Ghost Spider - Chapter 16-20 (Patreon)

Chapter 16*beep**beep**beep*As Ghost Spider slowly clawed her way back into consciousness, she was greeted by a bright light and the sounds of a heartbeat monitor.Everything was hazy and there was a dull ache in her chest, slightly more concerning was that she couldn’t move her right arm.Worried what that could mean, she quickly glanced down, idly noting she was both still covered by her costume but also thick bandages wrapping her chest. The arm turned out to be a minor thing. It was held in place by a couple of thick leather restraints. Considering neither band was locked beyond a metal clip to stop it from sliding and she had another pair of leather straps running over her torso and legs while her left arm remained free Ghost Spider guessed whoever put her here was more concerned about stopping her from thrashing around or rolling to one side and ripping out the IV’s she could see going into her arm than truly keeping her restrained.The first two bands were easily released since Ghost Spider’s left hand was still free. But as she started to fiddle with one of the straps on her right arm a smooth voice with a cultured accent interrupted her.“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Miss. Despite your healing speed, you are still quite injured. You should continue to rest for now.”“Huh?” Ghost Spider turned her head and saw an elderly man in an impeccable butler suit. She knew from her additional memories that this was Alfred Pennyworth, butler to the Wayne family, but for some reason he was a) showing himself to her despite the risk of her somehow making the connection to him and Batman and b) was wearing a small black domino mask. The combination of the two overloading Ghost Spider’s already sluggish mind.“Wha-, I-, whuh?”“Ah, you are probably still disoriented from your ordeal. You managed to protect Miss Supergirl at the cost of your own wellbeing. You were brought here for medical treatment. If you need anything please feel free to ask and I will do my best to accommodate.”“Y-you’re…” Ghost Spider was trying to come to terms with the fact that she nearly died and blurted out the first thing she could think of, unfortunately her chest constricted in pain so she was unable to actually complete a sentence.Alfred misunderstood Ghost Spider’s intention and thought she was requesting who he was. “How rude of me, you may call me Butlerman.” Alf- Butlerman sketched a bow before heading towards a break in the medical curtains that surrounded the bed Ghost Spider was resting on. “If you don’t have any immediate needs I will go and inform the others you have awoken.” He looked back at the injured Metahuman but she shook her head. Satisfied, Butlerman departed swiftly.Ghost Spider just stared at the section of curtain the butler disappeared through. Did that seriously just happen? Who in their right mind could call themselves Butlerman with a perfectly straight face? Ghost Spider looked at the bandages on her chest again and then at the IV’s. Did she just hallucinate that? Surely she was on some pretty good painkillers if she was just a bit sore after Metallo shoved his hand through her.After a bit of thought, Ghost Spider decided she should at least figure out where she was. She clumsily undid the straps and removed the IV’s from her arm and swung her legs over the side of the bed.As she tried to stand she realised that even though the painkillers stopped her from feeling anything, it didn’t mean she was actually alright. She almost immediately collapsed on the ground when her legs gave out and only coincidentally managed to grab the bed to stop her fall. Even that small amount of movement was enough to cause the wounds on her chest to throb harder.Still, determined not to let a little thing like a severe chest wound and being too weak to stand under her own power keep her down, Ghost Spider spotted a wheelchair conveniently close by and forced herself close enough until she could flop into it. Several seconds later she realised her condition was a perfect reason to not strain herself so much. The drugs must be messing with her head.Oh well, she decided. She got this far already, might as well finish what she started.The curtains took a bit of maneuvering, but Ghost Spider eventually got free of them and got her first look at the rest of her surroundings. She was in a massive cave system that was filled with all kinds of things. There was a bank of computers running along one of the alcoves with enough power behind them Ghost Spider was sure it rivaled even the combined processing speed of some top class research labs, a display case with copies of what the spider themed Meta recognised as the entire Batfamily’s uniforms, multiple vehicle bays where bat themed machines could be seen just waiting to be launched, and an entire assortment of trophies taken from various encounters Batman had his sidekicks had gone through complete with placards describing why each one was significant.Curious, Ghost Spider wheeled over to one of the more prominent pieces, a giant penny Batman had somehow managed to get into the cave, and looked at the description.“Huh, March 28th, Two-Face and the Two-Ton Gang. Used in an over-sized coin-flipping machine.” Ghost Spider read aloud. “Bet there’s a weird story behind that one.”“You know, usually when you tell someone ‘you are still injured, please rest’ you expect them to y’know actually rest! Not go digging around other people’s homes.” a voice interrupted behind her.Ghost Spider turned and saw Supergirl, Batgirl, and Alfr-Butlerman heading towards her. From the way Supergirl had her hands on her hips, Ghost Spider determined she was the one who spoke.“You don’t live here either.” She pointed out and waved a hand at Batgirl. “She does.”The other three tensed but Ghost Spider was too busy watching her hand as she waved it back and forth. For some reason there was a delay when she moved it in her head and when it actually moved on her body. Weird.“Cause Bat-people live in Batcaves.” Ghost Spider continued when the others didn’t seem to understand her point. “Super-people live in Supercaves.” She finished with a tone that this should be self-evident.“Huh?”And it seemed Supergirl still couldn’t understand such a simple thing.“Actually you should probably leave. I don’t think Bat-people like it when others get into their stuff.”Supergirl looked at Batgirl with a lost expression and the other girl could only shrug in response.“Uh-huh, then why shouldn’t you leave? You aren’t a Bat-person either.”