Spider Gwen: Bushido Chapter5:EN INGLÉS, POR FAVOR? (Patreon)

After swallowing some painkillers she had stashed on her thigh pocket, Spider Woman found herself on top of one of the skyscrapers in Times Square, one of her regular resting spots. She tried to catch her breath and recover after all that happened and plan her next move, now that she found out that Vladislav Ivanovic is the one who revived Murder INC and made it even more dangerous by aligning itself with the Hand. The fact that they were at war with Martin Li was making things worse, especially after seeing the firepower both sides had. The other thing that made her worried was how close to death she was. If Marc wouldn’t have intervened in the last moment, he would have ended up having to break the bad news to George, or worse, if the symbiote would have emerged again, which it probably would have made things far worse, considering what she would have been capable to do in that state.

Before further thinking about her next step, the phone she kept from Aleksei began to ring. Looking at the screen, she got annoyed after seeing who was the caller, but decided to answer it anyway.

“What do you want?” she asked, visibly irate, especially since she suddenly got up and felt a sharp pain in her wounded leg, as the painkillers were still yet to take effect. This forced her to sit down again, grabbing her thigh.

“Time to get to work, freak of nature.” replied Vladislav via video call. On the other end, Spider Woman could see he was still leaking from his hand, although he now had a few bandages wrapped around it. The wound looked pretty nasty and yet, he seemed to be unfazed, something the heroine found quite disturbing. She had to tend to her wound and still felt pain from it while he seemed oblivious to the fact that he was bleeding after shattering a cocktail glass with his grip. However, this faded away after hearing what he said, annoying her.

“Hate to break it to you, but I am not one of your lap dogs, you sociopath!” replied Spider Woman, flipping him off in front of the phone’s camera.

“You wanted to know what was going on, did you? I’ll give you information, but you have to earn it. Quid pro quo, or “something for something”, for your understanding.”

“Ugh…” replied Spider woman, visibly annoyed. She wanted any information she could get from Vlad but having to work for him was something she never thought it would come to, but on the other hand, she had no more leads “…fine. What do you want?”

“A couple friends of mine got stranded in the northern part of Harlem and need help getting the merchandise bought from me to LaGuardia Airport so they can fly back to Colombia. Aleksei and Vincent were supposed to carry on this task, but you stuck your nose where you have no business and got them along with my old army friends arrested. I will get past that for a moment and offer you one opportunity to correct your errors…”

“The f*ck you say-?” replied Spider Woman, visibly irritated over how Vladislav was laying the situation, like she was supposed to do this to repay some debt to him.

“Struck a nerve? Ok, let me rephrase it for your hero code to better process it: If those guys don’t get help, they will be dead in an hour or so. The merchandise they have will fall on Martin Li’s army and God help your city if that happens. Is best for you and everyone else if they and their cargo leave America, the sooner the better. I have sent you their location on the phone. Now, MOVE IT!” said Vladislav, abruptly ending the call before Spider Woman could even react, let alone object. Letting out a loud grunt that nearly sounded like a growl, she put the encrypted phone in her thigh pocket, leaped off the building and deployed her webwings, starting to glide and webswing the long journey from Times Square, all the way to the northern part of Harlem, to her destination, an alleyway near Riverside Drive.

An hour later, the sun was beginning to descend, giving residents of Harlem and NYC overall a nice sunset orange sky. Nothing signaled this would be anything other than another normal quiet-ish evening before regular local nightlife will take hold of the area.

This was because the Gomez brothers were used to keeping a low profile when needed, especially after ending stranded into a place that is unfamiliar to them. Members of a notorious and ruthless Colombian Cartel, Carlos and Diego Gomez were two guys not to be messed with. Despite being brothers, they had very different personalities and ways to deal with things, but on the topic of getting the job done they were both on the same page. This time, they were in need to get their merchandise out of the country as fast as they could. A target was painted on their backs and they were in dire need of backup. Vladislav assured them he would protect them, but not in the way they were expecting.

“Maldita sea Diego! Porque tengo que hacerte caso? (God dammit, Diego. Why did I even listen to you)?” asked Carlos, as he and Diego were loading a big wooden crate loaded with ammunition into one of the two military style trucks they stashed into a dark alleyway between two disused apartment buildings. They were switching vehicles as they managed to sneak past any law enforcement disguised as construction material delivery drivers and now they needed something with more armor in order to get to the airport “Este es el peor lugar para cambiar vehiculos y lo peor de todo es que algun gringo idiota podria asaltarnos. (Worst place to switch vehicles and worst of all, we’re exposed to any wannabe cowboy robber).”

“Deja de quejarte! Logramos salir no? ademas si alguien intenta algo… los reventamos! (Stop complaining! We got out, didn’t we? Besides, anyone tries anything… we blast them!)” replied Diego as he was on the back of the truck trying to stack up whatever crates were already loaded. One truck was already full, the second one was almost done. “Por que tienes que ser tan hijo de puta conmigo? (Why do you have to always be such an asshole with me?)”

