Torch Bearer 7

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Part 7

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(Gwen Stacy)

December 07th, 1999
New York
Manhattan

The Fisk Industries tower. It is located at 439 West 38th Street, just north of the Empire State Building and a few blocks south east of the Bank of America tower. The Kingpin put up a convincing legal front while secretly using it for his crimes.

Gwen looked at the tall white building where the crime boss was operating. Since she and Cindy Moon got bitten by a spider, Gwen has clashed with the owner of this tower, a criminal controlling many of the gangs in Manhattan. And as the years passed, she discovered that Fisk controls nearly all organized crime families on the East Coast that are not Maggia-affiliated.

Gwen got better and better at finding Fisk's money laundering businesses, the drugs and weapons caches, his white collar crime division… She handed every piece of evidence she obtained to the police. 

But nothing was ever done about Fisk, and when she asked why nothing was done to a certain lawyer in Hell's kitchen, Gwen was Enlightened. Fisk had people in the police, even the commissioner and District Attorney of NYC was in his pocket.

It has been a problem plaguing Gwen's nights since she started her career as a vigilante superhero two years ago. She couldn't take on Fisk's huge organization and resources by herself. But today… she wasn't alone.

Gwen raised her right hand, and with a twitch of her wrist, her web-shooter shot a thin strand of a special "web fluid" at high pressure at the top of the building. She jumped and swung on her web toward the panoramic window where the office of Wilson Fisk was located. 

Zumph! At the same time, a glowing green bullet penetrated through the window, creating large spiraling cracks in it. Gwen crashed into the window feet first and destroyed it to finally land with a roll and in a crouch in the middle of the office. At the same time, the doors of the elevator behind her opened revealing the red clad appearance of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. His Billy club was bloody as he moved inside the office in a swagger.

“Fisk, time to finish this.” The vigilante said with steel in his voice.

The corpulent and well clothed man watched them with surprise, but his expression shifted to cold anger, his hands were flat on his desk as he gritted his teeth. “So, you came. Usually I only deal with one of you, costumed freaks. However, today you both came. I am going to send both of you back in body bags, I've been waiting for you to come to me.”

With his left hand, Fisk pushed the red button on the control station on his desk. It emitted a large beep sound and an alarm resounded everywhere in the towers.

Fisk was sporting a vicious look, no doubt waiting for his men to swarm his office and start battling the two intruders. But nothing happened and this surprised him. “Huh, where are the guards?”

Daredevil showed the blood on his billy club, he has taken everyone able to fight through stealth and ambushes to make it here. “No one will be coming. I made sure of it.”

Fisk squinted his eyes at the weapon in Dardevil's right hand. “Ah, you came prepared…”

Gwen slowly moved forward. “Yeah and now… It's over, Fisk. You will pay for your crimes. Surrender. But please, make my day, refuse.”

The heroine sincerely has had enough of dealing with Fisk and his little crime enterprise; she had had watching her father come back dejected or sad because the dirty commissioner or the DA blocked his investigations into the crimes perpetrated by Fisk's subordinates.  

Grrr. “I will put you two down for good!” Fisk said as he flipped his desk  with all his strength and Gwen and Daredevil had to scatter to dodge the flying desk that crashed against the entrance of the elevator.

Already in his hand was a large and rugged shotgun, that he loaded immediately with a round and chambered by pumping the action lock. He pointed it at Gwen whose danger sense went off and reflexively she shot a web the ceiling and the Special web bounced on the surface and a web line shot from the ceiling to shoot at the shotgun and made Fisk raise the muzzle up just as he pulled the trigger and fired.

“Damn you and your tricks!” Fisk wrenched his shotgun away from the web with all his strength and successfully took it but the muzzle was covered in sticky web.

Daredevil threw himself at Fisk who raised his shotgun and used it like a bludgeon, with a wild swing he sent the Daredevil away with wacko sound. undeterred, the blind hero launched his grapple which wrapped around the shotgun and Daredevil pulled it out of Fisk’s hand. 

