Webs We Weave



Chapter Twenty-Six

DISCLAIMER :: This tale blends together aspects of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy/Ghost Spider/Spider-Gwen from Marvel Comics, Marvel Television, and Marvel Studios. Fanfiction? Sort of. The world and characters are mine, but they may seem familiar.

Author's note: This is the penultimate chapter. Brace yourselves.

(( Chapter Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcNiKCmWdYE ))

Sleep eluded me that night.

When we got back to the shelter, Maven was waiting for us. With tears in her eyes, she immediately took Chispa into her arms and disappeared with her. Almost everyone else was too tired to do much else.

Everyone but me.

Traveling up to my room, I literally dropped the backpack on the bed and opened my laptop. I was looking into transport routes and analysing LaGuardia Airport to figure out where the plane would be. Several news reports stated that the transport flights usually happened in the early hours of the morning. They wanted to dodge the press, accountability, and the insane daytime traffic at one of the busiest airports on the eastern seaboard. It paled in comparison to JFK, but still had decent traffic.

My only problem would be the building heights in the area. Not much swinging can be done from two-story townhouses lest the building heights conflict with airport traffic. I’d have to ride the subway again and find a way to get over to the western side where the Modern Aviation area was located. The logistics were driving me a little crazy.

A soft knock came to my door, snapping me out of my focus. I turned my head a little. “Come in.” I projected my voice a little before returning my eyes to the laptop screen.

“I have attended to Julia. She is quite shaken up. She may improve given time.” Maven informed me. “She would not speak of what happened. Did you get any information? Why is Federico not here?”

Slipping my hand into the thigh pocket of my suit under the sweatpants, I pulled out the jump drive and held it in the air between us. “This should answer everything about the facility. I’ll warn you that it’s detailed in the worst way. We need to get the information to someone who actually cares to release it publicly.”

She gingerly took the jump drive from me. “I do not know anyone in the press, but I will find someone with integrity.” She leaned over and glanced at my screen. “Why are you looking at the airport named for the best mayor of the previous century?”

With a deep sigh, I answered, “ICE has been using private chartered flights to move detainees around the country. It’s their smokescreen to carry out their deportations without sharing much with the families of the detained. A plain white aircraft will make the rounds to several hubs, filling up with detainees along the way. The final destination is usually Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. They’ve got Lowkey slated for one of those flights. It makes logical sense that they’d use LaGuardia because there’s less of a chance of anyone filming their operations. It’s also got far less traffic than JFK, so they can fly in, refuel, load the detainees, and bound off again without much competition from commercial traffic.”

“Do you know for sure they’ll use LaGuardia Airport?”

My whole body slumped. “No. They keep this whole thing as secret as possible. He may not be taken there, but I have to try. I can’t let him get shuffled off to Texas and not be able to do anything about it.”

“Should I inform the others?”

I slowly shook my head. “No. Everything will probably go down early in the morning. Let them sleep. They need it. I’ll do this one alone. There’s no place safe for them to wait while I do my thing. It’s too dangerous to try smuggling everyone into the airport.”

“Would you like me to come along, love?”

“I don’t think so. They’re going to have guns. Lots of them. You’re not bulletproof and you can’t dodge bullets. I can dodge the bullets.” I raised my head so my eyes met hers. “I’ve got this, Aunt Mae. I’m going to bring Lowkey home… or die trying.”

Her lips became firm. “Saoirse, you do not have to do this alone and I’m nearly certain Federico would rather you were alive when he comes home.” Tears formed in her eyes. “I would much prefer you come home.”

“Me too. I’ll be as careful as I can. Okay?”

“You had better or I will march into the Otherworld to fetch you.”

A smile creased my lips. “Deal.”

We shared a hug before she turned to leave. Even after a couple of hours researching, I didn’t feel ready to face what was coming. Had I the luxury of time, I’d have planned something much more concrete. The last three days had turned into a meat grinder. The raid, the federal building, and the Navy Yard had all turned school into the backdrop. I had barely slept and barely eaten. After shutting my laptop, grabbing my backpack, and quietly making my way out the door, I was looking at my first sleepless night in a while.

It wasn’t affecting me like I thought it might. I was tanking sleep deprivation like a fully-geared Protection Warrior running Liberation of the Undermine through LFG. Having my body regress to half my chronological age had a few perks.

