21 THE CAT AND THE BAT

One night, eight years after the Goblins rampage and Gwen Stacy's death, Commissioner Stacy is on top of the NYPD precinct, shining the Spider-Bat signal in the sky. Later Renee Montoya joins him with two cups of coffee.

"Ever intending to go home again, Commissioner?" Montoya asks, handing him one of the cups.

George chuckles, taking the cup from her.

"I'd just be going home to an empty house and a full bottle, detective." Stacy replies, still feeling the loss of his daughter.

Montoya let's a brief moment of silence pass between them, then looks at the signal up in the sky.

"So he hasn't shown up yet?" She asks.

"He often doesn't. I just like reminding everybody he's out there."

"Why wouldn't he come?"

"Hopefully... because he's busy."

Meanwhile, on the streets of New York, everyone sees the signal in the sky. People like Police Officers, kids, and other innocent citizens are excited it, while other people, thugs, drug dealers, and petty crooks are terrified at the sight of it.

At that moment, gunshots and a bank alarm are heard and three men with ski masks come outside. At that moment, one of them looks up at the sky and sees the signal as well.

"Oh shit." He says, confusing the other two robbers.

Soon they all are looking up at the sky, feeling immediate terror.

"Damn, we gotta go, we gotta go now." One of the other robbers says.

Before they can get into the getaway car, two cops soon turn the corner.

"Hey! Stop right there!" One of the cops demand.

The three robbers start to run away, through the crowd on the sidewalk as the two cops chases after them. As they are running, one of the robbers let's off a shot that hits one of the cops in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground. The other cop quickly checks on her partner.

"I'm fine, I'm wearing a vest! Keep going, I'll catch up, just go!" Her partner yells.

The cop nods and chases after the three, soon catching up to them. She then tackles one them to the ground, while the other two keeps running. She quickly gets to her feet and pulls out her gun.

"Drop the gun!" She yells.

The robber slowly gets to his knees and drops his gun. He then slowly starts to get to his feet, making the feel tense.

"Get on the ground, right-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the robber swings the briefcase of money behind him, hitting the cop in the face and knocking her to the ground. As the cop is on her knees, the robber grabs her gun and aims it right at her head with a smile.

"Say goodnight, sweetheart." He says.

The cop puts her hands up slowly and closes her eyes, trying to prepare herself for the bullet. Before a shot can be fired, a web sticks to the robbers back and he gets pulled into the darkness, kicking and screaming. As gun shots and sounds of a struggle are heard in the darkness, the cop slowly approaches the dark area that she hears the noise from.

Soon the robber falls out of the shadows, unmasked, with bruises and blood all over his face. Her gun is also tossed back to her, but she doesn't see who did it.

Meanwhile, the other two robbers are running through the street when one of them are lightly hit by a car. As he is on the hood of the car, the robber aims his gun at the driver who immediately puts his hands in the air.

"Get out of the car!" The robber yells.

As the driver is unbuckling his seat belt as fast as he can, someone comes out of nowhere and slams the robbers head against the front windshield, cracking it.

"Call nine-one-one." The mystery man says.

The driver can't do anything but open his mouth in shock and nod his head yes as his protector flips over his car to go after the last robber, who is still running. He then looks ahead of him and sees a group of teenagers infront of him. He quickly grabs a girl and puts his gun to her head.

"You're coming with me!" He yells.

The girls friends stand up to help her, but the robbers gun being aimed at them made them stop in their tracks.

"Back off! Just stay calm!"

He then drags his hostage inside an empty church nearby, while she screams.

"Let me go! Please put me down!" She screams.

While they enter the church, the robber gets frustrated by her screaming.

"Shut up! Shut up!"

The robber then aims his gun at the entrance of the church, waiting for someone to walk through it. At that moment, batarangs are thrown at the lights, making the room dark. This scares the robber who shoots wildly into the dark. As he stops, he looks over at the entrance and sees someone standing there. Even though it's dark, the robber and even the girl knows who it is... The Spider-Bat.

Peter slowly starts walking towards the robber.

"St-stay-stay back!" The robber demands, aiming the gun at him.

The vigilante doesn't stop, intimidating the robber even more. Two shots are then heard through the church. A few minutes later, the cops come running in, seeing the unharmed teenage girl whose crying and the now unconscious robber on the ground.

Later, Commissioner Stacy and Detective Montoya are on the scene, looking around and seeing the three robbers injured and arrested with smiles on their faces.

"Like I said- busy." Commissioner Stacy says.

As they walk away, The Spider-Bat stands on a rooftop with a smile on his face.

Later on, Peter drops into the Batcave and quickly starts to take off parts of his suit.

"How late am I?" Peter asks Ben.

"All of your guests arrived an hour ago."

Ben then takes a closer look at Peter, then pulls out a handkerchief.

"And you have blood on your face, sir." Ben says handing him a handkerchief.

