Chapter 61
[85]
Ren sat perched atop the building in the middle of the night across from a warehouse in his full Spider-Man gear. According to Naoto, the police had traced the signal of the original hack to this particular warehouse, a possible base of operations for the fishbowl headed villain.
According to the detective, she wanted things to go by the book for this, Ren was strictly here for backup. After the botched arrest of Madarame, Naoto wasn’t about to take any risks.
As Ren watched the team of officers enter the building, he heard footsteps echoing from behind him. Firing off a webline as he turned around, the figure dodged and moved in quickly, grabbing Ren by his throat and holding him over the edge of the rooftop.
“Hey hot stuff.”
When his vision focused on the figure before him, he recognized her to be The Black Cat. Was she still brainwashed? Was she going to kill him?
“C-Cat?” Before Ren could contemplate the situation further, he was brought back to the rooftop and released. “What *cough* What the hell Mitsuru? I haven’t seen you in weeks and the first thing you do is attack me?”
Mitsuru gave Ren a scowl. “First of all, you shot first, second, I was at home, sick because a certain asshole left me unconscious on a rooftop in the freezing rain.”
“Ooh um, sorry about that.” Ren apologized awkwardly.
“Yeah. Anyways, I’m here because I caught wind of what was going on and thought you might need some backup.”
“Backup for the backup? I don’t think the situation is that dire, but I’m not one to refuse help.” Ren accepted the offer.
Meanwhile, inside of the warehouse, Naoto and her fellow officers searched the area with flashlights and pistols drawn. According to the quick background search she’d done on the location, it was a former clothing manufacturer. The interior of the dark warehouse was populated by the worst thing imaginable, mannequins. Naoto could hear the nervous, quick breathing of her fellow officers as they searched past the creepy stark white figures.
As Naoto moved her flashlight across the room, searching each figure to see if it was the culprit in disguise, her light passed over a shiny, distinctly non-human object several yards away. Just as she spotted it, the object began to glow blue, revealing it to be a crystal ball sitting atop a table covered in a purple sheet.
“Do you know what automatonophobia is?” Mysterio’s voice played over the loudspeakers. “It’s the fear of things that appear to be human. They look and may act the part, but in reality, they’re just puppets. Do you officers realize yet that you are, in fact, the puppets? Having your strings pulled by an outside power.”
As Mysterio spoke, Naoto noticed a green smoke was filling the ground, almost reaching up to her knees. Things were going badly, it was time to call in Ren. She reached for her radio and attempted to contact him, but only static sounded out of the device.
“Perhaps it's time you experience what it’s like to fear the puppets.” Suddenly the crystal ball shattered and the light it produced went out. The warehouse became pitch black and silent once again.
“What the fuck!?” One of the officers yelled out. “I swear to God one of those things just moved!”
As Naoto swung her flashlight in the direction of the officer, she saw him staring at one of the mannequins who looked as though it was staring right back at him. Suddenly, a creaking noise sounded behind her and Naoto turned around, her flashlight beam shined onto another mannequin merely a foot away from her, one that definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Suddenly, more of the same creaking noises began to sound out from every direction. The panicked breathing from the other officers became louder and more erratic until suddenly one of them let out a scream followed by a clattering noise. “They’re on me! They’re on me!” Naoto turned to the source of the noise before looking back and seeing her mannequin an inch from her face.
Naoto punched the mannequin, expecting it to clatter to the ground like cheap plastic, she was surprised by how dense the figure was and that it only turned its head in reaction to the blow. The mannequin then slowly turned its head back to face her. The way it moved, this thing wasn’t a guy in a suit, it was just as Mysterio said, puppets.
As one of the officers raised his pistol at a mannequin, Naoto stopped him. “Hold your fire! The gas beneath us could be flammable.” She pointed out before showing everyone the exit. “We need to get out of here!”
The officers ran towards the door, trying to leave as soon as possible. As they ran, they turned back to see the mannequins getting closer each time the light struck them. When they finally reached the door, it was locked, unmoving no matter how much they tried to open it. While the other officers pounded on the door, Naoto turned back focusing on the mannequins approaching like zombies.
Suddenly, the noise of loud creaking metal sounded from behind Naoto and light flooded the room as the front doors were ripped off of their hinges. The officers escaped out into the open air and two figures dressed in black stepped into the room.
Ren jumped in next to Naoto, followed closely by Mitsuru. “Holy nightmare fuel!” Ren cried out seeing the creepy robot mannequins stalking towards them.
“They aren’t human, you don’t need to hold back, but don’t use your venom blast. If you can, try not to damage one of them, we could study it and find out who made it.” Naoto quickly explained.
“Got it.” Ren said as he and Black Cat leapt into action.
The pair of them tore through the legion of mannequins, Ren caving in their torsos with his fists while Mitsuru ripped their appendages off with her claws. The two of them were making quick work of their opponents. However, as they destroyed more of them, the remaining robots became quicker, actively charging at and attempting to strike the pair as they fought the onslaught of foes.
“Uh, is it just me or are these things getting-OW! Faster?” Ren asked as one managed to land a blow against his face.
“They must all be connected to a single source. Less robots means more processing power to go around.” Mitsuru suggested as she flipped away from one of the mannequins.
“Then that means...” Naoto searched around the warehouse, trying to find what could be controlling these things. However aside from the mannequins and them, the warehouse was completely barren, except…”Son of a bitch.” She said, realization dawning on her face.