“I’m a spider.” Ghost Spider pointed out the obvious. “We can go wherever we want. Not even Butlerman can keep us out for long.”The butler in question smiled ruefully at the undeniable truth and offered each of them a drink which Ghost Spider happily accepted.“Is she high?”“No, I'm sitting down. I’m actually pretty low right now.”“Oh Rao, I think she’s high… How strong were those painkillers?”“Probably too strong.” Batgirl reflected. “Though we should probably stop her before she spills- wait, how did she do that?”The two heroines stared in shock at Ghost Spider, who had pulled her mask up over her nose so she could drink what she was given. The reason for their surprise was simple. They had looked all over for some way to remove Ghost Spider’s suit so they could treat her chest wound. But no matter how they looked, they never found a way to remove any of it. In fact Supergirl had eventually managed to confirm the suit had replaced the skin of the spider-themed girl so they were completely unprepared for Ghost Spider to simply pull part of it off and have human features underneath.“I thought you said the suit was part of her?” Batgirl questioned as she watched Ghost Spider down the glass of water.“It is…” Supergirl confirmed, sounding a little disturbed. “I can see where the suit is blending into her skin now that part of it’s been removed. It’s completely merged with her.”“Huh, a shapeshifter then?”Supergirl shrugged.“Ask her, I have no idea.”Ghost Spider was half listening to what was going on out of habit and felt the need to correct them before they got the wrong idea.“Nope, not a shapeshifter!” she gestured at her suit, “This is a Klyntar, an alien symbiote! Well kinda. Mine was actually made when an evil lawyer turned crime-boss and a doctor who might be a gender-swapped news journalist from another dimension injected me with mutant Lizard juice and now I have to feed it chocolate or it will eat your brains.” Ghost Spider said seriously. For some reason the others seemed to ignore her, other than Butlerman who gently removed the now empty glass from her hand.“Should she be moving around that much? She sounds really out of it if she’s trying to pass off shapeshifting with...well...that.” Supergirl asked dryly.Batgirl waved her off. “Alfr-ahem-Butlerman gave her a sedative. We’ll let her sleep the painkillers off a bit and talk to her when she’s a little more...coherent.”“You mean when she isn’t tripping balls?”Ghost Spider was beginning to wonder if Supergirl actually needed glasses instead of just wearing them in her secret identity. She was clearly sitting down and not tripping over anything. She thought about offering to make her some if Batgirl couldn’t for some reason but she was starting to feel really tired and they still didn’t believe her about the symbiote. She wasn’t a shapeshifter!She didn’t know why that bothered her as much as it did, although the word ‘skulls’ kept jumping into her mind even though that didn’t seem quite right, but instead of examining that feeling Ghost Spider thought hard about how she could prove her suit was a symbiote and not just her. It hit her suddenly, if they believed it was just her shifting herself all she had to do was prove she could separate herself from the suit!“I got it! I can prove I’m not a shapeshifter!” Ghost Spider declared to everyone. Batgirl seemed skeptical, Butlerman had a stoic mask for a facial expression, and Supergirl was making a face that screamed ‘this is going to end poorly’.Ignoring the lack of reaction, Ghost Spider reached up to her face and without hesitation ripped off her mask.“See? Shapeshifters can’t separate things from their bodies. I can’t be a shapeshifter.” Ghost Spider said sleepily, lightly tossing the mask up and down in the air while the other girls gaped at her. Even Bulterman looked taken aback at Ghost Spider’s decisive action.“Gwen!? What, what the hell?!” Batgirl shouted at the now unmasked girl.“Oh, we n’t doin’ coden’mes ‘ny more?” Ghost Spider- Gwen slurred, her eyes drifting closed as the sedatives started to fully take effect. “Th’ts cool. Hey Barbara, Imma take a nap r’l quick. Let’s talk lat’r”Eyes now fully closed, Gwen fell fast asleep, uncaring of the huge pile of questions she had generated in her unmasking and identifying Batgirl’s civilian identity.

Chapter 17Barbara, and she was certainly Barbara at the moment; Batgirl had checked out for the day, stared incredulously at the unconscious form of her college friend who apparently had powers, unearthed a city wide criminal take-over plot, and then saved the life of another one of her friends. Not to mention that she had somehow managed to find time to deduce Batgirl’s secret identity without raising any flags she had been looking for it in the first place!Alfred had initially been surprised, suspicious, and then calculating, before hiding whatever conclusion he came to behind a mask of professional calm.Kara was even more unhelpful as she started giggling at Barbara’s face, then chuckling, and finally devolving into full blown laughter as she gripped her sides and rolled around midair.“She...she…! Hahaha! Oh, Rao!” Kara howled. “We spent hours looking for her and she just...she just turns up here!? Hahaha!”“This isn’t funny, Kara!” Barbara smacked her friend, but all it did was set the annoying kryptonian off again and give her a sore hand.“Sure it is!”“Excuse me, young ladies. Given her current state, I believe we should return our patient to bed before we continue this conversation.” Alfred cut into the brewing argument.Barbara and Kara exchanged glances and looked at Gwen, who was at risk of falling out of the wheelchair she had managed to borrow, and nodded. Kara easily picked up the other blonde and returned her to the bed from earlier while Barbara returned the wheelchair. And this time made sure that it was far enough that it wasn’t reachable from the bed.The two heroines left Alfred behind as he checked to make sure Gwen hadn’t hurt herself during her brief stroll around the Batcave.“Well this is a disaster…” Barbara said as she pulled off her cowl, throwing herself into the computer chair and spinning to face her friend.Kara shrugged. “I think you’re overreacting.”“Over- overreacting?! How?!”