Peter takes it, quickly wipes his face, then continues to put on his suit and tie for tonight.

"Peter... you can't keep doing this." Ben says.

Peter sighs.

"I have to. No one else will."

"Every drop of blood, everything you've sacrificed. This city is safer now... but it's made you a target. And People will keep you in the crosshairs, until you've been shot out of the sky." Ben says.

"Criminals in this city need something to fear."

Ben puts his hands on his shoulder.

"I know you're trying to create a myth. But be careful you don't turn into a monster."

Peter stays silent for a moment.

"Sometimes... you need a monster." Peter says.

As Peter fully puts on his suit and goes to walk away.

"Eight years ago, you were prepared to give up this life. To leave Spider-Bat behind, and move on with your life." Ben says.

When Peter hears this, he remembers Gwen Stacy, her smile, her laugh, her hair and her eyes. He then push those thoughts away and walks towards the elevator.

"That was... a long time ago, Uncle Ben." Peter says as he enters the elevator, worrying Ben.

"Don't let tombstones be your family legacy." Ben says

Peter nods after putting on his glasses, as the elevator takes him up to his study, where it is empty and the door is closed. He then walks through the doors, seeing multiple vote for Harry Osborne posters and a lot of the upper class of New York City. Harry steps up infront of the crowd to a round of applause.

"Thank you... Thank you everyone. You know I'll be honest... after the- horrible things my father did all those years ago, I didn't expect such a ringing endorsement, even after becoming a district attorney, so I appreciate the support. For too long, this city has burned with corruption and greed under Mayor Hills authority. But I promise you, a vote for Harry Osborne, is a vote to finally put your foot down. Together, we can stump out the fire and save our great city."

The entire crowd claps at Harry's speech.

"If only my friend Pete, my campaigns largest backer, could heard that applause he-" Harry pauses for a moment when he sees Peter in the crowd.

"Well, there he is. Fashionably late as always. Go ahead, say Hi Pete." Harry says as the entire crowd turns to him.

Peter puts on a nervous act, pretending to be bashful and shy.

"Hi, Pete." He says with an awkward smile as the crowd laughs.

"I tee'em up and he knocks them down. That's how it's been for years. Enjoy the rest of the night, and thank you for your support." Harry says.

Harry then walks over to Peter.

"Where were you, man?" Harry whispers.

"Sorry, just had to do something important." Peter says.

"Not more than this." Harry replies.

Harry looks at his friend for a moment.

"Look, I pretty much spent all the money from my trustfund to put myself through law school. We both know the people here didn't come to see me, the son of the Goblin. They came to see the Peter Parker. The only reason I have a shot in this is because your parents were pillars in this city, not to mention your work at Parker Industries." Harry says.

Peter sighs

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry Harry. I'll do whatever it takes to save New York City."

Harry smiles.

"That's good to hear, pal."

"You come up with a slogan yet?" Peter asks.

"No. I've always sucked at those, ever since I ran for class president back in high school." Harry replies.

Peter thinks to himself for a moment.

"What about... a new face for New York."

Harry smirks.

"Look at you, that's not half bad. I'm gonna use that."

Harry then wraps his arm around Peter.

"I'm serious though. Together, you and me. We change New York City. Make it a city free from crime and corruption."

Peter smirks.

"That's all I ever wanted."

"Then come on, shake a few hands, and tell people to support Harry Osborne."

Through the event, Harry introduces Peter to a bunch of people that could help his campaign, successfully convincing them to give him their votes in the upcoming election for the new New York City they're trying to create.

Meanwhile at City Hall, the man at the front desk is shot in the face. Multiple masked men wearing black, with guns slowly make their way through the building.

Back with Peter, Ben approaches him while he's talking to more people about Harry.

"Sir, there's a break in happening at city hall. Many men with heavy artillery." Ben whispers.

Peter clears his throat.

"Sorry to leave so abruptly but there's a problem at Parker Industries that I have to take care of." Peter says.

"Oh, are you sure Pete?" Harry asks.

"Yeah sorry man. But I promise I'll be at the press meeting tomorrow, bright early."

As Peter leaves, Harry keeps talking to guests. Meanwhile Vicky Vale is watching from a distance.

"Yet another early exit from Peter Parker." Vale says with a smirk.

Back at city hall, the team of mercs kick open a door on the highest level of the building. As they walk through the room they see a giant metal door, blocking their path.

"Get it open."

One of the mercs pull out a power saw to cut through the door.

"On it."

As he starts to saw the door, the other mercs keep watch.

"You think he's gonna show?" One of them asks.

"Doesn't matter. We'll be out of here before anyone can stop us."

At that moment, Commissioner Stacy and other cops start to surround the elevator. Stacy is then stopped when he sees the dead man at the front desk.

"Christ. Move in!" He says.

One of the cops press the button for the elevator, but Stacy notices that it's coming down way too fast. As it gets closer to reaching their level, George soon realizes what's going on.

