Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was the summer of 2004. Chicago was a very hot city during these months, and Janette was very much a fan of the autumn and winter. Right now, she had her headphones plugged in as she waited for the light to turn green, signaling the pedestrians to cross the street and the cars to stop. There was a pause inbetween the songs, allowing her to eavesdrop on the people around her. Rumors travel fast, even if it has been at least two months now.

 The crowds would whisper of a spider thief. There was an unknown assailant patroling the dark streets of Chicago at night, catching thieves and robbers in the act, trapping them and stealing their loot. The majority would be strung up in a web, while the ones who tried to put up a fight were found either severely injured or dead. 

 Janette always winced at the mention of her exploits told from the percepective of outsiders, but she always managed to shake them off. She was doing this for a good reason, after all. She crossed the street and took off her headphones completely, resting them on her shoulders as she stared up at the imposing building of Oscorp. She rubbed the outside of her left palm instinctively as she moved to the courtyard.

 The courtyard was bustling with workers on their break, but Janette was not interested in any of them. Her attention turned to the direction of a voice coming from the statue of Nathaniel Oconnell in the center. A red-haired girl waved towards her, calling out greetings. As a result, Janette moved towards her at a faster pace, a smile on her face.

 “Jan!” The girl called out, enveloping the other in a tight hug before she could return her greetings.

 “Nice to see you too, Marie.” Janette choked out, feeling the air knocked out of her from her friend’s hug.

 Marie finally let go after a final squeeze.

 “How have you been? It’s been so long!”

 “It’s been like, a month, Mars.” Janette chuckled. She spotted Harvey a few feet away, fixing his hair. She put on a more relaxed pose, “Harv, it’s just me, not one of your dad’s executives.” she said sarcastically.

 That got a laugh out of the boy, “I know, I know! But you gotta look good, don’t you?”

 Janette shrugged. Self-care for her did not cross the bare minimum. 

 Marie clasped her hands together, “Great. Now come on!” she said as she grabbed Janette’s left arm and Harvey’s right one with each hand as they begun heading inside. “How was practice? Did you have fun?” she asked Janette.

 “Yea, it was aight. I still have plenty of time until uni, so I’m feeling more relaxed.”

 “What about your teachers?” asked Harvey.

 “They’re fine so far. How are you guys?”

 Harvey rubbed the back of his head, “Uh, normal stuff, y’know? Started tutoring for the summer.”

 Janette raised her eyebrow, “Tutoring?”

 “My dad’s gonna kill me if I nearly fail the next semester, too.”

 Janette’s lips formed into an ‘o’ shape before giving an understanding nod. Mr Oconnell could be...difficult.

 “Well,” Marie started, “I think I might have an internship in my hands!”

 “What?” Harvey and Janette said at the same time. “Jinx!” was also said together.

 “Aren’t we too young for internships?” Janette asked.

 “Well, yeah.” Marie admitted, “But this is The Bugle. They accept interns as young as fourteen.”

 “That’s weird.” commented Harvey.

 “Aw, you’re just jealous.” Marie teased.

 Harvey rolled his eyes with a smile, “Oh shut up. All you’ll do is take pictures and write all day.”

 “Good! I like that stuff.” Marie proudly proclaimed.

 “Boring.” Harvey jokingly commented, to which Marie dramatically gasped and bumped into him.

 “Haaaarv!”

 Janette smiled at the sight.

 At the same time, a commossion was happenning inside on of Oscorp’s labs.

 “What do you mean ‘my work was found unfit for the Oscorp product?!” A very angry man shouted.

 “Sorry, mr Trevino, but you must understand the boss’ demands.” The shorter man answered, “Your work has simply been found unethical by the company. I was only sent here to ask you to clean up your desk.”

 “Unethical-My work is crucial to this company!” Trevino angrily shouted. Caged vultures hissed in the backround, their wings flapping wildly. 

 He advanced towards the shorter man, who took one step back for every step forward. 

 “Mr Trevino, please calm down-”

 “Messenger or not, you will listen! It was my research that allowed Oconnell to travel this far!! He would be nothing without me!”

 “Would I, Trevino?” A voice called out from the second level of the Biological Research Laboratory. Nathaniel Oconnell was flanked by two bodyguards as he placed his hands on the railing and continued to talk. “You surely have an impressive image of yourself.”

 The man below stuttered, “Y-You cannot fire me !! I have been keeping this company afloat for years!”

 “You have simply lost your value, Trevino.” Nathaniel explained as he descended the stairs, “The times have changed, and so has the company policy. I, and by extension the company, have no need of you anymore.”

 The older man continued to protest and curse at Oconnell as he was being dragged out of the lab. Omar Odonnell moved to stand next to his boss.

 "I do not think firing him was the right decision, sir."

 Oconnell raised an eyebrow, "Why is that, Odonnell?"

 "He was partially right, sir. His research has gotten us quite far, both in the scientific and eldritch field of work. Perhaps loosing him will cost us more than you and the board thought."

 Nathaniel patted Omar's back, "Oh doctor, you are not looking at all the legal loopholes we can take advantage of. Besides," he continued, "someone as old as he won't stand a chance of defense in today's world."

 Odonnell remained silent.

 The birds in the cages flapped their wings and screamed at their aggravated owner, who was presently in the middle of a raging meltdown back at his apartment. After some long minutes, he settled down on his ruined desk, his right arm supporting his head as he pondered his next move.

 One thing Nathaniel did not calculate, was that Angel was a very very petty man. And as he gazed to one of his birds, then to his ruined bookshelf, and finally on his only intact red velvet chair, an idea formed into his head.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "No, you need to hold it like this." Janette explained to Marie as she showed her how to handle a camera.

 Marie groaned, "Why is this harder than it looks?"

 Harvey laughed next to her, "I thought you liked journaling."

 "At this point, I might as well bring Jan along as my photographer. I do better at writing, anyway."

 Janette retrieved the camera from her friend's hands, "Know your strengths."

 As they were chatting, footsteps could be heard from behind.

 "Harvey? I wasn't aware you had friends over."

 The trio turned around to Nathaniel, only Harvey being the surprised one.

 "O-Oh, sorry dad. Janette just-"

 "Sorry for arriving on such short notice, mr Oconnell, I was just excited to see my friends again." Janette explained, placing each arm over her friends' shoulders.

 Nathaniel did not seem bothered either way, and moved to greet them. It had been a while since Janette had spoken to Nathaniel Oconnell, she knew Harvey didn't like to talk about his dad all that much.

 "And where have you been, Janette?" Nathaniel asked.

 "Been working on myself, sir. My art, mostly."

 "Ah, you always have been an ambitious youngster, haven't you? Your parents must be very proud."

 "I'd say they are, yes." she side-eyed Harvey, who did not look the happiest.

 The talking continued for a minute or two, she didn't feel like paying attention. And then, it came. The ringing in her head that would warn her of impending danger, her 'spider-sense', she called it. She shot her eyes up to the sky, to the ever growing shape blocking the sun.

 "Everyone-LOOK OUT!" Janette shouted, resulting in the others turning to the shape and ducking just as quickly. All but Nathaniel, who was grabbed by the flying terror.

 Janette was freaking out by this point, but the others more than her. She took hold of Harvey.

 "Harvey, listen to me! Get inside and call the cops! Marie, get inside too."

 "Wait-What will you do?"

 "I'll stay up here, I can keep tabs from the skyscraper."

 "Janette! You could die!"

 "Marie, we don't even know what that is. Trust me, go!"

 Harvey left first on a hurry to call the police, and a hesitant Marie followed soon after. Janette moved further behind the wall of the balcony and peered inside her bag.

 "Being a hero ain't my thing, but I can't have Harvey lose his pops."

 With the final touch of her mask, she leapt off the skyscraper, her webs helping her swing through Chicago.

 Meanwhile, Nathaniel was getting wrangled through the air and weaved between buildings by strong and unnaturally large bird legs, their nails feeling like daggers on his skin. Fighting to get through the beating of the wind, he finally managed to look at his abductor. It was a man, or at least, it was. It looked more like a vulture with a man's head stuck to it instead of its natural head. A head he unfortunately recognised very well.

 Angel Trevino, now an abomination.

 "Dragging me around the city won't do you any good, Trevino."

 A raspy voice broke out from the creature's throat, "You will admit my superiority to you, Oconnell. And you will admit that I was the one that kept the experiments with the Void afloat."

 "I will admit no such thing."

 The displeasure was clear in Trevino's face, and his flight speed increased. The air whooshed past his ears and Nathaniel could feel himself slowly slipping from the scavanger's grip. The sensation of being let go at an incredible speed, and falling back against a solid surface, splattered against it, left a very bitter taste in his tongue.

 Suddenly, a web was shot at the vulture's face, causing him to temporarily stop in mid air. A new weight was added to his legs, and even though he couldn't see what it was, Nathaniel could. The notorious spider-woman. She extended a hand to him, and after he took a glance at her, he figured going with her would be the better option. He took her hand, and she dragged him down just enough to bite the vulture's leg with what appeared to be fangs. The monster's grip loosened enough to let Nathaniel go, and for spider-woman to get a hold of the business man and start swinging away from the Vulture.

 Trevino finally removed the web from his face, just in time to catch the spider-woman and Nathaniel Oconnell disappear behind a corner.

 "Who are you?" Nathaniel asked spider-woman as they swung through the city.

 "The mask is there for a reason, sir." she explained.

 "You are a thief. You do realise I can send you to jail."

 "And that's what I get for saving you? Damsels these days."

 Her spider-sense went off again, and she swung down just in time to avoid the Vulture's claws. Lucky, too. She spotted the police station a few blocks away. She swung faster, avoiding any attacks from the Vulture's claws, and unceremoniously dropped Nathaniel in front of the police officers outside the station, who rushed to him immediatelly.

 "The spider-thief! Stop, in the name of the-!"

 The Vulture was ready to abduct Oconnell once again, but was stopped by spider-woman's webbing, this time a rope that stuck to his face and dragged and threw him further away in the city. The cops and Oconnell looked up at her, who had sticked herself on a wall of a building across the station. She then swung to the opposite direction.

 "You're welcome!" she shouted as she made her leave.

 The officers helped Oconnell inside, but the Vulture was far from done. He recovered quickly, and chased after Janette. She cursed under her breath at not being able to easily escape the transformed man.

 "No bug will interfere with my work!!"

 The Vulture swung at her with his wings for arms, Janette noticing the velvet texture on them. She had decided from the start that she only wanted to save Harvey's dad, and not deal with the vulture-man. So she punched him in the face first, then gained more distance. This quickly became a chase, and a constant trade of blows and retreats from Janette's part.

 Finally, she managed to distract Vulture long enough to make an escape.

------------

 "Is your dad gonna be okay?" Marie asked Harvey, who just got off the phone with the police.

 "They say he's fine. We just had to arrange a special unit to come and pick him up from the station." He responded.

 "Better safe than sorry." Janette commented.

 Marie shot a glance her way, "Are you okay? I don't think the Vulture came back."

 "The Vulture?" Did you just give the guy a supervillain name?"

 "Gotta distinguish him from the other Chicago scum."

 "You don't typically see half-vulture half-human hybrids kidnapping businessmen."

 Marie goes to speak, but closes her mouth and she shrugs. Harvey sighs heavily as he gets up.

 "I'm worried. I don't know what to do."

 Janette got up as well to move towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Hey. I'm sure your pops will be okay. He's in good hands."

 Harvey smiled at her, placing his hand on her own that rested on his shoulder, "Thanks, Jan."

 Marie joined them, "I heard the spider-woman helped in the situation."

 Both Janette and Harvey nodded, to which he raised an eyebrow.

 "How did you know that deliquent's involvement?"

 Janette was quick with her response, "I told you I'd stay on the roof and keep watch, didn't I?"

 A reasonable alibi. Janette was always good at lying.

 Charlotte Davidson walked into the room to address the teens, "The escort is on its way to the station.", she looked over to the girls, "I think it would be best if you two headed home."

 Marie and Janette ended up agreeing, for Harvey's sake. The walk was near silent, with occasional journalistic quips from Marie. They ended up splitting to return to their respective homes, and Janette took that opportunity to get in costume again behind an alley and started swinging towards the station. As much as she hated to admit it, the Vulture could not be dealt with so easily.

 Turns out, she was right.

 She was perched on a nearby building to make sure Oconnell was escorted to the car safely. It didn't take long for the Vulture's raspy voice to pierce the air, and the car took off as fast as it could, while Janette followed close behind.

 The Vulture stuck his claws on the roof of the car, attempting to peel it off to get to Nathaniel. A swinging kick from spider-woman threw him off-balance, and he let go as he turned his attention to the masked girl on the car's roof. The bird-man of velvet struck at her with his claws, putting several holes in the car as spider-woman dodged every single blow. Thank the Old Ones for her spider-sense. At one point she did a hand stand and kicked him in the head. She took a crouching step back.

 "You know, I'm all in for dressing up as an animal, but you're damn ugly."

 "Silence!"

 She had to get him away from Oconnell. She webbed him in the face, and carrying herself away with a roped web as well, she threw him off the car and further into the city.

 "Time for a fly, scavanger bird."

 He broke out quicker this time, and nearly caught her off-guard, barely avoiding a slash on her chest. They fought in the air, Janette slowly starting to sweat from the realisation that she knows nothing about fighting in the air like this. She threw punches and kicks as she kept herself suspended both by webbing and by standing on the bird-man. At some point, the red velvet feathers obsocured her view, which allowed Vulture to attack from the side, throwing her off him. She shot a web to a nearby building to gain some distance between them. Oconnell was gone by now, bringing the Vulture's attention fully on the spider-woman.

 "Fuck my life.", she murmured as the fight turned into a back and forth between them. Running, attacking, and running away again. This had to get someone's attention soon.

 And it did. In the middle of their squabble, the turning blades of a helicopter were heard. They both looked up on instinct, didn't look like a news or a police chopper. Janette used that opportunity to punch Vulture in the jaw, making him spit blood as he lost two bottom teeth. Even she was surprised at her strength.

 Acting quickly, she leaped off of him, and onto another building as she run away. The Vulture noticed her escape, but before he could chase after her, he was stopped by a reinforced net. He tried cutting through it with his claws, but to no avail. He fell to the ground, on top of the concrete roof as three men slipped down from the helicopter. They were obsocured by the tall street lights of nighttime Chicago, Trevino only able to see the outlines of their figures. He came to his senses, he recognised the net. It was his invention. His solution to catching the monsters made by any bored god from the Void. He laughed at the irony.

 As he was being loaded into the helicopter, one of the men touched his ear, calling someone.

 "Got the bird, boss. That, and confirmation our little spider-thief is very much not a rumor for the grannies of Chicago."

 On another side of town, Fisk and his most trusted henchwoman, Tombstone, were receiving that information in real time.

 "Did you get more solid evidence than your word, Montana?"

 "All on video, sir."

 "Excellent."

Chapter Text

I don't mind the things that you say
I don't even mind going out of my way
I try and do these things for you
Why should I do it I'm always untrue

Well, I did you no wrong
I did you no wrong
Going out of my head

 Music blasted in Janette’s ears as she shook the spray paint can. She was behind an alley, vandalising the walls with her art. She stepped back to observe her work, a mural of the egyptian deities Anubis and Bast, and smiled as she pushed back the stray hair on her face, only stopping at the barricade of her headphone's bridge. Her spider-sense warned her of nearby cops. To mourn the impending loss of her art, she pulled out her portable camera to take a picture, and quickly sprinted down the alleyway, easily jumping over the metal fences and the brick walls and back out into the street.

I ain't seen you off the screen
But those films are my dreams
And I can't take much more of you
'Cause the bog is no place to see your face

Oh can't you see I'm out of my head
Oh can't you see I'm a little insane
Oh can't you see going out of my head
Oh can't you see I'm really dead

 She walked over to a beat-up store that looked like it was one with the wall. It would close with a metal garage door at night, and that too was covered in art. She opened the door as she took off her headphones, hearing the bell jingling as she went inside. Pleasant music was playing inside the store as well. Dawson was not behind the counter, which prompted Janette to hop over it and head to the back.

 “Marc?”, she called out as she peaked inside the backroom. No response.

 She waltzed inside, taking in the rows of art supplies in the shelves of the dark room. She heard some whispering, and then a thud nearby.

 “Wh-Who’s there?”, a male voice called out from somewhere else.

 “Marc? It’s Janette, you there?”

 A man stumbled out behind another beaded curtain that seperated the only other room in the store, falling on the floor. Janette blinked at him before lowering herself on her knees to help him.

 “You good?”

 Marc took her hand and pushed himself up as she did as well, “Yea, I’m fine. Just...you caught me off-guard.”

 “Well, maybe close up the store-front next time, eh?”, she commented with a smile as she retreated her hands and put them back in her vest’s pockets.

 Marc sighed, “Janette, only you come here these days. I saw no point in closing up while I went to the back.”

 Janette’s expression soured at that. She really loved this store, and Marc was a great guy. It had taken her a while to realise that it was slowly going out of business. 

 “Hey,”, she started, “that just shows that people have no taste these days. If the streets have anything to say about it, art doesn’t last past a few days on the walls.”

 “Fucking coppers.”

 Janette gave him the side-eye, and Marc immediately locked up.

 “S-Sorry-” 

 “Most are, true, but don’t just put my pops into that category.”

 “I would never!”

 “I know, Marc.”, she placed a hand on his shoulder, “You’re a good person, and I’m very lucky to be your friend.”

 Dawson smiled at her, and showed her to the main area.

 “So what did you come here for?”

 Janette ended up leaving with some fabric paint and a few brushes, waving goodbye at Marc as she left. The man sighed as the teenager left the store and looked over at the clock on the wall. Time was passing fast, it was getting close to the time his side job. Marc Dawson closed up the store for the day and left through the back door.

 Bills were becoming even more difficult to pay, so he thanked the gods for that mechanics degree. He crossed the busy streets of Chicago, toolbox in hand, and headed to one of the many smaller Oscorp funded labs in the city. It was a relatively big building, painted a stark white with the only splash of color being the company logo on the front. He maintained eye-contact with it as he went up to the front door and knocked on it.

 He was greeted by a blonde woman with a pixie cut and green eyes. She was wearing a lab coat, making it clear that she was working here.

 "Ah, Marc, I've been expecting you."

 "That sounded kinda ominous, doc."

 She chuckled as she led him inside, "Ah, sorry. I'm not really used to talking to people outside of work these days."

 Marc raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

 "After The Vulture incident, Oconnell has been on edge. Not to mention that the spider-woman has been confirmed to be as real as you and me."

 "Oh yeah, heard about it on the news."

 "Hm. What do you recommend?"

 "Hmm.", Dawson scratched his chin, "I'd recommend trying seeing someone."

 "As in..dating?"

 Marc nodded, and Callie hummed.

 "I suppose I should get back in the dating pool sooner or later."

 Clarke led him past a few researchers studying a tank filled with disfigured eels. Marc turned his attention to the creatures for a split moment, seeing their glowing golden eyes, with fins that would normally belong to a fish and the jaws of a moray, slippery as they swam and slithering among themselves. It was disgusting. Callie Clarke pointed him at an electricity regulator a few feet next to the tank.

 "We want to make sure the energy of those eels is properly conducted and organised. I'm very sure this one reaches your knowledge."

 Marc gave a smirk, "Nothin' about technology I don't know."

 Being left to his devices, and with the murmuring of the scientists along with the occasional beeping of machines behind him, he got to work. First he checked the main panel, removing the layers carefully as he checked the motherboards and wires, making sure everything was in place and ready to function. He even double-checked each layer to make sure of it. He then moved to the rest of the machine, and he lost track of time as he continued with his work, the noises behind him becoming more inaudible.

 As he closed up a panel, he felt a chill run up his spine, and he started to sweat. Where did that come from? And why now? He could feel cold sweat stick his clothes to his body, as he was overwhelmed by a sudden panic.

  Marc.

 His head shot up. Where did that come from?

  Marcus. We are over here.

  He slowly turned his head around, towards the tank with the horrible eels. Were they....speaking to him?

 Golden eyes burned into his brain, and he found himself unable to look away.

  Save us. Save us. Save us.

  They whispered in a hushed, slow voice, ringing inside his head. It was almost like a unison of voices. And then, another voice made its way inside his head.

  You want this, Marcus. Do it, for me.

------------------------------------

I ain't seen you off the screen

But those films are my dreams

And I can't take much more of you

'Cause the bog is no place to see your face

"Why are you drawing eels?" Marie asked.

 That question brought the contents of her sketchbook back to her attention. Janette had drawn several eels, swimming together among some miscellaneous fish. It took up the entire page.

 She shrugged, "I don't know. I guess it just came to me.", she confessed as she rubbed her head with the back of her pencil.

 Marie leaned further on top of Janette's back as she continued to read, making her hunch her back further.

 "You art types are weird.", she commented, which made Janette scoff jokingly.

 "Says the aspiring journalist that doesn't know how to use a camera."

 "Hey!", Marie said as she bumped her back with her elbow.

 "Ow! Marie, you don't need to ruin my back more than it already is."

 "That's because you're hunched over all the time."

 "You are literally lying on my hunched back."

 "Oh, right."

 The red-head moved to sit in a more normal position. They were sitting on the roof of her dad's cafe, the music from inside filling the area along with the patrons both inside and outside the establishment. Marie looked at Janette's shirt. It was a black tank top decorated with safety pins and a verse from 'Sex Pistols' painted on the side with white fabric paint.

 "Where did you buy that?"

 "I made it from an old tank top."

 "Since when did you start crafting your own clothes?"

 "Recently."

 Marie continued to talk as Janette's head begun to ring so loud her ears felt like they were clogged like a school toilet. She rubbed her ears, growing more concerned and annoyed by the second. Marie's voice felt like it came from underwater. She started slapping the side of her head, the ringing finally fading away.

 "-dude! What the fuck are you doing?!", Jill asked as she tried to stop her friend from slapping the side of her head.

 Janette finally came to her senses and packed her art supplies, slinging her backpack on her back.

 "I want to get down.", she said, already heading to the roof's exit stairs.

 "O-Oh,", Marie started as she got up to follow her, "are you okay? Did you get dizzy or what? Do you need the bathroom?"

 "I just-I have a bad feeling."

 Marie Jill seemed to at least partially understand her friend's distress, and followed her down. Janette could see that she was on the ready to catch her in case she would fall. They had been on that situation before, about a year ago when Janette fell on her back on top a a flight of stairs and nearly passed out from the shock.

 "Why are you so jumpy all of a sudden?"

 "I-I don't know, okay?"

 They finally reached the main store area, and Marie's dad spotted them as they were coming down from the roof's staircase.

 "Girls, are you okay?"

 "Yeah, but Jan's not feeling too well, so that's why we came down."

 "Oh! Are you okay, Janette?"

 Janette paid no attention to the two, instead moving past tables and to the front display window to look outside, the patrons she was passing through throwing questions at her. She squinted at a dark figure slowly passing by the store, looking down to see that whoever was underneath the coat, was glowing.

Oh can't you see I'm out of my head

Oh can't you see I'm a little insane

Oh can't you see going out of my head

Oh can't you see I'm really dead

 The individual raised their hands to their sides, and Janette felt as if her body was on fire. She tried to shout out a warning, but was quickly slammed to the opposite wall by a sudden burst of electricity. The lightbulbs burst, and the crackling of electricity burned her ears. She could hear muffled, screaming voices. She could see the sillouettes of the patrons running rampant in the streets. Bracing herself against the wall, she slowly got up and rushed to find Marie Jill.

 She shouted the girl's name, finally spotting her and her dad trapped underneath a pile of debris.

 "Marie!", Janette shouted, rushing over to the two and lifting the debris with ease, despite the fact that anyone else, like Marie's father, would struggle to just hold them.

 "..Janette..what the-?"

 "Get..out. It's fucking heavy!"

 The two got the message, and quickly moved before Janette finally let the rubble fall back to the floor. She panted heavily as she stood among the newly formed flames.

 "Have you....been going to the gym?"

 "Yeah, but now get out! We don't wanna burn to death!", Janette shouted at them as she followed outside.

 Marie's father moved to help the patrons and bystanders, and so did Marie, while Janette focused her attention on the electifying assailant that was currently in a stand-off with the Chicago police. Something about him, it seemed familiar. Janette shook her head, this wasn't up her alley.

 She was no hero.

 The police were no challenge for the silent powerhouse, who destroyed their forces with ease. Janette silently thanked the gods her father was not on active duty. The streets were cleared fast, Janette and Marie falling behind to make sure everyone made it out in time. But that made the individual turn his attention to them. Janette grabbed Marie's hand and sprinted down the street, the crackling of electricity close behind giving her the worst anxiety she's felt in years. Her spider sense warned her, and she shoved Marie to the left and out of the lightning's range as she dove to the right. Marie gave her a panicked look.

 "GO!"

Going down, down, out of my head

I did you no wrong

I did you no wrong

I did you no wrong

 Electro moved towards Janette, and before Marie could say or do anything, Janette run up the fire escape, him following slowly behind like a stalking slasher. She ran and jumped on the roofs, almost falling on multiple occassions. He eventually caught up to her, and she was grabbed and thrown down an alley. She was hyperventilating, her heart felt like it was about to explode as she heaved and her eyes darted around like a confused fish.

 She failed to make out the footsteps that were getting closer to her. He knelt down to look at her distraught face, and the visage of his eyes widened.

 "..Janette?"

------------------

I did you no wrong

I did you no wrong

Going out of my head

Janette's eyes struggled to open. When they did, they were met with a white ceiling, and her back with a bed too uncomfortable to be her own. She sat up, and realised she was in a hospital room, her jacket and backpack resting on a nearby chair. She could hear talking outside the room, but a thought was lingering in the back of her head.

 She needed to find that thing.

 "What do you mean we can't go in?!", Marie screamed at the nurse.

 "Ma'am, you are not immediate family, so we can't allow you inside. We already contacted her mother, you can go in when she has."

 Janette grabbed her jacket and put the hood over her head, as well as her mask and backpack. She silently opened the window and leapt from it. She swung to a different building. She run on the roofs, looking for any sign of the electric apparition. She was certain she'd die in that alley, but she hadn't. He let her live on purpose. She slowed down with that thought, hiding behind a stone balustrade and taking off her mask. She looked at it.

 He didn't kill her, because it was Janette .

 She put her mask back in her pocket, and she continued her pursuit of the monster as Janette Stein.

 A police squad she had seen from above led her right to him, Dawson's art shop, crackling with electricity. Her eyes widened with fear at the possibility that he had come for the man. She took the opportunity to make her way down from the roof and to the back of the store, in an alleyway intersection where patrol cars could not reach, forcing the backdoor open with her enhanced strength.

I ain't seen you off the screen

But those films are my dreams

And I can't take much more of you

'Cause the bog is no place to see your face

 She stalked further inside the store, broken wood and glass crunching underneath her sneakers.

 "...Marc..?", she called out, "....Are you here..? Marc..?"

 The faint crackling of electricity was heard just a few feet away, the light of the apparition flowing in the backroom from below the still intact door. She treaded carefully towards it, grabbing a pair of rubber gloves for spray painting from the shelves, and slowly raised her hand to the door handle. She slowly turned it and pushed the door, founding the electric apparition on his knees, staring at the closed off entrance. What was she even supposed to say? She slowly moved towards the seemingly docile creature, holding out a curious hand. She went as far as to touch him on the shoulder before he jolted away from her touch. Janette flinched, retreating her hand. Electro moved toward her, arms open before he abruptly stopped. Janette raised an eyebrow.