“Fuc-”

Gwen threw a web at Fisk's face and passed under his legs, Daredevil flanked the corpulent man who was trying to get the sticky substance out of his face and hit him on the forehead with a swing of his billy club. The corpulent man cried out in pain as Gwen took her gloves off and struck him with a bit more of her strength to target the man's right knee and kicked it in.

Crack! The wide man fell on his ass and shouted bloody murder as he held on his leg. “Aaaaah!!”

Daredevil stood over the gang boss, his billy club an inch from his nose. “Stay down, Fisk.”

With a glare full of hate, the gang boss started a tirade. “You think you can come into my home and beat me up? I’m going to kill you both! Ouch!”

After kicking the man's injured leg, Gwen said, “We have proof that you ordered the murder of all your competitors and of some police officers, you're going down Fisk.”

Blood started staining Fisk's white pants, he surely has an open compound fracture. “Hahahaha! Ouch… Are you serious? You think I am scared of prison? I can rule my entire enterprise from any cell, you stupid freak.

Before anything else could be said, a flash of green light came from the window; the glowing green form of Green Lantern as she called herself appeared as she slowly floated toward the two heroes and the downed gang boss. Her hair and eyebrows were a pearlescent white, her eyes shone with emerald light and her uniform consisted of a really skintight black and green uniform showing off her beautiful body. As she landed she asked the gang boss, “With what money, Fisk?”

Fisk looked at Green Lantern, then at Daredevil and Gwen. “You brought another freak with you? And she's a living glowstick.”

“The name is Green Lantern, I had heard that you were an intelligent and cultured individual, it seems that you being fat scum with delusion of grandeur is true as well.” Green Lantern riposted immediately.

Fisk’s face became dark and he tried to stand up and reach for Green Lantern; she just shook her head and her ring shone and a large bed with restraint cuffs built right under Gwen’s eyes. 

The gang boss tried hard to break free from the restraint, but his physical strength meant nothing to hard light construct. Green Lantern walked up to Fisk and said as if explaining to a child, “It seems that you don't understand what I meant with my comment earlier, Mister Fisk. The only way to make your stay in prison comfortable is to bribe the judge and officials in charge; hence why I took the liberty to look for all your local and offshore accounts here in the US, the Cayman Islands and at Zurich. I have taken your wealth for the cause of making Hell Kitchen safe and this world better.”

Fisk whined like a gutted pig, the hands restraints of the construct he was laying on rattled; there were tears into his eyes as he said, “You damned bitch! I’ll make you pay, I don’t know how but-”

Green Lantern made a gag with her ring and silenced the now ruined man. “Please be more original with your insults.”

Gwen giggled, she didn’t expect that this team up with Daredevil and Green Lantern would be so lucrative; she didn’t regret accepting to join the Guardian Hero Team that Green Lantern was putting together after she sought out Gwen one week ago.

# # #

Cygnus industry
1 week ago…

I was playing a game of Mario Kart with Anna-Marie in the game room when this happened.  Anna had just started getting control of her powers after I destroyed the mental block that kept her power activated, and I was thinking that she needed to find someone who won't be missed and that she could safely drain to add their power to her own arsenal, for her personal safety of course not just for seeing the drain for scientific reasons. It became rather difficult to crush

Anyway, The X-men Rogue from the 90s was really strong. Maybe we could do it to an evil Eternal, I heard there's many of them on Titan. After exploiting the bug on the rainbow road to automatically win the race, I asked my friend, “So, I've been thinking. When you're about to control your powers… Do you want to go to school here?”

Anna's fingers stopped moving on the N64 controller and her head turned to me. “Kisara, what do you mean?”

Putting my controller away, I stared back at Anna. “When you get your power under control, what do you want to do, Anna?”

Anna's immediate goal was to control her powers, so far she learned to turn it on and off; right now she was teaching herself what to take from someone, like memories, skills and personality. Personality being the least desired part to take; but because she failed a lot and absorbed my energy for some tests, she understood me very well.

But I was more interested in what my younger friend would do after her most immediate goal would be fulfilled. Anna scratched her right arm and looked down as she said, “I… don't know? But I want to make something of my life. I appreciate that you took me in and are teaching me how to control my metahuman powers.”