“I mean isn’t she your friend? It’s not like she’s going to blackmail you either since she helped out with the Falcone situation even when we kinda blew her off.” Kara shrugged again and reclined midair. “She had every chance to screw us and she didn’t.”Now that Barbara was past the initial immediate emotional response she was able to calm down and think everything over again without her knee-jerk panic. She had already noticed Ghost Spider didn’t really fight back against heroes, that one time with Supergirl was an exception, and even when she beat up Nightwing she hadn’t removed his mask or anything. Actually hadn’t Gwen winced the next time she saw Dick? Did she already know his identity too?Barbara shook her head and refocused. She could worry about that in a bit.Every time they had interacted with Ghost Spider or Gwen once she started going out in costume, the spider-themed Metahuman had remained friendly and hadn’t used their near dependence on her information to ingratiate herself with them, not something a spy or infiltrator would pass up. Granted there was the possibility of her playing the long con, but unless Gwen had been replaced or had been assigned to spend years building up a cover story to befriend Dick and Barbara after the death of her father, a repeat Terra situation was unlikely.It wouldn’t stop her from running Gwen’s DNA through a few tests to make sure it was really her friend though.Barbara would, however, give her the benefit of the doubt for now, but there was one thing she needed to clear up first.She turned back to Kara. “I thought you didn’t like her, why the sudden change of heart?”Kara scowled, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not her biggest fan. But she stepped up to do the heroic thing and risked her life to save mine even though she doesn’t seem to like me much more. That at least earns her a chance in my book.”Barbara smiled at Kara’s petulant tone. The kryptonian had a temper and acted emotionally when it went off, but at her core she was still pretty smart and genuinely tried to see the best in people...Once she managed to engage her brain anyway…So she would wait until Gwen woke up again before making any solid plans on how to deal with this.“Hey Babs, we just finished up with the GCPD.” Robin called out as he and Nightwing returned to the Batcave. “How’d everything on your end go? I heard some of the cops saying you didn’t stick around and Supergirl flew out in a hurry. Everything okay?”Barbara bit her lip and thought about the best way to break everything to the other two.“Well, about that…”-o-The two boys took the news...mostly well.Robin hadn’t really had any issues with Ghost Spider and Tim had never met Gwen so beyond some minor questions the younger boy didn’t really mind the situation once he knew Gwen was a friend of Barbara’s. It was Dick who was having a minor meltdown.Ghost Spider had been pressing his Terra Trauma buttons before, this new situation was now jumping up on those buttons and lighting off fireworks for effect.“...this has to be some kind of plot! Where did she get her information from? Who is she working for?” Nightwing practically shouted as he paced around the cave.Barbara was only half listening at this point. Dick had basically ignored all of them by now and arguing in circles when they needed more information wasn’t worth it. There was nothing more they could do until Gwen could give them more details, and since she was in the Cave with them she wasn’t going to be secretly sharing information without them seeing her or anything so he was really just working himself up for the sake of it.“Pardon me, sir, but I believe this line of thought isn’t very productive. Shall we move on to discussing the state of the city and the aftermath of our latest criminal endeavor?” Even Alfred was tired of listening to Dick’s rant apparently, not that he would ever admit to it, and gave everyone an opening to change the subject.“Ooh, ooh! I got this!” Tim jumped in place and waved an arm around in an exaggerated parody of a school kid looking for attention. “We tracked down a bunch of gangsters, kicked their butts, and saved the city! Case closed.”“Hmph, nice try twerp. You still need to give us a proper rundown.” Kara said, ruffling the boy’s hair. “Not all of us were there for the cleanup.”“Tch, fiiine. According to the GCPD, they managed to catch about 30% of the Falcone’s known bigshots. Probably could’ve gotten more but after the hits on the ones who weren’t so crooked they go bowling with the bad guys, they ‘missed’ a few of them. Probably would’ve been more if it wasn’t for Detective Montoya showing up.”“It wasn’t that bad.” Dick broke in, paranoia reigned in for the moment. “A few of the lieutenants might’ve slipped away, but I caught Mario and his underbosses right where we figured they’d be. Without him out to run the show the Falcone Family isn’t going to be an issue for a long time. Plus we managed to snag a few mid-level members from some of the other crime groups that got left behind at the Iceberg Lounge Auction House.”Barbara perked up. “Wait, some of them were still hanging around? I thought everyone would’ve bailed when Metallo started his attack.”“From what we can tell most did, but even with…” Dick grit his teeth, “Ghost Spider jumping in, a few of them were hit by the gun. They got left behind and picked up when the rest of the police were free to clean up. Speaking of, why was Metallo there?”Kara explained to the group how Metallo had been hired as a mercenary and stuck around despite Ghost Spider snatching his payment and then started telling her recollection of the fight in the auction house with Barbara pitching in with any helpful details she had.“...and then I guess he decided to play dead to get the drop on me. Spidey over there shoved me out of the way and took a really bad hit in my place.” Kara finished her story, then looked at Dick seriously. “So yeah, I know you’re freaking out about this being Terra all over again, but I think she deserves a fair shot at least.”“She really did help us save the city.” Barbara pointed out.“Hey, I’m cool with her.” Tim protested, waving his hands in front of him.All eyes turned to Dick. He let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.“Fine, I’ll try and give her a chance. But I AM going to be watching her closely.”Barbara figured that was the most they could ask for and gave her friend a supportive smile.“Then I believe it would be best if I began preparations for dinner.” Alfred informally called the meeting to a close. “Miss Danvers, will you be staying for the time being?”“I’d love to! Can’t pass up the chance for a meal made by the great Butlerman afterall.” Kara teased.Alfred smiled and left for the kitchen while the others began the process of formally writing a report about tonight for Batman to review later. That, along with a compilation of all the details they had regarding the Falcone’s takeover attempt would be handed over to Barbara’s dad to ensure that everyone caught tonight would be seeing the inside of a jail cell for a long time.

