A MONTH AFTER THE LIZARD INCIDENT
Swinging across the city as usual after hearing reports of a bank break-in using explosives, I swung off my web as high as I could possibly get to look down at as much of the scene as possible before diving down into the action. "Hey Spider-woman, where are you?" I tapped into my comms while diving down into the scene. "Above you!" I heard a reply from my earpiece. "Above me? What?" I turned my whole body around to look up and Gwen was gliding down the air with new web-wings attached to her suit.
"A wingsuit?? When'd you have the time to install that?" I shouted confused. "Well while you were busy fixing up your web-shooters, I was thinking up new tech!" She replied before diving down to get closer to where I was. "Alright, Since you can get to higher ground faster, I want you to evacuate anyone left in the building, and fast. I'll intercept the bank robbers, you got all that?"
"Yessir." She replied, doing a 'see you' wave with two fingers on forehead before spreading her arms and legs wide out to glide towards the top of the bank. I continued diving down and catch myself with a web swinging back up for a bit before landing on the side of the bank, right above the entrance. The police had just arrived so I went in from an open window in the second floor to sneak up on the robbers. I climbed into a ventilation system from the second floor and out on the ceiling of the first floor. There were about 12 people in total inside, all armed with guns and masks to hide their faces.
I stealthily took out a few men without alerting anyone, sticking them, and their mouths, onto the ceiling and hanging them on hanging decorations and lights. "Nothing better than some early.. Christmas.. decorations? I need to make more bad jokes I'm getting bad at them.." I whispered to myself. "Pfftt.. Hey Spider-Man? You forgot to turn your comms off I heard all of that." Gwen talked through the comms. "UHH.. No you didn't. You sure you aren't just hearing things?" I tried to cover it up while I webbed up a couple more men.
"Yeah sure I am. But you know it's not even Halloween yet right?" She continued. "Ok yeah.. you got me, shut up." I quietly said embarassed, dropping down to the floor behind 2 men. I webbed one of their legs and pulled them to slip down and fall, also crashing into the second man like a bowling ball, zipping the two of them up onto the floor. I swung back up to the side of a pillar when Gwen suddenly continued in the comms, "You know it's kinda cute when you get all embarassed like that. I should tease you more often." "Yeah okay, I get it I'm easy to tease, now how is it going for you up there?" I replied, taking down another man just out from the toilet.
"I don't see any more heat signatures left up here other than the last 5 people and the 15 on your floor, I should be able to finish up fast and come to assist you soon." She answered. "Handy new tech you got there.. wait, 15? I only see 12." I replied, and as I did, my spider sense tingled and an explosive went off near the back of the bank. "We got the money! Let's go!" I heard from one of the grunts as the now leftover 6 grunts including the two I had not seen. They had blown a hole to escape and they started noticing half of their men were gone, and looked up to see me.
"IT'S SPIDERMAN! MOVE!" They started shooting at me and I jumped off the ceiling, spinning and flipping mid-air to dodge all the bullets. I knocked out the guy who shouted first and the rest were running away. "LET'S GO, WE GOT WHAT WE CAME FOR!" A woman grunt shouted, leading the other 4 out into the truck waiting outside of the big hole, along with 8 full duffle bags filled to the brim, carried by the 3 I didn't see. I quickly swing myself out towards the hole as they were about to leave, and shot webs on the truck to hold it back with my strength.
Suddenly a giant hammer shaped thing hit me really hard, knocking me back far into the bank. "What the hell? What was that?" The woman grunt walked out of the truck, letting it leave first. "You don't want any part of this, Spider-Man." She forms out of her hand big sand hammers on both her fists. "Lizard infestation and now Sand-sculpting? Can it even get any weirder..?" I said as she extended her right hand onto me, and I dodged the punch but then the hammer changed it shape to bend out and hit me from the side.
"Hey Spiderman, I'm done with the civilians, are you ok?" Gwen tapped into our comms. "Not really. But focus on the truck running away with all the bank money. I'll probably figure this out somehow." I responded. "Ok. Tell me if it gets bad." She replied and shut her comms off. "Alright, where were we?" I said as I tried to web-zip onto her, but it didn't work. Seemed like her whole body and outfit were made with sand, and my webs just fall off her body.
She then chuckles and runs towards me, transforming into a giant sand monster, about to ground slam with her giant sand-hammers. My spider-senses tingled softly and I dodged the groundslam, but then I got hit by extending pillars of sand from her arms right after that I couldn't sense. "Shoot.. Spiderwoman.. Could you finish up the truck quicker..? I might need some backup.. My senses are not working properly." I tapped into the comms, weakened from the hard, full body sand-punch.
"I'm abit preoccupied here.. They've got all sorts of weapons like rocket launchers in their truck. These guys were ready. I need to do this while keeping the city safe." She replied. I guess I'm all alone for now. I stood back up and tried to think of something new. shaking my head off from the concussion. I look back up and she wasn't there. "What? Where'd you go?" Suddenly I get hit again from my left by another sand-hammer. Then again from the floor up hitting myself onto the ceiling.
She turned herself into the giant sand monster again to finally hit me with her deadly sandhammer groundslam. Gwen appeared and swung by to grab me away from the slam. "Right on time." She said to me. "Thanks, I owe you one. Have you ever made a sandcastle before Gwen?" I replied. "What? yeah? why? Are you okay in the head?" She responded. "I'm fine.. maybe. You know how you have to harden the sand using water? What if we can use that against her." I continued. "Okay there's a fire hydrant outside the bank. We lure her out?" She mentioned. I nodded and swung outside so that Gwen could bait her out while I get ready with the fire hydrant.
