Chapter 100
[131]
“Director!” Masayoshi Shido’s secretary ran to her boss as he stepped out of his helicopter. “We need to get you to safety immediately! The building is under attack”
“So I’ve heard.” Shido replied calmly, walking past her with his hands in his pockets. As he entered the glass elevator on the side of the building, his secretary quickly followed after.
“Sir! You’re in danger! We have to get you to the safe room!” She warned as the elevator began to descend.
“All these years working here and you still haven’t realized?” Shido asked, looking out over the city. Suddenly a black mass in the rough shape of a human slammed against the glass, baring its sharp teeth and long tongue at them. “This building is the safe room.”
“AAHHH!” The secretary let out a scream as she backed away in fear. Her boss however, didn’t even flinch, instead leaning forward to get a closer look.
“Fascinating.” Shido observed the creature as it pounded against the glass. “So this is what became of VM-299. For it to be this strong, the host’s compatibility must exceed 90 percent.”
The creature continued to slam its fists into the glass, as it did, small cracks began to appear in the surface. Seemingly infuriated by its inability to break through, the monster’s attacks became more rapid and animalistic, letting out a furious roar.
“SHIDOOOO!” It yelled, its long tongue lashing out like a whip.
“D-Director!” The secretary cowered in fear.
“It’s fine.” Shido insisted. “Samael. Status report.”
“Glass integrity: 65 percent.” The building’s AI responded over the intercom. “At its current rate, you have 2 minutes before the elevator is breached.”
“I think I’ve seen enough.” Shido stated. “Send Niijima and her team to the bottom floor, and get this ‘thing’ off of my building.”
“Of course Director.” Samael replied.
“What’s going to-” Before the secretary could finish her question, she was interrupted by a blast from outside the building. Twin turrets appeared on either side of the elevator and began to fire on the creature, forcing it to release its grip on the elevator. With a cry of pain, it fell to the ground below and out of their sight. “Whew.” The secretary let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re fired by the way.” Shido stated.
“Huh?” She looked up, gaping at her boss.
“No one who works for me should be this unprofessional in an emergency. You can pack up your desk and leave. I wouldn’t recommend going out the front entrance though, it’s going to be quite busy.” He smiled, staring out at the city below him.
On the ground, Akechi was just standing back up from the crater he’d just put in the ground with his fall when a group of men dressed in white uniforms rushed to surround him from all sides. Overhead, a legion of drones flew in circles directly above him.
‘Dammit!’ Akechi thought, wincing in pain as Venom removed the bullets from his body. ‘It seems I underestimated Shido’s security measures.’
As he looked around him, he noticed the ring of soldiers parted in order to allow their leader in. From the looks of it, the leader was a tall woman in her twenties with long silver wearing a white trench coat with grey body armor beneath it.
Sae Niijima a.k.a Silver Sable. Being a reporter by day, he of course recognized this woman at a glance. Shido’s head of security and personal lap dog. An individual known for her beauty and deadliness, having risen to one of the highest ranking positions in the company through sheer work ethic and efficiency, the threat she posed couldn’t be understated.
“Director, what’s the call?” She spoke into her headset. Pausing for a moment, she nodded her head. “Understood.”
Turning to one of her squad members next to her, she signalled to the trooper who nodded before pressing a series of buttons on their tablet. Almost immediately, the drones overhead began emitting a high frequency noise, one that caused even the soldiers to flinch in pain. Akechi was in even worse shape.
The symbiote cried out in pain, its form withering as it tried to pull itself away from Akechi to escape the painful sound. The boy fell to his knees, clutching at his ears and trying to maintain his form.
“Once you have a clear shot, take it!” Sae called out to her team. “Avoid damaging the symbiote! We’re to collect it after the host is neutralized.”
“That’s not very nice!” A voice called from above. Before anyone could react, weblines shot out from above snatching the guns out of each soldier’s hands. When he landed, Spider-Man uncloaked, revealing himself in a new suit to everyone present.
“Spider-Man!” Sae called out, aiming her pistols at the vigilante. “Don’t interfere! If you make any sudden moves, I am authorized to use lethal force!”
