Chapter 4
The next day, the sun shone brightly in the sky as Miles swung his way through the streets of Brooklyn. He’d woken up early in the morning, and after checking on his mother once more to make sure she was feeling ok, he’d headed out.
Initially, he thought about calling Phin directly. But he’d stop short just as he was about to hit call. That person on the bridge…that wasn’t the Phin he knew. She would never put innocent people in danger like that. Hell, she wouldn’t hurt anyone if she could help it. Something happened to make her change so dramatically. He needed to figure out why she was doing this. And he knew where to start.
The Mason family shop. It was originally opened by Phin’s grandparents. When it was passed down to her parents, they hired some outside help to keep the shop going. After they died, Rick took over running the shop himself. Phin used to do all of her work there. Miles was banking on that still being the case today.
He reached his destination a few minutes later. He landed on a light fixture next to an old, rundown brown building. There was a faded, red, white, and blue “Mason’s Repairs sign” on the front. The entire shop was boarded up. It was sad to see.
" Need to find a low profile way in. Don’t wanna draw any attention.”
He zipped over to a window on the top floor. He slipped inside quietly, flipping down and landing on the floor. This caused a heap of dust and dirt to kick up, flying into his lungs even through his mask. He coughed hard.
“Hello?” No one and nothing responded to him. “Man, this place is dusty. No one’s been here in a while.”
Miles started to walk around, searching for clues. The shop was filled with all sorts of electrical appliances. He spotted old computers, hard drives, a toaster oven, and even a couple of washing machines. On the far wall hung some guitars.
" I remember Phin and I spending a whole summer helping Rick repair old guitars.” He smiled fondly. “ I would always get bored midway through. Pull out a sketchpad and start drawing. Even drew Phin working a couple of times. She would always blush and get angry when I showed them to her. Man, my shoulders used to be bruised. They probably weren’t that good back then, to be honest.”
Behind the counter, hanging on a shelf was a backpack. A study guide for Particle physics sat inside.
" Rick’s ESU textbooks - he took night classes so he could keep running the shop during the day. Guy was unstoppable.
He walked into the back, where the workshop was at. The back table was full of documents of all kinds. There was also an ID badge. Miles picked it up so he could better examine it. It was a Hammerhead ID for an “Ella Sterling.” But the picture on it was Phin.
Miles looked up at the posterboard on the wall behind. On it, there was a paper that listed all the names of the people on the Nuform development team. And they were all labeled as out sick.
" So, the team that created this Nuform all got sick? And Rick was the project lead?”
Miles continued to move around the space. Over on a table, he could see a small needle sitting on a box. Grabbing it, he could just make out the letters GCSF.
“ These are meds. They use this stuff to treat bone marrow decay. Whose was this?”
So far, this trip was turning out to be a bit of a waste. The only thing he’d found so far was more questions. He turned, contemplating what to do next when he spotted a section of the wall bricked up.
“ Don’t remember that being there. ” Purple light shone through the cracks in the makeshift wall.
He charged up some venom to his fist before launching himself at it. He punched right through the wall, sending bricks everywhere. He found himself standing inside another workplace.
“Ok. Now this is a secret room,” he muttered, looking around. On a nearby desk, he spotted a programmable matter gun. As well as a Tinkerer mask.
“ Makes sense that Phin’s the one who came up with all this new gear for The Underground. Funny, seems we both started wearing masks.”
Noticing a computer, Miles walked over to it. There was nothing on it, except for one video file.
“ This is from 2 months ago.” Miles began typing on the keyboard, trying to open the file. Unbeknownst to him, a sensor on the back of the monitor began to blink red, signaling an unauthorized access attempt.
He finally cracked open the file. Two videos appeared on the screen. He clicked play on the first one. It was a video of Phin and Rick.
“Running a test upload…” Phin started, looking at the camera. Behind her, Rick coughed heavily.
“Half my team’s sick.” As Rick was talking, he was struggling to inject himself with a needle. “But Hammerhead refuses to admit that it’s Nuform.”
Phin moved to sit next to Rick, grabbing the meds out of his hand. “Let me.”
