Spider-man and Fubuki now faced each other from across the room of Bang's Dojo. "Try to push me back if you can. Ready?"
Fubuki held her arms out in front of her and gave a nod. "Yes."
"GO!" Spider-man shouted as he took off. Sure enough, as soon as he began running, he could feel Fubuki's power trying to move against him, he froze as he struggled to move forward while a blue aura surrounded him, which made him smile but eventually he was launched back across the room hitting the wall with great impact. "Ok, that's gonna leave a mark.." Spider-man's red lenses changed to white as he reached Fubuki in an instant.
"Boop," he said, poking the girl on her nose.
"Ah!" said Fubuki, releasing her powers and rubbing. She then gave the hero a frown as a blush formed on her cheeks. She crossed her arms.
Spider-man switching back his original form he informed her. "I could feel it. Your power is increasing."
Fubuki just looked away. "I doubt it… It couldn't even stop you in your cosmic form."
Spider-man could only shake his head at her. "Then you should try and come up with a strategy for stopping me. That could always work too, you know."
Fubuki's eyes lit up as she looked back at him. "A strategy?"
"Of course. Tactics are just as important as strength in battle."
"I see," said Fubuki, slowly looking away. I never thought to use that here.
Noticing the determined look in her eye, Spider-man decided to continue. "Ready to go again?"
Fubuki nodded. "Let's try it again."
Taking up their positions once more, Fubuki decided to change her outlook on the situation. Keeping an eye out for any potential strategy ideas, Fubuki gave her mentor a heads up.
"Ready when you are," she said.
"Right, GO!" he replied.
Just as before, Spider-man ran at Fubuki as she used her powers to hold him back. This time, Fubuki watched Spider-man carefully, looking for any openings that she could exploit. Just as Spider-man was nearing Fubuki, the idea stuck with her.
That's it!
"Boop." said Spider-man, poking Fubuki on the nose again.
Fubuki simply shakes her head as she grinned at him, 'I swear, he acts like such a child.'
"Let's do it one more time," she told him confidently.
Spider-man just smiled at her. "Oh, think you can win, huh?"
Fubuki shrugged. "We'll see."
Spider-man gave her a curious look before turning back around. "All right then."
Once again, Spider-man faced Fubuki from across the room. This time, both competitors were showcasing determined looks on their faces. It was obvious that this match wouldn't be the same as the ones that preceded it.
"Ready?" asked Spider-man.
"Ready," said Fubuki.
"Okay then, here I come!"
And with that, Spider-man took off across the room, heading straight towards Fubuki. This time, Fubuki didn't focus on holding him back with her powers, but instead carefully tried watching his movements.
'Wait for it,' she thought cautiously. 'There!'
Seizing her opportunity, Fubuki quickly used her powers to crush a floorboard right beneath where Spider-man's foot would land. The woodwork dented inward, leaving a small crevice in the Spider-themed hero's path. Sure enough, upon placing his foot in the trap, Spider-man instantly fell forward with one of his arms in front of him. He then hit the floor hard, and stopped completely.
Fubuki stared at Spider-man for a second before she started to smile in victory. She soon stopped however, when she heard the Spider-man groan.
"Ugh," he grunted as he tried to lift himself up. "Fuck!"
Suddenly realizing that she had somehow done more than just trip the man up, Fubuki started running towards him. "Are you okay!?"
Spider-man struggled to get back up, as his right hand was covering his left eye, he was feeling something sharp lodged in his eye. He pulls his right hand away while letting out a painful scream as his stinger was dripping blood as it was finally out of his eye as it retracted in an instant.
To her horror, she could see the fresh color of red over his as a small stream of blood trickled out below. Eyes widening in fear, she turned back towards him.
"Oh my gosh!" she screamed. "You're bleeding!"
"It hurts like hell," is all he would say.
Fubuki clenched her teeth for a second. "Damn it," she cursed.
All of a sudden, the esper reached out and grabbed the small hero by the hand. "Come on," she told him as she began tugging him towards the door. Spider-man quickly picked up his feet as he held his eye.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"We're going to get you help," she replied, sounding a little worried.
Once they were outside the building, Fubuki clasped onto Spider-man's hand a little harder. "Hold on," she told him. After that, they slowly began rising into the air due to the esper's powers. They then began gently flying above the city; Fubuki leading the way while Spider-man was pulled along.
