Chapter 118
[150]
Sumire sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, looking down at the streets below. Moving her right hand to her side, she picked her phone from her pocket before staring at the text on the screen.
“Sumire,” The text read. “I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to your sister. I can’t get into why, but just know that I’m not the one responsible. Please trust me on this. I’m sorry. For everything. - Ren”
For a month now, this text had been Sumire’s obsession. She had read through it countless times, interpreting it every way she could think of, but after all of this time, only one thing was clear to her. She needed to find Ren Amamiya.
The boy had always been elusive, even before he was a wanted terrorist, but now it seemed as though he’d practically dropped off the face of the Earth. One would think that with Tokyo now being in a police state, Silver Sable and her small army would’ve caught a single teenager by now, but no, he continued to elude them even a month after his attack.
That…wasn’t a promising argument for his innocence.
*Bzzz!*
An alert on her phone caught Sumire’s attention, the redhead immediately stared back down at the screen.
“Please come home, Sumi. It’s getting late and I’m worried sick. The patrols are getting more frequent. Be safe. I love you. - Dad”
Sumire sighed. She didn’t want her father to worry, he’d already lost one daughter after all, but this was something she had to do. She sent her dad a quick text to assure him that she was okay before slipping her phone back into her pocket and standing up. Or rather…standing sideways.
Standing on the side of a tall building in Shibuya, her feet sticking to one of the windows, Sumire stared down at the city beneath her. Where there should’ve been a bustling city square, there was a heavily guarded checkpoint. Where there should’ve been people rushing to buy Christmas gifts for their families, there were patrols of Silver Sentries and Centurions, sweeping for criminals and harassing the few people still brave enough to walk the streets at night.
Sumire wasn’t normally one to curse, but Tokyo had gone to shit.
Sending a webline from her fingertips, the girl swung across the rooftops toward a shorter building nearby. She couldn’t claim to be a pro at web-swinging yet, even after nearly a month of practice it still seemed surreal to her, but she could get from place to place easily enough now.
The frigid air rippled at Sumire’s loose windbreaker as she traveled, threatening to carry her off course with each swing. She was beginning to understand why all of the other spider-people wore skintight outfits while fighting crime fighting, apparently it wasn’t just to accentuate their butts.
Sumire’s own ‘costume’ (if one could call it that) mostly consisted of old winter clothing she’d picked out of her and Kasumi’s wardrobe. A white windbreaker jacket with black sleeves, a pair of red fingerless gloves, black compression pants, white beam shoes, and a red scarf tied tightly around the bottom half of her face. Her red hair was tied back into a ponytail in the same style her sister had always worn hers.
She wasn’t too worried about her appearance, she wasn’t trying to become a superhero after all, the costume was simply to hide her identity. All that really mattered to the girl was finding Ren and getting answers.
Coming to a stop behind a large billboard, Sumire watched as the patrol unit she was following came to a sudden halt. The patrol consisted of 8 Silver Sentries guiding an armored car with a heavy gun mounted on top, they had been moving at a fairly steady pace all night, up until now that is. Suddenly, the patrol unit abruptly began accelerating in the opposite direction they’d been headed, presumably having received word from their commanding officer, informing them of a nearby occurrence.
“This could be it.” Sumire said to herself, moving to reach the scene while staying out of sight. “This could be him.” Of course, the odds of that being the case were not in her favor, a month of searching with no results had made that abundantly clear, but she couldn’t lose hope.
Kasumi wouldn’t have given up. So neither would Sumire.
Leaping to the next roof over with the grace of a trained gymnast, the redhead sprinted ahead of the patrol, trying to get there first. If Ren Amamiya was somewhere in this city, Sumire would find him. Someone had to answer for her sister’s death. And if that someone turned out to be Ren himself…
So be it.
Across the city, Ren let out a sneeze as he finished his protein bar. Pulling down his mask, he shivered to himself.
“I’d better not be catching a cold.”
Honestly it was a miracle that the seventeen year old wasn’t dead by this point, even putting aside all the people currently trying to kill him. He was homeless, spending most of his time up on freezing cold rooftops, food was scarce, sleep was even scarcer, and also he was the most wanted criminal in the country.