“We need to do this tonight Phin.”
“You sure we’re ready?”
“We have to be. They’re ahead of schedule in Brooklyn.”
Phin shook her head in disgust. “They’re gonna poison the whole city just to make a buck.”
“They keep cutting corners, ignoring safety reports. I can’t let them pervert my work like this, Phin.”
She nodded her head, moving back to the camera. It tilted down a bit, revealing a schematic laying on the table. “Ok. First, we flush the core, then we wipe all of the data. You’re sure they can’t just make more of this stuff?”
“No. Without me, they won’t have a clue how Nuform works. Project will be DOA.”
“I’ll record us. Things go wrong, video uploads straight to the Bugle.”
“Perfect.” Rick smiled at Phin. “You ready to save New York?”
“Ready.”
The video cut off there. What in the world had he just heard? His mind struggled to make sense of it. He brought up the second video. But this one looked much different than the first. It was much shorter. Phin was in it, but her face was covered in dirt and there was a cut on the bridge of her nose. She looked…distressed.
“Ugh, dammit!” Phin rapidly searched through a monitor off-screen, panicking. “No uploads. Phone must’ve been damaged. Fuck!”
She slapped her hands on the table and closed her eyes. A single tear slid out of her left eye. She wiped it away and took a couple of deep breaths. She opened her eyes back up, steel present all through the hazel orbs.
“I won’t let tonight be for nothing,” she declared. Despite her best efforts, a sob escaped her lips. She choked it back down before any more could come out. “I promise, Rick.”
As the video ended, Miles took a step back. His mind was racing, trying to make sense of what he’d just seen.
“They were trying to shut down the Nuform project, but something went wrong…” On the screen, the last known location of Phin’s phone came up. It was pinging on the map, at Hammerhead Industries. And it was deep underground.
His spider-sense went off at that moment, alerting him to danger behind him. The back gate was starting to slide up. Miles could just make out the black and purple boots standing right outside. The Underground was here. He quickly activated his camouflage, right as the door opened all the way. There were 4 of them standing outside.
“I thought you said someone was here,” One of them yelled.
“There was! The alarm was tripped.”
“Then where are they?”
Miles, moving as silently as he could, slipped between. No need to get into a fight if he didn’t need to. After he was past them, he ran down the street a little bit. Once he was certain he’d created enough distance, he shot out a web and swung up high, becoming visible again. He began making his way back home.
“ I need to get inside that building and find Phin’s phone, ” Miles thought to himself. But then, the memory of those security guards pointing their guns at him came to mind. “ That’s not gonna be easy. I’m sure their securities really tight. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do this alone.”
Making a decision, he landed and perch on a nearby crane. Pulling up his watch, he pressed a few buttons, sending out an alert. It only took seconds before a voice came out of his watch.
“Hey Miles!” Gwen’s voice greeted him. “I got your alert. What’s up?”
“Remember when you told me to call you if things got too big with the Tinkerer and Hammerhead?” Miles sighed. “I think they just did.”
Miles paced the short distance between his bedroom door and his window. Gwen sat cross-legged on his bed. He was explaining what had been going on over the past week. He had just gotten to the incident on the bridge.
“Wait wait wait,” Gwen interrupted. “You blew up the Brooklyn Bridge?”
“I didn’t blow it up! I made a truck blow up. By accident. And that led to part of the bridge being destroyed.”
“Way to go Miles! Didn’t know you had it in you mate.”
Miles turned, seeing Hobie lean back in his chair, putting his feet up on the desk. ‘From one anarchist to another, I couldn’t be more proud.”
“Again, I didn’t do it on purpose! It was an acci…”
Miles was cut off by Pavitr dropping down. He hung upside down, a web attached to the ceiling.
“I can’t believe you blew up a bridge dude!”
Miles slapped a hand to his face. God, he loved his friends but they could be so annoying sometimes. Hobie and Pavitr had shown up at the same time as Gwen. Apparently, she’d called them right after he called her.
“Moving on from the bridge,” Miles picked back up from where Gwen had cut him. “I managed to find a hideout that the Tinkerer used. Found out a few things.”
