In The Web Of Gotham

Spider's Hunt

A person can spend thousands of dollars on a car. Whether it's the market price of the car itself, the cost of the down payment. Maintenance, modification, cleanings, repairs, refueling. A car can become an expression of a person just as much as their home, but just like a home...

It only takes one person with malicious intent to make it all worthless. A man is trying to pick the lock open off a car door, intending to steal the car, strip it down for parts and make bank off of dismantling years of work and effort. He's being careful, and thinks he's in the clear. There's no Bat-Signal out tonight, so Batman's not out.

If only the fool knew, there's new blood in Gotham. A single thwip is heard before he's violently yanked away from the car by a thin white line of spider web. Yanked into the tense ripcord muscle arms of Spider-Man, who lifts him over in a snapping German suplex. The strength of Spider-Man along with the travelling momentum making the Suplex easy. More than easy, he threw the carjacker against the wall of the building across the street.

The communicator in Spider-Man's mask buzzes to life, Oracle chiming in.

"Spidey, what's going on? Your vitals are going haywire. Everything's spiking high," She asked as Spider-Man said....nothing. As if he didn't hear the voice of the girl at all, he just webbed the man to the wall. As if the man was still conscious enough to struggle and found the nearest payphone. Dialing 911 and just leaving the phone. Swinging away to find someone else to... apprehend.

Gotham has an armed robbery reported every 1 minute and 20 seconds. The ones that actually have active police responses are 2 for every 10. The ones that lead to a murder investigation are 9 murders for every 10 calls of an armed robbery. That was before Batman, and that number dropped even more once Spider-Man came into play.

A man points a gun towards a woman, demanding her purse and her wallet and any valuables she might otherwise have. Panic flashes across her face as she fears that this is her last night on earth. Then, the Spider locks onto the perpetrator. Dropping from the night sky, grabbing the pistol and crushing it by the barrel with a single hand. The perpetrator is terrified, but he's not getting away. The masked head of Spider-Man is driven into the skull of this Joe Chill wannabe, staggering the robber to be as he stumbles backwards.

Spider-Man glaring daggers at the man smacks him to the ground with a backhand. Before the man fell, Spider-Man catches him by his collar. Swinging him over his shoulder with one arm into the brick and mortar of the building. Cracks spider out from the bricks that have made impact. Spider-Man webs the man to the wall, no regard to if he has strength to actually try and fight back. The woman? Relieved to be saved, but terrified of who...or what just actually saved her. Spider-Man leaps up and swings away, leaving the woman to try and call the police.

"Spider-Man, what is your status? If you don't respond, I'm calling Batman to come after you," Oracle warned. Another alarm sounds, a bodega. Peter knew the bodega well, the owner makes good ham and pickle sandwiches. Currently, the store is being robbed, the men wearing fine suits with a red ski mask over each of their heads. Spider-Man won't let that happen. Spider-Man will stop them.

Landing in front of the bodega window, Spider-Man backs up a step or two. He takes a running start before tackling one of the men through the window, bringing him to the ground and slamming him in the back of the skull with a hammering strike of the fist. The other men in the Red Hood gang heard the window shatter, and their watchman go down. But they don't see Spider-Man entirely. The whole time, he's had his suit switched to its inverted coloring. They just see white glaring eyes and a giant white spider staring at them.

The remaining 2 minutes of this encounter are complete and utter acrobatic mayhem. Spider-Man flipping around and dodging through gunfire from pistols, shotguns and a single assault rifle. Spider-Man from the men's perspective was a goddamn ghost.

Suddenly, one of them vanished. The sound of a shelf caving in, another man. The one with the rifle suddenly ceased firing as well. Outside the store, the glass door is suddenly flung off it's hinges as the man with the rifle tumbled against the pavement and dented the driver door of their getaway car.Scaring the hell of the driver, who was sleeping at the time. He only saw the brief bits of light from the muzzle flashes, and within another 30 seconds. There were no more muzzle flashes, only a man with a spider on his chest, his body smoking from the gunpowder being blown towards him.

The arachnid metahuman went into a sprint towards the car. Causing the driver to try and floor it to get away. He wouldn't get far, Spider-Man ran from the sidewalk up a building. Running along the wall and jumping down through the skylight of the car. Pulling the seat reclining lever with a webbing line. The winding back and kicking the seat from the back, sending the seat and the man's head slamming forward into the steering wheel. Knocking him out cold, and then with another webline jerking the parking brake into full stop. Jumping out of and in front of the car, digging his heels in and taking the full brunt of the car. Which stopped almost immediately. Spider-Man backed off the car, webbing the man in the driver's seat. Seemingly not registering that he was most definitely knocked out.

"Spider-Man. What is going on?" The deep gravelly bass of Batman asked as the dark knight descended from the adjacent rooftop. Spider-Man didn't say anything, he just turned to look at Batman.

"Peter, what's going on. What happened at Murdock's? What did he say?" Batman asked one more time. Spider-Man blinked a few times under his mask. As if coming out of a trance of some sort.

"He thinks Fisk might be involved in what's happening. He wouldn't tell me how," Peter said, looking around at the havoc he performed.

"I guess I just needed the frustration out of my system. Did you know the blind lawyer can kick ass?" Peter asked.

"Matthew has had to become very skilled in order to live in the Bowery for as long as he has," Batman explained.

"Right, right. That makes sense. Sorry for the scare Oracle, I'm good now," Peter apologized.

"It was kinda freaky. You were all quiet, and your heart rate was like 175 the whole time. Are you okay?" Oracle asked again.

"Yeah, down to earth now," Peter said.

"I think I'll head home for tonight, Batman. I'll try and get more info on Fisk later," Peter said as he ran up a wall to get momentum and then jump into a swing.

Batman took note of the swinging Spider-Man and then consulted Oracle again.

"Load up the footage from the lenses to the Bat-Computer. I need to see what you saw before you called me," Batman instructed as he grappled away in the opposite direction that Spider-Man had gone.

"I don't know, it felt like I was watching someone else -"

"Load up what you saw. So I can assess," Batman repeated.

"I will Batman. I will," Oracle confirmed as she signed off.

Now Batman has another problem to solve.

What the hell just came over Spider-Man tonight?