Chapter 19
[33]
The next night Madarame soared high above the city, he knew his next target. The Detective Queen Naoto Shirogane was on to him and with her famous skills, it was only a matter of time before she pieced together his identity. The crimes he’d committed weighed heavily on his conscious, but soon it would all be over.
‘This is all for the sake of my students, for Yusuke.’ Madarame reassured himself as his target came into sight. He had been informed that Shirogane had been spotted leaving her home in a dark blue sedan, said car was currently driving on an otherwise empty highway late in the night. He couldn’t ask for a better chance to eliminate her.
Catching up to the vehicle quickly, he landed on its roof with a loud crunch as the metal caved beneath his weight. The sedan’s windows shattered loudly on impact and the driver cried out. His bionic talons easily shredded through the metal roof and clamped on tight. With his prey now in his grasp, his wings lifted both him and the damaged vehicle off of the ground.
“NOW!” Naoto shouted. The trunk of the car flew off of its hinges and legs donning a pair of red sneakers could be seen peaking out from the back of the car.
“What the!?”
“Whew, you have no idea how hot it was in there.” A jovial male voice was heard before its owner leaped from the trunk and shot two web lines at The Vulture’s wings. Donning his homemade costume, Ren Amamiya was ready for his foe this time.
“Damn you!” The Vulture released the car before attempting his escape. The sedan fell several feet before slamming onto the ground.
“Naoto!” Cried Ren as he was lifted off with the Vulture.
“I’m fine! Stay on him!” The detective’s voice was faint as Ren was carried off.
Reassured by the knowledge that his partner was safe, Ren pulled himself up his line to the Vulture’s body.
“Get off of me!” The winged criminal yelled in his distorted voice as the two entered the city. Seeing a chance to knock off his unwelcome passenger, Vulture began steering Spider-Man into the buildings as they flew.
Ren narrowly avoided smashing into the side of a building by spinning to his right and running on the building side. “Hey uh, would you mind flying a little higher? I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s a little dangerous down here!” He called to The Vulture as he tightly held onto his webs.
“Then let go!” Vulture flew straight at a billboard for teeth whitening before making a sharp left turn.
“No can do bud!” Ren’s back smacked directly into the billboard, putting a large hole in the smile on the picture before his web was pulled taut and he was yanked back into the pursuit. “You’ve run a-fowl of the law.”
The Vulture didn’t respond to the pun.
“I’ve gotta put you beak-hind bars.”
Again no response.
“I could go on. I had a lot of time to come up with these in the trunk.”
“Please don’t.”
The Vulture approached a high rooftop and again tried to smack the vigilante into it, but this time, Ren was prepared. As he skidded across the rooftop, Ren dug his feet into the gravel beneath him and managed to get a foothold. Attaching his weblines to a solid surface, he began shooting out more webs onto the Vulture’s wings and legs.
“NO!”
With more than a dozen webs anchoring him to the roof, the winged criminal was unable to fly any further. Ren grabbed onto one of the taut weblines and quickly began to climb towards his prey. He had learned his lesson from the last time he tried catching aircraft, act fast and use a lot of webs.
“Give it up. You’re done.”
“NO! I’M! NOT!” The propellers in The Vulture’s wings whirred loudly as they further increased in speed. The webs began to individually snap under the immense pressure. A loud groan of metal could be heard coming from the wings.
“Shit! Nononono!” Ren held onto the web he’d been climbing. It was attached to one of Vulture’s talons and was his only remaining line to the villain.
Both men put all of their strength into pulling away from each other. Spider-Man’s muscle fought on equal ground to The Vulture’s engines. This tug of war continued until something finally caved, the metallic talon was torn from the harness that kept it in place.
Free from his pursuer, the winged criminal took off into the night sky. Ren, meanwhile, was nearly dragged off of the rooftop by the heavy metal appendage. He pulled the talon up the side of the building until it reached the top. He heaved it over the railing with some effort and looked back into the sky only to see that his target had disappeared into the night.
Turning his attention to the device, he noticed something peculiar about it. The slot for the leg was nowhere near big enough to hold a human leg. Instead, the slot ended only a few inches in. Examining it further revealed wires connected to nodes meant to attach to skin.
Ren pulled out his phone and called Naoto. The detective picked up after a single ring.
“What happened?” She asked, her tone urgent.
Ren grimaced. “He got away.”
“Dammit!”
“But, I did manage to grab something. Sending you the pictures now.”
“...Is that…His leg?”
“Yeah, but it’s weird, it seems almost like a prosthetic.” Ren held the large talon in his arms.
“Oh my god.”
“What?”
“I figured it out. I know who Vulture is.”
“Who!?”
“Bring the leg down to the station. I need to get a warrant.”
“Wait who is he!?” Ren yelled into the phone but got no response as the detective had already hung up. “Fantastic.” He said to himself as he stood alone on the rooftop.
“And just how the hell am I supposed to swing while carrying this thing!?”