"Don't worry," she said, more to herself rather than him. "It's going to be okay. We'll get it taken care of."
Spider-man turned his head at her. "Okay," he replied, trusting her.
Fubuki nervously clenched her teeth again. Feeling awful about the entire situation, she could only curse herself. 'Damn it, Fubuki. You've really done it this time.'
Once they had arrived at Blizzard Headquarters, Fubuki wasted no time in rushing inside, pulling the hero along with her. Spider-man just pressed his hand against his eye as he let the esper lead him into the living room. Upon arriving inside, Fubuki was relieved to see several members of the Blizzard Group loitering around inside.
"Everyone, come quick!" she said, announcing her presence. "We need help!"
Perking up at the sound of their leader's voice, they all turned towards her. "What's the matter, Miss Blizzard?" asked Mountain Ape.
"It's Spider-man," she said, pointing at him. "He got damaged, and now it's starting to bleed but…"
Eyelashes, who was also nearby, slightly smiled at this. "Say no more," he said, stepping forward. "We'll get it taken care of. Hey, we'll need some help over here!" he shouted towards the rest of the room. Several of the more medical proficient members immediately moved forward to help him.
As the Blizzard Group sat Spider-man down in a chair and started looking at him, Fubuki couldn't help but give a small smile of relief. At that moment, she was so thankful that she had her Group. What would she possibly do without them?
"Let's get this out of the way," said Eyelashes, slowly about to unravel the blood-stained mask until Spider-man suddenly jumps to stick to the ceiling.
"Woah!"
"What the hell!?"
"How'd he do that!?"
"Web-head! What are you-" Fubuki suddenly stops herself as she realizes something, Spider-man had always had insecurities with people realizing his secret identity and looking at his scars, "...Spider-man, please, just come down from there, we won't help you if you don't trust us, we would never do anything to threaten you with knowing what you look like, right!?" Fubuki looks at her group with a glare as they immediately respond with a yes without hesitating.
Spider-man could only stay up on the ceiling for a few more seconds when Fubuki's words were reaching him, leaving out a sigh of relief, he shoots a web to the ceiling as he uses a webline to descend to the floor. Fubuki gently sets him down on the chair once again as she was rubbing his shoulders. Spider-man grabbed his mask, slowly being removed up to his nose but stopped for a moment.
"It's ok, it's ok." Her soothing tone as gently as ever, calms down Spider-man's nerves as he fully removes his mask.
Eyelashes just gave a sigh. "Let's just say that it's a good thing you brought him to us. Leaving him like this would have probably made things a lot worse."
Fubuki anxiously bit her lip when she heard this. "Well, it's not my fault!" she shouted in defense. "I don't know anything about medical treatment!"
"It's fine," said Eyelashes. He then took a moment to stare at the injury. "How does it feel?" he asked the patient.
"It hurts," Spider-man replied.
"Can you see out of it?"
"No, I can't see anything out of my left eye at all. My… right eye is a glass eye. But thankfully I heal pretty well and fast, give me a few days, and it'll be as good as new."
"I see," said Eyelashes, taking a closer look. "Hey, Mountain Ape, do me a favor and bring me a bag of frozen peas."
"Will do," the man replied, walking over to the nearby refrigerator.
Fubuki just nervously watched all of this happen from off to the side. She had already been feeling bad about the injury before, but now she felt even worse after watching Eyelashes make a spectacle out of it.
Mountain Ape brought the frozen peas over and handed them to Eyelashes, who then proceeded to press them against Spider-man's injury. "Here, hold these there," he instructed.
"Okay," the hero replied calmly.
"We'll let that sit for a while, and then we'll apply some alcohol before it gets infected. After that we'll apply bandages."
Fubuki, still feeling anxious, softly spoke up. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked, sounding fearful.
"Yeah, he should be fine," said Eyelashes turning to face her. "But, I have to wonder, what exactly caused this injury?"
Fubuki gulped. "Huh?"
"Yeah, did you and Mr. Spider-man ran into trouble?" questioned Mountain Ape.
"What was the threat level?" asked another member.
"Mr. Spider-man is incredibly strong, right?" asked Lily in an innocent voice. "What kind of monster could do that to him?"
