Spider-Man SI

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***

Digression. Gwen.

Night was habitually approaching the borders of the city. If she had a mind, Night would certainly be irritated right now. For with each passing time, her power in this world was slowly disappearing. By hundredths of a per cent, but the process never stopped. Each time, the hated light sources became more and more numerous. Usually they gathered in groups, and then it became impossible to shroud them in darkness.

But despite all the strangeness of this world, the times of day had not yet made sense.

Gwen shook her head furiously, driving away the stupid thoughts swirling in her head. It didn't help much, so the girl turned up the music on the player.

On the sloping roof of the office building of a well-known computer company, the music blared quietly.

Let's switch off the light and talk.

About things that can't be said in words,

Can't write, can't play,

Let's talk, let's talk quietly.

Let's talk about the fact that girls

Can't sleep, can't sleep.

Let's talk about me and you,

Let's talk about me and you until we want to scream.

The month has fallen, it's dark in the room.

It's good that you've learnt to talk,

About how you'll never be able to lie.

About how I'll never be able to talk.

♪ Skryabin 'Movchati' ♪

(I also recommend to listen to the cover of this song performed by S. Vakarchuk).

One by one the songs followed. It was as if the player set itself to plunge its mistress into the depths of depression. How else to understand the fact that for half an hour not a single positive melody was played?

At last the tiresome wait was over. The targets showed up. First one - a tall, statuesque man, handsome and in peak condition. He left the building, and after walking to a nearby car park, got into his car. The main target came out next. Gwen wrinkled her nose. A short, unassuming, though dark-haired, but all through grey woman appeared on the street a couple of minutes later. She looked around, and, finding a car in sight, moved towards it. Getting into the front passenger seat, she slammed the door shut. Quietly, almost inaudible at this distance, the engine roared to life and the car rolled out onto the road.

Gwen waited a few more minutes, watching the vehicle with her eyes. She pulled her hood deeper over her head, stepped to the edge of the roof, and a moment later she plummeted down.

Her heart was already habitually skipping a beat. But in the next instant, a long, thin strand of webbing bursts from the girl's wrist. Clinging to the corner of the nearest building, it stretches under the girl's weight, and inertia pushes her forward. Her heart loses its way and goes into her heels.

It gets a little easier from here. Only in the beginning it's always frightening, the fear of falling down doesn't go away. Probably, in time, when the girl gets used to this way of travelling, it will pass. But so far the trend is not comforting.

- 'And just how does Peter make it look so easy?' - A thought flashes through her head.

The girl smiles slightly under her mask. In her opinion, flying in a guy's arms is much nicer than doing it herself. The smile, though, quickly leaves her face. Gwen remembers that she's actually angry with her boyfriend. Sometimes he's nauseatingly rational and careful, but sometimes he's just incredibly thoughtless. The girl is just pissed off at how easily he forgave that slutty telepath!

In general, angry at Pete, the girl decided to punish him and reduce all communication with the guy to a minimum. Especially since she had enough of her own things to do.

For example, Gwen, for a long time wanted to change her costume. The image of an elf with long ears seemed to her successful only at the beginning. But then she realised that it was fun, but nothing more. So she immediately started thinking about alternatives. At first there was an idea to make herself a black latex pussycat costume like Felicia's. But this option was also quickly discarded. Soon she decided on the most suitable option. The idea was simple. Since she was Peter Parker's girlfriend, why not become Spider-Man's girlfriend at the same time?

Felicia would say something like:

- 'A woman should not be associated with a boyfriend or husband! On the contrary! She should present herself in such a way that her husband is associated only with her name!'

But firstly, Gwen hasn't shown her new look to anyone yet. Not Felicia, not Peter. It is likely that such a speech from her friend she only has to listen to.

And secondly, the girl did not empathise much with such fancies of her friend. She had a great idea, and she planned to realise it without listening to anyone. And if she wanted to make a new costume tomorrow, Gwen would not deny herself that either.

Going from the idea to its realisation turned out to be quite easy. Most of all it took time to work out the future design. Steal, for example, the same Web shooters, Pete was easy. The guy had backup devices, of course. Not only that, there were several new designs to improve the shooters. Gwen grabbed herself the ones that looked the most imposing and brutal. These web throwers couldn't be hidden under a sleeve, they were three times the size of the standard ones, mostly due to the enlarged cartridges, well, and all sorts of electronics.