Crossing my arms, I hummed and offered, “I see, what do you think about working for me after you graduate?”

Anna chuckled depreciatively. “As a what? An assistant? I don't have any talent, Sara…”

“Don’t put yourself down.” I interrupted her by uncrossing my arms and nonchalantly rewarded her words with a flick of my fingers on her forehead. “You're smart, you will figure it out and I will be there to help you. If you don't want to go to public school, Cortana or me can homeschool you after we do something about your legal status. I'm not going to kick you out.”

No way would I let Anna go, what awaited her was being found by the government’s black project to experiment on metahumans or worse recruited by the Brotherhood or that guy, Xavier. The world is dangerous and she barely has control on her power and this realization struck me that I needed to be more proactive to keep my lovers and friends alive and happy. Toni, Happy, Rhodey and Pepper included.

Metahuman like Anna always attracted trouble, all I could do for her was keep her around me, train and educate her and maybe work for me from a safe place.

Anna was of a mind to not accept my offer as she said shyly, “You've done a lot for me already, Kisara…”

I picked her up when she fainted on the road and I knew that she was going to fall into Xavier’s trap and the poor dear didn't deserve that fate. With a raised eyebrow I asked Anna, “We're friends, right?”

Anna averted her eyes, her cheeks reddening. “Y-yeah.”

It was right at this moment that Felicia entered the game room; she was wearing a black leather coat, a white turtleneck and jeans. I noticed that there were tears in her cat-like eyes that caused me to stand up right away and walk toward my girlfriend. “Felicia, honey, what's the matter?”

She enveloped me in a warm and crushing hug and as she sobbed she said, “Sara, please I don't know what to do…”

# # #

(Felicia Hardy)

Twenty minutes later, Anna left and Felicia was sitting down on the sofa in the game room with hot cocoa in hand. Kisara was at her side, a comforting arm around her waist; she was patient enough to wait for Felicia to calm down. Words tumbled out of her mouth after she took a breath. “My father is in intensive care at the hospital.”

She took a swig of hot chocolate and put the mug down on the small table at the sofa’s right side. Her eyes fell on the grey and white hoodie Kisara was wearing with a Cygnus industry logo on it. She was the one who drew that constellation-like Logo, and Kisara had approved with a pleased expression. Felicia's girl frowned and asked, “Was he in an accident?”

Kisara reminded Felicia of the current situation; Felicia remembered seeing her father at the hospital and in traction, all four of limbs were broken. There was also the fact that it would take at least a year to recover, so he might lose his livelihood as well. “No, he was found in an alley with all his limbs, jaw and two ribs broken, there was a note found next to him telling him to stop investigating the District Attorney.”

Her girlfriend stood up and asked with an extremely serious tone. “Is someone trying to silence him?”

Felicia nodded. “Yes, and I know who. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. He is the man who controls most crime families in New York that aren't part of the Maggia.”

Kisara took Felicia’s face into her hands and made her look into her eyes. “Felicia, how do you know this?”

Felicia averted her eyes and mumbled, “When you live in New York and your father is a cop… you get those kinds of info by Osmosis.”

But Kisara was relentless in her questioning. “No, there's something you're not telling me. I trust you Kitten, I won't think less of you if you tell me.”

With a chuckle, Felicia said, “I really can’t hide anything from you, huh.” The platinum blonde caught Kisara’s right hand and with a bit of fear in her voice demanded, “Promise… promise that you won’t leave me over it.”

Having a criminal in her family was often a deal breaker for any other normal person and losing Kisara was one of her worst fears currently. But what her girlfriend said next reassured her. 

“I promise, even if the world was against you, I would just take you out of here and go to another world. Earth is a shit hole anyway.” Kisara eloquently said in a completely serious tone.

Felicia felt that she got the jackpot, her girlfriend was beautiful inside and out; but Kisara was also too blunt, because she didn't think much of this world. “Um, that’s really frank of you, love.”

