Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Night City is sometimes called the ‘City of Dreams’. It isn’t, not really. People in Night City die in enough numbers that anything under 30 killings is considered a good day.

So when a group of Scavs cornered Melissa Gamble, she didn’t have much hope in her. The four Scavs had chased her through the streets for a few minutes. She’d tried to get the police on the line, but they’d hacked her agent. She’d tried to get home, but they kept blocking her.

And now she was in an alley. Watching four people with bright digital masks hiding their faces approach her. One, a woman, lifted a baseball bat.

“Help me!” Melissa screamed desperately. “Somebody, please, anybody!”

No answer. People die every day in Night City. And if it wasn’t a choom, nobody gave a fuck about the next one to go.

The Scav with the baseball bat went to swing for her head. Melissa screamed again. She was going to die. They were going to take her, rip her chrome out, and leave her in the trash.

Just before the bat could cave in her skull, a  thwip  sound filled the air. A bright red wire wrapped around the baseball bat, pulling it out of the Scav’s hand before she could hit Melissa.

A figure dropped down in front of Melissa. The glowing red wire sliced through the bat, reeling back into the figure's wrist. Melissa’s scream cut off. She stared at the figure.

A yellow jacket, an EMT one, glowed in the dim light, blue lights from the collar illuminating the figure. Like the Scavs, he wore a mask. A black one, with a webbed pattern across it, and large white eyes that narrowed mechanically as he glanced at her, then at the Scavs.

“Hey guys. You look like you’re having fun.”

“The Spider!” one of the Scavs, a tall heavyset man, shouted. “Get em!”

Melissa backed away, watching fearfully. The group of Scavs rushed her savior. And he began dancing around them.

“Oh come on, gonk,” her savior leaped over a kick, easily dodged a bullet from a pistol, and sidestepped a clumsy stab from a knife. “‘Get em’? That’s so boring! At least say something original. Or classic!”

He caught a punch in his palm before spinning around and throwing that Scav at another like a doll, then lashed out with a monowire to slice the pistol one was holding in half, before backflipping over a Scav woman and landing on the small of her back, punching her.

“How about, ‘rattle em boys!’ I saw that in an old holovid!” he grabbed the woman he was on top of and tossed her, smashing another Scav out of the air. Then he moved in, faster than Melissa could see. Later, she’d wish she’d recorded it with her optics, but she was just so mesmerized.

He danced around them, jumping from wall, to floor, to Scav, fists and feet flying. The Scavs tried to swing at him, to shoot him. But he was just never  there  when they tried to hit him.

Seconds later, the last Scav fell. He turned to look at her.

On his chest. A spider. A large emblem of a spider.

“Spider-Man,” Melissa whispered.

“That’s what they call me,” he chuckled. He looked around. “Okay. Should be good. You need a ride home?”

“Uh…” Melissa shook her head, breathing hard.

“Gotcha. Just glad the gonks didn’t hurt you. Well, the badges are on their way. Stay safe!”

He snapped a hand out. His monowire snapped out, longer than she’d ever seen one go, attaching to the side of a building. Then he was pulled upwards, moving high into the air.

“Holy shit,” Melissa said softly.

Spider-Man had just saved her life… ahhhh, she should have recorded it!

The sound of police sirens filled the air in the distance. Melissa ran for her home, smiling the whole way.

And high above, Spider-Man swung through Night City.

Let's do this just one more time…

The Multiverse is fucked.

This is not an opinion. It is a fact. The Multiverse, all multiverses, are a massive complete mess. Each universe is created, destroyed, melded together, ripped apart, condensed, and widened in a chaotic flow that only a madman can traverse.

In one set of universes, a man named Miguel O’Hara blames a young man named Miles Morales for this chaos. He is both wrong and right. The multiverse responds to our actions, but it is meant to. It will always change, flow, and destroy/create at random.

We do not live atop a solid foundation. Every universe is a set of bubbles bouncing within a storm. This is not bad, or good. It is.

The Multiverse is fucked.

David Martinez would learn that one day. But for today, he was getting punched in the face.

Metal fists crashed across David’s arms, chest, face, and stomach in a quick combination while David tried to understand what the hell was happening. A loud and whiny sounding ‘waaaaaah, tatatata!’ filled the air as David’s body exploded with pain.

A final kick sent him flying back, the feel of something shattering against his back followed by the smell of shit from the public toilet he smashed into. David weakly gasped, barely able to hear the sound of Katsuo Tanaka mocking him. Again.

Eventually the asshole and his asshole chooms walked off. Leaving David slumped up against the toilet. He kept his eyes closed, blood dripping off him as pain ebbed and flowed through him.

It was amazing he could feel anything crawling on him. David glanced at his hand. He blinked, slowly. A spider.

…He’d never seen one before. Not in real life. He’d heard of them. But he thought they were only in labs or something. He could count the number of actual animals in Night City he’d ever seen on one hand.

The spider was red and blue colored. About an inch wide. It stared at him. Then it, while David was watching, slammed its head into his skin, biting deeply.

David took in the painful sting of that bite. But, combined with everything else, it didn’t seem to matter much. Just a bit more shit in his cereal.

His agent started ringing about then. The hospital. David brushed away the spider and answered.

“Mr Martinez? I’m calling in regards to Gloria Martinez’s condition.”

As he took the call, he didn’t notice the spider dying on the ground next to his foot.

Hours later, he pushed his way into his apartment through the window. Carefully, he lowered himself in along with the jar holding his mom’s ashes, stumbling as he landed in the shower.

David felt sick. Wrong. He was shivering, sweaty. Weak. Cold. He’d planned on calling Doc, maybe cashing in on that implant. But he could barely move. He couldn’t think. His head was pounding. He carefully put the plastic container holding his mom on the table, shutting the blinds on the window.

So hungry…

He grabbed a burrito xxl. Then a tofu bar. And another, and one more. He was so cold though.

He moved over to the couch and tumbled down, clutching himself tightly.

Soaked in sweat, muscles and bones aching, still bruised from Katsuo beating the shit out of him, David stared at his mom’s jacket. Memories flowed through him.

His mom smiling. Then lying on concrete, blood pooling under her. The principal. Katsuo mocking him. The voice of the holographic teacher from class talking about biology. That spider. Staring at him.

And then… that girl. With the white hair. She was the last image in his mind before he passed out.

He never heard it when Katsuo called.

He woke up late for school. Who gave a fuck? His mom was dead and the school would probably expel him when they found out he couldn’t pay to fix the shit he broke.

David got up. Quickly. He blinked at how fast he moved. He felt… awake. Really awake. He’d never felt so full of energy. Had he slept for longer than normal or something? And he didn’t feel any pain from Katsuo’s beating from yesterday.

He went over to the bathroom. For some reason, he felt like the apartment was smaller. Or like he was more aware of it, somehow? David sighed, reaching the bathroom and looking in the mirror. As he came into view, he stared in shock.

David was taller. By a couple of inches, maybe more? And his body was…

He took off his black shirt, formerly just a bit baggy and now almost too tight, ignoring the sound of his necklaces bouncing across the tile of the shower as he looked himself over.

Muscle. Not the skinny muscles he’d had before. Real muscle, uniform across his entire body. He’d gone from a teenager to a fitness model out of a vid or braindance, or a guy out of a Mr. Studd ad for a runner or swimmer type.

“What the hell?” David poked at his chest. “What, did I go through puberty again?”

He pulled off his pants. Same deal. His whole body was bigger. He wasn’t a giant bodybuilder or anything, but it was still huge compared to his skinny ass before.

Then he smelled himself. Sweating through the whole night hadn’t done him any favors.

Shower time. He hopped in, turning the water on. For some reason, the cold water didn’t suck as much to get hit by as usual. The hot water wasn’t hot enough either. He cleaned himself off quickly, trying to understand what the hell was happening.

He was so full of energy. He always felt like that, always tapping his foot or something, but this was even worse. He needed to get out. Head to the streets. Fuck school.

After his shower, he pulled on his clothes. After a bit of thought, he wore his mom’s jacket, the Sandevistan inside pressed against his back. Better than leaving the expensive tech in the apartment.

He headed out. As usual, he fell down into the pile of trash, though his legs didn’t even feel the recoil he was used to when landing. Past the homeless guys masturbating, people heading out to shop, the guy trying to convince his wife he wasn’t sleeping with a Mox. Just aimlessly walking along.

Everything felt so weird. It was like his senses were clearer now. Like the world had become more vibrant, or he could see more of it. Everything still smelled bad, but even more than before somehow?

Mom was gone. David scowled at the thought. He just… how was he supposed to keep going without her? He had to pay the bills, so he’d need to quit school. And she was gone. He was never going to see her again.

He reached a crosswalk, stopping briefly before stepping out as soon as the robotic voice chirped ‘Walk. Walk. Walk.’ Halfway down, not really paying attention, David felt as though something started screaming in the back of his mind, a strange tingle that was telling him to  move-!

It happened without thinking. Putting everything he had into it, David jumped upwards. Rather than a couple of feet, he rocketed upwards, backflipping around, shock filling him. Below, he could see a car with Tyger Claw colors and decals roar through where he’d been walking just a moment ago. Then David landed on the side of a nearby building.

And attached. He stared at his hands, sticking to the concrete like someone had welded them there.

Then he looked down at the crowd of people. People currently glancing at him. Then mostly shrugging it off. After all, anyone with the right cyberware could do what he did.

Except David didn’t  have  cyberware. Not beyond the basic stuff everyone had, like an internal Agent.

David stared at the wall where his hands stuck to. “No fucking way…” Experimentally, he lifted a hand. It came off easily. When he put the hand up higher, he almost felt like some kind of suction effect took place.

Panic flooded him. And suddenly both hands detached. “FUCK!”

He fell for a few dozen feet before slamming back first into the concrete. “...Owwww.”

A woman with fancy clothes, cyberarms, and red shades stepped around him, ignoring his prone body entirely. David stared up at the sky, mind racing.

What was going on?

At home, he checked himself over. Still flesh. His legs, hands, everything was made of muscle and bone. So how the hell had he jumped like he had chrome legs? How was he sticking to walls?

It was during his inspection of himself that he felt where the spider had bitten him. The bite had somehow disappeared in a single night. And a crazy thought hit him. Spiders could walk on walls, right? He remembered vaguely reading something about that.

David sat on his couch, and quickly began looking it up. Spiders. They could walk on walls, yeah. They also spun webs out of their butts? Weird. Some species could leap 38 times their body length.

He thought back to how high he’d jumped before.

They were stronger than their body weight as well… David hesitantly lifted his couch.

Easily. With one hand. He didn’t even feel the weight.

David slowly lowered the couch again.

What had happened? A single spider bite and he got superpowers? If that happened to everyone, he would have heard about it! Maybe some crazy escape corpo experiment?

Maybe it had happened before?

Feeling a bit ridiculous, he searched it up. ‘Spider bite, gives powers, history’.

Once he put it in, he found a few links. He stared at them. Huh. He clicked one.

“...Spider-Man?”

The image of a guy in red and blue tights shone on the screen before him.

Chapter Text

Spider-Man was a superhero. From old comic books, ancient ones. The first one came out in 1962, and the last one was in 1990, when the company that made them, Marvel, shut down and was absorbed by a different company. David ignored that part, corps got eaten by other corps all the time. He was more focused on the actual comics.

Peter Parker, a nerd, who got bit by a radioactive spider and somehow got powers from it. David was fairly sure that wasn’t how radiation worked. But the point was, he got powers, made a costume, and eventually became a superhero.

The comics were kinda badly drawn at first, but the art got better and better. He only read about a decade's worth before stopping and staring at the wall.

Spider-Man. David had been bit by a spider and got powers. Was the spider that bit him radioactive too? How many powers did he have that Parker did?

And how crazy was this shit!?

David snapped to his feet and began to pace. This was all too much. His mom was dead, he had no eddies to pay rent with, and now he had powers. He needed to do something, to-

A notification came in on his Agent. He looked at it, then blinked. A voicemail. From last night. He opened it up.

“Katsuo here. Heard about your mom… I’d offer my sympathies, but find it hard to sympathize.”

David listened. He stopped pacing. Katsuo kept talking. And talking. David stared out the window as Katsuo’s words filled his mind. As his echoing voice filled his mind, mocking his mother.

David grabbed his mom’s jacket and slipped it on, turning around. As he headed out the door, his eyes were hard as steel.

“Responsibility… fuck that!”

Class was in session when David walked into Arasaka Academy. They were a few hours in, after lunch. The Arasaka kids were sitting in their chairs, casually listening to the teacher giving the lesson. David ignored them all. He focused on Katsuo. The cocksucker noticed David walk in and scoffed.

“Check it out. Get a load of this guy,” David got closer. “Is he serious-”

David tried to kick gently. He still ended up sending Katsuo flying into his friend, the two tumbling to the ground.

“What the hell!?” Katsuo snapped to his feet, grabbing at his side with a wince. “You gonked, Martinez?! We’re at school! The cameras. Have you lost-”

David smacked him in the face. Again, gently.

Katsuo was on the floor, gaping in shock. Damn. David really didn’t know his own strength right now. He tossed off his jacket, revealing his new physique, much to everyone’s shock.

Naturally, none of his corpo brat classmates did anything to stop him. They spent their whole lives not lifting a finger for anyone but themselves, why start now?

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak dumbass,” David said while gesturing with his fingers for Katsuo to come at him. “Now get up and let’s do this!”

Katsuo growled, enraged. He rose up and raised his hands up, the cyberware in his palms glowing. Katsuo began punching the air.

Slow. So slow. Before, Katsuo had moved like lightning. Now he looked like he was moving through ballistic gel.

David felt that tingle again. The comics had called it a Spider-Sense. It was like he could feel every punch from Katsuo before it even happened. David stepped forward into Katsuo’s range.

He blocked one punch. Parried another. Then he kept at it, sliding aside from some of the punches, blocking them. Katsuo’s metal arms, so powerful before, felt weaker than a child’s now.

Katsuo’s eyes widened in horror as David easily dealt with his assault. When Katsuo went for the final kick, David barely twitched aside, letting the kick slide uselessly through the air.

Then he smashed him with a punch to the jaw. He felt something crunch under his fist. Katsuo went flying into the wall, shattering the window there. David watched quietly as Katsuo, knocked completely out, slid down the wall. His jaw looked broken.

Holy shit. David hadn’t meant to… well, no, he had meant to. He just didn’t know he was that strong. It wasn’t like he’d really believed he was exactly as strong as Spider-Man. That was just a comic book. Not everything would be the same, right?

David quickly grabbed his jacket off the floor, ignoring Katsuo’s friends running away, and quickly started walking. “Don’t look down on organic knuckles next time.”

Katsuo was left on the floor to bleed from his mouth.

David went back home and started reading more comics. What else could he do? He didn’t know enough about himself right now.

He took a nap, woke up and ignored a call from the school, and kept on reading.

Those comics were so damn corny. Spider-Man wasn’t like the characters he’d followed before, or even like the virtu’s he watched, like the Edgerunner series. Spider-Man didn’t zero his enemies. Even when it probably would have solved a lot of shit. Killing a few the second time they showed up would have made sense at least.

And seriously, Parker’s life seemed to really suck at times. David couldn’t access all the media that had been made before Marvel shutdown, but he was really hoping he didn’t go through half of what the other spider-guy did.

Still… Parker reminded David of himself. Not just because of the powers. After Parker’s Uncle died, he and his aunt had no way to pay rent. His aunt wanted him to follow his uncle's dream of him becoming a scientist. But they needed money.

Peter had thought about klepping shit from people. So did David.

But people in his world were more dangerous. Any gonk on the street could be chromed up to the gills. David had no clue how to use his powers, no control yet. He needed to learn more. To practice. But he still needed money too.

Could he still sell the sandy to Doc? Nah, that guy was stiffing him enough already. He needed something different. Too bad he couldn’t sell his new powers.

David wasn’t dumb enough to spread around that he had powers though. The last thing he needed was some corp like Biotechnica catching on, sending an army to grab him and shove him into a lab to get cut up and studied.

…Maybe he could ‘sell’ his powers. In a different way though.

For now, he downloaded scans of the comics, as many as he could find at least. While a few of them were free, a lot more were collectors items, the kinds of stuff that would be in a shard in some corpo's vault, or maybe an actual comic hidden away.

There was apparently some lady in Night City who claimed to have a few of them? A ripperdoc. He’d look her up later.

For now, he headed out, putting his mom’s jacket on again. Least the jacket fit him still. The rest of his clothes had gotten a lot smaller recently.

The sandy was still inside it. It felt heavy as hell, that valuable piece of chrome against his back. He tried to ignore it, instead heading out. If he could travel around a bit, he might find somewhere he could test his new powers. He hadn’t broken anything he didn’t want to yet, but accidently shattering Katsuo’s jaw had taught him he needed some actual practice with it.

When… when Parker’s uncle died. He’d gone after the guy who did it. David didn’t know who exactly he could blame for his mom getting murdered. There was a list. But on that list were the Animals, who’s drive-by shootout had caused them to crash and land his mom in that cheap ass clinic.

Animals, who ran most of the fighting rings in the city.

He didn’t know exactly who was behind the shootout, he probably had no way to find out. But who cared? He needed money and he wanted to pummel someone even tangentially related to it.

David walked out to Rancho Coronado. To a street and gym everyone in the neighborhood knew to avoid. His mom would have killed him if she found out she was heading there. And here he was, casually strolling through the streets to reach it. On the way, he stopped by a clothing stall, stealing something and disappearing too quick for anyone to respond.

Everything was like that. Easier. He felt like he’d replaced his whole body with the world’s best chrome overnight. After a bit, he stopped walking. He started running. Faster and faster, until he was outrunning cars. He jumped, and even with barely any effort behind it he must have reached over thirty feet, higher than some of the buildings.

“Hahaha!” David cheered, backflipping in the air. “This is so nova!”

He passed a group of people running like him, some waving cheerily as they did similar jumps to him. David landed in an instinctive roll, grinning widely. For a moment, just a moment, he felt great. Everything else sucked.

But man, these powers were preem.

Soon he was standing in front of the spot anyone without the right mods in Rancho Coronado would’ve avoided. The Tripple Xtreme Epic Workout Center. Tripple was spelled wrong, but no one expected Animals to be geniuses.

David pulled the item he’d stolen over his face, a mask. Not a great one, just a thin balaclava with flowers across it. Lame, but he needed to hide his identity. Right now, no one knew he had powers. He was just a normal teen with mods. David suspected though, if he really did have Spider-Man’s powers, corps would hunt him down. Either the corp that made the spider that bit him, meaning they could claim he ‘stole’ it, or corps trying to copy his abilities.

Better to start hiding his powers. Random people on the street might mistake him for any other chromed up adrenaline junkie when he was running, but a real fight meant doing crazy shit.

In retrospect, fighting that asshole Katsuo in a school full of cameras wasn’t smart. Fun though.

David walked up to the door of the gym, where a guard stood. The Animal looked him over with hard eyes. David spoke first.

“This where people can fight for cash?”

The guard was huge, like all Animals, muscles practically about to burst out of their body. Everyone knew that most Animals didn’t get normal chrome, but instead used biomods. Implants and nanosurgery to roid up, nutrients to feed those giant muscles, and the like.

They were so overly huge, bulging with tube-sized veins and muscle that looked like it was ripping the skin, that they needed endoskeletons and joint reinforcements just to get by.

Apparently, some of their mods came from actual animals. Funnily enough, that meant they were kind of like David’s powers… if way less lowkey.

Thank god he didn’t need to worry about that, having to get those weird damn metal sections ripping out his skin. And being that huge would look wrong on him.

Although, with his new strength, did that mean his bones were tougher too?

As he was musing on this, the giant of a guard scoffed. “Sorry tiny. Animals only. We don’t want some gonk kid in over his head to get crushed around here.”

“I’m stronger than I look.”

“Then let me restate. We don’t want some chromed up idiot to brag about the fake metal muscle he got,” the guard flexed for emphasis, muscles grinding together almost audibly. “We go all natural here.”

He doubted any of it was ‘natural.’ Organic, maybe.

David then shrugged off his mom’s jacket and his shirt, leaving the mask on, showing off his bare and unchromed body. “I’m not chromed, but I bet I can beat you in armwrestling.”

The guard looked him over. Then he chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, you’re more built than most brats that come here. And I gotta admire the confidence of someone who can wear a mask with flowers on it to come challenge us.”

“It was on sale.” Five finger discount.

“All right kid, go on in. This should be hilarious. Rhino will be in there,” David flinched at that name. No freaking way. “She’s always sitting in her spot next to the ring. Tell her you want the test. And keep the shirt off.”

The guard turned and looked into the eye reader next to the garage door, the metal grating and bouncing as it rose up. David crouched to get under the door before it fully opened, finding himself in a concrete and metal room with a giant pit in the center.

Men and women stared at him when he walked in, all of them various flavors of ‘giant fucking behemoth’, all lifting and lowering weights that had to weigh more than him. Nasty looking, with the crazy muscle and metal poking out. Ugh.

The whole place gave him weird vibes beyond that. Oh right, Spider-Sense. It was weird, feeling a sort of tingle across his body while getting glared at. Different people gave him a different level of buzz. One guy barely made him twinge.

But next to the giant pit in the center of the room was a woman that, despite being one of the biggest ones there, somehow felt… safe? Not a twinge from his Spider-Sense at all. She was sitting casually, looking bored.

“Come on, doesn’t anyone want to go?!” she yelled out, only to get ignored, a few hastily avoiding her gaze. “Ahhh, pansies!”

Then David stepped in front of her. She looked him over, while he did the same. Yep. Big. She had some thick black gloves on her fists, red hair about shoulder length in height.

“Huh… Now what the hell do you want, tiny? Tips on fashion?” she teased.

“You Rhino?” David asked. “Guard out front said you could set me up with fights.”

Rhino blinked up at him, then scoffed. “Seriously? I want real fights, not some kid with pink flowers and the build of a twig.”

“Fuck you,” David spat, unthinking. “Trust me, I can hold my own. Or you worried I’ll make you look bad in front of these gonks?”

The others in the gym quieted. David felt his spider-sense act up even harder and he tried to ignore it telling him to run, to fight. Rhino, on the other hand, grinned up at him.

“Oh yeah?”

She rose to her feet. And suddenly David realized just how damn big she was. His spider-sense twigged out harder, focusing in on Rhino.

“Okay kid. Then let's brawl. And if you win, we’ll let you hang out here, get in more fights.”

“Deal!” David spat, clenching his fists tight. “When do you want to start?”

His spider-sense tried to warn him, but he’d been ignoring it to try and stand his ground. So when Rhino gave him a powerful shove, he took it.

And fell into the pit behind him. On instincts he’d never had before, David flipped backwards, landing on his feet. His spider-sense screamed, and this time he listened, jumping backwards in time to avoid Rhino stomping down into the ring. She grinned at him.

“How about right now!?”

David landed on the side of the pit, ignoring the sounds of people gathering to cheer. Rhino charged across the pit, faster than he could believe. David dodged her fist, only to gape when her gloved knuckles dented the metal there. Suddenly the hundreds of dents all across the pits walls made for a way more terrifying story.

“Okay. Might be tougher than Katsuo.”

Rhino raised her fists, a bright and happy smile on her face, and David crouched low on all fours, eyes narrowing under his shitty pink mask, still shirtless.

Time for his first real fight.
Author's Note: I tried my best to make sure that David makes decisions that somewhat make sense while still being impulsive. He's thinking things through. But he's having some trouble figuring out what's next. No one should be in the position he's in at the age he's at. Even Peter had May. Had a school to go to.

As for fighting Rhino. Look. She's a REAL character. I didn't make her up. And no, she's not the Rhino equivalent. That would have to be an Exotic or something.

For now, she's a good way for David to not only figure out his powers but get a small rep among the Animals. He's gonna be disappointed he didn't ask if they were fighting for money though.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

David hadn’t thought about much beyond just finding more things to hit. More people to take his anger out on. Hitting Katsuo was so damn short. Preem as hell, but short. He’d hoped fighting Animals would help.

He hadn’t expected the first Animal he’d fight would treat him like an old choom though.

“Nice!” Rhino said when he backflipped away from a punch. “Well done!” She added when he parried a quick cross.

God, she was fast. He hadn’t been in a real fight before, but Rhino moved quickly and efficiently. If it wasn’t for his spider-sense, she’d have hit him already.

That was another thing. His spider-sense had immediately focused on her the second she started attacking, and had been constantly warning him. Like it knew even before she did when she was going to attack. He ducked under one punch, side-stepped another.

Then she threw another right. David went to dodge it. Another punch was thrown towards where he was dodging. He barely raised a hand to block it, and Rhino’s gloved fist slammed into his guard.

“Gah!” David was thrown back, smashing into the wall behind him with a loud clanging sound. Rhino rushed in with a boxer's stance, diving in to punch at him again. David barely ducked it in time to watch her fist dent the metal behind him. He instinctively kicked out at her. She blocked it.

And she still was thrown back into the other side of the pit, gasping in pain.

The crowd of Animals around them cheered in unison. Rhino’s cheery demeanor faded into a snarl. She dropped to the ground with her fists high, while David gaped at her.

Shit. He’d been really hoping to take her down with one big hit. Did he have to hit her harder? But what if he killed her?

Gritting his teeth, David crouched low, his stance feeling natural despite how unusual it looked, his legs all bendy, one hand flat on the floor, the other arm behind him. 

“All right.” Rhino rushed forward, throwing another punch. This time, when he leaped up out of the way, he kept an eye out, seeing when she aimed a second fist for where he had jumped upwards to dodge. David tapped his hand against that fist, flipping around in mid-air to smash his heel into Rhino’s skull.

“Kra!” Rhino spat, reeling back, then reaching out for him.

David grabbed her arm as he landed. She fought his grip, but it did nothing. 

He stared at her, shocked, as the woman’s far larger arm fought his grip. Even with his new muscles, Rhino dwarfed him. But she wasn’t stronger.

She wasn’t stronger.

Emboldened by the repeating thought, David pulled her close. His first punch bloodied her nose. Rhino weakly punched at his head, but he slapped aside the fist, grabbing her by the neck. Twisting around, he lifted her into the air, then spun around while swinging her towards the ground.

“YAAAAA!” He screamed aloud. Rhino’s back slammed into the ground like a slab of meat. She gasped quietly, but only David heard it. The rest of the Animals cheered aloud, screaming their heads off. She tried to roll, but he punched her hard enough to bounce the back of her head against the pavement. Not hard enough, she was still moving.  David raised his fist, ready to slam it into her head-

“Enough!” Rhino raised her hands up, freezing him moments before he could smash her skull in. 

David’s breath came out hot, heavy, and fast. He slowly backed away from her, clenching his fists. His arm still hurt from where’d she’d punched him, but the rest of him felt wired as hell. Like he had CHOOH2 fueling him directly.

Rhino groaned, rising to her knees. She growled, clutching at her back and face. “Fine. I quit, I’m done!”

Animals cheered, though a few booed while trading eddies with flashes of gold in their optics. The crowd above broke up, walking off and leaving David and Rhino there.

The far bigger woman scowled, getting up fully and clutching at herself. “Agh! I can’t believe I lost!”

She slammed a fist into the wall, growling. Was she… pouting?

“Uh…” David wasn’t sure how to take the giant woman acting like a little kid who had lost her favorite game. “Sorry?”

