Part One
With great power comes great responsibility.
It was a saying that she heard Ben say often. Usually when she and Ned were excitedly discussing the newest events surrounding the Avengers and other superheroes. Payton had always taken the words at face value however. She just figured that Ben was saying that, since the Avengers had power, they had the responsibility to use that power for good. While true; Payton now understands that it goes deeper than that. It clicked shortly after she returned to the hideout. Her adrenaline from saving a man from being mugged, or worse, was fading away and her mind had wandered to thinking about what could have happened if she just ignored it.
The smarter decision would have been to just call the police, and then carry on. Risking revealing her location, even to a random stranger, could have drastic consequences if news spreads that she was currently in New Jersey. But she had powers now, and she had some training from the Punisher of all people in how to fight. If she had just let the assault continue, the fate of that man would have been on her hands. The connection between power and responsibility is not just about using your power for good, but for accepting the fact that if you have the power to help, and choose not to, you are still morally responsible for the outcome.
Iron Man didn’t have to fight the Ten Rings. He could have lived comfortably knowing that he built a weapon to help him escape and left the people of Gulmira to their fate. But he didn’t. Same goes for the actions all the Avengers took over the years. It was a sobering thought, comparing her life to those of the Avengers now. Ultimately though, the only difference between her and them was scale. She had the ability to go out there and help people in the city in the same way the Avengers had the ability to go out and help people around the world. So how could she continue to just sit in this hideout for days on end when she could be doing something?
As such, after the first night of peaceful sleep she had in over a week, Payton found herself sitting in front of her claimed workbench, the chemical supplies and web fluid put away for the time being as she looked at the collection of protective equipment and clothing she’d gathered. She’d gotten lucky last night in that the man she saved hadn’t seen her face underneath her hood, but she couldn’t expect that luck to continue if she was going to go out more (which she was). So far, she had selected the gas mask that she had used during her freakout the previous day, as the tinted circular lenses would help prevent any further eye strain from her enhanced vision, and the smallest kevlar vest she could find, which was one of the very few that didn’t already have a white-skull sprayed onto it.
The former of those two items would also serve to hide her identity, while the vest would obviously serve as extra protection. Pair those with her web shooters, and she figured she had the necessary equipment figured out, all she needed now was to complete the ensemble. Looking over the gathered clothes, Payton picked out the same red hoodie she wore the previous night, enjoying the extra layer the hood added, as well as the warmth of it (turns out her thermoregulation issues were far worse than she had thought). Add a pair of athletic leggings to that to avoid restricting her mobility as well as her usual shoes (she only had the one pair) to complete the outfit and Payton figured she was good. If she needed anything else she would likely figure it out tonight.
Taking her collection of items over to her cot, Payton wrapped them up in her blankets. She didn’t want Castle getting curious about what she was doing. Much as she appreciated the man’s help,she was not going to let him keep her locked up in here for the foreseeable future. Risky as it was, she much preferred the option of going out herself at night and at least doing something , even if ultimately it didn’t help with finding out who hired Taskmaster.
With that all said and done, she now just had to wait for the evening. Castle would leave to fight his own battles, David would return home to his family, and she would take the opportunity to explore the city and help out wherever she could. Of course, that time wouldn’t come for another few hours yet, and Payton instead grabbed one of Castle’s books off the table where he kept them. The first book she saw was Moby Dick which she quickly picked up. Her English teacher mentioned the book earlier in the semester, but she hadn’t actually read it; only knowing bits and pieces of its story from references she’d heard or seen in other media. Kick her feet up onto the table, Payton opened the book and began to read.
As time went on, and Payton delved further into the book she couldn’t help but notice similarities between the story of the book and Frank Castle’s life. At least in themes anyway. Revenge quests are a tale as old as time of course, but a man hellbent on revenge against something that wronged him? Well, she wouldn’t pretend to be an expert on Castle’s life, but from what had been made public? Castle reading a story that mirrored his own life in such a way was something that Payton wouldn’t have really expected from the man. She’d anticipated more Tom Clancy action/thriller over retrospective tales.
