PENANCE

One night, a bleeding man runs for his life in the streets of New York. He hears foot steps getting closer, causing him to be overcome with fear. At that moment he is shot in the leg with an arrow, stopping him in his tracks. Out of the shadows, steps out a woman with long black hair, purple war paint, and black bullet proof vest with a skull in the shape of a cross on her chest. She aims her crossbow at the man's face.

"Wait! Wait! Please ju-"

Before he could finish his sentence, he is shot in the face with an arrow. The woman then walks away slowly, stepping over multiple dead bodies in the process.

One night later Peter is at the bar, playing pool with Jill and Andrea. Andrea knocks two of her balls in with ease.

"See I've never played this game, but that has to be cheating, right?" Peter says after Andrea finishes her turn.

Andrea giggles.

"It's called talent, Parker. Some people have it. And some people don't." She says.

The two smile and stare at each other for a moment, causing Jill to smirk.

"Welp, I have to go use the little girls room. Take over for me Pete, and don't let her out of your sight. She is quick as she is beautiful. Just like me."

The three chuckle as Jill leaves. Andrea then goes to hit the ball but doesn't knock any in this time, getting distracted by Peter's smile.

"Damn. There goes my shut out." She says.

"Wait you were going for a shut out against a new player? How do you sleep at night?"

"Hey there's no sympathy in the game of pool, Parker." She replies.

The two laugh as Peter takes his turn. Andrea quickly notices that he is struggling to keep the pool stick steady. He then hits the white ball, barely touching a single ball, causing Andrea to chuckle.

"How did I do?" Peter sarcastically asks.

"Well, you got potential. Sort of."

Andrea then grabs his hand and repositions his body. Peter can't help but think about how beautiful Andrea is, how good she smells, or how soft her touch is. Jill walks out of the bathroom and sees how close the two are standing together.

"Ok. Go for it." Andrea says.

Peter shoots but he sinks the eight ball in.

"No!" Jill yells.

"That good, huh?" Peter asks.

Andrea laughs.

"You're not supposed to sink the eight ball yet." Andrea tells him.

Peter chuckles.

"At least something went in this time."

"Tell you what. You two re-rack, I will buy rounds for the rematch." Andrea says, walking over to the bar.

Jill then smirks at Peter.

"I leave you two alone for one minute." She says.

Peter throws his hands up innocently.

"She wanted to help me." Peter says.

Peter then sink three pool balls into three different pockets at once.

"Show off." Jill jokingly says.

She then catches Peter smiling at Andrea.

"You know, you should really hurry up and ask her out already. A blind man can tell you both like each other."

Peter sighs.

"I can't."

"Why not, Pete?"

"You know why. If I- try something. She would be put in danger. I won't make the same mistake I've made before." Peter says.

Jill sighs, putting her hand on Peter's shoulders.

"Peter, I don't know what exactly happened with this cat burglary. But Gwen wasn't your fault. You can't stop yourself from being happy just because you're Spider-Bat."

Peter stays silent for a moment, soon looking up at the sky and seeing the Spider-Bat signal.

"Me being happy, wasn't apart of the plan. This city needs me to be focused."

He then gives Jill the pool stick as she sighs.

"I have to go."

Peter quickly leaves the bar while Jill watches on, worried about her friend. Andrea then comes back to the pool table, looking around for Peter.

"Where did Peter go?" Andrea asks.

Jill quickly comes up with an excuse.

"Well- uh, he- had to help Ben with something."

Andrea is visibly disappointed by this.

"You ok?"

Andrea sighs.

"I don't know. It feels like we have moments. But he keeps pulling away. Maybe he doesn't feel the same way I do."

Jill grabs Andrea by the hand to comfort her.

"Trust me, he does feel the same way. He's just- hesitant. Peter has been through a lot." Jill says.

Andrea nods, hoping that her friend is right.

Meanwhile, in a club, multiple mob members dead on the ground with blood, glass, arrows and bullets everywhere. Bullock and Montoya go over the crime scene.

"Every time I think we've seen it all, this city manages to sneak up and kick me right in the ass." Bullock says.

"It's gonna take weeks to process all of this." Montoya says.

At that moment Spider-Bat steps onto the scene. Peter sees all of the bodies on the ground, a little surprised by the carnage.

"I guess this stuff can get to even you." Montoya says.

"Any leads on what happened?" Peter asks.

"Looks like whoever did this, had bullets that could go through polyethylene fiber vest, thicker than Bullocks stomach. Even went straight through the same stuff on his back." Montoya says.

"It's over a hundred degrees in New York. Why would an Irish mobster wear body armor to a private meeting inside his own club?" Peter says.

"The D.A's been going bat shit trying to figure it out. No pun intended. This isn't the first hit that matches this MO. People thinks we got a new player in town, and one that doesn't share your no killing rule." Bullock says.

"Whoever this guy is. He's definitely a military type. Training, knowledge in hardware that could take out half the city." Montoya says.

