Earth 2018.928

"Are you sure the air filters are working?"

Tyler Stone covered his nose with a napkin as he looked down at Neo-Musutafu. It would cost two hundred creds, or seventy-three thousand New Yen in Japan's currency, to fix if the damn filter was broken and his sensors would continue to pick up the polluted stench from outside.

He hated it whenever things broke down. All he could see was their cost. It was the main reason why he hardly ever went out into the slums.

The CEO of Alchemax found himself doing this more often whenever he was staying at one of his penthouses atop a city's tallest skyscraper, which was basically all the time. The rollers weaved between the buildings, their iridescent bodies standing out beautifully in the sea of electric lights. In the distance he could see the carbon converters spewing out steam and oxygen for the masses. The gleaming neon of the billboards acted as a second sun in the night, reminding the little people about Alchemax's GenImplant bio-subscription program and the new Gran Torino XI. He could already see the trillion creds of profit pouring in from the new company-funded movie, blowing away the production costs and funneling right back into their pockets.

It amazed him how the little people could not see how much Alchemax valued them.

A fully grown adult spent as little as fifty creds a day while a child could spend up to two hundred creds a week. They worked in their factories or in Alchemax-sponsored shops, and if not with them then one of their rivals. Their contribution helped make the world turn and put food substitute on the table.

How could anyone see this symbiotic relationship as nothing but profitable for both parties involved?

And if some of the little people couldn't cut it, so what?

"Aw, quit your whinin'. It's not that bad. Hell, my mom said…"

Tyler glared at the newest 'star' of Alchemax's Hero division. Katsuki Bakugou glared back, wearing his full-body black nanoarmor that had gaps on the shoulder-area that were only connected to the arms with tiny tubes. The tubes blended in with the arms and snaked into his two smooth black gauntlets that showed the levels of sweat it had collected so far. On the center of his black chest was the orange-colored insignia of a starburst explosion, matching the tips of his clawed fingers and a similar insignia on his belt.

Three grenades hung from the sides of his belt. His feet, which were currently resting atop the smart table, were wearing combat boots. His mask was almost crow-like, black with orange highlights but with openings that showed his sneer, his glaring eyes, and his blond sunburst-like hair.

"Five hundred creds. Plus at least ten for the spray bottle we will have to use to properly clean the thing." Tyler thought bitterly before his eyes went to the Hero that Alchemex marketed as Explodokill. Very popular with the early teens to twenties crowd. "Two trillion cred box office at least…"

"I do not care what your mother said." He placed his napkin into his hundred cred white suit while combing back his natural hair. It, aside from his eyes, were the only things that were not prosthetic. Tyler was proud of both and would not mar them with technology unless they began to depreciate.

He walked to the sofa that was on the other side of the table and sat, crossing his legs and steepling his fingers. "Your life story is not why I've called you here personally."

Bakugou scoffed. "Yeah, and why the hell did you do that? I had a commercial to star in and…"

"ImerPlus can afford to be a bit behind schedule since we are footing the bill." It annoyed him that he was the one doing this, but it was The Chairman's wish. If it were up to him, Tyler would have let some grunt deal with this punk. "We have a job for you that will erase your outstanding debt."

"Why the hell do I wanna do that? It's a little bit off of my paycheck. Let your own extras handle crap like this."

"This is not a request."

That wiped the arrogant look off of Bakugou's face. He stared at Tyler for a minute, his prosthetic eyes had little beads of red in the center of the pupils. Not many of the little people would know this, but Tyler had trained himself to read the emotions of clients from the lights in their eyes.

But it died down. Bakugou clenched his teeth and hissed, "Fine. What do you want?"

Tyler nodded and took out a small thumb drive from his pocket. An archaic device barely worth a single cred on the open market, but it did the job.

"The shock is that?"

'A physical device that allows for data storage. Hardly anyone uses the ports anymore, which means that it's perfect for transporting information without the risk of cloud hackers accessing it remotely." He waited patiently for Bakugou to swallow his pride, get his dirty feet off the table, and grab it from his hands. "Take care not to damage it."

"Yeah, yeah I got ya." The younger man twirled the portable media in his fingers. "Where am I taking this th-?"

Tyler watched as Bakugou stopped and frowned. "Something the matter?"

"Someone's here with us." Bakugou attempted to place the thumb drive on his belt, but a white substance shot from the wall to his right and clung to it. "You!"

"Yup!" Tyler watched as the air in front of the six hundred cred French painting flickered, revealing a woman wearing a familiar suit.

One that caused Alchemax to write so many reports these past few years.

It was a full body nanosuit that he vaguely recalled was stolen from their Research and Development division four years ago. It was dark blue from head to toe, save for the giant red spider insignia on the front with jagged legs whose body looked vaguely like a skull. Red spiked jutted out from the shoulders and descended down the arms to two curved forearm blades. Around her neck was a red spiked choker, which matched the two headphone jacks that descended from the sides of her head and the jagged teardrops that acted as her eyes.

The only thing that broke from the suit's parameters was the electric guitar slung on her back whosered polished surface gleamed in the office's lights.

Alchemax's biggest headache at the moment.

The one and only Spider-Woman.

The mask at first seemed to cover her entire face, but the front of the mask broke and revealed two lips that pulled back in a smirk.

"Can't believe we would meet again so soon, sellout."

"Shut your damn mouth!" Bakugou didn't bother to wait for an order. He instead raised both of his arms and pointed them to the woman. Tiny balls shot out of his gauntlets with a thunk sound like an old grenade launcher. The woman jumped to the side as they made contact with the painting. In short order, the painting and the wall were destroyed in a small hailstorm of explosions. "And I ain't a sellout, I just see reality!"

"Yeah, sure!" Spider-Woman placed the thumb drive on her waist and the suit absorbed it. Once that was done, she flung a web at the wall behind Bakugou to catapult herself towards him. She swiped at him with her right hand, her nails elongating into talons ready to draw blood. Bakugou responded by raising his arm and redirecting the swipe. "Doing whatever the masters upstairs want you do do!"

Her earphone jack wrapped around his right arm and plugged itself into his gauntlet. "Beating up protestors sick of being underpaid and mistreated…"

The gauntlet let out a shrill cry as sparks flew out. Bakugou grit his teeth and moved his left arm to her head, but she ducked and tackled him down on top of the table. "Killing Daredevil because he kicked ya in the nuts while you blew off half his shocking face…"

Bakugou screamed and headbutted his assailant. Her head snapped back and with a shove she landed on the couch. Bakugou was aiming his left arm at her, his fingers outstretched and sparks flying from his palm.

The woman growled at him. "Tell me, does any of that sound like the stuff a Hero would do? All Might would be asha-!"

"SHUT UP!"

She shot a web into his palm and pulled Bakugou forward, hooking her right arm around Bakugou's outstretched limb to avoid the massive explosion that shot out.

But she was likely burned from the heat alone.

Spider-Woman didn't let up, though. Pulling back her left arm, she punched him several times in the face, breaking his prosthetic nose, teeth, and some facial hardware if the sagging skin was any indication. It would likely cost a pretty penny to repair all that.

While she was doing that, the woman's ear jacks went into the working gauntlet and short circuited it, fully disabling Bakugou's arsenal and the one person that would halt her escape before Alchemax Security ran up the stairs with two rollers outside the window.

She dropped him and ran to the windows where Tyler had retreated. He pushed one open, indicating her to go out that way.

But she instead flipped the bird at him, removed the guitar from her back, and smashed it against a closed window. It and the guitar shattered in a rain of reinforced glass, wood, and steel, the contents of which fell down to the street below, followed shortly by Spider-Woman herself.

She turned around, likely seeing his annoyed gaze at her as her suit's thermo-optic camouflage feature began to work. First, her limbs disappeared, followed shortly by her body and head. Her face was all that was left, and she let out a short laugh as she passed her hand over it.

Then, Spider-Woman was gone.

"Waste of credits…" Tyler growled as he surveyed the room and ignored the wheezing Bakugou getting to his feet. He was already racking up the cost for repairs and replacements. "If I were to get this suit dry cleaned now and ready within the hour it would cost me two thousand New Yen…"

"I-I'll…" Bakugou coughed, blood substitute seeping out of his nose and mouth. "I'll get her. She can't have gotten far…"

"No, you won't."

Alchemax's Hero looked at him, startled. "What the shock are you…?"

"In fact, you are going to forget our conversation ever happened."

"Screw that!" Bakugou raged, getting onto his feet and stamping to Tyler. His finger jabbed at Tyler's chest as he shouted, "I'll round up Kirishima and the others, and we're going to hunt down that bitch and…!"

"Your mother… her debts are rather high, aren't they?" Tyler asked casually, taking some pleasure from the shock in the Hero's eyes. "I would assume they are, since it takes much to forge documents and move anywhere out of the slums. Some interested parties would probably like to meet her and talk about them."

"What… how…?"

"And your father… a fine worker, but he makes too many minor mistakes." He brushed Bakugou's finger off of his chest and casually mentioned, "If one were to look at it from a certain point of view, they might misinterpret those mistakes as company espionage."

Bakugou said nothing for a second, his body trembling and mouth agape. He waited for almost half a moment before the younger man spoke.

"Nothing happened here."

"Correct." He pointed to the door. "Now go. You have a commercial to make."

