Ghost Spider - Chapter 6-10 (Patreon)

Chapter 6“...and remember, your final project must be uploaded to the class folder before the deadline. It automatically closes after that so late work will not be accepted.” Gwen’s teacher and student advisor, Mr Barnes, ended class with a reminder.Students began to filter out, either heading to their next class or off to do something in their free time. Gwen closed her notebook and prepared to leave when Mr Barnes called out to her.“Ms Stacy, a word before you leave?”Gwen sighed. This was a conversation she had been putting off and it looks like Mr Barnes had decided to go to her rather than wait.She walked up to the front desk with all the enthusiasm of a person going to an execution.“What’s up, Mr Barnes?” She said with forced cheer. He was one of her favorite teachers. Patient, willing to point you towards supporting material, and actually interested in getting to know the students he advised despite pushing 60. Too bad that last quality wasn’t something she wanted to deal with at the moment.“Gwendolyn.” Mr Barnes replied neutrally, causing Gwen to twitch. She hated being called by her full name. “I noticed you never responded to my question about cancelling all your classes for next semester.”“Yeah…” Gwen hedged. “I’m dropping out.”There was no judgement in the older man’s eyes. Instead he just nodded sadly and asked, “Money troubles?”She nodded. It was an open secret at this point. She had no income, not enough credit to cover more loans on her own, and financial aid resources were overtaxed as is. There simply wasn’t an option for her to cover tuition. Well, none that she was able to come by quick enough or legally.“Well I’ll certainly miss you.” Mr Barnes sighed. “Do you have any ideas what you will be doing outside of school? I’d be happy to reference you to some of my colleagues if you’re looking for work.”“I have a few ideas. I thought about trying my hand as a freelance web developer or indie game designer. Possibly some other things but nothing solid for now.”“I see...well, I can’t help with web development but a friend of mine works with Wayne Entertainment. If you have anything solid I can reach out and pitch it to them. Might be able to get some more benefits than their normal contract.”Gwen smiled, a warm feeling in her chest. “I’ll keep it in mind.”Mr Barnes nodded seriously. “Do that. And if you ever get the chance I urge you to return to school when you have the chance. You have a bright mind, it would be a shame to see it go to waste. Now go on, I’m sure you have finals to study for.”Gwen smiled, said her goodbyes, and jogged out of the classroom...directly into a passing student.None of Gwen’s normal spider enhanced grace was on display as the two of them crashed to the ground in an awkward pile of limbs, but she was the one back to her feet as she rushed to help the other girl up.“I am so sorry!” Gwen apologized, absently noting she had run into another blonde haired blue eyed girl, although her hair seemed more brownish than Gwen’s own. “I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you okay?”“Yeah, I’m fine.” her fellow blonde said, hurriedly adjusting her glasses and accepting Gwen’s help up. “Just be careful I guess?”Gwen apologized again silently cursing she couldn’t just turn invisible to escape the awkwardness, but eventually the other girl waved her off.“It’s fine!” she repeated for maybe the third time. “And it was nice to, um, run into you I guess but I have to go meet a friend. So if you don’t mind?” she made a vague gesture out towards the door.“Ye-yeah! I, uh, go ahead.”-o-“‘Yeah, go ahead’. Brilliant Gwen. You’re a real people person.” Even hours after the confrontation Ghost Spider was still stewing on that one conversation.Just when she thought it was out of her head, it would pop up randomly and she would agonize over everything she could’ve said differently to not come off as a spaz. Ghost Spider pushed the memory away for the hundredth time and focused on web swinging through the city.Soon enough she was back at the now burned out husk of a warehouse from last night. The police had already come and gone and someone had cleared out the insides of it completely but it was still the best starting place to continue searching for whatever the Falcone’s were planning. A quick check of the surrounding buildings showed that a few were partially cleared out overnight. But moving things took time and needed a space to put them. With the police no doubt watching the area for any blatantly illegal merchandise, Gwen was willing to bet there were some clues left behind in the rush. She just had to find them.She passed through a few more places, but nothing special stood out.Ghost Spider was about to call it a night and head home when she noticed a limousine idling in the shadows by one of the more out-of-the-way warehouses. Not exactly the kind of vehicle you expect in this part of the city.Figuring that was suspicious enough to warrant a quick check, Ghost Spider silently swung to the roof and slipped inside through a skylight. Shifting to invisibility was hard on her stamina, but a small use of it was enough for her to make her way to the base of one of the ceiling lamps. The light coming off of it would keep her hidden from casual glances so she settled in and tried to make out the words from the group down below.“Careful you bumbling buffoons! These magnificent works of art are worth far more than your sorry skins. Damage even one of them and I’ll make sure you end up in ice!” A small deformed man in a tuxedo threatened as grunts worked to pack crates into a moving van.Ghost Spider recognized him as Oswald Cobblepot, AKA The Penguin, from her father’s files. According to him, Cobblepot was one of the Gotham crimelords that specialised in white collar crime. Art theft, gambling, and information trading for the most part, though he certainly wasn’t above getting his hands dirty. He also managed to squirm out of prison more times then her father was happy with, but that could be said about a lot of criminals in Gotham.“It’s just some paintings.” one of the stupider thugs said loud enough for Penguin to hear him.The villain walked/waddled to the man, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him close.“These are some of the greatest works of art in the modern era, you simpleton! They will be the crown jewels in my upcoming auction. You should consider yourself lucky to even come within five feet of these masterpieces, something that definitely wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the police poking around warehouses!”“Well maybe that wouldn’t be an issue if you didn’t deal in stolen paintings?” A sarcastic voice called out to the whole group.Everyone’s eyes, Ghost Spider’s included, snapped to where the voice came from to see a man in a tight black bodysuit with the image of a bright blue falcon across his chest.“Nightwing! Get him!” The Penguin snarled and began backing up towards the truck.While the bird themed supervillain began to make his escape, his goons tried to overwhelm the intruding hero….physically….with their fists. It went about as well as expected.Nightwing punched his way through them so quickly Ghost Spider didn’t even get to finish debating if jumping in was a good idea. The media had painted her as kind of a villain and a metahuman showing up in the middle of a fight might cause an unwelcome distraction.So she simply kept an eye out for any surprises as Nightwing stopped the Penguin from opening the truck door with a well thrown birdarang. It clipped the villain’s hand, causing him to recoil in pain and turn back to the hero.“So the original boy wonder is stalking warehouses, quite the step down from saving the city.” Penguin mocked, brandishing a trick umbrella with a dagger poking out the top. “The Bat too busy with your replacement or were you just kicked out of the nest?”“Just doing my duty to clean up the streets.” Nightwing’s smirk had lessened and the cheer seemed a bit forced now. “And waddya know? Two thieves for the price of one!”With a snap of his arm, Nightwing sent another birdarang arcing through the air. Ghost Spider’s eyes widened in surprise as the shuriken flew directly at her hiding place and she kicked off the ceiling. Landing in a crouch on one of the crates she glared at Nightwing. That had just been rude.Still crouched, Ghost Spider jabbed an offended finger at him. “I am not a thief!”