The journey began at the 4th Street & Washington Square station. I swiped my MetroCard, got through the turnstile, and boarded the E train bound for Queens. Having brought my earbuds, I was jamming to a meditative playlist of all the pop-punk and emo music that brought me joy and allowed me to focus. It was a half-hour-long ride and basically empty in the middle of the night. At the Jackson Heights - Roosevelt Avenue station, I had to move above ground to the Q47 transfer for a ten-minute ride to LaGuardia. I stepped off the bus right outside the old Art Deco Marine Air Terminal and a newer, less decorative terminal. A swift walk through the crosswalk brought me in front of the two buildings.

My eyes immediately began scanning the area for somewhere to change discreetly. There was a small sidewalk between the two buildings with sufficient enough coverage. After checking and making sure I wouldn’t be seen, I ducked behind a tree and jumped up to the roof of the terminal. Once out of sight, the regular clothes came off and were swiftly replaced with my boots, gloves, and mask. From that point forward, all I had to do was wait.

It was getting incredibly boring, but a mostly unmarked white plane taxied to a far off staging area after forty minutes. I saw it come in from one of the runways and taxi northward where there were no public terminals. There was plain black text stenciled over the windows reading “Global Crossing Airlines”. I didn’t know aircraft, so I couldn't identify what plane they were using.

While watching the plane continue along the taxiways to the north until it looked about the size of a toy, a tingle ran up my spine. I quickly glanced over my shoulder to see what looked like the cab of a cargo truck welded onto the body of a tour bus coming up Bowery Bay Boulevard. It was all white with no markings on it other than the manufacturer tags. The windows were just giant squares. They were far larger than any conventional bus window. Based on the perspective, I guessed it was probably thirty feet long. It had to be the thing I was waiting for. Time to take a chance and pray I was correct.

I sprinted along the terminal roof to get ahead of it, circled behind, then matched its speed. I was reasonably certain I could make the jump to the roof. The razor wire atop the perimeter fence was what worried me. As the bus drew alongside, I launched myself and prayed I'd cleared it. My prayers were answered. I landed on the roof just as the bus bounced over an uneven patch of pavement.

As quickly as I could, I flattened my body to avoid detection. Security in that section of the airport had already seemed heavy. If I were caught, the whole operation could spiral out of control quicker than I could adequately respond. My body was manipulating the crap out of Van Der Waals forces just to stay on the roof while the bus bounced its way down the road. The bus slowed for a security checkpoint, passed a large gray building, then slowed for a gate. After all of that, we were unhindered on the tarmac. The bus sped along the perimeter service road heading northward. We passed several private aircraft. I flipped off Trump’s plane. It was cathartic.

Soon, we were slowing again. The scream of an idling airplane was getting louder by the second. As the bus slowed to a stop, a tingle ran up my spine. The moment I heard the doors of the bus open, a sonic boom clapped above the airport. Looking over my shoulder, the only thing I truly saw was a streak of blue and red with a Prandtl-Glauert singularity. The singularity dissipated about thirty meters above the tarmac.

In the next second, the streak traveled through the front of the engine housing on one side of the plane. It executed some kind of maneuver where it twisted over and traveled through the front of the second engine housing. Both times, the turbine engines of the aircraft were ripped clean from the plane. Then, the figure stopped. Floating above the plane was a girl close to my new age with very dark brown wavy hair and eyes of the brightest blue I’ve ever seen on a human. She was wearing a suit made mostly of bright blue with red trunks, boots, and cape with a yellow-gold belt around her waist. The emblem on her chest was a diamond-shaped shield with a digitized “S” in the middle. There was a scowl on her face.

I could scarcely believe my eyes. It was the girl from Chicago.

Immediately, the federal agents started to scramble. I could hear the door of the bus start to close. I crawled along the roof toward the front. Shoving my hand in the space, I stopped the door from closing at the very last second. Yes, it hurt. I quickly got both hands on the door and forced it back open. The angle made it awkward, but I was stronger than the operator. Flipping down and using the doorframe to swing myself inside, I landed upright in the cab. There were three people onboard wearing dark blue jackets that read “Police, ICE” and had the Department of Homeland Security logo on the chest. My eyes narrowed on them.

I tapped my chin to turn on my voice modulator before I spoke. My voice had a growl to it. “I believe this is your stop, gentlemen. Make sure to pay your fare on the way out.” When something exploded behind me, all the confidence disappeared. “The fuck was that?”

I turned to see several federal agents firing at the floating girl to no avail. She had just smashed two empty vehicles into one another. There were now flames on the tarmac.