At that moment Peter spots something on the floor. He sees a wallet on the ground, covered in blood. He looks inside and reads the I.D, Bradley Nolan. Peter then looks around the room, not seeing Bradley in the room.

"Look, I know you're a badass. But you might want to be careful with this new guy." Bullock says, but when he turns around Peter is gone.

"You know, why do I even bother?" Bullock asks.

Meanwhile at the NYPD precinct, while Commissioner Stacy is looking over paper work, when a police officer comes to get him.

"Sir, you- uh. Have a visitor."

Commissioner Stacy is confused a little, slowly standing up and walk to the front and sees the large mob boss with pale skin, white hair and a suit named Steven Mandragora.

"Mr. Mandragora. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Commissioner says, not being thrilled that a known criminal is in his precinct without handcuffs.

"Hello Commissioner. I'll cut to the chase, I believe my life is in danger." He says with a suspicious grin.

While that's happening, Bradley Nolan is bleeding out on the ground, an alley. He then feels a hand on his shoulder and gets startled, thinking it's the one who slaughtered the mob. He looks up and sees Spider-Bat, kneeling down beside him.

"I was always afraid that you'd come after me. Right now I'm wishin you came soon." Nolan says.

"We have to get you some help." Peter says.

"No...no." Richard replies, knowing he's about to die.

Peter looks at the man with some compassion.

"Who did this?"

Richard's breathing starts to slow down.

"No one... escapes this... no one... can get away... we wouldn't... give up... Mandragora."

Richard starts to cough up blood as Peter tries to comfort him in his final moments.

"Tell me. Tell me who he is." Peter says.

"Not- he...her."

Richard then dies as Peter sighs and gently puts his body down and quickly calls Commissioner Stacy.

"Stacy, the one who's been dropping bodies around the city is a woman. She's after Mandragora, we need to find him before she does."

"I already found him. He's at the precinct right now. He already knew he was in danger, he came here for protection."

Peter quickly hangs up and swings to the precinct at top speed.

Commissioner Stacy walks over to confront Mandragora.

"Alright Mandragora, I want answers. What do you know about the one that's been turning my city into a war zone." Commissioner says.

"I assure you Commissioner, I have no idea who this individual is. The only thing I was told is that whoever they are, they were asking about me."

Commissioner Stacy looks at Mandragora, unconvinced by what he's saying.

While that's happening, the women with the cross shaped skull on her chest aims a sniper rifle right at Mandragora from the top of the building across from the precinct.

"One batch, two batch. Penny and a dime." She whispers to herself.

As she pulls the trigger, a batarang knocks the rifle off target. Everyone hears the gun shot and quickly scatter, while Mandragora looks over and sees the woman with a smile on his face. The woman tries to reposition the rifle, but Peter swings in and kicks her down on her back.

"Stay down. You're done." Peter tells her.

The woman quickly gets back to her feet, pulling out her crossbow.

"I'm done, when I'm dead." She replies.

She shoots multiple arrows at Peter, but he quickly flips into the air to avoid them.

"You're not the only person to have lost people you loved." Peter tells her.

He then webs her ankles and pulls her back to the ground, causing her to drop her crossbow. As Peter starts to pull her towards him, she quickly pulls out a knife and a taser to cut the web and tazes the web, shocking Peter.

The woman goes for a right cross, but Peter easily dodges, hitting her in the chin and putting her in a sleeper hold. The woman then elbows Peter in the gut and then headbutts him in the nose. The woman goes for a kick that Peter blocks, catching her leg, grabs her by the neck and pinning her against the wall.

"Enough!" Peter yells.

But the woman doesn't listen, kicking Peter off and barrel rolls to grab her crossbow. She shoots two arrows at him, but Peter easily catches them both. Before she could shoot another arrow, he webs her crossbow out of her hands.

The woman charges at him, landing multiple punches to his face that does nothing to Peter. As she swings again, Peter side steps, flips her to the ground. He then jumps up on tge wall and webs her to the ground.

"I'm disappointed." The woman says, spitting out blood.

Peter doesn't say anything, glaring at her.

"What? You think I'm just some psychopath, unloading on whoever I want to?" She says.

"Do you think you're anything else?" Peter replies.

"I think that the people I kill, need killing. That's what I think." She says.

"You're running around my city like its your shooting gallery."

This angers the woman.

"And what do you do!? You act like it's a playground! You beat up the bullies with your fist, you throw them in jail, people calls you a hero. Then a month, a week, a day later. They're back on the streets doing the same damn thing!"

"So you just put them in the morgue." Peter says.

"You damn right I do. I do the one thing you can't. You hit them and they get back up, I hit them and they stay down! I take pride in that."

"Well you can take your pride to-"

Before Peter can finish his sentence, his spider senses goes off. Somehow the woman frees one of her hands and throws a grenade at the wall behind him. Peter quickly jumps out of the way, but his arm is caught in the explosion and is knocked to the ground by the explosion.

As he slowly gets to his feet, the mystery woman is gone causing him to get frustrated at himself.