic terrorism?”

Fisk didn't answer, but his expression became more hard at that comment.

“What happened to these cops, Fisk?” Miles demanded.

“As I said, I truly don’t know,” Fisk answered. “I was working in my office during it all. I barely even noticed the scuffling in the hallways.”

“Then tell me where the avocado is,” Miles ordered next, confusing Gwen for a moment before she remembered that “Avocado” was the codename that Miles’ old mission organizer, Mr. Nelson, chose to go by. “Maybe he saw something.”

“Nelson?” Fisk asked, looking amused. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Morales. Franklin Nelson was more blind than my son has ever been. He had nothing but blind devotion to his partner in law. It was only recently that he finally saw the true scope of Matthew’s… forgive me for saying, but Matthew’s vision, and chose to abandon him.”

Gwen shared a glance with Miles, wondering if he’d ever seen anything to convince him that this claim was undoubtedly false, but Miles said nothing. Quickly proceeding on to the next order of business, Gwen said, “Alright, fine. But you’re under arrest, Fisk. You and Murdock both.”

Raising an eyebrow, Fisk asked, “Really? And why would that be?”

Confused, Gwen said, “Uh, why do you think? The whole ‘city invasion’ thing? Everything with Spider-Man and the Raft prisoners and whatnot?”

To Gwen’s building perplexity, Fisk looked surprised at everything she was saying and asked, “‘City invasion’? The Raft? You mean those supervillains you’ve locked up? (Quite heroically, I might add.) What are you talking about?”

“He’s flattering. He’s trying to confuse us,” Miles told Gwen quietly.

It’s working, Gwen thought to herself, still not at all familiar with Fisk and not knowing where he was going with this. “Don’t you know what we’ve done today?” Gwen asked, starting to feel somewhat unsure.

At that, Fisk glared at them and said, “All I know is that you’re trespassing here. So you can either leave, or I can make you leave.”

Ah, a fight. Finally, something that made sense again.

Looking at Miles, Gwen asked, “Is your mom still downstairs?”

Miles returned her gaze and hesitantly responded, “Yeah, why?”

“I’ll handle Big Bubba over here and keep Murdock from escaping while you get her out of here. All right?” Gwen suggested.

Seeming shocked at the proposition, Miles looked at Fisk, then back to her, and asked, “Are you sure about that? What about the trap?”

“So far, it looks like Fisk is the only ‘trap’ here,” Gwen told him. When he still looked hesitant, Gwen added, “After dealing with Fisk, I’ll wait right here for you, and we’ll arrest Murdock together. But your mom needs you, Miles. Go take care of her.”

Miles once again gave Fisk a quick look, seemingly trying to decide if he really wanted Gwen fighting him alone (which didn’t insult her at all except a little or maybe a lot), then finally looked back at Gwen to tell her, “Make sure to leave a bit of him for me.”

Smirking, Gwen responded, “I’ll do my best.”

Miles placed an encouraging hand on Gwen’s shoulder one last time, then turned and dashed out of the room.

After Gwen had watched him leave, she heard Fisk tell her, “Perhaps you should go with your friend, Spider-Woman. For both of your sakes. Some things… You don’t want to see the second option.”

Turning back to him with a look of amusem*nt, Gwen asked, “Do you seriously still believe that you guys can win this city?”

“It’s a very rare occasion that any situation is too far gone to be fixed by enough dedication, desire, and strength of will,” Fisk pointed out.

“Oh, trust me, I know,” Gwen responded, taking a few steps closer to the overlarge man. “I mean, I just spent my morning cleaning up your son’s mess, didn’t I? Probably gonna spend the rest of my day doing the same.”

Fisk seemed to be getting impatient with her, and Gwen had to resist the urge to flinch as he suddenly raised his voice considerably from his usual, softer tone. “Do you not see?” Fisk demanded from her, his voice somehow both still mostly reserved yet extremely forceful at the same time. "The time had finally come for the world to see the truth! The wait was finally over!"

"You know, I didn't want to say it myself, but you have a point," Gwen responded, her brave attempt at remaining serious throughout this conversation finally failing her. "I mean, what are you? 400-500 pounds?"

There was a pause, then Fisk confusedly questioned, "What?"

"Oh, was that not what you meant?" Gwen asked in mock concern. "Well, now this is just awkward."

It took Fisk a second to connect what Gwen was saying, but finally he looked down at his body in realization before looking up at the ceiling and letting out a sigh of exasperation.

“What? Not even a chuckle?” Gwen asked. “Let me guess, it was too vague a joke. Only works in context. Don’t worry, I can fix that. I’ve got more.” And so, putting her finger to her chin in thought, Gwen looked Fisk over for a second before snapping her fingers as an idea hit her and she said, “Ooh, I know! Hey, Willie. I know why you’re worried about going to prison, but don’t fret. You can ask the police for fitness protection.”

Fisk’s eyes widened at the offensive joke, but he said nothing to it, speechless at Gwen’s words.

“Still nothing?” Gwen asked, but as Fisk opened his mouth to say something, she held up a finger to stop him and said, “No, no, wait, I’ve got a better one. Um… Wilson Fisk wears a white coat so when he commits crimes, witnesses claim they saw a white van fleeing the scene.”