The incessant beeping of a commercial vehicle in reverse drew me back to the bus. The operator was trying to escape the situation. I reached over, grabbed the front of his shirt, picked him up, and threw him out the door.

“Your position has been downsized, my friend.”

The next thing I had to do was get into the back. Reinforced plexiglass had been installed to separate the operator from the passenger compartment. Ripping through that wasn’t hard at all. As soon as I did, another tingle went up my spine and the world slowed. The two agents in the rear didn’t hesitate to pull their sidearms. I shot two lines that connected and pulled, disarming both of them. Rapidly advancing on them, I was prepared for almost anything. I grabbed the first one, then threw him toward the front of the bus. The detainees were cheering me on at this point. The second threw up his hands as I approached.

“I don’t want any trouble,” He whined.

“I suggest you pursue other avenues of employment, buddy.” Pointing with my thumb, I nearly growled. “Give me your keys, then get off the bus.”

Trembling, he fished in his pocket for his keyring and handed it to me. He practically ran out the door. I had to march back over, pick up the guy I had thrown, then toss him off the bus. There were cheers from the detainees once again. When I turned back to the interior, my eyes began scanning for Lowkey. Now that I had the keys, I could multitask and start releasing people from the shackles they’d be put in. Thankfully, there weren’t too many people. When I finally got to Lowkey, I gave him a small hug. He recoiled a little bit.

“Do I know you?” He asked in an aggressive whisper.

I nodded quickly. “Yep. I’ll explain how as soon as I can, Lowkey.”

“How do you know that name?”

“I told you: I know you. We’ll talk as soon as possible, but we’ve gotta get off this tarmac first.”

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say.”

For the next few moments, I continued releasing everyone’s restraints. Once I was finished, I went back to the front of the bus. Hesitating for a moment, I turned back to the confused faces of everyone in the bus.

“I’ll be right back, folks!” I told them.

“¿Guardián de Seda?” One of them asked me.

“Sí, Señor. Yo soy Guardián de Seda.” I answered.

Stepping off the bus was definitely an experience. First, I had to climb back on, put the transmission in Neutral, figure out where the parking brake was, remember what air brakes were, and pull the button to engage them. Then, the tarmac was utter chaos. Some people still wanted to shoot at the flying girl. The bullets were bouncing off impotently. She huffed, puffed, and blew the fire out. The two charred vehicles were covered in ice afterward. She moved and became a blur once more as she disarmed every single agent, then melted the firearms with lasers coming out of her eyes. Coming to their senses, the federal agents cried out in fear before running to their vehicles to escape the scene. The flying girl zipped over to the vehicle with stairs and pushed it up to the plane. She proceeded to punch a hole in the door and tear it off.

I just stood there in awe as she walked into the plane. It was just insane how powerful she was. It was like watching a god come to life. I thought I was going to help, but she absolutely didn’t need my help.

Right as I thought that, she stepped out onto the stairs.

“Hey! Girl in the purple and black! What’s your name?!” She called into the night.

It felt like a goddess was talking to me. “Oh, me?! I’m… uh… I’m Silk Warden!”

She smiled and nodded at me. “Pleasure to meet you! You don’t happen to speak Spanish, do you?! I really should learn, but I’m terrible at it!”

“I… I do… speak Spanish! Fluent, actually!”

“That’s great! Would you be willing to talk to the people on this plane?! There’s about forty of them and they look really scared! I can’t say that I blame them, honestly!”

“Yea, I can talk to ‘em! What do you need me to say?!”

She lifted off and swiftly flew over to me, nearly knocking me over. From my perspective, she was roughly the same height as Mark.

Oh, my Brooklyn came out bad. “Holy cannoli! Whatareyoudoin’, huh? You could give a girl a heart attack!”

Her body slumped. “Oh, gosh darn it. Sorry if I scared you.” She sighed. “If you could let them know I’m a friend and I mean them no harm, that would be a big help.” She pointed at the bus. “How full is that thing? Could it fit these people?”

“One thing at a time, here, if you please.” I rolled my eyes. “I could talk to da ones on da plane. Maybe we could get ‘em outta here on da bus. Is that what you was thinkin’?”

She smiled and giggled. “Wow, your accent is amazing. Did you grow up around here?”

“Nah, dis is Queens. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. Just over da way dere.” I pointed westward with my thumb.

“Oh. Right. I grew up in a small town in the midwest, so I don’t know anything about the city.” Her head turned quickly toward the building I’d passed on the way in. “We have to move fast. The Port Authority is calling in the NYPD and requesting additional backup from the FBI and US Marshalls.”

