Chapter 27 : Predators
[A/N :- I suggest the readers please re read the previous chapter. I've made a few changes towards the end. And also it will help you better understand where we are in the story currently.]
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"You have done a splendid job Girl. I'll reward you for sure." Came a man's coarse voice through the telephone.
Felicia was again talking to her 'Employer' about various things. Whatever things were happening in New York and their current position.
"Soon I'll be able to takeover all off Fisk's assets and become the New Kingpin of The Underworld. Don't worry. I'll give you and Warren splendid rewards for accomplishing your missions." The unknown man said loudly.
Felicia remained silent though. Her thoughts unknown.
"Make preparations. I, Myself, will be arriving in New York soon. Wilson Fisk's and Osborn's days are over. It's time i brought New York and along with it the entire East coast under my , The Tombstone's control." The Man, who revealed himself to be Tombstone laughed.
Felicia was a bit excited too. A Sinister expression formed on her face when about the news she had just received.
After that the call was cut off and Felicia found that she had received some voice messages from Peter which said he would be waiting for her at their usual place.
Felicia's excitement quickly died down as she thought about Spider-Man. She started contemplating about her choices as she made her way towards the balcony.
"Maybe I should keep my distance from Spider now." She said to herself with a troubled expression as she looked at the view visible from the balcony.
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"Who is behind this homeless kidnapping case?" Spider-Man asked the man in front of him.
"Mate how would I know about that? I'm no cop or 007 who knows everything." That man replied. He pointed at Gordon who was next to Spider-Man. "They should be the one to answer these questions."
"You are the man who the most knowledge about the streets." Spider-Man said. "Listen Davis, The mutated monster, Vermin. He was identified to be one of the people who were staying in Homeless Shelter until Suddenly disappearing about a month ago. Same case with Grizzly. And Gibbon."
"And now we want to know who it is that is giving these homeless guys Animal like powers. You are our best informer Aaron Davis. Now tell us if you know anything." Gordon was the who to speak this time.
Davis stayed silent for some time. And then spoke, "Don't know much. But some time back, About a month ago, a few men came looking for some people in The shelter. I did some digging of them. Couldn't find much, but one name turned out. Miles Warren. He's was associated with Oscorp earlier. Currently he is not going anywhere else. But the man has been rolling around in Money more than ever before. If you ask me, He is my pick as the villain if ya ask me." After that Gordon gave the man Some money and he walked away.
"I'll go and check out this Warren guy. Nothing connected to Oscorp sounds good." Spider-Man told the officer.
"You do that. I'll dig out everything I can about this guy. Maybe I'll keep a team ready, just in case." Gordon took out a new stick of cigarette and lit it. "By the way, where is your new Partener?"
" She... is Late." Spider-Man looked around to see if Cat had appeared yet. He sighed when he found no trace of his Sexy partener.
"I'll give her a call on the way. But we can't waste time. I'll check out this Warren guy alone if I have to. But if he is the one behind the animal Mutant attacks, then I'm putting a stop to him tonight." With that bold declaration Spider-Man jumped off into the night.
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"What's this about Smythe?" Wilson Fisk asked his right hand man, Alistar Smythe.
"It's about Tombstone. As I have told you before boss, That dog has been trying to seige control of New York from us for a while now. He has already brought most of the mob gangs under his control. News is, He is also trying to force the Maggia and Storm Wyns to work under him. On the other hand, he is also trying to drive us out of the picture. If this goes on for a few more days He may very well be successful." Smythe gave this news with an tense expression.
"Hmm. Tombstone. Lonnie Lincoln. Seems like he forgot his position. He is a Dog. Always working under me and Don Rigoletto. Now he is trying to bite the hand that fed him? Sigh*... It's really sad that he is not a real dog but just one in human body. Human's are sick by nature. " Wilson Fisk remained calm as ever get hearing Smythe. He poured himself another glass of Wine and started to drink it slowly.
"I can't go to New York myself. Nick Fury has set his Target on me. But that doesn't means since I'm not there, New York is free to take for anyone. Who is Lincoln's man in New York?" Fisk asked Amthe after some time.