Once again, Fisk was too appalled by her daring and enraged at her words to form a proper sentence, but this time he managed to glare at her and growl out, “Why, you little-”

“Okay, one more, one more,” Gwen cut him off, a big grin now stretching across her face beneath her mask. She then cleared her throat and said, “When you check into a hotel alone, the receptionist asks, ‘How many rooms?’”

Finally, Fisk’s level of indignation had reached its peak, and he roared with anger before charging at Gwen.

Still smiling assuredly, Gwen prepped herself to meet Fisk’s charge and used his head as leverage to vault over him as he reached her, then spun around to face him again as she pretended to hold up a matador’s cape to her side and provoked him, “Toro! Toro!”

Perhaps getting overconfident had been a bad idea, though. As Fisk responded to Gwen’s incitement by turning around and charging towards her again, Gwen attempted to spin out of his way at the last second, but Fisk had anticipated it. His hand shot out with surprising speed and grabbed Gwen’s wrist to pull her back in front of himself. He then punched her across the face, somehow actually hurting her despite being - as far as Gwen could tell - a normal human, and knocking her off balance so that Fisk could then dash into her and knock her back with his shoulder.

Gwen flew several feet before finally landing on her back hard, then looked up to see Fisk standing above her once again, both of his fists raised above himself to slam back down onto her chest. Not exactly excited at the prospect, Gwen quickly shot a burst of webbing to cover the man’s eyes, and though it staggered him enough to stop him from hitting her with both of his hands, it didn’t have quite as much of an effect as Gwen had hoped. Instead, it only seemed to make him angrier, and Fisk scowled as he pulled the webs off of his face before reaching down with a yell of rage to grab Gwen around the throat before lifting her up into the air and turning to throw her across the room.

Fortunately, though he may be surprisingly strong, clearly made of muscle rather than fat, Fisk was still just a human, one who would already be dead had Gwen not been holding back, and she was able to recover from him throwing her while still in the air, letting herself fall onto the floor before she bounced back up to stick to the wall behind her. Her hands and feet holding onto the wall behind her back, Gwen faced Fisk and said, “Alright, alright, I get it. Bullfighting isn’t for me. That’s okay, I can always go back to my old hobby of crime fighting.”

“You. Ruined. EVERYTHING!” Fisk yelled back at her. “Everything I ever worked for!”

“Then maybe it’s you that needs a new hobby,” Gwen responded. “You ever try knitting? Golfing? Canasta?”

Fed up with Gwen’s talking, Fisk let out a yell and once again ran towards her, and as Gwen jumped forward to meet him, she told him, “Sumo wrestling! Genius!”

Miles POV

When Miles had first been informed that his mom had been kidnapped, oddly enough, his first feeling hadn’t been anger. Instead, it had been relief.

Perhaps it made him a terrible person, and it certainly wasn’t something that he felt like telling Gwen about, but Miles had actually spent most of the day with most of his mind preoccupied with worrying about where his mom was, wondering if she was safe. Maybe it was selfish, that Miles should be so concerned about where his own family was when the entire city was drowning in chaos, but he couldn’t help it.

Deep down, he felt that Gwen was right. Hadn’t he lost enough? At what point did someone’s tragic origin story end?

He’d been so worried about his mom, knowing where she was or what might be happening to her while he was fighting supervillains and whatever, and being shown where his mom was had been an immense relief to Miles. He’d even considered her relatively safe, only watched over by spider-bots, which were sort-of controlled by Miles at times.

Of course, he’d still destroyed Spider-Man’s remote, not wanting to take any chances that the drones wouldn’t listen to him, but after this, Miles promised himself to reinforce the spider-bots’ programming, placing them fully under his control and letting them take a more active role in crime prevention in the city with Spider-Man out of the way.

Spider-Man. The very name sent waves of hatred down Miles’ spine, and had he not thought that Gwen technically had first dibs on him being her nemesis, considering their similarities, Miles would’ve gladly considered Spider-Man to be his worst enemy. After what Spider-Man had done to his uncle, and apparently his dad as well, Miles felt more anger towards that man than he’d known he could feel.

He didn’t care what it took, Miles was going to make sure that Spider-Man got put in the darkest hole the law would allow after this and never saw the light of day again. No matter how smart Octavius was, he wasn’t going to work his way out of his punishment, not on Miles’ watch. But for now, Miles had to undo one of Spider-Man’s many crimes. Sadly, it was perhaps the only one left that could be undone at this point.

As he approached the place where he could see his mom’s heat signature glowing, Miles felt that danger surrounded him on all sides, making him watch every wall and check over his shoulder regularly. Not because he saw threats appearing, but rather due to the exact opposite.

In his mind, Miles was convinced that his scanners had to be getting fooled somehow, because he didn’t believe for a second that the headquarters of the Kingpin was truly, as it appeared to be, completely deserted. He didn’t know of the condition of the Spiderlings that he and Gwen had fought, but they had missed plenty. There should be at least a dozen or more of those fascist soldiers running around this place, so why didn’t Miles see any? He met no opposition as he approached the office in which his mom was being held, and that fact unnerved Miles more than if he had been faced with a veritable army.

When he finally arrived at his mom’s makeshift prison, Miles hesitantly opened the well-oiled door soundlessly to reveal the very sight that he had seen in Spider-Man’s hologram image. His mom was bound to a cushioned wooden chair in the center of the room, a gag around her mouth and a spider-bot sitting motionless on her shoulder, awaiting the kill order that Miles had now ensured would never come.