“Whoa!” He raised his arms disarmingly. “Why don’t we calm down for a second? Good job stopping this guy, but nobody’s getting ‘neutralized’ on my watch!”
“That isn’t your decision to make. If you don’t leave now, I’ll be forced to detain you.” The head of security warned. “The VM-299 is property of Shido Sciences and its host is a criminal. You don’t understand how dangerous it could be!”
“If he’s a criminal, then he should be tried under the law!” Spider-Man argued. “But I can see that you aren’t going to budge on this, so screw it. Ghost!” He called out.
Out of nowhere, a feminine figure dressed in black, white, and pink jumped in front of Sae. “Sorry about this.” The vigilante apologized before kicking the shocked woman to the ground.
The troopers, missing their rifles, ran at the two vigilantes with batons drawn, beginning a hand to hand conflict that drew the attention away from Akechi. Seeing his opportunity, he used the last of his strength to shoot a tendril at one of the drones. When it came in contact, Akechi used the drone as a weapon against the others, slamming it into the other drones.
With the drones damaged, the sound was dampened enough for the symbiote to regain his form around Akechi, pulling himself away from the conflict.
“Stop!” One of the soldiers cried out. Akechi turned around to spot a soldier aiming a pistol at him. Seeing his face, the soldier hesitated for a moment. “A-A kid!?”
His hesitation would be his downfall however, as one of the symbiote’s tendrils shot out and grabbed the man, pulling him in before growing two rows of teeth and biting off his head.
“I’ve recovered my strength. Let’s kill the others!” The mouth spoke to Akechi before sliding back into his body.
“No. We would only be recaptured.” Akechi advised. “We need to make a tactical retreat.” His other half growled in anger but relented, allowing them to escape undetected.
Meanwhile, the fight between Ren, Makoto and the guards was rather one-sided with the two vigilantes easily incapacitating their assailants. As Makoto raised her fist to knockout the last guard, she was alerted to an attack from behind by her spider-sense. Quickly flipping away, she narrowly avoided a gunshot, tracing it back to its owner, Makoto saw that it was none other than her sister holding the smoking gun.
“Do you realize what you’ve done!?” Sae asked angrily. “You and your sidekick just let that thing get away! Now that thing is loose in the city! Both of you are coming with me!”
‘Oh Sis…’ Makoto thought sadly.
“Sorry, but that won’t do.” Ren said from next to her. “We’ll find that thing, and we’ll stop it. Our way. No killing.”
“You expect me to just let you go?” Sae raised an eyebrow.
“You can’t stop us.” Makoto said before tossing out a web grenade. With that providing a distraction, the two of them escaped, swinging away as fast as they could.
“Dammit!” Sae yelled, struggling against the webbing, forced to watch the vigilantes escape.
When they finally got clear of the Shido Sciences building and its guards, the pair of heroes ducked into an alleyway. After checking that the coast was clear, the two removed their masks, Ren taking a seat on a box and Makoto pacing impatiently.
“Dammit Ren, maybe we shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place. We just made the situation worse! The Shido Sciences team had it handled, we should’ve just left it to them to take care of.”
“Makoto…” Ren looked at her sadly. “You heard what that woman said, there’s a person in that thing! And they were going to kill them!”
“And because we interfered, one of the guards died and that thing got loose! Who knows how many more people it will kill now!”
“We’ll stop it before it can do that. We’ll free whoever’s in there and capture that monster. Makoto, in this job, you can’t save everyone...But we have to save who we can, even if they’re criminals. That’s what you signed up for.”
Despite his words, Makoto still seemed unsure. “I didn’t sign up to fight my sister…” She murmured.
“Hold on,” Ren stood up, surprised. “That woman with the silver hair, that was your sister!?”
“Yeah…” She rubbed her arm. “Sae Niijima, she’s Shido’s head of security. And my older sister.”
“And you didn’t find that prudent to share!?”
“It wasn’t relevant until now!” Makoto argued. “What does it even matter!?”
