“Master Parker, I’m intercepting police radio broadcasts talking about a fire down at the Battery City waterfront” Cassie said to Spider-Man.  “They’re claiming there’s a metahuman there and that they need backup,”

He sat up from the flagpole he’d been resting on, looking around the streets to try and mentally plan out a route to the waterfront. Cassie, quick on the draw as always, interrupted him with an onscreen map to the site of the warehouse.

“I knew where it was,” the hero responded, crossing his arms in protest.

“But?” Cassie teased.

“... Thank you,” he sighed, throwing himself off the flagpole and firing a web-line, angling his body through the air to take tight corners and make higher leaps.

“You know something?” he asked Cassie.

“I know several things, but I get the feeling you’re going to tell me something new,” she answered with a chuckle.

“Yes, smartass, I am,” Spider-Man grunted. “Jesus, I don’t think I’ve met anybody as annoying as you before in my life.”

“Looked in a mirror recently, big guy?” Cassie asked, a playful tone in her voice as Spider-Man vaulted over a rooftop, spinning in the air before landing on his feet, rounding off the roof and firing another web to his right, swinging hard around the corner “Very nice.”

“Thank you… and I’m not that annoying, am I?” he asked in a nervous tone.

“Goodness no,” Cassie answered.

“Well, that’s good to-”

“You’re about four times worse,” she finished.

“God… I now feel remorse for every villain I’ve ever taunted before in my life,” Spider-Man whimpered. “Should I just let them off me next time, do the world a favour?”

“No, Master Parker, you’re not that bad,” Cassie chuckled. “Now I’d suggest hurrying up a little bit. things burn very fast, especially drugs.”

“Whoa, whoa, drugs?” Spider-Man asked, landing in between two large SUVs, using one foot on one car to stick between.

“Yeah, this place has been owned by the Estacados for the past fifteen years. They’ve done deals with the Vercettis, the Scalettas and, most recently, the Big Man in that place,” Cassie explained. “I’m guessing that somebody’s either making a play or it’s an outside agent trying to incite a gang war.”

“Do the cops know that? That it’s a drug warehouse?” Spider-Man asked, giving a wave to the young children in the back seat of the SUV he was facing before leaping into the air, grabbing hold of a streetlight and flipping himself up onto the top of it, holding himself in the air while he looked at the map displayed on screen.

“Next right, keep straight for three hundred metres and take the hard left,” Cassie said before continuing their conversation. “And yes, they’ve known for a while now.”

“Thank you,” Spider-Man nodded, pushing into the air and firing another web-line. “And the reason the cops haven’t intervened is? I mean, besides being busy getting funky with dancers at festivals and shooting, choking, beating maiming, etc. unarmed black men, I know that last one’s about eighty-five percent of the NYPD’s work day, but they’ve still gotta actually do some protecting and serving right?”

“Topical joke, that’ll go over well with the white folk,” Cassie said, giving a virtual thumbs up on the HUD in Spider-Man’s helmet. “But no, the reason they haven’t intervened in the drug trade in this city between beating on minorities is because most officers on duty are taking a cut from the Big Man.”

“Great,” Spider-man growled, landing on the top of a roof that overlooked the waterfront, seeing the blazing warehouse and what did look like a metahuman raising cain down on the street level “As if dealing with super-villains and flirting with cat-ladies in suits tighter enough to see what they had for lunch wasn’t enough, I’m going to have to do actual crime-fighting as well.”

“We all got problems,” Cassie answered nonchalantly.

“Yeah, I just didn’t think I’d be doing the Batman form of superhero stuff for a while,” Spider-Man sighed, leaping down onto the concrete dock and sprinting towards the burning warehouse.

His first reaction was to marvel at the corpses, the bodies either badly burned or torn to pieces, their weapons laying beside them, often melted onto their hands, shell casings and spent magazines decorating the blood, acting as morbid sprinkles on the blood caking the ground.

His Spider-Sense blared suddenly, giving him a direction of ‘Up’. Following his instincts, he leapt to the side, landing on a hand and flipping himself back up onto his feet, skidding to a stop.

“Damn,” his assailant growled angrily. “I was kinda hoping I could end this quick.”

“Yeah, sorry honey, quick and easy isn’t my style,” Spider-Man shrugged, standing straight and readying himself.

“Fair enough,” the Scorpion chuckled. “I like it hard.”

“Ooh,” Spider-Man said. “Schmexy.”

The Scorpion launched at him, digging her feet into the ground when she was several feet away, leaping into the air and using her momentum to lash her tail around at him.

Spider-Man caught the mechanical tail and prepared to throw it, only to have the mechanism cause it to bend, allowing the Scorpion to veer around and slam her foot into his helmet, the glass clanging loudly as he was sent rocketing to the floor.

