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Sorray about that, folks. The fic should show up now.



-- Attached file included as plaintext by Ecartis --
-- File: spider22r.txt

Ranma 1/2 property of Rumiko Takahashi
Spider-Man property of Stan Lee
Neither is used with permission



	Hikaru Gosunkugi: The Amazing Spiderman
	Issue Twenty-Two
	The Spider and the Man, part one



	Hikaru Gosunkugi looked out the window of the small apartment he had managed to find on the opposite end of Nerima Ward from the one he had left a month earlier. The snow had finally fallen while he had slept - was still falling, in fact - as the Christmas holidays loomed close. Just three weeks before that Western custom came around, wasn't it? Funny how time flew by...
	The apartment was even smaller than the one his family had been forced to rent, but that suited him fine. He was the only one to live there, which came as quite a shock to the landlord - a sixty-ish woman whom had taken the squat building over when her husband had passed away - when he had signed the papers which let him move in.
	Actually settling in hadn't taken long, since he didn't have much besides his clothes and his computer. His mother had withdrawn the trust fund his parents had set up after his birth, and that had managed to put down the security and cleaning deposits. The utilities came out of the rent he had to pay every month, with the rest left over for groceries and his internet connection. The manager had even been kind enough to let him use the basement below as a darkroom, seeing as he was a bit of a shutterbug and none of the other tenants used it anyway.
	Hikaru chose not to think about the day when he had moved out. Only his mother truly knew the reason, and it was still painful.
	"At least it's been quiet lately," he muttered to the snow which was being pushed aside by plows which were in turn followed by large yellow trucks which sprayed salt on the pavement so that the cars wouldn't lose traction. Since he had moved out, his forays as Spiderman had resulted mainly in a few muggings stopped. The only major thing was when some jerks had tried to kidnap two thirteen-year-old girls as they had been walking home one night after leaving whatever school club meeting they had been to. His spider sense had gone off at the sight of those three guys, and on changing and following them from above, it had been proven right yet again. Hikaru was glad that those two girls were okay, just as he was glad that those three asswipes had gotten the Spiderman treatment in the worst way. The story had made the news, even, with a few reporters on television even thanking Spiderman for stopping what would have been a heinous crime dead in its tracks.
	So far, the Yakuza and the Triads had been quiet. Too quiet, the cynical part of his brain said in a dissonant voice. That same part of his mind insisted that the relative peace was merely the calm before the storm. Over the past month, that feeling was becoming harder and harder to ignore.
	Hikaru pushed it away, as he always did. He still had to buy groceries for the week, and the money was tight. Furinkan didn't allow its students to hold jobs after class, but being a freelance photographer had allowed him to discover a nice loophole. Since he wasn't on any payroll, he technically didn't have a job and as such didn't violate that rule. Besides, the publisher of the paper he sold the photos to had been more than ready to agree that Hikaru's name not appear in any way and that no questions were to be asked once he had seen the first set of snaps.
	Speaking of which, he had more to sell today. There was no school on Sunday, and Hikaru wanted that money in his hands as soon as possible. A single jar of mustard and half a loaf of bread were nowhere near enough to feed him.
	Photos of Spiderman were very popular since that twenty million yen bounty had been placed on him, which had enabled Hikaru to live on his own and put a little money away. Tetsuo Akihito was willing to pay good money for the photos so long as Hikaru didn't offer them to another newspaper or to something worse like TV news programs. He was free to do so because he was still freelance, and it was a small comfort to know that he could hold that over Tetsuo's head if the occasion ever came.
	"I'd better get these photos sold," he said angrily as he put on his coat and set off for the long walk toward the building which housed the Tokyo Sun Times. Going by foot was cheaper than using a taxi and Hikaru needed to save every yen he could.