“Really? Care to explain what happened to that unmarked crate you ran off with then? I’d check the warehouse records but there was a small fire.”Gwen paled underneath her mask. He knew about that? How?! There were no cameras in the area and she really doubted Falcone was going to tell the cops about his illegal warehouse goods! ...oh. Of course. The gangsters must’ve woken up at some point and saw her run off with it. Then it was just the rumor mill at work.“Ask the mafia goons that lit the place on fire, I bet they would love to tell you all about it.” she deflected.Nightwing opened his mouth to respond but the Penguin took a gamble with the hero being slightly distracted and tried to stab him from behind with his umbrella. Not that it accomplished much. Nightwing leaned back avoiding the thrust and batted the umbrella away with a swipe of an arm, a swift kick to the gut had the smaller man battered back into the side of the truck.The Penguin snarled in pain and brought his umbrella back between himself and Nightwing, who had retreated a bit to keep both the Penguin and Ghost Spider in front of him.“Girl! I don’t know what you were tasked to steal from me, but delay this meddlesome do-gooder and I will reward you triple the paltry sum you were hired for.” The Penguin shouted to Gwen.“I’m not a thief!”Sadly despite her denial, Nightwing had moved past the friendly banter stage and decided to just capture everyone. Gwen couldn’t exactly blame him since he could’ve died if the Penguin managed to stab him, but it was certainly annoying as she jumped over a thrown bolas and webbed to a nearby wall to avoid more birdarangs.Easy enough, but it had the side effect of pulling her far enough that Nightwing couldn’t keep the both of us in his field of view. So when he turned to track Ghost Spider, the more immediately dangerous one, the Penguin took the opportunity to toss out several gas grenades and the warehouse began to slowly fill with an ominous pink vapor.“So long boy wonder, with this paralytic gas to keep you out of my feathers it’s time for this bird to fly the coop!” The Penguin cackled as he slammed the door to the moving truck shut and floored the accelerator. The truck lurched forward, sliding to point directly at Nightwing and gaining speed quickly.Nightwing dove out of the way...directly into one of the clouds of gas. The gas apparently didn’t need to be inhaled to take effect since Ghost Spider could see his movements slowing despite him holding his breath.So Nightwing wouldn’t be chasing after the Penguin at this rate, now was her opportunity to show she was a hero!A webline attached itself to the back of the truck and Ghost Spider lept off the wall, pulling herself towards the fleeing vehicle when an unfortunately well aimed shuriken sliced through the strand of silk. White eyes widened dramatically as Ghost Spider nearly crashed into the ground, rolling and springing off her hands to bleed off her momentum. There was a loud crash as the truck tore through the light warehouse siding and disappeared towards the city.“Not letting both thieves get away.” Nightwing said, swaying slightly as he fought against the toxin in his system.Ghost Spider’s temper, long frayed from her own internal torment over her embarrassing moment earlier in the day, finally snapped.She stalked towards the wobbling vigilante and sidestepped a surprisingly fast punch. “I-” she drove her own fist hard into his stomach, “-am not-” an uppercut to his chin that nearly rocked him off his feet, “-a thief!” and finished it with a straight punch to his nose.Ghost Spider stood over the now unconscious Nightwing, breathing heavily and feeling somewhat numb as the paralytic in the air slowly overcame her symbiote’s natural defense. The sound of distant sirens snapped her back to clarity as she looked down at the body in front of her.“Oh...shit…”-o-Gwen took another bite of her wrap and just tried to blend into the background.Last night had been a disaster. No new leads, the Penguin got away with a stockpile of stolen art, and she had beaten a hero into the ground because she had been embarrassed and pissed off. She was just going to hide from anyone she knew for a few days until she felt like less of an idiot.Naturally that was when Barbara slid into the booth across from her followed by a somewhat stiff Dick Grayson.“Hi Gwen! Been looking for you all day, you aren’t avoiding us are you?” the redhead asked playfully as Dick sat down as well.“Kinda avoiding everyone. Did something stupid yesterday so I was hiding out until my ego recovers. I’ll tell you later if you want.” Gwen added on when she saw Barbara’s interest peak. “You okay, Dick? You have something on your face.”Dick gave her a sort of wincing smile that made his black eye even more noticable. “Yeah...new sparring partner at the gym. I got a bit sloppy and got hit for it.”Gwen gave a sympathetic wince of her own. Partly because it did look painful, and partly because it was her fault.“Ouch, sorry.”Dick waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. It just looks bad, I’ve had worse.”“I dunno, I think it makes him look better.” Barbara sniped, but her heart wasn’t in it.There was a brief silence.“So...you were looking for me?”“Hmm? Oh, right! Do you think you could hand in my final essays for our shared classes? I’m going to be busy next week and they won’t let me turn them in early for some reason.” Barbara said.“I guess so.” Gwen acquiesced. “You doing something or just looking to run off early and beat up Dick more?”“Hey.”“First off I do not beat up Dick. I can, naturally, but choose not to.” Barbara smirked.“Hey!”“I’m helping out a friend who’s stopping by town for a few days.” she continued as if she didn’t hear Dick’s protests. They both looked out over my shoulder and Dick waved at someone behind me.“Speak of the devil I guess. Here she is now.” Barbara murmured as a familiar looking blonde joined us at the table. “Gwen, this is Kara Danvers. Kara, Gwen Stacy.”“Oh,” Gwen said a little faintly as she recognized the girl she had crashed into the other day. “We’ve met.”She really hoped Kryptonians couldn’t hear internal screaming.

Chapter 7Thankfully for Gwen’s blood pressure Kara didn’t hang around. Gwen assumed that she was only in Gotham to pick up Barbara, because after that both of them disappeared. That didn’t mean Gwen didn’t obsessively check the skies for a blonde haired superhero on her night time investigations.She was oh for two with superhero encounters already. No need to get caught in a compromising position with another hero.The rest of the week went by surprisingly smoothly. Gwen was able to investigate several more warehouses belonging to the Falcone without being spotted. Most of them seemed to be filled with nothing special, but one in particular had been filled with enough smuggled guns to fight a small war.She had debated leaving a tip for the cops, but she knew that by the time they authorised someone to check on the place the Falcone’s would’ve heard about it, moved the guns, and arranged an ‘accident’ for anyone trying to dig deeper.Instead she decided she was going to try and track these to wherever they ended up for distribution. A cannibalised phone was turned into a basic tracker and rigged to send a text to a burner phone if it got within a few feet of the loading dock. From there it was just a matter of following a GPS signal until she found it again.Which led to her current situation. Crouching on a roof, staring at a fairly nondescript brick building. The problem? It was practically right across the street from the Iceberg Lounge. The Penguin’s legal front operations and occasional black market gathering place.Gwen started painting a picture with all the little clues she had stumbled on over the last few weeks and she wasn’t sure she liked it.The Falcones were importing a large amount of guns if the money in the warehouse she found earlier and the shipment she was currently tracking were related. On top of that, she had found more references to the mafia family meeting in coded locations at a certain time. A time that just so happened to coincide with the black market auction she had overheard the Penguin talking about.The most damning piece of evidence?The nightclub directly across from the Lounge. Bright neon lights innocently proclaiming the name of the club.Warehouse 14Gwen cursed. The meeting spot was the club not an actual warehouse! And the only reason they would be moving so many guns and people to the area on the same day as the auction was if they planned to need them.She had a bad feeling the Falcones were going to make a rather bloody grab for power during the