“Solo callate y ayuda con esta! Entre mas rapido carguemos todo mas rapido estaremos en Colombia. Este lugar me da mala espina, como si alguien nos vigilara! (Just shut up and help me with this one! The sooner we get this stuff loaded, the quicker can we get back to Colombia. I have a bad feeling about this place, like somebody is watching!)”

“Estas paranoico. Deberias tomar uno de estos Teas que consegui en la tienda en un sotano cerca. Pura ganja y bastante relajante. (You’re paranoid. You could try one of these teas I tried at a store in a basement nearby. Is full of ganja, really relaxing.)” replied Diego as his brother was getting more irritated over the fact that he wasn’t helping him with one of the larger crates that contained several RPG launchers.

“Callate de una vez y mueve el culo!” (Shut up already and move your ass!) shouted Carlos, already getting more annoyed.

“Tu no eres Papa, Carlos, asi que deja de actuar como el! Ademas, fue tu decision en hacer negocios con Vladislav aqui en New York. Te dije que hubiera hecho el trato en El Paso donde temenos unos amigos en la frontera. Ahora estamos solos en esta ciudad!” (You’re not papa, Carlos, so stop acting like him! Besides, this was your call to make business with Vladislav here in New York. I told you we should have done the deal in El Paso where we had some friends across the border. Now we’re alone in this city.)”

“Deja de llorar como puta, Vlad a mandado unos refuerzos para cubrirnos mientras nos vamos, de Seguro que son los mismos tipos que vimos en la construction” (Stop whining like a hoe, Vlad sent some back up to cover us while we leave surely, they are the same guys we met at the construction site.)”

“Errr… Carlos?” replied Diego, pointing towards the top of the nearby apartment block. Turning around, Carlos saw Spider Woman as well, making him drop the crate he was carrying, spilling the hand grenades that were inside. Moments later, they saw her leaping in the air and landing close to them.

“Guys, I- “She said trying to see if they were the brothers in need, but immediately she saw they were getting on the defense, pulling out MP5 sub-machine guns and aiming at her “- whoa, whoa, easy there, hombres! I’m here to help!”

“Alejate de nosotros y nuestras armas chica! Ultima advertencia! Intenta algo y te mueres!” (Stay away from us and our guns, girl! Final warning! Try something and you die!)” said Carlos, cocking his rifle while Spider Woman tried to act as non-aggressive as possible, raising her hands slowly. After seeing the cargo in the military trucks with the corner of her eye, she knew one loose shot in the wrong place and the whole neighborhood will go up like a fireworks factory.

“For f*ck’s sake, anyone speaking English? Anyone? Ingles, por favor?” replied Spider Woman in complete confusion, still with her hands in the air, but the only thing she received from the Gomez brothers was more ramblings in Spanish. At least her spider sense didn’t go off, so at least she knew she was safe for now. However, the language barrier made her hit a metaphorical brick wall, as she couldn’t understand them and apparently the Colombians were also confused as well, but they had powerful guns and no hesitation to shoot if needed.

“Stop, stop. Let me call Vladislav! Telephone!" She shouted hoping at least this part they can understand and judging from the fact that they reacted upon hearing Ivanovic’s name, it looked like they somewhat understood. She then slowly lowered her hand and carefully reached to her thigh strap, to pull out the phone. Her movements were tracked by their guns, pointing it where her hand was moving at that moment. She then showed the device to the brothers to let them know she wasn’t playing tricks and called Vladislav.

“You better have a very good reason to call me, freak” said Vladislav via phone as the speakers were turned on, sounding visibly annoyed. At this time, the cartel brothers were more relaxed after hearing that it was indeed someone they knew and not a trap or sting operation.

“You f*cking asshole!” shouted Spider Woman, still holding the phone in her hand, both raised where Carlo and Diego could see them “You didn’t say these guys are trigger happy and don’t understand English!”

“You went to school, you learned Spanish. Deal with this yourself, I’m not babysitting you.”

“Newsflash for you, Vlad: I don’t speak Spanish! I nearly failed Spanish class. I barely can speak that language! I know only a few words, but if I say them out loud they will either shoot my ass or give me a Colombian necktie!”

For a few seconds, everyone could hear Vladislav’s annoying grunt via the phone, along with several not so nice words in Serbian, as now, both brothers now fully lowered their guns, but the heroine for some reason, was still holding her hands in the air.

“You really like to complicate things just to annoy me…Fine! I’ll settle things between you and the Gomez brothers.” replied Vladislav as he then called Carlo and Diego, then began conversing with them in a very friendly manner via phone with them, even making both of them laugh after taking another glance at her, to create more confusion.

“¿Comprendido? Vale, muchas gracias. Contactenme cuando lleguen a Colombia.” (Understood? Ok, thanks a lot. Contact me once you have reached Colombia)” said Vladislav before shifting his attention back to Spider Woman “Ok, there you go, now things are straight between you and them. Help them out and make sure they reach LaGuardia Airport in Queens along with their cargo. You really don’t want these guns to fall in the wrong hands, as these are made for war. Now get to work!” and with that, he hung up, leaving her to deal with the Colombians, who they returned to loading the final crates of weapons in the trucks, this time being more friendly towards her. They were telling her something but she couldn’t understand one single thing due to the language barrier. However, minutes later, the universal language of tires screeching and gunfire sounds startled all of them, showing several cars now blocking the alleyway, with many menacing looking men getting ready to fire upon them. They were all talking in Russian and were either in business outfits or tracksuits.