The hardest part was getting the hang of using the new toy. Peter did it easily, like a real spider. His ability to stick to steep surfaces also helped him. The girl had to train a lot to use shooters more or less tolerably. However, Gwen unexpectedly discovered an interesting ability, which made it easier for her to get used to her new role. But at the same time, this ability also scared the girl a lot. Again, she didn't say anything to Peter yet, preferring to figure things out for herself.

(My 'masterpiece' talent as an artist was only enough to recolour black into red. :))

All the more unexpectedly, there was the issue of trust. No, not towards Pete. Trust was starting to crumble towards someone else close to her.

Her father had started acting strangely lately. Gwen knew her father well, despite the rare moments of contact. Police work was time-consuming as it was, the elder Stacey had never been able to fully communicate with his daughter. Gwen was used to it. And if a couple of years and jealous of her father to his constant work, but now she understood its importance, and tried not to push her parent too much.

But in the last days of George's behaviour Stacy had begun to break out of her usual pattern. Being the daughter of a cop, and having undergone a very specific training programme, she had noticed a lot of strange things about her father. The man had almost completely stopped showing up at home, only occasionally dropping in for a sleepover. He began to be jittery and suspiciously cheerful, smiling all the time. And he stank of other women's perfume! Gwen had never complained about her sense of smell before, and after the successful transformation, not only her muscles had improved, but her senses as well.

The first day of surveillance answered the big question. Dad had found a girlfriend.

Gwen... didn't know how to react to that.

If her father had told her about it, she probably wouldn't have reacted so strongly to the situation. As bitter as it was to accept her mother's not-so-long-ago death, life was sometimes inventive with surprises. After all, Gwen herself, had met and started dating Peter. Could she blame her father for doing the same? For finding a girlfriend?

Did her father not realise this and was therefore afraid to admit it to her?

After a short thought, Gwen decided to watch her dad's date. No, no! Not to get dirt on her! Not at all! She was just curious to know more about this Yuri Watanabe. Yes, that's right.

As luck would have it, nothing compromising about the police captain had been seen in the short time she'd been under surveillance. Well, she had beaten up a doddery-looking guy, apparently a small-time criminal sixth man and a whistleblower. But what's the big deal? Every cop has a few petty sins like that behind him. It's normal practice in their environment. Gwen certainly captured the moment, but only just. On the one hand, she realised that she was unlikely to find anything on her father's mistress in such a short time, and that it was necessary to watch further. But on the other hand, she wanted to convince her father that this suspicious half-Asian woman was no match for him!

Her father's work car soon slowed down, and a slightly smiling Captain Watanabe jumped out of it. Waving to her colleague, she waited for the car to pull out of the yard and walked to the nearest entrance. Yuri lived in a studio flat on the eighth floor. Gwen knew this marvellously well, as she had already been a guest. Of course, at this time the landlady was not at home, but the girl was not embarrassed. The blonde settled down on the roof of this very building, and took out her phone. Having found the necessary programme, she launched it. A video started playing on the screen of the smartphone. One main one, fully displayed on the screen, and a few smaller ones at the bottom. Only one of them had an image, the other two just looked like dark rectangles, and if you looked closely you could read the word 'Error'. Gwen clicked on one such, setting it as the base. The large screen showed what appeared to be part of a stairwell, and a massive armoured door. After just a few minutes, the older Stacey's date entered the frame. She stopped at the door, pulled a pistol from her holster, and only then began to open the door with her free hand.

Gwen grinned, but almost immediately the mocking expression wiped off her face. On the one hand, the girl felt a certain pride for making Yuri sneak into her flat with a gun in her hand and no other way. But on the other hand, the mere fact that the police captain could easily detect the fact of someone else's intrusion into her property, spoke of Gwen's unprofessionalism as a scout. Although the girl had done her best, and was almost certain that she had left no trace, the landlady suspected something wrong at once! She even managed to find two of the three surveillance cameras hidden in the flat!

