Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Delilah? Is it on?”

“Yes Doctor.”

“Good...good. Okay, now then my young friend, I have...several things to tell you and very little time to explain it all.”

“25 minutes Doctor.”

The Doctor ignored what the female voice said and kept going.

“Right, now then...I am sure that you are extremely confused right now. You are not in the lab...you are not home. You are...somewhere else. Do not be afraid, this was intentional. Now, I know you have questions, and I’ll do my best to give you answers. Starting with your state of health.

“Time adjusted. 27 minutes Doctor. They were slowed.”

A small nod and the Doctor kept going. “Now then, I’ll come out and say it: Your original body was unsalvageable. There was no saving it. The disease you had simply festered for too long inside your body and had done irreparable damage. However, I was able to not only clone your body but also throw in some...enhancements as well. It took some serious manpower to isolate the disease and completely remove it from your new body, but it was done. Do not worry, your new body is visually identical to your original one.”

“23 Minutes Doctor.”

“Now about the ‘enhancements’, to help prevent any further complications your body was given cybernetic enhancements. To put it bluntly, you have quite bit of valuable mechanical parts inside you, but worry not it is intricately woven with your flesh and blood. You are now faster, stronger, more dexterous and even smarter than you were originally, however I need you to understand this: You are still human. Mostly. You can still eat, you can still get tired, it’s just that your overall need for these things have...lessened. Again you are almost entirely human. The small bit of you that isn’t...is well...spider.”

“18 minutes Doctor.”

“To expand on that...I must confess I was not entirely honest with you. When I offered your family to use an experimental treatment to cure you, it was a lie. You were a test subject. Surely you know about the weird dimensional spaces that have been popping up recently? The dark orbs that have been seen dotted around Europe and remote parts of t he US? You were meant to be an answer to them. I will tell you now young man those spaces are dangerous and they are only getting more and more deadly. Pretty soon I’m pretty sure a horrible disaster is going to occur. The public doesn’t know, but those of us who have been keeping a close eye on them have noticed that their activity is rising.”

“I5 minutes Doctor.”

“I can’t go into serious detail, but we’ve had experts enter into those dimensional spaces. Barely anyone has returned and those that did talked about how they were beset by monsters and how some of their allies turned into monsters as well. Again, you were the answer. We needed a weapon, something capable of fighting back against the scourge of these dimensional spaces and for a while we struggled...and then you mentioned the comic books you loved to read. The idea was novel enough: Why not simply make our own heroes?”

“13 minutes Doctor.”

“So I began pouring over those comic book heroes of yours. Considering it was you, I decided to go with Spider-Man, since you said that he was your favorite one. With that as a base, things picked up. After fixing your body, I began adding the cybernetics to help you become the real world’s first Spider-Man. It took 3 years of hard work...and yes you’ve been out for 3 years now, but that’s besides the point. I took some data from the Thiren project and spliced some spider DNA into yours. You’ll see the results of that soon enough. And to reassure you once again: You are still human. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“10 minutes Doctor.”

The Doctor looked over his shoulder, a haunted look on his face before speaking again.

“I’ll have to speed up. Now you’re wondering why you’re somewhere else right? That’s because the people in charge of this project, the ones funneling money towards it and by extension you...they did not have your best interests at heart. Do you know at one point they stopped by and saw your unconscious body? When we went over the specs do you know what they wanted to add? An obedience chip. Something to ‘keep you in line’ so that you’d follow orders to the letter. Needless to say, I made my decision to cut ties then and there. Not openly of course, things weren’t done yet. But by now you’re far away and they won’t find you. I’m not surprised they found out I was planning to cut contact...but this makes things easy.”

“8 minutes Doctor.”

“Right, well...time is running out. Now listen closely, this coming disaster is going to be big and I mean big. I’ve left with you the last of my personal funds. It should be about 22 million altogether in different currencies. Dollars for the US. Pounds for Britain and Yuan for China. These are the places most likely to be to suffer the least damage. If the cash doesn’t match? Get a conversation, I’m sure it can still be done. 8 million has been sent to your family for...well to make up for what I’ve done.”

“5 minutes Doctor.”

“Oh! I’ve also left you with an upgraded version of Delilah named Delilah Mark II! She’s just like my AI assistant...except better. I...I hope she proves helpful to you. I hope I’m not forgetting anything…”

“3 minutes Doctor.”

“Ah yes! One last thing. I know I said it’s been 3 years, but you’re not waking up for another 5. I know that’ll sound like a lot, but it’s to make sure that you cannot be found by any pursuers that come looking for you. It’s a tough pill to swallow I’m sure, but just...please understand I’m doing it so you can survive. So you can be free. Free to be the hero I know you can be or to live a life that was cut short unfairly. When you wake up, try finding your family, I’m sure they’d love to see you again after so long.”

“1 minute Doctor.”

“Ah...times up. Well this is goodbye young man. I need to stress we will not be meeting again. Ever. I hope this message did enough to convey the situation and act as an apology for doing what I did to you.”

Before the Doctor could say anything else, the door burst open behind him as several men wearing special ops gear and holding machine gun rifles in their hands all pointed at the Doctor.

“It’s time to go Doctor, you are coming with us.”

“Ah, hello gentleman, you took your time.”

“Cut the crap Doctor, you and your research data are coming with us.”

“Hmm...yes I suppose I am going with you. Have to check the time first though. Delilah?”

“10 seconds left.”

“What is that countdown for?” one of the men shouted, walking over to the Doctor.

“9”

“8”

“Tell me!” he growled gripping him by the collar

“7”

“6”

The Doctor merely smiled

“5”

“4”

“Oh shit! Abort mission! It’s gonna blow!”

“3”

“2”

“Goodbye Delilah”

“1”

“Goodbye...Doctor.”

-000-

New Eridu, Port Elpis, 2:35AM

The young man watched as the message played in front of his eyes. And that was meant literally. The message was quite literally playing in front of his eyes. His eyes looked normal to anyone looking at him, but for him personally he could see several portions of data right in front of him. To the top right was his current condition, which currently read as ‘Concussed’. Made sense, he was feeling dizzy and his head was banging hard too...definitely a headache to go along with that. To the top left was a small gear icon that read ‘Augments’. It had a small ‘OK’ next to it, meaning most likely that the mechanic parts of his body were in good shape. The message from the Doctor having played directly in the ‘middle’ of his eyes. If there was any truth to that video he’d seen, that’d prove it. A regular person didn’t have status conditions displayed or videos playing in their eyes.

He was really a cyborg! He...didn’t remember much, at most he recalled feeling really tired due to his illness and then the Doctor giving him some medicine to help ease the pain and then sleep.

And now it turns out he was not only asleep for 8 years, but his original body was literally tossed in the trash and he was now in a new cybernetic one...and he was part spider too?! How the hell that worked he didn’t know, but he didn’t really have time to question it. Looking at his surroundings he was on a beach. Where exactly, he didn’t know and the pod he’d stumbled out of didn’t appear to have a clue either.

“I’ve got to find help...got to get out of here.” He mumbled

“I can help with that.” came a feminine voice from...nowhere? It sounded similar to the computerized voice in the message, though with a more casual toneto it.

“Oh great, now I’m hearing voices.” the young man muttered

“Yeah. Mine. Look, can we skip the whole ‘I’m going insane’ thing? We’re finally awake and you’re doing this? Yeah no.”

“What the hell is going on?!” The young man shouted, quickly grabbing his head as the pain from his headache increased thanks to it.

“Calm down. You’re only gonna make things worse for yourself if you keep shouting like that. I’m Delilah. Delilah Mark II. You know, the AI that the Doctor mentioned? I’m here to assist you.”

The young man let that hang in the air for a moment, mostly to let the banging in his head settle a bit more before speaking.

“But I don’t understand...where are you?”

“In your head silly. Your brain? Weren’t you listening to the Doctor? You’ve got some cutting edge tech in your body, including me! Now...you’re in rough shape. Nothing you can’t recover from first, but we need to get you somewhere safer. A random beach won’t do.”

He didn’t disagree, especially since he was only wearing a hospital gown and not much else...he was getting pretty cold.

“Alright...I guess we walk then?”

“Hmmm, in your condition that wouldn’t be easy for you to do your own. Not to mention we need to get your suit and cash too.”

“My suit? Cash?”

“Look in the escape pod.”

The young man stumbled back towards the pod, he was really feeling the headache now and the dizziness was feeling worse however, he toughed it out and inside the pod he found two distinct items: A small spider-like shaped insignia and a black briefcase. Deciding to reach for the briefcase case first, the young man opened it to see money. Cold hard cash right in his hand. It was just like the Doctor said in the video, this was the money he left behind. Besides the usual US dollars, there were British Pounds, and Chinese Yuan...just like the Doctor said.

The Young Man took that out and set it down on the sand before taking out the spider shaped insignia. It was surprisingly light, with a black and gold color to it.

“What is this?”

“That’s your suit silly.”

“This is just a Spider-Man insignia. Pretty cool one though.”

“Put it on your chest.”

Doing as he was told, he placed the emblem near his chest. It suddenly attached itself to his chest, almost as if it were fitting into a slot.

“Great! Okay, activating now.”

The young man’s eyes went wide as he saw his entire body slowly become covered by a black and gold armor. He quickly peered into the water and sure enough, his face was covered by a helmet that looked exactly like Spider-Man’s with gold eye plates. The chest was emblazoned with a gold spider insignia. Besides that, the only color was black, which the young man absolutely loved.

“Holy shit, I’m Spider-Man!”

“Indeed you are. You know, the Doctor was concerned with Disney getting pissed, but given the situation, they’re more than likely to be okay with it after a while. Copyright is a hell of a bitch. Anyway, grab the suitcase and move away from the pod.”

Not questioning Delilah, the young man did just that, taking a few steps back from the pod, moving further at her discretion.

“Perfect! Now...activating detonation.”

Before he could even begin to process that sentence, the young man watched as the pod he was not even a few inches away from exploded! It was loud and debris went everywhere as the metal was engulfed in flames. Even the flow of water from the tide wasn’t making any progress at putting it out.

“We have to get moving, that blast definitely drew attention and we shouldn’t be around when people come looking.”

“W-why did you blow it up?!”

“Final orders from the Doctor. Now let’s go.”

Not wanting to be at the scene of a possible crime, the young man stumbled away. He was trying to walk, but now that his initial surprise and shock at the situation had worn off, the dizziness was coming back in full force.

“This is no good...you can’t move like this. Hang on, I’m going to activate assisted mode.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll explain later...you’re going to go unconscious again.”

“I’m what?!”

But before he could say anything more, the young man felt his consciousness rapidly leave him and before he knew it everything went black.