Ren Amamiya had been looked down upon when he first arrived in Tokyo eight months ago, framed for an assault he didn’t commit, hated by teachers, and kept at arm’s length by his peers. Now he was outright feared by everyone, framed for terrorism, constantly chased by armed soldiers. His life was over.
Spider-Man wasn’t exactly in the public’s good graces either. As far as they were aware, the webslinger had killed Tokyo’s biggest crime boss and justified the prime minister putting Tokyo under martial law.
The only saving grace was that, for some reason, Masayoshi Shido had elected not to reveal Ren’s identity, though he undoubtedly knew it. Maybe it would hamper his goals. Maybe he had some grand reveal planned for him. All that mattered was that he still had that card to play.
Who knew what else the man had planned for him, but if his goal was to ruin Ren’s life, he’d succeeded. He'd planned for their every move and used them to his benefit, making him the most powerful man in the city, and soon, likely the country. Fear campaigns based around the recent chaos had led the citizens into believing that this conniving murderous billionaire had their best interests at heart. Now Shido had everything and Ren had nothing.
Not even his friends.
A sudden scream caught the boy’s attention, rushing off of the rooftop, he leapt to the next building over. It had come from nearby, likely only a few blocks away. With any luck, Ren could get there before anyone was seriously hurt. In recent days, he hadn’t been so lucky. Crime was everywhere now, even with the Sable soldiers around. Hell, half of the time they were the ones committing the crimes.
Ren jumped down onto the streets beneath him. The street was heavily damaged, and police tape quarantined the area for at least a few blocks. Likely it had been damaged during one of his fights with a villain, though Ren honestly couldn’t recall which. Ever since the attack at Shido Sciences, everything had been a blur to him.
Looking around, the vigilante noticed that no one else seemed to be present, despite that, Ren was positive the scream had come from here. Worrying that he was too late, he moved to search the area, only for a familiar figure to drop down from a nearby wall.
“Hello Ren.”
Dressed in a white suit with pink and black highlights, a hood pulled over her mask, was Makoto Niijima. Ghost Spider.
“Makoto…” Beneath his mask, Ren let out a heavy breath. “What are you-?” He glanced behind him, seeing another figure, this one dressed in black with white highlights. His suit was a reflection of Ren’s, but bulkier and made of an unknown substance.
Ryuji.
Seeing the two figures approach him from opposing sides, Ren subconsciously raised his guard, bending his legs and readying his webshooters.
“What is this?” He questioned the pair, the lenses of his mask squinting.
“Wouldja relax, man?” Ryuji spoke up. “We’re here to talk.”
“Did you…Was this a trick?”
“Well what’d you expect dude? You ditched your phone and have been dodging us for weeks. How else were we supposed to contact you?”
“You realize that someone could be dying right now, right? And what? You want to talk, shoot the shit, and waste all of our time?”
“We want you to come back, Ren.” Makoto said softly. “We’ve set up a secure base and-”
“Nowhere is secure! Don’t you get that!?” Ren yelled, turning to her with his arms raised in frustration. “Every move we make, Shido’s already accounted for!”
“So what?” Ryuji stepped closer to Ren. “We’re just supposed to give up then? Checkmate, well played? Congrats, the city's yours?”
Ren turned to the blonde vigilante, anger visible even beneath his mask.
“Is that what this looks like to you? That I just gave up? I’m fighting every day to keep people safe! I’m-”
“You’re not sleeping.” Makoto countered, placing a hand on Ren’s shoulder. “You’re barely eating. You’re obviously covered in wounds. Everyone is worried about you. You’re not yourself.”
Ren shrugged her hand away, taking a step away from his friends. Hanging his head, he stared at the cracked concrete beneath him, struggling to form the words in his mind. He was so tired. He wanted to go home. He wanted everything to go back to how it was before. Before he ever became Spider-Man.
But he couldn’t.
