Chapter 13
[25]
Ren stood atop the building, watching the police carry off the burned man. With a sigh of relief, he turned back towards Shujin and made the jump to the next rooftop across from him, he had to get his bag and change back into his uniform, otherwise he could be caught and questioned.
Landing on the neighboring rooftop, Ren’s vision started to become blurry, he limped his way to the edge, preparing to make the next jump. Just one more and he would be home free. However as he got to the edge, the strain on his body became too much and he blacked out, falling into the alley between the buildings.
Ryuji watched the police drive off with Kamoshida in tow, Ann and Morgana standing behind him in the alley, waiting for the all clear. Ryuji was about to inform them that it was safe when all of the sudden a crash sounded from the dumpster behind them and the lid slammed shut on impact. Immediately they all turned in fear at the sudden noise, when after a few moments, nothing happened, Ryuji picked up a loose steel pipe and gestured to the others to remain quiet and get behind him.
His heart racing as he slowly approached the dumpster, Ryuji held the pipe like a bat, prepared to defend himself and the others if need be. When he was only a few feet from the dumpster, the lid cracked open and a masked figure climbed out, groaning in pain. His clothes were a mess, torn and burned, most likely by the lightning being shot around earlier.
“S-stay back man! I got a pipe and I ain’t afraid to use it!”
“Whu?” The masked man seemed dazed and tired. He stumbled towards the frightened students.
“I’m warnin’ ya!” If the masked man heard he didn’t show it, only mumbling quietly.
“R-Ryuji? I-I need… ugh I need h-help.” The figure stumbled forward again, his words going unheard. His hand stretched out to the blonde delinquent.
The man had gotten too close for comfort and Ryuji swung the pipe in his hand, knocking directly into the side of the man’s head and sending him to the ground unconscious.
“Ryuji! What’d you do!” Ann cried from behind.
“He could’ve been dangerous! I’m trying to keep us safe!”
“What if he needed help?”
“I dunno! He tried to grab me and I panicked!” The trio now stood over the dumpster man’s unconscious form.
“You don’t think he’s dead… right?” Ann questioned.
“No way! I can’t be a murderer! I don’t wanna go to prison!”
“Should... should we take off his mask?” Asked Morgana.
Ann reached down for the red Spider-Man mask, most of the paint on the cheap store bought mask had peeled off, leaving the white eyes as the only identifying feature. As Ann’s hand made contact, a groan could be heard from beneath. The trio quickly retreated back in fear, watching the figure closely.
“Oh thank god I didn’t kill him!” Ryuji said while panting, the tension of the situation getting to him.
When the man made no movements to get up, the group approached again. Ann reached down and grabbed the mask, slowly pulling it off of his head, the face beneath it was one all three were familiar with. Both of his eyes were closed and one had a large purple bruise around it, his normally handsome face was littered with small cuts from shards of glass and the cheek that Ryuji had hit with the pipe was already swelling.
“R-Ren?” The three gasped. What was their friend doing here? Why was he wearing this outfit? Had he really been the one fighting that superpowered lunatic?
“Holy shit, he’s hurt bad! We need to get him to a hospital!” Ryuji cried.
“N-no.” Their friend was still lying on the ground with his eyes closed, but he’d managed to speak loud enough for them to hear. “N-no hospital… Clinic… Yongen.” Those were all the words he managed to get out before going silent again.
“Are you crazy? That’s too far! Plus, are we just supposed to carry an unconscious guy onto the subway? They’ll stop us for sure!
Ren said nothing as he continued to lie on the ground of the alley.
Ann finally spoke up, taking on a serious expression. “Do what he says. Morgana you take one arm, Ryuji take the other.” She ordered the boys.
Both of them complied and lifted Ren off of the ground, each one of them supporting him on their shoulders. Ren’s head hung low, still clearly unconscious.
“Uh Ann, I think we still have a problem here.” Ryuji pointed out.
“Hang on.” Ann dug through her school bag and pulled out a large pair of women’s sunglasses that she had previously used for a modeling shoot. She lifted Ren’s head up and placed the sunglasses over his closed eyes.
“Seriously? We’re gonna ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ our injured friend?” Ryuji asked incredulously.
“I think it’s a great idea Lady Ann.”
“Shuddup Morgana, no one wants to hear it.”
“Come on, let’s hurry up and get to the subway before they find us.” Ann ordered the two boys.