	"Good morning," Hikaru said forty minutes later as he exited the elevator and stepped onto the floor which the newspaper office called home. People hurried about, some carrying stacks of papers while others frantically conversed with one another about things Hikaru really didn't care about. If this was the news industry, then he wanted no more of it than he had to deal with. He walked quickly across the floor, past cluttered desks and bustling reporters and was assaulted by the noise of voices and clacking keyboards all the while. On reaching Tetsuo's office door moments later, he didn't even bother to knock before he entered.
	"Gosunkugi! Just the man I wanted to see!" Tetsuo Akihito was still trim and fit for being nearly sixty. His black hair was cropped close about his head, peppered in spots with flecks of gray. Eyes so dark that they were almost black peered at him from beneath bushy eyebrows and above a face that seemed chiseled from stone. Even seated at his desk, the man exuded a powerful presence.
	In the short time Hikaru had known him; he had learned that when Tetsuo Akihito sounded happy, it was time to run for cover.
	"Hello, Akihito-san."
	"More Spiderman photos today?" Tetsuo asked with glee.
	"You know it, sir,"
	"Well, don't just stand there! Hand them over!" Tetsuo ordered. Hikaru merely nodded and handed over the envelope. Tetsuo ripped it open as if it were an early Christmas present and began poring over the photos. His smile - which was scary enough - fell into the usual scowl as he flipped through the stack.
	"What's all this?" he asked. "This is just Spiderman swinging around! Where's the action?"
	"Sorry, but these are all I have. Looks like he just wants some exercise lately." Oh, if only you knew, Tetsuo...
	"It's too late for me to re-write my editorial now," Tetsuo snarled, "and I won't run stock photos if I can't help it. Two thousand for the lot."
	"Two thousand?" Hikaru asked in disbelief. "That'll just barely stock my refrigerator!"
	"And it's the best deal I'll cut you for this crap!" Tetsuo roared. "Bring me something with some meat to it! Bring me shots that show Spiderman actually fighting!"
	"Then you just might have to run some stock photos," Hikaru said airly. "There are other editors who'd love to have someone who can take shots of Spiderman..."
	"Okay, then. Twenty-five hundred," Tetsuo growled.
	"Three thousand."
	"Twenty-seven."
	"Deal." Hikaru knew he couldn't chisel any more out of the legendary tightwad.
	"Punk kids," Tetsuo muttered as he wrote Hikaru a check. "In my day, we would have taken what the editor said and liked it."
	"Thank you, Akihito-san," Hikaru said as he took the check from the outstretched hand.
	"And don't bother coming back without good shots!" Tetsuo yelled as Hikaru neared the door.
	Hikaru Gosunkugi walked back across the offices of the Tokyo Sun Times as quickly as he could manage. The yen he had just pocketed would be just enough to cover his groceries.
	Maybe I should ask Kasumi how to live on a tight budget, he mused as he pressed the call button for the elevator. With all those mouths to feed on a little money, she has to be a master.
	The thought evoked a quiet chuckle. Kasumi Tendo: Master of the school of Limited Budget Homemaking Martial Arts.



	Dear Ms. Tendo,

	We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the Head Start Scholarship program. Along with the other nine chosen applicants, you will be serving a one-year internship in the Tokyo branch of Stark Enterprises, Inc., to begin at the end of the school year.
	In addition to your academic studies, you will work twenty hours per week in S.E., Inc.'s Tokyo headquarters, applying the lessons you will learn in your classes in the real world.
	We look forward to working with you and for your bright future!

	Nabiki re-read the letter, for a moment convinced that it was a dream. Out of the ten thousand other high school seniors in Japan who had even qualified for the scholarship, only ten had been chosen, and she was one of them!
	"YES!" she screamed, leaping off the bed and jumping up and down.