Gwen was able to dodge most of her sand-attacks, breaking through the front entrance and reaching a spot where I could shoot the water from the fire-hydrant. I broke the fire hydrant off and aimed the pipe towards the sand-woman. It was working, Gwen grabbed onto a farther fire hydrant to try and help shoot it onto the sand-woman. She screamed seemingly in pain and ran back inside the bank. We tried to follow with but she was gone. No traces of her left other than leftover blobs of hard sand and alot of leftover dry sand. "I guess we finished the job?" Gwen asked me confused, before Captain Stacy had barged into the bank and yelled out "Hey! You two are under arrest!" I ran towards Gwen and tapped her shoulder and whispered, "That's our cue." And we swung out through the back hole to run away from the cops.
While swinging, we talked about this new threat. "So you're spider-senses were working properly?" I asked her. "Yeah, nothing was different at all. How was yours acting?" She replied. "I'm not really sure. They still tingle but it's hard for me to feel. Sometimes its louder than other times but most times it's just really soft tingles. Which is abnormal for such a deadly attack." I explained to her. "Yeah that would cause alot of problems, especially since at this point were so used to our senses helping us out." She then continued, "Sorry I let the truck with the money go though. I had to pick between you and the truck and honestly I was right picking to come back to you." "Yeah it's fine. We should probably make some spider-tracker to put on anything like that just in case it happens again." I responded, frustrated we couldn't stop the robbery, but at least people were safe.
We reached my house and climbed in through the window. "I will need some rest after all of that. I know we heal fast but I still hate how the pain doesn't go away with it." I said as I took off my suit and sat down on the bed, with bruises on my chest, ribs, and face. Gwen put some of my oversized clothes on over her suit, then sat down to tend to my wounds. "Ah! That hurts." I groaned. "Sorry.. This is worse than I expected.. You might have broken ribs." She apologized as she continued tending to me. "It's ok. Thanks for helping with this." I replied, taking my Spider-shoes off and tapping it against the bedframe upside down. Some sand poured out of it onto my bedroom floor.
"Didn't think anything would be more uncomfortable than being drenched in sewer water. Now we gotta deal with sand in our boots." I chuckled and she laughed with me. "At least were done with her. Hopefully there's no sand army or whatever this time though, one is enough." She continued and reassured me. "A sand army? could you imagine? It wouldn't be an army it'd just be a desert filled with sentient traps!" I sarcastically remarked her idea of an army. "Yeah that would be awful.." She laughed with me before she pressed in abit too hard on my wounds and made me jump "Ah!" She responded, "Sorry! Sorry. I was distracted." She continues to tend to my wounds carefully and calmly.
After a while, I grabbed a new set of clothes and went to change. "I wouldn't mind if you looked." I said noticing Gwen looking away. "No no.. I uh.. It's ok." She got red and turned farther away, trying to hide it but it was so obvious to see. I chuckle and continue, "Suit yourself." Then put on my shirt.
"You wanna join us for dinner?" I asked her. Since mom has been home more often, she's been updating me when she would be home and had been inviting Gwen over to dinner now and then for the past month. "Yes please. I love your mom's cooking!" She replied, accepting the invitation then pulling up her phone, "I'm gonna tell my dad I'll get home late."
"Alright you do that, I'll tell mom to get some extra food ready." I pulled up my phone and texted her. "It's still so early though. What do we do?" I asked Gwen. "Honestly I don't mind just chilling in your room. Ever since the fall break started there's literally been nothing to do anyway." She answered, now laying on my bed and reading a book. "Ight, you do whatever and I'll be here if you need anything." I turn around and sat down on my desk to check on some schoolwork in the meantime.
An hour had passed and I had finished checking all my schoolwork, so I grabbed my rubik's cube and started playing with it. Gwen popped out from behind me, "You can solve that?" "Yeah, I used to go to competitions with my mom a few years back. Not really that quick with it though." I responded as I finish solving the cube. "Really? That was quite fast, what's the fastest you've done?" She continued asking. "around 9 seconds- but that was a very lucky scramble. You wanna try?" I offered her, her eyes lit up with excitement, taking the cube off my hands. "I've always wanted to learn how to solve it but never got the chance to. Care to teach me?" she leaned on me, and I nodded as we spent the next few hours learning the basics of solving it.
It was getting dark and she was still very excited about being able to solve it. She keeps solving the cube over and over, showing me everytime she did. It was kinda cute. "You catch on fast Gwen. People usually take days to figure it out." I patted her head while saying that. "Well.. I had an amazing teacher." She smirked and solved it another time. Then mom had got home and knocked on the door, "Hey Y/N? Gwen? I got dinner ready" We stood up and opened the door. Gwen had hugged her, "Hey! Mrs. L/N! I missed you! AND your cooking!"
"Hi Gwen, I missed you too. Let's have some food shall we?" Mom responded. We all walked down the stairs to the dining room together and started eating together. It was a big bowl of chinese fried rice, along with some dimsum. "Where'd you learn to cook all this mom?" I asked her. "Well.. I had a job in China and my coworkers, they showed me how. Anyway eat up! There's alot today so don't be shy! Annddd.. I got some great news!"
"What is it?" I asked in response. Gwen stopped eating for a sec and looked up to mom too. "I got some extra funds.. from work.. so I booked three of us to a vacation! To a resort! That is if you're both willing ofcourse." She revealed. "That's amazing! We were just talking about how theres literally nothing to do in fall break!" I said, then continued, "Gwen you in or what?"
"Yes! I will have to talk to my dad about it first though. Update you guys tomorrow?" She replied excited. We all agreed and continued eating together, before I walked Gwen back home later that evening. "See you on the trip to the resort?" I asked Gwen. "Yeah! Hopefully!" She replied and gave me a big hug before running into her house, waving goodbye.