Trouble Starts with a T
With the excitement of the past few days, it became apparent that for the people of New York, there would be not just a Spider-Man but also a Spider-Woman. No one was all to surprise by there being a new hero in the city but what caught the eye of the public was she was a female version of their beloved (or hated) superhero. This sparked many questions, and rumors regarding the two but unluckily for the public all questions would be left unanswered.
For one Gwen Stacy, she didn’t know what to think of the sudden media whirlwind that her alter ego was caught up in. The not-so-far-off rumors of her being in a relationship with Spider-Man gave her a chuckle but the other far-out ones saying that she was an experiment gone wrong by Spider-Man were a little off-putting. I mean she supposes they’re not too far off considering it was kind of an experiment but to put it quite literally it saved her life. The best thing to happen was easily both irritated and bombastic personality J Jonah Jameson brought along with his worries of future menaces based upon her and Peter’s more “intimate” affairs. Other than that, it’s been a pretty average few weeks for Spider-Duo or at least it was until they got a tip on who this Lincoln guy could be.
It all started normally for Gwen and Peter to stop a couple of petty thieves, take down some muggers, and stop an occasional bank robbery. It all changed when they encountered what seemed to be similar drug dealers that they dispatched about a month ago. This led the pair to go on what could only be described as a wild goose chase, finding leads that led nowhere just to turn back and stumble upon something else that looked to be of use.
That is, until this moment we see our heroes tracking down what they believe is one of the higher-ups of Tombstones’ gang. The man in question is a man called Hammerhead.
“Who would’ve thought a gangster’s name would quite literally represent them” Gwen whispered next to Peter as they looked over the arms deal going down below them.
“Quite honestly I’m more offended that he didn’t dress up as the shark since that’s what every villain in my gallery likes to do” Peter retorts.
“Shouldn’t we just take him down right now? I mean, he is the bad guy, right?” Gwen glances over to Peter questioning him.
“We will but we need information and if we play this right, we may get more without having to fight through it.”
As they sat waiting for at least to Gwen days to finally pick out something from the idiots below, they were finally to gain something of value from the thugs. They overheard the group discussing plans for “Tombstone” to keep a shop in an auto warehouse where he keeps his underground business to look legit. With that being said, Gwen asks, “Can we finally get on with this?" I still need some sleep before school.”
With a nod, Peter jumps down to take out one of the guys nearest to the weapons before he’s followed by Gwen snagging a man from below and sending a kick to the gut before webbing him to hand from the ceiling. As she makes quick work of the first guy, she drops down next to Peter.
“You’d think they would pick a less drug-dealy place to meet” Gwen quips to Pete.
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be much of a drug deal if it wasn’t so cliché” Peter quips back.
“Guys! The bugs are here! Get them!”
“Gentleman, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Spider-Man says as a thug comes near him with a bat. The man takes a swing towards his head as Peter dodges, “alright swing for the head it is.” Peter swings his arm at the man knocking him out.
“Why can’t these things ever be easy” Gwen yells to Peter as she blocks a punch before sending another right back.
“Oh, you know because nothing is easy when it comes to this it is always difficult” Peter calls back as he jumps off on man to land a punch on the next.
As they dispatch the thugs in the way all that’s left is Hammerhead.
“So can I ask why you go by Hammerhead because the only thing going is the look but you're missing a dorsal fin and tail, maybe even some gills” Gwen questions.
“Why don’t you try and find out girly” sneers the man in question.
“Oh that’s enough of you “, Gwen charges before sending a punch to his cranium before a searing pain goes through her hand.
“OUCH! Okay, Spidey I know why they call him Hammerhead… I think I caught the scent of fish. Also, be careful of the head it's as hard as steel.” Gwen tells Peter shaking off the feeling in her hand. I’m pretty sure that I just broke my hand.
Even though his head was made of steel luckily the rest of his body wasn’t as they made quick work of Hammerhead and webbed him to a nearby wall.
“Alright man it’s a school night and I really enjoyed the workout but I need information” Spider-Man tells Hammerhead. “So it would be great if you could just hand it over quickly and we’ll be on our way.”
“I ain’t telling you nothing. You can’t do nothing to me I won’t squeal.”
Hard way it is. Gwen thinks before lifting the man and taking him to a bridge dropping down to the bay below.
“Alright, you have to options. 1. You’ll tell me what I need to know now. Or 2. I drop you and the authorities find the body deal? Deal.” Gwen states.