“Sorry!?” Rhino glared at him. For some reason, he relaxed. She didn’t seem as dangerous anymore. “Aaaargh, FUCK!” She took a deep breath. Finally, she rubbed her head, sighing. “Yeah. Sorry. I just…”

David raised his hands up at her, chuckling awkwardly. “Hey, hey, it’s cool. I, uh, guess you don’t lose often.”

“Try never,” Rhino grumbled, sighing. “Still. You hit hard, kid. No polish to your moves, but whatever upgrades you got make up for it.”

“Polish?”

Rhino smirked at him, calming down a bit. “Yeah. You punch and kick like you learned in grade school. All telegraphed instead of efficient.”

She demonstrated with a couple of jabs. They were quick, short range movements, with her hips going into them. Same with the low kicks she used. Still, they didn’t seem as strong. When David said that, Rhino laughed.

“Oh they’re still powerful. Harder to counter too. If you weren’t so fast I’d have dodged every one. I’ll get you next time too.”

“Oh,” David grunted, his excitement over winning fading a bit. “Still beat you though.”

“Don’t brag about it,” that sense of danger flickered. “I can’t promise I won’t go all aggro about it.”

David chuckled, rubbing a bit at his sore arm. “Yeah yeah. I guess I need to learn.”

“This is the place for it,” Rhino said. “You want to learn how to throw a hit, we can help you. You wanna stick around?”

The offer surprised him so much he couldn’t think of what to say. He looked around. His eyes landed on one of the Animal symbols on the wall. A fanged jaw.

His mom’s face flashed into his mind. Smiling while she drove. Just before-

“Think about it,” Rhino said, cutting off his thought process. Her eyes briefly flickered, sending him her deets. “Just call up before you come. I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”

“Kay,” David said, trying to avoid thinking about that. “So, how about my money?”

Rhino blinked at him. “Money?”

“For winning the fight?”

“Who said we were fighting for money?”

David stared at her. He ran through everything that had happened in his head. Then he grabbed at his masked head. “Goddamnit!”

It wasn’t entirely back to square one. Rhino had promised him more fights in the future, with money on the line. Rhino herself didn’t brawl for money, but the Animals had long cornered the market on fighting in Night City. Organized and not.

Didn’t help David right then though. He was still broke. Getting on a train with his mask now removed and his jacket on, he aimlessly rode the line. He didn’t have anywhere to go until Rhino contacted him. 

Still, he felt pretty good. That fight had been a mind clearer. His head had felt all fuzzy until he’d gotten out and started moving around. Riding on the train was helping too, just chilling. 

Until he caught a glint of neon pink flickering past in the window's reflection. David glanced up…

Nothing. Just passengers. He looked around-

There. That girl. The one he saw around Arasaka Academy sometimes. Neon Pink hair with blue at the tips, cut all, what was the word? Asymmetrically? She had on a cropped white jacket with a black unitard with red accents over a pair of white shorts and gray stockings, and black knee-high boots. 

And she was a picksocket. She slid up to a corpo in a suit. His shard slot on his neck flickered green. A shard flipped out of that slot, landing in her hand as she zipped away. Again, some skinny guy in another suit.

David found her easily. She was sneaky. But still, his new senses seemed to help. And she… stood out.

That hair.

Then, suddenly. He felt it. His spider-sense, warning him. His shard slot, on his neck, buzzing. With superhuman reflexes, he caught the shard out of the air just as it popped out. Then he was in her face, looking down at her with her right arm in his hand. 

She looked up at him, eyes wide. He took a moment to be thankful for his new height. He’d been shorter than her before. Her eyes then narrowed and she tried to pull her arm out of his grip. It didn’t work until she shifted her weight and pulled him along, David finally letting her.

Away from anyone else, she eyed him. “So what’s your angle, spill it?”

He crossed his arms. “Do I need an angle? You tried to steal from me.”

“Hm?” Her eyes flickered, glowing red. Then she eyed him harder. “Huh. Pretty fast for a guy with no real chrome. Except for what you’re carrying.”

“That’s none of your business,” David eyed her again. Holy shit, she’d hacked him just like that? He didn’t even feel anything. Except his spider-sense. It was going off low-level now. That, combined with, uh… the other things he was feeling, were leaving him a bit off.  “Man. Can’t believe you’re a petty thief.”

She’d seemed so… well, not simple, that was for sure.

“Oh?” She suddenly placed her hands on his face. And it was like his brain short-circuited. Her hands were soft as they traced across his cheeks, down his neck, his chest. Each individual finger felt like they were sending light through him. “You sound awful disappointed in me. We chooms?”

“Uh, no, I uh, just-” his spider-sense flared, but he was so distracted by all the other things going on that he ignored it. 

Until she pushed him against the wall. He flinched, trying to-

Wire wrapped around his neck. And his spider-sense screamed. His hand snapped upwards, wrapping around her neck as well. David stilled, looking down at her. They eyed each other, his hand squeezing while her monowire rested tightly around his neck.

“Fast reflexes,” she noted, smirking. She didn’t seem bothered by the hand wrapped around her throat, actually pressing closer to him. “And damn. Sandevistan just hanging out in that jacket of yours? You are in trouble. Where’d you find it?”

For some reason, he couldn’t help it. He had to say it. “I got it at the corner store. Picked it up with bread and milk.”

“Oh, a jokester?”

“Whose joking? It’s all about budgeting your shopping wisely.”

She grinned, for just a moment. “Huh. Funny. Tell you what. Why don’t we work together?”

“What, stealing?” David said. 

“Is it stealing if you take from corpo suits?” the girl asked, smirking up at him. “Come on big guy, you defending your own?”

“I ain’t corpo,” he snapped.

“You sure? Scan picked up an Arasaka Academy ID,” she looked him over. “And you certainly got the size for it. Momma fed you real well, huh?”

Pain filled him for a moment. She’d tried. His mom really did. Still… klepping? For a moment, he rebelled against the idea in his head. His mom would be so disappointed. Spider-Man hadn’t-

But he wasn’t real. This was real life. And David needed to make eddies somehow. His mom wasn’t here anymore. Move forward, get past that. 

“I dropped out of the academy.”

“Bad boy,” she said, teasing. God, that voice…

“Fine,” David said. He slowly let go of her throat. Her wire released his neck. They stepped back from each other. “Corpos only though, right? ”

“Only ones worth stealing from,” she said with a smirk. “So big boy. Gotta a name?”

“...David. You?”

“Lucy,” she chuckled. “All right. Come on. Just keep it secret, don’t want momma to get sad her that baby boy is stealin’.”

David kept quiet, following her.

“Okay, listen up. Lesson number one-”

The whole thing was way easier than he expected. After deciding what the split would be (70/30, what a ripoff) he just moved around grabbing shards she sent flying out.

Spider powers were perfect for stealing with. His new reflexes and speed made swiping shards out of the air easy as pie. And his spider-sense meant he always knew when someone was about to spot him too. He could grab them, toss them into his pocket, and walk off before someone saw him. Easy as pie.

They cleared out the car in no time at all. Soon, Lucy was bouncing the shards they’d klepped up and down in her hand, chuckling. “Damn, that was nice, big guy. I don’t think anyone caught a glance at you. Like a ghost.”

“Or a spider,” David said without thinking.

“Uh, what?”

“Nothing. Just… something I read once.” That didn’t make any sense at all. When had he started making such dumb jokes? “So, worth the 30 percent?”

“You mean 20.”

“I mean-”

“Kidding, kidding,” she chuckled, waving a hand dismissively. He smirked at her.

“So. Wanna keep going?” 

“Sure. Just need to change lines. Can’t risk someone calling the pigs. More we hop around, less chance of getting caught.

He wiped at his nose, nodding. “Got it. Let’s do it.”

That was the night for them. Hopping from car to car, line to line, snatching shards from unsuspecting corpos. By the end, they had a stack of them. Lucy cheerfully played with them, giggling to herself in a way that was somehow both creepy and hot.

“What a profitable night!” Lucy said aloud, leading the way.

“Yeah,” David grinned at her. “You wanna make this a regular thing?”

“Hm. Maybe. Let me make a call real quick.”

She stepped away, pressing a hand to her ear. David watched her briefly, then looked out at the city. He felt pretty good. Klepping wasn’t as bad as he thought. Well, long as it was corpos. Their money was insured.

Peter would probably disapprove. Who knew? David had barely thought of Spider-Man for the last few hours. He’d been distracted.

Who could blame him?

Lucy approached him, done with her call. “Let’s call it for now.”

“Oh,” David couldn’t hide his disappointment. “All right. You want my deets?”

She gave him that smirk that made him feel things. “Oh? How flirty.”

He sputtered. “I-I didn’t mean-!”

Lucy chuckled. “I didn’t mean we had to split up. Come on.”

She walked off, leaving a blushing David to follow. Soon they reached her apartment. Something he couldn’t have expected in a million years.

As they entered, she headed to the kitchen. “Sit down, relax. Beer’s all I got, you drink?”

“Uh, yeah,” Once, out of curiosity. “Of course.”

Wait, how would his new body react to alcohol?

Clinking their glasses together, they sat down. David took a sip and grimaced.

Carbonation. Ugh. He hated all those bubbles going down his throat, the weird burn like battery acid.

He coughed, leading the smoking Lucy to chuckle. “So, this is your first time drinking.”

David shook his head. “Second, really. I just don’t like carbonation.”

“Ha!” Lucy chuckled, then grabbed at his jacket a bit. “So… What’s with the getup? You use it for anything other than carrying military tech?”

“Sometimes,” David chuckled. He gripped the jacket briefly. 

“Here,” Lucy pulled a bit harder.

“Hey, what are ya doing?” Despite complaining, he let her take it off him. She got up and put it on. 

She looked good. Probably looked good in anything though. After some tinkering on a tablet, a logo was projected onto the back. Edgerunner.

A projected logo. Now that was an idea. He forgot his mom’s jacket could do that. Then again, it hadn’t been his for long.

“Edgerunner,” David mumbled.

“It’s what you want to be, right?” Lucy asked teasingly.

David sighed. “I don’t know about that. Recently I’ve been thinking about other options.”

“Oh? Like what?” They met eyes. “The prep boy has dreams of being a corpo?”

“No way,” he couldn’t help his disgust at the idea. “No. I just…” He clenched his hands tight, one fist entering his palm as he squeezed. “Have you ever been given something? Something you never expected? Something that could change everything and you need to decide how to use it, but the person you depended on to help with that is just… gone?”

She didn’t answer. He kept talking. 

“So I don’t know what I want. If I want to be an Edgerunner or a-”

Hero. God, that was so stupid sounding.

“Huh,” Lucy walked over, tossing the jacket into his lap, the Sandevistan inside making a metal sound as it did. She hopped onto the couch behind him, picking up her cigarette again. “What a surprise. Thought you prep kids had your whole life planned.”

“Wasn’t like that.”

“Really? Don’t know many plebs that go to Arasaka Academy.”

“You run with a lot of ‘plebs’?” She smirked. He continued, taking a swig from his drink. “My mom and I weren’t well off. She worked herself to death to get me in there. Keep my gonk ass in there. And the worst part is, I didn’t belong there.”

He gripped at the beer, being careful not to squeeze it too hard. 

“I knew it. Those assholes in class knew it too.”

“So why even go?” Lucy asked. “Why stick with it for so long?”

“Because my mom wanted it,” David finished off the drink, placing it on the table. “Get to the top of Arasaka. Become a corpo… that was her dream. But it wasn’t mine.”

He could see that more clearly than ever now.

Lucy hummed just a bit. David looked at the poster on the wall, finally noting it. “How about you? That gonk poster mean anything?”

Lucy looked at it. The image of the moon, with a rocket taking off, a man pointing into the distance. ‘Your New Life Awaits!’ in big letters.

“Got a problem with it?” Her voice had changed. Became almost dead… defensive.

David leaned back his head to look at her. “No. No problem. Just… all those ads make it seem like a dream. Then you read about all the statistics of how many peeps die there, trying to make that dumb white rock into something good.”

He looked back at it. 

“Seemed more like a prison camp than a paradise.”

The moon had two cities on it, two colonies really. Tycho and Copernicus. Both sounded like they sucked to live in.

“Now you do sound like an academy educated kid,” Lucy said casually. “Learn that from homework?”

“I ain’t as gonk as I look,” David said. He looked back at her. “Still… Who am I to talk? Least you have a dream. That’s worth something, you know? Having something to fight for beyond just living.”

Lucy leaned over, resting on his shoulder. “You know… You can find one too. A dream, I mean.”

They looked at each other. “Why the moon?”

She looked at him. Then, before he could say anything, she got up. “Come on. I wanna show you something.”

The moon. They were on the moon.

He stared up at the Sun, trying to comprehend the scene before him. The braindances he usually watched were action stuff, gore and violence… or porn. He’d never done one like this. Staring up at the Earth and Sun far off in the distance, shining brightly.

Lucy and him were at the edge of a crater now, sitting side by side with their legs swinging in the shared virtu. They’d bounced around for a while. Seeing the people constructing and working there, riding on a moon car, feeling the low gravity. It was preem as hell.

He kind of understood where she was coming from now.

“It’s beautiful,” David said to Lucy, staring at the cloud covered Earth.

“Yeah,” Lucy sounded so thoughtful. “From up here…... You can forget how bad it can get down there. I feel free here. You called it a prison camp.”

David laughed. “Yeah. But since when do I know what I’m talking about?”

Lucy chuckled, with no real humor. “...I hate Night City. I just… wanna leave it. Get as far from it as possible.”

David kicked his feet slowly. “I get that. That’s not a bad dream at all.”

He looked at her, smiling. Lucy looked back. He wished he could hear what she was thinking.

Lucyna Kushinada

Lucy stared at David for a moment. He was smiling at her. After a moment, he blushed, quickly looking up at the Earth again.

“I’ve never shown anyone this,” Lucy looked away when his head started to turn.

“Oh, really?” He said, sounding nervous. Lucy hid a smile at that. “Uh, so, like, why me?”

Because he’d seemed so lost. Like a puppy left in the street. Some part of that resonated with her. With the person she’d once been. Just looking for something to latch onto.

“Dunno. Guess it just felt right.”

He chuckled. She glanced at him.

When she’d been caught stealing by him, she’d thought he was older than her. Tall, built like a swimmer or dancer model in a Mr. Studd ad, all lithe muscle packed into a sculpted frame. No implants. But fast. Faster than some chromed up folk she knew.

But god. He was young. Even without the Arasaka Academy ID, she’d have figured it out. 

There was something about him though. It made her feel like…

“Got this feeling,” Lucy found herself saying, not knowing why. “That you and I would make a pretty good team.”

For a moment, just one, she could believe it. Believe that maybe this naive man and her could go on for a bit, klepping shards together and making eddies. Maybe-

“We’re in.”

Maine’s voice hit like ice water across her skin. Bringing her out of the dream. Back to the real world.

The kid looked up into the sky. Lucy put away any thought of what was happening to him.

Then he backflipped through the air.

It was that fast. One second, he was staring up at the Earth. The next, his eyes widened and he went flipping through the air.

“What the hell?” Lucy said, surprised as David seemed to be. She pulled them out of the virtu.

Maine, Dorio, and Pilaf were there. Except Pilaf was screaming, his nose broken, wriggling on the floor, while Maine’s arm had a dent in it as he held it in front of him defensively.

David was on the wall. Just holding himself there, like it was the floor. And he wasn’t awake yet. He slowly blinked, shaking his head. Then his eyes widened. Maine growled. 

“Damnit Lucy, what the hell is this kid?! I thought you said he had no chrome!”

David’s eyes landed on Lucy. The look on his face. The betrayal. It sucked.

That was when Dorio pulled out a pistol, and David leaped off the wall, twisting around foot first to attack.

Author's Note:  Cliffhanger, sorry.

But yeah. The group is meeting for the first time. And just like last time, it ain't exactly on amicable terms. 

So. Hope you guys liked the Rhino and Lucy interactions. For Rhino, she's great. Has a bit of rage in her, but otherwise is a great person compared to most gang folk in Night City.

Lucy and David's interactions were both easier and harder. I wanted to reflect David's increased confidence after winning his fight/having more overall power, with him still being himself. Lucy would also have a different reaction to him overall, while still maintaining her attitude from the start. Lucy is an interesting character. I love all the characters, but I feel like people underestimate how complex Lucy is.

Anyways. I'm working on a Harry Potter thing now, but I think I'll hop back on this again. Got Spidey-Punk on the brain. Been watching a lot of video essays on both Edgerunner and Spider-Man and it's put that stuff deep into my subconcious.

Chapter Text

She’d betrayed him. Lucy.

Maybe worse. She’d been lying to him from the start. He wasn’t sure why, but she had been. These guys, whoever they were, were with her, and she’d dragged him into a trap.

Those thoughts ran through his head as he kicked at the blonde muscular woman that had pulled out a gun. She blocked him with an arm, getting sent out the open door and landing in a backwards roll.

“Fuckin gonk!” The skinny mohawk guy with the long cyberarms swung his pistol around to aim at David. The spider enhanced kid flipped backwards just as the trigger was pulled, bullets slicing through the air mere inches from him as his spider-sense sang.

“Dorio!” the by far largest man in the group was suddenly beside David, swinging out a fist. David, with no room for anything else, swung his own fist out.

Metal smashed into flesh. David, despite his strength, had been at a bad angle in the air. He flew back first against the wall.

The giant man winced at the impact against his fist, but raised his other hand, firing off his own gun. David rolled out of the way, leapt onto the ceiling to dodge the skinny guy’s follow up shot, then the blonde’s.

Lucy snarled as the trio kept shooting at David, their bullets instead landing against the walls as he dodged. “Stop ruining my apartment!”

She swung her hands out. David was dodging before he saw the wires come out of her wrists. Twin red lines spinning out. He stared at them for a second too long. A bullet sliced past his right rib despite his dodge. He hissed at the pain, but managed to land, rolling out of the way of the monowire.

Something about the way the wires moved. Like portions of it were safer than the rest? Was that possible-

“Got you!” the blonde woman was suddenly in his face. David punched out at her.

She ducked around it and punched him in the face. David gasped at the pain. She’d hit him while he was off balance from his clumsy punch. Goddamnit. His spider-sense couldn’t help him if his own moves fucked him up!

He pulled back onto the defensive. Dorio’s next punch was slipped by. And her next, and next. At some points, David was bent into nearly impossible shapes to dodge, one point rolling on his head to keep away from a heavy cross.

“Get him!” the skinny man yelled.

“Say something useful, Pilar!” the blonde snapped.

“Step back!” the big man roared.

David dodged another punch, then was faced with a barrage of bullets from near point blank. He slipped around them, heart pumping, ears stinging from the constant shots being fired. Another monowire reached out to try and grab him. Grab him safely.

At least, it didn’t feel as lethal as the bullets did to his sense.

Maybe that was why he rushed her. Lucy’s eyes widened. Almost in slow motion, David leaped onto the ceiling to avoid another shot, bounced off that to dodge a wire, landed on the couch in a roll to slip through the cyberarms of the skinny one when he went to dodge him, then jumped off the couch armrest to land before Lucy. Her monowires surrounded him with a twirl of her arms.

For a moment, crouched before her, looking up at the wires that filled the air around them, light from the moon outside shining in, her eyes and hair lit by the moon and red wires, David almost lost his breath.

His spider-sense kept him in the fight. He forced himself to move. Earlier, he’d noticed parts of her monowire felt safer than others. So, as the wires went to wrap around him, he stood up, stepping closer to Lucy.

Then he tapped his fingers against the wires. He went with it, the world seeming to slow as his wall-crawling power attached to the wires, guided by his spider-sense to keep him from slicing his fingers off. He pulled, bringing Lucy into him, her chest pressing to his as she squeaked.

Spinning around with her pressed to him, David swung his hands out. It was almost instinct. Snapping out his hands, the wires he’d stolen swung outwards. One wrapped around the hands of the skinny man, tying his wrists together before snapping around his neck.

“What the fu-” the skinny man yelped before being pulled to the ground.

The other wire sliced through the big man’s gun, turning it to scrap, before wrapping around the blonde woman.

Everything stopped. The skinny man and the blonde didn’t struggle. They knew, just like David did, how dangerous monowire was. The big guy dropped his gun and lifted an arm, a small missile launcher popping out to aim at David, only to hesitate.

David, Lucy, and the three people stared at each other. David was panting, Lucy’s eyes filled with shock as they met eyes.

“What… is going on!?” David bit out.

“That’s what I want to know,” the big guy snapped out. “Thought you said he had no augments, Lucy.”

“I said he had no chrome. Didn’t say nothing about bioware,” Lucy said.

“Well that ain’t no cheap shit,” the big man snapped, shaking the fist that David had punched.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on!?” David yelled. “Why are you attacking me?!”

He tightened his grip on the wires just a bit, almost cutting into himself before he adjusted. The blonde winced, while the skinny guy shouted.

“Fucking hell! Lucy, can you turn these things off?!”

“You should feel lucky they aren’t cutting you apart,” Lucy said to him.

“We want back what you stole from me,” the big guy snapped.

David stared at him, confused. What he stole? What? “What are you talking about?”

“The Sandy, kid,” the man didn’t lower the missile launcher. “It’s mine. I paid for it, fair and square before you stole it from my supplier. So what are you doing walking around with it!?”

“Supplier?” David’s grip went slack.

“Yeah. Paid her for it, free and clear, before she ghosted.”

“She-” David winced. Shit. Shit. Mom had been selling black market chrome. To pay for him. He’d known that, but still. The reality of it sucked.

“Yeah, Gloria Martinez. Ring a bell?”

“She’s my mom.” David whispered.

“Your mom?” the man looked befuddled. That missile launcher was still very steady though. “The hell is she doing letting you walk around with it!?”

“She didn’t… she died. Yesterday.” David let go of the wires. He stepped back from Lucy. His spider-sense calmed down. “It’s the only thing she left me.”

The giant of a man glared at David through his glasses. “Died!? I spoke to her two days ago! Who did it, the badges or-”

“Animals,” David spat out. “Just a random drive by.”

“Shit!”

“‘Xplains why she ghosted us,” the blonde said, though she was still glaring at David.

“Yeah, guess so. Shit,” the giant kept his missile pointed. “So, why you running around with that chrome in your jacket?”

“...I was gonna sell it,” David said honestly, scowling. “Can’t afford rent, now that she’s gone.”

“I can almost respect that,” the skinny guy said, chuckling just a bit.

“Can’t sell it. It’s mine. Already paid for it,” the big guy said.

David thought on that. Goddamn it. Was he going to have to fight his way out?

The big guy stared at him over his sunglasses. Finally he raised his face to look at the ceiling, sighing. “Goddamn it. David, right?”

“Yeah.”

He lowered his arm. Over his glasses, the man’s eyes briefly glowed. David blinked when a deposit came into his account. He almost fell over. Nine thousand. Holy shit!

“That’s all I can justify,” the big man said, glaring at him. “I don’t like paying for things twice, but your mom was good to me. Give me the Sandy and we’ll count it square. Deal?”

David hesitated. But not for long.

Doc wasn’t going to buy the thing off of him, not fairly anyway, and he had no clue where else he could dump it. It was a hassle more than anything. Maybe he could have installed it, but his spider-powers were more than enough for now.

Picking up the jacket, David unzipped the inside and took out the heavy metal chrome, handing it over to the big man, who took it with an almost gentle look on his face. David watched him put it away in a pocket with some sadness.

Least he still had the jacket…

“Then we’re done,” the big man said, looking David over. “Gotta say, that’s some impressive bioware you’ve got. Was that what Gloria was spending those eddies on?”

David shrugged. The man chuckled.

“Fine. Keep your secrets. Dorio, Pilar. Come on.”

“Wait,” David said, something pushing him to speak. The man looked at him, a questioning look on his face. “You guys are edgerunners, right? Cyberpunks?”

“Yeah. What of it?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to seem more confident than he was. “If you guys need someone to help, with a job or even in a fight, let me know.”

The big man glared at him. David smirked.

“Hey. I proved I can do good in a fight.”

“Barely,” the blonde said. “You need to learn how to throw a punch.”

Damnit, Rhino said the same thing.

Still, the large black man chuckled, his mostly chrome body shifting with a rasping noise as he did. “Sure kid. I’ll give you a call when I have something. No guarantees though.”

Better than nothing. Barely.

The black man, blonde, and skinny guy walked off. Before they left, the black man glanced back. “Name’s Maine by the way. Remember it if you try and fight me again. Crazy gonk.”

The skinny guy raised a middle finger, while the blonde sighed like she was used to them. Probably was. Then they left.

Leaving David with Lucy.

“...You’re a real piece of work.” He said at last.

“Am I now?” Lucy sucked at her cigarette, not looking at him.

He thought about it. “No. No. You’re a piece of shit actually. But thanks for reminding me that I need to look out for myself.”

“Just go,” she said, sounding pissed off. David smiled sadly before he started off. When the door slid open, her next words stopped him. “About your mom… sorry for your loss.”

“...” David looked back at her, facing her fully. He wasn’t sure why. But he looked her in the eyes. She looked away first. Good.

He walked out, slamming the door behind him.

Maine

“You serious about that, Maine? Hiring the kid for jobs?” Dorio asked him.

“Gave you a run for your money, didn’t he?” Maine teased her.

“Lucky hits,” Dorio didn’t sound like she was protecting her ego. More contemplative. “The kid’s good at dodging. Strong too. But he doesn’t know how to leverage his hits.”

“Yeah, and he’s a total fuckin gonk,” Pilar said, his voice half-laughing as always. “Who walks around with 40K in chrome in their jacket!? Might as well have chipped it in for the hassle that’d have brought him.”

“Yeah, kid’s green as hell,” Maine chuckled. “But we could use another hitter, and a guy with bioware like that can be useful. Seriously though. Bioware. What was Gloria thinking?”

It wasn’t like bioware wasn’t useful, but it was pricey stuff. Way more than you could get with even cheap chrome. Gloria must have been putting every dime she had into paying for the operations. For what, to make her kid a biological super-soldier? He thought she had more sense to her.

Well. No speaking ill of the dead.

“Dorio, make sure that fight ends how we like.”

“You bringing him in on the Tanaka job?”

“Why not? Lucy said he’s got a talent for klepping shards. All he has to do is swipe it and take the car. Nothing easier.”

“You trying to jinx it, choom?” Pilar asked, laughing just a bit.

“No such thing,” Maine smirked. “That kid could be pretty useful. Meantime,” he patted the Sandy fondly. “Let’s get this chipped in.”

He walked off, ignoring the look of worry Dorio laid on him. It would be fine. It was one more piece of chrome. Nothing to worry about.

David Martinez

9000 eddies. Rent was about 1500. Just a bit more really, but he could pay it. And he had some cash from Lucy too, leaving him with enough to work with. No chance of getting something to replace the Sandy, but something cheap that could help him with fights and future jobs.

He had ideas for that. Lucy, ironically, had helped with that.

He needed a ripperdoc though. Not Doc though. Someone else.

So he decided on the one who he’d found earlier, the woman who lived out in Watson who claimed to have some old school comics, particularly Marvel and Spider-Man ones. He was tired from fighting Rhino, klepping shards, then moving right on to fighting Lucy, Maine, and his crew after, so he went to bed first.

After only a few hours of sleep, he was up and heading out to Watson. He didn’t head out there too often, but he knew plenty. Arasaka Academy loved talking about how much of the waterfront the company owned.