 "..Who are you?", she asked.

 "J-Janette! It's me-It's Marc! I'm Marc!"

 It took a great amount of time for the words to finally sink into Janette's head, and all her face could muster was horror.

 "I..I never meant to attack you! Honest!"

 "Are you the one that took me to the hospital?"

 "..I....guided a passerby to your unconscious body to help you."

 "Marc, what the hell?! If you didn't want to attack me, why were you even chasing me?!"

 "It wasn't me!"

 "Who was it then? Jesus?"

 "Look, I-"

 Banging was heard from the front door.

 "OPEN UP! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! WE'LL USE FORCE IF YOU REFUSE TO COOPERATE!"

 The two individuals inside were equally nervous, Marc more terrified than Janette, who turned to him.

 "How do I even know you're Marc? You don't even look human ."

 If Marc still had a solid mouth, it would be dry from the anxiety. He grabbed at what had once been his head, now nothing but crackling, wild electricity.

 "I..it happened after you left. You picked up some brushes and fabric paint. And you really like manga."

 Janette missed the conversations from the outside, along with the buzzing of something just out of sight.

 "Marc...holy shit, what happened to you?"

 The man tried bringing his hands together, or the extentions that looked like hands at least. He tried to sigh. 

 "Something.....it whispered to me..inside my head...It led me to the eels in the aquarium...and-"

 "Where?"

 "The Oscorp laboratories. Dr Clarke's criters. I almost felt like I was being.....puppeted. I didn't even know what was going on until I hurt you!""

 "Oh shit-"

 The buzzsaw then came, slowly cutting through the metal garage door. Both panicked, Janette grabbed Marc's hand.

 "Come on! Follow me."

 She led him through the broken back door, Marc looking at the splintered wood in question. Janette gave him her hooded jacket to cover his glowing effect, and led him through the alleys she knew so well, even spotting some of her own graffiti on the walls. They eventually came to an abandonded construction area. Janette had known for a long time through Harvey that this site would not see human activity for years to come. And so, she led Marc into one of the buildings she often hung out in when she sought inspiration for her art.

 Marc looked around curiously.

 "No one comes in here anymore.", Janette said, "No one but me. You'll be safe here."

 Marc seemed to finally relaxed, the sounds of the electricity quieting down as he slumped on the wall and on the ground.

 "My electricity destroyed the cameras before you came to the store. There's no evidence you were ever there."

Oh can't you see I'm out of my head

Oh can't you see I'm a little insane

Oh can't you see I'm out of my head

Oh can't you see I'm really dead

 She squatted down next to him, placing her covered hand on his shoulder. Her jacket started to burn, which made Marc take it off as fast as he could and gave it back to her. The inside of the jacket was badly burned from the intensity of the electricity to the point it thined out into a jacket you'd wear on chilly spring days.

 "Sorry."

 "Ah, nothing some fabric paint can't fix. Besides I..think that's the least of our problems right now..."

 She silently got up and looked at the pale light of the moon that shone through the windows of the warehouse.

 "My mom will be worried sick when she finds the hospital room empty."

 "You should go. I'll...probably be fine."

 Janette looked at Marc, "I am going to find a way to fix this, I promise."

 She run out of the building, rushing through the streets of Chicago and back home. She had forgotten her house keys that day, so after some long moments of contemplation, she knocked on the door. A very disheveled woman that was her mom finally answered, still in her work uniform as she immediately hugged her and dragged her inside.

 "M-Mom! I can...explain...."

 Her mother's eyes were filled with tears, and she looked both sad and angry. She wildly shook her back and forth.

 "WHERE THE HELL WHERE YOU?! HOW DID YOU EVEN GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING?!"

 "M-Mom, I'm fine-"

 "They found you on the streets, hyperventilating and foaming at the mouth!"

 "I am fine, mom!", she wrenched herself from her mother's arms, "I'm not made of fucking glass!"

 Shit. She was on the verge of crying too. She collapsed into her mother's arms once again, both crying together.

 "I don't want to lose you too, sweetheart. My heart will not be able to take it.", he mom choked out, and Janette hugged both her and her burnt jacket.

I did you no wrong

I did you no wrong!

Ha Ha Ha!

Chapter Text

Getting used to Marc’s new abilities was difficult to say the least.

 Janette had went out to meet up with Marc again, hoping to help him get a little used to his ‘body’ while she tried to get help. But if she was being honest, she didn’t know what she could even do. From what they could both gather, Marc was turned into pure electricity by the power of those eels, which would put him in a category entirely alien to Janette. 

 Marc seemed to at least be getting slightly used to his new body, though lamenting about how much he misses food and drinks. His organs and everything else human was non-existent now. 

 He had managed to form himself  into a more human-like shape. He flexed his finger-like appendages.

 “I think this is getting a little better.”, he admitted.

 Janette looked up from her sketchbook, which was becoming more and more full with text rather than art. She sighed, but gave him a smile.

 “Well, that’s good news. Least we can do is make the most out of this situation.”

 Marc nodded, “But I won’t stay here forever, will I?”

 “No I..we just have to find a way to keep you safe and hidden in public. I’m still working on it.”

 “I’m guessing clothes are not an option?”

 “If my burnt jacket and the burnt trenchcoat that was retrieved back in the cafe have anything to say about it, then no.”

 Marc nodded in understanding. He spared a look at the supplies Janette brought in the warehouse. When he had asked her where she got the stash from, she revealed it was supplies that she could salvage from his store, as it was being demolished. He was apperently assumed dead in the hands of...himself.

 “Never thought you the type to steal.”, he said.

  Oh, you have no idea.

  “My mom says she wants to have a family night tonight, so if I want to catch up on everything I should leave early.”

 “Wouldn’t want to get on miss Stein’s bad side.”, Marc commented.

 Janette nodded, "She says we're having a guest over."

 Marc went ahead to give her a friendly smack in the back, but quickly stopped himself. He rubbed his hands together, small sparks of electricity flying out.

 "Well, good luck."

 Marc knew Janette didn't do well in social situations, unless it was with certain people. So he hoped that at least the guest wwas someone she enjoyed being around.

 Janette started packing up, and turned to Marc, "Sorry I couldn't stay as long."

 "I understand."

 The two finally parted ways, Janette taking her time as she made her way back home. She checked her phone, it was getting close to eight. She made it to the apartment building, making sure to smack the metal mailbox on the wall as she opened the door. With a jingle of her keys, she opened the door to her apartment and greeted her mom as she worked on taking off her shoes. She received a warm greeting from her mother, who was in the kitchen. She added the question of her brother, to which she replied that he was in his room, playing. She went past her brother's door so she could drop off her own things in her room right next to his, and went inside his own to see him.

 John was playing in his room with a few toys, most being her own that she had when she was little, since they were not in the proper condition to buy a lot of toys. Most money went to food, clothes, bills, and dad's treatments. Janette cringed at the fact that they could end up in the streets if it weren't for her nighttime deeds. They were close to it, too. She knelt down to her brother's level, ruffling his fluffy hair as she asked him about his day. The little boy responded positively, telling her about his adventures.

 "-and then Thomas beat them all!", he exclaimed.

 She faked a gasp, "Really?!"

 Her brother nodded with excitement, holding the train up in the sky as he declared its victory over the other action figures on the ground.

 Janette finally left the room, heading to the kitchen.

 "Who's coming over?", she asked.

 "Your uncle said he'd like to visit. He got his own place a while back and wants to see us again."

 "Uncle Montana? That's why he disappeared the past months?"

 Her mom gave her a weird look, "Why do you use his last name and not his first?"

 Janette shrugged, "It's more catchy, I guess."

 After some time, and completing some chores, a knock was heard from the door. Magda was already opening the door as Janette was making her way down the hallway. The siblings exchanged hugs, and after parting, Montana took a look at Janette as he opened his arms again. Janette went for a normal greeting, only to be swept in a tight hug by her uncle.

 "Janette! Where have you been?"

 "Uncle Montana I'm suffocating!", Janette wheezed, which caused Mitchell to let her go.

 He ruffled her hair, "Heh, sorry kiddo. Gotta teach you how to get out of my maneuvers someday."

 "You better!", Janette exclaimed.

 It was then that the girls spotted another guest behind Montana. It was a blonde woman with green eyes, who gave them both a small smile and a wave. Magda looked at Mitchell with a questining look, which gave Janette flashbacks to her childhood shenanigans. Mitchell put a hand on her shoulder as he led her inside.

 "Magda, this is Callie, we got together recently."

 The woman extended her hand to her, "It's good to finally meet you! Mitch has told me a lot about you and your daughter."

 Magda accepted the handshake, "Oh! Did he now?", she spared a glance at Mitchell before turning back to Callie with a smile, "Come inside! Tell us more!"

 Montana and Janette stared after the two.

 "Damn,", Janette admitted, "you know you did well when ma loves your date."

 "Speaking from experience?", Mitchell asked.

 "Oh hell no!", Janette exclaimed. She never really liked the idea of romantic relationships. Even when she tried to, she just couldn't bring herself to follow through. It's not like people liked her genuinely in the first place. 

 "Really though, where have you been?", Montana asked.

 "I've been practicing art."

 "Art school?"

 Janette nodded.

 "Well, I know you're gonna do great. They'll be lucky to have you."

 Janette smiled at him, "Thanks uncle."

 She stayed for some time with the three adults before retreating back to her room. She opened the window leading to the fire escape and cimbed out to the steel platform. She leaned forward on the railway and exhaled deeply. It was mostly quiet back here, so she was ready to pull out her headphones and drown herself in music as she daydreamed. Those plans were, however, cut short by her spider sense ringing, kicking the figure coming towards her in the wall.

 "...Oww..."

 Fuck. It was Marie.

 "Holy shit Marie! You scared the shit out outta me!", Janette shouted as she moved to help her friend, "Are you okay?!"

 "Mhmm, yep! Peachy! I'm fine, really.", Marie responded as she accepted Janette's help getting up.

 Janette sighed as she placed a hand on her forehead.

 "Why are you here?"

 "Get your camera, I finally got work as an intern!"

 "Wait, what-"

 "No time! Go go go!"

 Janette, out of peer pressure, retrieved her camera and followed Marie down the fire escape. But not before retrieving her phone and a new jean vest.

 "So, Jackson actually gave you a job?"

 "Ehhhh, same thing."

 "What do you mean 'same thing'?"

 They were running down the street as they talked, Janette trying to go slower so Marie could actually lead the way.

 "Okay, get this.", Marie explained, "When passing by dad's store, which is under construction, I caught a glimpse of an odd-looking lizard. And when going through The Bugle's offices today, I found several reports of alleged sightings of it. I might have something big in my hands."

 "Often something big in Chicago is not good."

 "Probably, but it's my chance!"

 Janette sighed at her friend's attitude, but followed her either way. She could probably get them out in time if they were cornered by a gang or something similar.

-------------------------------

 They finally arrived at the ruined store, Janette calling her mom on the way to inform her she was going out with Marie, though, not telling her of their actual plan. It was nighttime now, so the construction crew was long gone. Marie was the first one to walk up to the store, making her way inside the ruins, and Janette steadily followed.

 The inside was wrecked. The walls were at least standing, and part of the ceiling had been repaired, but the inside looked like the very messy aftermath of a frat party. The girls stepped on broken glass and debris as they made their way further inside. Janette was especially anxious, keeping her spider-sense in constant alert. 

 "I still don't understand why your big break involves us breaking the law."

 "Says you. Weren't you nearly caught for vandalism?"

 "Vandalism and breaking and entering are two very different crimes, Marie."

 "Well-"

 Marie tripped, thankfully catching herself just in time, the object she stepped on scurrying away.

 "Is that a frog? I just stepped on a frog!", Marie exclaimed.

 Janette, without thinking, dived forward to catch the amphibia in her hands, hurting herself on the sharp debris in the process. She winced as she got to her knees, holding the mutated frog in her hands. Marie kneeled down next to her, checking if she was okay first before turning her attention to the frog. The frog was a greyish color, with huge black beetle eyes and visible purple veins underneath its slimy skin. Janette was wearing gloves, so she was spared from the mucus, at least. 

 "What the hell?", Marie muttered.

 Janette stayed more calm. She had seen worse mutations than that, if The Vulture had anything to say about it. She squinted at it, and then back to Marie.

 "Marie,", she started, "are you sure you want to do this?"

 The red-head nodded, and Janette released the frog with a sigh. Marie moved to catch it, but Janette stopped her as she stood up, taking her hand.

 "Those frogs are not normal in Chicago, so they must have a hiding spot. We follow it."

 And they did. They followed the frog like Alice followed the white rabbit. As they were chasing the frog, Janette would shift her attention to her exposed legs from time to time, plucking stray pieces of glass from mostly her thighs and arms. Some got in her waist area as well, but thankfully nothing serious. Her healing factor would work things out like it always did. 

 At last, they reached their destination. An out of place, pristine white building, the frog sneaking inside through a slightly open window. Marie opened the window to follow after it, her and Janette coming to a lab. Stepping inside carefully, they came across what one would call a mad scientist's lair. The space was clean, but it got progressively less so the deeper they got inside. Marie motioned for Janette to get her camera as she stared in an odd feeling of awe. Janette was hesitant, but slowly started to take out the camera.

 It quickly became harder to focus on Janette's part. Everything in this place made her skin crawl. Amphibians and reptiles of many different shapes and sizes, all horribly deformed with the essence of the eldritch. Janette's hightened senses subjected her to every wet cooing and slimy sound those critters made. At one point, she lost sight of Marie entirely, her eyes darting back and forth, left and right, her camera shaking in her hands.

 "M-Marie? I..I don't think I like this..", Janette admitted.

 Marie turned to look at her from a few feet away, "Huh? Are you okay?"

 Janette's head was ringing, the croaks and slithers of the animals making it beat like a drum. She pulled her hair and banged her head in an attempt to quell the headache. Marie quickly noticed this and run over to her.

 "You have a headache again? Is it bad?"

 "We should leave.", Janette responded to her questions.

  Oh, you should.

 Janette flinched violently, and grabbed Marie in a hug to drag her back. There was a thumping on the roof, and Janette's grip on Marie tightened as that thumping moved inside the building. Marie looked at Janette.

 "Okay, yeah. Let's leave."

 They sprinted to the window, but before they could get out, a voice called out to them.

 "You do realise it is very much against the law to be here."

 Janette turned back, and saw the familiar blonde head of Callie Clarke, with a gaze alien and distant. Janette returned her gaze, a look of fury on her face as she gestured the area around them.

 "What the fuck is this?", she exclaimed, "What have you been doing in here?"

 Callie simply looked at her with an empty look, Janette noticed she was getting taller. A voice in her head whispered:

  You should really leave now, mortal.

  Janette, without thinking, pulled out her camera and took a picture of the lab, and Callie's newly deformed features along with it. Upon noticing that, she lowered her camera.

 "...What did you do?", Janette fearfully asked.

 "What Trevino couldn't."

 The human formely known as Callie Clarke transformed into something else. Something that looked more like a...lizard.

  Seriously, run.

  Marie was already out of the window, waiting for Janette during their confortation, so the dark-haired girl lept outside and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her along as she run for dear life from her uncle's girlfriend. 

------------------------------------------

 "What the fuck are we running from?!", Marie shrieked.

 "I told you this was a bad idea, Wolfe!"

 The lizard roared behind them, Janette's spider-sense warned her of a strike coming Marie's way, so she lifted the girl in her arms bridal style before the lizard's claws could strike her, shattering the concrete pavement instead. Their speed was nearly on par with each other, and the reptilian was getting more and more difficult to dodge. Marie was holding on to Janette for dear life as they run down the streets of Chicago, the few passerby screaming and running off at the sight of the lizard. No one tried to help, of course. Janette sneered as she hopped off the top of a garbage bin, grabbed the railing of a fire escape, and hauled herself and Marie up the platform as they continued their chase on the roof. Marie was dialing the police during their chase, but after a pretty intense hop down a roof, the phone fell from her hands.

 "Shit!", she screamed.

 Janette knew very well Marie was more fragile than her, so she decided to make a risky decision. On the next roof, she threw Marie next to the stairs going down.

 "Contact the authorities. I'll keep her busy!"

 Before her friend could even protest, Janette shut the door, sneakily gluing it shut with her webs. She turned to face the Lizard, who slowed down as she stood on her hind legs. They were in a standoff for what felt like hours, when in reality it had only been seconds before Clarke spoke as she extended her giant hand towards Janette.

 "Hand me the camera, and I will spare your life."

 "You won't kill me either way."

 "What do you mean?"

 "Simple.", Janette held up her fingers as she listed her reasons, "One, there is at least one witness that knows who you are. Second, I don't think killing me would look good on your part if Montana found out."

 That seemed to temporarily do the trick, until it seemed that the monster called her bluff.

 "The only evidence you hold against me is that photograph. Your father is a police officer, you should know that physical evidence holds more weight than words."

 Shit, she was right. Even an honest person's words like Marie's would not hold the slightest weight. She felt the camera inside her vest pocket.

 "You want it?", she stepped closer to the edge behind her, "Come and get it."

 She lept to the next rooftop, her pace picking up as the Lizard chased after her on all fours. In hindsight, she should have thought of a plan first, and not make it up as she went along. For now, the plan was to evade Callie as she looked around for a plan.

 After nearly being caught numerous times, the two made their way to the abandoned construction site she was keeping Marc in. This was obviously a slippery slope to battle on, but if Callie wouldn't give in, neither would Janette.

 She needed to get to higher ground, but as she moved to climb up a crane, the Lizard grabbed her by the leg, and flung her to a large metal cargo crate. The impact left a crater, and Janette screamed as she felt her bones cracking under the pressure. She fell to her knees.

 "That hurt....", she whimpered.

 She managed to dodge the next blow, which resulted in the Lizard's hand temporarily getting stuck in the crate. This gave Janette the opening to kick her in the jaw. Callie stepped back from the intensity of the blow, rubbing her lower jaw in confusion. She looked at Janette, who was working on stabilizing herself on her legs. She gave a knowing noise.

 "This strength..it is not even in the above average of human capability. You..", she let out a brief laugh and pointed an accusatory finger towards the teenager, "you are not human, are you?"

 Janette's eyes widened, but she stood her ground.

 "I am human."

 "You are no better than creatures like me. The fangs gave it away."

 "What?" Janette then became very aware of the fangs that extended themselves from her mouth. They had always been the most difficult part to restrain.

 "In fact,", Clarke continued, "you are just like me."

 Janette lept towards the Lizard, using her chest as leverage to kick her jaw once again. Using the distaction, she went for a punch. The first one was blocked, but the second one landed on the reptile's thick neck, which stunned her momentarily. Using her tail to regain her balance, they continued to trade blows until they ended up in a different area of the construction site.

 She was knocked back, catching herself by clawing her hands in the ground before being slammed into another metal crate. Janette then dodged the Lizard's lunging and threw herself to the other side of the arena. Before Clarke could turn around, Janette had managed to launch herself on top of the giant metal crates that formed walls around them. Her gaze fell to miscellaneous construction pieces on top of the crates, specifically on some metal sheets. She run up to grab one of them, and run on the crate wall until she reached the Lizard.

 Clarke climbed up the crates, but Janette knocked her down again with the metal sheet. And just as she fell to the ground, Janette lept down with the metal sheet, slamming the edge of it with all her might on the monster's arm, right on the shoulder.

 The Lizard screamed as her arm was torn off by the rusted metal, and she slowly turned back to her human form.

 Janette held close to the metal sheet, but for now, she applied pressure on the woman's shoulder, said woman looking up at her in pure anger.

 "Okay, listen.", Janette started, "We can make a deal. I will not show this photograph anywhere, I won't even tell the authorities or my uncle. But all this won't come cheap."

 Callie let out a husky breath before giving her response.

 "How can I buy your silence?"

 "Keep this night a secret from everyone, and help my friend."

 Callie raised her eyebrow, "Your what?"

 "I have a friend that had an accident in one of your labs. You might know him."

 She looked at her missing right arm, then back at the scientist.

 "You can grow that one back, can you?"

 Callie gave her a look.

 "Only small reptiles can regrow limbs, I can only regrow my tail."

 "Oh..sorry?"

 "No you're fucking not."

 "Are you going to take the deal or not?"

 Callie looked away.

 "....Fine."

Chapter Text

The older man slammed his fist on the table.

 “YOU DID WHAT, WOLFE?!”

 “Um, I followed a weird frog to a fucked up laboratory...?”

 “Okay, one. THAT WAS NOT YOUR JOB! And number two, DO YOU EVEN HAVE EVIDENCE?!”

 Marie opened her mouth, but quickly slammed it shut at the realisation of the second statement. She had run to Janette’s house earlier today so she could ask for the photograph she had quickly snapped back at Clarke’s lab, only to be told that the camera had been broken during her chase with the illusive Lizard. So, as it now stood, she had no physical evidence to show as proof. Not even a scratch.

 So for now, she settled on getting verbally berated by her boss.

 She slumped on the break room table, looking up at the wall from her crooked position. A mug was gently placed in front of her.

 “Mr Jackson again?”, Riley asked.

 Marie nodded at the man, her cheek rubbing against the table.

 “’S that?”

 Riley Roth sat next to her, taking a sip off of his own mug.

 “You are too young for coffee, so I made you some tea.”, he responded.

 Marie groggily got up to a proper seating position and took a big sip of the tea. She clicked her tongue a few times.

 “Peach?”, she questioned, to which Riley gave her a nod.

 “If you want a real story, sorry to tell you kid, but this just ain’t an opportunity that is given to such young interns, let alone any new people in the industry.”

 “I just..it’s Janette’s fault! If she didn’t break that stupid camera, I would have evidence to show!”

 “Wolfe.”

 “What?”

 “How exactly did the camera break?”

 “We were being chased by a giant fucking lizard-Janette carried me like I was her bride on the rooftops, and then she just locked me inside a building’s staircase while she...”

 Roth raised an eyebrow, “And she..?”

 “..She distracted the thing for my safety...”

 “Then it was not your friend’s fault. You should be happy that she even made it out alive, not every day someone survives an encounter with the eldritch.”

 Marie chuckled, “She’s been getting better. It’s honestly a little scary.”, she admitted.

 The girl then looked back up at the man in surprise, “You believe me?”

 “Chicago has been getting weirder by the day. Getting chased by giant man-vultures and lizards is not exactly new. But if you want an actual story,-”

 “-you are going to need evidence.”, Marie finished the sentence for him.

 The two sat in silence for a while, the only sounds other than the busy Bugle offices behind them being the sipping of their respective drinks.

 “If you want experience as a journalist, I recommend talking to Isabella Mueller. She has a lot of good stories under her belt.”, the man explained, which perked up Marie’s mood again.

 Break was over, and Marie quickly got to work. She moved quickly through the offices, searching for Mueller’s office as she did. Marie might only be an intern, but there were still a lot of things she could help with from that position. At last, she found the reporter’s office, and eagerly knocked on the door. She was allowed to come in with a simple call from the other side. Marie quickly got inside the office and greeted the startled woman with excitement.

 “Miss Mueller! It is a delight to meet you, I am Marie Jill Wolfe, I am an intern here.”

 Isabella Mueller firstly gave her a look of surprise that was followed by annoyance. The woman turned back to to whatever she was reading and adjusted her glasses.

 "I don't remember ordering coffee.", she commented.

 "Ah, no I didn't come here for that.", Marie replied, "Mr Roth said I could learn a lot from you."

 The journalist's eyes were focused on her yet again, her features smoothing down to a more neutral expression.

 "You want to be a journalist?"

 Marie nodded enthusiastically.

 "I would advise you to slow your pacing. I can see you have...", she looked Marie up and down, "....ambition, but there are more steps to being a journalist before aiming for the big stories."

 "But shouldn't I aim for something big if I want to make it to the journalist world?"

 "Kid, how old are you?"

 "Fourteen."

 Mueller's eyes widened, "Kid, slow down a little. You are too young to be thinking of such big things."

 "But-"

 "Kid, please. How about you take a step back for a minute. Things like this just aren't so easy to achieve."

 "I know! That's why I came to you, you have experience and I want that too!"

 "Then tread this road slowly, kid, or you might end up finding something you will not be ready for."

 Marie sighed and turned to leave, but she caught a glimpse of the board.

 "What are you working on?", she asked.

 "There has been a spike in robberies regarding privately owned technological equipment, along with visible tracks of electicity on the crime scenes. I believe it is that electric apparition."

 A bell rung on the back of Marie's head. Did she mean the same monster that nearly killed Janette and destroyed her dad's coffee shop? Of course it was, that monster could not have stayed hidden for long.

 "Do you uhh, still, want coffee?", Marie asked, to which Mueller nodded.

----------------------------------------

  Marie gave herself a pat on the back as she left the building. Not only did she manage to establish a good relationship with an actual journalist, but snuck a peak into her crime board. Marie may not be good with taking photographs, but she sure had the memory of one. 

 This case felt personal, how could anyone expect her to just leave it alone?

 Her first stop was the nearest Oscorp laboratory. The area was already taped closed by yellow tape, police cars on the scene. Marie got as close as she could to the main building to observe the damages. This attack must have been recent, as she hadn't seen it anywhere on Isabella's board. By what she had seen, it was logical that Oscorp would be attacked, seeing as they are the most technologically advanced corporation in Chicago.

 The wall of bystanders became a problem, having a short stature did not help in the slightest, and it seemed that more and more civilians and reporters were coming in. Marie sighed in dismay.

 She took a look at the building. A giant hole was blown at the side of it, half the building gone, and the inside looked burned. Marie finally managed to catch a glimpse of something other than a burned building, which was that scientist her and Janette had encountered just yesterday. She was talking to a police officer, and Marie also took notice that her right arm was gone, and replaced with a robotic prosthetic. She raised her eyebrow. Did Janette do that? Or maybe someone else.

 Marie thought to herself, maybe it was the assailant that burned down the building. But how would she know it was an assailant? Maybe it had just been an accident and she was wasting time. 

 She could hear very little from where she was standing, the crowd's voices not helping her case at all. Figuring she wouldn't get anything meaningful from her current position, she left, with the intention of returning under the cover of night. She had considered visiting Janette again to ask for help, but the other girl probably wouldn't be on board after last night's escapades nearly killed them both. Also, her camera was broken, so she would be virtually useless unless Marie was planning on running away. At one point she even considered reaching out to Harvey, but she didn't want to interrupt him from his tutoring sessions. She knew it was very important to him.  She supposed she could get another camera so she could get evidence herself, but not only were they now on a tight spot financially regarding the shop's repairs, as Janette pointed out, she knew nothing about handling a camera.

 For now, she went to another area hit with the same trademark burn as the laboratory. It had been the most recent target, and the most odd. It had been an art store near the center of town. Marie knew that if Janette had been here, she would be devastated. Luckily for her, the street here was not nearly as full as the last, and she was able to sneak inside relatively easy. It's not like the CPD were any good at doing their jobs. 

 "Aaaalright, new-possible-super-villain. Let's see what you got."

 Marie had been to pretty much every art store in Chicago, a given if you were friends with an artist. Now that she was inside, she was able to look at the damage more carefully, and deduced that the damage was caused not by fire, but by electricity. The possibility of the electric monster being here was becoming even more clear. As she searched through the shop, she also noticed a few items were missing, more specifically, the spray paints. The rack had been stripped clean of its products. Of course, some vandalists could have snuck in before her to get their hands on the free supplies, but something in her gut told her that was mostly not the case.

 She continued her prowl for clues, at one point seeing a helicopter in the sky.

