The Black Spiders part 1
Nine months after Darkseid's invasion… Alchemax HQ, New York City…
"Like what you've done with the place" Spider-man said as he was hanging from a web line upside down in the CEO's office and swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
The CEO of the quickly growing national and soon to be international seventh month old corporation quickly closed the door and locked it before he turned and glared at the spider themed hero in minor annoyance "You could have called…boss"
Peter the secret founder and actual owner of Alchemax nodded "I could of…but I didn't. Plus I was feeling lonely and wanted some actual human interaction that didn't revolve around beating criminals or saving people from criminals or horrible disasters"
"What about The Justice League? Can't you try talking to them or something?" Miguel O'Hara asked as he made his way to the desk and sat in the chair while Spider-man kept swinging back and forth
"Batman is chasing down a psychotic clown, Superman and Flash are busy with their day jobs, Aquaman is doing his kingly duties and Green Lantern is on Oa doing Lantern stuff and probably embarrassing Humanity as a whole and Cyborg is getting upgrades" Spider-man said as he let go of the web line and landed in a hand stand before quickly flipping himself up right
Peter may have failed to mention that Cyborg was also busy intergrading his systems with the Justice League's soon to be up and running Watchtower, but Miguel doesn't need to know that
'Not like he'd care anyway' Peter thought dryly
"What about Wonder Woman?" Miguel asked with a raised brow, noticing he left out the lone female of the team
"She's on a date with Steve Trevor" Peter said the last part with a shrug while also keeping the annoyance out of his tone
Now while Peter actually likes Steve who has since become the Justice League's liaison, Peter has known both or at least his versions of both Diana and Steve to know that their relationship won't last too long. They come from two completely different worlds and Steve for the most part won't be able to really connect with Diana on a lot of things she'll face and experience
'Does it make me an asshole to be looking forward to their eventual breakup so I can swoop in and be with her again?' Peter thought as he shot a web line out and pulled a chair towards him which he slid into 'Probably, but it's not the worst thing I've hoped to happen to someone…Side's Steve was cool with me marrying her in my reality and said he'd rather lose her to me knowing I'll treat her like a goddess than Bruce who'll end up hurting her in the end anyways...'
"So…" Peter said as he leaned in and placed his elbows on the table and gave Miguel a look through his new mask that was also part of his new suit "What's this I hear about one of the board members winding up with his throat slit in his own bedroom?"
Miguel sighed as he pinched the ridge of his nose "Arthur Mahallen was found dead in his apartment last night. Police have yet to find any motives or evidence as to who or why they did it"
Peter nodded at that as he leaned back in his chair "…Shame…I actually liked Arthur. Seemed like a nice guy and was like the only one that wholeheartedly backed my new super glue that made everything else on the market currently look like cheap tape in comparison"
"You know anyone that might have wanted him dead?" Miguel asked "You tend to see things from a different angle and may have seen something I haven't"
Peter hummed at that as he rocked the chair he was on back and forth "Well it couldn't have been any of the other board members, they all liked Arthur and I did extensive background checks on all of them. Hell, I can name every prostitute that Samuel has slept with since he turned twenty-two and how much he paid them down to the last cent"
Miguel made a face at that "Okay eww, didn't need to know that"
Peter shrugged "Well it's true. So, if it's not the board members than it's either his wife that was trying to take his money from the rather nasty divorce she was trying to get, an ambitious employee or…"
"…Or" Miguel prompted at his boss's trailing off
"…Or it was corporate sabotage" Peter said with a frown before he looked towards Miguel "What companies are we slated to have meetings with for possible joint ventures or refused to work with in the last month?"
Miguel narrowed his eyes in concentration as he dug for the information "People we'll be hopefully working with soon are Wayne Enterprises, Apple, a few representatives from the military and Kord Enterprises"
"And ones we said screw off to?"