Chapter 18Ghost Spider swung through the streets of Gotham with a smile on her face, even if it was hidden underneath her mask.The takeover attempt had been thwarted, she had managed to talk to the Batfamily about the misunderstandings and left on decent terms, and the police had even issued a statement that cleared her name of any suspected crimes that the media had been smearing her with.She was actually able to freely swing through the city without worry, and it felt fantastic!“AAAAAAHHHHHH!”A feminine scream cut through the air. Ghost Spider shot a silk line at a nearby building and quickly changed direction. She kept an eye on the ground while she searched for the source of the scream and spotted the source in short order. Three men had cornered a young woman in an alleyway and were slowly approaching her, one of them brandishing a knife.Ghost Spider didn’t hesitate to jump down at the thugs crowding in the narrow space. A quick bit of webbing yanked the knife out of the leader’s hand and a few quick punches later had all three of the attackers unconscious on the ground. A few seconds after that they were webbed up and ready for the police to grab them.“Oh thank you so much! I really thought I was in trouble and then you just swooped down and POW! Took them all down!” the young, blonde woman Ghost Spider saved said excitedly. Privately, Ghost Spider thought the bright blue long sleeved shirt and the red skirt was an odd choice for Gotham but didn’t comment. She was just happy the woman didn’t seem too upset by her near mugging.“Oh no, just happy to help.” Ghost Spider waved off the praise. “Do you want me to stick around until the police show up? This must’ve been rough on you.”The blonde smiled and pointed at something behind Ghost Spider. “Don’t worry about that. They just got here!”Ghost Spider turned surprised that somehow a police cruiser had shown up completely silently. One of the officers was already out of the car and directing people away while the driver was just beginning to get out of the car.“Ghost Spider, glad to see you after the other night. You did good.” Detective Montoya said warmly after she got out of the car and walked up to the spider themed hero, one hand extended for a handshake. One Ghost Spider accepted easily enough.“Detective.” Ghost Spider nodded in greeting. “I’m just happy to do my part. I live here too, you know!” she joked.“And keeping busy by the look of it.” The Detective looked at the three still unconscious muggers. “Well, we can take it from here. Just as long as my partner can stop gushing about his little girl to actually do his job!” she said sarcastically as the other policeman walked up to the pair.“Well it isn’t every day your daughter saves the city, Renee.” George Stacey joked back, taking the sarcasm in stride.“Really?! Like you haven’t brought it up every chance you get since it happened…”“You shouldn’t keep annoying Renee, dad. She might stop bringing the chili you love so much to the barbeques.” Ghost Spider said with a laugh. Another followed it when her dad pulled a face at losing out on Renee’s special chili recipe.“Yeah well…” her dad grumbled.He shook his head and began pulling Ghost Spider in for a hug. “Before we go, Gwen, I just wanted to say; nice job saving the day, bug girl.” Ghost Spider frowned as her dad’s voice changed for some reason, becoming cold and mechanical.Then, without warning, her dad stabbed his hand through her chest. Ghost Spider stared in incomprehension at the point where his forearm disappeared into her ribcage before slowly looking up into her dad’s face.Instead of the warm eyes of George Stacey, a metallic skull grinned back at her with toxic green lights burning in it’s sockets.”Hope it was worth it.”-o-Gwen shot up from the bed she had been lying in, only to fold back in on herself as her chest flared in pain. She realised pretty quickly that she was breathing like she had just run two marathons back-to-back and was dripping in cold sweat.A dream.She scoffed even though it hurt. Nightmare was more like it. Definitely not how she wanted to wake up after…Memories of exactly what she had done the last time she was awake filtered to the front of her mind and Gwen immediately wondered if it was possible to die from mortification.She unmasked Barbara... She unmasked TO Barbara… And to make everything even worse, she did that hopped up on drugs in the middle of the Batcave. So there was a negative chance that there wasn’t some kind of recording of the incident so she couldn’t try and convince everyone involved that it didn’t happen.“What the hell is my life lately?” Gwen moaned, laying back down and covering her eyes.The cloth privacy curtains surrounding her bed parted allowing a still unmasked Barbara to enter.“You want to talk about that?” the redhead asked in a neutral tone.Gwen groaned. “I don’t suppose you’d accept a ‘no’?” She asked halfheartedly.A short silence stretched uncomfortably.“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Gwen caved pretty quickly. “Where do you want to start?”“How about the big one.” Barbara crossed her arms and leaned on one of the poles holding the curtains up. “How’d you figure me out? And who else do you know?”Gwen cringed. Not exactly a topic she wanted anyone looking too deeply into.“It’s Dick’s fault.” She blurted suddenly.Thankfully, Gwen had already practiced a somewhat logical story.Barbara remained silent and just raised an eyebrow. As another cop kid, Gwen recognised the tactic. Let the suspect talk without giving them anything to latch on to. A lot of the time people would give away more than they meant trying to convince the interviewer of their story.“After I got into that confrontation with Nightwing I couldn’t shake the feeling he was familiar somehow. Then I realised that he moved a lot like Dick the few times anyone could convince him to spar at the GCPD academy hangouts…” because if there was one way to guarantee a fight, it was to gather up a bunch of men with training in some kind of martial art and add alcohol. “...then I started thinking about how he spends most nights at the ‘gym’. The same one that he refuses to bring anyone to, but you seemed to know all about. Once I realised that that was just you covering for him spending time as Nightwing it wasn’t much of a stretch to think that the redheaded vigilante running around with Nightwing could be the same redheaded girl Dick hung out with…” She trailed off with a shrug.Barbara dragged a hand down her face. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing most people hanging around us on campus can’t recognise people by body movement and aren’t going around at night picking fights.” She sighed and refocused. “Who else do you know.”’Way more than I should’ Gwen couldn’t help but think to herself.Out loud she said, “I don’t really have solid proof I could show you for anyone else. I mean I’m guessing Kara is Supergirl, because she showed up kinda out of nowhere and you vanished right after.”