Chapter 28: Familiar Faces
Arriving at the Museum, Miles could see that the police had already arrived at the spot and had surrounded the place.
'I gotta find a way to get inside.' Miles' eyes scanned the walls, trying to find a way he could enter from. 'There.'
Spotting a vent, Miles swung to it and pried the vent cover off from the wall. He managed to fit through the vent and began to crawl inside, making sure that he wasn't loud.
'Man, I don't think I'll ever get used to crawling through the vents.' Miles sighed, maneuvering through the tight crawlspace. Once deeper, Miles turned invisible and came out of the vents, sticking himself to the nearest wall. 'Alright, time to find the hostages.'
While sneaking through the museum, Miles could see that some of the art pieces had already been removed. It didn't matter though, once he caught them, he'd make them return everything to the Museum.
As Miles was sneaking through the place, he heard a voice coming from the hallway.
"How's the new kid doing?" One of the robbers asked his companion.
"Could be better. The kid's nothing like the old bastard." His friend shrugged before continuing.
"It's kind of hard to compete with someone like that." He laughed back as the two continued to sweep the floor. "Now focus, we gotta find that reporter before she gives us the slip."
'Reporter?' Miles' eyes narrowed. His hunch was telling him that whoever they were looking for was someone important. Miles decided to give the two of them a talk, hopefully, he'd find something useful.
Webbing their feet, Miles pulled back with a tug, making the two of them fall face first before shooting them with enough web to immobilize them.
"Dammit!"
"You're going to pay for this, Spider-Man!"
The two cried out, trying to move but it proved useless. Miles chuckled, webbing their mouths shut. "Man, you two sound like generic thugs right now. Now, why don't you guys tell me about this reporter you two were talking about."
"We ain't going to tell you nothing!"
"Yeah, you won't get a word out of us!"
"Really? Because I'm getting a lotta lip from you two." Miles sighed, squatting in front of the two. He raised his hand and electricity began to spark from it. "You guy's been tased before?"
"Course I have!"
"Not really."
"Well, my electricity is ten times stronger than a taser. You guys want to test it out?" Miles asked, reaching towards the robber who had said that he had already been tased. As his hand connected, the man began to spasm as his body was electrified. When he pulled his hand back, Miles could see the robber had passed out as drool dripped from his mouth.
"Jesus, what the hell, Spider-Man?!"
Miles turned to look at the one who was still conscious. "You want to go through what he went through?"
The man shook his head in response.
"Well, you better tell me what I want to know."
"Argh, fine! We're looking for the reporter, Mary Jane Watson. She escaped from the hostages we had tied and is sneaking through the museum."
"Where are you keeping the hostages?" Miles asked, bringing his hand closer.
"In the employee break room!"
"See? This could have all been avoided if you had answered me beforehand," Miles replied, standing back up. Now, why don't you stay here while I go and deal with the rest of your friends?"
After webbing the robber's mouth shut, Miles moved onward, checking each room, hoping to find the employee break room. Much to his annoyance, these museums had maps of which spots to check out but not where the employees stayed at.
However, as he snuck through the museum, Miles felt his spider senses tingle. That was when he felt a hand on his back. Turning to look, Miles was greeted with a familiar face.
"MJ?!" Miles' eyes widened as he saw the red-headed girl standing behind him.
"Miles, quiet down!" MJ said in a hushed tone.
"Crap, my bad," Miles apologized, before looking at her. "I was just looking for you. Some of the robbers told me you had snuck out."
"Yeah, these guys aren't that coordinated. Managed to give them the slip in a matter of minutes." MJ said boastfully.
"You wouldn't happen to know how many robbers there are, would you?"
"There should be six."
"Taking out the two I already took out, that leaves four left," Miles muttered to himself. "Okay, I should be able to deal with them. You should go find somewhere to hide while I take care of them."
"I was thinking I could go free the hostages," MJ said, pulling out her phone. "You know, we still haven't exchanged phone numbers. It'll be good to have each other's numbers so we can communicate."