“Did you find out their identity,” Gwen asked him.
He really should tell them. That his newest supervillain was also his oldest friend who just come back into his life. But something held him back. He felt like he owed it to Phin to at least talk to her first. So instead of telling them the truth, he fibbed.
“No. Nothing about who she really is behind the mask. But I did find out why she’s been attacking Hammerhead. It’s because of Nuform.”
“What’s Nuform?” It was Pav’s turn to ask.
“It’s an energy source that Hammerhead Industries created. It’s really powerful. And volatile. Something I found out firsthand. But it’s also dangerous because it makes people sick.”
“Of course it does,” Hobie chimed in. “Always leave it to the establishment to fuck over the little guy. Greedy bastards.”
Miles couldn’t have agreed more. “That’s why I wanna break into that facility. There’s gotta be evidence around there somewhere.”
“And how exactly are you planning on doing that?” Gwen leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.”
“I don’t know. But I need to get in there. Today. If I can find something that takes down Hammerhead, then maybe I can stop whatever crusade the Tinkerer is on. ”
The rest of the group nodded their heads in understanding. Gwen hopped off the bed, standing next to Miles.
“Alright, I’m in.”
He smiled gratefully at her. “Thanks Gwen.”
“Aw man! I wish we could go.”
They both turned to look at Pav, confused.
“Why can’t you,” Gwen questioned.
“Me and chai tea over there got another mission for the blue panther,” Hobie spoke up. “So unfortunately, we gotta miss the trip to Neverland.”
“Just ignore the tea thing Pavitr. Just ignore it.” Pav detached his web and landed on the floor. “That uncultured guy is correct. I wish we could go though! Sounds like fun.”
“Fun’s not the word I would use,” Miles chuckled.
Hobie continued talking. “It’s probably better if it’s just you and Gwendie anyway. Less people to attract attention and all that.”
Neither Miles nor Gwen could argue with that point.
“Keep us posted Miles,” Hobie told him as he opened up a portal. “We can always tell Miguel to stuff it and come back if need be.”
Miles outright laughed at that. He had no doubt that Hobie would follow through on that.
“Hopefully I won’t need to, but I appreciate that.”
Hobie gave each of them a fist bump before beginning to walk through the portal.
“Stay safe guys!” Pav waved at both of them before jumping through the portal himself. It promptly closed behind him, leaving Miles and Gwen alone. She turned to face him.
“So…to Hammerhead?”
“To Hammerhead.”
“So what’s the plan, Miles? What exactly are we looking for?”
The two Spider heroes were perched on a nearby building, looking down at the Hammerhead facility.
“A phone. I think the Tinkerer might’ve left their phone here.”
Gwen looked at him in disbelief. “A phone? You wanna break into this fortress for a phone? How do you even know it’s the Tinkerer’s phone anyway?”
Miles couldn’t tell her why it was so important. Not without ratting out Phin.
“I told you Gwen, I found out while I was exploring her hideout. I think she might’ve been planning to come back for it herself. There’s gotta be something important on if that’s the case.”
His explanation seemed to appease Gwen, at least for the moment. Miles would’ve been proud of himself if he didn’t feel so guilty about lying to her.
“Alright. If that’s what we need to find, then let’s go. I think I see a way to get us inside. Follow me.”
They both lept, landing inside the barrier surrounding the facility. Gwen took off across the ground, Miles right behind her. They maneuvered around and under cars, using them to pass by security guards unnoticed.
“Wait.” Gwen threw a hand in his direction. They were kneeling behind a Hammerhead. Gwen leaned around the front. There was an employee entrance just a few feet away.
“That’s your idea to get inside?” Miles stood just a little higher than her, leaning to look as well. “You wanna pose as employees?”
“What? It worked for me when I snuck into Alchemax. There’s usually so many people working in these places that it’s easy to pretend to be one of them. It’ll be fine Miles. Come on.”
They waited for someone to come and open the door. As luck would have it, they didn’t have to wait long as one of the researchers exited, swinging the door wide open. The two heroes hurried to catch it, Gwen sliding a hand in just before it would've closed. They slipped inside. Making their way down the hallway, they saw a locker room door just to the left. After checking to make sure it was empty, they entered.