Miles walked into the room slowly, not wanting to startle his mom, but upon noticing that she actually looked more scared than reassured at the sight of his slow approach, Miles instead put up his hands in surrender and told her, “It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to rescue you.”

Rio didn’t respond, currently being physically unable to, but Miles allowed his actions to confirm his words for her and walked up behind his mom before using his claws to easily cut the ropes that bound her. As soon as her hands were free, Rio reached up to her face and pulled the gag away from her mouth before turning to glare at Miles and asking him, “What are you doing here?”

Having expected something like this from her, Miles responded, “I told you, I’m here to rescue you. And look, I know you may have heard some bad things about me on TV, but I need you to-”

“If you’re really here to help me, then tell me where my son is!” Rio demanded, cutting Miles off.

Shocked into silence and somewhat nervous about what Spider-Man may have told her, Miles asked, “Er… Your son?”

“Miles!” Rio yelled, unknowingly making the very person that she spoke of jump a little in fright as he always did when his mom got mad at him. “Miles Morales! He’s my son, and he’s in danger! That… That Spider-Man, he said he was going after my son next, and I don’t know where he is! Just before I got kidnapped, I called my son’s school and asked them if they’d seen Miles, but apparently they thought he was with me! So I don’t know where he is, and that Spider-Man’s going to find him before I do, and I-!”

Desperately trying to calm her down, Miles kneeled down in front of her with his hands outstretched to calm her and said, “A ver, cálmate, por favor. Cálmate.”

After a few seconds, Rio managed to calm down a little, though her expression was still full of worry, and Miles told her, “Whoever your kid is, this… Miles? I promise you, I’m gonna find him. I’ll make sure he comes back to you, but right now, you need to get out of here.”

Shaking her head, Rio protested, “No, there’s no time! Spider-Man-!”

Speaking over her softly, Miles told her, “I already took care of Spider-Man. He’s not getting your son today, ma’am. And I’ll find your son and send him to find you, but he needs to be able to find you. The streets are dangerous right now, and this building’s the worst of them all, so you need to get out of here. Go to the nearest police precinct and find somewhere to hunker down. I’ll send your son to find you there.”

However, upon hearing that, Rio’s face became set with determination and she said, “No.”

Confused, Miles asked, “No?”

“No,” Rio repeated firmly, standing up from her chair and looking down on Miles. “You said the streets aren’t safe? People are hurt? I’m a nurse at Brooklyn General Hospital. When you find my son, tell him to come find me there.”

And with that, Rio began to walk out of the room, leaving Miles to look after her, dumbfounded, and call out, “Hey, wait, no! It’s not safe to-!”

Unfortunately, Rio was already gone, having made her plan and delivered her orders to the Prowler, leaving no room for argument. Miles walked out of the office after her and saw his mom heading down the hall fearlessly, as though her kidnapping had been nothing more than a temporary inconvenience. Miles briefly considered going after her to escort her to the police station or hospital, wherever she was going, but soon decided that even if his concerns about the building not being as empty as it seemed proved true, any threats that got in his mom’s way when her mind was made up like this would be lucky to avoid somehow ending up as her medical assistant.

And so, relatively certain that his mom would be able to take care of herself, Miles instead walked down the hall in the opposite direction and began heading back upstairs, ready to finish with the Kingpin and get back to keeping the promise he’d just made to his mom.

Upon arriving back upstairs, Miles found that the room no longer looked quite as neat as it had been when he’d left it. (It may seem morbid to acknowledge, but yes, the quintuple-murder had looked just that, stunningly neat.) Now, two couches were broken, a glass table lay shattered in one corner, and there was a Fisk-fist-sized hole in the wall to his left, but above all the wreckage stood Gwen, panting heavily as she looked down on a seemingly-unconscious Wilson Fisk.

Walking towards her, Miles told her, “Okay, now we’re ‘breaking and entering.’”

Looking back at Miles at the sound of his voice, Gwen argued, “He started it.”

“Really?” Miles asked as he passed her and Gwen fell in line beside him. “You didn’t even aggravate him with a joke?”

Shrugging, Gwen responded, “Maybe one or two.”

Smirking to himself beneath his mask, Miles nodded in satisfaction as he and Gwen stepped past the bodies of the dead cops and finally arrived outside Murdock’s office door. Pushing the double doors open, Miles and Gwen stepped into the Kingpin’s office side-by-side.

Immediately, they noticed several things about the office. First of all and most importantly, Murdock was indeed sitting at his desk, his fingers threaded in front of himself on the surface of the desk as he faced the doorway with interest, clearly having heard the doors open to allow someone entry.

The other details of the room, however, were more disturbing.

For one, the window directly behind Murdock’s desk was shattered, a large hole in it and what looked like blood running down the bottom of the remaining glass pane. It seemed to Miles that the two SWAT officers on the steps outside had most likely fallen out of this particular window. The question was who had caused it to happen.

And last but not least, there were two additional bodies in the room, yet another pair of cops, slumped over on either side of the doorway. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised them at this point, but their injuries were certainly intriguing to Miles. He could see that both of them sported identical fatal injuries in the form of half of Murdock’s walking cane sticking out of their necks. And once again, just as with outside, Miles noted that not a single bullet had been fired in here. That was another four officers who had died apparently without a fight.