 The only clues she had gathered so far were the cause of explosions and some missing art supplies. Not exactly great clues. It was nearing early evening, and Marie yawned as she walked down the street. She'd need an energy drink to get through the day and probably night. 

 She finally found a convenience store that provided her with the sweet drink she craved, only for her ears to be assaulted by the nearby store's emergency siren. She covered one of her ears, the other still holding onto the can as she watched two men frantically run out of a store about a block away. One of them was yelling at his partner to hurry up, the people around were fleeing, and of course the cops would be late on the scene. And then, he was kicked aside, the attacker grabbing his loot as she perched herself on a lampost with some kind of webbing. She did the same with the other one, and left by swinging through the buildings. The robbers screamed after her, running with the knowledge they'd never catch the spider-woman. 

 That wouldn't stop Marie, though. She took a big gulp of her drink, and sprinted to follow the web-slinger. She lasted longer than the robbers, running past them as she tossed her can into a recycling bin. She was heaving as she run full speed, nearly tripping on occasions. At one point, the swinging slowed down, and the masked woman turned to face her as she swung. The two locked eyes for what felt like hours, when in reality it had only been a minute. Then the thief sped up the swinging, and eventually disappeared in Chicago's backround with the loot. 

 The teenager finally stopped running, nearly falling to her knees as she leaned forward, breathing heavily. She looked up at the tall buildings of the city, standing up straight.

 She squinted her eyes at the sky. Was it possible that the spider-thief was connected to the attacks? It would make sense. Monsters would be willing to help each other if it meant profit. 

 "Eureka!", she gasped.

------------------------------------

 The next few days, she changed her tactics. Taking into account the possibility that the spider-thief and 'Electro' (she decided to nickname it) could be working together, she would try to instead follow the woman when she inevitably came to steal from thieves again. Then, she could find their hiding spot and bang! Mystery solved, and she would get an opportunity to move up in The Bugle! 

 During her observations, she also figured out that the spider-woman would not show up when smaller scale crime was happening. And even if someone was being robbed, she would go after store and bank robbers rather than muggers. Looks like she needs the money for something. 

 Eventually, she saw her again.

 Strangely, the next time she saw her was not in a robbery of a robbery. She had decided to stake out one of the Oscorp labs, seeing as one of them was a recent target. She saw the thief land on top of the structure, and she hid in the nearby shrubs as she watched. The woman crawled on the wall like an actual spider, and opened the window and crawling inside with ease. Marie squinted her eyes at the darkness of the building, seeing nothing for a few minutes, until the blue of the mask peeked its way from the dark. Marie ducked just as the other's head turned towards the bushes. Marie then heard the telltale thwip of the web, and that was her signal.

 She had asked Harvey to borrow his bicycle for the day, promising to return it tomorrow, and she got on it as fast as she could to follow after the web-slinger more efficiently.

 Marie could see that whatever she had taken from the lab was stored inside a backpack. Watching her swing using the webbing was starting to become more strange up close. For the longest time, there were only rumors and speculations, so seeing this urban legend so closely was a strange experience.

 At one point, she made a sharp turn for a series of alleyways. Marie had not been in that area of Chicago before, but it seemed that more than a few people did. The walls were covered in graffiti, and the narrow paths were not entirely devoid of trash. The bike's handles had scraped on the brick wall at least two times. 

 Finally, the thief stopped. Marie watched from afar as she lowered herself down an alley, the backpack no longer with her as she ascended and run away. 

 Marie slowly got off the bicycle and walked in the alley's direction. As she was about to reach said alley however, she was stopped by a noise coming from the alley opposite of it, making her scramble to hide. She could hear the light footsteps of that person as they moved to the alley and out of it. She peeked out from her hiding spot, and noticed the figure heading further down to an abandoned construction area and inside a building. Marie raised her eyebrow. 

 She slowly and carefully creeped towards the building the figure retreated in, further inside the construction site. When she reached the building, she pressed her back on the wall as she slowly slid towards the exit. She looked through the broken windows, and saw what appeared to be blue sparks of electricity lighting up the room.

 Her eyes widened. It was here.

 Taking a deep breath, she got closer to the door, hearing voices inside.

 "-will this do?"

 "It will, for now. I can create a stabalized suit, but why the spray paint cans?"

 "I'm not gonna have you slapping a boring green color on me."

 "Marc, please don't tempt the doctor to change her mind."

 "Sorry Janette."

 Marie stopped breathing after hearing that last sentence. Janette? As in, her Janette?!

 "You better know what you're doing."

 "I am a renowned scientist. Of course I know what I'm doing."

 "You'll be okay, Marc. Don't worry."

 Marie was tempted to storm inside, to demand an explanation. But she knew the outcome would not be a good one. She wasn't even sure it was her own Janette, a lot of people have that name! Maybe she was reading all this wrong. Maybe-

 "Is there someone outside?", one of the voices spoke out, and Marie sprinted to the bike as fast as she could, riding it out of the maze of alleyways as if she was cycling in a marathon.

 She finally stopped when she was outside her house. With sweat dripping down her forehead, she hauled the bike up the apartment building stairs, and left it leaning on the wall as she knocked on the door for her dad to let her in. As soon as she was inside, she made an excuse that she was just tired and was going to be heading to the bathroom and then to her room.

 Now, she was left with two possibilities to consider.

 The first, and most likely one, is that a random woman named Janette was working with the spider-thief and Electro to build him some sort of stabilized suit. And the second, and most worrisome one, is that it really was Janette, working with criminals.

 Marie swallowed hard. No, it couldn't be the second one. Janette said it herself the night they were being hunted by the Lizard, there were lines of the law even she wouldn't cross. After all, her dad was a cop, so she could not be involved in crimes.

 She could not sleep that night, busying herself by texting Harvey that she would return his bike tomorrow when the three of them would hang out. She pondered texting Janette too, but ultimately didn't. She fell asleep eventually, but the adrenaline had her fighting until the wee hours of the morning.

Chapter Text

 “Those are actually really good, Janette.”, Montana commented.

 His niece had gracefully allowed him to look through one of her many sketchbooks as she flipped through a book’s pages on her bed.

 “Yeah, I was thinking of turning them into graffiti. Maybe somewhere you can see it this time, but ehh, not sure.”

 “Isn’t your pops a cop, kid?”

 Janette raised her eyebrow as she looked at him, “Says the one that tells me to send my bullies to the hospital.”

 Mitchell chuckled, “Touche kid, touche.”

 He carefully placed the sketchbook back on the shelf, the image of the odd eels still clear in his head. The teenager finally closed the book and threw it on the bed lazily as she got up to go the the corner of the room where the spray paint cans were. She knelt down and palmed a few of them.

 “Should I go with royal purple or twitch purple?”, she asked as she showed the cans to her uncle. Montana kneeled down to take a look at the cans, and scratched his head after a long look.

 “Uuhhh, I dunno. They look the same to me.”

 Janette pressed her lips into a thin line as she threw the can on her left hand back into the unorganised pile, “Twitch purple it is.”

 The two continued to talk as Janette picked up more cans, her gloves, and her sketchbook. She shoved them into her bag and went for the fire escape.

 “We have a front door, you know that right?”, Montana commented right as Janette had one leg out the window, her combat boots already on.

 She sighed, gesturing at her appearance with her eyes, “If mom sees me leaving the house like this, I will be met with another screaming match.”

 Montana let out an ‘ah’ sound. His sister was never really the best at understanding teenagers, let alone her own kid. He would often get praises because of how well he was able to understand her, when in reality, Montana just chose to sit down and listen to the kid. He saw a bit of himself in Janette, both having grown up in an environment full of people that refused to understand them. He sighed with a smile.

 “Alright. Fire escape it is.”

 And so, the two lept off into the streets of Chicago, Janette looking around for a good spot for her art.

 “Why make that particular thing in a spot where it might be visible to cops?”, Mitchell asked her as they walked, “Aren’t you afraid they might wash it down, or someone else comes along and paints over it?”

 Janette opened her mouth, but quickly closed it. She trusted her uncle a lot, but not so much so as to tell him of her entire double life and the Marc incident. The eels, she somehow gathered that they’d want to be seen, as a message.

 “I...dunno, I guess I just want people to see this one.”, she finally said, scratching the top of her head, which was itching from the sun overhead.

 “So, you liked that piece enough to want to show it off to other people.”, Montana deduced, to which Janette nodded.

 He looked up at the sky, tilting his cowboy hat.

 “Well, we’re gonna need somethin’ cold for this weather.”, he commented.

 The two entered a convenience store, getting two large bottles of water and energy drink. Mitchell watched as Janette gulped down the can of the drink like it was the first liquid she had sipped in days.

 “Jeez kid, easy on that.”, he laughed. He never really understood why kids like her would be so content with drinks that hurt their tongue worse than sparkling water. 

 “Whaaat? It’s good!”, Janette responded.

 "And it will give you a heart attack,"

 He was playfully shoved aside, "Oh shut up, I'm fine!"

 Mitchell took note of just how much stronger Janette had gotten.

 The two finally found a perfect spot on top of a building, one of the building walls close to the roof serving as the perfect canvas. Mitchell watched as Janette practically did acrobatics to get to the highest places on the wall. Watching her lay the foundation for the painting was nerve-wracking, and he constantly found himself running after her so he could catch her if she fell. That, thankfully did not end up happening, but Mitchell wouldn't blame himself for worrying that his niece was balancing on window sills and rusty railings just for art.

 Janette wiped the sweat off her forehead as she stepped back to look at the outline of the painting. She smiled to herself.

 "I think the first part is done!"

 "If that energy drink doesn't give you a heart attack, your antics will give me one."

 "Aw come on, I'm fine."

 Montana sat in the shade, giving Janette his hat as she worked from the bottom up to ease her uncle's nerves. Mitchell had asked Janette if she had been working out, commenting on her strength. She replied positively, admitting that she's trying to figure herself out. He was glad Janette was finally getting out of her shell. Lord knows how much she had to deal with.

 It looked like she was finally stepping back for a break, the sun not hurting as much anymore. Janette took off the cowboy hat, cleaning the inside with her shirt.

 "Sorry about that.", she said as she handed the hat back to him.

 Mitchell took the hat and simply placed it back on his head, "Ah, don't sweat it, kiddo."

 "No, it's just that-hold on, was that a pun?"

 He smiled at her.

 "So I got that from mom's side, got it."

 Montana got up, clapping his hands to get the dust off.

 "Well kid, since you're on a break, how's about I teach you that maneuver I was telling you about?"

 "An opportunity to learn how to get out of your bearhugs? What kind of girl would pass that ?", Janette agreed playfully.

 "Aaalright then!"

 Mitchell embraced Janette in a bearhug from behind, both her arms inside.

 "Okay, now jump a little and take your legs to the side so you can lower you'self. And while you're doin' that, thrust up your arms to break my hold on ya."

 Janette did as instructed, and Montana continued.

 "Okay, now reach over your right shoulder with your left hand and grab my right arm."

 "Got..it."

 "Okay, you're doin' great! Now, to finish this off, you just have to pull me onto your back and perform a stepping shoulder throw!"

 "Okay-wait what?"

 "You throw me over your shoulder and to the ground."

 Janette looked at him in disbelief, letting his seized arms drop to his side.

 "I said I got stronger, uncle, but not that strong."

 Mitchell shrugged with a smile, "Guess you'll have to keep up if you wanna be able to escape my bear hugs."

 "Pssht! I'll find a way, mark my words!"

 "Yeah, right. Looking forward to that day."

 His phone rung in his pocket, putting their moment on pause. He held up a finger to Janette as he took hold of his phone with the other.

 "Don't go anywhere. I'll be quick.", he said, Janette responding with a thumbs up before returning to her work.

 Mitchell went down the roof's staircase to answer the phone.

 "Hello?"

 "Mitchell Montana."

 The man's face turned from happy to serious when the woman's heavy voice entered his ear. He took a look over his shoulder before proceeding further inside the abandoned bulding.

 "What is it, Tombstone?"

 "Watch your tone. Montana. Drop by the enforcers' pickup one, the big man has need of your services."

  Am I the only damn enforcer available?, he wanted to say, but he knew very well that you did not mess with Tombstone, and by extention Fisk. He gave his affirmation to his supervisor, and walked up to the roof to inform Janette of his departure. Janette gave him a parting hug before bidding him farewell.

 He arrived at his destination an hour later.

 Walking beside Tombstone would never stop being awkward. The woman was practically as tall as the ceiling, and her muscular arms threatened to rip the leather jacket she was wearing. Her heavy boots clinked with every step. Mitchell was constantly eyeing his surroundings, avoiding eye contact with the woman any way he could.

 They finally came to a stop in a relatively large room, a few others already present as Tombstone moved to retrieve a large briefcase to place on the table in the center, in front of Mitchell. He finally looked at the ash-colored woman.

 "What's this about, Tombstone?", he raised an eyebrow. Normally payment would be recieved after a mission, not before. So this was already suspicious.

 Just as every possible action that could warranty punishment from Fisk's top enforcer, she spoke.

 "You were the first to bring us evidence of the spider, seems only fair you go on this mission."

 Her smug smile did nothing to ease his nerves. She opened the metal briefcase in front of him, revealing what looked to be an odd suit of sorts. Not a tuxedo, but something you would likely see in a superhero movie, along with some sorts of gauntlents.

 "The insect won't be so easy to catch, so we managed to get our hands on this.", she gave the lid of the briefcase a few pats as she eyed its contents, "It'll level the playing field."

 "You think me incapable, ma'am?"

 "I think that you'll get your ass killed if you go after a superhuman thug. If an eldritch man-vulture couldn't get the spider so easily, you will not."

 "You have noticed that she would rather run away than put up a fight, right?"

 "That I did. But, if you catch her for us, she won't be runnin' anymore. So, you're up."

----------------------

 Weeding out the spider would be the hardest part. Montana wasn't sure when she would come out, but he'd use the time he had to get used to the odd suit.

 Fisk's science freaks had managed to replicate the vulture's screeches, making them an actual weapon through their tinkering. The gauntlents he was given harnessed the unnatural screeches of the creature, turning them from a mild inconvenience into a voice that could shatter concrete. Allegedly, the man had made the deal in a hurry, which explained why he was so easy to deal with. Signing a contract with the eldritch without reading the fine print would get you suffering at worst, and dead at best.

 Seems that god only wanted to turn him into a freakshow for its own amusement.

 Practice made perfect, and now he just had to think of a plan. He would stage a heist. Tombstone had directed him to some lowlife criminals to act as the forefront of the cover-up, he would then follow the spider when she inevitably came out of hiding to retrieve the bag, and finally he would capture her. Easy as pie.

 He moved his hands up and down, now equiped with the gauntlents. He clenched and unclenched his right fist, feeling every wrinkle of the red glove.

 "Don't fuck it up, cowboy.", Tombstone commented, leaning on the doorframe behind him as she took a huff of a cigar.

 Montana scoffed, "Why are you even here? Last I checked the first half of the mission didn't involve ya."

 "Heh, well, I gotta make sure you don't try and steal anythin' from the Big Man. Those gauntlents ain't cheap."

 Montana broke eye contact to feel the smoothness of the gauntlents, "They sure don't feel like it."

 "Exactly. Now, be a good enforcer and fetch me the damn spider.", she said, flicking cigar smoke on the dirty concrete floor.

 He sighed, "Yes, ma'am."

 It was nearing late evening, and Montana hid in a rundown area nearest to the place the two others would be robbing. He had given them proper defenses, curtesy of Tombstone, so they would at least manage to get as far as he needed them to. He knew the spider-woman had supernatural strength and speed, and a normal person wouldn't stand a chance against that.

 After what felt like forever playing sitting duck, he could hear the faint siren of the closest bank.

 On the other side, Janette just landed on the roof of the bank, going after the robbers as soon as she spotted them. She couldn't tell if the loud sirens were coming from the bank's alarm or police sirens. Nevertheless, she lept down. As she reached out her arm to grab one of the robbers, but her spider-sense warned her of danger. She landed and crouched on the ground, just in time to dodge a bullet from one of the robbers. Her eyes widened as she made eye contact with the robber that fired the gun, just as he backpedaled and then fully sprinted away to catch up with the other robber.

 Janette gulped as she stood up again, hopping up to the buildings so she would have the advantage of the high ground. This was too dangerous for her. She had no idea how every other criminal she had gone after had never thought of pulling out a gun, but if she chose to go after them, she could actually die, and then her mom would have more to cry about than her dad's condition. She took in a deep breath, running after the two as she repeated the mantra in her head.

  You're doing this for a good cause. You're doing this for a good cause.

  She was trying to stay covered, lest they decided to shoot again.

 Montana was slightly startled as the metal doors swung open, the crooks quickly shutting them as they entered the room. They were whispering to each other about something he couldn't hear. But what those two were saying paled in comparison to the entrance of the actual star of the show.

 The spider flung herself on the window, breaking it open with a kick as she practically flew inside. She landed some meters away from the robbers, and from the runways it looked like she was crouching like an actual spider before she got up. She didn't attack yet, Montana assumed it was because she knew the robbers were armed, but right now they were shaky. The man had to hold up the gun with both hands to keep it steady and yet it still trembled, his partner hiding behind him. Montana finally struck, but it seemed that she knew just where the sound beams would strike, because she jumped back just before she was hit.

  Interesting.

 He turned to the two robbers when he finally showed himself, "Leave us to it."

 The crooks followed his orders, and Montana dropped down to be at an even level with the spider. She carefully got up to face him. They were standing about ten meters away from each other, glaring each other down like they were in a western standoff.

 "You're far from home, little spider. It's unwise to fight me."

 He had made sure his face was covered and his voice modified, in order to keep his identity a secret. 

 The spider seemed undeterred, and even squinted at him. Montana couldn't help but chuckle. She acted like a child.

 "Listen, kid. All you have to do is turn you'self in, and you'll be fine-"

 She shot a web to the runways above, flinging herself on the high ground before going for the window.  Montana was not going to let this slide, shooting a beam of sound on the runways, breaking the metal and nearly throwing the spider back to the ground. She clung on to the failing runway before leaping at the wall next to her. Montana continued to assault her with the shockwaves from his gauntlents, the spider dodging at every turn. He could tell she was starting to panic as her means of escape were being blocked one by one.

 Panicking prey was often the easiest to catch.

 Perhaps he had jinxed himself, because the spider lept back into the ground and speared herself at him, throwing him on the ground. Montana put his hands on her head by instinct, eyes widening as he witnessed needle-like fangs from her gaping mouth. He kicked her off of him, and he recieved a roundhouse kick at the side of his head. He was disoriented for a solid minute before snapping out of it, just in time to see the spider making her escape. He quickly got up, sprinting after her.

 He watched her swing through the city, knowing full well he wouldn't catch up. He eyed a passing taxi on the road, and stopped it by shooting a beam of sound towards the road, leaving a crater on the concrete.

 When he got inside, he gave the driver no time to grasp his situation before turning the man's head upwards.

 "Follow that damn spider!"

-----------------------------------

 The taxi had lost her after some time.

 Montana got off, killing the driver before he left completely. He looked up a building, deciding to climb up the roofs to get a better chance at locating the spider. He ran on the roofs, looking over the city with the vigilance of a hawk. He spotted a few landmarks here and there, like the half-finished eel mural Janette had started a few days ago. He smiled at the memory, thinking that he should visit again when he finished this mission.

 His prayers were finally answered when he spotted the blue mask among the dark buildings. It had grown dark enough for the street lights to come on, so he used the cover of night to stalk after her. She eventually came to a stop....right outside Janette's window.

 The woman looked inside the room, the only barricade a window, seemingly looking around to see if anyone was inside. He couldn't risk blasting her while she was standing right outside Janette's room, Magda already faced enough trouble with the medical bills. As he was pondering what his next move would be, his heart nearly stopped as he watched the spider-woman extend a hand to the window, trying to open it.

 Without thinking, he lept from the roof and landed on the spider, making them both freefall from the building. She let out a scream as she was snatched from the wall. Montana still held her in a chokehold with one hand as he used the other to send a shockwave towards the ground, propeling them both upwards until they were high enough for Montana to turn the shockwave off so they could fall on a rooftop. Montana landed on his back, struggling to hold a kicking and clawing spider-woman. He was sure he had heard concrete crack underneath her stomping feet, but he had her caught, and that's all that mattered.

 He struggled to move his free hand to his ear piece in order to contact Tombstone, and just as he reached the device, the girl dug her needle fangs into the gauntlet of the arm that was restraining her. In a panic, he let go and shook his arm, trying to get her off of him. And he did, but the sparks coming from the gauntlet were definately not good news. He stared back at the spider woman who was tightening her mask around her head, ignoring the liquid coming from both the gauntlet and her mouth. 

 She hissed at him, taking what one would assume to be a fighting stance. But Montana knew better as he stood up to remove the gauntlet. Her feet were shuffling against the ground contantly, she was jittery, and clearly did not want to fight. That wasn't going to stop him.

 He stood his ground, "Listen here, you little shit. Turn yourself in, and no one gets hurt."

 Janette clenched her fists. She wanted to believe this guy didn't connect the dots to her identity, and simply assumed that she would just break into someone's house. She grunted as she finally made her legs stop shaking. At least she had gotten rid of one of those fancy gauntlents. She rubbed her mouth, trying to get rid of the weird liquid. She could figure what it was later.

 "I'm not going anywhere with you."

 "Well, that's too bad."

 He shot another shockwave towards her, Janette dodging it with the help of her spider-sense. She moved to the next rooftop, trying to keep the fight as far away from home as possible. Montana picked up the damaged glove and threw it towards her, distracting her long enough for him to hit her with a shockwave blast, finally catching her by surprise. She went flying over the roofs, landing harshly and rolling to a stop on a roof two blocks away. After making sure her mask was still intact, Janette started pulling herself up.

 Her spider-sense was too late to warn her of an axe kick right to her gut, making her choke out strings of her own saliva from the pain. She fell back on her knees, and Montana was finally able to reach his contact.

 "Got the spider, you have my coordinates."

 He then held her up in a bearhug to prevent her from leaving. Sure, Montana might have come out as cocky for believing he alone could restrain a woman who could possibly punch his head off, but he needed to hold her down enough for Tombstone to show up. Holding the woman so closely made him realise something he didn't have time to realise. She was....very small. It felt like he was holding an actual child, despite the build. He was brought back to reality when she started thrashing around again. Unlike the first time though, she jumped slightly, thrusting her arms up. It was too late to realise her move as she grabbed his right arm, and flung him over her shoulder with such force he went through the ceiling and to the floor below.

 Montana lay on the ground, stunned from the force of the attack. He tried getting up, but winced as he clutched his midrift. He definately broke some ribs from that. He heard a twip. He had failed.

 As he sat on the floor, clinging onto his broken bones as dread crept in, reminding him of Tombstone's words, the light turned on in the living room he had fallen in, an old woman staring at him from the hallway.

 Before she could do anything, Montana forced himself to move to the window, sprinting down the fire escape and disappearing into the darkness.

 Her room never felt so safe before as she fell through the window. Closing both it and the blinds, she took off her mask, panting heavily. She swallowed, her legs trembling. She could hear footsteps outside, and she scrambled to hide her mask, take off her jacket hoodie and put on the emergency too-big-shirt to hide the one with the spider logo. It was more of a chore now, that axe kick still hurt like hell. She couldn't help but lie on the floor sideways, doubled over from the pain. Her mom walked into the room with a basket of laundry, nearly dropping it as she saw her daugher doubled over on the floor of her dark room.

 "Janette! Are you okay?!"

 "Mmm, yeah, yeah mom it's-uh, I think I got my period of this month."

 "Oh dear, come on, I have some pads in the bathroom."

 "Thanks ma."

 The older woman helped her up, and to the bathroom, leaving her alone inside for privacy. As she pretended to take care of the mess, she looked in the mirror. She opened her mouth, and retracted her fangs back out. The strange liquid appeared to come out of them. She knew better than to try and swallow it, so she looked around and spotted the nearly empty q-tip plastic box. She took out the only remaining q-tip and let the liquid drip inside the box, closing it as she retracted them back in her skull. She cringed at the sensation.

 She stayed in the bathroom for a few more minutes.

Chapter Text

Janette clenched the sample in her hand as she waited outside for Harvey. She had texted him that night, asking if it would be okay to show him something confusing and worrying. As she sat outside the laboratories, pacing back and forth, she contemplated telling him and Marie of her spider-powers. Surely, Oscorp of all companies would know what was wrong with her. She rubbed the space between her top lip and nose, feeling the fangs that were tucked away inside her skull. It felt horrible.

 Finally, the door opened to a visibly worried Harvey. He walked towards Janette.

 “Hey Jan, is everything alright? The texts sounded urgent.”

 “Um, yeah I....I want this looked at.”

 She showed him the clear liquid inside the q-tip box. Harvey eyed it in confusion.

 “What is it?”

 “I wouldn’t have come here if I knew, Harv.”

 “Right.”, Harvey nodded awkwardly, “Well, you’re lucky today is a lazy day, Doctor Odonnell can take a look at it.”

 Janette turned her gaze to the slightly taller man setting up equipment behind them. She looked back at Harvey.

 “It won’t be just...? You know.”

 “Oh no, my dad would kill me if I ever tried to handle equipment like that.”

 Janette nodded as they made their way towards the doctor.

 “Very well.”, the man said as he finished setting up the small amount of equipment on the table, “What do you want me to look at?”

 Janette gave him the box, and in return the doctor gave her a questioning look as he looked at the colorless liquid.

 “Are you sure this just isn’t just water?”

 “Trust me, I don’t think it is.”

 Odonnell sighed, deciding to entertain the two children in the lab, “Very well. Let us take a look.”

 He took a small sample from the large amount in the plastic box and placed it in a microscope slide, moving to enhance and look under it. It appeared that the mystery liquid had already caught some stray debris, probably because it hadn’t been contained properly. Harvey looked over at Janette, who was rubbing her arm nervously.

 “Is everything okay?”, he asked.

 Janette sighed, “Me and ma were called to the hospital this morning.”

 “Oh shit, was it about your dad?”

 “No, it wasn’t that. It was uncle Montana. Apparently he got in a fight that resulted in more than two broken ribs last night, and we were contacted as immediate family.”

 “Oh...I’m sorry.”, Harvey responded, trying to sound apologetic. He really was, he just wanted to make sure it showed on the outside as well.

 On the other side, Odonnell frowned as he looked closer at the clearer parts of the liquid. They appeared to resemble morphine, but something about those particular cells seemed abnormal. With a hum, he held up the trapped sample, catching the attention of the teenagers.

 “What is it, doc?”

 “I think I will be needing more equipment. This is most certainly not just water.”

 He paced back and forth in the lab, looking over at the A6.2 table, and back at the deformed morphine cells again.

 “What you found, miss Stein, appears to be morhine, or at the very least something close to it.”

 Janette and Harvey exhanged looks before Harvey turned to Odonell again.

 “What do you mean by that last statement, doctor?”

 “I mean that this particular morphine appears to be genetically, or artificially, enhanced. Whether it has good or bad results from this mutation can only be certain if it is tested.”

 Harvey nodded and looked at Janette, who was still nervous. Odonnell then addressed her.

 “Miss Stein, if you allow me to ask, where did you find this?”

 Janette’s eyes darted around the room, and her fingers were getting tangled. How was she even supposed to explain this? Morphine coming from her teeth what the fu-

 “Well um...I....”, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once she exhaled, she opened them again, “If I tell you, please don’t tell anyone that you got this information from me.”

 The two guys gave each other questioning looks before turning them back to Janette.

