"Download completed" Spider-Man stated as the info came across his mask lenses. "That's another tower on our network."
"Good thing the police haven't noticed you doing this at all the precincts," Thorax said over the earpiece. "Because I doubt they would be okay with this."
"I don't know. Shining Armor might be."
"He might but not his higher ups" Twilight replied. "They tend to be more by the book. By the way, tower number 23 means we have 92% of New York covered. Just two more towers and we'll be able to scan the whole city."
It was the day after the official formation of Team Spider. That day had mostly been spent getting to know the ins and outs of the base, with Thorax almost crying in joy at finding that they had a small kitchenette with a fridge, a microwave, and a coffee machine. But especially the coffee machine.
They also spent that time getting to know each other a little better, mostly getting to know Twilight since Thorax and Flash had been best friends since sixth grade.
Afterwards they got to business.
Twilight had found that the Oscorp Security Towers that had been "donated" to the NYPD by Oscorp had the same type of scanners as her drone. All Thorax had to do was hack into the network, upload the energy tracking program she used for her drone, and they could find and track any energy core from anywhere in the city.
Unfortunately they quickly found out the cyber security recently got an overhaul since the incident at the Research center, which left Flash having to suit up and go to each individual tower, and use the tech in his suit to sync to the network while Thorax hacked into it. They'd gotten into 23 of the 25 towers scattered around New York, with Spider-man having to stick onto the tower while Thorax did his job.
Jumping off and swinging towards the next tower he said "You know, since we're synced into the network, do you think we can see any of the crimes that the towers relay to the police?"
Thorax's answer was immediate. "Way ahead of you dude. I've already got a separate screen keeping tabs on it. So far there's nothing in progress."
"Well keep me posted. These guys made Shocker's tech and those drones to steal the energy cores. Just imagine what they could make with those cores."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked at Pinkie Pie in shock. Why?
Well earlier today the three of them had planned to catch a movie (Rarity being busy at Carousel Boutique, Applejack having chores to do at home, and Sunset doing... well none of them knew but she said she had other plans so they didn't pry.) Pinkie Pie all but demanded to pay for the tickets and their popcorn, so they stopped at a bank so she could make a withdrawal...
...of five hundred dollars. IN CASH.
"Okay, how the hell do you have that much money" Rainbow finally asked.
Pinkie Pie pocketed the bills in her pocket and replied "My Uncle Gold is a big name in the mining industry."
"Wait, your Uncle Gold Bar" Fluttershy asked.
"You mean that jolly guy who always buys all of us lunch at the one cafe with those awesome cookies? And leaves the waitress a fifty dollar tip?" Rainbow added.
"That's him. Him and Aunt Gem have been giving me one hundred dollars for my birthday and Christmas every year since my parents first opened my savings account when I was five. I have all that, plus my checks from working at Sugarcube Corner." She fixed them with a grin and asked "How do you girls think I pay for all the stuff for my parties? It's not like I just pull all that stuff from my hair."
Neither of them had the time to answer that, because at the moment the doors to the bank had been knocked down and a large group of men walked in, all of whom were armed with machine guns. One of them fired a few shots into the air, eliciting screams of panic and terror from everyone in the building. The security guards came out and pulled out their handguns, but one of the robbers pulled out a strange device that looked like a satellite dish mounted on the front of a gun. He pulled the trigger and the dish glowed purple before unleashing a pulse of energy and knocking all of the guards against the wall, their guns falling to the ground. The rest of the thugs started splitting up; some of them pointing their guns at the civilians to get them to do what they say, while the rest gathered up the tellers and accountants.
One of the robbers, the one holding the weird gun, yelled out "Alright everyone! Do as we say, and you all get out of this unharmed. Try to be a hero, and you won't live long enough to regret it."
The three girls were all on the ground, not moving or trying anything stupid since they really didn't want to die.
Like most people in a situation like this.
"I don't think we're gonna make it to that movie" Pinkie whispered.
Rainbow gave her a deadpan look. "What gave you that idea?"
Then she saw Fluttershy.
Fluttershy looked like she was about to have a panic attack. She didn't do so well in dangerous and/or stressful situations, especially ones where she or her friends could end up hurt or worse. Now she was being forced to lay down on the ground with a bunch of criminals armed with machine guns who probably wouldn't think twice about putting some bullets in their skulls if they did anything brave or foolish. Her blood felt like ice in her veins, her hands wouldn't stop shaking, her breath kept hitching in her throat, her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to punch through her chest...
Rainbow Dash saw this and immediately grabbed her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. The result was immediate as Fluttershy slowly start to relax. "Relax Fluttershy. Someone will come save us."
I hope she mentally added.
"That's the last one," Spider-Man said as he swung away from the last tower. "You guys should be able to run the program-"
Thorax immediately cut him off. "Just got an alert. Bank robbery in Midtown. They got hostages."
Immediately he replied "Send me the address. I'm on my way."
Back at base Twilight looked at her computer and said "I just ran the program and got a ping. It's coming from the same bank the alert came from."