As Miles continued to analyze the scene, hoping for more evidence to explain what had happened here, Gwen tore her eyes away from the dead soldiers first and looked at Matt to tell him, “It’s over, Murdock. You’re over.”

“Am I?” Murdock asked, sounding genuinely curious. “And, uh, if you don’t mind my asking, who exactly is it that’s decided that?”

Miles shared a look of exasperation with Gwen, then told Murdock, “You know who, Murdock.”

“Ah, yes,” Matt agreed with a nod. “Mr. Morales and Ms. Stacy. The Petrifying Prowler and the Spectacular Spider-Woman. Forgive a poor, blind man, but your voice is much more recognizable than Ms. Stacy’s, Mr. Morales.”

Clearly not wanting to waste any more time than they had to here, Gwen asked, “What happened to the police officers that came here?”

“The police are here?” Murdock asked, sounding surprised, then put his hands up and said, “You got me, officers! I confess and surrender myself to you! And don’t worry, I already know my Miranda’s Rights.”

“The police are dead, Murdock,” Miles told him seriously, not buying his act.

Putting a hand over his heart in shock, Murdock said, “Oh, dear. What a tragedy. My condolences to their families.”

“What happened to them, Murdock?” Gwen repeated.

Smirking, Murdock said, “How should I know? I’m blind. Maybe they tripped.”

“Nine highly-trained cops in full protective gear tripped and died trying to get into a room with no step?” Gwen asked disbelievingly.

“It’s those goggles they wear,” Murdock responded, as though it was the obvious explanation. “Good for protection, but somewhat vision-impairing. Or so I’ve heard. I can’t really validate it myself.”

“Murdock, two fell out your window and two more have half of your cane sticking out of their heads,” Miles mentioned. “That’s almost half of them that died in your office. You must’ve heard or known something about it.”

Shrugging, Murdock easily excused himself, “I don’t know. I think I might’ve heard something, but I was reading a magazine at the time.”

“You’re-!” Gwen started to protest, then took a deep breath to calm herself as she realized that the Kingpin was messing with them. She then said, “Fine. The police will figure out who did all this. But you’re still under arrest, Murdock. Are you going to come quietly?”

“You know, I wasn’t aware that vigilantes were now being permitted to make arrests in this city,” Murdock noted with interest. “Or perhaps you’re simply going to deliver your own special brand of justice so that the police can take me. Yes, that must be it. Well, I’m sure they’ll be here soon, so I’ll play along. What exactly am I being arrested for?”

“Conspiracy to murder, extortion, racketeering, domestic terrorism, ruining people’s lives, etcetera, etcetera, with that annoying little smirk of yours at the top of the list,” Miles reminded him, indeed glaring at Murdock’s infuriatingly smug little grin as he said it all.

Nodding in appreciation, Murdock acknowledged, “Quite the list. Though as a lawyer, I must tell you that you missed hundreds of other charges.”

“Then you admit to being involved in everything we’ve said and more?” Gwen asked.

His grin widening at that, Murdock answered, “Gladly.”

“How could you?!” yelled a voice from behind Miles and Gwen, and they both turned around just in time to jump out of the way as a practical freight train came barreling towards them.

However, after it had passed them, only then did Miles and Gwen realize that Wilson Fisk, newly reawakened, hadn’t been aiming at them. Instead, they watched in shock as Fisk ran into the room with surprising speed and grabbed Murdock by the throat before lifting him up in the air and spinning to slam the smaller man’s back against the wall.

Then, as Murdock struggled for air, Fisk demanded, “Is that what this has all been?! All this time… You were involved in crime?!”

Murdock grasped helplessly at Fisk’s large hand around his throat for a moment. Then, the blind man finally managed to regain some semblance of his usual smirk as he answered, “Yes, I was. And I’d do it again… Dad.”

With a yell of rage, Fisk turned around once again and threw Matt across the room, making him land on his face on the floor, his circular glasses falling off of his face in the air. As Fisk then stepped towards his adopted son once again, stepping on his glasses as he went and shattering the red-tinted lenses, he told him, “I said we were getting out of this! Going legitimate! And you went behind my back?”

Looking up at Fisk with a large cut on his forehead, Matt spat out, “I had to.” Fisk yelled once again and smacked Murdock across the cheek, knocking him back to the floor.

For several moments, Miles and Gwen had watched all this unfold without moving to interfere, too shocked and confused to move, but finally Gwen said what they were both thinking. “What in the world is happening?” Gwen exclaimed.

Still wearing his expression of complete loathing and disappointment as he continued looking at his adopted son, Fisk said, “I’m sorry, Ms. Stacy. I attacked you for intruding and threatening my disabled son, but if I’d known what sort of monster you were pursuing, I would’ve helped you instead.”

Expectably, that didn’t really clear anything up for Gwen, and she requested elaboration by saying, “Huh?”

Finally looking at her as Murdock didn’t seem to be moving anymore, Fisk told Gwen, “My son betrayed me. I was trying to go straight, turn him into a businessman like me… but instead it seems that he followed in the footsteps of my old self.”

Finally starting to process what was being said, Miles asked, “Wait, you expect us to believe that you… didn’t know about what he really was?” Fisk’s excuses were spotty at best, and after once working with him for the Kingpin, Miles didn’t believe for a second that Fisk had been so close to Murdock without knowing of his true nature. Nelson was one thing, but Fisk? Miles wasn’t buying it.

