The massive hulk of a man decided that the time for talking was long over. Rushing forward against Owl firsthand, trying to get the "weakest link" out of the fight so he could concentrate completely on me. Or at least that's what I assumed, but it was quite possible that he just rushed the closest one to him. Either way, Owl managed to duck under the first punch, causing the augmented fist to strike a nearby crate, breaking it into hundreds of splinters that erupted in every which way.
I charged him, well, tried to at least, as he launched a back-handed strike against me. I didn't expect him to be so fast in his reaction and movement, so I barely managed to rise both my arms to block as he hit me. I felt something crack but not break, and I was thrown across the warehouse straight into the far wall of the building, denting it outwards before falling down to the ground. The pain in my arms was bad enough, but the hit against the wall gave me a tough concussion to deal with as well.
Standing back up, I saw Owl landing kick after kick on the man's knee, failing to injure him, or at least failing to cause any visible damage. He laughed and went for a grab that she dodged, but her cape was snatched instead. Burns was dumb enough to throw her instead of slam her against the ground and explode her into tomato sauce, so I used that chance to shoot two ebs to the parallel walls of the warehouse, pulling as hard as I could in order to build as much tension as the webs could handle, before launching myself against him.
He turned towards me, but it was too late by the time he reacted to try and block my attack.
I connected with both heels against the side of his face, the sher force behind the dropkick had him flying out the warehouse's doors, landing outside in the streets. With half a second to regroup, I approached Owl and saw her clutching her ribs. She got hit pretty damn hard against the railing, judging by the dents on both her suit and the metal above.
"Owl, get out of here and get the police or something. I think I can deal with him." She tried to protest but the pain on her side stopped her from doing so.
Outside I could hear the grumbling of the man, already standing back up after the strongest attack I could come up with.
"You better beat him up good. I'll get the police, but you have to tire him out until the drug wears off. He can't keep that going forever."
I nodded and Owl limped the opposite way, and I turned towards the broken gates. A deep breath and a web shot later, I was already on top of the man again. He tried to snatch me, his strength was superior to mine apparently, but I managed to dodge his attempts by sheer luck and the superhuman reflexes my jump across verses gave me.
"What's wrong, you scared of spiders old man?" I teased.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!"
Okay yeah, he was mad now. His attacks were reckless and misguided however, his punches were slower and less controlled than before, so I got cocky. Doing summersaults to evade him and taunting him when I could. Landing a kick here and there to keep him in the fight, he grew grumpier by the minute. The sirens of patrol cars in the distance gave me the clear to start going serious against him, the ilelgal shit inside would be enough to get burns in jail. Blackwood....He was another thing entirely. He probably has the entire police department deep in his pockets.
My thoughts flew across the possibilities and I made a mistake. I stopped paying attention to Burns for half a second, and a haymaker was all I got in return.
My word turned white for a few seconds as I felt my body slamming across multiple walls, finally reaching a stop in the middle of the street. My vision blurry, my legs numb, I looked down and saw blood on my stomach. Yeah, that wasn't very good.
"....Fuck..."
My world gained color again, and the pain struck me hard. A piece of rebar was stabbing me in the abdomen, not fully across, but it was pretty fucking deep by the pain it was causing. Putting pressure around the area, I stood up with shaky legs. The adrenaline was keeping me from passing out, but I could feel it trying to stab a very bad no-no place inside my stomach, which wasn't a good thing at all.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"Hands in the air, now!"
Yeah, figures. They see a girl with a rebar stuck on her stomach and they aim their guns at her instead of the hulking monster down the street. I waved my hand at them and pointed over to the figure of Burns walking menacingly in our direction.
"I'd suggest firing at him, officer." I said, before shooting my webs at two buildings.
One stuck, while the other ripped out a piece of concrete from its wall. I launched myself forward and swung the concrete rubble down on hulky's head as hard as I could, slamming it and breaking it on his skull causing him to flinch and turn to me as I headed straight for him. Another kick was landed on his jaw, cracking it and sending a few of his teeth flying. The police officers finally decided that they should shoot the freak of nature and opened fire from a safe distance. A few shots missed, but most of them landed. The bullets, turns out, only made hulky angrier than he already was.
They caused him pain at least, so that's something!
"I'll KILL YOU!"
"Get some new lines, dumbass!"
My patience was running pretty fucking short. He tried to snatch me from the air and I punched his hand away. His right eye was swollen beyond measure, probably from the amount of fucking kicks I had landed on him so far. In fact, I was in the middle of another one when a sharp tug of pain caused me to stop and jump back, the rebar had moved and it was starting to hurt a lot more now. Which meant it was either really bad already or it was getting even worse. I could only hope it hadn't ruptured anything so far, but a hit from hulky would probably knock it out.