Yeah... Felicia certainly wouldn't have let that slip.

All the younger Stacey had to do was accept her weaknesses and start fighting them. Oh, and hope that the two remaining cameras Yuri wouldn't notice.

When the Captain entered the flat, Gwen switched the camera, and watched. It was boring beyond belief. But also necessary. After a couple of minutes, the girl couldn't stand it any longer, and shut down the spy programme. Opening the mini-browser, she continued reading the recently published article on genetic engineering with interest. Periodically, of course, she glanced at the online broadcast from the surveillance cameras. Apparently, shortly after Yuri arrived home, the handymen had come to her house. Changing the lock on the front door. Gwen only snorted derisively at that. Having been infected by her boyfriend, no other way, she had infiltrated this stranger father snatcher by bypassing the door. Through a window, to be exact.

An hour and a half later, Gwen was so bored she was ready to howl at the sun, for lack of a moon, it would do. All the interesting articles were reread, 'homework' from Professor Connors was done, and even carefully surfed the net for the very same question. In general, Gwen was almost desperate, and was ready to call it a day. Taking one last look at the CCTV feed, Gwen frowned. Yuri was nowhere to be seen. Of course, the one remaining camera in the flat couldn't show her entire area, much less the toilet, bathroom and kitchen. But the problem was that the TV that had been working until then had been switched off, and the only sleeping space in the flat, the sofa, was empty.

Gwen minimised the programme and started another one. Several red dots were flashing on a schematic map of the city. Bug signals. It was somewhat surprising that after finding almost all the video cameras, Yuri hadn't found a single bug, even though she'd used special equipment to do so. Apparently the gadgets borrowed from Pete were too good to allow themselves to be detected.

At the moment, most of the bugs Gwen had installed were signalling from roughly the same location - Captain Watanabe's flat. Only one was slowly but surely shifting on the screen of a mobile device. Gwen smiled, praising herself for her hard work and for not being too lazy to stick bugs everywhere she could. Even in the old, worn almost to holes trainers of this insidious kidnapper of other people's fathers!

The girl was not happy for long, though. Yuri quickly reached the nearest underground and disappeared into the depths of the underground. It was foolish to follow. It would be quite difficult to hide in such tight spaces in front of thousands of citizens. The signal from the bug, unable to overcome the thickness of earth and concrete, was interrupted. But not before the girl was afraid that she had lost the target, as the dot on the screen denoting this particular bug for a moment blinked. Gwen realised that the signal was still coming, the mark was blinking at the same place, but with a clear periodicity, just showing that the bug was working.

Half an hour later the signal was suddenly fully restored. It looked like Yuri had come out of the underground. Gwen rushed at full speed to her location. The place the police captain had expressed a desire to visit in the meantime was not exactly respectable. Gwen had never been here before, but she had seen enough of such places. It could be assumed that Yuri decided to meet in this haven of crime with another of her informants. But why did she have to leave almost all of her belongings at home, such as her phone, wallet, watch, and so on? Why was it necessary to change into a recently purchased sporty, discreet suit?

Gwen smiled in anticipation as she watched Yuri calmly put the last of the trio of hapless robbers face down on the pavement with his telescopic baton. The Captain was clearly up to something, and that in itself pleased Gwen. She felt with all her soul that soon, at last, she would have a nice compromise on the insolent half-Japanese.

Having dealt with the robbers Yuri soon got to her original target. The Rhythm & Hues special effects studio, as the crumbling sign at the entrance to the long abandoned building read. Yuri tentatively squeezed through the gap between the gate flaps and disappeared there. Gwen moved across the rooftops, deciding to circle the area of the building and see if anyone else was there. Somewhere in the middle of this action, she heard a desperate scream.

A woman's.

Somewhere on the side where she'd left the Japanese woman. Despite her obvious dislike, Gwen couldn't just leave a person in distress. Mentally cursing, she almost immediately tore towards the already hushed scream. The quickest way to move was to cross the studio grounds. Hiding now, when a person's life was probably at stake, was not in the blonde's spirit. But as soon as the girl jumped the low brick fence, something made her jerk. She swayed, and almost fell. Unmotivated fear twisted somewhere deep into her soul. Cold sweat ran down her body, and she shook, her knees buckling in addition to her will. The creeping sense of terror grew stronger with each passing second. After a few moments, she couldn't stand it any longer, and collapsed to her knees. By some miracle, she managed to put her palms out in front of her and not smash her face.

