[FFML] [TEASER][GSC/SPIDER-MAN] Tangled Webs -- Day One

Gunsmith Cats copyright Kenichi Sonoda

Spider-Man copyright Marvel Comics

Both used without permission

Gunsmith Cats

The Amazing Spider-Man

In:

Tangled Webs: Day One

3:03 PM

"So this is Chicago," Peter Parker said as he left the airport terminal and into the day beyond. "At least the air smells the same as in New York." He had never been here before and somewhat regretted that he wouldn't have time to take in any sights.

As a tourist, anyway, he silently added as he passed the curb where commuters were trying to stake out taxis. Peter Parker had brought his own transportation with him.

Chiseling the airfare out of J. Jonah Jameson - like anything else that involved both money and the Daily Bugle's publisher - had been like pulling teeth with a pipe wrench. The only reason "Jolly Jonah" had agreed (with no small measure of yelling and grumbling) was that Peter had suggested that Spiderman was headed there and, to sweeten the pot, that some big-time drug business was going on.

Okay, he thought as he hit the sidewalk and began to search for a likely spot. Phone booths just didn't cut it, really. Costume: check. Full web-shooters: check. Spare web fluid: check. Mini-cam: check. Mission control, we are good to go. All I need is a nice, dark alley somewhere.

Two minutes of searching later, Peter Parker found a likely spot. He casually looked about as he veered left into the alley, even though he knew his spider-sense would warn him of any nasty hoods in waiting and it was quiet.

The alley itself led deeper into the heart of the Windy City around corners and narrow gaps lined with trash. After a few more minutes of walking, and checking his spider-sense, Peter began the routine which was by now second nature to him.

Finally, seconds later, a red-and-blue clad figure crested the roof of a nearby building, with a web sack on his back containing Peter Parker's clothes.

"Okay, Spidey," he muttered to the afternoon sun. "Time to start hunting. You've only got a week." He had a name to run down and a likely location from a thug in New York after his latest bust.

If that Powerball stuff is coming from here, Peter thought, I have to close down this pipeline. Especially if even half of what I've heard about that junk is true.

4:46 PM

"Are you sure he's in here?" Minnie May Hopkins whispered as she set the primacord in the tiny gap in the doorframe.

"He's there," Rally confirmed, adjusting her sunglasses. "Becky gave me the info."

"How much?" May asked.

"Too much." The girl was expensive, but her information was always good. Steve Atkins, her latest bounty, had skipped his bail earlier in the week. The DA wouldn't like having to hand Rally the six thousand dollar sum as a bounty, but he liked having Costa Nostra thugs on the loose even less.

The door lay on the second story of the disused apartment building. It was a haven for punks and drug dealers, now, of which Steve Atkins was one. Minnie May knelt on one side of the door, detonator in one hand and a flash-bang in the other, while Rally hoisted her CZ-75 Old Version at the ready. They expected to meet resistance - they had heard that Atkins was planning to have some associates over - and came prepared. Once the primacord blew the flimsy door in (a measure that was really overkill, but served to surprise), May would toss a few flash-bangs and the party would begin.

Rally covered her ears as the explosive detonated, sending the door inward just ahead of two flash-bangs. Even prepared, the explosion was harsh on her senses. Rally took point, firearm ready while May appeared beside her with a snub-nosed .38. The gesture, they saw, was unnecessary.

"Wow, May," Rally commented as she stepped into the apartment. "How much did those things have?"

"Not enough to do this," May replied. Strewn across the floor and the tattered furniture were several bodies. Rally played her gun over each, noting that they were still breathing.

"All of them unconscious," Rally said as she moved deeper into the apartment. She allowed her eyes to scan the walls. "No bullet holes, either" A few guns: mainly 9mm Berettas sprinkled with a few MAC-10s, littered the floor near the conked-out men. "Nobody managed to get a shot off."

"Weird," May said from slightly behind. "What happened here?"

"Where's Atkins?"

Room by room the two searched, finding only some scattered porno magazines and beer cans. There was no sign of Atkins.

"What the hell?" Rally asked. "Did he just cut and run?"

"Looks that way," May replied as the two entered the kitchen.

"Time to get the cops here." Rally pulled out her cell phone and punched the speed dial.

The window's open, May noticed as Rally filled in the police. Maybe Atkins had bugged out on the fire escape? Even so, that didn't explain the ten men laid out in the living room. Not even a single shot fired! That didn't make sense.

