Chapter Text
Crime Central was the ultimate fortress; fitting for a base where the Kingpin of Crime resided. So when the alarm was tripped, it was safe to say the Kingpin was beside himself with surprise.
“Who would dare break in here?!” He bellowed, slamming his fist on his table. “Not only that, HOW could someone break in!” He shouted in Smythe’s direction. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question,” he clarified when his assistant didn’t reply.
“Don’t look at me. This base was forged long before I was in your employment,” Smythe smugly replied.
Fisk rolled his eyes then pressed a button on his desk’s monitor to show the base’s security footage. Several of his security guards were firing at something off camera.
“What is going on down there!” Fisk shouted.
“I don’t know!” One of his panicking guards shouted. “Some…thing is fighting its way through the compound and…oh no!” He cried out before getting tackled by some figure moving too fast for the camera to get a good look at.
Smythe cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should evacuate before our mystery guest reaches us,” he suggested.
“No,” Fisk refused. “I fear nothing. Whomever this person is, they will experience first hand what becomes of those that dare to cross the Kingpin.”
Slowly, the sound of gun fire outside the room died down until the pair heard one more guard getting knocked out and then silence followed for a few more tense seconds. Finally, they heard the sound of the door getting unlocked then opening revealing their attacker.
“What on Earth?” Fisk asked, his mouth hanging agape.
Stepping inside the room was what appeared to be a stunningly beautiful woman except her skin was grey, her ears were pointed, and there was something just slightly inhuman about her face. She walked right up to Fisk and before he could get a word out, she bowed to him.
“It is a pleasure to meet the mighty Kingpin,” she said. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Lady Vermin.”
Fisk looked over at Smythe who shrugged his shoulders and then back at Lady Vermin. “Just what is the meaning of you breaking into my base, Ms. Vermin?”
“Lady,” she corrected.
“Yes. Lady,” he said with some skepticism in his voice at her not fully human appearance. “I ask again, why are you here?”
“My master has been watching you for sometime now, Kingpin. He believes the two of you can help one another for your own mutual benefit. That’s why he sent me here.”
“And who do you serve?”
“My master will reveal himself when the time is right.”
“Starting a partnership with secrecy doesn’t scream mutually beneficial,” Fisk pointed out.
“My master said you would say that, so as a token of his sincerity, send me on any mission you require completing. I believe you’ll find my handling of your guards an early proof of my capabilities.”
Fisk pondered Lady Vermin’s offer for a moment while Smythe watched at her with his typical look of suspicion. Finally, an idea came to the crime lord’s mind.
“There is something I need to acquire, Lady Vermin. Find and bring it back here, and we shall have a deal.”
Lady Vermin smiled confidently. “Just tell me what and where.” After being informed of her mission, Lady Vermin was swiftly off.
Smythe cleared his throat once she left. “Funny, you didn’t mention Spider-Man to her.”
“I want to see how she handles the unpredictable should he make an appearance during her test, whatever she is and whomever she serves.”
“Spider-Man?” Doc Connors asked.
“Hm? Oh, sorry Doc. Spaced out there for a second,” Spider-Man replied from within the Neogenic Recombinator test area.
“Are you alright?”
“Crazed mutation disease aside, I’m peachy…sorry, that came out wrong,” Spider-Man said, kicking himself for how insensitive he was.
“It’s alright, I understand,” Connors assured him.
“How do you handle this?” Spider-Man asked as Connors began activating the Recombinator for Spider-Man’s daily Neogenic Treatment.
“Billy and of course Margaret,” Connors answered. “Having them in my life gives me the strength to go the extra mile to cure myself.”
As Connors activated the machine, Spider-Man thought about his own life. Of course he had Aunt May as motivation to cure himself. But, Connors mentioning his wife made Spider-Man remember how lonely he felt in his life as of late. Mary Jane still wasn’t really speaking with him and while things were better between him and Felicia, she was largely keeping to herself after what became of Michael. And the less said about Alisa, the better.
Maybe I should take a break from the dating game, Spider-Man thought.
Lady Vermin piloted her hovercraft to the floor of ESU that Fisk directed her to. She had to admit, she somewhat liked how primitive this world was like that she could fly through the air and not have to worry about running into other vehicles.