There were two sides. One for men and one for women. Gwen pointed him at the men’s side.
“There should be some spare clothes and lab coats in there. See what you can find.” She darted off the women’s side, doing the same thing.
It took Miles a couple of minutes of searching. But he eventually managed to find a shirt, pants, and shoes. He put them all on over his suit, stuffing his mask inside his pocket. He grabbed a white lab coat and slid it on. He walked back out, looking for Gwen. He only had to wait a few moments before she appeared.
Miles couldn’t help but stare at her, a bit wide-eyed. Like him, she’d managed to find a disguise. She’d also tied her hair back. And to complete the ensemble, a pair of glasses sitting on her nose, framing her blue eyes. Man, she was pretty.
Gwen shifted nervously under his intense gaze. “What’s up? Is it not convincing?”
“No,” Miles quickly answered. “No, it’s convincing. Definitely convincing.”
He slapped a hand over his mouth. He hadn’t meant to let that last bit come out. Gwen blushed, tucking a small strand of hair behind her ear.
“Thanks Miles. You don’t look so bad yourself either.”
The two exited the locker room and started walking through the facility. They passed by a couple of people, but they weren’t even acknowledged. Seems like the disguises were working. They eventually came to a split, with a hallway down the left and the right.
“Alright, I got us in. What’s the next step?”
“The tracker said that the phone was in the lower levels. There should be a room right underneath the reactor up top. That’s where I need to go. But this place is massive. And I’d rather not walk around aimlessly trying to figure out how to get there.”
Gwen nodded in understanding. Finding a directory on the wall, she walked over to take a look. “Looks like their’s a security terminal not far from here. I might be able to guide you from there.”
“I don’t know that splitting up is a great idea.”
“Maybe not, but we don’t have much of a choice. Here.” She handed Miles an earbud. “I got these from Peni. We can use them to stay in contact.”
Miles took the com, sticking it in his ear. He nodded at Gwen once it was in place.
“I’ll let you know when I’m in place.” Gwen started to head off, only to feel Miles grab her wrist. She looked back at him.
“Be careful Gwen.” He told her. She smiled softly at him, her heart fluttering at his concern.
“You too, Spider-boy.” She ran down the right split and disappeared out of sight.
Miles took the left. He moved slowly, but surely. He was only walking for a few minutes before Gwen’s voice sounded in his ear.
“You hear me Miles?”
“I hear you. Did you make it to the terminal?”
“Yeah. And I’ve got a map of the place. You need to get down to level 9B. That’s where the reactor room is. From where you are, you need to go down the hall and make a left. There should be a door on your right. You can use the stairs to go down to level 3B. That’s first.”
“Can I not get all the way down there with the stairs,” he asked as he followed her directions. He hung a left and spotted the door. He opened it and ran down the stairs.
“No. Levels 4B - 9B are only accessible through a single elevator. You’ll have to use that to get all the way down there.”
Miles cracked open the door once he reached the bottom and slipped through.
“Alright, I’m on 3B Gwen. Where to now?”
“Down this hallway, you’re gonna wanna make a left, past the first split, make a right at the second. One more right at the end and the elevator should be right there.”
He continued to walk through the corridors of the facility. He passed two or three people, but he kept his head down and moved briskly, doing his best to not draw attention. Were he confronted by anyone, he doubted any lie would hold up for long.
“These hallways all look the same,” Miles remarked, looking at the walls. They were painted an almost blinding shade of white. “How does anyone get around down here?”
“No idea. Good news is, you have me to help. You almost there?”
“Yeah.”
Miles turned the final corner, seeing the elevator sitting right across from a lab. He walked up to it, pressing the call button. He fidgeted as he waited for it to arrive. He felt exposed, standing out in the open like this. The doors finally slid open and he entered gratefully. He pressed the button for 9B, only for a black sensor next to the floor numbers to beep red.
“Uh, Gwen?” He pressed it again and got the same result. “It’s not working. I think I need some sort of access card.”
“Oh crap! How did I miss that? Hold up, I think I may be able to override that from here.” Miles heard the clicking of keys being typed on. “Try it now.”
