Chapter 7: Insignia

Eren, sitting alone in his apartment bedroom, thought about his actions as the Phantom Spider. He had seen a news story that talked about how crime rates had spiked after Fisk's death, though they immediately shot back down after Fisk's men were being hunted down and attacked by the so-called Phantom.

Online, he was being praised for cleaning up the streets, though that was never his attention. Oddly enough, that praise felt good to him. It was unintentional, but he was developing a fanbase of sorts, even bigger than what he was when he was just a streamer. This popularity gave him an idea.

"I need a symbol." The boy said to himself. "Yeah, a symbol that people will fear when they see it." Immediately, he walked over to his desk and began scribbling different versions of a spider symbol. After a few sketches, he decided on using one of his designs that appeared as a spider with long, sharp legs.

In the corner of his eye, Eren could see his costume on the ground, giving him an idea. 'I could stitch the symbol on my chest, but I'd need a sewing machine... Cindy works as a seamstress, maybe she has an extra one lying around.'

Grabbing his phone, Eren began to text Cindy.

Eren: [Hey, can I ask you for a favor?]

Cindy: [Who is this?]

Upon seeing this, Eren's heart dropped. 'What? Did I piss her off and she deleted my number?' However, his worries would soon cease with her follow-up.

Cindy: [Jk lol. What's up :)]

Eren breathed a sigh of relief before continuing their text conversation.

Eren: [You had me for a sec ngl lmao]

Eren: [Do you happen to have an extra sewing machine lying around? I need to fix a shirt of mine.]

Cindy: [Yea, you wanna come by rn?]

Eren's heart skipped a beat. 'A girl just invited me over to her house. Cindy just invited me to her house.' Before his mind went into the gutter, he responded to her message.

Eren: [Yea, that sounds good I'll swing by now, what's your address]

After sending that text, Eren immediately left his phone and hopped in the shower, making sure to thoroughly clean every inch of his body. Once he was done, he dried himself off and began putting on his clothes in his room while thinking to himself. 'Okay. There's no reason to be nervous. Plus she'll probably just hand it to me through her front d-' Before he could finish that thought, he received a notification from Cindy Moon herself.

Cindy: [Don't come through the front. It's the 5th floor, my room is on the fire escape so climb up and I'll open the window :)]

Eren's inner monologue immediately shifted. 'Okay. It's just a girl's room. Still, nothing to be nervous about. It's not like anything is going to happen, right?' Eren thought to himself as his mind wandered. Before his thoughts could get too far, Eren continued getting dressed before swinging over to Cindy's apartment.

Once he arrived, he hid his web-shooters in his backpack, which also held his suit just in case, before climbing the fire escape. Eren knocked on her window and she opened it almost immediately as if she were already waiting for him.

Her hair was freshly brushed and she had makeup on her face, which of course wouldn't make sense for anyone who was just lounging at home. Like Eren, she also fixed herself up for his visit.

"Um… Hey." Eren's attempt to act normally had already failed him. He was nervous, which was normal for any boy who'd never visited a girl's room before. Cindy, with a look of confusion, began questioning him.

"How… How did you get here so fast?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

"What do you mean?" Eren answered plainly, trying his best not to sound suspicious.

"I texted you my address like twenty minutes ago. Did you fly here or something?" Cindy giggled into her hand, unknowingly hitting the nail right on the head. It only took Eren about ten minutes to swing there, it should have been much longer if he had walked or even jogged.

"Flying? No, I wish. I just ran here because it was cold. You know, since chemical energy is turned into heat when you exercise and also your heart rate increases, which increases blood flow, which also increases... body heat." Eren spoke quietly, hesitating at the end after realizing he'd accidentally gone on a nervous over-explanation.

However, Cindy didn't mind as she looked up at him with a smile and both hands beneath her chin. She actually enjoyed it when he'd describe things in such a way, she'd describe it as one of his 'cute' traits.

"Yeah?" Cindy giggled before standing back and gesturing for the boy to enter. "Well come in, it's cold."

Eren obliged, climbing into her room and awkwardly standing next to the window after shutting it. Cindy walked over to her desk where her sewing machine was and unplugged it. She turned around to see Eren standing in the same spot, which compelled her to giggle a bit. They'd been friends for years, but Eren was always awkward, that's just part of who he was.

"You don't have to stand, Eren. Have a seat right there." Cindy instructed him as she pointed toward her white bed that was covered in stuffed animals.

Eren sat down on her bed and looked around her room. It appeared to be very basic and plain-looking. It was extremely clean as if it was just cleaned before his arrival. The only things on the floor were her ice skates, which made sense since she was a figure skater. On the ceiling, she had star-shaped string lights, which illuminated the room.

'So this is what it's like in a girl's room.' As he finished that thought, Cindy approached him with the sewing machine and set it next to him.

"Here you go." She said with a grin as she placed it on a bed. She then took a seat next to Eren on the other side and immediately noticed his now muscular arms.

"Did you… start working out? I swear you were way skinnier not too long ago." She reached toward him and grabbed his bicep, squeezing his new muscles which were a far cry from his usual noddle limbs.

Eren could feel his heart rate skyrocket. He looked at the window to hide the shocked and nervous expression on his face.

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"How did you gain so much in such a short amount of time? Did you hit the hyperbolic time chamber or something?" She laughed at her own joke as she continued squeezing his arm.

"I've been working out daily for months actually." Eren rubbed the back of his head, his main mannerism for signaling his nervousness, as he spoke. "It is January, so maybe you didn't notice under my winter clothes."