The Hero turned around and left, his hands clenched in anger but knowing full well that there was nothing he could do about it.

Tyler didn't bother seeing him off. Instead, he turned to the windows and covered his nose with his napkin again as the foul polluted air hit his nostrils in full force.

Underneath it, he was smiling.

Phase One, after all these years, was complete.

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Musutafu 2099

Okay, let's do this one more time.

My name is Kyouka Jirou. I was born with a Quirk that turned my earlobes into jacks that can embed themselves and transmitting my heartbeat into pretty much anything. I'm nineteen years old, a college dropout, and a rising star in the underground punk rock scene.

Which is pretty impressive, considering how the genre is practically illegal nowadays.

Lemme start at the beginning.

Ninety-nine years ago, Quirks came into existence with a glowing baby in China being the first. The birth of these superpowered beings made the world spiral into chaos. You had guys that used their powers to do whatever the hell they wanted, guys that tried to stop them, and governments that didn't care what their intentions are and tried to kill all of them.

It was a complete mess. Countries practically collapsed while the big superpowers of the world tried their damndest to maintain law and order.

Then, they swooped in.

Alchemax, called "The Company" nowadays by the brain-dead masses, had managed to build their own private armies that swooped in and cleaned up cities, one after the other, and "handed back" control to the government. To those who were scared and confused, they were basically like shocking messiahs who only wanted to help those who couldn't help themselves. What remained of the governments passed laws and gave them money that allowed them to do whatever the hell they wanted so long as they made everything "sane" again.

Other big-name companies followed the leader and played the same game, wanting to get in on the sweet deal that Alchemax eked out for themselves.

Ya see where this is heading?

Yeah, these bastards brought order. They also managed to gain enough power that they practically owned the countries they saved.

But they weren't looking for control, or at least not make it so shocking blatant so that the public might get worried. They "handed back" power, but it was a joke. They controlled everything. They built up cities so that they could advertise and sell more of their crap. They wrote laws that allowed them to pollute as much as they want so they could sell shoddy material.

Worst of all, they prettied up their stranglehold of the people by commercializing Heroes.

Heroes basically did nothing if there wasn't a way for them to get hits on social media. When they did get involved, they brutalized those they were sent to stop, be it some low-level thugs or people critical of the megacorporations. They starred in movies, television, commercials, and even had their own breakfast cereal. Nobody questioned them because, according to the various trailers they starred in, they were our protectors.

More like fascists in colorful costumes.

Those that didn't 'get with the program' became mercenary groups that sold their services in tiered programs. Only those who paid the big bucks were allowed to be saved on time.

And don't even get me started on the police. A bunch of corrupt pigs that people have to bribe unless they want a boot to the face. They only did whatever their corporate overlords wanted them to do.

Anyways, that's where I come in. Ninety-nine years later in this overpopulated, overpolluted hellhole of Neo-Musutafu.

My dad was the singer of a rock band, but everyday I would see him drinking and bitterly muttering over how Alchemax's AIs wrote the lyrics and notes of all his songs. He would sometimes cry in Mom's arms, saying that singing glorified commercials was the only way we could live comfortably.

So I never had any real positive thoughts towards the thing that ran our lives.

But one day, while touring one of Alchemax's labs on a field trip, I was bitten by one of their pet genetic projects. A spider whose venom granted me a ton of powers like wall-crawling, super-strength, shooting shocking webs out of my fingertips, and the ability to sharpen my nails into claws.

I kept them a secret because I didn't want to end up another cut-up exhibit in Alchemax's shocking lab.

But someone did find out.

The Resistance contacted me. They were a bunch of guys who took up the names and identities of superheroes from fiction while remixing them. They expressed themselves through music written by nobody but themselves, graffiti, protecting the innocent free of charge, and beating up every shocking sell-out Hero that tried to stop them.

They wanted me to join in and put my powers and music skills to good use.

And I accepted.

They gave me an experimental suit that they stole from Alchemax with cloaking and a lot of different features, and I wear it both on patrol and during my live concerts with my band Deep Dope.

And now, for the past few years, I've been the one and only Spider-Woman!

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When the SkyWindow X9 powered on to make Kyouka Jirou greet the day, she was introduced to a morning sky that looked like it was tuned to a dead channel.

Not that it was any different from the other mornings.

She groaned and sat up, letting the blanket fall off her naked form as she rubbed her hands over her face. "My head…"

She had stayed up most of the night tailing Tyler Stone. She had to keep her cool, lest she give her position away to a guard that paid attention to a shimmering part of the ceiling and wanted a raise. To be honest, she would have preferred if she webbed the slime ball, pulled him up to eye level, and beat him within an inch of his life. He deserved it for all the lives he had ruined with a few instant messages and a VidCall.

He was a monster that cared only for profit, more machine than even the Gestalt robots that worked in the street shops.

"Still, at least I was able to smash his stupid window and cost him a few bucks." Not enough to make the guy truly pissed, but it was the thought that counts.

She saw that the lenses Glass she had set beside her slab were glowing red and knew that her "partner in crime" was growing antsy about something. Reaching out, she took them and put them over her eyes. "What is it, David?"

His form materialized in a flurry of blue binary, condensing into the form of a Caucasian male in his mid twenties with frazzled brown hair and glowing blue eyes. His skinny frame was held by a pair of tight torn jeans, an open leather jacket with a mess of shiny metal buttons adorning it, and a chain necklace with a lock dangling from his neck.

She helped to redesign his appearance and personality matrix, taking his form from the late and great Sid Vicious and giving him a personality that went well with her own.

"Mornin' love. Have a nice day of thievery that was capped off with a happy endin'?"

In hindsight, she should've left out the bad gutter English accent.

"Oh, shut up." Kyouka rolled off the slab and her feet touched the rug, which only delayed the feeling of coldness that coiled through her flesh. She reached into the container under the slab that contained her panties and randomly grabbed a pair. "What do you have for me?"

"Nuthin' much. Cap sent another message askin' if your headin' to the club later today. " David's form flickered as she reached through him and picked up one of her discarded jeans. "Twenty. Twenty bloody messages askin' if you're gonna show in the club you always go to. Ya know, I think he has a crush on you."

"Don't kid about that."

"Come on, Kyouka. The guy's pretty persistent. " The AI projection smirked. "Ya know, if you're short on some creds and had a serious talk with your girlfriend, I bet you three could arrange somethin' that woul-!"

Kyouka grabbed her pillow and threw it through where the projection was standing. But it being something that only appeared in the Glass, all she did was make the projectile pass through empty air.

David let out a guffaw of laughter while growing his head back. She merely sneered as she began walking to her bathroom. "I ask myself every day why I enabled your humor protocol. I should reset you to factory settings, you perverted AI."

"Then hurry up and get to it, love!"

When she reached the door she heard a low moan and turned around. The bundle that had laid beside her in the slab was curling up in the blankets, becoming a huge lump that took up most of the space in the right side of the TempurMat. Kyouka smiled to herself and continued, the automatic screen closing behind her.

"She needs her sleep. Unlike me, she makes money busting heads."

As she turned the faucet on, waiting patiently as the filtration system turned the brown liquid sludge no sane person would drink into clear water, she turned to David. "So, got any good news for me?"

David gave a noncommittal shrug. "Nuthin'. There isn't anything in Alchemax's database about that thumb drive. No records of the transportation job, no confirmation email about custom hardware being delivered, and no receipts from Stone's collection and you know how damned persistent he is about saving every one of those."

"Well, that means the thing has something that Alchemax doesn't want on the record." Kyouka began brushing her teeth; the chemicals in her toothpaste did wonders keeping the things white but she had to really dig through the Web to find a brand that actually prevented tooth decay. The rest simply painted over the defects.

She spat the contents of her mouth out and began combing her hair. "But the real question is… why the hell hasn't Alchemax been knocking down every door trying to find it?"

"Ya got me." David stared up into space for a second and a short notification popped into the corner of her vision. "Synthia shower's scheduled for three in the afternoon, so ya better make plans for a cafe or somethin'."

"Ugh, perfect." Kyouka hated Synthia, the crap the Megacorps 'gifted' to lower-income residents of the slums who couldn't afford even food substitute. It smelled like ass and yet it apparently tasted like honey. Only problem was that it contained some addictive drugs and when someone was hooked they used what little cash they had to buy the stronger version in stores.

It was disgustingly effective at getting more customers.

Her mind wandered back to the thumb drive. Just thinking about that made her feel antsy. What the hell could this thumb drive contain? Company secrets, perhaps? Dirt that Alchemax wanted to keep hidden even from themselves? And how shocked-up must these secrets be that money alone can't bury it?

"-ka? Kyouka?"

Kyouka turned around and exited the bathroom to see Momo Yaoyorozu untangle herself from the blanket. Her luscious black hair was a mess, one foot stuck out from the small opening of the far end of the artificial cloth cone. The edge of the blanket was the only thing that managed to keep her breasts tantalizingly hidden from Kyouka's view.

Momo was blinking out the sleep from her eyes and gave Kyouka a tired smile. "You didn't wake me up."

She closed the distance between them, leaned over the edge of the slab, and placed a kiss on Momo's lips. "Come on, little old me? Some punk interrupting the avenging Hero's well-earned rest?"

