School was a weird thing to dream about, but it kind of made sense. So much had happened in just a few weeks that Scott barely had time to process. Last night he watched a man die in front of him, not somebody he knew well but… he was still somebody. He remembered being in the car with Darren, he was driving around the neighborhood and told Scott about a spot where he saw someone die.

“You see that restaurant?” Darren pointed at a pizza place. “I saw someone get shot across the street from there. Pretty sure they died.”

Scott wasn’t naive about the nature of his life. He knew that death would follow him down this path, but so far he’d gone his whole life without seeing it. Until last night that is. Darren lost a lot of people in his life, his parents didn’t abandon him like Scott’s did, they were killed by stray gunfire. Darren could’ve lost someone else last night, since Scott had come inches away from losing his life. He hadn’t considered how Darren would feel about any of this until he was literally knocked unconscious.

With all that on his mind, it made sense that Scott would dream about school. He told everyone that would listen how much he hated school, but Scott had a lot of friends there. Waking up early was okay if he got to goof around with the boys. What he really hated was feeling dumb, and school was better at that than anything else. Looking back, it was a simpler time.

——

Pleasant, nostalgic dreams were disrupted by a pain flaring up in Scott’s head. It jolted him awake, and the bright light of the ceiling lamp made his eyes sting.

“Agh, who turned the light on?” Scott groaned.

“I did.” Adrian responded from the door frame.

“Shut it off.”

“You need to eat.”

“Nah. I need to sleep.”

“That too, but you’ve been asleep for twelve hours.”

“Twelve hours?” Scott felt a chill go down his spine.

He tried to stand up, but his body wasn’t strong enough. He felt his body tense up, and he collapsed back onto his pillow.

“Save your strength kid.” Adrian nagged.

“Don’t need to tell me twice.”

Scott was in the same bed he woke up in after inhaling Black Cat’s knockout gas, he was starting to feel some ownership of it. Adrian set a bed tray down with a fast food breakfast bag and a soda.

“Hope you weren’t expecting anything gourmet.”

“You won’t hear me complaining.”

“Good. Don’t expect me to feed it to you by the way.”

“My arms still work, they just hurt.”

“You took a beating back there kid, but the nurse says you’ll be okay. You’re recovering quickly.”

“The nurse?” Scott looked around confused.

“Fisk sent a private nurse to examine your wounds and treat you.”

“Oh, nice. Who is Fisk?”

“That’s right, never got around to telling you. Wilson Fisk is New York’s crime kingpin. He’s bigger than Tombstone, and since he owed me for a favor I decided to ask for his help in our little war. He agreed. It was his people you saw at the hospital fighting with us.”

“That makes sense.”

“Mhm.” Adrian nodded. “A lot has changed overnight though.”

“Uh, how so?”

“Well, a fight between super powered people in a hospital is a big deal. It’s being talked about all over the country.”

“Oh f**k.”

“I know, but the good news is that Tombstone has been linked to this attack by law enforcement. It’ll be too risky for him to attack us now.”

“And the bad news?”

“This morning two agents knocked on Jamie’s door and asked him some questions. They know he has some connection to what happened but they don’t have anything to use against him. He needs to lay low until all of this is over with.”

“Damn, so what do we do now?”

“Nothing, we keep our heads down and let the feds deal with Tombstone.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, Fisk has guys in the NYPD who work for him. He can give them information to use against Tombstone.”

“Oh.”

Scott didn’t know how to feel about all of this. In his head he pictured the gang kicking Tombstone’s ass for hurting Jamie, not the police putting him in cuffs. It felt like all the pain and trouble he went through was for nothing, and that didn’t sit right with him. Still, Adrian was the boss and Scott was done going against his orders. He made that mistake and learned his lesson from it.

Besides, it was a relief to know the big gray gangster wasn’t going to shoot up him and his friends anymore.

“Okay.” Scott resigned himself. “What comes next? When I’m all patched up?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“If you still want to be a part of this crew.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I?”

“This isn’t how I thought everything would happen when I brought you and Jamie into our group. It spiraled out of control and you two were put in danger. I’m giving you the opportunity to leave, if it’s too much for you. Because if you’re working with me I can’t guarantee your safety.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“No! Why would I want to leave?”

“You’re still a kid Scott.”

“I’m old enough. I can handle myself. I can stick to walls, swing on buildings and -”

“Look,” Adrian cut him off; “it’s only fair that I make it clear that you can walk away.”

“Adrian, sir. This isn't a hard decision for me. I like what we’re doing, and that we’re doing it together. Besides, what do I have to lose?”

“Exactly. I’m glad you feel that way too.” Adrian gave a reserved smile, “In that case, Phineas’ particle ray was damaged from all the shit that happened. He’s confident it’s fixable, but we have to wait. Once it’s back up and running we make our first heist, for now just focus on resting up.”

“Will do boss.” Scott joked and saluted.

Adrian chuckled softly and stood up to leave the room, but as he reached the door frame Scott called out to him.

“Adrian.”

“Yes?”

“I know Flint is trying to take care of his kid, but I’m curious why you’re doing this?”