He did, and this time, the sensor blinked greened. The elevator gave a small lurch and started to move down. “That worked, it’s moving.”
“Great. Ok, once you’re down there, you’ll need to head to the end of the corridor on your right…
The elevator came to a stop. Miles looked up, seeing that he’d only made it to floor 5. The doors opened and it took everything in him not to gasp.
It was Olivia Octavius, or as he had come to know her, the Doc Ock of his universe. The last he’d seen of her, she got hit by a bus from another dimension, courtesy of the collider. Frankly, he thought she was dead. But she was clearly standing in front of him right now.
She stared at him as she entered the elevator, swiping a key card and pressing 8B.
“Who are you,” she asked him as the door shut again. It felt like someone closing a cage and locking him in with a lion.
Miles gulped, feeling a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. “I’m uhh…Davis. Researcher Davis. Just got reassigned.”
The shaggy-haired woman quirked an eyebrow at him. “Reassigned? Wait, are you the new person on Richard’s team?”
He latched onto the out that she’d unknowingly given him. “Yes. Yes I am.”
Olivia laughed. “That fool. He needs all the help he can get. And he calls himself a scientist.”
Miles glanced up again, seeing that they only just passed a couple of floors.
“ Why won’t this thing go faster?”
“Have we met before?” Olivia peered at him. “You seem…familiar to me?”
Miles chuckled nervously. “Oh, no ma’am. I can’t say that we have. Like I said, I just got reassigned. I doubt we would have met before then.”
It was a weak excuse, Miles knew that. It seemed like Olivia suspected that to be the case as well, judging by the unconvinced look she had on her face. Thankfully for the disguised superhero, the elevator dinged and anounced that they arrived at 8B.
“Ah, no matter. It’s not like you’re anyone important anyway.”
Miles breathed a silent sigh of relief as the woman walked out and went on her way. Thank god the woman was a grade-A narcissist.”
“Miles! Miles!”
“Yeah I’m here.”
Gwen breathed a sigh of relief. “What happened? Who was that you were talking to?”
“Oh, no one important. Just freaking OLIVIA OCTAVIUS!”
“What!” Gwen screeched into his ear, causing it to ring. “Your Doc Ock?”
“Yes!”
“I thought she got hit by a bus? How is she still alive? And what is she doing here?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I guess it didn’t hit her hard enough.”
“This is crazy Miles! We need to hurry up.”
“You said go right when I come out?”
“Yeah. The door at the end should lead you to a lab. And then to the reactor room.”
The elevator finally stopped on 9. Miles, stuck his head out first to make sure no one was there before moving fully out and following Gwen’s directions. He found the door to the lab and entered the room.
“It’s on the other side of that blast shield. There should be a terminal you can use to open it.”
He found the terminal and began to lift the security lock on the blast shield door. As he did, however, a file caught his attention. It was something titled “Project Olympus.”
“ Project Olympus? Is that a codename for the Nuform project? Nevermind that. Focus Miles. Get the phone and get out of here.”
He pressed a few keys and the blast shield door started to lift. He zipped his way through the opening, landing on a support beam. There was nobody inside. The room was built like a missile silo. There were two levels, both with walkways. At the bottom, Miles could see an industrial-sized fan spinning fast. And beyond the dangerous blades, he could just make out a phone laying on the ground.
“ Bingo. ”
“Gwen, I found the phone,” he called out as he zipped down to the lower level. He jumped over the rail to the small landing right above the fan. “Any idea on how I can stop this fan?”
“Uhh…yeah. There should be some wires above the fan.” Miles trailed his gaze up, finding the wires. “Just break those and that should do it.”
He shot out a web, wrapping it around the wires and pulling, snapping them easily. The fan made a large whir as it came to a screeching halt. Miles jumped down and walked over to the phone, bending to pick it up. He gave it a few taps but nothing happened.
“Battery probably needs a charge.” His bio-electricity might be able to help. He charged some to the tip of his finger, the digit glowing bright. “Please don’t explode…”
He gently placed his on the phone, the sparks on his hand traveling into it. The screen lit up.