“Ooh man, she’s going to be pissed at me for that.” Barbara muttered, although Gwen wasn’t sure she was supposed to hear that. “Alright. I’m just glad it was you and not one of the crazies with a grudge. Next, where and how did you get that suit? The last time we asked...you kinda weren’t all there…”Gwen huffed. That was an understatement. Though funnily enough her drugged up self didn’t exactly lie.“I couldn’t tell you the ‘how’ but the ‘where’ was some random back-alley after the...the thing with my father.” Gwen needed to pause for a second, her nightmare briefly coming to mind and making her shudder. “I got it then.”Barbara nodded solemnly and thankfully didn’t push for more details. Chances were she would ask later, but she was nice enough not to press after bringing up Gwen’s father.“Any plans then? You did just help us save the city and all.” The redhead was going for joking, no doubt trying to bring up Gwen’s mood, but all she managed was to piss off the blonde. Then she made it worse…“You should also know Dick isn’t taking the whole identity thing well. He’s got some issues he’s working through so he might avoid you for a while.”Help THEM save the city was it? Yeah, they helped. Brought in the ringleaders and used connections Gwen had no hope of mimicking at the moment. But that was after SHE had done most of the work. Found out the plot, followed up on leads, ruined some of their plans, and got stabbed through her goddamn ribcage in the process! And now she was being told that the same person that had told her to get lost when the city was on the brink of a massive gang war had ‘issues’ and she should politely accept that?No.“Well that's too bad for him.” Gwen snapped, surprising Barbara. “It’s not like he had to deal with trying to take down a mafia family trying to take over the city after killing his dad, getting his name smeared by the media, and being treated like a criminal by the local superheroes for no reason! The same superheroes he’d then need to pretend like nothing was wrong in his alternate identity because they were some of the few friends he had!”Barbara’s eyes widened and she paled at the outburst, as if just realising how stressed Gwen was dealing with them in her two identities and how everytime they kept rejecting ‘Ghost Spider’ Gwen was hearing the rejection from ‘Dick’ and ‘Barbara’.“So Greyson can take his fucking ‘issues’ and go fuck himself with them!” Gwen shouted, breathing heavily by the end of her rant. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself that was mostly successful, but her anger was still clearly present. “The only thing I am going to do is wait until I can go home and not come out for a few days. Because the fucking mafia ransacked it. Again!”Gwen fell back on the bed, lightly panting but glad she managed to let the other girl know what she felt.Barbara was left gaping slightly, suddenly unsure of herself. She hadn’t really considered what Gwen might’ve been feeling, too caught up in her own feelings about the reveal, and now she wasn’t sure what to do…“Gwen... I-” she tried.“Save it. I don’t want to hear it right now. So just do whatever you need to so I can go home. I don’t want to interrupt you from patting yourself on the back for all my hard work.”With that Gwen laid back fully and turned on her side so her back was facing the heroine. Barbara made some false starts at conversation, trying to deal with the sudden rift in their relationship, but Gwen didn’t engage. Finally, after being ignored for a solid few minutes, Barbara said goodbye and left the medical area, wondering if there was any way to fix this mess.

Chapter 19The Gotham streets were not safe to the unprepared at night, but that didn’t mean crime vanished during the day. It also didn’t mean that you ran the same risk of being mugged just walking down the street. If there wasn’t a supervillain enacting some scheme in the middle of the city, most people were actually pretty safe as long as they avoided side-streets or alleyways. Of course there were always exceptions.Some time late in the afternoon, a high pitched scream echoed through one of the Gotham parks where a nearby, younger couple was slowly being surrounded by five muggers in ski masks and brandishing knives.The young woman of the two victims shrieked again when one of them flashed his weapon threateningly.“Wallets, phones, jewelry. Hand them over and no one gets hurt.” the leader ordered. “Do it quick.”The two victims tried babbling some pleas and huddled into each other for protection, but another wave of a knife, this time closer, had both of them scrambling to hand over their possessions.“Hmph, should’ve done that sooner,” the leader smirked, then a snarl appeared on his face that was visible even through the mask. “then we wouldn’t need to make an example of you. Beat them.”Three knives vanished into coats or pockets as the muggers moved forward. The couple cowered closer to the ground when one of them raised a fist. But just when the thug was about to bring his fist down, there was a soft *thwip* and his fist was encased in a white web-like substance.All the people there, muggers and victims alike, traced the line back to where it came from and spotted a person in a black and white costume casually leaning on the side of a building like she wasn’t fifteen feet off the ground.“Hello there,” the masked figure said cheerfully. “I saw you were getting real friendly over here and wanted to join in.”There were several skills criminals in Gotham picked up just by being on the streets. Picking a mark, knowing where to buy a weapon, and knowing when to avoid certain areas because one of the major players had an operation going on were just some of them. Another one that most low level criminals had learned in the past few years was when a mask showed up and wasn’t shaking in their boots...run.“Freak, book it!” the leader shouted and the four muggers not caught in a web tried to run in different directions, leaving their captured companion behind. It sounds cruel, but for the lowlives of Gotham risking a confrontation with a mask wasn’t worth it.Sure there was a chance they could win in a fight or get off with just a beating if the mask was like Batman, but there was always the chance this was a villain or hero who had snapped. And the spectrum for those ranged from ‘beating’ to ‘dead’. Not odds a couple of thugs mugging wallets near a park were going to bet on.Not that it mattered for them. A few additional webs later all five of the muggers were tied up on the sidewalk waiting to get picked up by the GCPD while the couple from the park were thanking Ghost Spider as she returned their possessions.The two hung around until a couple squad cars pulled up and gave a statement before hurrying back home, apparently getting mugged had killed their desire to be out and about for the rest of the day. Once they were gone, three of the officers began moving the muggers into the squad cars while the last one nervously approached Ghost Spider.To her surprise she actually recognised him right away.