She’d ended up getting hooked on the book though, and completely missed David and Castle showing up with dinner up until the point the latter dropped the bag of food directly next to her feet on the table, startling her and sending her tipping backwards, her precarious balance on the back two legs of the chair working against her now.
With a crash and a frankly embarrassing shriek, Payton hit the floor, opening her eyes to look up into the amused face of Frank Castle. With a pounding heart, Payton felt the sudden return of the mouth pain she’d been assaulted with in class, quickly followed by a sudden urge to leap up and bite ! It wasn’t until she saw the look on Castle and David’s face’s change from the previous amusement to confusion that she realized that she was also hissing (actually hissing!) at them. Yelping, Payton’s hands shot up to cover her mouth and heat crept into her cheeks as they flushed scarlett. Behind her hands, Payton’s tongue was trailing over fangs that had descended from her gum line, pushing her human canines to angle back into her mouth to make room for themselves.
What the hell? She knew that the spider bite had given her powers, but that was where she thought it had been left at. Payton was stronger, faster, healthier (she really didn’t miss asthma or needing glasses), but apparently she also grew fangs, and, apparently, was having behavioral changes. But thinking about it, she probably should have realized something was different about her behaviorally as well. Over the past week she’d felt safer in the corners and on the walls. Heck, her first instinct upon waking up and seeing the Punisher for the first time last week had been to scuttle up the wall into a dark corner. And scuttling! Never in her life had she ever scuttled before! It was a lot to take in, knowing that she has changed in so many ways, most of which she was still unfamiliar with, or completely in the dark about. Maybe that would be her task tonight? Figure out just what the hell changed with her.
“What the hell was that kid?” Castle questioned, still looking down at her.
“I’m sorry! It just slipped out! I have no idea why I did that!” Embarrassment morphed into horror as she took in their still confused, slightly worried faces. They probably thought she was some freak now! More so than previously. The wall climbing and stuff was weird, sure, but those were just powers. Hissing wasn’t a power! It was an animalistic reaction!
Castle, of course, was the first one to shake off the awkwardness that permeated the room, reaching down to help her off the floor, which was assistance she accepted, albeit slowly as Payton was doing her best to look anywhere but the other two people with her.
“I guess that's another thing to add to the list of weird shit going on.” David commented, turning back to the food and thus missing the flinch that Payton gave.
The rest of dinner was a quiet affair, Payton choosing to continue reading rather than face the others, who were focused on their own things as well. In fact, the rest of the night was much the same, only broken up by the occasional grumble from David as he hit another wall, or a clang from the armory as whatever Castle was working on was placed down a bit harder than was probably necessary.
Before she knew it (probably because she was so invested in the book at this point), David was packing up his stuff and heading for his car, and Castle was, once again, sliding his vest on and loading his van up with weapons. Watching from the corner of her eye, Payton eagerly waited for the two men to leave, so she could slip out herself. She didn’t have to wait long, as a few minutes later, the rumbling of Frank Castle’s van echoed through the room, and he began to drive away. Payton made sure to wait an extra ten minutes, just in case he forgot something and decided to come back.
Once those ten minutes were up, she quickly grabbed the rolled up blanket that hid her makeshift suit, and rushed off to the bathroom to change. As soon as she was done, she turned to appraise herself in the mirror, and smiled at the sight that was reflected back to her. She loved the mix of black and red, with her leggings, the kevlar vest, and her mask all being black, and the sweatshirt being a nice deep red. Underneath the hood of her sweatshirt, the eyes of the gas mask seemed like giant bug eyes, and the two filters on either side of her mouth almost gave the appearance of pincers. If though, with her spider thing going on, it might be more topical to think of them as chelicerae. The only things not red or black were her gray shoes, and the dirty silver web shooters that were clamped around her wrists.
