A Dish Best Served (Spider-Man, Coldheart)

[BWS2K]

A Dish Best Served

Then.

The building had been abandoned for a decade and it showed. Boarded up or broken windows, deteriorating or missing brickwork, and knee-deep piles of trash gathered by the elements in every corner, inside and out. Power and water left this place a long time ago. Even on a sunny Spring day like today had been, it seemed frigid. Sad. Dark.

And at midnight, it turned into a house of shadows.

It was once an apartment building. Three floors housing a dozen families with a common room in the basement and tables on the roof. All the sights and sounds of bustling vibrant city life.

No more.

For the one lone resident, the rapidly approaching morning will be the culmination of months of work. Her photos had been arranged in neat stacks on a small low desk, ordered and labeled with dates and times. An empty cot was set up nearby, and the remnants of a unheated meal. The walls were covered in maps and handwritten notes. It was an inner room, without a window, but swept and kept meticulously clean, unlike all the other rooms in the building.

Like them, however, it was empty.

Now.

Watching the sun rise over New York City from atop one of its myriad skyscrapers, clad in her yellow-and-chrome bulletproof bodysuit and jet black boots and facemask, Kateri Deseronto felt…

…nothing.

She’d spent the last six months preparing for today. Surveillance, mapping, timing travel routes, listening to police scanners, honing her swordcraft. It was Mother’s Day. If all went according to plan, more than a few supers were already taking their last breaths.

Turning through the roof access, she made her way deftly down the emergency stairway with grace, poise, and stealth. Now that she thought about it, the prospect of running her targets through with her cryogenic blades in the coming hours brought a smile to Deseronto’s face. Too many lives had been lost in super-powered battles, too much collateral damage. She remembered her son, Joey, and knew he was only one among hundreds of the casualties ignored by so-called heroes.

At least the villains had the courtesy to acknowledge their collateral damage.

Yes, she had to admit - vaulting down the stairs on her way to avenge the slain innocent and bring true justice to their murderers, she did now feel something, deep down, in her heart…

Today was Mother's Day, and Kateri Deseronto felt cold.

[webdevil]

Mother's Day was not something that registered on Peter Parker's radar. Having not grown up with one, the closest mother figure he ever had growing up was his Aunt May. A woman whose faced hardship from losing her husband, and continuing to raise a child not even related by blood in his memory. Without Aunt May, Peter realized, he would not have become the man he is today.

That man, was the Amazing Spider-Man.

Oh sure, a radioactive spider gave him the great power, and Uncle Ben's death taught him responsibility, but it was the women in his life that reminded him why despite all the hardship, bad press, and being under the constant eye of the dreaded Cancel Culture, he continued to go out and do what he did best: Swing through New York and fight crimes big and small. And swinging was an exhilarating sensation. Imagine all the world's greatest roller coasters you have ever rode on, multiply that combined experience by a hundred and you sum up the daily life of the webslinger. If only the other parts of the superhero gig were as fun, the wallcrawler thought, as he adjusted for updraft between the buildings and firing a long webline to the adjacent building and off to his next swing.

"Imagine a want ad on Indeed. Superhero wanted! Able to work inhuman hours? Looking for a career with no pay? But oodles of experience? Come on down! We need you! Sheesh, no wonder the Avengers don't post on Indeed. Right, like you didn't try..." he muttered into the wind as he did a spiralling backflip several times before firing his next webline to safety.

In truth, he had been on several reserve members of the Avengers after his natural loner streak and their general distrust of him mellowed over the years, but his most infamous moment was right at the start of his career when he tried to join the Fantastic Four, only to learn they didn't pay. Yeeeah, not my finest hour, Parker, he thought. Now, he was an unregistered, anonymous Defender of New York, so any chance of Avengers status have long since devolved back into a pipe dream.

[BWS2K]

Finally.

Kateri watched the web-slinger through her binoculars with grim determination. Her schedule for the day hadn't included Spider-Man but she was only too happy to make an adjustment. He was only a couple blocks away now, and approaching fast. She dropped her field glasses to the roof and sprinted for the roof's edge.