-000-

Several hours later, the young man woke up, glancing at a nearby window he saw the morning sun great him. Though drowsy, his tiredness quickly gave way to alarm as he looked around at his current surroundings. It appeared he was in a musty looking room. Not exactly dilapidated at all, but it was clear that no one had lived here for quite some time. There was a layer of dust on nearly everything that littered the room. An old dresser and wardrobe lined one of the walls, and even the bed that he’d been sitting on had a layer of dust on it.

“Man, this place is a dump...how’d I even get here?”

“That’d be thanks to me of course! I had to...turn you off in a manner of speaking so that I could get us here. It’s an old apartment building in what looks to be a more poor part of the city we’re currently in. I took a look at the address and the person who owned this apartment complex died some years back with no one coming to claim ownership of the building. Heck, he was losing money on it anyway, the prices were too high and no one wanted to pay up. So hey, free place! Better yet, this is the top floor, perfect for you to leap out of when you need to.”

“You realize you’ve said several very alarming things right? How the hell can you just ‘turn me off’?!”

“It’s only in emergency situations. If you get too hurt, I am programmed to force you into unconsciousness while I take control of your body and get you somewhere safe for recovery.”

“Yeah so...can we turn that off? I don’t like having an AI just control my body at will.”

“It’s not ‘at will’! Only for emergencies!”

“Still hate it. Turn it off.”

“Fine...first confirm your name.”

“You don’t know my name?”

“Nope! The Doctor was on a time limit and once you tell me your name everything will be permanently locked in. So…hit me with that name!”

“Fine, whatever. Desmond Monroe.”

“Done! Alright Desmond, emergency autopilot is off. What’s your next plan of action?”

Just at that moment, Desmond’s stomach let out a loud growl as he felt the pangs of hunger travel throughout his body. No exchange between Desmond and Delilah was needed as he got up and looking at the suitcase that was pushed up against the side of the dresser, he opened it and fished out a couple hundred bucks. Thankfully, the Doctor had made sure to divide the money up in smaller bills so that he could comfortably shop without causing any heads to turn.

Stuffing the cash into a small pocket compartment that Delilah activated for him, Desmond made to go for the door only for Delilah to speak up.

“What are you doing?”

“Heading outside? Can’t get any food staying here...for now any way.”

“Why are you using the door? Hello Desmond, you’re a spider-man! Hop out the window!”

“Are you insane? I’d fall!”

“Desmond, I reiterate: You’re a Spider-Man, does Spider-Man really walk anywhere? Give it a try, think of it as some early training.”

Desmond had to admit she had a point, if he was going to wear this suit, he may as well play the part. After all, his body was supposed to be super durable right? Or at least that’s what he figured since he had a ton of cybernetics inside him now. That made him pretty durable right?

“Don’t be afraid, you’re highly durable and to add to that, you’re quite agile as well. The Doctor studied various Spider-Man media to accurately replicate his movement capabilities. Now go ahead and jump out of the window. Aim for the wall of the next building over. You’ll do just fine.”

Ignoring the fact that she possibly read his mind, Desmond heeded her words and opened the window. Well, if he fell to his doom, at least he’d look cool while doing it right? Throwing away the last bit of his hesitation, he dove from the window, his body smoothly sailing out as his body went towards the next building over. Thankfully, the area as kind of cramped, so the buildings were close. What happened next surprised Desmond though as his hands landed on the building...and stuck.

“I...I’m sticking to the wall?” Desmond muttered

“Gotta love that spider DNA!” Delilah chimed in

Excitement bubbled in Desmond’s chest as he easily clung to the wall. He looked up at the edge of the building the roof of the building being a bit of a ways away since it was taller than the one he’d leapt from. Gingerly he placed his right arm further up. Then his left, then right, then left again, then right once more. His legs moving in perfect harmony almost as if it were natural. Desmond looked back at the alley that was between the two buildings, a smile forming on his face beneath the helmet.

“WHOOOO!”

The next 30 minutes saw Desmond, happily leaping from building to building, enjoying his newfound agility and speed. He couldn’t run this fast before, he’d been far too sickly and even before he was he wasn’t fast like this. He leapt from one building and effortlessly landed on another before continuing on.

“I’m glad you’re having fun, but weren’t you going to get food?” Delilah said interrupting him

This caused Desmond to stop, panting slightly from the impromptu exercise “Right...I might have gotten a bit carried away, I could definitely go for a drink though.”

“That’s good. Give me a sec...I’m gonna search for any place that sells drinks here. I wish the internet were better, but it’s fine and...found it! We’re near sixth street, there’s a place call Coffe Caffee that serves coffee, if the name didn’t give it away. They have some pastries too.”

“Sounds good enough, I need at least something to pick me up.”

Hoping off of the roof and landing in the alley below, Desmond decided to walk the rest of the way. Jumping from a building and landing in the middle of the street probably wouldn’t be a smart move. For now anyway.

Stepping onto Sixth Street proper Desmond took a look at it: It was...cramped. There was what looked like a convenience store, apartments judging from some people he saw exit them, despite this it had a nice calm vibe to it. Homely he’d even call it. It was giving the feeling of a place one could come to and relax or if they were old enough they’d retire here and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere for the rest of their remaining days. As he walked further along, he saw a magazine stand with a...dog at the front? A husky from the looks of it, admittedly, Desmond couldn’t deny he was pretty adorable and before he could stop himself he found himself standing in front of the stand and looking the dog over. He noted however that the dog was shrinking back from him slightly.

“Don’t worry boy, I won’t hurt you.” Desmond whispered petting his head lightly

Thankfully, this calmed the dog down enough before Desmond went to look at what the stand had to offer before coming to a realization.

“What the hell does any of this say?”

“Ah right! I forgot to mention, but the written language here is...different. Give me a moment, I’ll download the local lexicon and update your language library to include it. Annnnd...done! Sorry about that, I was so busy checking the information on the apartment that I forgot to mention that part to you.”

Desmond remained silent as the chicken scratch that was on one of the magazines became legible in real time, it feeling like his mind was shifting as it recognized the words that were in front of him now. His eyes glanced over at ‘Ridu Times’, which looked to be a regular newspaper.

“Ridu times...that’d probably be good for catching up on current events.” Desmond muttered

“Not a bad idea, we’re sorely lacking on information and that’s something we definitely need.”

“Couldn’t you have done that before?”

“Look I can only focus on so many things, your well-being was paramount okay? Besides, just think of it as a bonding exercise or something I don’t know!”

Rolling his eyes, Desmond picked up the magazine and not being aware of how much it cost, just dropped 10 bucks onto the counter.

“Thanks…Howl.” he said noticing the dog’s name tag that he could now read. He gave the dog one more gentle pat on the head before heading across the street to Coff Cafe which was just across the street. Howl barked in appreciation as he left, though the friendly dog wouldn’t realize that he’d not been given dennies until much later, which he dreaded bringing up with his owner.

Walking into Coff Cafe, Desmond took stock of the place. Really, it looked like any old coffee shop, a nice enough décor that made the place feel welcoming and relaxing. However, what caught him off guard was the metal being standing at the front of the counter.

“Er...is that a robot?” Desmond whispered

“Yeah, it is. A fully humanoid autonomous looking model. Didn’t expect that.” Delilah replied in an impressed tone

Desmond could say the same, most places had small service droids, but they weren’t human-sized like this guy. He approached the counter while looking at the menu that hung overhead, though unbeknownst to him as he did, the robot at the counter was slowly edging his finger over a hidden panic button. One that would alert pubsec the instant he pressed it. Lucky for him there were a couple of pubsec officers not too far away as they frequently patrolled sixth street. Having decided on his order, Desmond greeted him.

“Good morning.”

“#%@@*?”

“I’m sorry what?” Desmond asked in disbelief, he couldn’t understand a thing the robot was saying.

“#@@@##***?” it said again

Desmond was getting nervous now, he had no idea what he was saying, but thankfully for him Delilah was already on the case.

“Crap, sorry. I should have realized that there was a chance for the local dialect to be different too. Judging by the sound of what he said, it appears to be Chinese. Hmmm, let me analyze it.”

“It took about of minute of awkward silence before Delilah spoke again.”

“Okay I’ve got it. It does appear to be Chinese, but a slightly modified version? Almost like it went through an evolution of some kind. Anyway, I’ve taken the lexicon data added it to the language data. I’ll switch you over now and you should be give it to go. Give it a try.”

Making mock cough to cover his embarrassment. Desmond spoke again, though hearing himself speak Chinese or some new variation of it was strange. “Sorry about that. Good morning?”

“Ah! A good morning to you. That was a strange language you were speaking there!”

That stung a bit...English was strange now? Why?

“Can I take your order then?” The robot asked

“Right...I’ll take an iced coffee and a blueberry muffin.”

“Right away! One moment!”

What followed was the robot brewing up a fresh cup of coffee and then tossing in several ice cubes along with a few cubes of sugar for good measure. It was actually a pretty amazing display to see. His AI was clearly way more advanced than his plain appearance made it look.

With his order done, Desmond took his coffee and muffin before dropping a 20 dollar bill onto the counter.

“Keep the change.” he said heading to one of the outside tables

“Thank you sir! Be sure to come again!” Tin Master replied, happy to have made a nice profit...well until he looked at it more closely later on.

Taking his seat, Desmond brought the straw to his lips...only for it hit against his helmet

“Oh right...I’m in my suit…” he muttered

“Not a problem, thankfully the Doctor thought of the small things, even this.”

The part of the mask that covered Desmond’s mouth slid up, allowing him to enjoy his drink without having to expose his face.

“Huh, thanks Delilah.”

“No problem.”

Getting comfortable, Desmond took a sip of his drink as he began to read newspaper he’d bought. However, before he even read any notable articles he spit out his drink.

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

The outburst caught the eye of several passerby and it was only now that he realized that dozens of people had been staring at him already. Noticing this(finally) Desmond leapt to his feet, quickly leaving the cafe, with his drink, food, and newspaper in hand (shocked as he was, he wasn’t wasting any of that). Ducking into an alleyway he quickly jumped up onto the smaller building rooftops.

“Holy shit. Holy fucking shit! He shouted, not caring if anyone heard.

“Desmond, your heart rate is skyrocketing! What’s wrong?!” Delilah exclaimed in a worried tone

“Look at the newspaper Delilah, look at the top! The date!”

Desmond peered at it so that the AI in his head could see what he saw. There at the very top was the date and it was now that Delilah realized what had startled and upset Desmond so much. Because instead of reading as 22XX, the date now read as 27XX.

“Desmond…” Delilah muttered

“Delilah...we’re in the future. And not 8 years. We’re over 500 years in the future! What the hell happened!? How did it happen?!”

“I...I don’t know. The escape pod must have gotten stuck somewhere or something.”

“For 500 years!?”

“I’m afraid so. We’re...quite late to things it seems. Sadly, we can’t check, the escape pod is destroyed.”

“Goddamn the Doctor!” Desmond growled, only to then be struck by an intense sadness as he realized something. “M-my family…”

“Desmond…?”