“Mierda! Los Rusos estan aqui! Cubre la carga!” (Shit! The Russians are here! Cover the cargo!)” shouted Carlos, pulling out his sub-machine gun and getting into cover behind one of the delivery trucks they used to get the guns to this location.

“Big mistake allying with that yokel Ivanovic, eses!” shouted one of the Russian gangsters, pulling out a grenade and getting ready to throw it “Dimitri sends his regards!” he then pulled the pin and threw it at the Gomez brothers. The projectile however failed to land where it was supposed to, as Spider Woman tossed a garbage bin and managed to deflect it, making it fly away and explode in the air, causing only a few windows to shatter due to the shockwave.

“Muchas gracias, Chica Araña! Ivanovic hizo bien en traerte aquí!” (Thanks a lot Spider Girl! Ivanovic did good at bringing you here!” said Diego as he kept laying cover fire from the bed of the loaded truck, but his compliment to the heroine distracted him, as one shot in the chest made him fall on his back, apparently shot dead.

“Diego! ¡Mierda!” shouted Carlos after seeing his younger brother get shot. His shock then turned to relief when he saw him getting back up and taking cover, completely unharmed. Their militaristic guerilla outfits weren’t just for show, as they had metal trauma plates in their Kevlar vests, stopping any potential deadly shots “¡Ponte a cubierto y ten cuidado con los disparos, imbécil! ¡La próxima vez no tendrás tanta suerte!” (Take cover and be careful you idiot! Next time you won’t be so lucky!)”

“Si hubieras escuchado y hecho el trato en El Paso como dije, ¡no estaríamos en este lío!” (If you just listened and made the deal in El Paso as I said we wouldn’t be in this mess!)” replied Diego before reloading and resuming firing at the Russians, who were already split in two teams, to tackle both the brothers and Spider Woman, who had no choice but to swing into action and protect the Cartel members from becoming dead meat. Just then, her headset inside the mask announced to her that the encrypted phone was ringing. Between two punches and leaps in order to avoid gunfire, she managed to answer it and put the call on her headset.

“What is taking so long? You should have already escorted Carlo and Diego towards the airport!” said Vladislav, visibly irritated, becoming also immediately intrigued after hearing fighting and gunfire in the background “What the-? You got them into a shootout?”

“Can’t talk, Vlad! Crazy Russians trying to kill us! Hold that thought!” quickly replied Spider Woman as she webbed a Russian’s head and then threw him into his friends, knocking them on the ground before webbing them “Some Dimitri guy sent them here.”

This seemed to have struck a nerve, as for a few seconds, she didn’t hear one noise from Vladislav’s end. For a moment, she thought the connection was lost, but hearing him banging a table once with his fist confirmed he was still on the phone.

“F*cking Dimitri! He’s really asking for it!” said a clearly angry Ivanovic, letting out another set of words in Serbian, before resuming on the phone “Ok, you know what to do, right? Protect the brothers and the shipment! Don’t let these Bratva Moskals win!”

“Don’t drag me into your wars, asshole! I’m not one of your henchmen!”

“I’m going to pretend the connection was cut off and didn’t hear what you said. I will also keep this call open, just in case. Now get it done and remember: I’m listening!”

“Motherf -“ mumbled Spider Woman while dodging some rifle bullets and a tire iron swung at her by one of the Russians in tracksuits, replying with her own attacks. She managed to grab the gunman by his hand, break his fingers in order to remove his gun and knock him out with a punch in the face. She then grabbed the rifle, crushed it in her superhuman grip and swung it at the other goon like a baseball, breaking his nose, and delivering a roundhouse kick, knocking him out as well. She then webbed both of them to the ground before advancing towards the remaining members of the hit squad. Her help along with the pushback from Carlo and Diego thinned the numbers, allowing for an opening to escape the alleyway.

“La Chica Araña nos dio una ventaja! Carlo, vamonos de aqui!” (The spider chick gave us a window! Carlo, let 's get out of here!)” shouted Diego as he jumped off the truck's bed, getting ready to drive. “Toma el otro camion y sigueme!” (Take the other truck and follow me!)”

“Diego, no dejes sobrevivientes o nos seguiran! Recuerdas Anaco? Perdimos 3 toneladas de Coca por culpa de esos p*tos colectivos por que dejaste que nos siguieran!” (Diego, leave no survivors otherwise they will follow us! Remember Anaco? We lost three tons of coke to the f*cking Colectivos because you let some of them follow us!)”

"Ya superalo, logramos recuperar lo que perdimos no?” (Get over it, we got the stuff back from them, right?"

"Si! Despues de romperles la madre a esos comunistas, uno de ellos me mordio el brazo!”(After we beat the crap out of those stinking communists, yeah! One of them bit my arm!)"

“Deja de quejarte y mira el lado positivo! Sigueme!” (follow me!) replied Diego before starting his truck. Carlo wanted to stand firm on his no-survivors code, but he was on his last MP5 clip, so he followed suit, not before throwing a smoke grenade at the remaining Bratva members blocking the alleyway. He then got in the second tuck and started it as well.