Penguin’s auction. It made a twisted kind of sense. Most of the attendees would be high level criminals. Maybe not the top of whatever organization they were a part of, but high enough that the loss of them would hurt. If the Falcones removed enough of them then they would be the biggest organised group in the city and back on top of the heap.Gwen worried her lip as she thought it over.This might be more than she could handle alone. Sure she could probably break it up by herself after everything started, but this was a game changing move. The mafia family wouldn’t call it off just because she started poking things. That might just make everything spill out onto the streets and get innocent people hurt. But who could she call for help?Batman was still helping out the Justice League since Gwen had overheard Dick and Barbara talking about him being out of town still. She had already beaten up Nightwing and probably poisoned her image with the rest of the Bat family in the process. And the police simply weren’t equipped to handle the amount of firepower Gwen had seen.She supposed she could approach Dick or Barbara out of uniform, but she could already imagine the consequences.Hello Barbara/Dick. I know you are secretly superheroes and need you to work with me for reasons. How do I know this? Why, I’m the new hero that you both fought and lost to, Ghost Spider! I’m not a hero? I’m a thief who robbed the mafia? Well, not everyone has a billionaire to support them. Who are you calling? Supergirl? Oh-god-my-spine!”Yeah…Maybe not a good idea.Gwen closed her eyes and ground the palms of her hands into her temples hoping if she squeezed hard enough a good idea would materialize. When nothing did she sighed, walked to the edge of the building, and jumped off.She enjoyed the feeling of freefall for a second before webbing another one of the buildings with a *thwip!*. Gwen just swung through the city talking a moment to enjoy herself. Releasing her growing tension into the repetitive process of *thwip!*, swing, aim, *thwip!*, repeat. She continued for a solid fifteen minutes when a high pitched feminine shriek from the street attracted her attention.Ghost Spider pulled herself to the closest building to where the noise came from and looked down into the alley where she saw two figures. One was a woman somewhere in her late twenties to early thirties, the other was a somewhat younger man in casual clothes. Against her expectations the woman was the one advancing on the man with a knife while he was frantically digging through his pockets and pulling out his phone and wallet begging her not to hurt him.Guess that would teach her to assume…“Please just take my stuff.” the man was begging. “I didn’t see nothing. I won’t talk. Just take it and you won’t see me again.”“Oh I know, hun.” The woman crooned brandishing her knife. “But I can’t take that risk. See, my boss is kind of a hard ass and if any heat comes down on this place then it’s my ass on the line.”“Y-you don’t want to do this. I-I’m a police officer!” the man stuttered and the woman stiffened.“Well I was just going to give you a good scare. Maybe give you a little mark so you knew not to poke around where you aren’t wanted.” she said darkly. “Now I’m gonna have to kill you.”“N-no, wait please!”Ghost Spider heard enough and webbed the knife in the woman’s hand, ripping it out of her grip and tossing it into the alleyway.“I know this usually goes the other way, but no means no Lady.” Ghost Spider said sarcastically. “Also murder is bad, m’kay?” Life advice dispensed, Ghost Spider knocked the woman out with a punch to the jaw and webbed her hands together. Then she turned to the shaking form of the man she saved. Now that she saw him up close, Ghost Spider realised he was younger than she first thought. Maybe early twenties if she was generous.“Hi there! How’s your night going?” Ghost Spider asked cheerfully.“Oh god, a supervillain! Please! Do whatever you want just let me live!”And just like that, Ghost Spider’s mood took a nosedive.“Why would I want to kill you?!” She asked incredulously. “And I’m NOT a supervillain.”“B-but you fought Batgirl? And you robbed that warehouse?”Ghost Spider fumed but she couldn’t exactly say he was wrong.“The fight was a misunderstanding.” She tried to deflect. “Look, are you really a cop? And what were you doing that had Little Miss Sunshine over there so pissed with you?”“I-I am! Officer Nick O’Hara, I just t-transferred here out of the academy.” Nick stuttered. “I always heard that Gotham was bad, but I didn’t really believe it until I got here.”“Focus Nick.” Ghost Spider chided. “What was so important that she went from deadly joking to deadly serious?”Nick shook himself and refocused somewhat. “There’s been drug reports in the area. People walking out with armfulls of needles and junk, but the sergeant kept telling me it was a waste of time. No one would take it seriously. So I kinda...thought I could do some poking around. Off the clock and all.” Ghost Spider just stared hard at the newbie cop for doing what her father had drilled into every subordinate he worked with. ‘Never investigate alone’. “Y-yeah, it sounded better in my head. But I peeked through a crack in the window there-” He pointed at the frosted glass window on a door in the alley, “-and saw that chick loading some kind of green goo into syringes. I guess she saw me and...well, you know the rest.”Ghost Spider narrowed her eyes at the cop. He gulped and looked to the side but didn’t say anything else.“Okay, since you decided to risk your life for this might as well follow through with it.” She said and walked up to the door. Just like Nick said, inside was a bunch of syringes surrounded by various sized containers of a fluorescent green liquid. She turned back to the new cop and gestured into the room.“Welp, if my guess is right. You managed to uncover a Venom den. You’re probably going to want to call this in so someone who won’t kill themselves handling it can clear it out.”“Venom! Really?”“Yep. Have fun explaining to your boss and the media how you stumbled across a supervillain drug operation.”Nick’s eyes widened as he realised the implications of finding this off duty. If it was part of a sanctioned police action then he could disappear into the crowd as an officer just doing his job. Doing it in his time off meant the media was going to try and jump on it and use it as a local hero piece. Great for publicity, ratings, and a good story. Bad for the health of the person it was about.“Can’t I just say you found it? Y’know supervillain foiling supervillain?” Nick pleaded.“I am not a supervillain. Say it with me now. I am not a supervillain” Ghost Spider poked Nick in the chest in time with her words. “But sure, if you want to say you saw me poking around and I led you to it, that's fine. You should still give your boss a call though.”“R-right.” Nick pulled out a cellphone. “Wish I could just light up a signal for him to know I needed him. I hate talking on the phone.” He muttered. He probably hadn’t intended for Ghost Spider to hear him but she did, and it gave her the perfect way to contact the Bat family in a hopefully neutral way.“Glad you got it covered. I’ll see you around. And remember…”“‘Not a supervillain’, I know.”“Great!”With a leap, she was halfway up the alley walls and soon she was swinging her way home. She had an encounter to plan.-o-The next morning Gwen was pounding her head against the wall.She told Nick one thing. One!Either he had been incredibly literal in his interpretation and simply said she wasn’t a supervillain, or the media had decided to spin thing a bit to keep it in line with their previous articles but the morning’s headline read:

Thief Against Drugs?Ghost Spider Uncovers Venom Den​

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The story went on to say that the superpowered thief Ghost Spider had raided a suspected drug den and was noticed by a passing police officer. Nothing had been taken but the drug dealer on site had been knocked out and wrapped up for the police to take. Not entirely wrong even if the details were fudged, but it missed the point she wanted to make!Why was it that everytime she interacted with someone in law enforcement she seemed to be cementing her position as someone on the opposite side of the law? She had avoided directly saying she wanted to be a hero because she wanted her actions to speak for her! Maybe that had been a mistake. She just hoped reinforcing the public’s opinion of her as a thief wouldn’t complicate her upcoming meeting.