“Nick! How’s it going, find any more Venom dens lately?” Ghost Spider threw an arm around the officer and pulled him into a light headlock. “I saw your interview in the paper, very exciting. I loved the part where you single handedly drove off a thief trying to steal the Venom for herself. So heroic!”Officer O’Hara sighed and hung his head at her teasing. “Please don’t,” He pleaded. “I get enough of that at the precinct. That reporter barely listened to a word I said!”Ghost Spider chuckled and released him. “I figured. But at least if you guys are talking to me then everythings been cleared up?”The young officer shrugged. “Kinda? We don’t have any outstanding warrants out on you, but opinion’s kinda split. Montoya seems to like you, but Bullock and his crew hate your guts. Although I’m learning they hate the guts of any masks out there so maybe it isn’t personal?”“Eh, as long as they do their jobs I don’t really care what they think of me.” Ghost Spider waved off his comment. “Besides that just means I get to spend more time talking to the ones that actually like me!”“Or the ones sacrificed to distract the crazy spider lady so the others can do their jobs.” O’Hara said dryly.Ghost Spider gasped and theatrically placed her hands over her heart. “What happened to my stuttering baby officer?” she exclaimed sarcastically. “They grow up so fast!”“Heh, sorry ma’am. This time I’m not pissing myself after almost getting shanked in a back alley. So you get my normal charming self.” Officer O’Hara smirked.“Oh well, guess that means I need to find another officer to terrify.” The spider-themed meta shot a webline to one of the nearby rooftops and pulled it taut. “Have fun with the muggers, I’ll give you a call if I find any more of them!” with those parting words, she shot herself into the air and was swinging through the city in no time.-o-Gwen fell back on her couch with a satisfied sigh.For the most part things were looking up. Her deal with Wayne Entertainment had been signed and she was seeing the first bit of money come through, her Ghost Spider persona had been cleared by the police so she was free to swing around the city, and she had managed to snag a fresh meatball sub from her favorite sandwich shop before they closed for the day. Yep, things had definitely gotten better in the few days since the Falcone Fiasco as the event had been called by the media.She had just finished unwrapping her sub and was about to sink her teeth into the delicious combination of sauce, meat, and cheese when the doorbell rang.Gwen gave a mournful glance at her sub, stuck between answering the door and her dinner. Another ring of the door bell managed to galvanize her into setting her food down for the moment and heading to the door.“Coming, coming...what can I-” Gwen stopped when she opened up to see an uncomfortable looking redhead standing on the welcome mat. “...help you with.” She finished in a very neutral tone.“Uh, hi Gwen.” Barbara Gordon awkwardly waved. “You mind if I come in?”The two girls stared silently at each other for a few seconds before Gwen’s shoulders slumped and she took a step back.“Come on in, I guess.” She turned her back and made her way over to where she had left her sub, taking a bite before she could be distracted. It was still great, but the faint bitterness that appeared when Barbara showed up kinda ruined it. She took another bite before she turned back to her unwanted guest.“So what’s up? Thought up some more questions to grill me with to justify you being terrible friends? Sorry, this time you’ll have to ask them when I haven’t just been stabbed through the chest and drugged up, points for trying again when I’m starving but unfortunately for you my evil plans have a solution for that.” She said sarcastically, presenting her sub like it was the final component of some master scheme.Gwen didn’t know what reaction she was looking for, some returned sarcasm, a self justifying rant, some speech that would try and convince Gwen that they were right to treat her like they did. She wasn’t expecting Barbara to fold in on herself and sigh with a defeated expression on her face.“I wanted to apologise…”“...oh, uh…” For some reason an honest apology hadn’t been on Gwen’s list of things to expect and now it was throwing her off.“I’m not going to apologise for being suspicious. That was us just being careful.” Gwen secretly let out a sigh of relief. At least the world hadn’t gone completely crazy. “But the way we treated you after...and how I treated you in the Cave...that was inexcusable. You saved Kara’s life and we never even thanked you for it. Hell, I never even asked if you were okay! Can you ever forgive me for that?”Gwen rubbed at her temples while she collected her thoughts.“I’m not going to turn around and just forgive you.” She said firmly, and to her credit Barbara nodded like she wasn’t expecting anything else. “You messed up. Bad. But I don’t want to ruin friendships over this, especially if we need to work together at some point. So, you aren’t forgiven, but I accept your apology and we can try working on your bedside manner later.” she finished with a smirk. This time it was Barbara’s turn to sigh in relief, she even chuckled at the poor joke even if it wasn’t very funny.“That’s really great to hear because we might need your help.” Barbara revealed, shifting to a more serious tone. “Remember the mind controlled bank robbers? They struck again, and this from what we can tell this wasn’t the first time since the bank. They might have done another heist the same day as the Fiasco went down. If you aren’t busy…” she trailed off leadingly.Gwen didn’t take long to accept the olive branch, “Yeah, I can help. And Dick is fine working with me? No more ‘issues’ he needs to work through?”Barbara groaned, “I’m going to be paying for that comment for a while aren’t I? Yeah, he’s fine with it. He’s still going to tear through every file he can get on you to find out where you got powers and training but the whole team is fine working alongside you.”“Not going to ask me for that yourself?”“We burned enough bridges. I’d like to think you’ll tell us yourself once we get you to completely forgive us. So until then, I’ll let the others do the detective work.”“Thanks Barbara…” Gwen felt touched Barbara was willing to go that far to avoid putting any more pressure on their strained friendship. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to actually eat sometime today.”“Yeah, I’ll get out of your hair,” Barbara said as she headed back to the door. She paused by the frame and looked back over her shoulder. “And Gwen? Thanks, for the chance.”“Sure.”Barbara closed the door behind her and Gwen was alone again. Her sub had cooled a bit during the conversation but the next bite was better than any she had before.

