Miles vs Martial Artist Birds

“I’ve had enough of your mouth, Spider-Man,” spits Shadow. “Time to silence you for good.” And then Shadow lunges at me. The claws swipe, one hand after the next, and I dodge, dodge, dodge before spotting a load-bearing pole behind me that I can grip and swing my feet around to lodge squarely in their chest. They go flying and land on the cruel cement floor with a deep, guttural oof!

“But have you had enough of my feet yet?” I ask.

Hollowclaw doesn’t even offer time to let that joke settle in before leaping at me. His fists fly. Fast. One lands squarely on my jaw and I go reeling back, my face exploding in pain, my eyes wide.

“Damn, man, you take kickboxing or something?” I ask.

“Muay thai,” he says before launching a right hook at me.

“Ah,” I nod, before blocking him and landing a left hook square in his torso. When he doubles over, I’m ready to grab his head and introduce it to my knee before I feel two arms around my neck and clamping around my windpipe.

I instinctively claw at whoever’s face is above me, before remembering that I know these two, and I know their tactics. They tag-team. They work together. They need each other. So if I take just one out, the other will be right there to attack.

I’ve got to take them both out at once.

I kick my feet up and over my head and land on the ground behind them. I launch a web squarely at each of them, sticking them to the wall on either side of the glowing orange barrel.

And I keep shooting web at them until they’re nothing more than two huge white cocoons stuck to the concrete wall.

“Now,” I breathe, trying my best to catch my breath. “Now that you’re both in time-out, maybe we can talk like grown-ups.”

“You’ll never get a word outta me,” screams Shadow. I point in their direction and launch the smallest web I can, pasting their mouth shut like an oversized Band-Aid.

***

Chapter 16