 “Of course, I will make sure your privacy is respected.”, Odonell confirmed. If this were a bigger discovery, he wouldn’t want someone as young as Janette Stein getting roped in the dirty works of the industry.

 “Okay, this might sound a bit crazy, but hear me out. Last night I was uh, doing my own things in my room, and uh, I’m not sure what the time was but I heard tapping outside my window. I was like “huh, did I hear that correctly?” and then I turned to my window and I saw the spider-woman.”

 “What?!”, the other two exclaimed in unison, Harvey moving to hold Janette’s biceps, shaking her nervously.

 “Are you okay?! Were you hurt?! Did she get in??”

 “I’m fine, Harv! I didn’t even get to the crazy part!”

 “Is the crazy part where you got..this?”, Odonnell asked, gesturing at the liquid.

 “Yes. So, she was about to open my window.”

 The boys were visibly nervous.

 “But then, someone dived from high heavens to grab her. She had opened the window partially so she tried to hold on to the window sill with her teeth, and I saw that she had fangs like needles! And then, I noticed that something weird was coming out of her fangs. It was like how venom comes out of a snake’s teeth, just like that-and then, they both fell onto the fire escape platform and then down below. I closed the blinds after that, so I don’t know what happened after.”

 To say the men in the room where stunned would be an understatement. As Harvey was bombarding her with questions, Odonnell looked at the sample more closely, squinting his eyes at it.

 “And you said this came from the spider-woman's fangs?”, he asked.

 Harvey’s worrying questions stopped just enough for Janette to confirm it, which only furthered his curiosity. Perhaps this one sample was the first step to figuring out what that spider-woman was.

 “I greatly thank you for bringing this to light, miss Stein. I will be needing the rest of the liquid you have for further testing, and I will make sure your involvement is unknown.”

 “Thank you mr Odonnell.”

 “Of course. And if you have any more information to share, or if you encounter the spider-woman again, be sure to contact me. Now, where is my..”, Odonnell patted his lab coat pocket to feel the outline of the business card before his eyes spotted the rack holding them inside his office, “Ah, one moment.”

 He gently placed the sample back under the microscope and slightly raised the back of his coat. Janette raised an eyebrow in slight confusion before her expression was replaced with fear as a dark purple tentacle emerged from the doctor’s back. She immediatelly moved to shield Harvey and herself out of instinct, but the tentacle moved past her and towards the doctor’s office. Just as she looked at the bizzare scene unfolding in front of her, she mouthed ‘what the fuck’, and Odonnell proceeded to explain in an apologetic tone.

 “I apologise if I scared you, miss Stein. You have nothing to be scared of.”, the tentacle then returned, handing him a business card as it once again squeezed itself inside his back with an unpleasant squelching sound. He handed the card towards Janette’s direction, “Unlike Trevino, I am in full and complete control of my eldritch gifts.”

 Janette reluctantly took the card, which contained the man’s name, email address, profession, and phone number.

 “Thank you, but...are you sure about the whole tentacle thing?”

 “Like I told you, miss Stein, my mind is perfectly intact. I would not be here otherwise.”

 “Oh, well..you got a point there.”, Janette responded as she shoved the card in one of her pant pockets.

 “Besides,”, Odonnell continued, “at the time, it was the only way I could turn to if I wanted my body to continue to function. I am sure you can understand.”

 Janette looked to the ground, like a disciplined child, “I can, doc.”

-----------------------------------------------

 The morphine had proved to be more powerful than Odonnell had thought.

 It was estimated that the mixture Janette had brought in was five times stronger than regular morphine, and it came from the fangs of the spider-woman.

 "Those are some interestingly dangerous results, Odonnell.", Nathaniel commented as a researcher removed the dead rabbit from the testing room, "And was the witness certain it came from the spider?"

 "Yes, Mr Oconnell. Witnesses near the informant's apartment have also confirmed the legitimacy of the encounter."

 Nathaniel rubbed his chin in thought, "Then there is no room for doubt, is there?"

 Odonnell nodded, "Indeed. It seems the spider-woman is enhanced with some form of eldritch force, though we are not sure what she has signed a contract with."

 "A question for another time, doctor. For now, we will need to know more about her biology. We have only seen her stop robberies, imagine what we could achieve if we could replicate that biology."

 Odonnel gave him a concerned look, "With all due respect, sir, I do not think it would be a good idea. It could just as easily backfire."

 "Maybe so, but we could learn so much from her. It is so rare to see individuals infected with eldritch essence still sane."

 "You'd be lucky if you laid hands on the insect.", a gruff female voice commented in the backround.

 The two men turned around to see Tombstone. Nathaniel was an expert at keeping a poker face, seeing as he was involved in diplomatic business. Omar however, could feel the tentacles embedded into his flesh squirm around, circling around his bones and organs with agitation. He grabbed his midrift in pain, which didn't go unnoticed by the enforcer.

 "Tell your arms to relax, doctor. I ain't here to fight."

 "Where is security?", Nathaniel asked, calm as ever.

 Tombstone shrugged, "They let me in without mush issue."

 Odonnell knew that was bullshit. Enforcers like Tombstone would stroll wherever they pleased, and violence was never out of the table. He wouldn't be surprised if the bodies of the security guards were the first thing he would see as soon as they'd leave the lab.

 "If Fisk sent you here, tell him that I am not interested in whatever business he plans on offering me.", Nathaniel commented as he waved his hand dismissively.

 Tombstone ignored his negative response and moved further inside the lab. With every step she took, the tentacles pertruded from Odonnell's back a little further, rigid and ready to attack at any moment. When Tombstone started to speak again, Nathaniel had to hold a hand in front of Omar to calm him and and his monstrous limbs down.

 "The Big Man had the same idea as you. We even sent an enforcer after 'er.", she was fiddling with several of the lab supplies, ignoring the ticking time bomb that was the doctor, "Even gave the man eldritch-enhanced weapons, and do you know where he ended up? Inside the hospital walls."

 "What is the purpose of you coming into one of my laboratories and sulking about your botched mission?", Nathaniel asked, slowly lowering the hand in front of the doctor.

 Tombstone dropped what she was fiddling with, thankfully in a carefull manner, "Fisk proposes a deal, Oconnell. He wants our departments to join forces to catch the spider-woman, and after that, we split the check. You get the genetic information, and we get the original."

 "What do you mean by that?", Odonnell asked, clearly alarmed, which brought Oconnell's hand to his back. The tentacles calmed down at the hand on their host's back.

 " You want to learn more about that circus freak's biology so you can replicate it, and Fisk wants more brutal enforcers. I can't carry my men's asses forever."

 Odonnell squinted his eyes at her, "And what makes you think that she'd be interested in that?"

 "She won't have to. Brute force is always an option."

 Omar was done listening. If it weren't for his boss being in the same room, he would most certainly have attacked the woman the moment she stepped inside the room. But calm as always, Nathaniel handled the situation.

 "My previous statement still stands, Larini.", the eye twitch from the enforcer did not go unnoticed, "What you want to accomplish goes against any standard and moral code this company has. And even if I was interested in accepting this deal, I wouldn't dream of risking the company being exposed. Now, if you or Fisk have any respect for me, leave my doctor's work space and this building."

 Tombstone squinted her eyes at the CEO, and then at Omar, whose alien appentages went back into defensive position.

 "Very well.", she said, "Arrivederci."

 And with that, she left the room. Nathaniel sighed, looking mentally exhausted. Omar placed a hand on the man's shoulder, one of the tentacles circling around to be in front of him. Nathaniel responded by caressing the appendage.

 "Thank you, Omar."

 "Does this happen often, Nathaniel? You seem very used to this song and dance."

 "Fisk has been trying to absorb Oscorp into his business. I have been declining every time, obviously."

 Odonnell sighed as his hand moved to rub Nathaniel's shoulder and back, "You did a good thing, Nathaniel. I am sure we can find an ethical way to obtain more information about the spider-woman. Get her to work with us, find ways to contact her."

 "I doubt a thief would have any interest in working with us, Omar."

 "Well, she did save you. Didn't she?"

 Nathaniel lifted his hand from the tentacle, which retracted to Omar's back as Nathaniel thought. Perhaps too hard. There was a certain uncanny familiarity on his face before he spoke.

 "I will have to think about it. I....need some time to think."

 "Of course."

---------------------

 Tracking down the swift thief was easier said than done. Odonnell had even recruited the help of one of his fellow renowned scientists, Charlotte Davidson, to help him with analysing the morphine-like substance and track down the mutant.

 Charlotte was a big help, handling most of the laboratory work while Odonnell worked on finding safe, and legal, ways to contact the spider-woman and convince her to cooporate with Oscorp. And as he thought, it was easier said than done.

 The spider showed up often, that was for certain, but she always slipped away far too quickly. Like sand between your dry fingers.

 They came close once or twice, but she was extremely hostile towards any pursuers. The only positive was that through observations, they were able to write down patterns, habits, and a general rundown of her abilities. High stakes were rare, seeing as most of the crooks of Chicago were normal human beings, with the closest thing to a threat she had faced so far being that enhanced enforcer of Fisk's, and even he had ended up in the hospital. After a few days, he had gotten the idea to visit the man. But seeing that he was not sure if he was still in the hospital, he had asked Charlotte about it, and he found out that the man was still under the hospital's care. So Omar decided he'd pay him a visit after all.

 After a quick talk with the receptionist, he managed to find the enforcer's room, making sure to knock on the door before he entered.

 He walked into the room with caution, the sight surprising him. Janette Stein was also in the room, sitting on a chair next to the bed. She looked up at him with an equal amount of surprise, Oconnell being the one to break the ice as he cleared his throat.

 "Mr Montana, may we have a talk?"

 The man sitting up on the bed squinted his eyes at him, trying to figure ou why he was here in the first place. After about twenty seconds, he placed a hand on Janette's shoulder.

 "Sweetie, why don't you wait outside for a minute? It's work stuff."

 Janette gave them both a hesitant look before leaving. Odonnell watched her leave, turning his head back to Montana as the teenager closed the door behind her.

 "Your family, Mitchell Montana?"

 The man scowled, "Did Tombstone send you to punish me for my failure? I knew those few days were too quiet to be true."

 "You misanderstand me, Mitchell Montana. I am not with Fisk or Tombstone, I came here because I was told you have information about the spider-woman."

 This response earned a cautious look from Montana, followed by an even more cautious answer.

 "If you ain't with the Big Man, I ain't allowed to share anything with you."

 "Is there a way I can assure you that this conversation will not be known?" 

 Montana scoffed, "How thick is your wallet?"

 "That entirely depends on the information you can give me, Mitchell Montana."

 "Even still, fancy-pants,", Montana continued, "a fat wallet doesn't guarantee my safety, y'know."

 "I am aware, but I will have you know I have a particular set of skills that can guarantee you that safety. I have contracts. I can help get you out of your mess."

 The bed-ridden man looked at his lap, his expression unreadable. Odonnell continued.

 "How severe were your injuries?"

 Montana gestured at his heavily bandaged body with a pained noise, "What the fuck do you think? They said it was a miracle I could still fucking walk!"

 "I was.....just trying to be considerate...."

 Montana groaned, Omar walking closer slowly and cautiously.

 "Mr Montana, I can assure you that both you and your family will be safe. I just need you to tell me a few things about your encounter. To confirm what I had discussed days prior with miss Stein."

 The look he received was one of fear and anger.

 "How did you reach my sister...?"

 "Sister?", Omar questioned as he turned his head to the door, "No no, I was referring to your niece, Janette Stein. You are her family, so I will trust you with the information that she was there to witness your fight with the spider-woman."

 Montana let his head drop into his hand, staring at nothing in silent horror. Odonnell could sympathise to a certain extent. Learning that a member of your family, especially someone so young, coming so close to death would worry any responsible parental figure.

 "Does that mean you will be assisting me, Mr Montana?"

 "Like I said, unless I'm sure I won't be gutted like a lamb, I ain't saying shi-"

 A large tentacle shot from the doctor's spine and to the man's throat, constricting his breathing. Omar found one of his fingers raised to his own mouth.

 "Do not scream, Mitchell Montana. I can assure you no one will get hurt. You only need to tell me a few things."

 Montana struggled to move and even breathe, but he nodded weakly after a struggle with the eldritch appendage, which released his grip on him. The two men kept eye contact as the tentacle retreated back into the doctor's back, disappearing like it was never there in the first place. Montana rubbed his neck.

 "What the fuck do you want, Octapus?"

 Omar had to restrict the unwanted smile threatening to form on his lips, managing to keep a poker face much like Nathaniel's.

 "Let us talk about your encounter. I want to hear both percepectives."

Chapter Text

 “Is that all you learned?”, Nathaniel asked.

 “Yes, sir. Tombstone’s enforcer confirmed everything we knew so far, and a few things more about places the spider-woman might frequent in from Fisk’s patrols. Seems like Tombstone was right, they too are after her.”

 The two were in Nathaniel’s office, the man who owned it sitting on his chair as he heard the little but crucial information his doctor had for him.

 “I see. This could give us leverage. We could convince the spider-woman that we will provide protection if she sides with us.”

 “With all due respect sir, we have tried the peaceful approach numerous times. It is clear she does not want to negotiate.”

 “Perhaps not with our regular force.”

 Odonnell raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean by that?”

 Nathaniel got up from where he was sitting, standing up to face his window.

 “You have more control over your eldritch strength than anyone I know.”, he turned from looking at Chicago to looking at Omar Odonnell, “I think if anyone will be able to do this job right, it would be you.” 

 Odonnell looked at Nathaniel in surprise.

 “You suggest....that I go after the spider-woman?”

 “Precisely.”, Nathaniel responded, “I am sure your abilities can handle her.”

 “Mr Oconnell. If that woman manages to get even one hand on me, I risk dying. Whether that be from her sheer strength or from the morphine.”, Odonnell worryingly stated.

 “Doesn’t your contract protect you? We are running out of options, Odonnell.”

 “I am aware, but you cannot possibly expect me to put my life on the line to reach out for a partnership that could not even work!”

 "Do you care at all for the future of this company, Odonnell?", Nathaniel moved to place a hand on the doctor's shoulder, "If you do, you will go through with this. For everyone's sake."

 Odonnell went to protest further, but he felt the tentacles tugging on his insides, eager to be used in more ways other than picking up business cards and handling lab equipment. He sighed in defeat, looking to the side rather than his boss' eyes.

 "Of course, sir."

-----------------------------

 "So, what do you think?", Janette asked her two friends, holding her hands up to gesture at the finished eel mural.

 It was three moray eels dancing amongst each other, dark purple being the color chosen for the creatures, making them appear black sometimes. Sea flora decorated the area around them, kelp dancing along their slithering bodies as purple and blue electricity lined their figures.

 Marie snapped a picture with Janette's 'new' camera, "I think it's amazing!", she commented.

 Harvey had one hand on his head, staring at the finished product in disbelief.

 " How are you even doing that??"

 Janette shrugged, rubbing her paint-stained hands on her oversized 'Pink Floyd' t-shirt, which Marie chastised her for.

 "Guess it's Purple Floyd now, eh?"

 Harvey groaned and rolled his eyes at this as he moved towards her, "Oh you and your stupid puns!", he handed her a box of sanitised wipes.

 Janette took a few to clean her hands. She had forgotten to grab gloves this time around, but that didn't stop her from finishing this piece with less protection than usual. She turned her head to the side, pointing it out to Harvey.

 "Do I have any on my face?"

 "You do, hang on.", he said as he took out a sanitised wipe to clean Janette's purple cheek. He reluctantly put more pressure on it, since the paint had dried by now.

 "I ain't made of glass, you know.", Janette joked.

 "Oh shut up, I just care alright?"

 Janette raised an eyebrow at Harvey's unusually red face. Harvey continued the conversation before she could comment on it.

 "How did you even get so messy?", Harvey asked, referring to Janette's completely dirty clothes.

 The latter shrugged, "Usually I just tune out my surroundings and let the art gods do the work for me."

 "At this point, I wouldn't really be surprised if you had a deal with a god all along.", Marie commented, making her way towards her friends.

 "Oh? And how do you know I don't?", she teased, Marie simply extending a hand to her.

 "Well, you are still sane and you don't look like a monster to me. Just a regular teenager with a talent."

 Harvey chuckled awkwardly as he pulled his hand back from Janette's face.

 "If only you could share that talent with the rest of us."

 "Hey, you guys are great just the way you are! We wouldn't be friends otherwise, would we?"

 Marie nodded and showed her the camera's screen.

 "I think I'm getting better at this. What do you think?"

 Janette looked over at the screen, looking at the result.

 "Hmmm, maybe it's the lighting. But you're getting better at this!"

 Marie gave an exaggerated triumphant face, fist pump and all.

 "Now I won't have to drag you into danger again!"

 "Hey, I'm always here in case you need to run from the mob."

 "Reeeally not a thing to joke about.", Harvey commented.

 "Right, sorry."

 The three started to come down from the building through the rickety fire escape, Harvey switching between holding Janette and Marie as the swaying of the metal platforms stressed him out.

 "Good.", Janette commented, "Now I'm sure the cops won't be able to get up and smudge it!"

 "Don't they have the other stairs or something?", Marie asked.

 ".....Ah shit."

 The three chuckled as the finally made their way down to the concrete road. Janette patted her hands as she and the others walked out of the alley. She looked up towards the direction of her art.

 "Nah. No way the police would actually put that much effort on a random art piece."

 "You think them above that? Seems like they put way more effort on smaller things by the day."

 "For someone for a cop dad, you sure seem to have a vendetta against them.", Harvey commented.

 Janette frowned, "My dad is a good person, Harvey. Unlike some other people in the force."

 "There certainly are very few people in the force."

 "We'd be skimming the bottom of the barrel."

 They eventually settled on hanging out in a nearby empty park. Janette was sitting on the padded floor, Harvey on one of the swings while Marie had the upper half of her body on the other, the bottom half hanging limp from the swing.

 "Is that even comfortable?", Harvey asked her.

 "Sorry I can't sit straight, my guy."

 "Oh bollocks."

 Janette snorted at Harvey's response. It was then that the boy's phone rung in his pocket, the girls stopping the conversation so he could speak.

 "Hey dad, what's going on?"

 Janette couldn't hear the conversation very clearly but from Harvey's responses, she guessed he was needed for something. Harvey addressed them again after he hung up. 

 "Dad said I should get going, sorry guys."

 Marie dismissed his apologetic statement, "Eh, don't sweat it. Wouldn't want to challenge that man's wrath."

 He got up from the swing, "So uh, I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

 "Sure.", Janette said, "We'll come by to pick you up?"

 "Sounds good to me."

 "Alright, bye bye."

 The two watched him walk off and Marie turned to Janette.

 "Got anything else you want to do today?"

 "I think Imma head out as well. Ma will bury me if I don't come back today."

 "Mkay. See you around.", Marie waved her goodbye as she left, which Janette returned.

 Janette finally made it home, the first sound to enter her ears been the sound of the vacuum cleaner. She didn't bother to announce she was home, instead walking directly in her room where she found her mom rumaging through her closet with the vacuum running a foot away.

 "H-Hey, mom! What are you doing?"

 Magda pulled out a t-shirt whose sleeves have been cut to the point where it was a sleeveless shirt bordering to a tank top. She shook it in front of her.

 "What is this, Janette?!"

 "You said you'd stop rumaging through my closet!"

 "Well clearly I need to do that far more often than I though-do you enjoy walking around like a charlatan?!"

 "I can wear whatever the f.....I can wear whatever I want!"

 "Watch your language young lady! Do you think anyone would want to be near you when you're dressed like that?"

 "Do you think people are that shallow?!"

 "Do you want your father's coworkers to see you on the street like this and ridicule us?!"

 Janette paused at her mother's last statement.

 "You....care more about their opinions on us more than my happiness..?"

 "You are not 'happy', Janette, you are delusional if you think dressing like that will do you any good!"

 Janette had heard enough, and she proceeded to sprint out of her room and then out of her house, her mother yelling for her all the way to the door.

 It was getting darker, the street lamps turning on one by one as Janette run down the street. Her eyes itched, threatening to have tears slip through. She sucked it up with a whimper, and run aimlessly down the streets of Chicago. She eventually sat down on the sidewalk. She knew walking out into the nighttime Chicago was a stupid fucking idea, but it's not like she couldn't punch any assaulters to death.

 She eventually wondered inside an alleyway, stopping midway through to glance at a stray graffity that wasn't her own. It was just the outline, and it looked like something with an octapus as its head, the rest of the body being too smudged to tell what it was. She sighed heavily, and then her head shot up as she felt her spider-sense going off.

----------------------------------------------

 She ran outside of the alley, narrowingly avoiding a man that was about to abduct her. Without thinking, she kicked him in the crotch, the man's knees buckling and making him fall on the floor with a silent scream. Janette then quickly turned to run away, hearing another man talking to him as she made her escape.

 "Dammit Afanasy! Why couldn't you just walk up and ask her?!"

 Janette didn't care what they could possibly want to ask her, but she continued to run. Her spider sense still rung in her head, this time also getting secondary help from a thumping noise up above. She looked up to see a shadowy figure suspended on four octapus tentacles, moving steadily on the roofs and in par with her.

 "What the shit-?"

 One of the tentacles shot out, and Janette was too slow to avoid it. There were multiple people still around, and a panic was caused from the sight of a possible eldritch monster on the loose. The tentacle didn't hit Janette, but grabbed her and lifted her up to the roofs. She knew for a fact it was Odonnell. She looked at the masked figure she was now placed in front. She tried to play it cool, placing a hand on her hip.

 "Couldn't you just give me a call, doctor?"

  God she was fucking terrified.

  "Well, unless you are the spider-woman, no."

 Janette visibly tensed at the inquiry. Did he suspect her identity? The doctor lowered himself so his actual legs would be on the concrete rooftop, his tentacles moving behind him like two pairs of wings.

 "I am here because you might have something that could help me find the spider-woman."

 "What do you mean by that?"

 "She have had to come to you for a reason, are you sure you don't know each other?"

 "Are you accusing me of trying to harbour a criminal?"

 "No! Heavens no! I just think that if she tried to come to your room specifically, there must be some level of closeness."

 Janette decided to try and entertain the doctor's ideas, afraid of getting strangled by the appendages behind his back.

 "Are you saying that..the spider-woman might be someone close to me?"

 "Precisely.", Odonnell explained, "And I thought that you could be the best help we could get to make actual contact with her."

 Janette raised her eyebrow, "Why would you even want that?"

 "I am afraid this is classified information. But I can assure you we mean no harm."

 "We?"

 Odonnell looked a bit stunned for a moment, looking behind his back at the flowing appendages.

 "Ah, sorry. I got carried away."

 "Right uhh, I think I'm gonna goooo."

 "Wait-!"

 One of the tentacles moved without Odonnell permitting it and grabbed Janette's neck, squeezing it. Janette's face quickly turned purple, her legs stomping around aimlessly and her hands grasping the slippery appendages to no avail. Odonnell quickly tried to get them off of her, but they refused to listen. Janette finally found the strength to dig into her jacket's pocket and pulled out a box cutter, managing to lift it up enought to pierce the tentacle, who let go and attempted to retreat away from her, cutting itself on the box cutter more as it fled.

 Janette heaved, desperately trying to force air into her lungs while clinging onto the box cutter. She shot a look at Odonnell and his eldritch appendages, the doctor desperately attempting to calm them down. Janette slowly got to her feet, still not breaking her line of sight with the doctor. 

 "Maybe you don't have as much say in this as you thought, doc."

 "I-I have complete control over this!", Odonnell fired back.

 "So you wanted to strangle me to death?!"

 "No! Of course not!"

 "Then you don't have control!", Janette said, pointing at the tentacles with her knife, "Those things have a mind of their own."

 Odonnell shook his head, trying to desperately explain that he still had a semblance of control over his eldritch deal. But the irritated tentacles shot towards Janette once more. Her life flashed before her eyes. She couldn't just reveal she was the spider, she might find herself in deeper and darker waters if she revealed her double life. She mght end up as a-

 Just as all hope seemed lost for her, a sudden burst of electricity incapacitated both the tentacles and their wielder, an ear-piercing scream escaping from Odonnell's mouth. Janette backpedaled, unable to look away from the gruesome scene. Flesh bubbles and dark scars with multiple patterns appearing on the skin of the figure as the doctor's mouth opened so much his jaw seemed to dislocate. Janette almost fell too, but something caught her. She closed her eyes as she fell, only opening them when her body found solid ground in the arms of someone else. Her eyes landed on a blinding light, a head composed entirely of crackling blue electricity. Janette flinched in surprise, questioning why she wasn't being fried as well. She then noticed the green suit Marc was wearing.

 He turned the orbs that resembled his eyes to look at her.

 "Clarke figured it out.", he said.

 Janette couldn't help but smile and give her friend a hug, which he returned. 

 Both then turned their attention to the doctor. Or rather, his limp body on the ground. Marc lowered Janette to the ground, who took a step towards the Odonnell's direction.

 "Is he....dead?", she asked, Marc tense behind her.

 He looked down at his covered hands, "Did I.......?"

 Before either of them could figure out whether they had just killed a man or not, the tentacles started writhing back to life, Janette stepping back in fear. The four appendages dug themselves to the ground and lifted the man along with them. The two below could hear bones cracking and flesh being moved in ways it physically shouldn't. Odonnell's burnt face was lifted under the pale moonlight, the sclera of his eyes becoming more and more red until his eyes finally burst like confetti. Janette covered her mouth in disgust, trying not to puke. Blood dripped down his eyes as more wet sounds filled the air around them, new eyes forming back inside the man's skull, ones with the sclera being as black as the pupil and the irises being the color of brown sugar.

 The new Odonnell looked at them with an expressionless face, the color of the tentacles slowly changing to match the color of his irises as well.

 Janette and Marc were too stunned to speak, watching in both horror and awe. The man straightened his back, placing his arms behind his back as he looked at Janette with a raised eyebrow. The three of them stayed still for a moment before one of the tentacles shot out towards the duo again, Marc blocking it with more electricity. The arm retreated back to its owner, receiving a slow and gentle pat from the host.

 "It is alright.", a distorted, almost feminine voice, spoke out from the doctor's body, further confirming that the man was both dead and possessed.

 Janette grabbed Marc's arm, trying to drag him away from the monster so they would both leave alive from this. But Marc was unmoving. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

 "You go. I'll stay."

 "W-What?"

 "You saved me, let me do the same for you."

 Janette looked at him with fear in her eyes, sparing another glance at the threat that stood not too far away. She looked back at Marc, tears forming in her eyes.

 "You better fucking live.", she whispered to him as she ran down the fire escape.

 She could only hear the sounds of clashing, spontaneous sparks of electricity casting a light over her as she joined the panicking civilians in running away from the active battle. Police finally showed up on the scene, Janette sqeezing past them and trying not to get seen. She really didn't want to go back home. So she run all the way to Marie's house, violently banging on the door until it opened. Marie was there to welcome her, and Janette fell into her arms before she could ask any questions, catching the redhead by surprise. Marie dragged her inside and closed the door, and then to her room after taking off her shoes.

 Janette slept in Marie's house that night, taking a very long time to just calm down. She wished she could cry, but the sheer amount of adrenaline did not allow any to come out of her eyes.

 Back in the fight, Marc was holding his own easier than he had anticipated, the attacks being no more than smacks. It was like the entity had no intention of causing serious damage to him. Eventually, he grew irritated of being played like he was a cat's food.

 "What the hell is your deal?!", he screamed at him, prompting two of the entity's tentacles that weren't holding the doctor's body up moving upwards in an arch.