“Chica, siguenos y asegurate de que ningun Moskal se nos meta!” (Chica, follow us and make sure no Moskal gets in our way!)” shouted Carlo before following Diego. His brother immediately sped up as much as he could while heading towards the smokescreen. On the other side, the Russians heard the revving engine and leaped out of the way after seeing the truck coming at them at high speed, plowing through their cars and ramming them aside like a runaway train. As the gangsters got up and regrouped alongside their totaled cars, the two military trucks exited the alleyway and headed towards Riverside Drive.

“What you said? I cannot understand you!!!” shouted Spider Woman, as she was not just confused but also already annoyed over the language barrier.

“It means move your ass and follow the convoy! If those trucks stop, they’re dead meat!” replied Vladislav via the headset, startling her. Due to her focusing on dealing with the Russians, she forgot Vladislav was still on the line. Wasting no time, she leaped in the air and began web swinging towards the direction the Colombian brothers went in order to keep up.

“Don’t f*cking let them escape! After them!” shouted the Russian in a business suit who gave the attack order before pulling out his phone and signaling the rest of the crew to hunt them down. It was now clear that Carlo and Diego’s drive to the airport won’t be a smooth one, not even with superhuman backup above them.

Meanwhile, the brothers with Spider Woman at the back were already on their way towards Washington Bridge, heading to the Major Deegan Expressway. Their route was taking them through part of Bronx and Randall’s Island before Entering Brooklyn through the Robert F Kennedy Bridge and reaching LaGuardia Airport. As Diego and Carlos were driving at a steady pace with barely any traffic jams, Spider Woman was able to catch up and land on the back of Carlo’s truck.

“Whew… can’t believe this asshole Vlad dragged me into this crap…” mumbled Spider Woman as she tried to catch her breath, while getting a stern sound from her earpiece, sign that Vladislav heard her loud and clear “By the way, since you dragged me into your crap, do you mind telling me what’s your deal with these two? And what’s with these Russian maniacs who tried to kill all of us?”

“For someone who pretends to protect the city from criminals you are quite narrow minded. But what can I expect from someone that didn’t even learn basic Spanish…” replied Ivanovic, making it sound like he was rolling his eyes in disbelief on the other end of the call “You really have no clue about the Bratva, the Russian Mafia that set up shop near the Coney Island area of Brooklyn. Anyway… since you’re now involved as well, I guess it is fair game to give you a little bit of a story to alleviate your boredom: Back when I first arrived in America, I began working assassination contracts for a Bratva member, Dimitri Rasputin. The money was good and the jobs were mostly putting his Albanian rivals six feet under. All was good at first, as he seemed calculated, calm and reasonable. But one day he came to me and begged me to help him as he apparently got into trouble with the Bratva’s leader. So, since we already had a friendship, or so I thought, I accepted to save his life despite risking attracting the rest of the organization’s wrath by killing Mikhail. Only if I knew Dimitri’s true face before pulling the trigger…”

“Sounds like you f*cked up big time. What happened?” asked Spider Woman, now getting more curious about this peek at part of Vladislav’s dark past.

“What do you think? After I killed Mikhail, I was supposed to meet Dimitri at a warehouse at the Brooklyn docks to collect on the hit. But just then he showed his true self and sold me down the river to someone I had history with back in Europe. A man named Vasily. He and Dimitri tried to have me killed. I barely managed to get out alive. They did all this in order to take control of the Bratva and I was just one pawn that they tried to get rid of after I was no longer useful to them. After that, I swore on everything I hold dearly not to work with the Russians again.”

“And all this time you were into the country, how come you never tried to wipe them out? Too scared?”

“If I was scared, I would have left America a long time ago. But I know when to wait, when to build and when to act. Dimitri will get what he deserves when the time is right. And by the stunt he pulled today, that day will be soon.”

“Well, looks like his stunt isn’t over. I see more of these angry Russians ahead!” replied Spider Woman, as her story time moment was over after hearing the sound of revving engines and the sight of several Dodge Durango Hellcat SUV’s approaching the trucks. Seconds later, gunmen began to perform drive-by shootings while another SUV approached the convoy from the back. Its sunroof opened and a gunman wielding a mounted minigun emerged, readying to fire. To make matters worse there was a blockade up front several yards with a lot of SUVs and sedans blocking the street as the passengers scattered all over, ready to fire.

“Ohh, mierda! Bloqueo!” (Ohhhhhhh… shit, Blockade!)”

“Carlos tengo un plan! ” (Carlos I have a plan!)

“Que carajos intentas hacer Diego?? (The f*ck are you doing Diego??)” Said Carlos as saw his brother heading at full speed to the blockade. “DEMENTE! ” (YOU MADMAN!)

Meanwhile, the Russians at the blockade started to shoot at Diego’s truck, but due to its heavy armor, it managed to survive the hail of bullets. Carlos on the other hand had to duck in order to avoid getting blasted by the shards of glass that shattered.