“Nice! Ok. Let me go to…camera. Videos. Here it is.” He pressed play on the video.
“Ok. Core dumps a two-person job,” Rick told Phin, standing at a terminal. The reactor was right behind him. “You start the override here, I confirm it there. Step one in wiping Nuform from existence.”
“Any regret, destroying the thing you made?”
Rick coughed, chuckling ruefully. “You’ve seen me lately, right? Let’s make the world safer.”
He walked over to the terminal next to the reactor, Phin taking his place at the first one.
“Ready,” Phin asked him.
“Ready.”
“Triggering override in 3…2…”
An energy shield burst to life, surrounding the reactor and trapping Rick. He turned, confused. “Phin?”
“That wasn’t me!”
On the terminal monitor, Joseph Hammerhead appeared.
“Really Rick? Industrial sabotage?” The CEO had a sick smile on his face. “No one in this town is gonna care about a few sick people…or a dead engineer.”
Phin was frantically typing, desperately trying to deactivate the shield.
“You’re just the cost of doing business Rick. Don’t take it personal.”
Hammerhead started to cackle as the reactor core started to charge.
“No! No no no!” Phin started to beat on the energy shield with her hand.
“I can stop it, I can stop this!” Rick started to pull on one of the cables attached to the reactor. In the background, Hammerhead continued to laugh.
Phin ran back to the terminal and grabbed the monitor. She used it as a makeshift battering ram, hammering the shield with it. But it was no use. It wouldn’t budge. She dropped it to the floor.
“No! Rick,” she cried, helpless to do anything.
The core was starting to reach a peak, electricity sparking all around it. Rick managed to pull the cable off, but it did nothing to stop the overload.
“No! Phin, don’t look!” He tried to get her to turn away from it.
“RICK!”
There was a surge of energy as the core overloaded. Rick was disintegrated and a large wave knocked both Phin and the phone back. She hit the ground hard, sobbing her eyes out.
“Someone else is in there-” Hammerhead’s voice called out over the PA system. ‘Find out who!”
Through a door, security started to pour in. Phin scrambled to her feet and started to run. In her haste to get away, she kicked her phone off the ledge, where it fell and landed beneath the fan.
Miles gasped as the video ended, almost dropping the phone. Shit. It all made sense now.
“Rick was trying to save people-and Hammerhead killed him. Mierda! That’s why Phin’s doing this.”
Sliding the phone into his pocket, he leaped back up to the landing and started to retrace his way back to the elevator. Once he’d gotten inside and was heading back up, he contacted Gwen.
“Gwen, are you there?”
“I’m here! You got the phone?”
“Yeah, I do. I can’t believe what I just saw!”
“What did you see?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re somewhere safe. Right now, we really need to go and fast. Hammerhead is…”
Miles's spider-sense suddenly blared at him as the elevator doors opened. Before he could react, a claw slammed into his chest, sending him back into the wall with a thump.
“Ah!”
“Miles? Miles! What’s going on?”
It was Olivia, decked out in her Doc Ock gear. Three of her tentacles waved in the air behind her. The fourth one was currently trying to cave in his chest. She had a smirk on her face.
“We meet again, Spider-Man.”
He was suddenly whipped around by the rubber limb. It sent him crashing through some glass and into another lab. He groaned in pain.
“I knew I recognized you, Davis,” the villainess said as she stalked over to him. “Took me a second to place the voice.”
“Nice to see you again too, Liv.”
The villainess stalked over to him. One of her claws wrapped around his throat and slammed him into the ground.
“Only my friends get to call me Liv.” The woman’s eyes glowed menacingly behind her goggles. “My enemies, get to call me Doc Ock.”
“Right right. I remember that. How’s the hip doing Doc? I'm sure you needed a replacement after getting hit by that bus.”
“I forgot how annoying you spider-people and your quips could be. Why are you here?”
Miles grinned. “Haven’t you heard? This facility was named the top vacation destination in the Bugle. I had to come check it out.”
She slammed him into the ground again. Miles thought he heard something crack when she did that.
“Enough games! Tell me what you’re doing here before I snap your little neck.”