Chapter 20Whoever was behind the mind-controlled robberies was doing a much better job of staying hidden than Ghost Spider expected.As far as anyone knew there had been four robberies by the same group. A delivery of precious metals and stones heading to various jewelers. Two bank robberies; one the heroes stopped and another the day of the Falcone Fiasco that succeeded. And a Wayne-tech RnD lab that had been trashed in order to cover up what had actually been taken. The only thing linking all three robberies was the robotic way the robbers had been acting; something only evident in hindsight. Other than that? Nothing. The robbers caught on camera were all different, their gear was something anyone could have picked up off the street with a few connections, and the stolen items had almost nothing in common with each other that could point to a common use.The money from the bank? Immediate funds, obviously, that could be used to buy literally anything else. The metals and stones? That could be for anything from just more money to custom electronics and supertech. Gold was a fantastic conductor afterall. The stolen Wayne-tech? Was it something the mastermind needed? A job they were hired for? A distraction to confuse the police? There was no way to tell. So Ghost Spider was left with the good old superhero backup plan for when they had no leads.Patrol the seedier parts of the city randomly and hope to get lucky.Alright, that wasn’t exactly true. Ghost Spider was actually looking for an informant she could squeeze for any rumors going around the underbelly of the city. In a city like Gotham; gossip traveled faster than the Flash. It had to or otherwise the low level criminals found themselves dragged into being test subjects for the likes of the Scarecrow or wandering into areas claimed by Poison Ivy, just two of many potentially fatal mistakes a criminal could make. That didn’t even cover what could happen to the poor bastards that got caught up with the Joker.Batgirl had already told her that the rest of the Batfamily was split up either digging through whatever electronic trails they could or working with whatever the GCPD could toss their way. And since Ghost Spider didn’t exactly have a computer setup that could do anything the BatComputer couldn’t or any unique contacts with law enforcement she could leverage beyond maybe Detective Montoya, and she was already helping them out anyway, so that left sweeping the streets.It helped that even if Ghost Spider didn’t pick up any info regarding the robbers she was still helping out. She’d only been out for a few hours but she had already stopped a half dozen muggings and a car robbery. Small stuff, but it was the kind of instant gratification heroics that really put a smile on her face.She’d take being out here swinging through the air over being stuck behind a computer screen any day of the week.Speaking of swinging, Ghost Spider let go of the line of silk in her hand and allowed herself to land softly on a wall overlooking a trash filled alley. Two men in hoodies were huddled up near a light and acting shifty. Considering one kept patting at a pocket like he was reassuring himself something was still in there Ghost Spider was willing to bet they weren’t just hanging out. A drug sale perhaps?She snuck over to a nice spot on the wall that was hidden in the shadows and brought one hand up to eye level. After a bit of concentration, the black material shifted into a rather large black spider.“Go, my mini-minion. Let’s see what they're up to…” She muttered and tossed the fake spider close to the two guys, far enough away they didn’t notice the dark shape landing behind them though.The spider scurried across the ground, hiding behind the random junk scattered everywhere, until it was close enough to hear what they were saying.“Man, what are we even doing out here? This isn’t what we normally deal.” One of them whined.The other, the shifty one, snapped at his friend. “Yeah? Well, we ain't making shit dealing fucking weed to a bunch of fratboys. This is our chance to start raking in the big bucks.” he patted his pocket again.“Are you fucking nuts? This is the kinda shit that gets you fucked up. What the fuck did you think happened to the last dumbass Marcus had running this shit? Fuck, why did I let you talk me into this?” Whiny complained.“Cause you owe me for pulling your ass outta the shit with the cops last week. Now shut up, I think this is our guy.”The two dealers clammed up real quick as a nondescript man in casual clothes made his way into the alley. Ghost Spider didn’t recognise him specifically, but she did recognise a career criminal when she saw one. It was the way that his eyes darted to all the shadowed corners before he even took a step forward. Only people used to dealing with Batman and his bunch did that. Ghost Spider actually had to shift invisible for a bit because the man’s gaze kept sweeping over her hiding spot and she didn’t want him to freak out. Not yet anyway.The man stopped a couple feet away from the two. Comfortable speaking distance, but far enough away getting grabbed was unlikely.“You aren’t the normal guy.”“He screwed up another job. Marcus sent us instead.” Shifty said with a used car salesman smile.“Hmph, you have what I ordered?”“Ye- yep! Got it right here!” Shifty pulled a metal case from his pocket and opened it. It was hard to make out from her position, but to Ghost Spider it looked like a bunch of small vials.The buyer looked at the case for a couple seconds before shifting his gaze back up to Shifty. “It looks like the product but what about the effects?”Shifty nodded a few times before clapping a hand down on Whiny’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, that’s why I got my man right here for! A quick demo. A sneak peak to prove it's the real deal!”Shifty pulled one of the vials from the case and shoved it into Whiny’s hands with a muttered, “Don’t fuck this up. Remember, you owe me.” and turned back to the buyer.“Right, demonstration yeah? You wanted steroids for your rings, a bit of something to make the crowd see something special? Well-”“Get to the point.” the buyer interrupted. “I know what I’m paying for and what it does. What I don’t know is if you clowns have the genuine article or not. And you better pray you do. I don’t like having my time wasted.”Shifty swallowed heavily. “Sure thing, boss.” He tapped Whiny. “Go ‘head and show ‘im.”Whiny looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, looking at the exit to the alley with longing before sighing and pulling at a cap on one of the ends of the vial in his hand. There was a tiny needle on the end which Whiny jabbed into his neck with just a tiny bit of hesitation. A second later he ripped the empty vial away and tossed it to the ground as his muscles swelled. He had gone from a skinny guy with no real bulk to speak of to the kind of physique commonly seen on people who spent all day in the gym. Whiny walked over to a nearby dumpster, easily lifting it to show his enhanced strength.Ghost Spider’s eyes went wide at the sudden transformation. That looked awfully similar to-“Venom's crazy shit right?” Shifty was smiling again. “New version doesn’t last as long, but doesn’t crash as hard. Get a couple fighters up with this and bam! Instant super fight.”The hidden heroine slowly let out a breath. Superpowered drug fights? That sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. And someone had enough of a pipeline for these things that not only did they have henchmen running around pushing the stuff they had refined versions of it too.She was going to have to track both these groups down, wasn’t she?The buyer whistled appreciatively at the demonstration. “Guess you have something worth buying. Do you have the doses I need though?”