“Aquí viene el caos!!!!” (here comes chaos!) shouted Diego, as the truck smashed against the blockade like a freight train, sending vehicles flying across the street and turning them into scrap metal. Bratva members had to quickly get out of the way in order to avoid getting run over or hit by debris. Despite the tremendous impact and the damage inflicted, the truck kept going, getting Diego away from harm. “Mierda, creo que me rompi unas cuantas costillas…” (Ohhh… shit, I think I broke a couple of ribs…)

“Puto animal! Podrias haber muerto alli! (You f*cking nutjob! You could have died there!)” shouted Carlos as he kept arguing with his brother. The argument was cut short as several rounds impacted the back of his truck, from a couple of SUVs still tailing them. Without any warning, not even from Spider Woman’s sense, the minigun mounted on top of the armored SUV began to rotate at high speed and let out a spray of high caliber bullets, shredding the crates from the truck’s bed, causing several grenades to fall out. To make matters worse, the gun was powerful enough to almost shred the truck’s cabin open, causing Carlos to duck for dear life, driving blindly and hitting several traffic cars after he began to swerve from one side to another of the street.

“Tu alli atras! Encargate de eso de una vez!!!”(You in the back! Deal with that thing already!!!)” shouted Carlos after trying one desperate brake check, hoping it would throw the gunner off his pace, but the SUV’s driver had quick reactions and managed to avoid ramming the back of the truck. Approaching on their left, the gunner was ready for round two, reloading and aiming the minigun straight at Carlo’s position, ready to fire.

“Alright, think fast Stacy…” she saw in horror as the gunmen began winding up the weapon, ready to fire. Out of desperation, she fired several balls of web at his direction, resulting in covering him in webbing, much to his annoyance, but not immobilizing him “Wow, I really suck at aiming today.”

Preparing for the inevitable, she expected the gun to turn her into a bloody mush, but much to her surprise, the gun failed to spin or fire. Turns out she managed to get some lucky shots and jam the gun’s mechanism, preventing it from spinning and firing, rendering it useless. The gunman, now pissed over this nuisance, pulled out an AK-47 and tried to fire at the truck, only to have it pulled off his hands by Spider Woman’s web and thrown it back at his face, knocking him off the car and landing on the tarmac, resulting in some painful nasty scrapes across his body. She then fired a spray of webbing at one of the wheels, jamming it and causing the driver of the armored SUV to lose control and crash into traffic, totaling his car.

“These guys are as armed as those Mexican cartels I see on TV. What’s going on, Vladislav? This Dimitri wouldn’t be pouring these resources for one simple arms deal.” asked Spider Woman after catching her breath, trying to persuade Ivanovic to give out more information about his partnership with The Hand and his beef with the Demon Gang.

“After you and your friend put Tombstone and Jimmy behind bars and me in exile among communist scumbags, I picked up the pieces and found a lucrative niche in the black market of weapons, especially since I still have some friends in Romania. Mostly old military officials that entered the gun trade after Ceausescu's fall from power. That era was perfect, the void left after that stinking communist regime was gone has created the perfect window of opportunity to build relationships with local gun manufacturers.  With my contacts and expertise, along with The Hand’s help in legal issues, it was easy to rebuild Murder INC. But since my partnership attracted the ire of Martin Li, he allied himself with Dimitri, knowing that snake will have no issue sending his attack dogs after my organization, in order to keep me busy and to hurt me as well.”

“So, the war is starting… you and the Hand against Negative and the Bratva. Why the hell would you risk a total war? Why can’t you just break up from The Hand and walk away? What is so important that you need to work with Murdoch?”

“You clearly don’t see the bigger picture. Me and The Hand are simply hired guns. Li must be stopped by any means necessary; you have no idea what he can and WILL do if we don’t push back and kill him. You think we’re bad? We’re saints compared to Martin, that’s all I can tell you.” replied Vladislav via the phone in a very cold and serious tone. This made Spider Woman think and try to connect the dots, as this was quite a big piece of the puzzle. Despite looking like a war with two clear factions, it looked more like a game of chess, with someone pulling the strings.

Meanwhile, the convoy was already about to enter the Robert F Kennedy Bridge, but stopped due to the cue that was forming on the toll booths. For the next few minutes, nothing happened, as the cue was moving extremely low due to very low toll booths open during rush hour traffic.

“¿Por qué diablos está tardando tanto?” (Why the hell is taking so damn long?) mumbled Carlos as he was getting bored and frustrated over the amount of time spending not moving at all. But on the other side, the silence except the normal background noise was a relief, after nearly shredding to bits or rammed off the road. That moment however came to an end after hearing the sound of helicopter blades.

“What the-?” Spider Woman at this point heard it too, like it was coming from underneath the highway. Moments later, everyone saw a civilian helicopter rising from the left side of the highway and began to hover at a pretty low altitude.

