Chapter Text
The Vulture’s claws grazed inches away from Spider-Woman’s face. He flies past her and turns a 180 to come at her again, razor sharp wings gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Spider-Woman got to her feet and ran straight at The Vulture, ducking at the last second before his claws closed around her throat, and shot a web right in the middle of his back. She attaches it to the ground, and he stops dead mid-flight, a snarl of rage ripping out of him. He goes to cut it with his wing, but she’s faster, webbing up the wing and swinging around Vulture. She cocoons him with his wings pinned against his body, and kicks him in the chest, sending him tumbling backwards into the scaffolding. She shoots more webbing at him, anchoring him to it.
Spider-Woman lands on the edge of the building.
“Well, that was fun Adrian, we should do it again some time. But for now, I’ll let the Raft security deal with you.”
He struggles against the webbing, cursing her out. Impressed by all the different old man swear words he knows she watches, amused, for a few seconds. Then she stands, blows him a kiss, and aims to swing away.
A strange buzzing crawls up the back of her neck. She whips back around to the Vulture, thinking he got out of the webs already, but he’s still there. No, her spider-sense was alerting her to something else. Something on the building next to them.
Too late.
She dodges the first one, using her hands to launch herself off the mechanical arm. But at the same time she lands another sweeps her legs out from under her and promptly closes around her ankles. She’s lifted off her feet, upside down. She raises her arms, but her hands are quickly pinned to her sides, webshooters inaccessible.
He raises her up eye-level, sun reflecting off his dark glasses and lip curling.
“Hello little spider.”
“Hiiiii Otto, long time no see.” She smirks behind her mask, and jerks her head in Toomes’ direction. “Don’t tell me you're working with that riff-raff. I thought you had better taste than that.”
“I’d be more worried about your current predicament than my business, if I were you.”
Piper laughs.
“Awwww that’s not very nice. Besides, I think you should be the one that’s worried.” She purrs flirtatiously, a certain tingle making her hair stand on end.
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Because both of you are about to have a major headache.”
Otto sneers at her.
“What are you ta-”
He’s cut off as the Vulture swoops in, free from the webbing, and Piper twists just the right way that his claws close around the mechanical arm holding her. The arms jerk around in an attempt to throw him off, dropping Piper in the process. Before either of them can gain their bearings she webs them both square in the face and knocks their heads together. They fall to their knees, both clutching their head in their hands. One of Otto’s tentacles shoots out and wraps its claw around Vulture’s neck, and they both start shouting at each other.
“Well boys I’d love to stay and play, but you know what they say, three’s company.”
She backflips off the building, falling into a freedive meant to get her to the ground as quickly as possible. Just before hitting the ground she shoots out, and swings up, rocketing past streets and away from her two foes.
Had it been anyone else teaming up with the Vulture, she probably would’ve stayed. But given that it was Otto, it was too much of a distraction to pretend they were simply enemies. On his own, she could’ve taken him. But the Vulture was particularly bloodthirsty for her, and being distracted in a fight with him could be fatal.
She had a strange relationship with Otto Octavius. They had been friends once, lab partners in college, and maybe they would’ve been something more given time, and then the accident happened. Doctor Octopus became an enemy of Spider-Woman, a fight she was severely unprepared for. During the climax of their battle he had managed to injure her. He would have killed her too, had she not removed her mask so he could see her face. Things had been awkward since then. In their few meetings over the past few years, it had been a confusing balancing act to fight him. Neither ever put their all into it, always held back, and there was always a strange familiarity between them. It was just too much to pretend that they didn’t know each other like the back of their hands. But at the same time, it was impossible to admit the way she felt about him. How would that even work?
Piper shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts that had plagued her countless nights. Instead, she focused on the encounter she’d just fled.
What was Otto planning with Adrian Toomes?
It wasn’t like him to team up with other villains, and he’d been off the grid for months now. As had Vulture now that she thought about it, as well as a few other of her greatest foes. Now, two of them had reappeared at the same time, and seemed to be working together. The situation made her uneasy, and she couldn’t help worry about it. Not just what they would come up with together, but also for herself. Otto had never revealed her identity to anyone. She didn’t know why, maybe as a blackmail chip he hadn’t seen fit to use yet, but she was grateful for it.
Her phone started to ring, and she perched on the corner of the nearest building.
“Hey Uncle Ben, what’s up?”
She listened as he described in excruciating detail the state of his vegetable garden. The tomatoes had been planted too close together and wouldn’t reach their full size. He was having a problem with the blooms being eaten off the squash, and he was convinced the neighbor's cat was using the bean patch as a litter box. He didn’t remember gardening being this hard when May was still alive. Piper shakes her head. Aunt May took care of the garden while Uncle Ben “helped” by handing her the trowel, or her gloves, or drowning the garden. May eventually put Piper on hose duty. Finally he asked what he had called for in the first place, Uncle Ben always believed in making small talk before asking for a favor, lest you were seen as rude. He was having a new furniture set delivered tomorrow, and wondered if she would help him move the old set to the curb for the trash disposal in the morning.
“Of course, Uncle Ben, I’ll be there soon. Love you.” She hangs up and sets on her way, trying to clear her head. Uncle Ben would see the turmoil on her face right away, and it wasn’t something she wanted him asking about.
Piper not only moves the furniture out to the curb, but she also rescues those poor garden plants from their demise, makes dinner for Uncle Ben, and manages to get home before midnight for a change, having stopped a mugging on the way home, of course.
She collapses onto her bed, which she never has time to make, wraps herself in the covers, and passes out immediately.