"Oh, stop." Momo pushed her away and stretched her arms. "What time is it?"

"Around ten, I think." She took off the Glass and ignored David's squawk of protest. "Pretty late."

Momo groaned and collapsed back on the slab. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Kyouka? I'm so late and Uwabami's not going to let me hear the end of it!"

"Hey, I got up only a few minutes before you." She leaned down and fished a bra and t-shirt from the cabinets. The t-shirt was black and had the painted-on logo of Deep Dope proudly displayed on the center. "And it was your choice to sneak into my place…"

"Sneak in!? You gave me the key!"

"...which does not have servants who wake you up with a complete breakfast and coffee straight from the Cuban Islands." She could not help but laugh at her lover's rapidly reddening cheeks. "An apartment, I might add, you have made repeatedly clear to me is 'unbecoming of a modern woman'."

She received a playful pillow to the face for that remark. It was true. Her apartment's walls were lined with the hollow posters of old Rock and Punk bands from the 21st Century. The walls had splashes of color, because she refused to conform to one. Old instrument parts were either propped up against the wall or littering the floor, intermingled with the occasional shawarma wrapper.

"I'll have to say that the latest beta I downloaded disabled my alarm." Momo kept clutching onto the blanket to cover herself while reaching for her clothes.

"Will she buy it?"

"Yeah, she already knows that my family is the first to get the updates Detnarat-Fujikawa puts out."

"Tell ya what." Kyouka tossed the pillow back on the slab and moved to the kitchen. "I'll make up for my poor showing and treat you to breakfast, m'lady."

"Oh, stop!"

As she dropped the egg mix into the pan and added the amount of water prescribed, she turned to see Momo parting the right side of her hair to reveal a sleek white panel with three red glowing lights forming a triangle. Once she presses the center, the lights turned blue and her eyes glazed over as she went into the Web.

"Always eerie." But it wasn't as bad as the archaic Jack system. That required the user to plug wires into their temples and along their spines. Their mouths hung open and drooled, transferring their minds into the digital information matrix.

Some became lost and their bodies would have to be disposed of. Their bodies were little more than "Dead Zones" tuned to channels no longer on the air.

Momo moaned, her face falling in despair.

"What's up?" She transferred the burnt eggs to a plate and began seasoning it with pepper and a ton of salt, making it barely edible.

"The last cow died." Her girlfriend pressed on the side of her head and turned off her system. "And last week it was the last cat… Every week it seems more of those animals we see in the digital books are going away forever."

Kyouka handed her a plate and sat on the bed. "Not according to GG. They'll just whip up an Android for the low, low price of practically your entire savings."

"I actually saw a dog, did you know that?" Momo stirred her eggs, her expression smooth and composed. "A St. Bernard, to be exact. Scruffy was his name, and he was so playful and energetic despite his old age. He wanted so badly to play with me and my parents, but his owner kept him in a special room that blocked off all visitors save for himself. He… he was practically a trophy to that man."

"Damn…" The Resistance and her had rescued many different animals in similar situations, sending them to a secret facility where they would be cared for and not bought and sold like pieces of tech. But it was always heartbreaking seeing the living, breathing creatures become just another commodity.

"My parents got me a WildEarth VII version of that same dog for my Birthday. I named him Nana, after All Might's teacher." Momo quietly chewed on her eggs. "It wasn't the same. I could tell."

"Don't blame you. They can try all they want, but those damn suits can't perfectly replicate a living thing."

"Sometimes, when I connect to the ImerPlus system, I have it visualize a world where you and I have a dog in a…"

Kyouka's eyes widened. "What!?" She set aside her own dish and grasped Momo's shoulders, startling her. "What the hell did you say!?"

"K-Kyouka?"

"ImerPlus!? What the shock are you using that for!?" She demanded through clenched teeth. "That crap is no good! You've heard the stories about how people rewrite their entire shocking lives and don't return! They exit out of the system and continue on believing they are someone else!"

"I don't do that!" Momo protested, her eyes frightened at first but hardening. "I use the third party visualizer to observe realities! I don't directly upload them into my wetware!" She placed her hand on Kyouka's cheek. "Kyouka, I would never try to write over anything. I don't regret a single thing about my life. I just…" She turned her gaze, a look of shame passing through her face. "I just wanted to know what it would be like if we didn't have to sneak around."

Realization washed through her like the standard ten-second sanitization shower. "Oh…"

Momo was a Hero, which meant that her life was practically micromanaged by her parents' megacorp. They decided what commercials she would appear in, what shows she would star in, and what crimes she would fight for maximum exposure.

It also meant that Heroes only dated, and married, whoever they selected.

Currently she was publicly dating the Hero Icy-Hot, real name Shouto Todoroki. A playboy of the highest order and son of the Number One Hero, Endeavor. The guy didn't give a crap about what Momo did during her nights or mornings, so long as she was there for public events, the occasional team-up, and a date where the paparazzi had been gathered.

She chafed under the life that Detnarat-Fujikawa placed on her, which was why she frequented the underground nightclubs and the poorer sections of Neo-Musutafu for a release.

Kyouka had been the luckiest girl in the world. She had done an amazing concert and decided to get wasted with her bandmates in celebration. Once she had been seeing triple, she decided to hit on the prettiest girl in the bar which happened to be Momo.

She had managed to hit the jackpot, and what would've been an anonymous one-night stand turned into something more.

But they had known the risks of what they were getting into.

"At least, that's what I told myself."

With a weary groan, Kyouka squeezes Momo's hands. "Alright… alright, I get it. Look, I'm sorry I got mad. It's… well, try not to do that crap, okay? We're still going to make this work, and if your company finds out…" She flashed Momo her teeth. "We'll fight them together, okay? Just you and me, two badass girls against the world."

She wished that she could see the complete confidence in Momo's eyes.

She wished that she gave a more firm "Right!"

But Momo didn't give either.

Instead, she weakly squeezed Kyouka's hand and muttered, "I wish I had your confidence. It's the reason I fell in love with you."

Crestfallen, she got up and went to the door. Her filter coat, black with studs on the shoulders, was hanging to its right. "I gotta go. Meeting with the guys at three."

She put it on, zippering up and interlinking the filter collars. When she received a gust of cool air to her nose and mouth, she began breathing and put on the Glass.

"Be safe, okay?" Momo asked, her adorable pleading face breaking Kyouka's heart. "I love you."

"Yeah, I love you too."

Kyouka closed the door to her apartment, knowing full well that Momo would be sneaking out in ten minutes. If they were to meet in the street while she was out on patrol, Momo would pretend she doesn't know her. If she found her as Spider-Woman, Momo would try her damned best to take her down for her bosses.

"As if I couldn't hate the bastards any more."

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Kyouka had acquired the habit of looking to the towering skyscrapers and grey sky that loomed over her.

She knew that the buildings were full of busy worker bees toiling their lives away for the megacorps. Writing and checking data, taking in the customer support calls where they would give bullshit non-answers to fix their problems, and blasting out vid calls to get a new customer. At the very top were the penthouses for the company big-wigs, where they indulged in any sick act of hedonism that caught their fancy in between meetings and ruining lives for profit.

Projected on the sides of them were neon screens and holo-advertisements for whatever they were selling. New prosthetics that a good portion of the population would never be able to afford, new movies that glorified Heroes' actions against enemies of the status quo, software and hardware patches for people's brain implants, and the occasional news report where the megacorps busted the latest troublemaker.

"Riots broke out in Nueva York earlier today after lower-class citizens began protesting against food shortages…"

"Alchemax CEO Tyler Stone dismissed reports that members of 'The Resistance' are in any way affecting the company's bottom line. He said, "These young men and women will get bored within another week. Youthful rebellion hardly ever changes reality…"

"...Sakura was revealed to be the head of the cyber-terrorist organization known as Medjed. Cyber-Nosta's security force, working in conjunction with the police and the Hero Ingenium took her into custody. The young hacker now faces twenty-five years in the Cubes…"

"The European province of Latveria is in turmoil as the civil war within its borders stretches onto the second day…"

She tried her best to keep her anger in check while focusing on other things.

Rollers zipped in between the buildings, civilian transport and AI-controlled taxis transporting businessmen and civilians to wherever they wanted to go. Occasionally, a tourist blimp puttered by with neon advertisements flashing on their sides. The closest one to Kyouka had the words "Earth Too Crowded? Off-World Is The Place To Be!" It flashed in Japanese, Russian, English, Arabic, and Hungarian in five-second intervals, the damn thing knowing the native language of the people beneath it through cookies subtly downloaded into their wetware.

As if on cue, a hologram of the Hero Captain Celebrity appeared in her vision. He was floating in the air, grinning and pointing finger guns at her.

"Hey there, Kyouka Jirou!" The advertisement shouted, mimicking the real thing's voice perfectly. "You look like the type that can use a vacation! Get close to the sun on the garden beaches of the Venus colonies! With tours hosted by Alchemax, you can…"

"Shock off!" David appeared out of nowhere and kicked the hologram of the Hero, causing it to burst into cubes that disintegrated in a shower of binary. Kyouka brought her head down and looked to the crowded sidewalk. "Sorry, love. That one slipped by me."

