Spider-Man and The Esper

99. Til Morning

The sky was streaked pink and orange by the time Michael and Fubuki silently leapt into their quiet, penthouse. The stillness worried Michael. He feared that he had dreamed it all - Psykos’ sudden appearance in his doorway, the tears, the promise. There was no sign of the woman. He stood, one hand frozen in the act of removing his mask, until he heard the husky, laughing tone of her voice. 

"Oh, so you're back! I was beginning to think I'd have to send out the troops! Well, if I had any to send, that is." Psykos was sitting on the floor beside his bed, wearing a worn, hooded sweatshirt that Michael recognized as his own. The faded navy shirt looked much better on her, he thought, as he pulled off his mask and met her gaze guiltily.

"I'm sorry it took us so long, Psykos, but there was a real problem. There was this hostage situation, see, at a shelter. There were kids and their mothers and this crazy guy with a gun. . ."

Michael paused as he recalled the heart-stopping fear he'd seen in the faces of the hostages as their captor raved that he'd foreseen his death at the hands of one of the shelter's residents, so he'd come to save himself by killing them all. The emaciated, wild-eyed man had flourished a small arsenal of guns and explosives in the frightened faces of his captives as police negotiators and sharpshooters maneuvered for time and position. 

Spider-man and Spider-Blizzard had watched from the shadows, as the hostage-taker began to focus his litany of blame on a small, curly-haired toddler, sobbing and struggling in his frantic mother's arms. As the madman reached for the trigger, Michael and Fubuki had sprung into action, deflecting the gun's aim with a well-aimed shot of webbing, then tackling and disarming the surprisingly strong gunman before police could enter the room.

The shaky mother's thanks was all he had a chance to hear before the two heroes vaulted up and out the tiny transom window, leaving behind the half-hearted calls of the policemen and the disappointed questions of the reporters.

It had come as a shock to see his automatic camera flashing from across the alley, where he'd unthinkingly webbed it before going into action. A quick stop at the City-J version of the Daily Bugle darkroom had revealed some powerful shots of the hostages as well as a lucky image of Spider-man and Spider-Blizzard tackling the gunman.

"Michael? Michael? Are you okay? I didn't see any problems with it at all. Is it because it happened very fast?" Fubuki's voice broke through his abstraction and Michael managed a half-smile.

"Yeah, sorry. It was tough for a while to get back in the game, but thankfully nobody got hurt." He slumped onto the bed and let his grin broaden. "And I got 800,000 yen for my pictures."

“Are you kidding me?!” Fubuki shouted in amazement while removing her mask so that her expression was visible.

"800,000? Michael, that's great! They're finally recognizing your talent!" Psykos’ enthusiasm was so sweet,

"Well, maybe," he hedged, ducking his head.

"There's no maybe about it," Fubuki said as Psykos pulled herself up from the floor to sit beside Michael on the couch, brandishing his portfolio as she did so. 

"I've been looking through these photos of yours and they're great." Psykos flipped open the portfolio to a shot of Spider-Blizzard crouching over the ledge of a tall building that would look like an incredible phone screen background to have, Psykos saw one with the wedding which made her stifling tears as Michael stared out a window, Psykos paged to another shot of herself, whirling ecstatically sitting on a bench by one of the local parks, Psykos eyebrows widened a little in a surprise, “Oh, I didn't even notice you took that. You are quite the photographer, Mr. Watanabe.”

Michael frowned indignantly as he lets out a small laugh. "Hey, that's personal," he said, and reached to take the photographs and folder from her hands.