Chapter 8The Bat Symbol had a weird history in Gotham.It had started a few years ago as simply a gamble by the police at the time to make contact with the ever evasive Batman back when he was more of an urban legend in the criminal underworld than a recognizable symbol. At the time it was a way of reaching out when the latest disaster struck the city and the GCPD needed his help.Presumably this became less and less needed as Batman and the commissioner set up alternative ways of communication, and irrelevant when the Justice League started up but the whole time that the signal had been active there had only ever been one attempt at ambushing the hero. As it turns out, most of the criminals of Gotham had an almost ingrained desire to deal with Batman personally and a simple ambush at a police station where he was expected was not adequate enough for them.The one gang that had tried was found horrifically assaulted by several different hallmarks and calling cards of notorious villains such as Scarecrow, the Joker, Bane, Two-Face, and a few others. The obvious message to everyone that the only acceptable way to ‘beat the Bat’ was in the city itself or at least in person.Gwen was sure that that single incident was simply the one that everyone heard about and several others had been...cleaned up...on the side, but she was hoping to take advantage of that image of neutrality. If she could clear the air with Batgirl and Nightwing then hopefully they would be willing to help her stop the impending gang war just around the corner.Night was just beginning to fall over the city when she left her apartment and began wandering the streets. Once she was far enough that she was confident no one was following or paying attention to her, Gwen slipped into an ally and allowed her costume to cover her completely. A short climb later and she was making her way towards the police station and hopefully a peaceful conversation.The city blurred underneath her as she swung her way through the streets. Ghost Spider was content to let the sights and sounds fade into the background since she wasn’t looking for trouble at the moment. The universe apparently had different plans. Ghost Spider eventually noticed the glow of several blue and red lights flashing in the distance.Not a rare sight in the city by any stretch of the imagination, but several patrol cars circled around the front of the Gotham Central Bank tended to draw attention. And given that more cars were joining the group, the situation was still ongoing and the local PD hadn’t dealt with it yet.A webline shot out and Ghost Spider allowed herself to be pulled over towards the bank. Even if she did light up the Bat Signal, anyone from the Bat Family on the way over would stop and check on the bank anyway, she reasoned.When she arrived on a nearby rooftop the situation didn’t look much better up close than it had from afar. Over half a dozen cop cars were parked out front with officers milling around behind them. From what Ghost Spider could see it was a robbery that hadn’t managed to get out with whatever the robbers grabbed before the alarms tripped and the police showed up. So now the robbers were trapped inside with who knew how many hostages and the cops had no way of getting inside.Something that wasn’t an issue for Ghost Spider.She used the surrounding buildings to circle the bank and climb up to a window. Unsurprisingly it was locked so Ghost Spider shifted the tips of her fingers to resemble sharp claws, the symbiote responding to her mental comand, and swiftly cut out a small circle in the glass. With the opening she was able to simply reach through, unlock the window, and slip inside.The inside of the bank had some highly arched ceilings in the main lobby that let Ghost Spider observe the interior without being noticed by anyone inside. Eight robbers armed with weapons ranging from handguns to submachine guns wandered around the main floor, glancing out windows and occasionally talking to each other. Somewhat worryingly, none of them seemed overly stressed out despite being surrounded by police and trapped in the bank they were robbing. The vault door was open and another robber was going in and out with bags full of what was probably cash. Finally another robber was standing guard at the back offices where presumably the hostages were being held.Ghost Spider carefully made her into the offices unseen by slipping through a false ceiling and carefully removing a panel to peak around. After a few empty offices, she eventually found the one where the hostages were being kept. Another armed robber stood over eight civilians who were on their knees with their hands on their heads, except for one older woman who was lying on the floor and a younger man kneeling next to her. How the heck did the robbers expect to get away with that many of them? There were far too many people in their group to simply disappear.“Please, she needs help!” the man said desperately. “She’s arrhythmic. If she doesn’t get to a hospital soon then she could die!”“Sucks for her. But one old lady croaking isn’t going to change my mind.”“If she dies then that’s a murder charge for your whole group! Is that what you want to happen?!” the man attempted to rise to his feet but froze when the robber turned his gun on him.“Sit back down.”Fear and determination warred on the hostage’s face before determination won out and he continued moving to stand. The other hostages whimpered at the action.“I’m getting her help. If you’re gonna stop me then you’ll just have to shoot me.”“You know what? Fine by me.” the robber raised his gun in preparation to fire.With quick certain moves, Ghost Spider dropped down behind the man and ripped the gun out of his hands before he could get his finger inside the trigger guard. At the same time she punched him in the gut to stop him from calling out and alerting his friends and gave him a faceful of webbing just to be sure before knocking him out.Shrieks broke out among the hostages at the sudden appearance and violence. Ghost Spider turned towards the door leading back into the bank just in case anyone heard the commotion and came to take a look, but after a few seconds with nothing happening she relaxed a bit and turned back to the hostages. With their captor tied up and unconscious, they had moved to huddle in the back of the room.As long as they weren’t panicking Ghost Spider was happy to ignore them for a second and check on the person in need.She turned back to the old lady to find the young man from earlier standing protectively in front of her.“Is she okay?”Ghost Spider’s question made the young man relax a bit before he knelt to take the woman’s pulse again.“She needs to get to a professional soon. I’m only pre-med but the longer it takes for someone to check her out, the worse her chances.” the young man said. “I don’t suppose you managed to take down his friends on the way in?” he nodded towards the tied up robber.“Sorry, I snuck in to see what was going on. Wasn’t planning on taking down the bad guys until he was ready to gun you down.”“Ah, dammit. B-but you’ll help right? I mean, even though you’re a-”“If you say villain I am going to punch you.” Ghost Spider interrupted dryly. The young man pointedly didn’t say anything.She sighed. “Anyway, is there another way out of the bank without going through the main lobby? We can sneak everyone out that way and I can deal with anyone in the way.”“T-there’s an emergency exit out the back.” One of the clerks stammered. “But one of the robbers started welding the door shut when they locked us in here.”“...seriously how do they expect to get out of here?” Ghost Spider muttered under her breath before addressing the hostages. “Okay, I’m going to check out the back and see if I can find a way to sneak you all out of here.”“And what do we do?” one of them asked loudly, earning a fearful jab in the ribs from the person next to him.“Stay here and keep quiet until I come back.” Ghost Spider replied, trying to project confidence. “It will be safer if everyone stays here until I can find a way out.”There was some grumbling but no one was willing to push the issue, especially in the face of Ghost Spider narrowing her eyes dangerously at the loudest of the group.“I’ll be back in a sec...don’t do anything stupid.” With that she slipped out into the hallway and looked around. She could see the robber standing guard on the other side of the frosted glass leading to the main lobby. It didn’t seem like he noticed the scuffle with the hostages either, so Ghost Spider was content to web the corners of the door shut. It wouldn’t stop anyone determined to get inside but it should give her enough warning to make it back in a hurry if needed.She turned and stealthily hurried the other way, following the glowing exit signs to her destination. She hadn’t gone very far when she heard some shuffling from inside one of the closed offices. There shouldn’t be any employees separated from the others or they would’ve mentioned it, so Ghost Spider crouched next to the door and waited for the person to open it and peek around. The person inside opened the door further and stepped out into the hall just in time for Ghost Spider to tackle them, straddling their chest as she secured their hands above their head and drawing a fist back to knock them out when she was distracted by a flash of red and took a second to actually recognise who she just jumped.“Batgirl!?” Ghost Spider’s eyes went wide. Batgirl also seemed to recognise who attacked her and wasn’t happy about it.“You!”Batgirl tried to throw Ghost Spider off her, but between her strength and reflexively sticking herself to the floor was completely unable to.“Wha-! Hold on, I don’t have time to fight you right now!”“Sorry, am I messing up your heist or something?” Batgirl said sarcastically.“Listen! I don’t have time for this.” Ghost Spider hissed. “I’m not with them. I sneaked in and found the hostages they have but one of them, an older lady, is arrhythmic and needs to get to a professional. Can we get her out using whatever way you got in here?”“Not unless she’s the most athletic senior citizen in Gotham.” An unknown voice said from the same office Batgirl came out of. “Crawling through air vents isn’t easy. And wow, you’re a jumpy one.”The sudden sound of an unknown person shocked Ghost Spider enough that she immediately somersaulted off Batgirl and down the hall to land in a crouch. She relaxed slightly when she saw it was a smaller teenager in a red and black costume with a yellow ‘R’ on the left side of his chest.It looked like Robin had also tagged along for the ride and had simply held back as Batgirl went through the door. Ghost Spider had stopped paying attention to her surroundings when she realised she had attacked Batgirl. A mistake that would’ve been much costlier if it had been Batman or Nightwing and they had attacked her in turn.Ghost Spider mentally chastised herself for assuming only one member of the Batfamily would’ve come to help. Thankfully they shouldn’t attack her now that they knew what was at stake.“So this is how it’s done, huh?” Robin said to Batgirl. “Glad I let you go first, I never would’ve figured out getting jumped by the bad guy was step two.”“Shut it.” Batgirl snapped back.“Look, you two obviously have something to work out but do either of you have something that can break through a metal door? According to the hostages, one of the robbers welded the back exit shut.” Ghost Spider interrupted.The two superheroes thought for a bit before Robin shrugged. “Maybe. Depends how good of a weld it is, I guess.”“We have some explosives, but it will alert the robbers without a doubt.” Batgirl continued.