Chapter 73
[101]
Ren had been asleep for maybe 45 minutes before being woken up by a text and he was incredibly tempted to wait until morning to check it out. But with great power, yada yada all that noise, he decided to read it, afterall it could just be Futaba sending him memes late at night again.
As he reached for his phone, which was just out of his reach, he ended up tumbling out of bed. Sighing at his luck, he grabbed his phone and pulled it off of its charger.
“Large apartment fire in Ebisu. Civilians trapped on the higher levels in need of evac. Get there. Fast.” Naoto had texted him.
Ren sighed even louder this time and rested his back against the side of his bed. ‘Can’t the fire department just handle this?’ He wondered to himself. But staying home wouldn’t be the heroic thing to do. So he picked himself up off of the floor, his knees popping as he did so.
“Sleep is overrated anyway.” He said, cracking his back as he stretched.
2 minutes later, Ren was running across the Yongen rooftops on his way to Ebisu. While he began to swing with one hand, he held his phone in the other. He had decided that a phone call to the detective was in order, to get more details about the situation of course, definitely not because they hadn’t spoken since he moved out and he wanted to see where they stood.
“What is it?” Naoto’s grumpy voice answered the phone.
That wasn’t a good sign, Ren silently noted. He really hoped that she didn’t hate him now. When he’d told her about Sojiro’s offer to come back to Leblanc, the detective had shown little interest, neither sad to see him go or happy to be rid of him. Seriously, how bad had he fucked up that night?
“Hey Naoto! Um, just wanted to let you know that I’m on my way to the fire now...How’s the situation progressing?”
“I’m not there in person Ren. I’m in my office going through paperwork.” She replied, annoyed and sounding as tired as he felt.
“Oh...right.” He was at a loss as to what to say next.
“Is that all? I’m very busy at the moment.”
“...”
“...”
“What happened to us Naoto?” Ren blurted out, his lack of sleep removing his filter.
“What?” The detective sounded genuinely confused.
“I mean...What did I do? Did I really mess up so badly that you won’t even talk to me now unless it’s business?”
“Wha-Is now really the time to be asking this!?”
“I can swing while I talk.” He replied, not letting up. “Look, I get it. I’m not Yu Narukami and no matter how much I emulate him, I never will be. But...I don’t know...I thought we had our own kind of relationship.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t-I didn’t feel that way about him!” Naoto protested.
“You talk in your sleep Naoto. You thought I was him and you told me you loved me.” He tried to mask the hurt in his voice. “And ever since that night, we haven’t addressed it and I’m sick of it.”
“Ren…”
“Just tell me now Naoto. On no uncertain terms, is there anything more between us than a partnership?”
“...”
“Naoto?”
“I have work to get done. And you need to get to Ebisu. We’ll talk about this another time.” With that, she hung up.
“Dammit Naoto!” Ren sighed as he placed his phone in the suit’s pocket.
Back in Naoto’s office, the detective placed her phone facing down on her desk, then promptly slammed her head onto her mountain of paperwork. “Dammit Ren.”
The fire had become very large in the time it took Ren to get there and he was able to see it from miles away. Luckily it hadn’t spread to any of the other buildings yet. First responders were at the scene, a large crowd of the apartment complex’s residents were gathered on the streets. However, just as Naoto had said, a group of people were gathered on the rooftop, awaiting rescue.
“Hey everyone.” He said, landing on the roof. “Nice night, isn’t it?”
“Spider-Man!” The children among the residents cheered.
“Enough quips!” A large man in a white tank top yelled. “Hurry up and save us already!”
“RIght, one rescue coming up.” Ren looked around for what might help him in this situation. When he spotted a building across the street, an idea popped into his mind. The distance between the buildings was roughly 30 feet, so jumping was out of the question, but he had another idea. He fired two weblines across the street before connecting them to the side of the roof.
“And just what the hell are we supposed to do with that? Tightrope walk?”
“Hold on.” Ren said as he changed the dial on his webshooters.
Apparently in her time away from technology, Futaba had enough free time to draw up some specs for new webshooter mods among other helpful gadgets. While many were still in the prototype phase, not ready for field testing at the moment, there was one mod she’d already integrated into his suit.
Turning the dial to ‘spray’ he heard a soft click from each device as their nozzles shifted. According to Futaba, this design was pretty simple but still effective. Have you ever held your thumb over the end of a hose? It basically worked like that. He aimed his hand between the two weblines and fired. A wide net of web fluid cascaded out, catching onto the weblines and forming a bridge between the buildings.
“Is...Is that safe?” A woman in her bathrobe asked, obviously concerned.
“Absolutely.” Ren reassured her. “I once caught a helicopter with these things. It can support the weight.” Even so, he intended to stick nearby, to ensure that nobody accidentally fell.
As the residents began to cross, an explosion from one of the rooms below caused the building to shake and the fire to reach the rooftop. Luckily, no one on the makeshift bridge fell, but they were certainly frightened.
“Okay, might need to hurry it up a little. Crawl on all fours if you need to, but we need to get the rest of you across!” Ren told the residents. Some of whom had already reached the other side.
As the last person got up onto the bridge, the large man from earlier, Ren suddenly felt his spider sense go off. Instinctually, he backflipped from where he’d been standing, with no time to spare at that. A large green tail with a menacing spike on its tip shot out of the ground, piercing the air where he was a moment ago.
“Dammit!” The tail’s owner shouted as he pulled himself through the hole he’d just created. “Looks like this bug’s got the same annoying sixth sense as the last one.”
Ren had, of course, heard of Scorpion before. The man had butted heads with the original Spider-Man almost as much as Green Goblin did. But to see him here? Now? Hadn’t Yu sent this guy to prison like 6 months ago?
