Vigilante Shit

James woke up to the blaring sound of his alarm across the room. He got up and out of bed immediately wanting to lay back down. ‘I’ve been asleep for the past 5 months, how am I still tired?’ he thought to himself. He grabbed his phone turning off the alarm eternally grateful for the silence that came with it. He rubbed his eyes as he checked his phone to see if he had gotten any notifications. The answer was usually no but he still liked to check. 

And the answer was still no so he walked over to his bathroom attempting to turn the tap to cold and instead the valve of the faucet broke off. It immediately started spraying him with water and he tried to no avail to block it from his face before throwing a towel from the rack behind him on top of it and going underneath the sink to find where to turn off the water from below. He quickly found it in the simple plumbing mechanism and the spraying stopped. Well at least he was awake now.

He opened the door and instead pulled the doorknob off, very confused he pushed it back on and using two fingers gently turned the knob so it wouldn’t break again. Once the door was open and nothing was visibly broken he carefully, and with two fingers, grabbed his hairbrush, toothpaste, and toothbrush heading to the kitchen sink. He brushed his teeth in the kitchen sink and attempted to tame his curly hair in the mirror he had in the dining room. When he failed he was glad that nothing had changed too much and ran his hands through his hair. 

He walked back into his bedroom and placed his hygienic products back on his bathroom counter before opening his closet, nearly forgetting to use two fingers and almost breaking the doorknob. He walked in and grabbed a go-to outfit since he was in a bit of a rush. It was already 8:45, the cafe was a 10 minute walk and he had to meet Remus and Sirius at 9. He grabbed the beige Nirvana shirt Sirius had gotten him during  their school days, it was starting to fade from being washed but James never minded the vintage look. He grabbed the red windbreaker that had been placed next to it and the light blue jeans that were hanging underneath. He slid everything on rather quickly and slid on a pair of socks before darting to the front of the house and sliding on his red converse. He walked toward the door reaching up to grab his keys and immediately ran back to his bathroom because he had forgotten to put on deodorant.

After that small mishap he was out the door and locking it behind him. He was running late, but only fashionably still he began speed walking over to the cafe. Checking his phone at the crosswalks that he stopped at, making sure that he wasn’t running too late. In almost half the time it would have normally taken him he made it to the cafe and Sirius and Remus were already there, forever punctual. They caught sight of him and were dragged out of their own conversation

“Hey James!” Sirius exclaimed, getting up and giving him a soft hug. Remus stayed in his seat and gave James a small wave, which he returned with a soft smile. James sat down and Remus handed him a coffee

“It’s your usual” he said as James took it
“Thanks” James took a sip and had never loved coffee more in his life as the warmth flooded his body and the caffeine shot straight to his head. 

“Where are your glasses?” Remus asked, staring at James with a puzzled look. James touched his face and noticed that his glasses were gone and he had no idea why he could see clearly. 

“Oh, I don’t know but I can see just fine”  This was particularly strange because James was blind, like ‘the world looked like an abstract painting without his glasses’ blind. “Actually that reminds me that I wanted to ask you guys about some stuff.”

Sirius and Remus shared a look James couldn’t decipher before nodding to James.

“Ok so whatever happened at the wedding I think it gave me like” he lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned closer to his friends “powers or something, I’m like freakishly strong, and I’m like” he paused and thought of a word “sticky”

Sirius and Remus shared the same look again before Remus spoke “I think we should go back to your flat, mate. We gotta tell you some stuff.” Sirius nodded along and the tension between the three of them heightened with that familiar pressure of secrets. They all stood up and walked to James’ flat in silence. When they got up the stairs James unlocked the door and held it open for his friends.

“So are you gonna tell me what this is about?” James took the last sip of his coffee and placed the empty cup on the counter behind him.

“So” Sirius started “That thing at the wedding it knocked everyone in the wedding party out” James knew this of course so he urged Sirius to continue “Well you were the last one of us to wake up so you didn’t know but um” sirius paused unsure of how to put it into words

“We all kind of got like powers” Remus finished

“Yeah” Sirius said “They’re pretty cool honestly”

“Oh cool so you guys are like vigilantes right? Like you go and fight crime in the dead of night?”