“It’s only a matter of time before they know something’s up anyway. I had to knock out one of the robbers when he was about to shoot a hostage.”“Good to know even the bad guys have issues working together and it’s not just us.” Robin smirked.“Look you punk.” Ghost Spider censored herself but jabbed a finger at the teen. “I’m not working with them. I’m not here for anything in the bank. I was on my way to try and contact you guys and this caught my attention. Now either be helpful or get out of the way, this isn’t the place to play around.”She had gone for authoritative so when Robin groaned and palmed his face and Batgirl smirked, she was understandably confused.“Great, there’s two of them.” Robin moaned as he turned and started down the hall following an exit sign.Ghost Spider looked between the two heroes, still lost, but apparently it had something to do with an earlier conversation and they weren’t going to fill her in since Batgirl started grilling her for answers about everything going on in the bank. Ghost Spider filled her in on everything she could remember about the robbers. Numbers, positions, gear, and even her unease with the robbers sealing the back door.“Yeah, that’s concerning.” Batgirl muttered when they reached the emergency exit. Half the door had been welded to the frame to keep it from opening. The robbers clearly weren’t expecting to use this door again.“Can you get through it?”“Probably... Robin, you start setting up the charges. I’m going to bring the hostages closer so we can get them all out at once.” Batgirl uncliped a few devices from her belt and handed them to teen and walked away from the door, snagging Ghost Spider’s arm on the way. “And you are going to show me where the hostages are.”“I’m not against that. You don’t need to pull me along.” Ghost Spider said dryly, letting herself be pulled along anyway.Batgirl lightly shoved her so Ghost Spider was in the lead, the perfect position to easily react to an ambush or sudden attack, and huffed. “You said you want to talk, but you also assaulted several police officers and Nightwing, not to mention any other crimes we haven’t heard about, I’m not letting you out of my sight. Especially with your disappearing trick.”“You mean the fake cops trying to run off with the cash I pulled off them? You did check their badges right? Because the clothing on the ground should’ve been a hint.” Ghost Spider said. “And Nightwing was the one to start that fight. I was happy to go after the Penguin.”“And what exactly were you hoping to talk with us about.” Batgirl asked, ignoring Ghost Spider’s comments for the moment.That was fine. The gang war took priority.“What do you know about the upcoming underworld auction?”“What does that have to do with anything?” Batgirl asked a touch more defensively than Ghost Spider figured it warranted. Did they already know about what was going on?“I’ve been following leads on the Falcone Family for the past few weeks. Everything I find points to them stocking up for a fight and telling guys to be in the area on the day of the auction. You can guess what that means right?”“Really? A power grab in the middle of a supposedly neutral event? They would turn every crime group in the city against them.” Batgirl was right to be skeptical. A shortsighted move like that might be something to expect from a new player. Not from someone like the Falcone family who practically ran the city before Batman arrived on the scene.“If they take out enough of the people there it won’t matter if everyone else is against them. There won’t be anyone organised or influential enough to direct the other groups and you know they will fight between themselves just as much as they would the Falcone.”The heroine silently accepted the point and moved on. “And what do you get out of this?”“Besides a city that isn’t on fire?” Ghost Spider replied sarcastically making Batgirl snort in amusement. “Believe it or not, I’ve been trying to get established as a hero. I’m just having issues when it comes to public perception.”“Probably because heroes don’t steal things and attack cops.” came the dry response.“Fake cops.” Ghost Spider emphasized. “And not all of us get privately funded by Batman. I only took something from that warehouse because the Falcone lit the place on fire and it would’ve been ashes even if I didn’t take it.”“Hmnnn”They were close to the hostages so there was no more time for discussion. Ghost Spider waved at the room they were held in to let Batgirl know their destination. When the heroine made no move to go forward Ghost Spider sighed and moved to open the door herself.“Everybody still okay in here?” she announced as she entered. The older lady was still pale, sweaty, and just generally unhealthy looking but she was alive which was a good thing. The others had sorta circled around her trying to make her comfortable.Once Batgirl confirmed Ghost Spider wasn’t about to spring a trap she quickly moved among the hostages and started organizing them to head towards the exit. It was actually rather impressive how quickly she was able to convince even the more skittish among the hostages that the best move was to leave the room and escape rather than stay in a place they had subconsciously started to consider ‘safe’.It had taken a couple minutes to ensure they could safely move the elderly Mrs. Smith in her condition, but considering she wasn’t going to get help here and the only treatment the robbers could give seemed to be a bullet it needed to be done. Three other hostages carried the woman towards the back exit and soon Batgirl and Ghost Spider were alone.“Don’t you need to go with them?” Ghost Spider asked as the last of the hostages disappeared around a corner.“I trust Robin to take care of them.”Ah, so she couldn’t trust Ghost Spider then? Whatever. The people were safe, or at least on the way to getting there. Gaining the trust of a heroine taught by a man notorious for his paranoia wasn’t as important at the moment.Instead they should be focusing on what to do about the remaining criminals milling around the main lobby. Now that all the civilians had been sent elsewhere Ghost Spider and Batgirl had a chance to watch them from a decorative vent that separated the lobby and the false ceiling space above the back offices.“Something’s not right.” Ghost Spider murmured as they watched the robbers down below. “They don’t look stressed at all. It's been almost half an hour but I’m not seeing any shifting, muttering, anything...hell I don’t even think they’re blinking.”“You’re right. Look over there.” Batgirl pointed at one of the robbers coming out of the vault.Now that she was watching closer, Ghost Spider could see the man walking with an almost mechanical precision. He carried a full duffle bag to a pile of similar ones and rather than gently place it on top of the others, he crushed it on top of the pile almost like he expected it to be smaller than it was. Then he straightened up, turned, and walked off in the same precise fashion as before.“That’s creepy. So what do you think, mind control or robots?”“Mind control possibly. I doubt anyone skilled enough to make androids that realistic and unique is going to have them rob a bank. No signs of tech though, so we might be dealing with a psychic. It might explain why the robber you took out was so willing to shoot a hostage.”Ghost Spider nodded.Mind control in its various forms had been studied extensively over the years. With potential vectors from simple hypnosis to mind control gadgets to physic ability it was hard to narrow down exactly how people would react without a very thorough understanding of how exactly the person was controlled to begin with. But something that was fairly consistent across all studies was that the more complicated the command or detailed the control, the less free will and individuality the victim expressed.A person told to do a series of tasks would behave a lot more robotically than a person told to stand in a room and not allow anyone to leave. And since there were less variables to account for with simpler commands, more of the victim’s personality tended to leak out. Although seeing as the rest of the robbers were also standing around like robots while not doing anything there must be something else they were instructed to do and were waiting on some kind of trigger.“They’re probably waiting on some kind of signal.” Batgirl was clearly thinking along the same mental track as Ghost Spider.“Yeah, but for what?“Could be anything. A timer, a specific condition, new orders...I don’t know.” Batgirl shifted to get a better look at the main doors. “Don’t think I’m gonna wait to find out though. Robin should be getting the hostages out any-” there was a loud bang in the background. “-second now. And the police look like they're getting ready to move in. Let’s finish this before someone gets hurt.”“Ah, about that.” Ghost Spider said. “I think they got their signal.”The robbers had suddenly gone stiff, stiffer in some cases, and stopped whatever they had been doing. At the exact same time all of them grabbed a weapon and started marching for the doors.“And I think that’s ours.”Batgirl didn’t respond. She simply kicked out the metal grating and jumped through. Ghost Spider followed suit, leaping through the air and webslinging in front of the robbers.“Hi guys! Nice of you to leave without taking the money, weird by the way, but it’d be really nice if you left the guns behind too.”There was no response from the robbers. No twitching, no widening of eyes, no calls of alarm. They simply raised their guns and opened fire. Not that Ghost Spider was still there. At the first twitch of the gunmen, she had jumped back to the ceiling and started webbing up the various guns pointed at her. Incidentally, shifting the gunfire so it was pointed upwards rather than at the floors or windows where a ricochet or stray shot could hit someone outside. The mind controlled robbers weren’t exactly a group of crack shots though, so it was rather easy for Ghost Spider to avoid their attack with some simple acrobatic dodging and some webs.In the back, she could see Batgirl subduing the robbers with a mix of thrown batarangs or bolas and a swift punch to the jaw. Whatever orders the robbers were under it seemed their skills consisted of ‘point and shoot’ as far as combat went and the heroine was tearing through them as a result.Within a minute, every one of the robbers had been disarmed, knocked out, and tied up. The police had heard the gunfire and were cautiously moving in which meant that it was time for Ghost Spider to slip away.“And where do you think you’re going?”“Well considering the police and the media keep calling me a thief. I thought it would be a good idea not to let them see me in the middle of a failed bank robbery.” Ghost Spider replied to Batgirl, even as the female superhero moved to cut her off.“You still need to tell me about what you found on the Falcone.”“Fine. I’ll meet you on top of the Wayne Enterprises building tomorrow night. And before you make a scene I think he wants to talk to you.” Ghost Spider said pointing at nothing over Batgirl’s shoulder.“Who?” As Batgirl turned to look, Ghost Spider shifted invisible and ran over to a wall. She silently crawled back to the window she first entered the bank from and looked down. Batgirl was looking around frustratedly at her disappearing act while the cops swarmed in around the captured robbers.With an amused smirk on her face, Ghost Spider slipped out the window and began heading home.Tonight hadn’t gone to plan in any way, but she had managed to warn the heroes like she wanted and had even stopped some crime as a bonus. The one hiding behind the mind controlled minions was still out there, but one thing at a time.Overall, it was a successful night.