'What on earth is going on? Am I getting that spider sense?' - A thought flashed through the girl's mind, but was immediately swept away by a new wave of fear.

But Gwen had finally managed to shake off that feeling a little! Now it seemed to her that it was not she who was afraid, but someone next to her. And the horror, overwhelming this unknown neighbour, was so extensive that it easily jumped to the girl herself, Whatever it was, now the blonde could relatively soberly assess the situation, and try to find a way out.

The girl exhaled heavily and lifted her head with difficulty, looking around at her surroundings with a cloudy gaze. This fear had a source!

But where is it!?

Where is it!?

The one she was looking for was found almost immediately. Under the studio wall. Right next to it. A bulky old loudspeaker.

'Of course! Infrasound!'

Gwen managed with great difficulty to raise one arm in the direction of the speaker. But that was where progress stalled. For an eternity, she stared in horror at the way it trembled finely. It seemed to her that the surface of the glove had turned into a watery surface, as if the sea were rolling with turbulent waves, foreshadowing a hurricane.

Or did it not feel like that?

With excitement, Gwen bit her lip, seemingly to the point of bleeding. But the willful message had an effect. From the back of her palm, a thick thread of red spiderweb burst out. Like a spear, it pierced through the speaker, cutting deeply into the wall of the building, and then retracted rapidly. Immediately it felt better. The fear receded, but not completely gone.

Gwen rose easily to her feet. She looked at her hands. It didn't look like it; there were sharp, slightly curved claws on the tips of her fingers. The girl swallowed. Covered her eyes, counted to ten. And when she opened them, the claws were gone.

But the feeling of fear still lingered. Checking her hunch, she turned the corner, and somewhere in the middle of the long wall of the building, on the ground she noticed another speaker, as old as the one she had just destroyed, but it seemed to be a different model. Prudently she stayed away from the source of her fear and weakness. Taking the pistol out of her rucksack, she carefully screwed the silencer onto it. Although Gwen had changed her costume, she wasn't going to give up her favourite firearm. Right now she was limited to a couple of pistols, as she hadn't picked up a compact enough folding sniper rifle yet. Still, aerodynamic qualities played an important role in flying on the web. You can't carry very large loads with you.

A few accurate shots and the speaker is equipped with unplanned design holes, as a result of which ceases to function. The fear inside Gwen has given up another position. Consequently, since it hasn't disappeared completely, there are still sources of dangerous infrasound somewhere. Keeping her gun at the ready, the girl moved along the wall. The feeling of fear became a compass of sorts, growing stronger as she moved, indicating that she was heading in the right direction. On the way she met another speaker, after destroying it, the nasty nagging feeling finally evaporated. The blonde would have breathed a sigh of relief, but not far from this speaker she found the source of the recent screaming.

A few moments later, Gwen was already standing next to Yuri Watanabe. And it should be noted that what she saw struck her hard. The woman, with her back literally pressed into the brick fence, was whimpering and scratching her face. But this was not supposed to happen! Infrasound couldn't be that strong on normal people!

Gwen shook her head, she would think about the reasons a minute later. Right now, she had to stop Yuri from clawing her eyes out. The girl grabbed her father's passive's hands rather roughly. Put them behind her back, and tied them with a web. This time, a plain white web from a web-shooter. To be honest, until this incident, she didn't know she could generate the red analogue of a web.

Well, not her.

Her costume...

She guesses when it all started. Lately, the girl had dramatically increased her exercise intensity. The super-soldier serum Peter reproduced made her much stronger. Because of that, the usual exercises were no longer enough to feel a pleasant fatigue in her body after a workout. She and Felicia had sparred once and got a little carried away. Got too carried away, gave each other a couple of bruises. At the end Felicia complained of sore ribs, while Gwen suspected she had broken her arm. But the next morning, she had no more pain. She put it down to the serum. Gwen didn't pay too much attention to the fact that, unlike her, Cat hadn't been able to recover overnight. After all, the same drug couldn't work the same way on two different people.