Naoto ran to the center of the warehouse, where the crystal ball that had given Mysterio’s message had originally sat. She pulled the purple cloth from what she’d initially believed to be a table, only to reveal a black box with blinking lights.
Ren and Mitsuru were getting tired fighting the remaining mannequins, who became stronger with each of their brethren’s defeat. As the two of them were dogpiled by the swarm, they were surprised when the bodies on top of them suddenly became limp.
Ren pushed past the lifeless mannequins until he could breathe once again. “What just happened, is it over?” He asked as he pulled up his mask halfway.
“Yeah.” Naoto let out a huff as she finished pulling out the wires. “Yeah it’s over. You two should get out of here. We can take it from here.”
“Where have I heard that one before?” Mitsuru asked sarcastically as she walked off.
The vigilantes left the building unseen thanks to Mitsuru’s skills and Ren’s cloaking ability. As they stood on the rooftop of a nearby building, the redhead stopped the younger man before he could leave.
“Hey, there’s something else I wanted to tell you. There’s another reason I showed up tonight.”
“Oh?” Ren was curious. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to tell you, I’m going to be leaving town tomorrow. I have some...personal business to take care of.” Mitsuru said cryptically.
“Oh.” Ren said, sadness creeping in his voice. He was starting to think that the two of them made a good team. “H-How long will you be gone?”
“I don’t know. I might not come back at all.”
“Wha-Is it dangerous!? Do you need my help?”
“Nonono it’s not like that, nothing I can’t handle. I’m just...not sure if I can really stand to be here anymore. Y’know? Too many psychos in the streets. *sigh* Too many bad memories.”
“So then I guess this is goodbye?” Ren said, unsure of how he felt.
“For now.” Mitsuru’s red lips curved up. “Maybe I’ll come back to see you. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve taken a liking to you. And before I go, I have a question. Did something happen between you and Ms. Detective?”
“W-What!? What gave you that idea!?” Ren was blushing furiously under his mask.
“So something did happen. I couldn’t help but notice you staring at her a little longer than usual. I must say, I’m disappointed that you didn’t invite me to the party. The three of us could’ve had a spectacular time together.”
Ren’s blush deepened. “It’s...It’s not like that! S-She doesn’t want anything serious.” Ren admitted, glad to finally have someone to talk to about this. “She told me to just forget it ever happened. Plus, she doesn’t really have feelings for me. I think I just remind her of the man she really loved.”
“Oh yeah.” Mitsuru said. “She was totally pining after Narukami! She hated me when he and I were dating, part of the ‘not seeing eye-to-eye’ thing, well that and she’s a cop and I’m a robber.”
Ren merely looked down, her input had clearly not helped his situation.
“Look kid, I can’t speak for Naoto, but I can say that she’s smart enough to know the difference between you and Narukami. Whatever you two shared, that was between the two of you, not her and him. I, for one, think that there really is something between the two of you, and as much as I’d like that something to be me, I think that you two have some shit to work out first. Talk to her. Okay?”
“Okay.” Ren nodded and looked over at Naoto guiding the officers out of the building with mannequins in tow. “After this Mysterio business is over, I’ll talk to her. Hey, you’re joking about the threesome stuff, right?” He asked as he turned back only to find an empty rooftop, the cat burglar long gone.
Suddenly, Ren’s phone buzzed. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that he was 40 minutes late to work and Margaret had sent 7 texts demanding to know where he was.
“Shit.”
[Bonus]
“Y’know, if you guys are going to keep asking me to teach you how to fight, I ought to start charging.” Makoto joked as she wrapped up her partner’s hands.
“C’mon Makoto! Just a few lessons? I could really use them in case one of the guys at the agency tries anything or, God forbid, I ever run into another creep like Kamoshida.” Ann Takamaki reasoned with her friend as her hands were finished with their wrappings. “Plus, I hear this can be a great stress reliever, and boy do I have some stress after the shit Mika pulled.”
“Mika? That brunette model at your agency?”
“Yeah. Back when Ren called me to help warn Sojiro and Futaba, I had to leave work for like, 30 minutes tops, and she went and told the crew I was done for the day. They completely cut me out of the issue! Can you believe that!?”
“What a bitch!” Makoto said as she took her place behind the gym’s punching bag. “Wanna take it out on this thing?”
“Yes, please.” Ann said as she raised her fists.
“Remember, don’t tuck in your thumbs and keep your arms parallel to the ground.” Makoto reminded the blonde as she began taking jabs at the bag of sand. She was honestly surprised by the amount of force behind Ann’s punches, credit where credit is due, the girl was stronger than she looked.
“Did *huff* Ren *huff* pick up on this technique *huff* this quick?” Ann asked between jabs.
“Don’t talk while punching. I’m teaching him a different style of fighting than you.”
“What?” Ann stopped what she was doing. “Why?”
“Ren’s fighting style is much more acrobatic and flexible, he’s much lighter on his feet than you or I so I’m having him learn something that he’d be more naturally attuned to.”
“I can be light on my feet.” Ann interjected.
“Can you do a standing backflip?” Makoto asked.
“Um, no?”
“Thought so. So why don’t we get back to punching the bag?”
“Y’know, you’re a lot meaner when you're in the gym.” Ann pointed out before resuming her training.
“So I’ve heard.”