Summary:Silk discovers her parents are 'gone', and rejoins with two other Spider-Folk to tell them. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Cindy … Silk … had web-slung through the city. Sure, she'd practiced around the room, gotten really good at it too. But, one can only do so much in a large bunker. The city is - alive. Vibrant. Dramatic. Beautiful. Dangerous. And she feels the thrill of it as she manuevers through the city streets, changed some since last she saw them, but ultimately still the same. She doesn't even hesitate on the way home.
But after tearing off her webbed costume, running to the door - heartbreak, as she found her parents were gone. Left. No word. No forwarding address. And, even with an exhaustive search through the tablet Spider-Man had given her, she couldn't even find a trace of them. Anywhere.
Hours had gone by. And so she'd returned. Fixed the hole in the bunker, and removed the 'fake' security panel on the front of the door to deter hackers and thieves that was hiding the comm panel to the inside. It would seem this would still be her home. For a little bit.
She hadn't slept well, through the day. And was anxious, for the night.
As the sun went down the next day, she had webbed her costume up again, and left the bunker, zipping up to the skyline that Spider-Man and Spider-Girl had previously observed the bunker from and discussed if they should break in, or not. And, the young web-wrapped woman waits. Silently. For the two other Spiders to return.
Spider-Man made sure he gave Roger/Gecko plenty of time for math and self-defense. When he said goodbye, he sent a message through Spider-Comm: "Heading over to check on how Silk is doing. Anyone else up for a visit?"
Spider-Man will find himself with a web-swinging partner. Anya Corazon joined him along his journey (thanks to the GPS trackers in their new, shiny gear). "Go easy on me, will ya, you're a lot better at this than I am!"
She's focused on watching his form and motions, observing how he puts physics and geometries to use in what he does. As they swing closer to the meeting point, she wonders aloud, "I wonder how long she was trapped down there? I mean, like, was it weird for her to see shit like, iPhones? Cell towers? God, the whole idea of living in a bunker sounds like such a drag."
As the two near Silk, she watches them. How they swing. And before they can reach her, she jumps off the perch she'd acquired, and casts her own webline, allowing her speed and momentum to take her zipping just in front of the two going across their path and down the skyline to the right of either of them, without a word. Of course, she doesn't have a comm. And there can be no mistake that she saw them. Her lower face is completely covered, but her eyes are exposed, and looked directly at each of them.
Spidey is about to say something when Ms. Anuk-sa-Amun swings into view ahead of them. Well…someone wasn't napping. It was odd—his Spider-Sense didn't pick her up. Was that because they really were bitten by the same spider?
Spidey angles slightly towards one of the taller buildings. His webslinging was odd. He didn't seem to look at where he was sending his weblines, but they always hit a solid anchor. He suddenly swings deep, arcing up and up to land on the roof of the Chase building as if stepping off his front porch.
Silk's arrival has Spider-Girl going quiet, feeling unsettled. Moreso when Spidey angles for that building, and she just knows what he's going to do.
Gulp.
Mirroring his movements, she pulls hard on the webline and goes up, up, up, feeling a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach as windows scream past during her ascent. She overshoots a little, and with a yelp, spins about and fires a webline at the rooftop, to bring her back down. She lands a bit roughly, and has to drop a hand to the rooftop to catch herself.
When she looks up, her chest is heaving with adrenaline and sweat stains her ears and cheeks.
Silk's webline seems to carry her across the next side of the Chase Building as if to circle them, then she swings wide, and pulls up, this sends her forwards at a rapid pace, and she spins, shooting out webs from either set of fingers, one pulls her in a tighter circle and the other side pulls her down to land onto the tower a few feet away from the other two.
She looks at both of them, meaningfully and then says, "My parents are gone." Her voice is quiet. Sad. But, it's clear, too, that some part of her almost expected it. It's been a long, long time. And no word from her. "I don't know if I'll ever find them. They're nowhere. Not anywhere I could find, on the internet."
"Ah, jeez…" Spider-Man said, sound regretful and subdued and not very heroic. He wasn't sure if he should reach out to her, or if she'd think has was patronizing her.
After a few more moments, he said, "…I'm sorry." He looks up to her. "Maybe you just haven't found them YET. Nobody just vanishes anymore. You might just need more time…and help. If you want help, that is…"
The news stings. It always has, and it always will. Spider-Girl is about to rise to her full (and yet less than impressive) height, but the news has her slouching and frowning.