“They’re...dead. They’re all dead!” he howled in despair

“Desmond calm down…”

“Calm down? Calm down?! How can I calm the fuck down?! My family, my friends, everyone I knew is gone! They’re all gone and all I did was fucking sleep!”

“Desmond it isn’t your fault, you’ve just got to breathe.”

The tears were now rolling down his face as he continued to wallow in despair, his breathe hitching “How the hell can I call myself a hero or even pretend to be one if I fucked up right out of the gate huh?! My mom...my dad...I’ll never know if they died happy. I’ll never see them again. I can never show them I’m okay now! I’m okay now and all for what?!”

Before he could stop himself he sunk to the ground, slamming his fist into the roof and leaving a deeper impact than anticipated. However, despite that, he could feel his heartbeat slowing down. The ringing in his head from the shock of the discovery was slowly disappearing and the tears that streamed from his face were slowly stopping. How he didn’t know...but he was feeling more calm suddenly.

“W-what…?” he muttered

“Shhh...it’s okay Desmond. I’m here.” Delilah whispered, the more casual tone Desmond was used to now being replaced with a more gentle and caring tone. “The doctor...he planned for this. Not the 500 years in the future...but he knew that you may experience some...difficult emotions down the line. I’ve suppressed them for now. Your heart rate was skyrocketing to an uncomfortable degree. It’s okay. I know it hurts. It...can’t...no, it won’t be easy, but you’ll get through this. We’ll get through this. Just a little bit at a time okay? You should finish your food.”

Despite the fact that Delilah could suppress his emotions as she claimed, Desmond suddenly found himself without the strength to care that much. “I’m not hungry. Not anymore.”

“Desmond, you’ve got to eat. Your body needs it.”

“Does it really? I’m just a bunch of parts.” he said morosely

“That is not true. Remember the Doctor’s words: You are still human. No matter what, you are still human Desmond and a human needs food to live. You are no different. Eat your food please. For me?”

Her words were enough to convince him to at least nibble at the muffin and take a few sips of the iced coffee, but ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to finish it, tossing the muffin down below into the alley where some cats quickly came for it then tossing the drink into the trash can right below. The loud sound only deterred the cats for a minute before they returned.

“Are you okay Desmond?”

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“What’s there to say?”

“Well…”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay…that’s fine. Just...I’m here whenever you need me okay?”

“Yeah.”

Desmond didn’t say anything else. Instead, he began hopping the rooftops back to the abandoned apartment that he’d came from. He just wanted to be alone with his thoughts...at least for the moment.

-000-

Zhu Yuan was annoyed. She’d had to go check out a disturbance at Port Elpis early that morning. Apparently there had been an explosion of some sort that took place there at around 3AM. The issue is that it was reported nearly an hour later and it took another hour to get there due to early morning traffic. She and Qingyi had been been one of the few on-duty officers there at the time, so it fell to them to go and check things out. When they got there all they found was a smoking ball of charred black metal at the shore. From what she and Qingyi could figure out, it had been holding something, a person given the size, but aside from that the object was too burnt and destroyed to give any other sort of information. There was only one clue provided by a man named Qi that Qingyi was friends with who had been enjoying the sea air at the time: He noticed that some dark figure was swinging away from the area that the wreckage was found on what he assumed were grappling hooks of some kind. He couldn’t tell who or what it was due to how dark it was, but it was the only lead they had and it was nothing concrete to act on. A dark figure? Without any more defining characteristics it was a dead end pretty much. Still, the police officer couldn’t help but be bothered by it all the same. Just what was that at the port?

-000-

Eve had retired from work for the night. Though she was only running a magazine stand, it was still tiring work sitting on a stool for hours on end. When she was younger she could handle it just fine, but she was getting on in years and now she was really starting to feel the exhaustion creep into her old bones. Perhaps another year or two she could retire, leaving the business to Howl and someone else. As she stepped into her apartment, Howl had already returned before her from Sixth Street, holding the profit box. How the dog managed to always beat her home she’d never been able to learn, but she didn’t mine as he’d been helping her for years and had never been hurt or accosted on his way back to her knowledge. However, this time she noticed that her loyal dog’s ears were drooped with a look of sadness on his face as he whined while looking at her.

“Howl? What’s wrong boy…? Are you hurt?” The old women asked in a concerned tone as she knelt down to pet the dog.

Again, Howl whined while pushing the profit box towards his master. Confused, Eve looked through the money they’d made for the day, inspecting each and every bill until she came across one that she didn’t recognize. At this Howl whined apologetically, causing the old woman to smile at him warmly.

“Oh I see. Someone pulled a fast one on you didn’t they? It’s okay Howl, I’m not angry.” She once again pat his head to signify that it was okay. Howl began to happily wag his tail as Eve continued looking at the fake dennie note studying it carefully. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d seen something like this before somewhere. A dim memory from back during her high school years in Old Eridu. She stared at it longer and longer still until finally she decided to act on urge that had been gnawing at her more and more the entire time. Reaching for her phone, she quickly found the number from an old friend of hers.

“Hello Dominic? It’s Eve, I hope I’m not interrupting your evening.”

A grizzled, yet warm voice responded to her “Not at all Eve. What can I do for you?”

“Well...I know you enjoy collecting relics from the Old Civilization…would you mind stopping by for a moment? I think I may have something of interest to you.”

“Sure I can be over in less than an hour. Have some tea ready for me will you?”

Eve chuckled “Of course, it’s been a while since we last got together.”

The two talked a bit more before Eve hung up the phone. If she were lucky then Howl may have just stumbled onto the biggest payday the two of them had ever seen. Even more than when a limited edition beach photo shoot album of Astra Yao had gone on sale!

-000-

Desmond had spent the rest of the day sitting in the apartment laying on the dusty bed. He really did need to get to cleaning this place. But currently he felt like doing nothing. The idea of sitting here and quietly wasting away was far more enticing than it should have been and no coaxing from Delilah had woken him out of his stupor. The truth kept playing in his head: He was in the future. He was alone. He had no one. No more family, no more friends, not even a pet. All he had was himself and an AI inside his head. It was a sobering thought that was plaguing him. As he continued to wallow in his thoughts, he thought about Peter Parker and what he’d do. The answer was obvious really: He’d continue being Spider-Man. Continue helping people. Even when it strained his personal relationships, he’d continue doing the right thing. His eyes then went wide as a realization hit him: He was Spider-Man. There was no one here who would worry about Desmond Monroe. No one who would be angry at him if he missed a date, or ran out of a gathering to stop bad guys. No one would bother him about secrets he’d kept, no college professors would say he’s gifted but always late to a class or that he was out late at night. No one would know, no one would care.

Suddenly, the loneliness and despair he felt turned into something else. The only word that rang into his mind was a simple one:

Liberation.

He could be Spider-Man...and no one else. He could be a hero and that’s all he needed to be. Underneath the helmet he was smiling widely.

“Desmond, I’m noticing a change in your brain patterns and a spike in your heart rate. You’re...happy? Are you okay?”

“You know what Delilah? I am. I am happy. I think I just learned something and I know what I’m gonna do now.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m gonna be Spider-Man.”

Chapter Text

It was the next morning bright and early. Desmond, had woken up, activated his suit by tapping the spider emblem on his chest and suited up. Climbing out of the window he crawled towards the rooftop of the apartment building taking a moment to appreciate the sun slowly rising. After talking with Delilah the previous night she’d instructed him to head here as it would provide ample space for training or so she said.

“Alright Delilah, I’m here. How are we going to train?”

“VR Training of course! It’s built into your systems. The Doctor figured that you might stumble a bit once you woke up, so these practice courses will be just the thing to get you combat ready!”

“Won’t I look crazy fighting VR goons though?”

“And that is why we’re on a rooftop. No one can see you up here. Well...maybe a helicopter, but there’d be no reason for one to be here. We can begin whenever you’re ready.”

“Alright. Let’s get to it!”

What followed next was a blue hue appearing over Desmond’s eyes. He could still see the HUD that displayed his physical perimeters reading as ‘fine’ and there was a small ‘VR mode engaged’ on the lower left of his sight. A random thing wearing a black beanie, a white shirt, and a pair of blue jeans appeared in front of him in a combat stance. You’re typical thug from the looks of it.

“Okay. The Doctor had some really basic lessons put in here, but I’m gonna roll them all into one. Now go up and punch the target and that’ll prompt it to attack you, then dodge, it’ll be easy!”

“Nodding, Desmond did as instructed and ran up and punched the thug. It was strange: Though it was VR, he had actually felt his fist connect with the thug. Maybe it was a phantom feeling sort of thing?

As Delilah had said, the VR thug was now getting ready to attack him, winding his punch back, but as he did, Desmond felt an odd sensation, a tingling all throughout his body that was screaming ‘danger’. Without a second though he dodged out of the way, flipping backwards and landing upright.

“What the heck was that?” he muttered as the thug had stopped moving

“What do you mean?” Delilah asked

“I had a weird feeling throughout my body. It felt as if every muscle in my body was telling me to move out of the way.”

“Oh, that’s probably the spider-sense.”

“I have Spider-Sense too?!”

“I don’t know why you’re surprised. You’re the first real-life Spider-man, why wouldn’t you have Spider-Sense? Besides, according to the Doctor, it was extremely easy to replicate. All he had to do was up your reflexes to an insane degree and the rest explains itself. Now then, do some more combat drills and we’ll move on.”

The next hour had Desmond fighting against more holograms, getting into the flow of combat as he did. These guys weren’t anything special. Just your average everyday mugger. The kind of person who’d stalk someone down an alleyway and then take their cash. Still it served as a great way to learn the basics. He was getting better and better at reading and reacting to their movements. Some had gotten a few hits in, but it was never anything serious and Delilah was quick to point out his mistakes, even going into what she called ‘training wheels mode’, where she took control of his body and demonstrated the proper reaction. She’d even revealed that his armor, much like the Iron Spider suit from the comics had an extra four arms that came from his back. A perfect surprise to pull out in a pinch and catch someone off guard.

While he still wasn’t too comfortable with her being able to just take control of his body, he couldn’t deny that her demonstrations were useful as he would then be able to pull off the same movements she did. His body really was made for this. After knocking out the last thug, Desmond decided on a short break before moving onto his next bit of training.

“Alright not bad! The combat training went well and I’m expecting about a 95% success-rate if you get into a fight. Keep practicing and we can hit 100% for sure. Once you’re done resting, time to work on your web techniques.”

“I have webs? Where are my web cartridges?”

Delilah tsked in disapproval at his question “Web cartridges? Really? I know they’re kind of a staple, but come on now Desmond. You should know the Doctor does not do things half-way. That spider DNA didn’t just give you the ability to climb walls and enhanced strength. Your webs are 100% organic. Straight out of your body! Besides, wouldn’t it be weird for the guy named Spider-Man to not do the one thing spiders are known for?”

