Spider-Man 1. I am stronger

Life sucks. People say it so much it's almost a cliché. Two days ago I overheard Gwen saying that, as if her life was so difficult. I feel I can pretty comfortably say that my life is shit. My parents died when I was a infant, fine that's not so bad. I never knew them never cared. After them though I went to live with my Aunt and Uncle. They were the best, we weren't rich but Aunt May would always smile when I came home from elementary school and Uncle Ben taught me how to throw a ball. When I was in sixth grade they both died in a car crash on the way to make it to my school play. God when I found out, well lets just say it took me a very long time to make it to a good place. Only mentally though, physically things have only gone downhill from there. With no living relatives I was sent into foster care, the Crabs were the name of my first foster family.

Foster families are supposed to be great you know? A way for unfortunate kids to have a home and a chance at a semi-normal life the government even gives the family money to pay for the majority of the expenses. But with every good thing, there are always a bunch of dickheads trying to take advantage of the system, like the Crabs. The Crabs bought me one pair of clothes, then gave me a thread and needle when they got too big, like a ten year old knows how to sew. I was fed the bare minimum to not look malnourished; they spent as little as possible on me as in cup ramen every meal little. Worse is that fact that they were big fans of corporal punishments. The house was too small and over crowded, they filled it with other poor kids like to me to try and "capitalize on their investments" as if they invested any money into us. I was with them for two whole years before I got the guts to act. I managed to steal a camera from a local electronics store. I've always been sharp so figuring out how to get the alarmed casing off wasn't too hard. The next time the child protective services came around I showed them the videos that I had taken of the Crab's care.

When they were arrested and all of us kids were shipped of to different homes I thanked god! I was about to start high school, a new school a new start everything was going to be different now, maybe my life could turn around. I was wrong. They sent me to the Peachtree family. Unlike the Crab's the Peachtree's house was pristine and always in tip top shape, when I first arrived I thought that this has to at least be better that the Crab's damp crowded smelly house. As soon as the CPS agents left I learned that this was because instead of Mr. and Ms. Peachtree viewing us as income checks we were slaves. They worked us to the bone, to the point where between my intensive chores and homework I never had a spare second; I was often up all night scrubbing their fucking linoleum floors. Instead of opting for corporal punishment they had something worse. The box, they would, actually I don't want to think about it again just know that it was a thousand times worse than getting hit. The only reason it took me a whole year to get out of there was because between my chores and school I had no time to gather any evidence against them. I ended up skipping school a fair amount so I could be awake to catch them on camera when one of my siblings messed up. It was summer by the time I escaped.

Now I'm with the Belladonas. Thankfully they weren't any worse than the Crabs or Peachtrees but they were still bad. I was back to ramen breakfast, with a still a heavy chore load. After the Peachtrees I was almost thankful when they hit me. Unfortunately they aren't completely morons. I would already be out of here if they didn't put two and two together realizing that I had already put two households like this out of commission. The first thing they did was taking my camera and they always search me for any cameras or listening devices before they beat me. I think it only made them angrier.

So that's my life and I'm sitting here thinking about all this to try and pass the time before I'm forced to go to school "Peter get your lazy ass out of here! Your already late and if the CPS gets on my ass about you ditching again I'll give them a real reason to come!" ah there it is.

I stay on the couch for a little while longer. Fuck him, he's not my dad I shouldn't have to listen to him. Then I hear Carl Belladona's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and scramble to get my shoes and backpack on. "God help me Maggot I swear if you aren't at school today…"

He tapers off. Before I would have talked back to him, I very quickly learned not to do that. I have a scar on my shoulder from the lamp he threw me at. They made me clean up the mess afterwards too. I head down stairs and out the door without saying a word. I keep repeating my mantra in my head 'three more years, three more years'. After two failed attempts I've pretty much given up on getting these dirt bags caught. Luckily I'm their only victim so I won't have to feel guilty about leaving any foster siblings behind.

The walk to school is completely uneventful probably because no one else is headed this way an hour after school starts. I'm hoping that when I get to school I arrive after break so I don't have to deal with any of my peers. I don't get along with other kids at my school. I pretty automatically got excluded from the cool kids just because of my clothing, I currently have on a very worn t shirt underneath a pretty obviously patched jacket. My jeans and shoes are in a similarly dismal state. I'm sure everyone else's hates me because of my brains, I'm so obviously smarter than ninety percent of our student body. The only reason I haven't skipped ahead is because of my current attendance and the pretty sizable amount of classes I had to skip in freshman year. If I weren't as sharp as I am I no doubt would have been held back, but I still beat the class average by a good twenty percent on every assignment. You would think that I would get along with at least the nerds and other misfits but I guess my sterling personality scares them of. You don't live my life without developing a few thorns, and enemies.

Unfortunately as I enter the school the hall is filled with students, seems I only missed first period, damn. I won't need any books for P.E. so I head there without passing by my locker, I glance down a passing hallway and see Flash shaking down some poor fellow, a couple dollars get passed. He looks up and I'm not fast enough to avoid eye contact. Oh Shit. Flash knows I have P.E. so I instead take the next right towards the science classes. A quick glance behind me shows him grinning only about twenty feet away. Fuck Fuck, Fuck! Please not today! I can hear him behind me, "Why don't you wait up Petey?" he's mocking me. Other students around notice and clear a path, this is nothing new.

I break into a run and the hallway is dead silent, I can hear his foot falls behind mine. Two more rights and I'm in the math department. I take a left to throw him off and then another right into the men's room. It's empty. I hide in the handicap stall at the end of the room. The bell for classes goes off. I wait, and wait. Maybe he stopped, P.E. is probably that dick's favorite class right? Yeah, there no way that beating me up is worth missing crushing half of our class at any given sport. I get up and leave my stall, I make it about two steps before Flash walks in, guess not. His two buddies walk in behind him blocking the exit. This is going to be bad. "Hey Petey, you sure ran here in a hurry. Had to take a shit?"

Fuck me, I don't know why I bother but maybe this one time I can talk him out of it, "Yeah you know how it is right, I just got the runs is all. Thanks for checking up on me though."

"So your saying that looking at me gives you this shits eh Petey?"

Was worth a shot. At this point I'm scanning the bathroom for a weapon, like hell I'm gonna let him corner me like some animal and beat me like a dog. Finding nothing I ball my hands into fists and slip into a fighting stance I saw on T.V. once. At least this time I'll go down swinging. Flash's grin turns threatens to split is face in half, "HAHA! Look at that! Tiny, Shawn!" he gestures to his cronies by the door, who also begin laughing. "Looks like Peachtree wants to start some shit, or is it Bellafaggot now?"

I glare and only tighten my fists, "It's Peter Parker."

He puts his hand to his ear "I'm sorry what was that worm?" His friends still laughing outside the door. Seriously do no teachers hear that? Flash turns his head for a moment to I assume make some more fun of me. Seeing the opportunity I dash forward as fast as I can to try and punch him in the face. In one move he turns and catches my fist in his own much larger one. How is he so fast!? I fall to one knee as he squeezes my fist. He uses his free hand to knock me flat on my back. My head hits the floor hard and I see spots. I think I feel blood. "Too bad he's so damn weak." He stands over me holding my wallet. When did he go through my pockets? "Gah! Dumb little bitch doesn't have any cash." He drops it on my chest walking out. "Stay out of my hallways Fag." God Flash is an asshole, I bet his own mother would agree that the world is better off without him. If only I was stronger or faster, I would make him **pay. **For now though I need to get to class, if the school calls the house again, well I really don't need to give Carl another reason to be pissed. I manage to sit up before my vision swims again and I'm back on the ground. Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit.

When I come to third period is over, so I've now missed English, P.E. and Math. Luckily that means everyone is at lunch so I can walk the halls in peace. Obviously with my still bleeding head the first place I go it the nurse's office. When I turn the handle its locked, guess she's out to lunch too. "Not that that's a problem." I murmur as I dig through my backpack for my tools. One plus from living my life is that I've developed exceptionally sticky fingers, and the skills to accompany. It was kind of necessary to make sure I didn't die from eating only cup noodles. I quickly scan the hall before I start picking the lock, luckily because of crappy school budgets I'm in in almost a minute. "at least one thing goes right today."

I go for the bandages seeing as stealing medicine is sure to alert someone. I use a little bit of alcohol as disinfectant, after living with the Crab's I got good at dressing my own wounds. Satisfied that I'm not going to bleed out I turn to leave and almost jump at seeing a girl standing there looking at me. I kind of recognize her, Long red hair, pretty, I think She's named Mary or something. Not that any of the cool crowd ever talks to me.

After Flash I really don't want to deal with her, I walk past praying that she's not going to report me for breaking in. When I turn to close the door I hear her ask, "Why do you let him do this to you every other day?"

What the fuck? I normally just let things slide to avoid trouble but after today I almost lose it. I turn back to face her rage in my eyes I shouldn't yell at her but I feel the stress from this morning weighing down on me, and god do I need an outlet. "The hell do you mean LET HIM? I've tried talking my way out, running, hiding, as a last resort I even tried fighting back! You really think I fucking let him beat me up! If you and everyone else cares even a little why the hell you YOU let him!?"

She seems surprised by my outburst, fucking idiot how the hell else could I respond to such a dumb question. "Watch it tiger! I don't have any personal investment in our well-being. I just thought you were some sort of man. But apparently you're just a little boy who can't stand up for himself!"

Holy shit this girl is infuriating! Fuck her I don't need this. I slam the door closed and walk off; I have enough problems, I don't need her shit. I hear my stomach growl as I head toward the cafeteria, that's right I didn't have enough for breakfast this morning. At least that problem is easily fixed. As I walk through the cafeteria doors a group walks out at the same time. The guy in front is laughing as he talks to his friends he almost bumps into me but turns his body at the last second barely avoiding knocking me down. I quickly mutter out a "excuse me," but without acknowledging me at all he continues talking with his friends walking down the hall. That's fine with me though I think as I approach the lunch lady with his wallet and my newly found wealth. I did mention I had sticky fingers.

The rest of the school day passes by quickly, nothing interesting in health and in chemistry only a reminder about the Oscorp field trip tomorrow. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about it though. Lucky for me this was a free trip too so I didn't even have to worry about trying to get some cash together. The school bus passes me as I walk home, unfortunately you do need money to ride one of those, I need to save mine for food and of course my foster parents don't care that I have to walk through the shady part of Middletown after dark. As I walk down the street I don't dare try to take any wallets like I did at school. There if I got caught it would be detention and a call home, here it's not uncommon to get shot for looking at something you shouldn't be. Although it doesn't happen here much, I hear a gun shot from somewhere behind me probably a mugging gone wrong in an alley I passed. I don't look and neither does anyone else on the street. We know the rules.

In the nasty part of a particularly sleazy neighborhood I arrive at my 'home'. I use home liberally as there are very few places that I feel less at home. It's a small two-story house in a cul-de-sac although you wont see too many kids playing here. Any parents forced to live here make sure to keep there kids inside at all times. I walk up the decrepit wooden steps and open the creaky wooden door and I can see Lauren Belladona cooking in the kitchen. It smells awful and I wrinkle my nose immediately, I still wish I could have some though. I walk to the kitchen to grab my daily ration of cup noodles, I didn't eat breakfast this morning so I decide I can treat my self and grab two. As my hand is pulling them out of the pantry though I feel a sharp pain on my hand as Lauren smacks me with her wooden spoon. Fuck that hurt! "Pete what have I fucking told you about your shoes! You get a mop and clean what your filthy shoes have tracked through my house!" Fucking bitch, really? I glare at her about to give her a piece of my mind. "Don't make me call Carl." It's not an empty threat; while Ms. Belladona almost never beats me herself she is the one who instigates the majority of them. Begrudgingly I grab a mop and start moping not before taking my shoes off though.

The next day I actually wake up on time, excited for the field trip, when I get to school I see that I'm not the only one as most of my class is already there. There are three buses and as I walk up to the rest of my class I can already hear people complaining that there's assigned seating. I feel something poke me from behind, "Um, excuse me." I turn around to see a girl from my class. She's wearing a black headband with blond hair hanging down past her shoulders; from her clothes I can tell that she's probably one of the rich kids; although I consider a lot of people to be rich. "Your in this class right? Peter is it?" I nod not saying anything. She seems put-off by my silence. "Er, right. Well I'm Gwen and I have the sign-in sheet here. If you could just-" She hands me the clip board and I sign my name. "Thanks, your seat number is-" She flips a page, "Bus one, seat thirteen b. You can go ahead and get on now I need to go sign in everyone else." She walks of to go bother a different student, although now that I think about it that was probably the least painful interaction I've had with a classmate since middle school. Today really is going well for me. If she ever tries to talk to me maybe I'll think about responding. I get on the bus and take my seat, I'm one of the first on so its still relatively empty, I've got the window seat in a so far empty row. I gaze out the window getting exited again thinking of all the cool things I could see at Oscorp. Just last week I was in the computer lab reading a blog about the new robotics department and all the cool stuff they have there. If I'm lucky maybe I'll eve- "Hi."Godamn it. I turn around to see an average looking girl wearing normal clothes with her brown hair tied up in a pony tail. She takes the seat next to me. "Thirteen b huh? Lucky you to be sitting with a partner like me." Who the hell is this girl? "What's with that look? Oh I guess I forgot to introduce myself huh, My Names Katherine. I just transferred here from Illinois." She puts out her hand for me to shake.