"We have found that a man Named Miles Warren is the one running things for Tombstone in New York. He is a mad scientist and business. He was previously working for Norman Osborn but after Oscorp was gone he started working for Tombstone."Smythe immediately gave an answer to his boss.
"Send in 'The Shark'. I want all of Tombstone's limbs cut off before he even sets foot in New York. And once he does arrives in New York, I want to see his head." With those orders Wilson Fisk, The kingpin of Crime, moved out of the dark room.
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Late at night, Spider-Man landed at the roof of Miles Warren's home.
It was a big house. A big lawn, big backyard, dozens of rooms. But interestingly at was all dark as no lights were on.
Spidey first surveyed the outer parameters of the house, He tried to look inside through the window and found out that in. the living room, There were some people playing poker while listening to loud music. Other than that, the House seemed completely empty.
As Spidey was deciding to break a window to go inside, his amazing Senses picked up a faint sound coming from the garage.
Peter stopped moving. He focused on hearing what that sound was. It sounded like the sound a small generator makes. And it was coming from under the ground, right below his feets.
Maybe Warren was in the garage. Spider-Man looked around trying to find a way to quietly go in the garage without making much sound. But he couldn't find any way so he decided to hard and fast.
He punched both his fist in the Shutter and ripped the shutter out completely along with the in-built security system and threw it far away. And indeed there wasn't much noise othe than the Loud scrapping sound the Shutter made as it was ripped out.
"Real smooth Spidey." Spidey said to himself as he facepalmed on his own mistake.
But as he saw no attacks coming towards him Peter decided to continue. He checked the Garage but there wasn't any except an Old Volkswagen.
No wait, There also a small air duct in the corner of the ceiling. He could see that there was a faint light coming from inside the duct. Well, that definitely smelled fishy.
Spider-Man slowly opened the duct and went inside. It was long, and it went downwards. Spidey kept crawling and crawling inside the air duct.
And Finally, he reached the end. Spider-Man could see that wherever the Suspicious Aur duct had led him to definitely wasn't a picnic place.
"Sigh*... Given the conditions that I'm paying an unexpected visit to a potential criminal to wasn't possible but still, A man can wish." Spidey mumbled to himself as he checked out the white room that was in front of him.
It was probably one of the sickest place he had ever seen. Lines and lines of Containers keeping Animals inside. Experimented, deformed animals. Their organs and all.
In one pod, there was a deformed vulture with no hair on it's body. Instead it's body was covered in black blisters. In another container there were big and small internal organs floating in a green liquid.
In a sealed cage an animal was lying down bound with various machines attached to it's body. The animal had a body of a lion. But there was a wolfs head at the top. Worst part, It was alive. Barely enough to moved it's eyes and look back at Spider-Man.
"What the fuck is happening here?" To think that Miles Warren was doing such experiment, on not just animals but even humans.It was disgusting to even think for Spider-Man.
He then heard another sound from one direction. He went towards it and found that It was a man wearing a white lab coat and glasses, singing an old song as he went about doing his work.
This was Miles Warren. Spider-Man could tell as he had already received the basic information about him from Officer Gordon.
It seemed like the man was too Focused on his work to care about anything else happening around him. He was looking at the computer screen in front of him with wide dead-fish like eyes.
"Finally!! After years of struggle and hazards i have finally completed my research." Warren exclaimed as he took a vile of grey liquid in his hands. "With this, I give humanity to truly stand at the apex of the food chain."
"Oh yeah? Well Bad luck for humanity." Suddenly a voice spoke out from behind Miles Warren and the scientist turned around only to be met with a fist to the face from Spider-Man.
"Agk..... Spider-Man?? How are you here?" Warren cried out as he put a hand on his bleeding nose.
"Uh uh uh Warren. I'll be the one asking questions? Now tell me, Who are you working for?" Spider-Man webbed the man to the ground and started his interrogation.
"What? I don't know what you are talking about? Listen to me Spider-Man, I'm a respected citizen of socie..... Ommph" Warren hissed at The Web head only to be met with another punch. One, just strong enough to rattle his mind.
"Yeeeeeeaah. Let's not play that game, shall we? Look here mate, I have all the evidence I need to get you in jail." Spider-man pointed at all the stuff in the lab. "But of course the police wouldn't mind helping you with your dislocated jaw that I'm going to give you if you don't give me answers. So start speaking smart pants."