“Putos Moskals… Carlos sigueme!” (Fucking Moskals… Carlos follow me!) shouted Diego after seeing the helicopter as well. He then immediately stepped on the pedal and after pushing several traffic cars out of his way, managed to enter into the oncoming lane and bust through a disused tollbooth. Moments later after getting through, he was startled with a loud explosion behind him and bits of the blown tollbooth thrown against his truck. Looking in the mirror, he saw a raging fire behind him and the helicopter side gunner reloading an RPG launcher. Out of the fireball, his brother and Spider Woman followed him, resuming the tense chase. This was the final leg of their drive, but also became the toughest one: they were on the highway with no cover from the pursuing helicopter, they were driving in oncoming traffic and someone was firing rocket propelled grenades on them. All they could do was swerve and avoid the rockets, while avoiding crashing into oncoming traffic.

“Sigan manejando! El guardia se encargara de esto!” (Keep driving, the bodyguard will handle this!) shouted Vladislav via a radio the brothers were using to communicate. He then switched to Spider Woman’s stolen phone “Deal with the chopper! NOW!”

“What? Want me to deal on my own with these guys? Are you crazy?” replied an irate Spider Woman, after seeing several more Bratva cars in hot pursuit behind them. It looked like their last attempt to kill the brothers before they could reach the Brooklyn end of the Robert F Kennedy Bridge and close to the airport.

“Stop complaining and get to work!” replied Vladislav in a harsh tone, cutting her off abruptly. Seconds later, another rocket blew up, near missing Carlos’ truck and oncoming traffic cars as well, a clear message that things were getting deadly again. To add up to the pressure, the remaining pursuing cars began firing at them from behind with no ending in sight.

“For f*ck sake…!!!” exclaimed Spider Woman, after being thrown around the truck’s bed like a ragdoll, trying to avoid any of the loose crates bouncing around. “ENOUGH!!!” she roared in anger as the symbiote swirled up on her body, feeling the sudden rush of power starting to overwhelm her. She then jumped incredibly high from the truck, clinging to the front of the helicopter.

“You son of a-!” shouted the pilot after pulling out a pistol and began shooting at Spider Woman through the glass. However, she wasn’t having any of it as she smashed the window with her fist and grabbed the pilot by the collar of his jacket.

“You are pissing me off!!!” she glared at the pilot, her voice now sounding deep and scary due to the symbiote slowly overwhelming parts of her body. Afterwards, she then quickly smashed the controls of the chopper with her fist, followed by a punch to the pilot’s face. The gunner saw this and tried to shoot at her with his spare machine pistol, but Spider Woman darted at him, slamming him against chopper’s interior. Seeing how the helicopter was starting to spin out of control and lose altitude, she grabbed the two unconscious Bratvas and jumped out in the nick of time, as the aircraft crashed on the highway, resulting in a massive fireball, blocking the road for any pursuing car.

“Maldicion! Carlos viste eso?” (Holy shit! Carlos, did you see that?) exclaimed Diego on the radio after seeing what happened in his mirror.

“Si… mejor no meterse con esa chica.” (Yeah… that girl, whoever she is, is not someone to be messed with) replied Carlos, as he picked up some radio chatter indicating that police were already heading their way, a clear sign they really needed to get to the airport as fast as they could. Dealing with gangsters was one thing, but with the police, especially after a rumor about a lizard-humanoid super agent roaming in the city, that was something they didn’t want to deal with.

“Pisale duro, la policia estara aqui pronto! No podemos estar aqui mas tiempo!” (Hit the gas, the police will be here soon! We can’t stay here much longer!)

“Espera, que hay de la chica? La vamos a dejar atras??”(Wait, what about the girl? are we going leave her behind??)

“No Podemos esperar mas-“ (We can’t wait any long-) shortly replied Carlos, but was quickly cut off as something landed at the back of his truck. It was Spider Woman that returned after webbing those two goons on the bridge for the police to pick them up.

“Estas bien alli araña?” (You ok there Spider?) asked Carlos, but she didn’t reply as she sat back on the truck, trying to calm herself down, and retreat the parasite back inside her body.

Half an hour later, the trucks loaded with military grade weapons and ammunition arrived at one of the hangars inside the LaGuardia airport, where a much older Colombian was waiting, along with a medium sized cargo plane and a forklift truck, ready to transfer the merchandise in the aircraft. He was wearing the same style goatee beard, but his hair was already gray-ish, sign he was well past the age of 50. Wearing the same militaristic outfit as the brothers, along with a fedora hat and an assault rifle on the back, it was clear he was a Cartel member, this particular one looked like he was even higher ranked compared to Carlo and Diego.

“Por fin! Mis chicos estan aqui. Todo salio bien?” (Finally! My boys are here, all went well?) asked the old Colombian, coming to aid the brothers, before noticing Diego’s bleeding wound “… Por dios, Diego! Que te paso mi muchacho?” (…my God, Diego! What happened, my boy?)

“Descuida, no es nada serio, solo un raspon.” (It’s ok Nothing serious, just a little scratch) replied Diego, tending his wound, trying to put on a brave face, especially after the old man and Carlos saw the gunshot for the first time.

“Solo un raspon? Hubieras muerto si no fuera por nuestro guardaespaldas! Tú siempre haces de vaquero hermanito!” (Just a scratch? You could have been dead if it weren’t for our bodyguard here! You always try to be the cowboy, little bro) said Carlo, slamming the truck 's door as he exited, visibly irate over his brother’s recklessness.