“Wait, seriously?!”

“Yes seriously. I shouldn’t need to tell you how to shoot them. Give it a shot. Literally.” Delilah said with a chuckle

Excited and not wanting to waste any time, Desmond put his middle finger and Ring finger into his palm, almost instantly a string of web shot off from his wrist and over the rooftop.

“I did it! I can shoot webs!” Desmond exclaimed

“That’s right! Now we should probably get you into the habit of swinging. Now let’s start with a low roof and aim for a-Desmond wait!”

Not bothering to listen to her, Desmond had already taken a running leap off of the roof and was quickly descending towards the ground.

“Desmond wait we-”

He didn’t listen as he shot some web that stuck to a building, allowing him to swing...but he didn’t let go correctly and swung back, being caught off guard by it and letting go by accident, flying several feet away and hitting an old billboard, sliding down slowly until he hit the ground.

“Ow…” Desmond muttered

“And THIS is why you listen to me. I was GOING to tell you to let me give you a short demonstration. You’re lucky that it’s early in the morning and no one saw you.”

“Sorry...got a bit excited.” Desmond grunted as he got back to his feet

“I noticed. Now, we’re going to try again and THIS time I’m going to take control just for a bit and then you’ll mimic what I do. Got that?”

“Got it…”

The next couple of hours involved Desmond getting used to web slinging. It was way more involved than it looked, he had to make sure the webs attached to the buildings correctly, take in the momentum of his swing, making sure to jump at the apex so that he could end up even higher in the sky before swinging again. He was getting used to it, though he still messed up a few times as was evident whenever he swung too close to a building or swung too low and was near the ground. Still overall, he was getting better and fast. And with Delilah correcting his mistakes and taking over at some points, it was overall fruitful experience.

Landing on another roof, it was time for another break.

“Not bad Desmond. I’d give that a B+. Keep at it and you’ll get better for sure.”

“Right, so what I do now?”

“You’re Spider-Man Desmond. What does Spider-Man usually do?”

“Heh, good point.”

It was simple really: Patrol, look for trouble, make sure people are alright. That’s what Spider-Man does and that’s what Desmond would do too. Jumping off the building, he began swinging again, keeping an eye on the streets below. He’d not given the streets below much attention so far, so what he noticed that they were...run down and barren. It was like Delilah said: This is a poorer part of New Eridu and so the neighborhood just wasn’t that well maintained. Trash littered the streets, there cars with smashed windows and missing wheels, and several of the buildings were abandoned with some even having already started falling apart. He continued swinging along until something caught his eye. Just a bit further away, he could see two burly men cornering a much older man, a senior citizen by the looks of it. At Delilah’s behest he landed on the rooftop across the streat from them, using his improved hearing to listen in.

-000-

“Now listen up old man, it’s time to pay yer dues.” One of the thugs stated

“D-dues? What are you talking about?”

“With the Red Fangs gone, there’s a new gang in town taking over. Spread the word: The Silver Thorns are new top dogs around here. That means that you owe us protection money.”

“M-money?! But I don’t have much. Look at where we are, everyone here is barely getting by with whatever we can scrape together!” the old man cried

“Well then, you’d better start scraping together some protection money to pay up.” The other thug stated with a crack of his knuckles “Or things are going to get ugly.”

“P-please I can’t!”

“Wrong answer.” The thug said getting winding his fist up, ready to knock the old man out cold, however as he got ready to throw the punch he felt something grab hold of it. Looking at his hand, he noticed some sort of white substance on it.

“What the hell is-GUK!”

Before he could react a fist had collided with him like a rocket, sending him crumpling to the ground. He was out cold before he even knew what hit him.

“What the hell?!” The other exclaimed taken aback, but not enough to stop him from instantly charging at Desmond. It was a sloppy attack, one that Desmond dodged easily, his Spider-Sense not even activating to alert him. He turned the tables on him easily and efficiently deliver a brutal kick to his face, knocking him down flat in a matter of seconds. Both men were out cold before they even realized what had happened. Turning to the old man, Desmond spoke.

“Are you alright?” he asked

The old man, still shaken up from the encounter regarded him with caution “W-who are you? Another gang member?”

“Gang member? No, just a good Samaritan is all. They didn’t rough you up too bad did they?”

“No, I’m fine. I appreciate the help young man. It’s a shame that we don’t have more youngsters like yourself.”

Desmond couldn’t help but blush, though thankfully his mask hid it. “Thanks I appreciate it. You should call the police to haul these guys off.”

At this the old man scoffed “Public Security? Here? Pah, are you new around here or something? They won’t come here. People in these poorer parts of town are generally left to fend for themselves.”

That made him scowl behind his mask a little. “Really?”

The old man nodded “Fraid’ so. Law enforcement just doesn’t see these kinds of areas worth their time. Too many thugs and gangsters sprouting up trying to make their mark. One gang goes and another rises up to take their place. Even the ones that started out decent ended up becoming just as bad. These Silver Thorns are just one of many.”

That was...pretty depressing to hear. Desmond wasn’t a stranger to something like this, he recalled back in his hometown there were several parts of the city he lived in where the police just...didn’t go or do anything. Nearly every time the news came on at night it was talks about a murder or shoot out in a particular part of town.

“I see...well, will you be okay on your own?”

“I’ll be just fine, my home isn’t far from here. Thanks for the help again young man.”

With that, the old man turned away and walked down the street, leaving Desmond alone. He looked at the two thugs were still laid out on the ground and sighed. “I hope that old timer was wrong.” He muttered as he webbed the two thugs up. “Delilah, can you send a call to the police to pick these guys up?”

“Of course. Give me a few seconds and...done! Made sure to mention the men have been subdued and are awaiting pick up.”

“Thanks, let’s keep it moving.”

Hopping onto a wall, Desmond climbed to the top of the building before leaping off of it and swinging off into the distance, leaving the two thugs to sit there for the next several hours.

-000-

The next few hours had seen Desmond swinging all over the poorer section of the city. That old man had been right: There were tons of gang members running around. He’d taken out several groups and all of them had been tied to the Silver Thorns. They were all trying to bully the locals and they didn’t just stop at old men. Young men, older women, even children who tried in vain to fight back, they’d been hassling them all and each time he swooped in and delivered a quick beat down before webbing them up and putting in a police report. Delilah had been checking in on them and so far the reports had been logged, but were still under ‘pending’. That wasn’t a good sign. He’d give them three days to respond and if they didn’t that’d tell him all he needed to know about the local police department.

The sun was beginning to set over the horizon, which caught Desmond by surprise.

“Huh, I’ve been patrolling longer than expected.” he muttered

“Go on and take a rest, you did a good job today. A little R&R never hurts right?”

“I suppose you’re right. Buuut, I was thinking we extend our range a bit, how about we see what else the city has to offer, there’s gotta be a downtown area right?”

“You’d be right. I looked up a map of the city while you were busy and Lumina Square is the area you’d be thinking of. I suppose we can swing by there and see what’s like.”

“Look like that’s our next stop. Off we go then.”

A map appeared on the side of status screen that made up Desmond’s eyes. Showing the way to Lumina Square as well as a estimation of the time it’d take to get there.

It currently read 2 hours. Huh...well he was pretty far away all things considered. His current location was Queen’s Borough, a name that he couldn’t help but chuckle at. Fitting for him being Spider-Man to be located there. Done with his inner thoughts, he made his way towards Lumina Square, eager to see what it had to offer.

-000-

Sjal sighed as she exited her workplace of the day. It’d been yet another day of tiring part-time work. This time she’d been advertising a new line of hair care products for the nearby beauty salon. It was boring work, but this particular salon was serious about their new items and so she’d walked away with a much higher pay than usual. Tonight she could probably afford to eat some meat! It’d been month since she’d had a proper meat dish, usually having to get by with just ramen or a cheap helping of noodles from General Chop or Chop Junior. Looking up at the sky, it was well and clearly night time now. She’d need to hurry back home to get some rest for tomorrow. She could enjoy her meat dish tomorrow after she was well rested. One more night of cup noodles wouldn’t hurt that much.

She walked through the streets of Lumina Square, said streets being illuminated by the many advertising build boards and shops that littered the area. Many were closing down for the day, but Sjal had to admit that she enjoyed the night aesthetic of the area. Even better as the many people who would frequent Lumina Square during the day were gone now, retiring to their homes or on their way to them after a long day of working or hanging out with friends. She continued on her way until she a felt a hand grab her arm and yank her hard, pulling her into a nearby alleyway. It was obscured from the city lights in such a way that no one would see her in this dark area, and before she could say anything a hand was placed over her mouth.

“Don’t say a word and empty your pockets.” a gruff voice said from behind her

Sjal’s entire body went completely still as her heart began to thump rapidly, enough that she could hear the beating within her ears. She was being mugged and whoever this was meant business. She felt something poke her lower back...and it was sharp.

A knife. There was a knife to her back right now and if she moved at all in the wrong way it’d go directly into her and she was sure she wouldn’t survive it. Not long enough to find help anyway.

“I said empty your pockets.” The man said in a more threatening tone as she poked her back a bit more forcefully. Letting out a small whimper, Sjal shakily began rummaging in her pockets, fishing out her phone and wallet, which was currently full of dennies. She made to turn around before the man roughly grabbed her shoulder.

“No turning around. You ain’t seeing my face. Now hand the phone and wallet over.”

“H-help!” Sjal wailed as she began handing her things over

*Thud*

The wind left her body as the man had kicked her squarely in the stomach. Sjal doubled over in pain, letting out a pained whimper.

“Shut up, no one’s coming.” The thug said as he leaned down and picked up her things. “Hmm, phone is decent enough...can get a good few dennies from that and oho...what’s this? Looks like I just scored a serious payday.”

“Stop...please.” Sjal wheezed, her body still racked with pain from the hit she’d just taken.

The thug ignored her, preparing to walk away from her. But just as he did, a figure landed in front of him.

“And here I was having a fun time taking in the sights. There’s always gotta be someone ruining the fun.” The figure said in a dissatisfied tone “Please return the young lady’s items to her, I’d really rather end this with as few broken bones as possible.”

“And whose gonna make me you?”

The figure was silent for a moment “Is that a challenge?” he said with a smug tone

“Fuck off, freak before I gut ya!”

“Please do.”

The thug, incensed at his taunts rushed the figure with his knife drawn, only for the newcomer to dodge him easily, delivering a kick to his jaw. The thug stumbled back, taken off guard by the sudden move before going back in for more. Seeing an opportunity, Sjal grabbed her phone and quickly opened up the video function to record what she was seeing. The man who had assaulted her was busy trying to stab the newcomer with several wild slashes with his knife, but it simply wasn’t working as the person who’d arrived dodged out of the way with ease, delivering a sickening punch to the thug’s face, blood leaving his nose as he flew back against the wall of the alleyway. Before he could crumple to the floor, the figure shot some strange substance, covering his entire torso, pinning him to the wall. With that done he turned to her, picking up her wallet and handing to her.

