The Bite Of The Spider

I sat on Cat’s balcony, watching her play with one of her cats. “Still in the mask, Spider?” She smirked.

“Is he actually going to turn up tonight?” I asked, ignoring the urge to tear off my mask and start kissing her.

She sighed, “Look, don’t be too hard on Lone, he can’t always get away from his bosses. But yeah, he’ll be here tonight, and soon at that.”

“Listen…” I said softly, “Cat. My aunt knows about...us.”

“Us? Whatever do you mean, Spider?” She smirked, swaying over to me. “I’m still not sure you want there to be an…” She slowly ran a hoof down my cheek, “Us.”

I bit my cheek, “Cat, I do. I just...I’ve never done this before, okay?”

She grinned, sliding down onto her bed and looking back up at me seductively, “Why don’t you...prove it?” Her dress, only just preserving her decency.

My mouth moved up and down, but no words came out. My mouth was suddenly very dry. I coughed, “Cat...I...maybe you should choose your times better?”

She laughed, “Oh, cheer up, Spider! So what if your aunt knows? She’s not telling you to stop seeing me, is she? You’re a grown adult, do what you like!”

“Actually...she’s invited you to tea one day this week.” I admitted.

Cat blinked for a second, “Are you serious?” She then burst out laughing.

The door then opened and Lone Wolf entered, cigarette in mouth. He raised an eyebrow, “I miss something funny?”

“You took your time.” I spat, as Cat got up and put on some music.

“Yeah, yeah. Excuse me for having a job. Needed to put in some extra hours to get more evidence on that killer you’re after, for some reason my boss didn’t want me looking into the case. Probably because ponies aren’t being killed.” He puffed on his cigarette.

I sighed, “Fine. Cat?”

She took over, “Spider found some wine near one of the bodies. It was expensive, not the sort of thing the victim could have afforded. Also, she had a piece of silk covered in her blood, possibly something she tore off her attacker and some dark blue hair, I had some friends do some research and they found that they were pony hairs.”

I frowned, “I never gave you the silk or hair.”

“I stole and replaced them after I was done.” She smiled innocently.

Wolf laughed, “You still haven’t changed. But that doesn’t really help us. We have a possible pony killer, but the killer could have just planted those hairs there, I’ll keep an eye out when I look through the records back at the station. But the wine and silk are more concrete, the killer has money, but we can’t tell their gender or anything to close in on them.”

I gave a sigh, “What do you know, Wolf?”

He finished his cigarette and flicked it passed me, “Less than you at this point. I was hoping you had more. All we can do at this point is hope the killer messes up or picks the wrong target.”

“Damn it.” I looked up, “What about this bomber?”

“Guy’s obsessed with fire and explosions. In his clues he kept going on about ‘cleansing fire’ and about how someone ‘can’t get away with this’. He clearly wants revenge for something, no idea what. You managed to get the most identifying marks, brown earth pony with a black mane and tail and a burnt up left foreleg.”

“Might not be him.” Cat said, pouring a glass of whiskey for the three of us. “He might have gotten some poor fool to do his scouting for him.”

“It’s all we’ve got to work with.” Wolf sighed. “Although one of the bombs we found was a fake, it was filled with Griffin feathers. That mean anything to either of you?”

A bomb full of feathers? “Just sounds like a madman to me.” I muttered, taking the glass Cat offered me. I lifted my mask above my lips and took a drink.

“Yeah, Lone, just sounds like he’s off his rocker.” Cat said, sipping her drink.

I downed the rest of the glass and pulled my mask down, spider powers made it hard to get drunk, and turned to the streets. “Look, we’ll meet back here every week to try and figure all this out.” I said before leaping across the street to the rooftops.

Honestly I didn’t see the point to any of that. But maybe Wolf would make more sense out of the clues than I could. I hopped over an alley and landed on the edge of a roof and waited, watching over the city. Oh, bright, sparkling, dirty Manehattan, what crimes are you holding tonight? How many innocents have been swallowed up by your darkness tonight?

“Come on, give me a sign. Am I even useful to this cesspool?” I thought out loud. I heard a scream from nearby alley. I chuckled before rushing in the right direction, “I’ll take that as a ‘maybe’.”

Landed in an alley to see a mare in a skimpy dress and lots of makeup back into a wall to get away from three drunk thugs. “Alright, punks, who wants the first broken bone?” I growled.

They stumbled over each other to get at me, “Kill the freak!” One of them yelled, swinging at me.

I simply broke his leg and pushed him passed me, “Aw, don’t be like that.” I mocked darkly, “After all, you’ve only got so much blood I can spill.”

The other two paused and looked at each other as I slammed my fist into the back of the first’s skull, knocking him out. “Maybe...we should go.” One of them muttered.