Miguel sighed at that "LexCorp for starters, Oscorp was another, and Roxxon Energy"
Peter hummed at that as he stood up and began to make his way to the window "I'll do some digging and see what comes up. Let me know if either of the companies you've mentioned get in contact with you"
"Anything else boss?" Miguel asked as he saw Spider-man shoot a web line out
"Yeah, try not to get killed Miguel" Peter said with a smirk before he swung away
"No promises!" Miguel shouted out with a smile
…
"Ugh running my own company is so hard!" Peter whined as he was swinging through New York's skyscrapers with ease
Two months after Darkseid's invasion, Peter saw that he was starting to run out of money and with no apparent way to somehow fix whatever it was that Barry did when he reset everything Peter realized that he's stuck here, likely forever. So, he spent the next several days brainstorming on what he could do when a sudden brilliant and slightly unethical plan came to him
When he was looking through this world's history he saw that Horizon Labs had yet to make any of his inventions along with any other company out there. So Peter spent the next several weeks creating a company from scratch, hiring people to work and manage it, finding someone he could trust to run it for him in a manner to not dissimilar to what Bruce had Lucius do. Turns out it was a lot harder than he thought and it took Peter a while to get the hang of things but so far things are starting to pay off
He recreated the super glue based on his web formula as his company's first product and the millions they ranked in had caught quite a few investors attention. Peter has plans to create variants of the web glue as he's taken to calling it that can work in extreme temperatures, in water and even channel electrical currents through them…after he applies them to his web formulas and properly tests them out. He has other inventions he intends to make but for now his web glue is making more than enough money for his company and by proxy him
"Heh at this rate, I might very well end up becoming richer than even Bruce" Peter smiled at the thought of being richer than the Gotham vigilante
It's with that money that Peter had finally got to making that new suit of his that he's now wearing. Now he was dressed in a suit made of a combination of unstable molecules suit that was bonded to Kevlar that's black on the legs, arms, lower ribs, with the torso and head being white. On his chest was a series of red markings that had a vague resemblance to a cross between a spider and a skull while he had red plates around his eyes that were reminiscent of his first suit.
On his arms were two red blades like Batman's only longer along with a pair of retractable claws. The suit's other features were on-board sensors for complete vicinity readings, a built in commlink to his teammates and the Watchtower, his recently developed and still experimental 'Lyte Byte Material' that allows him to capture and direct air currents and gives off a low-level of anti-gravity particles and let him glide pretty far, and internal boot thrusters for actual flight in necessary. He also had a small sort of web cape he could deploy to help him glide of his thrusters or Lyte Byte Material failed and he had no web fluid to save him
All and all this suit was perhaps Peter's most advance and possibly his greatest creation, least in terms of crime fighting
Peter was about to shoot off another web line to swing from when he felt his spider sense tingle and quickly twirled through the air to avoid a bullet whizzing past him. Spider-man looked towards the direction that the bullet was fired from and saw a figure quickly running across a rooftop with a large rifle on his back
'Well that's just rude. He takes a pot shot at me and doesn't even have the decency to stick around for me to identify him' Peter mentally sighed as he quickly took off after the apparent gunman
It didn't take long for Peter t catch up to the person running and quickly landed before the man and stood up with his lenses narrowing slightly "Hey buddy this is gonna sound really weird but I was just shot at by a guy who looked an awful lot like you, care to explain why that is?"
The figure was dressed in a sort of black skin tight suit with metal plates along the shoulders, legs and on the torso. They stood a few centimeters shorter than Peter and the eyes on the mask the man was wearing were small little white dots that glowed faintly in the shadow of the building towering over the rooftop they were on
The figure didn't answer as Peter stared at him for a moment and sighed "Look if you just explain to me why you thought shooting at me was a good idea, I may decide to only web you up for the cops-"
BANG!
Peter was able to causally dodge the bullet that was fired from the man who with nearly superhuman speed drew a pistol and fired of a shot at the wall crawler. No sooner did that happen did Peter grabbed the man's arm that held the pistol and was about to restrain them man when he suddenly sent a fist at Peter's head
Peter leaned his head out of the way and used his arm to block the sudden kick the man sent towards his chest before pushing him away. The man rolled with it and quickly drew his rifle and shot at Peter who leaped over the bullet and sent several web bullets at the man
The would be assassin's eyes seemed to glow red for a brief moment before he threw his rifle at the incoming web projectiles and quickly made an inhuman leap away from the surprised wall crawler
"The hell?" Peter said in slight surprise as he watched the man land on the edge of the building and stared at Peter with a blank gaze
The two eyed each other for what felt like hours before the man suddenly moved at speeds to fast for the average human to track, but for Peter the man was nearly moving in slow motion.