The Asian girl shrugged with a light smile. “Just telling the truth.” 

Kisaransat back at Felicia’s side, and took her hand in hers. This reassured Felicia and gave her courage to reveal her family secret to her girlfriend. “My mother, she's a cat burglar… and she feeds information to my father about the criminals she comes into contact with. Most of my father's big bust comes from her; you see my mother, Lydia, abhors drugs and prostitution the most…”

Felicia looked at Kisara for any sign of disgust or judgment in her eyes, but she found none, just interest. The tech genius made the sign for her to continue and Felicia did just that. 

Lydia Hardy rubbed elbows with the upper crust of society to target the people that she deems trash and she stole from them. While those she deemed worth knowing and who had clean business, she helped reinforce their security as a consultant.

“Recently though… my mom discovered that the DA and some big wigs are involved in human trafficking.”

Felicia realized that Kisara didn't like that news and it caused her to freeze and spit out, “An abhorrent practice…”

The platinum blonde saw how upset Kisara was and she asked herself how different was her previous world for her to be so… righteous. Felicia continued speaking, “They're basically snatching girls off the street or they ‘import’ them from other poor places to sell them to brothels or rich clients.”

“Unforgivable.” Kisara said as she held onto Felicia protectively by wrapping her arm around her waist.

The cat-like girl felt safe here with her girlfriend, she came here exactly to see if Kisara could help. After all, wasn't it like this that they met? Kisara was her hero.

“Cortana, did you listen?” Kisara asked out loud.

The holographic avatar of Cortana appeared right next to Kisara on the sofa. For once, the AI didn't mock Felicia. “I did. I'm sorry this happened to your father, Felicia.”

Felicia nodded hesitantly at the avatar, she wasn't used to the AI being this nice.

Kisara commanded, “I want you to find me, everyone loosely affiliated with Fisk, there’s no way that only one man could build such a big criminal organization. Human trafficking often means that the government and some corporate imbeciles are involved.”

Cortana smiled as she informed the couple. “Way ahead of you, Sara. I am currently following Fisk's money trails.”

“Great. You're always so efficient, Corti.” Kisara said with a thumbs up.

Felicia bit her lower lips, she has always been jealous of these two's relationship. But Felicia felt like she intruded in those moments between them. They've come into this world together and are loyal to each other, sometimes Felicia thought they might abandon her if they had to leave at a moment's notice. 

Kisara promised she wouldn't leave her though, and the girl was honest to a fault. Felicia didn't understand what was currently happening, so she asked, “Sara, slow down. Explain to me what you are going to do?”

Kisara turned to her and stared at her strangely, as if it was obvious what she wanted to do. “Huh? I am going to take down an empire.”

Felicia panicked, her father was already in intensive care, she didn't want Kisara to follow him there. “Kisara! Fisk is dangerous!”

Kisara's power ring shone bright on her right hand, the Asian girl started floating and her eyes glowed with emerald light. “Actually, I am certain that I am one of the most dangerous beings in New York. A rich man isn't even a blip on my radar.”

She suddenly remembered everything Kisara did, she could go to space and carve out Felicia’s name on the moon with her power ring. Felicia was momentarily blinded by the pulsing light coming from Kisara’s power ring.

“Hmm, who is that?” Her girlfriend looked toward the window on the left.

Kisara's green Lantern uniform appeared and she floated toward the window. Felicia called out as she stared at her girlfriend leaving, “Love, where are you going?” 

The black and green clad woman said, “I will be back, I just found a little spider spying on us.” as she phased through the wall and became invisible.

# # #

(Gwen Stacy/Ghost Spider)

This has become quite the ritual for Gwen, perching herself on the roof of the building facing Cygnus industry while engaging her stealth and watching Marvels of technology slowly being placed around the property.  The forcefield around the building was one thing but the flying car and bike was something else.

Gwen did her research, Cygnus Industries was a start-up under the umbrella of Stark Industries; there was an upcoming exposition at the Stark Expo in mid-December that Gwen will have to go to, as the unveiling of Cygnus Industries product will happen there.