“You won’t do any-“ is all Hammerhead is able to get out before he feels the wind whipping around his clothes as he plummets toward the murky water below.
Suddenly he’s jolted back to the top where a glaring Ghost Spider is. “Alright let’s try this again same rules apply Deal?”
“If you think this whole fake dropping is go—Ahhh” Hammerhead bellows as this time around he falls further to the waters and almost sees his life flash before his eyes.
An almost twing sound can be heard before Hammerhead is launched back up where a fed-up Gwen Stacy stands.
“Last chance. I won’t repeat what I said you know the conditions so talk” She glares back at the man she’s holding by the back of his shirt.
Hammerhead can feel the grip on his jacket loosening before he blubbers out,” Alright…alright I’ll talk. I’ll talk.” He continues as quickly as he can giving away not only Tombstone’s hideout but his name and even mentioning his invulnerability he has.
Before Gwen goes toward the hideout Peter stops her.
“Gwen it’s late we can handle this tomorrow. We need to go in with a plan and not rush into anything” Peter tells Gwen.
“Alright Pete. Good night.” She departs Peter.
What she didn’t realize was Peter noticed she wasn’t going toward her home but the location of the hideout instead. I should be upset but honestly, I’d do the same so I can’t be to mad. Peter then goes off following Gwen knowing they will regret this decision come morning.
Once they made it to the chop shop Gwen quietly made her way in through a window. She makes it to the ceiling trying to find any sign of the boss in question. She spots him all alone in his office. She makes it into his office undetected and gets ready to take out the last problem in what has quite literally been a long night.
“I know you’re there”
The voice was ominous enough to send a shiver down her spine. She detaches from the ceiling looking at the monster of a man before her.
“You know you’re going down right” Gwen mocks moving her head to the side.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that a time or two.” Tombstone states. “The problem is it usually never works out for the other party.”
Without a moment's hesitation, Gwen sprints sending a flying knee to his head. But before she even gets there he catches her attack and slams her to the ground.
“Oh. That’s not good.” Gwen mutters
She quickly gets to her feet before staggering away to recoup. What she doesn’t see in her haze is Tombstone making his way to her before he rears back to throw a punch at her. Thankfully due to her spider sense blaring to escape she manages to dodge the attack before she is backhanded and sent flying into the wall.
As she gets up for the third time she sees 3 different Tombstone’s in her vision. Guess the game plan is to hit the middle one I suppose. She can cause some damage to her opponent in front of her and just when she thinks momentum is on her side as she pushes off a wall to land a flying punch, she feels an impact to her face and that’s when her world starts fading in and out.
Peter for his part tried to keep up with Gwen but she seemed to have gotten a grace and speed with web swinging that he wouldn’t be able to match and was eventually left in the dust. He eventually decides best to just take the more direct approach to the chop shop and hopefully, he’ll beat Gwen there before she does anything too stupid.
Much like Gwen Peter finds the open window leading inside the only difference is the loud crashing sounds that can be heard happening from where he is. When he enters the room, he sees Gwen take a shot to the face before crumbling to the ground.
All Peter sees next is red. With Tombstone standing over her not paying any attention and about to deal the finishing blow Peter sends a kick toward the back of Tombstones’ head leading him to grab the back of his head. The rest of the fight is more of a blur than anything else. Peter keeps up the shots towards Tombstone making the villain stagger while Tombstone can land powerful hits on him. By the end Peter is gasping for breath, his suit is almost in tatters, and his upper shoulder is exposed along with most of his side. On top of that, his mask lens is shattered, and bits of his mask are torn revealing his brown hair. With the last bit of whatever power that was keeping him standing he runs at Tombstone and hits him as hard as he could toward his temple, effectively knocking him out for the time being.
On shaky legs, Peter sees Gwen still down on the ground as he stumbles to make it towards her slightly panicking. When he reaches her, he realizes that she’s only been knocked out but that was it nothing more, she’ll be okay. He makes a quick call to the cops encasing Tombstone in a thick coat of webbing and any evidence he can find to put him away. He gets to Gwen picks her up and much like at the Brooklyn Bridge ties her around him and swings off to Stark Tower to gain peace of mind for the girl who is clueless about what’s going on in the world around her.
Peter was eventually able to make it to the Stark Tower Med Bay he placed Gwen in one of the hospital beds before he brought a chair next to her bed passing out before he made it back to her.