He ended up in Kabuki Town. With his GPS leading the way, he walked past Lizzie’s Bar, the Mox girls out front eyeing suspiciously as he strode past. A left on the street nearby, then towards one of the buildings on the right.

The Japanese section of Watson was still waking, people groggily grabbing caf and quick meals from vending machines before heading out to work or school.

Speaking of school, the principal had called him earlier… eh, best to ignore it. Probably just complaining about Katsuo’s broken jaw.

Refocusing, David ended up at his destination. He stared at the opening.

“That’s not ominous.”

Scav masks set up on metal spikes. No, not metal spikes. Chrome. Fingers, forearms, thighs, pieces of skull, the former eyes of unknown people, all melded together. Old rusted chrome, roughly welded together to form a tower that the Scav masks glowed atop of. Four of them, two on either side of the entrance. Hanging above the door to the place was a pair of cyber arms, blood rusting the old and chipped mantis blades hanging from them. David narrowed his eyes at the Tyger Claw marking etched into the chrome arms as well as the oni mask on top. Like a pirate skull and crossbones.

So whatever ripperdoc lived here was insane. Seriously, hanging Scav masks and Tyger Claw arms like trophies? Or a warning?

There was a pink Mox logo on the building, the familiar skull with hair. An advertisement post in the center proudly shone with blue-green cross symbols, as if the sign saying ‘Ashes To Ashes: Ripper Services’ over the door didn’t do enough.

The whole thing was so brazen David almost wanted to turn around. Instead, he focused and stepped forward. The door opened as he approached, a woman stepping out. She had asymmetrical near scarlet hair, right side shaven, left side long. Lines of violet cyberware shone across her face, her eyes glowing the same color. She glanced at David. For a moment, they met eyes.

“See you later, V!” A voice inside the shop said.

Like that, the strange tension cracked. The woman walked past David, who took a breath in confusion. He hadn’t felt his spider-sense activate or anything. Or maybe it had? What was that about?

Walking forward again, David entered the door and stopped at the sight of the place. The only similarity it had to Doc’s place was the various cyberlimbs hanging around the operating bed, though there were two of those. The other big difference was that it looked like… well.

A children’s doctor's office. Well, not quite. But it was more like that than the dirtier office Doc had. Clean walls with bright and cheery pinks, yellows, and blues. Ducklings, piglets, puppies, and animals that had gone extinct decades ago were cutely pasted on the walls.

“Well you’re a new face,” the voice brought David’s eyes towards his left, behind a desk setup with toys surrounding a computer monitor. Old toys, some sat up on stands in action poses in front of plaques with words like ‘Transformers’, ‘Batman’, and ‘M.A.S.K.’ written on them.

Was the doctor a little kid or something?

The speaker was blue eyed blonde, with hair pulled into a spiky ponytail on top of her head. Her eyes were gold implants that glowed as she panned her gaze across him. Her arms stood out. All four of them, the color of burnished gold on top with black metal across the palms. The four sat into her shoulders, the gears of the arms whirring pleasantly as she rested her elbows on the desk. When he got a good look at her, he could see that something about her face looked.. Fake. Like it was ceramic or something. Her neck had patches of visible mechanical muscles where there should have been skin, going down the neck of her pink surgical scrubs.

“Well well. Look at you, huh?”

David waved awkwardly. “Uh, hi. I’m here to get some chrome.”

The woman smiled, waving two left arms around, before going in to lean on two of them, palms on her circuit-lined cheeks. “Came to the right place. Names’ Ash. How can I help you out?”

“I need to chip in some monowire. You got any?”

She blinked, looking surprised. “Huh. Not what I was expecting.”

“Is that weird?”

“No, but most people start with a more basic install first, something that needs less training. Operating systems, for example,” she shrugged. “Monowire needs some solid reflexes.”

“I can handle it.” Apparently. Using the monowire he’d ‘borrowed’ from Lucy just felt… right. Perfect even. He wanted to blame his spider powers for that. Explained how Peter used them so easily.

“Okay then,” Ash shrugged, then smirked. “That’ll be about 12,950 eddies.”

When he gaped at her, she grinned.

“What, that’s the price for the tech and its installation. I don’t do protag discounts.” She clicked each of her fingers in turn, before making a cash sign.

“Pro-what? Nevermind,” David sighed, sucking it up. He could pay for that. He just wouldn’t be able to afford as much food after unless he got paid fast. Klep shards, fight Animals maybe. “I can do that.”

“Great. Sit in the chair, I’ll get the anesthesia ready.”

“Whoa, you’re already charging me enough!” David yelped.

“...Kid, that’s part of the package. What lunatic ripperdoc would operate on someone who isn’t under anesthesia?” Ash blinked several times, the irises of her cybereyes zooming in close on his face. “Who the fuck have you been opping for?”

…Doc, you absolute bastard.

Ash just sighed when he did answer, waving one of her back arms at him before clicking her fingers. “Kid, just lie down. You’ll be fine.”

After some more hesitation, he did as she asked. Ash moved to his side. With more speed than he expected, her hands shifted. A monitor at his side began displaying an empty human body, and a wire was handed to him from her bottom right arm. A mini-neurolink. “Here, jack-in.”

David glanced at the link suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because I want to hack your brain.” She laughed at the look he gave her. “Kidding you dummy.” A playful finger poked his nose as he sourly glowered at her. “This is the first time I’m operating on you. Need to know what else you have so none of the tech interferes. Even if you’ve only got the basics, better safe than sorry.”

Then she chuckled.

“Besides, I know teenagers. Don’t wanna risk you running some virus-spliced porno braindance.”

“I don’t watch those!”

“Suuuuuure kiddo.” One set of her arms folded, and she cocked her head with a grin.

Were all ripperdocs weirdos?

David plugged in the neurolink into the port in his neck. As it ran, Ash brought the monitor into his vision.

“Okay. Standard monowire, the kind most people cut themselves with before they either trade it out or ‘git gud’. Later you can upgrade it if you want, throw in those electric or fire type things, but these are good training wheels.”

“What’s the range on them?” David asked curiously.

“Ten meters for the regular version. It’s why people like them. Hard to kill someone when he has you wrapped in monowire from that far away.”

“Ten meters…” David thought about that carefully, humming. “Can you uh… swing on the monowire? Like, if I wanted to use it to swing through the city?”

“Swing?” Ash blinked, then narrowed her eyes at him. “Not… really? Not on its own. The human body needs a lot more support to be able to do something like that. You’d need either a rig across your body from your wrists, up your arms, all the way down to your hip, or way more extensive chrome.”

She shook her head.

“Plus, you run the risk of your monowires either slicing or pulling down anything you tried to grab onto. You won’t know what anchor points are safe and which ones are dogshit.” Ash let out a sigh. “If we’re getting technical though, yeah, this stuff can def hold your weight. Just everything else is the issue.”

David didn’t have to worry about the first part thanks to his spider-powers making his body pretty tough now, but the latter…

“Is there monowire that is, I don’t know, less cutty and more sticky?” Man, even he felt like a gonk asking that.

“Oh, I see,” Ash grinned. “Didn’t take you for a Spidey fan.”

He kind of wasn’t. The net had said she was though. When he shrugged in response, Ash chuckled.

“Okay kid. Take a look,” she held out a box. Inside, a pair of devices rested. They were black, and shaped with a slot for the wire to to come out of and two indicators for a charge. There were some softer looking black pieces shaped to fit into a hand. “I’ll need to replace most of your arms. So say goodbye to your fingertips, okay?

David swallowed. “Uh… okay.”

“Tell you what. We can talk about it when you wake up.”

“Wake up?”

“Yep,” Ash raised a needle. “You ready?”

It felt like things were going too fast honestly. But David swallowed, nodding. Ash smiled just a bit. “Don’t worry. I’m a licensed physician. Probably unlike whatever hack you’ve seen who ain’t using anesthesia.”

She pressed the needle to his neck. He winced, waiting for the pain. There was a bit. She frowned, pressing just a bit more.

“Huh. You got subdermals my tech didn’t find? Your skin’s pretty tough.”

There was a piercing pain, a pinch really, and she grunted.

“No, I don’t have anything like that,” he answered honestly, though he was surprised. He didn’t know his skin was tougher as well.

Ash looked him in the eyes, frowning. “Gotta say David. Didn’t expect you to be keeping big secrets.”

He slowly passed out. As he felt the drugs flood his body, he wondered, for a moment, how she knew his name. Had he mentioned it? Oh right. The neurolink.

He passed out in that room full of cute animals and old toys, a blonde doctor with four arms leaning over to start working on him.

He woke up a bit later to Ash staring down at him. “What happened to you!?”

“Uh…” David groaned, slowly lifting his head groggily. “What?”

“Better yet, what the fuck are you?!” Ash said with an intense and scarily happy grin on her face as she was all up in his. “Like, are you an escaped biotech prototype or something from one of the Corps?! Tell me everything?!”

He should have expected this.

“I just have some bioware-”

“This isn’t just bioware. I had to dose you enough to put down an elephant to keep you under. Your muscle fibers, bones, even your blood- I just-!” She raised her hands up, all four, and couldn’t seem to contain her excitement. “You are fully modified, down to the genetic level. With spider DNA. You’re a Spider-Man!”

David should have damn well expected this, but how could he have?! Ripperdocs weren’t supposed to be able to study your genetics! He thought they were all surgeons! David swallowed in the face of the enthusiastic blonde and tried to figure out where he would go from here. Hopefully he was right to come to her, even if this conversation was going differently than he thought.

Here it goes.

“Well… My name is David Martinez. And a couple of days ago, I was bit by a spider…”

Chapter Text

He told her a bit. Not everything. He had hoped, initially, that when he went to a ripperdoc she would think he was an exotic or enthusiastic fan of old comics. Instead, he found the one ripperdoc who knew about genetics. And science. And a whole bunch of other things.

“See!” Ash turned the monitor for him to look at, revealing blood cells. “Average human cells. Average human DNA. Average person. Then I show you, and-”

Not exactly a night and day difference, but he understood. He was different. Very different.

“God, I wish you’d told me before I operated,” Ash said, sounding almost horrified. “I’ve worked on people with bioware before, but never someone like you. I had to go minimal on your monowire just to make sure your abilities didn’t get compromised.”

“Minimal?” David glanced at his wrists. A pair of black raised sections lay there, the wire slots exposed. They felt… weird. He didn’t feel the weight of them, but they also didn’t feel like they belonged.

That was it though. No ceramic on the palms or fingertips.

“The second you attached to the chair, I knew something was weird,” Ash continued. “You also kept dodging my knife while you were out. Had to double the dosage to keep you from just bouncing off the chair. So when I looked into it, well, I knew I couldn’t risk compromising your wallcrawling. Which, by the way? WALLCRAWLING!?”

David sighed. “I just need to-”

He dodged a random pencil thrown when he wasn’t looking. As his spider-sense calmed, he eyed Ash, who looked more excited. “How omni-directional is your spider-sense, exactly? What sorts of tests have you conducted?

“Tests? I had these powers for, like, just a few days. I’ve been more focused on paying my rent than them,” David explained. “All I know is that when I’m in trouble, they tell me. I don’t always get how, but I’ve learned to dodge when it does.”

Ash hummed, shaking her head. “It’s too coincidental. You getting bit by a spider, then getting exactly those powers. Venom doesn’t affect DNA outside of comics either. Some kind of virus maybe? Targeted to change the human-”

“Does it matter?” David asked, cutting off Ash’s musing. She scoffed.

“You aren’t the least bit curious!? This kind of thing doesn’t just happen! That spider had to be some kind of experiment. Maybe something made by Biotechnica? They usually have some weird-”

“Are you going to tell anyone about this?” David asked.

She stopped, eyeing him thoughtfully. “Of course not. You’d be pulled into a lab and ripped apart in a weekend if I did.”

Wasn’t that the truth. David sighed, rubbing his head. “Yeah. I’m in trouble.”

“Ehhhh,” she raised both her right arms and brought her thumbs and index fingers close to each other. “Just a little bit. This is Night City. Escaped experiments are a dime a dozen.” Lowering her hands, the blonde leaned on her desk. “So… You’ve got all these powers. What’s next?”

“You want me to say ‘with great power comes great responsibility?'” David asked sarcastically.

“What if I do?”

“Fuck that,” David grumbled. “I don’t owe the world anything. All I want to do is stay alive.”

“...Well that’s boring,” Ash mumbled. “You don’t have a dream or anything? Something to reach for? You can’t be human by just wanting to be alive.”

For a moment, he was on the moon again. A flash of pink and a soft smile again. David pushed the image out of his head. “Last time I talked about this, someone tried to hit me.”

“What, you have a really gross dream?” She said teasingly.

He snorted. “No. This girl pretended to share her dream with me to trap me.”

“Ah. Was she pretty?”

David blushed. Ash grinned. “Ahhh. The weakness of the Spider-Man. A mildly attractive woman.”

“Mildly?” David thought about Lucy, then blushed again, getting a giggle out of Ash. He focused.

"But come on, no one you love and care about? People you want to make happy and safe?" Ash asked curiously.

David winced and turned away.

“No. I just don’t have anything like that. My mom just died and my dad is… fuck if I know.”

"Shit I’m sorry kid… so wait, am I the first person you told about all this?"

David nodded. Ash continued. “Well, what do you think your mom would have wanted?”
“For me to graduate from Arasaka Academy and become a corpo at the top of that ugly ass tower,” he scoffed. “Never what I wanted though. Mom killed herself working to keep me there.”

He stared at the new implants in his hands. Testing a bit, he flicked out his wrist. When nothing happened, Ash spoke up. “Tense the muscles of your forearm while picturing the wire coming out. Be careful not to power it on until you want to cut through something.”

David hesitantly did so. The sensation of wire spooling out of his left wrist to land in his right palm was just weird. Plus, monowire felt thicker than he expected. Lucy’s wire had been the same, but he hadn’t noticed in the heat of the moment that it was more like a cable.

Ash hummed to herself as she watched him stretch the wire between his hands, running his fingers gently along it. “It sounds more like she wanted you to be successful and happy. Say what you will, those fatcats do live the high life. Hard not to envy the gonks in their ivory towers and all.”

“I don’t want to be like them though,” Katsuo was such a prick, but almost everyone was. There was one girl with Tiger Claw colors, Hiromi something, who was chill, but he never talked to her. The rest of class was elitist as fuck. “Assholes.”

“Or they’re just idiot teenagers,” when David grumbled, Ash shook her head. “No group is a monolith. And teens are assholes no matter who or where they are. But that’s neither here nor there.

“Your mom wanted you to have the best and she figured that was being a corpo. You don’t know what you want, just that it isn’t that.”

“Shouldn’t you be telling me to be a superhero?” David asked sarcastically.

Ash shook her head. “I wish I could. I can talk about doing the right thing with these powers, but nails that poke out in this city have a habit of getting hammered down… If you go out there and start saving people, you’ll end up pissing off someone. A gang, a corp, a random edgerunner. And someday, your ticket gets punched.”

“...” David laid back, still playing with the wire in his hands. Ash sighed.

“Look, I’m not some kind of superhero therapist. I’m a doctor. I can’t help you decide the course of your life. Hell, even you can’t! Life is a journey. All you can do is make the best decisions you can.”

“...Maybe I should just be an edgerunner.”

“Ew.”

When David looked at her, surprised, Ash coughed. “Sorry. Just… Edgerunning is just burning yourself out to make quick eddies and dying in the middle of a pile of bodies trying to become a ‘legend’. Been there, done that.”

“No way, Edgerunners are so cool!” David protested.

Ash scowled. “David, nowadays, all Edgerunners want is that blaze of glory. To make it big on their big dreams. They’re always asking themselves ‘Live in peace as Mr. Nobody, die ripe, old and smelling slightly of urine? Or go down for all times in a blaze of glory, smelling near like posies, without seeing your thirtieth’? Live fast, die young, maybe get a drink named after you at what passes for Afterlife these days. That’s not cool. It’s suicide with extra steps and a whole lot more embarassment.”

“So,” David scowled. “You just said I shouldn’t become a superhero because I’d end up dead, doesn’t that mean heroes are the same as edgerunners?”

“Hahahaha. Ohhhh, no no no.” Ash let out a long sigh, arms flicking around.. “You know what heroes change? Lives. On the personal, real level. They make people remember someone is looking out for the little guy. That when the rest of the world wants to step on them, there’s at least one guy who thinks they're worth saving. Not many heroes are still around nowadays. And a lot of the guys who thought they were heroes really didn’t match up.”

“Yeah? Well maybe that’s why that shit is in comic books,” David spat, hopping up to his feet. “Can’t make a living in Night City saving people. Thanks for the chrome.”

David began walking out, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“...Your mask is shitty.”

He stopped, spinning around. Ash had that pink flower mask he’d stolen on one of her fingers, spinning it briefly. “Yeah, well, it was the best I could find, all right?”

She stopped. Then she sighed, getting up. “I’m gonna regret this. Hold on.”

Walking into the back, she came out with a… helmet? “I was tinkering with a few of these. Stole some Scav tech and I was bored, so I decided to do something useful with it.”

“Scav tech?” David asked as Ash sat at her desk, placing the helmet down. She nodded, opening it up to reveal the circuitry within. Her hands opened up to reveal a series of precise instruments hidden inside the fingers. All four hands moved quickly, some sparks flashing as she worked, the helmet making some small noises.

“Those gonk masks they use. I had a bunch from some of their raids. Took them apart, mixed them with my own stuff,” she pressed something. Nodding to herself, she turned around, lifting the helmet up. It was yellow around the back and along the sides. The front, however, was an all black screen that flickered to life into a display. All black except for two blue shining eyes. Spider-Man eyes.

“You had this laying around?” David asked, stunned.

“It was gonna be for a Sailor Moon thing. Had to change the display for ya.” She handed it over to him. “David… Whatever you choose to do, just remember that you don’t need to follow the path I, your mom, or some comic book or hot girl tells you to. Just keep your options open. And when you do decide what you want? Set your feet and stand by it.”

She also handed him a bag. “What’s this?” He asked.

“Your meds. Take two puffs from the inhaler in five minutes, then two every two hours till the day is over. Also I threw in a pair of gloves to keep the wire from cutting your palms along with a manual for the wire. Yours is the longest basic model I’ve got, keep in mind. And it might work with wall crawling? I’m going based on what I found from a short analysis and Van der Walls forces interaction theory.”

Ash shrugged four shoulders. “Just try it out. Call me if you need any changes.”

He took the helmet carefully in his hands. Then, glancing up at her, he turned around. The door to her clinic opened up. Just before leaving, he hesitated. “Uh… Thanks Doc.”

“Sure… just remember to pay me back for the helmet.” She smirked at the look he gave her. “No protag discounts, remember?”

Shaking his head, he walked out, mind still racing, never seeing the contemplative look on Ash’s face.

He put the helmet on. It was comfortable actually, fit his head fairly well. Probably was gonna mess with his hair unless Ash had somehow planned for that, but for now it was fine. The faceplate was wide enough to let him see everything around him, and the display didn’t obscure his vision thanks to the tech Scavs used.

The gloves were strange. They were made of the same flesh colored flexible metal used for cyberarms, sized just big enough for him, but fingerless. Had she just emptied out the monowire arms and turned them to gloves? Or something more detailed?

Helmet and gloves secured, David found a private place to work in. A near impossibility in Night City. But he had the advantage of wall crawling.

Making his way to the top of a building in Kabuki by crawling along it was faster than he expected. He’d been worried about slipping, but he’d enjoyed it weirdly enough?

Although, why did the wall crawling work through his shoes? It was harder than with his hands, but he could still grip with his feet too.

The roof was wide, with a platform on top leading to a signal tower. The building was probably an apartment or something? He hadn’t checked beyond some lady rolling her eyes at him when she saw him crawling outside her window.

He had so many questions. He needed answers, and the best way to get them was to test himself.

So on the roof, he started by jumping. Just straight up in the air, nothing fancy. He held in the urge to scream when he ended up thirty feet in the air, falling down towards the ground. He was worried about landing, but did so easily. Next, he grabbed onto the railing of the platform and began twisting it.

He had a knot after a couple seconds. The metal had to be steelteal, thicker than his wrist.

“That’s preem. And terrifying.” He tossed the metal aside, then focused on the main reason he’d climbed up.

The monowire came out easily enough from his right wrist. Made sense, it was fresh tech. Experimentally, David twirled it around himself, then snapped it out to wrap around the metal knot on the ground. He pulled, hard, sending the metal knot into the air, then snapping out another wire from his left wrist, slicing it through the air. It smacked into the metal knot, sending it up higher before he jumped into the air, grabbing the knot again and tossing it towards the building, where it clattered to the ground.

David landed again, the monowires sliding into his wrist. “Okay. That was preem!”

Grinning, he sat down to open the bag Ash had given him. Taking two puffs from the inhaler, he looked for the shard holding the manual, pulling it out of its case and slotting it in.

“Welcome to Ash’s makeshift guide to using Monowire for web-slinging,” Ash’s voice echoed in his mind. “Which, of course, isn’t something people haven’t done before. Back in the old days, posergangs were the law of the land, and there were a few who were klepping moves from superheroes like Spidey. They had a pretty standard set for that, and I copied an updated version using what I had on hand.

“So your monowire is about a third longer than normal and is laced into your musculoskeletal structure to make sure you can still do the web-slinging without pulling the wrong thing. You’ll need some practice, but for all I know you’re a natural. So here’s some simple moves to try! Just make sure you’re on the ground to test them out. Can’t be testing these from the top of a building.”

David looked around. Then he sighed and walked over to the edge of the building. “Damnit.”

Hopping over the edge, David started climbing down headfirst. He felt like he might look ridiculous, but it felt right. As he went down hand by foot, Ash continued. “Now, press the right trigger butto- Wait, no, that’s something else. Hold on. Okay, you need to remember to make sure every anchor point the monowire attaches to is strong enough to hold you. If I did it right, the wire will attach at any point on command, based on the principles of-”

Ash’s voice continued, but David was distracted by something else. He was approaching the street below. A car coming down the street fast made his spidey-sense buzz for some reason.

He considered it while he continued, almost reaching the street. No one had noticed him yet. A woman and man were eating together at a takoyaki stand, ten or so other people were walking past. A group of Tyger Claws were hanging out near their bikes. All in all, a peaceful day in Kabuki.

But he kept staring at the approaching car. It had a number on top of it in yellow, shaped in blocky military font. A number 6?

What the hell were 6th Street doing in Kabuki-

Gun. David saw it instantly. A large handgun, poking out of the window. The others in the car were pulling out guns too. As they approached, the Tyger Claws saw them. Started pulling out weapons. No one else was paying attention as the car came closer.

Fifteen people.

David didn't hesitate. He should have. He’d thought about this, about how stupid it was, the logical reasons not to. Just focus on himself.

He jumped in the direction of the people at the takoyaki stand, the man and woman. Both were unmoving, not noticing the drive-by about to happen. He got closer to them, arms and legs at his sides, diving towards the ground. At the last second, he raised one hand and swung it downward. Almost on instinct, the monowire shot out and wrapped around a pipe going along that wall as he fell.

The line snapped taut. All his downward momentum turned into an arc. David held in an internal need to scream, instead holding out his arm.

No time to think. The 6th Street guys were about to start shooting. David slammed into the man and woman at the takoyaki stand, his spider-sense exploding.

“What the fuck-!” the woman shouted.

Then the bullets started flying.

“BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!”

He’d forgotten how loud gunshots were. They were all-encompassing, blasting his ears. The takoyaki stand exploded where the man and woman had been, David swinging with them both attached to his arm. His spider-sense screamed and David released his monowire as the pipe he’d attached to was about to fall from the added weight. The cable getting sucked back into his wrist barely registered in his mind.

At the same time, he flipped through the air while clutching the man and woman close, bringing them along as he dodged the stray bullets flying around them.

David landed in a slide, trying to lower the pair at the same time. He tripped, dropping them and sending the woman flying into a pillar.

“CRACK!”

“AHHH!” she let out scream of agony as her arm shattered, blood spurting. David wanted to throw up at the sight.

Instead he turned and jumped back into the fight. The Tyger Claws and 6th Street were still going at each other, trying to flatline each other while ignoring the innocent people around them. 4 6th Street, 3 Tyger Claws.

David, for a heartstopping moment, was torn. Save the people, or stop the gangsters?

The monowire wrapped around an assault rifle, ripping it from the hands of a 6th Street gonk. As it flew through the air, David was rushing forward, fist flying into the face of a Tyger Claw, sending him flying through the air with a broken jaw.

He made his choice.

“What the fuck!” A 6th Street with chromed legs shouted while aiming his shotgun at David. David twirled through the air before he fired, slipping through the pellets. His monowire lashed out, wrapping around the man's arm.

And slicing through it.

“GAAAAAAAAH!” the man screeched in horror as blood splattered the ground.

Fuck! That hadn’t been on purpose! For a crazy moment, David wanted to apologize. Instead.

“Man, some jobs really do cost you an arm and a leg, huh?” David snapped, while jumping upwards. More bullets flew.

He sent out the monowires from both wrists, wrapping them around a street light and chair. With a small tug, he was pulled out of the way of the bullets, his legs going behind his head to dodge a revolver shot.

“Get that 弱虫!” A Tyger Claw yelled, his friend pulling out a katana. She sprinted to meet him.

As David landed, the Tyger Claw woman suddenly sped up. David had half a moment to register that before she was suddenly running at super-speed, her katana held high. He barely dodged the first slash, his senses screaming. The next one grazed his side, then he was nearly impaled by her before he instinctively caught the katana in his hand, palm wrapped around the back of it.

With a squeeze, the katana shattered in his grasp, leaving the woman to gape at him in shock. She threw a punch too fast for him to block. It didn’t even register. She was quick, but nowhere near as strong as Rhino.

Then all the wind seemed to be taken out of her sails. She dropped to normal speeds.

Bullets riddled her immediately. She fell as David leaped up, horrified at the sudden death.

The 6th Street and Tyger Claws were still fighting each other. Still. People were hiding behind buildings, some screaming in horror, but the fucking pricks didn’t care!

Red filled David’s mind. They didn’t care. Fine. Then he’d have to finish this.

David’s monowires lashed out. More bullets flew, but he was swinging in, arms and legs shifting in nonsensical ways that brought him out of the way of them. He landed in front of a 6th Street and punched him hard enough to send him flying into their car, the vehicle folding around the chromed up gangster. His foot lashed out, shattering a pistol and hand.

A Tyger Claw tried to shoot him. This time, when David dodged, the bullets followed. Smart weapon!?

David dodged again, but only barely, his leg getting sliced open across the meat of his thigh by the bullet he couldn’t quite dodge. He lashed out with the monowire. While the wire was out of energy, it still had enough momentum to smash the submachine gun out of the Tyger Claw. Another wire wrapped around the Claw’s waist and pulled him in for a clothesline.

The last Tyger Claw tried to run, only for one of the remaining 6th Street to aim his assault rifle at her. David hit that guy in the side of the head with a punch, dropping him instantly, then grabbed the Tyger Claw by the ankle with his wire and pulled, hard, tossing her into the last 6th Street soldier aiming a pistol at David. The gun went off, sparking against the pavement.

David finished that guy with a boot to the head, then looked around, panting.

Seven down. Sort of. One of them, the guy David had cut the arm off of, was still up, moaning in pain.

“Why!?” David picked the guy up and slammed him into the car’s hood, screaming in his face. Through his face plate, he could tell the guy was young, only a few years older than David.