Fully suited up, Payton ran back out to the main room, grabbed a few extra capsules of web fluid, and then began to run down the driveway towards the exit of the old warehouse, but after a few steps she stopped, an idea popping into her head. Turning around, Payton made her way back over to the armory, taking off her protective vest as she did so. Pulling open a drawer, she grabbed one of the cans of white spray paint, and laid the vest out on a table. Giving the can a few shakes, Payton got to work, her hand moving quickly as she moved the spray of paint over the vest.
One minute later a crude rendition of a spider was drawn onto the vest. The form of it was broken and uneven, with small splotches of paint resulting from the spray making the edges appear hazy. But it was still a spider, and just looking at the symbol she made on her chest put another smile on her face.
Taking the newly painted vest and pulling it back over her head, Payton finally left the building, taking in a deep breath of the cool air as she stepped outside for the second night in a row. She knew from experience over the past week that Castle wouldn’t return until closer to dawn, giving her plenty of time to go out and experiment with her powers, and more importantly, check on May. Thanks to a conversation she had with Mr Lieberman a few days ago regarding her Aunt had led to the man hacking the hospital system to read off May’s condition to her, as well as her Aunt’s location. Of course, to reach the hospital where May is staying she would have to cross two rivers, and a significant chunk of New York City; an intimidating, but not impossible task.
Payton began to lightly jog through the city streets towards the nearest crossing over to Manhattan, cutting through alleys, and leaping over fences or walls that would’ve normally blocked her path. Every now and again she even scaled the walls of buildings, taking the rooftops instead of the streets. All in all, it took her about twenty minutes to reach the Lincoln Tunnel. She would have preferred the bridge, but the George Washington Bridge was way too far out of the way from where she needed to be.
She waited on a nearby sidewalk until the first large truck approached the entrance, and then silently dropped on top of the trailer, laying down flat on her stomach to hide from any other potential onlookers. She could have taken the sidewalk that existed in the tunnel, but she didn’t need any passing cars asking questions, so this was the best option. The ride didn’t take too long, with night traffic low enough that the truck moved smoothly through the tunnel, and once it reached the open world again, Payton leapt off the roof, launching herself up and across the street before sticking to the side of the nearest building. She cringed slightly as she looked back at the truck and noticed a sizable dent in its trailer. She’d wanted to test her jumping range, and well, it's great, but the force she put onto the thin roof of the vehicle was too much to keep it completely intact.
Mouthing a quiet apology to the driver who hadn’t noticed anything wrong, Payton scrambled up the wall until she was standing on the roof and overlooking the general area of the city. She knew that she was somewhere on the border between Midtown West and Hell’s Kitchen, and, by looking south-east, she could see the shining beacon that was Avenger’s Tower.
From where she was standing, Payton could hear gunshots coming from Hell’s Kitchen, and while part of her wanted to rush in there and help, she figured Daredevil would have it handled far better than she could, and she wanted to see May before going around to help people out. Turning away from the sounds of violence, Payton began to vault from roof to roof, running on the walls of buildings that stood too tall to reach the top of in a single jump, whooping and laughing with each leap as she crossed Manhattan Island.
Payton had never felt so free as she felt right now, using her new powers to gross massive gaps between buildings and run perpendicular on the walls. Her legs ached with being used far more intensely than she ever had before, but she knew that she could keep going. She might regret it and be super sore tomorrow, but for tonight she would enjoy it.
Another short while later, Payton was approaching the Queensboro Bridge and her breath caught in her throat as, for the first time since this whole nightmare began, she saw Queens, her home , with her own two eyes. Somewhere over the river was the hotel where May slept, alone and probably in constant danger from whoever was hunting her down. As much as she enjoyed the abilities she had now, especially since they had healed her lungs and her eyes, she would take any of those defects back if it meant Ben would still be alive and May was safe.