"They must've figured out some people were using older tech to avoid advertisements." Kyouka mused as she passed through the throngs of people. Her ears filled with the sounds of her native language intermingled with English and Arabic. Vendors cried out selling their wares, stating that their grilled halloumi or takoyaki were the best in the city as a Big Bang Burger loomed over them.

"It's a goddamn shame. As if we aren't being blasted enough by their shi-" David paused. "Someone's trying to hack me."

She did her best to maintain a stoic expression, but her lips twitched. "Someone trying to get into my account?"

"No. Just me." He flickered slightly, stretching and then returning to his original form in a matter of seconds. "Pretty advanced, too. Trying to insert new commands into my code."

"Origin?"

"Three places to be precise." Pointed behind her, and when Kyouka turned her head she saw three distinct figures in the crowd.

There was a man around her age, tall and muscular frame that was hidden under a white dress shirt and black tie that matched his black trenchcoat. His messy dark green hair and shaggy beard matched the green eyes that stared directly at her.

He was flanked by two women, each around her age. Both were Heroes from the look of their costumes. The one to his left was dressed like a nun, albeit the skirt was short and ran up to the middle of her thighs while her black stockings came up to her knees. What skin it did reveal was the chrome flesh of prosthetics. A black facemask covered her mouth and nose while green vines descended from her hair. A golden cross and a police badge hung from her neck, glinting in the artificial light.

The other one was wearing a much less complicated outfit. A one-piece full-body leather suit with three burning blue lines running down her sides and thighs. The leather spy suit did wonders to show off her figure, even though it blended in with the black trenchcoat she wore which matched the black visor over her eyes. Her orange hair was tied into a ponytail, swaying with every step she took.

On both her and the guy's waists were police badges while all three of them had holstered M-2099 handguns.

"The hell…?" Cops trailing her? She had suspected the possibility of Alchemax's goons tracing David and pinpointing her location, but not the police who basically got them coffee.

David provided a small rundown of data for each of them in text. The guy in the middle was Detective Izuku Midoriya of the Japanese Police Department Omni subdivision. The other two were also part of the same department, Sergeant Ibara Shiozaki and Detective Itsuka Kendou. They had the strange Hero-like codenames of "Sister Vine" and "Battle Fist" respectively.

"But if they're Heroes, why the hell are they a part of the police?" Why not become independent or sign their souls away to the megacorps?

That didn't matter now. What mattered is that they were tailing her, and that would be a problem if they followed her to the club. She glanced at the clock. Less than two minutes before the Synthia shower began.

"Make the area blind, David."

"Ya got it, love."

In a millisecond, everyone on the block she was walking on and the one adjacent to her gasped or let out a hiss of annoyance. They muttered obscenities while tapping the sides of their head or their watches, trying desperately to get their systems back online. They twisted about, moving their bodies to see if they could get back their signal by bringing themselves to a new altitude.

It was this moment that Kyouka struck.

Aiming carefully, she brought her left hand up and fired a web-line from her index and middle finger through the armpit of a Middle-Eastern businessman and between some rich girl who got a nearly full synthetic body with a chrome finish. The web hit Kendou's foot, pinning it to the ground.

"Shit!" She heard the woman let out a cry of frustration, and she took this opportunity to shove through the crowd and duck into a cafe. Kyouka passed by the counter where the line to the counter grumbled in frustration and a teenager tapped on the disabled server android's head. People that already got their drinks or snacks were ignoring her as she made her way to the side-entrance.

The alarm of the Synthia shower went up, a cheerful female voice shouting, "Good afternoon! The 3 P.M scheduled Synthia dispersion system will now commence! Please enjoy this free food substitute that can supply your body with all its nutritional needs!"

She looked outside to see the people either ducking into stores or opening up their umbrellas. The two cops took out their own umbrellas, covering both themselves and their trapped colleague from what was to come. The streets became a sea of neon shafted umbrellas as the skies darkened.

It began with a few drops of yellow bits that had the consistency of pudding, but it soon became a downpour. She watched as food vendors did their best to cover their wares, looking at the sky in annoyance. Kyouka noticed some Heroes were across the street talking with some Green Globe security thugs, their holo-suits blocking the foul stuff from hitting their flesh.

What made things worse was the people who didn't bother with any protection. Those that had ragged clothing, cupping their hands or carrying pots to catch the Synthia with mouths open. This stuff, this drug was their only sustenance and they were gladly inhaling it.

"Can't blame them for it. Not when those bastards make it harder than ever to get a real job."

She walked to the back door and waited for five minutes. When the shower began to die down the opened it and jumped to the wall of the building in front of her. She crawled up it, making sure to lean her head back so the Synthia didn't get through her jacket's filters and into her mouth.

"So what was that all about, David? What the hell is Omni?"

The cops were now probably freeing Kendou and going into the cafe to search for her. She needed to get out of the area fast.

"Special branch of the police force. Apparently, it works closely with the government to monitor Vigilante activity and Megacorp Heroes." A list of names and rank began to trek down her vision. A Detective Hitoshi Shinso, a Lieutenant Nejire Hado, a girl in their Analysis division named Mei Hatsume…

"They've got a bit more autonomy than your average copper, but I don't see why they're sniffing around you."

"Why do some of them have Hero names?" Kyouka lifted herself onto the roof of the ten-story building and sent a request for a taxi. "Seems pretty pointless."

She could see David's bemused smirk.

"Funny story about that. Ya see, the Omni subdivision is comprised of "troublesome" police officers and Heroes." He later out a bark of laughter. "Every bloody one of them is made up of people that didn't play by the rules!"

That was surprising. Heroes that didn't like what was at the end of the tunnel and decided to kick up a fuss rather than quit altogether? Cops that didn't meekly accept their place in the new world hierarchy? "Sounds pretty sweet."

But they were still aiding and abetting a system that stomped a boot on the head of the people. They hunted down not real criminals, but those the megacorps decided were the Villains.

She shouldn't treat them any differently from the other pigs and creeps that she kicked the crap out of on a daily basis.

The taxi finally came, its sleek black and yellow body with tinted eyes floated in the air as the door to the back opened and a small ramp came out connecting to the edge of the roof. Kyouka ducked inside and shut the door behind her before leaning up to the view window.

"Take me to The Gentle Criminal in Mob Eisteiku."

The mechanical driver whirred and clicked. It's pale skin and ruby lips put Jirou on edge. It seemed as if the cab company decided to save a few bucks and cut corners to design stuff like skin pigment and facial motors. The lenses in its eyes focused on her and it have a wide smile.

Kyouka could see the semiconductors in the back of its throat.

"Whrrrr Click-ick! Ya got it, boss!"

She buckled in as the roller lifted off, flying through the air streets towards her destination. Other vehicles flew past them, the honking of horns and the hum of hundreds of rollers seemed to provide a chorus to the sea of flashing advertisements stretched before her.

2099 had its own theme song and it was completely shocking mad.

It also tried to sell deodorant.

He may be gone… but he is still here!

All Might was our Symbol of Peace, a beacon of hope in this dark world full of Villains and revolutionaries! He kept us safe and put a smile on our faces, making sure that we would be alright in these dark times!

So come down and eat at All Might's!

Here you can get the famous Nueva York Smash, a personal favorite of All Might's, and made of prime synthetic beef!

Come and visit the All Might and Nana Shimura museum in Tokyo, where you'll get an autograph from Sir Nighteye on...

Mob Eisteiku was where people who couldn't make it in the big city go to die.

That was both in the figurative and literal sense.

Kyouka wasn't uncomfortable walking the streets. She had spent her teenage years traversing the maze of tent cities, cheap synthetic food vendors, and the vendors whose "previously owned" goods had subtle markings that said the separation from their former owners wasn't willing.

The ethnic population wasn't different from the main districts of Neo-Musutafu. A lot of Japanese people with a smattering of Caucasians, some Hispanic, and a few Chinese who either couldn't cut it or had entered the country illegally to try and find a better life. Their prosthetics were old and rusty. She could see some of them still using the Jack system, wires cascading down their bodies that one might mistake for a fashion statement if it wasn't for the fish-like eyes.

The smell of trash, common in all cities, was made more pronounced with the scent of burning chrome.

Kyouka glanced at the black market prosthetic shops that were in every other building. They weren't licensed, yet the small smatterings of cops didn't give them a second look when they passed by. The stores sold technology that was more advanced than anything legitimately sold and tested, but they were also faulty and sometimes killed the users or drove them mad.

It was an open secret that Alchemax and its "pals" used low-income neighborhoods as testing grounds through the black market. It cut down on costs and provided them with a cut of the sales of shoddy equipment.

It was thanks to their arrangement with those who actually sold the stuff.

Kyouka moved to the side as a man dressed in a rich black suit and wearing a plague mask passed her. "Yakuza prick." She thought bitterly, but kept her pace.

The yakuza ran the black market, selling high-end faulty goods for "reasonable" prices. Shie Hassaikai was at the top of the food chain with their child oyabun, Eri, running the show.

And it was only through her rescue of the little yakuza "princess" that the Resistance was able to walk the streets controlled by her thugs with relative freedom.

She made it to the club with relative ease. It was a small one-story building, a Western-style pub to the ordinary person on the street with a holographic Lupin-like thief running up the neon "The Gentle Criminal" sign and escaping into the blackened stone.

She knocked on the door three times before the camera shutter opened in front of her face. "Let me in, Manami." Kyouka tapped her foot. "I don't have all day and I'm on in five."

