Spider-Man held his hands up in front of him as the SWAT members moved slowly closer to him, the green laser sights aimed perfectly at his chest and ready to fire at a moment's notice. One of the SWAT members finally reached Spider-Man and attempted to grab hold of his hands when a deep voice called out to him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" the voice said. The SWAT officers whirled around to see Nick Fury walking towards them.

"Who are you?" one of the officers demanded. Fury ignored the question and continued speaking as he moved closer towards them.

"He's got a rare condition mixed with unstable genetic manipulation, it makes him extremely contagious to normal humans" Fury explained.

"What... what are you talking about?" another officer asked in a nervous tone.

"I'm saying that the mask he wears isn't just for a disguise, its got a special layer in it that filters out the toxic spores his lungs release due to his illness, they're extremely deadly to normal humans if released and if you take his mask off now, there's no telling what damage they could do to us and the rest of the city" Fury said, stopping in front of the officer pointing a rifle at him.

"What do you mean the rest of the city?" he asked.

"The spores are extremely contagious and can infect other people's lungs, poisoning their oxygen supply while at the same time rapidly infecting the host's lungs and causing each release of breath to spread more and more spores, airborne and almost impossible to stop" Fury went on "Your police department, even your containment cells and isolation, can't stop the spores from spreading"

"So you're saying he's a bio-hazard?" a third officer asked.

"Exactly, now my co-workers and I are able to contain him and keep us all safe but only if you hand him over and let us do our job" Fury said "Are you going to make the right choice?"

"I... I don't know sir, I'm going to have to see some kind of ID" the officer in front of Fury said "And I'm going to have to radio my superior, you know, standard protocol"

"I understand perfectly young man" Fury nodded with a kind smile, looking over at Cadance suddenly "Your Majesty, would you be able to get your Aunt on the phone and explain to them the situation?" Cadance looked at Shining and then back at Spider-Man before nodding slowly.

"Just gimme a sec" Cadance sighed, taking out her phone and calling Celestia.

"So the Princess should be able to convince you and if you can get on the radio to your superior then we can get this done quickly" Fury said "Protocol's a bitch isn't it?"

"You're dead right sir" the man said, grabbing hold of his radio and explaining the story to his CO. There was the sound of metal tearing and they all looked over to see Black Widow standing with two halves of a trash can in her gloved hands, her green eyes examining the trash can with scrutiny.

"What... what's she doing?" one of the other officers asked.

"She does this sometimes" Fury said "Just don't say anything"

"Sir... I'm not sure she's allowed to be here" another officer said slowly.

"What are you crazy?" a fifth officer scoffed "That's the Black Widow, she's a member of the Avengers, the guys that saved our asses two years back from the alien invasion"

"Really?" the second officer asked "I seem to remember the Hulk and Iron Man doing most of the work" At this comment Black Widow's eyes shot up and she glared furiously at the SWAT officers, a strand of her thick blood red hair falling over her face. The officers all fell silent as she cast the trash can's halves aside and stormed over to them, her boots clicking on the floor as she walked.

"Come on Widow, don't beat them up" Spider-Man said "They don't know what they're talking about"

"Hey! Keep quiet you, we don't want you spreading your spores everywhere!" an officer yelled, aiming his gun at Spider-Man.

"Let him talk, tell me Spider-Man, what exactly happened here?" Widow asked.#

"Well to start off I heard gunshots at a store, saw a dead guy, saw Black Cat shoot a guy in the face, fought her for a while, beat her and then some chick in a ninja suit named Elektra jumped in and she-" Spider-Man explained.

"Wait" Widow said, holding up her hand "Did you just say Elektra?"

"Yeah... why? Is she bad news?" Spider-Man asked, looking back and forth between Fury and Widow.

"She was bad news until Daredevil managed to take her down... or so we thought" Fury said, crossing his arms and sighing "The last we heard of her was when Daredevil threw her off a cliff in a scuffle after he'd taken down Silvermane a few years back, it was Elektra, Silver Sable and the Black Cat working together for Silvermane back when he was the leading crime boss in Manhattan, we worked together with Daredevil and the Fantastic Four to bring him down and end his partnership with Doctor Doom-"

"Hold up... Doctor Doom?" Spider-Man asked "Who the hell is that?"

"His real name is Victor Von Doom, he's the monarch of a little country out in the sticks named Latveria" Fury explained.