The subway ride to Yongen Jaya was an awkward one, luckily for them, the attack on Shujin hadn’t been on a large enough scale to stop the trains that afternoon. Ann sat with Ren on the seats while Ryuji and Morgana stood nearby. Ren’s head was hanging back on the seat’s headrest and his mouth was slightly ajar.
As the train slowed to a stop at one of the stations, the unconscious teen’s head slid to a rest on Ann’s shoulder. An old woman sitting across from the pair giggled while looking at them, Ann turned toward her looking confused.
“What a cute couple the two of you make.” The old woman said to the young blonde. Ann’s face became as red as her friend’s mask.
“N-no we’re uh, we’re just friends!” She said, giving off an awkward fake laugh.
As the train started to move once again, Ren’s body slipped from its position and he came to a rest on Ann’s lap.
“You should try telling him that.” The old woman chuckled at her own joke.
Ann sat red faced for the rest of the train ride, trying to look anywhere but at the boy using her lap as a pillow. When the train finally arrived in Yongen Jaya, the other two boys pulled their unconscious friend off of the flustered girl and carried him out of the station and to the clinic.
None of them knew why Ren had specified that he be taken here. They entered the clinic and saw a punk rock looking woman sitting at the front desk. Upon seeing the teenagers enter with the body, she immediately stood up and told them to bring him into the back and place him on the bed.
The woman came into the room immediately ready to help their friend. “Clear out of here, I need some space to work.” She ordered the trio and they hesitantly complied, deciding to trust their friend to the doctor.
When Ren finally regained consciousness, he found himself in a small room with X-rays and anatomy charts covering the surrounding walls.
“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” Came a feminine voice from next to him.
Ren turned to see the doctor he recognized from the night of the vigil. He reached up to his face only to touch bare skin, realizing that he was no longer in costume, in fact he wasn’t wearing any clothes save for his boxers. He looked over himself and tried to cover his body, only to feel his body refuse to move.
“Sorry, I had to cut your clothes off of you, you had suffered some serious injuries. “Major electrical burns, several broken bones, as well as a concussion, you do know you have an untreated gunshot wound in your left leg, right?” The back alley doctor listed off Ren’s various injuries.
“But you know what the strangest thing is?” Ren turned back to the doctor as she continued. “In my entire career I’ve never seen anyone heal from so many wounds as fast as you.” Ren’s eyes went wide as the woman sat next to him and reviewed what she had found out about him, she ran a finger over Ren’s exposed chest.
“In the 6 hours you’ve been here, you’ve made a month’s worth of recovery. And your muscular structure is unlike anything I’ve seen in someone your age, your muscle density is multiple times what it should be for someone of your build.” The doctor’s brown eyes stared directly into Ren’s grey ones. “Just what exactly are you, Ren Amamiya?”
[26]
Naoto Shirogane walked through the backstreets of a small district of Tokyo, her mind was on the recent events that had occurred at her work. A few days ago, a former gym coach attacked the school he’d been fired from with the intent to kill everyone there, having killed the school’s principal in his home the day before. What made the situation noteworthy was the fact that the man had been using advanced technology to blast lightning from his hands. When the officers on the scene attempted to arrest him, his technology backfired and burned the man to a crisp.
The man had survived though. As of now he was being treated in the hospital for third degree burns, apparently the equipment he was wearing had burned so hot that the graphene wires had seared themselves to his bones and doctors were unable to surgically remove them. Naoto couldn’t imagine the amount of pain that must have caused. After his treatment was complete, he would be facing trial and most likely be going to maximum security prison for the rest of his life.
As Naoto finished reviewing the case in her head, she entered the establishment she’d come to this area for. The bell rang softly as she entered the cafe, it was empty save for herself and the young black haired barista behind the counter.
“Welcome, what can I get for you?” Asked the young man, a smile on his face as the detective sat at the nearest stool and set the bag she was carrying down next to her.
“I’ll have the house blend please.”
“Coming right up.” He set to work on the order. As he got to work, the detective struck up a conversation with the handsome barista.
“Pretty crazy stuff going on around the city lately huh? First the Goblin attacks Shibuya alongside a terrorist attack and just a few days ago some insane guy calling himself Electro attacks a school. What’s this city coming to?”
“Oh yeah, I heard about that. The police caught the guy though, right?” Came the response as the young man continued to work on the order.
“Yeah, but not before he could rack up a body count. He ended up killing 11 people with that special tech he was using.”