And with that warning Spider-man lifted Warren off the ground with one leg and looked down at his scared eyes.
"Gaaahhh.... TOMBSTONE!! It's Tombstone." Warren immediately opened his mouth and gave the name of his boss.
Spider-Man let go of his leg and Warren fell down on the ground. The old mad scientist immediately grabbed his left leg as it was hurting too much and slowly started sliding back.
"It was Tombstone, alright?He is a guy from the Underworld. It's really not a big deal. Look I needed the money and he gave it to me. I did everything he asked me to do." Warren tried to explain himself to the hero.
"You turned people into monsters." Spider-Man said.
"That's what he asked me to do. I didn't even want to do those experiments." Warren loudly argued back.
Spider-Man didn't reply to him. Instead he turned his gaze away from the mad man and click on device in his ear. "You heard that?"
"Association with underworld and doing illegal experiments in his hidden freaky lab.Yep, that's enough to bring out him behind bars." Gordon said as he looked at the screen showing Warren's scared face. He could see everything from the hidden camera that was in Spider-Man's belt. "I'll send the team now."
"Okay. I'll take care of those goons upstair. " Spidey cut off the call and turned back towards Warren, only to be met with a big glass container in the face.
The glass container broke and Spider-Man was soaked in the liquid that was inside it."Yuck.....smell's disgusting!!" Spider-Man started wiping the liquid from hai mask.
"Warren!" Spider-Man called Warren's name and looked around only to see the said man injecting himself with some injection. The old man screamed in pain and fell down on the ground.
"Warren!! Are you alright? Listen to me. Keep your eyes open and look at me." Spider-Man immediately ran towards the man's side and grabbed both his shoulders.
Warren's face was dangerously pale. Foam was coming out of his mouth and parts of his skin was starting to turn yellow.
Suddenly Miles Warren's eyes opened wide. They were different in colour compared to before. He raised his hand extremely fast and punched Spider-Man right in the face and sent the hero flying away.
Spider-Man crashed into a table at the very back of the lab. He grabbed his chin, where the punch had hit. "Ooww. Why can't a day go more normally for me?"
"Spider-Man. What's happening over there now?" Gordon asked him through the link.
This brought Spidey back to reality and he could hear Warren's screams. They sounded like howls. Spider-Man slowly stood up from the ground and saw Warren writhing behind a fallen desk.
At that moment, A big green figure rose from behind the desk. This being was very tall. Skinny but muscular. It had long ears and nose and the most noticeable thing was the green fur that was all over it's body. It was like an animal. But it was standing on it's two hind limbs like a human.
"Warren?" Spider-Man called out slowly.
"I... This wasn't how it was supposed to work. But I feel better. Way better in fact." The Animal or rather Warren spoke as he checked out his new long spike like nails. Warren turned to look at Spider-Man.
"You wanted to know what I was doing? I was creating a miracle. I wanted to put humanity at the apex of the food chain. Look at me now. Stronger, faster, better."
"Trust me Furball, We humans don't want to turn into big green skiny racoons like you" Spider-Man joked about Warren's current appearance as he got ready for the fight.
"Oh it is but a small miscalculation that can be fixed. I'll take care of that later, firs, I'll take care of YOU." Warren in his transformed state attacked Spider-Man and they both started fighting in the small underground Lab.
Warren's size had increased a lot after transformation and he now stood at 8 foot tall. Even though he was very skinny, his attacks very very powerful.
Spider-Man was having trouble fighting Warren in such a enclosed space. It was very hard to dodge Warren's attacks as he was almost as agile as agile as Spider-Man himself in his current state.
Warren was using his long nails as blades and was swinging them around, trying to slice Spider-Man with them.
Spidey webbed his face and grabbed both of his thighs and did a takedown. He charged up a venom blast and was about to punch Warren in the face when he was kicked right in the Chest and got sent flying away in the ceiling.
Spider-Man crashed hard and fell down on the ground. He slowly got up and was immediately attacked by Warren again.