"Hmm…" She looked up at him suspiciously, squinting her eyes at his plain expression. "I guess that's true."

Before she could grab anything else, the sound of footsteps was heard near Cindy's door, growing louder before coming to a complete stop.

"Cindy, who are you talking to in there?" A middle school boy's voice said from behind the door. "Is it that guy Eren you keep talking about?"

Cindy's face slowly began to shift colors, becoming a bright pink due to her embarrassment. Eren raised an eyebrow, not fully understanding what her brother was actually getting at. He may have been the smartest boy at Osborn Academy, but his emotional intelligence would be in the single digits if there were a scale for it.

"Wh- No! Albert, go away!" Cindy yelled, her face was becoming more bright by the second.

Before he could say anything, Cindy grabbed Eren's hand and led him over to the window. "You gotta go now." She whispered nervously, though her nervous expression soon shifted to a bright smile as if she were an Oscar Award-winning actress. "I'll text you later, 'kay?"

"Yeah, I'll text you when I get back. Bye, Cindy." Eren climbed out of her window before climbing down the fire escape with the sewing machine in a single hand. Cindy watched as the boy grabbed his backpack from the floor and walked away with the machine in hand. She wondered what was in the bag and why he left it, but she soon dismissed those thoughts and closed her window.

Once far enough away from her apartment and out of her line of sight, Eren began swinging one-handed through the city. As he swung, he thought about Cindy and what her brother said. 'Does she really talk about me? I wonder what she says.'

___________

Eventually, Eren found himself inside his room, working on the insignia for his costume. After a bit of trial and error, he had done it. He held up his turtle neck, which he wore beneath his trenchcoat when crime-fighting, and unveiled the white spider insignia in the front. He chose to make it white so that way they'd know that the Phantom Spider was coming, similar to a different hero who wore all white for that very reason.

'Well, I guess I'll go on some patrols tonight.' The spider told himself as he began putting on his costume, piece by piece. Once geared up and ready, the vigilante lept from his window and began his patrol through the city in search of anyone who may have been affiliated with Fisk.

Not too long after beginning his search, he stumbled upon a group of thugs trying to break into a penthouse. As the three thugs stood near a door with tools in an attempt to open it, the Phantom Spider landed in the darkness behind them.

The three men turned around after hearing his feet hit the floor behind them. They could barely make out the silhouette of a humanoid figure, though the white symbol on his chest let them know exactly who he was.

"Shit! It's the fucking spider! We're dead..." One of the thugs fell to his knees like a coward while the other two stood their ground. Though they were afraid, they refused to go down like pussies.

"What do you want!" One of the thugs yelled at the figure, prompting the phantom to step forward out of the shadows.

"Who here worked for Fisk?" He asked the group, causing both standing guards to unconsciously look down at the cowardly one.

'So it's just the one, huh?' The Phantom Spider said to himself before webbing the standing thugs to himself and clotheslining them. They both immediately fell unconscious, leaving only the cowardly one to tremble in front of the door.

"Please, I have a daughter. Don't kill, me!" The man said as the vigilante slowly approached him. The trenchcoat-wearing crime-fighter bent down in front of the man before looking at his eyes through his goggles.

"I'm not. Unless you make me. You worked for Fisk. Tell me what you know about Project V, Herman Schultz, or that guy with grey skin." The man continued to tremble as the spider spoke to him, confused as to why the kid needed that information.

"What? Why?" The coward asked, taking the phantom lightly since he promised not to kill him. Knowing this, the boy upped the ante.

Grabbing the man by the collar, the boy threw him off of the building before webbing him in the chest. He then held the man over the ledge of the building before interrogating him. "Why doesn't matter. Tell me what you know or I'll drop you." He had no intentions of killing the guy since he seemed to be nothing more than a lowly thief and a father, though he had to make himself convincing.

"I don't know about the V stuff but Herman works for the Maggia now! That's all I know!" The man screamed as he dangled off of the building, hundreds of feet in the air.

'Maggia? Of course.' The vigilante thought to himself.

"Do you know where-" Before that sentence could leave the boy's mouth, thunder could be heard and lightning could be seen in the distance, yet the sky was clear. Soon after, police cars and helicopters began to conveniently pass by the boy, leading him to assume that something big was happening.

Though barely a speck from the Phantom Spider's point of view, a bald man with fair skin was seen flying in the air using electricity that looked similar to Eren's. As he flew higher, the metallic vest on his chest that he wore over his green jacket began to glow.

As soon as two of the police helicopters were close enough, the man hurled two bolts of lightning at them, causing them both to explode on impact, killing the pilots and passengers instantly.

Eren's eyes widened as the bright explosion reflected off of his glass goggles. He told himself many times that he only was doing what he was doing to find his mother's killer. He had no real interest in helping the cops or using his powers to save people, however, this triggered something within him.

As if a voice in his head told him to do something, the boy sprung into action. In an instant, the boy yanked his interrogation victim up to the roof before swinging toward the electric man.

Once close enough, the Phantom Spider charged his leg with electricity before slingshotting himself toward the electric man. With his leg extended, he kicked the man in the face, sending him flying backward into a billboard.

Landing on the same building as the billboard, the Phantom Spider spoke. "What the hell is your problem!"

And so began the Phantom Spider's first fight against a super-powered opponent. Though his heart was racing, he was not scared. Despite not wanting to be a hero, the hero within him had emerged.

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