Using her claws, she cut a perfect circle in the window and pulled it out. She reached her hand through the hole and unlocked the window. She lifted it open and stepped inside the building while remotely piloting her craft to land itself on the roof.
She quietly made her way towards the main lab and raised her eyebrows in surprise at the door she found sealing it off from any prying eyes. Perhaps there would be more to this world than she previously thought. She approached the pad to unlock the door and gave a brief chuckle.
“Impressive, but not impressive enough,” she said.
She reached for an object in her pouch and placed it against the key pad. Its numbers lit up and began blinking while her heightened sense of smell picked up two scents on the other side of the door.
Connors switched off the Recombinator and Spider-Man stepped out feeling good as new.
“Thanks Doc. See you this same time tom-,” Spider-Man was cut off by his Spider Sense suddenly blaring. “Something’s wrong.” The door to the lab suddenly opened, but there was no one on the other side. “Is there anyone else in the building?”
“No one that would have the access code to the lab,” Connors said.
“That’s what I was afraid of. Stay here,” Spider-Man advised and cautiously made his way towards the door. He exited the lab and looked down the hallway to find it empty as well.
“Hm. Either this place is haunted or…,” his Spider Sense went off again and he whirled around to see Lady Vermin dropping from above him. He fired a webline snaring her and slammed her onto the floor.
“Nice try-oh my gosh,” he gasped at the sight of Lady Vermin.
She smirked, broke out of his webbing with ease, and jumped up to her feet. She grabbed something attached to her belt and slammed it on the ground sending out smoke. Spider-Man choked on the smoke giving Lady Vermin and opening to kick him in the chest knocking him to the floor before making a run towards Connors.
“Stay back!” He pleaded, but she took a flying leap at him and delivered a kick to his face knocking him out.
She rushed to his computer and placed a disk in its main drive. The words ‘download in progress’ appeared.
As the download began, she leapt up to the Recombinator and pulled something out of it when the lab’s fans switched on sucking up the smoke at the lab’s entrance.
“Good thing I still know the lay of the place,” Spider-Man said from beside the fan switch. “Hey, get away from there!” He shouted firing a webline at Lady Vermin.
She jumped from the Recombinator, dodging the attack and jumped to the right dodging another. She rushed Spider-Man and he did the same. She delivered another leaping kick, which Spider-Man ducked underneath. She landed and spun around on her heel in time to deflect a punch from Spider-Man.
She threw out her own punch, which he blocked and then dropped to his feet and swung out a sweep kick. She hopped over the kick and no sooner did her feet touch the ground that she leapt again right over Spider-Man. She sprinted to the main computer, but glanced over her shoulder, spotting Spider-Man getting ready to fire more webbing. She spun back around and caught the webline in her hand.
Spider-Man gave an impressed whistle. “Great reflexes you’ve got there, whatever you are,” he complimented while pulling back on the line to drag her away from the computer.
“I’m a Knight of Wundagore,” she replied then slashed at the line making Spider-Man trip and fall backwards.
Lady Vermin got to the computer and saw the downloaded was finished. She ejected the disk and placed it in a case in her pouch then made a run for the exit. Spider-Man jumped in front of her path, but she slid right between his legs and out the door. She kicked open the doors to the main stairway and jumped from one railing to the next leading up to the roof.
Spider-Man entered the stairway and began firing weblines to pull himself up after her.
Lady Vermin reached the roof and remotely activated her hover craft, when a shadow flew past her, and Spider-Man landed in front of her path once more.
“End of the line, lady,” he declared.
Lady Vermin felt her heart beat a mile a minute and her smile widen. No one had ever kept up with her like this. Not even Lordy Tyger.
“We should not do battle, stranger. For you are most fair in my eyes,” she said.
“And you are most rat like in my own,” he replied.
“Flatterer,” she chuckled. “And what might your name be?”
“Not often I encounter someone that doesn’t know me. Why, I’m the Amazing Spider-Man!” He announced.
Spider-Man, Lady Vermin thought feeling even more impressed. This made her more curious. The Kingpin could wait.
“Well, Spider-Man. Let’s see if you can really keep up with me,” she challenged.
To Be Continued...