“I-I-”

“WHY!?” David slammed a fist into the hood of the car. The hood folded inwards, his fist smashed through the engine, and the sound of metal shattering filled the air. The 6th Street guy screamed.

“B-Because we lost the bet!”

“...What?” David asked, unsure he’d heard correctly. The man blubbered.

“W-We bet on the Corsairs to win, and those claws bet on them to lose, so we owed them. And we figured-”

David wasn’t sure when he’d done it, but suddenly the 6th Street was knocked out on the floor with a broken jaw. David panted, looking around.

The woman with the broken arm was being looked at by the man, the pair talking in hushed whispers. The other people remaining, only about four out of the fifteen who’d been there, were staring at him.

“You guys okay?” David asked.

“Y-Yeah!” a middle-aged Asian woman called out, sounding shocked. “Who… Who are you?”

Oh shit. No way he could say the truth. So instead, what came out sounded ridiculous.

“Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!”

The woman stared at him.

“... Oh god,” he whispered. He sounded like a gonk!

Seeing no other option, David awkwardly waved and leapt into the air. The monowire slipped out and wrapped around a street light, letting him swing away.

He released, his other hand snapping out. Don’t overthink it. Just do it.

The monowire wrapped around a fire escape. He didn’t have anything to wrap the wire around for the next swing, so instead he landed on the side of building and ran, hand snapping out the second he had another spot to grab.

Ash was still talking. He hadn’t even paid any attention. “-best of luck, Davey. Yer gonna need it.”

Chapter Text

No one had talked about what he did on the net or news. David wasn't sure how he felt about that.

In truth, gang fights were a dime a dozen in Night City. A day where less than fifty people died was a good one. But still, he thought someone would say something.

At least he'd won. That was the first fight where someone had actually tried to kill him. He'd been shaking a bit afterwards for no reason. He tried to ignore it.

'Next time, I'll be more careful. Broke that ladies arm. I'm still not sure how I feel about zeroing someone someday, but I'd like to keep anyone I try to help from ending up at a hospital.'

Also, why was he doing inner monologues? Was that another spider power? No, wait, that sounded dumb.

When Maine called him, he was upside-down sitting on the ceiling in his apartment playing with his new monowire. He'd been flicking it around, grabbing random objects, and slicing through random cans and bottles, trying to get a feel for how to control the things. It felt almost natural, using them.

"Kid," Maine said. "You're up."

An address was sent through.

"Got it," David dropped down, twisting to land on his feet and reeling the monowires back into his wrists. He hummed to himself while picking up his new helmet. The meet up wasn't far. He could webswing there… Maybe he'd wait until he was further away from the apartment first?

David exited his apartment and dropped down towards the bottom floor. On instinct he flipped midway and tapped his fingers against a wall to push off, landing in roll and hopping up to jog.

The place was in a warehouse in a shipping yard, with dozens of red containers around the place. A garage door was open just enough for him to look inside.

"Hey!" Across the garage, Maine waved towards him. "Over here, kid."

David slipped under the door, heading over. Inside that small room was Maine with the muscular woman and long armed man who had been with him. Another woman was with them, a slim and tall one in a pink overcoat with a brighter pink mask over the lower half of her face, her chrome feline shaped eyes a unique purple in the pupils and yellow in the sclera.

"Morning, sunshine. You ready?" Maine asked confidently.

The woman spoke, sounded amused. "Data wasn't lying. He is a kid. Big one, but still. Can he keep up?"

David sat down on the chair before them, feeling more confident than the last time he'd seen the bunch.

"Guess we'll see," Maine said in response to the woman.

The long armed guy spoke up, his head leaning down towards the woman. "Now, now, I know he's a sweet little thing, but keep those grubby mitts to yourself."

"Ugh, why do we even put up with you?"

Maine ignored that little byplay to continue speaking. "This one here is Kiwi. Dorio and Pilar, you've already met."

"Got it. My name is David-"

A fist flew towards him. David caught it in the air, stopping Maine from giving him a casual smack. They met eyes over Maine's glasses before he chuckled, pulling back his arm. "Heh. You really are fast, kid."

"Mhm," Kiwi hummed in agreement.

"Anyways. Let's get right down to biz."

Down to biz. Just like that, after trying to punch him? Edgerunners were a different breed. Maine took something out and placed it on the table.

"Slot the shard."

David eyed the shard before placing it in his neck. Hopefully his spider-sense not buzzing as he slotted it in was a good thing, proved that this wasn't a trick? He wasn't sure how much the spider-sense really understood about what was and wasn't dangerous.

The breakdown didn't take too long. An Arasaka bodyguard and driver named Maxim had a car, they wanted to swipe the navigational data on it.

"Just the data? Not the car?"

"We klep the car and Arasaka ninjas will be on us like flies on shit."

Yeah. Arasaka was like that.

Apparently they would rig a fight he regularly bet on so Maxim would lose big. Then they'd go to the bar he tended to drink his sorrows away at, steal his key, pass it to Dorio to copy, slip it back into his neck, grab the data, and that was that.

Simple.

Just steal a shard. Not even something crazy illegal.

For some reason, David felt a bit guilty. It was dumb. It was just an Arasaka goon, stealing some data. But he'd saved people just a day ago. Wasn't he supposed to be a superhero now?

…Fuck it. Stealing navigational data from one corpo's car was barely worth talking about.

Still. He'd bring his new mask along. Never knew when he would need it.

It went smoothly. In a hole in the wall bar, David walked behind the already heavily drinking blonde man marked as his target. His helmet was hooked onto his waist, hidden under his mom's jacket, but he didn't need to wear it for this.

He tapped a finger gently against the shard in his neck as it popped out, easily palming it without Maxim reacting. Then he handed it off to Dorio at the other end of the bar, leaning there for a moment.

Just wait for a bit. The data would get copied. David waited behind Dorio, trying not to feel impatient.

Then something happened.

"Hold on. His master's calling," Kiwi cut in over the line.

David stiffened, glancing around Dorio as the rest of the crew kept talking. Maxim looked annoyed but unsurprised as he began to rise to his feet. His boss needed him now of all times?

"Fuck, change of plans, kid!" Maine snapped over the line. "Key to the car, grab it. Becca, trip him up."

Who the hell was Becca?

David moved fast, ripping the key from Dorio and running out the door while a short Mox-looking girl spilled drink on the bodyguard, then did… something to Maxim to keep him still. He ended up outside with Lucy, the pair of them standing before one of the fancy Villeforts cars execs always rolled around in.

"Get in," David snapped at Lucy.

"You staying out?" Lucy asked.

"Someone needs to keep a lookout, and I'm no netrunner anyways. Go." David ignored anything else Lucy said, instead jumping to land on the side of the building, wallcrawling so that he was just above the door. After some hesitation, Lucy entered the car.

Things were tense, waiting there. Maine spoke up suddenly.

"And what exactly is your plan?" Maine asked David.

"If he comes out, I'll knock him out."

"That simple? You realize he's chromed up?"

"Is he an Animal fighter?"

"Not a chance," Dorio answered, rather than Maine.

"Then I got this."

"Doesn't lack for confidence," Kiwi responded.

"Shut up, I'm trying to focus," Lucy said. "Arasaka security is so annoying!"

David didn't respond, simply waiting. His spider-sense began to ring at the same time that Kiwi spoke. He unraveled his wires, running them through his fingers.

"We're blown. Target coming in hot."

He crouched. "Just keep him from calling for help."

Maxim came out running. Right into David's web of monowire. He dropped the wires onto Maxim, wrapping them around his neck, arms, and legs.

"What the-UKK!" Maxim barely got out two words before he was choking on wires. David pulled him up, bringing the struggling man up. David's elbow crashed directly into the top of the man's head, knocking him out immediately.

"Damn!" Maine crowed. "Nice hit, kid!"

David tried not to enjoy the praise too much. He dropped down with Maxim and pulled him into the bar, bringing him to a stool while Dorio and the Mox girl (Becca probably?) watched him. David quickly grabbed Dorio's drink and poured it over the unconscious man.

"You really think that will work?" Dorio asked.

"Better than nothing," David said. "Lucy?"

"I'm in now. Just give me a sec. Kiwi?"

"He didn't get a chance to call anyone, but we should delta anyways. His boss is gonna call him again when his bodyguard doesn't show up."

"That's more than enough time for us," Maine said smugly. "Becca, Dorio, get going. Kid, wait for Luce to finish, then the two of you meet up with us."

"Got it," David said. After a thought, he took Maxim's head and rested it in a pool of alcohol. Dorio chuckled at the sight, leaving with the short Mox girl, who gave David a smirk.

A few minutes later, Lucy stepped out of the fancy car as David joined her. The two shared a look. Then both looked away. He still wasn't sure how to feel about her.

"Come on," Lucy said, walking away. "I'll take you to the meetup. We'll take the metro."

"You get everything you need?" David asked casually.

"Nav data's all here," Lucy tapped the side of her head. "I'll send it in a bit."

"Preem," David sighed. "Things always go bad like that?"

"Coulda been a lot worse, believe me."

David shrugged that off. The two of them walked for a bit longer. As they walked, David contemplated the job. That had been short. A bit panicky towards the end, but he'd expected a lot more from it.

He took his helmet out from where it had been hooked at his waist and looked down at it as they walked along.

"What's that?" Lucy asked him. He glanced at her, then put it away quickly.

"It's nothing."

"But you keep it around anyways?"

David scowled at her, then walked faster. She followed quietly. What the hell was with this chick?

They walked for a bit longer, almost reaching the metro, when gunshots rang out in the distance. David stopped, turning towards them. Lucy kept walking. "Come on."

"But-"

She turned to look at him, then towards the sound of gunshots. Lucy looked him over. "What?"

"People might need help."

"Or they might be gangers fighting it out or something just as stupid. Not our business anyways. Come on-"

David turned and started running. He slipped his helmet on, jumping into the air and lashing monowire around a light pole, swinging into the air. Behind him, he heard shouting. Moments later, a call came in on his agent.

"David, what the hell are you doing?!" Lucy snapped.

"I'm checking it out."

"Why? There's no reason to get involved!"

He didn't answer. Just swung faster.

"Fucking gonk!"

The gunshots quieted as he approached Vista del Rey. David swung up onto a building overlooking the spot where the gunshots had come from. An arcade? Someplace called 'Brain Wash'. Inside, David could see a set of old school video game cabinets, the title 'Roach Race' shining from a couple of them.

A set of shops lined the small alleyway. Well, 'shops'. They were more like shacks with some stuff hanging inside of them. But people were still there.

People who were cowering in fear as 6th Street gangers roamed around an arcade. One woman was dead in front of the door, blood pooling around her. David stared at her. Her hair was brown. Blood had soaked it already, giving it a red color. Just like-

There were four 6th Street gonks inside, a male one at the counter with a link plugged into the computer there, a woman with a cowboy hat roaming the area, and two more in the back pointing guns at three civilians. Two kids younger than David, and an older woman with a Roach Race shirt on.

David wrapped a monowire on a pipe running along the roof, dragging himself upwards before anyone could catch him. The woman in the cowboy hat looked in his direction just as he left her line of sight.

Crawling along the ceiling, David thought quietly. Civilians first. Which meant the two gonks in the back had to get taken out before anything else. One was taller and had a cap, the other a bandana, both carrying revolvers. He just had to deal with them without getting noticed and the people killed, and he had to work fast.

Moving quickly, David dropped down from the ceiling and landed on top of the taller of the two men, kicking out with both feet into the man's shoulders. The sound of bone cracking was followed by the man screaming as he fell under David, his cap flying off. David kept moving, his spider-sense screaming and guiding him.

David's fist lashed out and shattered the jaw of the other man, the one with the bandana. The man ignored his flopping cybernetic jaw to lift a giant revolver to point it at David. David dodged the bullet, leaped onto an arcade cabinet behind him to dodge the next, then leaped forward with a kick that smashed into the bandana wearing thug's chest, sending him flying back to smash into the door behind him, then the toilet behind that.

David's spider-sense screamed. He barely ducked just when the sound of a shotgun exploded behind him, pellets barely sliding past him. The woman in the cowboy hat was suddenly moving at super-speed, shifting to get her shotgun pressed to David's head. His spider-sense screamed again. In the split second while she was about to press the trigger, David was moving to dodge.

Cowboy hat adjusted her aim to match, but even with whatever speedware she had it didn't quite catch up. The shotgun fired, pellets sliding just under David arm, one cutting through his shirt, the rest hitting the cement floor. David punched outwards with all his strength. His fist hit something hard in her sternum that cracked and bent. She coughed up blood, falling to her knees, before David more gently punched her in the face, knocking her out.

"Fuck!'' The last one, the guy who had been hacking the register, raised an assault rifle. The people behind David screamed. David pulled out his monowires.

Orange wires wrapped around the arms last 6th Street. Before the man could pull the trigger, the wires slashed through his forearms, turning them into chunks of flesh, blood, and small bits of metal, the scent of it mixing with burnt flesh as the monowire did its job.

"GAAAAAAH!" The disarmed (in every sense of the word) 6th Street man screamed, falling to his knees as his gun clattered to the ground.

David glanced at his own unused monowire trailing from his wrists, then up at the door. The sunlight shone behind a familiar figure as the monowires she'd used were reeled back into her wrists. She strode inside, barely glancing at the armless man who was going into shock in favor of glaring at David.

"You gonk," Lucy said, sighing at the end of those words. "You really are the type to jump into fires, aren't you?"

"It's the best way to stay warm the rest of your life," David said, the words coming from some vid he'd seen a while back.

Lucy barely flickered a smile, but it was enough. David turned, kneeling to look over the older woman and kids he'd saved. "You guys all right?"

"We're fine," the older woman grumbled. "For people that almost got shot for playing video games. Fucking-"

"Dude, that was sick!" one of the kids said. "Are you guys in another gang?"

"Nah man, they're Edgerunners!" the other kid shouted in excitement. "Like in the vids!"

"Ah, no," David didn't feel comfortable with that name, for a number of reasons. "She's the Edgerunner. I'm just, uh… Spider-Man."

Lucy glanced at him. The kids looked confused. And the older woman blinked before speaking. "Like the old comics?"

David nodded, getting up. "Anyways, we better delta. Call the cops, stay in school, avoid drugs." Oh god, he was repeating the warnings in the ads from those comics now. "Come on!"

He grabbed Lucy by the hand and quickly ran out, leaving the older woman and kids behind with the three knocked out and one slowly bleeding to death 6th Street gangers.

"Spider-Man?" Lucy asked as they stepped onto the metro. It was quiet. David really wished it wasn't.

"It's my codename," David said evenly.

"It's kinda… I don't know, what's the opposite of nova?"

"Shut up," David scowled at her, his mask once again hooked to his waist.

Lucy stared at him. "Seriously, why did you run into that? I guess it wasn't for the NCPD scanner hustle."

"The what?"

"And now I know it wasn't," Lucy shook her head. "NCPD likes to pay for people to help them when the bullets start flying, AKA do their jobs for them. Just a few eddies. Too cheap for groups to split the pay, too risky for solos to do it."

Except for him maybe? As David ran the idea through his head, Lucy continued. "You could have died, David. For nothing."

"Those three probably didn't think so," David said.

Lucy scoffed. "So what? Whole lot of other people die everyday, and this is Night City. 6th Street will show up at that place again in a week, maybe flatline them the next time."

"So then I gave them a week," David leaned his head back, resting it against the window. "I'd give anything for a week with-"

He cut himself off. Lucy sat down next to him. He felt her eyes on him for a long moment, the metro rumbling around them as it rode above the city streets.

"Will it help?" Lucy asked at last. "Jumping into danger to help? Knowing it might end at any moment?"

"...It matters to them, Lucy. To me too. If I can give them just one more day. A day I'd give anything to have with my mom. Then yeah, it's worth it."

They didn't say anything else, but he felt Lucy lean away from him.

Chapter Text

As it turned out, the place that Maine's crew met up at was a diner, a little greasy intravenous needle called Turbo's. Well, Maine's crew and about twenty other people. They gathered in the parking lot, cars worth more than David's apartment, people from different walks of life. David wasn't sure how many of them were also Edgerunners, but they seemed comfortable there, watching Pilar do some kind of trick with plates and bottles.

David and Lucy walked up to speak with Maine rather than watch that. Maine gave them a smirk. "Took yer time getting here. Really need to get yerself a car, Luce."

"I'll think about it," Lucy said. "Sides, that wasn't why we were late."

"Oh? What happened?"

"This gonk," Lucy sighed, jerking a thumb at David. "Decided to be a hero."

"A hero?" Maine asked curiously.

"Some 6th Street scopsuckers were shooting people in an arcade. I stopped them," David said.

Maine cocked an eyebrow. "Mighty altruistic of ya, I guess. If you're gonna keep doing that though, you should make sure you're getting paid for it."

"You can get paid for that?" David asked, genuinely surprised.

"Gahahaha!" Maine let out a deep belly laugh. "Of course you can! Nothing in Night City is free! Even jacking off costs extra!"

While David looked befuddled at Maine, Lucy sighed. The large man calmed down, wiping a fake tear from his cheek and grinning. "Never do anything worth doing for free, kid. And always pay fairly when someone works with you. For example…"

His eyes flashed gold. A moment later, money entered David's account. He blinked at the amount. Over 20000 eddies?

"Holy shit," David mumbled.

"Everyone gets a fair cut. Only way I operate." Maine smirked, then nodded at the ports on David's arms. "Got yourself monowires, huh?"

"Uh, yeah," David said, briefly looking at them.

"Hn. Never went for the frou-frou stuff like that myself. Always preferred what I know works."

"Didn't your launcher jam on you the other week?" Lucy pointed out.

Maine scoffed. "Fuck off. Anyways, you ever want more upgrades, let me know. Ain't wasting eddies if it makes you stronger. Applies to chrome and yer crew. Besides, Even that fancy bioware of yours can't stand up to metal for long."

David kept his thoughts on that to himself. Before they could speak further, another car pulled into the lot. This one was… fancy. Not in the fun flashy way that some of the other cars around it were. But in a corpo sort of way. Money spent on elegance, on being superior to others.

"...Shit. Hey, Luce. Introduce him to Rebecca, will ya?" Maine said, rising to his feet.

"Got it," Lucy pulled David away. Before they left, David got a good look at the man who got out of the fancy car. Short white hair, pale skin, a nice suit. And three right eyes. Yeah, that was a corpo all right.

"Who's that guy?" David asked Lucy.

"Faraday. The guy who got us the job."

"Fixer?"

"One of them. He gives Maine the jobs, Maine makes sure we come together for them." Lucy said.

"So he's your boss?"

"Heh. No, he's more like an annoying client." Lucy put her hand to her face to call out. "Hey, Becca!"

"Hm?" A short girl spoke. Wait, the girl with the teal skin from the bar? The one who'd uh… done that thing to the driver. "Yo. Oh hey! You brought Dimples with ya!"

Dimples? Before David could wonder at the nickname, the girl hopped up, grinning up at him. "Sup? Name's Rebecca."

"Uh, hi. David," he held up a hand in greeting. The tiny girl grinned up at him. Her eyes were pretty wild. Red replaced the whites, with green in the pupils before a bit of pink in the center. "You were at the job today."

"Yeah!" She seemed excited he remembered for some reason. "So, you're joining Maine's crew?"

"Looks like it," Lucy cut in, stepping into the conversation. "If he doesn't kill himself playing superhero first."

"Superhero?" Rebecca asked, confusion on her face as she looked between them.

David sighed. "I stopped a robbery on the way back."

"Took down three 6th Street faster than I've ever seen anyone do it. With nothing but monowire and his bare hands," Lucy, far from annoyed, sounded oddly proud? Or was he imagining it?

"What, like Superman?" Rebecca asked, looking up at David again.

"Something like that," David chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Gonk," this time, when Lucy said it, it sounded a lot less harsh.

"Hm…" Rebecca shrugged. "Well, be careful, Dimples. It'd suck for me to be so friendly just for you to die a couple of days later."

"Do I have dimples?" David asked, befuddled.

"Heck yeah! Right here and here!" Rebecca poked her fingers into David's cheeks, grinning up at him. "They only show up when you don't look so grumpy though."

David, for some reason, smiled at the thought of that. He had no clue why. But Rebecca's own smile grew.

"Ah, there they are! See!"

"Hm, hm!" Lucy coughed loudly. Wait, why did she look annoyed? "Hey. Maybe we should grab a drink. What do you want?"

"Something without carbonation," David said immediately. "Can't stand that."

"Huh. Weird," Rebecca spun around and went to a table. Moments later, she had a drink in hand for David. He took a sip. It was juice, without any sort of bubbles. Perfect.

"Seriously, couldn't you grab me something?" Lucy asked.

"Oh, you still here?" Rebecca asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Can't get your own drink?"

"Hnng," Lucy growled, walking away to grab her own drink.

"So, David!" Rebecca said, turning right back to him. "You never answered. You gonna be sticking around?"

"Probably. When I'm not doing my own jobs," David said. "Might look into the whole 'saving people' thing as a job."

"Sounds like a lot of danger for not a lot of eddies," Rebecca said with a little snort.

"Not really about the eddies… not entirely, I mean."

"You'll want to keep an eye on the NCPD scanner, like I said,'' Lucy cut in, walking up to join them again. "Make sure you get paid. Or 'Spider-Man' gets paid, I guess."

"Spider-Man?" Rebecca asked.

"It's my… hero, name," David said weakly. "Stole it from a comic book."

"Ohhh. So you're a poserganger, huh?" Rebecca said, sounding extremely amused. "That's so retro!"

David shrugged, smirking just a bit. "Yeah well, it works for me."

"A comic book?" Lucy hummed to herself. Her eyes flashed briefly. Then she cocked an eyebrow at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"What?" Rebecca asked. Instead of answering, Lucy's eyes flashed, Rebecca's following a moment later. Then she giggled. "Hehehe! This guy!"

"If his name is Peter Parker, then yes."

Rebecca grinned up at him. "I love it! That's not just retro, that's prehistoric!"

"The comics are from the 60's," Lucy added. "Where did you even find out about them?"

"The net," David said honestly.

"Maybe I should get a codename, huh?" Rebecca said with a chuckle. "You too Lucy. You can be Grumpy."

"Should we call you Cutting Board then?" Lucy returned.

Rebecca reeled like she'd been struck before angrily glaring at Lucy, who returned it with a smug look. "Oh, listen to the Ice Queen Bitch, all high and mighty. You look up from the Manic Pixie Makeup Guide to learn some jokes?"

"I have plenty of jokes. I just don't share them with you."

"Blow it out your loose ass, beanpole!" Rebecca said, going for aggression rather than a clever comeback.

"Touchy…"

David watched silently as the two continued to insult each other. It was weirdly… fond? Friendly? Rebecca was all fire, yelling and crass, while Lucy was ice, calm tones and simple replies. For some reason it was almost cute? Like two sisters, fighting, but still unwilling to leave the other.

Maybe. Maybe hanging out with this bunch wouldn't be so bad?

In the meantime. He sent a message to Ash. He didn't need chrome, not new chrome anyways, but he needed help from someone who understood why he was doing what he was doing.

"Honestly, you need a fixer if you want to get in on that." Ash was looking at David's monowire implants as she spoke. Two of her arms were tinkering inside his forearms as he watched, while the others were typing on a computer, flashes of code following.

It was really weird, seeing inside his own arms. As she'd said, the monowires were integrated directly into his flesh, using his bones and muscles as partial support. It was really… gross. Really weird feeling. No pain, but you couldn't just get used to feeling fingers push aside your flesh. Ash continued to speak, ignoring his discomfort.

"A good fixer will get you connected to the scanner hustle. It'll even let you listen in if the cops are chasing you, let you know how much heat is on you. It's useful, but like I said. The cops don't let just anyone listen in on that kind of thing."

"Knew it couldn't be that simple," David sighed.

"Technically it is simple. Find a good fixer and you're in."

"The only fixer I know about is that Faraday guy."

"I said a good fixer," Ash said dryly. "Fucking hell, that's almost as bad as sending you to Deshawn if his fat ass didn't skip town. Let that smug orb get you zeroed. No, don't work with some Militech lapdog in a slick suit with a cool voice."

Militech lapdog? Well, great, David was feeling much more comfortable about joining Maine's crew on missions now. "Then I'm outta luck."

Ash shrugged. "Well. I know who the good ones are. But you'll need to make an impression first. Do a gig or two. They don't tend to work with kids who haven't made a name for themselves."

"I need job experience… to get a job?"

"Welcome to adulthood," Ash said with a light smirk. She sewed his arms back up, an experience that felt horribly like his arms being zippered up, and began putting him back together. "You do need an in with fixers in general though. They know the word on the street. Can lead you to the right work for your skillset, pull together a crew to help you, make sure you actually get paid and not get shot in the ass."

"Last one would be nice."

"Gonk," Ash lightly chopped him on the forehead, grunting a little. "I can think of a few good ones. The old woman in Afterlife is way too much of a bitch to take anyone who isn't already a big name, but the others are less picky. Open and close your hands for me, like this?"

She held her palms out towards him with all four arms, opening and closing her fingers slowly. David followed her instructions. She watched carefully and continued to speak. "You're a SanDomo kid, right?"

SanDomo? That was what the old timers called it. "Uh, yeah."

"El Capitan might be willing to give you a chance. But he'd do it anyways. He's a softy like that… Wakako is too, as much of a hardass as she pretends to be. Padre isn't returning my calls though."

"How many fixers do you know?" David asked.

Ash winced. "Look, I know too much about Night City. Anyways, I can ask around and see if anyone is willing to give the wanna-be superhero a chance. Meantime, you owe me."

"Literally or…?"

"Eh. You'll owe me a favor. Be careful on those scanner hustles. If you have someone who can watch your back, that'll help, but at least make sure someone knows what you're up to."

"Who would I tell?" David said with a grimace. "I don't have anyone."

"Then get someone," Ash poked him in the forehead with one hand, the other three continuing to stitch him up. "If you get jumped by something you can't handle, you need someone who can at least call you a doc. Maybe a good gunhand."

"I thought no one wants to do the hustles?"

"Not in groups. But having one other person joining you is fine. Just an extra gun."

An extra gun. David immediately thought of Lucy, but put that aside gently. She seemed way too pissed to help. Maybe that Rebecca chick? No, he barely knew her. Maine? Maine would probably laugh. Same with the other edgerunners.

…Fucking hell, were those really all the people he could think of?

While David ran that depressing thought through his head, Ash finished up. "I don't know how similar your body is to the actual Spider-Man's, but it takes well to cyberware. You're all healed up. I'd still wait for any new chrome, get used to your current stuff, but you can put anything in."

"What should I do first?"

"Jailbreak your internal agent."

"Jailbreak?"

"Or chopping, or cracking, whatever the kids call it these days. Modify your agent so that you can force it to shutdown completely, not that 'sleep mode' crap. So you can move off the grid."

David stared at her. For a moment, he couldn't understand what she meant. Then it clicked. "You're joking. Isn't that illegal? Who does that to their agent!?"

Seriously, an internal agent was everything. Who would risk destroying it when it did literally everything for you?

"Old school types," Ash grinned, shaking her head and giving him an odd look. "Also, didn't you mug a driver and help steal the nav data on his car?"

"Uhhh…" David coughed awkwardly.

"Look, morals about screwing over giant corporations aside, it's something I've been thinking about. You can't be a secret superhero and also have an internal agent on. A good netrunner can tear into those while you never even notice and find out who you are. Or cook your brain with it, electrocute you, turn off your monowire. Scary shit."