	
      "Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can..." Hikaru Gosunkugi muttered those words as he dangled upside-down on a thick web some forty stories above the street. The sunset had brought even more bitter cold than the daylight, his heightened metabolism and longjohns beneath his costume doing all they could to keep him warm.
	As he hung there, Hikaru began to think about how to handle being Spiderman. He had moved out so that he could web-sling freely. He briefly wondered how his mother took the news articles and photos printed in the Tokyo Sun Times. She was the only one he had told and - to the best of his knowledge - the only one who knew. She hadn't called, which was for the best. Hikaru wanted to be far away from his former home in so many ways. At least she wasn't doting over him, as he had feared she might. Nanase Gosunkugi knew her son was a man, now, and would not interfere.
	That still didn't make him feel any better.
	"Change of subject, Spidey," he muttered to the air. "First off, I'm still the most wanted man in Japan. How do I fix that?"
	Raizo Yamata had put out the bounty after Spiderman's last battle with Doctor Octopus, who occupied the top slot on the American FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Who was Yamata anyway? What gave him the right to offer a reward for Spiderman's capture or death?
	Money. Raizo had to be loaded. Twenty million yen was nothing to scoff at. If he was willing to offer that much, then he had to be able to pony up if someone managed to do what he had demanded.
	"For that kind of money," Hikaru muttered, "I'd almost be tempted to turn myself in." Maybe he should run a few internet searches of Raizo Yamata, just to see what kind of public assets the guy had. Gosunkugi knew that only what was legal would be available. One didn't become rich enough to toss around twenty million yen without making a few shady deals and a lot of enemies. That only stood to reason as truth. 
	Back to that bounty... How would he get Yamata to remove it? He would have to dig up some dirt on the man, but how?
	"Hey, maybe I don't have to bother," Hikaru said as an insane idea came to him. What if Spiderman captured a criminal so dangerous that every major law enforcement organization in Japan and America had several outstanding warrants against him?
	What if he managed to capture Doc Ock?
	The idea sent a cold wave of fear through him. No one truly knew how dangerous Doc Ock was as well as him. So far as he knew, no one had survived a face-to-face fight with him, except for Spiderman. Even then, however, it had been close.
	But, if he could capture Ock, and reveal who was backing him financially, then Spiderman's name might be cleared. At least one extremely dangerous menace would be in a maximum security prison if nothing else. Besides, capturing Ock might help boost Spiderman's image in this town.
	But, how would he do it? Doctor Octopus was so far the strongest enemy Hikaru had ever before faced. In a pitched battle Hikaru had no illusions about how Ock could cream him.
	"It's a start, at least," Hikaru groused. "If I'm gonna take down Ock, how am I gonna do it?"
	There was no further time for thought when the spider sense began to faintly buzz. Hikaru released his web and fell only to catch himself on another strand and swing eastward. His spider sense hadn't done more than lead him to minor trouble of late, and this time seemed no exception. It was probably another mugging in the heart of the city. If it had been more, his spider sense would have gone nuts.