She's new so she probably doesn't realize that it's not a good idea to hang out with me. Being in such a good mood I figure I'll help set her straight. "Listen, that's nice of you and all but, you probably don't want to be friends with me. I'm a terrible friend to have." I turn back to the window to resume my day dreaming until I feel a light jab on my arm. I turn back to her and she still has her other hand out.

"I don't know who you are, but nobody tells me who to make friends with. We're seat buddies so like it or not for at least the next half hour you're stuck with me."

Can't say I didn't try. I tentatively shake her hand; "You'll probably regret this but, the names Peter.

The ride to the lab wasn't completely terrible. As it turns out Katherine was pretty excited about Oscorp too and as far as our class goes she's actually pretty smart. We ended up browsing articles on her smart phone and before we knew it we were already there. They split us up into several different groups for the tours so for now me and Katherine went our separate ways, she seemed sad that we weren't together but honestly I didn't really care, that is until I saw that Flash was in my group. Guess that's the end of my good luck.

Luckily he couldn't actually beat me up in such a public place, but that didn't mean that he made my life any easier. Every display Flash made it his personal mission to harass me, bumping into my shoulder at every turn, poking me when I wasn't looking, he even tripped me as we entered the biology wing! The rest of our group walks around me as I get up off of the floor. Now in the back of the group I struggle to hear as the geneticist in charge explains the purpose of the large display of spiders in front of me. I miss most of it but I do hear when a student in the middle of the class remarks about a missing spider. I raise my hand to adjust my second hand glasses to hopefully see better. I notice a weird feeling on my right hand as I pull it away from my face and look down to see the most beautiful Spider I have ever seen. I've never been much of a bug guy but the way that the light glints off of the beautiful cerulean carapace fascinates me. It raises its front two legs and for a brief second I wonder what that means. Then I remember from my biology book that that's what arachnids to before they attack. My entire body goes cold for a second before it feels like my hand catches fire. I smash the spider with my other hand but it's already too late. It already bit me. I should go to the geneticist and ask for help but, all reason left my mind the second those fangs pierced my skin. I quickly run for the exit. I need air! I don't know if anybody is following me or even noticed I'm gone.

When I'm out side I see a fountain around a statue of Norman Osborn and dunk my hand in it hoping to dull the pain. Luckily it only makes it about a hundred times worse. That's when I start blacking out. First I'm in front of the school again. How did I get there? From Oscorp that's more than a two-hour walk. Now I'm outside of the house. What? I reach for the door and It's locked. It's dark outside now and what have I been doing for all this time? I'm on the ground outside curled into a ball shivering. What the hell is going on with my body? I probably look like a drug addict, who knows what was in that spider maybe I am a drug addict now.

When I'm finally coherent again, it's the morning. Of what day I'm not sure. If the memories I have are reliable it's at least Thursday. I should probably go to class, or actually a doctor but I'm dirty, smelly, and sticky from sleeping outside all night. So I'm taking a shower before I go anywhere. The backdoor of the Belladona's opens and I walk up the stairs to my room grabbing a clean towel and then head straight to the shower to wash off all this grime.

The warm water feels heavenly, and I feel the knots in my shoulders and back from sleeping on the hard ground begin to loosen up. I almost sigh in contentment before right before the door opens. I quickly turn the water off and grab my towel from the rack wrapping around my waist. When I clear the water from my face I'm looking at a very angry Carl. "What the fuck is wrong with you boy? You ditch your field trip; I get a call from your teacher making me drag my ass out there to go look for your sorry ass! And when I get home I find my wife frightened because you came to the door doped up on Crack! Where the fuck did you get money for drugs! You been stealing from me boy?" What the hell? I open my mouth to try and explain but he cuts me off before I can begin. "I've had enough of your lip boy, You been actin real cocky round here lately. I already called the school to let them know you were feeling sick and weren't coming today. Now I have plenty of time to remind you whose in charge!" oh no.

Carl Belladona is no model for male physical fitness but he is far stronger than me. It's probably the only reason I put up with his shit day after day. Perhaps if I could eat more than ramen and the occasional Mc. Donald's I would have developed some muscle by now. As it is he is easily twice my size. His hulking form swings a fist at my head in a wide ark, I scramble backwards and it misses my nose by an inch. My foot hits the rim of the tub and I fall in hitting my head on the wall. I cringe for a second but when I open my eyes Carl's foot is raining down on me. On instinct I bat his foot away and he falls slamming his head on the toilet bowl. I hear a loud thud as his body hits the ground and I wait panicked for a second for him to get up. Nothing. Tentatively I stand before quickly running over him to my room. I need to get out of here! When he wakes up. Oh god, he's going to murder me! I throw on my other pair of clothes, some badly ripped black jeans and a very faded gray, once black, T shirt Before grabbing my book bag and running down the stairs two at a time. As I go past the bathroom I hear Carl getting up and go even faster.

Once I'm out the door I jog the next three blocks before I'm sure he isn't chasing me. I stop and am surprised that I don't need to catch my breath. I've never been the most in shape guy. Luckily the only major health problem I've ever had is my eye sight. Crap! I check my back pack before confirming that I left my only pair of glasses in the bathroom with Carl. But hold on, my vision is abysmal without them. I look around me at the street. "What the.." I can see. It's like the fog I've been looking through for my whole life has been lifted. Could this be caused by that spider? I look at the back of my right hand expecting to see a huge wart or scar but my hand looks completely ordinary. It doesn't even hurt. No idea what to make of all this I might as well head to school, I'll worry about Carl afterwards.

First Period was completely uneventful, same shit as always putting commas where they should be. I never really cared much for it. It's mostly not hard but my interest lies with science. I had a couple weird issues during class though: I broke my favorite pencil somehow, it felt like my paper was made out of tape, I ended up tearing it and having to ask for a new one after I ripped it off of my hand. The rest of the class had some fun with that.

I go straight to the locker room after that and start to get changed for P.E. I glance at the mirror as I'm putting on my work out shirt and stop for a moment to notice muscles that I don't have on my body. I poke one of the abs of my new four pack just to make sure it's real. Suddenly I'm looking at Flash as he's now standing in front of the mirror already changed. "Chekin your self out Pettey? God you're a riot. You better enjoy it while it lasts though. Today is dodge ball day and I have a feeling that your pretty little face is about to get fucked up! Ha!" He walks away into the gym. I hate dodge ball day. It's supposed to be a team exercise but inevitably it always ends up with flash and his friends throwing balls at me and my 'team' staying far away from me and rolling them back to Flash to stay on his good side.

After we're all out of the locker rooms the coach blows his whistle before walking of to go do something. Flash grabs a ball and walks up to the dividing line. "Dodge this Parker!" He throws the ball directly at me, but for some reason it seems like he's moving in slow motion, I bend my knees and duck under the ball before it hits. 'THWANG' The ball makes a noise as it collides like the ball behind me. Other than that the auditorium is dead silent. Flash looks pissed. "All right Petey, You think your slick?" everyone on his team picks up a ball while my team shuffles off to the side. It's now one v. fifteen. Great odds. Flash throws his ball again and I dodge right, I duck under a second ball before jumping a third one, I think I jumped like five feet but I have no time to focus on that. All of my concentration is set on not becoming a dodge ball patterned punching bag. Left, right, jump, duck, roll, I grab a ball out of the air and hurl it at a body on the other side of the line blindly. All the balls stop flying as everyone turns to the guy I nailed. He scoots to the side nursing his head. Well now I guess it's only one verses fourteen. One by one I follow that same pattern. Hit a guy in the stomach, knock a girls legs out from under her with a ball, I think I even knocked one kid out. Until it's just me and Flash. He's panting hard, I'm breathing evenly through my nose.

What I've just done is amazing some would probably call it spectacular but right now I'm not thinking about that. My head is still in the game, from the look on Flash's face I can tell he is too. We're staring each other down both with a ball in hand, waiting for the other to make the first move. I tense my arm about to throw, then I hear a loud whistle snapping me out of my trance. The coach is back "Good game! Showers boys and girls!" Good game? Where the hell was he when it was me against a fucking firing squad. Whatever I drop the ball and start walking towards the locker room. My math class is on the other end of campus so I need to hurry if I don't want to be late. As I'm walking Flash throws his ball as hard as he can at the back of my head, I have no idea how I know that, but right now it's traveling towards me in a perfect arc to hit me. I reach my arm back and pluck it from the air without even turning my head. I stop for a second and look at the ball stunned. As soon as it left his hand I knew exactly where it was and where it would be. Flash is behind me, he's walking as if to shove me with his shoulder. I take a step to the right and he nearly trips in surprise.

The glare he has could kill, "Let's see how lucky you are during lunch freak." And he walks off towards the locker room. Just what I needed on top of this weird day.

I manage to get to Math just before the bell rings, my usual spot in the front is taken so I take a seat in the back, I only ever sat in the front because of my vision, guess that won't be a problem anymore. Right as the bell rings a body runs through the door and takes a seat at the only empty desk next to me. Weird I thought we only had twenty-nine students in this class. I look over and see Katherine from the bus ride yesterday. She looks surprised to see me, "Peter? Since when are you in this class?"

Me? "I've been here all year when did you join?"

She almost rolls her eyes, "I told you that I started two days ago right? Why weren't you here when I started?" Two days ago? Oh right, I was knocked out in a bathroom actually not far from here. "Never mind that, where did you go yesterday? Like no one could find you, your group said you just bolted." I scratch the back of my hand absentmindedly, I hear the teacher start her lecture in the front of the class and turn to start taking notes. "Hey are you just gonna ignore me?" I have more important things to do than talk to Katherine. I continue taking my notes, f(x) = x2 so f '(x) = 2x and, "Peter!"

Ms. Appleseed stops her lecture to look at Katherine, "Ms. Pryde, I understand that this is only your second day in my class but I assume that in Illinois students also aren't allowed to talk in class."

Katherine reaches into her back pack to take out her notebook "Sorry, it won't happen again." Appleseed goes back to her lecture but I hear Katherine whisper from the seat next to me. "You can't ignore me forever." 

After class is over Katherine starts to follow me, but grabs her head and heads to the bathroom complaining about a headache. People give me wide berth as I enter the cafeteria I guess word about gym has already spread around. When I enter the cafeteria it goes silent, I still have money from the other day so I start heading towards the line. I'm about halfway there before Flash walks in. even without turning around I know it's him, I can sense his malevolence. People clear the tables closest to me sitting around the edges. I see some worried or confused people in the crowd, most just seem eager for a fight. "Hey Petey." I turn around to face him. He glares at me and I glare back. Like before I guess my only choice is to fight. My hands ball into fists and I spread my feet apart. "Gonna try this again huh? Good. It's more fun this way."

He walks at me slowly menacingly, but for some reason I can't bring myself to be afraid. He pulls his arm back and takes the last stride in a massive step throwing his entire weight at me in a punch straight for my head. I know that his fist is probably moving anywhere from eight to eleven miles per hour yet some how I'm faster. I side step his fist, and he stumbles a few feet before catching himself. If the cafeteria felt quiet before the silence was suffocating now. Flash throws another punch, this time at my mid section and I dodge left, right, left, right, and left. I'm calmly standing untouched and he's panting in front of me. "Stand Fucking still Parker!" If that's how he wants it. He throws his next punch at me and I catch it in my right hand. He looks shocked. Hey look at that, I'm stronger than him. I squeeze his hand and begin pushing him down into the ground, I can't keep the smile off of my face. Just the other day I was wishing I could make him pay. Now the opportunity presents itself. After all I've been through I deserve to enjoy this. "AGggh!" What is he screaming about. I let go of his fist and see that his fingers are badly bent. Just how strong am I? He punches at me with his right hand, I raise my left to knock his fist away and cock my right fist back into a punch. It's about time I hit him right? I deck him in the chest as hard as I can. I feel the wind leave his lungs, I hear a gasp from the crowd as the force of my punch lifts him off of his feet and sends him flying about a meter before he lands on his back.

Flash is on the ground moaning, clutching his probably broken hand to his chest. I see him look up at me through teary eyes, "What the hell are you?"

Everyone's eyes are on me, normally a nightmare for me. I've always felt weak so I try to stay out of sight, not draw attention to myself. But now, now I'm the strongest guy in the room, and their attention is only confirming that. I walk up to Flash and put my foot on his chest before pressing down feeling him squirm beneath me. "Better than you."