“How do you know dat?”

“I can hear extremely well. Let’s work on getting these people safely away from here, shall we?”

“That was always the plan, but I ain’t got all the abilities that you got. This would’a taken a lot longer to work out.”

“I’m sure you’d have figured it out. You did really well going for the bus first. Your plan could have worked. Sorry I dropped in and spoiled your mission.”

I shook my head. This girl was too good to be true. “Look, let’s just get the people out and we’ll talk later, a’right?”

“Good plan.”

Running over toward the plane, I couldn’t get out of my head who I was talking to. It took me the entire walk up the stairs to recalibrate my mind. Once I got a look at the passengers on the plane, I was brought back to reality. The shocked faces looking up at me were every age from a six year old kid to a seventy year old grandmother. Moving quickly, I started tearing off the shackles before I started speaking.

“~Welcome to New York, everybody. I’m Silk Warden. The girl in the cape is a friend. She’s helping to make sure all of you get to safety. If you would all calmly head toward the door, there is a white bus waiting nearby. We’re going to get you out of here. We’re going to get you somewhere safe.~” I told them with a customer service voice that I didn’t even know I had.

As I moved through the plane, I repeated myself so that everyone heard me. After two repeats and getting all the shackles off, I followed the last people out of the plane. The girl in the cape was standing outside the bus door guiding people into it. Soon, everyone filtered onto the bus. I hopped in for a moment to check capacity, then climbed back off.

“Looks like we got everybody on board,” I told the girl. “You never did tell me your name. What do I call you?”

She shrugged. “Friend, for now. I’m still working on the name. Names have meaning, y’know? Mine really needs to mean something.”

“Yea, I understand that. In da meantime, we got a bus full o’ people and we don’t know where ta go. You got any ideas?”

Her eyes wandered the horizon around us for a minute. “We could do something like what I did in Seattle.”

“I’m not followin’. I wasn’t there, so I dunno. What’d you do in Seattle?”

“Lifted the bus over my head. Nobody was onboard, though. That could complicate things. The last thing I want is for someone to get hurt. We can’t stay here, though. The police are on their way and our new friends would just be returned to ICE custody unless we get them out of here.”

It was my turn to shrug. “You could carry da bus over da river an’ into the Bronx. Dere’s plenty o’ access to da subway. Easy peasy.”

“I’m not from here. Where’s the Bronx?”

With one arm, I pointed northwest. “That way.”

She nodded firmly. “Okay. Direction. That’s good. One last problem is this transport bus has no restraints. The people inside could be tossed around like rag dolls.”

“You let me worry about dat, caped girl with no name.”

She followed me inside the bus while I talked to the people inside. I got them to each take a seat. Going down the length of the bus, I shot out two lines per person—one for lap restraint, one for shoulder restraint. For the kids younger than ten, I did my best to create a five-point harness. I was at the back three rows when the girl in the cape stepped on the bus again. It was then that I noticed the high-pitched sounds of police sirens.

“We have to go now, Silk Warden! Everybody hold onto something!” She barked.

Scrambling, I got the last few people secured and moved toward the front of the bus. Translating what had already been said into Spanish, I grabbed the lever and pulled the door shut. In the next moment, the rear end of the bus was lifted and I scrambled because I forgot my own seatbelt. The whole bus rattled around for a moment before the sensation of motion took over us all. The sensation of sudden inertial transference was probably similar to one of those thrill rides at Coney Island, but I’d never ridden one. Looking out the front windshield, the tarmac seemed to disappear below us and we were traveling over the East River. My hands gripped the steering wheel and didn’t let go. Until that moment, I had never flown in anything, let alone a bus.

The flight was so much faster than I thought it would be. Riker’s Island was visible out the windows in the door for a few seconds, then the two Brother islands, then we were over the Bronx. The girl must have seen something I didn’t and altered course a little more northward. From the windshield, it seemed we were headed for a large park just over the Bruckner Expressway. Moments later, we were descending toward a baseball diamond next to a dog park. I didn’t know it at the time, but we came to a soft landing in the middle of the baseball diamond at the southeast corner of St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx. The front wheels came down first, then the rear wheels.

Moments later, the girl in the blue suit with red boots, trunks, and cape gently knocked on the doors. It took a moment for me to let go of the wheel to manipulate the lever so the doors opened. The girl smiled and let herself aboard. For a moment, nobody moved or spoke. After a few seconds, the bus erupted in cheers. The incredibly powerful girl actually smiled and blushed. It was something to behold.