"Oh come on, I need my agent!" David said.

"God, kids. You won't die from disconnecting for a few hours," Ash said with an eyeroll. "You can get another agent, one of the old school ones, and hook it up to the helmet I gave you. It isn't hard, and it'll let you stay in contact while you work."

David groaned. "What if it breaks or something? I can't lose that thing."

Ash raised her hands in despair. "Fine, fucking run around with your constant weakpoint. Don't come running to me when some god level super-netrunner waves their hand at you and makes your cyberware cook inside out and steals your soul."

"...I'll reach out to a techie?" David said with a swallow, looking down at his monowire and imagining the two innocuous pieces of metal turning into molten steel.

"Good boy," two left hands patted his head. He waved them off with a scowl that Ash returned with a smirk. "I'll reach out to some fixers. Meantime, you get some rest and reach out to a techie, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," David groused. He paused for a moment. "Hey uh. Thanks. For helping me with all this."

"You're paying me."

"I'm not dumb," David growled just a bit. "You've been way more helpful than you had to be. So, yeah. Thanks, Ash."

"..." Ash smiled softly. She patted his head again. "No worries. Just stay safe, all right? Last thing I want is to see you on this table. Not without paying I mean."

Hours later, David was swinging again. He was getting used to it. The range on the monowire wasn't enough to go as over the top as Peter seemed to, but he just jumped on buildings and ran on the walls.

The feeling of it was almost addictive. Running along a wall, leaping out over the streets as cars passed, lashing out a monowire to wrap around a light pole, hopping off a corpo's flying car and briefly zipping over a food cart.

It helped him to think. He did pause briefly to stop a mugging. Just a guy with a gun threatening a woman before David dropped down to break his arms and legs and leave him for the NCPD.

Even as he left that guy and the thankful woman behind, he kept thinking. Ever since getting the powers and… and Mom. Well, he'd felt a little lost, trying to figure out where to go with them. Now he felt like he had something of a plan.

The plan seemed to be becoming an Edgerunner/Solo/Superhero, but at least he had something in mind. That felt good. Moving forward.

Ash's suggestion about the internal agent was on his mind. In fact, it was kind of a small part of a bigger problem. David needed tech. Not just chrome, but tech for any of his problems. His new helmet, any stuff he'd need down the road, it all required an expert, and he didn't know any.

Step by step. First he'd start off by making a list of what he needed, how many eddies, all that kinds of stuff, then he'd find someone to help him.

Swinging home, David only had to stop to save someone twice more. A quiet night in the city.

Chapter Text

After a day or so, David had spent some more time swinging around the city, stopping small crimes he found, and making plans. He'd also done some window shopping. Just stopping by a place in Arroyo called the Manufactory, a place he used to stop by in his days at Arasaka Academy. Today he looked around to try and grab whatever he could.

He grabbed a simple shirt with a big yellow X symbol on it. Maybe he could paint it later?

He also took a look at the guns at a weapons vendor. The owner was talking with someone else, ignoring David as he panned his eyes over the merchandise.

He kinda figured his fists and monowires would do the job, but what if he faced someone who was too far too armored? So he looked over them. He recognized a lot of them. Either from BDs he'd scrolled before or stuff he'd learned over the years.

Maybe a shotgun? There was a Crusher and a Tactician. The idea of pumping a Tactician and laying into a guy sounded preem.

Revolvers sounded best though, for long range and punch. He couldn't afford the nice ones like the Overture or the Burya, but maybe a Nova? He reached out for it. As he did, his eyes landed on another gun. A big gun, an LMG, the kind you needed two hands to use. Just like the one from the highway-

Red hair covered in blood. The smell of smoke and gunpowder.

David snapped his hand back and took a deep breath. "...Maybe not today."

He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked off. For the best. He had no clue what to really get beyond that they were preem. When he knew more he could… get it.

His hands shook as he rushed away.

That night before bed, he called Maine. Why not? He hadn't spent too many eddies, but he needed to reach out for help, and he didn't want to keep bothering Ash. When he called, Maine answered almost immediately.

Maine: Bad-bad time kid. Nows bad
David: Sorry, just need some advice.
Maine: Advice?
David: Need a techie. Know any good ones?
Maine: Depends on what you need-need.
David: Small stuff. Upgrades to my helmet, messing with my agent, that kinda thing. Know anyone?
Maine: Hn. I do need to send Pilar something. Ask him for help.
David: Pilar? Really?
Maine: P-Perv has layers to him. Head out to him tomorrow. Sending deets now.

David hung up, thinking. Pilar, the long-limbed guy? Huh. Well, not like he had other options. And if he had to he could just keep looking. WIth that thought, he headed to bed.

The next day he headed out to pick up Pilar's package. Once again, while using wires for webswinging (wireswinging? monoswinging?) was useful, he lamented that it just wasn't as good as what the real, er, fake Spider-Man's webshooters could do.

Still, he made it to the garage that Maine had sent him to with time to spare, walking up to a man sitting at a table under a large umbrella. The man was older, with graying hair pulled into a ponytail, a trimmed mustache and beard, and a pair of glasses. He was smoking a cigarette when David walked up, lifting his left cybernetic arm to scratch his chin.

"Hey, I'm David. I'm looking for Aldo. Maine had a package for me to pick up?"

"Huh? Davis?"

David frowned. "David."

"Eh, Davis!?"

David took a deep breath. "David."

"Eh!?"

"DAVID!"

"All right already, fucking asshole. Don't gotta yell at me!" Aldo said around his cig. "So your Pilar's carrier pigeon, huh?"

David sighed. "Whatever. You got the package?"

"Yeah, yeah. So, you're the 'hero', huh?" When David cocked his head, surprised, Aldo chuckled. "Maine told me about ya. Well, we'll see how long that lasts."

David grabbed the package and left quickly, annoyed. From there, he swung to Pilar's place, landing on the roof and heading in through there. At the door, he rang the doorbell. After a brief moment, the door slid open. A gun was in his face. Moving on instinct, he grabbed the wrist behind the gun, lifting the holder into the air with some panic.

Just like that, he was holding Rebecca up in the air, her face inches from his. Rebecca blinked with her red green eyes, then smiled.

"Oh, David my man! What's up, choom!?"

David glanced at the tiny girl currently being lifted a foot off the ground, the gun in her hand, and the calm smile on her face. "Uh, hey."

"You need something?" Rebecca chewed on some bubblegum in her mouth, completely unbothered by her situation. When David lowered her down, Rebecca just looked up at him curiously.

Why hadn't his spider-sense gone off? Did she… not even consider holding a gun up to someone at the door a threat? How crazy was she?

Also, she was almost entirely naked, wearing only a bra and panties, and the teenage man inside him was screaming about it with all his heart.

Focusing up again, David spoke. "I have a package for Pilar? Maine sent me. And I also wanted to ask him something?"

Rebecca's smile fell and she looked very annoyed. Turning, she yelled back into the room. "Yo, bro, it's for you!"

"That guy is your brother!?" David said, shocked. He looked her up and down. "You guys look nothing alike. I mean, you're…"

"Hot?" Rebecca asked with a smirk. When David sputtered in embarrassment, the smirk became a mischievous grin.

"What is it, bitch?" Pilar asked, sliding over on a wheeled chair.

"Maine sent you something, asshole," Rebecca spat back, her smile disappearing. "Come get it."

Pilar's mouth dropped open, then he let out an inhuman sound of joy. "WAHAHAHO!"

Once again, David was surprised that his spider-sense didn't go off when Pilar rushed forward like a madman, extending his stretched out arms to rip the package out of his hands, running back into the room he'd slid out from. That was a little hair-raising.

Rebecca and David stood awkwardly for a moment while Pilar let out excited yelps of noise. The wrapping falling to the floor was followed by Pilar's hands, the man whooping with joy. Were his hands really so easy to detach?

Rubbing her head with a sigh, Rebecca blew out a bubble, the gum popping loudly, then turned and eyed David. "You need me to excuse you, or…?"

"I wanted to talk. I need a techie, and Maine suggested Pilar."

Rebecca once again looked disappointed, but waved him in casually. Stepping in with the door sliding closed, David had to use a lot of willpower not to stare at Rebecca's hips swaying as she led him in. Didn't work, but dammit he tried.

"Hey, bro, Dimples has a question for ya," Rebecca said casually. In the back, Pilar was grinning, extending a pair of hands now shining so brightly golden that it almost hurt to look at.

"What, he need a tip? Pay him already!" Pilar said smugly, waving his new right hand at her.

David jumped in surprise at the BOOM of Rebecca shooting Pilar in the hand. Seriously, why hadn't his spider sense activated again? Really needed to test that…

"FUCK YOU!" Rebecca yelled, flipping her middle finger aggressively at her brother.

"Hahaha, they're bulletproof!" Pilar yelled happily, unbothered by his sister's hostility.

"Ugh! Listen asshole, he wants your help!" Rebecca kicked her brother's chair, sending him rolling across the floor.

Pilar grinned easily, spinning on his chair as it rolled. "Oh yeah? What's on your mind, shorty?"

David rolled his eyes, but passed his helmet over to Pilar, who took hold of it with impressive speed. "I need some upgrades to my helmet design? The person who made it did great, but I could use some extra features."

"What, you don't want to chrome up instead?" Pilar asked, flipping the helmet around in his hands.

"I might, but I want to be able to work undercover. Can't do that if my actual agent is on and can let anyone with half a brain hack me to find out who I am."

"Undercover?" Pilar scoffed. "You know most of us want to get famous? What are ya, some Arasaka ninja?"

"Naw. He's a superhero, right?" Rebecca teased.

"Super-what?" Pilar asked, confused, before he shrugged and flipped the helmet around to look inside. "All right, what you need in this thing?"

"A datalink that can connect to one of those old school Agents. Vision stuff, Anti-Dazzle, Low Light-"

"Teleoptics, a HUD like those doughboys have, the works," Pilar's demeanor became more serious. He placed the helmet on his desk and reached for a drawer next to him. His hand pulled out several tools, each between his new golden fingers, and with barely a flicker of movement, he had the helmet open.

Huh. Honestly, David had been very nervous about reaching out to Pilar for help. The guy just didn't strike him as being very smart or serious. But now he had the helmet opened up and was moving through the internals of it with some confidence.

"I can do it. It'll be really hard though. Hope you got a lot of eddies- OW!"

Rebecca had smacked him in the shoulder, grumbling. "Don't listen to this idiot, he's just trying to upsell you."

"Well I can't do it now!" Pilar swung a fist Rebecca's way, missing entirely. "Ugh. Fine, yeah, this shit will be cheap as hell. I can get one of those old shitty Zetatech agents if you really want to go retro, adding the visual stuff."

Leaning back over the helmet and working on it a bit more, Pilar grumbled a bit more. "I'll just need to take it apart a little and then add some stuff. We'll take most of the pay out of your tip anyways. So, superhero, huh?"

David rolled his eyes. "Yeah. I'm gonna be a superhero."

Might as well embrace it, if everyone was gonna make fun of him for it.

"Gonna need a lot more than a fancy helmet then," Pilar chuckled. "Heroes get… zeroed! HAHAHA!"

"Idiot," Rebecca growled out.

"I have some ideas, but I have no clue where I would even start with one of them," David sighed.

"What is it?" Rebecca asked.

"Webs."

"Webs?" Pilar stopped, glancing back at David. "You fucking serious? Why do you want webs?"

"To swing on," David said.

"Oh yeah, that guy you talked about," Rebecca's eyes flashed gold, followed by Pilar's. "Spider-Man."

"What fucking retro bullshit is this?" Pilar said, glaring at nothing for a moment. "You want to copy some comic idiot?"

"Yes," David said. Once again. If he was going to be made fun of no matter what, he'd just embrace it. "I'm trying to figure out how to make his webs. Regular ones like the kind Biotechnica makes won't be as useful."

Pilar scoffed. "You need some chemical guy for that shit. I'm a techie."

"Barely," Rebecca said. "This is the first time in forever you've worked on something that wasn't a grenade."

"Grenade?" David asked, the siblings ignoring him.

"Shut up, I'm still the best, damnit!" Pilar said, annoyed. "All right, you gonk kid, besides webs," He said with heated sarcasm. "Should I look into making you something else? A spaceship, a bigger dick, what?"

David winced. "Um… upgrades to my jacket? Maybe modifying it to protect me better. And uh, a wingsuit."

"...A wingsuit," Pilar rubbed his chin. "Huh?"

"I just want more mobility around the city."

"Then buy a goddamn car," Pilar said.

"Can you do it, or what?" David finally asked, annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll figure out how much all this crap is and charge you after."

"Fairly!" Rebecca snapped.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't make your boytoy poor," Pilar said with an eyeroll. Before David could protest that, he had to catch his helmet. "Give me a day, kay?"

"All right," David sighed. "Thanks."

Pilar waved him off, his eyes glowing the orange of someone on a call.

"Come on, I'll walk you out," Rebecca said, hopping up to her feet.

"Actually," a thought struck David then. "What do you know about guns?"

"..." Rebecca's smile was damn near euphoric.

Just then, a message came in. David opened it.

Lucy: Hey, you free tonight?

He thought about it.

David: Maybe. What's up?
Lucy: F-Figured you wanted to do more of your gonk hero thing.
David: Probably. Trying to stop me?
Lucy: Idiot. I'll come along-come with.
David: Mind if I bring along someone?
Lucy: O-Only if they're okay with gonk shit.
David: I think she will be. What time?
Lucy: She-Never mind. I'll send d-deets.

After hanging up, David refocused on Rebecca. "You free today?"

"I am if it's about guns!" Rebecca said cheerfully.

David grinned. "Might need some lessons first."

"I can take you to the range."

"Preem. After that, you wanna come along for my patrol?

"Sure!" Rebecca grabbed an oversized jacket and thought for a moment. "You don't mind killing gonks, right?"

"I haven't tried it, but I don't mind if you do it."

"WORKS FOR ME!"

Chapter Text

Lucy and Rebecca eyed each other. Then they looked over at David. He blinked.

"What? What's wrong?"

"You didn't say Lucy was coming," Rebecca said with a curious lack of emotion.

"I didn't?" Thinking back, he realized she was right. "Sorry, I didn't think about it."

"Probably better to mention that next time," Lucy said with a very similar voice.

David cocked his head to the side, confused. Lucy and Rebecca sighed in unison, Lucy rubbing her forehead while Rebecca just shrugged. Deciding to push past it rather than acknowledge it, David continued.

"So uh. I just figured we'd patrol a bit, see if there is anyone we can help. And if we can, we can swipe any eddies we find from anyone we take down."

"Kill em and loot em, got it!" Rebecca said, pulling out her pistol and checking the chamber with professionalism before spinning it on a single finger with casualness.

David cringed. "I wouldn't put it like that-"

"Let's go!" Rebecca spun around, walking away confidently.

"Do you even have a plan for how you're going to find someone to 'help'?" Lucy asked Rebecca.

"Sure, just follow gunshots and screams!" The tiny teen said cockily.

Lucy sighed, but walked forward, leaving David to follow. He slung out his monowire and zipped up to a pole above, looking around briefly-

"What the hell!?" Rebecca yelped. "You can do that?"

"Uh… yeah. I figured out how to do it."

"Can you do that?" Rebecca asked Lucy.

"I was never gonk enough to try," Lucy said.

"Ha! Scaredy cat!" Rebecca taunted. "Anyways, you see anything, Dimples?"

"No. But I will," David said confidently. "Let's split up and stay on comms. That way we can cover more ground."

"Good idea," Lucy said. She started walking off. "Wanna see who finds trouble first?"

"You're on, Ice Queen!" Rebecca whooped, rushing off at a run, laughing.

"...At least they have the right attitude?" David said to himself hesitantly. He lashed out his wire and zipped off, swinging forward with his head on a swivel all the while.

Night City was a shithole. David had always known that. But it wasn't until he'd started patrolling it that the actual extent of shittiness really stuck with him.

Lucy and Rebecca, on the other hand, were used to ignoring the chaos, just like he once had, rather than going out of their way to confront it.

They stopped a few muggings, an attempted rape was interrupted by Rebecca shooting the guy's balls off, Lucy had to call in David to help with a store robbery, and now David was swinging after a van Lucy had seen someone get pulled into by Scavs.

Lucy and Rebecca had been closer and were following on foot, but obviously couldn't catch up, forcing David to come up with a way to stop the van.

Lucy:Just once, I wish someone would listen to traffic laws!
Rebecca: W-Who the fuck does!? Damnit, we need a car!
David: Don't worry, I've got it.
Lucy: I'll h-hack it, but you need to take out the driver before he can reset it.

David ran that through his head. Up ahead, he could see the van racing away. Lucy and Rebecca were behind it. As he zipped overhead, Lucy glanced up at him, then glared at the van, eyes glowing.

The van, barreling forward with the reckless speed of your average Night City driver, suddenly began to slow down. David poured on his momentum, wrapped his monowire around a streetlight, swung over the van, and landed next to the driver seat. Inside, he could see a woman desperately trying to restart the van. He grabbed the door and pulled, ripping the door off in a squeal of metal. The driver yelped, reaching for something that made his spider-sense scream.

In a single movement, he grabbed her out of her seat and pulled her out, spinning briefly before tossing her up into the air.

"FUUUUUU-" David ignored her screaming to backflip to the rear of the van, grabbing the doors and ripping them off as well.

"Blast 'em!" One of the two scavs within screamed. A storm of bullets flew towards David. He flipped through the air, sliding around the shots while his monowire wrapped around one of the scavs' necks, pulling him into a clothesline punch from David that sounded like it broke his neck.

The other scav desperately moved towards the woman they'd kidnapped, probably to use her as a hostage. Then he froze, eyes widening as sparks flashed from his chrome.

"Rebecca!" Lucy shouted.

"Fuck yeah!" A trio of bullets smashed into the scav, hitting him in a close grouping, one landing in his throat, while another one hit the van wall behind him. The scav fell, blood pouring from his open throat, bubbling with his last breaths.

And from the sky, the driver smashed down into the pavement. For a moment, David worried that she'd died, especially when he saw her blood. Then he noted the crying captive, and decided he didn't give a shit.

"You got her!?" Lucy called out to David.

He gently helped the woman out of the van, checking her over. She had chrome arms, legs, chest, practically everything. The red haired woman was also crying desperately. "I got you. I got you."

"O-Oh god," she was trembling as he guided her away from the van. "I-I thought I was going to die! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

David smiled behind his helmet, warmth filling him. "Not a problem."

"Just be more careful," Lucy said firmly. "You can't just go walking down dark alleys."

"I-I won't," the woman gasped, rubbing at her cheeks furiously.

"Hey, David!" Rebecca shouted. When David and Lucy looked at her, she was standing on top of the van, grinning. "Looks like we got a ride!"

"...That's not a bad idea, actually," Lucy said. "Need something to carry that dead assholes chrome in."

"Good," the woman was still wiping away tears, but she gave the dead and alive scavs a scowl. "It's what they deserve!"

David looked over the bodies, landing on the dead man. Then, sighing, he nodded. "I guess we have to… rip it out of him?"

"That'd be your job, muscles," Rebecca teased.

A moment of discomfort filled him. Then David swallowed, moving forward. He grabbed the chrome arm of the dead scav, and with a powerful pull, ripped metal away from flesh. The sound of flesh parting, metal squealing, before superhuman strength forced the arm out of it's attachment socket, filled the air, red spraying outwards.

At least the van was already bloody.

With the van, things became a bit easier. The girls could cover more ground, protect more people, and meet David faster.

An hour or two later, Rebecca was watching as David dueled with a Tyger Claw. Two others were on the ground, one dead from Rebecca shooting him in the chest six times, the other knocked out with broken legs.

"Just get out of the way, I'll shoot him in the goddamn head!"

"Nah, I got it!" David slid around a sword slice, backflipped over a stab, landed on the ground with a spin, then lashed out with his right foot, his sneaker smashing into the guy's chrome right arm in a powerful sidekick. There was a brief moment where hardened steel fought spider-strength, then cracked like glass. David's kick broke the arm, then hit the ribs behind it, shattering those, before the Tyger was tossed back, smashing into his bike and destroying it.

Rebecca and David stared at the Tyger before relaxing when they realized he wasn't about to rise up.

"Fuck!" Rebecca pulled the mag from her Unity, crouching down to begin pulling bullets from one of the Tyger's guns and placed them in her own magazine. "I can't believe I'm running out of ammo!"

"Sorry," David winced. "I don't ever need to worry about that on my own."

"Not your fault we live in a shithole, Dimples." Rebecca finished her reloading and sighed.

David looked over at the food stall owner they'd been defending from the murderous robbers. "You okay?"

"Yeah… yeah," the older man sighed, looking around at the mess around them. "Just need to clean up. Thanks though."

"No problem," David looked back at Rebecca, who was pulling out eddies from the pockets of the Tygers. David grabbed the unconscious guy who'd been shoved into the bike and pulled him over to the others. David looked him over briefly before sighing and tossing him down onto his dead and alive friends.

"Hey," Rebecca and David turned to see Lucy walk over. She looked fine, if a little exhausted. "All done?"

"Yep. You?"

"Just a scav trying to sell trapped shards," Lucy said, smirking just a bit. "Got some cash off of him."

"Ugh. Scavs," Rebecca spat to the side, grumbling.

"I have his chrome, left it with the rest in the van with that giant pile of guns…"

"Hehehehe," Rebecca cackled quietly to herself, walking by with a new armful of guns and ammunition. "This is the best day!"

"So we're keeping the guns?" Lucy asked dryly, though she smiled fondly when Rebecca wasn't looking. Turning back to David, she continued. "Who are we selling the chrome to?" Lucy asked.

"Hm…" David looked around. Then he shrugged. "I know a place."

"Heeeey, Davy!" Doc glanced at David, now helmetless, from his chair, grinning casually. A machine on his hips was… pumping. He ignored it, and didn't seem inclined to turn it off as he continued to enjoy its services. "Finally selling that Sandy?"

David grimaced at the looks Rebecca and Lucy gave him. "I told you, it's gone. Found a buyer."

"Ahhh, dat's a crying shame dat is. Ah well. How can I help ya?"

David held out the giant trash bag in his hands, dropping it on the floor. "You able to resell chrome?"

"You know I am. What, you joining the scavs now?" Doc leered at Lucy and Rebecca. "If they're this pretty, I can see why, hehehe!"

Lucy gave him a lazy middle finger, while Rebecca scowled. Doc just chuckled again.

"Most of this is from scavs, you dickhead," Rebecca said, crossing her arms. David walked in, the girls following. "Figured fair was fair."

"I agree," Doc lazily removed the machine on his waist, sighing happily while zipping up and moving over to the bag. Opening it up, he looked over the parts within. A pair of arms, one leg, smaller things like chips and a couple of optics. While one of the arms was a crappy one from the dead scav, the others had been left in the van, definitely stolen from other victims.

It had sucked, ripping the first arm out, but David had felt less guilty when they found the other parts. Plus they were scavs. David was sure even Peter could have understood.

"Hm… most of this is crap. Can't sell it for anything but bits."

David scoffed. "Liar. Come on, Doc, I'm not trying to upsell. Just give us a fair price."

"I always give a fair price!" Doc rose up from the bag and walked closer to David. Then he frowned. He walked closer, looking over David, which felt very weird.

That was when David realized why that was so weird. Until now, everyone David had interacted with either hadn't known him before, or didn't give a shit. Doc was the only person alive who really knew him before his spider-powers… and fuck, how sad was that?

"Damn, boyo. You lookin big. Last time I saw you, you was skinnier than your dick!"

"Fuck you," David grumbled, ignoring Rebecca's giggle.

"Seriously, you get that Mr. Studd makeover?" Doc poked at his chest, only to cock his head in confusion. "Nah, dat's all organic! You went for them expensive biomods?"

"I drank my cactus juice and ate my locust pizza everyday. You want the chrome or not?" David finally snapped.

"Eeeeeasy, Davy!" Doc chuckled, backing away. "Fine, fine. I'll give you a fair price. Otherwise I think that little hellion is gonna zero me."

David glanced over at Rebecca, who was idly cleaning one of her Unitys -- the pink one -- with its barrel casually pointed in Doc's direction. She gave David a friendly smile. Lucy, on the other hand, was glaring at Doc with glowing eyes, ready to unleash Netrunner hell.

The rush of warmth he felt at that made him smile. He turned back to Doc, who was rubbing his chin. "I'm gonna say… 30,000. Generous price for this shit."

David looked over at the girls. Rebecca shrugged, but Lucy nodded immediately. "Done."

Doc's eyes glowed, and a moment later, the eddies flowed into David's account. He quickly sent Lucy and Rebecca their shares. Turning away, David started walking off. "Thanks. Goodbye, Doc."

"Hey, Davy. Could use someone to keep selling those BD's." Doc teased.

"I'm good. Have a nice life."

"I always do! Now, where is that pocket pus-" The doors shut as David and the girls walked out, leaving Rebecca to glance up at him.

"That perv was your ripperdoc?" She asked.

"Not anymore. My new ripperdoc is the one near Lizzie's, Ash."

"The Watson Widow!?" Rebecca yelped.

"The what?" David asked, befuddled.

"The Watson Widow! Some of the Mox girls call her that!" Rebecca said.

"I've never heard of her," Lucy frowned.

"That's cause the Mox girls think you're a bitch!" Rebecca taunted immediately.

"I doubt that," Lucy said without missing a beat.

"Tch. Come on, Dimples, I still need to take you shooting."

"Sure. You coming?" David looked over at Lucy.

She shrugged. "Sure, I'll interrupt your date."

Rebecca pouted, her cheeks filling up with air, but pulled David along anyways.

He lifted the pistol in his hand. Aimed at the target across from him. For a long moment, he clutched the handle, trying to be gentle, and prepared to pull-

Red hair resting on pavement, blood pooling around her.

"...Fuck," David lowered the Unity in his hands, placing it on the counter in front of him.

"Hm?" Rebecca leaned into his field of view from his right, her hands behind her head. "What's wrong?"

David looked over at her, then at the target. "...My mom. Everytime I try to pull the trigger, I just… I think about her."

"Yer mom? What, you worried about disappointing her?" She said that with sarcastic casualness, and flinched at the look he gave her.

She didn't know. David forced himself to calm down, guilt filling him for getting mad about that. "She died. A few days ago."

Had it really been so short a time?

Rebecca flinched again, but this time she was the one who seemed guilty. "Fuck. Sorry, David."

"You couldn't have known," David glanced at her, then at the Unity. "I just think about her. Lying on the ground, bloo-" He stopped, sucking in a breath. Rebecca gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He continued. "It's easy for me to hit people, use my monowires. But she got shot, and when I think of using a gun too, I just freeze up."

He swallowed a breath. "Sorry."

"Hey, it's okay," Rebecca leaned into his view again, forcing him to meet her eyes as she smiled sadly. "You don't need to explain it. Is that why you decided to do this?"

"Spider-Man? Kind of. But I also sort of felt, I don't know, lost? I needed it," he took his helmet off the hook at his waist and rested it on the counter. He eyed it for a moment as it flickered on, displaying the two familiar eye graphics.

"...Okay, try this," Rebecca grabbed the helmet. Before David could respond, she began putting it on his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Just trust me, choom!" Rebecca said cheerfully, securing the helmet on his head. Once done, she stepped away. "Okay! This time, when you pull the trigger, it won't be David shooting. It'll be Spider-Man."