What do you think? I've only ever written anime fan fiction so I wanted to try something new. Please review if you liked or disliked it and tell me what you think


	2. Time to grow up

I could crush him. Flash Thompson is underneath my foot. His hand broken, his eyes filled with tears, his so called friends stunned in silence. I know I could do it right here, he does too, our audience can probably tell. I asked for a chance to make him pay but now that I'm here why am I hesitating? If Flash were me, here and now, would he show any mercy? No. I have the strength to kill him and get away with it. Why should I stop. I raise my leg to stomp it back down, but before I do a hand reaches for my shoulder. I turn and grab the hand before it reaches me, I'm face to face with Gwen. "Peter don't you see Flash?" She's going to try and change my mind, I don't need her opinion, she wasn't there every other day the last two years when it was Flash standing over me. "I'm not going to say that he didn't deserve it, he did. And that fact that you were the one to put him in his place, well that's justice as far as I'm concerned. But don't you think that this is enough?"

Enough? I look from her back to flash. "Flash wouldn't stop."

She seems surprised that I would acknowledge her. "He did." As the person on the other side of the punches I'm pretty sure he didn't hold anything back. "Look at him, he's beaten you up pretty badly but never as far as this. Flash was a jerk but he could stop before he went over board. From the way his fingers are bent I doubt his hand will ever heal correctly. Has he ever given you a lasting injury?"

No. He hasn't. Am I actually worse than Flash? The bell rings and people start slowly clearing out of the cafeteria. I lift my foot off of Flash's chest and grab my bag off of the table. "Fine. But don't expect me to be sorry. He deserved what he got. Probably more."

She smiles as I walk past her towards my class. "I don't think anyone expects you to." The crowd parts around me as I head to class.

I get to health class a little late and am forced to sit in the back again. Our teacher talks a little, before putting on a movie. I'm thinking more about what happened at lunch to really be paying any attention. "Didn't know you had it in you." I look to my right and see the girl from the other day that I now recognize as Mary Jane. She got a rise out of me last time because of how crappy my day was going, this time I'm just going to ignore her. I turn to the T.V. and pretend to be paying attention. "Although I don't get why you got so mad the other day. Because after what happened at lunch no one is going to believe you weren't letting him beat you up." I notice that the people around us have stopped their conversations and are now listening to us. Just great. "But I guess everybody has a fuse. Yours is just longer than most. I have to wonder though, now that you're the big dog, what are you going to do with all that strength? Are you going to be just like Flash?"

I turn back to her glaring into her grin, "I won't." I guess satisfied with my answer she turns to the television still grinning, and I return to thinking about lunch.

Finally at the end of the day is Chemistry, my least hated class. I say that because although I've mostly mastered the material I can at least have some fun with it. In this class at least no one takes my seat there are an odd number of people so that means I get to do every experiment by myself, it's honestly the best part of my day. But as soon as I see Katherine walk through the door I know any chance of peace and quiet is pretty much shot. She smiles when she sees me and despite the otherwise empty class room she takes the chair at my table and sits right next to me. "Hey Peter! I'm so glad that you're in this class with me! I had to miss my first day because of like this really bad headache and now we're going straight into a lab. Think you could help me out?" I'm pretty sure asking is just a formality because no matter what I'm going to end up her lab partner. I just sigh and rest my head on my arms. "Hey why do you look so down? Does it have to do with why you left the trip early?" God not this again, I'm pretty sure my groan is audible around the whole room. "Listen, I realize that I was a bit pushy in math so I guess if you really don't want to talk about it, I promise I won't ask again."

Damn, now that she says that I realize that I'm actually dying to tell someone about this. I need another mind to help me make sense of all the changes I've gone through in the past couple of hours. She claims to be my friend, that's the kind of thing friends are for right? "I'll tell you." She smiles looking at me expectantly. "Not here, are you busy after school?"

Now she looks even more curious, "No, where did you want to go?"

"Just away from the school, too many people listening here." After what happened with Flash people are starting to pay attention to me, which couldn't be more inconvenient. "Meet me in front of the school after we get out."

Class after that was actually fun. I'm used to doing the labs by my self but with Katherine there she managed to make it entertaining as opposed to just interesting. I was reminded again that she wasn't quite as dumb as the rest of our class. Her previous school was a few chapters behind but after I gave a very abridged summary of the material she could probably score about as well as anyone else if given a pop quiz. We finished early so the teacher let us out before everyone else. We split up in the empty hallways to go to our lockers before meeting in front of the school.

I'm sitting on the edge of the school fountain waiting for Katherine it had been about twenty minutes and other students were starting to walk out. When I spot her she walks up to me apologetically. "Sorry I took so long, I was on my way but I got this awful headache and had to stop until it went away."

"Didn't you have one earlier today too?" I surprised myself by feeling actual concern. "Does this kind of thing happen often?"

She shrugs me off, "For the past month or so they've been coming and going. Some worse than others, but that's not what were here to talk about is it?" I guess I can't delay this much longer. I stand and begin walking towards a place where I knew no one would eavesdrop.

There's and old junkyard that was not far from the Crab's house. The first time after I got beaten I tried to run away. I ran as far as I could go, away from them, away from my life. I ended up in an abandoned machine yard about thirty minutes away from the bad part of town. It was completely empty, in the almost twelve hours I was there I didn't see another human being. I eventually had to return, as even the bare minimum care they were giving me was better than starving to death in a junkyard. But on occasion I would still go there when 'home' life got too much for me.

As Katherine and I approach the dump, the noisy din of the city becomes more and more distant replaced by comfortable silence. I take a seat on the hood of a rusted car and Katherine sits down next to me. I can see the question in her eyes. "Ok no one will overhear us here. Now please tell me what happened! I swear if it's just that you shit your pants or something I'm gonna be pissed at having to walk all the way out here." Her smile makes it clear that she is joking and I crack a similar smile.

"Well when I was at Oscorp I panicked because I got bit by a spider." Her jaw almost drops, I can see her about to yell at me for all the drama fro that delivery so I quickly follow up on my statement. "It was one of the genetically modified ones. When I got bit it felt like I was on fire and I blacked out."

Her mouth closes, she instead now looks at me with concern. "Did you go to a doctor?"

I hop off the car and gesture for her to follow. "When I woke up, well. I'll just show you." I lean down to brace my hands underneath the car. Time to find out how strong I really am. I lift with my legs and the car doesn't move much. I grunt applying more force and the whole vehicle lifts almost an inch of the ground. I hear Katherine gasp behind me in amazement. But I'm not done yet. Straining myself I stand to my full height and hold the rusted sedan over my head, arms fully extended. I turn my head to smile at Katherine and see her jaw still agate. I toss the car I few meters away a cloud of dust rises when it lands. Strangely I barely feel tired.

Still looking shocked, Katherine sits down on a dirty looking couch. It takes a second but she finally puts her thoughts into words. "That was AWESOME! What else can you do?"

I told her about my weird danger sense and how I was faster as well telling her about dodge ball earlier today, I decided to leave out my fight with Flash seeing as she had been too busy dealing with a headache to have heard about it although I'm sure she would understand. Then came the questions. She walks around me observing me like a hawk as she ponders my strange condition. "So you only have two arms still right?" I lift my arms not even sure where I would hide an extra set of arms if I had them. "Can you shoot webs from your ass?"

"Katherine, that's gross." I really hope I can't.

She looks bothered by something stopping for a second before resuming her circling. "It's Kitty. Katherine is for strangers and acquaintances, my friends call me Kitty."

It's a little strange to hear someone my age going by such a childish nickname, but it is easier than saying Katherine. "Alright, Kitty. But no I haven't made any webs."

She smiles when I say her nickname before muttering mostly to herself. "Well since you don't have any of the other physical characteristics I suppose you probably don't have Urticating hairs either."

The microscopic hairs that spiders use to climb! My mind immediately goes back to the paper sticking to my hand from this morning. "Actually…"

And that's how we ended up in front of a brick wall in the middle of the junkyard. When I say wall I mean that's all it was just one like two and a half-story wall. I think a school might have been here before. Kitty was behind me observing. Well no time like the present. I press my hand up to the wall and give it a tug feeling my hand try and stick to the wall. Okay maybe this will work. I jump off the ground a bit and let my left hand stick to the wall to catch me, my feet up against the wall as well to try and give me some more leverage. I lift my right hand and push up with my legs settling my hand further up the wall. I hear Kitty call to me from below. "You can do it Peter." I can do this. I lift my left hand and suddenly realize that I don't' feel the wall with my other hand. It takes a second before I realize that I'm falling. By the time I do my body is already reacting on it's own, I'm halfway through a backflip, arcing gracefully from the ground and land next to Kitty in a crouch. "Well you almost did it."

I'm about to retaliate when I see Kitty suddenly grab her head. "Kitty, you okay?"

She waves me off, "I'm fine just another head-" half way through brushing me off she passes out. I notice and am fast enough to catch her before she falls. Except that she passes right through my hands. I don't mean that as in I missed; I mean that I felt a cool sensation in my hands and she went _through_ me. What the hell? She lands on her side with a thump. I reach out to turn her over to examine her but again my hands go right through her.

Fuck. I have no idea what is going on and I have no idea how to deal with it. I want to take her to a hospital seeing as how she passed out seemingly out of nowhere, but that would require moving her. I can't touch her and I can't leave her here to go and try to get help, I doubt anyone else could help anyway. It's getting dark; I can't just leave her here. I sigh, there's not really any other choice. So I sit down and prepare to spend the night watching over her. Is this what it's like to have friends?

I stayed awake the whole night. Sure I had survived here alone when I was thirteen for a night. But that was years ago, I needed to be sure that no bums or thugs chose this spot to occupy late at night. Luckily we remained alone. Several times during the night I tried to move Kitty but all attempts resulted in failure. I was completely stumped regarding her condition. She seems to be completely intangible and unconscious. Judging by her facial expression she isn't in any pain so perhaps the headache brought this on and then disappeared. Also seeing as her clothes didn't fall off her body her intangibility seems to have spread to everything she was touching when she passed out. But for some reason she didn't fall through the ground. I'm also not entirely sure that she's breathing.

I sighed for what must have been the millionth time that night, I was hungry and tired with bags under my eyes. Hours ago I gave up on trying to figure out what was going on, maybe when she wakes up I can get some answers.

I see Kitty roll over and jump from my perch down to her side, I place a hand on her shoulder and am relieved to see that she's finally tangible. She blinks her eyes before focusing on me. "Oh hi Peter."

That was anticlimactic, not really sure what to say I answer with a simple. "Hey."

I help her sit up and she looks around seeing the morning sun and the machine yard around us. "D-did I pass out?"

Logical assumption. "Yeah."

She stands up to brush her self off, "And you were here with me the whole night?" I nod. "If you were here why the hell did you let me sleep on the ground? There's a couch right there you know?"

She sounds more annoyed than mad, She's now stretching trying to work the kinks out from sleeping on the ground. "I tried but I couldn't move you."

Now she looks mad, "What do you mean you couldn't move me? You trying to say I'm fat! I saw you lift a car yesterday!"

I back up defensively while she advances on me, "No, no of course your not fat! I mean I couldn't even touch you. You were completely intangible! If you weren't I would have brought you to a hospital or something."

She stops and looks at me. "Seriously?" I nod. "Like for real? I was intangible?" Another nod. "That's fucking rad! Help me figure out how to do it again!"

So we spent the next hour trying all sorts of things to try and invoke her condition, although she kept referring to it as a super power and I as a failure to maintain density. She started by looking it up on her phone, it turned up nothing to no ones surprise. After that we tried interpretive dance, physical exertion, even her pretending to pass out, which was rather funny to watch. I found myself having fun watching her, especially the interpretive dance part. But unfortunately all good things must end.

We're on the couch trying to brainstorm ideas when my stomach grumbles loudly reminding me of my hunger. Kitty rubs her own stomach in response. "Let's get something to eat." I'm too hungry to even pretend to argue with her. Unfortunately I don't have any cash, guess I'll just have to make a withdrawal.

I try to be discrete as we head to a pizza place she says is 'the bomb' I could probably get more if I was alone but I was being extra discrete with my 'withdrawals' so as to not alert Kitty. There were a few times I thought she saw me but she didn't say anything so I guess I'm in the clear. When we get there I've got more than enough money for a pizza, which is good because I might eat more than one. We order and sit down to wait for our food, when I remember something important. "So I just realized, it's almost one o'clock on a Thursday and we have, well really had school today."

She looks surprised opening her phone to check the time and date. "Holy crap didn't we have a math quiz today?" I realize the same thing. "Oh well I guess. I mean it's too late to go back now right? By the time we got there last period would only have like twenty minutes left. So are your parents going to be pissed? I mean you ditch school and didn't even go home yesterday?"

Oh shit, I forgot all about Carl. When I go home it's going to suck. "When I left the house yesterday Carl was already pissed. I can't really imagine him being any more angry, he's an asshole."

