He landed on the rooftop, scanned for an alternative entry point, found one, applied brute force to the roof hatch, climbed inside, pressed himself against the ceiling, and began walking upside down along it with the casual certainty of someone for whom the ceiling was simply another floor.
Below him, Silvio Silvermane walked a slow circle around a chair in which Yuriko Watanabe was tied, battered, and visibly not intimidated despite the situation.
"Well, well, well," Silvermane said, in the loud mocking tone of someone who has been waiting a long time to say something and has had time to rehearse it. "Look who we have here. The daughter of our old friend John. Remember him?" He looked at his henchmen. They shook their heads. "Of course they would not."
He lifted Yuri's chin with one hand.
"For starters, his existence was insignificant. He was nothing more than a worm. But an annoying one. One that managed to become a threat to us, the Benevolent Maggia."
"Do not say a single word about my father with that mouth of yours," Yuri said, struggling against the restraints.
"It seems that particular Watanabe trait is hereditary," Silvermane said pleasantly, reaching toward her cheek. "Now I know why you remind me so much of him."
Yuri spat in his face.
He stepped back, smiled, and wiped it away.
"A rebel!" He moved close and grabbed her by the throat, his voice rising.
"Just like your father! Incapable of respecting the system we have worked so hard to maintain!"
He released her and stepped back, composing himself. "Just like John. He got out of prison because he started accepting bribes, only to end up dying at my hands.
But you, my dear.... you have already managed to burrow deep into my heart. You now belong somewhere special."
He turned and began to walk away. "Initially I was going to put you in prison for murder, but now you will simply disappear. Say goodbye to your freedom. You can thank whoever decided to interfere with my plans for this gift."
He looked at one of his men. "Call Mr. Zhong and tell him I have a present for him."
"You know," Spider-Man said, landing directly behind Silvermane, who went very still because he could feel something cold and cylindrical resting against his lower spine, "those villain monologues have a way of ruining your day sooner or later. Today, for instance."
He pressed the barrel a fraction firmer. "Tell me. Do you feel lucky, bastard?"
Click.
BANG.
"AHHHH!" Silvermane's body went partially numb from the shot, his lower body registering the damage as he turned. He saw the Glock pointing at him.
He saw blood on his torso. He also saw, registering only now, that most of his henchmen had been collected from the floor and attached to the ceiling before any of them had noticed Spider-Man arrive, and the remaining conscious ones were pointing weapons at the figure in front of them until Wade came through the door shooting and within seconds they were all down.
Silvermane looked up.
"Who.... who are you?" he asked, weakly, with hatred.
"Me?" Spider-Man said. "I am just a mystery, waiting for you to die in suspense."
He smiled beneath the mask, raised the gun, and pulled the trigger twice.
Once to ensure. Once to confirm.
'Once I get back to the lab,' he thought, looking at the weapon in his hand, 'I need to build something purpose-designed. A gun and a bladed weapon. Preferably a sword.'
"Damn," Wade said, sighing with what appeared to be genuine admiration. "You are ruthless, you know?"
"I prefer to think of it as necessary lethality," Spider-Man said, looking at him. "Do me a favor. Stack the bodies and then go sabotage the security room. I need to speak to your contractor."
"Aye sir." The greeting Wade produced was geometrically unusual. "I do not know why, but I am starting to feel like you are treating me like a partner."
"You know I will never do that."
"Awww, yes you will, my dear comp-...."
"You will always be my faithful and loyal errand boy."
"You are a son of a bitch, I hope you know that," Wade said, and walked away looking genuinely heartbroken.
Spider-Man watched him go, then turned to Yuri, who was looking at him with an expression that had several things in it.
"What?" he said. "It is fun to make fun of him."
"Anyway," Yuri said. "What is the mysterious Spider-Man doing here?"
"Mmm. And to think you would mistake me for red.
Apparently you are not like the other people who think I am red. It is funny knowing that the only people who know of my existence are the ones I save, who then get called crazy for saying so."
He crossed to the chair and grabbed the restraints and tore them.
"Anyway. Let us free you." He helped her to her feet. "I was patrolling, trying to prevent everything from going to hell, since the New York police are not, surprisingly.... efficient at doing so."
"Hey!"
"Complaints to someone else and I ran into the idiot who con-," he said, and from the direction of the security room:
"Hey!" Wade's voice, evidently catching his own indirect description.
"One thing led to another," Spider-Man continued, "which led me to you, my dear vengeful police officer. I also carried out your revenge, while I was here."
"I see," Yuri murmured, and closed the distance between them and hugged him. "Thank you."
"I.... I am not a hero. You should not be thanking me," he said. Yuri hugged him tighter rather than answering.
After a moment she stepped back and wrinkled her nose.
"You smell like blood."
"Well, I am not going to come smelling like flowers," he protested, shrugging. "Now do not move."
"What are you doing?"
"Inspecting for injuries that may require immediate medical attention," he said, casually.
"Mmm." She nodded, then looked at him. "So.... you like what you see?"
"34DD my fab.... ahem." He cleared his throat. "It is good to know you are okay."
"That is one of your superpowers," she said, smiling. "Pervert."
"I am a man. Do not ask me to stop being a man. And it is partly your fault for the killer curves."
He smiled and took a step toward her, and she was doing the same thing, closing the same distance from the other direction.
"Sorry for becoming your, uh, dick blocker," Wade said, appearing in the doorway with a smile that suggested he had no actual regret about this, "but I just came to tell you I am done. Go ahead and praise me."
"Ah." Spider-Man sighed, patted Wade's shoulder, and walked past him toward the boxes. "Thanks for ruining the moment, jerk."
"How rude!"
"Remind me to say goodbye to you," Yuri said.
"For a lady who was almost murdered," Wade said, "the only thing that made you angry was that I interrupted your chance to exchange saliva...."
Yuri hit him.
Wade went down clutching himself.
"I.... deserved it," he said from the floor.
"Ha ha." Spider-Man laughed as he opened a container and began pouring fuel across the stacked bodies. "Wade, help Yuri out of the port. The police are on their way."
"Okay," Wade said, getting up carefully and taking Yuri's hand. "Let us go, ma'am. I can hear the situation developing."
"But what about you?!" Yuri said.
"I have cleaning to do," Spider-Man said, glancing back over his shoulder and waving. "I will see you when I am done."
He smiled to himself. It had been a long night and everything had happened very fast.
"But it was not so bad," he said to himself, cracking his neck and pulling wires from the meter box. "I could get used to this."
He looked at the arrangement in front of him. "Oh, this is going to be a great deal of fun."
....