Chapter 9“You know when I agreed to help cheer you up that wasn’t permission to torture me.” Gwen whined as Barbara dragged her along by the arm.“Don’t be so dramatic. A little shopping won’t kill you.”“You don’t know that.”The last final had come and gone, Gwen was officially done with college until she managed to get a legal source of income and re-enroll. Something she accepted with mixed feelings. On the one hand she now had plenty of time to devote to her new nighttime activities. On the other...it was another step away from the person she used to be.Thankfully before she could get too lost in her own head, Barbara had interrupted by draping herself over the blonde and complaining childishly about how her brain was melting and it was Gwen’s responsibility to cheer her up. Probably untrue (Barbara had competed with Gwen for the top spot in grades for years after all), but it was a welcome distraction at the time.It was significantly less welcome when Barbara dragged her off clothes shopping.If there was one area in her life where Barbara Gordan conformed to the stereotype of ‘girly-girl’ it was shopping. Gwen had been dragged to over a dozen clothes stores and counting in over three hours being forced into outfits and peppered with questions and opinions by the redhead. A far departure from Gwen’s normal clothes shopping experience of picking a store in the mall and grabbing the first thing she liked that fit.“Why did I agree to this again?”“Because you got caught by her and she wouldn’t let you go until you agreed?” An equally weary voice said behind her.Gwen turned to see Dick struggling with two armfuls of shopping bags Barbara had foisted on him. He was looking much better without the blackeye and bruising but the long shopping trip seemed to be just as soul crushing for him as it was for her.“True.” She admitted. “But you do know you don’t need to keep paying for everything right? You’re only encouraging her.”Dick just shrugged. “Gotta spend my allowance somehow.”Well if that’s how he wanted to spend his money, who was Gwen to stop him?“Come on you two! Let’s go check out that store next!” Barbara pulled Gwen off towards another store and Dick followed behind the two girls.-o-Another three stores later Barbara finally satisfied her shopping urge and the three of them were relaxing at a nearby café, each of them enjoying their particular favorite drink. Barbara was people watching and commenting on random things she picked out of the crowds, Gwen simply listened for the most part occasionally joining in and pointing out her own observations, and Dick just seemed happy to sit there and recover from hours of being a pack mule.“So how'd that thing with Kara go?” Gwen asked eventually. The last time they were together Barbara had met up with the Kryptonian and disappeared for a few days. There was nothing in the news about Supergirl and Batgirl teaming up so Gwen was curious if there was something going on that she needed to keep an eye out for or if she needed to worry about a surprise guest at her meeting tonight.“Hm? Oh, right. Well...uh...she didn’t find what she was looking for but she needed to head home for a bit. It’s not that big a deal though.” Barbara deflected.Gwen was unconvinced but didn’t let it show. Not that big a deal, huh? Even though it was urgent enough that Barbara dropped out of her civilian life for a bit to deal with it and the two of them still couldn’t find what they were looking for?“Well if you need help feel free to ask.” Gwen half-heartedly offered.“Nah, it’s fine.” Barbara waved her off. “Like I said, it’s not a big deal. Nevermind that though, what are you going to be up to now that the semester is finished?”Gwen took a long sip of her drink to buy time and organize her thoughts. “Not a whole lot of long term plans really. I have a meeting with some guys from Wayne Entertainment in a couple weeks to pitch a mobile game I made recently. Depending if they like it and if it sells then I’ll figure out what to do next.”“You made a game?” Dick asked, it was the first he had heard about it.“Yeah. Started a few weeks ago. I don’t have the full thing yet but I’ve got enough for a demo at least. It was a good way to keep my mind off…” ’my father.’The other two didn’t comment on her trailing off and Gwen appreciated it.“Ahem...so what’s it about?” Dick coughed in an effort to keep the conversation moving.“Nothing fancy. It’s my first time really trying this so I’m going for something simple. Basically it’s a sidescroller about a character stealing a jetpack and running through an infinitely large science facility dodging defenses and such. The further you go the higher your score.”“Seriously? You made a game about stealing?” Barbara asked.“It’s not really about stealing. More like giving people a bit of escapism in a guilty pleasure.” Gwen defended.“So what’s it called?”“No, no wait! I got this!” Barbara interrupted. “It’s about taking a jetpack on a joyride. How much you wanna bet Gwen just stuck those two words together?”“Seriously?”Gwen purposefully didn’t make eye contact with either of her friends as they began chuckling. The name wasn’t her fault, dammit! She was just copying the idea and couldn’t come up with another name!She just pouted into her drink as the other two had a laugh at her expense. Eventually Barbara noticed and decided to comfort her.“Hehe...sorry Gwen, but you have to admit it’s kinda obvious.” The redhead said with a sheepish smile.“It’s fine.” Gwen sighed. “Besides it could be worse. I could have gone the superhero route and just called it Jetpackman.”“Oof...low blow to all our heroes in tights.” Dick said with a smirk. Gwen wasn’t about to bruise egos with a comment like that. And while most hero (and villain) names tended to be a bit on the nose, they also usually had the presence to make it respectable. “But you’re holding out on us! You made something like that and we haven’t seen it yet!? But hey, if it’s any good I’ll put in a good word for you with Bruce. He likes supporting unknown talent when he can.”All three of them had fun talking about Gwen’s game for a bit but eventually the sun started getting low and the three split up to head home. Gwen with a pair of bags with her meager purchases and Barbara and Dick with armloads of bags from Barbara’s shopping spree.It had been a nice distraction in Gwen’s opinion. She got to spend the day relaxing and having fun with a couple friends...friends she was going to be facing off from in a few hours from now and potentially on opposite sides if they decided to be hostile about it.She should be fine though. Catwoman was still running around and she actually was a criminal, not the implied thief Ghost Spider was made out to be. Once they managed to get past the gang war, Gwen would look into figuring out a good way to break her identity to her friends.-o-“Maybe I should have given a meeting time?” Ghost Spider wondered aloud as she sat on an AC unit on the roof of the Wayne Enterprises building. She had been sitting out in the open idly playing with a strand of webbing in an improvised game of cat’s cradle -spider’s cradle?- for a couple hours and there was still no sign of the Batfamily showing up.Of course they could’ve been checking to make sure this wasn’t a trap and were just sneaking around looking for potential ambushers. Or they were watching her from the shadows making sure she wasn’t planning anything.…One paranoid check of her surroundings later, Ghost Spider relaxed when she couldn’t find any signs she was being watched.