Chapter Text
It had been two years since the incident. The crumbling building that had consequently killed his father, Jefferson Morales in the line of duty, in order to protect a child. A now sixteen year old Miles had never been the same ever since. He had grown distant over time and was utterly lost. No longer the upbeat social butterfly he used to be.
The only thing that gave him hope was his uncle, who he was spending much more time with. Uncle Aaron told Miles about his job. Being a well known criminal in the city called the Prowler. His nephew, of course, was frightened at first, but after hearing about how great the rewards were, he was slowly swayed into the other direction.
Besides, after he had inherited the title of the Prowler from his uncle those two years ago, and made various modifications to his suit, he had become one of Kingpin’s best players. He’d always finished the job and Kingpin payed him lavishly for his contributions. Sure, he didn’t always agree with his practices, but he didn’t have a choice. Ultimately, he was convinced that he couldn’t choose his own path in life anymore.
And why? Because he was sick of seeing his poor, heartbroken mother working herself to death in order to provide for him.
The teenager had told his mother that it was a late part time job in order to get some extra money for the house, which wasn’t a completely lie. His main motivation for working with Kingpin was to get enough money to keep them afloat. The price of the house had been steadily climbing up over the past years.
Plus, now that Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker had been killed by Kingpin after he had managed to shut down his collider made his job a walk in the park. Working for a criminal empire that was a powerhouse in its own right.
As of now on this evening, the Prowler was currently making his way over to the big man himself. He had requested his presence at his office at Alchemax in order to discuss a new mission.
Miles made his way through the shiny white walls of the building until he finally reached the door to Kingpin’s office, passing numerous guards along the way. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door.
“Well if it isn’t the man of the hour? Come in, Prowler!” Kingpin greeted in an uncharacteristically friendly manner.
As the doors opened and revealed the CEO sitting on a chair, Miles stood up straight, like a soldier. “Hi, boss. How’s business?”
“Booming, heh,” he chuckled, gesturing him to come forward. “Take a seat, why don’t y’a?”
The Prowler nodded and slowly approached, sitting down on a little black chair in front of his towering boss.
”So you have a mission for me?”
“In fact I do. We’ve spotted someone interfering with my line of merchandise from my train. It’s been causing the company to lose money. They’ve been sabotaging my men for little over a week now by coming out from the shadows to fight with them. And they’ve been throwing them in prison instead of killing them. Which is a bit cowardly if you ask me,” he grumbled with a scowl.
Miles’s eyes widened in his mask. “Is it the police?”
Kingpin shook his massive head. “We haven’t been able to identify them as of now. I figured that they’d eventually get killed by one of my elites, but it looks like I’ve underestimated their wits.
So who better to deal with them than one of my greatest players?” he continued with a devilish smirk. “Are you up for the task, Prowler?”
”Yes,” Miles accepted without hesitation. “What is my assignment?”
Kingpin looked pleased by his answer. “Find out who this intruder is and bring them back to me, alive. I want to deal with them personally.”
Miles got goosebumps as Kingpin said the words ‘alive.’
”At least I don’t have to hurt anyone this time…” he tried to reassure himself.
”And what‘s my reward?”
”Does six grand settle it?”
”Plenty. I won’t fail you.”
”You haven’t felt me yet,” the CEO replied a little ominously. “You’re dismissed.”
With a curt nod he stood up and dashed out of the room. On his way to the location of his task.
“Now where are they…?”
Miles waited patiently on the other side of the locomotive, waiting for the intruder to show up. He wanted to arrive earlier than the planned time of which the intruder was going to show up, which was around 10:00 pm. The night air felt chilly and tickled his skin, even though he had a suit on him.
”Who could possibly be brave enough to face Kingpin’s goons?” he wondered.
Just then, Miles heard a peculiar swishing noise from the shadows and immediately tensed.
His target was finally here.
With much precision and skill, from the corner of his eyes he could see a blur of white flash past to the other side of the train.
”They’re making their way to the system on the side,” he quickly realized. “Not on my watch.”
He soundlessly started making his way towards the system, doing his best to stay hidden, and not letting the purple light emitted from his sneakers give him away. Heading around the wagons, he occasionally caught glimpses of white, black and pink from the stranger as he got closer to the train system. When he finally got to the end and therefore could keep an eye on them for long enough, his heart sank as he finally realized why the markings were so familiar.
The suit had the same webbing design as spider man.
His breath hitched in his throat and his heartbeat slowed down dramatically. It was like he was living in his own nightmare.
“That’s impossible…” Miles thought in astonishment as he gazed at the stranger from afar before climbing onto a wagon.“Isn’t Spider-Man supposed to be dead?”
