Magical evening part 3

…Three months ago…Central Park…

Frank was willing to tempt fate today and say that this was possibly the happiest moment of his life. His children seemed to be enjoying themselves even though his son is at the height of that teenage angst crap that he's looking forward to having end and his wife was busy trying to swipe his last rib…

All in all, today was perfect as far as Frank was concerned…which is why he didn't happen to notice the three groups of people not too far away from the picnic area starting to get into a heated debate on territory rights. The Irish was making some bold claims and the Cartel and Dogs of Hell weren't liking it

"That was not what we agreed on!" the leader of the Cartel spoke in a slight raised voice so as to not draw too much attention but still gain his associates attention "We agreed, you'll get thirty fifth through forty-eight not another block or five more!"

"Yes well I'm afraid things have changed here lad" the speaker of the Irish said "You see boys, that Spider that's been swinging around here lately has started to cut into my peoples lively hood and well if we hope to still be around to enjoy Christmas dinner than we're going to have to expand a bit more"

"But doing that will cause him to pay even more attention to you and by proxy us since your new claims will be right next to ours!" one of the large bikers growled out

The Irish man turned to glare at the biker who spoke "Oh I'm sorry but excuse me for not enjoying the fact that our little empire is starting to come the fuck apart!"

The bikers growled at the man and a few made to possibly attack the man when the leaders of both the Cartel and the Dogs of Hell spoke up

"Enough!"

The three groups quieted down and restored to simply shooting sneers and muttering threats now.

The lead of the dogs of Hell sighed as he rubbed his head "Look how about we all focus on trying to off the Spider then we can debate on who gets what? Better yet, whichever of us can nail the bastard can get first pick on the Triads former turf"

The others began to nod at that, seeing the merits of first taking care of the thing that's forcing them into this situation. It was then that the leader of the Cartel noticed something about the man he saw acting twitchy earlier…there was something almost unnoticeable in his ear. The only reason he could see it was because the man had just turned his head at the right angle and the light from the afternoon sun had hit his ear just right

The man's eyes narrowed as he saw what it was upon closer inspection…an ear piece. And sadly, it was one of the Bikers that also saw it and spoke before he could do anything about it

"HEY THAT BASTARD HAS AN EAR PIECE!"

'…Shit' the cartel leader thought as suddenly the man was grabbed by the bikers which in turn caused the other Cartel members to draw their weapons on him which in turn caused the Bikers to draw theirs

The Irish backed away, drawing their own weapons and pointing them at both parties and it was then that the wired man spoke

"SUNNY! SUNNY!"

And then all hell broke loose…

…

It was almost a day after the rather shocking discovery in Harlem that Peter found himself siting at a wooden bench in Central Park. Nick was less than pleased to find the thing their looking for was already gone and had told the rest he'll ask around to see if anyone knew anything. Diana had to head back to Washington but promised to come back after she helped Steve with something that's come up in regards to a woman by the name of Barbara Ann and Constantine was busy off swindling a person out of their money probably. As for Zatanna…

"So what's it you wanted to talk about?"

'Speak of the devil and she shall appear' Peter thought with amusement as he turned to see Zatanna standing there dressed in black jeans that clung to her hips and legs in a way that would leave most men drooling and had a purple coat on to keep her warm from the early Autumn chill

Peter, who was dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and a red hoodie that had his suit's old spider symbol on it gave the woman a nod of greeting "I was hoping you'd be willing to divulge what it is that Nick wants so badly?"

Zatanna's brow furrowed at that "What do you mean exactly?"

"Look I only agreed to help out because this thing, whatever it is, is connected to the Web of Life which I'm the center of. So, I think I have a right to know on what it is that could be so important" Peter said as he leaned back in the bench and stared at Zatanna with a narrowed gaze

The beautiful mage stared at him for a moment before she sighed and slowly approached the bench before sitting down next to Peter "Make a good point…what do you know about the Web of Life anyways?"

Peter shrugged "Not much to be honest, but from what I've been told and gathered over the years the Web of Life is pretty much this sort of weird omnipresent force in the universe and multiverse at large and keeps things connected and stable"

"There's the simple answer" Zatanna said with a chuckle which caused Peter to snort

"Not so simple answer it's also meant to keep things balanced and from slipping into either chaos or death…and it's also the sort of acting power of Fate itself in the universe" Peter said as he rubbed his head "There's more to it than that but…"

"But you don't trust me?" Zatanna asked with a amused grin

"It's not that, it's just…" Peter tried to find a way to describe what he himself is having a hard time comprehending while also keeping a few things that he knows should be kept secret at all costs when he heard his communicator go off. He shot the woman a sheepish smile and quickly pulled it out and saw who was calling

'Now he decides to get back to me' Peter thought with a roll of his eyes as he answered "Yellow?"