A blue pointe shoe suddenly planted itself in Olivia’s side, sending her flying a crashing through a pane of glass. It was Gwen, scientist disguise shed and back in her suit.
“Miles! Are you okay?” She rushed over to him, offering him a hand.
“Never better,” he gasped out, trying to suck in as much oxygen as he could. He grabbed Gwen’s hand and allowed her to pull him up. “Thanks for the save.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We still need to get out of here.”
The two of them took off, Miles shedding his own disguise and putting his mask back over his face.
“Do you know how we’re gonna get out of here,” Miles asked her as they ran.
“Nope.”
The two turned left down a corridor. Spotting a set of doors at the end. They burst through, only to find themselves in the cafeteria. They paused, seeing a mixture of researchers and security guards eating, all of whom paused to stare at the two. On the left, a plate of bagels sat on the table. Miles and Gwen glanced at them before turning to each other.
“ Nope. ”
They swiveled, heading back out the doors and going down the right corridor. The alarms started to go off, blaring loudly. As they passed by an intersection, Olivia burst through a wall down the hall.
“Get back here!”
The two ignored her, continuing to look for an escape. Miles glanced back, seeing the villain gaining ground on them.
“She’s catching up to us,” He called out to Gwen.
“I know!”
Gwen suddenly skirted to a stop, seeing a door on the left.
“This way!”
The two heroes found themselves in a stairway. At the very top, on the ceiling, was a window to the outside.
“We can get out through there,” Gwen told him.
She and Miles started to scale up the railings as fast as they could. But as Gwen was making her next jump, the rubber claw of Doc Ock suddenly grabbed her foot.
“Oh look! It’s one of the other spiders.” Olivia started to chuckle. “I get to pull the legs off two of you today!”
A web suddenly hit her face blinding her and allowing Gwen to escape.
“Gwen, keep moving,” Miles shouted at her.
Olivia ripped the web off in frustration and growled at them before charging.
Fighting someone like her would have been a tough task regardless of the stage. But doing it inside a small, compact staircase? An absolute pain.
Miles and Gwen carefully dodge Olivia’s tentacles swiping at them while also attacking themselves. But there was very little room to maneuver. Miles only just ducked under a flying arm before another came in and caught him, sending him into a railing.
While Olivia was focused on him, Gwen came from behind and punched her in the face, causing her attention to turn to the white-clad hero. They exchanged blows for a little bit until Olivia managed to throw Gwen into a wall. Two of her claws grabbed Gwen’s hands, pinning her.
“Oh, I’m going to enjoy this,” Olivia cackled, only to be thrown off by Miles landing on her shoulder. His hand was charged with venom energy.
“I’d appreciate it if you kept your creepy tentacles of my friend.”
He slammed his hand on her back. The energy electrocuted the villain, causing her to screech in pain. Her claws let go of Gwen, who took both her feet and planted them in Olivia’s gut. The force sent her flying back into the wall, down for the count. Miles and Gwen hurriedly grabbed her tentacles, looping them around railings and webbing them in place, making sure she couldn’t move.
On a lower level, Hammerhead security came through, looking up at them.
“Stop those intruders!”
Miles shot a web up to the ceiling, making sure it was taut. He held an arm open.
“Gwen!”
It was a testament to the number of times that they’d fought together that Gwen didn’t hesitate, knowing exactly what Miles’s plan was. She wrapped her arm around him and shot her own line at the ceiling. They both began pulling back on their webs.
“On three. One…”
“Two…”
“Three!”
They let go at the same time, slingshotting themselves up to the window. Their feet smashed through the glass as they soared high into the air, finally outside. They easily cleared the edge of the building, letting each other go and starting to swing away, into the expanses of the city.
They swung for awhile and it was only when they put some good distance between them and Hammerhead that they finally stopped on a roof, breathing heavily.
“Miles…” Gwen panted. “Let’s never do that again.”
“I can agree to that.”
“You still have the phone right?”
Miles slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out the phone. Only to be dismayed as he saw it was smashed. The screen was entirely cracked. It was so bad that Miles could actually see inside some of the circuitry.