She vaulted easily to the next building, looking back to check that she was still on an intercept course with the wall-crawler. The next alleyway was wider, and the roof lower, which meant a greater leap and front flip before being able to check again.

Coldheart drew her twin blades from their scabbards as she made for the last jump. They sang with the low hum of cryogenic charge and left a chill in her unseen wake. If she timed it right...

Kateri Deseronto was no super being. She was government-trained, sure, with some state-of-the-art body armor and some gimmicky weapons, but neither of those were anything too special nowadays. Everyone had an Avengers story or friend of a friend who might be the Iron Fist. Hero tech, torn costumes, villain hostage experiences - they were a dime a dozen. But so was the destruction. The injuries. The deaths. Every one of those supers had a trail of destroyed sedans, apartments, and city landmarks that everyone seemed to just forget about. And the dead? The bystanders who'd been incinerated or buried in rubble or worse? Were they to be forgotten as well?

No. I won't forget.

Magic hammer, mutation, cybernetic armor, or radioactive blood - it didn't matter. If you had great power and you'd faltered in your great responsibility, Coldheart was going to find you today. It seemed only fitting that she cross this name off her list first. A sign from Providence that her motives were pure, her success assured.

Kateri thought about Joey again, and her undying love for him. It was that - not supernatural speed or agility or strength - which enabled her extraordinary leap from the edge of the roof. A mother's love for her lost son that blessed her timing as she dove through the air, blades outstretched, a dozen stories up or more, slicing through Spider-Man's webline, snapping it apart into icy crystalline shards. In that moment, Kateri Deseronto was more than human - she was vengeance personified. She was retribution long overdue.

"MURDERER!" she screamed, already tucking for the roll that would bring her to her feet on the approaching rooftop.

[webdevil]

Spider-Man's head began to buzz with that familiar tingling sensation that warned him of oncoming danger. Right ahead of him and above him! Thank you, ol' Spider-Sense, he thought as he let his reflexes do the rest of the work and let go of the webline before seeing the source of its danger.

"MURDERER!"

Allowing himself a quick glance, he saw a familiar pair of charged blades and its owner, a woman, streak across the skyline and preparing to tuck and roll into the next building. Letting his body corkscrew into the dive he was now forced into, he fired a fresh webline and let the web lengthen for a few seconds, allowing its elastic properties to coil and rebound at the pendulum of his swing, and pressed off with his legs, allowing the momentum to catapult him well above the building, around the corner, and onto the adajacent building's nearby billboard, allowing him to face his attacker head on and well out of immediate reach.

"Sheesh, and here I thought JJJ had the market on Spidey Derangement Syndrome. You two should partner up! I'm sure the corresponding YouTube channel would get 100K in a year!" said Spider-Man in his usual mocking tone before the face under the mask hardened into something much more serious.

"How did you get out of the Raft?" he said with a note of steel in his voice. If D-listers like this were getting out, he began to wonder who else might be waiting in the wings.

[BWS2K]

Blades still outstretched in either hand, half-crouched and prepared for battle, Coldheart tracked Spider-Man's recovery path eagerly. She grimaced when he came to rest well outside her immediate reach. Her swords were capable of engaging at distance but that would almost certainly be a waste of energy.

#@&%ing superheroes.

They'd faced off before, most recently several months ago - almost a year now, or was it more? - when Kateri had stolen a bag of cash from an armored van. Christmas time. She'd nailed Spider-Man with one of her thrown swords, icing him up and allowing her to get back home, but he'd tracked her down somehow and alerted the authorities. She'd spent some time in the Raft for that, but managed to escape again. Looking back, the details were still fuzzy.

It's funny, the things you remember and the things you don't.

Since then, she'd laid low and planned a sweep of the city that would put more than a couple supers in the grave for what they'd done to the city. To its people. Spider-Man was on her list - he was always on all her lists - but much later in the day.

"You can't imprison justice, Spider-Man!" Coldheart shouted. "And you can't escape it either!"

She glanced side to side, looking for a way to close the distance between them. Her swords could probably sever the legs of the billboard and bring it crashing down, but that could mean someone below getting hurt and he'd probably just leap clear anyway.

