Chapter 2: The Prowler
"My name is Aaron Davis, and for the last fourteen years, I've been the Prowler.
Before I became the Prowler, my brother Jeff and I were both living a life of crime...
Until that life caught up to us.
Jeff and I go arrested, and when we were out of jail, my brother and I found ourselves at a crossroads. Jefferson wanted us to make a change, he believed that we could make a difference in this world, to become better men.
Yeah, well men like us don't get second chances.
So on that day, we went our separate paths.
Jefferson went on to become a cop, got married, and started a family, it's how my nephew Miles was born and I love him to death.
Me? I became the Prowler, a notorious thief and assassin.
My brother... He's been looking for me, the Prowler, I mean. He doesn't know it's me, but I know he's trying to catch me. After becoming captain, he's made it a priority to find me and take me down, but I ain't letting that happen."
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The night sky shrouded a man in shadows, one that was wearing a purple mask and jacket with utility belts and black militaristic gear beneath it all. The building he stood on top of was known as Oscorp, a tech company owned by Norman Osborn.
Like a feline, pounced into the ventilation shaft and began crawling into the facility. "I'm in." he spoke into a communications device hidden under his mask before finding another vent to enter the main part of the building through. Landing on his feet, the Prowler scanned the area, hearing a voice in his earpiece giving him instructions.
"Good. Head to the sixteenth floor and place the drive into the console on the left." the voice ordered him, and without hesitation, the Prowler started running toward his destination with silent steps, using the shadows as cover.
Before long, he found himself on the very floor that was previously mentioned and in front of the room he needed to be in. The Prowler then looked left and right before using a device to get through the key card scanner on the door.
Swiftly, he dashed into the building and placed a USB drive into a computer, typing away at the keyboard quickly. Through the clicking and clacking of the keyboard, the Prowler could hear footsteps coming from behind him, prompting him to turn his head slightly to see the silhouette of a person walking into the room.
The sound of a gunshot was heard, though the Prowler was quick on his feet, dashing to the side and avoiding the bullet that then shattered the glass of a tank filled with spiders. The room was nearly pitch black, only being illuminated by the flashes of the Oscorp-branded laser rifle's bullets flying through the air. "Sixteenth floor!" the gunman spoke into a communications device of his own.
"Shit." The Prowler muttered, knowing that if he didn't finish this quickly, even more guards would show up. Using the shadows, the Prowler moved through the darkness, placing a grappling hook on a table before hiding even deeper into the dark room.
The gunman stepped forward, looking at the area where he last saw the thief, only to have his attention shifted toward the sound of a moving table. The guard then aimed his rifle in that direction and began firing, though this was nothing more than a mere distraction as the Prowler came from behind him and reeled his fist back, aiming a punch directly at the guard's skull.
However, this strike packed more of a punch than usual, as the Prowler's gauntlet connected and sent the guard flying toward the wall with a concussive blast.
In the distance, the Prowler could hear the sounds of footsteps drawing near, just as the hard drive had finished collecting the data. The Prowler then swiftly rushed over to the computer, grabbed the flash drive, and placed it into his pocket.
Knowing he had nowhere else to go but the window, the Prowler punched the glass with his gauntlet and lept from the building. Meanwhile, the guards began pilling into the room, running toward the sound of broken glass to see the Prowler riding away on a zipline.
Using their laser weapons, they attempted to gun him down, but their aim wasn't true enough to land a single hit and the Prolwer disappeared into the night...
Standing beneath an apartment building, stood a young, brown-skinned boy with braids looking up at the single apartment room with colorful lights spewing from its windows.
Removing one of the sides of his headphones from his head, the young man smiled as the music from inside the glowing apartment could be heard even from where he was standing. The young man exhaled humorously, placing his headphones back on his head before dashing for the fire escape.
Like a track star, the young man dashed up the steps, jumping over rails and skipping steps until he nearly reached the top, finding himself beside one of the windows of the strobing apartment room. Spotting a man inside, the teen took out his phone and took a picture of the man before sending that picture to his phone with the message "I'm watching you."
The man looked at his phone and smirked before hearing the young boy shout his name. "Uncle Aaron!" the young man shouted as he goofily placed his face up against the glass.
Aaron, chuckling to himself, stood up and walked over to the window, and opened it for his nephew, allowing the hip-hop music from his speakers to blast out of the window for all to hear. "Miles! What's up?" he spoke with a cool, deep voice, one that was the complete opposite of his nephew's optimistic, cheery one.
"Hey, Uncle Aaron!" Miles said as he invited himself in, dashing over toward Aaron's punching bag in the living room before delivering a few left-right combos. Aaron shook his head and smiled before walking over toward the kitchen to wash some of the dishes he'd just gotten done using.