Before he could think, he felt his spider sense go off once more. He jumped backwards as a small green device flew in front of him. Suddenly, the device exploded and a bright light blinded him. While still blind, he detected another threat fast approaching, but this time he was helpless as he felt a strong hand wrap around his throat and slam him against the ground.
“That’s a tight grip you’ve got there. *cough* Can I guess that I’m not your first?” Ren joked as he struggled to breathe, his eyesight still blurry.
“Joking even when you’re backed into a corner. You’re just like the original.” The figure holding his throat stated as he raised his other clawed hand. From what Ren was able to see now, the figure was dressed in a purple and green suit with a grey cloak on his back. A purple mask with white eyes surrounded by black highlights stared down at him. “Sorry about this, but I’ve got a job to do.” The man said before bringing his claw down.
As a last resort, Ren’s body seemed to react on its own. A venom blast, larger than any he’d used before, was sent out of his entire body. As the blue electricity arced through the air, it sent the villain flying off of him and blasted Ren back as well. Hitting his back against the door leading downstairs, he looked up to see the other villain already getting back onto his feet.
“Huh. Last guy couldn’t do that.” The purple villain stated.
“Yeah well, the new model comes with some improvements.” Ren replied as he pushed himself off the ground. He was feeling even more drained than when he woke up, but he couldn’t let them know that.
“Prowler, you bastard! I really thought you had him for a second!” Scorpion called as he walked over to his partners side. “I nearly lost 5 million!”
So the purple guy is called ‘Prowler.’ Ren noted silently. He’d have to ask Naoto about this guy later.
“So you guys are working in pairs now? Is the bad guy economy going under? Not enough jobs to go around so you’ve got to share?”
“With the bounty that’s on your head, I don’t mind sharing.” Scorpion replied. “10 million yen just for killing you.”
Ren whistled. “That’s quite the deal. Counter offer: 20 yen and a webswing tour around the city and you let me live.”
“Sorry kid, gonna have to pass on that one.”
“You idiot.” Prowler interrupted, clutching his side. “Can’t you see that he’s just distracting you? That attack must’ve drained him so he’s playing for time to recharge.”
‘Dammit.’ Ren thought. ‘He saw right through me.’
“You little bastard!” Scorpion yelled, a smile on his face as he ran in to attack Ren. “I’m gonna skewer you!” His tail shot forward at Ren, as he dodged to the side, the metal door behind him crumpled like tissue paper as it was penetrated.
‘Definitely can’t let that thing touch me.’ He thought as he ran up to Scorpion With his tail preoccupied, he was wide open for a punch to the jaw, or at least Ren thought. As he swung his fist, he was shocked when Scorpion’s tail retracted with incredible speed, swiping Ren to the side with its base. Not only was that thing sharp, it was also fast and strong enough to be a threat without even using the stinger.
Ren was sent tumbling across the rooftop, as he caught himself mid-tumble and began to stand up again, he saw Scorpion coming after him once more. Thinking on his feet this time, he made to shoot a webline at Scorpion’s leg and trip him, only for the web to come out in a spray. He mentally slapped himself, he’d forgotten to change the dials back to classic.
Despite his initial plan failing, the web spray had a positive effect, Scorpion’s feet were now stuck to the ground and he was unable to move for the time being. Now cheering himself on mentally, he instinctively whipped his head back, narrowly avoiding a claw as it reached for his face. He wasn’t fast enough however, as one of the lenses in his mask was torn away, exposing his bare eye.
Ren tried to kick Prowler away, putting some distance between them, but that ended up backfiring. Being the superior hand-to-hand fighter, the villain dug his claws into Ren’s calf before using his own momentum to throw him aside.
The teenage hero, struggling to get up with his injured leg, was completely helpless as Prowler approached him. He struggled to see the villain out of his right eye due to the blood pouring onto it from his bisected eyebrow. As he was lifted off of the ground by his neck once more, the villain looked directly at his face, seeing the fearful expression in his eye.
“I’m sorry kid. Close your eyes if you need to. But it has to end this wa-AGH!” Prowler was interrupted as Ren fired the web spray directly onto his mask, blinding him. He felt bad about using a moment of mercy to his advantage, but he couldn’t let himself die here.
In the moment that the Prowler’s grip faltered, Ren managed to shock him with the last venom strike he could muster. It was much weaker than his normal blasts, but when applied to the villain’s wrist, it was enough to get himself free.
Finally believing himself to have the upper hand in this fight, that notion was quickly dismissed as he heard Scorpion call out to him.
“Oh Spider-Man!” He said in a beckoning voice.
Ren turned his head and saw Scorpion positioned right in front of the web bridge he’d created to help the civilians escape. One person was left on the makeshift bridge, the large man in the tanktop, who clung to the bridge in fear.
“Oops.” Scorpion said as his tail cut the lines attaching them to the building. The bridge, and the man on it, began to drop.
“NO!” Ren yelled as he dove off the side of the building to catch it. He managed to do so, only barely, hanging from the wall of the apartment by his fingertips and holding onto one strand of webbing with his other. Now, if the man wanted to reach the other building, he would have to climb, otherwise he would experience a 30 story drop to the street below.
“Tsk tsk.” Scorpion mocked as he slowly climbed down the side of the building, his suit allowing him to bury his fingers deep enough to stick. “You may have the old Spider-Man’s powers, but it looks like you’ve got his weaknesses too. The civilians always come first to you hero types.” As he reached Ren’s level, he hung off of the building’s side, his tail getting into position to strike. Ren was completely helpless to stop him, both hands occupied and tired beyond belief.
“And that’s why, in the end, they always wind up dead.”