Spider-Man continued to wrestle with Warren . He was being pushed back by Warren more and more as time went on. Warren was like an unrestrained animal.
It wasn't like a one-sided beat down. Spider-Man was able to land a few good hit too but it was like Warren couldn't feel the pain at all. Warren's healing factor was super strong too. All his minor wounds were healing in a matter of few seconds.
They continued to fight in that small underground lab when suddenly an alarm went off in the entire Building.
Warren stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the Screen that was still working. It showed the footage of some big guy, wearing a black hoodie entering the House forcefully and breaking down the main door.
Spider-Man at first thought that maybe the Police team or maybe even Black cat had finally arrived. He had given her a message about meeting at this location after all.
But then he saw the screen too. It was only showing the backside of the unknown person who had entered Warren's home. From what he could tell this unknown person was some very fat guy with a big build. He could see that the Goons who were in the living room were heading towards the man. It looks like another fight was about to break out upstairs.
Spider-Man sighed since the appearance of this unknown guy only made his work harder. There was scientist turned super villain trying to eat him and now he also had to take care of a thug fight.
"You should be worried about yourself." Warren roared as he jumped at Spider-Man again and they started Fighting again forgetting about the thug fight. But not even a minute later, the main door of the Lab was ripped out by someone.
Spider-Man and Warren turned to look at who this new intruder was and they were both shocked speechless.
In front of them was a being in humanoid shape but instead of a normal scarred face like other thugs he had a fucking Shark's head. His skin was blue at the back and white on his chest. He was standing there at the doorstep with the door in one hand and a body of a man in the other hand.
"Umm... Hey Guys." IT TALKED. Or rather, it grumbled. And the reason It was grumbling because the head of the man he was carrying was in his mouth.
"WHAT The Fuck!!....." Spider-Man exclaimed as he sent a web at the captured man and pulled him out of the Shark Man's mouth. "... are you?"
"Grmmmmh....." The Shark didn't look too pleased with what Spider-Man did. But it changed it's demeanour immediately. "Me. Nanaue." The Shark gave his short introduction as he pointed at himself with his big frog like hands.
"And I look for the Doctor." Then, the Shark or rather, Nanaue told his reason for coming here and Spider-Man immediately turned to look at Warren who was staring at Nanaue with an eerie disgusting expression.
"Is this another one of your experiments Warren?" Spider-Man asked this question as he got really angry. Looking at The Shark, it was obviously a mix between human and shark. With legs and hands like human but head of a shark. It was very identical to what Warren had done to Vermin and Grizzly.
But Warren did not reply as he continued to examin This amazing thing standing in front of him.
"Intresting. A mix between an aquatic lifeform and human? Very interesting indeed." Warren slowly said as he eased up a bit and looked at both Spider-man and The Shark named Nanaue.
"Warren? You are the Doctor? I need your head." The Shark exclaimed as he rejoiced after finding his Target.
"No No, hold on a min mute fish boy." Spider-Man interjected again. This current situation was starting to give him a headache. First it was Warren. And now there was a new 8 foot tall walking and talking Shark right in front of him. The worst part was that It sounded like a little kid. "Warren's coming with me."
"I need the Head. Or Boss won't pay." Shark Yelled while looking at both Warren and Spider-Man.
"Who's this Boss of yours?" Warren asked as he narrowed his eyes and got ready to fight again.
"Um ..... I can't tell you that." Nanaue scratched his head and then, "Now give me your head." Suddenly he roared and started running towards Warren.
Spider-Man and Warren were both taken aback by his agility. In no time at all Nanaue was right in front of Warren with his mouth open ready to chomp on his head.
Warren hurriedly moved away from his place, and evaded Ths Shark's attack. Only now did Spider-Man understand how grim the situation had become. There was already Warren in his mutated form. Now there was this, Talking, dumb-looking Shark. And despite his childish attitude, he really was here to Kill.
It was no more a simple between Spider-Man and Warren. It was now a battle between Two Predators and Spider-Man was stuck in between them.
Warren didn't wait a second after evading Shark's attack and sliced his long nails at his new enemy's chest.
"Raahhh" Nanaue roared again after being attacked by Warren. There were four large slice wounds on his chest but didn't stop him one bit as he tried to chomp on Warren's head again.
