Chapter 29
[44]
It was an early Saturday morning, the sun was only barely peeking out over the horizon. Ren swung through the city skylines before landing on a rooftop.
It’d been a shitty night for the teenage vigilante. Convincing Sojiro to let a stranger crash at Leblanc was hard enough on its own. But that wasn’t it, Ren couldn’t sleep at all last night. Everything that’d been happening recently weighed too heavily on his conscience.
Almost a dozen police officers were dead or hospitalized, Futaba hated him, Naoto was keeping secrets from him, and now the criminal underground was holding a child hostage. All in all, it was safe to say that homework was the last thing on his mind at the moment.
Ren had spent the entire night patrolling the city, searching for any clue as to the whereabouts of Kaoru Iwai. He’d thought of calling Naoto, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t be very forthcoming with information. This was a solo mission.
So far he’d stopped 3 muggings, a carjacking, an illegal street race, and helped an inebriated man get home safely. Overall, a productive night but not one that made him feel any better about his situation. Ren went to check the time on his phone, only to find the battery was dead.
“Wonderful.” He said aloud.
“SOMEONE HELP!” A cry sounded from below.
Ren looked over the building’s edge to see a purse snatcher running from a woman on the sidewalk. Without a second thought, he leapt into action, shooting a web line and swinging after the fleeing man.
When the purse snatcher glanced behind him and saw a friggin’ superhero chasing after him, he was understandably afraid. Panicked, he slapped a button on the side of his thigh and his new tech sprung into action.
Ren watched in confusion as the fleeing criminal seemed to become taller as he ran. His steps became strides as his legs stretched further and further out. As they extended past his pant legs, Ren saw telescoping metal bars emerge from beneath the man. He’d seen plenty of amazing tech since becoming Spider-Man (mostly in the hands of criminals) but none as downright silly as this.
The man now stood 20 feet tall with almost all of his height in his...stilts? He took long wobbly strides in an attempt to escape his pursuer, but they were in vain. Ren caught up to him quickly before swinging circles around his legs, wrapping them in a spiral of web line (Ren saw it in a movie once and wanted to try it out.)
The purse snatcher lost his balance and began the long fall down. A fall from that height would’ve landed him in the hospital, if it weren’t for the black and red garbed superhero catching him at the last moment. Now on the ground, immobilized by his own device, the criminal looked up at his pursuer with pleading eyes.
“I give up! I give up! Please don’t hurt me!” He cried waving his arms in surrender.
Normally, Ren would go easy on a criminal like him. He was young, probably only a bit older than Ren himself, he’d done no real harm and had already surrendered. But, the situation presented a possible lead for the missing child case.
“Your tech! Where’d you get it!?” He grabbed the man’s jacket collar and tried to sound as intimidating as possible.
He may have done too well as the criminal before him sobbed uncontrollably. But Ren didn’t let off, instead continuing to press him for answers.
“Do you work for Kingpin!? Where’s he keeping the kid!? Answer me!”
All he got in response was more crying from the criminal. Who couldn’t even seem to form words. Ren set the bawling man down and webbed his hands together to leave him to the police. Maybe Naoto could get some answers from him, whether she chose to share them though, would be unclear.
“Excuse me.” Another voice came.
Ren looked up to see a young man with long brown hair wearing a blue sweater vest and slacks. He held a briefcase in his hand and had an expensive looking camera hanging from his neck.
“I thought I heard you talking about a missing child? I think I may be of some assistance.”
Ren was a bit skeptical, “Look, as much as I’m willing to help any missing children, right now I’m looking for a specific-”
“You mentioned the Kingpin, correct?” The bystander interrupted. “He’s something of a topic of interest to me. If you’re looking for a child he’s kidnapped, I may be able to aid in your search.”
Ren stood up, leaving the mess of a criminal tied up. “Excuse me for asking this, but who are you exactly? And how exactly do you think you could help?” It wasn’t a very superhero thing to do, asking random bystanders for help, but Ren was new at this, cut him a break.
The young man was surprised for a moment, “Oh! Forgive my lack of manners. I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself.” He held out a hand.
“My name is Akechi. Goro Akechi.”