There were a couple of other cases where the girl's injuries healed literally before her eyes. Gwen seemed that this was her speciality, just like Felicia. Only her friend's dexterity was phenomenal, despite any serums, and hers was a healing factor.

Her confidence had been shaken during the web-shooter testing. She'd initially thought that if Pete could do it so easily, she could do it. But it wasn't that easy. When you fall from a great height, it is easy to lose your head from fear. And in general, you need to know the right moment to let go of one end of the web and shoot the other thread. She didn't succeed the first time. Gwen clung to the thread with all her might and forgot that she had to shoot the other one. She just watched helplessly as the wall of the building approached with inevitability. She couldn't just cling to it like Pete...and she didn't...like Pete.

A moment before the collision, long claws grew on her fingers and toes. They entered the concrete easily, and kept her from falling off the wall.

First there was fear of the unknown.

Then, like any true scientist, there were experiments. After which she finally realised that somehow, in some incomprehensible way, she had acquired a symbiote. Of course, the girl remembered Peter's warnings that they were dangerous and insidious creatures that had a detrimental effect on the host's psyche. But the experiments had shown otherwise. Her sample had no effect on emotions, behavioural reactions, general mood and so on. It had little effect at all. Mostly only when the girl was in clear danger. Mostly saving her from falling from heights in flight training. In sparring, he was inactive. When Gwen deliberately cut her arm, he was also silent. It only responded to a direct mental message, and by covering the cut with itself, it healed it in a matter of minutes.

Gwen didn't know what to do.

On the one hand, she trusted Pete, and did not doubt his warnings. On the other, as someone close to science, she couldn't help but trust the results of the experiments. Computerised psychological tests, which she took almost a dozen times a day, had confirmed that there were no significant abnormalities in her psyche. Felicia and Professor Connors, whom she had asked to look closely at her behaviour, had said the same. Other than that very request, they hadn't noticed anything strange about her. If they had, Peter would have known about it by now.

The girl realised that sooner or later the unpleasant conversation must take place. But she could not make up her mind to have it now. For now, she just decided to continue her observations and small experiments. Gwen consoled herself with the thought that she should first gain some solid ground, study the symbiote more thoroughly, and then talk to the guy.

- Shit!' she cursed, scrutinising Yuri Watanabe's face.

The police captain's fingernails were not very long, but they were quite sharp. How else to explain the scratches covering her face that were even painful to look at. It was a good thing she didn't seem to have got to her eyes.

Gwen bit down again on her lip, which had already healed. The temptation was great. The temptation to leave things the way they were. Just not to help, that's all. No, nothing critical had happened to Yuri's face. It would have healed. Well, it might have left one small scar, over there, where the wound looked deeper than the others. And with modern creams, it could have been removed. But for a while, Yuri would avoid seeing the elder Stacey. Just wouldn't risk showing herself to him like this.

But... Gwen knew that would be foolish. George wouldn't be intimidated by such trivialities. On the contrary, as his daughter suspected, the man's feelings would become even sharper.

The girl looked round. There was no one. It seemed that apart from such a peculiar alarm system, there was no one on the territory of the abandoned special effects studio.

- Oh! I'll consider it another experiment. - The blonde said quietly.

She placed her hands on Captain Watanabe's temples, and mentally asked her suit to cover the woman's face. The symbiote listened rather sluggishly. As the girl had already found out he, in general, was not good at understanding and complying with complicated requests. Gwen had to mentally visualise the white component of the suit's protoplasmic matter dripping from her palms and slowly covering the woman's face. The symbiote realised this image in reality.

The blonde smiled at the small success, and mentally voiced a request to heal the scratches. Normally, it didn't cause any problems. When she tested it on herself, the suit fulfilled such requests easily and willingly. The healing function seemed to be built into it automatically, it did it in the background all the time. At the girl's request, it threw all its resources at a separate specified area, as a result of which the same area healed much faster. By the way, only the white part of the suit had healing properties. The red one, judging by today's incident, was responsible for active defence. Although this statement still had to be checked and rechecked.

But this time there was no immediate response. To Gwen's senses, her symbiote was 'confused'.