"Five my ass! You're ten minutes late!" The voice from the speakers let out indignantly. "Do you have any idea how long Danjuro-sama had to keep that Fujimoto girl on stage!?"

"Dunno, and I'm sorry. Just let me in already."

"I could open the door for you. No need to negotiate with the little bugger." David mused as the door clicked open to reveal the owner's short assistant, Manami Aiba, standing in front of her wearing a gothic lolita waitress uniform with her arms crossed.

"Don't worry." Kyouka passed by her and headed straight for the elevator. "It won't take long for me to change."

"It better not!"

Before she could press the button she felt her Spider-Sense begin to tingle. She frowned and her eyes narrowed. Was the base compromised? "David, do a scan of any outgoing calls or messages to any Megacorps."

"Workin' on it."

The elevator opened its doors and she stepped in. She ignored the scent of puke and the graffiti carved or painted on the walls from less polite concert-goers.

"Nothin'. There is no squealers attendin' your party." David hummed as he processed her request. "Maybe you're just on edge."

"I doubt it." The doors opened and she was greeted with the sound of techno music mixed with an almost insultingly cutesy idol song filling the air. The audience was getting restless from the song and a lack of punk. Idol music was okay for a few minutes but when it came at the expense of punk or metal? It didn't matter if the singer was a part of their group. They were booing and even throwing stuff onto the stage at the red-headed underground idol.

"You're late."

Kyouka looked to her left and saw Karl Morgenthau, "Captain America", the head of the Musutafu branch. The name itself was ironic and his outfit screamed of his true allegiance. Cop riot gear spray painted over in red, white, and blue. He still wore a motorcycle helmet with the tinted visor, the spray-painted "A" on the top reflecting proudly in the light almost as brightly as the shield on his left arm.

"Got held up. Cops were tailing me."

Karl paused and she could see his body tensing. "Cops? You mean, the real thing or…?"

"Real thing. Some special unit for Vigilantes or something." Kyouka's lips pursed. "It's bad. I dunno if they suspect I'm Spider-Woman or something. Why would they be trying to follow me otherwise?"

"I'll ask the tech guys if there's any chatter on the police's forums regarding you." Karl placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Kyouka. We've got your back."

Kyouka smiled at that. Karl was someone who really gave a damn about everyone. At first she thought he had picked the name to be ironic, since he was actually from the German block of the Russian Union and was one of the few Communists around, but he told her that he picked the identity for the character. Steve Rogers, the soldier who never gave up and stood up to bullies no matter how powerful they were.

It was admirable, if a bit hokey.

"Don't be cheesy, dude." She took his hand off her shoulder. "And it's not me you should be worried about. My Spider-Sense went off before I came down here, so we might be getting some unexpected visitors."

"Shock." Karl tapped the side of his helmet and the glass began to glow. "I'll let the guys know. Thanks for the warning."

"No prob. But I better get changed before the crowd eats that girl alive."

"Activating Dress Up procedure…"

Microfibers came out of the Glass' frames, digging into the pores of her skin. She had gotten used to the slight discomfort years ago as they sent a pulse into the nanomachines in the rest of her body.

Slowly, her skin was covered in her suit. The red and blue material expanding and providing her with an extra millimeter of protection between her and the elements. Portions hardened into the suit's spikes and the Glass slowly dissolved into the mass that subsumed her face.

She blinked as she viewed the world through her HUD, tinted a slight shade of red to match the lenses she once wore. "Okay… now ask someone to get me my shocking guitar and get the guys onstage." Kyouka reached for the hem of her shirt and took it off. "We're going to blow the roof off of this place."

"G-Got it…" She noted the slight blush on Karl's face as he ducked out of the room. He always got like this whenever she changed into her suit, and while she enjoyed his flustered reactions, she couldn't help but feel for the guy.

"Sorry, Karl… you're just not my type."

Kyouka grabbed a 2032 Fender Telecaster on her way to backstage and saw the rest of her bandmates were waiting for her. All three of them had the bottom-half of their Spider-Man masks rolled up and were smoking E-Cigs or drinking, the smell of burning ozone filling the air as the disposable sticks lit blue. "Okay guys, you ready?"

"About shocking time!" Pony Tsunotori, her drummer, shouted when she wiped the spit and foam from her lips. "We were bored out of our skulls listening to Kohaku's crap!"

"Hey, I kinda like it." Chikuchi Togeike, Deep Dope's rhythm guitarist, protested as she flicked the switch of her cancer stick and put it into her denim jacket's breast pocket. "Not often you get to hear an idol write her own lyrics and do her own routine. Usually it's just the Company's guys or some other bullshit subdivision of the others running things."

"Doesn't mean it sucks any less!"

Shuichi Iguchi, their bassist, peaked from the parting of the curtain. "Tobita's signaling for us! Oh man, someone just nailed their noodles on Kohaku-chan's head!"

"Then lets go and bail your crush out, dude!"

"W-What the hell are you talking about!? I don't find her cute or anything like that!"

They parted the curtains and ran onto the stage, flashing peace signs and middle fingers as the white-haired mustachioed owner of the club rushed the red-headed idol off the stage. He looked a bit haggard, but grateful for their appearance. "And now, dear guests, for the moment you've all been waiting for!" He pointed to Kyouka. "DEEP DOPE!"

"Yo!" Kyouka shouted as she got to the front. The crowd was now roaring, their fists pumping and the air becoming electric. She could see a bunch of Resistance members among them. The Scarlet Witch, Speedball, Flacon, and Karl. All of them wanted her to do their best.

And she would not disappoint them.

"Shock Alchemax and all those posers! Who's ready for some real music!" She glanced at Pony, who held up her sticks.

"WE ARE DEEP DOPE AND WE'RE HERE TO SHOCK YOUR EARS!" She tapped her sticks with each number. "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"

Every time they played it seemed like they were transported to another word.

Kyouka barely heard the crowd as she began strumming her guitar. Her pick went up and down, letting loose loud notes faster with each passing second. Her band tried hard to keep up, but they weren't playing a song. At least not yet. True punk rock never began as a straightforward session. Their instruments weren't investments. They were tools they beat the shit out of and would eventually be rewarded with something sounding remotely like a song.

They were rewarded in less than a minute. Kyouka began to sing, and she poured everything she kept buried into her lyrics.

Her frustration over the state of the world.

How people seemed to not give a crap about anything besides the newest stuff they would buy.

The insecurities she had over her relationship with Momo.

The feeling that she was playing a role in a bad play...

It was liberating. Her heart was pounding and she could feel the suit was dispersing the sweat she was letting out in non-visible bursts. She wanted to scream, to kiss someone, to smash her guitar on stage…

"If only she could be here with me."

Her Spider-Sense began pounding like crazy a millisecond before the ground exploded.

People began screaming as they were thrown to the ceiling and across the room, chunks of concrete thrown in multiple directions. Kyouka didn't stop to think and launched as many webs as she could, catching some big pieces while sticking huge concrete chunks to the walls. Other members of the Resistance also helped, like Hawkeye shooting nets to redirect falling debris and Machine Man extending his arms to direct people to the exits.. Karl was in front of a young couple using his shield to deflect a piece of rebar.

But the ones who caused it didn't give them enough of a chance to regroup.

"I'm getting some AI signals love! And tons of link channels are buzzing with activity!"

Three Rovers began to crawl out of the hole. Their blocky bodies and thin legs belied their speed, and it didn't help that they had stun guns mounted on their tops. They fired at members of the Resistance and the crowd who were just getting their bearings. Falcon screamed as his body was hit with enough electricity to take down a gorilla.

"CEASE AND DESIST!" One said in a robotic voice. "UNDER THE SPRAWL ACT OF 2084 THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN DEEMED A HOSTILE GATHERING AND YOUR SUBVERSIVE NON-LICENSED MUSIC GIVES THE ALCHEMAX CORPORA-!"

"Ah, stuff it!" Kyouka swung to the closest Rover unit and dropkicked it. It sailed across the room and met the wall, shattering in a rain of metal and sparks. She twisted her body and shot a web onto the second's gun before pulling, ripping its wires and circuits out from its body. "If Alchemax is that pissed…"

She ducked and weaved through the blasts of the third Rover, and when she was close enough she embedded both her jacks into it. It shook from the tremors her heartbeat sent through it, smoke billowing from its openings before its eye's light went out.

"Then they can send something other than their stupid shocking toys!"

"Well then, you're in luck!" Kyouka's Spider-Sense told of the danger headed her way and she jumped to the ceiling. She looked up and saw a flash of lightning go through the space where she once was. "Because the Company asked us to handle you personally!"

"What the hell!?" Karl shouted before his face twisted into a snarl. "Damnit, they sent Heroes!"

Kyouka could see them. A pair of guys with one around her age and the other a diminutive height. The blond wore a domino mask, but his ears were replaced with prosthetic earpieces with radio antennas. A yellow lightning bolt streaked across the back of his leather jacket, matching his black pants that had the same symbol in its pockets and sneakers with lightning shoelace tips. The other, shorter guy simply wore a full-body purple leather one-piece that only showed his mouth. He wore yellow gloves and boots, and for some ridiculous reason diaper-like armor around his waist.

She knew them from the advertisements.