“Believe what you want, Mr. Morales, but my words are true,” Fisk told him, then pointed down at Murdock and added “And I will see my disgraceful excuse for a son meet the proper punishment for his crimes.”

Having an idea for why Fisk might be so abruptly turning on Murdock, as an excuse to get out of his own punishment, Miles narrowed his eyes at the large man and told him, “You know that you’re still going to prison too, right?”

Looking down shamefully, Fisk responded, “Yes. Even unknowingly, I helped my son commit numerous atrocities. I must also pay the price that is due.” And with that said, Fisk took a couple steps away from Murdock and got down on his knees, placing his hands behind his head in surrender.

Miles raised his eyebrows beneath his mask at the sight. He still didn’t believe for a moment that Fisk had done any of what he’d done unknowingly, but when the man wasn’t resisting the punishment for his own crimes, what sort of game was he playing? He was willing to betray Murdock and still go to prison… So what was Miles even fighting against?

Miles shared one last look of perplexed indecision with Gwen, then looked back at Fisk and Murdock - the latter of whom was now managing to pull himself back up onto his hands and knees, spitting out a glob of blood - and told them, “Er… Alright. Well, I guess you’re both under arrest, then.”

“Yes, I won’t resist,” Murdock said in a shaky voice, clearly badly affected by the beating he’d just received. He then stretched out one hand in the direction of Miles’ voice and said, “Just… Mr. Morales, if you’d hand me my spare cane. I seem to have misplaced my other one…”

Not impressed at how Murdock referred to to what had happened with his other cane, though admittedly he may really have no idea where it had gone (if he’d forgotten that Miles already told him), Miles looked around the room and saw what was clearly Murdock’s spare walking cane, standing up against one of the walls. It was shorter than his normal one and completely red instead of red and white, but it was still very clearly a blind man’s cane.

Gwen POV

Sighing in resignation, Miles walked across the room to grab Murdock’s cane as Gwen stepped forward and began securing Fisk’s hands with her webs acting as makeshift handcuffs.

She began wrapping a line of webbing several times around his wrists, somewhat embarrassed that Fisk had recovered so quickly from her knocking him out the first time and not wanting a repeat of it. Of course, it had all worked out in the end and neither Gwen nor Miles had been forced to hit a blind man, but it had still been a strange occurrence for Fisk to wake up and suddenly attack Murdock, whom clearly both Gwen and Miles had thought was employing Fisk with the larger man’s full knowledge. Gwen had even thought that Fisk was one of the few, if not the only person that Murdock trusted completely. So much for that theory…

Suddenly, Gwen’s Spider-Sense began to tingle, and she stopped wrapping up Fisk’s wrists as she looked up in anticipation of something bad about to happen. Vaguely, she heard Fisk in front of her ask, “Spider-Woman? Is something wrong?”, but Gwen could barely hear him. Her body automatically tensed up in preparation for some sort of surprise attack, but she still couldn’t see the incoming threat.

Then, while Gwen was distracted waiting for something obvious, she also noticed in the distant background as Miles walked back over to Murdock, who was once again on his feet now, and handed him his cane as he said, “Here you go, Kingpin. Now you’ll be able to find your prison cell.”

“Ah. Thank you, Mr. Morales,” Murdock responded as he grasped the cane and began shifting his hands around on the handle, trying to find a comfortable grip. Then, he abruptly twisted the handle slightly sideways, and Gwen’s Spider-Sense increased in intensity.

Finally, Gwen determined the source of the danger and tried to say, “Look out!”, but it was too late. With some of the fastest movement Gwen had ever seen, Murdock pulled upwards on the handle of his cane, causing the handle to separate from the rest of the cane and reveal that the handle was actually attached to a shining metal blade hidden inside the cane, then slashed it towards Miles’ face.

“No!” Gwen called out, but she could do nothing to stop it as Murdock’s blade impacted against Miles’ mask in a shower of sparks, causing him to stumble backwards with a yell of surprise.

Then, Fisk echoed Gwen’s cry of “No!” as he also saw the event happen, then broke through the webs around his wrists with his sheer strength to jump at Murdock, knocking his sword away before the man mountain that was Fisk fell on top of his former boss and began hitting him repeatedly.

Normally, Gwen might’ve been insulted that Fisk had managed to fight his way out of her webs, but at the moment she had only one concern. Quickly running over by Miles, Gwen placed a hand on her boyfriend’s shoulder and placed her other hand on his chin, trying to examine the damage he’d received while asking, “Miles? Are you okay? Did he get you?”

Miles was silent for a moment, then nodded and looked up at Gwen to tell her, “I’ m alright. I’m alright.” His modulated voice faded in and out as he spoke, somewhat filled with the sound of static as well, and looking at his mask, Gwen could see why. Murdock’s sword had left a deep cut down one side of his mask, running over his right eye and leaving the whole structure damaged, his electronic eyes and their magenta highlights flickering as the whole thing glitched from the damage it had sustained, but fortunately it seemed that Miles’ protective mask had saved him from getting hurt himself.

Letting out a breath of relief, Gwen patted Miles on the shoulder and told him, “Good. No more helping the disabled without my say-so, okay?”

Chuckling to himself as he reached up with one hand to examine the damage to his mask, Miles told her, “Deal.”