“I guess they aren’t coming.”Naturally that was the moment Batgirl, Nightwing, and Robin stepped out into the open. They had used the towering glowing letters on the top of the building to hide in. Anyone searching for them would be blinded unless their eyes adjusted to the light, which would leave that person similarly useless if they then jumped into the shadows. Clever.“You wanted a meeting.” Nightwing said tersely.“I did. Couldn’t say I was expecting all three of you though.” Ghost Spider replied, backing up towards the roof edge a bit. “Batman still out of the city?”“I was going to come alone, but the other two didn’t want me being the only one to run into you alone and not get their butt kicked.” Robin grinned, putting his hands behind his head.“He’s busy.” Nightwing just acted like Robin hadn’t said anything.Ghost Spider looked between the three heroes and noticed all of them were still alert for an ambush. If she didn’t start soon then they might just run off.“Shame. I really want him here for this. If the Falcone pull this off then the entire city is going to be in chaos for a long time.” She slowly reached down and held up a backpack to the others. “Like I told Batgirl, I’ve been trying to dig up what I could about their plan. I’ve got a copy of everything I’ve managed to dig up printed in here. Wanna take a look?”Batgirl and Nightwing exchanged glances before Batgirl walked forward. She stopped just out arms length from Ghost Spider and waited. Taking the hint, Ghost Spider opened the backpack and retrieved a binder filled with everything she had found during her investigation.She gave them some time to flip through the whole thing, waiting a bit longer so Robin had a chance to skim it also. When they were finished everyone had grim looks on their faces. Everything Ghost Spider had given them pointed to one thing. A very hostile takeover of the criminal underworld and one happening very soon.“Well...this isn’t good.” Batgirl commented. “The Falcone Family is really going to do this at the auction?”Ghost Spider nodded. “Yeah, I was looking into ways to stop it before then but there’s no way I can find all their staging points and stashes before they catch on and move things. Even then, they still might go through with it anyway if they’re desperate enough. The Family must’ve invested nearly everything they had to get the kind of gear they will need to pull this off.”“So they won’t back down even if they know we know what they’re planning.”“Probably not. I don’t suppose Batman is going to be back soon or has a convenient way to reach him?”Robin scoffed. “Didn’t you know? He’s too important for small things like this these days.”The dismissive tone caused Ghost Spider to pause for a second and look at the other two to get an idea where that was coming from.“The last invasion left behind some weird energy that’s messing with communications. Batman is coordinating the cleanup effort and probably won’t be reachable until this is over anyway. We tried reaching out to him while we were...dealing with a different issue.” Batirl explained with a sidelong look at Robin.“Yeah and he told us we were on our own!” Robin snapped.“No. He told us the city was in our hands until he was done.” Nightwing broke in. “But that does mean we can’t expect help so we’ll need to be smart if we want to stop this.”Ghost Spider grimaced at the news.“So what’s our next move?”“Our?” Nightwing echoed.“Yeah? Shouldn’t we work together so the mafia doesn’t throw the city into a gang war?” She asked with a sinking feeling.Nightwing was already shaking his head before she even finished speaking.“No way. Even if you weren’t a criminal this is way too important for us to risk working with an unknown newbie. Thanks for the information but we’ll handle it from here.”“...so this is what it’s like to be on the other side of that speech.” Robin muttered but Ghost Spider barely heard him. She was too busy staring wide eyed at Nightwing, something emphasised by the large eyes on her mask, in disbelief.Was he serious?The city was on the verge of chaos and he was cutting her out of this after she was the one who had done all the work figuring out what was going on?Ghost Spider stalked towards him, finger pointing accusingly, but stopped when all three heroes tensed and shifted to more ready stances.…That was...they were...you know what, fine. She knew this battle was over.Without another word Ghost Spider turned her back on the heroes and leapt off the building, disappearing into the city in seconds.-o-Batgirl watched as the spider themed maybe-thief swung into the city until she made a sharp turn and disappeared into the Gotham city-scape.“You sure we don’t want to work with her? She doesn’t seem as new to this as you said.” She asked Nightwing.“That's what bothers me. She pops up from nowhere and conveniently has this entire plot mapped out? Either she’s new and had a series of lucky breaks, she’s had training but no one’s heard of her, or she’s a plant.”“You're going to need to explain those last two. Plenty of new heroes have a bit of training before they hit the public.”“Yeah, but the only person I can think of who could’ve trained her is Black Spider which means she might be connected to the League of Shadows. Or she could be like Terra.”Batgirl and Robin exchanged glances.Terra remained a sore point for Dick. Back when he still wore the Robin mantle and joined up with a group of other sidekicks in one of the first dedicated hero teams, the Teen Titans, they had accepted the geokinetic with open arms. As an individual she was powerful and had managed to build up a small reputation as an up and coming hero even if she mostly dealt with small scale crimes. She had some issues fitting in with the team, causing several incidents that meant the bad guys got away more often than not, but they had thought it was just growing pains and she would get better.So when it was revealed Terra was actually working for a villain to undermine and break up the Titans Dick, as the leader of the team, took the betrayal personally since he felt he should’ve caught it beforehand. Even without Terra, the Titans failed to recover the same cooperation they used to have and eventually broke up. So Batgirl couldn’t really judge him for being extra cautious with a new girl showing up trying to be helpful.“So what now?”“Yeah, this seems way bigger than we thought it might be.” Another female voice called out from above them. Supergirl gently touched down next to them and looked around. “I mean if this is legit, then my thing might need to wait.”Nightwing nodded. “Probably. Best thing to do is split up and start making sure these leads are real. We can decide what to do next. You and Batgirl take a look around the auction site. We might get lucky and find something out of place. Robin, you take the binder and start matching it with our computer records. See if they match up and if you can find anything else.”“What?! Why am I on computer duty?” Robin complained as Nightwing tossed him the binder.Batgirl couldn’t resist. She grinned and ground her palm onto the top of Robin’s head. “You saying it’s too hard for you? If you want I’ll do it instead.”The grumbled complaints coming from the teen lightened the tone for everyone and nearly made Batgirl break out laughing.“One last thing.” Nightwing said. “Supergirl, did you manage to get a look at Ghost Spider’s face?”“Nope. I’m not sure what her costume is made out of but it clings really closely to her skin. It’s almost like it was a part of her.”“Or maybe you just suck with x-ray vision.” Robin commented under his breath.“You want to say that to my face twerp?”Batgirl smiled as she watched Robin run away from her blonde friend but underneath that she was still worried. Nightwing might be right to keep Ghost Spider at a distance, but what would she do now that they had brushed her off?