Denki Kaminari, the electric Hero known as Chargebolt. Starred in two movies and had his own game. Not big league, but fairly popular for someone that started out. A playboy of the highest order who had a new girl on his arm every week.

The other one was less impressive. Minoru Mineta, also known as Purple Riot. A guy who had his own live-action talkshow and anime, and if the rumors were right, a total sleazebag who went into changing rooms to harass girls.

"And both of them are here. Shock."

"Still don't get why we've gotta be here." Mineta whined as he took off one of his hair balls, tossing it up and down dismissively. "I had to duck out of a date for this!"

"Come on dude, it's free publicity!" Kaminari flexed his fingers, sparks dancing between the spaces as he looked directly at Kyouka. "I mean, we get the headlines for the entire week! Chargebolt and Purple Riot destroy a Villain's den and take out some Resistance punks!"

"You seem oddly cheerful for guys who're surrounded." Kyouka looked to the concert attendees. Those who were back on their feet were tying bandanas to cover the bottoms of their face. Picking up anything they could grab their hands on from pieces of concrete to crowbars.

Those who attended the concerts knew the possibility of a bust and most were ready to beat the snot out of anybody that tried to kill the mood.

"Well, that's 'cause we've got backup!" Mineta snapped his fingers and out of the hole came a whole squadron of Alchemax security dressed in riot gear. Staffs cracking with electricity while the hard plastic shields they had on their right arms had Alchemax's emblem flashing in bright yellow neon. "So what you gonna do about that, Spider-Punk?" He leered at her and said, "Surrender, and we can probably get you off on a lighter…!"

A web hit his stupid, perverted mouth.

As his partner struggled to get it off with his free hand, Kaminari shrugged. "Well, can't say we didn't try!" He pointed at the crowd. "Round them up, guys!"

She dropped from the ceiling and fired a web to the right as Kaminari threw his arm towards her. A slim disk passed by her followed by a flash of lightning, burning ozone and adding to the chaotic sounds coming from below. The security forces were pushing against the Resistance members that were battering at their shields. Some reached over their shields to shock the struggling people that wanted true freedom, some were kicking downed people and using batons to bash their skulls in.

Her people were screaming, shouting curses and promising to make the company monkeys pay for what they were doing.

It was complete madness.

Kyouka kept ducking, twirling, and somersaulting in the air as Kaminari continued to fire at her. While it would probably be easy to knock the creep out with a well-placed punch, she had everyone below to worry about. If she avoided his blasts down there someone behind her would fry, and Alchemax would just let the creep get away with it.

"I've gotta be smart about this…"

She watched as Karl broke one security guy's shield with his own and then kick him in the stomach while grabbing the staff. One of the guards reached into his belt and drew a handgun while he wasn't looking, aiming it with the deadly efficiency of a soldier.

It wasn't the smart thing to do, but Kyouka used a web to find the hand and aim it at the ceiling. As she did so, she jumped and kicked the thug in his face, shattering the tinted plastic. "Watch your back, dude! I can't babysit you and deal with the Heroes!"

"Don't worry about us, Spider-Woman!" Karl stabbed the Staff into the center of a guard's midsection, the man twitching as who knew how many volts were put into him. "We've got this!"

"Yeah, you should be focusing on yourself!"

Kyouka's Spider-Sense informed her of the metal disk before it his her shoulder. "Don't you know who we are?"

A million volts of electricity instantly coursed through her. It felt like thousands of needles were embedding themselves all over her body, her muscles spasming as the nerves registered an influx of power. Her HUD was tuning in and out, David's voice glitching into binary.

"01010010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010."

"We're Heroes! Protectors of the peace and defenders of the innocent!" Kaminari raised his hand and caught the metal disk as it returned to him. "And all you are is some wannabe rocker girl in stolen property!"

It stopped as quickly as it began, but Kyouka gasped in pain as smoke rose from her body. She coughed and muttered, "That all you've got…?"

"Nah, we're just gettin' started!" Mineta then threw his balls at her, landing sight on top of her feet.

She tried to tug them away but they stayed stubbornly in pace. "The hell!?"

"Try to drag this out as much as possible, Kaminari!" The diminutive Hero looked towards her and his mouth twisted into a sneer. "I almost tore my mask getting those webs off! I don't care how hot she might be! Nobody does that to Purple Riot!"

"Like you would've had a chance."

"System restored." David was back in her field of vision, looking sourly at her opponents. "What now?"

"We make some noise." Kyouka took off the guitar from her back and held it in her hands. Her left jack went into the guitar's input while the middle of her right forearm expanded and formed into an input jack. Her jack went inside, fitting itself snugly while a notification of the recognized device popped up.

The Heroes noticed her actions and tensed. "The hell are you…"

"Divert speakers to the front!" Kyouka brought down her hand across the strings and a wave of sound came from the front of her body. It echoed throughout the room, her people and the pigs stopping and covering their ears. The Heroes themselves screamed, blood coming out of their ears as the noise blasted their sensitive membranes.

She didn't waste the opportunity. Using all her strength, she ripped her feet off the ground with the balls and leapt at the Heroes. With a swing, her guitar hit Kaminari's arm and broke both it as well as the device. He screamed as he toppled on top of Mineta.

"You b-!"

"Hey now, Heroes shouldn't have potty mouths." Kyouka joked as she began to web them to the floor. "Now you stay here, nice and cozy. You're lucky I just don't beat you to the…"

She paused when she heard the chuckling.

Both of them were beginning to chortle as if they had heard a funny joke "What? What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, just that you think it's really over." Mineta grinned and asked, "Honestly, did you really think that the Company would send just two Heroes to deal with all you losers?"

That made Kyouka blink. When she thought about it, it did seem strange. They must have been targeting this building weeks in advance, seeing who was coming and going. They knew that most of the big-name members would be attending, each of them able to put up a fight with a professional Hero any day.

So why just two Heroes with a bunch of security goons?

"Yeah, they gave us something extra to take you on." Kaminari's statement had her notice that the two were beginning to grow bigger. Not just in height, but in muscle mass as their skin began to darken. "Something R&D has been cooking up, a product that's going to revolutionize how we deal with idiots who dare to take on Heroes!"

Kaminari's voice boomed and was distorted, sounding as if he were speaking in two voices rather than one. Black liquid poured out of his back and spread over him, covering his body from head to toe. Mineta's liquid was a dark purple, but it did little to make him seem any less intimidating as his partner.

In a matter of seconds they became monsters. They shared the same features: white teardrops with large gaping maws that revealed rows of teeth as well as a drooling pink tongue. The thing that was once Chargebolt had the distinguishing emblem of a bolt of lightning on his chest with Alchemax's white logo on his shoulders and forehead.

"You're in luck, Spider-Punk!" Mineta giggled as his tongue wiped across his lips. "You're going to get the first taste of VEN#m, the latest Hero support tool from Alchemax!"

"David, can you hack into whatever the hell they've got and shut them down?" She quietly asked her AI, who shrugged.

"Sorry, but this is advanced stuff. Going to take some time to familiarize myself with its code."

Well, she wasn't an idiot. Whatever these things were, they were certainly trouble. She needed to finish this hard and fast.

Her talons came out and she swiped at Kaminari, who leaned back and dodged them. It was maddening. Not even Bakugou was fast enough to weave through her swings and he was a shocking beast!

Kaminari's hand shot out and grabbed her right wrist, holding her in place before something slithered around her waist. She was yanked from the electric teen and swung around by Mineta, whose arms were now giant tentacles. He let go of her and she went right into the wall next to the elevator doors, embedding herself into the concrete with spiderweb cracks forming around her.

"I can't fight like this! Not an enclosed space with this many people around me!" The two were advancing on her, ignoring her people trying to stop them with pieces of concrete and stolen weaponry. Even the electricity from the staffs weren't affecting them. "I have to bring this outside. If they get pissed off they'll take it out on the others!"

The two were obsessed with bringing her in for nothing other than their desire for fame.

Time to use it.

Taking herself off the wall, Kyouka scrambled to the elevator and opened the doors. Stepping in, she jumped through the emergency panel and ran up the empty shaft.

"Where do you think you're going!?" She ignored the bolts of electricity and purple balls thrown at her from behind while her Spider-Sense chimed in for the ones that came too close. She would deal with them soon enough, and on her playing field.

She bust through the doors in seconds, running out the club. Her Spider-Sense rang and she shouted, "EVERYONE TAKE COVER!"

The door behind her exploded, taking Kyouka off her feet and across the street where she skidded to a stop on the concrete.

"You're not getting away that easily!" Kaminari shouted as he and Mineta lumbered out of the building, jumping into the street as civilians scattered in a panic.

"M-monsters!"

"What the hell are those things?!"

"They're fighting Spider-Woman! Are they Heroes?!"

"Look at them and tell me they're Heroes!"

A horn blared and Kyouka saw a carrier was heading straight for the two Heroes. The weight and speed the vehicle was going at wouldn't give it enough time to go airborne, and she could see the human driver inside scared out of his mind.

Before she could spring into motion, Kaminari snarled and lifted his hand. A ball of electricity bigger than anything he threw before shot out and hit the carrier directly in its engine. The vehicle turned into a fireball, pieces of shrapnel flying everywhere. It tipped over and began to roll to the sidewalk, people screaming as they ran or leapt out of its path

"No!" She screamed and ran forward. She launched webs connecting the burning wreck to the nearby buildings and streetlights. If nothing else, she could prevent the loss of further life.