Utterly baffled, he decides to make his move. With a large thud, he suddenly lands several meters behind the mysterious white Spider-man who was still tinkering around with the train system. Startled, the intruder let go of the machine and turned around, finally being face to face with him.
”Whoa!” their voice, which Miles could instantly identify as a girl’s, gasped out. “Okay, definitely wasn’t expecting on having any company tonight.”
”Then you’re foolish for thinking that,” the Prowler retorted with his usual modified electronic tone.
Curiously, Miles took a step forward, but this resulted in the other girl taking a step back. He furrowed his brows and thought for a moment. He wanted to assess his opponent, in case he could find any potential weaknesses before confronting her. Slowly, he starting to walk around in a large circle, indicating that he just wanted to observe.
Her expression shifted from one of shock to a slightly more relaxed one. And soon after, she started doing the same thing, walking clockwise like he was doing while always facing his direction.
The first thing that he noticed was that she had a watch like gizmo on the side of her arm. It glowed a vibrant orange in the depths of the night and had all sorts of odd digits written on it, which he couldn’t quite read because of their distance.
“That must be how she got here,” he concluded somewhat anxiously. “Which also means that there could be others…”
In addition, he noted that she was tall and lean, although shorter than he was. Unintentionally, he also observed that the curve of her body was quite alluring. From the looks of it, she was around his age, if not just a year older.
Well, that explains why she looked so… mature.
”No! Don’t think like that!” he scolded himself as he sensed warmth rushing up to his face, and pushed the thought away. “Focus, Miles!”
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“I can ask you the same thing, bud,” she replied casually.
Her casualness causes Miles to hesitate for a second before he answers. “I’m the Prowler.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Every villain always has their own theme going on. I’m guessing you’re on the prowl right now?”
Miles forced himself to push down any amusement that he felt from her quip.
“And you are?” he asked irritably, still always keeping her within his view as they circled each other.
”I’m Spider-Women,” she introduced, sounding more formal this time around. “But you can just call me Ghost-Spider if that’s more up your alley.”
“Ghost-Spider? So there’s another one… This can’t be good.”
”How did you get here? Why are you even here in the first place? Are there more of you?” he bombarded her with questions.
Ghost-Spider’s eyes widened. “Whoa there buddy, slow down. I can’t answer all those questions even if I wanted too.”
”Why have you been sabotaging Kingpin’s merchandise?” he raised his voice, hoping it would intimidate her.
”Sorry man, but that’s also classified,” she answered calmly, surprising him. “Are you going to keep asking me questions all night or are we going to fight? Because normally this isn’t how it works…”
Admittedly, Miles was indeed starting to lose patience as she kept dodging his questions. He didn’t know whether to feel annoyed or impressed by her calm demeanour. After all, most people who came face to face with him were afraid of the Prowler. Yet, she seemed to be completely within her element.
Safe to say that it peeked at his interest quite a bit.
”Never mind that! I have a job to do!” he reminded himself.
He desperately needed to get that money in any way possible. And one way or another, he was going to get answers.
In the spur of a moment, he stopped circling his enemy, narrowed his eyes and slid out his claws. “I’m not asking.”
Immediately, Ghost-Spider tenses and curls her hands into fists. “But you are fighting, right?”
However, this wouldn’t be the case as Miles suddenly retracted his claws and all signs of agression faded, much to his opponent’s confusion.
He hated how his impulses had almost gotten the best of him again. Right now, there was something more important that he needed to do.
”I have to tell this to Kingpin.”
Within the span of a few seconds, the Prowler turned around and hopped on top of a passing company train leading back to Alchemax. He used his claws to hang onto the roof of the locomotive and quickly turned back to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Fortunately for him, it didn’t seem like the heroine was going to pursue him.
“Typically villains don’t choose flight over fight either! Just saying!” he heard Ghost-Spider’s voice yell out almost teasingly.
The Prowler mentally scolded himself as a little chuckle threatened to escape from his throat.
He frowned. “Now is not the time to laugh at witty wordplay! No matter how clever they are!”
He sighed as Ghost-Spider, faded farther a farther away from him into the shadows of the night as the train went full steam ahead. His encounter with the heroine had left him with a mixture of emotions, from anxiety to admiration. But above all, even if he knew that he shouldn’t feel this way, he felt intrigued by her.
Leaving his thoughts to meander around, he turned around and looked at the tracks ahead, dreading from the inevitable confrontation with his boss. As the wind howled in his face and the large clunky, mechanical sounds of the train’s wheels kept him at bay, he couldn’t help but think, that for the first time ever, he had failed his assignment. And yet, had stumbled across an unbelievable discovery.
”Kingpin won’t like this…”