She nods in sympathy, "I know what you mean Jake and Bonnie don't really care about me either. They're not mean I guess, but they never pay as much attention to me as they do their real son." I look at her for a second and perhaps she can see the question in my eyes. "My dad died when I was still too little to remember him. My mom died three months, two weeks, and eleven days ago. Mom and I were close. I mean we only had each other. She worked hard to support the two of us, but I guess all that hard work finally got to her." She casts her eyes down and I can tell that she's reliving some less than pleasant memories, I've been there before. I've never had anyone to try and comfort so I copy what I see in movies and reach my hand across the table to grasp her free hand, squeezing it reassuringly. Kitty smiles back at me removing her hand to wipe a tear from her eye. "Thanks Peter, I think I'm okay. About six months ago she came down with a really bad cold and a crazy fever. I always thought she was going to get better but… Jake and Bonnie are my aunt and uncle on my dad's side. They have their other son and I can tell that they never wanted more. They put up with me and give me an allowance though. Probably just out of respect for my dad or something." She chuckles a bit, "I can't believe I'm actually telling you this. It may be surprising but on the day of the field trip I dragged my self out of bed and told myself 'I'm going to go make friends. I'm going to move on.' I've spent the last couple months closing in on myself, but I'm finally starting to get back to my old self. Thank you."

Wow, I don't know how to respond to that. She just opened up to me in a major way and I've only known her for like two days. She told me everything about her while knowing so little about me, if she trusts me this much; I'm just going to have to return the favor. So I told her everything, well almost everything, I left out the Peachtree's punishments mostly because I didn't want to talk about it, but everything else.

When I'm done she's staring at me. "Oh god, Peter."

I wave her off, "I've learned how to deal with it. For a long time I thought that I would just have to live like this. But now." I hold my clenched fist in front of me, "Now I don't have to put up with anything." With this strength, I'd like to see Carl try and hit me.

Kitty seems concerned when she looks at me, "Look Peter, I know you've had it-"

"Well look who it is." We both turn to see Mary Jane with another boy standing on the edge of our booth. "When you didn't show up to school today people started guessing that Flash went over to your place and trashed you for beating him. Turns out you were just playing hooky with the new girl." She smirks and takes a seat in the table closest to ours. The boy she's with looks at us apologetically and sits down.

I'm about to tell her to fuck off again but Kitty talks before I get the chance, "Wait you mean Flash wasn't at school either?"

The boy sneers at me, I recognize him now. He's Harry Osborn son of Norman Osborn and heir to Oscorp. Last I heard he was going out with Mary Jane although I hardly try to keep up with social crap. "After what your boyfriend did to him I'm pretty sure he's in the hospital." Crap, Kitty turns back to me wide eyed, "Hospital! Peter what did you do? You could have killed him!"

I raise my hands in defense annoyed that I even have to defend myself. "He could have killed me! He's been beating the crap out of me for years! Besides at worst I broke his hand." She lets out a sigh, but I give her a dark look as I stand from the booth, I was dumb to think she was on my side. Doesn't she realize that I'm the victim here? "But believe me the next time he tries it I'll break everything else."

As I walk out I can hear Mary Jane from the restaurant. "See Harry, Now that's a man!"

After I left Kitty at the restaurant, I wandered around New York for an hour angry and frustrated. Angry about the whole situation, frustrated because I probably could have handled it better, and then angry again because I'm actually upset with myself for yelling at Kitty. I need to vent.

So now I'm in front of the Belladonna's prepared for the worst. When I walk in Carl and Lauren are both sitting at the kitchen table looking over some papers, Carl has his reading glasses on and I can see bandages wrapped around his head, probably from yesterday. Needless to say as soon I walk in they both stop what they were doing. It takes Carl about three seconds to go from surprise to rage. His chair falls over as he all but jumps out of it, footsteps hammering on the dirty tile, "You've got a lot of nerve coming back here worm!" I watch passively as he comes closer, his fists already clenched. I feel my own anger, still charged with rage from my toes to my fingertips. I'm gong to enjoy this.

His heavy fist comes in to try and punch me in the gut, I side step and push him from behind and he goes right past me stumbling out the front door. There are no people around but Carl looks taken aback that this beating is about to be public. He doesn't realize that it's his beating though. "What's wrong Carl? Afraid to beat a kid in broad daylight?"

He looks nervous eyes darting around, "What are you talking about Peter? Let's get back inside before you mother get's worried." He walks closer to me and I let him grab my arm.

When he tries to drag me back to the house I simply stand strong and he stumbles not expecting me to be so sturdy. "My mother is dead Carl." I use my free arm to grab the back of Carl's shirt and toss him overhead; I slam him down hard on the ground. "So I'm stuck here, with you." Before he can get up I plant a firm punch into his gut, I make sure to hold back enough not to rupture anything. "But now things are going to work differently. He tries to roll to the side but I punch my as hard as I can at the ground next to his head, the asphalt cracks and Carl freezes in place, eyes locked on my fist. "Nod if you understand me Carl." He shakes his head rapidly sweat beading on his greasy forehead. "I'm moving out today. Today the mail came and your going to give me the foster care check for five hundred and twenty dollars." He nods again, attempting to roll the other way so I smash my fist into the asphalt on the other side of him. "And your going to give me every other check you get from foster care is that understood?" He nods frantically. I lean in close to him, close enough that that I can smell his putrid breath. "Because if you don't I will destroy EVERYTHING that you are. Do you understand Carl?" He looks about ready to piss himself. I get up and watch him scramble to his feet before running to the house. He comes out thirty seconds later holing an envelope. He stops about ten feet in front of me unsure of himself. "You have to hand it to me Carl." He takes another few steps tentatively. When he's within arms reach, I step forward suddenly and almost laugh when he falls backwards in surprise. I grab the check from his hands and turn away from him.

I'm never going to live at the Belladonna's again. Unfortunately my options are fairly limited. No one in New York will rent an apartment to a fifteen year old. After it got dark I went to a hotel but with the current rate of eighty dollars a night I can only afford to stay here for so long.

I sigh and lean back on the bed. The nicest bed I've laid on my entire life. "I can't afford to say here though. I need cash." Good thing I know where to find it. Tomorrows Friday so after school tomorrow, that's when, the rest of my life begins.

I get very mixed reactions when I show up for school the next morning. Most give me wide berth but I notice a few looking at me and giggling, no doubt Mary Jane's doing.

When I get to English class I take a seat in the middle and put my head down waiting for class to start. After not too long I feel a tap on my shoulder and look up to see some one I had never seen before. A guy around my age and build, blue eyes and blond hair spiked up, wearing a blue t-shirt and some jeans. "Hey there." He smiles at me warmly, "I'm starting here today names Robert Drake but everyone calls me Bobby!" I look at him for a sec before putting my head back on my desk. I don't need to make friends with every new kid that starts here. I can hear him lean back into his chair, he whispers under his breath, but my keen senses pick up on his words, "-know, I know. But he doesn't seem very friendly….Ugh, fine I'll try and make contact with the other one." Great the new kid talks to him self, as if I didn't have enough problems without sitting next to the wack job.

Next is P.E. In the locker room I notice Flash isn't in here, fine by me. Today's exercise is a one and a half mile jog. The goal is to be done in twenty minutes. I normally hover at around eighteen to nineteen minutes, today I finish in six barely winded.

After class I go straight to Math to take my seat. Not long after I arrive Kitty takes her seat beside mine. I want to apologize, I didn't actually do anything wrong but apparently she thinks I did; but I also can't bring myself to do it. I've spent most of my life not caring about the people around me and I don't see any reason to stop now. I glance at her from my peripheral vision; she's chewing on her pencil eraser glancing at me every so often. I can tell that she wants to talk to me. I hear a clatter and look over to see that she dropped her pencil, she stares at he fingers for a few seconds before picking it up again. Maybe she didn't drop it.

Ultimately class ended without the two of us saying a word to each other so I went alone to lunch. I use some of the cash from the check to pay for food and take a seat by myself. Everyone gives me plenty of space. Except for one girl. Gwen Stacey sits down in front of me with her bagged lunch, like that's normal. I remember telling my self to acknowledge her so I clear my throat of food and say, "Hey."

She smiles at me in response, "Hello." Then she goes back to eating her sandwich. What the hell? Fine then if she wants to play it that way I'm the master of aloofness. I use my spork to eat my mac and cheese. "You never say hi. Did you need to beat up Flash to get your confidence back?"

I almost scoff, "I never lost my confidence. I never say hi be cause hi is a greeting. The dictionary definition for greeting is to 'show people that you are happy to meet or see them' or 'express good wishes for someone.' I rarely have a reason to greet anyone." I notice another blond figure walk in our direction clearly intent on sitting at our table after a second I realize who it is. Godamn it.

"Hey guys!" Bobby says as he sits down next to Gwen.

Gwen gestures to him, "Peter this is-"

Bobby waves her off, "We know each other already, Peter and I sit next to each other in first period." He gives a smile and goes back to eating his mashed potatoes. I didn't say a word to him all class! For a year and a half no one but Flash bothered me, now I have Kitty, Gwen, Mary Jane, and I guess Bobby all annoying me. Maybe I'm losing my touch.

Gwen turns back to me, as Bobby seems intent on cleaning his plate. "But you said hi to me. That must mean you're happy to se me right? Well that's good, I know that you've had It rough and I realize I probably could have tried to help you. Er, what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry. I realize this is weird coming from somebody you don't know but if you ever need a friend or just someone to talk to, you can ask me."

Wow, that was, odd. She is right, I do barely know her why would she all of a sudden decide to be so friendly? Whatever It's not like I'm planning to take her up on her offer, and she doesn't look like she's looking for a response so I eat the rest of my meal in silence and head off to health.

When I get to class I notice Bobby has gotten here before me and is sitting in the front of the class, so I naturally take the farthest seat in the back. Unfortunately that puts me right next to Mary Jane. "Hey tiger."

I turn my head to glare at her, because of her gossiping I've had to deal with an absurd amount of stares and giggling throughout my day. "Kitty and I aren't dating."

She lets out a small laugh, "I know."

She knows! "Then why did you spread those rumors?"

"Some times," she's looking at me with her legs crossed and her chin resting in her hand. "You just want to know how people will react, it's a good way to get to know someone." I don't like the sound of that at all. What is it with people trying to get to know me lately? "I can see why your upset though." At least she's not completely stupid. "I've been learning about you but you still don't know much about me." Scratch that. "So to be fair ask me anything you want. What about me are you curios about?"

That's easy, "Nothing. Leave me alone." I turn to the front of the class as the teacher walks in.

Mary Jane chuckles next to me, "Exactly what I thought you would say." God she's annoying. The teacher tells us to open up our books so I reach into my bag to get mine, I hear a shuffling and when I look up I see Mary Jane has scooted her desk to mine. I look at her, annoyed. "Mind sharing your book with me? I forgot mine."

I've read that it's important to be very direct and clear when dealing with women. "Yes, leave me alone."

She makes no action to move, "Relax you don't need to pretend around me." Pretend? She pulls my book so that it's on the crack between our desks and begins flipping to the needed page. "You aren't as bad as you think you are. I'm training to be an actress, I can tell when someone is pretending to be someone their not." Obviously she's not a good one because I'm not pretending about anything. I don't want her here, she annoys me, and I really wish to never have to deal with her again. However that doesn't seem likely so I just deal with it and try my best to ignore her for the rest of class.

After what must have been the longest health class ever I finally escape Mary Jane to the comforts of chemistry. When I get there Kitty is already sitting at our table. I take the seat next to her, the air feeling awkward between us. "Hey Peter." I turn my head to acknowledge her. "Listen I just want to say that I'm sorry okay? I talked to some people in my other classes and I didn't realize how bad things were for you. I know you don't want any pity so all I'm saying is that I understand what happened between you and Flash. I was wrong to judge without all the facts. But can you please not kill anybody?"

I guess I can forgive her, it's not like she's the only one in the wrong. "I didn't have to be so brutal about it. You were right, I lost control, I wouldn't actually kill Flash. So fine, I promise to show restraint." But only because after Wednesday I would be the prime suspect.

She holds out her hand, "Friends?"

I reach forward with my own surprisingly happy with how this went, "Friends." Maybe it's okay to care for a few people.

To prepare for the test on Monday our teacher decided it would be beneficial to have an extra credit competition. She passed out a piece of paper to everyone and the four people that answered the best would compete for five extra points. It's a negligible amount, enough to cover for one incorrect answer, I probably don't even need the points, but this kind of thing brings out my competitive side. After the initial round it's Me, Kitty, Gwen Stacy, and another girl by the name of Jessica Jones competing for the prize. The teacher would call out a question and we had thirty seconds to write it on our mini white boards and show it to her, one wrong answer and your out. After three rounds Jessica is eliminated and Ms. Z started ramping up the difficulty. After two more Kitty takes a seat and it's just Gwen and I. I'm actually impressed, Ms. Z is definitely not holding back now, I'm pretty sure she never expected anyone to get this far as she's now asking questions from chapters we haven't covered yet. We're almost out of class time and I can tell that this has to be the last question.

