Chapter 7: THE VIGILANTE
One night, Rachel Reyes hears a knock on her door. As she walks towards the door, she hears sounds of a struggle, and people grunting. The DA grabs a bat from her closet and slowly continues towards the door. When she opens it, she looks down on the ground and sees three men unconscious on her door step, trapped by webs.
"Falcone sent them to kill you." A voice says above her.
Rachel looks up and sees Spider-Bat on a light post, startled by the sight of him.
"Why?" She asks.
"Because you're the only one who will rattle his cage."
He then throws down incriminating pictures of Judge Faden.
"What's this?" She asks.
"Leverage. To get things moving." Spider-Bat replies.
"Who are you?"
"If I wanted people to know, I wouldn't be wearing a mask. Just know that I'm Someone like you. Someone who'll rattle the cages."
After Rachel slowly picks up the pictures and looks at them, she looks up and sees that the mysterious masked man is gone.
The next morning, at the police station, the Mayor of New York City, Aubrey James, holds up a Daily Bugle newspaper about a masked vigilante taking down a crime boss.
"This is unacceptable. Now, I don't care if it's rival gangs, Guardian Angels, or the great lord himself. Get them off the street, and off the front page." Aubrey orders.
"They say it was just one guy." A cop says.
"Or maybe a creature." Another cop suggests.
This angers the mayor.
"It's just some idiot in a costume."
"To be fair. This guy did deliver us one of the city's biggest crime lords." Commissioner Stacy says.
Everyone turns to George Stacy for a moment as a silence falls over the room.
"No one takes the law into their own hands in my city. Get him off the street." The mayor replies.
Meanwhile, as Peter is sleeping Ben opens a curtain, allowing the sun to shine in his face.
"Bats are nocturnal." Peter says, covering his face with his pillow.
Ben chuckles.
"Bats may be. But high school students are not. Price for leading a double life, I'm afraid."
Ben then hands Peter the newspaper.
"Seems your first outing made an impression."
Peter sits up and reads the front page with a smirk.
"It's a start, Ben. A good start."
Ben then sees the bruises Peter has on his shoulder.
"Well if those are the start of many injuries to come, it would be wise to find a suitable excuse."
Peter chuckles and gets out of bed.
"I'll just say my butler did it."
"I was thinking more like- polo?" Ben replies.
"I don't even know how to play polo." Peter replies, dropping to the floor and doing push ups.
Ben sighs.
"You never know, master Parker. If you start pretending to have fun, you might have a little by accident."
Peter smirks.
"I don't think Polo counts as fun." He says, still doing push ups.
Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle J Jonah Jameson is looking at the news paper. He calls in his team Ted Hoffman(ad manager), Vicky Vale(reporter), Angela Yin(photographer), and Ben Urich(investigative journalist)
"Hoffman! I want a name for this guy! Vale! I want an interview with Commissioner Stacy, I want answers about this emo freak! Yin, I want more pictures, and ones that look like they were caught in 4k! And Urich, I want answers! Find out who this- masked menace is, NOW!"
"Menace? No offense, J.J, but this guy took down a crime boss." Ben argues.
Jameson scoffs.
"That's probably just to cover up his true plan to take over New York! But he's not getting one over on J Jonah Jameson, oh no sir! I'm gonna expose him for what he truly is!"
Everyone strugs and do their jobs. At that moment, Betty Brant(Jamesons receptionist) buzzes in.
"Mr. Jameson, your wife is calling." She says.
"Tell her I'm not here!" He says.
"You can tell her yourself, I already patched her in."
Jameson is caught off guard and quickly answers the phone.
Meanwhile, Ben and Vicky talk.
"You really think this guys a hero?" She asks.
"Obviously, by his outfit, the guy has a couple screws loose, but you don't go after a guy like Falcone if you're not trying to help the city." Ben replies.
Meanwhile, as Peter walks through the halls, he's pleasantly surprised at the low number of stares he's getting. He then notices everyone reading the story about the Vigilante in New York and smirks. Harry and Gwen then come up beside him.
"Sorry Pete, but you chose the wrong time to comeback into town." Harry says, patting Peter on the shoulder.
"Yeah, everyone's talking about some masked guy bringing down Carmine Falcone last night." Gwen says.
"Yeah I saw that in the news this morning." Peter says, playing dumb.
"I think the guys a nut job." Harry says.
"And what makes you say that?" Gwen asks.
Harry chuckles.
"Are you kidding? Guy dresses up like that, and you think he's sane?" Harry asks.
"I mean, maybe he's a little different, but he did help the cops bring in Falcone, so he can't be all that crazy. I think he's trying to help this City."
They then turn to Peter.
"Pete, what do you think?" Harry asks.
Peter doesn't answer for a moment.
"Well, I mean- if that's what he's wearing, the guy can't all be there. But it does seem like he's helping, so I agree with both of you." Peter replies.
Both Harry and Gwen laugh at their friend.
"We missed you being in the middle of our arguments."
The three friends then walk to class, with Peter wondering how long he can keep his secret from his friends.
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