Ren struggled to speak for a moment. “...I don’t trust Shido. There’s something about him, I feel like...I don’t know. I just have this bad feeling.” He looked at Makoto’s judgemental face. “We...we’re still partners, right?”
“...”
“...”
“Yes. We’re still partners.” They grasped each other’s hands and shook. “And I am not your sidekick.”
“Noted.”
Later that afternoon, Futaba was sitting up in her room typing away on her computer. From what she’d gathered, that thing that attacked Shido Sciences was Ren’s next target, and it was her job to be the eyes in the sky, hacking into street cameras and surveying online and police chatter. It was hard work, but as long as she didn’t have to go outside she didn’t mind.
She was so busy watching her monitors that she barely noticed when there was a knock at her door.
“Come in!” The redhead called out, not bothering to turn around. It was probably Sojiro anyway, he was the only one who ever came by. It was this expectation that caused Futaba to be surprised when she heard a female voice behind her.
“Hey Futaba.” Ann entered the room, looking around at the various posters and figurines in the younger girl’s room.
“Ann?” Futaba spun around in her chair with a bewildered look. “What are you doing here? N-Not that I mind! It’s just that...I don’t really get visitors.”
“Well y’see…” Ann played with one of her pigtails, avoiding eye contact with the young hacker. “I saw the suits that you made for Ren and Makoto on the news.”
“Yeah?” Futaba raised an eyebrow.
“Um...Do you think...C-Could you maybe...Make one for me?” The blonde asked.
“...What!?”
Later that night, across the city at Naoto’s apartment, the detective had just come home from another 60 hour shift and was dead tired. She pulled off her hat and tie as she set her briefcase on the couch.
She turned to the kitchen table and sighed when she found it empty. It had been over a month since ‘he’ moved out, and despite her being used to living in an empty house for years, it never truly felt empty until that boy left. Now she couldn’t help but fantasize about coming home after a long day of work to find him cooking dinner for her, cuddling on the couch while watching a movie, and falling asleep on his chest.
Even back when she’d had feelings for Yu, she’d never daydreamed about a life they could share together. It was these fantasies, which occupied her mind during work and at home, that made Naoto realize she’d fallen for the teenage vigilante, harder than she’d ever fallen for anyone before.
Once again, she let out a loud sigh. “Maybe I should get a cat?” She wondered aloud. Before she could continue that line of thought, there was a knock at her door.
The detective turned toward the door with a look of surprise. No one ever came by her apartment! Not even the landlord, she made all of her payments well in advance. Putting her hand on her hip, she assured that her sidearm was there and the safety was off. Carefully stepping toward the door, she pressed her ear against it and heard muffled voices on the other end.
Multiple visitors? Late at night? The situation was looking worse by the second.
Finally, she cracked open the door to see who was on the other side, only to widen her eyes in shock before opening the door completely.
“G-Guys?”
In front of her stood her entire friend group from Inaba. Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Teddie, and...Rise. The final member she’d spoken to the most recently, but they hadn’t departed on the best of terms. Rise was mad that Naoto wouldn’t share confidential information gathered by the police that pointed to Yu’s killer and the terrorist behind the Shibuya attack. Grieving, angry, and lonely, the celebrity widow traveled back to Inaba to mourn alongside Dojima, Nanako, and the others while Naoto stayed in Tokyo to continue her work.
“Hey.” Rise greeted softly, her eyes looking much kinder than she’d last seen. “It’s been a while.” Something else seemed different about her too, she just couldn’t focus enough to tell what it was at the moment.
“Yeah…” Naoto replied almost inaudibly, still dumbstruck by the situation. “C-Come in! Please, it’s cold out!” She ushered them inside. Each of her friends gave her a warm greeting and a hug as they entered, though the awkwardness between them was still palpable. “Sorry, I don’t have any food or snacks ready. I’m pretty low on coffee too. I just got home myself actually.”
“There’s no need.” Yukiko stated, taking a seat. “But thank you for the offer.”
The room stood quiet for almost a minute. Finally Naoto decided to break the silence.
“So, what brought you all back to Tokyo?” She asked hesitantly.
The group all looked at each other before turning to Rise who stood up, staring at the detective.
“We need to talk.”