The Scorpion flipped over backwards in the air, landing light on the floor before going on the offensive yet again, forcing Spider-man to lose more and more ground as brutal punches and kicks assaulted the gauntlets and plates of his stomach, the newer armour taking the brunt of the beating but leaving him no time to counter due to the green clad villain’s extreme speed.

“Cassie!?” Spider-man demanded. “Any ideas!?”

“Hang on, I’m scanning her suit. I’ll try and find a weakness, just hold her off for a little longer!” Cassie answered, going silent swiftly after.

“Right, how did I know my life would end up being nothing more than fending off ravenous women?” Spider-Man asked, dropping onto his back and booting the Scorpion in the stomach. The armoured enemy was sent flying back, however her tail stabbed into the ground and steadied her, allowing her to drop onto all fours and glare furiously at Spider-Man.

“That was a dirty trick,” she growled. “I don’t appreciate it.”

“Yes, because when we’re throwing punches in the blood pools of those you brutally murdered we have to stick to the playground rules, right?” Spider-Man asked. “I’m sorry if I offended you? Can we kiss and make up now?”

“I think I’d like that,” she chuckled, standing up straight and crossing her arms. “Now why don’t you take that helmet off and lay one on me big boy?”

“Sorry, there’s a rebreather in it I need to prevent myself from endangering humanity,” Spider-Man shrugged. “I can’t.”

“And what foul disease do you have that would harm us so?” she asked.

“Stupidity is highly contagious,” Spider-Man shrugged. “I don’t want to give it to you.”

“And that’s where we’re on opposites ends,” she chuckled. “I’d love for you to give it to me.”

“And as much as I hate to let a lady down, I’m gonna have to keep the helmet on,” Spider-Man answered.

“Oh, what a shame,” she sighed, squaring her feet and preparing for more combat. “You’ve left me riled up and unsatisfied… just like the others. I thought you were different?”

“Master Parker, I’ve found a weakness in her suit’s mechanics, the sides of the suit are made of a much thinner material than that of the rest of it,” Cassie cut in, Spider-Man having to dodge out of the way of an oncoming attack before having the tail wrap around his ankle.

“And that means I just have to hit it, right?” he asked the A.I as he was launched through the wall of the burning warehouse and into a blazing pile of what appeared to be marijuana.

“Ow…” he said, leaping off the pile and wiping off the remnants of the burning plant from his armour as he heard a sharp hissing noise in the back of his ear. “What was that?”

“I’ve activated your armour’s rebreather so you don’t inhale the smoke,” Cassie answered. “We don’t need you getting high on the job.”

“Fair play, now to get back out there and find out Scorpion,” Spider-Man nodded, leaping out of the burning building and checking the HUD for any sign of the Scorpion.

“Eyes right!” Cassie barked. “She’s heading off the dock!”

“Why the hell’s she running?” Spider-Man asked, launching himself forward with a web-line, seeing the Scorpion jump from building to building at great speed. “She practically had me on the ropes.”

“Don’t encourage her,” Cassie said, a crosshair locking onto the moving form of the Scorpion before she appeared on the map in the HUD. “Right, that’s her marked, you should be able to track her movements wherever she goes now.”

“Did you just do the Splinter Cell marking system?” Spider-Man asked, sliding under a vent before webbing around the corner of a building. “I always wondered how that works.”

“The suit’s able to do it through two different methods, the first is using the armour’s own bio-electric scanner to get a reading on certain individuals by detecting their own bio-electric current before beaming the information up to the S.H.I.E.L.D controlled satellites before it detects the field itself and places them on the map or, in the helmet’s case, allows you to track them through walls.”  she explained.

“And what’s the second method?” Spider-Man asked, gaining more and more ground on the Scorpion as she made her way towards an unknown location, her finger pressed to the side of her helmet.

“The second method is pheromones, each person has their own specific scent, whether it be through cologne or just their natural body odor. The armour’s then able to take a sample of the molecular structure of that specific compound and track it through the air using its particle sensor, it can work on practically anything, living or not.” Cassie continued.

“Wow… this thing’s awesome,” Spider-man grinned. “I might keep this and not use the old suit any more.”

Spider-man moved down quickly, webbing Scorpion’s foot and forcing her to a stop. He dropped down and slammed his fist into the back of her head, this tearing her foot free while at the same time sending her down to the floor at a faster pace then she would’ve liked.

As if by some enhanced muscle memory, the tail wrapped around Spider-Man’s body, constricting and tightening to a dangerous level.

The Scorpion pushed herself back up to her feet with a grunt, rubbing the back of her armoured head.

“Ah… so you’re a fan of the donkey punch, I see?” she asked, using the tail to lay him down on the floor before she stepped over him, lowering her body onto his and placing a finger under his chin “I don’t think I know you well enough to be getting into the abusive sex… just yet, that is.”