Chapter 10The door practically slammed shut as Gwen returned to her apartment after the failed meeting with the local superheroes.All that work, all the things at risk... and they just tell her ‘stay out of the way’?! Not even a thanks for making sure this didn’t just blow up in their faces with no warning?!In a pique of anger she threw her backpack across the room and kicked at one of the cabinets by her father’s old desk. Unfortunately, she momentarily forgot about her enhanced strength and the wood splintered under the blow.Gwen pulled her foot from the now ruined furniture and continued cursing the heroes and the fact she couldn’t even do anything about it without possibly distracting the Bat family and causing them to focus on her instead of the threat to the city.“Stupid paranoid, secretive, uncooperative, controlling...assholes!” she growled before collapsing on a couch and throwing an arm over her eyes.Gwen laid there for a while before she could bring herself to sit up again. Before now she was slightly worried that if she needed to talk to her friends in costume she would end up giving herself away. She didn’t really have that worry anymore, it wouldn’t be hard to separate at least one of them from their costumed identity. Who knew Dick could be such a, well, dick as Nightwing. No wonder no one had made that connection before.“So now what?”She could just keep trying to poke at the Falcone Family. Even if it did nothing for the auction event, it would still be worth doing.Call her petty, but Gwen wanted to do more than just go after scraps left by the other heroes. Especially since she had done most of the work pointing them where the biggest problem was. If she was going to establish herself, she was going to make damn sure they knew she could be a team player, but they weren’t going to be able to push her around!She jumped off the couch, half ready to go swinging through the city in search of something right now, when her foot kicked aside some larger wood splinters from the ruined cabinet....she should probably clean that up first though.The cabinet was a write off. Even if Gwen wanted to replace the panel she had kicked through, the frame itself had warped under the blow. Not to mention she had also broken a couple drawers in the process.Gwen carefully began removing what little had been in the drawers, brushing off the wooden splinters as she went.It didn’t take long. This cabinet had been mostly filled with her dad’s work files that had been collected by the GCPD after his death, so there were only a handful of folders left behind filled mostly with junk.Once those were sorted, Gwen simply pulled the remaining drawers out and tossed them in a pile, she winced a bit when the wood splintered more from the abuse.‘I’ll finish cleaning later,’ she decided and went back to trying to figure out what she could do to help without interfering with what she gave the Bat family. A couple hours later she still had no new ideas and was nearly pulling her hair out of frustration.Fortunately for her hair, her brainstorming was interrupted by a knock on the door. Looking out the peephole Gwen was unsurprised to see Detective Renee Montoya on the other side.The older woman was one of a few members of the GCPD that made it a point to drop by every once in a while to check on her. It had been a bit overwhelming at first, but now it was simply something nice, even if most of them had stopped after some time. Detective Montoya was definitely the one to stop by the most though.“Hi Detective, I didn’t think you were stopping by this week.” Gwen greeted and allowed the other woman inside.“Wasn’t planning on it but the Commish sent everyone home early. Apparently there’s something big coming up that he wants everyone ready for.” Detective Montoya ruffled Gwen’s hair on the way in and looked around the apartment. “Doing some redecorating I see?”Gwen sighed. “Not really, I got a bit heated after some bad news. Might have lost my temper a bit.” She motioned towards the kitchen, “Did you want some coffee or something?”“No thanks, I just decided to drop by and check in.” Detective Montoya smiled slightly, “Just be sure to finish checking those notebooks before you throw all that stuff out.”Gwen blinked and looked over at the pile of wood scraps where she had dumped the drawers and sure enough, there were a few cheap ringed notebooks among the debris that certainly hadn’t been in the drawers the first time she checked them.“Yeah, I was just getting them out of the way first.” She lied. “And something big? Anything I need to worry about?”Detective Montoya shook her head. “Not that I know of. Sounds like it’s going to be keeping the department pretty busy though so I figured I’d let you know now before I get too busy to come by again.”Barbara must have tipped off her dad, Gwen thought. Even if she didn’t let him know what was going on, she probably gave him a hint that something big was right around the corner.“Meh, enough talk about that. How have you been? The semester should be over, right? So I bet you’re glad to be done with those tests. I know I was when I was your age.”Gwen smiled and started going over what she had been up to in her civilian life. Even if they only talked every once in a while, it was nice to have someone older to talk to about things.-o-Gwen and Detective Montoya talked for a while but eventually the black-haired detective was forced to leave and take care of her own things. Gwen didn’t mind. The notebooks sitting in the pile of scrap wood had been in the back of her mind the entire time the older woman was over so she was happy to be left alone and given the opportunity to finally take a look at them.The first thing she did was try and figure out how she even missed the notebooks in the first place since she wasn’t being careless and knew for a fact she emptied all the drawers beforehand. So when Gwen looked at the debris trying to find an answer she was a little surprised at the answer.“A false bottom shelf, huh?” she mused. “Dad did always like the classics.”The big question was what was so important that he decided to hide them like that?The first thing Gwen noticed was that all the notes were in her dad’s handwriting, the second that they were all in code, and the third was that whatever her dad had written in these...they were only his thoughts on another source. Every note started off with references to a ‘master journal’ but no matter how she compared the books she had, they simply didn’t fit that description. Gwen had a nagging suspicion this is what her dad had gotten shot over.She tore through the information.Everything was a breakdown on powerful individuals throughout the city, and a few outside of it, and certain blackmail regarding them. Her dad’s thoughts on how to individually prove the blackmail existed without the use of the master journal, and what the fallout would be if someone were to use that information for a large number of individuals.Just that by itself would have been fairly terrifying, whoever had this information could essentially force the city to do nearly anything for a while, but what was making Gwen break out into a cold sweat were dated references to ‘the operation’ scheduled to take place soon.By itself it meant nothing, but Gwen had the benefit of actually knowing about the auction and was able to connect the dots. The same time the Falcones were going to try taking over the underworld, they were going to be setting up to have the authorities sit back and let them.For a brief moment Gwen thought about trying to let the other heroes know, but then Nightwing’s dismissive tone and actions caused her to reconsider. She didn’t have a quick way of reaching them anyway.The last entry in the notebook was what clinched her decision.It was a list of Police officers the Falcone had determined would not step aside if ordered and that couldn’t be blackmailed.On that list was Renee Montoya.And she was scheduled to be removed tonight.Gwen was out the door and heading for the rooftops without another thought.-o-In a completely different part of the city, Renee Montoya was lounging in a well broken-in armchair going over some work papers and listening to the TC playing in the background.Gordon might’ve sent them home to be rested for whatever shitshow was going down, but the lack of information just made her antsy to know what was going on. It was one of the reasons she had made detective, despite the workplace conditions the GCPD found themselves in recently.Not that it wasn’t getting better...slowly. There were still a bunch of men and women on the force that would turn a blind eye for certain groups, but they were on the way out. The Bat was doing a good job bringing their protectors out into the open and the ripples were being felt. Renee just felt it was a shame it was going as slowly as it was. At this rate they might finish cleaning house just in time for her to retire.Renee snorted and reached for the nearby coffee mug.Retire? The cynical part of her mind gave her even odds of catching a bullet in the next five years. Stacey had proven that getting too involved with stopping the scumbags running around was bad for your health, and Renee was just as stubborn as he was.She sighed at the thought of the Captain and couldn’t help her mind wandering to her visit with Gwen. The young woman was holding up really well after the death of her last family member. Something Renee was simultaneously proud and saddened by. Gotham wasn’t kind to people who lost themselves in grief.Hopefully Gwen wouldn’t let what happened make her too bitter. There were enough people like that in this city already and Renee would do what she could to make sure at least one wouldn’t turn out the same way. She owed it to her Captain after all.Soon enough though her mind went back to the reason she was home early listening to some jackoffs on what passed for the latest trend on TV.Gordon hadn’t said anything about what was going on. Which meant the Bats tipped him off about something and he didn’t have enough to say where or what, but certainly had the when. Or he had all the details but didn’t want it leaking until it was too late to matter.She was guessing the former. Because if the Commish had any clue what was going on he would’ve at least tried to tip off the people he thought he could trust. And Renee liked to think she was a member of that group.A shadow passed by her window as she returned the mug to the table causing her to pause. With very casual movements she retrieved her phone and pulled up a wifi camera app. Paranoia paid in this city after all.Two men were just barely in frame and facing her house. Both of them trying and failing to look casual in her opinion. She raised the volume on the TV a hair and unmuted the camera mic.Luck was on her side tonight because not only were the men in range, they were chatty too.“All I’m saying is I don’t see why we need to just stand here and wait for the other guys to do all the work. It’s just one chick.” one of them complained.“We’re her in case she rabbits, you idiot.” his companion berated. “The boss isn’t tolerating screw ups on this. We wait around outside, Doug handles the back, and the other guys take her out. No noise, no alarm. And I’m not going to explain to the boss we fucked up because you couldn’t stand still for five minutes…”Renee cursed. At least four thugs, possibly more, and she had left her service weapon in her bedroom when she changed. She could call for help but unless the Flash was in town for some reason, they would be far too late to do anything.Keeping her movements relaxed and unhurried Renee started making her way to her bedroom. Even if she couldn’t get away, she wasn’t going to just meekly wait helplessly around. Her handgun was still in the leather holster draped over her computer chair, Renee quickly crossed the room and reached for it.Just as her hand made contact with the case, a strong grip nearly crushed her forearm as another hand wrapped around from behind her and covered her mouth. Renee immediately tried to break free but her captor wrenched her arm behind her and hissed in her ear. “If you don’t want to die, detective, you will be quiet and do exactly what I say.”