Though with difficulty, the method that Gwen had tentatively called 'visualisation' helped. The girl again visualised to the best of her ability what the suit should do, and it actually did it. It was tentative, slow, and terribly costly. To say the least, Stacy was just brutally hungry. Good thing she didn't have to visualise the regeneration process in detail, or she'd have a headache right now.

Removing her hands, Gwen smiled a little tiredly but happily. There wasn't the slightest trace of the scratches left on Yuri's face by the sharp nails. The woman seemed to calm down a bit. Stopped whimpering. But there was still no meaningfulness in her gaze. What to do about that, Gwen didn't know. It was unlikely her suit would be able to do a full scan of the woman's body. It was about time to get to the bottom of what had brought Yuri to this state.

There was no use blaming the infrasound. The unknown owner of the special effects studio installed speakers that generate it to scare away small animals. If you pick up the signal correctly, animals and even humans will feel discomfort when approaching the source of the sound. But targeted thieves, or just the curious, wouldn't be deterred. So there was something else.

Gwen, walked up to the massive double-leaf door of the studio. Judging by the lock, it could be opened simply by knowing the right sequence of numbers. The girl randomly entered a few digits, the lock emitted a short beep. A jet of air hit her in the face, seemingly some kind of gas. But she only snorted contemptuously. Something like this, she supposed. And obviously had a defence against all sorts of chemicals sprayed in the air. The younger Stacy's original outfit had included, among other things, a miniature gas mask. But now she'd abandoned it. The symbiote, which also easily filtered the air, coped with its tasks perfectly well.

The girl took out a smartphone, connected the cord to it and to the port found under the lock cover. Frankly, she doubted she could break the lock. But it was worth a try. Surprisingly, the amateur hacker surrendered very quickly. Looks like a simple cheapo...

The doors slid open, and a dim light automatically switched on in the room. Gwen, rather quickly, surveyed the spacious room. At the same time, not forgetting to be careful. However, no traps were found inside the room. From what she saw, this had once been a simple special effects studio. It had probably closed down due to the development of computer technology, which replaced the good old homemade special effects.

Only the closest cubbyhole near the door was inhabited. There was an old computer, a backless chair, a hammock hanging from the ceiling, a half-disassembled electric kettle, a pile of dirty plastic dishes in the corner, a pile of tools scattered anywhere, a few dozen newspapers, most of which were of dubious pornographic nature, and... and that was it. Oh, and an old miniature fridge that had gone bad. At least it stank near it... it seemed.

With some hesitation, Gwen sat down at the computer. Apparently the owner of this lair, liked to spend his free time at this table. And to the girl's delight, he kept a diary. Already after a dozen minutes she had learnt a lot of new things. Both about the owner of the lair and his plans. The only thing that Gwen could not understand was what in this place forgot the police captain?

The blonde decided to wait and ask Yuri directly. In the meantime, it was possible to read more thoughtfully the diary, an old acquaintance, with the help of which she Pete and Felicia managed to accumulate some of the start-up capital. It seems the sly one had something else interesting in his stash.....

***

Before I woke up, Yuri realised something was wrong. Paying attention to the little things, no matter what state you're in, was something her late father taught her. He wasn't involved in police work, but cops could learn a lot from the knowledge of an excellent hunter if they wanted to. Finally awake, the woman tried not to show it. But either her skills had deteriorated or she was a good observer.

- Morning, Captain. - said a pleasant female voice. - Tea? Coffee?

- Coffee. - said the half-Japanese woman calmly, climbing out of the... hammock?

- Well, that's good. There's no tea here. Here, I washed the mug, don't worry!

Accepting the hot drink from the stranger, Yuri pretended to take a sip. The girl sitting on the only chair in the room was a maiden. A kind of work slang. It was what some cops liked to call all sorts of costumed heroes and villains. Red-and-white tight suit, mask covering her face and a hood on her head. And most importantly the spider sign on his chest. Hmmm... is he a follower of the Weaver? Like the kid who got busted for disorderly behaviour the other day said, it's called... cosplay, I think. He was dressed up in a Tkach costume too, but unlike his idol, he was just a regular jerk.

- You seem to know me. How may I address you?

