[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/a49Lcfn.png[/img][/center] It had taken me nearly five minutes to escape from Ringer’s contraption. [i]Ringer[/i]. Look at me, legitimizing those guys by using their new codenames. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but then again I was the chump who had just got clowned on by Frederick Myers and Anthony Davis - the peak of criminal dunces. Even worse, in the end, I hadn’t even managed to find a way to free myself from the trap. It had just deactivated itself a few minutes after the two thieves fled. One moment I had been pounding on the solid energy field, the next my fist had passed harmlessly through the air as if there had never been any resistance in the first place. The silver ring that had taken up the entire width of the sidewalk contorted itself back into its more diminutive, wrist-sized form, leaving me to look the fool. By then, it had already been too late to follow Myers and Davis - Boomerang and Ringer. The two had put enough distance between me and their lame new names that it would have been a needle in a haystack situation. Just another failure in the Spidey department. I should have placed a Spider-Tracer on one of them when I had the chance, but I had vastly underestimated the pair. Which left the critical question that needed answering. How had they gotten the drop on me? Not to toot my own horn but I am pretty [i]amazing[/i]. [i]Spectacular[/i], even. Yet Tweedledee and Tweedledum not only managed to escape, but they had also captured me with the proverbial egg on my mask. It was the gear they had, of course, that gave them the edge they needed. That much was obvious. The concern then was [I]how[/i] they found themselves in possession of such equipment. The boomerangs weren’t terribly complex, sure, but Ringer had been rocking some pretty advanced technology. Tech I didn’t understand. Yet. If there was one place I could trust to help me get a better grasp on mysterious technology, it was Horizon Labs. That had been my first stop after regathering my wits. Horizon and its staff had helped me more than a few times over the years. Usually, they provided me with the materials I needed to upgrade my suit or fiddle with my web formula, but on occasion, the staff themselves had proved instrumental in helping me get the upper hand against the Maggia. I had hoped to find Doctor Curtis Connors. The doc was primarily a geneticist and biochemist, but the man ran one of the premier research and development laboratories in the world. Horizon was responsible for some of the most advanced technology that had been introduced in the last decade, and while much of that was due to the company’s enigmatic founder and head, Max Modell, it would be a lie to suggest Doc Connors hadn’t played a significant role. I trusted the man to be able to reverse engineer the energy field device. When I arrived at the Labs, however, Connors had been nowhere to be seen. Debra Whitman and Michael Morbius, the doc’s research assistants, had been around, though. The two of them had proven to be trustworthy and reliable in the past, so I left Ringer’s defunct gear with them under specific instructions to give it to Doc Connors as soon as he came in. With any luck, he’d be able to run some tests on the device and provide me with some better insight into what I was dealing with. I could have stayed and done the work myself, but I had other leads to chase down. Which is what led me to my current location. 1 Police Plaza; home of the Major Crimes Unit and one of my most loving and charitable allies. “I don’t have time for your shit today, Spider.” Okay. One of my most charmingly irritable allies. “Aw, c’mon, Captain. You always have time for your friendly, neighborhoo—” Captain Jean DeWolff barely flicked her eyes up to look at me, sprawled out on the ceiling of her office as I was. “Do you have any idea the shitstorm I’m dealing with right now? I have paperwork coming out of my ass after the mayhem in Waterside earlier today.” “A new gang making a name for itself by nearly destroying an entire city block, and on top of that, more than half a dozen enhanced individuals slugging it out causing even more havoc,” I could feel the exasperation oozing from her every pore as she spoke. “The mayor is expecting an update on the situation in an hour, so whatever it is you’re here for I don’t have the time to play nice right now.” “Jean,” I said softly, dropping from the ceiling to take a seat across from her. “I get it. You’ve got a lot going on right now. The last thing I want is to add to your plate, but I [i]do[/i] have a legitimate request for help. There are a couple of new costumed criminals running around the city today, and I need access to New York’s Finest’s database to figure out a few things.” “Yeah,” Captain DeWolff said. “I heard about you getting your ass handed to you. Witnesses say you didn’t even lay a finger on the perps.” “Hey! I’ll have you know I just got a manicure this morning, and the lovely nail technician told me to avoid punching evildoers today. You know how the old adage goes: beauty before crime-stopping.” “Enough,” the MCU captain held up her palm and sighed. “If it’ll get you out of my office so I can focus, fine. What do you need?” I tapped DeWolff’s open palm with my own in a high five before she could pull away. “You’re the best, Jeannie.” “Don’t call me that.” “I recognized the two guys I tussled with. Frederick Myers and Anthony Davis. Petty thieves that have been in and out of prison more often than I change my underwear. And let me tell you, I’m very hygienic.” “You got beat up by those two idiots?” She raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “They ate their Wheaties today. Look, I just need to take a look at their records. See any known associates, find out who they had contact with during their recent stint, and look through their past crimes to find patterns. They had a life, as unremarkable as it may have been, before I started busting their chops, and somewhere in that I’m sure will be the answers I need.” “Fine,” she repeated. “But you’ll have to wait. I’ll put Watanabe and Gonzales on it and have them pull anything relevant from the records that fit your criteria. They’re on scene in Waterside Plaza right now, so don’t expect any results until tomorrow. Okay?” “Sir, yes, sir!” I saluted the captain. “Great, now get out. I’ve got a date with a very irate mayor to prepare for.” [i]Date[/i]. Now that was a thought. I had one of those myself that I was almost running late for, and I still had to swing by the dorms to shower the humiliating stink of defeat off of me. With any luck, Carlie wouldn’t be too upset with me for being a little tardy.