"Spider-man, I've been able to make some headway into finding out what it was that killed the Black Spider last night" Batman spoke

"Really? What was it?" Peter asked as he leaned in on his knees and stared straight ahead at a group of people playing catch with a football

"It was highly compressed air that was contained in a sort of pressurized capsule that disintegrated on impact with Black Spider's head. It was fired from a experimental rifle that was just reported missing by it's manufacture last week" Batman revealed and Peter could faintly here him typing in something on the other side

"So, who lost their super airsoft gun?" Peter asked

"Oscorp" Batman revealed

'Of course,' Peter mentally face palmed at that before he decided to end his call since he saw that Zatanna seemed to be a little amused by his conversation with the Bat in relation to his encounter with the Black Spiders "Thanks for the info, I'll look into it"

"Was there anything else of note about this Black Spider? Anything that stood out?" Batman asked in reference to the one that started this whole mystery

"He seems to have had training from the League of Assassins. I recognized some of his fighting styles that are exclusive to them only" Peter revealed as he mentally ran through his fight with the unknown man

"Hmm…I'll look into it" Batman said

"I'm sure you'll be doing more than looking Bat's" Peter joked as he vividly remembered the man's…relationship with Talia al Ghul

Batman made a grunt of annoyance before he ended the call and Peter returned his attention back to Zatanna

"So…" Peter said as he reclined back into the bench

"So…" Zatanna said with a chuckle as the two settled into a comfortable silence

Several minutes pasted as the two watched people enjoying the day when something occurred to Zatanna and she turned towards Spider-man

"What would you have done after we found the artifact that Nick was looking for?"

Peter didn't hesitate to respond "Either double cross you guys and take it, because honestly I have more claim to it than that Hogwarts drop out or if I had no other choice destroy it"

"Don't think Nick would like that very much and maybe Constantine" Zatanna hummed the thought of what the two prideful men would do

"The Web of Life and things connected aren't toys Zatanna and don't take this the wrong way but I don't trust Nick with anything connected to it, hell I trust Constantine more than him and have you met the guy?" Peter said with a sigh of annoyance

"Yep" Zatanna said with a flat look as she remembered how her first meeting with the British mage went "And to be honest I don't blame you for being hesitant around Nick…"

Peter eyed her curiously "Let me guess, he's a Slytherin"

Zatanna giggled at that "No, but oddly enough I actually could picture that being the case…But that's not what has me and Constantine worried about him lately"

"What is it that's got you two spooked for him?" Peter said as he turned towards the woman "Look I know we just me and have known each other for the grand total of like nine hours but believe me when I say, that if there's anything you ever need, be it a hero on call, a guy to use as an assistant of your awesome performances or someone to hang with…I'm for ya"

Zatanna smiled at that as she examined the older man, she had to admit he had a sort of nerdy boyish charm that she found attractive even if he was a good decade older than most men she went for. The twenty-two-year-old shook her head and stood up

"Thanks, and I may end up taking you up on that offer" Zatanna said as she watched Spider-man stand up as well

"Don't be a stranger" Peter held out his hand for her to shake which she carefully accepted

"I'll contact you later if we find any new information on who the artifact and where it is" Zatanna said as she let go of the man's hand

"Same" Peter said with a nod as he watched her turn and began to slowly walk away, with what he swore was a subtle sway in her hips, before she disappeared in a flash

Peter blinked at the spot she vanished from and stared at it for a second before he felt his phone ringing. He quickly took it out and saw that it was Miguel who was calling, he hit the answer button and held it up to his ear as he turned and began to make his way out of the park

"Yo?"

"Hey I uh have some information for you that you may wanna hear about" the CEO said nervously

Peter's eyes narrowed in interest "What is it?"

…

"Well this isn't good" Peter said quietly to himself as he, clad in his new stealth suit which was capable of bending both light and sound to make him invisible, made his way through a crime scene in a small bar that was surrounded by cops

Last night a heavily armed man walked in, shot one guy in the head and then crippled another before he blew his brains out as well. Witnesses reported that the man had a white skull painted on his chest

It didn't take long for Peter to figure out who it was that was behind this…

Frank Castle aka the Punisher

And the man has already been linked to two other deaths over in Hell's Kitchen just hours ago. Peter held in a sigh as he watched the NYPD analyze the crime scene to try and figure out a motive for the brutal end to the two men. After several minutes the room cleared and Peter used that moment to drop down from the ceiling

He shot a quick glance towards the doorway to see if anyone was about to come through before he approached the first body that had it's head nearly blown off. Peter examined the man and frown at the state it was in

'Nice to see that even here Frank hasn't lost his aim…or brutalityPeter thought as he turned his gaze towards the other man or what was left of him and mentally sighed 'First I have some unknown magical cult running around with something that's connected to the Web of Life, second is that apparently my supposed to be dead clone sort of kinda but not really brother or something damn well close to him is running around somewhere likely helping the before mentioned cult and is back to his less then friendly ways, and now the Punisher is here…'

All in all Peter knew that it was going to be a long day and likely night, he can't just have Frank running around blowing people's heads in-

"Wait…Frank only ever kills criminals and yet…" Peter turned his gaze back towards the man that was shot in the head and mentally reviewed what he knew about him and his friend along with the other two found over in Hell's Kitchen. One thing that stood out was…they weren't criminals, at least not actual ones anyway.

Even though the Punisher does tend to kill criminals, he won't waste the effort on a few DUI's that never killed anyone and even if they did it was a stretch. So, the question he had to ask himself was why would Frank kill these men and what for?

