Chapter Text
Miles was late for school.
He woke up late because he forgot his parents weren’t there to give him a ride, since they both had early shifts at work. He was in such a rush he skipped breakfast, opting to just don his black suit and swing there.
As he swung to school he spotted a new graffiti by one of his favourite artists, Pop. He landed on a nearby roof and checked his watch… 3 minutes ahead of schedule.
He decided to hop down into the alley to look at the artwork.
He landed with a soft thud, and gazed upon Pop’s most recent masterpiece. The artwork was a small detailed mural painted all in blue, except for some yellow details. The picture displayed the city at sunrise (or sunset, Miles couldn’t tell) repaired and healed from the Kraang attack six months ago. The bottom corner of the work was signed at the bottom, something the Pop started doing as their work gained recognition. In the mural, all of the construction sites were gone, and there wasn’t any stray pink goop stuck in storm drains anymore. The citizens that were depicted looked peaceful and happy.
The mural made Miles grin at the thought of his city going back to normal, especially since he felt guilty for being on vacation during the attack.
As Miles was snapping a picture of the mural to document it before the city painted over it (Miles knew the city was really cracking down on illegal graffiti), he noticed the time.
“Fuck!” He yelled while jumping back up to the roof, grabbing his suitcase, and swung like hell to the school.
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The words on the page were swimming. Well not literally, but Miles felt like they were. His homeroom teacher wasn’t happy he was a couple minutes late, though he made it to his other classes on time. The math problems that he was assigned to practice on were boring him to death, so much so that his roommate noticed.
“You should go out. Sitting here forcing yourself to work like this isn’t going to help you learn anything dude.” Ganke Lee said without even looking up from his own work.
“This you offering to cover for me?” Miles smugly asked. Ganke might know that Miles is Spiderman, but that didn’t mean that he was okay with him missing out on school. Ganke was weird like that.
“Just this once, you really need the break. You looked like you were about to pass out.” Ganke replied, finally looking up to meet Miles’s eyes. He motioned with his head to where Miles’s suit was hidden and smirked. Miles immediately took the hint and changed so fast he might’ve set a new record. Miles yelled thanks while he jumped out the window to swing into the night looking for crime.
He didn’t have to look for long. Around ten minutes after he left, Miles heard a familiar voice talking down by the docks.
“These are the best on the market, and the price I’m selling them at is a straight up bargain. She would be stupid to not take the deal.” The voice said. The volume, the pitch, the accent… who is that? It’s so familiar. Miles thought to himself as he swung down quietly to get a better look. As he silently landed on the top of an old shipping container, he spotted the source.
Kingpin is pretty hard to miss after all.
The person he was with replied, “You dare call her stupid? Even she knows these prices are ridiculous. Lower them and then maybe she will reconsider.” Kingpin’s met the much smaller, lanky man’s gaze with a glare that could freeze ice. The man seemed to shrivel up under Kingpin’s look before stammering, “B-but we haven’t seen them yet so who can tell?!”
Nice save. Miles thought dryly to himself.
Kingpin gave a low chuckle before he motioned for some of his goons to bring out a large black box. They placed it between Kingpin and the other man, opened it and stepped back while the man looked inside. His jaw dropped once he saw the contents.
“I assume you know what they are?” Kingpin asked, smug grin plastered on his face. The other man looked up at Kingpin with some kind of emotion - Miles couldn’t tell if it was fear, awe, or a mixture of both.
“H-how did you get your hand of these?” The man choked out before reaching out to touch whatever was in the box.
“My source requested that they remain anonymous,” Kingpin flatly stated, slamming the box shut before the man could touch them. “So is she in or out? I don’t like it when people waste my time.”
The man nodded and brought a strange looking phone up to his ear. Miles silently crept closer to see if he could hear better.
“Price… mystic… city…battle,” the man murmured quietly into the phone. Miles was really having trouble hearing him so he inched forward, bit by bit. Wait. I’m such an idiot. I can go invisible. Miles almost kicked himself as he activated his invisibility and practically walked up to Kingpin.
“These weapons are extremely rare, even in the hidden city ma’am.” The man said, “No… yes them seem to be… my opinion?… Worth it.” The man stole a quick glance at Kingpin.
Weapons! Kingpin is selling weapons again! I have to stop him.
Miles made his move just as the man was telling Kingpin the his mysterious patron agreed to buy.
Miles kicked the box out from between Kingpin and the man, catching them both off guard. Kingpin yelled, scaring Miles out of his invisibility and moved to smash Miles with his enormous fists. Miles was quicker though. He jumped back, accidentally colliding with the man and they both fell to the ground.
“What the hell is going on?!” The man shouted as he shoved Miles off of him. The man pulled out some kind of chalk and ran a few feet away to crouch down to do… something. Miles wasn’t sure what he was doing - was he crying? He didn’t have time to think on it though, because Kingpin was stomping over to Miles to try and smash him again.
Miles scrambled to his feet and ran at Kingpin with all of his strength.
“I won’t let you keep selling these weapons Kingpin!” He shouted in his best Spiderman voice. Miles dove down and collided with Kingpin’s legs, causing the larger man to trip and face plant into the pavement. Miles scrambled to his feet again and ran after the man who was still crouched in the corner, shoving Kingpin’s face down again on the way there.
As Miles got closer to him, he realized that the man was drawing on the ground. The strange symbols sparked with more and more purple lightning as the man drew furiously as Miles neared. He stopped behind the man and crossed his arms.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked, making the other man jump. The man finished his stroke of chalk and laughed as the strange drawing glowed purple. The glowing letters all drew into one giant orb, which then flattened to make some kind of portal.
“WHAT THE- ” Miles yelled as he scrambled away from the strange purple-yellow glow. The other man however dove in, muttering something about hand held devices and occupational hazards as the purple portal winked out of existence. “What the actual fuck just happened?” Miles asked breathlessly, whirling around to direct his question at a downed Kingpin.
Only to find him gone.
Kingpin and his goons had disappeared, along with the black box. The only evidence that proved that anyone was even there was the small symbols of chalk that were already blowing away in the wind. Miles kicked a nearby rock, and huffed his disappointment out before he leaped up and swung away.
No one had noticed the figure that was huddled in the dark of a large shadow. Watching.