After his conversation with the Chameleon, Scott gripped the doorknob that led to his apartment and stopped before turning it. His mind flashed to a conversation he had with the group back at HQ.
----
Adrian rolled out blueprint schematics on a table for the group to see, it was the room plan for New York City’s Chase Bank. Everyone watched as he pointed to each room and described the kind of security detail they’d expect. The bank was laid out in a way that as you moved east of the entrance you’d see rooms on each side of the main lobby, these rooms were used for accounting or discussing with financial advisors. Their goal was to bypass all of that and go to a room at the very edge of the lobby on their left, which would lead to a stairway leading down.
“This is where the vault is, all of the cash and gold is kept there. It’s been reinforced with a powerful titanium-like alloy.”
“Adamantium.” Phineas corrected Adrian.
“Yeah, after The Juggernaut tore the vault door off its hinges they made an upgrade to resist powerful mutants ever doing that again. Point is, the thing is impregnable. Or it was until Phineas made this.”
Phineas presented the particle ray to the group. “It's been fully repaired and is ready to go.”
“I was wondering what that thing did.” Felicia commented.
“You mean after you stole it?”
“From Vincent! Not you guys.”
“Yeah yeah.”
As Felicia and Phineas bantered, Scott noticed that across the table Jamie had a solemn look on his face after Vincent’s name was uttered.
“Back on subject.” Adrian interjected. “The device will allow us to pass through the door without opening it, we’ll take everything into a van and drop it off at a designated location. Flint, you will be our getaway driver.”
Flint quietly nodded in approval.
“Scott and Felicia, you will be the ones stuffing money and gold into duffel bags once you get into the vault. Jamie, you’ll handle security with your shockwaves and I’ll control the particle ray.”
“Sounds like I have the best job here.” Jamie grinned.
“I knew you’d appreciate something with a bit of excitement.”
“What about the police?” Flint asked.
“Fisk has plans to make a disturbance happen around the time of the heist, it should give us a bigger window of time to get this done with.”
“Uh, who is Fisk?” Scott questioned.
“He’s the Kingpin of this city. I allied with him when Tombstone attacked Jamie, and he’s willing to help us with this heist.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Now listen up everyone.” Adrian sighed. “This is the most high profile crime any of us have ever done. There’s no guarantee any of us walk away from this, so I urge you to say your goodbyes to anyone who matters to you. You might not get another chance to.”
----
The door creaked open to a quiet apartment with the lights still on. Scott slowly closed the door behind him and looked around, the room was still and there was a faint smell in the air. On the couch he found Darren passed out in an uncomfortable looking position, Scott checked the time on the microwave - it was only 12:15.
Scott tiptoed through the apartment carefully so as to not wake his sleeping roommate, he put his keys away and slid his jacket off before reaching the living room. On the coffee table in front of the couch was a crystal pipe. “You’re high again?” Scott resigned himself. “You said you’d keep away from the hard stuff…”
Scott sat down on the couch next to him without saying a word. As his roommate snored, Scott contemplated what to say or do. He considered slapping him awake and interrogating him, but what’s the point in that? They both know what that pipe is. Really he just wanted to smack him because he was upset and angry at him. Darren promised him that he’d get clean, and it hurt Scott to see that all fall apart in front of him,
“I wanted to talk to you about what I’m about to do.” Scott spoke to the sleeping Darren. “You’ll probably see what I’m about to do on the news, and if you ask yourself ‘Why?’ It’s so I don’t end up like you. So I don’t have to live in a dump like this anymore.”
There was pettiness laced in Scott’s words. He paced around the room considering what to do, then he grabbed his phone and texted Jamie.
- SCOTT: you up? -
- JAMIE: yea what’s up?
- SCOTT: let’s meet up. -
He put his suit and mask on, adjusted his webshooters and slid the apartment window open. Before leaping out Scott took one last look at the unconscious Darren. “You always told me not to be like you. Don’t worry, I won’t.”
With a leap, Scott took to the rooftops and swung from building to building. He was tired, he needed some sleep, but he didn’t want to spend another second in that place. As he traversed the city from above, Scott had no destination in mind. He just swung around for the sake of it.
----
On the opposite side of town a group of police armed with riot gear and rifles waited outside the Bar With No Name to conduct a raid. Misty sat next to Philip and Gabriel, but ignored the two bantering. Instead she massaged her robotic right arm and waited for her superhero friends to arrive. In the distance she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Misty.” Danny spoke in a quiet, soft tone of voice. “It’s been awhile.”
Danny and Luke walked together to the squad of police. Misty stood up and approached the masked hero, who now wore a less flashier outfit. Instead of the bright green and yellow jumpsuit, now Danny wore what looked like a sleeved muscle shirt with a yellow dragon logo etched onto it, the color was washed out and faded.
“New look?” She inquired.