 'Odonnell' put his arms together as he proceeded to speak.

 "Marc Dawson. I shall let thou know I careth deeply for mine creations, along with heora byproducts. Yes, Iagegnn'loxz broke our deal in order to mold thou, but thou art mine nonetheless."

 "....What..?"

 Marc then suddenly found himself unable to move, the most he could manage from his body being a slight shake. The entity lowered itself to the ground, walking towards him in its human legs.

 "Thou shall return to me, Marc Dawson."

 Marc turned his orbs for eyes towards the creature, who gave him a smile.

 "Thou belongeth to Xijh'the now."

 And then, everything went black.

Chapter Text

Janette woke up earlier than anyone else in Marie’s house, staring at the door of her friend’s room that was across from her. She wasn’t sure how long she was staring at it, but it must have been a long time, because her body felt even more exhausted by the time she laid back down again. Her new view was the ceiling, which she stared at until Marie started to stir awake. Janette quickly pretended to be asleep by turning her back to her and closing her eyes.

 She heard Marie sit up and yawn. She soon heard the cracking that often accompanied a streching motion, and that was Janette’s que to pretend to stir awake as well, feeling Marie’s eyes on her.

 “Good morning.”, Marie mumbled as she rubbed her tired eyes.

 Janette forced a noise from her throat as a response.

 Marie got out of bed first, Janette making sure to turn away as she changed from her pijamas. Janette looked at the desk chair where her clothes lay. She had no problem sleeping in her clothes, but Marie was insistent she borrow one of her pijama sets for her own comfort, and Janette had to oblidge.

 It then came her own turn to change, and then the two went to the bathroom to wash up. Janette nearly jumped out of her skin as her fangs appeared in the mirror, closing her mouth quickly and holding it shut with her hands. Thankfully, Marie was still too drowsy to notice anything weird.

 Marie's dad was still sleeping as Janette looked at her phone. She had eleven missed calls from her mother in the double digits. She sighed. Whether it was from predictability or annoyance, she was not sure herself. She decided it was too early to deal with this, so she chose to postpone calling back. She didn't want to wake her mom this early.

 "Why did you run away?", Marie asked as she reached for the fridge.

 "It's mom again.", Janette explained, "Ever since dad was hospitalised, she has become a rollercoaster of a woman."

 "In what manner?"

 "The constant mood swings, controlling nature. She doesn't even want to let me be exposed to cultures outside our family's."

 "Damn.....and I though Harvey was going through family shit."

 Janette exhaled heavily as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

 "What do you have in the fridge?", Janette asked as she leaned closer to Marie to look at the inside of the fridge. She spotted a beast energy drink, and she quickly grabbed it.

 Marie stopped her before she could crack open the can.

 "Janette! It is eight in the morning !"

 "And?"

 "Jesus Christ. At least eat something first! You're gonna have the worst stomach ache if you drink that with an empty stomach."

 Janette rolled her eyes, but put down the can and let Marie make her a grilled cheese for breakfast. She ate it while still hot, trying to eat it as fast as she could so she could get the comfort of the energy drink. She was addicted to it at this point. One hour had passed by now, and Perry was finally awake. He was surprised to see Janette in the kitchen with his daughter.

 "Oh, Stein. Didn't know you two were having a sleepover."

 "It was kind of a last-minute decision, dad. Sorry, you were already out like a rock."

 "Ah, I see. Well, you kids better warn me next time. Especially if any boys come over!", he joked.

 Marie rolled her eyes in amusement, "Okay dad, whatever you saay."

 Janette's dry face was not as welcoming, but Perry shrugged and assumed that it was because she was tired.

 "Oh, Marie. Don't forget garbage day today."

 "Got it!", she responded.

 Janette merely sat there, her mouth slightly open and her arms and eyes fixated on the white table.

----------------------------------

 Harvey couldn't get out of the house today, so the two girls went on on their own. Marie was getting increasingly worried by Janette's blank stare.

 "You....are gonna have to call your mom soon, you know. She might be worried."

 "Yea yea....I know."

 And so, after much deliberation, Janette pulled out her phone and called her mom. The phone rung for a while, and Janette half-prayed she wouldn't pick up. But alas, she did.

 "Janette?! Where have you been?!"

 The teenager cringed at her mother's voice.

 "Hey, I....I was at Marie's. I stayed over for the night."

 "Is she with you?"

 Janette handed the phone over to Marie.

 "Hey ms Stein! Don't worry, Jan is safe with me."

 "Oh thank the heavens. Thank you Marie. As for you Janette, come back as soon as you can. We need to talk."

 Janette sighed, "Yes, mom.", she then ended the call. "I hated every second on that."

 "She's your mom, Jan. She cares about you."

 "She cares about jack shit, Marie."

 Marie sighed, rubbing her shoulders to calm her down. Janette had vented about the fight with her mom the night before, and she understood. Janette was a really sensitive person, that was no secret, but sometimes it was hard to convince her she was wrong about something.

 "Hey, how about we go for a walk? I know a place where we can clear our minds. And we can help other people in the process."

 Janette gave her a confused look, "What do you mean?"

 "I'll show you, follow me!", Marie said as she grabbed Janette's hand to lead her down the street.

 They eventually stopped near a big building, Janette eyeing it with curiosity.

 "What's this?", she asked.

 "It's pretty new, so maybe that's why you don't know what it is.", Marie explained, "Fisk recently bought that old building to turn it into a homeless shelter. I heard they're taking volunteers. And look, they're already unpacking stuff.", she said, pointing to a few people unloading some rather big boxes from a truck.

 Janette squinted at the truck and then turned to Marie.

 "Okay, one, aren't you already volunteering for the Bugle this summer? And two, I thought you hated anything that had to do with Fisk."

 "The second one is true, yeah. But that just means that-!"

 "I'm not helping you conduct an investigation on a political figure."

 "Oh come on! If not for me at least try to find something to do. You can't be staying inside all day and just draw."

 "You don't know what you're talking about."

 As Janette was talking to her friend, her spider-sense pointed her to the direction of the truck. There was someone taking a box from the pile, the rest threatening to fall on top of him. She ran towards the truck, and managed to catch the two boxes before falling on the man's head. The man was surprised at the boxes falling, but his face quickly relaxed when he had been saved. Janette gently placed the boxes on the ground, one on top of the other.

 "Are you okay, sir?", she asked.

 "I am. Thanks kiddo.", he steadied the box in his arms before gesturing inside with his head, "Do you mind uh, helping me out a bit?"

 Janette shot a glance at Marie, who was giving her two thumbs up. She sighed, but smiled at the man nonetheless.

 "Sure.", she lifted the boxes in her arms and carried them inside, following after the man.

 "Strong gal, eh?"

 "Yep. Gym makes wonders."

 "Sure does! My wife runs a gym just down the street."

 "Sounds lovely."

 The two chatted until they made their way inside, Janette placing down the boxes where the man told her to. She was briefly stopped by a lady asking her to sign a few things if she wanted to volunteer. Janette thought about it and, if not for Marie's obsession with investigating, then for her own sake. She remembered how her dad would tell her it does not take long for a human's mind to snap. So finding more distractions was a plus for her. Besides, she was helping people.

 Marie had left by now, so Janette was left to help the rest of the volunteers. A few children had curiously approached her. She recognised a few were from the neighbours, but most she didn't know, their clothes rugged and dirty. Must have been homeless children. Janette tried and succeeded at finding clothes for them, to at least give them something presentable to wear. The children were grateful, and even tried to start a converstaion with her, most questions being towards her battle jacket. Eventually, the children won and she caved in, and she told them all about the jacket, what each patch, pin, and other miscellaneous objects either sewn on or held in place with safety pins meant. It was a little cute how the children found it fascinating.

 "I didn't take people like you to be helping at homeless shelters.", one of the volunteers that she recognised from school commented.

 "Why?", she asked.

 "Aren't you punks all about anarchy and disobeying rules and chaos and shit?"

 "I am a punk, not an asshole, dumbass."

 "I see no difference."

 The classmate received a middle finger from Janette as she walked off to continue actual work. She knew trying to explain something to someone who very clearly didn't want to listen was a waste of time and energy. And besides, who doesn't hate someone else's beliefs shoved down their throats?

 More work was done, and Janette eventually decided to start heading back home. She tried to call Marie for a lifeline, but she wasn't answering her calls, and she was left alone. She tried to think of other ways to delay her return, deciding to instead head to the construction site in hopes that Marc had made it out alive after all.

 Unfortunately, she was met with an empty warehouse and strewn away supplies. She stood frozen for a moment, assuming the worst before kicking away a stray spray paint can in anger. 

 She eventually made her way outside her flat, staring up coldly at it. No, not yet. She climbed up the fire escape to get to her room. She grabbed what could be considered her spider suit, and swung off into the night. She just wanted a little more time.

---------------------------------------------

 She swung for a very long time, the sun long set by now. She landed on top of a billboard, crouching down as she wondered if she was needlesly worrying her parent, or her brother. She knew her dad was out of the question, he was still in the hospital. Uncle Montana was in there too, so staying over at his place was out of the question and she didn't want to bother her friends with her family drama any further. She sighed, looking over Chicago's dull streets.

 Janette needed to let out her frustrations somehow, and a voice in her head told her that just a simple beatdown of some random robber would not do the trick. She needed something more. Something that would make it all go away-something to squirm in her hands.

 She quickly shook those thoughts away, telling herself that those thoughts would do her more harm than good if she actually acted upon them. The people that did end up dying when the went up against her were mostly accidental casualties, and she wouldn't know about them half the time. One would fall of a building trying to catch her, one would shoot himself out of fear, others would be punched on the wall too hard. It was difficult to keep those memories locked away. Janette wanted to believe she was a good person, but does the death of others truly help things? They were criminals, of course, but they were still people. The though of taking someone's parent, child, any important person to someone else, it kept her up at night.

 Janette's senses perked up, her eyes glued on the streets. She saw an old woman walk by the building she was on top of. A man walked by her. She watched him grab her bag and sprint down the street, the old lady helpless to stop him. Janette mechanically got up, and followed the man until he stopped running. He went inside an apartment building, and Janette watched through the windows to find where he lived.

 She watched the man walk inside his house and locking the door, searching the bag to find anything of value. The man noticed his window was open, cold air filling the apartment. 

 He never got to close it. Chills run up his spine as he moved towards the window, and he slowly turned around to see a figure standing in the darkness of his home, white eyes piercing through the black. The figure's arms started to rise up in front of it, fingers crooked like a beast ready to attack. The man tried to scream, but the spider lept on top of him, digging her fangs in his throat and allowing morphine to seap in his bloodstream. The man twitched and writhed on the floor, his screams falling to deaf ears as the spider got up quickly, stumbling back and her mouth quivering.

  What have I done.?

 Janette finally arrived home, her face numb from the cold air and her bloody clothes stuffed in her bag. Her mother first welcomed her with relief, and then scolded her. She had kept the altered clothes in her closet after all, but she was still silent during dinner.

 It still was not enough.

Chapter Text

They were very lucky that they did not trigger the alarm this time, Afanasy thought. After their recent failure on attempting to get the witness for that octapus doctor, they went back to other ways to make money. Nothing too big, lest they catch a certain someone’s attention. Him and Fernando had managed to rob an atm machine under the dark in Chicago’s streets, stuffing their bags full of cash. Thankfully, it seemed they had gotten away scot-free this time, able to return to their hideout safely.

 Afanasy exhaled heavily as he slumped against the wall in relief, covering his face in his hands. 

 “I know.”, Fernando said as he threw the bag down on the floor, “I never thought we’d actually make it out of this one.”

 Fernando Mcclain looked over at his partner sitting on the floor, “You seem disturbed.”

 “It’s the man in yesterday’s news.”, Afanasy admitted in his thick russian accent, “I don’t want either o’ us endin’ up like that poor bastard.”

 “Don’t worry. As long as we stay out of sight, we’ll hopefully be out of mind, too.”

 “I am more worried about you, partner.”, the man on the floor admitted, “I’m alone ‘ere, but you got an actual family to take care of.”

 Fernando paused for a moment, turning away, “Yea....I just wish I wouldn’t have to sneak around just to see them.”

 Afanasy nodded, "Hey, we'll get through this, okay?"

 "....Thank you, Afanasy. I'm lucky to have you."

 "Da."

 The next time, they were not so lucky as to avoid the spider-freak. The two partners were chased down in the sewers, trying to find a way out and have the woman get lost in the tunnels in the process. She was crawling on the ceiling, why was she crawling on the ceiling?? After a while, they lost her, the two stopping to catch their breath.

 "Fuck!", Fernando whisper-shouted as he got back to running just as quickly as he stopped to take a breath, "Fuck!"

 "Fernando! Wait up!"

 Afanasy steadied himself to run after his partner, the dripping water echoing in the tunnels elevating his anxiety. He cursed in russian, realising he had lost Fernando in the tunnels. He heard a few clicking sounds, like a thin rod tapping metal, and he slowly walked towards the sound, hoping to find Fernando. Before he could round the corner, Fernando burst from it and pinned on the wall by the spider, her mouth hanging open and allowing them both to see the needles for teeth. Afanasy knew that if those needle teeth grabbed onto Fernando, they would not let go. 

 He dropped his bags, trying to get the monster off of Fernando. The spider jumped backwards while Afanasy still held her tight, slamming his back against the wall. Afanasy was stunned, falling limp on the ground. Fernando moved to save him, which resulted in a headbutt, and elbow to the face, and a close encounter with death. One of the fangs managed to penetrate his skin, right in the soft flesh of his arm. Not for long, thankfully, Fernando punching the woman's head away before more poison could be pumped into him. He tried to move again, but he buckled from the pain, Afanasy quickly moving to catch him. The russian looked up at the spider, who was re-adjusting her mask. He stared in the white slits that made up her eyes, who slowly widened as she looked further inside the tunnels, and right past him. She grabbed one of their loot bags, and run off, swinging away.

 Afanasy only focused on keeping Fernando alive, until he heard a motorcycle roaring in the distance. He slowly turned his head, the lights of a motorcycle becoming brighter and closer. The vehicle screeched to a halt, maneuvering sideways and stopping right next to them. Afanasy recognised Tombstone's white mane anywhere. 

 "Ran into a spider, Afanasy?"

----------------------------------------

 Tombstone was generous enough to help Afanasy bring Fernando to a medical facility Fisk had for his enforcers. The woman handed him a cigarette while they sat in the waiting room.

 "How has life been treatin' ya?", she asked, Afanasy took a cigarette with a grunt, Tombstone pocketing the package and took out a cigar for herself.

 "Still keeping up the bad habits?"

 "Not my fault you can't handle stronger shit, Af."

 "Whatever you say, Larini."

 The two sat in silence for a while, the only sounds coming from the medical equipment inside the rooms. A doctor came out of the room Fernando was being treated in, and filled them in on the poison and its possible effects. 

 "There is a possible treatment.", the doctor explained, "but it's going to cost you.", he turned towards Afanasy as he said that.

 Tombstone moved her eyes to look at the doctor and back at Afanasy. She turned to the doctor, speaking in italian. Afanasy couldn't tell what they were saying, but the doctor nodded and headed back inside. The woman walked closer to Afanasy, and he sighed as he put out the cigarette.

 "How much will I owe the Big Man, Tombstone?"

 "Well, I thought I'd do you a solid, old chap.", she responded, "Seems like you recognise just how big of a problem our little ragno (*spider) has become. The Big Man wants it contained."

 Afanasy squinted his eyes at her.

 "Where is this going?"

 "If you'll lend us a hand in catching that little shit, you won't have to pay a dime for your pal's treatment. How does that sound?" 

 Afanasy looked hesitant. He did not know what he would be getting himself into, and Tombstone was infamous for not letting you know what you're in for. She could say it was a cleaning job and next thing you know you have three poice helicopters on your ass. It was pointless to ask, but still.

 "I just have one question, Tombstone."

 The woman raised an eyebrow at him, inviting him to ask away.

 "Will I die from this?"

 "Nah. The worst thing that'll happen to ya are...a few changes to your physical appearance."

 That did not make the situation any better, and Afanasy was not sure how to feel. He looked down, pondering. He knew Fernando was a good man, and he knew his family loved him too. He was not a man that deserved to die, especially at the hands of a criminal worse than them. He knew he wouldn't make the money to pay back Fisk in time. The freak had seen his face, and he doubted he would leave their next encounter in one piece, or even alive. Hesitantly, he turned back to Tombstone.

 "What do you want me to do?"

 Tombstone smiled at the agreement, asking him to follow her.

 They left the building, coming to one of the warehouses reserved for the enforcers, Afanasy even seeing Montana in passing. They eventually entered a dark room, Afanasy only seeing rich black lights surrounded by individual, faint white halos. There were so many lights, and the darkness brought a shiver up his spine. Tombstone showed him to the lights.

 "Why don't you guys talk?", she asked, Afanasy still unsure what he was here for.

 Then, the 'lights' blinked, and Afansy flinched at the realisation that whatever was in front of him was not for the faint of mind to witness. And yet, Tombstone stood there, unfazed. It was like she had seen something like this before. The horrors shrouded in darkness spoke to him, its voice echoing inside his head. They called his name, beckoning him closer. Afanasy only noticed he was moving after one of the black lights shone on his face, its coldness making his face numb. Ishuxe's embrace was colder than the coldest parts of the Antarktos, Afanasy felt like he was floating in space.

 No noise could come from his mouth, even if he willed it. Especially when warmth started penetrating the layer of freezing cold he had been enveloped in. Hot, red liquid was running down his temple. And then from his eyes, his mouth, his nose, underneath his fingernails, from below, from his ears. It was everywhere. And even though Afanasy was not moving, or screaming, he could sense movement and profanities escaping him, a distant echo. It was like he was an unfeeling passenger in his own body. His skin felt rough, and his limbs thicker. His head felt heavy, curtesy of horns. Horns? Yes, the ones that rhinos bore. He felt much taller now, and every sound and smell around him became much stronger than before. But his eyes? It felt like he had become both partially blind and colorblind somehow. He couldn't see clear shapes past a certain point.

 One of his unnaturally large hands moved to grab his head in confusion, his mind starting to panic after the realisation that he went too close to an eldritch being. He looked down at his hand, still fuzzy in his eyes, and colorless. Afanasy was starting to get scared, feeling the skin on his enlarged hands. It was thicker than human skin, and much more sensitive too.

 "Huh.", he heard Tombstone say, "Never thought you a rhino guy."

 Afanasy was too afraid to speak, quickly becoming aware of his hoofed feet. He looked around frantically, breathing heavily. Why couldn't he see properly?? His head spun, and out of instinct, he rammed into a nearby wall, falling into a different room.

 Tombstone watched the entity pierce a hole through the ceiling as it flew into the skies.

  I returnth to thy stars.

  The woman then turned her attention to the newly turned Afanasy, who now looked more like a rhino with a human face standing on its hind legs.

 "Sviridov?", she called out, not too worried.

 The Rhino whipped around, running blindly towards her. Tombstone grabbed onto the giant horn, being pushed back until she finally managed to signifiantly lift the transformed man in the air and slam him back into the ground. She looked down at him.

 "Guess you were in a worst mental state than I thought you were. My mistake."

 The creature caught her by surprise as it rammed forward again, this time past her and into the opposite wall, escaping outside. Tombstone called all the snipers off. She did not want their new asset damaged, and the Vulture was still uncooperative. Little options remained, but that also opened up an opportunity.

-----------------------------------------

 Janette went for a casual swing again. She found it helped clear her mind. She would tell her mom she would just go for a walk, for exercise and to get out of the house. Plus, she now had the volunteer job at F.E.A.S.T. to keep her occupied. The people there were pleasant enough. Most of them . And she genuinelly enjoyed working there.

 She heard a few rumbling sounds coming from further away in the city, and she decided to investigate. Who knows, maybe there was a robbery he could profit from. However, when the rumblings got closer and louder, it was very clear this was no robbery.

 It was a....rhino?

 No, it was more than that. Her spider-sense buzzed and pierced inside her skull, pleading for her to look upon the black skin of the rhino-man hybrid beast. The Rhino roared in pain, blindly running towards everything moving near it. She watched from above the roofs, keeping her distance. She tried to tell herself she should stay out of this, that it was none of her business. But then, her spider-sense pointed her to a fleeing car. There was a family inside, their children crying and panicking, their mother desperately trying to calm them down while the man was pushing the car to its limits

 She didn't know why, but her body moved on its own, her instinct refusing to allow another family to suffer. She grabbed the car with two strings of webbing, throwing it up and towards a giant web she had set up inbetween the buildings. She moved down the web, reaching her hand inside, yelling through the chaos for them to take her hand. The children were first, and then the mom and dad.

 "The roof has an entrance to the building, go down and stay inside.", she said, the shocked citizens following her command.

 Yea, this Rhino couldn't be left to wreak more havoc. Janette hoped down, swinging after the Rhino until she landed on his back. She grabbed onto the horn, trying to halt the monster to no avail. Her attempts to stop the Rhino turned to Janette maneuvering the turned man to prevent him from hitting any vulnerable targets. At one point she held on to the horn with one hand and shot a web from the other and towards a building to try and stop the Rhino. The web snapped.

 Janette looked at her hand, "This usually works."

 The Rhino stopped moving forward, and started moving backwards, his pace increasing until he finally slammed his back, and Janette, into the nearest building wall. 

 He ran off, leaving Janette in a crater on the concrete wall. She unstuck herself from the wall, falling down clumsily as the Rhino continued to tear through police barricades. Most people had evacuated the area by now. Janette struggled to lift herself up, wincing as her bones healed and snapped violently back into place.

 "Runnin' on walls now, spider?", she heard a woman say, causing her to look up from the ground.

 It was a tall and muscular woman, with a white mane of a hair and a difined jawline.

 "You gon' get up?", she asked in a gruff italian accent.

 Janette did so, dusting herself off as she looked at her suspiciously.

 "Are you with Oscorp?"

 The woman laughed, "They wish. But look kid, that Rhino is our problem, but we weren't able to catch him on our own."

 "And you want my help? You saw him kick my ass just now."

 "We might stand a chance together. And believe me, kid, you don't want that thing runnin' around in Chicago like that."

 "Why is he even running around like this?"

 "The transformation left him practically blind."

 Janette shot a web towards the building to continue the pursuit, hearing the roaring of a motorcycle behind her. The woman was following her, both in pursuit of the Rhino.

 "You take him to the right. And I mean his right, got it?", the woman shouted to her over the motor noises.

 Janette gave a thumbs up mid-swing, moving closer to the Rhino. Tombstone reved up the motorcycle, gaining on the Rhino.

 The Rhino was frantically looking around, running towards anything that moved. Afanasy then noticed a floating object that looked like a ball, appearing to be flying around on its own. He hurriedly follows after it, unaware it was just a random object swung around by an out of sight spider-woman. The noises of the motorcycle behind him were even more stressful. He knew it was Tombstone, he knew very few people that would ride a motorcycle right into the jaws of a beast. He just continued to run, mindlesly running towards one direction, his only thought being running away from Tombstone.

 He knew from the moment he noticed the eldritch horror inside that warehouse that all this was a ruse. Fisk wanted more experiments, more ways to catch the impossible, and Tombstone played him for a fool successfully in order to achieve this. He was an idiot, he knew that now.

 Suddenly, his already poor vision was taken away by webs being shot towards his face. He tried to get them off of him as he run, but he only managed to get his hands stuck to his face as well. He could only see black.

 Tombstone flashed a toothy grin as she took out a large chain with one large metal ball on each end, and threw it towards the Rhino's legs. The chain wrapped around them, rendering his only other limbs useless, and making him drop to the ground. She skidded her motorcycle to a stop, and looked up at Janette, who leaped down to walk closer to the Rhino. She squated down, slowly moving a hand to the Rhino's back. The man flinched at the touch, making Janette retreat her hand. She could swear he was sobbing from behind the webs. She trembled, trying to say she was sorry, but Tombstone cut her off.

 "Alright boys, wrap it up!"

 A team of enforcers rolled into the scene, making Janette realise she has just helped a gang. Marie would be so disappointed in her. Still, she hung around to at least make sure the clearly unwell abomination was okay as they loaded him to a reenforced truck. She supposed she was one, too.

 She waved away the smoke coming her way from the woman's cigar from her place squatting on top of an alleyway dumpster, the woman lening against the wall.

 "What did I just help accomplish?", she asked.

 "Why so abrasive, spider? You just helped contain a danger to the public."

 "You knew I'd be here, and I know you know my reputation. So you wouldn't come up to me unless you actually wanted something from me."

 "Wasn't the catching Rhino ordeal enough for ya?"

 "I'm not fucking stupid."

 Tombstone chuckled, "Well, that's good."

 Janette got up, just about to take off before being stopped by Tombstone's words again.

 "I'm here to extend an invitation to ya."

 That made Janette turn around to look at her.

 "My boss could use fellas like you around, especially among our enforcers. You would lighten my workload significantly."

 "Why would I even do that?", she asked, squinting her eyes at the woman.

 "Simple, kid. Why fight for scraps in the filthy Chicago streets, when you can actually make bank from your skills? It's a job offer, a pretty damn sweet one, if you ask anyone here."

 Something inside of Janette was intrigued by this offer. She could have an actual job, do honest work and actually put her powers to use. But the largest part of her thoughts went another direction. This was most likely an underground business, and there was always a catch with them. There were far more dangers that would likely be placed on her back if she agreed to the job, far more than the possible benefits.

 Janette turned back around, "I might consider it.", she said.

 Tombstone blew out a stream of smoke with a smile.

 "I'll give ya a call when I need you. Might have somethin' good to reward you with next time around."

 Janette didn't know why she felt uneasy by that statement, but she did. So she swung away as fast and as far as she could before changing back to her civilian clothes.

Chapter Text

The nightmares were becoming more and more frequent now that school had started. Janette would wake up in a cold sweat, and could not sleep until dawn broke. The swings around the city became less frequent, for she feared she would run into Tombstone again. And she really did not want more women in her life telling her what she should and shouldn’t do.

 Her dad’s condition was getting better, at the very least. That damned lung cancer. Thank the gods that Harvey had shown her how to make an anonymous bank account so she could have money transfered to her dad’s treatment. She could never stand his coworkers, though. Something about their one-sided code of friendship icked her.

 She was now sitting alone on the rooftop of her apartment complex, eating some takeout while snapping photos of the city for art material.

 “Gotta get those Chicago landscapes.”, she murmured.

 As she snapped a photo, she noticed something weird in it. She had managed to capture what looked to be a figure flying in the air. She looked back at the area she had spotted the figure, and sure enough, it lept in the air again. Huh, weird. Janette devoured the last bits of her burger and rushed to suit up, her curiosity getting the better of her.

 On the other side, the woman marveled at the heavily jewelled necklace she had retrieved from the safe of the penthouse. It’s not like the guy that was living in it would have any need of it anyway. Just as she lept a few buildings down, feeling satisfied, she felt a slight change in the air.

 “You know, stealing while dressing up as your favourite animal is kinda my thing around here.”

 The woman calmly turned around to see the spider-woman, standing at the side of the wall as if she was standing on the floor. She chuckled, twirling the golden chain of the necklace in her hand.

 “Leave some for the rest of us, will you not, spider?”, she said with a french accent.

 Janette walked along the wall, taking a closer look at the newcomer’s appearance. The two looked like they were the same height, but the layer of black fur covering her body, as well as the cat ears and tail gave away the fact that this woman was also one of the freaks. The Cat had her back turned to her, turning her head to the side to reveal her pale smile.