Thorax rolled his eyes while he hacked into the cameras in the bank. "What an unbelievable coincidence. Twenty bucks says they've got weapons that use those energy cores."
"I'll take a hard pass on that" Spider-Man replied.
"Yeah that's a sucker's bet" Twilight added.
Taking a sip of his coffee, Thorax pulled up the security feeds. "I'm looking at about sixteen guys with machine guns, and one... Uh, Twilight?"
Taking a look at the screen and pointing at one of the men, she immediately noticed the large machine in his hands. "Yeah, that's probably where the energy core is" she stated.
"I figured as much. But I'm more concerned with what it does."
"Rewind the feed."
As he did, she took notice of the energy field the gun shot out. "It looks like some sort of gravity pulse."
"How the hell does that work" Thorax asked.
"Honestly aside from the energy core I don't know what all's in that gun. Flash, you think you can bring that thing back in one piece?"
"I can try, but I'm not making any promises" he replied.
Spider-Man had immediately gotten to the bank and crawled in through the air vent on the roof (Because almost every building in NYC apparently had at least one of those.) He crawled out of the vent into the bank, making sure to stay out of their sight, and took note of the positions of the robbers and the hostages.
And he immediately noticed Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash near the teller's stations with the other hostages. You guys picked a really bad day to make a withdrawal.
Moving quickly and quietly, he managed to disarm and then disable eight of the robbers, who were now either webbed up on the ceiling or suspended from the lamps.
Unfortunately the last one he webbed up had just enough time to yell out "It's Spider-URK!" and now the remaining nine of them were pointing their weapons at him. Not really phased by this he said "Hey guys. I don't suppose we can just settle this in a calm, peaceful-"
"SHOOT HIM!"
"Why do you guys always gotta do things the hard way?"
Before any of them could fire a single round Spider-Man rained down a barrage of Web Shots and Impact Webs at them, some getting webbed to the ground while the ones who weren't were now stuck trying to get the webs off of their face or their guns. Spider-Man then swung down and proceeded to take down the ones that were still standing.
Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy could only watch in awe as Spider-Man seemed to effortlessly beat the robbers. He seemed to fly from robber to robber, his feet barely touching the ground as he delivered a flurry of punches, kicks and Web Shots. It finally ended when he grabbed the last robber with his feet and flipped him into the air, rapidly hitting him with Web Shots as he fell down, landing on the ground in a very thick cocoon.
Seeing that all the robbers were down, Spider-Man looked around and asked "Is everyone alright?" Seeing everyone nod the affirmative, he immediately found the Gravity Gun and picked it up, his lenses scanning it for the energy core. Finding it he carefully removed it One down. Ninety-nine more to go.
"Thank you Spider-Man!"
"GAK!"
Whirling around he found himself face-to-face with Pinkie Pie, who had somehow managed to sneak up behind him WITHOUT triggering his Spidey-sense. How the hell did she do that?
Finding his voice he replied "No problem. I'm just happy no one was hurt." Picking up the Gravity Gun he said "Well, love to stick around and chat but these neighborhoods aren't gonna friendly themselves. Stay safe out there."
And with that he Web-Zipped out the front doors, leaving a smiling Pinkie Pie, a relieved and thankful Fluttershy, and an awestruck Rainbow Dash.
Meanwhile at a small diner in Midtown, Shining Armor was sitting at a booth sipping some coffee. On the table were several papers with various dates and times on them, all of them correlated with tech robberies.
And all of the tech that was robbed was from Oscorp.
"In the past month there's been six tech robberies from Oscorp delivery trucks. Last week there was a seventh robbery at an Oscorp Research Facility."
Shining looked at his friend across from him, an investigative journalist named Pharynx. Much like his younger brother Thorax, Pharynx had thick tinted goggles on to protect his purple pupil-less eyes. Unlike his brother he had red hair instead of orange, and he had a bit more muscle.
Pharynx and Shining Armor had met a few years back during a murder case, with Pharynx believing that this particular murder was linked to several murders over the past few months and wanted to be the first to get the story published. When they first met Shining just assumed that he was another journalist/conspiracy theorist trying to make a name for himself.
Surprisingly though, Pharynx revealed that he had an uncanny knack for being able to piece together the events that occurred within a crime scene with an eye a lot of the members of the CSI department would kill for; as well as be able to piece together clues others might find as purely coincidental. Like how the killer made all of his kills on the 13th day of the month; and that while all of the victims had multiple, multiple stab wounds in various places, the one wound they all shared was a slash across their throat.
Long story short Pharynx figured out who the perp was, Shining arrested him, and Pharynx got to publish his story.
But not before Pharynx had taken a knife to the shoulder that had originally been intended for Shining Armor, saving his life.
They'd been friends ever since, Pharynx occasionally helping the NYPD while he got first dibs on good stories for his articles.