Remus hesitated “No, uh we kind of decided to keep these to ourselves.”

James looked at them waiting for them to tell him that they were joking and when they didn’t he was thoroughly confused. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t you? Weren’t you just telling me about some supervillains that had been terrorizing the city since the wedding?”

“Well yea-”

“So why wouldn’t you fight them if you have the resources and the powers to do so?”

“It’s complicate-”

“How is it complicated, Sirius?”

“I think these guys are my parents,”

“What?” James took a step back in shock, this was the first time James had heard SIrius talk about his parents

“Yeah, apparently a few months before our wedding they met this dickwad, I think his name was Riddle or something and when I was a kid they’d experiment on my brother and I. My parents are obsessed with power so they treated my brother and I like lab rats to see if they could give themselves super powers. The last I heard, they had figured out how to do it and when this Riddle guy found out he formed some sort of weird alliance with them.” 

James stared in shock quite literally expecting anything else than what had just come out of Sirius’ mouth. He kind of wanted to laugh and ask for an actual explanation but he knew that Sirius wasn’t lying.

“So, now we’re gonna become vigilantes?”

“That’s your question?” Remus stared at him disbelieving

“Yea, are we?”

“No absolutely not that’s way too dangerous, any of us could get hurt,”

“What about the innocent people that get hurt when Sirius’ parents are rampaging around the city. If we have the ability to help people shouldn’t we?”

“Normally yes” Sirius cut in “But James these people are dangerous”

“If they’re dangerous to us that means they’re dangerous to everyone else, so shouldn’t we stop them?”

“What are you gonna do James? Run around with a mask and get arrested for vigilantism?”

“Yeah,” James spoke with an obviousness in his tone “If that’s what it takes.”

“You’re gonna get hurt.” Sirius sounded worried

“I’ll be fine” James was getting more aggravated by the second. He balled his hands into fists and went to rub his eyes, when he went to put his hands down white fluid shot out of his wrists and nearly hit Remus before he dodged it. The three of them stared at the fluid that had stuck itself to James’ dining room type and looked somewhat like a spiderweb. “See I have webby stuff, I’ll be fine.”

“James,”

“Remus,”

“Please don’t actually do this, because when you get hurt you won’t be able to go to the hospital and we won’t be there to help you”

“Ok, fine I won’t”

“Thank you” Remus and Sirius walked toward the door “James I’m serious please don’t go doing anything crazy.”

James followed them to the door and opened it for them “I would never. Bye guys I’ll talk to you later” Sirius and Remus walked out and after they were making their way down the stairs James shut the door and made his way toward his desk sketching out ideas for a suit, so he had lied to his best friends but in his defense he was going to help people. 

He started sketching and eliminating possibilities and being so glad he got an engineering degree as he looked at the best possibilities color-wise, and for convenience. He ultimately settled on a grid patterned red and blue suit with a spider design directly in the center of his chest and back. He worked metal inlay into the spandex to make the suit more durable. 

After making his paper design he moved everything onto his computer smoothing out the details and sending everything to his 3D printer that sat in the corner of his room. He was meant to use that for work but they had given a two month paid grace period so he got to use the printer because he was technically working…on his grace period. The printer was about his height maybe a tad bit taller, he needed it that big because of his incredibly important job as an architectural engineer. He stood up and searched for a flexible tape measure that he could use to take his measurements and was shocked to actually find one. After he quickly took his measurements he uploaded them all to his printing software and sent everything to print. He then set an order for the computer to delete the project from all records after it finished printing.

The project would take about two days to finish printing. In the meantime James went out and looked for somewhere to figure out the range of his powers. He remembered an old warehouse he had seen a few blocks away from his job. So he got in his car and headed over glad to see that it was still very much abandoned, he parked his car inside and walked around to make sure that nobody was hiding out in here. He closed the warehouse doors as quietly as he could and went to the second floor.

