You swing towards the winged man. He's fast, but you consider yourself faster. You run along the wall of a nearby building and leap towards the man, shooting a web at his leg. You hang on as he's flying away.
You: What are you? Some kind of bird?
The man doesn't answer, and begins to fly erratically. He causes you to hit the nearby building as you're hanging on.
You: Argh!
The man makes a hard left turn, and the momentum causes you to let go and hurl towards a building. You react fast and web-zip to the top of it. You run along the roof and launch yourself towards the man again, this time grabbing onto his back.
???: Get off!
You: I don't think your bank withdrawal was valid, bird-brain.
You snatch away the bag of money and throw it aside towards a lamp post, webbing it to the top of it. The winged man didn't like that one bit.
???: Big mistake, asshole!
The man begins to fly upwards at a high speed as the both of you struggle. You look up and notice the Empire State Building. For a second you wonder why he's flying up there.
Your spider-sense goes off, but it's too late before he turns and hurls you towards the side of the tall building, crashing into it.
You: Argh!
You land on a platform, and look up at the man who's soaring towards you. You shoot a string of web towards him, but he slashes it with his sharp metal wings. He continues to fly towards you, but you leap up to try to evade his strike.
It works for a second, but he swipes his metal wings at you, slashing your abdomen. You groan at the pain, but shoot a web at his chest. You launch yourself towards the man to kick him, but he grabs your leg at the last second and throws you against the side of the building once more.
He was proving to have the edge at aerial combat.
He grabs you by the neck and you look into his green-shaded visor. You notice the wrinkles around his eyes, which were hazel-brown. He looked older, but was sure capable of fighting.
???: Look the other way, kid. Don't try to stop me.
He spins a couple times while holding you, and uses the momentum to launch you far away off the building. You don't have time to shoot a web towards the tower as the distance between you and the building was too much.
You continue to dive down.
THWIP!
You shoot a web at a near by building to keep yourself from impacting the roof of one below. You swing and leap onto another roof.
From there, you look in the distance towards the Empire State Building, and aren't able to spot the winged man. He had escaped.
You: Damn it...
That foe was tougher than he looked. He won the first round, if you ever run into him again, you surely will stop him.
You look down at your slashed abdomen. It wasn't as bad as it felt at first.
You: I just had this suit fixed...what the hell, man?
• •
{The Next Day}
You are at your loft. Louis is home with you along with Aasim. You are playing cards with Aasim at the table while Louis is at the bar drinking and looking at his phone.
The card game you are playing is war, but with no gimmicks this time, just regular old war.
You draw a 8 of spades while Aasim draws a 2 of clubs.
Aasim: Shit.
You chuckle as you take his card and add it to your deck.
Aasim: You see the guy the Knicks drafted a couple days ago?
You nod. You didn't see the draft, but you heard about it.
You: Yeah.
Aasim: Maybe he'll be the one to turn that franchise around.
You scoff.
You: We've said the same thing for the last few years. It always ends up being a trash season.
Aasim shrugs and draws a 6 of hearts, while you draw a 3 of hearts. He takes your card and adds it to his deck.
Nearby, you hear Louis curse at his phone.
You: You good over there?
Louis turns around while he sits in his stool.
Louis: Yeah. Just Oscorp shit, as always.
He keeps looking at his phone as he talks.
Louis: I don't know how my dad did this...all this work and all. I mean, I have people on the board that help me since I'm just a college student...but still.
You simply nod, then Louis gets another message on his phone. He quickly gets up.
Louis: I gotta go to the office, you know how it is.
Aasim: You're leaving before the pizza arrives?
Louis: As along as the both of you don't eat it all, I expect a few slices when I get back.
You: No promises, bro.
Louis: Ha ha.
Louis leaves the loft, leaving you and Aasim alone.
A card from your deck falls onto the floor. You lean down to pick it up, but slightly groan at the pain from your abdomen.
Aasim: You okay?
You: Yeah...it's just—
Aasim: From that Vulture incident yesterday?
You: Vulture?
Aasim; That winged man you fought. That's what the Bugle is calling him, anyway.
You: Vulture. There's always new weirdos with a gimmick I have to face.
Aasim: It ain't as weird as seeing Dr. Connors turn into a lizard.
You: Heh, yeah. That was freaky.
Aasim: Or Ben as...that thing....
Electro. You remember. So does Aasim.
You: Yeah...
There's silence for a bit, but Aasim continues.
Aasim: So, the Vulture escaped right?
You: Unfortunately. He's a capable fighter, especially in the air. I wasn't used to that.
You begin to think back at your fight with him, and how you saw part of his face through his visor.
You: I saw his eyes through his visor. He looked old...wrinkles and everything. He sure didn't move like an old man though.
Aasim: Hey, if there can be a 19 year old hero swinging around, what's stopping a 60-70 year old from becoming a bad guy?
You nod.
You: Good point.
The door bell rings, you already know it's the pizza. Aasim did too, and quickly got up while rubbing his hands.
Aasim: It's chow time. Apologies to Louis if we end up devouring the whole thing.