"Yeah, thanks. We're outta here."

"I don't like the looks of this," May said as she turned to face Rally.

"Me, either. The cops oughtta be here in a few minutes. Looks like these thugs won't wake up any time soon."

Rally and May stood outside the GT 500 Cobra which was parked a block away from the building where Steve Atkins was supposed to have been. Rally Vincent was pissed. A six thousand dollar bounty had just gotten away from her!

"He had to have known I was tracking him," Rally said as she opened the driver's door. "But did he know I was going to try for him today?"

"Becky told us he wouldn't be alone. Maybe she sold the same information to someone else?"

"I wouldn't put it past her." It would make a lot of sense, too. Rally wasn't Becky Farrah's only customer. Maybe another bounty hunter had sourced her? But even so, how the hell had this other bounty hunter knocked out six armed men and made off with Atkins without even one shot being fired?

"Hey!"

Rally and May turned as one to see him shambling up to them. The breeze carried the pungent stink of cheap wine and unwashed flesh to their noses as the filthy man staggered in their general direction. A street wino, drunk as a fart, approached them on an uneven path on the cracked pavement.

"Sorry, we don't have any money." Rally began.

"Yer that bounty hunter, ain't ya?"

"Yeah."

"Lookin' fer. fer that guy what was in that place?" The drunk cackled for a minute at a joke only he understood before continuing. "Ain't here no more. Nope, gone away."

"Yeah, we saw that," May said hotly.

"Betcha." a loud belch interrupted his sentence. "Betcha don't know who got 'im. I do."

"Really?" Rally asked, uninterested. The last thing she needed was to be hit up by some smelly drunk.

"Yeah! Walked right down the wall, 'e did!" The wino tottered for a moment before taking another slug from the brown bag in his hand. "Was done up in red'n'blue tights, like!"

"Whatever you say," May said, then to Rally, "Let's get out of here, huh? This guy's wasted!"

"No kidding." Rally climbed into the Cobra and keyed the engine over.

"It was him!" the drunk shouted above the engine. "A human spider, he was!"

"Whatever!" May hollered back just as Rally gunned the engine. The tires squalled in protest for a moment before gaining traction and sending the Mustang forward.

"I think it's time to pay Becky a visit," Rally snarled, her grip on the steering wheel becoming tighter. "I just lost six grand; I want to know who I lost it to."

=========================

5:16 PM

Becky Farrah cursed when her door chime sounded. Of all times, why now! She pulled her hand from her panties - it had been such a nice fantasy, too - and threw on a bathrobe. If someone wanted information from her right now, that person would pay through the nose!

"Hang on, I'm coming!" I wish I was, she didn't shout. Through the peephole she saw the distorted fish-eye view of Rally Vincent and May Hopkins on the other side. "I'm a little busy now, Rally," Becky said as she opened the front door.

"I lost some money today," Rally said, "and I think you did, too."

"Oh?" Becky was interested now, almost to the point of forgiving the bounty hunter for interrupting her. therapeutic massage of certain key areas. "Well, come in and tell me about it!" She stood aside for them, and as they walked through Minnie May sniffed the air once and shot her a look. Becky nearly blushed. If anyone would know the smell from her body, that girl would.

"I'll say you were busy," May said with a wink before taking a seat near Rally on the sofa. The other, thankfully, remained silent.

Wow, she's kinda pissed, Becky thought. Well, losing money always does that to me.

"Alright, Rally," Becky said, all business. "What's this about me losing money?"

"Hey, you're not the only one," the other growled. "Atkins got away."

"And you came here to tell me that?! It's not MY fault that."

"What if it is?"

"Rally, I don't like what you're saying, here." Did she think that her bounty had been warned?

"The info you sold me."

"CREDITED you."

"Whatever. Who else was interested?"

"Huh?" Becky was genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Becky, Atkins wasn't there," May explained. "His friends were there, knocked out, but Atkins vanished."

"I see where this is going. Rally, I can honestly say that no one else came to me for info about Steve Atkins."

"I see," Rally said. "Okay, maybe this other hunter went to someone else."

"Whoa, Rally. You mean someone aced you?"

"Exactly," she said, more friendly now. "Since I got the info from you, I thought this other hunter did the same.

"What happened, anyway?"

"I don't know. Six armed thugs were knocked out, and I didn't see any shred of proof that a single shot had been fired."

"Six? What were they packing?"

"MAC-10s and Berettas," May replied.