She's not finding any words to say, and the whole affair is frankly embarrassing. She does, however, look upon Cindy with a sense of deep empathy. Unfortunately, it's lost with the mask. She's half of mind to rip it off, but her better judgement, for once, wins out.
Silk's eyes furrow, worried, uncertain. "Maybe," she's willing to believe. "I don't know. I hope so. I tried to find their friends, but — they don't know anything either. Someone else was living in our house."
She paces, "I don't know what to do. What I should do."
She looks at both the counterparts to her own abilities. "Sensei," not 'the Old Man', "didn't —," she pauses, as if realizing how stupid the words would sound just before they leave their lips. She finishes, "I wasn't prepared for this. I just - thought I could - go home. Someday."
Spider-Man frowns. "That's not them disappearing. that's them *hiding.* Or someone hiding them." He looks to Silk for a moment, then to Spider-Girl, then back to Silk. "What I think you should do is find yourself. You have these gifts. You need to use them to help people. And the bigger the gift, the bigger the responsibility." He unshouldered his backpack. "Can you stay here? Or would you want to stay somewhere else while you try to sort this out?"
Anya can't ignore the fact that she had a similar thought; people don't just disappear. She chews at her lip, wondering if it's possible that Silk's parents are in fact dead, but the particulars behind their demise are being kept from Cindy for a reason. She wants to say that, but… it would be unhelpful.
She looks toward Spider-Man, and frowns deeper. Finally, a hand extends, as if she wanted him to slow down or shut up. "H… hold on," she tells him, before walking over toward Silk. "I think… I think he's trying to say that, if you just jump into this thing, trying to find what happened to them, you might end up way over your head and, like… completely not ready for whatever you find." The empathy extends to her voice. "Which totally sucks, but…" She glances sidelong toward Spider-Man and says, "he's probably right."
She then looks back to Silk and adds, "Besides. You don't have to go it alone." Her hand moves to find the young spiderling's forearm with a comforting touch.
"Jump into -what-?" Cindy asks Anya, accepting the empthy, the touch, but looking frustrated. Confused. It's a lot to take in, in twenty-four hours when the last year and a half of her life has been confined to that bunker and the mental fortitude and resistance, without even the most remote sign of 'brainwashing' or other psychological trauma.
No. Cindy had assessed the facts, made the choice, and had the mental fortitude to stay there.
Her dark brown eyes shift to Spider-Man. "I can stay there. No one will bother me. No one has, until you," she says. But, she doesn't seem to hold any blame in her voice.
Spider-Man's other thought has her mind turning some. "Help people?" She looks at him. Looks at Spider-Girl. She, certainly, isn't foreign to the idea or concept of heroes. They were certainly about before. Sure, she'd thought of ziplining through the city. Doing all sorts of crazy, fun things with her powers when she had her freedom. She'd even come up with the name for herself. And, her 'homemade' costume.
"Yeah. I suppose I could," she agrees. "I'm going to keep looking for my parents. But until I find them, I will help people who need it. At least that way, I'll be doing something Mom would be proud of."
Spidey nods, then opens up his backpack. "Well, until then, I'm going to supplement that doomsday-prepper diet of yours every now and then." He takes out two large plastic containers. "The blue one has chocolate-chip cookies. The green one has ham, roast beef, beans, green-bean casserole, and potato salad."
Spidey tries unsuccessfully to hide the smile in his voice. "Easter leftovers"
Jump into what? Spider-Girl considers this for a time, not really coming to realize that she might be on the verge of committing a terrible sin; projecting.
"Some Mexican drug cartel iced my mom when I was, like, two," she tells Silk. "That wasn't enough for the dirty bastards, so they went after my dad. I was seven when they got him, and for the next, like… seven years I'd stay up late, trying to find the guys that did this. Used to find drug dealers and beat the shit out of them when I was like, thirteen. Fourteen." She draws a deep breath. "Got in trouble, you know. Couple times. But when these powers came along? I thought… I could find them. Really find them. Not just the drug dealers but the suppliers, the traffickers, you know, the real Scarface type dirtbags, and I could make them hurt."
Her eyes turn to the ground. "Dad… mom wouldn't want that though." She looks back up. "All I'm saying is… what are you gonna do if you find them? Or if you find who did… whatever, to them? I got scars on my knuckles that remind me of the stupid shit I did back then, but… at least I didn't put a scar on my heart. Only the one they put there."