	Otto Octavius rechecked the readouts, fighting to think objectively past his ever-mounting frustration. How the hell had Sanzaki done it? Otto knew he was close to the answer - probably within days of it - but the data still refused to make any real sense.
	The computer model - which had taken him a day and a half to construct - still showed abnormal results no matter how he adjusted the variables. None of the theoretical subjects even came close to adopting animal characteristics in the desirable fashion. Was the model flawed? Otto decided to order a total tear-down and rebuild of the entire system just to make sure.
	He glared over at the recombinator. To think that such awesome power rested in that ungodly machine, yet its secrets were still beyond his grasp! There were times when the pursuit of science was enough to drive a man mad. Otto pulled out the tape recorder - like many great minds he liked to have his thoughts recorded in voice for ready reference rather than on paper - and clicked the button.
	"Test thirty-five," he began tiredly, "all computer models show failure. No matter how I tweak the model, the results are always the same. Whatever Sanzaki did, I am little closer to learning it than I was when I first devised my hypothesis of Spiderman." He took a sip of water from the sports bottle in his pocket before continuing.
	"I am close to exhausting all possibilities. I have tested many variations on subject physical condition, exposure length to the beam, and the rate of genetic re-engineering, but with each test the projected odds for survival are less than ten percent. Only two theoretical subjects have survived the model, and both showed severe mutations shortly before death.
	"Perhaps Sanzaki had just been supremely fortunate? I must admit that this is a possibility. Until I discover the exact combination of subject physiology and strength of the recombinator, I am wary of proceeding with human trials. I do not wish to waste resources when I do not have to."
	Otto clicked off the recorder and sat before one of the many terminals in the lab. The screen scrolled with lines of data far too quick for him to track. What was he missing? What was the key to the true power of recombinant genetics?
	Perhaps his hypothesis had been in error? Was it possible that Spiderman's powers could be the result of natural mutation?
	"Bah. Preposterous," he grumped. Such a drastic mutation taking place in a single generation? It was absurd! Such things only happened in comic books and bad movies. Science was at work here, and he would learn how.
	That didn't erase the question of whether this science had produced Spiderman by accident or by design. Had it even produced him at all? Was there another force behind it? There was a way to find out.
	"An idea has occurred to me," Otto said into the reactivated tape recorder. "Two, in fact. I am certain that recombinant genetics is the source of Spiderman's power, but I have nothing more than circumstantial evidence. A blood test on Spiderman would shed great light on the mystery, and I would be more than happy to bring him in myself." The sight of the wall-crawler on a dissection table was a seductive one. "However, I am not certain if Leung would go along with it. I despise the fact that I must dance to his tune, but defying him at this point would simply be too dangerous. My work *must* be completed. I must allow *nothing* to endanger it!"
	Otto stopped recording while be brought his anger back under control. He could ill afford to lose his temper right now.
	"I do not know why, but it seems that Leung is skittish of confronting Spiderman again. Does my benefactor fear him? Or perhaps he fears whoever pulls his strings and makes him dance? An interesting riddle, but an unimportant one for now.
	"A more ready solution would be to bring Sanzaki here. Yes, perhaps that would be for the best. While I would far prefer to have Spiderman beneath my instruments, the brain which created his powers would be the next best thing."
	Otto terminated the transcription again. He was not a man accustomed to settling for what he could get, but his working relationship with Leung was too profitable to end now.
	Soon, once he mastered this technology, he would have no more need for the Triads.


	The Next Day:

--------------------------------

	Kihara Masato knew that patience was a virtue one could ill afford not to have. Since he had been given the assignment, it was all that had sustained him. Masato would succeed. He would seize the holy grail of combat technology for Japan.
	He would take the Iron Man.
	"Gentlemen," he said to the other personnel under his supervision. The six men sat around the darkly stained wood table, the only decorative piece in the functional - some would go so far as to say Spartan - meeting room in the ministry headquarters. The wall behind him held a modest video screen, blank for the moment. "Thank you for meeting with me so late.
	"As you know," he began, pacing in front of the monitor, "in the four years since I took over this operation, we have had no success in penetrating Anthony Stark's corporate security. We have tried several methods, such as spies in his organization, yet each and every one has been detected. This failure, however, only gave an indicator of how vast and comprehensive his intelligence network is.
	"We even attempted to play on his tendencies as a ladies' man, yet that also bore no fruit." Of the women who had actually shared his bed, none of them had been able to find anything of value nor had more than one night with the gaijin industrialist. The only thing they had learned was Stark's sexual prowess, which was considerable and now an institutional joke among his staff.
	"Obviously, standard means will not do. Since Stark never marketed the Iron Man under the claim that the technology was too dangerous to mass produce, we have not been able to use international trade and patent laws to our advantage either. The time has come for drastic action." 
	"Drastic action?" One of the men - fairly new to MITI - asked.
	"Gentlemen, we are going to take the Iron Man by force." Kihara Masato waited as the stunned gasps and murmurs circulated around the room.
	"Masato-san," one of the men said nervously. "How would we do it? We're not a military..."
	"We will have what we require. Two JSDF Special Forces teams have been selected, and the plan is being formulated even as we speak."
	"Even so," another added, "they are human soldiers. However well trained they are, they will be facing the most powerful weapon ever devised and on top of Stark's own security assets no less."
	"That will be of no consequence," Kihara replied. "We have a trump card of our own to play."
	"Indeed?" the same man asked. "And what would that be?"
	"I cannot tell you just yet, but it is nearly complete. You will know everything before the operation commences, rest assured. Gentlemen," he went on, "Japan needs this weapon. We can no longer remain under America's thumb. Our economy has been raped by them." Kihara began to pace about the room, letting his voice grow steadily to a crescendo. "They invite us to buy into their businesses, and bellyache when we do. They devalue their own dollar against the yen, causing us losses in the millions! I ask you, how much longer we will be their whipping boys?!"
	"That does not change the quality of the goods manufactured here," a fifth man piped up.
	"Let me ask you something, Takizawa," Kihara snarled, "how much does the quality of the Japanese craftsman mean if America cuts off our supply of raw materials?" Takizawa merely cringed. "We need to hurt them, my friends. We can screw them over with Mexico all we want, but they still hold all the cards. How much farther will it go? How long before America can reduce us to a third-world nation? We are already little more than a puppet state to them! On our tiny islands, there are no resources. Living space is already at a premium, and our population is still expanding! We need room to grow, land that is fertile and the resources that the rest of the world dangles over our heads. But to get that, we must first get the Iron Man." Kihara noted with satisfaction as heads began to nod and mumbles of agreement grew. This was the same speech he and the Minister of Defense had used to bring others in the government and military into the fold, a few even old enough to recall Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
      Takizawa was even acting as if he agreed, which surprised him. He had expected the newest member of this MITI team to be opposed to the plan, but now he accepted it. 
      Perhaps, Kihara thought, my estimation of him was in error.