 “Did not expect you to show up. Trying to steal from me as well?”

 “I don’t know.”, Janette said, sparing a glance back at the penthouse, “Anyone who steals from the rich is a stand-up guy in my book.”

 The woman chuckled, fully turning around to show her pale, untouched by fur face, and her black cat eyes.

 “We have a lot in common, don’t we l' araignée?”

 Janette chuckled, “How about taking me to dinner first, then the pet names.”, she joked.

 Black Cat smiled as she casually backed up to the edge of the roof.

 “Catch me first, l' araignée.”, she said before falling backwards.

 Janette rushed towards the spot where she had fallen down, the woman easily bouncing from one building to another on all fours like an actual cat. Janette coughed out a chuckle as she shot a web to swing with her.

 “Makin' friends out o' more thieves now, eh Jan?”, she asked herself.

 For a while, they kept up with each other, the stolen necklace around the Black Cat's neck sparkling and guiding Janette along. 

 "You know,", Janette said, "it's not a wise move to steal from such rich fucks."

 Black Cat chuckled, "Why? Afraid nothing will be left for you?"

 "No, but I've never seen you before, so I assume you're new here."

 "Oui."

 "Well, I'll let you know right now. If you ain't carefull enough, either Oscorp or some underground organisation will try and get their hands on ya."

 "Who wouldn't ?", she commented, "Look at me."

 Janette chuckled, "You ain't taking me seriously, are ya?"

 "Time will tell me that.", the cat said before disappearing behind a building.

 Janette moved down towards the roof of the building, looking around to see where she would have ran to or hid behind. But she couldn't find her anywhere. She sighed, smacking herself in the head.

  Why was she being so friendly with thieves all of a sudden??, she questioned.

 "Dammit!", she whispered to herself, "What's gotten into me? Is this normal? No, it's not-why do I-? I never-oh fuck it.", she rubbed her eyes over the mask, "....Maybe I'm just tired, or it would be stupid of me to just fight her for that necklace. Yea, that must be it! If I had taken the necklace, I would be sent to jail, because they'd figure out I was the thief! Yes, that's why I didn't attack. Good job, me."

 After standing on the roof for a minute, she shot a web towards another building so she could swing back home.

 "What the fuck am I doing?"

-------------------------------------

 She had barely gotten any sleep that night, so she was cranky the very next day at school.

 "Geez, you look terrible.", Marie commented as Janette closed her locker with a little bit more force than usual.

 She groaned, "'M fine, just tired."

 "Janette, you are always tired these days."

 "I'm just getting used to the schedule, Mars.", Janette said, dragging her hands over her eyes, "You know how I am with schedules."

 "Yep, need at least a week or two to get used to this.", Marie said as she retrieved her books from the locker, "Why don't we go find Harvey?"

 Janette nodded, and followed after her as she straightened her posture, her back cracking. They managed to avoid people like Frank and the rest of his football group, finally finding Harvey talking to some other people.

 "Makin' friends without us, Harv?", Marie jokingly asked.

 Harvey greeted them, introducing the two groups to each other. Janette's ears tuned out most of the conversation, having to shake her head and rub her eyes to keep herself awake.

 "Are you okay?", one of the girls asked, "You seem tired."

 "Yea I.", she covered her mouth as she yawned, "Just really tired."

 "Stayed up late again?", Harvey asked.

 "Mhmm."

 "Jan, you should really get that checked."

 "Well, us nightowls must suffer.", commented one of the girls, who was decked out in a cheerleader uniform.

 Janette looked at her weirdly, the french accent familiar to her.

 "Oh right! Janette, this is Faith Hahn. She's a transfer student here."

 "Chicago sure is something else. With all the monsters running around."

 "You....get used to it.", Janette commented, rubbing her arm.

 She was probably coming off as a weirdo, but that was a given. It seemed everyone in school was determined to make her life hell ever since elementary. So she chose to stay quiet, always standing just out of reach as Marie and Harvey would handle social interractions better than her. There was one person that attempted to talk more with her.

 Faith Hahn.

 She was asking about her interests, if she had any extracarricular activities. They talked about F.E.A.S.T., artwork, and Faith's love for music and dancing. Before Janette knew it, she was locked in a conversation. She was fiddling with the oversized sleeves of her polyester sweater until it was time for them to head to class for the day.

 The day passed slowly and numbly, Janette feeling like she was underwater most of the time. Still, she did her best to pay attention, sparsely participating, and taking notes, like a good student was expected to. She hated school, hated going here, but the sooner she finished, the sooner she'd graduate from one hell hole to another, and then she would be free. What she wouldn't give for this life, just her and her art. 

 Oi Polloi blasted in her ears as she walked down the street, her eyes dry from a whole day of work. She stretched her arms and legs and wondered, would it be more fun to swing her way back home? She decided yes, tucking the music player in her pocket, earbuds held in place by her mask. She couldn't help but let out a chuckle as the air brushed her skin, like she was a canvas.

 The pause between the songs allowed Janette to catch a snipet of the news playing close by.

  "-folks. The Spider-Woman!"

  She stopped both the music and the swinging to listen to the news broadcast. Out of curiosity.

  "All of you have heard, or even witnessed the attack the Rhino has inflicted on the city, and now, we have witnesses saying this Spider Menace was a hero! I know, can you belive this nonsense?! Now that there are more monsters rampaging through our streets, suddenly she wants to play hero! I tell you this, viewers and listeners, what this fiend is trying to do, is earn protection! She is a criminal! And had no trouble establishing herself that way-!"

  Janette lept off to continue swinging, not wanting to listen anymore. Listening to Jaiden Jay Jackson was like listening to her mom, just a little less worse.

 They didn't know her. None of her.

-----------------------

 She ended up encountering the Black Cat again, running from yet another heist. This time, however, she had ran into her as a civilian. She worked overtime back at F.E.A.S.T., still having mixed feelings about working at a homeless shelter run by a supposedly corrupt public figure.

 A ring dropped on her head while she was walking back home, and she looked up to see the cat on the roof. The other woman looked like she was pondering whether or not to swoop down to retrieve her lost loot, but she ultimately didn't have to. Janette tossed the ring back up at her.

 "That's what happens when you don't have pockets.", she commented as she walked off.

 The cat blinked at her, and proceeded to disappear into the darkness.

 She was dragging her feet as she got up the stairs, not wanting to return home. Of course, her mother gave her a 'talk' about the clothes again, but at least she got to retreat back in her room with chicken nuggets. Janette sat on the floor, scribbling away while popping the occasional nugget in her mouth. Some crumbs and grease had fallen on the pages, but she just doodled on them too, giving the spots a personality with her ink pens. She heard a light tapping on her window, but no one was there when she got up to check. She ignored it, but before it could happen a second time, her spider sense came on. Janette shot up to look at the window, and saw Black Cat just about to knock on it. She sighed, and lifted the window, much to the other's surprise.

 "What is it, Hahn?"

 "You-You know my identity??"

 "There aren't a lot of people in Chicago with a french accent."

 "But I never spoke to you in this form...spider?"

 Janette shot a hand to cover the girl's mouth.

 "Shut up!", she whispered, "My life is on the line here!"

 "Right. Sorry.", Faith said before sitting down like an actual feline.

 Janette pulled out the plate of leftover chicken nuggets and handed it to her.

 "Did all that robbing leave you hungry?"

 Faith chuckled and took the bowl, "You sure do have a reputation here. I hope to live up to that infamy."

 "Trust me, you don't want it."

 "Why not? Lower criminals will know to steer clear of me."

 "And then you put a massive target on your back."

 "You sound like you have experience with that."

 Janette only nodded at that, the two sitting in silence for a while with the only sounds other than the city's ambience being the crunching of food.

 "How did your deal go?", Faith asked.

 Janette turned to her, "What?"

 "You clearly have supernatural abilities, everyone in Chicago would tell me that."

 Janette showed her fangs, which Hahn pointed out physically.

 "See, like that. So how did it go?"

 "So you made a deal to look like this?"

 "Yes, but I managed to make a deal that allows me to change whenever I please, instead of looking like a freakshow all hours of the day."

 "I've met people that got the short end of the stick."

 "Figured. But what about you? What wayward god did you strike a deal with?"

 "I never did."

 Faith looked a bit confused, "What do you mean?"

 "I was bitten by a weird-looking spider back at Oscorp, and then this started.", Janette said gesturing at herself, "My misery was a fucking accident."

 "My aunt would always tell me, 'There are no accidents'."

 Janette chuckled, "She might just be wrong with this one."

 Faith handed the bowl back to Janette, who stared at the crumbs. She got up.

 "You are very different outside of school.", she commented.

 "Yea.."

 "We should hang out more.", she said before running down the fire escape.

 Janette wasn't sure if Faith Hahn was actually a reliable person. Who wouldn't worry when their identity was on the line? And Janette had so much to lose. She decided to get closer to Faith in school, form a connection to keep her from revealing her identity to someone that could weaponise it, like Tombstone. Sure, it might be a very bad reason to start a friendship, but Janette was going to do anything to keep the people she cared about safe.

Chapter Text

Fernando slowly opened his eyes to a blinding white light, his arms and legs feeling numb. He could hear the buzzing of machines around him, accompanied by the sound of footsteps. He tried to lift himself up from the bed, but his body felt heavy with fatigue. He knew there were people in the room, but they refused to acknowledge his struggle. Eventually, Fernando stopped struggling, and let his mind sink into the darkness of unconsciousnes once again.

 He was in a desert in his dreams, a landscape of never-ending sand. The sun was imperial red, giving the sand below his feet a shade that almost made it look fake. It felt real as he took some in his palm, the sand escaping from the spaces in-between his fingers. The sand, however, extended to his body, his arms of flesh morphing into the red sand and falling in the endless desert he seemed trapped in. He screamed in confusion, and then woke up again.

 “Mr Mcclain. I see you are feeling better.”, a woman with a black bob cut said to him. She was wearing a lab coat, so he assumed she was some doctor here.

 “W-What happened?”, he asked, a bit dazed still.

 “You were attacked by the spider-woman, and she injected you with poison. But, you are perfectly fine now. She only managed to get one fang in, and not long enough for a dangerous amount of poison to be pumped into your system.”

 Fernando was ready to thank the doctor, but then he remembered american healthcare existed. He opened his mouth again to try and negotiate the price of his treatment, only to be cut off by the woman.

 “Your treatment has already been paid off. You only need to stay for a few tests and then you will be discharged.”

  Well..that was a relief.

  Fernando got out of the treatment facility just fine, learning pretty quickly this was an underground business hospital. The first thing he did once he got out was try to call Afanasy, but he was not picking up his calls. He was reasonably worried, paying for the treatment must have left Afanasy very down in the slums when it came to his financial wellbeing.

 He knew he had to make things right. Try and set himself on the straight and narrow, as hard as that would be. He snuck back to his house, his wife relieved he was okay as she welcomed him with a big hug. She almost cried as she filled him in on the situation. Keemia was still sick, thankfully not needing a hospital just yet. But both of them feared her condition was getting worse, and with Fernando choosing to take a safer path in getting money, they might not be able to afford it.

 The situation looked hopeless, sure, but Fernando had powerful resolve. He could do this, for his family's sake.

--------------------

 He did find a better job eventually. He landed a gig as a driver in a transport company and there was one place he would look forward to visiting for a drop-off.

 F.E.A.S.T.

 He would have to deliver there at least once a week, a shelter for the poor. He would admit, it felt nice to help others, in a way. He met quite a few good people there, both volunteers and ones receiving the shelter's aid. He did not bother to ask who made the shelter possible in the first place, he didn't want more things on his mind. There was one volunteer he found odd. It was a punk kid, her name was Janette, he remembered. Short-tempered, but she seemed nice, good with smaller kids too. The kid was always reluctant to share too much about herself, and she almost always had a tired look on her face. One time, he caught her staring at nothing, dozing off.

 Fernando could not really put his finger on what made this middle school girl so...weird to him. Maybe he just wasn't used to interracting with moody teenagers. She was fifteen, at most.

 Though, he did learn one thing about her. One day when they were unloading a few boxes, he learned that her father was in the hospital for cancer. His daughter suffered from an illness just as worse, and he found it good in a way, that he had someone in the same boat as him. Janette was an artist, and that seemed to be what the younger folks in the shelter loved more about her. She seemed happy here, and maybe he could be too.

 They wouldn't talk much, but once in a while, Fernando would sit down and tell her stories. About his family, his job, and the kid merely sat and listened during their break. She was quiet like that, and had an irrational fear of spiders. She would always cover her left hand specifically every time she could come across one, and someone else always had to kill it.

 One thing he was not happy to see was the spider. He noticed she would prowl the streets far more often these days, even with no crime in sight. It was oddly familiar, this habit of the creature. Maybe what swinging was to her, it was like going on a walk for normal people.

 After all, she wasn't even the biggest problem right now. A new eldritch mutant, known as the Black Cat, has been stealing from big shots. Some have theorised that the cat and the spider were working together, but if Fernando had learned anything from watching his mother's cats, it was that they did not work well with arachnids.

---------------------------------

 Life could not be easy, could it?

 Keemia had to be taken to the hospital only a month after Fernando came home. How could he have let this happen?? He was sitting with his very worried wife in the hallway after their daughter was finally let inside an actual hospital room. 

 She was inconsolable, why wouldn't she be?

 Mcclain sat frozen in his seat, looking at the ground so intensly it might have started running away in fear were it a living thing. A few familiar voices brought him back, catching only a glimpse of a battle jacket before a red-haired teenager greeted him from the corner of the hallway. She was talking to someone else as she switched her gaze between him and them, and she hurried closer. To say he already felt uncomfortable would be an understatement.

 "Hey! Excuse me, can I talk to you? Jan said I could."

 "Oh...you know the kid?"

 "Yeah, we're friends."

 "Listen, now it's not a good time-"

 "Got it. Can I talk some other time still? Jan said you have a lot of stories for me."

 Fernando cracked a smile for a split second, "She told you that?"

 "Yeeeah, she wants me to stop running after the mob for a story."

 "Well-hold on, excuse me-?"

 "Last time we got chased by a lizard woman and almost died."

 "Why didn't I hear about this??"

 "I..don't think it would look good on anyone."

 "Anyone who goes up against one of those things and actually lives is a legend in my book." 

 She sat herself down two seats away from him, "Tell me about it. Kinda feel bad that I was mad at her cause we didn't keep the picture."

 "So, you wanted me to give you a story? Why?"

 The girl didn't respond just yet, as a doctor came to talk with Mcclain, and she didn't want to cut the man in the uniform off. The good news were that Keemia would be just fine, for now anyway, but she'd need to stay in the hospital for her own good. That was at the very least some relief, to both him and Betty.

 He ended up meeting the other girl, Marie, again at his next drop-off at the shelter. She said she was 'dropping her friend off', but she did say she wanted a story.

 "I want to land a career as a reporter.", she explained, "I want to show the truth to the people, and make Chicago a better place."

 Fernando chuckled as she told him this, unloading boxes in the process, "You kids are weird."

 "Hey, come on. I want to make this city one I want to live in."

 "I understand, kid, don't get me wrong. But I've been here longer than you, and believe me, you are not getting any better than Fisk."

 "Mmhm, right."

 "It sounds weird when you say it like that. I just know her on a first name basis."

 "Yeah, friends. Don't tell me you think it's weird cause you are an adult and we're not."

 "Here, see? It sounds weird."

 "Well, what stories do you have, tell me!"

 "I...used to be a criminal."

 Marie slowly nodded, taking out a notebook like any journalist would.

 "I had ran into my fair share of trouble. Cops, enforcers, spider-freaks."

 "Oh shit, me too!"

 "You robbed someone??"

 "Ah no I uhh, I just tried to follow her...so I can have a story."

 "..You are serious?"

 "I....it's mostly for Jan's sake. The woman tried to get into her room once before."

 Fernando nearly had a panic attack as he heard that, but reminded himself that the fact was already over. Just how much were those two involved with eldritch horrors??

 "She's..okay, right?"

 "Yeah, the harshest crime she's ever done is vandalism."

 "Do all artists do this?"

 "I think she's doing us a favour. She's drawn a lot of things around the city during the summer. Most didn't get smudged by the cops."

 "Oh, yeah. The eel mural was hers, right."

 "Sadly in the process of being taken away from us. The cops finally followed through with the complaints of some of the old neighbours."

 "Since when did art bother people?"

 "Since the beginning of time."

 "Eh, true. I guess."

 "But art aside, I want you to tell me your story. I think I could really send out a message with a reformed criminal's story!"

 Fernando was hesitant at first, but after much proding, he gave her a few bullet points, leaving out the most intimate details. His relationship with his family, and the dreams of the red desert stayed with him.

Chapter Text

 “A convention? Are you serious?”, Janette asked.

 “Come on, you love conventions, don’t you.”

 “I do, but the only kind I’ve actually been in is a conference. Cause my ma sure as hell won’t let me go to such crowded places.”

 “Why wouldn’t she?”

 “Because then I won’t hear my phone because of the noise, and she’ll call me like eleven times as soon as I enter, and if I don’t answer her calls she’ll call the cops because she’ll think I was kidnapped.”

 “...That’s a bit extreme, Jan. Even for your mom.”

 “Clearly you underestimate her paranoia.”, Janette responded as she took another bite of her burger.

 Faith rubbed her mouth with a napkin, “You eat like an animal, dear.”

 “Get used to it.”, Harvey commented, “Every time she eats its like she hasn’t had a bite of food in years.”, he joked.

 “Oh shut it Harv.”, Jan said, leaning back on the railing, “I dunno, what’s that convention even about?”

 “Cults and stuff. I want a story!”

 Janette squinted her eyes at Marie. She was already dealing with enough bullshit already. Besides, Marie just finished her small story with Fernando Mcclain, and she already wants more?

 “Do you not think it’s dumb to involve yourself in such things?”, Faith asked.

 “Hey, gotta stick your neck out for the shark for a story sometime.”

 “MJ.”, Harvey stated.

 The two stared at each other for a moment before Marie pulled her gaze away and waved at his direction.

 “Oh come on! Don’t give me that look!”

 “What look should I give you?”

 Faith turned to Janette, “What is that look for?”

 “It’s the ‘your idea is stupid and you’re going to regret it when its done and we just know it’ look.”, Janette responded.

 “Ah. How charming.”

 “Well, whatever-you shouldn’t worry!”, Marie said, gesturing at Janette, “I’ll have Jan with me!”

 “Marie, no offense, but last time I agreed to help you we almost died to the Lizard.”

 “You what?”, Faith asked, Harvey already knowing.

 “Well, just know that if you are planning your usual shenanigans, count me out. Dad wants me to come with him and mom to a party tonight.”

 “Well, that’s rare.”, Janette commented. Harvey’s parents rarely went out for parties, let alone with Harvey tagging along. The closest thing to an outing Janette had witnessed was back when they were nine and his parents had come over for coffee.

 “Business dinners.”, Harvey said, “Guess he wants me to take up the mantle when he’s, you know.”

 “I’m sure you’ll do great.”, Marie said, honestly. She then turned to Janette again, “But pleeeeease? Just this once!”

 “Marie, honestly, do you expect to buy me with pleas-?”

 “I’ll get you a beast energy drink.”

 “Deal.”

 “Well, that was quick.”, Faith said.

 "I just have very low standards."

 "We know.", Harvey commented.

 Marie and Janette did meet up for the convention much later, Marie having her notebook in her purse along with Janette's camera. She hated that she had to actually dress nice for this. Not too nice, thankfully, just enough to pass as nice.

 "MJ."

 "Yeah?"

 "Did you actually tell me everything about this cult conference?"

 "Well...."

 "Marie Jill Wolfe."

 "Hey! Most stuff I did say!"

 "Alright then, tell me what else I need to know."

 Marie leaned closer to whisper to her before they entered the building.

 "They say it's a doomsday cult. On some eldritch worship stuff."

 Janette tried to hide the dread on her face as she sucked in a breath. They then entered the building, and waited in the reception area for the meeting to start. Both were looking around nervously, Janette more subtly, keeping a keen touch on her spider-sense. The room was big, but it somehow felt stuffy, and that feeling only grew when they entered the conference room. She convinced Marie to sit near the back row, thankfully.

 To her surprise, the room was actually nearly full. Just how many people bought into this stuff? Well, gods did exist, the eldritch activity ramping up more and more in the city being very clear evidence. She caressed the back of her left hand, a slight bump from the bite still there, albeit small.

 The leader stepped out to speak, his face obscured by a hood attached to a velvet isabelline robe. He welcomed his congregation, Janette keeping her head down and her eyes on him as Marie took notes of his incoming speech. 

 He spoke of their philosophy, the philosophy that only very few people in the world are considered worthy by the gods to live through their inevitable arrival upon the Earth. The Arrival, he said. Janette hated just how much this reminded her of a church. He spoke of the ones worthy, the people who contribute to society's most crucial historical branches. Scientists, artists, philosophers and writers, politicians and generals. And now Janette hated the fact that her kind of people were put in the same category as politicians. Why would they be in the same category? Art came from a place of truth, the people behind every sculpture and painting and etching pouring the entire truth of their soul into their work, while the politicians that sat comfortably on their marble pedastals did little to nothing. All they do is make things worse for everyone.

 No matter how much Janette wanted to speak out during this flowery speech, or just get up and leave, something always stopped her. Curse her mother for raising her to always stay put and go through with whatever activity was presented upon her. First it was school, then church, and now this. 

 The blinding isabelline of the robes and the dark ripples and shadows that danced on it serving as a small saving grace on Janette's eyes.

 "The future cannot be changed!", the man cried passionately, "But we! We will live through the destruction, for we are the Nation of Tomorrow! From before we were born, the gods saw our potential, graced us with their talents, and prepared our minds to shape the New World after the wings of the Locust God have brushed our Earth!"

 The audience gave a standing ovation, some even tearing up, but Janette only stared at the man's direction in distain, Marie too busy writting down everything she could.

 She let ou the biggest exhale after they left the building, the stuffness of the building dissipating around her. Marie held her side.

 "A-Are you okay?"

 "Y-Yea, yea I'm fine...Can we not go through with this again?"

 "Sure."

 She hung out with Harvey a little bit later to help with his history assignment, talking about the craziness of this cult.

 "They seriously believe that?", Harvey asked.

 "Yeah. God, they make me embarassed that I am an artist. You feel me?"

 "Pssht, yeah, you don't say. I'd feel pretty shitty too if I was compared to people I hated."

 "Lord knows we're getting enough of that already."

 "Thank you.", Harvey responded.

 Janette continued to provide help, pointing out passages. Her hand was subconsciously doodling at the top side of the page, realising after she was done helping that she had doodled a locust. Or at least, the best locust she could draw from memory. Something about that Locust God, reminded her of that god awful movie se had seen at some point.

 "Where is the party even gonna be? The one that you'll go with your mom and dad."

 "At one of Fisk's larger penthouses. Wish me luck."

 "Yeesh, I will."

 Janette wasn't stupid. She knew that Fisk was not a public figure devoid of corruption, but his methods she couldn't help but compare to Al Capone. Funny how Chicago attracted types like this.

 "I can...take some leftovers for you.", Harvey said, meaning well.

 She gave him a small smile, "Sure, buddy."

 A little after he left, Janette busied herself with chores around the house. She cleaned the bathroom, made her brother dinner, and put him to bed early so he could be ready for school tomorrow. After she returned to her room, she spotted the familiar face of Faith outside her window. She pressed a paper note on her window which read:

"Going for bread

wanna come?"

 Funds have been drying up. And so, Janette left a note for her mother for when she came back and suited up.

------------------------

 Harvey never really liked social events. He could handle school events, don't get him wrong, but a school dance was way different from a large room full of adults discussing mostly business partnerships. Some small talk was there, but Harvey was growing bored, mostly just standing or sitting idly by his mom as his dad was busy conversing with the business owners in the party. He did promise Janette he would get her some rich people food (her words not his) to try. Any excuse to hang out with her was good enough.

 As he was examining the buffet for things she might like, he spotted a few odd individuals in the crowd. They didn't seem like business owners, and strangely all of them were dressed in the same isabelline colored suits. He eyed them suspiciously before going back to food raiding.

 Harvey's worry just would not go away, and the looks Fisk's bodyguard, Larini, was giving those individuals did not help. He pulled himself away from the buffet and back to his mom, expressing his suspicions. His mother blamed it on nerves, and suggested he try to relax. Of course, Harvey could not, occasionally texting Janette so he would have someone to talk to that got him. The replies were slow, but good.

 As he went to peek once again, he caught notice of how one of the suited men was fiddling with his chest, his back turned to Harvey. After he was done, he stood still for about seven seconds before sprinting towards Fisk's direction. Tombstone quickly noticed the man charging for her boss, and was even quicker to notice the bomb vest underneath. She put a bullet through the man's head, the room bursting into a panic. The bomb vest still had to be dealt with, and the other members, she-

 Suddenly, the man with the bomb vest was grabbed by a string of webbing, and was thrown out the window, just in time to explode into the sky like a fleshy firework. Tombstone smirked at the sight of the spider-woman.

 "Everyone, I recommend you evacuate.", she announced as she jumped inside to take care of the rest of the suited gentlemen. Tombstone could tell Fisk was watching.

 "Hey boss, how's about you guys go and take cover?"

 Fisk did so, keeping his attention at the spider the entire time as he pulled his wife and son to safety. They had an image to showcase to the public, and they needed to uphold it if opperations were to continue.

 The spider-woman wrangled the gentlemen up in the center of the room with her webbing. She looked at Tombstone as she pat her hands together.

 "None of them had bomb vests on. Guess it was just that one guy."

 "Amateurs. Clearly they were after Fisk, so why are you here, spider?"

 As she was talking, Janette side-eyed the broken window, watching as the sillouette of Faith lept on the roofs and away from the penthouse.

 "I was in the neighbourhood. Could tell somethin' was gonna go wrong here."

 "How generous of you.", Tombstone sarcastically said, walking closer and supporting one of her heavy feet on one of the men's shoulders. Bone definately cracked under the weight of her boot. "So, does that mean you thought about my offer?"

 Janette took a step back, "I didn't do this for your boss, Tombstone.", she said before webbing to the ceiling and throwing herself out of the broken window, Tombstone watching her the whole time.

 Tombstone's lips were tugged into a smile. She'd come around. They always did.

------------------------------

 Janette followed Harvey and his parents back to Oscorp to make sure they got home safely. At one point, Faith caught up with her. They were about a block down from the Oscorp penthouse when Faith talked to Janette.

 "Why did you throw yourself into that situation?", she asked, "They were terrorists, sure, but were rich bastards like the guests there worth your time?"

 "It wasn't about them.", Janette retorted, "It was for Harvey. I knew something was bound to go wrong inside that pretentious party from his texts alone."

 "You and him seem close.", Faith commented.

 "Of course we are. We are friends. I'd hate myself even more if I let him die in a terrorist attack when I had the power to stop it."

 "How heroic."

 Janette sighed at the statement before preparing to web herself closer to Oscorp, "Keep the loot, Hahn. I'll find another way to get money."

 Before Faith could give a response, Janette was already swinging to the building. She sighed, swinging her tail a little bit.

 "You are so strange, l' araignée."

 Janette carefully scaled the building, trying her best to avoid security. She eventually did find her way to Harvey's window. It looked like he was just fine, no injuries whatsoever. She sighed in relief and got ready to leave, but something stopped her just as she was about to swing off.

 "What are you doing here?"