"What's up with school?" Aaron asked his nephew, who was still letting the punching bag have it.
"Great! Made tons of friends already!" Miles answered sarcastically. His first day at school was awful for him. He felt that he didn't belong with all of those preppy, geniuses at visions academy. He preferred being at his old school, hanging out with his friends who he felt that he fit in more naturally with. At visions, he felt like an outsider.
"It can't be that bad? There's gotta be some cute smart girls there, huh?" Uncle Aaron teased as he walked over to the punching bag, holding it in place for Miles.
"Nah, there's no one." Miles told him. None of the girls really caught his eye at school, though he was too busy sulking around to really look.
"Man, I can't have a nephew with no game." Aaron once again teased his nephew before making his way to the couch.
"What? I- I have game!" Miles lied, knowing he had little to no experience with women at all.
Aaron and Miles then sat next to each other on the couch before Aaron looked at him with a smile and said, "You know about the shoulder touch?"
"Pssh! Yeah... But tell me anyway." Miles told him, looking at him with the eyes of a student prepared to learn life-changing knowledge.
"Whatchu need to do is walk up to the girl and say..." As Aaron spoke, he placed his hand on Miles's shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Hey." He said in a smooth voice.
Miles laughed, taking it as nothing more than a joke. "You serious?" he said as he pushed Aaron's hand off of his shoulder.
"I'm serious, it's science." Aaron told him.
Wanting to make sure he had it down, Miles repeated what Uncle Aaron showed. "So walk up to her and say, 'Hey.'" Miles lacked his uncle's smooth touch, causing Aaron to shake his head in disapproval.
"Nah, nah. Like this." Aaron then placed his hand on Miles's shoulder and repeated the secret technique. "Hey." he said, raising an eyebrow as he spoke with a smooth voice.
"Hey." Miles repeated back, though his nerdy flair wasn't doing him any favors in recreating his uncle's smoothness.
"Nah." Aaron once again repeated the secret technique, raising an eyebrow and speaking in a cool voice. "Hey."
Miles, going all out, raised his eyebrow and placed his hand on his uncle's shoulder, and said, "Heeeeyyyy." in the least cool fashion that anyone could muster up, twitching his eyebrow as if his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
"You sure you my nephew?" Uncle Aaron laughed as he spoke, reaching for the popcorn on the table before throwing a few pieces in his mouth. As the two caught up, Miles received a message from his dad. He was asking about homework, which immediately caused Miles to roll his eyes.
"That your pops?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah... I gotta do a paper tonight." Miles told him, ready to call it a night and head home. However, spotting the notebook in Miles's hand, Aaron had an idea. "I got a little place I wanna show you. Come on."
And so, before long, the uncle and nephew found themselves walking inside an abandoned subway shrouded in complete darkness, walking along the tracks.
"How'd you even find this place?" Miles asked, holding the flashlight behind his uncle.
"An old job. Look, we're almost there." Aaron pointed to a metal gate before running over to it and climbing over it with ease. Miles followed behind him, though he struggled to get over it before nearly falling on his face upon landing on the other side.
Uncle Aaron chuckled to himself as he walked over toward a level and pulled it, activating the lights to reveal a domelike room with graffiti all over it. Miles soared inside before shouting, "Brooklyn!", which reverberated off of the walls around him.
Spotting an open canvas, Miles sprinted over and stopped in front of it, looking up at the blank, grey wall with wide eyes. "Dope..." he whispered as his uncle walked up from behind with a spray can in his hand.
Uncle Aaron then handed Miles his spray can as he turned on some music for Miles to lose himself in as he created art on their canvas. Eagerly, Miles started painting on the canvas, running from side to side and jumping to reach the spots just out of reach.
Sitting on a bench with a smile on his face, Aaron watched his nephew go to work, reminiscing about the past. Aaron and Miles's dad used to do things like this all the time, but once Miles's dad became a cop, the troublemaking had to stop.
After about an hour of working, Miles's work of art was complete. What was once an empty canvas was now covered by the silhouette of a boy being surrounded by a colorful cloud and the word 'Expectations', perfectly encapsulating how Miles was feeling at that moment, feeling as if the weight of it all was holding him down.
"You know, your dad and I used to do stuff like this all the time." Aaron told him, looking at the art with a bittersweet smile.
"You for real?" Miles asked, looking at Aaron with a bit of skepticism.
"Yeah, before the police work and all that." as Aaron spoke, he received a notification on his phone, turning that smile on his face into a frown. "Aight, Miles. I gotta go."
And just like that, the two of them fled from the abandoned subway and went their separate ways. However, unbeknownst to Miles, there was a mysterious spider crawling into his partially unzipped backpack, one that miraculously made it all the way to his possession from Oscorp.
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