The railing had fallen off the edge eons ago so the floor was completely open. He attempted to shoot his webs again balling his hands into fists and throwing punches. When that didn’t work he moved onto opening his hands with an “Ahhh” but it was to no avail. He tried method after method. When he was sure that that one instance was the only time it would happen he put his middle and ring finger to his wrist leaving the other three up and said “welp rock on then” shaking his hand and a web shot out. He looked at it in shock as it fell to the ground. He tried the hand motion again this time aiming at the roof and it worked. James laughed in surprise and attempted to swing from the web. Stepping back and running before jumping off and rebounding off of the other side and coming back to the platform. He stayed in that warehouse for a few more hours before he got tired. 

He got in his car and drove home thinking to himself of what he had to do since he was sure he had tested his powers enough. He would have to go home and research these Riddlers guys. See what they were like and stuff. He had flipped his car radio to a news station so that he could see if the Riddlers showed up. He was back home before he knew it, parallel parking in front of his building. He walked up the two flights of stairs to his flat. But when he went to unlock the door he noticed that it was already unlocked. He closed his hands in the way that he practiced back the warehouse very much ready to web someone to a wall. When he walked in he spoke
“Hello?”

“Hi James,” he recognized Remus’ voice 

“Oh, Hey Remus! Is Sirius here?”

“Nope he stayed behind, but he gave me your key since he didn’t know if you’d be home. He said you wouldn’t mind sorry if I scared you.”

“No I don’t mind just wish you would’ve texted me,” he laughed a bit

“Sorry, so how’s not being a vigilante going?” Remus asked, but his voice sounded slightly different and all of a sudden the entire room smelled incredible. Remus smelled incredible. He couldn’t explain it but he wanted to be immensely closer.

“I wouldn’t know but I would love for you to let me know where you’ll be after this,”

Remus made a sound that seemed to be a mix of disgust and laughter “And why wouldn’t you know James?”

“Because I have a suit printing and I’m about to do research on the Riddlers to see how I can take them down gorgeous, wanna help?” James winked at Remus

“Right thought so” the smell vanished, Remus was normal again and James was remembering what he had just said

“Oh my god Remus I am so sorry I have no idea what came over me, that was really weird, I didn’t mean to do that really I’m so so sor-”

“James it’s ok it was just my powers” Remus smiled “I have like these weird hyperactive pheromones. It basically gets me anything I need because people are impossibly attracted to me.”

“Oh,” James sighed and then realised that he had admitted to Remus that he was going to become a vigilante “I’m sorry I went back on my promise but I have to help people with what I can do”

“It’s fine James, I knew you weren’t going  to listen to me. Just, be careful and if you come back from your first mission perfectly fine then I’ll talk to everyone about joining you, ok?”

“Deal”

Remus left shortly after and when James went into his room he was shocked to see that the entire costume was finished. He tried it on and it fit perfectly. He took it off and hung it in the back of his closet before going on his computer to research the riddlers. He found video after video of them terrorising the city. He had identified every member and their names that people had given them: 

Smokescreen; he wore all black and seemed to be able to control the gases around him; the only thing that could be seen through his costume was his curly light brown hair and his striking green eyes that greatly contrasted the black he wore.

Liquidizer; he also wore all black and could control the liquids around him; his hair and his eyes could be seen through his costume too, his eyes were icy blue and they contrasted the black of his suit but matched the blonde of his hair.

The Hunter; he was older, probably one of the oldest of the group; his costume was all green and the only mask he had was over his eyes so his thick beard was still visible along with the greys that accompanied it; He seemed to have perfect aim but only with arrows, because in one video he had tried throw a knife and missed terribly.

The Armoress; she was also older; probably around the same age as The Hunter; her costume resembled armour, it was silver and also only had a mask over the eyes; she seemed to be able to turn anything she touched into armour and was able to give armour to anyone she touched.

The daggeress; she’s terrifying, her suit is patent leather and skin tight her huge black curls puff out and James genuinely doesn’t think they can be contained; She can turn anything into a sharp object.