Who would make Shido pay for all that he’d done? Who would avenge Kasumi? Wakaba? Chie? Yosuke? All of them died because he had failed to protect them. And who was there to blame? No one but Ren himself. And Shido.
“You’re right.” He answered. “I’m not myself anymore. Ren made promises he couldn’t keep. That he would protect the people he loved, that he would protect the city. I only make one promise. When I get my hands on Shido, I’m gonna kill him.”
Ren fired a webline at the nearest roof, only for the line to be intercepted by a black tendril halfway through the air. The webline was pulled taut, connecting Ren’s arm to Ryuji’s with only a few meters between them.
“Sorry bro,” Ryuji apologized. “But we aren’t done talking yet!” As he finished his sentence, the blond pulled the line as hard as he could, pulling Ren along with it.
The raven-haired boy stumbled forward before being wrapped in a bear hug by Ryuji.
“Ergh!” Ren gritted his teeth, struggling within his friend’s grasp, his malnourished struggling to put up a fight.
“Don’t hurt him! We just need him to listen!”
The Venom symbiote’s tendrils wrapped around the boy’s arms and legs, further restraining his movement. Looking Ryuji dead in the eye, Ren gave him a final warning.
“Let. Go.”
“Not until you get your head outta your ass and-”
*ZZAAPP!*
Blue lightning sparked off of Ren’s body, causing the alien suit to reel back in pain. For a brief moment, large teeth and a long pink tongue sprouted out of the suit’s helmet, looking to lash out at whatever had harmed it, only for its host to fight back. Now busy struggling for control, Ryuji’s grip weakened enough for Ren to break free.
As he moved to get away from the pair once more, he was tackled to the ground by Makoto. Straddling his chest, she quickly shot two webs pinning his wrists to the street.
“This is for your own good, Ren. I hope you don’t hold this against me.”
“I could say the same.” The boy replied, kicking his legs up to wrap around the older girl’s torso before flinging her off of his body and into the still recovering Ryuji.
With a massive heave of strength, Ren tore his right hand from the road, taking a chunk of concrete up with it and, using his now free hand, tore apart the webs restraining his left. Taking a brief second to ensure neither of his friends were too injured, Ren shot another web and zipped toward the nearest rooftop.
“Oof!” The vigilante let out a grunt as he was struck in the back by a large object in midair.
Unable to react in time, Ren went flying off course, crashing through the building’s window instead of landing on its roof. Sliding across ceramic flooring, now covered in glass, he found himself inside of an empty office building devoid of nearly any furniture or equipment. Groggily, Ren sat up on the floor to see what had hit him, surprised to see a familiar head of blonde hair in front of him.
Ann Takamaki was dressed in a black suit with white highlights across the chest and waist, on her hands were a thick pair of gloves with built-in tech, on either side of her utility belt were a pair of metal batons, and around her face was a pair of black goggles with orange lenses. Notably, her costume had been improved since she had first shown it off to Ren, under the arms of her suit were stretchy, loose fabric like one would see on a wingsuit.
“Ann!? Did you just…fly!?” Ren asked incredulously.
“Ugh.” The non-powered girl groaned in pain, pushing herself up from the floor. Even though Ren had taken the brunt of the impact, she had still felt it. “Web-wings,” She replied. “Futaba originally designed them for you. But I think they match better with my aesthetic, don’t you think?”
“I’m not going back.” The boy stated sternly.
Attempting to cloak himself, Ren visibly flickered in and out of sight before letting out an exhausted sigh. He was too drained, he didn’t have the stamina to use his abilities in rapid succession and his earlier venom blast had used most of his remaining strength. That was likely the reason his spider-sense hadn’t detected Ann either.
“I know. That’s why Futaba gave me these too.” Ann replied as she stood up, pulling another object from her belt. A short length of wire with two metal balls on either end. A bola.
As Ren moved to run out the door, the blonde quickly threw her weapon at his legs. With a magnetic whirr, the two balls quickly locked together powerfully, completely restraining the boy’s movement. Ren fell to the ground with a hard thud and immediately began trying to free himself from the contraption.