"Ok if you both get this one right then I guess you'll both get the extra points, if you both get it wrong I'll give you both one point. Final question: glycolysis breaks down one molecule of glucose into two molecules of what?" I grab my marker and put it to the white board only to realize that I don't know the answer! I glance at Gwen across the room and see that she's already written hers down. Crap I know this one too, peryite? That sounds familiar. I write it down. When we both show our boards the teacher smiles, "An excellent job from the two of you, simply superb, however Mr. Parker what I was looking for was pyruvate, the points go to Ms. Stacy!"

Pyruvate! Of course, I can't bring myself to be mad over my loss though. Gwen was certainly the one who could have pushed me so far, although I never realized exactly how good she was until today.

As I'm leaving school Gwen walks up to me, "Wow that competition was really fun! I got lucky with that last question, you really know your stuff though."

I grin, it's nice to be acknowledged, "Thanks, I'm impressed with how much you know."

She smiles back, "Thanks I'll need it if I'm going to be a bio chem major. You busy now? Maybe we could get something to eat?"

I'm tempted to go; I may have finally found some one smart enough to bounce some of my ideas off of. Heck with her bio chem knowledge maybe she knows what's going on with my body. "I'm busy today, maybe another time." But I need to prepare for tonight.

After I leave I head to a hobby shop. Having a disguise would be nice. I pick up a red morph suit and head to the hotel. After it's dark, I'm on the roof wearing the morph suit, black jeans with my grey hoody, hood pulled up over my head. I take a deep breath, and then I run. When I reach the edge of the roof I jump with no hesitation and land on another roof, I continue roof-hopping feeling like I'm flying through the air. It's so easy! I'm actually enjoying myself. Enjoying myself so much that I almost miss my destination. Then I hear a gunshot; unlike before when I would ignore it I change course to find the source.

I end up crouched over an alley. A man who is obviously bad news is rifling through the pockets of a prone figure on the street. I wait until he finally finds a wallet and pockets the cash before I drop down. He turns suddenly when I land crouched behind him, gun out in a second. "Who the hell are you?" I say nothing but lift my head so he sees the featureless red face of my suit. "Don't want to talk ey? Well I'll make sure you never speak again!"

Now I'm fast, really fast, but not faster than a bullet. Fortunately I don't have to be. My sense alerts me right before he fires, before his finger can fully pull the trigger I'm already out of the line of fire. The bullet hits the ground where I used to be and the thugs face, well it makes me smile. Before he can re aim I'm on top of him barely holding back I slam my fist into the side of his face and he hits the brick wall hard. I wait for a second before searching him to make sure that he's out. I open his backpack and find almost four hundred dollars, no doubt from his other victims tonight. Now I really smile.

I had thought about being this guy, mugging random civilians. It's not like I care what happens to them. However the problem is how inefficient it is. No one carries large amounts of cash, in order to make it worth the risk I would have to rob a large number of people. But then I thought; if that's what these guys do they must have a large amount on them right? If I mug the muggers It's like stealing from a ten people at once, much more efficient.

I swing his bag over my shoulder after putting the gun in it; you never know when it might come in handy. As soon as I start to leave I hear another gun shot and I'm already running.

I spent the whole night running after muggers. Because I was waiting for the sound of a gunshot to pick my destination I didn't actually save anyone. Four people died last night, but I made almost two grand and they would have died no matter what I did so I just shrug it off. I ended up keeping my promise to Kitty and the first guy I found got it the worst, with a concussion and probably a fractured skull, he was breathing when I left at least.

After a long night I sleep in till around one pm. When I do wake up I pay for the next week of rent before going out to shop. I don't care much for fashion however I would like clothes that fit naturally that maybe I haven't had since the seventh grade. I spend about two hundred dollars buying new jeans, t-shirts, and jackets. Now I'm at least not obviously poor. By the time I'm done it's almost dark so I head back to the hotel. When I leave again it's dressed in red with my old clothes on, no need to rough up the new ones.

I make about half as much as I did the night before, I guess people tend to go out more on Friday nights. The next morning I'm able to wake up earlier, my body and sleep cycle adjust extraordinarily fast, yesterday I slept in till one, today I woke up at eleven. I spend the day walking around the city, I didn't go out to shop but I still end up coming home with a few pairs of shoes and a couple of beanies, it's starting to get cold. I have time to finish all of my homework before I'm on the roof again.

"What the hell?" It's been almost an hour past when I normally hear my first gunshot. Maybe I scared off the usual gang that hangs around here. 'BANG' guess not. It's close so I'm there in under a minute. I know I can handle any thug so I jump down as soon as I get there. My danger sense goes off but I ignore it landing gracefully on the ground. I look up expecting to see a thug and a dead body. Instead I see four guys, crap. I turn to jump up the wall when my sense goes off and I have to take a step back to dodge a bullet. None of the guys in front of me shot it though. I scan the alley and realize that there are guys in every window pointing guns at me. I can dodge one guy with a gun; I don't want to try it with twenty. I slowly raise my hands to avoid getting shot and the lead guy steps aside and with his gun, points to a truck that's parked in front of the alleyway. Man I really do not want to go with these guys! I look left for any sort of opening but as soon as I look I have to take a step to avoid another shot. With no other choice I slowly walk into the middle isle of the large suv with two guys beside me and one in the front and back, not including the driver. The windows are covered from the inside so I have no idea where we're going. We drive for about twenty minutes, me at gunpoint the whole time. I try several times to ask where they're taking me, each attempt met with silence. I can see bruises on a couple of their faces and I can tell that I've 'met' some of these guys over the last two days.

When the car finally comes to a stop I'm ushered out the same way they got me in, when I step out we are behind what must be a large business building in an alley way surrounded by even more guys with guns. What is going on here? I'm sure I didn't beat up all of them. They open a loading bay garage and we go through into a large service elevator. When we exit it's to a surprisingly nice hallway, shiny wooden floors, lush carpet down the middle, they even have paintings every ten feet. Where the hell am I? We come to a stop in front of an elaborate oak door, two armed guards standing in front of it. "Any chance you'll tell me who's inside?" They don't even acknowledge me.

Finally the doors open and I'm surprised to actually recognize the figure that steps out. Towering over me at about six foot seven feet tall. A massive figure dressed in a fine suit. I know where I am now. The light glints off of his bald head into my eyes. He's on multiple magazine covers, one of New York's big players. Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin.

Ooh things are ramping up now! I probably won't make chapters this long again, I'm just trying to get out of this school phase of the origin and get to spider part! Luckily soon I'll be able to over look it. Peter is about to have problems worse than getting to class on time. Review if you like it!


	3. Defend your territory

It's hard not to be shocked; I went from beating up what I thought were common thugs to standing in the doorway of one of the most influential men in New York. Fisk looks me up and down, before turning and walking back into the room his cane clicking against the hardwood floor he came from. Not sure what to do I follow him in and hear the guards slowly close the door behind us.

The room was the definition of lavish, a huge penthouse suite, couches and chairs surrounding a massive television screen. I can see a kitchen four times the size of my hotel room with expensive looking appliances.

Fisk walks over to a desk and sits on a plush armchair, swiveling around to face me. "Why are you here?" His voice carries around the room, reverberating against every surface. My hands aren't bound, and his guards aren't here. He may be politically powerful but he is just one fat man. I can knock him out loot this place and climb down the side of the building. Probably. Wilson Fisk is no idiot, he probably knows from his men what I'm capable of, and in fact it's probably what he expects. I'll play it safer, maybe I can talk my way out of this.

"Why don't you tell me?" I do my best to keep the fear from my stance as I stand strong and keep my limbs from trembling.

He sighs standing up from his chair, "Don't try to make a fool of Wilson Fisk. You know why you are here. Say it."

Is this a trick question, I'm here because he brought me here aren't I? Does he want more from me, something more specific maybe? He's standing in front of me now, towering over me at his full height. "I'm here because I stole from you?" My sixth sense flares but before I can take a step back I'm already flying across the room. I land over in the kitchen area with a huge pain in my gut. How did he move that fast? "You're faster than you look."

He chuckles, "While this body may not match the societal image of physical fitness my body is conditioned for strength and endurance. My strength is nearly superhuman; you should be dead, or at least unconscious. I guess my boys weren't lying about you." I struggle and am able to get back to my feet as he approaches the kitchen. "I am one of the richest men in this city. You can keep the change you won from my subordinates, I didn't bring you here for petty revenge I'm a businessman. Now tell me, why are you here?"

He's within arms reach now, I'm watching him closely now that I know that my danger sense isn't enough warning with his unnatural speed. He said he's a businessman is that some sort of clue? He knows I have special abilities, maybe wants to use me. "I'm here because you need me for something right, a job?"

He chuckles again, "Want not need, do not make the mistake of forgetting your place. Come." He goes and sits down on one of the couches facing the TV, gesturing for me to sit. I shuffle to the farthest armchair I possibly can from him within the area, still holding my bruised side. The monitor clicks on showing the layout of a building. "This is the New York police department's up town station." He presses a button and it zooms in on a specific room on the top floor. "This is the office of the police Captain." After another press the screen rotates and I'm looking at what I assume is the 3D rendering of the office. "You are going to break in to this office and retrieve a set of files for me."

It's definitely possible, but "I'm not interested." I'm not trying to go to jail to make a quick buck.

"Not even any demands? I'm a very wealthy man you know." He sighs, "Very well then, while the reward should be enough motivation some require more than a carrot in front, if you don't do this, I will destroy you, Peter Parker." How did he? His laughter fills the room, "Haha! Did you really think I would let you in here without knowing who you are? I may not know what you are yet, but believe me that your cheap 'mask' isn't doing you any favors."

Fuck, I throw my hood back and rip the head off of my suit, glaring Fisk in the eyes. "I don't have a choice in this do I?"

"No you don't. But that doesn't mean you need to feel trapped. If you complete this job then you work for me." He gestures to himself, "And I take care of my own. You need a place to live, I can provide, you need food, I can provide, you need supplies, a suit, transportation, technology! I can provide. If you do this for me you will be my personal asset."

I look back at the monitor screen. "What exactly do you need me to get?"

He presses another button on his controller and the room rotates to face the desk, the bottom right drawer opens and a manila folder flies out to face the screen. The file says 'CONFIDENTIAL Case F'. I paid more attention to the layout of the room this time. The huge window on the east wall would make this fast but definitely messy. "I need that folder, and I need it in the next two weeks. You don't need to know what's in it, and if possible I'd like for them not to know what your goal was."

I think with my hand on my chin for a second. This could be difficult, probably a god chance that it won't be as easy as he's making it seem. "Can I bring help and what if I get caught?" If I go in through the front I'll have to get through three floors of cops just to get to the room.

"I can't be affiliated with this, if you get caught there is no rescue party, and don't even try reporting me, no one will believe that I had anything to do with this. As far as help I don't' care. Bring an army if you want, just make sure it get's done. Hopefully by the time they've figured out what was taken I'll have everything I need."

Doable, especially if I can convince Kitty to help, although I'd rather not involve her in this. I'll save it for a last resort. "I'll need a better mask."

He smiles and stands and holds out his right hand. Warily I stand and take a few steps towards him watching his hand warily. When I reach out to shake his hand his gigantic fist squeezes mine with more strength than I thought humanly possible. I grit my teeth and squeeze as hard as him. I can see the surprise on his face. "I'll have an acceptable mask and garb delivered by Tuesday, any preferences?"

I release his hand and think for a second, trying to discretely massage my aching fist. "how about spiders?"

Besides being tired I went through school the next day the same is usual. Finally wearing normal clothes to school I could feel less eyes on me as I blend it. Bobby was absent for English making it actually enjoyable and even with the growing bruise on my stomach P.E. was a breeze.

When I get to math I see Kitty, she smiles at me and sits down. "Oh my god Peter you'll never guess what I found out."

She looks so exited I can't help but be a bit curious. "Did you figure out your 'situation'?"

Her smile gets even wider; "Yeah actually Bobby helped me with it."

I almost jump out of my desk, "You told Bobby! Did you tell him about me? How do you know we can trust him?" What the hell is wrong with her you can't just tell everybody about this stuff.

She waves me off, "'We' can trust him? I didn't realize that my 'abilities' were your responsibility. But no I didn't tell him about you, he already knew. Either way I know we can trust him because he's like us. You should meet him."

Like us? "When you say like us you mean,"

"Yup, he's a mutant too! He says he's a part of a whole group of mutants who help each other out. He says he came here to help us." I don't like the sound of this. Happy dopey Robert Drake is actually the chosen representative of a new age mutant organization. I don't know how he knew about us either. Are we the only reason he's at school? "He want's me to go with him back to their institute, I told him to give me time to think about it. I wanted to talk to you about it first. With the way our families are….. well I just thought maybe we could get a fresh start. Together."