Fubuki just froze as she realized that everyone was staring at her, awaiting an answer. Slowly coughing and then looking off to the side, she tried to avert their gaze. "It was, uh…well, it was kind of…me…"
The whole room instantly became dreadfully quiet. Everyone was staring at their leader, completely confused.
"You did this to him?" asked Mountain Ape in disbelief.
Fubuki nervously glanced at him for a second before looking away again. "Er, yeah…"
"But…how?"
"It was an accident!" Fubuki shouted quickly. "We were just training together, and well, one thing led to another and I basically ended up tripping him while he accidently pulverized his eye…"
Silence once more. And then, the whole room started to erupt into quiet snickers, which soon turned into flat-out laughter.
Fubuki just gaped at them, appalled. "It's not funny!"
"Ha ha, it kind of is, Miss Blizzard," said Lily, wiping a tear out of her eye. "You tripped Mr. Spider-man and then made him hit himself in the face. It sounds hilarious."
Fubuki didn't know what to say. She just held her tongue and clenched her fists while her face turned red from embarrassment.
"It's true, you know," said Spider-man, suddenly speaking up from his seat. "Fubuki made me trip, but due to my own clumsiness I ended up hitting my eye or stabbing my eye. I've always had terrible luck like that."
"Hmph, don't worry about it, Mr. Spider-man," said Mountain ape with a smile. "Our leader has been known to be quite dangerous at times."
"It's true," agreed Eyelashes with a laugh. "In fact, she could probably give all of us a black eye if she wanted to."
"Maybe I will," mumbled Fubuki, sounding a little angry as she began to crack her knuckles.
Once the room had calmed down a bit, Eyelashes and the others went back to finishing up their work on Spider-man. Shortly after, the man was completely taken care of, with fresh bandages properly wrapped over his eye.
"Good as new!" said one of the assistants.
"Well, he will be in a couple days, anyway," said Eyelashes with a smile. "Listen, I've done the best I could, but if it doesn't look like it's getting any better in a few days, then maybe you should go to the hospital. They of course can do a much better job than I could. Just a piece of advice."
"I understand," said Spider-man with a nod. "Thank you, Eyelashes."
"Of course," replied Eyelashes. "You should probably go home now and rest."
"Oh well… I can't exactly do that because of…well," said Spider-man, gestures to his scared right glass eye.
"Hold on a second," said Mountain Ape. "Somebody should probably go with him, to make sure he makes it home okay."
Eyelashes frowned at this. "Hmm, I think you're right."
Lily suddenly turned to look at Fubuki with a smile. "You should go with him, Miss Blizzard!"
Fubuki immediately felt taken aback. "What? Me!?"
"Of course," the girl replied. "Who else would be better for the job?"
"That's a good idea, Lily," Eyelashes chimed in. "Miss Blizzard would be the best choice for protecting Mr. Spider-man on his walk home."
"Protecting him?" repeated Fubuki. "Protecting him from what?"
"From any dangerous monsters that try to attack him," Mountain Ape answered simply.
Fubuki crossed her arms. "But Spider-man can take care of himself!"
"Not while he's blind as a bat."
"Yeah" asked Lily. "What if he ran into a monster that can only hurt him if you don't have both eyes open?"
"What kind of scenario is that!?" Fubuki screamed at her.
"Hey, it's possible." she said with a shrug.
"Come on, Miss Blizzard," interrupted Eyelashes. "You're the one who technically injured him after all. The least you could do is walk the poor guy home."
"I, well…" Fubuki bit her lip as she looked away. She didn't know what to say anymore. She then gave a sigh. "Fine, whatever. I'll walk the wall-crawler home."
"Good," said Mountain Ape with a smile. "Make sure you keep an 'I' out for him."
"You're not funny!" Fubuki snapped at him.
Mountain Ape just laughed as Eyelashes chimed in. "Seriously though, take good care of our patient. We don't want to see him end up back here with another stabbed eye."
By this point, the whole Blizzard Group was quietly laughing at their leader, playfully making fun of the entire situation. Fubuki could only clench her teeth in anger as she walked up to Spider-man.
"I don't see what's so funny about this," he said innocently, "From my perspective, they are currently laughing at a blind superhero right now."
"I honestly don't know either," she breathed through her teeth.
