The sound of rain tapping the hood of the truck was like a blanket for Scott’s thoughts. He could concentrate on the noise, and everything else was silent. He could feel his heart thump in his chest, but he wasn’t nervous nor was he afraid. He didn’t think anything at all, which was good. Scott’s instincts were strong, and they would carry him far.

There was a long bridge that connected Ryker’s Island to the rest of New York City, and as they drove across the bridge Scott could look out of a small window slot and see the vast ocean before him. The waves rose and fell with a thunderous might, in the darkness of the night the water looked almost black. Whatever light the moon could provide was covered by storm clouds, and only a faint glow could pierce through them.

They arrived at a parking gate where a guard was stationed inside a small room. Chameleon, still disguised as the driver Brandon, rolled the driver’s side window down and flashed the guard’s key card. Scott, Felicia and Doug said nothing. The gate guard glanced up from his book and saw a man he was familiar with, he didn’t bother enough to look closer and see any of the alarming details that would have made him suspicious. Instead he pressed the button that raises the gate and gave ‘Brandon’ a nod before going back to his book.

Chameleon drove into the prison, Scott noticed how it seemed like he already knew his way around. He didn’t hesitate to figure out where he was going.

“How do you do this stuff so well?” Scott whispered curiously.

“Sometimes the best thing you can say to not raise suspicion is nothing at all.” Chameleon answered in a voice that wasn’t his own.

The truck came to a stop in a dark corner of the prison, Chameleon looked back at his crew.

“This is the blind spot. Cat, you’re up.”

Black Cat nodded, opened the back door of the truck and stepped out. The truck drove off as she ran and leapt onto a parked vehicle, and then leapt again, this time grabbing onto the edge of a roof and pulling herself onto the building. Once up, she kept low and out of the sight of guard towers. She crept around until she found what she was told to look for, a room with security monitors and computers. Two men sat on office chairs looking at the security footage. One of the men was talking on the telephone with someone.

Felicia used her lockpicking tools to quietly and precisely unlock the door, and opened it without alerting the men to her entering. She stayed in the dark corners of the room, stepped without making a sound, and managed to place Doug’s flash drive into the computer without either man noticing.

From inside the truck Doug smirked, “We’re online.”

“That’s our go signal.” Chameleon told Scott.

Scott nodded, put his jacket hood over his mask and they both exited the vehicle. Doug began working on breaking through the computer system’s firewall and shut off the cameras as Chameleon used his keycard to escort Scott inside. Once in the building Scott jumped and crawled on the ceiling. Chameleon walked around the prison as if he belonged there. Scott followed from above, unseen by any of the staff that passed by them.

Their destination was Cell Block D, which was designated for female prisoners. When they arrived at the cell block, Scott crawled up to an administrator’s office and slinked in carefully. There was a guard who was watching the cell block from above and drinking a coffee. Scott webbed the guard’s back and pulled off the terminal like the web was a lasso, then he webbed the guard to the tile floor and dropped down from the ceiling.

“Sorry to bother you.” Scott said.

Scott’s voice was altered due to a voice modulator that Phineas made for him, adding a grainy distortion effect. That was just one of the new ‘toys’ that Scott had in his arsenal.

First he shot a web over the guard’s mouth to keep him silent, then he grabbed the radio and crushed it with his grip.

“I’ll be taking that.” He mocked.

From his earpiece, Scott received a message from Felicia. “I’m going to find my father and get out of here.” She informed him.

“Do it. I still have a ways to go.”

“You can do it Spider, come find me when you’re out.”

Her encouragement bolstered him with renewed confidence, suddenly nothing seemed like a challenge to him.

Felicia hung up the comms and continued slinking through the prison, narrowly avoiding being detected by guards until she reached Cell Block B, where her father told her he was staying when they talked on the phone. As a warden walked down the hallway she hid herself, and carefully pickpocketed his keys from him without letting them rattle. She carefully made her way through each cell until sure enough she found him. Walter Hardy was a short, skinny man with an athletic build and tattoos on his arms. His brown hair was messier than Felicia remembered it, and he had grown out a beard. His eyes were a dark brown, they almost appeared completely black. When Walter saw Black Cat, in a leather suit with white hair and a mask, his eyes widened in disbelief.

“Who the hell are you?” He asked, dumbfounded.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Then he got a closer look and he knew exactly who the woman in front of him was. “Is that you?”

“It’s me Pa, let me get you out of here.”

“You’re crazy coming here.”