	Genki Takizawa left the meeting, and knew that Kihara Masato was out of his mind. America reducing Japan to a third-world nation? What the hell was that about? Okay, so the USA screwed Japan, and Japan screwed the USA but what Kihara was suggesting was madness!
	How in the hell could he pull this off without America knowing that Japan was intimately involved? JSDF special forces...
	That's how he'll do it, Takizawa thought suddenly. Claim that they were mercenaries or terrorists. Would it work?
	No. Even with the screwed up nature of global politics, America would not tolerate such an audacious attack on one of its most prominent citizens. And if the Iron Man that so many wanted was at the center of it all...
	"God," he gasped. "This could destroy us all."

--------------------------------------

	Pao Leung sipped at the hot tea, his frustration growing. Doctor Octopus was still no closer to a solution, and time was rapidly running out. How long before the Council of Twelve finally removed him? Their claim that doing so would set back their timetable was pure bullshit. All they were waiting for was to find a suitable - mindlessly loyal - replacement for him. With all the up-and-comers in the Triad, that wouldn't take too long at all. The situation was becoming more and more desperate by the moment.
	"I'm losing my position. Raizo Yamata will likely strike at me soon. I have to move now."
	With that, Pao Leung picked up the phone. The operation wouldn't take long to set up and execute.

--------------------------------------------

	"Still nothing," Raizo Yamata muttered to the air as he reclined in his office chair. Was there no one who knew where Leung had Doctor Octopus holed up? Apparently not, since his own intelligence network had come up with squat. How hard was it to find an illegal laboratory, anyway?!
	The one thing he did know was that Stark Enterprises had already begun to move into the properties they had purchased. The whole thing would be up and running by the New Year. Stark was, if nothing else, far from lazy.
	That fanatical worm Masato had to have told his cronies in MITI about the plan by now. At least the prototype battle suit was almost done. One more cycle of testing would prove that all was in readiness.
	Yamata's investors had no idea just what that suit and the capture of the Iron Man would mean to Japan, and likely never would. Their capital had been what allowed Shocker to be born, and the halting of Anthony Stark was only the tip of the iceberg.
	"All these years to set up, and the day of destiny is but a few months away," he said out loud. Everything depended on that one window of opportunity and the speed of the Japanese weapons engineers. The Iron Man had to be duplicated before the CIA found out what was going on and the American military came in to stop them. Given that they had a base in Osaka, that wouldn't take long at all. His own battlesuit design wouldn't be able to hold off America's military might for long.
	It would indeed be a day of destiny for Japan, but not the way Masato and his cronies in the defense and industry ministries envisioned.