"Okay, calm down....Fuck it hurts like hell...."
I aimed at my own stomach and fired two webs to keep the rebar in place, before rushing at Burns again. The man was smiling, with missing teeth and a swollen eye, his hand looked dislocated from the wrist. It seemed like his injuries were starting to affect him, as the bulging muscles seemed to ripple and the red lights in his veins semed to dim by the second.
"Give up, Burns! You're running outta juice." I pointed out, causing him to laugh.
"I DON'T GIVE A SHIT, SPIDER! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"
Next thing I knew, he grabbed me by the arm. Yeah, that wasn't good.
Half a second later I was crashing into a nearby building, breaking through the concrete wall head first and landing on my face against the cold ground. The rebar was killing me, quite ltierally, as it turns out.
"Shit....Okay....Just shoot your webs and keep him in place until he runs out...." Things went sideways for a second. "Just....until..."
I felt my head lighten and I stumbled to my knees, grunting as the pain was starting to go away. That wasn't good. Taking a deep breath, I used the wall to keep myself up as I made my way through the hole I made when I crashed into the building. Burns was down there, breathing heavily and panting in place. Tired.
"Just give up, man!"
I shot web after web. First aiming at his legs so he couldn't move, then moving to stick his hands on his waist before covering his entire body in the sticky substance. He struggled, heavily, against the restraints, and he managed to rip them apart for a while until he grew tired. By then my wrists were hurting really fucking bad and I was having trouble remaining conscious, but he tired out and the drug wore out. He slammed into the street and the police approached not long after.
"He's all yours, boys!"
"Wait a second, where-!"
I would've fallen on my face against the street three stories below, but I was snatched mid air and dragged across the city for what felt like both an eternity and a single blink. Noticing the feathery cloack billowing behind the figure that caught me, I smiled and just passed out.
----------------------------------------
I woke up laying on a bed, the mask was gone and my clothes as well. So much for a secret identity, but taking into account I should be dead, then I was still grateful for not waking up in yet another different universe.
Looking down, there was no rebar sticking out my stomach which was good. Next thing I tried was standing up but it hurt too much to keep myself on my own two feet. The noise I made seemed to give away the fact I had woken up however, as a girl entered the room with a worried look on her face. If I was any dumber and didn't notice the same eye color and figure, I wouldn't have assumed her to be Owl. But as she spoke, it was pretty clear it was her.
"So, feeling better now?"
"Well, I'm not dying am I?" She held back a laugh at my marvelous comedic timing.
We remained in silence as she took a seat on a chair that was resting by the side of the bed. I just laid back down on the bed and held back a wince as the stab wound started to hurt a ltitle more again. Not as muc has before, mind you, but the itch and the weird sensation of the stitches healing was not comfortable at all. Well, it wasn't my first time getting stabbed so I would be fine.
"What time is it?" I broke the silence, and Owl figured out I wanted to ask how long I was out instead.
"It's morning already. 7 AM." She replied, before letting out a sigh. "You worried me you know? I'd rather my first partner doesn't die on our first job together."
"Weren't you the one that said we weren't a team?" I asked, and she just turned away.
That was kinda cute. I giggled and stopped when the stab made itself known again.
"Anyways." I looked around, looking for my phone. "I got work at 8, I need to call and tell them I won't make it."
"Give me a sec." Owl stood up and approached a locker in the room, taking out my jacket and fishing for my phone in the pockets.
Somehow, even with my shitty luck, the thing had remained mostly intact throughout the fight. Only a cracked screen I could work with. Giving Owl a thankful nod, I called Jacob and explained him I wouldn't make it to work since I was feeling pretty unwell. He offered to pay me a visit, and I told him that maybe the next day or something. I could almost hear him smile through the call before I cut it.
"You really did come out of nowhere huh?" She asked, and I figured out what she implied.
"So you tried to dig dirt on me?" I put some non-existent hurt in my voice, causing her to snort.
"I tried to see if you had any family to call in case you didn't make it." She replied, bringing my mood down quite a bit, before continuing. "Your ID is not from this country, there's no family records, and I didn't try anything with DNA because I'd rather not stab you with a needle and get web instead of blood."
I nodded and debated with myself the idea of explaining my circumstances. On one hand she would be able to help me find a way home, if there even was one, but on the other hand....Wait what would she do even if she knew? It's not like there was a massive organization hunting down aberrations like me right? I shuddered at the thought, but finally kept my imagination calm as I just decided to tell her the truth.
"So, there was this particle accelerator back home...."