I stepped forwards and slammed their skulls together. I scoffed, “Drunken idiots.”

I approached the dolled up mare. “This is your fault!” She spat.

“Excuse me?” I growled. Who did this bitch think she was?

“You! Freak! You run around in that idiotic costume and think you’re better than us ponies! You put ponies in the hospital and you sometimes kill them! You’re a bigger freak than they were!”

“Fuck off, you dumb bimbo.” I spat.

Her eyebrows raised into her hairline, “Excuse me?!”

I webbed her to the wall and walked away, “You’re welcome, you filthy animal.”

——

I walked through the streets for a few hours, stopping the occasional crime, but it seemed like a pretty slow night, maybe the winter air was keeping the crooks in.

I heard as a kid’s scream echoed through the night.

Or maybe it was just bringing out the worst.

I ran towards the scream, leaping over ponies and carriages as I went. I soon arrived at an alley where five thugs were closing in on a Diamond Dog who was about five who was cowering behind a Griffin about the age of twelve.

“Run! I...I got this!” The Griffin yelled, leaping at one of the thugs, giving the Dog a chance to escape the alley.

The thug the Griffin had leapt at laughed as he shoved the kid to the ground, “Oh, look at the freak, boys! You think you’re a hero?!”

As he pulled back his front leg I leapt over them and landed in front of the kid and grabbed the thug’s hoof before it hit him. “You like picking on those weaker than you?” I growled, pulling his leg down and snapping it. “So do I.” I grabbed his head and slamming it into a wall and scraped it down, leaving a bloody streak.

My Spider-Sense went off and I grabbed his body and tossed in behind me, knocking several thugs down. I quickly leapt into the air and landed on one of their backs, breaking a spine as I began throwing them against a well and webbing them there, making sure to knock each of them out with a punch that knocked at least a few teeth loose. The last thug decided to run for it, so I picked up a bin and threw it at his head and he crumpled to the floor.

I was about to walk off when I noticed the kid was still on the floor. I hesitated for a second before walking over and offering him my hand, “You okay, kid?”

He got an awestruck look on his face as I pulled him up, “I...yeah. Y-you’re the Spider! This...this is incredible!”

“Heh, glad to meet a fan.” Kids like this made my hope for the world return for a few minutes. “That was brave of you. Sacrificing yourself for a friend.”

“I...Actually I don’t really know him at all. I just saw them threatening him and...I couldn’t just watch, you know?”

“Even better! You knew you didn’t have a chance and you still charged in there, for a stranger! You have guts. But you should focus more on running, if I wasn’t in the area you’d be a bloody mess.” I started walking away.

“Yeah, well I can’t just let these bullies do whatever they want! And you won’t always be around to save everyone! People need to stand up!” He yelled.

I stopped and turned back to him, “And what if someone told you no? What if these punks had weapons? What then?”

“It wouldn’t change a thing.” He growled, fire in his eyes.

I smirked, “Alright, but if you’re going to fight people bigger than you, you’re going to need to be faster, and have a few dirty tricks up your sleeve. Right?” I walked away.

I got about three steps before he called out, “But it’s easy for you! You’re so strong and you have your webs! I’m...I’m just a Griffin, a worthless freak.”

I turned around and raised my fists, “Put them up.”

“You...really?” He gasped.

“Yeah. Come on.” He came up to me and raised his claws, standing on his hind legs. “Okay, that’s impressive, kid. Where’d you learn to do that?”

He blushed, “I...I grew up in a circus. I was taught all sorts of gymnastics and acrobatics.”

I laughed, “That’ll help you surprise folks! Now, deep breath, don’t let your adrenaline control you, don’t let that anger tell you what to do. Breathe. Keep calm. Keep those hips square to me. Use your feet, let them move first. Now, wait for an opening, look for that counterattack.” I opened a hand by my ribs, his head height.

I slowly threw a punch and he moved and threw a punch at my hand. “That?”

I nodded, “Good. Now full speed.” I threw a punch about the speed a groggy thug would do. He slipped to the side and I ignored my Spider-Sense, letting him strike me in the ribs. “Oof! Hell of a punch you got there.” I said honestly.

“You okay?” He asked.

I chuckled, “Kid, I’ve taken a baseball bat to the ribs before. Now, you standing like that is a good surprise, but those wear off pretty quick. What’s the first thing you do when someone threatens you?”

He hesitated, “I...I step away.”

I sighed, “No. that’s what’s been ingrained into your mind. Look, kid.”

“It’s Walker.” He muttered.

“Walker.” I corrected. “Look, you are a predator. Close your eyes.” He followed my instructions. “Now, remember what you are! A Griffin hunts! A Griffin is not a prey animal! You need to awaken those old instincts buried deep!” As I watched him start to get it I repeated myself, “What’s the first thing you do when someone threatens you?” Without missing a beat, he lowered to the ground and looked ready to pounce. “Good job, Walker.”