She jumped atop the vehicle and went to the passenger door and placed her hands on the door.

"Not getting any life signs, love."

"Just shut up for a second!" She tore the door off and threw it to the side. The scent of burning flesh nearly made her throw up, and she saw from his blackened flesh that the guy wasn't going to make it. "Damn it… DAMN IT!"

If she hadn't come up here, the guy would still be alive. It was her fault that she brought the two Heroes to the surface when she should've handled them underground!

"No. If I did that, then they would've killed everyone down there to get me. The people at fault…"

"What the hell did you do?!"

She turned back to the Heroes. Mineta was screaming at Kaminari who was staring at the burning wreck with shock.

"I-I didn't mean to…!" Kaminari shook his head. "I just wanted to make the guy buzz off! I was just angry and…!"

"...Are them!"

"Do you have any idea how much shit we're in!? We're already on thin ice with the Company! They made it clear there were to be no casualties!" Mineta pointed at her. "Look, it's fine! So long as we get her, then all we need to do is beg and the Company will fix every-!"

"YOU PRICKS!" She swung to Kaminari and kicked him in the face. As his head snapped to the side, Kyouka landed on the ground and in a sweeping kick knocked Mineta off his feet. "You goddamn murderers! You think your corporate masters are going to bail you out!?" She wrapped her jacks around Kaminari's arm and pulled him for a haymaker that sent him sprawling down the street. "I'm not going to let that happen! You jackasses are going to pay for what you did, and I'm going to make sure you remember this day for the rest of your lives!"

"But not here. Not where other people can get caught in the crossfire." She spotted an alleyway behind her and launched webs connecting the opposite end of the street to its opening. The webs would prevent further traffic from hitting the Heroes and keep civilians away. She shot a web to the wall at the end of the alley and pulled, racing inside while her HUD confirmed that there were no signs of life inside. The homeless must've bailed as soon as they heard the sounds of battle. "Lucky me."

Her Spider-Sense echoed through her head as she sent a web to the floor and pulled. Something passed by overhead and she had enough time to see a glob of dark purple hit the far wall. "What the hell is this VEN#m stuff? Is it an offshoot of my suit?"

She turned around to see the two Heroes running through the alleyway. They were probably going to take off the kiddie gloves now that they were away from civilians. They were also desperate, and that was a combo for one hell of a tough fight.

"NOW!" Kaminari ordered Mineta who flicked his fingers in response.

Kyouka's Spider-Sense almost made her groan. "Oh, come on."

In a wet burst that she knew came from the dark splotch, Kyouka felt the almost liquid-like balls cover her back and knock her to her knees. She pulled her hand free, talking bits of the brick with her.

But it wasn't enough.

"EAT THIS!" Kaminari's electricity hit her again, but it was stronger than before. She could smell her own hair begin to fry while portions of her suit retreated inside her in random areas. David only let out a squawk as the connection between them broke, leaving her alone.

Alone, with half of her mask gone, against the Heroes.

"They're going to capture me." Panic frenzied in her mind, her eyes could barely focus on one thing. "They're going to stick me in a lab, Momo's going to find out that I've been lying to her, Mom and Dad are going to get shitcanned. Oh god… Oh shit…"

She expected the two to advance on her with more of a swagger in their step. Confident in their victory over her. Maybe even snapping a picture to release to the press.

Instead, they were frozen in place as if they had seen a ghost.

"Jirou?"

Kyouka stared at Kaminari. Did he just say her name? "How… how do you know who I am?"

"How do we… dude, you were the bane of our existence in U.A!" Mineta threw his hands up in the air. "Every time we wanted to see the ladies or make a move on them, you would jam your ear jacks in our ears when Asui wasn't slapping us with her tongue!"

"What the hell are you talking about!? I never went to U.A!" She would never be caught dead going to a Hero school! Those damn institutions pumped out fake Heroes by the hundreds! Why were they acting like she was their classmate? She never met the two outside of watching commercials for their crap!

"More importantly, why are you here? Last I heard, you got a job in the Company's music…" A grin formed on Kaminari's monstrous face. "Oh, I see. You're deep undercover, aren't you?"

'I don't know what the hell you're talking about! If this is some sorta shocked-up mind game, it's a crappy one!" She didn't believe it. She knew who she was! She would never sell her soul to Alchemax! This was just some stupid game they were playing to make her talk!

"Don't worry, we won't blow your cover." Kaminari waved his hand. "Man, for a minute there I was worried!"

"Yeah!" Mineta seemed to relax from the sheer relief he was feeling. "And you can do us a favor too! Like say that bus guy was part of the Resistance, that way the Company won't get too pissed at us!"

They were playing with her. It was all a big shocking joke. It had to be.

But why were they acting so calm?

Why were they acting like she really could cover their asses!?

"Oh, I wouldn't count on that."

The two Heroes and Kyouka looked back to the opening of the alleyway to see Izuku Midoriya standing there, amusement and anticipation rolling off his body as he strutted forward and cracked his knuckles. "I'm afraid you boys are going to have to come with me.

Kaminari growled. "Who the shock do you think you are?"

"The guy you should be surrendering to." Midoriya pointed to his badge and said, "Detective Izuku Midoriya of the MPD's Omni subdivision. I saw everything and I have the privilege of placing you two under arrest for second-degree manslaughter."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds.

Then, both Heroes began to laugh. They both doubled over, cradling their bellies and splattering green spittle across the walls and floor as Midoriya calmly put away his badge.

"You, placing us under arrest?!" Mineta waved the detective off. "Get real, loser! We don't have to answer to you! Or did ya forget the multi-million New Yen donation the Company gave you idiots to sit around?!"

"If anything, you should be getting us some coffee and doughnuts while begging us not to have the Company make your life a living hell!" Kaminari thumbed towards Kyouka. "It's been a long day and all three of us need a snack. We've got a lot of catching up to do while sorting out our story!

While Kyouka expected Midoriya to look dejected or even terrified at Kaminari's statement, he seemed downright pleased with it. Giddy even. "Well, that's the funny thing about the Omni subdivision. Ya see…"

Vines came from above, wrapping themselves around Mineta's limbs with thorns that dig into the black flesh. "What the….?!" Then, he shot up like a rocket, screaming as he disappeared over a roof.

"We were created as a sub-clause of the original Alchemax-United States agreement of 2000. Each country gets one of us, and what we do is simple."

"What did you do?!" Kaminari demanded as he ran at Midoriya.

"When certain conditions arise, like say the murder of a civilian without going through the proper protocols…"

Kyouka watched as something began to emanate off of Midoriya. It was an energy resembling electricity, but something told her it wasn't. It was something greater, more powerful and primal.

It danced across Midoriya's arms while the irises of his eyes glowed an eerily pale green.

"We get to shock you so-called Heroes up."

In a blur of motion, Midoriya clapped his hands in front of him. Kyouka's Spider-Sense gave her enough warning to lay on the ground and hold on for dear life. It was like a sonic boom went off in that alleyway, flattening everything before him with hurricane force winds. Mineta's balls were torn from her body as she dug her fingers and toes into the ground just to stay down.

"B-b-back online! Activating noise-canceling protocol!" David shouted, and the thunderclap stopped battering her ears.

It was over seconds later. Kyouka looked up to see Midoriya dusting his hands on his pants and grinning. "What was that? That strength… it's almost like…" She turned around. "Whoa…"

All the trash was smeared across the far wall. Bags, carelessly tossed bottles, synthetic animal shit, and the human form of Kaminari in a crater. He gasped and fell to the ground with blood running down his head.

"You should go before Alchemax's thugs come in and see you." Midoriya said as he passed by her. "There's more to you than what you remember… and what they told you."

Kyouka stated at the detective's back as he looked over Kaminari. "He… is he trying to screw with me too?" No. If he was, then he would've confirmed Kaminari and Mineta's statements. "There's more to me than… what the shock is going on?!"

"Y-You bas…!" Kaminari's muscles tensed as if in anticipation, but nothing happened. "What?!"

Midoriya grinned and kicked Kaminari in the face hard enough that she could hear the guy's nose break. He screamed and covered it as he plastered himself against the wall.

A female voice came from Midoriya's pocket. "Disabled the VEN#m system, Izuku-kun. They won't be causing you anymore trouble!"

He took out an archaic cell phone Kyouka only recognized from the history books and thumbed the side button. "Thanks Hatsume."

"You… you can't do this!" Kaminari screamed while bringing up his right hand, stained with blood and crackling with electricity. "We own y-!"

He was silenced when Midorya took out his handgun and fired two rounds. One bullet punched a hole through the Hero's hand. Threads of muscle and skin hung loosely from what was left. The other went into Kaminari's knee, turning it into bloody hamburger.

"Man..." Kyouka shakily got up as Midoriya placed the barrel to the whimpering Kaminari's temple.

"Your prosthetics blocked out the worst of the pain. But I promise you that if you keep resisting arrest then I will decommission you. Your company can't do a thing to me. I will walk away with a pat on the back and you will be turned to ash somewhere. Do I make myself clear?" Midoriya got a small nod and a whimper from the once overconfident Hero. He looked at her. "Why are you still here? Get going!"

