FIREWEAVER | A Spiderverse Fanfic

Chapter Thirty-Three

Uptown was quiet. The highway hummed with fewer cars than the day traffic. Miguel felt his talons drag down the porcelain surface as he leapt off his perch, red sweeping his back before his hands took hold of it.

The building behind him quickly became a blur as he dove past the limits of the upper city, descending like Orpheus into the underworld. The beautiful landscape of white and green vanished, turning to dark magentas and navies with sickly fumes clouding his vision.

Paradise lost to the depths of darkness, where living corpses rose only for the sliver of light the corp gods offered in billboards. It was much easier to go in than out.

Miguel outstretched his arms, his cape catching wind and slowing his fall. Being back in downtown roused hellish memories- battles with Venom, Vulture and Venture. Must have been V for vendetta.

Each one he defeated, but at the cost of his humanity, his Eurydice. Looking at this city that despised him, had any of it been worth the fight? With and without the mask, there was no reward for all the sacrifices he made. For centuries mankind made martyrs out of their saviors. Was he just another page in the history books, like the spider-man before him?

All the nightmares he had of waking up in a field of bones in a dismantled city. All the crimson that draped across his hands.

'Did spider-man kill her?'

Miguel clenched his jaw, swinging forward.

Esmerelda didn't know what she was talking about. Her nosiness frankly pissed him off. Where did she get off asking him that? What made her think she could be so comfortable around him?

"Miguel, there's a disturbance in section thirteen. A woman was walking before she was suddenly pulled out of the surveillance view. The area is crime heavy, might be worth looking at."

"Thanks LYLA, I'm headed over." He spread his cape again, gliding through the labyrinth of moving vehicles, buildings and balconies like electricity passing through a circuit.

Had he handled things right by walking out on her like that? Was he making a good decision asking her to look into Santiago? She seemed experienced at the club, and he couldn't think of anyone else he could ask to do this for him. Lyla could contact him at any sign of trouble, and Xina was there on site.

He heard a scream and flattened his arms to his side, diving towards an alley before he cast a web and swung. A woman pressed her back to the wall as a blaster's barrel was placed against her head. A metal finger straddled the trigger, his eyes trailing up the arm attached to the face of a man. His teeth glinted as he spoke something to the lady beside him. His partner had a metallic plate on her forehead, her hand made of the same metal and gripping the woman by the arm as she shouted something.

Miguel couldn't help but feel anger boil in his chest. The city was dying but this filth continued to grow like an aggravating infection to an already gaping wound. People were dying from tech-viruses, corporations taking advantage of the poor, wars churning in other countries and children never living to see their first coroner instead of a first birthday. And yet, he wasn't surprised.

For all the drugs that ran through this city's vein, nothing was a stronger addiction than greed. Everything he was doing at Alchemax- innovations and pushing to advance their technology, slowly winning more and more control so he could lower the cost of pharmaceuticals and healthcare, donate more to hospitals and shelters- all of it he knew was just slowing down the inevitable.

He swung forward and grabbed the blaster from the man's hand, before slamming the hilt to his skull. The second partner screamed, releasing the woman to grab a knife from her pocket, only for Miguel to web her hand and slam her into the wall.