'This guy…' Peter thought as he caught a punch and quickly blocked a knee to the side '…He's definitely enhanced. Maybe not to Deathstroke's level but definitely above most'
Peter could have easily ended this fight with a strong enough punch or by moving quicker than his adversary, but by dragging this fight out longer, Peter will get a better picture on what this man is and what he's capable of
'Wow, Bruce's tactics are actually starting to rub off on me' Peter thought with a chuckle as he caught the man's fist with his hand and brought the man into a head butt that sent black clad gunman flying
The figure landed in a crouch and finally made a noise that sounded like a growl at Peter who merely chuckled "Uh oh, someone's getting mad"
It was then that the man slipped into an odd fighting stance that puzzled Peter, having never see something like that before. He had his suit scan the stance and came up negative with the results
'Okay so I'm dealing with a fairly well trained assassin that's near superhuman and knows some sort of mysterious fighting style' Peter said as he slipped into a stance that was used in mainly boxing 'This is just getting better and better'
The two combatants eyed each other for a moment before the unknown man launched himself at Peter with greater speed than shown earlier. Peter narrowed his eyes at this and ducked under the jab towards his neck and responded with an uppercut to the man's chin that was grabbed, much to his mild shock. The man took this moment to deliver a powerful kick to Peter's side and send the wall crawler skidding several feet
Peter hissed as he felt the blow and quickly caught another punch from the man and punched him several times in the gut before he pushed the man back and sent two jabs to the man's masked face and another three to his chest before finishing with a powerful downward right hook that forced the man's head into the rooftop
Peter used the brief moment the man's legs were in the air and grabbed one of them before swinging the man over his head and into the ground again and throw him towards the ledge.
"GAH!" the man yelled in pain as he hit the cement railing and tried to move only for him to be covered in several thick strands of web
Peter watched the man try to struggle for a moment before he stopped and let out a huff
"What you ain't gonna see if wiggling around will help?" Peter said with some amusement as he approached the man carefully
The man responded with a hiss which caused Peter to laugh "Not much of a talker are you?"
"In my experience talking only wastes time" the man hissed out angrily
"And he speaks!" Peter shouted with both fists in the air before he looked back down at the restrained man "So what's your supervillain name and what can you do. Also, don't be afraid to include your life story and the events that led you to taking a shot at me earlier"
The man stared at Peter for several long moments before he lowered his head
"What's wrong sunshine, not a very impressive origin story?" Peter asked with a tilt of his head "Hey it's alright I won't judge. Not everyone can afford a kickass back story like Deathstroke or maybe or even Black Manta"
The man didn't respond and Peter let out a sigh "Oh I see, your one of those types huh? All mysterious and vague…you do know that I have ways of getting you to talk right?"
The man snorted darkly "You gonna torture me?"
"In a manner of speaking" Peter said as he crouched down and grabbed the man by the head and forced him to look at Peter's masked face "Then again being forced to tell the truth is painful for guys like you I here"
He then let go of the man and stood up and quickly activated his commlink and waited for the person to respond
"Hello?" Diana's voice came through
"Hey princess, how's it going?" Peter asked as he turned away from the man deliberately and took several steps from him
"Me and Steve are currently at a Greek restaurant that's opened up Spider-man" Diana said in a dry tone but Peter could see the smile on her face as she said it
"Oh sorry but I uh kind of need your help with something" Peter said sheepishly
"Oh and what's that?" Diana asked with interest, he could faintly hear Steve in the background asking what's going on
"Well I have this guy here who thinks he can take pot shots at me and get away wi-" Peter started only to quickly duck as the man went flying over his head with a knife in hand
The man landed in a crouch and quickly threw the blade at Peter who caught it with one hand and watched the man quickly leap over the edge. He was at the ledge in an instant and looked down to see that the man was gone
"Spider-man?" Diana asked with some concern in her voice
Peter took a quick look around before he sighed "Uh never mind, the guy flew the coop"
"Do you still need help in finding him?"
"Nah I'm good but I may call again for your help when I catch him again. He didn't seem willingly to talk and I thought that lasso of yours could maybe fix that" Peter said as he brought up his arm and activated a small holographic screen that showed a map of the city with two dots on it.
He was represented by a red dot while the nearly microscopic sized tracer he placed on the unknown man's head when he forced him to look at him was a blue color. The dot was moving at high speeds, the man was likely using a vehicle to get away and was heading towards Brooklyn
"Let me know when you catch him and I'll be there soon" Diana said
"I will" Peter promised "And tell Steve I said sup!"
"Will do" Diana said with a chuckle before they both ended the call
Peter took a look at the map before he had it display on his mask's HUD and quickly shot a web line and began to trail after the unknown man he faced
'Hmm…I wonder if this guy is connected to the board member's death or not' Peter thought as he swung through the air with a sort of grace that'd put the world's greatest acrobats to shame ten times over
…
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
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