"He's still the monarch? You guys didn't dethrone him or anything?" Spider-Man asked.

"He was outside of our jurisdiction, we couldn't arrest him because we haven't got any authority outside America and the Latverians wouldn't turn in their king" Fury sighed.

"And? We're the United States of America remember? We couldn't just slap together some half-assed excuse about looking for weapons of mass destruction and invade them in the name of freedom? I mean for fuck's sake that's like the biggest thing America's known for besides being overweight, being arrogant and sitting out of wars until the last few yards and taking all the credit for winning them!" Spider-Man snapped

"Do you hate this country or something?" one of the police officers asked.

"No, I understand it" Spider-Man said "And that makes it much worse"

"Anyway, back on topic, Elektra was presumed to be dead as she was knocked off a cliff and into a Latverian river where her body was never recovered" Fury explained "If she's back now that's gonna mean a lot more trouble for us... and for you Widow" Black Widow moved the strand of hair from her face and crossed her arms, looking down at the ground with a thoughtful expression.

"Why for her?" Spider-Man asked.

"Because Elektra is a very proud assassin with only two defeats to her name, the second from Daredevil and the first being from our lovely Black Widow" Fury said "And she's always wanted to settle the score with Widow after she beat her and left her for dead in Hong Kong"

"What were you doing in Hong Kong?" Spider-Man asked.

"I was ordered to track down Johnny Blaze to try and get him to enlist with S.H.I.E.L.D but he refused to" Black Widow said "But we found out that Elektra was there as well and she'd been hired to try and kill Johnny"

"Ah, I see... who's Johnny Blaze again?" Spider-Man asked in a puzzled tone.

"Ghost Rider" Fury answered quickly.

"Oh, that guy is really cool" Spider-Man nodded.

"She's not answering her phone" Cadance announced "Do you want me to try calling Luna instead?"

"Well, to keep this short I'm sure you can give your approval Cadance, being a princess and all, and the word from Shining, as the police captain, should be more than enough to keep this legal and peaceful" Fury said, looking at the married couple with a smile "So, what are your answers?"

"I say you can take him" Cadance said quickly. Shining considered the motion, looking at Spider-Man, the Black Widow and back to Fury again before nodding slowly.

"You've got a green light" he answered.

"Good, now come on kid, we've gotta get you back to the Triskellion for your medical exam" Fury said. Spider-Man nodded and walked away from the SWAT team, coughing quietly as he did so and causing the SWAT team to quickly move away from him. As Fury put an arm around Peter's shoulder he leaned close to him and spoke.

"You better have a damn good reason why you let Elektra and the Black Cat get away" Fury growled.

"They're better than I am?" Spider-Man offered.

"I can see that now" Fury sighed "We'll try to make sure that next time you're better equipped to deal with them"

"If you're going to stand a chance against Elektra then you're going to need to understand how she fights" Black Widow said, circling Peter in the boxing ring as she wore a supported training shirt and a pair of training pants, the tight fitting clothing showing off her slender-yet-strong figure to an almost distracting degree.

"Like myself, Elektra has been trained in several different styles of martial arts, ranging from Tai Chi to Jeet Kune Do with a wider variety of Thai and Japanese martial arts adapted to her own signature style, she's prefers to use pressure point combat to subdue her enemies and then finish them off with her sai but she can, and will, resort to simply but powerful strikes if she needs to" Black Widow explained "Remember that she often uses her arms in combat and while she can use her legs to fight, she isn't as skilled with those as she wants to be, if you can find a way to stop her from using her hands then I'd recommend doing so"

"So you're telling me that she's pretty much one of the most gifted fighters in existence?" Peter asked, a worried tone in his voice.

"Gifted isn't the right word, she's one of the best through a matter of skill, and she's far too skilled for you to even attempt fighting" Black Widow continued.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Peter asked slowly.

"I'm going to train you to be able to stand a chance against her" Black Widow answered "Or at least survive long enough to run away and find someone who can handle themselves in a fight"

"That sounds like a... wait, what d'you mean some who can handle themselves?" Peter asked "Are you saying I can't fight?"

"To put it bluntly Parker I can believe that Jaden Smith could win the tournament in the remake of the Karate Kid than I can believe you being able to handle Elektra, or Black Cat for that matter" Widow said. Peter glared angrily at Widow for a long moment before she cocked an eyebrow and smiled arrogantly.