She nodded and leapt to the building. Her suit began to cover her face as she did so, allowing her to hear bits of another conversation.

"Try not to resist anymore. I would hate for my next visit to the confession booth to be asking God to forgive me for killing a stupid Hero."

"Better do what she says, Mineta. Sister Vine isn't exactly the turn-the-other-cheek Christian."

"Please… please I'll do whatever you want! Just don't hurt me!"

"Insane..," Kyouka muttered to herself as she activated her thermo-optic camouflage. She could already hear sirens and saw the security forces going into the alleyway. "These people are insane."

That had to be the answer. Did those two really think she went to school with them? And that Midoriya guy was just screwing with her for kicks! He enjoyed torturing Kaminari and just wanted to play mind games on her!

But why couldn't she shake the feeling they were telling the truth?

"It doesn't matter. I have to get to the safe house and talk to the Leader."

The Leader… the guy who helped to organize the Resistance and gave her the chance to stick it to Alchemax.

He would know what to do!

"There's more to you than what you remember… and what they told you."

That statement kept echoing in her mind as she swung unseen through the streets of Neo-Musutafu.

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"Report."

He watched Kyouka Jirou and Karl Morgenthau stand in rapt attention on the monitor in front of him. They wore their masks still, but it was a matter of pride for their group. They weren't soldiers. They were merely a group of violent counter-culture revolutionaries who had no true goal other than fight the oppressive system they were born into.

It was through his guidance that they were starting to become something more.

"We managed to get most of our people out of the club." Morgenthau's face grimaced. "Falcon, Torch, and some partygoers got captured. Danjuro's club got closed down. A real shocking shame since that's where we held most of our gigs…"

"I can intercept the transport before they make it to the cubes." Jirou's mouth turned into a thin line of determination. "Finding a new place to crash isn't a problem. But we can't lose anymore of our people to Alchemax."

"Well said." He nodded towards her. "And I understand that you were able to take down two of their so-called Heroes."

There was more to the story. Contrary to what they believed, he did not obtain all his information about Japan from their reports.

This was merely a formality. A method he used to test their loyalty.

"I did a lot of work, but I wasn't the one to knock them to the ground." Jirou paused for a second, considering her next words carefully. "Izuku Midoriya… the detective… he arrested Chargebolt and gave me an opportunity to escape."

Morgenthau whistled. "Wow, Spider-Punk. Never thought I'd see the day when you let a pig lend you a hand."

She scoffed at this jab. "I really don't give a shock how the prick was put down. Midoriya probably wanted to kick the guy's skull in himself."

"And how was that done?" He drummed his fingers on the armrest and rested his fist against the side of his mask. "To my understanding, Alchemax had recently equipped their Heroes with their VEN#m system. It is a bit much for Japan's Omni subdivision."

Once again there was that hesitation. Jirou's lips twitched and he could see the facial muscles behind the nanomachine mask barely conceal a grimace. "They… have this tech girl who temporarily fried the system. Midoriya used that to shoot Chargebolt's knee and threatened to decommission him right then and there if he didn't behave."

"You're leaving something out." It was plainly obvious. Jirou was many things, but an effective liar she was not.

Did it have to do with the orders deeply ingrained in her subconscious mind? The hidden files buried in the wetware she doesn't remember installing?

"Damn. That's pretty cold." Morgenthau shivered from the mental image. "Guess the Omni pigs get their rocks off whenever they are able to hunt Heroes."

"Can't say that it didn't happen to a nicer pair of guys."

"It matters not." He raised his hand, silencing both of them. "So long as the data is safe we are not set back. Jirou, you may begin arrangements for your comrades' rescue, but I will be securing a rendezvous location so you may give one of my agents the thumb drive."

"Understood." The girl who was deemed fit to name herself Spider-Woman turned around and left the room. "Try not to let the boss bite your head off, Karl."

When the door slid shut he gave the young man a simple two-word command.

"Watch her."

"Yes, Lord Doom."

Victor Von Doom leaned back in his command chair, steepling his fingers as the monitor turned dark.

This world he had awakened to was different in some respects, but familiar in many others.

Namely that it was populated by fools who thought they could outmaneuver him.

He was well aware that Alchemax had planted a deep cover spy to subvert his plans for the wider world. He was bad for their business model and they could not afford to keep him alive longer than necessary.

The thumb drive was likely filled with malicious viruses and rootkits that would set back his army's network long enough for the megacorp-backed armies to crush him.

"But you have made a grave mistake, "Chairman", if you think such a simple ploy will bring me low."

Victor chuckled to himself, a sound that echoed from his mask and into the empty command room.

"Your pawn is merely another piece on my board. One that I can move as I see fit and dispose of without remorse."

This was a world consumed by despair, one more than ready to accept Victor Von Doom's guiding hand.

And what were a few more sacrifices if it meant achieving what was rightfully his?

"And for the next order of business," Tyler Stone glanced at the holo-projection his seven hundred cred watch produced and scanned through the meeting's memo. "Chargebolt and Grape Riot's recovery will cost a projected fifteen thousand. Ten for Chargebolt due to the injuries that he sustained from his altercation with Izuku Midoriya."

"Hm. That boy is becoming an annoyance." The Chairman took a sip of water as he stared at the metal statue of All Might on his desk.

"Remedying the annoyance would cost a projected two thousand creeds." It annoyed Tyler that it would cost so much. The little people shouldn't be this much of a detriment to the company's bottom line.

The Chairman waved his hand dismissively. "No need. His involvement will not affect this operation, but do tell Shimura that his services might be needed in the future."

Tyler couldn't say he disagreed. Halting the decommission of one lone cop was one less expenditure and having Marshal Law be ready for future deployment would be efficient. "As for our currently injured Heroes?"

"Cancel their contracts. The returns from their franchises have been on a downward slope for the past year."

After a few instant messages Tyler ensured that the two would not receive severance pay or a percentage from further merchandise sales. They would have to pay for their hospital bills from their own pockets.

No big loss for Alchemax. The box office return for the Chargebolt movie and viewership for the Grape Riot anime had decreased by over twenty percent, so it was only appropriate that they invest in some new blood.

"Do you trust that Kyouka Jirou will begin the investigation of her origins?"

Tyler felt something akin to pride rise in his chest. "There is a hidden file attached to the memory folder that was downloaded into her wetware. It opened as soon as she left my office, increasing her doubts about her allegiances. She will soon begin an independent investigation into why Chargebolt said she was a part of his class. We should expect a return for this investment within the month."

ImerPlus was already a system that increased Alchemax's profit margin by over ten percent. Not only were the little people desperate to find an escape from their insignificant lives, but they were able to plant double agents into subversive groups.

Kyouka Jirou was the first to volunteer for the procedure. She was one of their most gifted employees in their music production subdivision, so eager to become a part of upper management while securing a multi-album deal.

She would receive both with the operation's success, and some paid vacation so she can recover and get a good brain scrub.

"Excellent." The Chairman got up from his seat and turned to the window to view the lit city below. "Victor Von Doom is an interesting opponent. Intelligent, ruthless, and brilliant. However… he is no Toshinori Yagi or Nana Shimura. He will fall to me, and I will greatly enjoy ripping his head from his shoulders."

Tyler waved away the screens. "I will negotiate contracts with our competitors towards production rights to his inventions and backing friendly representatives in the upcoming Latverian Parliament election."

"I will trust that you will secure a deal that will be beneficial to me."

"Of course."

Tyler Stone was one of the few who knew the truth about the Chairman of the Alchemax corporation.

He was a man from a future who traveled back in time to make significant changes. He brought stability to the world by providing the then-small Alchemax company with vital information for how to proceed in the coming years in exchange for becoming its head. They, in turn, provided bits and pieces of the plan to other companies in order to secure a mutually beneficial partnership that they still were profiting from.

All they had to do to maintain this profitable status quo was help the Chairman eliminate his enemies whenever they caused a fuss.

The Chairman never discussed the wider consequences of these changes to the timeline, but Tyler couldn't care less..

He and the company profited. That was all that mattered.

The man that was once known as All For One, now chairman of Alchemax, let out a serene sigh.

"The future is a bright one isn't it, Stone?"

Tyler smirked.

"It's shining, sir."

To Be Continued…?

Note: Hope you guys enjoy this new side-story fresh from me and reppuzan!

I made this story partly because it wouldn't be a Spider-Verse without a Spider-Man 2099, and because I love cyberpunk stories. People tend to overlook how much of a shot in the arm the subgenre was to the scifi genre. It helped take us away from the standard 'might makes right' heroes and clean futures, showing us what things would really be like in a future where companies continue to grow and seem to control our government more with each passing day. These worlds are bleak, lived-in, and depressingly foreseeable. The heroes live in the dirty cities and the megacorps that control their realities are just too big to truly beat.

Marvel 2099 helped bring that to the superhero comics world, and both the original Spider-Man 2099 and Doom 2099 (the ones by Warren Ellis) are recommended reading. Other than those two, the works influencing this one-shot are Philip K. Dick's bibliography but specifically Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, and We Can Remember It If You Wholesale. William Gibson's Burning Chrome and Neuromancer are also recommended reading.

Well, hope you guys liked it! Be sure to leave a review and check out the TV Tropes page!