- Silk. - replied the costumed girl. - You're looking at me so suspiciously, I'll clarify right away. You're not kidnapped or anything like that. I found you in the vicinity of this building, in a somewhat inadequate state. I helped as best I could, and while checking the neighbourhood, I came across this lair.

- Thanks, I guess.

- You're welcome. - Yuri thought Silk smiled beneath the mask. - Would you mind returning the favour? What's a police captain doing in a place like this?

- I was checking on operational information. - The woman replied neutrally.

- Alone? No backup? No weapon?

- I was close by. - Watanabe shrugged. - Thought I'd drop in.

- You're digging up old business, Captain. Mysterio's probably been in prison for six months. And you just decided to check out his lair?

- Suspiciously knowledgeable. How do you know Mysterio?

- Well, my, uh, chief was the guy who took him out. And turned him over to you cops wrapped in a cocoon of spider webs.

- You work for Weaver? - Yuri switched to 'you.' - I've never seen you before. Sorry to be blunt.

- I just made a costume a while ago. - shrugged. - So why do you need gas?

- Gas? What are you talking about, what gas? - Yuri's face is petrified.

- Ah, Captain, we're not having this conversation. But you know what I'm supposed to think, right? Apparently, you came here as a private citizen, not as a police officer. And you didn't bring a badge, not even a service weapon. You obviously knew where you were going. Well, that's easy enough. I'm guessing you got the location of this lair from Mysterio himself. How you did it, of course, is another question, because the case was supervised, albeit tacitly, by the feds. The more interesting question is, did you know what you'd find here? Somehow I think I did. Now for the real question. What are you, as a private citizen, going to do with a gas that, when inhaled, causes a sharp attack of fear, disorientation, and eliminates the slightest manifestation of resistance?

There was silence in the room. Forgetting herself, Yuri took a sip of cold coffee. For several long minutes she stared at the remaining contents of the cup. Until finally she said, shaking her head.

- I can't trust you.

- What about Weaver? - The girl immediately found herself. - Do you trust him?

- I haven't met him personally, but my... colleague worked with him a lot. I could trust him, under certain conditions, of course.

- Great! Just a second!

Silk took out her mobile phone and fiddled with it for a while. Soon Yuri heard a beep, it sounded like the maid had switched on the loudspeaker. He answered on the third one.

- Speaking. Hmm, did you change your costume?

- Hello Spider! - Silk said, ignoring the question. - Could you do me a favour?

- There you go, I thought you were calling for nothing.....

- Hey, I'm not alone, you know!

- You're not alone? All right, who needs killing?

- He's joking! - Silk laughed a little unnaturally. - All you have to do is vouch for me!

- Vouch for who?

- Right away. - The girl handed the phone to Yuri.

Glancing at the screen, the woman saw the Weaver. Or rather, a man wearing a mask that looked like Spider-Man's.

'It's a real hassle with these masquerades.' - she thought, but said something else.

- Yuri Watanabe, police captain.

- Hmm... since I'm the bail bondsman, there's obviously no point in introducing myself.

- That's true. But... I'd like to make sure you're you. Masks like yours are sold on every corner these days.

- Oh, that's a problem! My copyrights are being infringed upon by everyone! You know, I'm having some trouble representing myself in court. Bureaucracy be damned!

- You do talk a lot, but that's not proof.

- Oh, yeah. Look!

Spider raised his phone with the front camera up, but instead of the expected sky, Yuri saw a busy New York City street. Judging from the picture, the height from which the picture was taken was mind-boggling. The guy spun the phone some more, showing different angles, pulling back his hand a little, he particularly showed himself hanging upside down on a spider web.

- Is that enough?

- It is. - Yuri swallowed.

- Good. So tell me Captain, what has my protégée gotten herself into?

- Nothing, really. - Yuri said excitedly. - It's more me... thank you, though, I think I've got the references! - She hastily blurted out, and interrupted the video call.

- Weaver fan? - Silk asked curtly. - Shall I arrange a meeting for you?

- I'm too old for him. - Watanabe tossed the phone back. - 'Besides, I've already met a guy recently. He's as good as Weaver, except he doesn't dress in tights.