“There yo go ma’am. You gonna be okay?”

Sjal rubbed her stomach, wincing in pain “I-I’ll be okay...thank you.”

“Alright, you hang tight here, Public Security should be here soon.”

“What about you?”

“Get the feeling they won’t like me too much. You be safe getting home now!”

With that the man left, climbing onto the wall of the building and then swinging away, leaving Sjal to wait for Pubsec as he said instructed.

-000-

Zhu Yuan had almost clocked out for the day. She was eager to get home and get some much needed food. But as fate would have it, a last minute call had come in. Someone had been assaulted nearby in Lumina Square and though she wanted to go home, Zhu Yuan couldn’t just leave with the knowledge that someone was in trouble. So with that being the case, she grabbed Qingyi and the two headed over to the area that the call originated from. It was great to have Qingyi along for this kind of thing, since she could easily track where the call was placed from. The drive was only about 20 minutes away, but even so, driving over in a police car allowed for quicker arrivals, especially with people moving out of the way for them. When they finally arrived at the location of the call, they were flagged down by a girl with purple hair. She led them into the alleyway where Zhu Yuan and Qingyi saw a peculiar sight.

“What is this…? Zhu Yuan muttered looking at the knocked out man stuck to the wall.

“Ma’am, can you tell us what happened here?” Qingyi asked raising an eyebrow at what she was seeing.

Sjal nodded and recounted what all had happened to her, from walking down to the street, to being assaulted by the thug and then to her rescuer. That particular bit caught their attention the most as they urged Sjal to give them a description.

“Well that’s just the thing, I didn’t really see his face. He was wearing some kind of outfit, it was all black, he was a like a living shadow. Well, he did have these big white eyes though, and a gold emblem on his chest, but otherwise, there wasn’t much else.”

Zhu Yuan scribbled the information down. The description reminding her of the one she’d gotten down at Port Elpis. Could they be related…? While Zhu Yuan continued to question Sjal, Qingyi went over to the mugger, inspecting the substance that was holding him in place.

“What is this…?” She muttered grabbing hold of it

She tried to pull it off, only to find out that it stuck to her hand, quite persistently at that. It took a bit for her to get it off of her before she properly analyzed it.

“Weird…”

“What is it?” Zhu Yuan asked turning to her partner

“This stuff...it’s spider webs…”

“Spider Webs…?”

-000-

Desmond sat above on a rooftop overlooking where he’d saved that young woman. It didn’t take long for the police to arrive, but even so he wanted to make sure that they actually showed up since he didn’t want to leave her alone. It was dark out and if some scumbag were willing to attack her so brazenly who was to say that another wouldn’t try the same. He watched as the police officers questioned her and decided to leave a few minutes later.

“Well, at least the cops are willing to show up here at the very least. Come on Delilah, we’re heading home.”

With that, he left the scene, swinging through the sky on his way back to Queen’s Borough.

-000-

In a badly lit room, there sat a man wearing a black bomber jacket with a silver thorn adorned on the back. A glass of beer in his hand, it was crappy, but it was the best thing he and his crew could get their hands on. For now at least. He was getting ready to make some big moves. The Red Fangs were gone and this would allow for him to move in and make a base out of Queen’s Borough before expanding further. He’d already been in touch with some contacts who had showed him an untapped ether deposit in a nearby hollow. He’d have to hit that soon with his men. Then they could sell off the spoils and get some good starting cash flow to really make some moves.

That aside it was getting late and he’d not heard from any of his men for a while now. He’d sent them to rough up the locals a bit, get them to understand that his Silver Thorns were the new top dogs around here. Nothing more than necessary, he didn’t need people being beaten to badly to move or anything like that.

“Boss…! Boss!” A ragged voice rang out

Alarmed, The Boss went to the front of the hideout to see at least of a dozen of his men roughed up pretty bad. All of them sporting either black eyes, broken teeth, or some serious bruises somewhere on their body.

“What the hell happened?!” The Boss said in a shocked tone

One of his underlings stumbled forward, one of his eyes swollen shut and his cheek swollen before speaking

“We...we were out doing what you told us. Going around and telling the locals that you were in charge now when some...some guy came and beat on all of us.”

“Guy, what guy? Speak! Who is he?!”

“W-we don’t know! He wears some kinda armor-looking suit and hits like a freight train.”

“No name?”

“N-none! He beat us up and left. Said he called Pubsec, but thankfully for us, they don’t come around here.”

The boss nodded. “This is irritating, last thing we need is some weirdo trying to play hero when we’re getting ready to make some moves.”

He rubbed his chin contemplating on how to best act with this new information. It was a few moments of silence before he spoke again.

“Alright, I want whatever info you can get on this guy. Find out who he is, where he lives, any loved ones. You see him, call it in and swarm him. We need to send a message that the Silver Thorns aren’t a group to mess with. I want half our guys on that while the other half gets ready to move in on the ether deposit. We’ll strike back at him tenfold!”

The gathered grunts all let out pained groans of agreement at their boss’s words, eager to strike back at the man who’d crossed them.

“Uh...okay, first lets get you boys patched up, then we go ahead with the plan.”

-000-

-The Following Morning-

Belle stretched as she woke up earlier than usual for the day. Today was her turn to run the video store while Wise handled any proxy work. Things had been slow since they’d traversed the Ballet Twins Hollow with Victoria Housekeeping, but there were still some petty commissions that could be done to help cover the bills for the month. They seriously needed it with Fairy being such a power hog. After everything that happened at the Ballet Twins they would have to wait on news from Shepard on how best to build some connections to get the info they wanted on Perlman who had fled to the Outer Ring. It was vexing, but there was nothing that could be done for now. She made sure her clothes were in proper order before heading downstairs to grab herself some coffee to drink. Stepping out the front door, she was about to go head to the magazine stand, only to see that it was closed.

“Huh, Howl isn’t up yet? That’s strange…”

Shrugging her shoulders, Belle made her way to Coffe Cafe, she could just look up the daily news on her phone. Stepping inside, she greeted Tinmaster as usual, the robot already having her favorite brew at the ready. It paid to be a regular customer.

“Hey Tinmaster, did you notice Howl isn’t up yet? The little guy is usually pretty punctual.” She said taking a sip of her coffee

“Oh that? It turns out that Miss Eve and Howl came into quite a large sum of money. I think about 5 million dennies or so?”

Belle proceeded to spit out her drink “F-five million?!”

Tinmaster nodded “Indeed! She and Howl decided to go on a much needed vacation! I hear that they’re both going to a luxury hotel to be waited on hand and foot.”

“Man, I’m jealous, I wish I could have five million dennies fall into my lap like that. Any idea when they’ll be back?”

“I believe Miss Eve said she and Howl will be back in about 2 weeks time.”

“That’s not too long. I hope they have a good time.”

“As do I, well, I’ll leave you to enjoy your coffee, I’ve got to get ready for the morning rush!”

Belle nodded and took her seat, taking out her phone to scroll through Inter-Knot to see if anything interesting had happened lately.

She didn’t need to look far as inter-knot was absolutely blowing up in regards to a video. Curious, she watched it herself, a person in black easily fighting off a thug who was trying to stab him with a knife. The fight was terribly one-sided in the dark stranger’s favor as he easily beat the thug, knocking him against a wall and tying him up with something. The video ended there, short, but interesting nonetheless. The description was interesting though.

‘I was coming home from a part-time job and was about to get mugged, then this shadow guy saved me. Don’t know who he is, but he even called pubsec to check up on me. I’m doing okay...but I’m definitely taking the day off to just relax’

Scrolling down, Belle continued reading some of the comments.

‘A shadowy figure saving people? Sounds like something straight out of a tv show or comic book’

‘Good thing you got out of that okay. I got robbed once and it was terrifying. I never go out at night anymore because of it’

‘I dunno about some guy going around and dishing out street justice on his own. Pubsec might wanna move in on him before gets ahead of himself.’

‘Ah, a pubsec shill.’

‘Wonder if he has a name? Well, given that outfit...think ‘The Shadow’ might be good?’

‘Oooh I like that. Super mysterious, and has a nice ring to it.’

Belle continued reading the comments and watching the video a few times. She had to admit that he did look pretty cool in the video and so she decided to bookmark #THESHADOW in case any more interesting news came up. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this ‘Shadow’ would be the talk of the city for a good while.

Chapter Text

It’d been one week since Desmond arrived in New Eridu and things were going good on the hero front. He’d come the decision to split his days up: In the morning and afternoon he’d hang around Queen’s Borough and handle the Silver Thorns, then during the evening and night he’d head downtown to Lumina Square and patrol around there. Speaking of the Silver Thorns, they were living up to their name and being a thorn in his side, attempting to attack and fight him whenever they caught sight of him. Each time it was a pretty one-sided match up in his favor, be he noticed that more and more were milling around, clearly keeping an eye out for someone or something. Whatever it was didn’t matter too much, he’d keep knocking them down no matter how many times they got back up.

Of course, that wouldn’t even be a problem if Pubsec managed to come take these guys away after Delilah would put a call in. However, they’re complete lack of action had confirmed what he felt was true previously: Pubsec were not coming to arrest anyone in Queen’s Borough, let alone actually help in any way. It was going to be up to him to stop Silver Thorns from terrorizing the civilians there.

On the topic of Pubsec, Desmond’s forays into Lumina Square hadn’t gone unnoticed. After stopping several crimes there, both the local police and the civilians had taken notice. The civilians were generally thankful for his help. The police however...were not. Or at the very least they were exercising extreme suspicion towards him, which, he supposed he couldn’t particularly blame them. From their point of few they probably weren’t too keen on a masked vigilante running around and beating up thugs and then leaving nice and gift-wrapped in a bunch of webbing.

Desmond didn’t let it bother him though, it kind of came with the territory on being Spider-Man. Given enough time he’d probably end up working alongside Pubsec here and there just like how Peter had done in some games and comics.

There was however one thing that was irking Desmond beyond belief. And that is what he was seeing as he scrolled through inter-knot in the middle of the night, a website Delilah found not unlike one from his own time...something Chan or whatever. There were numerous threads on there and there were tons about him, mostly good, some bad, but there the thing that was pissing him off was the name. Everyone was calling him ‘The Shadow’! Not Spider-Man, but ‘The Shadow’. Okay, it had some merit, his suit was black and gold, but come on! He figured people would latch onto the Spider insignia but nope! They all kept calling him The Shadow. He mentally kicked himself because he didn’t drop his name towards several people he’d saved, instead foolishly believing that they’d just know who Spider-Man was. Clearly that wasn’t the case, because in the intervening 500 years his name wasn’t all that known if at all. So now, no matter where he went people called him ‘The Shadow’. He’d tried correcting them, telling them that his actual hero name was Spider-Man, but you know what several people said?