“What’s that about apples falling from trees?” Felicia smirked as she presented the warden’s keys to him. Walter smiled with pride.

“Atta girl, let’s get the f**k out of here.”

Meanwhile in Cell Block D, Chameleon took the keys off of a guard and walked past each cell until he found the one with the woman he was looking for. Valentina was a woman in her forties, her black hair had a streak of white in the middle, and she had a cunning fierce look about her.

“It’s time to go.” Chameleon told her.

“Thought you’d find me sooner.” Valentina remarked.

“I came soon enough.”

Chameleon unlocked the cell door that was keeping Valentina inside and the two started running towards freedom.

“Hey!” A prisoner shouted. “Let me out too!”

Chameleon grabbed Valentina’s hand and led her through the hallways and rooms in the way that he had calculated it in his head. Once they reached Cell Block A, which was in between them and the closest exit where the truck was parked, a battalion of guards formed at the door ready to stop them. The three at the front were armed with riot shields and the ones behind them had batons out.

“Did you think of a plan for this?” Valentina asked, her voice jaded.

“Yeah, I brought a Tarantula.”

Knowing his cue, Scott dropped down behind the guards and went to work. He shot a web at the helmet of the first guard and pulled it like a rope, causing the guard to fall and hit his head. Then he ran and drop-kicked the crowd of men causing them to stumble over.

“Now!” Scott yelled.

Chameleon and Valentina ran past the guards who were still getting to their feet.

“I’ll buy you some time.”

“You know where to meet us.”

Scott didn’t turn to face Chameleon, he simply raised a thumbs up and charged at the battalion of heavy armored guards. Number Two swung his baton but was too slow, Scott dipped his head and punched his chest twice. He noticed that the body armor the man was wearing helped him resist Scott’s punches - but what he didn’t know was that even with armor the man felt the force of baseball bats hitting him. Scott delivered a clean uppercut to the chin, knocking his opponent out before he could even react.

When Number Two fell, Scott was overwhelmed by a barrage of batons smacking his arms, shoulders and head. He ducked down to avoid any face shots, but that gave the guards a clear aim at his back which they didn’t hesitate to take.

“Go after the others!” One of the men ordered.

When the guard ran past Scott he reached his hand out and let it stick to the guard’s leg like glue, this caused the guy to trip and slam onto the tile. Knowing he would eventually break if he let them whack him forever, Scott bent his knees and used his strength to launch himself up onto the ceiling. Once he was there he reached into a pocket in his jacket and pulled out a flash bang grenade, which he dropped into the middle of the crowd of men.

“Catch!”

Scott then plugged his ears with his fingers and closed his eyes, keeping his face away from the explosion. The guards looked down at what just dropped in front of them, only for a flash of light to blind them. All the men could hear was a ringing sound, they didn’t hear Scott land and began beating every single last man until none stood before him. Tired and a little sore Scott walked out of Cell Block A with blood dripping from his gloves.

Scott raced to the truck and slammed the door once he got inside, he turned around to see everyone inside including a man he didn’t recognize.

“You must be Wal- Mister Hardy.” Scott stuttered. “I’m, uh. Black Tarantula.”

Scott extended a hand to shake, which Walter made a baffled face at.

“Dad, he's a good guy.” Felicia reassured, “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him.”

“Sure.” Walter shook Scott’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

By now Chameleon had driven the vehicle out of the prison, breaking the parking gate instead of waiting for it to be lifted. As they drove full speed across the bridge, Chameleon was suddenly caught off guard by a torrent of water coming down on the windshield and blinding him. Without being able to see he slammed on the brakes, the vehicle slid until it slammed into a light post. Everyone in the back of the truck held on as they were thrown around by all of the commotion.

“Shit!” Chameleon cursed in anger.

“Come out!” A voice yelled from outside the vehicle.

“Who’s that? What’s going on?” Scott asked.

“There’s someone flying in the air…” Chameleon answered with dread in his voice.

“No, that’s not… No that can’t be…” Scott thought to himself. He had to be sure the idea in his mind wasn’t reality, so he stepped outside and sure enough it was.

In the air was a man he recognized, clad in a yellow jumpsuit with teal trim and a mask. It was Hydro-Man, who had previously beaten Scott in their last encounter.

“Spider!” Felicia called as she followed him outside.

“Is that you? From the bodega?.” Hydro-Man laughed at him. “I thought I was dealing with someone serious!”

Felicia ran over to Scott, “We got to go.”

“You go.” He responded.

“What?!”

“Get everyone out of here. I’ve got a score to settle.”