“Eh? I got tired of stitching up the old costume.”
“That’s a shame, I liked the old one better.”
“Yeah? Well this is more practical.”
“Now you sound like Daredevil.”
Danny chuckled. “I’m glad you haven’t lost the sass.”
“What would I be without it?”
“I hate to interrupt.” Luke butted in. “But Jessica has a show she wants us to watch tonight, can we get this done sooner rather than later?”
——
Scott could go just about anywhere with his powers, yet he found himself sitting on the fence that surrounded his old middle school. The place was mostly vacant aside from overnight cleaning crew wiping the floors down. Memories flooded his mind as he examined the building, time spent with friends skipping classes and moments where he drove a teacher nuts with his class clown jokes.“I’m too young to be feeling nostalgic for school.”
From behind him a yellow and red suited individual approached.
“Nervous about the big day?” Shocker asked.
“Nah.” Scott sighed. “I just didn’t want to be home.”
“You know my place is an option if you need somewhere to stay.”
“Thanks. I’ll be okay.”
“Yeah, after tomorrow you’ll be able to buy your own place if you want.”
“True.”
“Why’d you choose this place? You go here?”
“Yeah. Well, I did.”
“It’s a nice place.”
Scott never considered his school to be ‘nice’, but then again he didn’t know what schools were like where Jamie came from.
“What were things like before coming here?” Scott asked.
“In Puerto Rico?”
“Yeah.”
“Honestly I miss it a lot. Having a big family, the food too.”
“Still got to invite me to one of those cookouts your sister talked about.”
“Only if you can handle some spicy food.”
Scott laughed. “I’ll try not to burn up.”
Then the boy’s conversation was interrupted by the sound of a phone call, Scott checked it and saw Felicia’s name pop up.
“Your girlfriend calling for a late night booty call?” Jamie teased.
“I dunno, give me some privacy.”
Scott zipped over to a nearby street lamp and perched on top of it, where he proceeded to answer the phone. “Uh, hello?”
“Scott.” Felicia’s voice came through the fuzzy sounding flip phone, “Something happened at the bar, can you meet me near there?”
“Yeah, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just try and lay low when you get here.”
“Okay. I’m with Jamie, we’re on our way.”
——
As the two rushed over to the Bar With No Name, Jamie was having a hard time keeping up with Scott. The webslinger was darting from rooftops, telephone poles and bridges at breakneck speeds.
“Damn you been practicing huh?” Jamie called out from the back.
“Having trouble keeping up?” Scott teased. “Maybe you should just drive a car.”
“In New York traffic? I’m good.”
Down the street red and blue police lights flickered in the dark, and the sounds of sirens echoed throughout the neighborhood. “Oh no.” Scott felt a wave of dread come over him.
Felicia was dressed in her Black Cat outfit, she crouched down and looked over the scene from a building across the street from the bar. Scott and Jamie landed on the roof beside her.
“What happened here?” Scott asked.
“The police raided the place.” She explained. “I was having a bite to eat when the police stormed in, they had the help of some heroes.”
“Heroes?” Jamie asked. “Like who?”
“Luke Cage, Iron Fist and your friend.” Felicia glanced over to Scott.
“I know Hydro-Man’s working for the police. I just found out recently.”
“Hydro-Man?” Jamie asked. “The dude you fought when Adrian saved your ass?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry about him, I’ll handle it.”
“You gonna kill him?”
“If I have to.” Scott put a hand on Felicia's shoulder. “I’m glad you got out okay.”
“Thanks. Only problem is I’m out of a place to stay now that the police have the bar on lockdown.”
“Once we do tomorrow’s job we’ll have the money to get a new place. If you want we could get a place together?”
“I wouldn’t mind that Spider.”
——
The sun started peeking over the horizon by the time all of the villains were locked up. A few of them escaped through the back door or a window, it seemed that the bar was designed with escape hatches in case of a raid. That didn’t bother Misty though, she got what she came for. In dimly lit holding cells were four men, the Wrecking Crew, who Luke and Danny managed to take down with the help of a SWAT team. Their leader Wrecker was unmasked, his crowbar was placed in a safe and titanium restraints were placed on his arms and legs.
“Dirk Garthwaite, I’ve been told you have information for us?”
“Hello lovely, didn’t think I’d be seeing you again after our meeting at Fisk’s.” Wrecker taunted with a grin.
Misty gritted her teeth and gave a sarcastic smile, she tried her best to hide the unsettled feeling in her gut. “Well I didn’t think you’d work with Fisk’s backstabbing lackey. Life’s full of surprises.”
“Tombstone is a better leader than Fisk, he treats his men like people, not employees.”
“They’re both scumbags, one isn’t better than the other. So what do you got for me?”
“Information in exchange for an early release.”
“Must be some good information.”
“I’ll tell you about the hospital attack. I know you cops are dying to know about that.”