Once she was reassured that Miles was alright, Gwen turned back to Fisk, who was still repeatedly striking Murdock across the face and yelling, “No more! You won’t hurt anyone else!”

Though part of Gwen thought that Murdock deserved a bit of punishment for the trick he’d played on Miles that had almost gotten him badly hurt, she shot a line of webbing onto Fisk’s raised fist to stop him from throwing another punch and said, “Fisk. He’s down.”

Hearing that, Fisk had to take several breaths to calm himself but soon got off of Murdock and once again got on his knees with his hands behind his head, then said, “Just… make sure he never gets out of prison. Ever.”

“You got it,” Gwen responded with a nod.

Just then, the office door was thrown open once again and half a dozen PDNY officers burst into the room carrying automatic rifles which they aimed at all four of the people that had already been in the room. After a moment, Gwen and Miles both raised their hands, Miles’ appearance still frightening some of them into fidgeting uncomfortably as he turned to face them.

However, after a few seconds, one officer stepped forward from behind the rest, whom Gwen recognized as Yuri Watanabe, her dad’s old lieutenant. She looked around the room at the damage that had been done, the bodies and the bloodied windows, Fisk surrendering himself willingly and Murdock lying beaten on the ground, then finally at Spider-Woman and Prowler. After a few seconds of silence, Yuri sighed and gestured at Miles and Gwen while telling her officers, “Let those two go. Arrest Murdock and Fisk.”

As Yuri’s orders were followed, Gwen and Miles slowly lowered their hands as Gwen asked, “Are… you sure?”

“The city needs all the help it can get right now, and I’ll work with whoever I have to in order to make sure New York is kept safe,” Yuri said as she walked over by Fisk, then looked back at Gwen and gestured with her head toward the window and continued, “So get out there and do what you do. And don’t make me regret this.”

Surprised but grateful, Gwen nodded at Yuri in appreciation and told her, “We won’t.”

Then, knowing that Miles would follow her as always, Gwen followed the soon-to-be police captain’s orders and ran towards the hole left in Murdock’s window before jumping away from the building and swinging away to resume helping the city.

Line Break

Thirty-eight hours and twelve minutes. Even with Murdock gone for most of it, that’s the total time it took for Spider-Woman, Prowler, and the SWAT and PDNY to get New York City’s crime rates back under control.

Towards the end of that time, some of the criminals had started to realize that they were losing and had retreated back into their holes, meaning that not everyone involved had been captured or even identified, but for the moment, crime in NYC was now at an all-time low. That was perhaps the one silver lining of the Kingpin’s attempted takeover, that most of the city’s criminals had come out of hiding only to be captured, leaving the remaining ones too scared to show their faces. Other than that, though, Gwen could only hope that it had all been worth it.

Yes, they’d taken down the Kingpin and his entire secret network, but the cost had been great. The battle between the Kingpin and New York’s two primary vigilantes had been trying for everyone here, but particularly for Gwen and Miles themselves. Gwen had lost her dad, her only remaining family. Miles had lost his uncle and nearly his mom as well. But they’d done it. After all the time and effort they’d put in, it was finally finished.

The Kingpin’s empire had fallen. His allies were all arrested or in the wind. He and Spider-Man were going to prison for the rest of their lives. His adopted father now hated him. And somehow, through it all, Miles and Gwen were both still alive. They still had each other. The fight of their lives was finally drawing to a close, and they were both still here to tell the tale. That counted as a win in Gwen’s book.

But for a win, it sure hurt an awful lot.

Gwen and Miles arrived on top of one of the eagles on the Chrysler Building, the same place where they had once fought each other, and let out a synchronized groan of pain as they sat down on the edge and finally allowed themselves to relax. Gwen pulled off her mask and sighed in pleasure as she felt the cool wind brush against her face, closing her eyes and finally absorbing the peace of the moment.

However, after a few seconds, she opened her eyes once again to see Miles sitting to her right, not looking quite so relaxed. He was still wearing his mask and stared out at the city in thoughtful silence.

Trying to encourage him to join her in relaxing, Gwen told him, “Come on, Miles. Relax. I think we’ve put in enough overtime.”

Miles didn’t seem to hear her, and a moment later asked, “What would you say if I offered to send you on a vacation?”

Curious as to what he was talking about, Gwen asked, “A vacation? You know, at this point I can’t decide if that’s a legitimate offer or a threat.”

“Just for a couple days.” Miles told her, ignoring her joke. “I have the money now. It wouldn’t be long, just-”

“You wouldn’t be going with me?” Gwen asked, puzzled about why he was offering this.

In response, Miles shook his head and said, “No, I need to do something here,but I just thought- You know, a little time a way from all this.”

Turning to look at Miles suspiciously and seeing how he wouldn’t meet her gaze, Gwen narrowed her eyes and told him, “Miles, look at me.”

Obeying, Miles turned to face her, but his flickering mask still hid his expression, so Gwen told him, “Take off your mask.”

She reached a hand up towards Miles’ face, but one of his own hands shot upwards to catch her wrist before he told her, “I’d… rather not. ”

Not understanding his denial, Gwen looked at him in confusion. It wasn’t like anyone was going to see their faces up here, so what was he worried about? Then, Gwen’s gaze fell upon the long cut running down the side of his mask and her eyes widened in shock. Thinking that she now understood, Gwen used her free hand to grab Miles’ hand off of her wrist before she firmly told him, “Miles, take off your mask now, or I’ll find a way to pry it off myself.”