Shaking her head to rid herself of the building tears, Payton crawled down the side of the building she was currently on, and approached the side of the bridge, choosing to walk along the maintenance catwalks that ran underneath the bridge. Much like the tunnel an hour or so ago, she didn’t need people passing by and noticing her right now. Each car that rolled overhead she could both hear and feel their vibration through the concrete and steel, leading to a somewhat uncomfortable walk, but also uneventful, and before Payton knew it she was back in Queens.
Just standing in her hometown was enough for Payton to feel like a weight had come off her shoulders. There was still plenty weighing her down, but missing Queens was, at this point, no longer one of them. The streets here were far more familiar to her as traversed the rooftops again, smiling as she saw businesses she’d been to, and parks she had played at in the past. After around an hour, with the help of her enhanced vision, she could make out the hospital where May was staying in the distance.
Without thinking, she began to pick up the pace, running across the Queens skyline and her heart began to pound in anticipation of seeing her Aunt again. She knew that she couldn’t risk going inside, but she didn’t have to. Her conversation with David had led to her finding out that May was currently housed in a room with a window, and so all she had to do was hope the curtains were open so that she could look in from the outside. May’s coma meant that she wouldn’t be missing out on speaking to her at least.
“Alright Payton… Floor six, Room 611.” She mumbled to herself a few minutes later, crawling up the wall of the hospital. While getting to the sixth floor was relatively easy, now she had to play the guessing game of finding out which room was 611. She had no idea what the floor plan was, and they didn’t list the room numbers on the outside of the building. That would be dumb. Thus, Payton spent the next twenty minutes crawling around the perimeter of the hospital’s sixth floor, the process sped up a little bit by her being able to easily ignore the rooms with the curtains closed.
Eventually though, she found it. Peeking in through the window, her breath hitched as she spotted May laying in a hospital bed. She was surrounded by balloons, flowers and cards from her coworkers and friends, and looked really, really bad. Her Aunt was buried in blankets, with a feeding tube stuck down her throat and a whole collection of other tubes and instruments that she couldn’t even begin to identify were plastered all over. Payton’s heart ached at the sight.
“I am so sorry May.” She whispered. “I’ll make this right. I promise .”
She was slightly comforted by the fact that she could hear her Aunt’s heartbeat, both the heart itself and the monitor tracking it for the hospital’s staff. It sounded strong at least. Any further observations were then cut short as the door opened, forcing Payton to pull herself back from the window, barely peeking in from the corner now rather than having her whole upper torso visible.
Two nurses walked into the room, the first one was normal, walking around her Aunt’s bedside and doing check-ups. But the second? She made Payton’s danger sense start screaming . She couldn’t even tell why from a glance. The woman seemed normal, even if she did have a face that screamed indifference, unlike the first nurse who seemed kind. But the more she watched, the more she began to realize that her danger sense was right. The nurse walked a lot like Frank Castle did. When the Punisher walked, he moved like he was ready and willing to bowl over anyone who didn’t get out of the way, and kill anyone who tried to stop him. This nurse was similar, if having a more feminine grace to it. Another side of Payton, the spidery side that had been growing within her, recognized the nurse for what she was.
A predator.
The first nurse finished her tasks, speaking idly to the dangerous one as she did so. Apparently this was the mean one’s final duty for the night before leaving, and the nice nurse waved goodbye as she left the room, leaving May alone with someone who was likely there to kill her once Payton was captured.
Payton began to hiss again, as she felt her fangs begin to drop down from their sheathes. But before she could do something stupid, the object of her ire turned, forcing Payton to pull her head back from the window to avoid being seen. Moments later, the light from the room was cut off as the curtains were closed, and Payton could hear as the nurse left the room.
Whispering a silent goodbye to her Aunt through the wall, Payton crawled down from the building and ran through the darkness to find a place to hide and wait for the nurse to leave. If she was as dangerous as her spider-senses seemed to indicate, the ‘nurse’ could lead Payton back to the others, and she would have a legitimate lead to follow.