-----------------------------------

	"So, what's new with the Ishikawa case?" William Pate asked. In the weeks since the battle outside of the Silver Fox nightclub finding out just who Ishikawa had sold some of his girls to had become something of an obsession for him and his partner.
	"It's strange," Keiko replied. "I went down to the evidence locker to retrieve one of the hard drives, and it was gone." She flopped down into her own chair, her face puzzled.
	"Gone? Maybe some more tech weenies are going over it?"
	"I asked the new data technician there. He told me those drives had been authorized for destruction just this morning."
	"What the hell? The case is still open!"
	"Not anymore," Keiko said as she handed over a small file folder with "CASE CLOSED" stamped in red.
	"What's Chief Toju thinking? Those hard drives had evidence we needed!"
	"I've already asked him," Keiko said. "He told me that all the usable evidence had been extracted and the hard drives and floppies were just taking up valuable space. Same with all the hard copy."
	"Bullshit. No cop would destroy evidence on an open case." At least not an honest one...
	One glance at Keiko's porcelain face told him that she was thinking the same thing.
	"Who's jerking his chain?"
	"William," Keiko said in a low voice, "what are you doing after work?"
	"Huh?"
	"We're both on the same train of thought," she explained, "but the rules are a little different here than in America. Anything involving the Koban requires treading on eggshells."
	"I hear you. My place at nine?"
	"I'll be there."
	"I guess it's a date, then."
	"Too bad all our dates involve work," Keiko said with a wink before rising to leave. William stared at the door after she closed it behind her, wishing for the millionth time that he could read women's minds.

---------------------------------------

	Hikaru Gosunkugi tried to ignore what he was feeling as he walked out of another day of hell in Furinkan. Before, his definition of hell in that place meant having to bask in Akane's presence from afar while Ranma treated her like crap. Now, it took on a whole new meaning.
	He had seen Miku talking to two other girls he knew, namely Sayuri and Yuka. That meant that she would eventually become friends with Akane, and she would forever be out of his reach...
	Oh, will you just get the hell over it?! his brain screamed as his feet went on auto pilot. Think of the good things for once!
	How long would he let his guilt over stalking Akane weigh him down? He couldn't take that weight forever. Maybe he could become friends with her? If she realized that he no longer obsessed over her, she would talk to him?
	No, that wasn't all of it. It wasn't even near the heart of the matter. Just the sight of Miku had brought up new kinds of guilt. He really had a chance with her once, and had to throw it away for her safety. At least, that's how he liked to think of it.
	Spiderman was at fault as much as Hikaru was. Spiderman had given him his shot at having a nice girlfriend, and had then taken it away. But did it have to be that way? If he could tell his mother about his alter ego then why not Miku?
	Hikaru allowed himself the fantasy for a moment. Miku might understand, might even want to be with him on knowing the truth. Maybe he could finally have a confidant that wouldn't try to make him give up his life as a super hero.
	And maybe pigs could fly. On the other hand, maybe she would use it to cash in on twenty million yen, or be so repulsed by his abilities that she would never speak to him and still reveal his powers...
	Man, he thought, when am I gonna learn to trust someone?
	He would never know until he tried.
	A strange thought occurred to him as he made the turn to his apartment. A wrong turn, but he hardly noticed.
	I want Miku, he thought. She actually made me feel good about myself, now that I think about it. Besides, how long can I stay alone?
	The thought surprised him. He actually needed someone. Not like he thought he had needed Akane Tendo, but in a very real and personal sense. But could he put Miku in that kind of danger?
	Let's be honest, he told himself, can I really be comfortable giving her my secret?
	The question haunted him until his spider sense warned of danger. Hikaru looked around, finding a plume of black smoke in the distance. The wail of sirens reached his ears from even farther away.
	Someone's place is on fire? Why is that setting me off?
	Who cares? This is a chance to get my mind off this crazy stuff for a while.