So Coldheart waited, rage simmering, laser-focused on her mission.

If I can just get this one today, that might be a success...

[webdevil]

Spider-Man almost quipped at Coldheart's remark, but instead he held it back with a sigh and a headshake that even with the full face covering mask indicated a pitying expression. Coldheart was different compared to the usual criminal element of New York - she believed she was protecting the innocent. It was like Venom, but much less murderous.

"Look, the last time we did this, the best you got was freezing my right arm for a few minutes and a prison stint. This isn't what you want and it won't bring them back. Even among the best of us, with great power there must also come great responsibility," said Spider-Man, his tone a patient one.

The old words hung in his own head a moment. He thought about all the damage and what inaction might have caused had he chose not to. All the times he chose not to be Spider-Man and the cost of doing so. This woman needed his help, not his disdain.

[BWS2K]

Coldheart was still standing, half-crouched and ready for the duel that seemed to be stalling. Spider-Man had always been a talker.

"I don't want to bring them back," she shouted, teeth clenched, anger infusing every syllable. "I want you, and everyone like you, to lose like the rest of us!"

She was losing composure and she knew it, but there was no stopping this now. Dropping one sword to her side, Coldheart pointed the other blade straight at the wall-crawling menace: "You people always win," she shouted up at Spider-Man. "Even when you get beat senseless - even when you get killed," she chuckled mirthlessly, "...you still somehow manage a miraculous victory."

Kateri shook her head to clear the emotions as best she could and growled.

"No, hero," the word was full of contempt and scorn and hate, "I don't want that, and I don't need a lecture on responsibility." She raised her swords again, striking them together, letting the sound of metal and cryonic energy echo across the rooftop.

"What I want is for you to come down here and fight me," Kateri couldn't help but scream her last words: "...I want you to tell me why, while you were so busy saving the city, you couldn't save my son?!"

[webdevil]

Spider-Man's Spider Sense began to blare a warning. He knew that her flying into a fury and attacking was inevitable, but he had to try the hardest path possible as long as he could: De-escalation.

"Look, I'm not going to fight you. You need help, not a schelacking. What exactly will that accomplish here apart from a concussion and a bruised ego? You start blasting around, I'm going to have to avoid them, and who will be responsible for any collateral damage? Me for avoiding getting hurt? Or you trying to get some sort of revenge for what is beyond my control?" he asked, his hands animating his speech as if accentuating her actions were obviously stupid.

He felt for this woman, he really did. He couldn't be everywhere at once - he wish he was able to - but even a Spider-Man was only human despite his best abilities. And even all the other heroes out there, whether it was the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, even Daredevil, could only do so much when they have to counter the threats made by the seemingly endless sea of supervillains that want to tear the world apart.

"It's probably for the best it's me talking to her and not Daredevil..." he muttered under his breath, knowing the Man Without Fear's tendency to just pummel people into submission first and then help them later, which would be no good here...

[BWS2K]

It's not that what Spidey was saying didn't make sense. His attempts at de-escalation were formidable and would have likely had more success with a more rational target. As it was, Kateri Deseronto just wasn't in a rational state of mind.

The sound which then escaped Coldheart's throat could only be described as a roar. She charged all the same, too overcome with rage to care whether Spider-Man could anticipate the attack or not. She'd planned the day so meticulously, and spent so much time prepping, only to have it all unravel so quickly...

"rrrRRRRAAAH!"

She slashed at the struts of the billboard where the wall-crawler was perched, slicing through the aging wooden supports with relative ease. Splinters and ice exploded around the rooftop as Coldheart screamed: "You're not a hero! None of you are!"

In her rage-clouded and ill-fated assault, Kateri hadn't given thought to the other consequences of her actions - things which were about to become really obvious, such as the billboard being about to topple onto the crowded street below...

[webdevil]

His Spider-Sense warned him of impending danger and was well into motion before the icy energy even so much as made a move for the billboard. Spider-Man twisted high into the air, making a corkscrew motion to aim and rapid fire several balls of webbing at Coldheart in an attempt to entrap or at least temporarily stun them and prevent counterattack so he could focus on the billboard from falling into the streets.