I can't say it isn't an appealing thought, an organization of mutants to back me up, maybe they could even protect me from Fisk. But I've never needed anyone's protection before and this situation is questionable at best. With the way Kitty is looking at me I can tell that she will go with whatever I choose. If it were just me I would tell Bobby to fuck off, but now I have to think about what's best for her too. I need more information. "I need to talk to Bobby."

After class Kitty got a text from Bobby that he had something he had to do but would meet with me after school. Kitty had to be home early so I told her to give Bobby directions to the junkyard so he can meet me there.

After class we walk to the cafeteria and sit across from each other at my usual table. Kitty is telling me about this miracle chemical fluid being developed by Oscorp. "Yeah they call it living metal. I think they plan on using it for airplanes or something."

As I'm about to respond I notice Gwen walk up to our table from behind Kitty. "Mind if I sit with you guys?" I shake my head no and she takes the seat next to Kitty before holding out her hand, "Hi your Katherine right? I'm Gwen Stacey I remember you from the extra credit game on Friday but I don't believe we met."

Kitty returns the greeting, "Katherine Pryde. Nice to meet you. Have you been reading about some of the breakthroughs they've made at Oscorp?"

Gwen nods enthusiastically, "Yeah, I'm actually really interested in a lot of their programs, I actually just got accepted for an internship program there."

Kitty's eyes almost bug out of her head, "Oh my god that's awesome!" I look at the two of them animatedly talking only butting in every now and then to offer a personal opinion. This is what it's like to have friends. It's hard not to smile; I'm enjoying this. I think that this life style is something that I want to protect. If anyone messes with Kitty, or Gwen to a lesser extent; I would definitely protect my friends. I'm going to protect this life style.

After lunch I manage to sit far away from Mary Jane and Bobby is a no show so I actually get some sleep.

During Chemistry we have the test so not much happened. It's not too difficult so I finish early and start heading over to the junk yard to meet with Bobby.

When I get there I can see that Bobby is already there, going through his phone, when he notices me he puts the phone in his pocket and jumps to his feet, holding out a hand for me, "Hey Peter! Glad you could make it." I ignore his hand and walk past him to sit on my favorite car hood. I can hear him mutter "Friendly" under his breath.

"Kitty gave me the abridged version. Show me what you can do, and then tell me why you're here."

He smirks, holding out his hand towards a pile of junk. "Check this out." A blue burst of frost comes out of his hand leaving the surface of the junk covered in a layer of solid ice.

I walk over to it and touch it myself feeling the ice. "Ok, now talk."

He looks disappointed, maybe he thought I would be impressed, as if. "Right well first of all you know what a mutant is right?"

I think everyone knows what a mutation is, I'm just gonna assume he's referring to human mutation. "I've heard some speculation, but nothing concrete." There have been more and more cases of bizarre circumstances popping up.

"We're more than speculation, there is a recursive gene called the _mutant X gene _that has been growing more prevalent since the forties. People with abilities like Katherine and I. There is a wise and powerful mutant that is trying to gather us all together, he believes that the humans won't accept us when this information reaches the general public. Regardless of whether that actually happens we should all stick together and have a unified message for when people do come to us."

I cross my arms in speculation. Given what I've seen I'm in no position to doubt him but there is still one thing bothering me. "You still haven't said how you found me."

"Professor Xavier, the powerful mutant I mentioned earlier is a psychic. He built a machine that lets him sense all the mutants in the country, he's working on improving it so we can recruit internationally." He gestures with his arms as he talks.

"Then how did he find me? You seem to know I have abilities, but I am not a mutant. I got my powers in another way." Something about his wording bothers me too, "also why do you keep saying recruit? You want us to come with you but where and to do what?"

He sighs and takes a seat. "He actually didn't notice you until I got close. I came to find Katherine but when I walked past you in the hall the Professor sensed you were different from the humans through me. The professor has a school, 'Xavier's school for gifted youngsters.' He's taking in any mutant that wants sanctuary including you, but…." There's always a but. "There are a few of us who want to help others. If you're wiling we're assembling a team, a group of people that go around helping others with our abilities. If you aren't interested we still extend our protection to You and Katherine. You won't find any place safer."

I thought so; I scoff and stand up slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I don't need your protection."

"Peter wait!" He reaches to put his hand on my shoulder but before he can; I grab his wrist and throw him over my shoulder. He lands in a heap in front of me. "You realize that Katherine is looking to you for guidance right? You have to think about what's best for her too! Can you protect her?"

I take off my bag and throw it back onto the car hood. "I will, Kitty is my friend and I'll protect her. This is my life now! No one else will tell me what to do!"

"Fine then. Bobby gets to his feet, fists balled. "If you think that you can protect the two of you than prove it!" I take a step as the sclera and pupils of his eyes turn radiant blue to match his cornea. His fists cover themselves in a layer of frost. "If you can beat me than I'll admit that you're right and leave you alone. If not you at least convince Katherine to come with us as you can't protect her."

He's trying to take my friend away, my new life away. I will protect it. I raise my fists, the look in my eyes enough of an answer. "If I win I don't care what you admit. I want you gone." He nods his head and I smirk. "Don't expect me to hold back."


	4. Birth of a legend

"Last chance to back out Peter." It really is, Bobby is member of a secret organization of mutants, he wont be as easy to take down as a common thug, I might actually be in over my head.

But considering what's at stake, Kitty, My life here. Surrendering just isn't an option. "Not a chance Drake." Not only that but I have the advantage here. I know what Bobby is capable of; he has no idea what I've got.

My sixth senses goes off as he strikes out first, his hand reaches out towards me and I can feel the cool air overhead as I duck under the blast. I get ready to spring at him with a counter attack but am forced to instead jump back to dodge another blast. I doubt Bobby would actually try to kill me but I'd rather not get hit by a blast of concentrated cold like that. I'm too slow to dodge an icicle and earn a shallow cut across my face for it before I jump back. He stands in place and continuously fires at me while I'm forced to dodge blast after blast. I take cover behind a pile of junk as he continues to throw out cold. "What's wrong Peter? If you can't handle even this how are you going to protect Kitty when the time comes?"

I try and peak out at him but am forced back behind cover as he nearly freezes my face. God this is frustrating, if only I could get close to him. "Why don't you come fight me like a man Drake!"

"Do you think that the mutant haters will fight fair?" The blasts persist but I can tell that his voice is getting closer. Is it possible that he's tired of this too? "Ordinary people will be scared of us, they will find ways to hurt us."

I'm done hiding. As soon as I judge him close enough I jump over my cover and attack him from above, I cock my fist back and slug Bobby in the face. He starts to stumble and I quickly get in another punch before my sense sparks up and I'm forced to dodge another concentrated ray of cold. "Ha you're too slow Bobby!"

I land about a meter away from him. "How are you doing that?" Just as I thought, he has no idea of what my abilities are. "Advanced reflexes? You know my secrets, what are you packing Peter?"

I dodge an ice beam and he blocks my next punch. "Who knows?" I land a kick to his jaw but he raises an ice shield before I can follow up. "Maybe it's precognition." I kick off of a pile of junk and punch at his shield as hard as I can. It holds strong but Bobby slides a few feet while I'm left shaking off my hand. "Man that's a sturdy shied!"

The ice shield melts back away and Bobby flexes his wrist. "And you've got a hell of a punch." He looks me up and down, "For a guy your size, I wouldn't think it was possible to create that amount of force."

I just shrug. "Looks can be deceiving." I crouch ready for his next attack.

Bobby turns his head to the side and cracks his neck. "Alright Parker, time to take the kid gloves off." The ice covering his fists slowly extends until his entire body is a blue shimmering Bobbysicle. "You've just been running away. See if you can keep up with this!" He jumps in the air and aims his hands to the ground, a slide of ice comes into existence and he slides down it incredibly fast coming straight at me! With my fast reflexes I'm able to dodge him, but by the time I turn around he's sliding through the air on another ramp. "Let's see how long you can dodge me for!" I start running to dodge ice beams as he shoots them from his ramp parallel to my path. I try to pounce at him when he get's close but he just angles away from me mid air forcing me back on defense. His ability to maneuver mid air is ridiculous! If only I had something that would let me keep up this would be over already.

Hmm, looking around our battlefield maybe there is a away I can keep up. From our constant cycle of dodge and attack there's a lattice of overlapping icy trails just starting to melt. I can work with this. Bobby fires an ice beam and to dodge I jump into the air. I land on one of his previously used platforms and use my powers to stick to the slippery ice. I can do this, with my powers the slippery icy labyrinth is only as hard to traverse as a jungle gym. As Bobby continues to shoot at me, I dodge, jump, flip, and climb every action bringing me a little closer. Bobby notices this and raises his altitude, on a platform maybe thirty feet overhead. Big mistake. Before he realizes he's messed up I jump as high as I can and my fingers brush the bottom of his ice path. That's all I need though. I climb over the side to crouch on the platform as fast as I can.

I'm crouched right behind Bobby ready to attack. I can see him turn and start to raise his arm to defend as I spring at him fist cocked but it's already too late. When my fist hit his skull, I knock the ice right off of his face and the two of us both fall off of the platform. I don't let up though, the entire trip back to earth I'm holding his shirt with my left hand and pummeling him with my right, just before we hit the ground I grab him from both sides and drive my knees into his chest, slamming him on the ground.

The ice around us starts to melt, his nose is broken, maybe a rib too. I don't even think he's conscious but I'm sure he can hear me somewhere deep down and I have a message to get across. I lean down to his ear and can hear his breathing in mine showing he's alive. "Kitty, stays with me. Believe me, if you or anybody else tries to mess with my life, I'll kill them."

I leave Bobby lying on the ground in the junkyard and head home to catch some rest, the adrenaline was keeping me going but I haven't had a full nights sleep for almost five days and that fight really wore me out. I ignore the cut on my face as I lie down to sleep; cleaning the sheets is the maid's job anyway.

When I get to school the next day I'm happy to note that Bobby isn't in class. In fact the teacher makes a short announcement that he's actually been transferred to another school. It isn't easy to contain my smile.

While I'm changing in the locker room for P.E.; I notice the entire room go silent. I shove my arms through the sleeves of my shirt and turn to see Flash walking through the door. His arm is in a cast, he looks my way before quickly averting his gaze, I can almost see him sweat. Doing his best to avoid eye contact he quickly walks to the gym teacher's office before leaving. That's when I know that today is going to be a good day.

Or at least until I get to math. Kitty get's there before me and as soon as I walk in I can feel her looking at me. Okay more like glaring, intently. Still not one to be ruffled I walk over to my now usual seat and sit down pulling out my notebook. Expectedly she's the first one to talk, she starts 'whisper yelling' at me as soon as I look her way, "What the hell did you do Peter!"

Faking innocence I answer back with raised shoulders, "Your going to have to be more specific."

If possible her gaze becomes even more intense "Don't you play dumb! I told you to talk to Bobby yesterday and now he's gone! What happened? And what's with your face?"

I sigh, if I was hoping to avoid this but if I know anything about Kitty it's that she's not the kind of person to just forget about stuff like this. "Listen, I heard his pitch and I didn't like it. I told him the truth: we don't need him. Why would we when we have each other? And the scar was an accident." Honestly the logic is sound to me and I did accidentally get hit, I'd planned on dodging.

Her glare lessens a bit, "I mean I guess that's true but why did you make him leave? We could have still been friends. I think it would be good to stick with others like us."

Now it's time for half-truths, "He was only here to recruit us, after I turned him down I guess he moved on to the next school." I did make him leave but he probably would have left anyway.

She sighs, her angry demeanor disappearing completely. "Fine but we should really talk abo-" She pauses as our teacher walks through the door, "we'll talk about this at lunch."

After class Kitty and I walk together to the cafeteria we get there fast enough that the line isn't very long. Kitty frantically checks her backpack before turning to me, "Oh my god Peter, I blanked this morning and forgot to grab any cash, do you think you could spot me this one time? I promise I'll pay you back tomorrow I'm just starving!" Her stomach growls to prove her point.

I chuckle and reach for my wallet. "Don't worry about it. This is what friends do right?" It sounds rhetorical but it's partly a real question as well, I'm still new at this. I don't really care about the money anyway, while it's probably not a good idea to go about robbing Fisk anymore he didn't make me give any of the money back so I've got quite a few savings. I'll have even more when I pull off this job.

After I hand her the couple of dollars for lunch we sit down at our table and start eating. Only a few minutes later we're joined by Gwen who sits down and starts animatedly talking to Kitty. I just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere until I notice red out of the corner of my eye. "Hey there tiger."

Mary Jane sets her tray down next to mine. "What do you want?"