"There's something I'm not seeing here…" Peter mumbled before his hearing picked up someone approaching from the back. He quickly jumped up to the ceiling and looked to see who it was

"Bloody hell this place is worse than the hell hole I just left" a familiar voice muttered before John Constantine appeared and frowned at the bodies before him and sighed before he approached the one that was nearly dismembered and began to search through his pockets

Peter felt his brow twitch as he landed behind the man without making a sound and decloaked "Can't even wait until they're in the ground can ya?"

Constantine looked back over his shoulders at the man and gave him a whistle of approval at the sight of the new suit "Nice Sunday best, trying to impress a certain someone that's a Tron fan?"

"What are you doing here Constantine?" Peter brushed the man's comment to the side and gave him a narrowed gaze with his glowing lenses

The mage shrugged "Found a lead on just who might be behind the attack on the Cold Flame. That lead gave me four names and fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, these men here are two of those four"

"You know where we can find the other two then? Assuming they aren't already dead of course" Peter eyed the man as he finished cleaning the pockets of the dead man

"Yeah, place over in Long Island" John said as he stood up and turned towards the vigilante "And their place is more secured than Fort Knox, gonna be hard for the two of us to get in there"

"Just us?" Peter raised his brow in intrigue at the man wanting to do this without alerting Nick and Zatanna

Constantine shrugged "To be honest Spidey…I don't want Nick anywhere near this artifact. Call it precognition or just me seeing this shit happen too many times but I don't think it's a good idea for Nick to be anywhere near this thing"

"That we can agree on" Peter nodded as he mulled over wheatear to tell Constantine about the possibility of running into Frank before deciding that he may as well "John…"

"Hmm?" the sorcerer responded with a raised brow

"The person that did this" Peter gestured to the two dead men "He may be there to…"

"Then we let them and these guys hash it out while we sneak by and find this damn artifact" John stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

Peter couldn't help but snort at the response "Trust me Constantine…this guy won't make it that easy for us…"

…

It was close to nine in the evening when Peter and Constantine had arrived by a teleportation spell half a mile from their destination. Peter seeing that things were about to get a little rough had decided to bring out something he's been meaning to test out lately

It was mainly black and made of a combination of Kevlar and titanium dipped fibers with yellow armored plating in the shape of a large spider on his chest, it's thorax was much larger compared to most of his previous suit's symbols. The lenses were also yellow and shatter proof or as close to it as possible. He also included built in web shooters that fired from the forearm instead of the wrist like most of his other suits do.

This suit was affectionally named the Spider-armor MK-II and with it Peter could take a hit from a grenade launcher and keep on moving. Another perk of this suit compared to his first Spider-armor that he made almost a decade ago was that it wouldn't slow him down and allow him to keep his speed and agility

Constantine was still dressed in his usual coat, shirt, jeans and boots but Peter did briefly eye what looked like a gun of some sort under his jacket but kept quiet on the manner. Constantine was about to make his way towards the location when Spider-man grabbed his shoulder and stopped him, causing him to look at the man in mild surprise

"Yeah?"

"What can you tell me about these guys were about to go up against?" Peter asked as he let go of the man's shoulder

"Not much to be honest, but they sort of act as mercenaries" Constantine revealed

"What like a magical soldier of fortune?" Peter questioned

"Sort of but they don't take money, at least not usually. Their payment usually enthralls magical items of the less than savory nature" Constantine said before he pulled out the gun that Peter saw and was a bit floored by it's appearance. It looked like a combination between an old Flintlock and a revolver with a double barrel that had engravings of old mystical runes on it "They also tend to have supernatural monsters in their ranks, mostly things like hell hounds and the occasional Vampire"

"…What about the undead, like say zombies or someone resurrected?" Peter asked as flashes of the wounds on the dead Cold Flame member came to his mind

"Depends…why you think they've made a few of those?" Constantine asked as he loaded the gun he brought with him with specially crafted magical bullets that were filled with bits of Hellfire, one hit from these will leave one helluva a burn if it doesn't outright kill them

"Maybe…" Peter commented before he checked to see his web shooters were full, the auto reload was functioning and his commlink for backup was on in case things get a bit…hectic "You ready?"

Constantine replied by cocking his mystical pistol and gave the wall crawler a smirk "Hell yes"

…

Not too far away Frank was busy arming himself with a large variety of ammo clips, a few grenades both fragmentation and incendiary along with a few 'specialized' grenades for what he may be up against tonight. He adjusted his armor to make sure it won't possibly hinder him before he reached for a large duffle bag that held a few more guns in it for him to use

He paused when he saw a small photo resting against the side of the van's wall and slowly placed the bag down and reached for it and held it up to his face. It was a picture of him, his wife and kids on the day he finally got back from the Middle East, his last tour of duty…

He took a steady breath before he placed the picture in his breast pocket before shutting the van's doors and hefting the large duffle bag over his shoulder and began his march towards the base of operations that his…reluctant informant… told him about

"Let's see your fancy spells deflect a storm of hot lead assholes" Frank growled out darkly

…