Nanaue pounced on Warren and pushed him down on the ground and opened his large Shark mouth again but this time he was hit in the side on his snout by a massive force and was sent stumbling away from Warren.
"Hate to break it you the hard way, but eating heads is not allowed here fish boy." Spider-Man said as his left hand glowed with a green hue.
Warren scrambled away and stood up at some distance from both Spider-man and Shark. He eyed both his enemies and decided that he needs to get away from here.
Nanaue kept making pained sounds for some time while grabbing onto his snout. Then he looked back at Spider-Man who attacked him with an angry expression on his shark face.
"That Hurt!!!" He roared while looking at the Superhero.
"Uhhh.... yeah. Sorry about that." Spider-Man's sense started going wild at this point and he learned that maybe he had done something he shouldn't have.
"THAT HURT!!!!!!!". Nanaue roared louder and started running towards Spider-Man this time.
In this closed lab, Spidey couldn't dodge him and Nanaue closed the distance and bear hugged him and opened his mouth to eat Spider-Man's head.
But Spidey grabbed his snout and lower with both hands and kept his open mouth away from himself.
Nanaue didn't stop running and and soon jumped and they both slammed into the Lab's ceiling. They broke the ceiling and fell out of the lab, in the lawn of the house.
Spider-Man charged up another venom blast and punched Shark again in the Snout. The Shark roared in pain again and let go of Spider-Man.
Nanaue stumbled back a bit and out of the corner of his eyes saw that Warren was trying to escape. "Oh no. My money."
"MONEY!!!!" Nanaue roared again and made an inhuman jump, over several meter long and grabbed Warren from the back. They both fell down and broke the boundary wall and then they were out on the streets.
This was a residential area and so there weren't many people walking on the road but the few that saw two gaint monsterous being, one with green fur and long nails and another with a Shark's head, They all screamed and ran away immediately.
Spider-Man saw that the situation was getting out of hand more and more. These two Hulk size beings were fighting like crazy animals, in the middle of the streets. And he didn't have many ways to stop them.
He was having a hard time stopping the two of them from killing each other and also saving whichever poor soul git in between them.
Nanaue tried to kill Warren again but Spider-man got in between them and punched The Shark away with another venom blast.
Peter decided that he will have to take down This Shark man first. Atleast Warren wasn't actively trying to kill anyone. Maybe except himself, but Spider-Man didn't let it bother him. Spider-Man would take care of him after he was able to put a stop to The Shark.
After that, both Warren and Spider-Man started attacking Nanaue, The Shark. Nanaue's healing factor was too good. And his big body took punches like a sponge ball. It looked like their attacks weren't having any effect at all.
But slowly but surely, Nanaue started getting pushed back. There was a limit to how much he can heal. Warren was aiming to Kill the Shark once and for all. But he too was getting stopped by Spider-Man. This made the fight last a lot longer.
Eventually Nanaue was pushed down on one knee and Spider-Man stood in front of him, panting hard. At that moment Spider Senses blared again and Spider-man got ready to dodge but he was attacked from behind by Warren.
Warren had enough of Spider-Man interfering in his fight and he wanted to kill both the hero and Shark. He slashed down on his leg and was able to put a deep gnash on his left thigh.
After that he tried to slice Spider-Man's neck but that attack was dodged by the hero. Though Spider-man still took that attack on his chest because he failed to get out of it's trajectory due to his injured leg.
This left another deadly wound on his already injured body.
Warren didn't wait and followed up his attacks with another powerful kick right in the chest of Spider-Man. A crack sound was heard as a few of Spider-Man's bone got fractured. The kick also sent him flying away.
After that Warren turned around to look at the still down Shark, Nanaue. He was lying on the ground grumbling something like 'money' or 'Hurts.'
Warren smiled gleefully and raised his leg and stomped down Nanaue's head hard. "You truly are an extraordinary specimen. I'll be sure to study you well. Now just a little bit more. Don't worry, this will be over in a second." Warren said as he raised his one arm with his long blade like nails pointed straight at The Shark's neck.
Just as he was about to swing down Warren's vision turned dark as his entire head got covered in Webs and a web string was attached to it which went all the way back to Spider-man who was somehow, barely but still standing.