 Her heart almost stopped as she heard the voice coming from inside the room. She quickly turned to the side to see Harvey peeking out the window. The two locked eyes. 

 Janette coughed, making her voice gruffer, "Uhh, sorry sir, gotta go!"

 "W-Wait! How did you even know that-"

 Harvey could not get a word in, and he stood still in frozen surprise until the thief disappeared into the darkness of the night. He quickly pulled out his phone and started dialing Janette's number. He hopped in place for a few seconds before the person on the receiving end picked up.

 "Hey Harvey, how was the pa-"

 "Janette you won't believe what just happened!"

 "W-What are you-"

 "There was a terrorist attack at the party! Bomb vest and all!"

 "Holy shit! A-Are you okay??"

 "Yea, but guess who saved us!"

 "Uhh, T-Fisk's bodyguard lady?"

 "No! It was the spider-woman!"

 "What?? No way, you're pulling my leg."

 "I am not! Shit, I gotta tell you and MJ all about this tomorrow!"

 "O-Okay, stay sa-"

 Harvey hung up before she could finish, sighing as she swung back home. Something told her she should unmask before heading in her room through the fire escape. So she did, stuffing her mask in the pocket of her hood jacket and zipping it up to hide the shirt with the spider logo.

 Turns out, she was right to do that, as the lights of her room flicked on the moment she stepped inside. It was her mom, looking very exhausted and infuriated. She was still in her work uniform.

 "You are late."

 "Oh uh..hey mom."

 "Janette, you can't just leave the house like that!"

 "I left you a note?"

 "That's still no excuse.", her mother explained, "Your brother is still a child, and he needs someone older than him to keep an eye on him."

 "He was sleeping! What do you want me to do, watch over him while he sleeps like the damn boogeyman?"

 "No, of course not. I just want you both to be safe, and you running around in the middle of the night alone-"

 "I was with Faith."

 Her mom grunted, "Oh her. Janette, literally every parent I talk to say that she's a bad influence. What is so wrong with hanging out with just Harvey and Marie?"

 " You're the one that told me I should be more social."

 "Janette! I...", she paused for a moment, holding her hand up in the air as it slowly formed to a fist. She closed hr eyes tightly and slightly moved her hand before leaving. "It's too late for arguments, we'll wake John up. Just..don't do that, ever again."

 The teenager went to speak, only to be interrupted by Magda again.

 "Curfew is strictly nine o'clock. Am I clear?"

 ".....Fine."

Chapter Text

Now with curfew even tighter than before, Janette knew she’d have to work extra hard if she were to continue her spider-themed antics. Ways of getting money were becoming more and more slim, with criminals in Chicago now having full knowledge she was more than an urban legend and worked on making their getaways less grand. 

 Funds were drying up, and Janette knew she’d have to find more creative ways to get the bag. Maybe she’d follow Faith’s advice after all, and steal from big shots like Fisk as well. At the same time though, she knew better. She had seen a preview of what Tombstone was capable of, and Janette didn’t need more enforcers than Tombstone and Shocker to be after her.

 “Hey MJ?”

 “Yeah?”

 “How is uhhh, the photography going?”

 Marie sighed, “I think you were right, I might have been overconfident. They always come out bad!”

 “Maybe because you can’t stay in place for longer that ten seconds.”

 “Hey, rude! Why do you ask anyway?”

 “Does the...Daily Bugle....need photographers....?”

 “Huh? Why do you ask-oooooh!”, Marie said in realisation, “Oh, definately! You could probably land a spot if you manage to get something big on demand that no one has captured yet!”

 Janette scoffed, “Which would be?”

 Marie pulled her close and showed the air with her free arm, “A picture of the spider-woman! I mean, imagine how amazing it would be if you managed to take a clear picture!”

 “It heh, it would be great!”, Janette responded, trying not to be awkward.

 “Gotta ask though, why even interested? I thought you said journalistic stuff wasn’t for you.”

 “It still isn’t.”, Janette responded, “I just...need to find a way to help mom with affording dad’s treatment. Our family funds won’t last long.”

 Marie gave her friend a conscerned look, “Jan, if you and Magda can’t afford the bills, why not just ask Harvey to help? I’m sure he’d agree in a heartbeat.”

 “I know, I...I just..don’t want to be a leech.”

 “Janette Stein, there is a very big difference between leeching and asking for financial help. And you’ve known Harv and his family way longer than I have, I’m sure they’d understand.”

 “I just don’t want to be a problem, okay? I’m sure I’ll find more ways to get the bag, I just..need to work harder.”

 Marie looked down at the pavement then back at her friend, “Jan, we’re your friends. You shouldn’t be afraid to ask us for help. You always help us, what makes you think you would be entitled if it were the other way around?”

 “Can we just...not talk about this right now? Please?”

 The red-head sighed.

 “Know that I’m here for you.”

 “...I know.”

 Their small sad talk was interrupted by a new face joining them. Harvey. After the first minute, he was not able to contain his ramblings about the spider-thief. Janette of course knew all of the details, but she tried her best to hide it via her usually stoic expression.

 "Think she was trying to steal from you or something?", Marie asked Harvey.

 "I don't think so? She acted really weird."

 Janette shrugged, "I mean.....it's an eldritch enhanced human. Have you seen any normal ones?"

 "Well, uh..Dr Odonnell...for a while.."

 "Oh yeah, sorry about that. I heard that electric apparition was there as well."

 Janette nodded.

 After their small hanging out, Janette decided she'd bring out the camera and try to make some money off the Bugle wanting spider-woman pictures. But taking pictures of herself without making it obvious it was her would be difficult. She made up an excuse to her mom that Marie needed help with an assignment and she would be a little late, but swore it would be for less than five minutes. Her mother reluctantly agreed, and Janette swung as far away from her home area as she could, her camera safe in her backpack.

 "Hm, how would I make this work?", she asked herself. She then remembered, her camera had a timer. She smiled to no one in particular as she webbed up her camera in the corner of a building, adjusting it perfectly. 

 After a noise of approval, she set the timer. She decided to take a couple of pictures, one of her swinging, one of her vaguely there at the backround, on the wall. But after the third one she quickly realised that shooting all these at the same location looked way too suspicious, and they'll probably send her off for staging the photographs. In the end, she decided to throw all of them away. Except one, one of her looking back up at the camera in surprise from a spot on another building's wall where she was sticking to with all four limbs.

 She was on the phone with Marie as she ran back home.

 "Hey Jan, how's it going?"

 "MJ, I got it!"

 "Huh? What did you-"

 "A picture! I got the picture!"

 "Of the spider-woman?!"

 "Yes!"

 "Oh my god! You need to show me!"

 "Tomorrow MJ! Gotta run home fast or else mom's gonna skewer me alive!"

 "You got it!-ohmygod!-Good luck!"

 The two then hung up, Janette swinging the rest of the way back home.

---------------

 Marie could not contain her excitement as she held the photograph in her hands, her and Janette heading into the Bugle together.

 "Oh my god Janette! This is amazing! But, why is she looking back at us?"

 "Uhh, I got... almost caught."

 Marie gasped, "And you left in one piece??"

 "Yeah. You know, considering I survived both her and the Lizard, I might as well write a book on how to avoid eldritch horrors."

 "Pffsht! It would sell out instantly ."

 Her and Marie's conversation was drowned out by the extremely busy offices of The Bugle, the louder voice around being Jaiden Jay Jackson yelling at practically everyone in the offices to do their work five times faster. Janette found it oddly amusing how cartoonish it was. 

 Eventually, Marie found Riley Roth among all the chaos.

 "Mr Roth! We-um-need to talk for a moment!"

 "Wolfe? Kid, it's very busy today-"

 "ROOOOTH! I ASKED FOR THE REPORT ON MY DESK TEN SECONDS AGO! AND WHERE IS MY COFFEE??"

 "Oh dear god....", Janette muttered.

 "You uhhh, got this?", Marie asked, Janette shaking her head in response. 

 The red head noticed just how quickly Janette was shrinking at the sight and sounds of the environment around her. She grabbed her stressed friend by her arm, explaining to Roth that they got a picture of the spider-woman. The man repeated it out loud in surprise, catching the attention of a lot of reporters in the office trying to get it for their stories. But first, they had to go through Jackson.

 "You got pictures of the web crawler??"

 "U-Um, just one-"

 "Give it here! Drop it on my desk so I can see it!"

 Janette quickly did as she was asked, dropping the photograph on his desk like it was hot coal. He grabs it just as quickly.

 "This is garbage! The lighting looks off and the composition is disastrous! I'll take it."

 Janette blinked, the man speaking quicker than she could process his words. She went to open her mouth, but did not get a single word out before the man spoke again.

 "Why are you still here?? Go and get me more! And make sure they're actually good this time around!"

 Marie held onto her and helped Janette out of the room, "We go to Betty for the payment, come on."

 The process was grueling for Janette, not used to being in such a bustling work environment. By the time they left, Janette was exhausted. Somehow even more so than when she had fought The Rhino or The Lizard. Marie gave her a pat on the back and congratulated her for surving the first day.

 She knew she had to get more pictures, and she didn't know how and when she could deliver. She swallowed, what did she get herself into?

 Janette decided to lay off the spider activity for a few days. The article published using the picture she had taken being the front page of the newspaper, nearly every adult was talking about it. Who else would be reading the newspaper? Surely not teenagers and certainly not anyone younger. However, something interesting had happened about a day after the article had dropped. The same area she had taken the picture in had been attacked, a giant hole left at the very wall she had 'caught' herself on.

 "Do you think that's a coincidence?", Harvey asked.

 "I doubt it.", Marie said, "Gang attacks like that usually happen for reasons."

 "Like?", Janette questioned.

 "Usually it's to send a message, but that's just my guess."

 Janette put some thought into it. The only people that seemed to have an interest in contacting her alter ego were Oscorp and Fisk. She doubted it would be Oscorp, Harvey would at least know something about it. So that left Fisk...and Tombstone.

  What would Tombstone and Fisk even want from her again? Why were they so damn persistent?? She would admit, curiosity was starting to get the better of her.

 She hung around Harvey and Marie for a while longer, Harvey also praising the fact that Janette managed to get a photo of the web crawler. Janette also encountered her uncle as she was heading home, the man catching her attention from an alley.

 "Hey, are you okay?", she asked as she jogged towards him, "You left the hospital before I could talk to you."

 "Y-Yeah, Jan. I'm peachy. It'll take more than a spider-woman to put me down!"

 Janette hugged him tightly, happy he was finally better. He walked her home, the two talking about their day and Janette's big break at The Bugle. 

 "How did you even get a picture so close in the first place?"

 Janette chuckled, "Really, fucking, hard."

 "Right.", Montana commented with a smile.

 Despite her uncle's positive attitude, Janette could tell there was something wrong.

 "Is uh..Are you sure everything is okay? Did you and Clarke break it off or something?"

 "Oh uh, no, no we are still seein' each other. 'S just...Janette, that picture you took..."

 She squinted her eyes at him, "....Yes?"

 "Are you....sure you don't know the woman?"

 "Why would I??"

 "I-I don't know. I just....Jan, I'm sorry."

 "Uncle,", she asked, "is there something you want to tell me?"

 The man remained silent for the rest of the way, Janette growing more suspicious even after entering the house. After a while of homework, she decided to just up and ask her mom if her uncle was involved with seedy people. It would make sense, seeing just how much her mother ripped on him for his financial incompetences.

 Magda did say she had no idea what the man was doing, not even he would tell her. That was when Janette was starting to become worried with the theory that her very much loved uncle might be entangled in the criminal underworld. So, she put on the mask for something other than robbing robbers once again. It was starting to become a habit of hers, not sure if she loved or hated it.

 Now, there was one thing to take care of. How was she going to get around the curfew again? She could lock the door, but that would only be more suspicious. She settled for piling a few pillows at the shape of her body and covering them in a blanket. Her brother caught her in the act. Janette shushed him, promising she'd give him her snacks for the week. He shushed back, which was their signal that he was in.

 Janette made sure he went back to his room before escaping through the fire escape and down the street. When she found an unassuming building, she snuck behind it to put on her mask, prepare the rest of her suit, and swung back towards the seedy neighbourhood the attack took place and where her alter ego was first photographed. She was also carefull not to get caught, the possibility of this being a setup more than prominent in her mind.

 As she was scouring the neighbourhood, the sounds of a motorcycle and the accompaning headlights finally made their appearance. Her eyes widened as she spotted the familiar figure next to it.

 "You??"

-----------

 Tombstone flicked away the cigar as she stared up at the spider.

 "How nice of ya to come. You didn't give me a phone number, but I assume you have no phone on ya."

 "What is this about? Is this another damn recruitment segment where you spout out the reasons I should join you?", Janette said as she paced back and forth.

 "Tis was the best way to call ya, and I did so because I have a job that would benefit the both of us."

 Janette squinted her eyes at the older woman, "..What are you trying to do?"

 "The terrorists that attacked the penthouse were spotted again by some of my men.", Tombstone explained, "And get this. They had Oscorp tech all over their little lair."

 Janette looked down at her in masked surprise, "..What are you saying?"

 "What I'm sayin is, I know very little people that are as stealthy as you."

 "You think I'll just agree to break into Oscorp for you?"

 Tombstone reached behind the motorcycle, pulling out a metal briefcase. Once opened, Janette could see it was filled with money, stacks of it. Tombstone closed the briefcase and gave it a pat.

 "I know how jobs work, ragno.", Tombstone said, smiling, "Do that little thing for me, and you get your share. And know, Fisk's offer still stands."

 Janette sighed, "You're just never going to leave me alone, are you?"

 Tombstone tilted her head, "Thought you liked money. But, I can withdraw my offer-"

 "How can I even trust that you will actually give me that money?", Janette questioned.

 Tombstone responded by taking out a reasonable stack and tossing it towards her, Janette catching it. She took a good look at each buck, making sure they were real money, which they were.

 "Get into Oscorp to get some information for us, and the rest is yours."

 The two were in a stand-off for some time before Tombstone relayed the actual mission for her. Simple, she would sneak into Oscorp and see if the company had an actual connection to the terrorists or if their product was merely stolen. Janette was only in it for the money, but she started to fear that if she discovered a connection she would indirectly cause a gang war.

 She snuck through the ventilation shafts, her spider-senses warning her of any traps or barriers that would trigger alarms. Harvey was not lying when he said that the building was more secure than an actual prison. On her sneaking through the tunnels, she could faintly hear conversations, even see faces if the vents allowed it. She caught a glimpse of the octapus monster that currently inhabited the doctor's body. Why would he come back here? And why didn't Harvey tell her that he was here? Seems like the type of thing you would tell your best friend. She quickly crawled away from the bared opening of the vents to avoid detection, but still continued to listen. It was mostly the noises of the machines, but at some point, Janette could hear another set of footsteps in the room. She slowly moved to take a small peek in the room once more, and spotted the familiar isabelline robe she had seen the leader of the cult wear. She connected the dots in her head and figured the isabelline color was what was connecting the terrorists and that doom cult. A slim connection, but she'd discuss things with Tombstone.

 Janette stayed until the figure left, with new Oscorp equipment from that octapus. Janette had seen more than enough, but something in the back of her head told her there was something else she needed to find in the building. So, she crawled further inside, until the beeping of machines reached her ears again. She peeked inside the new room, it looked empty, so she carefully opened the vent so she could see inside. Janette had no idea why she was compleled to go inside, but she quickly found out why. 

 In the middle of the room there was a tank, several cables and unknown machinery hooked up to the figure inside of it. Janette froze. It was a more solid version of Marc Dawson.

 "Oh god...", she whispered, jumping down, "What did they do to you..?"

 She slowly and shakily reached for the tank, ignoring the various alarms blaring inside her head, telling her to leave, now. She barely touched the glass before her phone rang, waking up the man inside the tank as she scrambled back into the vents. She mouthed 'I'm sorry' to him, trying to desperately ignore his muffled screams for help and the faint sparks of electricity from inside the tank as she webbed herself back into the vents, closing them behind her. Janette barely avoided the guards as she rushed back outside, closing her phone in the process to keep it from ringing again.

 Janette lept back outside, webbing back to the spot where she had met Tombstone at. When she finally jumped back to where the woman was, she tried to hide the fear in her breath.

 "Our color-coordinated cult seems to be getting hand-outs from the octapus that possessed one of the doctors there."

 Tombstone raised an eyebrow at her report.

 "A cult? You think that they are the culprits?"

 "I have seen their meetings, ma'am, and that was their leader, clear as day. Judging by their specific dress-code, and their weird beliefs, it seems like they didn't deem Fisk 'worthy' of their new image of the world, and tried to rid of him much sooner."

 Tombstone placed a hand on her chin, "Huh..a doomsday cult. Nemici che raramente ti aspetti di farti. (Enemies you rarely expect to make.)"

 The woman tossed the briefcase towards Janette, "If you do more favours for us, you'll be gettin more of this.", she stated.

 Janette squinted her eyes at the woman. She knew she couldn't just ask right away for help with Marc, as a two for one deal simply would not stand in the crime world's standards. It was risky, but she'd have to do it on her own.

 "Before you ask, no, I won't join your enforcing work.", Janette stated, ".....But,", to that, Tombstone turned her gaze back to the girl, "if you even need some hired help, and money is involved, you know how to find me."

 She proceeded to swing away, Tombstone smiling in satisfaction as she pulled out her phone.

 "Hey boss. Guess who decided to join the business."

Chapter Text

Janette swung back home as fast as she could, pulling out her phone and seeing a behemoth of missed calls from her mom.

 “Shit!”, she continiously whispered like a mantra.

 Her legs were on fire as she ran and landed on the roof of her apartment building. She knew she had to face her mother, but she stood frozen on the roof, too scared to actually enter her house. She was shaking violently, and not just from the cold. She was her mom! Of all people, she’d understand, right? Janette took a labouring step forward before breaking down into tears. She just...couldn’t do it.

 Trying not to full out wail, she swung off and away from the building, and went for her uncle’s place instead. She almost tripped and lost the briefcase more than once. Janette hugged it tight, the coldness of the metal seeping through her clothes. Her breathing became quicker, the tears drying from the air whizzing past her hitting her face and making it sticky. Everything was fuzzy.

  Why do I always run away from my problems???

  On the other side, Montana was finishing tidying up the ‘Shocker’ equipment. Tombstone said that he might be needed in the future and it was more convenient to keep the gear close to him. The only lights were from the kitchen, the night sky basking the small living area in a dim silver light as a contrast to the bright yellow from his kitchen. Small home, but comforting nonetheless.

 Then, Montana heard a thumping noise, and it was getting closer. He quickly went for the open window, trying to close it. But then, a metal briefcase was thrown inside the apartment, hitting him in the stomach and then thudding on the floor. He looked at it, confused, before his gaze snapped at the figure landing on his windowsill. 

 The spider-woman. 

 He backed up, trying to find something to defend himself with before he realised tears were streaming down her face, just behind the mask as her whole body was shaking. Before he could properly register what he was witnessing at that moment, the girl sprinted towards him, Montana throwing his hands up and shutting his eyes in fear. But nothing heppened. He opened his eyes again when he felt the girl sobbing on his chest. She was hugging him tighter than anyone has ever hugged him, her legs shaking.

 “What the fuck?”, he whispered.

 The girl pulled back, still crying, and ripped off her mask to reveal..Janette....his niece...

 “..Oh god-”

 She burst into a sobbing mess again, going right back to hugging him. Montana stood frozen for a moment, taking in the fact that him and his niece nearly killed each other. 

 Oh god, oh god, oh god .  

 He lowered them both on the floor, Montana hugging her back just as tightly, rocking her back and forth as she cried and cried. The man’s gaze was glued in front of him, at the open window, his mind blank.

 After what felt like forever, the crying started to die down, Janette letting out some choked sobs as Montana temporarily let go of her to close the window and blinds. He looked back at Janette, who was still sitting on the floor. He intied her hair, and helped her sit on the couch.

 “C-Can I...lie down...?”, she asked.

 “Yes...of course.”

 “Okay...”, she choked out, slowly lowering herself on the couch so she was laying on her side.

 Montana rubbed her arm, trying to calm her down.

 “Let me get you a napkin.”, he said, retrieving several from the kitchen for Janette to wipe her tears and nose.

 After Janette wiped her tears and blew her nose a few times, she fell back on the couch, her arms still extended in front of her as she fell.

 “..I had a really shitty week....”, she said, the tearworks threatening to start again.

 “Hey, hey!”, Mitchell gently started, placing his hand on her cheek, “It’s okay, Janette. You’re okay. You are safe here.”, he tried to reassure her, and himself, in a way.

 He looked at the briefcase that was still on the ground.

 “What did you do, Janette..?”

 The girl was silent, still trying to calm herself enough to talk without getting hicups. Montana brought the briefcase closer, carefully opening it to reveal a load of cash inside.

 “T-Tombstone’s j-j-job.”, she choked out, Montana looking at her with even more worry in his eyes.

 “Janette! Does she know?!”

 “N-No. I’m not st- hic -stupid.”

 “I’m not saying you are! I...”

 Fangs, sharp as needles, clear as day.

 “Janette...what happened to you..?”

 That only made the poor girl cry again.

 “Ssshhit, no no Janette. I am sorry okay? I didn’t meant it!”, he hurried to say, trying to calm her down.

 “C-C-Can I stay- hic -here to-”, she couldn’t finish the sentence before she started crying again, hiding her face in her arms.

 Montana took her in his arms again, trying to give to poor girl some comfort. Eventually, he decided he’d try and talk to her when she was more calm, offering up his bed and a pair of too-big-for-her-pijamas so she would sleep comfortably. It took a while, but she managed to fall asleep.

 The man sat on the couch, looking down at the mask in his hands that belonged to Janette. He contemplated calling his sister, her mother, but he knew better. If his sister couldn’t grasp the fact that her child could choose to have opinions different than hers, then she would definately not take the fact that her child was in an eldritch deal well. At least, he assumed it was a deal. Janette didn’t seem like the type to consentually agree to such horrible things. He should tell her about his own double life too, clear some things up.

 Then, his phone rung. It was Magda, probably looking for Janette. He sighed before picking up.

 “Hello?”

 “Mitchell! Have you seen Janette?! Heard from her?? She hasn’t been answering my calls! She left a fucking pillow pile on her bed and covered it with a blanket to make me think she was still in the house, and it has been three hours past curfew!!”

 “Sis-”

 “I called the Wolfes, the Oconnells-even the damn police can’t find her! Was she kidnapped, killed?? Where-??!”

 “Magda!”

 The woman on the other side of the phone was breathing rapidly, trying to compose herself and not caring about waking up her other child anymore. Montana pinched the bridge of his nose as he sighed heavily.

 “Janette is with me. She’s safe, she just needs some time-”

 “Oh, thank the stars!”, she exhaled, panicking still. Montana heard shuffling in the backround. “I am coming to pick her up-”

 “No.”, he stated.

 “What-?”

 “Magda, I said no. The kid is going through some shit, and she needs time alone. Know that she’s safe with me, and she’ll come home when she feels like she’s ready.”

 “Mitchell-”

 “If you decide to come here anyway, I will not even let you inside, got it?”

 The woman was silent, Montana somehow sensing her anger through the phone.

 “..One night, do you understand?”

 “No.”, he said, before hanging up.

 He threw the phone on the small table in front of him, holding his head in his hands as he grunted. Dragging his hands down his face, he cursed himself for possibly making the situation even worse than it already was. He fell asleep sitting on his couch before he knew it.

 Montana awoke to a noise when morning finally came. He opened his eyes and grogily looked to the kitchen to find Janette standing there. She was putting on her hood jacket when she realised her uncle was awake. Montana slowly rose from the couch, cracking his back. They looked at each other for a few moments before Montana finally broke the silence.

 "Kid...we have a lot to unpack 'ere."

 ".....Yeah...", Janette responded.

 Montana sighed as he strode closer to Janette and placed a hand on her shoulder, patting it lightly.

 "Go ahead and...sit down, okay? I have some leftover pancakes in the fridge, I can heat them up for ya."

 "Y-You don't have to-"

 "Yes, I do. And I will, so sit down young lady."

 Janette reluctantly sat down on the couch, the mask held tightly in her hands as Mitchell stacked pancakes and added hazelnut spread between them before popping them in the microwave. For a minute, the sound of the microwave was the only sound in the apartment. After the ding signaling it was done, Montana got a butter knife and a fork, and gave the warm plate to Janette.

 The girl took a few bites of the pancake stack, staring blankly and silently. Montana inhaled.

 "So.....spider-woman."

 "Don't call me that, I don't like that name."

 "Everyone calls you that, even Tombstone."

 "Well I-hold on...why do you know this..?"

 Montana thought it might have been too early in the morning for this, but then again, Janette was the one that came crying to him and pulled back her mask in the dead of night. He gritted his teeth before breaking the news.

 "Jan...have I told you how I.. actually broke my bones?"

 "Um, n-no, you were pretty vague."

 "Well uh, glad to see you can actually break out o' my bear hugs now."

 Janette seemed to try and wrap her head around it for a while before her eyes widened in realisation. She calmly set the plate down before her demeanor changed rapidly, lunging at Montana and shaking him back and forth by his shirt.

 "You nearly killed me!"

 "So did you?? You broke my ribs and nearly paralysed me!"

 Janette drew back at that statement, looking down at her hands in fear.

 "Oh god...", she whispered. She looked back at her uncle, "I-I-I'm so-so, I am so sorry!"

 "Hey, hey! No no Jan, don't ya start with the tearworks again! Everything is fine! I'm fine!"

 Janette's rapid breathing finally started slowing down.

 "I-I...I nearly killed you!"

 "So did I so...I guess we are even, eh?", Montana joked, trying to lighten up the situation.

 He did get out a small chuckle from his niece. Janette rubbed her eyes.

 "I uhh, guess we are coworkers now too?"

 Montana gave her a conscerned look, "I thought you said you didn't tell nothin' to Tombstone."

 "I didn't. I just...agreed to offer up my services when money was involved. My identity is still a secret."

 Montana came to a realisation, "Janette, all those robberies..what was it really for?"

 Janette looked down, clenching her fists that were resting on her thighs.

 "It's...it's dad, uncle Montana.", she admitted, "I know mom can't afford it, and-and I know no one else is going to help us! I never really thought I would get these...fucked up powers but..with these powers, I can get more money for us, I can help dad-I won't be as useless anymore!"

 "Janette! You are fifteen!", Motana argued, "You are just a kid, there is no reason you should force yo'self to provide to such extent where you make deals with gods an' offering up services to criminals!"

 "Don't you??", Janette freaked out, pointing out his Shocker persona and his work with Tombstone.

 "I didn't make a deal with the eldritch, Janette!"

 "Neither did I!!", she screamed, catching Montana by surprise.

 "....What...?"

 Janette was close to crying again, but she rubbed her eyes hard to prevent the tears from coming out, gritting her teeth despite the fangs making her gums bleed.

 "Uncle.....I need your help.", she pleaded, "..please..."

--------------------

May 2nd, 2004

  Janette stayed close to Harvey as the group walked through the various laboratories, the chatter from he students and the tour guide keeping her grounded. She looked around nervously, which was noticed by Harvey.

 "Are..you okay?", he asked.

 "Y-Yeah.", she responded, "Just uh...not a fan of spiders."

 The tour of Oscorp her school decided to organise for the mostly uninterested students had reached a room where they experimented on spiders. The woman guiding them along, Charlotte Davidson, was explaining the species of the various spiders and their strengths as they passed by the glass boxes containing them. Harvey gave her a pat on the back.