"If you think you can prove me wrong then go ahead and try" she said, cracking her knuckles loudly and settling into a fighting stance. Peter squared his stance and rushed forward, throwing a punch for Widow's face only to have he use the side of her forearm to brush the attack aside and with a confident step forward she slammed her elbow into his throat, hooked a foot around his ankle and pulling it towards to upset his balance and slam her palm into his chest, knocking him flat onto his backside.

"Just like I thought" she sighed disappointedly "You're completely hopeless"

"No I'm not" Peter growled, kicking back up to his feet and squaring his stance again "Let me try again"

"We can try all you want Parker, I don't think we're going to get anywhere any time soon" Widow nodded, spreading her feet apart and holding up her arms "Go ahead" Peter's second movement involved a jutting kick which Widow used her palm to push high above her and then with a quick skid forward she used her foot to sweep Peter's remaining leg out from underneath him. He landed hard on the floor and Widow pressed her foot to his throat.

"Down again" Widow nodded "Tell you what, I'll try attacking you this time and then we see how well you can defend" Peter nodded and stood up, returning to his starting point and straightening himself up. Widow stood still for a brief second before rushing forward and launching herself upward with a powerful knee strike. Peter held his palm out in front of her and caught the blow, pushing her back down to the floor. He'd learned his mistake about gloating after successfully blocking an attack from fighting Captain America and as such he returned to a defensive mindset.

"Good block" Widow said as she landed back on both feet, lifting her leg up for a rapid roundhouse kick that Peter was barely able to duck under. She landed again and feinted a punch for Peter's knee joint, something he fell for, and as he bent down to block the strike she rose up and cracked him in the jaw with her fist. He quickly used his adhesive powers to stay on his feet and attempted to block Widow's follow up attack, an outwards elbow strike to his jaw with the same arm she'd thrown the punch with. Peter dodged to the side and threw his own punch, aiming for her stomach. She caught the attack with the side of her leg, sweeping it outwards to push Peter's hand aside, before stepping forward and kneeing him in the groin.

"Fuck!" Peter grunted as he bent over instinctively, the agony of the strike taking over his body. Widow grinned and with a large arc she brought her foot up and kicked him in the face, the blow knocking him off balance and, due to his focus on his testicular pain his powers were not active, sent him careening to the floor. The dust flew up from the boxing ring floor as Widow lowered her leg back down to the floor slowly, dusting her hands and placing them on her hips.

"Alright, so your defence is better than your offence but both are terrible" Widow sighed "I think we're going to need to go back to basics here"

"Why didn't we start with basics first?" Peter asked in a pained voice.

"Because I had faith in you to be better than basics" Widow answered "I won't be making that mistake again" Widow waited for Peter to clamber back up to his feet, still bending his legs as the aching pains from his groin still controlled him.

"I think we'll start with basic movement and positioning" Widow said "You've done a few karate classes in your lifetime I presume?"

"Uh, no actually" Peter said sheepishly "I've watched a few Kung Fu movies though if that helps" Widow looked down at the ground for a second with her palm to her forehead.

"This is really going to push me to my limits, Fury better appreciate this" she growled.

"I appreciate it" Peter said.

"What are you talking about?" Widow asked snappily, looking up at him with a confused expression.

"I mean that I'm grateful that you're willing to take time out of your day to try and teach an idiot kid like me how to defend himself" Peter said "Its something I know that's hard for you to do and I just want to say thank you for even attempting it" Widow's nostrils flared furiously as Peter spoke, her eyes glaring daggers at him and by the time he had finished she was gripping her own arm in blazing anger.

"You appreciate it?" she demanded "I'm only going to tell you this once, so listen closely, I would rather do anything than teach your stupid ass how to fight, I'm not taking time out of my day to do this, this has, for some stupid reason, become a part of my list of extremely difficult jobs to earn a living, so now turn around and face the wall before I throw you out of this ring for talking like such an idiot Parker" Peter's eyes looked down at the floor as the smile dropped from his face. His shoulders sagged as he slowly turned around with a quiet sigh. As soon as Peter was no longer looking at him she released the tight grip on her arm and lifted a hand up to a loose strand of hair, twirling it around her finger as a smile briefly touched her rouged lips.

"Alright then you bumbling idiot" she said, faking an angry tone "Let's get on with teaching you about how to tell what an enemy's strong and weak sides are and how to combat against that" Next Chapter: A New Target to Hunt Estimated time remaining: 10 Hours, 60 Minutes