Fan Fiction: Crossovers
Why Wasn't I There?
Part 3 (cont.)
Spider-Man, hours later, had found a child, wandering the rubble.
"Hey there." he said to the girl. "This isn't a safe place for you."
"They took my mommy in one of those trucks, I don't know where she is now." The girl cried, pointing to an ambulance.
"They took her to a doctor." Spider-Man said, uncomfortable.
"Are the bad men gonna do this again?" she asked, looking hopefully at him.
Spider-Man did not know what to say for a long time. Finally, he got down on his knees, and hugged the little girl. "No." he whispered with conviction. "It wont happen again. We wont let it happen again."
He held the girl tightly as the haze turned golden around them.
The twilight stretched into darkness, and the search continued. The officials were still keeping up the illusion of optimism, hoping to find hundreds more survivors, but nobody believed it any further. Anyone who was helping with the digging believed it was pointless. Shock was beginning to wear into despair. The emergency crews kept digging robotically, looking so much for their comrades, as for victims, even as the tears rolled down their face.
Spider-Man was taking a long drink from a water bottle, after carrying a pair of casualties out of the debris, when The Kingpin got his attention. "Spider!" he called. "You may want to take your friend home."
Spider-Man looked over, and found his partner, actually asleep, in a kneeling position, with his hands still wrapped around a large concrete chunk. Under any other circumstances, he would have found the whole image funny, but today, nobody even spoke much, and Spider-Man found himself without a witty comment.
Noticing The Shadow's fatigue, Spider-Man suddenly noticed his own. When he thought about it, he was about to fall over. Moving to help The Shadow up, he looked back at the equally exhausted Kingpin.
"My people will be searching for hints." He told them.
"So will ours." Mumbled The Shadow, who was reluctantly coming back to the world of the awake.
"Until next time then."
Spider-Man regarded his age-old opponent silently, he knew that he would be back against the Kingpin soon, but working side-by-side as allies, had given him a new respect for the man.
Kingpin saw the conflict inside Spider-Man. "Once we know who did this, nothing more will be different between us." He pointed out.
Spider-Man nodded, grateful for being taken off the hook. "Count on it." He said, and he started to drag his partner back to his sanctum, leaving the awful glow of destruction behind them.
"Spidey?" whispered his partner. "I think I need a very stiff drink."
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