 "Oh don't worry.", he said, "They're in cases, it's not like they'll eat you."

 Janette awkwardly laughed as she rolled her eyes, "Very funny Harv."

 Marie was calling them over to show a particular spider, and Harvey of course dragged her over. As much as Janette hated spiders, this one had such beautiful colors. A mostly light grey body, but iridescent blue legs.

 "Wow...", Janette whispered.

 "Mrs Davidson?", Harvey called out, "What spider is this?", he asked as he pointed at the trapped spider.

 The woman walked closer, taking a good look at the spider before answering his question.

 "You are looking at a cobalt blue tarantula.", Charlotte explained, "This particular tarantula inhabits the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, where it constructs deep burrows, and generally only leaves them to find food."

 "Are they...venomous?", Janette asked.

 "Yes, but their venom is not enough to kill a human. Although, the amount of pain it causes will make the victim wish they died."

 Janette gulped. Charlotte continued.

 "But I advise you to stay away from this one, we believe it has been infected by eldritch."

 The three friends were immediately backing up to go and see other things in the room. Davidson gathered everyone back together, explaining how the experiments worked and how they handled eldritch-infected beings and how their research could benefit human health. Janette was starting to grow bored, and her eyes wondered back to the spider. Her view was blocked by some people, so she turned back to Davidson's direction.

 Unbeknownst to her, two of her classmates wondered to the deadly tarantula, taunting it throught the glass to see what it would do. At some point, the arachnid threw itself on the glass wall, and it must have taken the boys by surprise, because they punched the glass, knocking it over.

 The noise of glass shattering had everyone's attention, and as soon as she realised what was going on, Charlotte started to panic. She turned to the guards and her coworkers.

 "Lock the room down! One of the specimens has escaped containment!"

 The students started to panic too, Janette loosing her friends and nearly her glasses as everyone around her refused to stay in one place. She finally found her bearings when she was backed into a table. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down and telling herself that everything was under control. She felt her skin crawl, the hairs on her hand rising. Wait....her hand? Janette looked down at her left hand, just as the escaped tarantula sunk its fangs into her flesh.

 Janette let out the loudest scream she ever had, turning everyone's eyes on her as she slapped her wrist, causing the spider to fall on the ground. She was hyperventilating as the tarantula skittered off. Charlotte went straight for her.

 "Kid! Are you okay-?"

 "It bit me! It bit me!", she kept saying, Charlotte screaming for someone to call an ambulance as another scientist re-captured the spider.

 Harvey and Marie rushed to her, but at that point her palm was swelling and her vision was becoming hazier. She lost her balance, and had to be carried out and then to a gurney. The sounds around her became muffled, and she was sweating profusely. She thought she cried at some point.

 According to the doctors, she was out for hours, and her conscerned mother nearly had a heart attack once she heard the news. There was an antidote for the species of that spider, but it would be useless, since it was infected. However, despite being in a huge amount of pain, it stopped, and she was perfectly healthy after this.

 At least...that's what she thought at first.

 After she went home, she begun to......change.

 It all started when she was sleeping at home after she was discharged, her mom taking her out of school for a few days so she could recover. Her face contorted in pain, the headache she had ignored earlier becoming head-piercing. It felt like someone was drilling a hole through her skull. After a particular thump in her head, her ears cleared up, and suddenly everything was far too loud. The city outside her window, the upstairs neighbour, her own breathing. Despite how hot it was outside, she buried herself under the covers, holding onto her head as every sound around her was turned up to eleven. She let out a silent scream, and something came out.

 For a solid five seconds, Janette thought she had thrown up, but when she threw herself out of the blankets, there was no bile to be found. The headache had stopped, but now her gums were itching. She scratched her gums, and felt something on her lateral and central incisors. She quickly and quietly got out of bed. She made her way to the bathroom, quietly closing the door behind her and putting on her glasses to see better.

 However, when she put on her glasses, everything was blurry. She wasn't crying, so it couldn't be that her vision was altered by the water in her eyes. She squinted her eyes at her hazy reflection in the bathroom mirror, wondering if she needed a new set of glasses as she took them off.

 She was now looking at her clear reflection in the mirror.

 Janette nearly dropped her glasses from the shock. She walked closer to the mirror, wondering if she was seeing things correctly. And indeed she was, she was able to see without her glasses. She placed two fingers on her cheeks, noticing that her various pimples and achne scars had vanished, her skin as clean as a newborn's. She trembled as she slowly opened her mouth, still wondering what it was she had felt in her mouth.

 And there, as clear as day, were two large, needle-like fangs. Her scream was cut short as she backed straight to the wall and hit her head, cracking the marble slightly.

 "W-What the fuck??", she whispered.

 Her mom flung open the bathroom door.

 "Janette! I heard you scream, wha happened??"

 "M-M-My mou-"

 Janette looked back at the mirror, noticing the fangs were no longer there. She couldn't feel them either when she placed a finger in her mouth. Her mom rushed to her side.

 "Are you okay?"

 "I...am? I think...? I..."

 "Come on, let's get you to bed. Huh....have you been using face mask or cream?"

 "W-Why..?"

 Her mom caressed her face, "Your face is as smooth as an ocean pebble."

 Janette remained silent as she was guided back to her room, chalking this up to being tired. She, however, found herself unable to sleep. So, she sat on the bed and went for the first thing on her desk, which was a notebook. She only placed a palm on it, she did not grab it. But it somehow stuck on her hand. She thrashed it, trying to unstick it from her palm. Eventually it did, the notebook hitting her closet. Thankfully, without waking up her mom again. She looked down at her hands, her gaze seemingly zooming in to her skin and witnessing hairs similar to those of spider legs. She tried really hard not to scream at this too.

 She closed her door and grabbed a small mirror in her room, looking at her mouth again. It was devoid of fangs, but Janette squinted at her reflection with a very angry gaze. She made a silent snarl, as if trying to get those fangs to appear again, because there was no way in hell she only hallucinated that. 

 And sure enough, the fangs slowly started to show themselves, lowering from her skull. Janette started trembling. What did that spider do to her?? Reluctantly, she decided to dress herself and go out through the fire escape. She wondered, if her arms could stick to her notebook...could her legs too? And on other surfaces?

 Janette decided to test that theory by walkng closer to the edge of the fire escape's railing, climbing on top of it and placing her hands on the wall. Then, closing her eyes, she jumped off the railing and aimed for her feet to land on the wall too. She waited for herself to drop, but she never did. Janette slowly opened her eye to peek down, noticing she was stuck on the wall. She shakily removed one arm from the wall, turning herself to the side slightly so she could see the dark alleyway and the building opposite of her.

 This was..a lot to take in.

 "Okay...okay Janette. Nothing to worry about, you just...got bitten by a spider and now you.....have fangs and can stick to walls..that's totally normal.", she looked to another direction, towards the opening of the alleyway, "....why am I so nonchalant about this.....?"

 She looked down at her hands, lifting one on the air in a certain position.

 "Rock on I gue-"

 She heard a twip, and she slowly turned her gaze to her raised hand, a white string-like substance coming from her hand. Holding it, it was sticky and strong, like spider silk. The situation was so bizzare, it made her laugh, and nearly cry too.

 "Ha ha ha....hah ha....what the fuck?"

-------------------------------------------------

 "And that is how it happened.", Janette finished her story with.

 Montana blinked at his niece, unsure of what to say.

 "...So, let me get this straight.", he started, "A spider from Oscorp bit you, a spider infected by eldritch forces nonetheless, and now you have supe'powers."

 "Yeah....sounds kind of ridiculous when you put it that way. Like it came straight out of a comic book, or somethin'"

 "Janette, why didn't your mom press charges??", Montana questioned, "That was sheer fucking negligence, and a lawsuit is possible!"

 "You know we are drowing in bills!", Janette said, "And I had to weaponise these powers in order to help us!"

 "Janette, please stop screaming."

 "I am not!"

 "Janette!"

 That made the teenager go quiet. Montana sighed, dragging a hand across his face.

 "Kid, look. I want to support you, I really do, but you can't expect me to just sit by idly to be a 'yes' person for you.", he got up, still keeping eye contact with Janette, who tried to do the same, "I have been in this business longer than you, and it is not a job you want to have."

 "Then why did you even have it in the first place?"

 "Because my chances were slim, Janette!"

 Janette stepped back at the sound of his raised voice, Montana sighing.

 "Look, kid, you need to understand that I was desperate."

 "Well, so am I.", she stated, "Do you want us to drown in debt?"

 "Of course not. I just...", he placed both hands on Janette's shoulders, "You are a kid, Janette. A good one at that, and I don't want you to get hurt."

 Janette placed one of her hands on top of his, "I'd get hurt either way. And mom can't know about this."

 "She won't.", Montana confirmed, the memories of his family refusing to even call when he was in prison being too painfull to remember.

 "Uncle, listen.", Janette started, "A friend of mine, another one that got into this unwilllng eldritch mess, he is trapped in Oscorp and I can't get him out on my own. I can't trust your boss for help, either."

 "Probably a good call, Tombstone is dodgy as fuck. But jailbreak? Are you serious?"

 "I can't just leave him there to be poked and proded like some lab rat!"

 "Janette.", Montana affirmed, "Your safety is what must come first, not others'. You would be risking your identity, your life, your freedom.", he swallowed before sighing again, wiping sweat off his brow, "Your secret is safe with me, but you need to get that idea off your head. Because you are not coming out of this unscathed."

 The teenager looked to the side, at the metal briefcase, and appeared to be contemplating something. Ultimately, she nodded, agreeing to leave it alone. Montana lifted himself to his feet, patting her shoulders firmly.

 "I will always be there for ya. You know that, right kid?"

 "...Yes, uncle Montana."

 "Okay, so some ground rules.", he said, "No secret identity reveal to anyone else, no going to Tombstone unless one of your robberies goes south, and when you do accept a job, talk to me before throwing you'self to anything stupid. Capiche?"

 "Capiche."

Chapter Text

 Janette ended up staying over at her uncle's place for the better part of the week, avoiding her mom every chance she got. It’s not like her mom had many things to complain about this, she stayed over at her grandparents’ place very often when she was young, so staying over at uncle Montana’s wasn’t a big deal. Besides, her grades remained the same, and it was refreshing going home with an unwanted bad grade without the fear of being hit for once.

 She let her friends know where she was staying, in case they wanted to visit and to avoid going to the wrong house. Of course, she didn’t tell them of her secret identity. Montana found out because he was one of the only people that she knew would be on her side no matter what, and he was, but with Marie and Harvey....their opinions about her mattered way too much.

 "I just...don't know what to do.", she admitted to Faith, "Why is everything so....complicated?"

 "With the eldritch, everything in complicated.", she admitted.

 Janette paced back and forth on the concrete edge of the building they were on.

 "I....ugh, Faith, how do you even handle this? You said you were into this rabbit hole long before me."

 Faith sighed, "I do agree with your own ideals, Janette. Our....circumstances, are better to remain unknown."

 "..You have had really bad experiences because of this, haven't you?"

 Faith looked to the city, the lights of nighttime Chicago reflecting on her cat eyes.

 "I was able to get away from my family, leaving them back in Paris to...hopefully start anew."

 "That....explains the high stake roberies."

 "Yeah...". After some time of silence, Faith clicked her tongue before she continued. "Running away..seems to be something both of us have in common, huh?"

 "Do you....think I should do this too?"

 Faith looked up at her, "Do what?"

 "Run away. Just..cut off contact with my mom and just...try and make it."

 "Janette.", Faith said as she got up to walk closer to her, "Running away, it's not an easy decision to make. It is life-changing, and I do not want to ruin what little normalcy you have in your life. If you believe running away is your best option, you can crash over at my place any time you'd like."

 Janette closed her eyes halfway behind her mask, looking to Chicago's cityscape.

 "..Thanks, Faith. That means a lot."

 "Of course.", Faith said, moving closer to her and taking Janette's hand in hers as they both looked at the lights.

 "You are lucky you have such an understanding uncle still.", the cat commented.

 "Yeah, I love him to death. Don't know where I'd be without him, to be honest."

 The stood in silence for a few more beats before Janette started talking again, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you run away from home? For the same reasons?"

 "...A little bit.", Faith admitted, "Let us just say that my family....we were not doing the best financially and..well, having someone that can actually control the eldritch power embued in them could benefit them drastically were they to turn me in. The entire reason I took this deal in the first place, is because I was promised the ultimate gift of life."

 "....Which is..?"

 Faith turned to her with a smile, "Freedom."

 "...Freedom?"

 "Exactly.", Faith replied, "No shackles to hold me down, or condescending adults telling me what I should be, who to love, and what to do. With these powers I can be...me. Tell me, Janette, what is it that you want from life."

 Janette looked down below, not knowing what to say. There were a lot of things she wanted from life. She wanted safety, acceptance, a form of freedom much like Faith. But the more she thought about it, the more she realised how...strange her life had been when it came to desires. She decided to reply honestly.

 "...Art."

 Faith looked at her with a confused look, "What do you mean?"

 "My...", she sighed, looking away, "Nevermind. It's stupid. I think I should go-"

 "Janette! If it's something that bothers you, you need to talk to me, or Marie or Harvey-if you think your family won't listen to you, you can talk to us."

 "I said, it's stupid!", Janette replied, her voice trembling slightly, "I have nothing else to say, Faith. I just...need to..be better."

 "No, you don't-"

 Faith couldn't stop Janette from swinging away, letting out a sigh of frustration in the process. It was not because she was mad at Janette, far from it. She supposed it was pity. She hadn't known Janette for as long as Marie and Harvey have, but it was clear the poor girl would rather run away from conflict rather than try to defuse it. It would seem she would either outright avoid talking back, or just stand there when verbally berated. It was a sad situation, really.

------------------

 "Hey Harvey, have you been doing more.....weird experiments back in Oscorp?", Janette asked Harvey, who replied with a shrug.

 Of course, why would Nathaniel tell his son anything? They barely talked as it was.

 "...Do you think weird shit is going on down there?"

 He shrugged, "I don't know. Probably."

 "I mean.", Marie started, "You never know what truly goes on in those kinds of labs, but why so interested all of a sudden, Jan?"

 "It's.......I don't know, just got...curious, I guess."

 Harvey bumps her arm with his elbow lightly, "Don't be sorry for being curious, Jan. Besides, it's not like you asked a secret formula or something."

 The friends shared a laugh, Janette's barely masking her discomfort.

 She wanted to believe she could save Marc on her own, but she hated to admit that her uncle was right. She was no hero, and she alone couldn't hope to stand against Oscorp's defense force, especially if that Octapus was on their side. Janette still had a leverage on Callie Clarke on the whole Lizard fiasco, so that was one down and like...a million more to go. It was frustrating, feeling like she couldn't do anything.

 It was reasonable, everyone's worries, but guilt was weighing in on Janette, and it was crushing her.

 She decided to vaguely talk about it back at F.E.A.S.T. with Mcclain.

 "Hey...Mr Mcclain?"

 The man sighed, but without a hint of annoyance, "Please, it's Fernando. You're making me feel like an old man."

 "Aren't you one?", she joked, earning a laugh from the man.

 "Ah, you got me there. What is it?"

 Janette was busy cleaning the kitchen windows, which always seemed to be foggy due to the constant work and the presence of people in the room.

 "Have you ever..had a friend of yours in a situation, like a....fuck how do I-like a situation you can't get them out of. Everyone around you tells you you can't get them out, you yourself know you can't get them out..How do you deal with that?"

 Fernando blinked, "That was a bit....specific, don't you think?"

 Janette cringed at herself, "Sorry, sorry, dumb question. Let's just change the subject."

 "Well kid, I don't really know what the situation you found yourself in is exactly, but I can give you some very important advice from my time in the streets."

 Janette stopped her scrubbing, listening carefully.

 "If you and your pals decide to commit something bad, and one of them finds themselves cut off from the rest of you, leave 'im there. If he couldn't get out in time, then he wouldn't last in the long run. And you would just get yourself into the same shit, if not worse."  

 Janette turned away for a moment, questioning herself if Marc Dawson was worth the risk. If she could somehow save him, what would that mean for her own wellbeing? She was bound to risk her own identity, her family, her friends. And as much as she felt indifferent towards Nathaniel Oconnell, she didnt know what the man was like towards his experiments. And she doubted he would go any easy on her. She gulped, a very subtle gesture.

 "...Thanks, Mcclai.....Mr Fernando."

 The man shook his head, going back to his own work, "You are too polite for your own good, kid. It often doesn't take you far."

 "...Right."

--------------

 "So, what did you decide?", Faith asked, sitting on all fours on the windowsill of her uncle's apartment as Janette pried off the diamonds from the necklace she stole.

 Janette placed the pliers down, rubbing her itching eyes.

 "I think...I should go back home, eventually."

 "Well, I think that's a good choice.", Faith responded, "Though, you do know that here is much better, don't you?"

 Faith hadn't known or even met her uncle before, but she took Janette's word for it. That he was a good man.

 "Can we...do this tomorrow?", Janette asked, slumping back in the wooden chair, "My eyes hurt...."

 Faith sighed, hopping inside the apartment to help Janette tidy up the mess on the table and carefully pocketing the diamonds in the process. While she was doing so, she paused, deciding to leave one out for Janette. She looked at the girl on the chair with half-lidded eyes.

 "Do you....want to go to sleep?"

 "Mmnnh.", she nodded.

 Faith sighed with a smile, "Alright, let's get you to bed."

 She guided Janette to the bedroom, helping her sit on the bed. As Janette laid down on the bed and Faith was ready to leave again, a hand grasped her shirt, and refused to let go. She looked back down at Janette.

 "Can you....stay for a while?", Janette sheepishly asked.

 Faith felt her cheeks heating up, and she had to smack them to get them back to their normal temperature again.

 "Y-Yeah...sure!"

 So, she climbed on the bed behind Janette, practically spooning her in her arms. The girl's hair smelled like paint and cheap conditioner, a combination she never thought she would find fond in her nose. She closed her eyes, relaxing finally.

 .....Until a loud thundercrack echoed through Chicago.

 Both girls shot up from the bed, Janette quickly sprinting to the nearest window to look outside, vivid blue lightning assaulting the city at it center. Janette's eyes looked like they were about to burst from their sockets.

 "....Marc..."

Chapter Text

 The lightning and thunder crackled overhead, like a million whips striking down the earth at once. Janette gripped the windowsill so tight her knuckles turned white, and Faith noticed this. She reached a hand to touch the distressed girl’s back, Janette jumping to find her costume before she could do so. She kept repeating that she had to fix this over and over like a mantra.

 “Janette, what are you talking about?”

 “I-It’s Marc! This-shit-this is my fault! I should have went back for him!”

 “Janette, calm down!”

 “No!”, Janette shouted, her mask on her balled up fist, “This...this is my fight. And I have to save Marc.”

 “Janette, this is ridiculous! You can’t hope to fight what’s out there on your own!”

 “And you can??”

 Faith stared at the brunette in disbelief.

 “Janette..you will die out there.”

 The other girl simply put her mask on and climbed on the windowsill.

 “...I am done running from fights.”, she said, before jumping down.

 “Janette!”, Faith could only watch as the spider started to swing closer to the heart of the storm, “....shit..”

 Faith ran to the main area of the apartment just as Montana entered the house. The two locked eyes just as Faith grabbed the diamond filled bag and was ready to leap out the window in her cat transformation. The man quickly reached behind his kitchen counter and came back with what looked like a shockwave gauntlet.

 “What the hell are you doing here?”, he looked to the open bedroom door, no Janette, “Where is Janette??”

 Faith lept off without answering him.

------------------------

 Janette swung as quickly as she could towards the storm, and as she got closer it was clear that Marc’s powers have drastically evolved. She had to stop swinging and settled for running on the buildings on her way, the wind around her becoming stronger as she got closer to the storm. Her spider-sense helped her avoid any debris that would fly towards her.

 So many people were caught in the crossfire, Janette doing her best to help them get out of danger. As she was webbing a group down to safety, she felt the hair on top of her head stick to her mask, her blood going cold. She immediately hopped forward, narrowly avoiding a lightning strike that had left the ground scorched.

 Janette got to her feet, coming face to face with the more humanoid, but suitless, man of electricity that once was Marc Dawson. She carefully reached out a hand.

 "Mr Dawson, please listen to me-"

 The blast that knocked her back to a building wall made it clear the man did not want to talk to her. She dodged the next attack as her spine stitched itself back together, jumping off the building to web herself to another, the electric apparition hot on her tail. She jumped inside the building, breaking the glass window with a kick as she ran inside, getting anyone she came across to safety while trying not to die herself.

 Lightning struck in front of her, causing her to stop in her tracks and look back at Dawson, who pointed an accusatory hand at her.

 " You...you left me there! ", a voice heavy with static screamed.

 "I never wanted to!", she shouted back, "But I had to do what I had to to fucking live!"

 That did not make the situation any better, and Marc moved to hit her with the closest thing that came to his physical form, Janette only able to dodge it because he was slower when it came to close range attacks. Seems he still hasn't got the hang of this body just yet. She tried to kick him from down up, but not only did her foot fail to hit anything solid, but the electricity made her seize up.

 Thankfully, the attack was brief, so the jolt of electricity was not as bad as the blast she had received during their first encounter. Instead, she did what she did best, and ran. The building they were in was a tall office one, and she was wise enough to swing down the stairs. Janette knew she needed to get Dawson out of here and somewhere with less people, but that was reserved for people that could actually wrangle electricity. It was then that a thought crossed her mind:

 Rubber.

 She threw herself off the railings and dived down the stairs, attempting to deduce where the breaker room was, and by extention, the material to handle electricity. She dodged most of the blasts that came her way. Unfortunately, one blast knocked her down, making her fall to the ground at the very bottom floor. Her vision and hearing took a while to return, Janette lifting herself from the ground slowly and shakily in fear of throwing up, her stomach feeling like she had drank an energy drink without any food inside it first. The shadows in front of her grew larger, and slowly turning herself around revealed the slowly descending Marc Dawson.

 The girl thought that she could somehow reach him, "Marc..please listen to me-"

 " I have no reason to listen to you, spider. ", the man spat out, " And that, is not my name. Not anymore. "

 Janette could swear that he was getting brighter.

 " I. Am. Electro. "

 Janette dashed off just as the man finished, said man taking a moment to realise she was off. Janette sprinted down the basement stairs, eventually breaking through the room she sought out. She dodged lightning strikes as best she could inside the gradually destroyed room, and managed to grab a few rubber objects.

 After the latest lightning strike, both of them noticed that the ground was shaking, and the ceiling was crumbling. Electro reacted first, bursting a hole in the ceiling that allowed him to fly off. Janette webbed herself through the hole and after him, putting on the rubber boots and gloves in the process.

 Once they were out of the falling building, and she landed on solid ground, she looked up at the flying electricity monster.

 "Alright...no barking then.", she commented.

 The man raised an arm next to him, " Bite. " 

 Janette charged at the man, now more used to avoiding the lightning strikes that she was being assaulted with. She managed to land a punch, which caught Electro by surprise.

 "If you won't listen, guess I gotta hit you till you do!", Janette shouted.

 She was smart to not stay close to him for too long. After all, the only parts that were protected were her hands and feet. In a sense, it was a careful and deadly dance. She stunned the man-turned-entity by kicking him in the face, and then punched him backwards with both hands. Janette took a battle stance once more, taking notice of all the destruction around them.

 "Listen to me!", she shouted, "You are out of control man! You are putting people in danger!"

 " Where were they when I needed help?? ", the man shouted back, " You have no right to tell me what to do! "

 "Okay you little bitch!", Janette shouted as she landed one foot on his shoulder and kicked him in the head with the other.

 The following exchange of blows left more than a few scars on Janette's body, and a fair share of burns on her clothes. After a punch landed on the jaw, Electro had finally readied a blast that knocked her back towards a car with such force that the vehicle looked like it had been t-boned. After making sure her mask didn't fall off, as well as the rubber parts, she got right back up, doubling over in pain as the cracking her bones were making as they shaped themselves back together became louder. It even seemed to catch Electro by surprise. She shot two webs towards the ruined car, and with a twirl hurled it towards the man. Electro caught it mid flight with electricity, shoving it aside just as Janette jumped in front of him, assaulting him with a bicycle kick before another jaw kick.

 " Fuck! Why is it always the jaw?? "

 Janette ignored that remark, instead looking around to think of a plan, and she eventually did just that. She webbed up Electro's face, swinging away in a speed that made sure he would be able to see her when the web burned off.

 "Pussy!"

 That seemed to set the apparition off enough for him to chase after her. Janette swung and ran faster tha she ever had, the situation both so intense and absurd that she found herself smiling as she was running for her life.

 Up on the roofs, on railings, swinging between buildings and through the metal bars of towers.

 But all that chasing eventually led her to her destination. A specific area, that would be a perfectly normal location by most standards. But she knew that today the pool was closed, and electricity did not react well to it. She grinned as she turned around mid-swing to kick the man in the face once more, catching him off-guard.

 " Enough with the face! "

 They both landed on the roof, and Janette shot out two strings of web somewhere else and started pulling, seemingly trying to get away. Electro quickly cut the webs with electricity.

 " Oh no you don't. You are not running away on me like you did with the Vulture. "

 Janette chuckled, lifting her head up to look at him. This area had very poor layout design.

 "Sheesh man, you'll have me falling for ya. If you don't do that first."

 " What the fu- "

 Electro did not get to finish his sentence as a water tower fell right on top of him, breaking the roof and sending him down to an equally filled with water pool. It felt like Janette was in a room that was right in the middle of a storm as strobing lights exploded from inside the building like a million lightbulbs were beeing flickered on and off. Janette closed her eyes and covered her face with her arms. She only opened her eyes again when the strobing lights stopped.

 She slowly moved to the edge of the demolished roof, Electro at the bottom of an evaporated pool, unconcious. She exhaled heavily, relieved that it was finally over. She got up and stumbled to the edge of the roof, dropping to her knees from exhaustion.

 Janette lifted her head up at the sounds of helicopters approaching. It was Oscorp. She decided she wasn't going to stick around, and webbed herself away from the decimated ruins of uptown Chicago.

----------------

 Nathaniel walked towards the man that was once Omar Odonnell, the entity known as Xijh'the having full control of his body now.

 The brown sugar colored tentacles writhed about, their movements few, curling in on themselves as the god in man's flesh observed the creature inside the tank that was in front of it.

 Nathaniel braced himself to just stand next to this powerful figure.

 "From your sour expression and the reports, I assume this did not go well?", he said.

 The god did not even spare him a glance as it spoke, "Indeed. I would seem that despiteth mine greatest efforts, thee creation came out weaker than it hasth been hoped."

 "And why would that be, god? You were the one that told me 'Electro' would solve the spider problem."

 "Yes. However, Iagegnn'loxz's creation isth far superior. He hasth proven himself, certaintly.", Xijh'the commented, still avoiding eye contact with the mortal man next to them.

 The god raised itself in the air and closer to the tank with two of the tentacles, reaching a hand to touch the glass of the tank in front of them.

 "Poor child."

 Nathaniel scoffed, "You know what parenthood is like, creature?"

 "Thou art a father too, Nathaniel. Although, I supposeth thou don't act like one."

 Nathaniel bit back a response. Xijh'the turned their body to the side, their hand letting go of the tank. They were sure Electro would prevail, secure the spider, but it would seem their fellow god's creations were becoming more resilient. And now, since she had defeated a god's creation all on her own, which was most likely the reason this man was turned into electricity in the first place, she had His full attention.

 One chain was broken, and Xijh'the couldn't be more afraid, albeit inwardly.