Chapter 85
[116]
Rain was pouring onto the ground in the dark alleyway, the only illumination coming from the lightning that would flash every few moments. Makoto Niijima couldn’t remember why she was here to begin with, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. Several large men dressed in dark clothing began to surround her from all sides and fear began to plague her mind.
However, when the first goon attempted to reach out for her, Makoto’s fighting instincts kicked in. Without another thought, she punched her assailant in the throat before kneeing him in the stomach. The next tried grabbing her from behind, only for Makoto to flip him over her shoulder and onto the wet pavement with a splash. The third attacker charged at her with a knife, but Makoto reacted quickly, grabbing him by the wrist she forced the man to drop his weapon then onto his knees. A punch to the nose laid him down for the count, leaving only a single mugger left.
The final mugger stared her down, keeping his distance after realizing her skills. Makoto readied herself with a fighting stance, prepared for whatever the man tried. However, she wasn’t prepared when the man pulled a gun from his side, aiming the barrel directly at her, he prepared to fire and Makoto closed her eyes in fear.
But no gunshot ever sounded. When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find that the man with the gun was gone. Before she could wonder where he’d gone, a large object fell into view. Struggling while dangling by a string, it was the armed assailant, captured in a web.
“You have a knack for getting in trouble.” A voice called from behind Makoto.
She whirled around only to come face to face with Ren in his Spider-Man suit. Dangling from a nearby building, he was completely upside down with his face level with her’s.
“You have a knack for saving my life. Do I have a superhero stalker?” She asked playfully.
“I was in the neighborhood.” Ren shrugged, brushing off the question. “Seems like you had things handled for the most part though.” He looked over at the other unconscious attackers.
“But still, who knows what could’ve happened if you hadn’t shown up.” She looked at the dangling robber. “You know, you really are amazing.” She smiled looking back at Ren.
“Some people don’t think so.”
“But you are.” She reassured him. Suddenly an idea struck her. “How about I show you my thanks?”
Ren tilted his head, clearly confused. But when Makoto began to pull down his mask, he seemed to get the idea. Leaning forward to meet her lips, Makoto could feel his soft breath on her lips. The two were about to connect when-
*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*
“Huh?” Makoto opened her eyes once more and rather than finding her masked savior, she was instead met with the face of Buchimaru-kun, her stuffed panda.
“Dammit.” She muttered softly, before closing her eyes in hopes of continuing her dream.
*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*
There it was again. The noise that pulled her out of her sleep. What was making that sound? Rubbing her eyes before checking her clock, she saw that it read 1:30am. Not a great time to wake up on a school day.
*TAP* *TAP* *TAP*
Frustrated now, she got out of her bed to check her window. It was probably a bird or small animal trying to enter from the fire escape. One that she would have to shoo away if she had any chance of getting any more rest before school began. Pulling open her window without even looking, she was shocked when a human body fell into her room.
“AH!” She let out a scream, quickly backing away from the figure.
As the body rolled onto its back and faced her, Makoto saw that she recognized the face (dirty as it was) to be Ren’s, and while limp, the groaning sound he made revealed that he was clearly still alive.
“Makoto…” He managed to weakly get out, his eyes barely open. When he moved his hand, a gaping wound became clearly visible in his side.
“Oh my god. Ren!” She said quietly, bending down to inspect his condition.
Suddenly, quick footsteps could be heard from out in the hall heading towards Makoto’s room. Thinking quickly, she pushed Ren’s limp body the only place she could think of, under her bed. Groaning in protest, he became quiet when she finally got him underneath the queen-sized bed. And not a moment too soon as two silver haired figures burst into her room, one wielding a walking cane as a weapon, and the other holding a pistol.
“Makoto! What’s wrong!? We heard you scream!” Akihiko Niijima asked his daughter while searching the room for intruders, cane in hand, ready to be used as a bat.
“It’s nothing Dad! I just saw a spider is all.” She quickly dismissed their worries.
“Since when are you afraid of spiders?” Her sister Sae asked, lowering her firearm.
“Uhh, this one was really big. Like, crazy big.” She said, gesturing with her hands.
“Why’s your window open?” Akihiko asked, gesturing towards said window.
“Oh...I let the spider out that way. I didn’t want to kill it, they do a lot of good afterall.” She said, promptly shutting the window.
“Even so, if I saw one, I’d kill it without a second thought.” Sae replied.