Looking at the papers again he added "As of right now Oscorp has yet to tell the public or law enforcement what was stolen other than it's 'company property'. But if Spider-Man was right about that alien tech they stole, it's liable that the other tech stolen might be linked to it in some way."
"Unfortunately since Oscorp's legal team isn't exactly helpful, we can't know for sure" Shining muttered. "Sometimes I really hate paralegals."
Pharynx nodded. "I know the feeling, buddy. Anyway, I've checked with a few of my informants in Oscorp. While they don't have access to this stuff, they have told me that some of the higher ups have been getting some very... interesting letters. Letters that they just so happened to save from the incinerator."
"Interesting how?"
"Well death threats are nothing new for some of the higher ups, especially Norman Osborn himself. But a few of these letters weren't death threats. Rather, they were worded more like warnings. One letter in particular said that the person 'was coming to take back what was their's.'"
"So, a researcher who got booted off and had his research confiscated as company property. Makes sense for the tech thefts, but that still doesn't explain where Schultz got his weapons or those drones."
"I'm still looking into that. All I've heard about that is there's this incredibly smart guy who can build these crazy machines and gadgets for the right price. Calls himself the Tinkerer. He's a total ghost, no name, no face, nothing. I don't even know how someone like Schultz got a hold of him. And I'm taking it he hasn't talked yet?"
Shining shook his head. "Schultz hasn't said a word. We're trying to see if we can cut a deal with him for a reduced sentence, but so far he's refused every offer we make him. As it is he's looking at a life sentence for that little stunt at the research center, but-" Seeing the look on his face, he sighed again. "You know we're not supposed to do that."
"Guys like Schultz have an inbred hatred of cops or anyone who wears a uniform or suit. Reporters or journalists, on average, don't get near as much hate. Besides, you know I have a better chance than anyone in your precinct. All I'm asking is for five minutes of his time."
Seeing that Pharynx wasn't going to be swayed, he sighed. "I'll talk to the commissioner and see if we can pull some strings. But odds are unless you get a law degree and a job at a firm before Herman's trial, it's not happening."
"The commissioner isn't still angry about what I did to his car, is he?"
"What, you mean his brand new Ford Mustang that you hid behind when those cartel members were taking potshots at you? Guess you shouldn't have tried to mess with the Scorpion Cartel."
"Hey, all it takes for the bad guys to win is for the good people to stand by and do nothing. You fight for truth and justice your way, I fight for it my way."
Shining nodded. "Fair point. And I think he's over that. I think it's more or less he doesn't trust you."
"Because I'm a journalist or because of who my mother is?"
"Probably both." Shining reached into his wallet and laid a twenty on the table. "Let me know what else you find out, alright?"
Pharynx nodded. "See you around Shining."
"And for god's sake, try not to get into trouble. Last thing I need is one of the other officers telling me they pulled your ass out of a firefight" he said before walking out the door.
"ONE TIME! IT WAS ONE TIME!"
Twilight looked at the Gravity Gun as the machine scanned it, pointing out the various mechanisms and components.
And she REALLY didn't like what she saw.
"So on a scale of one to ten," Thorax asked "how bad is it?"
"Well aside from the energy core? This machine is detecting electrical components from old HYDRA weapons, and an anti-gravity unit from an Ultron Drone. I'd say it's at least an eight."
Flash placed the energy core in metal bin while she was talking, a feeling of dread in his stomach as she said that. "So somebody's taking bits and pieces of tech from the Avengers' previous battles, and are cobbling together black market weapons from them."
"And probably making a lot of money while they're at it" Thorax added. "But isn't this tech supposed to be with Damage Control, locked up in some bunker?"
"I'll ask Tony about it tomorrow if I get a chance." Flash smiled at them. "In the meantime, great work guys."
"Thanks" Twilight replied, smiling.
"Not bad for the first day" Thorax added. "But we only found one core, and there's still ninety-nine more out there."
"True. But remember, we spent most of the day hacking into the Oscorp Towers and then dealing with the bank heist. Plus, one core means one less homemade weapon in the hands of some scumbag."
"True."
Twilight looked at her phone, noting the time. "Well I'd better get going. My brother tends to worry if I'm not home by six unless I'm at Oscorp."
"Yeah, my Aunt's the same way" Flash said, grabbing his backpack. "See you guys after school tomorrow?"
"Oh right, tomorrow's Monday" Thorax groaned. "I hate Mondays."
"Well look at it this way" Flash stated. "After the mind-numbing school day, you get to help save New York City."
"I feel a little better."
Mason looked up from his computer as Adrien finished the startup sequence for his suit. The suit itself was a dark green armor with metallic blades in the boots that acted as talons. The mask he wore fed him oxygen but also kept his face hidden behind the visor. The most prominent feature were the large wings, with sharpened blades at the ends and each bearing an anti-gravity generator.
Seeing no red warning signs, Mason said into his microphone "Okay, everything's green so far. You ready, Adrien?"
Adrien replied, with the mask's filter making his voice sound rather menacing. "Please, Mason.
'Call me, Vulture."