"Keep it steady, you idiot!" One of the masked oni complained, holding one end of a crate.
At the other end was another man who was having difficulty holding the crate as he fixed his oni mask. "It's not my fault! It's hard to see through these masks! Why the hell do they make us wear them?"
"Here, let me give you a hand!" The two heard before feeling a shock of electricity freeze their body before they collapsed to the ground.
As the crate fell, Miles grabbed it and placed it down gently. "Don't want whatever's in there blowing up."
"You chose the wrong time to interfere, Spider-Man!"
Turning his head, Miles saw around a dozen or so men holding rifles and lead pipes/bats.
"What's the matter?" Miles chuckled, sitting down on the crate. Pointing his finger at the thugs, he continued, "Your boss didn't have enough guns for all of ya? Hate to see it when a business does cutbacks. Next thing you know, they'll start doing lay-offs."
"What the hell are you talking about?" One of the masked men growled, raising his rifle and aiming it at Miles.
"Oh, I'm just keeping you distracted while my friend here takes care of your buddies," Miles said, causing the thug to turn.
But as he did he was met with a metal fist which knocked him unconscious.
"Not bad, man." Miles nodded in approval, walking over to Aaron. "Could use a bit more holding back, though. We want to knock them out, not put them in the ER."
"My job doesn't usually require me to restrain myself," Aaron grumbled, clenching his fist.
"Don't beat yourself up. You'll get the hang of it over time." Miles patted his shoulder, walking over to one of the downed thugs, Miles started patting their body, searching for something of use.
Fortunately, he managed to find a phone on the guy.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be protected by a password.
"Damn!"
"What is it?"
Miles sighed, showing Aaron the phone. "Was hoping we could find some info on one of these guys' phones. But we can't do jack with these phones being locked."
"Hand it over," Aaron said, holding his hand out.
Miles passed Aaron the phone and he saw as he pulled a cable from his wrist and connected it to the phone.
A few seconds went by, the phone flashing on and off before it stopped.
"There." Tossing the phone back to Miles, he saw that it had been unlocked.
"Woah, how did you do that?" Miles asked, still in awe at what Aaron had done.
"When you've been in this profession for as long as I've been, you gather a few useful gadgets here and there."
"You'll have to let me borrow some of your tech someday." Miles said, going through the phone. "Nice! This idiot forgot to clear his location history."
"Where to next?"
"There's a few places we can head toward. But before we do anything, we have to get these guys ready for the police." Miles said, passing Aaron back the phone.
"What do I do?"
"You can call the police for me!" Miles replied, tying up two guys together in an inconvenient pose, mostly for his amusement, before continuing to the next.
"Never thought I'd ever have to call the police before." Aaron sighed, dialing 911 on the phone.
...
A few hours had passed. Miles and Aaron crashed every spot that was shown on the thugs' phone.
It was a sleepless night, but Miles felt like he was getting closer to whoever this mastermind was. Something else he had found out was that the two of them had some decent chemistry when it came to fighting together.
"Head's up!" Miles called out, swinging a thug toward Aaron.
Aaron grunted, raising his arm and clothes-lineing the thug, before punching him down to the ground.
"Hell yeah!" Miles exclaimed, dapping up Aaron before going back to clearing the room full of thugs.
Aaron smiled under his mask. For once, he was on the side of good. It was a weird feeling, but he couldn't say he hated it.
Maybe there was some good he could do in this world. And it was all thanks to his nephew. 'Maybe this hero gig ain't that bad.'
...
"Has anyone heard about the group that was sent out an hour ago? They should have been back by now." A man asked the group of armed thugs in front of him.
They all shrugged and shook their heads.
"The boss won't be happy about this." He grumbled, going back to work.
But all of a sudden two figures burst through the windows of the office they were in.
"It's Spider-Man!"
All of the masked thugs raised their weapons at Miles and Aaron who was standing beside him.
"Alrighty, people. Y'all already know the drill." Miles said, stretching his body. "If you drop your weapons and give up willingly, we can skip the ass-kicking."
"Kill them!"
"Eh, thought so." Miles sighed, swinging out of the incoming barrage of bullets.
Aaron dashed toward the wall, using his boots, he started running along the wall before pouncing on one of the masked thugs.
With the momentum, Aaron rolled and managed to throw the gun beneath him at the nearest thug before he continued to attack the rest of the armed men.
'Can't let Uncle Aaron have all the fun.'
Sticking a web to the ceiling, Miles swung toward one of the thugs, kicking him straight in the chest.
As the thug hit the wall, Miles shot him with enough webs to stick him to it, completely immobilizing him.
Turning to the closest thug, Miles shot a web behind him and pulled his body toward the thug, reeling his fist back with an electric charge. His fist connected with the man's mask, which shattered into pieces as he flew back. The body twitched and shook as electricity sparked every once in a while.