Incision; The first thing James noticed is how unbelievably greasy his hair is; He can cut anything from what seems to be about 30 metres away from him; He dressed in cloaks that concealed his hands so obviously his powers stemmed from his hands. 

The Puppet Master; everyone seemed to think that he was the leader of the whole operation; It wasn’t clear exactly what his powers were from the videos but it seemed to have something to do with mind manipulation.

The last one there was no video of, only rumours. People called him The Doctor, and he supposedly had healing powers but without video James wasn’t believing it.

By the time he finished his research it was already 2:30 in the morning, so he closed his tabs and slept in his clothes, completely and utterly exhausted.

When he woke up it was 11 in the morning so he checked his phone and downloaded the police scanner app he had read about last night. Setting it up to only alert him when any of the riddlers were spotted. He lounged about his house for the day, doing more research and learning how to do stitches in case he ran into Incision, or daggeress, or the hunter, or any of the riddlers really. He taught himself basic first aid and continued to research the Riddlers. When his phone screen lit up it was 8:52pm and a notification came through his phone

‘INCISION AND DAGGERESS SPOTTED AT THE BANK OF LONDON’

James lived about 6 blocks from the Bank of London so he went into his closet and put his suit on as fast as he could. As soon as he got it on he swung over to the bank and sure enough inside it was Incision, Daggeress, and the few people that came to the bank at 8:30 at night. James walked in and realised that he probably should’ve rehearsed what to say. But he didn’t, so he had to improvise. 

He noticed that Daggeress had a sharpened object in her hand so on impulse he shot a web at it and pulled it out of her hand. She turned around and looked as though she had been personally offended.

“Hey” James said holding the dagger in his hand now “Sorry are you missing something?”

“Who the hell are you?” she asked

“I’m just your friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man”

She pulled out another dagger and threw it, it grazed the side of James’ head but he managed to just barely dodge it. Incision turned around “Do you want some help?” 

“NO” she screamed “He’s just a kid”

“Actually” James webbed her hands together dragged her to a wall and stuck them there “I’m an adult, thank you very much”

Incision stared at James and his sleeves began to move. ‘Shit’ James thought trying to figure out how to dodge something that he couldn’t see coming. Incision angled his hands down so James jumped up successfully dodging the cut. 

Incision quickly sent out another, and James couldn’t dodge it. It hit him directly in the ribs with a blinding, white hot, shock of pain. Thankfully his suit was red so it was almost impossible to tell that he was bleeding. James shot out another series of webs, effectively tying Incision’s arms together and hanging him from the top of one of the arcs by his feet. 

“Well bye you guys have a good night” James walked out of the bank and swung himself onto the nearest rooftop clutching his side. He twisted slightly and felt the pain shoot up his side and into his head. He jolted at the sudden burst of pain. ‘I just have to get home and I can take care of it there." He swung from rooftop to rooftop taking breaks every so often to clutch at his side. He landed behind his building where he had left a bag with a change of clothes. He changed quickly, wincing when the fabric stuck to his cut. 

When he saw the cut he nearly cried out. It was a large gash going from the bottom of his chest to near his belly button and it was gushing blood. His head throbbed and he nearly threw up at the sight of that much blood. He threw on the black shirt he had left, throwing his suit into the duffel bag and going to enter his flat building. He climbed the stairs losing count of how many flights he had gone up after the first one. He tried to remember how much blood he had seen but he quickly found that his brain was swirling far too much to think correctly. He took a break from the climbing, leaning against the railing. His world was spinning, and he was so dizzy he could barely keep balance. The gash on his side was still spewing blood and James could feel it as it dripped down his side. He got to the top of a flight of stairs, making a right and promptly passing out against the door of what he thought to be his flat. The last thing he heard was the door opening before he let sleep overcome him.

A few hours later

He was in a flat. He wasn’t in pain and his headache had gone away. He looked around. The layout was the same as his his own but the decoration was vastly different.

“Good morning” a familiar voice he couldn’t quite place spoke “you showed up in front of my door bleeding out and I had to help you so I want an explanation” the voice showed it’s face and James immediately knew why the voice was so familiar.

Regulus Black