"...Are you serious?"

"Just try it!" she pouted heavily, cheeks filling with air. It made her look more adorable than intimidating.

Letting out a huff, he reached for the Unity.

"Remember! Spider-Man! Not David."

David sighed. Then Spider-Man lifted up the gun. He sighted on the target. He forced himself to think that way. He wasn't David. He wasn't someone who had lost his mother. He was Spider-Man, someone who did what was needed, a hero, who just had to-

"BAM!"

David froze. The recoil had surprised him, sending the gun upwards an inch. Rebecca leaned in to look at the target. "Awwww. You missed!"

He had. But he'd still pulled the trigger. David lifted the gun again, breathing deeply. Just focus. He was Spider-Man. He had to save people. So he…

Mom smiling at him from the couch, then lying in pain on the pavement.

He pulled the trigger, but couldn't focus. He tried again but couldn't do it.

"...Hey, it's still nova!" Rebecca patted him on the back, comforting him, then grinning at the target. "At least you did it!"

"..." David gave her a look. She glanced up and coughed.

"Y-You'll get better! At least you shot!"

"Yeah… thanks, Becca."

She grinned up at him happily. "No problem, choom! You wanna try more guns?"

"Yeah!" David lowered the gun in his hand, looking it over. "Got anything bigger? I think I like big guns."

"David," Rebecca purred. "You're a man after my own heart? You flirt."

David felt heat rise up his face, and was thankful for the mask when Lucy walked in from where she'd been talking to the shop owner. She glanced between them. "Everything okay?"

"Everything is perfect! I'm gonna get something bigger." Rebecca winked up at him and rushed off. Lucy arched an eyebrow at David, who coughed and quickly turned away.

Lucy walked over, looking down the range at the target. She nodded to herself. "Nice. I guess she's not doing that dual wielding thing."

"Dual wielding?" David asked.

"I think she saw it in a BD once."

The rest of the night was nice. Lucy and Rebecca had hung out with him at the range, the girls competing a bit. Rebecca won on bullets fired, if not on pure accuracy. Seeing the tiny girl unleash hell with dual pistols ("Yeah, I saw it in Bushido 3! It was so preem!") while giggling happily was a trip.

David had a bit more trouble with it, but with Rebecca and Lucy supporting him he managed to fire a few more times. That night, with all the money he'd made, he laid his head down in his apartment, the Spider-Man helmet sat next to him on his bed. Just before he passed out, the spider-eye graphics flickered for a moment before shutting off again.

Author's Note: Next chapter. David does a job with Maine's crew where more of his abilities come into play. Falco interacts with characters. And something happens that threatens to make David famous.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

A day after their first patrol, Maine hit up David, asking him to join him at the same garage he’d picked up Pilar’s package from. There, Maine placed a purple Unity pistol on the table they were sitting under.

“Rebecca said you’ve been practicing with her. Feel up to using that?” Maine asked casually.

In answer, David lifted the Unity briefly. He eyed it for a moment, then put it down. “I’m good. Rebecca got me some options.”

“Oh yeah?” Maine gave a teasing grin for some reason? Weird. “Spending a lot of time with her, eh?”

 "And Lucy,” David hummed to himself.

“Might be stretching yourself a bit thin,” Maine chuckled.

“What? No, they’re both great. We’ve been going at it together, and whenever we’re at my apartment-”

“Wha-both of them?” Maine’s sunglasses fell down his nose as he stared at David in shock. “In your apartment?”

“Yeah?” David said, befuddled. “Whenever we aren’t on the streets.”

“You mean… you three… in public?”

David frowned at the look on Maine’s face but pushed through. “Anyways, we’re all doing fine.”

“Clearly,” Maine mumbled, looking impressed for some reason. “Guess you don’t my help with those two. I’m gonna give you some advice anyways, kid. From now on, whenever you leave the house? You check for your wallet, your condom, and your gun. Even those fancy biomods of yours need a backup plan, got it?”

“Got it,” David agreed. 

Biomods. Everyone thought that. Where had his powers come from? Ash had done some research into it, but nothing concrete came out. That spider had come out of nowhere and suddenly he had all these powers?

“One more thing,” Maine interrupted David’s tangent and got up, David following. He gave David a grin as they walked over to his car. “If you’re gonna cause trouble in Night City. You need to learn how to ride.”

David gaped at him, then at Maine’s Quadra. “You’re gonna let me drive your car!?”

“Just for a bit. Here, I’ll show you how I drive, then let you give it a shot.” Maine hopped into the driver's seat, somehow folding his massive chromed up body into the relatively small seat.

David spent a moment to wonder why he was so excited when he could move pretty quick with his monowire and powers. Then he just hopped in. 

Cars were nova man! “Let’s go!”

Maine immediately peeled out.

“Oh go-” David held on as the Quadra poured on the acceleration. The sudden burst surprised him, especially when his spider-sense didn’t activate to warn him, but he gripped the top of the window and got control over himself to grin.

Maine sped through the streets around the warehouse, then sped off until they hit the I-9, zipping out of the city while sliding around other cars on the road, the giant man cackling. David found himself laughing as well. Mid-way through the ride, David hopped out to land on the carroof, surfing the Quadra.

“Hahahaha!” Maine cackled, pushing his car faster and taking David for a ride, the Spider-Man leaning back and forth with every veer.

“This is so nova!” David crowed, laughing happily as he stood atop the speeding vehicle, wind in his hair and sun shining down on the desert around them. They came peeling to a stop near an rundown motel with a sign labeled ‘Sunset’ atop it. David hopped off the car, Maine coming out to share a grin with David.

“Now that was fun, kid,” Maine chuckled. “Glad you’re in the spirit!” He slapped the top of his car. “Driving a car. Has a lot with edgerunning.”

“Because you use your car for it?” David asked.

“Nah kid. Think more big picture,” Maine said with a deep chuckle. “Driving and edgerunning. You could always try to do them safely. Just coast along, stay under the radar. But what’s the point!? You can’t be like those gonks working behind counters and skating by, fucking zombies. We gotta live. If that means dying, at least we died having fun instead of pissing in the wind.”

David felt drawn by Maine’s speech for a moment. But something about Maine’s words just… didn’t fit. After the few days he’d had, the things he’d done and learned from everyone, people like Ash and Rebecca? 

He could live with the idea of having a fun life, but dying in a blaze of glory just…

“Anyways, your turn. Start her up!”

“What?” David blinked, glancing between the car and Maine. “SHouldn’t I learn a bit more?”

“You know the accelerator?”

“Yeah?”

“Brake?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re good!” Maine said, raising a thumb up. “Get in!”

“But-”

“Come on kid!” Maine opened the door and guided David into the driver’s seat. “Just stop and go. Don’t need more than that.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re skipping steps.”

“Naaaah. Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk!” Maine said as he hopped into the passenger seat.

“That doesn’t make se-”

“Hit it!”

David barely hesitated before pressing his foot down. The Quadra burst forward, heading right towards the gas station nearby. David’s spider-sense screamed. He turned the wheel quickly, trying to be careful not to rip the wheel right out of the dashboard in his panic, and got it onto the highway. Still pressing on the accelerator, they raced across the desert, speeding into the city.

“Yeah, push it kid!” Maine crowed. “This girl can handle it!”

David lost the slight edge of panic the longer they drove. They dived around other cars on the road, wheels skidding just a bit at times, spinning around corners. He tried to follow his spider-senses cues. Driving was both easier and harder than he thought. 

Even with his powers, a car driving at high speed felt like he was trying to control a wild animal sometimes. It was a hell of a thrill!

“Nice, kid!” Maine chuckled. He looked outside the window briefly, then nodded to himself. “Fuck, we got time. Take us to Arroyo.”

“Arroyo?” David asked, startled. His neighborhood?

“Yeah kid,” Maine grinned at him. “Let’s have your first street race.”

Maine, as it turned out, was a racing fan. And somewhat of an amateur racer as well. He explained while they waited at the starting line. Maine, after taking a data shard from one of the race organizers, sat on his hood, arms crossed, while David hung upside down on his monowire from a nearby light pole.

He wasn’t sure why. Just… felt comfortable?

“Jim Jarry’s the organizer for it,” Maine said, eyes following David as he swayed back and forth in front of him. “Man makes sure everyone who enters gets their fair due. The races go wild, gonks shooting out tires and shit, but outright murder doesn’t get you invited back unless it’s self defense.”

“Don’t the cops stop it?” David asked. “Or try, I guess.”

“Nah. They’ll make a token effort, but as long as we ain’t zeroing people on the streets or messing with their bottom line, they don’t give a shit.”

David scowled. Technically, he didn’t have a problem with racing. But getting reminded of how shitty the NCPD was again made him want to punch a wall. The number of times he’d seen the police stopping crime was almost 0. They did it more often in the city center or richer neighborhoods. Usually by shooting them rather than arresting them.

“Oy, Maine,” David’s dark thoughts were cut into by a man walking over to join them. A man in a dusty black vest and torn jeans, with a symbol of a ram skull on the patch on his shirt, with an ‘Aldecado’ label atop it in stylized letters. His hair was combed neatly, split down the middle and set into a bowl cut.

He also had a very impressive mustache.

“Luigi,” Maine grunted, lips flickering upwards. “Still driving that piece of shit Galena?”

“Never could appreciate The Rat, could you?” Luigi seemed unbothered. He looked over Maine’s Quadra. “Thought you quit.”

“Took a break is all. Besides, I ain’t racing. He is,” Maine pointed a thumb at David.

Luigi looked at him. David waved upside down. “Hiya.”

“Seriously?” Luigi asked, looking David over in confusion. “Maine, kid can’t be older than 18!”

“He’s got talent, what can I say? Hey Margot,” Maine directed to a woman who walked over, her long jacket sharing the same ‘Aldecado’ logo. She had a wrinkled face, but was still pretty, with dust in her long brown hair, a chipper smile on her face as she placed an arm around Luigi, leaning against him.

“Been a while, Maine. Finally racing?”

“He’s letting the tyke drive,” Luigi said.

“Really?” Margot still smiled at David, though she looked a bit worried. “Well, he’s older than you were when you started.”

“We’re Nomads. We’re born with engine oil on our fingers. Kid’s a tourist.”

“Kid’s got a name,” David twisted to land on the ground, standing to his full height until he was looking down at the pair. “David. And I’m racing.”

“...” Luigi’s smile became just a bit savage. “All right. I like his attitude at least. Just don’t expect to win.”

David pouted. Damnit. He couldn’t care less about this shit, but now he really wanted to win.

“Ah, don’t sweat ‘em,” Maine said, punching David lightly on the shoulder. “I don’t give a shit if you win. I just want you to race.”

“All racers!” Some guy stepped out onto the road, his voice echoing a bit from whatever chrome he was using to increase his volume. “Get into your vehicles!”

“Good luck, tourist,” Luigi taunted, walking away. David scowled, but got into the car, Maine entering the passenger seat.

“Seriously kid. Don’t worry about Luigi. He’s an honest racer. Worry about the other gonks.”

“The other gonks?”

“Yeah. Just so that they don’t end up shooting my baby up too bad.”

“People shoot each other. During a car race.” David said that with the dryest of tones, somehow both surprised and unsurprised all at once.

“Hey, it’s the way the game goes. Race wouldn’t be worth a damn if there wasn’t any risk.” Maine chuckled. Maine slotted a shard into the car, the one he’d gotten from a race organizer. “Anyways, the car should have the race route now. Just hook into it and follow the checkpoints on your HUD.

“...” David decided to simply sigh and place his hands on the wheel. Okay. Just needed to get from point A to point B.

As Maine said, the instant David connected to the cars system, he could see the checkpoint in the distance, glowing in the distance. That was nice.

“Racers!” A very attractive woman in short shorts stood in front of the group. She waved a chromed up arm, the fingertips alight with cerulean fire. “On your marks!”

David clutched the steering wheel, only to hold back a bit when he realized it was beginning to creak. Maine was casually leaning back in his seat with his arms behind his back, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Get set!”

Cars began to rev their engines. David did the same, trying not to overdo it.

“That’s good. Just get it nice and warm,” Maine hummed, smiling.

“Aaaand!” The woman raised her arm high. David gritted his teeth. The arm sliced down. “GO!” 

The cars exploded forward. The woman leaped up and out of the way before the front two cars could run her over. And David smashed the pedal down, dropping back into his seat as the car zipped forth. 

Just like that, they were racing. David spun the wheel on instinct when his spider-sense screamed, barely dodging one of the racers trying to smash into him. He twisted it the other way and pressed on the accelerator again, sending the car into the open and rushing forward.

“WOOOOO!” Maine cheered, a wide catlike grin on his face.

The cars sped forth as a whole, winding down the road, sometimes smashing into each other with incredible force. David barely dodged another car, then forced Maine’s Quantra to spin around the corner, the next checkpoint popping up in front of him. 

“Go, go, go!” Maine popped his head out the window, his pistol in hand. “No you don’t!”

“BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!”

“HAHAHA!” Maine laughed, whooping as David continued pushing the pedal to the medal. “Got a tire!” 

Was David smiling? Why?

Whatever the reason, he was still pushing the accelerator down. Right up until a guy pulled up to his left and sped forward to smash into the side of the car. They raced past old dilapidated homes in Rancho Coranado, one guy smashing across a lawn and taking out some flamingos.

“SHIT!” David shouted, the window exploding across him. He barely covered his head, then snapped up to glare at the offending vehicle, which was trying to hit him again. David reached a hand out and punched out the window, his fist slamming into the window. The guy inside squealed as David grabbed him by the neck.

David and the guy had a brief moment where their eyes met, the guys eyes wide with confusion and horror.

“Oh NOOOOOOOO!” The guy squealed as David ripped him out of the window and tossed him upwards, leaving him to land on the road behind the car, the poor guy barely avoiding getting run over.

“HOLY SHIT!” The driver squealed, David just barely hearing him before the guy tried to hit David’s car again.

“HA!” Maine’s cry was followed by a dozen shots into the side panel, popping the tire out and sending the car spinning away. “Hahaha, that was fucking great, kid!”

“Hehe!” The side of David’s lips rose up as he pulled to the left, dodging around another car.

They were in fifth place now. Luigi was up ahead in third, with some kind of giant tank of a car up in the front. When someone approached the guy in the front, he simply sped up or smashed it aside

“Damn, that guy is good,” Maine mumbled. “Wonder what he has under the hood of that beast?”

“Is that a problem?” 

“Nah, just avoid the fucking tank. Focus on the guy in front of ya!”

David did as asked. The car in front of them was nice. Not as modified as the others, but it was some kind of Quadra and it was fast. 

“Hold on, I got ‘em!” Maine leaned out of the window, his pistol raised.

“BOOM BOOM!”

Unlike the other times Maine shot the tire, nothing happened. 

“Did you miss !?” David asked.

“Not a chance!” Maine shot again, only to shout in annoyance. “FUCK! His tires are reinforced or something!” Maine slipped back into the car, annoyed. “Gotta outrace him!”

“I got it,” David spun around a corner, close behind the front four racers, and held his breath when the race course headed up the side of a mountain. He had to slow down to take the turns there, a series of cars that had been following David ending up taking turns too fast and flying off the road to go rolling down the mountain.

There were seven cars left now. Two behind David, five ahead. They were nearing the end, a bridge high above them. David took one more turn. The Quandra ahead of them was almost close enough to pass.

Then the back of it opened up. David blinked, surprised at the sight of that, before something spat out of the hole there.

“FUCKING ASSHOLE!” Maine shouted in horror. “SPIKES!”

David stared at the shining metal strip of metal. Nowhere to escape. There was a car racing behind them, a wall of stone to their left, and a drop down the mountain to the right. 

He froze up as his spider-sense screamed. David tried to turn, despite knowing it wouldn’t work. The front right tire hit the spike strips at top speed, the car spinning out of control as the sound of popped tires filled the air, followed by the Maine’s car slamming into the back of the car in front of them. 

They approached the edge of the next steep turn, then went flying over the cliff.

David grabbed Maine, moving on instinct, ripping his car door open as they fell through the air, and leaped out, a screaming Maine held in one arm. They smashed into the side of the steep mountain, rolling for a moment before David stuck to the wall and held onto Maine.

Bruised but otherwise intact, they watched as Maine’s car rolled down the mountainside. It came to a stop. David winced, waiting for the inevitable.

“...That guy was an asshole,” Maine grumbled. “Spike strips! Seriously. Anyways, get us down there, kid.”

“Uh… are you sure?” David asked hesitantly. “Isn’t your car going to explode?”

“Wha- NO! You gonk! This ain’t an action movie!”

David felt a little embarrassed, and slowly began wallcrawling down towards the car. “Sorry about… you know. Your car.”

“Ahhhh, it’s cool kid. I’ll call Falco to pick us up and get a shop to fix her up. I knew I was risking  it with a newbie anyways. But hey, you did great! You ain’t a natural, but you got potential!”

David shrugged. “It was pretty fun until the end. Maybe I can keep doing it? Just need to buy a car.”

“Hey, just gotta look on the net. Always people getting rid of ‘em. You can get some of the money I won to start you off. Hehehehe,” Maine said, eagerly rubbing his hands together.

“...You won money? We didn’t finish!”

“I bet Luigi you’d last till the end, and this counts! HAHAHA!” Maine barked out as he swung under David, greed in his eyes. “Even when I lose I win!”

David sighed, continuing to climb, but couldn’t help the smile on his face as Maine continued to crow and the race finished up high above them.

He’d had worse days.

Author's Note: No points for guessing what was his worst day.

Chapter Text

The day that David went to the race with Maine, Falco drove over to pick them up, dropping David off in front of Lucy's apartment in Japantown. Lucy was waiting in front of it, cocking an eyebrow at David's dusty clothes as Falco and a laughing Maine drove off.

"Have fun?"

"Yeah. Maine took me racing."

"Did you win?"

David chuckled nervously, which was answer enough. Lucy smirked but otherwise didn't tease him. "All right. So, what's next?"

"More patrolling?" David asked. "I know we've been doing it a lot though."

"I don't mind," Lucy shrugged, stepping away from him and forcing him to follow. "Rebecca coming?"

"Yeah."

"Fine," Lucy sounded bemused, but otherwise just lazily walked along. "Let's go be gonks, then."

"You mean heroes?"

"In Night City? Same thing."

David felt himself smiling. She said stuff like that a lot, but she somehow still joined up with him and Rebecca. Maybe she did like him.

"What's that smile for?" Lucy said suspiciously when she looked back and noticed him smiling, cocking her eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing. Come on, let's go!"

Running forward, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along, getting a small yelp before she followed along.

The next couple of weeks became a little bit routine. David would wake up, put his clothes on, and head out to meet the others. He got used to his day having a certain order. Grabbing breakfast in the form of a few XXL Burritos (he got a lot hungrier after gaining his powers), and then meeting one of the people he was beginning to think of as his 'tech' team. Pilar, very rarely, called him with updates on the tech David had asked him for, or called him in to make some changes to his helmet in preparation for said updates.

More often he would stop by Ash. Not just for check ups, but to learn more comic book stuff. Or as Ash called it, 'lore'.

Which was how Maine ended up meeting her. That was… interesting.

"Man, people really obsessed over these rags?" Maine asked, looking through a comic book depicting someone called 'The Incredible Hulk'. It was one of a few comic books Ash had created replicas of for David to peruse, refusing to allow the actual books to be read at risk of damaging them.

"People obsess over weirder things," Ash said uncaringly as she read her own comic with two of her hands, sometimes looking at the other two as they worked on David's arms. "Davey, you're gonna need some real web-shooters, I think. Monowire is working, but I'm worried one day you'll have to pull something big enough that it'll cause some real damage to your arms."

"I'm working on it," David sighed. "Kinda hard to do."

Maine flipped another page and chuckled. "Could always just replace your arms. Chrome doesn't break as easily. And if it does, you can replace it."

"I'm more worried about him dealing with it during a mission," Ash said. "His biomods let him heal faster than anyone I've ever seen, so he doesn't need to worry about damage for long, but webs would stop the damage from happening in the middle of a fight."

"Huh. Never met a fullborg who was against more chrome," Maine said. He grinned at her. "Gotta say, that's some impressive hardware. Always thought about going full on like you."

"You want to go fullborg?" David asked.

"Why not? Fullborgs are damn near invincible, kid. Even older models are fucking powerhouses," Maine said excitedly. "But I'm gonna wait for a bit. Need to try out my new toy."

"Oh yeah, the Sandy," David mumbled. Funny, he'd almost forgotten about it.

"Yeah, that baby is going to make me next level. The kid ever tell you about it?" Maine asked Ash with a smug grin.

"Once or twice? He never said it was anything special though."

"Ohhh, it's special. Take with me everywhere just to make sure no one steals it. Here, take a look!" Maine pulled out the Sandy from his jacket.

Just as David remembered it, it was a big piece of metal-grey hardware. As Ash's eyes widened at the sight of it, David felt a hint of melancholy at the sight. In many ways, it was one of the three things that had changed his life. The Sandy. The spider. And the drive-by.

"Holy shit," Ash hissed out, putting down her comic book to focus on the device in question. "That's… this is not just a Sandevistan. David, where the hell did you find this thing?"

"My mom," David said, trying to sound casual. Ash's eyes flickered over to him, which made him think he'd failed, but continued to speak. "She was an EMT. She got it off some guy who died fighting MaxTac."

"Lucky me," Maine said gleefully.

"This is…" Ash's eyes flashed as she looked over the Sandy. "Experimental, has to be. The specs on this are way above anything I've ever seen. No wonder that guy ended up fighting MaxTac, his brain must have been getting cooked."

"Guess he couldn't handle it," Maine chuckled. "Perfect for me."

"For you?" Ash's eyes finally left the Sandy to look at Maine, her eyes still shining. Then she frowned. "How much of you is chrome? Forty, maybe close to fifty percent?"

"Just about," Maine said proudly.

Ash's eyes flickered, two of her hands beginning to close up David's arms. She leaned on her other arms, focused on Maine. "Well, installing this thing is going to be a lot. It's going to take up most of your spinal cord, for a start. Have you discussed this with anyone? A priest maybe?"

"A priest? I'm not looking for religion," Maine scuffed.

"I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about your psyche," Ash said just a bit pointedly. "Even talking to family, friends, people who can keep you grounded."

Maine scuffed. "Ha, you're one of those rippers, huh?"

"One with repeat customers?" Ash asked sweetly. "Yes. You see, I prefer the people I help to survive their chrome long enough to come back to me. More sustainable profits."

"Yeah, yeah," Maine waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. This little guy ain't gonna do more than get me to the next level."

Ash shook her head. "The reason you're excited about this thing is the same reason I'm concerned. If this guy died fighting MaxTac while piloting this damned thing, he was a cyberpsycho."

Her eyes panned back to the Sandy. Where before her eyes had been awed, almost admiring, she now looked at it like it was about to explode. "It's dangerous."

"I'm dangerous," Maine scoffed, beginning to look annoyed. "Night City is dangerous. This is just another piece of chrome, and I can handle my chrome."

"It's not a matter of handlin- God save me," Ash rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing. She stopped to give Maine a look. "Look, in my professional opinion? You need to double check everything before you install this. I can clean this for you, make sure the manufacturers didn't put in any sort of backdoors, that it'll interact with the rest of your chrome without problems. Would that be okay?"

Maine shook his head without even waiting for Ash to finish. "Look, I told you. It's fine. I've got a guy lined up to install it for me already."

"Your usual ripperdoc?" Ash asked.

"I don't have a usual ripperdoc, I pick who does the job best."

Ash stared at him. Maine stared back, long since losing the little smirk he'd had for most of the conversation. Finally she handed the Sandy back to him and turned away. "Fine. I gave my professional opinion. Whatever happens from here is on you."

"Oh, don't you worry," Maine chuckled, patting the Sandy before slipping it back into his coat. "I'm a very responsible guy."

David looked back and forth between them, swallowing quickly. That had been oddly tense.

"Never expected a fullborg of all people to try and talk me out of this," Maine said idly.

Ash closed her eyes, took a small breath, then opened them again. "I'm not trying to talk you out of it. I'm trying to talk you into doing it safely. I didn't become a fullborg without a lot of psychological prep work, understanding what the change would do to my life."

"Heh," Maine shook his head, chuckling. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing, old hag."

Despite the teasing nickname, Ash didn't respond beyond a raised eyebrow.

Maine's eyes flickered gold, the telltale sign of a call coming in. "Hey kid, I gotta answer this. I'll wait outside."

David nodded, watching him go, then looking at Ash. "Sorry, I didn't realize you guys would fight like that."

"...Back in the day, a priest was the closest thing to a real therapist street folk like us could afford," Ash said with some melancholy. "Someone to listen to your problems without judgment. Me? I was never good at that. I'm way too noisy with my opinions."

That was all she said before finishing up with him and sending him on his way. Outside, Maine was waiting by his car, as promised. The Spider-Man and edgerunner entered the car. After leaving the clinic behind them, David finally spoke up.

"So, uh… you got a problem with my ripperdoc?"

"Nope. She's good," Maine said without missing a beat. When David gave him a skeptical look, Maine only chuckled. "Kid, I don't gotta like a ripperdoc to know that they're doing a good job."

"So when you guys were arguing…"

"Ah, that's just some old crap, kid," Maine scoffed. "Elderly folk are funny that way. How old is she, anyways?"

"I don't know?" David said honestly. "I think she talks about the eighties a lot?"

"Damn," Maine whistled. "Well, take whatever she says with a grain of salt, kid. Don't be the kind of gonk to just listen to everybody who shows up, eh?"

"I'll keep that in mind," David said, thinking about when Ash told him something similar.

Was he going to be as weird as Maine and Ash when he got older? David briefly wished he could see what Peter was like as he got older, past when the comics had been canceled. Maybe spider-powers helped make you act less weird as an adult?

In the end, David wasn't sure what to think of those two interacting. On the other hand, there was what happened when he introduced Rhino to Dorio for a training session.

"Didn't your dad used to run with the Animals?" Rhino asked, crossing her arms as she met Dorio's eyes.

"He did. Then he died, I tried to kill one of them, and then I became an Edgerunner."

David stared at Dorio, who seemed completely unbothered while admitting to trying to kill one of Rhino's people!?

"Yeah? Huh." Rhino blinked. Then she looked around the gym they were in. It was in David's Megabuilding, on the seventh floor of his building, made by the landlords but modified over the years by the tenants, like any other apartment in the city. There was a makeshift fighting ring that was really a bunch of thick and beat-up mats, beat up old barbells and dumbbells that David could now toss around like paper, and some really sweaty people working their butts off.

Or taking selfies while pretending to workout, in one guy's case.

"Well, you're a fighter too, right?" Rhino asked, seemingly rolling past the issue of Dorio's past without even worrying about it.

"Yeah," Dorio lifted a challenging fist, getting a savage grin from Rhino. "Wanna test me?"

"Hell yes!" Rhino slammed her fist into Dorio's, both muscular women laughing in unison.

"What the hell just happened?" David asked, befuddled.

"Ah, you'll figure it out someday," Dorio chuckled, removing her jacket and moving to the ring, Rhino following while stretching out her muscles. "Now, watch and learn how real fighters roll, kid."

"Yeah," Rhino said smugly. "I'll show you how to beat a bitch like a drum."

"And I'll show you how to turn a smug cunt into chum."

"Uh…" David glanced at the two. How could people insult each other and still look so damn happy to hang out… or in this case, beat each other up?