“No empieces otra vez Carlos. Si hubiéramos hecho el trato que te dije, no estaríamos en este problema en primer lugar!” (Not this again, Carlos. If we did the deal where I said we weren’t in this trouble in the first place!) replied Diego in a rude and irate manner, also swearing in Spanish right in front of the old Colombian, resulting in the brothers beginning to argue louder and louder. He was clearly not taking kindly of the increasing bickering between the two, as he calmly walked towards the brothers and immediately grabbed each of them by the ear and painfully twisted them, catching their attention.

“OUCH!!! PAPA! Stop! Not in front of her!” he shouted, pointing at Spider Woman, who just entered the hangar, shocked by what she just saw.

“What? Papa? These clowns are your sons???” asked Spider Woman in shock, but then covered her mouth after realizing what she called them, thinking he might just angered the old man over her insulting his sons. Him staring straight at her in an extremely serious manner wasn’t giving her much confidence. Unexpectedly, he then gave her a warm smile while still giving his sons an earful.

“Carlos might be 30 and Diego only 25 but they still act like children. I do need to remind them sometimes of their manners.” replied the old man in perfect English although with a Spanish accent “I must thank you for keeping them alive.” He then turned his attention to his sons, who were still in pain and embarrassed over this incident “Now, what do you say to the girl who saved you from becoming Bratva victims?” he then twisted their ears even more, making them scream in pain.

“Thank you very much!” replied the brothers in English as well, much to Spider Woman’s jaw dropping shock. All this time she thought she was dealing with a language barrier, when in reality, Carlos and Diego were playing with her.

“YOU TWO CAN SPEAK ENGLISH AFTERALL???” she replied in shock over this revelation and the realization she was played like a sucker.

“Simple safety measure, chica. Normal language barrier so you don’t understand anything you weren’t supposed to hear. Plus, we were having fun as well… OWWW! Papa! Please!” shouted Diego, after receiving another bit of “tough love” from his father after hearing that. Spider Woman by the other hand was still in shock… and also trying to not give them a proper ass kicking… but it was a bit amusing seeing how the old man was handling this situation with two grown up adults.

“Get that wound disinfected and then help your brother as much as you can with loading our cargo. I’ll take care of our guest here.” said the father, letting go and giving them a stern look. He then turned his attention to Spider Woman, this time with a more welcoming attitude and a warm smile “Thank you very much for keeping my children alive. You have my gratitude. Want some coffee while the cargo is loaded to the plane? It’s the least I can do, after you did such a great job.”

For a moment, Spider Woman was hesitant to accept. She was talking with a senior Cartel member, a high ranked member from his appearance, but on the other hand, her spider sense didn’t warn her of any hostility or danger from him. Not wanting to be rude after he showed kindness, something unusual for a ruthless Colombian gangster, she eventually accepted. “I have some tea and I can make you a sandwich if you want! A big girl like you surely needs to eat” said the senior as both walked inside the hangar where there was a table and a couple of chairs.

“Umm… sure, thank you.” replied Spider Woman, as she sat in the chair, waiting for Mr Gomez to come back with a cup of coffee and some quite good looking sandwiches. It was something unusual, and awkward for her to be treated so well by a criminal.

“You need to relax, you will age quicker than me if you are this tense! Hahaha!” said Mr Gomez in a joking manner, helping ease up the tension as she took a sip of her cup of coffee. It had a strong flavor, but very sweet as well, a quality coffee from Colombia, something her father would have loved to have some of this.

“Thanks… umm… no offense, but I am not used to being treated like this by… well…”

“Criminals?”

“Y-yeah… no offense”

“It’s ok, we are more like the gun smugglers wing of the Cartel… well, I used to but not anymore. Now I am leaving this business to my kids, just watching and making sure they will be ready eventually to fully take over.” said Mr Gomez as he looked at his sons loading the cargo onto the plane, giving them a warm smile.

“Still, what you are doing is illegal and your ‘family business’ caused quite a lot of trouble.” replied Spider Woman in a rather serious tone. She was grateful for the hospitality, but in the end they were members of one the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world. For a moment she thought that her words upset him, but he did take her remark quite calmly, much to her surprise.

“You have all the right to be upset, my girl, all this deal became far more dangerous than we thought, but it is not like we could back out. Vladislav is an old friend, reliable partner, and also pays extremely well. With this job, we are work free for a whole year . Still, him sending help although he wasn’t obliged shows he can be someone loyal to his friends.”

“How… How can you work like this? You are risking your son's lives by doing all this! I… I am sorry, I don’t want to be rude, it's just… I can’t find the logic here, why can’t you have a normal life with your sons, just like anyone else?” For a moment, Mr Gomez remained in silence, making Spider Woman think that she probably was asking too many questions, but instead of anger, the man’s expression turned from serious to a bit sad.

“I don’t blame you for thinking like that. Trust me, I really tried to have a normal life, be an honest man, live by the rules, but this is the real world. And in the real world, they don’t respect those who live by the rules, much less in Colombia. You have to do what you have to do in order to survive. You start in this… business because it is easy, just doing some busy body work, the payment is good, then you start to like it, then it becomes the only thing you know how to do. One day you wake up and you find yourself surrounded by a pile of corpses that were used to be your best friends until they stabbed you in the back and pile of cash right next to them. It is too late to walk away and everything you did will forever follow you to the grave. Just like a shadow.”