"Uh, yeah, I guess I can give you my number, but let's get back to you going to free the hostages," Miles said, stopping her with his hands. "I'm pretty sure the hostages will have at least one person guarding them. You sure you can deal with it?"
MJ snorted and waved Miles off, "Please, I worked with Peter for so long, I'm practically a veteran at this. Now here, type your number on my phone."
"Fine," Mile sighed, putting his number down. Once Miles passed her phone back to her, MJ started to walk away, leaving MIles behind. "Good luck out there, Spider-Man."
Miles sighed, 'Man, I hope she's not lying. I don't want her making it a habit of calling me whenever she's in trouble.'
He had seen Peter go through that many times and that was more than enough for him. Moving forward, Miles started searching for the remaining robbers.
'Man, this place is big.' Miles groaned. Minutes had passed and he hadn't found a single soul. But perhaps luck felt like throwing him a bone. When he passed through a door, he heard talking inside.
Staring at the door, he saw that it was the director's office. Cracking the door slightly, Miles peeked inside and saw two robbers opposite in size standing as an old man cowered beside them.
"Open the safe!" The taller of the two robbers said, pointing a gun at the old man.
The old man didn't try to struggle, immediately walking toward the wall where there was a safe built into it.
The smaller of the two started walking around the room, seeing what they could take.
With the two preoccupied, Miles entered the office and quickly jumped up to the ceiling. As he stuck to the ceiling, Miles saw the smaller one turn and look around.
'It's a good thing that I can go invisible.' Miles let out a relieved sigh inside of his head. He decided that it was best to take care of the bigger robber first. Shooting his web shooter at his gun, Miles yanked it off the man's hand and threw it to the corner of the room.
"What?!"
"You know, most normal people come to the museums to appreciate art, not steal it," Miles said, landing in front of them.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"Uh, you not from around here? I'm Spider-Man." Miles said, pointing at himself.
"You got the Spider-Man suit but you're way too short to be the real Spider-Man," The bigger robber asked with a smile on his face. "You really gonna make me believe that a shrimp like you is Spider-Man?"
"Hey man, I'm waiting for my growth spurt!" Miles pointed at him with his finger.
"Guess they be letting anyone wear the suit."
"Your mouths writing a lot of checks that it can't cash, hermano," Miles grumbled.
"What, Spider-Man's getting sad?"
"Nah, I deal with chumps like you for a living. Whatever you say has no effect on me." Miles said, shrugging his shoulders. "Hey, you wanna know what does have an effect?"
"Hm?"
"A fist to the chin!" Miles said, his hand shot a web at the robber, pulling him towards Miles where he delivered an uppercut that lifted the robber off of his feet and had him hit the wall before he bounced to the ground.
"You're gonna pay-" Before the robber could say anything, Miles shot a web at his mouth, shutting him up before he stuck him to the wall.
"Damn, seems like this shrimp just took you down." Miles chuckled, facing the smaller robber. "Now, you've been awfully quiet. You got something you want to share?"
The robber didn't say anything. Instead, they dashed toward the nearest window and jumped out.
"What the hell?!" Miles was surprised about the change of events. He ran to the window and looked out. He saw the small dude start doing some crazy parkour as they landed safely on the ground before they started to make a run for it.
"He's pretty quick," Miles said, getting ready to chase after them, but that was when he heard a phone call. Turning to check who it was, Miles noticed it was MJ calling. He jumped out of the window and chased after the robber while answering the call. "Kinda busy, MJ!"
[Oh, just wanted to let you know that I managed to take down two of the robbers, singlehandedly.] Miles could picture MJ with a smug smile on her face right about now.
"That's great! One of the robbers decided to make a run for it. If you can, get the police to arrest the robbers."
[You got it, Spider-Man!]
With the call ending, Miles focused on the robber who was running away toward the streets. They effortlessly weaved through the crowd as they continued to run. Were Miles not swinging above them, he would have most likely lost them.
