A busy day
You are the Spider-Woman of your universe Earth-383, swinging by the buildings of (City) York in the country of (Country) just being the friendly neighborhood super hero anyone could count on.
Aside from being a hero, you are an intern at Alchemax, a multinational chemical corporation. It isn't as cool and calm as it seems to be, the environment was rather toxic but you persevered your way through it because of a man named Miguel O'Hara, a 33 year old expert in bioengineering, head of Alchemax's research and development department.
Even though it was all one sided, just the thought of seeing him was enough to give you all the energy you need to wake up for the day, the age gap was something you have also thought of as a problem since you were only 21 years old and still in college, but that won't stop you at all from trying to reach the man of your dreams.
"Troubles out on (Street) St. Perpetrator seems to be going north straight for the (City) bridge---"
You left your apartment before even letting the radio continue on with the live reports, even when in the middle of a project, Spider-Woman cannot take breaks when there's trouble in town, much like right now.
You swung through the city you have protected for over 6 years, every nook and crevice memorized by this point. You moved with grace, years of experience showing as you maneuvered your way through the city with preciseness and accuracy. Within minutes you have arrived to the location of the perpetrator, the commotion on the surface confirmed that you were indeed in the right place.
"All righty, be a good villain and let me end this quickly... I have a project due next week." You mumbled, mostly to yourself, gliding down from the buildings to meet the chaos below.
"Where am I? This isn't New York!" A bearded man with a fur vest yelled, seemingly confused and out of place. "Of course this isn't New York, its (City) York!" You replied whilst landing a kick directly at your target's abdomen. Surprisingly, he only ended up stumbling backwards before regaining himself back up, pulling out his guns. "Oh wow, didn't expect you to get back up that fast." The man only looked at you with rage, feeling as if he were being taunted with the way you talk so nonchalantly. "Another annoying little bug..." He growled, shooting his firearms your way which did nothing at all as you avoided every single shot with the help of your spider sense.
"Up high kid!" A voice from above was heard, the new hero in town has arrived. "Good afternoon Mr. Blue Spandex guy!" You greet him playfully, you don't really know his age but you guessed that he was older than you since he was pretty huge, you can't really get any info from his voice since he uses a voice changer that lowers his voice.
"How many times do I have to tell you it's not spandex!" Blue Panther yelled back while simultaneously sending a powerful punch from above directed at the villain. "Ouch, that looks like it hurt." You commented as the bearded man spits out a single tooth along with some blood. "Of course it does, it's me who did it." The new hero says, body language indicating that he was being smug about it. "Sure bud." You replied, eyes rolling from behind your mask as you web up the perpetrator... Or so you thought.
"Spider-Woman! Blue Panther! The villain is still on the loose!" A police officer yells. The two heroes looked at one another before rushing to the middle of the bridge, trying to see if the felon was still out there. "Crap, that might've been one of the villain's goons, I should've thought of that possibility!" You scolded yourself, groaning at the thought of more work.
Sure enough, the correct target was right in the middle, they looked like any other robber out there. While swinging over you heard gunshots from an automatic rifle, you turn your head around to see that the previous bad guy had freed himself from your webbing. "Shit... Yo Blue, go handle that man and I'll handle this guy." You didn't even bother to hear his reply before going back to where you initially were.
The bearded man saw you coming towards his way, and with pure desperation to get away from being cornered, he jumped off the bridge to the ocean below. "Oh come on... Can you all please just make this easier for me? I still have a project to do!" You voiced out, frustrated with how things are turning out. You followed after the man, diving off from the bridge.
But your eyes caught something beeping on the pillars.
Glowing red every few seconds or so.
While in the middle of the air, you hyper focused on the object detected, and sure enough your sight was able to make out shapes of what seems to be explosives. "Fuck..." You mumble under your breath, feeling the urgency of the situation. You've decided to ignore the man all together, as removing the explosives were at the top of your priorities. Your eyes were keen to any glowing red object under the bridge, going back and forth to make sure you've cleared everything, it seemed as if everything was clear...
Until an explosion was heard---
From the top.
"The support!" The realization came in quickly, going back at the top of the bridge. At least taking away the explosive from below helped a ton, but the rubbles from the explosions could still cause injury or maybe even fatalities to the people on the scene. And just as you predicted, beams were falling from above and you did your best to avoid any casualties by webbing the debris to keep it away from harm's way.
Soon another wave of explosions came and you rush to the direction of the loud bang, moving more people out of the way and webbing up anything that looked like it could collapse. You thought everything was going alright, but unbeknownst to you, your webbing on one of the beams were coming loose.
Your spider sense allowed you to detect this problem really quickly, shooting out your webs to stop a massive beam from falling, it was hanging by a single web, luckily enough the person beneath wasn't squished to death. The female sent a smile towards you as thanks, and you felt relieved knowing no one died today.
Was what you thought...
A white bullet from nowhere shot the single thread of web holding the debris from falling on the woman. It all happened so fast, you let relief take over for a moment that you let your guard down. Though your heightened senses warned you, your movements were still too late.
The woman was crushed.
This was no strange occasion in a life of a hero, people die around you left and right all the time, but it still doesn’t change that heavy feeling in your heart when you catch the sight of the very moment you fail to save them.
“A bullet...” You murmured, eyes void of emotion as you slowly scan the area behind you. Who would do such a thing, one might ask? It was not an accident you were sure of that, the shot was too precise to be an accidental shot, and no gunshots were heard, meaning that someone was aiming from afar.