‘Really? Doesn’t roll off the tongue that well.’

It was a good thing Delilah was in his head and able to keep him calm, because the first guy who told him that almost found themselves caved into the wall.

It was the same whenever he helped anyone else and called himself Spider-Man. They just didn’t see the appeal of it and just defaulted to The Shadow. It aggravated Desmond, but he had a work around: So they didn’t call him Spider-Man, he instead could call himself The Shadow Spider. That was a thing...he just needed a cool cloak at some point to put over his suit. Well, that could wait for right now. It was night and Desmond would be ready to tackle the day tomorrow morning.

-000-

Once more like before Desmond rose with the morning sun. Not wanting to wait, Desmond quickly exited the window and climbed up to the rooftop.

“Alright, time for another day of hero work Delilah. You ready?”

“Nope!”

“No? What do you mean no? Are you...tired or something?” Desmond asked curiously

“Oh no, nothing like that. This is about you, and I am claiming that today be a day off.”

“A day off? Why would I need a day off? Spider-Man never takes time off.”

“Maybe. But Desmond Monroe DOES need a day or two to himself. Look, you’ve been going out and patrolling for nearly every day since we’ve been here. Take a bit of time off Desmond, take a walk, go see the sights. You’re turning into a workaholic and that’d just make you a bore to be around.”

Those words stung, causing Desmond to sigh “Come on Delilah, what could I possibly do in the city?”

“Oh I don’t know...maybe buying some clothes? You haven’t done that yet and you’re still wearing the rags when you first arrived here. How about some more soap? You’re lucky that the water is working in this place and that there was some soap left behind at all. And food! You need to get some for yourself...well okay, maybe get a fridge first, but you get what I mean.”

Desmond winced at each of her points. There really wasn’t any reason he shouldn’t invest in some of what she said, not seeing any way out of it(and knowing she’d just keep nagging) Desmond let out a sigh.

“Fine. A day off, but if there’s trouble, I’m not sitting idly by.”

“That’s fine by me. Grab some cash and lets head out.”

Resigning himself to his fate, Desmond returned to his room and grabbed some money and stuck it in one of the many compartments that were on his body. It was interesting just how many ‘pockets’ he had and it was especially alarming when one of those ‘pockets’ had a fully loaded handgun sitting inside of it. According to Delilah, The Doctor had given it to him ‘just in case’. As much as he wanted to argue against it, there were iterations of Spider-Man that carried a gun on them. He’d decided to just use it as a tool mostly and only shoot someone if he absolutely had to. He leapt out of the window and began swinging, making his way to Lumina Square, hopefully the commute there would take just long enough that there would be some stores open by the time he got there.

Upon his arrival, Desmond ducked into an alleyway and dropped his suit. The suit retracting into just the insignia that was on his chest. The rags he was wearing would undoubtedly get him some looks, but thankfully, with it still being relatively early, he didn’t have to worry too much as the streets weren’t filled with people just yet.

“Right. Let’s get some pants first…” Desmond muttered

“Solid idea, can’t go around giving the ladies a free show you know!”

“Shut up Delilah.”

Thankfully, there was shop not too far from where Desmond touched down, a small one by the looks of it. It didn’t appear to look high end or anything but it was just decent enough.

Perfect.

Walking up to the store a familiar young woman stepped out, turning the sign from ‘closed’ to ‘open’. Desmond recognized her. It was the girl he’d helped out a week ago. Looked like she was doing good for herself. Turning around, the girl noticed him before giving a strained smile and speaking.

“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t have any money to give you.”

“...Huh?” Desmond replied

“I said I don’t have any money.”

Delilah began laughing loudly in Desmond’s head “Oh my god she thinks your a hobo!”

Desmond angrily ignored Delilah before speaking again “I don’t want any of your money miss, I just...wanted to buy some clothes?”

“Are you sure you can afford it?”

Once more Delilah’s laughing echoed through Desmond’s head.

“Yes...I can. May I come in and try some things on?”

The girl thought for a moment before finally relenting and letting him inside. “Alright, but no stealing!”

Desmond couldn’t help but feel just a bit angry and insulted at that. “You’re really judgmental aren’t you? Whatever, just leave me alone.”

Walking into the store, Desmond quickly went to work on finding some clothing, despite how small and cramped the store was, they had a decent selection of clothing available. After looking around(and doing some conversations) he’d found several pants and shirts that’d fit him perfectly, there were even some cheap sneakers on sale as well which he quickly snatched up. Looking around, Desmond spotted two dressing rooms in the back. Making his way there, he let out a sigh as he’d been holding in his irritation the entire time. Whipping around he turned to look at the young woman again, who had actually been following him closely the entire time, her sight trained specifically on him.

“Are you seriously going to follow me around the entire damn store?” Desmond growled

“I’m just making sure that you’re having a comfortable shopping experience.” The girl lied as easily as she breathed.

Rolling his eyes, Desmond stepped into the dressing room. In truth, Delilah had already confirmed that everything would fit perfectly, he really just wanted to change so he could throw out the rags he was wearing. After he finished changing, he stepped out of the dressing room, now wearing a white under shirt, a red shirt over top of it, black jeans, and bright white sneakers.

“This is good!” Desmond said as looked himself over in a nearby mirror. “I like this fit. Simple, but it works. Now then…”

He turned to see the purple haired girl still giving him the stink eye, which he returned with an irritated tone of his own. “I’m wearing these out, I’ll take the rest in bags.”

Saying nothing but heading to the counter, Desmond followed her. She rang him up at the register, but Desmond stopped her by just shoving a large wad of cash into her hands.

“Keep the change. I won’t be coming back.” He said in an irritated tone, leaving the girl with a shocked looked on her face as she looked down at how much money had just been shoved into her hands.

“The boss is gonna kill me…” She muttered, realizing she’d just lost out on a possible returning customer and a rich one by the looks of it.

With bags in hand, Desmond angrily made his way down the street, not really caring where he was going. To anyone who saw him, it was clear that he was pissed and not in the mood to talk.

“That was terrible. I’m sorry you had to go through that Desmond.” Delilah said in an apologetic tone “Sorry for laughing as well...I didn’t think something like that would happen.”

Desmong sighed, trying to wash away his anger “It’s fine Delilah. Let’s just do something else?”

“I can read your brainwaves Desmond, you’re pretty angry. So no it isn’t fine.”

“Well, unless you have some bright fucking idea on what to do, can we just drop it?” he huffed

“Sorry, just...let’s find something else to perk you up yeah? It’s your day off, we need to have fun!”

Despite her words, Desmond couldn’t help but tune Delilah out for a moment. To think, in over 500 years, bullshit like that still happened and just like in the past, if he got too angry about then he was the one in the wrong. Or at least, he knew it’d end up that way if he tore into her. He could feel his mood souring and he desperately wanted to don his suit and start swinging around and find some crimes to bust, that’d help him work off the aggression, but he knew if he did that then Delilah would start nagging him until he stopped.

Desmond was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t pay attention to Delilah’s warning as he proceed to walk straight into someone, his tougher body causing them to stumble.

“Huh? Oh! Sorry about that, I wasn’t paying attention!” He said as he helped the person right themselves. Getting a look at them, he saw a woman with medium-length black hair tied in a ponytail, red eyes, and pale skin. She wore a pair of tight blue jeans and a white ruffled shirt with a black jacket on her shoulders. Desmond had to admit that she was pretty cute all things considered.

“It’s fine.” She said righting herself “I was kind of just standing in the middle of everyone…”

“And I was just walking without paying any attention. Guess that makes us both at fault.” Desmond joked

The woman let out a polite laugh “I suppose so. I’m just not sure what to do. I’d be at work by now, but I was forced to take a day off.”

“Let me guess: One of your family members thought you were working too hard and now you’re being forced into relaxing?”

“That’s...it exactly.” She said with wide eyes “How did you know that?”

“I didn’t...but I’m in the same boat.”

“You too?”

“Yup, I’m kind of just wandering around. Had a shitty start to the morning though.”

“What happened?”

“Oh just some store clerk thinking I was thief because of how I dress and probably how I look. The usual.”

The woman’s face suddenly became serious at hearing his words “That’s not right. Listen, if there’s a problem, you can report this to public security. Discrimination like that is not tolerated in New Eridu and you have a right to file a complaint about the establishment in question.”

Desmond gave her a raised eyebrow and sighed “It’s fine, it’s not worth the trouble.”

“I insist.” The woman replied “That isn’t right and you shouldn’t be treated that way.”

It was Desmond’s turn to sigh this time “Thanks, but...I’ll just let it go. Doubt complaining will really change anything.”

The woman gave him a look of genuine sadness at his words, the worst part was that he wasn’t entirely wrong about it either. She’d seen a few times of establishments being less than kind to non-human residents of New Eridu and while there was always a stink raised when it happened and the companies usually fired the individuals in charge, it very rarely ever changed a person’s outlook, instead fueling their hatred even more.

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that.”

“It’s fine, though it makes me wish I’d gone to...work even more now.”

“I know! Uh...since we’re both on a forced day off, why not spend it together? It beats you just wandering around and me standing here in the middle of the sidewalk and feeling awkward.”

Desmond raised his eyebrow at that “Ma’am are you asking me out on a date?”

Instantly, the woman’s face went completely red “N-no! That wasn’t my intention! I mean, not that I wouldn’t, you’re pretty handsome sir and um...uh...I…”

“Okay, this girl is adorable. Can we take her home?” Delilah said

Ignoring her(but agreeing with the descriptor of adorable) Desmond couldn’t help but chuckle “Calm down it was just a joke. I don’t mind hanging out. I’m sorry but what’s your name?”

Taking a few more seconds to calm down, the woman finally spoke “Er...right, I’m Zhu Yuan. A pleasure to meet you.” She extended her hand which Desmond took, giving her a firm handshake.

“Name’s Desmond Monroe.” He said taking her hand and shaking it, pleasure to meet you Zhu Yuan

“Zhu Yuan...yep. Definitely Chinese. I wonder…” Delilah muttered

“Right so Desmond, let’s wipe away that terrible part of the day with something better. I know a spot that serves a good breakfast.”

Desmond shrugged “Sure, I actually haven’t eaten yet.”

Following behind Zhu Yuan, Desmond kept quiet, unsure of what to say. It was that moment where after meeting someone and agreeing to hang out you aren’t entirely sure on how to break the ice. Desmond thought of something but the thoughts died out when his eyes sank down and landed squarely on Zhu Yuan’s butt.

“Gyatt Damn” Desmond said, perhaps a bit louder than he should have

“What was that?” Zhu Yuan said turning to him

“Oh...uh, nothing! I just realized I forgot to grab some things, but it’s fine, I can do it later.”

“You sure? I don’t mind making a quick stop.”