From time to time, Gwen just wanted to speak with Kisara again instead of stalking her; thanks to her advice, she made a better web fluid formula. She could now make delayed effect web fluid with electrical conductivity, and a myriad of chemical combinations that allowed Gwen to create Web-Grenades, Splitter Webs, knockout web and delayed action web.

The only downside was Gwen's bank account emptying as she bought the chemicals she needed to make her arsenal of web fluid variants. Being broke wasn’t a good situation and she couldn’t count on her parents bailing her out all the time! But they were so hovering, they even bought the apartment next to them and gave it to her to have easier access to her and for safety.

Gwen’s dad was overprotective, then again with all the stuff happening in New York… mutants, magic wielder and super powered criminals? She understood her dad and mom.

The light show in the modified apartment building interrupted Gwen's train of thoughts and she saw Kisara disappear from the window of the room she'd been spying on.

Gwen's danger sense went crazy and made her roll on the right preemptively as a glowing green fly swatter almost hit her. Next, she made a backflip and shot a web to pull herself out of the way of a bunch of green boxing gloves that had encircled her and almost hit her.

How can they see me?! Gwen shouted in her mind.

Zap! Zap! Her danger sense reacted and told her to run from here but a green dome of force surrounded her on the roof she was on and something strange happened, the ground shone with blue-white light. Gwen lost her footing somehow and fell face first on the grave on top of the roof.

Kisara Lawson appeared in all her glowing glory with a pondering look while hovering over Gwen. She was wearing a different costume this time, with armor pieces. “Hmm, the frictionless field seems to have done the trick. Good.”

Gwen couldn't help but shout, “Y-you!”

The spider-girl couldn't believe that she was done in that easily. Kisara crouched next to her and said with a neutral tone, “Me. And you are ‘Ghost Spider’ and of course you are the spy that I noticed.”

Momentarily she thought about fighting, but her instincts were telling her not to. Gwen didn't feel like fighting her, she knew that Kisara wasn't a threat. “Wait wait, I don't want to fight!”

Kisara nodded at that and the green light on the ground simply shit out and Gwen could finally stand up. 

“Why are you spying on me?” Kisara demanded with her glowing green eyes.

It was rather unnerving to have that laser focus trained on her. Gwen replied with a stammer. “I am… just keeping an eye on you. Since we met last time, you've been active in making sure criminals didn't loiter in your area and…”

Kisara crossed her arms and squinted her eyes at Gwen. “You're babbling, come to the point.” She stomped her foot in a cutesy manner to the ground.

Gwen sighed and reluctantly said, “You're not the only one I spy on, I do the same with Norman Osborn and Fisk.”

Suddenly, Kisara was all over her face and asked, “Did you say… Fisk?” 

Gwen stumbled back as the other girl floated over her, her arms on her shoulders. Kisara asked urgently, “Do you know anything about him? I want that man behind bars.”

The vehemence of her words got to Gwen who realized that this girl was being serious, and for once she could get behind that.  “Ah, you too?”

Kisara nodded as she let go of Gwen.  “He put the father of my girlfriend in the hospital.”

Oh…. Fisk has done goofed it seems. “Ah.., so you want revenge.”

Gwen was worried that Kisara might fly off the handle and alpha strike Fisk Tower, but fortunately, her fear were unfounded when she heard her say, “ Yes. The good sort of revenge which will only splash on Fisk, his accomplices and men.”

Gwen stared at the other girl, and mused about how it's been two years since she became Ghost Spider and relentlessly tried to find a way to arrest those powerful corporate moguls making the city a hellhole of crimes and misery. Sure she saved the little people, but Gwen wanted ‘lasting’ change, not to be at this heroic gig forever.

“Hey, how would you like a job?” Kisara asked.

Gwen must have missed something because she didn’t understand why Kisara asked her that. “Excuse me?”

The asian girl put a hand on her hip. “You heard me. Would you like to team up to take down Fisk and his circle of evil?”

And this is how Gwen became the founding members of the Greatest Superhero Team in the world; she never regretted accepting Kisara’s offer, even in the future.