"And no shots. This guy was either really good, or it's a setup. Any idea who?"

"No, just what a wino nearby blabbed," May said.

"What did he say?" This was getting juicy.

"He was smashed," Rally snorted, "but he said some guy in red and blue walked down the wall and carried Atkins off. What kind of crap."

Becky ignored Rally for a moment as her brain turned the information over. Red and blue, walked down a wall. who.

Oh, crap. Was it possible?

"Becky?" Rally asked. "What is it?"

"This wino said that?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, the guy was drunk out of his skull, but what if he really saw that?"

"Hey, a few slugs of the cheap crap they drink, and you'll see vapor trails! Why not a guy walking down. a. wall." May trailed off.

"I've read news articles about someone who does just that," Becky said.

"Oh, come on," Rally laughed. "Do you really think that it was 'Him'?"

"I don't know, Rally. But, what if it is?"

"And what the hell would Spider-Man be doing in Chicago?"

"I don't know."

"For all we know, that bum was just trying to sell some crappy story for a few bucks so he could by more booze!"

"Well, we don't know any more," Becky said. "I could look up some more articles about Spider-Man."

"That's okay," Rally said as she rose from the chair. "Besides, I don't want to keep you from your research." The last was said with a wink that made Becky flush again. "See ya!"

Becky tried to get back in the mood after her unannounced guests had left, but the moment was gone. After bringing that website back up, however, it returned in full force and Becky Farrah had a wonderful time, indeed.

"Wow, did WE ever catch her at a bad time," May giggled as she slid into the Cobra's leather seats.

"I'm almost ashamed," Rally laughed as she started the car. "I didn't think her the type."

"C'mon, Rally, EVERY girl has to get off once in a while."

"May!" Rally cried in mock horror.

"Aw, c'mon, it's not like I don't hear those noises from YOUR bedroom from time to time!"

"Well." Rally Vincent sputtered for a moment before returning her full attention to the road. "Let's go see Roy. Maybe he knows something." Besides, Rally had no intention of discussing her sexual fantasies with May Hopkins at any rate.

5:22 PM

"What are you gonna do to me?" The question came out as a whimper. Steve Atkins stared nervously up at the Spider-Man as the wind shifted him from side to side. The only anchor was the web which attached him to the narrow outcropping of concrete some fifty stories above the pavement.

The red-and-blue freak studied him for a moment, as if in contemplation of his answer. Steve knew he was a dead man. If Spider-Man didn't kill him, then his bosses surely would for talking.

"I have something in mind, Stevie-boy," Spiderman said amicably while dangling upside-down on another thread of webbing. "Yeah, I think it'll do."

"They're gonna kill me, y'know," Steve blubbered, "once they find out I talked."

"Now, don't you worry your ugly little head about that," Spider-Man replied as a patch of webbing made the world dark once more.

5:52 PM

"Hey, Rally!" Roy Coleman said as the bounty hunter took a seat next to him amid the bustle of the police precinct. "Good job on that apartment!"

"Yeah?" Rally asked as she popped open the coke she had bought from the vending machine in the hall.

"All six of those guys had outstanding warrants. Two with rewards, even!"

"Really? How much?"

"Total of about four grand," Roy said. "Heard you didn't get Atkins, though."

"Four grand, huh? Well, then today wasn't a total loss. "Just wire the money to my account. You know the number."

"Don't tell me, tell the DA. I just called, and he's walking on air. Said to commend you, even."

"Wow. How about that?" Rally smiled after taking a sip of soda. Today was really starting to look up. Four grand, a good word from the District Attorney, and all for just the work of blowing down a door and throwing two flash-bangs, which May did, really. The little blonde would just LOVE that!

"So, Rally, why are you here?"

"Is there a new bounty hunter in town?"

"Not that I know of. You think a new guy aced you?"

"Has anyone brought Atkins in yet?"

"Nope," Roy answered. "Those guys in his apartment were members of his own gang, too. I haven't heard of anyone really gunning for him. Do you know anything, Rally?"

"Well."

"Out with it, girl."

"Some drunk said he saw a guy in red and blue tights walk down the wall of the building and make off with Atkins. Said it was Spider-Man. Can you believe that?"

Roy was stunned. He had heard some rumblings about a few things that involved Manhattan's web-slinging vigilante and a few key players, but.

"Maybe he did?" Best not tip off Rally. All he had were rumors, anyway.

"Oh, come off it, Roy."