The day was going so well too. Kitty turns to me shocked, "Don't be so rude Peter!" She holds out her hand to Mary Jane, "Hi we met before but I never actually introduced myself. I'm Katherine Pryde."

MJ takes the hand, "Mary Jane Watson, everyone calls me MJ though." She smiles at Gwen, "Stacy."

Gwen glares coldly back, "Watson." The animosity is very clear in the air.

Clearly there's something between the two that I don't know about. Actually I don't care about it either. Right now I just want Mary gone. "Don't you normally eat lunch somewhere else? Anywhere else?"

She just smiles at me and tosses another french-fry in her mouth, "Yeah but recently you seem more interesting."

I humph and finish my burger, "Well I'm not, can you leave now?"

She ignores me and continues talking, "Everyone is talking about how Flash is back, but I'm more interested in why the new kid left." I do not like where this is going. "You put Flash in the hospital, it's no secret you didn't like Bobby. Couple people think that we'd find him in the hospital. I wonder if you had anything to do with it?"

There's silence for a second before Gwen speaks up, "Your out of line Watson, you can't just go around accusing people of things!"

Mary Jane raises her hands in defense, "I'm just saying what everybody else is thinking."

I look up from my plate to see Kitty looking at me warily, "The scar on your face. Peter, you, you wouldn't, I mean you didn't right?" I did, but it wasn't like that. I doubt Kitty would understand anyway.

Before I can answer Gwen turns from Mary Jane to stare shocked at Kitty, "Of course Peter didn't. He may have fought Flash but Flash had been harassing him for years! Peter isn't the type of guy to go around picking fights." Even if she's wrong it's good to have someone on my side.

There's a shuffling as Mary Jane stands up with her tray, "It would appear that you three have some things to discuss, I'll see you in health Peter." She winks at me and walks off. God I hate her.

When I turn back to the table Kitty and Gwen are arguing. "You don't know him like I do you don't get to look at me like that!"

"Know him like you do? You've barely known him a week! Peter and I have been going to the same school since the sixth grade!"

"Then why did you let him get bullied for years!" By now the entire cafeteria is watching as their argument progresses closer to a fight.

I need to stop this. "Kitty, Gwen." They both stop their argument to look at me. Now how do I do this without admitting to fighting Bobby, "I barely knew Bobby, I don't know where he is or why he's there but I'm sure he has his reasons. Lunch is almost over, let's go." I grab my tray and walk towards the trash, there's a moment where the entire room is dead silent before the usual din of the lunchroom fills the background. I can hear Kitty and Gwen walking behind me silently.

Somehow when I get to the health room Mary Jane is no where to be seen, this is extra suspicious as she left almost five minutes before I did. I sit down feeling uneasy. Other students start to fill in the empty seats, one of the last ones to walk in is Mary Jane who smiles at me and takes the seat next to mine. "Hey tiger."

I'm too annoyed to look at her so I continue looking straight ahead. "Why did you do that?"

"Do wha-"

"Don't act dumb." She's dumb enough as is. "You deliberately tried to start a fight and left as soon at they started arguing. What's your play?"

She laughs, "My play? Maybe I just wanted to figure out what your company thinks of you? I wasn't sure about Gwen but I really thought that Katherine girl would come to your defense, aren't you surprised too?"

I try and filter out all the useless information. "Why do you care what my friends think of me?"

She frowns, "You're missing the point Peter."

"No you're dodging the point. Why are you so interested in meddling in my life? First you spread rumors about Kitty and I around school and next you come to my table and start a fight!" The more I talk the more heated I become.

"I didn't-"

"You did! Don't even try and deny it." The whole room is silent and looking at me but I don't care. I glare darkly at Mary Jane, "This is your only warning. I'm a bad enemy to have."

All eyes are on us as Mary Jane smiles and leans close to me. She whispers in my ear, "Looking forward to it."

In chemistry the air between Kitty and Gwen is still awkward so I don't really talk to either of them for the whole class.

After school Gwen asks me if I want to tour Oscorp after school, and as much as I want to go I decline. I need to do some recon.

When I walk through the hotel lobby I hear the receptionist call out to me, a short mousey girl with glasses "Um excuse me, Mr. Parker." I walk over to the desk looking mildly annoyed. I have things to do today. "Right, uh I got a package dropped off here for you earlier."

I raise an eyebrow, "Don't you normally send those to the room?"

She fidgets with her hands as she talks, "Right but these guys came by and they had this package for you, and they said no one can get the package but you, and I-"

I raise a hand to stop her babbling "Alright, I get it. So where is it?"

She goes around to the back and drags a five by five by five box from the back storage area. "Do you need a bellman's cart? It's really heavy."

I shrug reach down to grab the box from her hands. With my strength the weight is nothing. I smirk at the receptionist as I hold the box with one hand. "Thanks."

When I get back to my room the first thing I do is tear open the box. The first thing on the inside is a letter.

[ _To Mr. Parker,_

_In this box contains the first of many of the benefits with being backed by me. Inside you'll find a custom helmet outfitted with the finest technology, as well as a matching suit. In addition to concealing your identity they both have a number of other features all of which explained in the attached manual. My designers did their best to integrate the spider theme you asked for._

_Enjoy your toys, Spider _

_From, your ally._

_P.s. Obviously destroy this letter after reading ]_

I take the letter and put it aside as I pull the contents out of the package. A shining burgundy helmet with huge black eyes looks back at me. A black spider web pattern spread across the front. I smile like a child on Christmas morning, I might actually enjoy this."

_Ooh baby now we're getting started. With the suit and a plan I think it's almost time for the world to meet the Spider. What do you guys think of that name? I'm not quite set on it, Spider, Spider man, anything else. If you've got an idea for his identity leave a review with it or pm me or something._

_Thanks for reading please review!_


	5. Spider's first webs

I smile as I jump from roof to roof, it's like I'm flying! I grab a flagpole and use it to springboard over a busy street. I stick to the side of the building and crawl my way up, feeling more powerful than ever. I sit perched on the roof of a large building and catch my breath while I analyze my suit through my new helmet. I see an array of different things as I cycle through the filters. I've got infrared, X-ray, night vision, and two more I don't even know what they do, I was too exited to finish the manual. The entire suit has a dark red finish with black web like designs along the outside. The pants are the same hue with a black utility belt separating them. Bullet proof padding on the chest and arms, and insulated to maintain body temperature. The helmet is amazing, the note didn't say what it was made of but it's incredibly lightweight for something so sturdy.

Still something's missing. Fisk called me 'Spider' it has a nice ring to it. I look down at my chest where the dull red is marred only by the black webs. I've got some ideas about modifications but for now those will have to wait. I have to earn this suit after all. I crawl around the side of the building and look at its neighbor, the police department.

I don't expect Fisk's information to be wrong but I need to see it myself. Five stories, but the office I need to get to is on the fourth. Large window, with the lights still on, I can see the desk that holds my target as well as the owner of the office, Captain Stacy.

"The only real obstacle." I realize beating up cops is probably going to be harder than fighting thugs, but how much harder can it be? I flex my fist, I can almost dodge bullets and, with this suit I'm mostly bullet proof anyway. And without their guns they are only human.

I climb up to the roof of the building I'm on before making a running jump to land on the police station. "If I go in from the top that's only two floors to fight through instead of four, I need to figure out what's on this top floor.

[Next day lunch]

Gwen raises an eyebrow curiously, "My dad?"

"Yeah." I shrug nonchalantly, "I saw him in the newspaper last week, and I didn't realize your dad was so cool." Kitty is silent due to the sheer amount of noodles in her mouth; girl loves spaghetti.

She blushes a bit, "I mean, are you really interested in all that cop stuff? I never figured you for a hero." Her grin is almost mocking.

I grin back, "What you don't think I'm heroic?" I feign a hurt expression, "I'm just curious about the job, I still don't know what I want to do after high school."

Gwen looks disdainfully at Kitty for a second before rolling some spaghetti up with her fork and spoon and taking a bite. I think Kitty tries to stick her tongue out at her but there's still too much spaghetti in her mouth for me to be certain. "I mean if you want I could set up like a tour, I'm sure my dad would be glad to show you around."

I'm actually surprised, I though Gwen might know what was on the fifth floor but if I can see it first hand, "That would be really cool actually, when do you think I could go?"

She pulls out her phone, "I'll have to ask ahead, but I think after school on Friday he would be able to."

I hear a coughing to my right as Kitty chokes down the last of her food, when she speaks she's out of breath, "Can I come too? I totally wanna see what it's like, I bet you it's the same as the law and order set!"

Gwen sighs, "I'm sure my dad won't mind. When we go be careful not to touch anything."

Kitty crosses her arms and I decide to speak before another fight can break out, "Good! Friday it is then." I push my half empty bowl of spaghetti towards Kitty. "Want the rest?" She doesn't even hesitate.

Gwen rolls her eyes, "So anyway are you doing anything after school today? You never have time to hang out?"

I chuckle and rub the back of my head, "Yeah sorry about that I'm busy today too. I'm working on a project right now," I still have a few pieces that I'll need to finish my 'project.' "But I promise I'll have some time next week."

Kitty manages to clear her throat for a second, "We'll hold you to that!"

[Friday after school]

After school Gwen, Kitty, and I got on a bus to take us to the police station. The bus route to get us there takes like thirty minutes and I'm wiped from staying up to work on my 'toys', so I decide to catch a nap on the seat next to Kitty while Gwen uses her laptop to start on her homework.

I'm in the middle of a lovely dream when suddenly I feel cold and my face slamming into the side of the bus awakens me. I sit up and rub my jaw as Kitty giggles from the aisle. The confusing part is that she insisted on having a window seat so I was in the aisle. I look at her accusingly and she just shrugs, "I didn't ask you to start leaning on my shoulder."

Oh so that's what happened. "Doesn't mean you have to let me drop." Seriously, I can't believe I spent a whole night keeping watch over her in a junkyard.

There's a click from the seat in front of us and I see Gwen put her laptop away. She turns to us, "This is our stop, let's go before the bus leaves."

The three of us get out and immediately to our right is the police station. It's a lot more intimidating from the ground. I feel the sudden urge to jump at it and climb to the roof, but ignore it as we walk through the front door. Gwen motions for us to sit in the waiting area while she talks to the officer at the front desk. Kitty leans over to whisper to me, "Hey Peter," she takes her hand and pushes a finger through my arm, the same cold feeling as before washes over me. She moves it back and forth through my arm, "OoOo I'm a ghost!"

"Kitty!" The look in my eyes is stern. She instantly stops and looks at me, "You can't do that here." I look back and forth to make sure no one saw, I need to take this seriously, I've made it my job to protect her. "If someone were to see you."

She puts her hands on her hips indignantly, "Why not? It's not like it's illegal or anything."

I notice Gwen turn to start walking toward us, so I whisper to Kitty, "Just don't for now, we'll talk about this later."

She crosses her arms with a humph, "Fine."

Gwen looks at us suspiciously as she walks up, "What was that about."

I wave her off, "Nothing."

She looks at me expecting more but when it becomes obvious I'm done talking she just continues, "My dad will be here in-"

There's a lout voice behind her, "There's my princess!"

She sighs, "Now."

Behind Gwen is the man that I saw through the window two nights ago; he's a tall imposing blond man wearing a suit. I can just make out the outline of a gun beneath his sports coat. He holds out a hand to me, "Ah you must be Gwen's friends, you're Peter right?"

I shake his hand being careful not to accidentally crush it, "Nice to meet you captain."

He shakes his hand for a second after letting go. "Wow you sure have a strong grip. And you don't need to call me that, I'm fine with Mr. Stacy."

Kitty extends her hand, "I'm Katherine!"

Mr. Stacy meets her outstretched hand with enthusiasm, "It's my pleasure miss Katherine. Now who's ready for a tour?"

Over the course of the whole trip I kept careful note of the schematics of the building. Below the first floor are four small holding cells, currently empty. First floor: mostly a reception area with a few desks, the second floor is mostly desks, that's where the majority of the officers are. The third floor looks the same with a few less desks, apparently that's where the special investigations teams would be if they had running right now. The third floor was full of more officers working at their desks. But really it's the fourth floor I was interested in.

"So your office is on this floor?"

Mr. Stacy smiles back at us, "Well that's right there are only two offices on this floor, One for me, the captain, and one for the district attorney."

I look around the floor, more like a hallway mostly glass windows with a two offices on either side. "So, I know you have a gun, but does the D.A. have one too?" It's nice to know what you're up against.

Mr. Stacy looks at me weirdly, "Well that's not really my business, and neither is it yours,and I actually think that's good for the tour."

Kitty asks my next question for me, "But what about the next floor isn't there one more?"

Mr. Stacy scratches his head, "That's the communications room. That's where they organize who goes to what crime scene and answer emergency 911 calls. We can't really go up there now, wouldn't want to disturb them."

Oh that could be a problem, "So they're there like twenty four hours? That must be tough."