With Spider-Man struggling to pull himself free and Cassie blaring warnings in his ear about the armour reaching its breaking point, she decided she could take a few minutes to gloat on her victory over him before making her decision.

“You know something Spidey… when we first met, I wasn’t too keen on you,” she admitted, flicking her green hair off her shoulder and behind her, the mouthguard retracting and exposing her full, green lips slanted in a smirk. “But I must admit, you’ve grown on me. Despite your great incompetence and complete ineptitude as a ‘superhero’, I think I like you… so I’m going to make you an offer, one that I hope you’ll like as much as I do.”

Spider-Man didn’t respond, his eyes flicking through different displays on the inside of his helmet before noticing something on a newer screen.

“Cassie?” he whispered. “Switch to the thermal display.”

“On it,” Cassie responded, the screen display switching to a multitude of colours, mostly greens and blues with an orange and red form of the Scorpion before him and a bright, orange object just behind them, appearing to be giving a thumbs up sign.

“So… Scorpion, can I ask you a question?” Spider-Man requested.

“Of course, my love, if it’s about my cup size then I’ll be happy to tell you,” she said, raising her arms above her head and smirking “Or show you, if you’re gonna be a good boy.”

“Alright then, what size bra do you wear?” he asked, biting the bait.

“34 G, they’re quite impressive aren’t they?” she giggled.

“Very,” Spider-Man nodded. “Is your bra comfortable?”

“Quite,” Scorpion nodded.

“And another question,” he said, grinning widely under the helmet. “Is it fireproof?”

“An odd question,” the Scorpion said, tapping her chin with her nailed fingers “Why do you ask?”

“Ask Johnny,” Spider-Man shrugged, nodding over her shoulder.

Puzzled, the Scorpion turned around, just in time to have an enormous fireball slam right into the centre of her chest and blast her off him, Spider-Man grabbing hold of the base of the extended tail, planting his feet down before he was dragged up and wrenching the mechanical device off the armour, the joints going slack on his body and falling off as the Scorpion recovered before being blasted off the roof.

She got to her feet and snarled furiously at the Human Torch, her mouthguard clamping into place to offer protection from her newer adversary.

“Any weak points I need to be aware of bud?” Johnny asked Spider-Man.

“Yeah, try to weaken the sides of the armour and I’ll give her the old one-two punch,” Spider-Man answered.

“Right,” Johnny nodded. “Ready?”

“Ready,”

“Break!”

The two of them dashed into action, Johnny firing two fireballs into the Scorpion’s direction, the woman able to swat them away only to have a brutal kick from Spider-man knock her sidewards, opening her up for a flaming rebound for Johnny, placing his boiling hand against the stomach and turning up the heat, a pained grunt coming from the Scorpion before she had her legs swept out from underneath her.

Johnny shoved her downwards, the weakened armour plate now being an even bigger weakness, slamming her hard into the floor and allowing Spider-Man to flip over and slam the heel of his boot into her face, shattering the visor loudly and revealing her green, enraged eyes.

Before moving away, Spider-Man pushed up on his hands, standing up straight with one foot on the Scorpion’s face, pivoting on his heel, and stepping down onto her chest before activating his adhesive powers to catch the weakened chest plate. He flipped over forwards, tearing the chest plate away and exposing the under armour the Scorpion wore, the brief amount of resistance from the armour pulling her onto the haunches before Johnny leapt forward and booted her square in the jaw, her head slamming down into the floor once again.

Spider-Man, not missing a beat, chipped the chest plate up to his hands before bending it over his knee, throwing it down over the Scorpion’s arm and webbing it into place.Johnny pressed his foot to the thick gauntlet and melted the gauntlet down onto the rooftop, gesturing for Spider-Man to use his webbing. the web-head granted the request and, after firing enough web-fluid onto the molten liquid the heat from the bottom layers, caused the web-fluid to solidify into a rock-like hardness.

And to finish the job off, Spider-Man webbed the ruined tail from its discarded area and used it to tie up her feet before crouching down next to her head, Johnny doing the same on the other side.

“So, what d’you think we should do with this one?” Johnny asked.

“I got the phone if you’ve got the pwn?” Spider-Man offered, tapping the side of his head before pointing at the Scorpion’s head.

“Fair enough,” Johnny nodded, cocking back his fist and slamming it into Scorpion’s head, the woman letting out a loud groan of pain before Johnny punched her again, knocking her clean out.

“Ow,” Johnny hissed, wringing out his hand. “Felt like punching a fucking truck.”

“You’ve done that before?” Spider-Man asked.

“All day, erryday boi,” Johnny nodded with a smirk.

“Right,” Spider-Man chuckled. “Leaving an anonymous tip for the police to come pick her up, and we are gone… I just wish the others went down this easy.”

“Too true buddy, too true,”

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