“N-Nah, it’s okay, let’s just keep going, I’m actually pretty hungry now!”

“No you aren’t you dirty boy. Don’t worry, I saved a screenshot of when you were looking and a 15 second video.”

Desmond ignored Delilah again. He needed to find a way to speak to her through your mind or send a text or something so that he could tell her that what she’s doing is wrong! And...to just to make sure she wasn’t kidding. Just to be safe. Totally.

Arriving at the diner, it was a cozy spot with several large seating areas for groups and smaller ones for people who where there with only a friend or two. Zhu Yuan walked over to a table with two wooden chairs with red cushions taking a seat.

“The pancakes here are great, trust me.” She said taking not bothering with the menu. It was clear she knew what she was going to eat. The waiter come and took their order, Desmond deciding to get pancakes as well with some bacon to go with it. While they waited, Zhu Yuan decided to break the ice, so that they wouldn’t be caught up in awkward silence yet again.

“So Desmond tell me...what do you do for work? I notice you’ve got a lot of clothes there.”

Ah crap...he hadn’t really thought of that, he didn’t have a job. He was Spider-Man...or well The Shadow Spider. He didn’t need one. Still he had to think of something to say, and it only took a few seconds before a good response hit him.

“Well...I’m kind of between jobs right now? I just float around and do some part time work.” he said

“Ah I get it. It can be rough finding a decent paying job. What do your part time jobs usually entail? Anything interesting?”

Desmond couldn’t help but have a bit of fun with her “Well...I focus mostly on humanitarian aid.”

“Oh I see...so helping the homeless or something like that?”

“Yep. It doesn’t really pay much, in fact it doesn’t pay at all, but I still enjoy doing it. An old guy I knew believed I could help people and so...I do.”

“That’s great, he must be a really great person.”

“Yeah...yeah he was.”

Zhu Yuan didn’t miss that. “Was?”

“I uh...I learned not too long ago he died. I didn’t know him too well, but I still couldn’t help but be thankful to him for helping me.

“Desmond…”

“Oh I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to bring it up.” Zhu Yuan said with a frown “Please forgive me.”

“It’s fine, no worries. Tell me about you. What do you do for work?”

“I’m an officer with Public Security. I usually work at the Lumina Square precinct. It’s not too far actually.”

That revelation caused Desmond’s mind to stop for a moment. He was sitting here, getting ready to share a meal with a cop. A part of him wanted to turn tail and run, but maybe he could work this to advantage? It was worth a shot. Having an inside source on the going ons with the local police could be good. Maybe he could even learn why Queen’s Borough was abandoned by law enforcement.

“Really?” He said with fake enthusiasm. “That’s gotta be a pretty cool job, running around and enforcing the law.”

Zhu Yuan couldn’t help but blush a bit at the praise “Oh stop it, it’s no that big a deal. I do it because I enjoy it and to be like the officer who saved me from the hollow.”

‘Hollow…? Wonder what that is…’

“If you want, I can take you to the station, we can see it up close.” Zhu Yuan offered

“Nope. That’s your workplace right? If you’ve got a day off that’s the last place you go.”

“Good point, besides, Qingyi would probably give me an earful if I showed up there anyway.”

The waiter came with their food and the two began digging in. Desmond a bit more enthusiastically than he probably meant to. So much so that Zhu Yuan had to pause as she watched him

“Wow...you must have been pretty hungry.”

“Yeah I guess so...I think it was...three days since I last anything?” He said casually, he had quickly gotten used to going a few days without food to the point it was quickly becoming second nature to him.

“T-three days?!” Zhu Yuan replied with a concerned look “Are you...okay? That’s not good at all.”

“I’m fine, I’m getting by okay.”

“R-right…” she replied, though she couldn’t help but pity the guy, he was floating between jobs and still barely scrapping by. It had to be really bad if he had to skip eating for 3 days. Well, maybe she could help him out a bit?

“Let’s order some more, what do you think?”

“Not a bad idea, this food is great.”

And so the two ordered another round of food and then another, and a final helping after that, in which Desmond had to finally call it.

“Alright that’s enough...any more and I’ll burst.” Desmond groaned

“Okay...did you eat enough?” Zhu Yuan asked

“More than enough...ugh, I’m skipping lunch today.”

Zhu Yuan let out a chuckle “That’s probably a good idea. What should we do now?”

“To be honest, I’ll leave it to you, I’m kind of new in town.”

“Oh, I see! Well sure I can show you around to some nice places. How about we go to Gravity Cinema next?”

“Sounds like a plan, now that you mention it I am curious on what kind of movies are playing here.”

The two left, Zhu Yuan insisting on footing the bill before they made their way to Gravity Cinema. It was a decent looking movie theater, one exactly like how it’d been way back in his time. There were several posters and standees of currently playing movies and for those that were coming soon as well.

“Two tickets for Coffee Mate please.” Zhu Yuan said as they stood in front of the counter

Desmond went to dig out some cash, but once again Zhu Yuan stopped him “I’ve got it covered, don’t worry. I have way more money than I know what to do with.”

“Does being a police officer pay that well?” Desmond asked

“Sure does!” Zhu Yuan replied, though she conveniently left out the part where her not having a real social life of any kind helped with that.

The two took their tickets, got some snacks and sat down to watch the movie, Desmond eagerly gearing in to see the movies of the future.

-000-

An hour and a half later and Desmond felt...confused. The movie was about a woman who was in love with a coffee machine of all things and the stranger part was that the movie generally played it straight for most of its run time. It was difficult for him to tell if it was meant to be more of a romance or more of a comedy. It was a surreal movie overall, but he supposed it was good to see if only to get an idea of the types of movies were here in the future. He didn’t see any super hero movies save for something called Starlight Knights, maybe he’d check it out later?

“So what do you think?” Zhu Yuan asked as they exited the movie theater

“It was...weird?”

“Yeah no, it’s definitely a weird movie when you sit down and think about it for even a moment. Funny though right?”

Desmond let out a chuckle “Yeah, I guess you’re right. A coffee machine for a love interest? Who even thought of that?”

“No idea, but it’s surprisingly entertaining!” Zhu Yuan laughed

“Come on, we should head out to this place on sixth street I know and-”

Her words were cut off as an armored truck came blazing by them. A thug with a helmet peeking out as several police cars came zooming after them.

“Holy crap, a police chase?!” Desmond exclaimed

He looked to Zhu Yuan, whose had a fierce look on her face. She scanned around the area for a moment before dashing away “Stay here Desmond!” she called back to him, running towards a guy who was about to get on their motorcycle.

“Public Security, I need to commandeer your vehicle.” Zhu Yuan said in an authoritative tone as she flashed her badge.

“But my ride-!”

“You can pick it up at the Lumina Square Public Security precinct. Now let me use your vehicle!”

“Y-yes ma’am…” the man replied, scared of what rejecting her would lead to

In one fluid motion Zhu Yuan hopped on the motorcycle and revved the engine, turning to Desmond “I’ll meet back up with you later, don’t wait up for me!” Zhu Yuan called out before speeding away

“Delilah?” Desmond asked

“Already on it. There’s an alleyway not too far from here where you can change. If you hurry, you can catch up with the chase.”

Not wasting any time, Desmond did as instructed, heading into an alleyway and then hurriedly climbing up the wall, holding his bags with one hand easily as he did. Once up top, he quickly tapped the spider emblem on his chest, the suit materializing around his body. Without a moment to waste, he leapt from the top of the building and began swinging the way that Zhu Yuan and the truck sped off in. It wasn’t hard for him to catch up with them, Zhu Yuan was in pursuit alongside several cop cars that were avoiding all kinds of traffic as they sped through the city streets. She was expertly weaving in-between numerous cars even as they attempted to move out of the way of the truck or the incoming police cars as they continued the pursuit. She was actually gaining on them, until the back of the truck opened and a large thug wielding an automatic rifle began opening fire at her and the police, causing Zhu Yuan to lose ground as she swerved to avoid them.

Seeing this, Desmond swung from up top, landing on the top of the truck with a loud thud, the thieves in the drivers seat having noticed.

“What the hell was that?!” The one driving exclaimed

His friend in the passenger seat looked at his mirror, seeing Desmond move right from the corner of it.

“Crap, it’s The Shadow! Marco is in trouble! Swerve, SWERVE!”

Listening to him, the driver began veering left and right, trying their best to shake Desmond off.

“Looks like they know I’m here, good thing I can stick.” Desmond murmured as he got on all fours and crawled towards t he open back door, the thug inside swaying from side to side, unable to aim correctly.

“Will you drive straight, I can’t hold em off like this!”

“The Shadow is here!” One of them shouted from the other side “He’s coming!”

“Wha-Oof!”

The rifle-toting thug was knocked back as Desmond flipped inside from the top, hitting him with a kick to send him stumbling backwards.

“I gotta admit, takes some serious balls to steal an armored truck in broad daylight, let alone thinking that you’d get away with it.”

The thug got back to his feet, growling “You guys keep driving, I’ll handle this!” he exclaimed charging towards him and throwing a wide haymaker, which Desmond easily dodged as he punched the man square in the chest, he stumbled back again, but quickly shook off the pain, before coming back for more.

“Of course a big guy like you wouldn’t go down in just a few kicks or punches…”

“That’s right, now stay still, I’m gonna put you down for good!” He shouted throwing another punch, which Desmond once more dodged before delivering another kick to his mid-section. The thug heaved, but of course got back up for more.

This guy is really resilient...well, there is one thing I can try…

When the thug came to attack again, Desmond dodged once more, this time hanging on the roof of the truck and webbing the thug up so he couldn’t move.

“What the hell is this stuff, it feels weird!”

“Oh don’t worry about that, besides you’re going a trip!” Desmond said with a chuckle

Before the thug could say anything else, Desmond stuck another batch of webbing on him...but this time he connected it to one of the street lamps that were moving by outside, with how fast they were going the thug was literally yanked out at high speed not evening being able to scream as he was slammed headfirst into the lamp, sticking to it while being knocked out. Looking out of the truck, he could see a few cars stopping to apprehend him, while Zhu Yuan was still hot on the trucks trail.

“Alright, I hope this next bit works…” Desmond muttered as he climbed back out onto the side of the truck and quickly made his way to the front of it until he appeared at the passenger side.

“Hey guys! You know, you are going way over the legal speed limit I’m sure.”

“Shit, Marco didn’t finish him!” The thug shrieked as he whipped out a gun and opened fire, which Desmond easily ducked out of the way of thanks to his spider-sense. The thug reached his hand out, opening fire in an attempt to hit him. Going back to the top of the truck to drew his fire, Desmond moved to the driver’s area of the truck, this time using his webs to pull the door off the truck before webbing up the shooter, doing to him what he did to the thug named Marco before. He went flying out of the truck being stuck to a lamp pole. The driver fared no better, being forced to hold onto the wheel as Desmond webbed him up and sent him flying out in a similar fashion. Now came the hard part...hopefully he was strong enough to stop this thing. Jumping in front of the armored truck Desmond planted his feet in the ground and met it head on, using his strength to slow it down, lifting it off of its hind wheels slightly before tipping it over, stopping it completely.