The barista’s mood turned somber as he set the cup in front of Naoto. “It’s horrible that there are people out there capable of committing such evil acts.”
“It is, but luckily it seems that there’s people out there capable of doing a lot of good too. Like the man who defeated Electro.”
“Oh? I thought it was the police that caught him.”
“They did, but there was supposedly another individual at the scene. One who apparently fought off the villain with super strength and escaped by climbing up a wall just like Spider-Man.”
“I don’t know if I believe that. I mean, Spider-Man’s dead right? I don’t think another person can fill that gap he left behind so easily.”
“I believe it, after all Narukami did say that we are all heroes.”
The barista paused, not sure how to reply, so Naoto spoke up again.
“I actually have a theory on this ‘new Spider-Man.’ Would you care to hear it?”
“Go ahead, shoot.” He encouraged the detective.
“Well we can say with certainty, that he’s a citizen of Tokyo-”
“How do you know it's a man?” He interrupted before she could continue.
“Several people apparently heard him speak and all of them determined him to be a young male.” She answered without missing a beat. She continued on with her theory.
“We know with certainty that he’s a citizen of Tokyo due to the speed at which he responds to crimes. He’s approximately 6 feet tall with a lean muscular build. Based on that information along with what I mentioned before, he can be inferred to be someone in his late teens to early twenties, also most likely a student. Based on when he arrived at the scene at Shujin, one could even infer that he’s likely a student there.”
Naoto paused to look at the barista, who was listening intently with an unreadable expression.
“He stepped in to help the students escape and hold off Electro himself, but was injured in the resulting fight, his left leg was apparently broken. Now assuming this man has the same healing abilities as the original Spider-Man, his leg should mostly be healed by now but he would most likely still have a slight limp.”
Naoto continued to speak when the boy in front of her said nothing. “I couldn’t help but notice that you have a slight limp in your leg as well, Mr. Amamiya.”
The barista’s expression became stern. “You know who I am?” He questioned.
“I do. I’ve been following you for some time now. My name is Detective Naoto Shirogane of the Tokyo Police Force, it’s nice to finally meet you Ren Amamiya.”
“Am I under arrest or something? This all seems pretty speculative.”
“Before I answer that, what does having power mean to you?”
“What?”
“Just answer the question.”
Ren thought about it for a moment before turning back to the detective. “I guess it means using it to protect those who can’t protect themselves.”
“Good answer, but talk is cheap.” Naoto reached into the bag she’d brought and pulled out two small objects, setting them on the counter.
“What are those?”
“Webshooters, it's how Narukami shot webs from his wrists.”
“Really? I always just figured they came out of him.” Ren picked up the webshooters and examined them. “You’re giving these to me? Just like that? Wait why do you have these?”
“I’m the one who made them. I was there when Spider-Man was just starting out, Narukami wouldn’t have gotten much further than you are now without his team backing him up. And to answer your other question, no I am not just giving you those, I’m loaning them to you, consider this a trial run. If, at the end of this, I feel that you’re ready for them, then, I will give them to you. If I don’t, then I will take them back and expect you to quit doing this altogether and if you don’t, I will report my findings to the police.”
Naoto reached her hand out to Ren. “Do we have a deal?”
Ren stared at the outstretched hand for a moment before accepting, shaking the detective’s hand. “Deal.”
“Then congratulations kid, at least for the time being, you’re Spider-Man.”
[Bonus]
Ren sat in the attack of Leblanc in his pajamas, his new webshooters strapped to his wrists. He recalled the words Naoto had left him before she departed. ‘Don’t play with them, they aren’t a toy.’
“Don’t play with them, bleh bleh bleh.” He mocked the detective’s words to himself. Ren pressed the center button on his right palm and a line of web shot out onto the wall above the stairs.
“Oh shit!” Ren tried to release the web by pressing the button again, this only caused more webs to shoot out and stick to surfaces around the room. “Shitshitshit!”
He attempted to tear himself free of the webs, however when he touched them his left hand became stuck to the web. In his panic he started blasting webs out of his left hand which ended up sticking him to the floor.
As he laid on the floor wrapped up in his web cocoon, Ren thought back to what Naoto had said earlier, that he was the city’s new protector, their new Spider-Man.
“Oh yeah, I can totally handle this new gig no problem.” (Ren ended up not being able to escape that night and just fell asleep like that.)