Spider-man looked at her. "You know, you don't have to walk me home if you don't want to."
"Shut up, you can see property, you won't even find the front door." she said bluntly. She carefully placed his mask back on so that the people outside won't know who he looks like.
She then reached out and grabbed him by the arm. "Let's get out of here," she said, pulling him towards the door. Before long, she had dragged him out the door and onto the street. Only then, once they were in total silence.
"Sorry about that," she said, turning away. "My subordinates are idiots."
"No, I think they are amazing," said Spider-man with a nod. He then pointed to his injury even though he was seeing darkness. "And they do good work."
Fubuki turned to look at him and couldn't help but smile. She then laughed a little bit. "Yeah, I guess so."
Spider-man smiled back under the mask. "Shall we get going, then?"
Fubuki nodded. "Yeah, let's get you home."
~~~
Spider-man and Fubuki walked silently through the streets, slowly making their way towards Spider-man's home. Fubuki was supposed to be keeping an eye out for any potential threats, but instead she found herself constantly staring at Spider-man's brand new injury. Even though Eyelashes had bandaged it up and said that it would be okay, Fubuki still felt guilty about the whole thing.
"How does your eye feel?" she asked him quietly.
"It's sore and numb," he replied truthfully, "but it will be fine."
Fubuki frowned as she looked away. "Eh, I really am sorry about this whole thing…"
"Aw, don't worry," he told her. "It's normal to get an injury when fighting someone, even if it was just sparring."
Fubuki could easily tell that Spider-man wasn't upset about any of this in the slightest, but she still felt bad for the guy. "But still," she insisted, "I'm the whole reason you got hurt. And then I couldn't take care of it either, so I tried to pass it off as no big deal…And yet you're somehow not even concerned in the slightest."
Fubuki paused as she gave a sigh. "I honestly feel like I've been nothing but trouble for you lately…"
Spider-man just frowned at her. "Seriously?" he asked. "You know it's no big deal, right? You don't have to beat yourself up over any of that. I've been through hell all my life and I still am in a way. This is nothing."
Fubuki looked at him again. "I know you keep saying that, but…but I really want to find a way to make it up to you."
"Make it up to me?" asked Spider-man.
"That's right," she said with a nod.
"You don't have to do that…"
"I know…But I want to."
Spider-man just turns his head at her for another second before shrugging. "Well, all right."
Fubuki smiled a little bit at his reaction. She then looked away. 'I know that you're not going to hold any of this against me, but I still feel bad for the way you've been treated. And whether you like it or not, I want to try to make it up to you. It's the least that I could do, after giving you a fatal injury and all…'
Fubuki then took a moment to stare at Spider-man again. Suddenly, an odd curiosity seemed to flood her thoughts. As she started thinking, she recalled something that Lily had told her earlier that night.
"Mr. Spider-man is incredibly strong, right? What kind of monster could do that to him?"
Fubuki soon became lost in thought as she looked away again. It's true. The entire time I've known Spider-man, I've never once seen him get an injury or anything like that in person. In fact, as far as I know, this is the first and only time, and he was the one that did it to himself! I've always known that he was incredibly powerful but at the same time he's always so vulnerable.
The heroine perked up. "We made it," she announced.
The two of them ascended the stairs together and soon arrived at Spider-man's front door, once they were inside the apartment, "Now you get some rest, Spider-man. And I'm not taking no for an answer."
"Ok mom." Spider-man replied sarcastically as Fubuki, who was guiding him to his futon in the living room, gave him a smack in the back of the head, "Ow! I thought you loved me!"
"Oh shut up!" Fubuki snapped as a blush appeared on her face, thankfully Spider-man wasn't able to see it, "Be grateful that I'll be the one taking care of you until you get healed."
"Really?! Sweet!" Spider-man shouted with joy, sensing where Fubuki's presence was, he gave her a hug, "You're the best Fubuki!"
Fubuki blinks in surprise, she just sighs as she is smiling, "Thanks Web-head. But do anything to piss me off while I'm taking care of you since it's my responsibility, you're sleeping alone in this apartment, and don't think of begging with help."
"Yes ma'am!" Spider-man said by doing a military salute.
Fubuki sighed, "I'm already regretting this. For the already get back from the hospital, now this. What am I going to do with you, Michael."