He opened his eyes and got up. “That felt...weird.”

“Practice that. Add in your claws and beak, you need to learn how to fight dirty.” I sighed and jumped towards the nearest rooftop, “Look after yourself, kid.”

I watched as he walked off. I occasionally gave kids like him tips on fighting, he wasn’t the first, nor would he be the last.

——

The next morning I was sat on the couch in Aunt May’s front room, in my Griffin form, reading the day’s newspaper and trying not to punch something. Circuit Board, the Griffin who had flew from his burning building, had been found guilty and had his wings severed. He’d been sentenced to prison for the next twenty years. It didn’t help his case that he’d refused to acknowledge his new name.

I threw the paper down and sighed, “The city’s getting worse. What the hell am I supposed to do? No matter what I do...nothing changes.”

“That’s a load of hogwash and you know it!” Aunt May snapped, sitting down across from me. “It may not seem like it, but you’ve saved lives, Peter! You’ve saved countless people, you can’t just throw that away!”

I sighed, “Yeah, I know. I ain’t giving up, it just feels pointless sometimes.” I stood up, “I just need to get my head on straight.” I left and went up to my room.

I lay on my bed for a few hours, staring up at the ceiling. Would I ever give up being the Spider? No. But sometimes the things I saw...there wasn’t enough therapy in the world for seeing that stuff. Seeing your uncle’s body so badly beaten that it takes you can only identify him by his clothes, to see the stubs where his wings once were, to see the bloody corpse of the man who raised you as his own. And to see his killer walk. To see his killer out on the streets doing the same thing to others! Sometimes there are no words to describe the evil people do when they’re convinced they’re doing the right thing, in whatever twisted way their mind whispers to them.

One of these days I’d snap and start killing every criminal I come across, and would that be so bad? But it would. Not every criminal deserves punishment. Cat was a criminal for selling booze, Griffins who defended themselves were criminals, hell, Uncle Ben was a criminal for hiding my species and for marrying a pony, the only reason the marriage stuck was because Uncle Ben and Aunt May had gotten married in another country.

I took a deep breath and shoved those thoughts away, I had bigger problems, like convincing Aunt May that Cat coming to tea was a bad idea. Cat was a good person, but she didn’t have much of a filter.

Those thoughts were pushed aside when Aunt May shouted up, “Rush? Come to the living room, we have company!”

As I left the room I began preparing for cops or another threat. Once I arrived in the living room I looked over the scene. Aunt May was sat down, sipping her tea. And stood facing me were two figures.

One was a Griffin, black feathers, greying at the tips, and a scar going through his left eye, the eye itself was completely white, his other a sharp yellow, and his fur was a brown slowly fading into grey. A sword hung at his left side and his chest was littered with small scars.

The other was a unicorn pony, a stallion. He had a dark blue coat with bright red eyes, his mark was that of two crossed swords, he was also littered in small scars. He had several daggers on his body and there was a sword and shield next to him.

“Aunt May?” I asked carefully, ready to attack if I needed to.

The Griffin boomed with laughter, “Calm yourself, cub! We’re not here to cause trouble!”

“We’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime.” The pony said with a wry grin, his Prench accent was sharp. “Not like that’ll stop us from getting in even more, right?”

“Oui.” The Griffin laughed. “But we’re just here to talk, boy.”

I glared at him, “And what talk involves you being armed to the teeth?”

He boomed with laughter as the unicorn sighed. “I told you, the weapons were a bad idea.” He shook his head and turned to me, the Griffin still laughing, “We’re adventures, we’ve just come back to Equestria after a decade away. I am Amour Mortel, the loud fool is Maximilian.”

“Hey, I’m not being loud!” Maximilian complained.

Amour raised an eyebrow, “And yet you don’t defend yourself from the ‘fool’ part?”

Maximilian laughed, “We both know there’s no point in arguing against that!”

Aunt May lowered her cup, “Mr Amour, Mr Maximilian.”

The loud Griffin laughed, “Call me Max! Everyone does!”

She didn’t even acknowledge his interruption, “You asked for the household, now, what’s this important question?”

“No, this can’t be it.” He looked confused. “I…” He shook his head, “Okay, so maybe he isn’t here either.”

“What do you want?” I hissed.

He sighed, “I’m here to ask about Berinhard.” It felt like a punch to the gut. Why did they want to know about Uncle Ben?

I exchanged painful looks with Aunt May. It...it was still hard on the both of us to remember Uncle Ben, even after so many years.

Max looked between us, “What’s with that look? Where’s my brother?”