"Yer a little rough with your toys!" he quipped as he landed on the rooftop entrance awning and took aim at the support struts of the billboard. Tapped twice.

THWIP! THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!

Spider-Man fired multiple web lines that criss-crossed one another to form a sort of honeycomb to allow for additional support and then fired two thicker strands of webbing that he held onto like cables and began pulling backwards. He had to be careful of Coldheart, but he also had to make sure the billboard was stable so when the webbing inevitably dissolved, it would not fall dangerously into the city below. He gritted his teeth and began to pull.

[BWS2K]

The webbing slammed into Coldheart, forcing her to retreat several steps. She struggled against it but Spider-Man's webs were legendarily difficult to break free from. One sword lay on the rooftop a few feet away where she'd dropped it when the first glob had hit her right wrist, the other was free but her entire left arm that wielded it was stuck across her chest.

"Coward!" Coldheart shouted. "You'll never-"

Her words were cut short. Spider-Man wasn't even looking at her anymore - he was scrambling to prevent the billboard from falling off the roof.

The billboard that she'd damaged.

Kateri stood still, watching the wall-crawler straining to prevent injury to the bystanders below.

Injury... or worse.

Her legs were free. She could run now, while he was distracted. It might work. Hide somewhere until the restraints dissolved and pursue a less formidable foe with a clearer head.

Coldheart glanced at the dropped blade, dormant now, its cryonic energy deactivated. There was symbolism there for her, and it washed through her mind like the warm sunrise she'd witnessed earlier. Confusion remained, and rage, but it was cold and subdued. She was in the moment now, and rare clarity had taken its hold.

Kateri walked over to the weapon that lay on the rooftop, dropped her other blade on top of it, and sat down beside them. There was a distant memory through the fog of another rooftop, another showdown with Spider-Man that had gone a different way... but the memory was as foggy as all the rest.

"Ok," she said with cool resignation, "You win. Again."

[webdevil]

Spidey felt the metal groan and gave a heavy exhale.

"Phew!" he said just as he saw Coldheart look at him with a look of utmost defeat.

"You win. Again."

Spider-Man blinked beneath his mask and let a few seconds pass before speaking.

"Uhhh, wait what? That's it? You go on a rampage and attack me and now suddenly it's over?" he said. He was relieved on the surface, but experience and Spider-Senses reminded him to keep his guard up in case the villain decided to pull a fast one.

Spider-Man felt for the woman, he really did. It was not the first time he felt sympathy for somebody trying to kill him. He could hardly ignore the memories of all the times he had to clash with the Lizard and his friend, Doctor Connors, or even the likes of Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire, Molton Man, heck even Cardiac. People trying to do what was right or people who could not control themselves and needed help. Was Coldheart any different?

No, Spider-Man concluded. She was not.

He pulled out a small cell phone, dialing a speed dial to Detective Lamont, crabby as he was, and waited for the sirens. It took them about about fifteen minutes to arrive, and - true to her word - Coldheart did not put up a struggle. Didn't talk much either, Peter noted. Must've been submersed in her thoughts. Lowering her down towards the police cruiser along with her weapons, he watched as the uniformed officers took Coldheart back into custody. Swinging off again, he began to muse.

I know what's it like thinking you are doing more harm than good. I also know what it's like to have people assume the worst of your intentions. But I didn't ask for these powers and by the time I realized what they were meant for? It was too late. But Uncle Ben nor Aunt May raised a quitter, Parker: You were able to take that and turn it into something else.

He swung around and caught a flash of red as he passed the usual border between Midtown and Hell's Kitchen. He smiled slightly to himself, but then felt the expression go cold.

And I can only imagine what he must have gone through to be who he is.

Spider-Man made it to his apartment in SoHo and after making sure his Spider-Sense was no longer buzzing, entered through the bedroom window.

"Hi Honey, I'm hooooome," he said hopefully, wondering whether or not Mary Jane had stepped out yet.

If my life can have good in it, he thought as he pulled off the mask, maybe a Cold heart's can too.

- END -