“Yeah man, here check it for yourself.”The two of them looked over the case and apparently everything was acceptable to the buyer since he pulled out a stack of bills and handed them over.“Let Marcus know I’ll contact him if these work out.”The buyer started walking away and Ghost Spider suddenly needed to work fast. Still invisible, she ran along the building wall and silently dropped to street level in front of the buyer. Since she doubted this guy was going to give up any locations without a fight she figured it would be best to follow him back to his base later.Ghost Spider pulled a homemade tracker (a GPS broadcaster attached to a battery) and covered it in webbing. With careful timing and every bit of her enhanced speed and reflexes, she managed to attach the tracker to the inside of the buyer’s pant leg. That should let her find him again unless he either changed pants for some reason or found the tracker. Now to deal with the two drug dealers.Shifty and Whiny were still in the alley. Shifty was counting the money he got with a huge grin on his face and Whiny was...doing one handed pull ups on a nearby fire escape?“We shoulda kept some of the Venom.” Whiny was saying when Ghost Spider got back. “I feel amazing! Could you imagine what we could do with some of this shit?”“Get capped by Marcus for skimming his product?” Shifty scowled. “Like hell I’m doing something that fucking stupid.”“No, no, you don’t get it. This Venom shit? It doesn’t just do muscles. It does brain shit too. You always hear how smart people just think differently, but everything is just so fucking...clear. We get enough to keep this going and we could move up from just dealing. Fuck we find out where he get’s the shit from we could just take over Marcus’ operation. Start selling to the frats like we did the weed. Could you imagine how much the football fucks would pay for a hit of this?”“No, because super drugs at a college would get Batman on our asses faster than your sister gets on her knees for a twenty.”Whiny dropped off the fire escape and stalked over to his buddy. “First, don’t talk about my sister that way. Second, what’s stopping us? Batman can’t be everywhere. And you think he’s going to be paying attention to a college team doping when one of those psychos starts blowing up the city? At worst he dumps a sidekick to look into it and with this shit we could break Robin in half if the little bastard pokes his nose in.”Ghost Spider’s eyes narrowed at the thought of these two mimicking Bane’s treatment of Batman with the young teen. She didn’t like that thought at all, in fact, so she was going to let these two know that in person.“Dude, that's just asking for the Justice League to come bust our ass.” Shifty moaned. “I know it's all over the web but I don’t actually want Wonder Woman to crush my head between her thighs. Now let’s get out of here before someone sees us.”“Too late for that.”Ghost Spider landed in the alley in front of the two, uncloaked and in a combat crouch. Not the best for intimidation but that could be fixed later.“I saw your little deal just now. Care to tell me where you got your drugs or do I get to beat it out of you first?”Shifty started cursing and moved backwards further into the alley, also placing Whiny between himself and Ghost Spider.“Dude, what the fuck? It’s not even one of the bats. Just some no-name chick.” Whiny laughed at his friend’s reaction and turned back to the heroine. “Weren’t you a thief anyway?”“That’s the mask that helped Supergirl crash the Fiasco, dumbass!”“No shit? Then I guess when I beat her ass we’re going to get some real cred then.”Ghost Spider had a hard time equating this Whiny with the same guy from earlier. Sure part of it was probably from riding high knowing he had super strength for a bit, but he also seemed far more aggressive than what she had seen. Did Venom do that? She knew eventually it fucked with both the mind and body, but she couldn’t remember if it messed with emotions like that too.“Look ‘roid Rick, I know they say ‘fake it till you make it’ but drugs are bad, m’kay?” Ghost Spider bantered. “So why don’t you tell me what I want to know and you get to cool it in a jail cell and not a hospital?”“Dude, we need to get out of here…” Shifty hissed but Whiny wasn’t having it.“No! Fuck you! We always do what you want and I’m sick of it! For once I have the power and you need to listen to me!”Ghost Spider sighed and straightened up a bit. “Look as much as I’d like to play couples counselor, what I really want is where Marcus is getting Venom. So how ‘bout it?”Unfortunately, diplomacy failed and Whiny ran forward, fists swinging. Shifty followed after him a few seconds later. The heroine kept one eye on him while she ducked and weaved through the drugged up dealer’s assault just in case he tried hitting her from behind. Then he just… kept on running, making his way towards the end of the alley.Apparently he wasn’t much of a fighter.Ghost Spider snagged Shifty with a web line and pulled him back into the alley, sidestepping and letting him collide into Whiny when she dodged another punch.Both dealers went down in a mess of limbs and Ghost Spider leaned up against a wall.“Got that out of your system? Cause hanging out in a dirty alley wasn’t how I wanted to spend my night.”Whiny threw Shifty off of him, got up, screamed something, and threw another punch at the spider themed hero. She dodged easily and Whiny’s fist slammed into the brick wall.“Alright no need to go breaking walls, someone has to fix those you know?” Ghost Spider chided as Whiny pulled his hand out of the crumbling brickwork.“Then stop fucking running already! I’m gonna catch you eventually!” Whiny...well, whined.“I mean, alright I guess. It’s not going to go how you think though.”The dealer didn’t exactly listen though, he just wound up for a massive haymaker. Ghost Spider kept her promise and didn’t move. Instead she just caught his fist a couple inches from her face with a small grunt. Then she socked her attacker in the jaw with a quick rabbit punch, knocking him out before he even had time to react to her casually catching his punch.That was one down. Now Ghost Spider just had to deal with the other. Looking back to where the two dealers had fallen earlier, the Heroine saw Shifty hadn’t stayed on the ground anymore than his friend did. He did seem to think running was the better part of valor or however that quote went because he was nearly out of the alley in the short time it took Ghost Spider to deal with his friend.Another webline, this one around his ankles, solved that problem and Ghost Spider started dragging him back over the ground towards her. The alternating screams for help or mercy got annoying quickly though so she met him halfway, lifted him up by the front of his jacket, and slammed him into a wall a bit harder than absolutely necessary.Ghost Spider’s oversized eyes narrowed threateningly as she leaned closer.“So then...about those drugs…”