Spider-Man used all his remaining strength to pull back Warren and the transformed Scientist stumbled back and fell down.
Spider-Man fell down on his butt too and looked back at the two enemies we had cough today. But his eyes bulged wife in horror as Nanaue suddenly roared and jumped on Warren who was still trying to rip the webs away from his face.
This time no one was able to stop the Shark as he but down on Warren's head and ripped it off the body along with part of the vertebral column. He didn't bother chewing and simply gulped down the entire head.
Warren's still Transformed but headless body fell down on the ground, spilling blood everywhere. Spider-Man's head went blank for a second. This was probably the most brutal murder he had ever seen and he didn't know what how to handle Nanaue now.
Nanaue wiped off the blood from his face and then looked at Spider-Man who was still sitting some distance on the ground.
A few seconds later, he started walking towards the Superhero.
Peter knew this fight was inevitable. He had stop the Shark. He had committed a murder in broad day light. Even if the Shark was to strong for Spider-Man to fight alone the hero had to keep fighting.
But right at that moment, A sound of something being fired came from a distance and a few bullets hit Nanaue in the face. A few Smoke bombs hit him too and both Spider-man and Nanaue were covered in Smoke.
Spider-Man sensed someone coming next to him from behind he turned to see a shade to white hair and a pair of beautiful eyes.
"What will you ever do without me Spider?" Felicia asked him as she checked his injuries.
Then another roar was heard as the smoke finally settled. Nanaue was seen running away from the scene.
Spider-Man tried exhaled a deep breath he didn't know he was holding in.. He finally allowed his body to relax.
"Let's get you out of here." Black Cat said as she lifted Peter over her shoulder and fired a wire line and jumped away from the scene.
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Sometime later, at Felicia's place.
Spider-Man woke up from a deep sleep. He had fallen unconscious right after they reached Felicia's penthouse.
He slowly adjusted to his surroundings. It was dark all around and the only source of light was from the full moon in the sky.
He slowly got out of the bed and examined himself. He had suffered some big injuries in the fight. But the worst ones were the three injuries he got on his head, chest and left thigh. Those were the places that were completely covered by bandages. Seems like Felicia had treated his injuries while he was passed out.
But what got Peter shocked was his current condition. He was....Naked. Completely Naked.
Other than the bandages there was nothing covering his body.
"You look fine." Suddenly Felicia's voice came from behind him. Peter hurriedly took a pillow to cover his junk and turned around to face her.
She was standing at the door, still wearing the Black Cat costume but there was no mask on his face. She had a somber expression as she continued to look at him, disregarding Peter's flustered expression.
"Uhh... Yeah, I feel great now." Peter tried to start a conversation but Felicia completely crushed his attempt by remaining silent.
And so, they both continued to look at each other in silence for some time before Felicia decided to close the distance between them. She walked close to him and touched his chest softly.
Peter winced when her fingers grazed his wound.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him.
"Fine , really. Trust me, you are much better at this first aid than me." Peter tried to joke.
"I'm sorry I was late to arrive." Felicia apologized for not going to investigate with Spider-Man.
"It's fine. You still saved my ass. Again" Peter smiled.
And so, they were back to the awkward silence.
Felicia kept looking at his bruised face intently and Peter didn't know what to do.
Suddenly, out of no where, Felicia closed the distance between them even more and planted her lips on his.
She kissed him. And slowly, the kiss started to become deep.
Peter was extremely surprised by this but slowly, he too started to return the kiss.
Slowly thy both lost themself to their desires and Felicia's costume, which was the only thing separating thei bodies, was thrown away as they fell down on the bed. Together.
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End.
[A/N :- Not at all happy with this chapter. Cause I wrote this chapter very slowly.
This isn't how I write. I usually take a few days to decide what to write and then take a few free hours and write a complete chapter at once.
But in this chapter, i couldn't find any free time. And i slowly wrote the chap but by but over the span of ten days. So there's a big lack of consistency. The problem was, this was a very long chapter too. 5.5k words acc. to Webnovel.
Oh well. I just wish life gets better.
Anyway, Next chapter is the end of this arc.]