Chapter Text
Spider-man was fast but he’s not Quicksilver or Northstar fast. The cuts and bruises littering his body were reminding him of that. Another fist comes flying at him followed by another ear exploding sound of a shotgun going off. Reverberating off the walls of the shitty warehouse, Spiderman was currently fighting in.
Peter dodges the fist by pushing himself toward the guy, conveniently also doing the shotgun bullet. Shoulder-checking the guy with a little super strength, sending him flying into a wall. Then, jumping straight up, using the height as leverage to wed up the shotgun guy. Sending him upward as well and slamming him into the ground.
As soon as his feet touch the ground he’s rushing for the exit. Pushing past the door that is just barely attached to the surrounding frame. Led to a shadowed ally but no sign of this target, through the darkness of night was not helping; even with his enhanced vision. He reaches out with his senses honing in on panting and panicked breathing of his target. A few blocks away, heading toward an abandoned apartment complex, thinking he could lose THE Spider-man.
Spider-man jumps and starts to swing after them. He clears the building in a flash of weds and leaps, though he remains quiet. While they know that Spider-man is after him, Spider-man isn’t fully sure what he’s going after. But he can't quietly stalk this guy like he uselessly doses. He needs to cut this guy off before he can make it into another vigilante's territory. So it's run in and flight or lose this lead and let more people suffer. A “huff” and sharp pull from him on his webs sends him flying left down a narrow ally. Quickly and quietly Spider-man narrows in on his lead.
He was not going to let this scumbag getaway. This all started a month ago, when on patrol he started to come across scorch marks, all located in abandoned buildings or isolated alleys. Then the scorch marks were accompanied by human bones just one or two, then more, then a half skeleton, then whole ones. However, it was hard to tell as it was all scorched to hell, really just clumps of coal. The case was frustrating, no witnesses and no DNA from the bones. The number of bones was starting to get other hero's attention, even S.H.E.I.L.D was poking around.
While Peter didn’t consider himself to be territorial, on the level of Punisher or DeadDevil. But that's not to say he enjoys outsiders coming and trying to work his case. When a big supervillain is on the run or a fight happens to enter his little corner of New York.
Spiderman has no issue with the big guys coming in. Hell, Spiderman can even play nice with other vigilantes wanting to follow a lead into his territory (Unheard of in the vigilantes' community). But this? Big hero wanting to do a whole case that originally started in his playing field? Ya, no way.
It's been a race to be ahead of them, but Spiderman’s got the home advantage. The biggest advantage of being a witness is a homeless man Spiderman had helped in the past. Getting him out of a flooding storm drain he had been sleeping in. This left him trusting Spiderman a lot more than the black suit S.H.E.I.L.D agents, at have been lurking around the homeless camps.
The man, Clarance explained what he had seen 2 weeks ago. He was in one of the port alleys, some of the most dangerous places in New York. As any good vigilante knows ports are where everyone gets their main product imported. But the ports are some of the only places the cops won’t harass the homeless, an unfortunate truth.
Clarance had found a place to sleep in some barely upright building, like really it was mostly just a shell. Just enough to hide what was inside and that was enough for the arsonist to strike again. Clarance’s story was vague at best saying he woke up to a fire already sparking on the floor.
A Figure shrouded in black stood closely watching it waving a pendent in a swinging motion, the fire slowly following. The Figure chanted as the fire grew in color and intensity, and then the sound of gunshots from a few blocks over rang out. At the sound, the fire seemed to become unstable instead of thrashing around and eventually exploding. With the sound and failure of their arson, the figure seemed to leave after not even bothering to clean up his tracks. That was a mistake on their part.
( Cut to investigating Clarance’s lead )
There wasn’t much at the lot when he got there, again a scorch mark on the floor, but the location and whatever happened being interrupted did leave behind one thing. The bones that accompanied every other incident weren’t burned fully.
Spider-man made it a point to try and stay off the floor when at a crime scene, which means less evidence for people to trace. But it felt disrespectful then his eyes landed on his new evidence. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fully surprised he had smelt it at the other scorch marks, and even as was a block away he knew. The bottom half of the body looked to be gone but the top half looked to be mostly there. But it was hard to tell if the skin was fully sunken in and decomposition was fully seeing in now.
Spider-man’s feet touched the ground softly as if he might disturb the body, he walked quietly over. But getting closer he felt bile start to crawl up his throat. He needed a second to tune his head away. But he always made it a point to interact with the people he was saving, it came in with a bad habit of never shutting up. Even though he felt nauseous with what was on the ground, he couldn’t help but open his mouth.
“ Jesus … I’m sorry, let's see if I can find something to cover you up …ya?” His voice comes out as the cheerful distracting one he uses on kids when he wants them to stay calm. But it's not doing much to calm him and no one else is hearing him.
Looking around quickly nothing else in the place looked to be messed with, just like the other scene. So Spider-man didn’t worry too much grabbing a large cloth coving a piece of furniture, and walking back over. Collecting himself as he did so, He turned back. Lightly draping the fabric over the remaining lower half of the body. Not yet fully covering them. He unfortunately needed to look closer for clues still.
“Here ya go buddy” He doesn't want to ruin the crime scene and a cloth covering a body may not be helping that. But he couldn’t stand to leave the body exposed to the elements. It wouldn’t take too long in the time it would take for the cops to get there once Spider-man left them a tip.
He knew the bones that the other burn locations were of younger people, around his age; but this one was the youngest for sure. The body looked so small, Spider-man wasn't a forensic scientist, so just the size was the most he could tell. Not what they liked to do, hang out, eat, listen to, … he hoped there was someone who did know. He was starting to feel nauseous now but bubbles of anger started to rise up with the bile.
Before he fully covers the body he crouched closer to see if the arsonist and murderer had left anything. There wasn’t much on the body now, 2 weeks in the mild weather did nothing to preserve the body. He tried to look closely without taking in the unnecessary gruesome details.
There is a shirt now loose around the remains, It's dirty and light in color. Maybe a white or gray of some kind. But throughout the filth and discoloration, a sigil is fairly visible. It's the head of something but it's the beak that gives it away. It's an owl of some kind but it's not a friendly cartoon one. The owl has its wings up making a circle shape, and has huge empty eyes.
“This thing can’t be good” With that said, He covers the body.