-------------------------------

	Mei watched in horror as the flames reached from the window of her fourth floor apartment, scoring the concrete as black as the smoke which spewed into the air.
	"My babies!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "My babies are in there!"
	"I called the emergency..."
	"MY CHILDREN!" Mei charged toward the main door of her apartment building, only to feel strong arms grab her body tight. "LET ME GO! BASTARD, LET ME GO!"
	"The fire department's coming," a man's voice shouted into her ear. "They..."
	"Look up there!" another shouted.

	Hikaru saw the fire burning like a furnace in the apartment complex. The spider sense was screaming now, and he knew. Someone was still in there, and had almost no chance!
	The fire engines are too far away, he thought. No way will they get here in time. Looks like it's Spiderman's turn! Hikaru leapt as hard as his legs could propel him, firing a web at building to his right. The silken thread altered his angle just as he predicted. 
	Here I am running into a damn inferno, he thought to himself, and afraid of telling a girl about whom I am. Life really sucks that way.
	"Look up there!" he heard someone shout.
	Hikaru barely noticed the group of bystanders as he swung into the window. The heat slammed into him immediately, hotter than anything he had ever faced before while the smoke seared his lungs.
	The scene was surreal. Thick smoke covered everything, muting the light of the raging fire. The flames baked his skin beneath the costume, the smoke and heat stealing his breath. Hikaru trusted his spider sense, commanding his feet to carry him to the child crouched low on the floor.
	"Come on!" he bellowed. "I'll get you out!" The spider sense still screamed, pointing him...
	"My sister!" the boy said before erupting into a coughing fit.
	Sister? There! The spider sense locked onto a door, barely visible in the smoke.
	"Playing..." The words were lost in more hacks as the kid's lungs fought the noxious smoke. Hikaru groaned as flames began to lick at the thin door and faint screams from inside reached his ears. "Can't... move..."
	Hikaru fired his webs at the fire as it ate at the door, as thick as he could manage. He had to smother the flames before they killed that poor girl in the closet! The gobs of silk slapped down on the floor and walls, instantly killing the fires around the door before beginning to smoke.
	"I'll save her! Stay low!" Gosunkugi charged to the door and let loose the hardest punch he could manage. The pasteboard door crumbled on impact to reveal a girl curled into a ball on the floor.
	Lousy time for hide-and-seek, he thought. The girl's eyes widened at the sight of him, begging for help and filled with terror.
	"You'll be okay!" he hollered as he lifted her in his arms. His chest began to hurt as he breathed in more smoke, adding to the growing lack of oxygen.
	Can't say in here much longer! Gosunkugi thought as he carried her over to her brother.

	Mei couldn't stop staring at her burning apartment window. The fear coated her like ice as the fire engines screamed closer. Where was Spiderman? Where were her children?
	"GET AWAY!" shouted a male voice as a Koban officer ran up beside her. "Get out of the way!"
	"My children are in there!" Mei hollered back.
	"Spiderman went in there!" someone exclaimed.
	"What's taking him so long?"
	Mei fought against the strong hands of the police officer on her arms as he tried to drag her away, screaming all the while for her children. She had to go in, didn't they see that?
	"Ma'am, please! The firefighters are almost here!"
	Just then, she saw a dark blur shoot out of the burning window above...

	I certainly have a whole new respect for firefighters now, Hikaru thought as he reveled in the sensation of clean air filling his lungs and rushing past his skin. They're bigger heroes than I am, that's for sure!
	The pavement rushed up to meet him, and Gosukugi relaxed his legs to better absorb the impact. With the added weight of two kids, it was going to be a hard landing.
	"THERE HE IS!" he heard one of the crowd yell. There were cops among them now, at least four cars worth. Hikaru didn't have time to notice when he finally landed.
	"Spiderman," said one cop. His eyes were wide, hand twitching next to the holstered sidearm at his hip. "Put the..."
	"Miki! Kensuke!"
	Hikaru turned as a harried-looking woman charged toward him, tears streaming from her eyes and arms wide open.
	"They're safe, Ma'am," Hikaru said as he handed the two crying kids to their mother, who embraced them both fiercely. 
	"Thank you, Spiderman," she sobbed as she rocked her children back and forth. "Thank you..."
	"He saved them!"
	"Wow..."
	"I guess he's not a bad guy..."
	The murmurs grew until the wail of the fire engines drowned them out and the crowd dispersed to give the crews room. Hikaru watched as the massive trucks came to a halt, men in thick firefighter gear leaping off before the wheels even stopped turning to unload spooled flat hoses and begin to shout orders to one another.
	No more spider sense, he thought. No need for me to be here, then.
	"Spiderman!"
	Hikaru turned to see two cops glaring at him.
	"Sorry, guys, I don't have time right now..."
	"Thanks," the one on the left said.
	"Don't mention it."

