Swallowing The Spider

[After Transition]

It's been two years, at this time I'm eighteen and I'm currently finishing my last year at Metropolis University where I studied biology, chemistry and computer science, I chose biology and chemistry mainly because of my rapid regeneration and I wanted to learn more about the body and what affects it. I chose computer science because I'd heard how much money hackers can make and well, I'm nothing if not an opportunist and it seems like knowledge about computers and codes would be useful in the future especially when it comes to stealing which I've recently taken a shine to.

Why have I recently started stealing? Well there's a perfectly normal explanation for that but the short version is that I wanted money, why else would I start to steal? Remember when I was in New York and I was participating in underground cage matches and I even participated in a few special events where an opponent was added every quarter of an hour and I managed to last for 10 hours earning a huge payday. Well all the money I earned back then ran out after my first year at university, I spent it all on a place to live, daily needs, clubbing, partying and girls so I ran out pretty fast and it was coming close to the beginning of my second year so I made a decision.

I didn't have to pay any money for my education because of my scholarship but I kinda splurged on where I lived but I mostly wasted all my money chasing women (which I enjoyed heavily and I must say was money well spent) so I was pretty much broke and blackmailing those government officials back in New York was more of a one time thing, I decided to turn to crime. People believed that it was Clarissa Clemens (formally Stein) who was paying for my apartment but in actual fact I haven't seen Clarissa since I left her back when I was sixteen and I haven't looked back since, I actually heard that her ex-husband Martin Stein died in a accident at the power plant or something but I don't really care about him.

I had my abilities and sure I was still participating in underground fights in New York because there aren't many underground places in Metropolis but the drive from Metropolis to New York meant it wasn't as lucrative as before and not as frequent, crime seemed to be my only options and I didn't really care about morals after getting fed to a meat grinder so I went at it with full force. Superman was fighting against loads of super villains lately but I didn't want to follow the trend even though I had powers, I just wanted to make some easy money and get out, if I put on a costume that would bring me to Superman's attention and I didn't want that.

My first gig was through some old contacts back in New York who set me up with some thugs in metropolis who needed an extra man in a bank job, don't worry I didn't use my real identity or even my real face. Due to experimenting with my powers I learned that it was easy for me to hide things within body within the flesh and one time I even accidentally trapped a pencil between my skin and my muscles creating an outline on the surface on my skin (I didn't have to worry about getting sick or disease thanks to my rapid healing factor) which ended up giving me an idea. Getting some animal bones was relatively easy and after sterilising (because even if I don't get sick from it it's still pretty gross) and whittling them down I managed (after pretty much slicing my face open though I'm not that bothered about that these days) to stick the bones underneath the skin on my face effectively giving me a different bone structure and an entirely new identity.

This is what I did when I went to my underground matches and when I did my first bank job, I didn't want any of this affecting real identity so I even took the precaution of using my newly gained computer skills to create an ID and fake background for myself. The first bank job I did went badly, everything was going fine we got all the money out of the vault and we're ready to leave when Superman showed up and while the rest of the thugs were trying to fight him (one even took a hostage which took up most of Superman's attention) I ran with the duffel bag of money I had on me. I went in the first alleyway I saw and cut my check while making sure to control my power to not let out any blood and removed the bones from my face and dumped them in a nearby dumpster with the duffel bag of money safely hidden at the bottom of the garbage after I stashed some in my pants pockets, I ran a few more blocks and dumped my outerwear in a different dumpster before returning to my home.

I had enough money to last me for a while and I waited a few days before I went to the place where I dumped the duffel bag of money in the dumpster, luckily it wasn't trash day yet so the dumpster was still there with the money hidden at the bottom of it which I promptly took out and took home with me, I scored around $50,000 that day and I got a taste for the money. Becoming more cautious after that first bank job I investigated superman and all of his possible abilities (even taking into account the fans sites) and I used some of the money to buy a large amount of animal bones which I used to change my facial structure to a different one for each and every gig I did since my first bank robbery, I would scout out a place to stash the money after each robbery (preferably with lead being naturally in the surroundings) and on the ride to each and every robbery I would slyly manipulate the rest of the crew by mentioning superman and how I knew a guy that managed to escape from him by holding a civilian hostage.

All of this culminating in a bank job where I had a completely different facial structure even though I wore a mask (Superman has X-Ray vision but I doubt he looks too closely at the bones in people to notice the difference between animal and human bones), we would get the money and sometimes superman wouldn't show as he was busy dealing with some super villain but when he did show the other members of the crew fight him and try to take hostages while I escaped with my money and promptly hid it in the scouted out spot before getting rid of my bone implants and going home, going back to collect the money a few days or maybe even weeks later. This worked out surprisingly well for me during my second and last year at Metropolis University though I ended up given it up nearing the end of my second year due to an article in The Daily Planet newspaper.

I had so far done four bank jobs where superman showed up and I escaped with my money, one investigative journalist going by the name Lois Lane figured out a pattern where only one person got away scot free with the money each time and she began to question it, she wrote an article pointing this out and even questioned Superman on whether he thought it was the same person at each robbery and if so what he was going to do about it. Luckily for me Superman stated that when he went to each of those bank robberies he used his X-Ray vision to check for any weapons on the bank robbers and also managed to get a glimpse at there bone structure and he went on to confirm that each and every robber at every different bank robbery had a different facial structure so it couldn't have been the same man.

The article ended with Lois Lane saying that even though it may not be same man there were still seven successful bank robberies in the last year, she alluded that there was someone controlling crime behind the scenes and organising it which was obviously not true because I was just using those other idiots as meat shields. Even though they weren't on to me they did get a little close so I decided to stop robbing banks and focus on finishing my degrees at Metropolis University as I'd built up quite the nice little nest egg over my year as a professional criminal.

After finishing up and getting my degrees I decided it was time to go back to Gotham.. It was time for revenge...

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<AN> I now have a Pa treon up and running and when a chapter is ready it will go up on Pa treon first so please take a look. Some support from you guys would be appreciated and motivate me.

(pa treon.com/GutsyRipper)

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