"Get back!" The Commissioner yells as the elevator crashes to the bottom, knocking everyone to the ground.

Stacy slowly gets to his feet, then hears a voice on his radio.

"Stacy. They're on the fifty- second floor. I'm going in." Peter says.

"Hey, wait for backup!" Stacy demands.

"I don't need it." Peter replies, then hangs up.

"Upstairs, now!" George orders the cop.

After that, one of the mercenaries looks out of the window and sees a web shot to the side of the building.

"What the hell?"

He then looks across and sees Spider-Bat swing straight at him. Peter crashes through the window and kicks the merc to the ground, knocking him out. The others hear the noise and four of the mercenaries run over, finding nothing but a busted window and glass on the floor.

"What the hell happened?" One of them asks.

They then starts searching the room for anyone trying to stop them. Soon one of them find the missing mercenary, unconscious and webbed to a chair. He runs over to free him, but can't tear through the webs.

"What the hell is this stuff?" He asks himself.

Soon a web is shot onto his foot, pulling him to the ground. He's quickly dragged across the floor, into a dark corner in the room, screaming the whole time. The mercenaries remaining see this and starts to shoot at the darkness. A web is shot out from above, taking away the merc knocked out in the chair, and scaring them all.

"Back to back!" One of them suggests.

As all three of them get back to back, Peter is sticking high above the wall and drops a smoke bomb in between them. As they all are blinded by the smoke, two out of the three are taken out. The one left quickly runs out of the smoke and to the one cutting the door open.

"It's him! He's here!"

"Who!?"

When the smoke clears, they both see their allies dangling from the ceiling from webs, with Spider-Bat glaring at them.

"Holy shit."

The merc tries to shoot Peter but the vigilante throws a Batarang, knocking the gun out of his hand. He then shoots out a web to the wall and sling shots himself at him, kicking the criminal through the metal wall, with the merc with the saw quickly moving out of the way.

As Peter's in the room that they were trying to get into, he looks over and sees a woman with a black skin tight suit, goggles, and cat ears stealing a flash drive from a safe.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to knock?" She asks.

Before Peter can say anything, his Spider sense goes off.

"Behind you, big boy." The mystery woman says.

Without even looking, Peter shoots out a web behind him, taking out the merc who was coming at him with the saw. The woman then somersaults over Peter and runs away, with Peter going after her. She quickly goes towards the elevator, shoots out a grappling hook and goes up the elevator shaft while also closing the door in Peter's face. Peter quickly runs to the stairwell and shoots a web to the top, going straight to the roof.

The woman soon makes it to the roof and starts to walk away with a satisfied smile.

"Without a scratch." She says to herself.

"So far." A voice above her says.

She turns around and sees Peter, shocked that he caught up to her but is also intrigued.

"That doesn't belong to you." Peter says.

"I was wondering if we'd cross paths. Hoping actually."

"You broke the law. Here I am. It's as simple as that."

The woman chuckles.

"Cut the shit. The law? Don't tell me that's why you do all of this. Squeeze into a suit, put on a mask. Most people dressed up like that end up in Arkham."

"This City needs a hero." Peter replies.

"So that makes me, what, a villain? Sounds fun. Gotta admit- you give a good chase. Who knows, maybe you'll catch me one day."

"How about tonight?"

The woman smirks.

"Don't you know not to corner a wild animal? It's dangerous."

"Then let's put you in a cage."

"Bring it, Spider."

Peter jumps down infront of the burglar, as she shows her claws, then throws a kick that Peter easily blocks. She swings her claws at his face, with Peter either blocking or dodging. Peter quickly replies with a punch of his own, hitting her in the face.

"Looks like you're not holding back." She says.

"I don't discriminate between criminals."

After he says this, she swings at him again. Peter ducks the claws but gets kicked in the gut and pushed back. The mystery thief then runs away with the vigilante quickly shoots out a web, pulling her to the ground. Peter quickly runs at her as she kips up to her feet and throws a roundhouse. Peter dodges the kick, blocks a punch, and uses his elbow to block her knee strike.

He then grabs the small pouch strapped to her leg, throws it across from them while dodging another strike from her and webs it against the wall. The burglar sighs, but still has a smile on her face.

"Why go to all that trouble for a flash drive?" Peter asks.

The burglar does answer and starts running away.

"Wait!"

As he runs after her, Peter throws a tazer device on her back, shocking and causing her to fall off the roof. The hero quickly dives after her, catching her and sticking to the wall.

"Guess I was wrong about you catching me." She says.

"Don't struggle or you'll fall." Peter says.

"But that's what you crave- the struggle. I know men like you."

Peter slowly pulls her up, the two getting face to face.

"Bye, Bat."

She then slashes Peter across the face, causing him to drop her. Before she falls to the ground, she fires a grappling hook to a nearby building. As she blows a kiss at him and walks away, Peter can't help but be curious of her.