The Tangled Web of Fate

Spider-Man and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics. Justice League and all related characters belong to DC Comics

It was a just a couple of hours before sunup as Spider-Man ran across the rooftops of New York. He up and fired a web-line at a building, swinging off it and onto a rooftop of an old building, climbing down and entering through an open window. He sighed tiredly as he pulled off his mas, revealing himself as 22 year old Ben Reilly. His apartment wasn't much of a sight. It had peeling wallpaper, and some form of mold growing in one corner of the wall. He took off his costume and collapsed on his single size bed, exhausted from a night of crime fighting. However, before he could go to sleep he heard a crime in progress from his police scanner.

"Attention all units we have a robbery at the First National Bank. Repeat. Robbery at the First National Bank."

Ben growled as he put his costume back on and swung off.

"If this is Shocker again, I swear I am going to dangle him off a building and use him like a yo-yo!" He ranted to himself as he swung to the bank.

"Okay, let's make this quick before that Spider-Freak shows up!" A man wearing a full-body yellow and brown padded suit with metallic gauntlets said as his henchmen took money out of the vault. Suddenly a small arrow flew past his head and embedded itself into the wall behind him. He looked to see a woman with long black hair, wearing a black costume that showed her midriff, a purple mask that covered all but her mouth and chin that went up into two points above her eyes, and wore a dark purple cape. It was New York's own Huntress.

"I'm no Spider, but I doubt you'll like me any better." She said as she fired her crossbow, pinning the henchmen to the wall.

"Lady, let me give you some advice. YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE SHOCKER!" The padded man said as he quickly aimed his humming gauntlets at Huntress and let loose a blast, knocking her into a wall. She fell over, arm broken and knocked out, as Shocker stood over her. He moved in for the kill, but suddenly a glob of webbing struck his face.

"Somehow I knew it would be you Shocker! Seriously couldn't you have waited until tonight to rob this place?" A certain Spider said from the ceiling as he leaped down, fatigue evident in his voice. Shocker ripped the webs from his face and growled. He then quickly aimed one of his gauntlets at Spider-Man, while keeping the other trained on Huntress. Spider-Man leaped and flipped around the room as Shocker blasted away.

"You come any closer and the lady here gets it Wall-Crawler!" The padded villain yelled as kept blasting. Suddenly Spider-Man landed on the wall and shot a web-line at the downed heroine, then yanked her up to him and then tossed her into a money cart.

"Well there goes that plan Shocky, now whatcha gonna when I come for you?" The Web-Head quiped as he made a flying leap at Shocker and then proceeded to web up his gauntlets before leaping off him. Shocker got up and tried to fire a blast at the Web-Slinger, but the webbing caused it to backfire and send him flying backwards into a wall. Dazed, he looked up just in time to see a red fist heading for his face.

"Well, done and done. Maybe know I can get some sleep." Suddenly Ben's Spider-Sense went off, causing him to leap out of the way. Shocker's men had freed themselves from Huntress's arrows and where now attacking him. He leaped and dodged their attacks, dispatching them with a punch here and a web there before they were down for the count. Spider-Man then walked back over to Huntress who was still in the money cart he put her in.

"Uh, what happened?" She asked as she came to.

"Oh nothing, just got a little help from your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!" The Wall-Crawler said in a very tired, yet cheerful tone. Suddenly he felt his Spider-Sense go off before he saw a crossbow pointed at his face.

"More like you were working with Mr. Triple Ply over there and decided to double cross him. I've read about you Spider-Man and nothing has said you're 'Friendly'." Huntress said seriously. Spider-Man sighed and threw his hands up.

"Great! Just perfect! First the cops think I'm a criminal, then the Bugle starts saying I'm the worst thing since Hitler, and now I've got hot ladies pointing medieval weaponry at me! It's like my life is programmed to go from bad to worse!" The arachnid hero ranted, his lack of sleep clearly making him more more irritable then normal. Huntress had no idea what to make of this.

"Maybe you should've thought about that before you decided to become a criminal." The heroine said, who was now climbing out of the cart. She groaned when she put weight on her left arm and fell over on it. Spider-Man looked over at her and said,

"Look I think your arm might be broken, Shocker's shockwave gloves are pretty nasty." Huntress scowled at him and replied,

"I'm fine and why are you still here? Don't you know criminals are supposed to run from superheroes?" Spider-Man was undeterred and said,

"Look I don't care what you think about me, I'm just trying to help you here. I can web up your arm, make a kind of cast for it until you can get to a doctor." Huntress was about to argue, but he seemed like he genuinely wanted to help her. Sighed she held out her arm and he began to web around it, making a tight makeshift cast.

"There ya go! That'll do ya for a little while at least." The Wall-Crawler said as he checked his handy work. He then saw Huntress staring at him.

"What? You gonna accuse me of impersonating a doctor now?" Before she could say anything the sound of police sirens could be heard outside.

"And that's my cue. Before I go let me give you a little advice, don't believe everything you read!" Spider-Man said as he quickly made his way out the back door.

ONE DAY LATER

Ben was sitting outside a crowed cafe, nearly finishing his coffee and getting ready to head back to his thankless job of being the webdesigner for the Daily Bugle website. Since he dropped out of college it was the only thing he could find. The pay was decent enough as it let him keep his somewhat livable apartment.

"Excuse me, but is this seat taken? Every table is full so..." A woman with black hair and blue eyes asked as she came up to Ben's table.

"No, go ahead. I gotta leave in a few minutes anyway to get screamed at by my boss." Ben said half jokingly as he the woman sat down.

"You got a boss from hell too huh?" The woman asked. The blond chuckled and replied,

"More like the boss of hell." The woman laughed a little at that before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Try working for a Principle who thinks he's god's gift to women and never fails to let them know it." The raven haired woman said.

"You think that's bad? Try working for a Publisher/Editor-in-Chief that has a voice that could give pigeons a heart attack and thinks it's your life-long dream to bring him coffee, while your trying update the paper's site." Ben said as both he and the woman laughed at this.

"My name's Helena. Helena Bertinelli." The black haired beauty said.

"Ben. Ben Reilly." The blond said. Suddenly his cellphone rang. He looked and saw it was his boss. Answering it carefully he said,

"Hello?"

"REILLY! WHERE ARE YOU? MY WIFE NEEDS ME TO PICK UP HERE DRY-CLEANING SO WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE IT YET?" Someone screamed into the phone, causing Helena to hear every word crystal clear.

"Jonah, have you ever thought about hiring a personal assistant?" Ben asked in a casual tone.

"Why? You work for less!" Ben's boss said huffily. Ben sighed and responded,

"I'll get right on it JJ." The blond then hung up. Ben then got up as he dropped a couple of dollars for the waitress on the table. He then saw a number written on a napkin with the message "Call me?" written on it. He looked over at Helena who nodded her head yes. Ben smiled and replied,

"Sure. Coffee tomorrow maybe? Helena nodded again and said,

"Sounds good to me."

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