She turned to me with that smile. “Are you okay, Silk Warden?”

My head slowly nodded. “Yea. I think. That’s the first time I’ve ever flown.”

“Really? Well, I wish it was a more enjoyable experience. It was really quick thinking for you to use webs for seatbelts for everybody. We work really well together, don’t you think?”

“Yea, I guess we do.”

“How about we do it one last time while we get these people off this bus and maybe back to their families?”

With a nod from me, we started moving through the bus pulling the silk away from people so they could finally get off that cursed bus. They didn’t need any encouragement, either. They formed a group among themselves outside the bus, talked for a few minutes planning their next move, and dispersed quickly. Soon, it was just Lowkey, the powerful girl, and I left behind.

“So, you gonna tell me who you are and how I know you?” Lowkey asked me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

The girl looked around for a moment. “Maybe not here, you guys. Where do you live? I can fly you home.”

“The Village.” Lowkey and I chorused.

She smiled. “That’s great! Where is that?”

Lowkey firmly planted his palm into his face. Behind the mask, I rolled my eyes.

“It’s down the west side of Manhattan. We’re three blocks south of Stonewall.” I answered.

“The Stonewall Inn?! Iconic location where the queer liberation movement began in 1969?!” Her voice rose a few pitches with excitement.

“Yea, that one.” I confirmed.

“I still have no idea where that is. I am definitely going to need directions.” The girl stated.

Lowkey smacked his forehead again. “Fuckin’ tourists, man!”

“Bro, cut her some slack. She’s from Chicago. They don’t even know how to make pizza right.” I gave a smirk he couldn’t see.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “That was unkind. Deep dish is a pie. It’s just made a little different. I’m sure the pizza here in New York wouldn’t be the same as it might be in Sicily, Naples, or Florence.”

I let out a sigh. “You’ve got a point. I’m sorry. I thought I was making a joke and it turned into an insult. You helped a lot just now and it’s not right to be insulting.”

“Thank you for apologizing.” Her face returned to a neutral expression.

“You’re welcome. How are you going to take us home?”

“Flying, of course. I’ve got more than enough strength to carry the two of you. Just guide me to where you live. Ready?”

Lowkey and I shared a glance then shrugged at her.

She scooped us both up and took to the sky again. I was eternally grateful to have my lenses. The windsheer was crazy. With Lowkey’s eyes closed against the wind, it was up to me to direct the flying girl down the island of Manhattan. She marveled over all the landmarks from Central Park to Rockefeller Center to Times Square to the Empire State Building to the Flatiron Building before arriving in Greenwich Village. Before long, she was slowly lowering herself onto Jones Street in front of Tír na nÓg. Lowkey just about cried when he saw the brick façade.

To my surprise, she followed us in to make sure we were safe. Maven was a little confused at the sight of the girl with us, but rushed over to embrace Lowkey. She cried a couple of happy tears.

“The house is whole again.” She murmured.

I lowered my hood and slipped off the mask. “I had a little help, Aunt Mae.” I pointed to the girl in the cape. “She kinda did most of the tough work.”

The girl chuckled. “You call her ‘Aunt Mae’? Wow, this world is crazy!”

Maven looked the girl up and down after releasing Lowkey. “I am Eliza Maven, proprietress of this establishment. I’d like to thank you for helping to bring Federico back into the fold. What was your name, love?”

“I don’t have one in the suit, Ms. Maven.” She glanced over to me. “I’m guessing you’re very familiar with Silk Warden?”

Lowkey’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he turned and saw me. “Seda?! What the hell did I miss?!”

“She resides here.” Maven stated plainly.

I smiled at Lowkey. “Told you that you knew me.”

He rushed into me and wrapped his arms around me. “Thanks for coming for me.”

“I went after everybody. You were the hardest one to find, but I had hope.”

Silence enveloped the room for a few moments until the girl in the cape cleared her throat.

“Look, it was nice working with you. I really should be going.”

I turned to her and extended a hand. “My actual name is Saoirse.”

She smiled and shook my hand. “I’m Kristen. Pleasure to meet you. I’m glad I was able to help. Maybe we’ll see each other again some time?”

“Yea. Make sure you have a superhero name by then, okay? I was having to call you ‘girl in blue’ the whole time.”

“I’ll work on it. Keep up the good work, Saoirse.”

“You too, Kristen.”