“Noted.” Makoto gave a fake grin as she broke out into a cold sweat. “Okay well, everything’s fine in here, no other spiders in here! Going back to bed now. Goodnight!” She said, quickly ushering them out of her room.
When she was sure that they were gone, Makoto turned back to her bed and pulled the injured Ren out from under it.
“Ren, what happened to you? Why are you here?”
“Your place...was closest.” He breathed out. “Need...help.”
“I think I have a first aid kit in here, but you need to go to a hospital.” She said before getting up and searching her desk for the kit. Finally finding it, she rushed back to the boy’s side and inspected his wound. It was bad, luckily his advanced healing had already stopped the bleeding, but if it wasn’t cleaned and bandaged, it would definitely become infected soon.
“I’ll...be fine. Just need...bandages.”
Makoto rolled her eyes before getting up to grab a glass of water off of her nightstand. “Here, drink this.” She handed him the glass which he drank greedily as Makoto got to work. First applying alcohol to the wound, she was surprised when Ren flinched in pain as she made contact. “Aren’t you used to this sort of thing by now?” She asked.
“I’m usually unconscious for this part.” He replied, now having caught his breath.
“How did this happen anyway? Who did this to you?”
“Scorpion.” Ren replied, a grim look appearing on his face. “He...He killed my uncle.”
“Ren…” Makoto stopped what she was doing and looked at Ren who had tears in the corner of his eyes. “I’m so sorry to hear that.” She placed her hand on his shoulder consolingly. While she didn’t understand the context, it was obvious that Ren was hurting more than just physically.
They didn’t speak on the topic further, allowing Makoto to quickly finish patching Ren up. When she finally placed the bandage on his side, she let out a sigh and sat on her carpet, her lack of sleep finally catching up with her. When she saw Ren resting his head against her bed frame, Makoto decided to take a page from her earlier dream and take a seat at his side, even if it made her cheeks red and her heart race.
If her face wasn’t red enough already, it was set ablaze when Ren’s head fell onto her shoulder. The two sat like that for a solid minute before Makoto finally worked up the courage to turn towards Ren. Finding his eyes closed, Makoto relaxed slightly, glad that he wouldn’t see her this flustered.
“Hey Makoto?” He finally spoke up, revealing that he was still awake.
“Y-Yes?” She responded, her voice cracking.
“I don’t think I can make it home. Can I stay here tonight?”
“Okay.” She replied a little too quickly before realizing what she’d just agreed to.
“Wait...WHAT?”
[Bonus]
“Damn, these two messed each other up pretty bad.” One of the paramedics commented as he looked at the two costumed men lying on the ground.
“That or Spider-Man did this to’em both.” The other paramedic commented, leaning down to check Scorpion for a pulse.
“Spider-Man doesn’t kill people, everybody knows that.”
“Maybe the old one. But with this new one, who knows? You should listen to Tora Yoshida’s radio station, he’s got some pretty valid points.” As he was speaking, he was surprised when the man on the ground let out a loud gasp and sat up before immediately losing consciousness again.
“Holy shit! This guy’s still alive! We need to get him to a hospital, stat!” The two of them loaded the man onto a stretcher and got him into the ambulance. “Thank god for that anonymous tip, otherwise we might’ve been too late!”
As the ambulance sped off to the hospital, the last thing the two paramedics were expecting was to have an 8 foot, half ton man dressed as a rhinoceros T-bone their car, but life is funny like that. The vehicle came to a screeching halt as it moved several yards perpendicular to the direction it had been going a second earlier. In the aftermath, the cabin containing the patient had been folded into a V shape by the large assailant.
After being rudely awakened from his near comatose state, Sho Minazuki sat up from his gurney, groaning in pain. He wouldn’t have much time to contemplate what had just happened as the ambulance doors were quickly torn off of their hinges and thrown into the street.
“Wakey wakey Scorpion. You may rest when job is over.” A deep, heavily accented voice called to Sho.
“Thuddup Tsuda.” Sho replied, nursing his head. “My head hurth like motherfucker. Feelth like a hangover gave me a concuthion.”
“Haha! Your voice. It is sounding funny.”
“My fron theeth got knocked out you athhole.” Sho replied angrily. “Why are you even here?”
“Haven’t you heard?” Rhino smiled sadistically.
“We are getting band back together.”