- Really? And who's the lucky guy who's got Topholes under his belt?

- One very handsome, formidable, confident, and above all, sexy young man with a sexy grey hair. But that's beside the point. What was that you were asking? What am I going to do about the gas?

- Y-yes. - Silk nodded sluggishly, but Yuri paid no attention to the hiccup.

- I'll answer, just give me your word that this conversation stays between us. You can also tell Weaver if you want to. - Yuri continued, waiting for her consent. - Many of us, cops I mean, admire him. There are many who hate him. But I'm one of the former, you're right about that. I like his methods. The son of a bitch is doing what we should be doing! He's not bound by any laws, regulations, or superiors. He doesn't give a damn about any of that! You know how it is? You arrest a bad guy today, and in the morning you have to let him out for lack of evidence, and then you have to wiggle and apologise to the bastard!

- I've heard of that. - Silk sighed heavily.

- Anyway, I'm sick of these situations. For a moment, I thought this town could use another rogue. Doing his job as a cop by day and collecting 'missing' evidence by night. So that in the morning, no creep goes unpunished!

- That's what it is. - hummed Silk, after a minute. - What about your boyfriend? Trust me, living a double life takes up a lot of time. So sometimes you can't even breathe freely. Aren't you afraid that at one bad moment, you won't have time for a personal life at all?

- Talking to a real superhero has its perks. - Yuri smirked. - I had anticipated that such a problem might arise. And until recently, I was seriously considering abandoning my fantasies. But then I found myself being followed. I've got to admit, today I just couldn't take it anymore and I was stupid enough to come here for the fucking gas. I don't know who these guys are, but they must have followed me here.

- I don't think so. - Silk shook her head. - I was checking the neighbourhood.

- You sure? Well, then maybe I still have a chance to surprise these unknowns!

- Ahem... so what about the guy? Shouldn't you dump him before your relationship goes too far?

- No. Yuri answered categorically. - Personal happiness is more important than anything else. Trust a woman who's obviously lived a little longer than you. I'd sooner give up my budding superhero career than ditch George.

- Heroism is more addictive than drugs. - Silk's been pushing her line. - Once you try it, it's too hard to get off.

- I'm sure of what I'm saying. - shrugged her shoulders. - Listen, why do you care so much about my personal life?

- Well...' Silk hesitated. - ...not like yours. I kind of have the same problem. And you can't talk to your mates about it, you know. But okay, tell me, how do you imagine your superhero image?

- Oh, my youth. - Yuri grinned. - And what do you mean by image?

- For starters, it's your abilities, of course. What will you rely on? Just Mysterio's gas, or do you have any other tricks in store?

- Just the gas. - the captain's hands are flailing. - It seems that the concentration needs to be diluted a bit, because its effect is too strong.

- It's not enough.

- I know, but what can you do? That psycho had some other, as you put it, 'tricks.' But I've never been able to find out where he hid them. I don't know what he did for fun, but it looks like he really doesn't remember where he put his belt. I was hoping to find something interesting here.

- There's nothing. - Silk confessed. - I've already searched the place.

- That's too bad.

- Hmm... okay, let's think about what we can do about it. First, we need to remember to fit you with a gas mask. Otherwise, there's a good chance you'll inhale this stuff yourself. Then the aids. I think smoke bombs would go well with the gas. Can you navigate with your eyes closed? No? Then we add a night vision device and a thermal imager. But I still recommend you learn! All right, suit. I'll get you a nice bulletproof fabric. Of course, it doesn't mean you can go under fire, but it'll keep out stray bullets. You decide on the design and I'll do the rest.

- Erm... wow! That's a lot of stuff!

- No, even that won't be enough. I'll get the electronics, too. You know, communication equipment, video recorder, electronic hacker, that sort of thing. I hope you'll get yourself a gun. I'm sorry, but you can't do much with a telescopic baton. I've got a small stockpile I can share.

- Erm, thanks, but why are you doing all this?

- Professional solidarity. - Silk snorted.

Gwen Stacy, on the other hand, thought that her father just wouldn't get over losing another woman. Whether he loved her or not was still a question, of course. But the fact that he had at least managed to get attached to this Japanese woman was a fact.