Swinging lower, Miles managed to grab the robber and swing away. As he swung, Miles had to deal with the robber struggling in his arm.
"You keep moving, I'm gonna end up dropping you," Miles said which caused the robber to stop moving. Landing on a nearby roof, Miles dropped the robber on the ground as he landed. "I gotta say, you're pretty fast."
"..." The robber remained silent as he got back to his feet.
Miles' eyes narrowed. "Silent treatment, huh? Fine by me." As Miles shot his web at him, the robber managed to evade it, stepping to the side. "No, you see, you're supposed to let me hit you with it."
As he said that, Miles shot another web at the robber but he managed to dodge it again. But this time, he ran at Miles and started throwing punches and kicks.
"And you can fight?" Miles whistled, doing a bit of his own evading. He grabbed the robber's fist and turned him around before kicking him in the rear. The robber stumbled before recovering and turning back around to face him. "Well, as much as I would like to keep this going, I have things to do so-"
Shooting a web at the robber's mask, Miles tried pulling on it to bring him closer, but what ended up happening was that Miles unmasked the robber. And much to his surprise, he saw long platinum blonde hair flutter through the wind as a young girl stared daggers at Miles.
"You know, you're quite annoying." The girl spat, running at Miles. She jumped and landed a punch on Miles as he was still shocked at the turn of events that occurred before him.
The punch managed to jostle Miles back to reality as he turned to look at her. But that was when he noticed that she had already started running away, jumping from roof to roof with ease.
Miles started chasing after her. He saw as she dropped down the side of the roof but when he peeked over the side, Miles found her nowhere to be found.
"Damn!" Miles cursed, hitting the railing on the roof. He was going to keep looking for her but he received another phone call. Checking again, he saw that it was MJ. "Is there a problem?"
[Just wanted to let you know that the police managed to apprehend all of the robbers inside the museum.]
"Good to hear."
[What about the last robber? You managed to catch them?]
"No, she gave me the slip."
[She? Oh boy, don't tell me you let her go.]
"What? Why would I do that?"
Miles heard MJ sigh before she spoke. [Believe me, Peter used to do the same thing from time to time. Especially if the person happened to have a pretty face.]
"Huh, I didn't know that."
[Well, was she pretty?]
"I rather not comment on that."
[So she was.]
"My batteries are about to die, MJ. I'mma have to hang up."
[Sure thing, Spider-Man. I believe you should take the rest of the day to relax.] MJ said before ending the call.
Miles sighed, massaging his forehead. 'Man, I was not expecting to cross paths with Black Cat of all people.'
How was Miles so sure that the person he had just met was in fact Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat? Well, there weren't that many girls in the Spider-Man universe that had platinum-blonde hair. But what he wasn't expecting was for her to be around the same age as him. And from what he could tell, she was barely starting out.
"Man, this day turned out to be pretty crazy." Miles muttered, swinging away.
Right now, he was really hoping to get a nice bit of sleep before he had to go on patrol again. He had a feeling that things were only going to ramp up from here on.
(Author's Note)
Black Cat finally makes an appearance. I decided to make her be around Gwen's age, so she's around 16 while Miles is 15. I plan to write as Felicia becomes Black Cat and her relationship with Spider-Man. Hopefully I can do it justice.
Also, I saw that you guys liked my idea for a No Way Home crossover. So I was thinking that I should do it once Miles is a few years into being Spider-Man. I landed at 17 since Tom Holland's Spider-Man is supposed to be 17 in No Way Home. I feel like that would make the interactive between the two a bit more natural.
There are some other things that I'm trying to figure out like if I should keep it where Miles is still in animated form or if I should make him human to fit with the rest. Could try explaining it by making it so Doctor Strange's spell managed to change Miles or something like that. I dunno tho, since I kinda feel like it'd be weird for him to be animated while everyone else is live actors and everything. I guess I could just not talk about it at all.
Maybe I'm thinking too deeply into this. You guys can give me some suggestions if you like. I'll be checking the comments and shi.
I'll see you guys on Monday.