Hearing her order, Miles sadly looked down before his mask began to unfold itself, struggling slightly where it’d been broken, and finally revealed his face to Gwen’s view, allowing her to see what he had been trying to hide.

As it turned out, Miles’ mask had actually not been enough to protect him completely from Murdock’s sword. As a result, his once-symmetrical facial features were now marred by a scar that ran over his right eye, as well as a few inches of skin above and below it, running down into the corner of his mouth on the lower side. The eyeball itself had been visibly split in half, and it was now completely full of blood, making the entire sphere a bright red that matched the long lines of dried blood running down Miles’ face from the source of the injury.

Her eyes starting to water as she imagined the pain Miles must be in and reaching out with shaking hands, Gwen traced her finger along the side of Miles' face while his remaining eye refused to look at her. After a second of quiet, Miles said without emotion, “It’s really not as bad as it probably looks. The loss of depth perception was the worst part, along with… You know, my peripheral vision on that side.”

Holding back tears, Gwen asked, “You spent the last 24 hours… fighting while learning how to use only one eye?”

Shrugging, Miles answered lowly, “I promised I was staying by you, helping to clean up the city until it was done.”

“Miles, not when something like this happens!” Gwen chastised him with a quiet sob in her throat. “Oh, Miles. I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

Finally looking at Gwen to glare at her, Miles argued, “This is not your fault.”

“It is,” Gwen insisted. “I brought you into this with me. And my Spider-Sense told me-”

“I don’t care if you received a vision of the future, what happened to my eye isn’t on you. I made my own choices,” Miles cut her off, then smirked a little and added, “Something bad finally happened to me when I made a mistake instead of it happening to someone else. Just let me have this.”

“And you just let Murdock get away with it?” Gwen asked, not understanding why Miles hadn’t even shown the slightest sign of anger.

Chuckling slightly in his throat, Miles looked down once again and asked, “What would I have done? An eye for an eye? Something tells me that wouldn’t have done me much good.”

Tears of sympathy finally escaping Gwen’s eyes, she said, “But, Miles… your face…”

“I know, it’s probably a mess,” Miles explained for her, much more bluntly than she would’ve put it. He then looked at her sideways and said, “But I think I can fix it. Hopefully. Maybe. Eventually. That’s why I was offering to send you away, so I could try to get it fixed before you had to see it. But, you know, if you wanted to… I know I don’t look the same anymore, and if that’s not something you want to deal with-”

Suddenly realizing where this was going and not willing to even entertain the idea, Gwen surprised Miles by abruptly grabbing the back of his head and pulling him close to give him a firm kiss on the lips. After a few seconds, Gwen pulled away from Miles and told him, “You are, and always will be beautiful to me, Miles Morales. Inside and outside. And I’m not going anywhere.”

A smile appearing on Miles’ face at that, he placed one hand on Gwen’s cheek and said, “I really don’t deserve you.”

Returning his smile, Gwen told him, “And yet you have me anyway. Tough luck, Prowler.”

Smirking, Miles repeated, “Yeah. Tough.”

Miles leaned in and kissed Gwen once more, then scooted closer to her and allowed Gwen to lay her head on his shoulder as they sat and enjoyed the peaceful moment together, watching the sun go down in the distance.

Line Break

Third Person POV

The truck set to take both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk to prison had provided special accommodations to keep Fisk from trying to attack his adopted son after Acting Captain Watanabe had noted that Fisk had been the one to inflict all of Murdock’s current injuries. They were to be kept apart physically at all times.

However, the police were currently running a bit short on personnel in working condition, so they had forced to put both prisoners in the same vehicle, sitting across from one another. Still, they were given the utmost level of security that the police could afford, considering that they were suspected of being the main causes behind the recent widespread terrorism event that New York had suffered. There were two additional armored vehicles full of armed policemen wearing bulletproof vests acting as escorts, one in front and one behind the prison transport vehicle, and another two similarly decked-out officers sitting inside the transport to keep prisoners under control, though they were both wearing handcuffs shackling them to the floor as a primary precaution already.

However, to the shock of the two officers inside the transport, it seemed that all hostilities between Murdock and Fisk had ceased as soon as they had been closed in here together. Before the doors had closed, Fisk had been glaring unceasingly at his son like he wanted to kill him, but now he actually looked rather bored. Murdock, on the other hand, looked practically excited, apparently eagerly awaiting their arrival at their destination and his subsequent permanent incarceration. But the cops weren’t being paid to deny a blind man or his father of their eccentricities, so they said nothing about it.

Seeing as New York was still considered a danger zone, Ryker’s prison had been deemed unsafe even though its walls hadn’t technically been breached yet, and so Murdock and Fisk were instead being temporarily brought to another prison outside of the city, far from any potential allies they may still have. They would stay there, under heavy guard, until the date for their trials eventually came up and they could be brought back to NYC to be tried, after which they would most likely be sent to Ryker’s to serve the remainder of their sentences.

However, driving on an unmapped road in a forest, with no sounds of the city to distract him and no one speaking for over an hour, Matt quickly became bored and decided to start up a conversation. “Did you ever play chess, Dad?” Matt asked.

