Woven Silk

Late Night Fiasco

It was a typical Sunday night in the streets of New York.

"Hahaha, puny spider can't defeat me! For I am Rhino!"

Well, as typical as it could get.

"Come on Aleksei! That's just not fair. I just ran out of tranquilizers!" A woman in a masked costume quipped back at the enemy she was facing. A large burly man in a rhino costume.

"Ha! Spider has run out of tricks! There is no stopping Rhino now!" Rhino cried out in a thick Russian accent. Violence flashed through his eyes as he charged at the woman in the mask. "Now the Spider is dead!"

However, Rhino's charge was stopped midway through, not by the woman but by a hard and swift flying kick (it looked more like a flying torpedo) to the chin, effectively knocking the Rhino out. Damn, well that takes care of that then. The attacker took the appearance of a young man wearing a black coat, reflective ski goggles, grey, tattered sweatpants and a bandana. Guess tonight won't be as typical as was initially thought.

"Sup ugly! Come here often?" The man shouted. The woman could barely hear him because the momentum of his kick carried him a few yards away from Rhino. "Man, he's out cold."

Stretching himself out, the young man came over to Rhinos body, kicking him a few times to make sure that Rhino was knock out.

"Oh hey, was this your friend?" The man said, looking at the woman while pointing at Rhino. "Sorry, I kinda knocked his lights out good. Wait hey...Aren't you that Silk spider-person dude?"

Silk immediately put up her fists in a defensive stance. This guy knew who she was which was good. But she had no idea who this was. He didn't sound like he was from New York. "What are you doing here in New York? You should know that strangely dressed people don't fare well here."

"You caught onto that huh?" The man muttered under his breath before stepped back cautiously and held his arms out in front of him, as if backing away from a dangerous animal. "Listen miss, I was just in the area and couldn't help but help out a little. You get it right?"

"'Just in the area'? Yeah right." Silk shot her webs out at the man, webbing him to the side of the building they were next to.

"Hey! What was that for!"

"You're dressed like a goon." Silk said matter-of-factly, before swinging up to the top of a nearby building. "I'll leave you two to the police! Good luck trying to get out of those webs. Don't worry, they'll dissolve in time to-"

Before finishing her sentence, she heard a loud tearing sound and turned back with wide eyes to see the man free from his constraints.

"Damn those were tough!" The man exclaimed, stretching out his arms. "Those things coming out of you? Or-"

"Listen, weirdo, I don't know if you've ever been in a fight before but there's typically not this much talking." Silk said, going on guard once more. This guy's strength must be incredible if he can break out of her webs so easily. "Listen, you don't want to cause any unnecessary trouble, right? I don't know what you're after, stranger, but I suggest you stay away from New York and leave."

"What? But I just got here! New Yorkers can be so rude..." The man muttered, "Hey, I have business to attend to here y'know? I can't just leave so suddenly."

"And pray tell, what business is that?"

"School."

What? School? What type of ridiculous answer is that? Also, even if he was telling the truth, he could inadvertently reveal his identity. Silk scoffed at the man's lie. "Really? Even preschoolers can lie better than that, dude."

The man only shook his head before jumping up to the next building over. "Well, it's partly true. I came here for a reason I cannot disclose, because its due to civilian life. And I need to go to school as well. I didn't move out of state just to go to school here though, if that's what you were thinking. Thats just dumb."

Silk, partially embarrassed at her folly and partially impressed at the man's seemingly incredible jumping, changed topic. "W-well whatever. Just give me your name. Who the hell are you?"

"My name? Oh right, the superhero name thing." The man said while stroking his chin in thought. "Well back home, people called me Peter Pan, and that's not my actual name so don't bother looking me up somewhere, but I think you should call me... uhh, Robin Hood? No, that doesn't fit me. Thumper? Nah, too rabbit-like. What about-"

"How about moron?" Silk interrupted. This was a waste of time. She'll just report Rhino and the stranger before going home. She was about to leave when she heard a groan underneath her. Rhino was waking up again. Silk quickly swung back down to the ground and webbed Rhino up before he could wake up. "And you, stay down. Listen, ski goggles, just leave the hero business to the professionals, okay? Don't go around the city looking for a fight like an idiot."

Silk, not hearing the chatty man respond, looked up at the building he was on top of, only to find that he was gone. Silk groaned in frustration. She just let a possibly dangerous criminal go free in the city. Officer Stacy is going to have a field day with this one.

"Hah. Little spider's boyfriend left her. Ha Ha ha-Mhmp!?" Rhino managed to say before getting shut up by Silks webs.

Silk just shook her head tiredly at the oaf's words before swinging off into the night. That man couldn't have gone far. Sure, he could jump high, but he'd get tired eventually, right?

Right?

---

Wrong.

Silk had searched for hours for the man she'd seen earlier.
And despite the hours of searching. Silk had come up with nothing. She had taken note, however, the man had done no crimes. She had seen her typical robbery while patrolling the city (She stopped it of course) but saw no signs that the man from before had been committing crimes himself. But then again, just because she couldn't see it, doesn't mean he wasn't committing crimes.

It was around 4 in the morning now and Silk still hasn't seen the goggled man. Silk sighed as she came to a realization, she'd have to give up for now and try again tomorrow. Kicking a can off of a roof, she turned around to go home.

---

Silk swung into her open window and landed like a ninja onto the floor. She was tired, pissed and couldn't wait to go to sleep. She'd been up all night looking for that man to no avail. He was as elusive as Black Cat which was worrying. Maybe they were working together. Nah, that's not possible, Black Cat works alone...But there was one time that she'd asked Silk for help so it's not too unlikely...No that's still impossible, the stranger said he'd just gotten to New York so there's no way he'd be working for someone so soon. Maybe he's an assassin looking to kill her...

Silk felt a shiver go up her spine. No, she shouldn't be too ridiculous. But even so, Silk needed to find this man and take him down. Fast. She should also get to bed. Clearly the lack of sleep is getting to her.
Quickly changing out of her suit and into her pajamas, Silk quietly got into bed and yawned as she felt herself being lulled to sleep.
The last thing she heard was the sound of her new next-door neighbor loudly opening the door to their own apartment, most likely just coming home from a night shift...