"On three?" Rhino asked, raising her fists up.

"One," Dorio said while licking her lips.

"Two," Rhino bounced from one foot to the other, laughing under her breath.

"THREE!"

Both women rushed in and started hitting each other.

It didn't take long for the display of skill to draw an audience, and then gamblers. David would have enjoyed it more if they didn't decide to pull him into the fight as well.

He'd learned a lot though. As it turned out, while Dorio and Rhino were both fighters, the only style they really shared was kickboxing.

It was enough to start learning, starting with how to punch correctly, rather than just lashing out. He knew intellectually there was a difference, Rhino had mentioned it, but that wasn't the same as actually doing it. With his super-strength, he could easily knock a car over, but with Rhino and Dorio teaching him, he didn't have to work as hard to do it.

Dorio, chuckling, said they were teaching him Spider-Fu. Rhino didn't get it, but David liked it.

It helped on the next mission Maine pulled him in on.

"I don't get it," David said, leaning back on his couch. Lucy sat on his right, Rebecca on his left, with the rest of Maine's crew casually seated across from them, all cool as cucumbers. Well, all except Kiwi, who never seemed relaxed in a real sense. "We're going in to hack the Scavs? Why not just knock them out and take the computers?"

"And this is why muscleheads shouldn't talk about computers," Kiwi huffed. "The client wants the information on the network, not the actual computers. We need an active connection."

"What do they want?"

"Scavs are rats, but they're more organized than you'd think," Maine explained, flipping a toothpick between his lips with every word. "Some of them talk to each other."

"Yeah, and it ain't all tips on how to jerk off over ripping chrome out of people," Pilar said, cackling just a bit, ignoring the disgusted looks the others gave him.

"Scavs on the streets are thugs, but they do have leaders. People looking for specific chrome, fitted for specific body types," Kiwi said lazily.

Maine nodded. "And sometimes when some big wig or someone off the street with family to care about them gets kidnapped by the Scavs, a Fixer will send us a job to try and find info on whoever kidnapped them. Best way is to find out who is asking for what."

David nodded, scratching the back of his head. "All right, so what's the plan?"

"Something kinda crazy," Dorio sighed, glaring at Maine. The big man himself only grinned.

"How much can you carry while you do your fly on a wall trick?"

David blinked. Lucy and Kiwi, the hackers of the group, glanced at each other, then gave Maine a look of pure hatred.

"This is mortifying," Kiwi grumbled behind David.

"It could be worse!" Rebecca said cheerfully as she swung underneath them.

"How could it possibly be worse!?" Lucy shouted, her fingers digging into David's shoulders.

"We could be falling!"

"Do not say that!"

David, in the meantime, just kept on moving his arms and legs. Just keep moving them. Don't think about the three women strapped to you. The three very attractive women pressed closely to you, bouncing and rubb-

David cut off that thought and decided he was in hell. And based on the way Lucy, Rebecca, and Kiwi sometimes glanced at him, they knew exactly what he was thinking, even under his helmet.

Hundreds of feet in the air, far above where any sane person would go, in the shadow of a skyscraper, David carefully crawled. The three edgerunners were strapped to him by safety ropes, but in truth David didn't really need the ropes. He was easily able to hold them to him with his wall-crawling.

An underrated power, as it turned out. As long as David gave even a fraction of thought to it, he could attach anything of any size to his body and it couldn't be removed short of ripping off pieces of his body with it.

Hell, if it wouldn't be awkward as fuck to manuever, he could have easily carried the entirety of Maine and his team. As it was, the three slim women attached to him was the minimum he could lift and wallcrawl with.

Granted, the second Pilar figured out what sort of situation David was in for, he'd immediately volunteered to replace his sister, and got shut down with a quick shock to his system.

David focused on the target. With the angle he'd chosen, the wallcrawler was hidden in the shadows of the building to all but those close to them. His spider-sense helped whenever someone was about to see them, sending him a warning that made him instinctively move to avoid wayward eyes.

It also sent him a small sense of warning whenever Kiwi gave him a particularly annoyed glare, but he was getting used to that.

Near their location, David began to slow down, crawling over an air conditioning unit to reach the Scav's base. AKA, a random set of apartments they'd hallowed out into a makeshift headquarters.

David stopped before moving any further.

Kiwi spoke, thankfully not speaking aloud, instead using her agent.

Kiwi: What a-are you doing?
David: There's someone up there.

As if to prove him right, a telltale puff of cigarette smoke came floating over the group.

Rebecca: How do you always know- figure out that kinda stuff?

She swung over to grin at him, before swinging back again.

David: Spidey-sense.

As far as he could tell, everyone in Maine's team thought he was just a weirdly obsessed fan of an ancient comic book property, rather than actually having spider powers. So saying that seemed to be enough for them.

Crawling slowly, David poked his head over the lip of the balcony leading into the apartment. A single Scav stood there, one of those glitch masks they always wore resting atop his head while he smoked a cigarette. David was about to raise a hand when Lucy tapped his shoulder.

Lucy: Hold on. Let me shut him up first.

David nodded. Lucy's eyes glowed, and suddenly sparks flew across the Scav's body, the man shaking in place and dropping his cigarette as he silently gaped in shock.

Then David pulled him off the balcony with his monowires, sending him plummeting towards the ground. He pulled hard, making sure to get some distance. If he fell at the bottom of this building, that might lead to the Megabuilding getting attention they didn't need. Better his body fall in the empty park a few blocks away.

Moving fast, David hopped onto the balcony, getting just to the side of the door leading into the apartment. Kiwi, Rebecca, and Lucy unstrapped themselves from him while he poked his head to look within.

The office was empty. David could see men in those Scav masks were working on something in a room beyond a door to the right, while another door straight ahead led to a bathroom. David glanced back at the group of women.

Kiwi tossed the straps over the edge of the balcony with a glare at them, then looked over at him. David gave her a nod, his helmet bouncing a bit with the movement, and led the way inside.

Within, a single computer with three monitors hooked up to it rested on a desk so old it was a wonder it hadn't turned to dust. Kiwi and Lucy moved over to the computer, while Rebecca took position at the door leading to the bathroom. David went to the other door, and took the time to watch as Lucy and Kiwi hooked themselves up to the computer.

Maine: Almost up to you- almost there. How we looking?
David: Good. Kiwi and Lucy are working on the computer, Rebecca and me are watching over them.
Kiwi: Won't take long

She did look confident. Kiwi was typing on the keyboards quietly but quickly, Lucy standing beside her to watch and sometimes doing… something? David didn't understand it, but he got that they were doing things at least.

David nodded to himself, and looked out the door he was guarding. Then his breath caught.

The three surgeons (butchering bastards) had their equipment laid out in a more professional manner than he would have expected, two of them holding trays for the middle Scav. But the thing that had caught David's eye was simple. The victim on the table.

He wasn't cut open yet. He was knocked out, clearly, but as David watched, the man's breath fogged up the stainless steel table beneath him.

David: He's alive!
Maine: Who?

Lucy, Rebecca, and Kiwi glanced up at him while David glared at the Scavs.

David: The Scav's have a victim, he's not dead yet.
Pilar: Guess they'll be busy-distracted with that guy, haha!
Rebecca: T-That's not how David works, bro

Rebecca moved from the door she was guarding to glance through the same one David was looking into.

Kiwi: No way. We have a job-work to do. W-We make noise, someone on this floor might start wiping the computers before I can get past-hack their defenses. The job will be done.
David: I won't make noise. I can take those guys out before they know it's over.
Maine: Kid, that's too damn risky

David felt a hint of frustration. God. Here he was, on a real Edgerunner mission, just like the ones he'd dreamed of. A professional one would let that guy die on the table, focus on the job above all.

He was feeling a bit unprofessional.

Lucy: David

He glanced over at her. She bit her lip. Then she nodded.

Lucy: You've got this

The smile that snapped into place on his face was savage. David jumped up to the ceiling and felt the chrome in his arms begin to work.

Sneaky spider time.

Author's Note: Was gonna skip through this at first, but things took a life of their own. So yeah. David, in the choice between professionalism or heroism, makes a decision.

If he'd been bit by a black widow, maybe he'd be more of a professional sneak, but this ain't that story 

Chapter Text

The others were arguing over comms. David ignored them, instead crawling along the ceiling until he was above the Scavs. He hadn't tried the whole stealth thing too often, but his powers were pretty much tailor-made for them.

The trick was getting the Scavs all at once before they could call for help. He couldn't exactly use his spider-sense like radar… or maybe he could?

Above the three Scavs, David focused, trying to pay attention to his spider-sense. He could feel a telltale buzz from the three men below him. But there were more all around them. Like shadows in the distance, barely buzzing his senses. He had to really focus to get a sense for them.

So his spider-sense was best with active threats, but could still feel potential ones if he put his mind behind it. One 'shadow' began to approach, and David shifted on instinct to get out of the way before the shadow, revealed to be a Scav guard, walked past a door just in line of sight of David.

Once the guard passed, David made his move, wrapping the monowires from his wrists around a pipe. Just before the middle Scav below him could press a scalpel to his victim, David wrapped the monowires around his neck.

In a single move, David dropped from the ceiling. The monowire wrapped around the Scavs neck and up around the pipe acted like a noose, tightening and pulling upwards. As the middle Scav was lifted upwards, David slammed his arms down into the skulls of the men next to him, spider-strength knocking them out and down instantly. The Scav in the middle desperately swung his arms and legs, trying to stab David with the scalpel as he choked, before David pulled harder, monowire slicing his head off. David caught the Scav's head and body and lowered them gently before they could make any loud noises beyond what he'd done already.

He felt sick, feeling the cooling flesh in his hand. Then he noticed the victim, still passed out, covered with bruises and cuts from however they captured him. David pushed back the horror of having killed someone again. Thus far, he'd kept the number very small, and he didn't feel bad for killing these guys considering they were going to open up someone on a table.

David still resolved to limit his killing as much as possible. He wasn't Peter, but he didn't want to become someone crazy either.

He pushed the thought back into his mind, instead grabbing the man on the table and moving back into the room with Kiwi, Lucy, and Rebecca. He lowered the unconscious man as gently as possible to the floor, ignoring the glare Kiwi gave him. Lucy appeared at his shoulder holding a MaxDoc.

David took the inhalant and placed it to the unconscious man's lips, depressing the button on top. The unconscious man inhaled the puff with his next breath, coughing briefly but not waking. That was fine. MaxDoc's weren't instant heals like some of the more powerful (and addictive) medicines available, but the combination of stimulants and painkillers would help for now.

"Yay, you saved him," Kiwi said quietly and sarcastically. "Let me nominate you for sainthood."

David was going to respond before his eyes narrowed under his helmet. Spider-Sense, tingling.

Someone was walking into the other room. He saw the bodies David had left on the floor, the Scav mask on his face glowing. The man shouted wordlessly, rushing forward.

David wrapped monowire around him from across the room and pulled him towards him, kicking the man in the face in a clothesline maneuver. The Scav dropped a baseball bat as he fell to the floor, mask, and nose broken to pieces.

The explosion of noise caused other Scavs through the apartment to shout. Rebecca spun out of cover to start shooting, while David stomped on the Scav with a baseball bat to finish him off (He felt oddly vindictive towards that guy for some reason).

More scavs were rushing in, so David ran forward to meet them, feeling Lucy follow. Three of them came through the door, only to freeze and spark from their chrome. David lashed out with his fists, smashing one through a wall while the other went up into the ceiling. Lucy's monowire killed the last.

The pair exited out of the door the scavs came through in time to see Dorio kicking another scav in the nuts. She was in a hallway with Pilar and Maine, the two men finishing off their own opponents. David grabbed one before he could shoot Dorio, while Maine shouted at Kiwi.

"Are we blown!?"

"No," Kiwi sounded bored and focused all at once from inside the apartment, ignoring the sound of David snapping a scavs neck with a kick. "Thankfully 'Spider-Man' didn't make any noise until I was in the network. Give me a second."

"RAAAAGH!" A giant of a man came around the corner down the hallway, holding an assault rifle. David had already instinctively swung out his monowire, the length of it wrapping around the assault rifle before he pulled. A horrific snapping and popping noise were followed by a gun in David's hands, along with the scav's trigger finger.

"Eeeeee!" The giant scav squealed before Dorio punched him in the face, sending him flying back into a wall. David tossed the assault rifle aside and looked around.

"Clear!" David shouted.

"Kid, maybe look before you say that," Maine pointed out.

"I'd take his word for it," Lucy said. "He can sense danger. If he says it's clear, it's clear."

"What is he, a psychic?" Pilar asked sarcastically.

"Kinda!" Rebecca landed on David's back wrapping her arms around his neck. She laughed. "That was fun!"

"Yeah, it was. But focus on the job," Maine said, reloading his shotgun as he walked over to Kiwi. "How'd we do?"

"Good. Got everything we needed. Other scav cells will never know we were here," Kiwi gave a corpse near her a look. "Well, they'll know someone was here, but I can't work miracles."

"What do we do about this gonk?" Pilar asked, poking the man David had saved from the Scav operating table.

"Leave 'em?" Maine asked. When David gave him a look, Maine sighed. "Fine, fine. There's a ripperdoc on the way back, I'll leave him with the guy."

"I got him," Dorio leaned down to pick up the man in bridal carry with the gentleness of a mother carrying her child. "Good thing we came in time before he flatlined."

"Then we're done. Let's delta." Maine said. "We'll take the elevator. Unless you three wanna take the David Express?" Maine teased.

"Not on your life," Kiwi snarled, getting up and pushing past Pilar, who was giggling.

"Sure," Lucy said, getting a shocked look from Kiwi. She shrugged, walking over to David instead of explaining, while Kiwi threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Hell yeah!" Rebecca whooped, still sitting on David's back.

"All right, I gotcha," David said while lifting Lucy in his arms.

Maine was winking at him for some reason. Pilar was squeezing his hands in odd ways, giggling. David decided to ignore it in favor of leaping out the window. "See ya at Afterlife!" David shouted as he dived towards the ground with Rebecca on his back and Lucy in his arms. On the way down, his feet attached to the side of the building, letting him slide down to a stop before he leaped outwards.

Keeping Lucy and Rebecca attached to him with his powers, David began swinging his way through the city, reaching Heywood's borders towards the City Center. He found himself grinning under his helmet.

His version of webswinging probably wasn't as cool as Peter's, but god he was beginning to love it. The feeling of diving through the air before his monowire caught and sent them flying back up, that moment of floating over the city just before gravity took hold again?

If only monowire could extend further, then they could go even higher. Maybe someday.

For now, he had Lucy grinning in his arms and Rebecca shouting joyfully on his back while swinging above the city streets. Things were as good as they were going to get.

"WOOOO!" Rebecca screamed, laughing as they backflipped through the air. "This is so nova-!"

"BOOOOOOM!"

In the distance, the sound of an explosion filled the air. David landed on the side of a skyscraper and stared in the direction the explosion had come from. "What the hell was that?"

"There," Lucy pointed it out at the source when David saw it.

A black AV with small yellow highlights was flying through the air while burning. The back of it looked like it had just… melted. It was struggling to stay afloat, but slowly started going down. David stared at it, frowning.

"Is that a Militech AV?"

"Yeah… maybe someone attacked it?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know, seems random," Rebecca said, leaning over David's shoulder to stare. "It's just gonna fall and then those corpos will pick up the pieces."

Then the AV exploded again. The sound of a man screaming in pain could be heard coming from it. Fire gushed out of the top of the AV like it was being released from a flamethrower, and the AV careened downwards even faster.

Right towards a monorail below.

"Oh shit," David said softly as he saw the other problem. A train was zipping along the monorail towards where the AV was going.

"David, don-" Lucy was cut off by David leaping outwards with all of his superhuman strength, aiming towards where the AV was headed.

The train began to brake, its onboard safeties clicking on, but that wasn't going to be enough. As the AV smashed into the monorail, it exploded in a gush of fire and molten metal.

FWOOOOM!

The train shuddered to a stop, but the rail above it began to fall, hot metal raining down on it, the AV landing atop the monorail and coming to a halt.

David landed on the side of the train on the middle car, looking inside at the terrified people. He reared back and smashed the glass of the car.

"Lucy, Rebecca, get everyone into the back car! I'll keep this thing from falling!"

"Are you crazy!?" Lucy shouted as he dropped her inside.

"Maybe. Just go!" David said, lowering Rebecca inside next.

"David, you can't-" Rebecca was cut off by another explosion above, a man screaming from the AV. "What the fuck, how could anyone survive that!?"

The whole train shuddered, and the monorail above made a noise like a cat being tortured before it snapped just under where the AV had landed. The train's brakes squealed as it tried to stay on the track even as the monorail sagged downwards.

"MOVE!" David shouted, Lucy and Rebecca beginning to scream at the passengers loud enough for him to hear. He crawled quickly along the train, leaping up and setting his feet atop the roof.

Suddenly, the front train's supports began to crack. David grabbed the monorail while wrapping his monowires around the track. The train's supports shattered apart, leaving David as the only thing holding the front of the train up.

"RAAAAGH!" David screamed, suddenly finding himself as the only support for the train. He dug his hands into the monorail, sinking his fingers into the metal as his legs strained under the weight. "MOVE!"

"We're on it!" Rebecca shouted from inside the train. "Come on, asshole, get going!"

"Back of the train, go!" Lucy joined in.

Another problem was coming from AV. Namely, the heat.

The longer David stayed close to the AV, the hotter it got. Since he'd gained his powers, he'd been less affected by intense temperatures, but the AV was getting to insane levels of heat. He could feel the fire exploding out of the AV growing worse and worse, sweat dripping under his helmet, and the oppressive heat beginning to hurt.

David held tighter to the monorail, even as the metal began to get hot enough to burn. His monowires helped him stay attached, but he could feel his implants pulling. The train below shuddered and screamed, trying to fall even as David and the trains brakes fought to keep it still. A portion of the AV fell off, bouncing off the train and down towards the city below.

"Spidey, we're good!" Rebecca shouted. "The first cars are empty!"

David released his wall-crawling power on the train, letting go of the monorail and running towards the back of the train. The whole thing began to roll forward, brakes squealing. David leaped towards the support keeping the back car connected to the front two.

Suddenly Lucy called him.

Lucy: Got the train connections! J-Just need to push them apart!

David: I'm on it!

David landed in between the back and middle cars. His muscles strained when he placed his hands on the middle car and his feet on the back.

"RAAAGH!"

He pushed the front two cars forward with the brakes squealing all the while before they finally ripped away completely. Far below, the two trains crashed into an empty street, leaving the back car full of passengers and no longer at risk of being pulled forward. David put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"That was… hard." David stared down at the train cars below, then glanced up at the AV, still resting precariously atop the monorail.

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHH" Came a scream. From inside the AV.

Someone still needed help.

David swung upwards and towards the AV, only to stop in shock mere feet from it.

The heat was worse. Like getting blasted by an oven. David grit his teeth and took off his mom's jacket, tossing it towards the train car. Walking forward, he felt his shirt begin smoking, the hairs on his skin curling up and beginning to melt. The back of the AV was pointed towards him, the back hatch almost fused by whatever was causing the heat.

Finally he was as close as he could get before he felt like he was about to burst into flames. He could feel the rubber of his shoes melting under his feet, and even with his helmet he could barely breath.

David launched out his monowires again, noting that the wires looked like they were in bad shape. Wrapping the wires around the edges of the hatch, he began to pull. The heat was cooking the air around him, and the hatch was refusing to budge. A loud banging sound was coming from inside the AV.

"PLEASE! SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE ME!" A desperate man screamed from within.

"I've got you!" David screamed back. "I'm here! Just hold on!"

With another massive pull, the hatch cracked and snapped off. And then, before David could do anything, another explosion came from the AV, only David's spidey-sense letting him backflip away from it. He landed on the monorail, staring in horror at the AV.

Whoever had been inside was gone. There was no way they could have survived that last explosion. What had caused-... It was his fault, David suddenly realized. When he'd opened the hatch, it sent a rush of air into the already burning AV. Whoever was inside would have been at the center of the explosion. David felt a rush of horror fill him.

And then, a fist smashed its way out of the hatch. David felt his brain stutter to a halt. He stared as the fist opened up and landed on the monorail, pulling the owner forward. The fist was red-hot and made of metal, with portions of it melted and solidified into strange arcane-looking patterns. The rest of the arm was the same way, with pieces of metal poking out and melting into the 'skin' of the man.

Like a Gorilla Arm on fire, that was the best comparison David had for it.

His other arm was shaped like a crab claw or a jaw of life device, but the ends of it were scorched black and its arm had the same half-melted look. That arm was tied to its side by heavy-looking restraints, but those restraints were also melting.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Rebecca shouted from behind him.

David watched the creature finally exit the AV, standing tall. It was around eight feet tall of pure metal. Like its arms, the whole creature was half-melted, exuding the immense heat that David had fought through earlier. Its gaping liquid maw opened, a brief burst of flame licking out at the air.

"Please… save," the creature whispered, reaching out for David. It stumbled forward, the monorail beneath it smoking, it's feet sinking into the steel.

"Hey, hold on!" David shouted, holding his hands out in the classic 'stop' position. "I want to help, but you can't come closer! You're gonna melt the monorail!"

"H-Help… me!" the creature screamed, its heat rising even more. It didn't seem to understand him. Like he was going insane.

"He's some kind of-" A man shouted from the train.

David, in a moment of desperation, snapped his monowires out. He wrapped them around the molten creature and pulled it, spinning around to launch it toward an empty parking lot, only for his monowires to shatter. David stumbled at the sudden loss of tension, and the creature went sailing off the monorail and towards the parking lot below.

David fell, but caught himself on the train, sliding down until he was next to a window.

"Da-Spider-Man!" Lucy shouted, poking her head out of the broken window to look at him. "You okay?"

Behind her, Rebecca and a tall black man David didn't recognize poked their heads out as well.

"I'm fine. I need to head down to that guy." David said, staring at the parking lot hundreds of feet down.

"Are you crazy!?"Lucy hissed out, Rebecca looking just as gobsmacked, while the tall black man continued to watch them talk. "Just leave him! You saved everyone, let the cops deal with that cyberpsycho!"

"What cops?" David snapped. "I don't hear any sirens! Not even the fire department. Someone has to keep that guy from accidentally killing people."

"You want to help the cyberpsycho!?" Rebecca yelped.

David spun around to face the two. "He was in pain. He wanted someone to save him. I have to try."

"Who are you?" The black man asked. David, Rebecca, and Lucy faced him. He looked curious, but not as scared as the other passengers were. He was tall and thickly built, with a cropped haircut and cyber lines around his eyes.

David thought about it for barely a second before answering.

"...I'm Spider-Man. And I help people." With that, David crouched against the train, then pushed off, leaping towards the parking lot below, his mind racing as he sped towards the fire.

Author's Note: David's been Spider-Man for a bit. Bout time he had his first villain. It's even a tragic science experiment, a Spider-Man classic! YAY, he's in unending pain!

Let me know what you thought of this one. Also, while the Neon Webs Tvtropes page has been around for a while, someone recently made ME a Tvtropes page. Pretty damn cool.

Chapter Text

David landed in the parking lot in a roll and crouched on all fours as he looked around. "Uh, hey! Fire guy? Melty man? You here?"

"HEEEEELP ME!?" A familiar voice screamed in the distance.

"Oh, there he is," David jumped out. For a moment, he wanted to send out a monowire to swing from before he remembered they had shattered. He hadn't even known they could do that. His implants also felt sore inside his arms. Monowires emitted heat and could hold a lot of weight, but he'd clearly taxed them beyond the norm.

Landing and jumping again got him closer to the scream. There, he saw where the molten man had landed.

In the center of a truck. He was moaning and screaming even as the truck he had smashed into began to melt around him. The truck was red and gold, with some very familiar writing on the side that declared it's owners as Valentino's.

Presumably the same Valentino's currently staring in rage at the man melting the truck.

"What the fuck is that thing!?" One screamed.

"Who cares man, zero 'em!"

As a group, the three men and one woman lifted up their guns and began shooting at the molten creature. The booming sounds of gunshots were followed by bullets landing into the creature, the truck, and the concrete around them. They did fuck all, far as David could tell. The bullets bounced off like coins on glass, but the creature screamed louder as he was shot, extending a hand out towards one Valentino.

A plume of fire blasted out from his hand. The gangoon screamed, fire covering him moments before the actual blast hit him.

"Back up!" David landed next to two of the Valentinos, lifting them onto his shoulders and getting out of the way before another blast of fire could hit them. The last surviving Valentino ran away, while David dropped the others.

The molten creature screamed, clutching its arm like it was in pain, flailing its legs about as it finally removed itself from the truck.

"What the hell!?" The female Valentino said, scrambling back on her feet and backing away quickly. "What is that thing!? It killed Moses!"

"Someone who needs help," David said. "But I think he's… I don't know, a cyberpsycho? Get out of here. I'll take care of it."

"Fuck that, we need to kill him! He killed one of ours!" The other Valentino shouted.

Another burst of fire, this time from all around the creature, exploded out, melting the asphalt under its feet.

"Fuck you, man! Let MaxTac handle it!" The female Valentino went running for it, her fellow gang member following.

Which left David on his own. David lowered his stance, facing the molten creature. "Hey! Hey choom! You need to calm down, okay!? You're melting the whole parking lot!"

"HEEEEEELP!" The creature stumbled forward, leaving pools of melted concrete with each step.

"Not hearing me, huh?" David mumbled, his mind racing. Maybe he could cool it down? Just enough to get it calmer? But the river was too far away…

Fire hydrants. Of course. But he had to get this guy to one, and his monowire was done. Which meant improvising.

"Okay. Sorry about this man," Spider-Man said, running to a nearby streetlight. Kicking it in the bottom, he grabbed it out of the ground and then spun it around so the hooked end of the street light was facing the molten creature. Approaching him steadily, he pushed the end of the light against the creature and then started shoving him back. "Come on, big guy. One step at a time, go back that way, towards the hydrant."

"P-PLEEEEASE!!!" The creature screamed, a blast of flame erupting from one arm towards Spider-Man. He dodged the flame, but still hissed at the sheer heat surrounding the blast.

The creature stumbled back, almost falling as his feet melted the asphalt around him into puddles, but Spider-Man kept it up, pushing him gently further and further even as the streetlight began melting as well. Another blast of fire vented out from the left arm, this time hitting a random car, a Thorton Galena, and turning it into scrap.

Spider-Man grit his teeth and focused. "Almost there! Almost the-" The creature suddenly grabbed the street light in its clawed hand, the jaws slicing through the post and then sending out another blast. Spider-Man dodged the blast, but still lost a big portion of his poking stick. The creature took a step forward, moaning.

In a desperate move, Spider-Man stepped to the creatures left and swung the remaining portion of street light like a baseball bat. The light smashed him in the belly, sending the poor guy flying back the last few feet, rolling on the ground while screaming.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Spider-Man shouted, running over to the fire hydrant. He kicked the top of it off, a jet of water spraying upwards, before he slapped his hands down over the stream, the blast of water smacking against the creature. Gouts of steam filled the air around it.

"Heeee-... Heeelp…" The creature moaned as water continued steaming up around it. More blasts of flame escaped it, but the water seemed to help. "Oh… Oh…"

"Calm down man, calm down, we'll get you help," Spider-Man said over the sound of water evaporating. "There's a river, well, more like a sewer I guess, but there's some water nearby! We can get you cooled down-"

Spider-Man stopped, staring towards his left when his spider-sense screamed. An AV was dropping out of the sky. A familiar-looking one, though less on fire.