The two guards both looked at Matt as the man spoke, but neither of them said anything to silence him.

Fisk looked up at Matt in confusion, then answered hesitantly, “Not in some time, but yes. On occasion.”

“Then I understand that it may be difficult to trust how I play it, given my disability, but I know some of the more important strategies,” Matt said.

Finally, one of the guards spoke up, ordering, “Shut up, convict. No talking.”

Murdock ignored him, however, and continued, “When playing chess, you want to avoid losing pieces. The less pieces you have, the less chance you have to win, the greater chance your opponent has of flanking you and placing your king in check.”

“Hey, what’d I just tell you?” the first guard said, getting annoyed.

His companion didn’t support him, however, just giving him a look and saying, ‘Who cares, Henry? Aren’t you bored?”

The first guard, Henry, gave his friend a look of annoyance but finally just sighed and slumped back in his chair.

Once the silence was restored, Murdock continued, “However, an important part of chess is making sacrifices. You need to know which ties to cut to keep your side alive, increase your chances of winning. Sometimes, you’ll need to sacrifice a pawn or two. Or all of them. And sometimes, you’ll need to sacrifice something more important, like a knight. It limits your options, but it’s necessary in order to protect the king. But you know something? I always considered being a king… somewhat beneath me.”

Now being fed up with this, Henry bit his tongue for a moment longer before finally looking at Matt and telling him, “Alright, that’s enough! You’re no king, you’re just a common criminal! So shut up before I-”

BLAM!

In an instant, Henry was quickly silenced as a bullet hole appeared in his forehead, making him fall back down in his seat, dead.

As the second guard lowered his still-smoking gun, Murdock looked at him and said, “Thank you for that, Williams. You just earned yourself a nice bonus.”

Williams nodded in grateful acceptance and lowered his weapon as he allowed Matt to continue his monologue uninterrupted.

Clearing his throat, Matt resumed, “So anyway, as I was saying, that’s the next part of the game. In chess, you need to manage your more capable pieces carefully. Your rooks, who always strike true, able to be aimed at your enemies from afar as long as you direct them wisely. Your bishops,” he gave an acknowledging nod to Fisk, “who can strike before their positions are fully realized by your opponents. Your knights, who need not be seen at all to attack, working around corners for the perfect trap.”

Suddenly, they all felt the vehicle beginning to pull over onto the side of the road, coming to a stop. Outside, they could hear the sounds of people yelling, followed by numerous grunts and screams.

Fisk and Williams looked around worriedly, not knowing the cause of the sounds, but Matt just continued with what he was saying as though he couldn’t hear what was happening outside, a fond smile coming to his face as he said, “And finally, the most valuable piece of all. The game-changer. The one you want to protect most of all because they’ll protect you just the same.”

Once he’d finished saying all this, all sounds outside the truck ceased completely, and Fisk looked around before asking Murdock, “Matthew? What is this? What’s happening?”

His blind eyes staring blankly forward, Matt continued to smile and held out bound wrists towards Officer Williams. Immediately, Williams took out his keys and began unlocking the handcuffs on Murdock. Once they were off, Murdock rubbed his sore wrists and held out a hand once again, which Williams wordlessly placed his own pistol in.

Once he had the weapon, Matt placed his free hand on Williams’ shoulder before telling him, “Thank you for your loyalty. I’ll make sure your family gets that bonus of yours.” Then, before Williams could process what was being said, Murdock surprised him by pointing his own gun at the man’s face and shooting him at point-blank range, instantly killing him.

Matt then looked towards his adopted father and answered his question, “This… is the game-changer, Dad.”

Fisk opened his mouth to ask what Matt meant, truly not knowing what plan this was, but then he was stopped as the back doors of their transport were pulled open, and Fisk saw a very strange sight.

Standing outside was a dark-haired woman garbed all in tight-fitting black clothing lined with dark red embellishments. Red cloth covered her chest and forearms, and some sort of red cloth like a scarf or something similar covered the lower half of her face. The upper half, however, was covered by a strange, dark red helmet with a pointed nose beneath white-covered slits for her eyes. Most notably, though, were a pair of two-inch, pointed horns sticking out of where her forehead would be, clearly evoking the appearance of the devil, a sight that matched with the pair of bloodied sais clutched in her hands.

As the doors opened, Matt turned to smirk as he looked at the figure and finished, “After all, a king is nothing without his queen.”

A/N: And with that… we have reached the end of this story. Trials of Nature, that is, because I am proud to announce to you all that I have decided to give this one a sequel! You can expect it to be coming out quite soon, but a word of caution first to any hopeful readers. This story followed quite closely to Miles (42) and Gwen’s characters as we’ve seen them in the Spider-Verse movies, or at least how I imagined with the former. The sequel, however, will be somewhat different. It will take place three years after the end of Trials of Nature, when Miles and Gwen are both adults, so there will be some noticeable changes from both this story and any other Spider-Verse content. Other than that, I’m going to try to write it at the same time as another story, Path of Honor, the sequel to my Seeking Justice story, so updates may be slowed down a bit. So if you want, you can just leave this story here. But if you’re willing to accept those conditions and are still interested, then I’ll continue to do my best by you guys. Either way, I thank you for all your support and feedback throughout the writing of this story! Your enjoyment of my work makes it all worthwhile for me, so thank you all for reading!