Spider-man: Christmas with Two Hawks

Tired

"Welcome to my apartment," Kate said to the masked stranger and dog.

'Of course, she has a better apartment than me.' Peter silently complained to himself as the fake Ronin led him to her home. It was a very nice home. Lots of open space, a shooting gallery, and a second floor. It wasn't what Peter would call well lit but it was better than anything he could buy with his non-existent money.

Speaking of money, it seemed that Kate's mind was on the auction. She began to mutter to herself, "Okay, that was crazy, but we're safe now. We're safe."

"You just lead a stranger that you met spying on an underground auction that was attacked by a gang of Russians to your home. How can you call this safe?"

This seemed to stump Kate for a moment as she tried to think of a response, "You were also fighting the Russians."

Not so long ago, Peter would've made the same argument. However, times change. Now he knows that an enemy of his enemy isn't always his friend. There was no getting this message through to Kate, so Peter came up with a plan of action that would not only protect his identitybut also allow him to protect this rookie.

Peter sighed and explained, "Listen, whatever is happening is out of our league. I'm just a scout and you're a complete noob."

Kate was justifiably offended by this statement and attempted to defend her honour. "Actually, I'm not a noob. I have won several championships in martial arts."

Peter rolled his eyes and passed, "Fine, you're a novice. Listen, you need to stay here. Take off that suit and feed the dog. I'm going to go call a friend and let him handle this whole mess. Except for him to be here in under an hour."

Kate didn't even have a chance to argue as Peter did a little spin, walked out the front door and closed it behind himself. Kate only stared in shock at the front door. She didn't even register the dog nudging her leg with his nose.

After a few moments of rebooting, Kate's face formed into a scowl behind her mask as she said, "Dick."

'Was I being a dick?' Peter asked himself as he walked through the snowy streets. He had thrown the ski mask out and had picked up a warm jacket from an emergency backpack. It was a good thing one was nearby because he didn't have enough money to buy many.

'I guess that's what severe isolation after several traumatic experiences does to a person.'

Peter was regretting not bringing his proper suit with him, but his waiter's disguise was too small to hide without risking it sticking out. He had sold all of his other nice clothes so that he could begin building a new life for himself.

When Peter reached his shitty apartment, he quickly got into his newly made Spider-man suit and began swinging back to Kate's apartment. He had to be quick. He knew what Kate was thinking. If didn't get there soon, that girl was going to do something very stupid that he would've done not that long ago.

When Peter reached the address and crawled towards the window, he wasn't surprised to see the apartment empty beside the dog. Spidey sighed, not exactly surprised by the scene.

"I guess you don't have any ideas where she could be," Peter asked the dog through the window. The dog, of course, didn't reply and simply stared at him with one eye before going back to licking the empty pizza box on the floor.

Sighing, Peter fired a web and started swinging in seemingly a random direction. Peter had to hope that luck and his instincts would lead him to where the girl in the ninja suit was.

Kate was starting to think that she should've listened to the asshole from the gala. If she didn't, she wouldn't be huddled up in a random car in a random alleyway while being ganged up on by a bunch of thugs in matching tacky tracksuits.

She was certain that some of these guys were borderline crazy, as they began punching the car windows. The glass was beginning to crack and Kate had no way of defending herself from inside the vehicle. Just as the glass began to shatter, and Kate accepted her fate, a yell and a thud caused the gang to freeze.

In a matter of seconds, the sounds of taunting and punching were replaced by yells of pain and... more punching. Only this time the punches were hitting humans.  bodies, and not a metal car. Kate tried to get a glimpse of what was happening, but the nighttime darkness made it difficult to see and whoever was doing the punching was so fast that all she saw were guys in tracksuits dropping to the floor.

It took only a few seconds for the person hidden behind a casual hoodie to take down all of the thugs. Kate tried to ignore her beating heart and aching body as she tried to keep he eyes on the unknown person.

However, due to everything that she had just gone through, her reflexes were a bit slow. So it wasn't her fault that the hooded person managed to unlock the car's door and pull her out with little difficulty.

The guy had an iron grip on Kate and she couldn't break free as he dragged her into a smaller alley. Once there, he pinned her to the wall and ripped off her mask. Kate was finally able to get a good look at the man.

To her shock and awe, it was none other than Clint Barton, Hawkeye. He saviour and personal inspiration. She didn't even notice his judgmental look, raised fist or his very upset tone as he whined "Come on." She blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing clearly before exclaiming "You're Hawkeye!"

This sudden exclamation seemed to upset Clint even more as he questioned, "And who the hell are you?"

Kate sputtered in shock as she tried to find the right words as Clint lowered his fist and loosened his grip on her. Eventually, Kate managed to gather enough of her brain cells to say three very important words, "I'm Kate Bishop."

"And what am I? Dc comics?" A cheerful voice questioned from above.

Kate's head immediately shot upwards, with Clint having to turn around to get a good look. There, attached to the wall of the tall building without any kind of support, was a man dressed in a red and blue costume.

Spidey stopped clinging to the brink wall and dropped downwards, doing several rolls mid air. He landed on a snowy dumpster in his signature pose. He didn't appear to have received any injuries from the action.

He looked at them and even though this cheaper suit didn't show his expression, Kate could tell that the famous vigilante was grinning at them.

"Hey, I'm Spider-man," he said, flipping off the dumpster and landing elegently on the snowy floor, and did a little bow. "At your service."