“Damn it,” he screamed in frustration. “I really needed that phone.”
Gwen walked over to stand next to him. “I’m sorry it broke Miles. What was on it? It sounded like you found something important.”
He nodded his head. “I did. Apparently, The Tinkerer was working with one of the engineers on the Nuform project. They were trying to destroy all of it. And make sure Hammerhead couldn’t create more. But things went wrong.
The memory of Rick dying and Phin’s anguished screams were something he wouldn’t soon forget. “Hammerhead killed the engineer. There was a video of it on the phone. But it’s destroyed now, along with the evidence. I’m right back at square one!”
“Miles, it’s ok.” Gwen patted him on the shoulder. “We’ll figure out some other way to take down Hammerhead.”
Miles grabbed her hand and gave it a small squeeze. “I know. Thanks again, by the way, for saving my bacon by the way.”
“Of course! I still can’t believe Doc Ock is alive.”
“You and me both. Just another thing I need to worry about.”
The two continued to chill on the roof for a little while before Miles checked his phone. It was late into the afternoon.
“I need to head home Gwen. My Mom might need me. I’ll let you know once I figure out what to do next.”
Gwen typed in the coordinates for her home on her watch, a portal opening. “Sounds good. Just don’t let it be tonight, please. I need my sleep. Tell your mom I said hello and I hope she heals quick!”
Miles managed to chuckle at that. “You and me both. And will do. See you later Gwen.”
“Bye Miles!”
And with that, she was gone, leaving Miles alone. He closed his eyes. The thing was, he already knew what his next step was. Without the phone, he had no leads. He couldn’t go after Hammerhead again. Which meant he only had one option left.
“ I need to talk to Phin. About all of this.”
It was early morning the next day as Miles walked toward the coffee shop where he was meeting Phin, he went over his game plan one last time. He needed to get Phin to open up to him. What she was doing was extremely dangerous. Not only to herself but to the rest of the city. While he understood the crusade she was on, innocent people were gonna get caught in the crossfire and that simply wasn’t ok.
He thought about just straight up telling her he was Spider-Man, but after some deliberation, he’d nixed that idea. He thought he knew Phin well enough to know that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but that was based on the girl he knew before. After everything she’d been through, Miles wasn’t sure she wouldn’t just shut down and refuse to have anything to do with him.
He needed to make sure she understood he was on her side first. If he could do that, then maybe he could talk her down from whatever ledge she was on. And then he wouldn’t have to potentially fight and stop his friend.
“ God, this is depressingly familiar,” Miles thought to himself as he walked into the coffee shop. He saw Phin waving him over, sitting in the back corner in a booth, secluded away from everyone else.
“Hey Miles,” Phin greeted him as he moved over and slid into the opposite side of the booth.
“Hey Phin.”
“I went ahead and ordered for you.” She gestured with the mug in her hands at the one sitting in front of him. “You still drinking cinnamon flavored lattes?”
“Of course!” He took a sip and almost shuddered at how delicious it was. Phin shook her head.
“I don’t know how you drink that stuff.”
“Because I’m cultured, unlike you.”
They both laughed at that. They sat at the table in silence for a little bit, letting the ambiance and background noise take over for a bit. It seemed they both had things they wanted to say, but neither one really knew where to start. It was Phin who eventually broke the deadlock.
“I was really glad you called, Miles.” She leaned forward in her chair. “I needed a break.”
“From what?”
“Oh, just…stuff.”
He knew all about the stuff she was alluding to. Taking a deep breath, Miles steeled himself for the upcoming conversation. It was going to be a long one.
“So uh…I went to your folks’ old shop. Thought you might be there.”
Miles could feel the air between them shift as Phin leaned back in her seat, eyes widening. Miles continued.
“It looked like someone tried to break in right before I got there. I went inside, took a look around. I…I found out about Rick.”
Phin eyes began to tear up and it hurt Miles right in his gut to see that.
“I’m so sorry.”
“What else did you find out,” Phin asked him after taking a moment to gather herself. He could see the nervousness on her face. Miles took one last breath.
“I know you’re the Tinkerer, Phin.”