"Well, we don't have Atkins, and I haven't heard anything about anyone wanting him dead. I'm not saying it WAS him, but I don't want to rule him out yet."

"Man, I finally managed to get the day shift," Terry Crenshaw said as he walked down into the department's parking garage. His footfalls echoed in the concrete cave as he moved toward his personal car. "Finally, some time with my girlfriend! She's been getting pissed lately!"

"MMPH!"

"What the hell?" The noise caught him off-guard, his hand reaching down for the service pistol at his hip.

"MMM! MMPH!"

Terry stalked toward the source of the noise, gun out. Sounded like someone gagged, but in a police parking garage? Was it just some prank? A few minutes of searching, however, proved him wrong.

"HOLY SCREAMING SHEEPSHIT!"

"So, Rally, you're."

"HEY!" screamed a voice. Roy and Rally turned as one to see the patrolman charge into the busy office space, his eyes wide. "HEY, YOU GUYS HAVE TO SEE THIS!"

"What the hell?" Roy stood and followed the tide of officers after the patrolman and down to the parking garage.

"What's going on, Roy?" Rally asked.

"Wish I knew."

"Over here!" the patrolman (Isn't that Crenshaw? Roy thought) shouted as he led the group of police between two concrete support pillars.

"I'll be damned," one officer whispered.

"If I hadn't seen it myself!"

"Jesus CHRIST!"

Rally and Roy looked up, neither able to believe what they were seeing. Steve Atkins was there, suspended upside-down with thick ropes of white goo around his body with patches over his eyes and mouth. A thread stretched from his ankles to a huge spider's web between the two pillars.

"I have a camera!" a female officer shouted. "Who wants prints!"

"I do!"

"Me!"

"It's a beautiful thing!"

"Well, Rally," Roy said. "I think maybe that drunk was right."

"Yeah. I guess so." There was no mistaking it. That was definitely Spider-Man's handiwork. Spider-Man was in Chicago. Why? What the hell did he want with HER bounty?

Look at the bright side, she told herself. You didn't get paid for this, and neither did he. The cops wouldn't pay a masked vigilante for returning a bail jumper.

"Hey, there's a note!"

"Let me see it!" Roy shouted, pushing through the crowd of officers. He saw it, a folded card stuck to the substance which bound Steve's torso. Roy removed it with care, and nothing happened. It wasn't a trap, then. He opened the card and read it aloud,

"Dear Chicago cops,

I hope you like your lowlifes gift-wrapped.

Sincerely, your new friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

6:22 PM

"What is it, Rally?" May asked as the former climbed into the Cobra and started the engine.

"Remember what that drunk told us earlier?"

"Yeah."

"He was right."

"WHAT?!" The car jumped forward with another squeal of tires. "You mean you believe him!"

"I saw it myself," Rally said before explaining what she and half the Chicago police force had seen."

"Wow," May whispered. I didn't see anyone coming or going, either."

"Were you looking up?"

"No."

"Then that's why." Rally maneuvered around the slower traffic for a few blocks before a stoplight caught her. "I can't believe this."

"At least we have a reward coming to us," May said as she leaned back into the leather bucket seat. "And for just the cost of some primacord and two flash-bangs!"

"We're only out two grand instead of six. If we'd gotten Atkins, we would have had ten grand."

"Well, it's not like Spider-Man has it out for you or anything, right?"

"I don't think so."

6:30 PM

Peter Parker looked down at the street far below him as the wind ripped at his muscular frame. Atkins hadn't known much aside from an arranged drug deal between the Costa Nostra family he belonged to and a branch in the Hamptons. He hadn't known the address, but Peter knew his spider sense would let him find it.

Didn't that guy have a bounty on his head? Peter saw a blue-and-white Mustang far below him and dismissed the thought. That bounty had been for jumping bail, and as such was legal.

"Six thousand," he grumbled, "and I can't even collect! Well, at least I got what I was really after." Another shipment of Kerasine 2, or Powerball, was slated to be run to New York through an unnamed driver. Steve Atkins had even been kind (terrified) enough to leave the name of their first choice; some guy named Bean Bandit.

This Bandit guy refuses to run drugs, Peter thought as he performed a double somersault before swinging off on another web. But he's still a crook. Besides, he might know more about who's shipping Powerball in this town. I'll find him later. I have a date with a drug deal tonight.

And that's the teaser! I have some pretty cool ideas for this fic (I think I'm gonna run with it) and I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for reading!

Knight Writer