Silk looks confusedly at Anya. "If I find them, I'm going to tell them I'm alive. And explain what happened," she says, earnestly. Isn't that what she's supposed to do? Still, Anya's story isn't entirely unrelatable and she assures her, "The Old Ma—his name was Zachariah," but that's all she knows, "Who brought me here, he took the time to show me my abilities. What I could do. He helped train me, and made sure I had control of my abilities before he left. I can fight, if I need to. And I've had a a long time to practice these," she says, wiggling her fingers. "You can only watch the same tapes and movies for so long."
But, Spider-Man has her attention with the mention of homecooked Easter Dinner. "Oh, wow." She's already making grabby-hands for the leftovers. "I could eat like, five of these." Organic webbing makes you hungry. True story.
Spider-Man smiles slightly as he hands the wide green container to Silk, with enough food for two full meals. Maybe even three if she rations it.
He looks to Anya as he turns back, then deviates from his trip back to his backpack to face her. "My uncle was killed by a burglar. He was killed in the front room of the house I live in. And that burglar was there because, three days before, he ran past me and I did nothing. We have to do what's right. We have to bring honor to those we love by doing what's right…or they wouldn't even bear to look at us if we didn't."
If she finds them, or how she finds them. Anya doesn't say it, but she's hoping she doesn't have to. Silk doesn't seem to understand, but, she's gonna have to trust that, if the time ever comes when she has to face these things, she'll remember Anya's words.
Spider-Man's story tugs on her heartstrings, at which point she unslings her own backpack and pulls out three candy bars. She's not much for fancy candy; it's cheap, corner store sugar in the form of Milky Ways. One is tossed to each of them, before she keeps the third to herself and collapses down to a cross legged position on the rooftop.
"It all gets more complicated when you're strong enough to punch clean through a man's skull," she notes. Truth be told, she's terrified that some day, her temper will get the best of her and she'll accidentally kill someone.
"That's why you practice with practice dummies," Silk suggests to Spider-Girl. "Or, whatever you have on hand. You will get a feel for what certain levels of force require to exert." This doesn't seem to be one of her worries, likely thanks to the training she's mentioned. Still, she hoardes up the candy bars along with Spider-Man's offerings.
She looks back at the both of them, nodding. "You both have been really nice to me. I … I want to thank you for that. You didn't, you don't, have to. But thank you. I promise I'll help whoever I can. Wherever I can." Beneath her webbed bandana-face-mask, her jaws lift as she smiles. "I'll ptotect everyone I can. Like they are my family. And I'll look for my parents, too. And if you both want to help? I can't say I will turn you down. You're the only people I know, right now. And, I have to admit. You're both pretty cool."
Spider-Man chuckles. "SHE is cool," he says, cocking a thumb at Spider-Girl. "*I* am trading on the excellence of my aunt's cooking. Oh, and this."
He heads back to the backpack, then takes out two vaccuum-sealed bags of what appear to be, upon closer inspection, beef jerky. "A neighbor makes these and I bought a large batch. They come in handy, and I figured since you two could use the protein better that I could, I got you a pound each." He hands one to Spider-Girl, then brings one over to Silk. "Save it for when you need it, and it is a little spicy."
Spicy beef jerky? Spider-Man just won some major, major point with Anya Corazon. The best way to a hoodrat's heart is through beef jerky.
Accepting the baggie with a sly grin, her eyes are on Spidey for a moment. "He's a total dork," she says, before looking back to Silk. "He just doesn't realize that dorks are cool these days." An over-exaggerated wink is given to Spider-Man, so much so that her cheek moves and makes clear that behind the mask, she's winking.
"Well. I'm going to go stuff these into the bunker," Silk says, of the foodstuffs. No doubt, later, she will be devouring much of it. "Then, how about we go take a tour of the city together? Race you," she challenges the other two spider-folk, good naturedly. Okay. Silk might be a bit competitive. But, in a good way.
Spider-Man chuckles. "Okay. We'll wait up here for when you get back. Then we can head south into the Financial District, head west, then go up the West Side and put the finish line at the Cloisters. How does that grab ya, Silk?
To this, Spider-Girl grins. She shoves the chocolate bar into her mouth, stuffing her cheeks, and then cracks her knuckles. "Moph mour armmeth ah mrass."