“Those are high power neodymium magnets and carbon fiber cable. If you were at full strength, you could probably free yourself.” Ann stated as she approached him from behind. “But you’re not. You’re running yourself ragged trying to save everyone you can. But we can do better, we can save the whole city. As a team, Ren. Like we used to be.”
“We can’t save anything if you’re all dead. And that’s exactly what will happen if I go back with you.”
“Shido’s not God, Ren.” Ann argued. “He doesn’t control your life and he doesn’t control ours.”
“Tell that to families he’s torn apart! To the hundreds that he’s slaughtered!”
Changing the settings on his webshooter, Ren fired a net of his webbing directly at Ann, trapping the girl against a support column. Then, with all of the strength he could manage, he slammed his legs against the floor with enough force to not only crack the floor, but also to break the magnetic cuffs around his feet.
As he stood up to leave, Ren saw Ann burning her way out of the netting with a flare from her utility belt. She would be free within moments.
“Tell the others that I’m sorry. If at the end of this I’m still…” He hesitated for a moment before giving the blonde a final look. “I’ll see you again.”
“Ren! Wait!” Ann called out, but the boy had already disappeared from sight.
Outside, the girl could hear the sound of sirens approaching. There were no civilians in this part of town, so most likely the two had set off a silent alarm when they crashed through the window. Regardless, it meant that she and the others had to get out of here quickly or else risk being caught.
The hunt for Ren would have to wait another night.
Meanwhile, as Ren fled the scene, he attempted to escape via web swing, only to be meant with a quiet *click* sound, indicating that he’d emptied out another web cartridge. His last one. In a hopeless search for any more cartridges on his person, he quickly discovered a dark red spot on the side of his costume with a large shard of glass jutting out.
Warm blood caked the palm of his hand as Ren’s vision began to blur. He felt sick. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to throw up. Keeping his wits about him, he managed to avoid the former, but succumbed to the latter. He needed bandages, painkillers, any supplies that he could get his hands on really. He missed Tae. He missed her comforting touch and awful bedside manner.
But he was on his own now.
[Bonus]
Following the patrol unit had been a bust.
All that the soldiers had found was an old office building that was already ransacked. Maybe a squatter had tripped the alarm after looking to escape the cold, but they were long gone by the time the Sable’s troops arrived.
Perhaps it was time for Sumire to call it a night. The night air was freezing and her dad was worried sick about her.
As she began her trip back home for the night, Sumire felt it. A tingle rushing up her spine directly to her brain. And suddenly it was as if she knew where she needed to go, she didn’t know why or what was there, simply that every instinct was telling her to.
In less than a minute she found herself standing before a seemingly abandoned pharmacy on a street corner tucked between two much larger buildings.
Adjusting her scarf to ensure her face was covered, the girl approached the building with caution. When the door inside swung open, Sumire tucked herself next to the wall and out of sight.
“I-I’m *cough* I’m sorry.” A weak voice spoke. “I didn’t think-”
“What? You didn’t think what? That this was somebody’s livelihood? That they wouldn’t leave it unprotected?” A much more aggressive voice questioned.
Turning her head to peak, Sumire saw an older balding man aiming a gun directly at a younger man with long dark scraggly hair and torn up clothes, he was clearly homeless.
“Get the hell out of here ya bum!” The man with the gun shouted.
“Please *cough* *cough* I’m bleeding and I can’t-”
“Not my problem! This is your last warning!”
The homeless man didn’t move, so the older man struck him with the butt of his gun, knocking him down to the ground before kicking him for good measure. A few seconds passed and the bum lay still where he had fallen, the older man spit on the ground before walking back into his store.
Sumire was uncertain regarding whether or not she should call the authorities. On the one hand, this man clearly needed help, but on the other, he could be a dangerous criminal, willing to kill her in order to survive. Even if she did call the authorities, she doubted they would actually provide him aid, from what she’d seen from them, they were far more likely to simply put a bullet in the back of his head.
When the man began lifting himself to his feet, Sumire quickly made up her mind, moving in to help him.
“Excuse me, sir? Are you alr-” Her eyes went wide as the man turned to face her.
“S-Senpai?”