Thirty minutes passed before Payton’s senses flared up again, and her eyes were drawn to the employee’s entrance of the hospital, and the nurse who was leaving through the doors. Narrowing her eyes, Payton waited for the woman to get into her car and start driving away before she gave chase. Much of the area surrounding the hospital was residential, so rather than having to climb to the roofs, she managed to make the distance from the ground in a single leap.
Rooftop to rooftop Payton tracked the car, watching as it made its way towards the bridge she had crossed just a few hours ago. She knew she couldn’t cross the bridge the same way she had earlier, as the last thing she wanted to do was lose line of sight on the best chance she’s had all week to end this. So she had to take a risk. Instead of climbing down to the catwalks below the bridge, Payton ran up the trusses instead, using her feet to stick to, and release from the metal to help her keep her balance. Her heart pounded and leapt into her throat as she rose higher into the air, sprinting up the first pylon, all the while keeping her eyes on her target. Interestingly, Payton wasn’t finding herself having any actual problems with her balance, which she figured was probably another aspect of her abilities, but she really couldn’t spend time thinking about it right now.
Unfortunately, her perfect balance didn’t help against her being stupid. With her attention completely focused on the car she was following, Payton completely missed a ledge appearing in front of her, and she tripped over it, falling over the side of the bridge. Releasing a terrified shriek, she reached her hand out to try and catch herself, but missed. Plummeting towards the water, Payton, in a last ditch effort, reached her arm out and activated her web shooter on her right wrist.
Thwip!
The webbing caught onto the side of the bridge, pulling taut and swinging Payton back into the air like a pendulum. Flailing around as she soared through the air, Payton released that line, before shooting another one, swinging once again along the length of the bridge until she was back at the top and landing back on the trusses. Adrenaline rushed through her as she bent over, hands on her knees as she laughed, the sheer stress of the situation going right past terror and tears and back around to shocked, adrenaline fueled laughter.
Getting a hold of herself, Payton took a moment to relocate the car, which was just beginning to near the end of the bridge, and she was still a quarter of the bridge away. She could run. But her near-death experience just showed her a faster way. Riskier for sure, but sometimes risks had to be taken in order to succeed. So Payton jumped.
Controlling her descent this time, and ignoring her base instincts to flail in terror, Payton again shot out a line of webbing, and once again soared. Releasing her web at the end of each swing and sending out another one.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Payton was flying through the city now. While her movement was still awkward (she was absolutely practicing this more later), she knew her physics, and used that to help herself along. Her spider-senses helped too, occasionally leading to her hesitating in shooting a web as part of her just knew that a certain section of building was loose, and wouldn’t hold up under the force of her swinging. At certain points, Payton had to slow herself down to stop from overtaking her target.
About fifteen minutes of tracking through Manhattan, and the nurse’s vehicle pulled into a condemned building’s parking garage in Chelsea. The building was clearly heavily damaged during the Battle of New York, but the Government hadn’t gotten around to tearing it down yet. Plenty of higher priority demolitions and repairs to be done elsewhere. Bringing herself down to ground level again, Payton leapt onto the ceiling of the parking garage, tracking the woman by the sound of her vehicle now that she couldn’t see it.
Within a few minutes she spotted the woman again and, keeping to the darkness, followed her deeper into the ruined apartments. Payton followed her down to the storage and service floors, where the sounds of computers, and talking, began to make their way to her sensitive ears. The further she went, the more her senses were screaming danger, but she had to continue. She had to find answers. And finally, it seems she might have some.
The ‘nurse’ she’d been following stopped at a door that was clearly a recent installment, and knocked. A few moments later Payton could hear the sound of boots scraping against concrete as someone on the other side approached the door. Goosebumps popped up all over her skin as her mind just frantically yelled ‘DANGER DANGER DANGER’ . When the door opened, her heart, and breathing, stopped. Standing in the doorway was a man wearing Blue, white, and orange armor with a white skull planted atop his head.
Taskmaster was here.