By Sunlight (P.P + M.J)

27. From One Spider to Another

The weekend was a long one. After the event with the Rhino, Peter had subtly rejoined Ned and they finished their day at the convention. Jack had elected to stay out, mostly because he wanted to make sure there were no other robotic animals running around, which was fair.

For the rest of the weekend, Peter decided that he would give Jack a much-needed break and take the next few patrols alone. While he loved crime-fighting with his friend, going full-on rage monster was a stressful thing for Jack, and he needed time to recover. Besides, patrolling the city alone was nice. It felt like old times when there was no Vulture or Lizard, back when Werewolf wasn't even a name he knew. But if he was being honest, he rather enjoyed having the anthropomorphic canine by his side. It was comforting that he didn't have to take on the whole city alone.

But sometimes, solitude was nice too.

But solitude also never lasted, for as dusk settled, trouble appeared right on queue, in the form of someone getting yanked off the sidewalk by five huge guys and dragged into the nearest alleyway. Dropping his bagged snack off on a ledge and enhancing his night vision, he swung in and aimed for the nearest mugger and kicked him clear away, webbing him to a dumpster. Peter whirled around and saw the victim elbow a guy in the chest so hard he hit the wall behind him. They were hard to differentiate from the remaining three bad people, for their hoodie and dark jeans made them look like a bad guy themselves.

The last three villains looked between their intended victim and Peter, and one of them had the bright idea to go for Peter alone. He took out a knife as he approached the webslinger, and Peter barely managed to hold back a laugh at the extremely lame attack.

"God, not a knife," Peter said, his tone full of fake fear as he backed away with his hands up, "my one weakness is small knives."

He then webbed up the guy's hand before he got too close, and Peter threw him against the brick wall and stuck him there. He then turned to the victim, who was easily fending off attacks from their assailants. They dodged punches left and right like a trained fighter, eventually drop-kicking one of the bad guys against the wall, knocking them out cold. Peter ran over to see if he could help as the hooded figure got to their feet, but as he drew close, the person whirled around with a raised fist aimed at him instead of the other bad guy. Peter caught it in the palm of his hand, and was surprised by how much strength he felt in the punch. It was like blocking the Winter Soldier all over again.

The person then looked at him with infuriated blue eyes, eyes he recognized only faintly. Then, his night vision focused in on the black and white jacket, black fingerless gloves and white ski mask, and it all came together. The girl ripped her hand from his and looked around. The last mugger had fled down the street, probably not wanting to deal with Spider-Man as well as this spitfire of a girl.

"I had that," Gwen spat, and he looked at her, "I didn't need your help."

"That's a weird way to say "thank you"," Peter observed, and she glared at him.

"Like I'd thank you for messing me up," She retorted, and he gave her a baffled expression, one she couldn't see because of his mask.

"Messing you up?"

"Yeah! I was doing fine until you showed you! You don't think I wanted that to happen? I've been baiting them for the past three blocks!"

"What are you even talking about?" Peter questioned. He knew Gwen was a reckless person who never ran away from a fight, but to ask for one from five guys who weren't just high school bullies was a huge risk. "Who wants that to happen to them?!"