“I didn’t make the wings and the suit to do crime with, not at first. I made it to sell to the military, but my old friend and business partner cut me out of the deal. He took all the credit when the military bought the schematics and made one for The Falcon. I was furious, and I tried to kill my ex-business partner for stealing my life’s work. He lived, and I became a wanted fugitive. Once I have enough money, I’m gonna leave the country and hide comfortably for the rest of my years.”

“That’s one hell of a story Adrian.”

“Not one I like to tell people.”

“But you got a soft spot for me.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

——

A week later Scott was well enough to be on his feet jumping around again, which was incredibly fast compared to the two month healing process that the nurse informed him most people go through. Scott made up a lie that he was staying at a girlfriend’s place, which seemed to keep Darren from worrying.

With that out of the way, Scott approached Mitch, the bouncer of The Bar With No Name, in his Tarantula costume.

“You know, calling it The Bar With No Name is giving it a name.” Scott joked.

“Wow, you’re the eleventh genius to tell me that.” He sarcastically shot back.

“Who is all inside today?”

“The usuals. Black Cat is here.”

“Oh? Good to know.”

“Come in.” Mitch said as he opened the door.

Inside the bar were a swarm of colorful criminals; there was a guy with a silver boomerang on his back drunkenly hitting on a girl with fur like a cheetah, a guy with an 8 ball on his head playing pool, and a person he actually recognized. The Juggernaut was a notorious villain of the X-Men he heard about on TV. The sheer size of the guy was terrifying, he made the wrecking crew look tiny. His muscles were inhumanely massive, and he wore a bright red outfit with a durable looking helmet. Across from him was a woman he swore looked like Jean Grey from The X-Men.

“That can’t be her, didn’t she die? And why is she with Juggernaut? Yanno what, I don’t want to know.”

Scott kept walking, it was best not to pry. At a booth was the woman he was hoping would be here, The Black Cat. He felt butterflies in his chest as he approached her, she was just that pretty of a woman, but wearing a mask made him feel somewhat confident.

“Hey.” He greeted her.

“I thought you were dead.” She responded.

“I got close.” Scott admitted. “Mind if I take a seat?”

“It’s all yours.”

Scott sat down across from her. “So… what’s new?”

“Aside from being evicted from my apartment? Not much.”

“Oh.” Scott felt an awkward tenseness in the air. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be, I would be dead if not for you. Being homeless beats being dead.”

“Right.” Scott took a deep breath. “I came here to talk to Chameleon about the deal I made. Once that’s over with, why not work together? We both need money and we can both steal stuff really well.”

“That’s funny, I came here to do the job too. Cause if you’re dead, it falls to me.”

“That’s fair.”

“So why not do it together? And after that I can decide if I want to keep working with you.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Both of them were surprised when an individual walked over to their table, it was a man in a gray suit jacket with a black tie and a Panama hat. He looked directly at Scott.

“My boss wants to speak with you.” The man said, as he motioned over to a table.

At the table was none other than Tombstone, sitting with a few of his men. Scott felt a rush of chills down his spine. Terror washed over him, so strong he didn’t think he could move. Then he remembered the rules; ‘beef is left at the door.’ Trusting that The Bar With No Name would uphold that rule, he mustered whatever confidence he had and stood up.

“I’ll be back.” He told Cat.

The man escorted him across the bar to Tombstone’s table, they had a bottle of champagne in the center.

“I won’t take up too much of your time, have a seat.” Tombstone ordered.

Scott sat down in an empty chair. “What do you want?”

“Just to talk. Thirsty?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.” Tombstone poured himself a drink. “Tomorrow I’m leaving New York, but I don’t want you thinking that you’ve won.”

“Oh? It sounds like we did.”

“Except your boss made a deal with Wilson Fisk, big mistake. Now you’ve got a bigger problem than me to deal with. He owns all of you now, because The Vulture was so afraid to deal with me.”

Scott didn’t like hearing Adrian, a man he started to see as a father, be disrespected like that but knowing the rules he kept his mouth shut.

“That’s the difference between him and I.” Tombstone continued. “He treats his men like disposable employees, but I see my men like brothers. And you killed one of my men at that girl’s apartment.”

Tombstone pointed towards Cat, who was still sitting at the booth. Scott felt a cold shiver. He had no idea he killed anyone that night. He was just defending himself, they almost killed him!

“I want you to know that I will return to this city, bug.” Tombstone spoke with venom in his words. “And when I do, you and everyone you care about will die by my hand. Fisk won’t protect you.”

Scott’s fear turned to a blind fury, he clenched his fist and raised his voice.

“Yeah I killed your man.” Scott retaliated. “Because I don’t spare my enemies. You bring your sorry ass back to New York and try to hurt me, my friends, or her and I’ll show you what I’m really capable of. Stay the f**k out of my city.”

Scott got up and left the table, his blood boiling.

“Huh, so the spider does have fangs.” Tombstone remarked. “Can’t wait to meet again.”

The intensity of the situation and the high emotions sent Scott into a mental overload, he walked back over to Cat’s booth in autopilot. His mind was completely blank, she tried to talk to him but he looked off into the distance not hearing a word. The only thing on his mind was the fear of his people dying, and the hell he would raise to protect them. He knew Tombstone wasn’t going to leave New York forever, even after Scott’s threat.

Then Scott felt a hand on his, which snapped him back to reality. Cat looked at him with concerned eyes. “He really set you off huh?”

Scott sighed. “Come on. We have a job to do.”