"You should stop feeling that in a couple of weeks!" Miles said, moving to the next target.
Both Miles and Aaron continued fighting until they managed to clear the entire floor. However, that wasn't the end of them. The office building they were in had at least a few more levels with the masked Oni thugs still crawling about.
"Come on, this whole place is filled with these Oni guys," Miles said, tapping Aaron's shoulder.
Aaron let out a tired sigh, "Man, we've been at this for almost five hours. How the hell aren't you tired."
"Lots of conditioning. Now let's get moving, these guys ain't gonna beat themselves." Miles said, moving on ahead.
"Dammit," Aaron cursed, chasing after Miles.
Miles and Aaron swept through the building, taking down every single thug they could find.
As they fought through the halls, the two found a man who seemed to be the leader of the group.
He was bigger than Aaron and bulkier too. He wore a rolled-up white shirt that showed off his tattoos and he had a dual pistol holster slung across his shoulders.
"Listen, dude, your little group has been taken care of. I suggest you shut this whole thing down and come quietly." Miles said, getting the man's attention.
"That is where you're wrong, Zizhu." The man chuckled, ashing the cigarette in his hand.
"Uh, the name's actually Spider-Man." Miles replied, not really sure what the man had called him. 'I really need to start learning new languages.'
"You think taking me down will end everything? I am but a mere pawn in the master's plan." The man exclaimed, pulling out his pistols on Miles. "But, killing you...that will help me rise through the ranks.
"Sorry hermano, but you're going to need something better than two pistols to take me out" Miles groaned, shaking his head. His webs attached to the pistols which Miles then yanked away from his hands. "Fine, I'm kinda tired right now so I'm just going to take you down."
With a pair of webs, Miles slingshotted himself toward the big guy, trying to end the fight as fast as possible. But as he drew close, the man's body started to change. Losing all of the color in his skin, it began to turn pitch black while his hair turned a bright white.
Almost like a...negative photo.
Miles' eyes widened. "Oh, shit."
"I will have your head!" The negative man roared, grabbing Miles by his throat. Miles struggled against his vice grip, trying to free himself.
"Let him go!" Aaron ran toward the man, extending his claw-like gauntlets out. When he got near reach, Aaron went for a killing blow, more concerned over keeping his nephew safe.
But before he could slash through the man's neck, Miles generated a blast of electricity which sent the negative man crashing toward the nearest wall.
"You alright, boy?" Aaron asked, placing a hand on Miles' shoulder.
Miles nodded, massaging his neck. "Yeah, but we gotta talk about how you almost killed that guy."
"I ain't gonna stand and watch my nephew get hurt."
"We're supposed to be the good guys, Unc," Miles said, standing up. He looked ahead and saw as the Negative Man stepped out from the crater in the wall, looking even more pissed off. "But we can talk about it later. Right now we need to bring this big bastard down."
"You have any ideas?"
Miles smiled under his mask. "Just keep on hitting him hard until he falls."
"I think I can get behind that."
As the two prepared to fight this new enemy, many questions crossed through Miles' head.
What the hell was Mister Negative doing in this timeline?
Who the hell was he beefing with?
Would he be able to take him down?
Worrying about things was starting to become second nature. But there was nothing Miles could do at the moment so he decided to put those worries at the back of his head. After all, there was a man infused with negative energy who needed a beating.
'Man, being a hero is never easy.'
...
(Author's Note)
This week is the start of my Monday and Friday schedule. Hopefully, this schedule will help me release chapters in an orderly fashion. Just to make sure, I live in Cali and as of the time I'm uploading this chapter it's still barely 6 p.m. Webnovel has a whole different timezone than what I'm at, so if you guys were confused about that, there's your answer.
As for who I'm planning on adding next as a villain, I was thinking about choosing someone from the Sinister Six. Doc Ock is currently locked up, so she's out of the picture. But that still leaves characters like Vulture, Sandman, Kraven, Electro, and Mysterio.
However, I feel like the current Miles doesn't have anywhere near the level of experience to fight them. Except for maybe Vulture or Electro. I could always do the ol' prison break and have Doc Ock come back, but that's a maybe. If I introduce Vulture, I could also make it so Tiana Toomes makes an appearance. For those of you who don't know, she's Vulture's granddaughter and Miles' current girlfriend in the comics.
And speaking of Miles and comics, have you guys been keeping up with the recent Miles Morales run? Couldn't believe it when I saw that they made my boy a vampire. Got him fighting demons in the recent issues.
I feel like it's kinda weird, but interesting as well. Almost has me thinking of how Peter started acting differently when he got the symbiote suit. albeit with a bit more need to suck blood.
What does suck is that I'm gonna have to wait for a few more months for the next issue to release. But that's how long these things usually take. But I can't wait to see how Miles interacts with Deadpool and his daughter as they're on their way to kill him.