Militech. Spider-Man kept hitting the creature with water, but he was beginning to get worried.

"No… no, please!" The creature moaned through its mouth of melting steel. "Don't take me back!"

Another blast of fire erupted from him, sending Spider-Man flying back several meters through the air. He landed awkwardly on the edge of a building, groaning and falling to the ground.

"Uuugggh… my back." David rolled up and faced the direction of the creature. The molten monster was screaming as he faced the Militech AV. The side of the vehicle opened, spitting out a small group of soldiers in full armor. One blasted the creature with some kind of foam. The stuff lasted a moment against the creature's heat before it blew through it, and soon the creature was stumbling away, running as he screamed. Three Militech soldiers followed it, shooting foam that didn't seem to work on the creature.

The rest turned their guns on Spider-Man. "Hands up, now!"

"Seriously? Why!?"

"Who do you work for!?" One of them shouted.

"Your mother's lover," David said before he could stop himself.

"Arasaka maybe?" One of them said. "He moves like one of their ninjas."

Guns still pointed, one of the Militech guys began approaching him. "Turn around, place your hands on your head."

"Oh sure gonk, you want me to strip down and dance too?" Leaping upwards, David landed on the building behind him, ducked a burst of automatic fire, then dodged the next burst before sprinting up the side of the building. "I fucking hate corpos!"

He ducked another burst and ran for it, looking back at the creature. Soon he was too far to help, but could see the creature disappear into a nearby building, followed by its tormentors. Tired and covered in burns, David stopped to think.

He couldn't help that guy. Not really. The best he could think of was cooling him down with a fire hydrant. Much as he hated the corpos, he'd need to leave it to them for now.

"...Goddamnit," He mumbled. Feeling defeated, he sent a call out to Ash, only to get sent to voicemail.

"Hey, Ash. I uh… I destroyed my monowire in a fight. I'm coming by to get them repaired, thankyouandsorry." Shutting the call off, he sighed, turning in the direction of Ash's place.

"She's going to be pissed," he mumbled as he leaped out into the city.

"I swear to god, you were put on this earth to make me have a heart attack, and I don't even have a heart anymore." Ash said, staring at David like he was the dumbest man alive. "I just… you were fine a day ago! How are you this damaged?"

"I wanted to help a guy?" David said nervously.

"Lucy?" Ash snapped.

"He literally ran into fire," When David gave her a betrayed look, Lucy shrugged.

Ash looked over at Lucy.

"Do people still use 'gonk'?" Lucy nodded without hesitation. "Good, I actually like that one. Yes, you're a gonk."

David sighed, rubbing the back of his head. He was covered in burns and all of his clothes had been turned to near tatters, showing off his spider-granted physique to the world. The only things that were untouched were his jacket and helmet. Thank god. His mom's jacket was the only thing left of her, and his helmet was a gift from Ash.

"It's a good thing you have accelerated healing," Ash sighed, two of her hands flipping through a screen with a display of David's body. Her other hands were working on a different screen that David couldn't see. "Ignoring the burns, your lungs were full of smoke, so if you end up getting headaches, let me know. You should be all right though."

"How long did you have to practice to be able to do that?" Lucy asked Ash, watching her do two things at once with ease.

"A couple of years. I wanted to learn how to do it without any cheating mods. That's a good tip, bee tee dubs. Learned skills can never get hacked."

"What does that mean?" Lucy asked, befuddled.

"That I don't like having a skill that can be taken away from me by a netrunner."

"No, I mean 'bee tee dubs'? What is that?"

Ash gave Lucy a very annoyed glare. "You're lucky you're cute."

Turning away from her, Ash focused on David. "For now, you'll need new monowire implants, maybe a new neuroport."

"I need more than that," David mumbled to himself. "Did you see the guy I was trying to help?"

"Molten Man?" Ash asked.

"They gave him a name?" Lucy asked in turn.

"Yeah, that's what they're calling him now. I guess congratulations are in order, Spider-Man," Ash turned the screen David hadn't been able to look at in his direction. "You're finally famous."

It was him, facing against the, what did Ash call him? The Molten Man.

David swallowed when he realized he was on fire in the image. His shoulders, legs, and shoes, all alight with flame. His helmet was glitching in the picture, giving him a very imposing look. From the outside, he looked kind of badass.

All he could remember was how painful the fire was.

Ash rolled her chair over to the radio on her counter. "Oh, and of course, my favorite radio station is about to talk about you."

"Radio station?" David asked dumbly. Instead of answering, Ash changed the channel to 107.3, and a smooth sounding voice came from the radio. A slightly familiar one.

"So hey people. Picture this. I'm on a normal commute in a maglev, headed out to visit a… old friend. Just a normal day. That's when a Militech vehicle drops out of the sky, smashing into the top of the rail. Now, I've been through a few things, listeners. I won't lie and say I wasn't worried, but it wasn't too new.

"Course, before any of us could do anything, a man came swinging down out of the sky on monowire, carrying two beauties under his arm. He shows up, drops them in, and then gets to work on saving everyone. That's right. Saving people."

"I've seen altruism before, folks. Despite what those above would have us believe, charity and kindness isn't owned by the next famous corpo throwing eddies at whatever gets them the biggest tax break. People help people everyday, even in a place as dangerous as Night City. I've run into those fighting the good fight. The Zoners are an old school example. But we all know what I'm talking about."

David felt himself drawn in by the man's voice, listening closely.

"The mother giving a child she doesn't know some MaxDoc. A cop looking the other way when a guy from the neighborhood 'borrows' food. Edgerunners fighting to save someone they just met. These things happen."

"But people, I remember something else. Legends. Stories about men and women of extraordinary abilities, saving lives for nothing but the idea that life is sacred. Now that's an odd concept for some, isn't it? Life being sacred. Around here, thirty people dying before the end of a night is just business. Dying in a blaze of glory is all some people hope for."

But today, I saw someone who chose something different. He came down, pushed the maglev we were on out of danger, made sure we were safe. And when a flaming cyberpsycho came out, hot enough to melt metal? He tried to save that guy too. Far as I know, he might have done it.

"Like I said. Altruism and kindness may be rare, but they ain't new. This felt different though. A costumed hero dropped down on webs, saving lives. Like that old comic book, Spider-Man. Something outta legend."

The radio clicked off. Ash sighed. "Maximum Mike is one smooth talker."

Lucy eyed David. "You're smiling."

She was right. He tried to brush it away, but he felt a bit giddy.

"You'll want to drop that smile," Ash showed the screen to David again. "Cause not everybody likes Spider-Man."

The words 'Spider-Man Poserganger Crashes Metroline!' jumped out at him.

"People are blaming me!?" David shouted, grabbing the screen and staring at it.

"Some people," Ash then stabbed him with something, getting an 'ow!' in response as she pulled back a syringe. "I'm guessing Militech didn't want their stockholders to know about the cyberpsycho fireman they transported."

"That's unfair… Ziggy Q talked about me?" That felt weird. While he wasn't a fan or anything, he knew who the guy was. The green haired talk show host had apparently made fun of him for catching himself on fire. "What a fucking gonk."

David handed the screen back to Ash. "That guy escaped?"

"Militech is still in the streets looking for him," Ash said. "So he's somewhere."

"He's not your problem though," Lucy pointed out. "Let them bring in their cyberpsycho."

"He's not a cyberpsycho though!" David said. He glared at his hands. "That guy… he was in pain. But he didn't try to attack anyone, to hurt anyone. He just… kept looking for help."

"Cyberpsychosis isn't all murder weapons screaming for revenge," Ash said. "It's a delusion that takes over your mind, something in your head going out of control. And this guy is out of control. He almost cooked you guys. You'll need to think of him as someone to stop first, help later. "

"So you think I should bring him in?" David asked.

The older woman shrugged four shoulders. "I do think being prepared doesn't hurt. If you end up running into that guy again, I mean."

David felt his eyes begin close on their own. Whatever Ash had stabbed him with earlier was taking effect.

Laying down on the operating table, David grumbled. "You didn't have to knock me out."

"Like you weren't about to run out of the door soon?" Lucy asked, walking over and smiling down at him. With the light behind her head and her neon hair glittering above him, she looked like an angel.

For some reason she blushed heavily, while Ash chuckled. Had he said that outloud?

Before he could think on that, he passed out.

The next day, his repairs done and his body healing, he met Rebecca and Lucy at his apartment.

"So that guy hasn't been caught yet," Rebecca said. She was on a rolling chair swinging her legs back and forth as she zipped around the room. David watched her upside-down, sitting on the ceiling. Lucy was lounging on the couch, watching Rebecca speed around the living room as well. "Militech is still roaming around where you saw him, and Arasaka is following them around!"

Rebecca grinned happily. "They're going to end up fighting out there. It's great."

"It's tense, that's for sure," Lucy replied. "And the gangs aren't happy either. Valentino's and Sixth Street are fighting out there."

"How does a guy that's on fire hide from two different corpo armies?" David asked, befuddled.

"No idea. But he's good at it. Some Militech lady keeps on screaming at them to find him." Rebecca spun around the chair with her legs out.

David crossed his arms and sighed out the side of his mouth. "Then I guess I just gotta hope I run into him."

"Gonk," Lucy threw a metal can at David, bouncing off his head. "What kind of person runs towards a cyberpsycho?"

"A superhero, I guess." David grinned down at her, getting a huff out of Lucy.

"You need to get upgraded though," Rebecca rolled to a stop beneath David, glaring at him. "If you're going to try and find him. Like a fire resistant suit instead of just a t-shirt."

"You run around in a bra and panties," Lucy pointed out.

"Well I don't get lit on fire!" Rebecca spat back at her. "And you need a way to put out his fire bee tee dubs. Like a fire extinguisher or those co2 grenades fire fighters use."

"Those aren't bad ideas," Lucy said pointedly. "Having some grenades in general might be good for you."

"I guess," David rubbed the back of his head. "Rebecca, you said Pilar is good at making grenades."

"I said he made them, not that he's good at it," Rebecca crossed her arms and pouted.

"Better than nothing. I'll grab a few." David lowered his arm, dropping from the ceiling and landing gracefully.

"You look mad," Rebecca pointed out.

"I… just want to find the guy," David swallowed, thinking back to the sound of Molten Man begging for help. "Before someone gets hurt."

And more importantly, before Militech found him.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days, David, Lucy, and Rebecca did their normal routine again. But this time, things were more tense. The streets were always dangerous, but in the parts of the city where they were searching for the Molten Man, things were heating up… no pun intended.

Militech were circling the streets like sharks looking for food, their SUVs and AVs a constant presence. Along with them, Sixth Street guys in their camo print and logos would roll through the streets, creating more tension as they openly ignored the invisible borders of Valentino territory. The NCPD was no help, since Militech had a lot of influence with those guys.

(David thought he had a good handle on the overall politics of Night City, but he was getting a crash course.)

As if in challenge, Tyger Claws were also appearing in Heywood, well away from their normal territory. Everyone had their suspicions. Tyger Claws weren't officially Arasaka, but they might as well have been, and it was easy to imagine Arasaka telling the gang to send feelers out into whatever Militech was up to.

Every once in a while someone would mention that Arasaka itself was prowling around as well, but David never knew for sure.

In the end, the important thing was that David was breaking up more fights that he was used to. Which meant he was getting filmed more often too. He'd been a bit of a small name before, but ever since the Molten Man thing, it was like people couldn't stop taking pictures of him.

Peter had it lucky, dealing with just old cameras that could barely track him. David had to deal with cyberoptic cameras. So he ended up on the news again.

"As you can see, Spider-Man, a poserganger acting as a vigilante, has been warring with Sixth Street and the Tyger Claws in Heywood, even battling the Valentinos at times," A male anchor, the famous Arif Iqbal said seriously to camera. He was a slim built Arabian man with icy blue eyes and a very nice suit. Next to him, the image of David swinging down to kick a gang member came to life.

He kicked one man into a car, backflipped over a series of shots, then used his monowire to cut up the guns shooting at him, finishing by lifting a Valentino car about to run him over and flipping it to its back.

As the footage continued, Arif spoke more seriously. "It must be stated, this wanna-be hero can't be allowed to try and do the job of our highly trained, professional, and honorable police officers. He is reckless, a force of chaos at a time when our city least needs it!"

Arif shook his head. "This Spider-Man, is more than just someone badly posing as an eighties cartoon character. He is a repeat of an old pattern. Spider-Man isn't the first edgerunner to try and claim altruism only to get in over their heads. The NCPD remind all citizens to avoid this man, as he continues to destroy public property in his vigilante rampage."

"RAMPAGE!" Rebecca screamed with a wide grin on her face, firing the assault rifle in her hands with a massive amount of glee.

David swung over her on his monowire, slamming a foot into the chest of a Sixth Street goon and sending him flying back into a car, denting it inward.

"Done!" David snapped out. He looked around at the now knocked out or dead Sixth Street and Tyger Claw's around him, then sighed under his helmet.

"You okay?" Lucy asked, walking over with her own monowire reeling back into her arms.

"Yeah, yeah I'm nova, just… we aren't having any luck finding that guy, and these gonks aren't making it easier," David idly snapped a monowire out to rip a knife out of the hand of a Tyger Claw that had been faking her unconsciousness. Rebecca slammed down onto that Tyger Claw with both feet, then walked over to join them.

"Hey, we're getting close!" Rebecca said cheerfully. "And we're getting so much loot!"

That was true. Their habit of grabbing weapons and gear off the gangsters they fought was getting them a lot of money off pawning their shit.

"We'll find 'em," Lucy said, though she didn't seem to sure about that.

Right then, David got a call. He tried to answer it with his internal agent, only to groan when he remembered Ash convinced him to use an external one when he was 'spider-gonking'. For safety. David tapped a button in the side of his helmet to answer the call.

"What's up, Maine?" He said out loud, rather than in his head like he was used to.

Maine: Hey kid. Sorry to interrupt your little crusade-side quest bullshit, but we got a job.

David glanced over to Rebecca and Lucy, who were talking on their own. "Sure, what's up?"

Maine: Got a bounty that I can't finish, thought you'd appreciate the job. Interested?
David thought it over. Well… they didn't have anything else to do. And a bounty sounded interesting. "Yeah, okay. Hit me.

Maine: Good. Sending the deets.

After sending over a description of the job, Maine hung up.

"A new job?" Lucy asked. When David cocked his head to the side in confusion, she continued. "Kiwi was asking where you were."

"Ain't you popular, Davey?" Rebecca quipped.

"It's better than just running around hoping we find Molten Man I guess," David said. "You guys coming?"

"I wish," Rebecca's smile fell into a scowl. "I need to go take care of something. I'll see you guys later."

"Where you going?" David asked curiously.

"Wakako hired me!" Rebecca's scowl was replaced with a proud smile. Then it faded a bit. "It's just a package pick-up, but still! I'll see you guys later."

David and Lucy waved her off as the tiny girl.

The bounty was from Padre apparently, to go after a man named Danny Yorks. David knew about the fixer, but had never encountered him.

The job was clean-up. A very specific kind of clean-up.

"The guy killed an entire lab of people?" Lucy asked, sounding slightly impressed. "An Arasaka one. I'm not surprised they want him dead."

David was standing on a wall vertically, looking down at a warehouse far below. Lucy was sitting casually on his back, her legs swinging back and forth as she read the job details. He frowned. "I thought his job was just to steal something."

"Sure, right up until he went psycho and killed everyone inside. Then he…" Lucy winced. "Killed an innocent scientist by shooting her in the head, then turned on his crew. Ripped off their runners jaw, ripped an arm off their techie, then stomped their solo's brains in."

David stared at her, eyes wide under his mask. Lucy sighed sadly. "Yeah… That's why we know where he is, turns out you stop being chooms when your buddy tries to crush your skull in."

"Cyberpsychosis," David said slowly, sighing. "I didn't know this shit happened so often."

"The media don't talk about it a lot, but there's always at least a few people going nuts." Lucy said with almost dismissive calm. "So… what's the plan?"

David frowned under his helmet. The warehouse below was simple. Just like any other, with storage containers outside. But the warehouse itself just felt… wrong. His spider-sense wasn't buzzing, but he still felt worried. "Do we know what kind of chrome he had?"

Lucy lowered her head down until she could see his face. "Are you… worried?"

"Yeah… something about this doesn't feel right."

Lucy quirked an eyebrow. Then she raised her head up. "Okay. He's an edgerunner like us. Has a lot of the same gear Maine does actually. Pain Editor, Gorilla Arms, Projectile Launcher, Chitin implants, muscle and bone lace, secondary heart-"

"With that much chrome, why not just go full borg?" David asked, honestly shocked.

"Well maybe we can ask him," Lucy said with a bit of sarcasm. She then lowered down enough for David to grab her, holding her in bridal carry. "It'll be alright. I'll pop open a window and knock out security, you'll do your Spider-Man thing, then we get paid."

"That easy huh?" David hopped off the building. They fell for several stories, coming close to the ground, before David snapped out a monowire, swinging out with centrifugal force and landing on the roof of the warehouse.

"That easy. Come on," David put her down and Lucy's eyes flashed. She moved forward, leading him to a skylight that opened up on its own. Lucy looked inside. "I've got the cameras. He's just… walking around. Talking to himself."

"Talking to himself… greaaaaaat." Had reading Spider-Man made him more sarcastic, or was he always this way?

David went up to the skylight and crawled inside, going along the roof. Lucy stayed at the top, watching him making way along the ceiling. David glanced down at the target.

The man below had a similar haircut to his, but with purple hair. He was also about as big as Maine, with similar chrome panels all across his body. He was roaming around a small area in the center of the warehouse. The metal crates had been rearranged to provide walls, making a basic room in the center. It looked like it had been made into a semi-comfortable heist planning room, with a large set of computers and monitors along one wall, some comfy couches, old beat up wooden and plastic tables, and an entire set of shelves with guns, chrome repair tools, and old fast food.

It was a mess. It looked the guy had been doing nothing but destroying it the entire time. The computers were broken, the guns were tossed about, and the disgusting fast food was smeared into the beat-up old carpet that was laid down on the warehouse concrete.

David felt a pang of sadness. The guy was going through it. He went to crawl forward a bit more when his spider-sense tingled. He glanced where it was warning just as Lucy spoke.

"Mines on top of the crates and along the walls. I'll take care of it."

He noticed it a couple dozen feet ahead, a flat grey block that had the smallest of red lights on the side, shutting off silently. Grinning under his helmet, he shuffled forward until he was exactly over the man currently whispering to himself, twitching as he looked around. David dropped down quietly just behind him, close enough to hear him.

"...Streets are dark… so full… quiet, too damn quiet Sarge," the man whispered.

Oh boy.

David slowly approached him from behind. Just one quick chokehold, knock him out. Padre said dead or alive, but alive seemed to be what most Fixer's preferred. Even with his new height, the other man was still taller, but not enough for David to have trouble. He reach-

His spider-sense exploded. And suddenly, David was looking into the cyberpsycho's eyes. Eyes that vibrated quickly, quivering and rolling in his skull like the center of a magic 8-ball.

Faster than David could believe, the man he had been sneaking up on was looking into his eyes and reaching for his throat.

Sandevistan.

David barely stepped back in time for hands to scratch at his shirt rather than ripping out his throat. David ducked a wild punch, then backflipped away from a kick.

"Cut Lucy off before she could mention that I guess." David mumbled to himself. "Hey bud, I don-"

Anything David could have said was interrupted by the guy's left arm opening up, a familiar tube popping up and aiming at him.

"Fuc-!" David didn't even get a chance to finish, jumping away from the wall just before a missile flew out of the guys arm and exploded against the wall, sending shrapnel flying. David landed on one wall and then jumped to the next, moving fast to keep the guy from being able to get a real bead on him.

The guy looked from wall to wall as David jumped, continuing to whisper to himself. "They're in the walls… they're in the GODDAMN WALLS!"

"On, not in-" David yelped, dodging another missile. "Damn it, let me say one quip!"

David landed briefly on the floor. And in a burst of movement, the guy (Danny, was that his name?) moved forward to punch at him with his right arm. The Spider-Man ducked it, then stepped away from a hook before chambering his own fist and smashing it into the cyberpsycho's right side.

The man barely flinched. In the mere moment before David could step back, a fist made of pure steel backhanded him, sending him flying. David rolled as he landed, only for a missile to nearly hit him in the face before he flinched out of the way, the explosion behind him sending him flying forward. David rolled as he landed and jumped upwards before the cyberpsycho could crush him with a stomp of his boots.

"Will you let me say a damn word!?" David spouted, finally unleashing his monowire. The long red hot whips wrapped tightly around the psycho. The psycho screamed.

"Fucking bastard!" He struggled, cybernetic muscles pulling at the monowire binding him. David activated the monowires, the red-hot wires digging into the cyberpsycho before his armor stopped them. "You Badge fuck!"

"Badge, really?" David asked, as much confused as he was stressed. What the hell was the guy seeing? His eyes were still shaking, and he kept staring around David as much as at him.

David struggled to hold the guy still, the psycho barely able to move in his bonds. When the psycho realized he couldn't escape, his projectile launcher tried to pop out, only to grind as David's monowires kept it closed. It was only David's spider-sense that warned him about what was about to happen.

The guy fired his projectile launcher while it was still in his arm. The explosion sent both of them flying. David smashed into one of the crates behind him, blearily looking up. His helmet's hud went black for a moment, then came back in time to show the guy rushing towards him at a dead sprint, thrusting something at his head.

David barely dodged a mass of broken metal and wires, realizing at the last minute it was the remnants of the guy's arm. David rolled out of the way, blocking a punch on his arm and returning it. The cyberpsycho roared, then froze jittering briefly before he suddenly gained flames across his body.

His eyes snapped up towards the roof. Lucy was staring down through a window, her eyes hard. The cyberpsycho's legs began to clench, and David saw what was about to happen. The psycho leaped upwards like a rocket, aiming for Lucy. Her eyes widened and she staggered back, but too slowly.

"Fuck you, Script Kiddy!!" The psycho screamed as fire burned away the skin across his body, clenching fingers shattering through the glass window, his hand moments from reaching her.

David tackled him out of the air. "Not happening!"

He spun around, tossing the guy down at the concrete, and landed awkwardly across from him. He rolled to his feet, his back getting poked by some stuff. He briefly looked around.

Somehow, in all the chaos, David had ended up near where the shelves holding weaponry had been. Those shelves were destroyed now, but the guns were lying about. David had rolled over an assault rifle of some kind. And to his left-

David grabbed the gun he saw in both hands and spun around, pulling the trigger. He had some practice thanks to Rebecca, but he still had trouble using guns in combat. For a moment, he saw his mom again. Then Lucy.

Then he pulled the trigger. The gun in his hand was a light machine gun, something Rebecca seemed to love. The gun barely moved thanks to his spider-strength, letting him keep the gun on target.

"Enemy fire!?" The cyberpsycho reeled back as dozens of bullets chipped away at his hardened armor, sending pieces flying. He zipped around the room with his sandevistan, avoiding bullets long enough to get to David.

David blocked a punch with the LMG, the weapon bending massively under the blow, then kicked outwards, sending the cyberpsycho rolling across the ground. David snapped out a monowire towards another gun on the floor, one Rebecca had taught him about.

When the cyberpsycho rushed him again, David was holding a Burya. The massive borg killer revolver fired a single powerful shot, the electronics within sending a bullet into the right pectoral of the cyberpsycho. He stumbled, then disappeared in a burst of sandevistan speed. David, without looking, pointed the revolver behind him.

When the cyberpsycho reappeared, it was with a revolver pointed directly at his heart. David fired, the Burya's slug slicing through hardened armor to bite deep into the cyberpsycho. David spun around, punching the man in the same spot with his other arm. Chrome split around enhanced flesh, the cyberpsycho gasping in horror.

David wanted to do the same. He'd just wanted to punch the guy away, not fucking impale him. Before that moment, the cyberpsycho had been the toughest person he'd ever punched, so he'd stopped holding back as much. And now-

The cyberpsycho wrapped an intact and exploded arm around David and began to squeeze. David lifted the Burya and fired it directly into his face, the guy's head shattering. He kept squeezing, even as Lucy dropped down behind him with a hand to her head, presumably hacking into him.

So David reached the hand currently inside the man's body further inside, wrapped his fingers around the guys secondary heart, and clenched. Metal and flesh shattered in his grasp.

The cyberpsycho froze up. David looked at his bloody head, panting as his muscles screamed.

"...Quiet," the cyberpsycho whispered through his electronic voicebox, despite his mouth not moving. "Quiet."

David pushed him back and watched him fall to his back, swallowing as he did. He looked himself over and groaned. "That really hurt."

"You…" Lucy cut herself off and swallowed, looking around. The area around them had been torn apart, chunks ripped from the concrete. David then saw some shards of glass had impeded into her hands, blood dripping across the clear glass to slowly drip down to the concrete.

"Shit!" David moved forward, gently taking her hands and looking around. "You're hurt. Here, they gotta have a first aid kit."

After a glance, he found it. Snapping a monowire out he grabbing the red box with the white cross on it and pulled Lucy gently to the nearly destroyed couch, sitting her down. He opened the box, only to scowl at the contents.

"Seriously?"

Drugs. They were very nicely labeled and organized, but still drugs. Blue butter, smash, dorf, glitter, even juice. David recognized some of them just from living in Night City, while others he had never heard of. He pushed them aside and found some real medical gear. Including some tweezers, bandages, and antiseptic.

"No drugs," Lucy said. David agreed. His mom had told him horror stories about the stuff that happened to people who used those things.

He pulled out the tweezers and took one of Lucy's hands, gently pulling out one of the shards and spraying some antiseptic, moving slowly. He felt Lucy watching him, but focused on his work. Until she tapped his helmet with her hand. He looked up at her. She sighed.

"Can you take that thing off?"

"Hmm?" David blinked, then moved to remove his helmet. Once it was off, she stared at him oddly. Enough to make him uncomfortable. He looked away and refocused on her arms, slowly pulling out glass and applying antiseptic. "Why did you want me to take it off?"

"...Sometimes I have trouble figuring you out," Lucy said softly. "The helmet doesn't help."

"Figuring me out?" David asked. "I mean… I'm just your friendly-"

"Stop," Lucy said. He did, looking up at her. "That guy could have killed you David. Same with the Molten Man and all the other things we're running into. And I couldn't help you."

"You did help me, Lucy," David said gently, removing the last of the glass and wrapping her arms up. He then looked over at the cyberpsycho. The man who had lost himself. He looked… familiar.

Lying there dead on the floor, with half his head erased, he reminded David of someone. He turned to Lucy, who was looking at the man as well. Lucy glanced at David, then stood up.

"Come on. I want to go home."

"Sure. But, are you okay?"

"No. But I'll figure it out."

David winced at that simple statement, finding himself not know how to respond. He simply placed his helmet on his head and began to leave with her, swinging up into the sky.

Halfway there, they got a panicked call from Dorio that brought them to a halt.

Rebecca had been kidnapped.

Author's Note: Dun Dun Duuuuun.

Yeah, Rebecca has been grabbed.

Lots of stuff happening this chapter though. David and Lucy fought a cyberpsycho, this time of the more traditional kind. If you read closely, you'll notice something about the cyberpsycho.

Next time, David and the gang plan out getting Rebecca back, and David's new fame bites him in the ass.