“Wew, didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off.” Desmond muttered

“Of course you can. You can lift approximately 170 times your weight...give or take.” Delilah chimed in

Before he could say anything else, he turned to see a gun trained on him, and holding it was none of other Zhu Yuan, she’d continued the chase while the other police cars had stopped to collect the thieves that Desmond had restrained.

“Delilah, can you change my voice?” Desmond whispered

“Of course I can. Why?”

“Change my voice to something else. Can have Zhu Yuan recognizing my voice

“Gotcha, I know just the one.”

“Freeze and don’t make any sudden moves.” Zhu Yuan said in a cold voice as she pointed her pistol at him “You’re under arrest for interfering in a public security operation. Put your hands up slowly.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be enjoying a day off officer Zhu Yuan?” Desmond said as he voice came out deep and gravely. It caught him off guard, though thankfully he didn’t it show it through his helmet.

‘Holy crap, I sound like Kevin Conroy! I am sounding like the most famous Batman!’

As much as he wanted to geek out at this, he pulled himself together mentally and kept up the act. He needed an opening so he could get out of there, preferably without hurting Zhu Yuan at all.

“How...do you know who I am?” Zhu Yuan asked her eyes still trained on him “And how did you know I had a day off?!”

Crap, he may have said too much…

“I...saw you on TV? And also your clothes?”

To Desmond’s surprise, Zhu Yuan whimpered as her face flushed red “S-shut up about that...those bloopers…that stupid commercial…”

Behind his helmet, Desmond’s eyebrows raised “Wait...seriously?” he muttered

“I just did a quick check...yeah, she was in a tv commercial for Pubsec not too long ago. Talk about luck!”

He couldn’t deny that. While Zhu Yuan was having a mini breakdown, Desmond stared at one of the men he’d sent flying towards a a street lamp. The thug was out cold, but what Desmond noticed was on the shoulder of his jacket was a familiar mark.

A silver thorn…

“Them?” He muttered “I figured they’d be just causing trouble in Queen’s Borough, but what could they be doing trying to rob an armored car?”

Too many questions, not enough answers. Before he could stop himself he leapt towards a building, getting ready to swing away, before dodging a bullet.

“G-get back here, you can’t run!” Zhu Yuan exclaimed, her freak out having ended

Desmond could only roll his eyes in annoyance a she shot some web, catching Zhu Yuan off guard as it covered her hands.

“E-ew, what is it with this stuff?!”

“Later officer! I’ve got some things to look into! We’ll chat another time!”

And with that, Desmond swung away from the scene, leaving Zhu Yuan alone as she struggled to break her hands free.

-000-

Some time later, Desmond had returned the way he came, grabbing his things and removing his suit and making sure his voice had returned to normal. Once he was done, he followed the same way that Zhu Yuan had sped away on the motorcycle, taking stock of the Silver Thorn Thugs that were now sitting in the back of cop cars with their heads hanging low. Several officers were all talking to one another, exchanging information about the situation, while others were taking note of the armored truck, seeing if every last bit of cash was still accounted for, never mind getting the thing right side up again. Among them all, Desmond saw Zhu Yuan, talking with another officer, a short girl with green hair done up in twintails.

“Zhu Yuan!” He called out “Hey!” he called towards her, gaining her attention

“Desmond? I thought I told you to stay back.” Zhu Yuan said walking over to him

“Sorry...I got worried, you just ran off like that and well...I could only wait for so long.” He said as he took note of her hands, looks like she’d managed to break out of the web at some point

“Oh...well...thanks. But I’m fine. Sorry, but dealing with this is going to take up the rest of my time. I’m sorry we couldn’t hang out more.”

“No big deal...I know, why not make it up to me by hanging out on your next day off? You can finish showing me around.”

Zhu Yuan smiled “That’d...be nice actually. How about next Friday? I have some time off then. I can show you this hot pot place, their food is amazing.”

“Sounds like a date, I’ll catch you then Zhu Yuan. I’ll leave you to it, I don’t want to get in the way of your police work.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you then!” Zhu Yuan said with a wave, watching the young man walk away before turning back to her partner.

-000-

“Who was that?” Qingyi asked with a raised eyebrow

“A friend.” Zhu Yuan replied curtly, she could already see where this was going and she didn’t like it.

“Ah. A friend. I see.”

“Qingyi please don’t.” Zhu Yuan sighed

“I didn’t say anything. So...you’re going to see him again next Friday?”

“Ugh...yes I am. We’re just going to hang out and get some hot pot.”

“Right. Hanging out. You. And a boy. Together. Eating hot pot.”

“Is there something you want to say?”

“Nothing! Just...good job for putting yourself out there.”

“Putting myself out-no. No Qingyi, it isn’t like that! We just met today! He’s new to the city and I was showing him around!”

“Oh is that so? What did you do today?”

“Nothing really? Walked around a bit, had some breakfast, and went to see a movie. That’s all. We’d probably have done more, but then this mess happened.” she said pointing at the mess of police cars and the still overturned truck “So besides that not too much.”

However, despite what she said, Qingyi had formed a chesire like grin on her face, as she stared at Zhu Yuan “You know...that sounds an awful lot like a date.”

“It wasn’t a date!”

“Maybe not, but this next meetup could be~!”

“Qingyi, it is not a date, we’re just hanging out! I can’t even say if we’re friends yet!”

“Sure sure, just...let me know if you feel like getting your hair done, I know a salon that owes me a favor~.

Zhu Yuan just sighed in defeat

“Jane is going to lose it when I tell her this.”

Zhu Yuan’s face paled at those words. “No! No, you cannot tell Jane! Or Seth! Or anyone else! I won’t hear the end of it!”

Qingyi, decided to politely ignore Zhu Yuan’s plea.

-000-

Sjal went home dejected. She’d thought she’d made a big sale today. Sure she was rude to that homeless guy, and admittedly, she should have been better than that, but she couldn’t help but be angry at him. He’d managed to scam her! It turned out he used some sort of fake cash with some weird men on them. Because of that, her boss had sent her home with no pay. Well, that wasn’t true. She did get some pay. Namely, the fake cash that the hobo had used to pay. Sighing, she entered her home, threw off her shoes and quickly took out her phone to see if there was anyone on sixth street or near Lumina Square who was looking for a part-time worker. The shop owners of sixth street were generally pretty cool about it after Sjal had worked for each them several times, they’d invited her to a group chat where they would habitually chat.

S: Hey everyone, it’s Sjal, anyone got a spot open for some part time work? I’m in a real bad spot and could use the cash.

Immediately she was hit with a message from Tinmaster.

TM: Hello young Sjal, I could always use an extra pair of hands, but what happened? I recall you having another job today that would have paid well?

S: It would have if this weird hobo hadn’t ripped me off for a massive amount of money. I got an earful from my boss.

TM: You too? I had the same thing happen to me unfortunately a few days ago. Hang in there, things will look up soon.

The two continued talking for a bit before a third person entered the conversation. Sjal recognized it as Old Eve. She’d read the conversation so far before writing a message.

E:oh my, it’s such a shame to hear that such a thing ended up happening to you two. My condolences to you both.

TM: Thank you Eve, but it’s no problem, I made more than enough money to cover it.’

S: I wish I could say the same, I just got the fake cash as my ‘payment’ for my work.

Sjal posted the cash she’d been given, with a rolling eyes emoji.

E: …

E:Dear...I think you might want to meet a friend of mine.

-000-

Later that Night...

It was the finally time for Zhu Yuan to go home. True enough, booking the suspects and writing up a report had eaten up the rest of her day and before she knew it the sun had already gone down and the sky was pitch black. It wasn’t all bad though! She’d made a new friend! It pained her to admit it, but her circle of friends was actually pretty small. Small enough that she could count on one hand even, but with Desmond her circle had gotten just a bit bigger. She was already looking forward to hanging out with him again, since it’d give her something to do on her day off besides watering her tomatoes and sitting at home and watching tv. She had just finished grabbing her things when she felt a small tap on her shoulder.

“Well Well, if isn’t my favorite officer of the law~.” Came a sultry voice from behind her

J-Jane?! Why are you here? There are still some officers around!”

“I know, but don’t worry, I won’t be long. I just was in the neighborhood and I thought I’d stop by and wish you congratulations that’s all.”

“Congratulations?” Zhu Yuan repeated with a raised eyebrow “Congratulations for what exactly?”

“Your date of course! It’s about time you started putting yourself out there.”

Zhu Yuan let out a low growl. “Qingyi…” She muttered darkly before sighing and addressing Jane “It isn’t a date Jane, I’m just hanging out with a friend.”

“A friend who is a guy.”

“Yes Jane, can men and women not be friends?”

“I’m not saying they can’t...it’s just...after hearing what Qingyi said I had to see for myself. You haven’t noticed that you’re all smiles do you?”

“Is it wrong to be happy to have made a new friend?”

“No I suppose it isn’t. Just...if you wanna spruce yourself up a bit...you know, get some make up, do your hair, let me know, I have a few connections that’d be more than happy to help.”

Once more Zhu Yuan sighed “Thank You Jane, but I don’t need any of that. This isn’t a date, it’s just two friends hanging out.”

“Alright alright, whatever you say. I’m getting out of here anyway...Seth is waiting~.”

With that, the rat thiren left, leaving Zhu Yuan with a small twinge of jealousy that she had someone waiting for her back home.

“It’s not a date…” She muttered to herself

-000-

At an abandoned warehouse, the leader of silver thorns watched as two armored trucks rolled in. Without a moment to waste, he had his men start to unload them, making sure every denny was accounted for. There was supposed to be a third one, but after talking with his men, he’d learned that The Shadow had gotten in the way of things, now several of his men were definitely going to end up behind bars. Still, he knew they wouldn’t talk when interrogated...or so he hoped at least.

“What are we gonna do boss? Some of our guys are locked up and we lost the money!”

The leader silenced him with a raise of his hand “I’ll handle our boys in lock up. I know some people on the inside who can at least look out for them. We’re fine with the money, we only needed two trucks worth anyway.”

“Only two? But why have us take three then?”

To spread the cops thin. If we did get all three then that’d just be some extra cash we have on hand. But with what we have we can buy what we need to start mining the ether deposit.”

“We’re gonna mine something? But isn’t that dangerous? We need the proper protective gear!”

“And we’ll get it, but we won’t be the ones mining it.”

“Then who will?”

“Look around! We’ve got all the workers we need right here in Queen’s Borough!” The Boss said with a wicked grin. “Get ready, we’re moving on to stage 2 of the plan.”