She remained in silence as he spoke. Despite looking like a dangerous man, he sounded bitter, cynical and regretful. She could see in his eyes that he witnessed things that no human should ever have seen. All she could do was simply nod and finish her coffee. In her mind, Gomez Sr started to sound like a more remorseful version of Vladislav, something that made her think if the Serbian does ever wake up and reflect on his past, if he would have wanted to do things differently in his past if he would be able to in order to avoid becoming what he is today.

“I am not trying to justify my mistakes and neither my actions, but when you are too deep in this game, it’s impossible to get out and walk away into the sunset. This world got its hooks too deep in you to be able to simply get them out without tearing you apart. To make matters worse, you end up dragging those you love down with you…” said Gomez Sr while looking at his sons with a worried and sad look, like he was regretting dragging them into this life. For Spider Woman, all this was starting to hit rather too close to home…

Meanwhile, on the other side of Brooklyn, a black Cadillac sedan was waiting outside of an old looking hardware store, evidently not for discount tools. The store held a backroom gambling den, away from law enforcement, where anyone could try to win big but almost all the time ended up broke.

“Hope this mother*cker hurries up and gambles his money so we can snatch him. We’re on the clock here, Dimitri wants him to the hideout in time.” Said the driver of the Cadillac, nervously tapping the steering wheel.

“Don’t worry, here he comes. Let’s get him and get paid.” replied his partner, pointing out at someone exiting the back of the store. Immediately they got out of the car and began approaching the alleyway.

Meanwhile, the person of interest was exiting the back of the store, visibly saddened, most likely over ending up having bad cards on his latest poker matches. He looked quite young, like he was in his early 30’s, light brown hair and a short beard. From his worried mumbling, it sounded like he was Serbian and quite oblivious to fact he was heading towards trouble as he exited the alleyway in order to reach his car.

“Uhm…hello?” he said in a shy manner after seeing the two guys who just came around the corner, surrounding him.

“Hey, yo man. How you doin?” asked one of the guys as both of them slowly circled him, like sharks.

“Please, gentlemen. The men in there just took my money. I can’t get robbed twice in one day. What do you want? The shirt off my back? Come on!”

“Oh, we’re not robbing you, we’re taking you. Get in the car!” replied the other thug, as both of them grabbed the man by the arms and pulled him towards the back of the Cadillac “Let’s go for a ride!”

“No! Wait!”

“Get in there and shut up!” shouted one of the thugs, opening the rear door and shoving the victim in the back seat.

“Please! Stop! Somebody! Help!!!”

“Shut your ass up!” replied the thug, shoving a gag in his mouth and getting in the back next to him while his partner rushed back at the wheel. Moments later, the car sped off along with the thugs and their victim.

“Please… please… My cousin. He has lots of money. He can pay you. I swear!” said the man, despite having a gag in his mouth. He was extremely scared, looking around for a way to flee, but unfortunately for him, it was impossible.

“Don’t worry. Your cousin can settle things with Dimitri. But in the meantime, he wants some company from you.” replied the driver, as he took a turn for the Bronx. Little they knew was the consequences they would unleash with abducting this scared man.

Back at the airport, the cargo was finally loaded into the plane and everything was set, ready for takeoff, as the aircraft was sitting on the runway with no Bratva in sight to disrupt the departure. The Gomez brothers along with their father were doing one final check of the plane’s landing gear and wings while Spider Woman was waiting for them to finally leave the country. She was still annoyed and embarrassed over the way Carlos and Diego played her by faking the language barrier, but on the other hand was surprised over their father’s respect, warmth and seriousness.

“Well, all set. Time to head back to Colombia. Come on, Diego. Time to go.” said Carlos, helping his wounded brother climb the back of the cargo plane, not before giving Spider Woman one final thank you “Papa, we’re waiting for you!”

“One second, Carlos.” replied Gomez Sr before turning around at Spider Woman and placing something in her hand “A little souvenir that might make this encounter less unpleasant. It is said it protects the owner from evil and lights the path towards good. Thank you once again and have a nice life.” He then turned around and entered the pilot cabin, getting ready to take off with his sons and the cargo. As the plane drove up the runway and took off in the sky, Spider Woman waved goodbye at them and looked at what was in her palm. Much to her interest and surprise, it looked like an old Aztec relic, like a stone with a sun like sculpture on it, engraved with lots of precious gems. It is something that she will never find in an antique shop or in a dollar store, it looked very valuable. After a giggle followed by nodding her head left and right in disbelief, she walked away from the runway, putting the small relic in her backpack.

“Hehe… putos locos.You got a crazy family, Mr Gomez.”

Fourth chapter of the new story arc, created by me and https://www.deviantart.com/snarkymofo

Ernesto's identity is revealed, but now Spider Woman is forced to work for him in order to get intel on the incoming war. She will soon find out however, that getting an D and nearly failing Espanol class will come back to bite her in the ass. 

previous chapter  https://www.patreon.com/posts/spider-gwen-84657238