Blue panther landed beside you, he had already taken care of the main culprit and was checking around the area. His eyes landed on a car that seemed familiar to him, you stood still, lost in your own thoughts, determined to catch whoever shot that bullet. Blue Panther didn’t even bother talking to you anymore as he rushed towards the crushed car, checking around for any signs of a license plate.
The sight of red fluid caught his eye, it didn’t make it any better that it was coming under a huge fallen beam... That could only mean one thing. He hoped that it wasn’t what he was thinking, blood under a huge rubble, and the car of his secret lover nearby. The new hero prayed that it wasn’t what he thought, slowly lifting the rubble, chanting a bunch of ‘no’s that seem to get louder every time as reality hits him.
It was indeed her, Dana... His girlfriend of 3 months.
“You... What are you doing just standing there?” The man calls out to you, doing his best to stay calm when everything within him was begging to scream. You stayed silent, deluding yourself that you could still catch the killer even if you had no lead. The man let out a deep sigh, clenching his fists, holding himself back from letting his feelings take over. “Why so silent Spider-Woman?” He says, voice going octaves lower.
“T-there was this bullet a-and... Someone else did that.” You try to explain, but as words come out of your mouth, you realize how stupid and unbelievable it kind of sounds and it didn’t help the situation at all. “6 years Spider-Woman... You’ve been doing this for 6 years.” The man walks over to you, steps heavy and his towering height casting a shadow over you. “What happened to that stupid hyper sense or whatever of yours huh? Was all that for show? For interviews to impress people?” He whisper-shouted, being careful not to let any nearby civilians hear the conversation.
‘Why is he being so mad about this?’ You thought, it was normal to lose a life during missions like these. Best way to deal with them is to learn from it and move on, but this new hero seems to be dragging it out for too long. “I swear, someone shot at the web!” You replied, matching his volume. “So what if it got shot? You’re fast enough to save people in a split second, right?! What happened to that?” The man growled, hovering over you.
You were done with his attitude, you weren’t even going to try and answer any of his questions anymore. “Why are you so hung up over it anyway? It was an honest mistake! I thought she was fine but then it just fell on her!” You couldn’t help but yell out of frustration. The reminder of the events only angered the man clad in blue, he did not like that reply.
He gripped you by your suit near your collarbone, lifting you up and banging you on the truck behind you. “This is why I decided to become a hero... Incompetent Wanna-Be's like you just aren't enough.” He whispers menacingly, voice filled with hatred. You were taken aback by this, but composed yourself, you aren’t just gonna let the man treat you like this.
You kicked him off of you with all the power you have, sending Blue Panther flying back. “If you can't handle deaths during missions, I suggest you shouldn’t be a hero at all...” Spite was evident as you said those words, you didn’t want to hear what he had to say about it so you swung away before he could reply.
On your way home, your mind went back to what happened to the woman. Why would someone want her to die? Or maybe it was just some sick person who wanted to kill? You didn’t know, and it was slowly killing you just knowing that there is a person out there who is out to kill the innocent for fun. You didn’t even have the energy to continue your project, you just sat in your room wondering what your first move should be, the first step to figure out even the slightest bit of a lead.
Just when you were planning to rest, you remembered the bearded man from earlier, and you groaned... You had some unfinished businesss.
You had classes tomorrow, but you can't just rest knowing that a dangerous man was out there roaming the city. “Guess I’m staying up overnight again.” You say to yourself, back to swinging along in the city, trying to spot some small crimes while on the lookout for the runaway villain.
4 hours passed, it was 1am in the morning and you were still up. You were about to give up the search and call it a day, but you spot the man that you were looking for... Except he was already detained by someone unfamiliar. “Don’t tell me another hero is in town.” You grumble, descending from above.
“Hey there! New hero?” You tried to make small talk but the man in all black and a fedora only glanced slightly at you before dragging the villain behind him. “Hey, wait up! Let me assist you!” You said, but the man only quickens his pace. Why did it seem like he was avoiding you? You wonder.
He disappears in a corner which made you dash towards his position, but once again you only saw a glimpse of him as he entered another corner in the alleyway. “Are you trying to avoid me?” You yelled, it did seem like he was staying away from you, but he couldn’t be the villain’s accomplice, right? Since he has him all tied up.
The chase went on, much like a cat chasing an agile mouse. This was the first time you met someone who was on par with your speed and agility, his movements were just as flexible as yours too. “Stop! That’s not the way to the police station!” You started to realize he was not heading for any kind of place to properly arrest the villain, there was something off about the man’s intention and this only fueled your motivation to catch him even more.
Just as the man thought he had lost you, he took a quick glance around the area, making sure he really was alone. Little did he know that you were hiding at a corner, waiting for him to lower his guard.
But to your surprise, a bright light illuminated from the alleyway, and you couldn’t help but take a little peek out of curiosity.
‘What the heck?’ You thought as you stare at a hexagonal bright light, aside from that you notice that the man and the villain were also gone. “Huh?” Your confusion was evident, as it was a dead end, where could they have possible gone through?
You went closer to the strange light, hand curiously reaching out. “Is this... A teleporter?” You wonder, it was a plausible answer as the idea of teleportation wasn’t new at all, but you haven’t even tried or gone through one. It seemed to be the only reasonable answer as to why the 2 suddenly disappeared, and you weren’t going to let your only chance to track them down to just vanish.
So, you did what no normal human would do---
Enter a portal that you didn’t even know where was headed...