	The younger officer gaped as Spiderman leapt clear of the crowds and swung away on a web.
	"What are you doing?" he shouted to his partner as Spiderman vanished from sight. "He's wanted, you know!"
	"Maybe," the older officer said, "but I'd sooner turn in my badge than bust him after what he just did."
	"But..."
	"Besides, we couldn't have stopped him from leaving anyway."

-------------------------------------

	"And in tonight's news," the smiling man on television said, "a fire gutted an apartment in the eastern end of Nerima Ward this evening." The image shifted to a charred window on the fourth floor of an apartment complex, smoke still pouring from the opening. "The fire was contained with no loss of life, thanks to our brave firefighters and the enigmatic Spiderman."
	Ranma looked up at the set in the corner of the room as clips from interviews of people on the street played.
	"He just swung in there like it was nothing!" a young, unshaven man said. "He saved those kids!"
	"I don't see why people say Spiderman is bad," a teenage girl in a school uniform said. "He saved those kids, right? He's a hero!"
	"The two children," the newsanchor's voice said as the image went back to the burned out apartment, "were unharmed, save for minor smoke inhalation."
	Ranma grinned slightly as he polished off his meal.

----------------------------------------

	"Ugh," Hikaru grunted as he held up the costume. "That smoke smell is gonna be hell to get out." Even so, he had felt supremely good all the way back to his apartment. Saving those two kids from certain death was a heady feeling indeed, and the pure relief and gratitude of their mother had warmed his heart.
	Being a super hero had some great perks.
	But he knew he wasn't the only hero there that day. Those guys on the fire trucks faced infernos like that, and even worse, every day. Being a hero didn't require extreme martial arts skill or super powers.
	Those guys deserve a lot more respect than they get most of the time, he thought as he hunted for the bottle of Woolite.

------------------------------------------

	Doctor Ryo Sanzaki, PhD, arrived in his apartment in as foul a mood as ever, already yearning for that shot of whiskey before grading papers. He knew he was becoming an alcoholic at a fast clip. Perhaps he should stop? It was definitely killing his liver and the hangovers were making his relations with the students in his classes rather strained...
	Those thoughts vanished rather quickly once the first two shots began to work their magic. He hadn't even remembered downing them.
	"Gotta stop this shit," he grumbled as he set his briefcase down on the small kitchenette table. Booze was no real escape, even from having his second shot at recombinant genetics research snatched away from him...
	*THUD*
	*THUD*
	*THUD*
	"Huh?" Who was knocking at his door at this hour? Ryo padded toward the front door, deciding against a third shot, and peered through the peephole. The distorted image of two men greeted him; both dressed in identical grey suits.
	"Who are you?" he asked as he opened the door to the limit of the thin chain on his side.
	"Doctor Ryo Sanzaki?"
	"That's me... HEY!" The force of the blow sent him sprawling backward as the door was kicked in. Ryo tried to rise, but was stopped when a large cylinder appeared in his vision, attached to the end of a pistol.
	"Get up," the harsh voice commanded. "Don't make any noise."
	"Who are you?" he whispered as he rose, his blood cold.
	"Just come with us," the other man said softly. "Act normally and nothing will happen to you or your niece."
	"My niece?" Who... Oh, no...
	"If you hurt her..."
	"We won't, if you cooperate."
	And so Ryo rose to his feet and joined the two men, his liquor buzz already gone.
	Why her? Ryo thought as the two men guided him to the stairs. Why would they take Miku?


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