"Not twenty four hours straight, they mostly work twelve hour shifts, we make sure there's always at least one person in there though."

I smile with that drop of information. Sounds like I know how I'm getting in.

I spend all of Saturday going over the information I've gathered about the building; entrances and exits, how soon after an alarm is tripped before I run into trouble, and most importantly Gwen's dad's schedule. After all him being in the office would be the biggest obstacle. This isn't just looking doable, it's looking easy. With my strength and with this new suit, they won't even know what hit them.

On Sunday it's time to make my move. I'm in my full suit on the roof of a building about half a block from the station with a small bag. I look down at the spider emblem I spent last night sewing into my suit. If this all goes right no one will see me, but on the off chance someone does. I want to give them something to remember me by. The sun is just starting to go down so I've got maybe fifteen minutes until the next shift change. While I don't think I'll need a distraction better safe than sorry. I pull out one of the guns I took from Fisk's thugs out of my bag. "This should bring them running." Five bullet shots ring out across busy New York as I fire from the roof into an empty alleyway, I can already hear the sirens. Time to make my move.

I jump from roof to roof until I land on the police station. I go over to the ventilation duct and rip the industrial sized ac unit from the ceiling. When I drop through the ventilation duct into the coms room, the last guard of the shift is more than surprised. I'm on him in a second before he can even think about calling for back up. "What the-" my fist hits him in the gut and he falls over. I want to laugh at how easy this is. I exit and go down the stairwell and to my luck it looks like both Stacy and the D.A. are out.

Feeling confident I leisurely walk into the office and towards my target. I take a seat in Stacy's desk and nonchalantly reach over to his bottom right drawer. Locked huh? Good thing I have a key. I pull my fist back and slam it into the lock, my hand goes through the cheap metal as if it were paper. Opening the drawer I easily find the file Fisk asked for to make it look less suspicious I grab a few extra files as well. I put them all in the bag but before I get up I hear a voice. Crap I wasn't paying attention, in front of me is an officer. He's got his gun out and trained on me. "Who are you? Keep your hands up."

I put my hands up calmly and stand up, "Hey there officer, what can I help you with?"

His hands are shaking, must be new. "No funny business man! Stay where you are, reinforcements are already on their way."

Not good, I turn my head and look at the large glass window next to us. "The more the merrier I like to say." I slowly start moving my hands down.

He thrusts his gun at me threateningly, "HEY, keep your hands still! I will shoot!"

He won't, I can see it in the sweat on his brow and in the shaking of his hand. This man has never shot anybody in his entire life. "You're bluffing."

His face turns red, "Don't make me do it man!" I start to walk over to the window watching him the whole time. There's a blast from his gun but I don't even bother trying to dodge it, it's not aimed at me. The glass of the window shatters as the bullet goes through it. "That was a warning shot! Next one goes through you!"

I hear steps coming up the stairs, time to go. "Well it's been fun officer but I have to run. Tell captain Stacy hello." The officer's eyes go wide as in a single leap I jump out of the window. Just as I'm leaving I see the door behind him open as more officers pour into the room. Maybe I cut that a little closer than I intended. I stick to a building across the street and swiftly climb onto the roof. I wave over my shoulder at the dumbstruck officers in the police station window. "Maybe next time fellas!"

This is so much more fun than beating up thugs, is what I think right before I hear the helicopter. "We have you surrounded!" A bright light shines through the twilight at me, " I immediately start sprinting. Luckily the cops don't typically have gunships around so instead of a machine gun I'm still dodging pistol fire. The only problem is how the hell am I going to out run a helicopter?

I jump on to the next roof but the helicopter has no trouble keeping up. I check my wrists as I near the edge of the block. "I didn't have time for testing, so I was hoping not to use these," I almost stumble as a bullet hits the padded part of my back. "But I don't have much choice do I?" There are no buildings close enough to jump to as I leap off of the cliff, I'm durable but falling eight stories would be more than enough to stop me, if I lived. I activate the button on my wrist and pray that my creations work like I planned.

Luckily I am a genius, the sticky 'web' fluid I designed shoots out of my wrist shooter and latches onto a near by building. I grab the web with my hand using the momentum to swing around a corner. I use my other shooter and weave through the buildings, dropping low to try and lose the helicopter. I can't help myself. "WOOHOO!"

It only took me fifteen minutes to ditch the cops, to throw them off though I made sure to escape in the opposite direction of my hotel, which conveniently brought me to the junkyard. I land on the hood of a car and take my helmet off to catch my breath, wide smile on my face, "Who knew that evading the cops would be so fun?"

"It didn't look fun." I whirl around to see Kitty standing behind me with her arms crossed; she looks pissed. "I figured you would end up here so I've been hiding in that car over there waiting for you." I'm actually shocked speechless I really need to work on paying attention to my surroundings. "What the hell were you doing out there Peter?"

I raise my hands defensively, "I can explain." She looks at me expectantly. I sigh, I really hoped to avoid actually involving her with Fisk but I'm not going to hide things from her. After telling her about my powers there's really no point. "It was a job."

She raises her eyebrow, "What do you mean a job? Someone paid you to attack the police station? Who else knows about your powers?"

"No the job was to steal some files," I point to my backpack. "I need the money, I got this suit out of it too."

She holds out her hands and I toss her the helmet. "This is really hi tech. Whoever got you this has money and connections. Is, is this vibranium?"

I shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine."

She tosses me the helmet back, "I want to meet him."

Oh no, "I really don't think that's a good idea, he could think I'm trying to double cross him or something. I'm not trying to make enemies. You should just stay out of this." She gives me the same look she used when asking about my powers. "I don't have much choice do I?"

She shakes her head, "None at all. When are we doing this?"

[Later that night]

I'm sitting on the roof of Kitty's building still wearing my suit underneath my clothes with my helmet in my bag when I hear the door open and Kitty walks out. "Are you sure your folks are okay with you being out this late?" I just really don't want to take her to Fisk.

She shrugs, "I told you they don't care about me. Let's go." She puts her arms around my shoulders.

"Woah woah, what are you doing?"

I can see her roll her eyes from the corner of my eye, "Holding on duh. Now get the lead out!"

Is she insane? "Kitty I'm not going to carry you there by web! If you fall you could die!"

She let's go of me and scoffs, "Watch this Peter." She sinks all the way through the roof into the next floor, before slowly rising again to stand next to me. "You're not the only one that's been practicing. If you do drop me, which you wont, I'll just phase through he ground and you turn around to pick me up again. Besides you were the one dodging bullets earlier so I'm pretty sure I'm the sane one."

I sigh as I realize that this is just another one of those arguments that I can't win. "I guess we better get going then. "

The trip to Fisk's headquarters is only slightly more unnerving than the last time. I swing around to the same back entrance that I was brought in the last time. There's a steel eyed guard around the back entrance but, he looks at me and then looks away, I'm just gonna take that as the go ahead. Thankfully Kitty is quiet, maybe seeing the guys with guns made her realize how dangerous this as and will keep her from doing anything stupid. When we get to the elevator I press the button for the penthouse and we begin ascending, Kitty finally breaks the silence. "So what kind of guy is this Fisk person? I've read like, articles on him but you've actually met him."

I think of the last time I was here, and how the threw me around the room. "He's intimidating. On top of that he's not an ordinary man, he's faster than me." She looks at me shocked. "He was able to grab me faster than I could react. He's strong too. Stay behind me when we walk in there ok?" For once she doesn't argue.

I'm standing once again in front of Fisk's elaborate Oak door, with his two armed guards on either side. I feel the same fear I felt before, an uneasiness with not knowing exactly what's about to happen. I feel Kitty squeeze my arm and actually feel thankful that I'm not alone. One of the guards opens the door and gestures for Kitty and I to walk inside. When we walk in I immediately smell food cooking. Unlike before the atmosphere in the room is actually a little welcoming, maybe that's just because now I at least know who's inside. Hear sounds from the Kitchen and lead Kitty in that direction. When I turn the corner my jaw almost drops when I see Fisk with a 'kiss the cook' apron on stirring at a pot on the stove. He turns and smiles when he see's us, "Ah Mr. Parker right on time, and who is your friend here?"

I'm stunned for almost a full second before I respond. "Uh, this is Katherine a colleague of mine."

He extends a hand to her, and I'm wary of him as she reaches out to take it, "Nice, to meet you Katherine, call me Mr. Fisk."

She actually smiles back to him, "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Fisk."

He gestures to the table, "Why don't you have a seat, I made enough spaghetti for the three of us."

Kitty takes the seat to my right, and accepts the bowl full of spaghetti licking her lips, "Thank you for the food, Mr. Fisk. But how did you know I was coming?"

He chuckles as he hands me my bowl while sitting down across from us. "I know a great many things Ms. Pryde." She looks at me and I shake my head, "Peter didn't tell me anything about you, but a man like me has ways of gathering information. Have you seen the news since your daring escape Mr. Parker?" I shake my head, "They're calling you 'Spider' seems one officer got a good look at the emblem on your chest. Say how are you liking the suit?"

Spider huh, I like it. As for the suit I just give my honest opinion, "It's great, thank you so much for it."

He wipes his mouth before speaking again. "Don't mention it boy, I had it made specifically for you. How about you Ms. Pryde? Will you be requiring a suit?"

She looks up mouth full of spaghetti and swallows, "Um, for what?"

"Well obviously for working with Mr. parker. I'm sure you wouldn't have come here if you didn't care about his safety a great deal. And we both know that the two of you are uniquely gifted."

Kitty looks shocked, "I –I mean of course I want to help Peter."

Fisk smirks, "You two have an interesting choice in front of you. With your abilities it's a simple matter of decision to determine your future. Tell me, will you use them to protect the masses, or maybe raze your enemies?"

Kitty looks at me unsure, I feel her hand on my arm, "Peter, no matter what, we'll stick together right?"

I nod; I want to protect us, Kitty and I, Gwen too. They are important to me, the masses? Who cares about anyone else? "I'll use my abilities to protect what's important to me. To get the things I need to keep the ones I care about safe." I look at Kitty for the last part.

Fisk smiles at the two of us, "Excellent answer Mr. Parker, it seems that we can help each other out."


	6. Perks of the job

"This pad is sweet!"

I crack open an eye to see Kitty swinging from a chandelier. I'd tell her to stop but I know she won't listen to me.

"Peter, like seriously this is awesome! I can't believe Fisk just gave you this place. This is like the biggest room in the building!"

I roll my eyes and sit up on the couch realizing that with Kitty here I'm not going to be able to take that nap I wanted. "This is the penthouse so probably."

She let's go of the chandelier and I instinctively move to catch her, standing up from the couch and holding my arms out. She phases through my arms and lands softly on the couch. This girl is going to give me a heart attack. I sigh and sit back down on the couch, flicking on the T.V.

'Next up who is the Spider? Our senior correspondent Vivienne may shed some light on that for us.'

Kitty elbows me in the ribs; "You've been all over the news since yesterday Mr. popular."

I smirk at her, "Jealous?" She actually pouts a bit. "Let's see what they 'know' about me."

"Thank you Draven, well based on the abilities that we witnessed-' footage of me jumping from building to building as well as swinging through the city begin playing in the background, 'It is the general consensus of the scientific community that the Spider's suit is what allows him to perform these feats. With the strength and speed that were displayed however no scientist that we are aware of is able to recreate such fantastic results. Unfortunately we were unable to examine the locally dubbed 'webbing' as it seems to dissolve not long after use. Now on to tomorrow's forecast with Janna!"

Kitty starts laughing next to me, "Man they really think that all of that was from the suit? Wonder what they'll think of me when I get mine."

"Kitty," I look at her seriously and she stops laughing. "I already agreed to let you come with me next time, but you understand that me being caught was not part of the plan. I wanted to avoid ending up on the news. We want to avoid being on the news. The more they see us the more likely they'll figure out who we are."

"She stands up off of the couch, "Fine Mr. killjoy, well since you're awake we might as well still show up from school today."

Damn.

When we get to class it's already halfway through third period, so luckily I still manage to miss most of math. I'm gonna call that a victory. Our teacher is just finishing the most boring lecture on matrices possible when the bell releases us. Kitty points to her head and pretends to pull the trigger, "God that class is boring,"

I laugh back, "You should've just let me sleep, no sympathy for you." She just sticks her tongue out at me. I hold open the door to the cafeteria for her, "And if you had let me sleep we could have had some real food after my nap."

She just rolls her eyes as we get in line, "Why are you so lazy? Seriously I've met dead things with more energy than you."

I just shrug, "Yesterday was very tiring."

We each grab a slice of pizza and milk, "Ok fine, I'm a little overwhelmed from everything too."

"Just what did you two do yesterday?" Kitty and I both turn around to see Gwen standing behind us with a smirk on her face. "I heard neither of you showed up to first or second period today."

It takes me a second to recover from the surprise, "How? It's only like one thirty." She just shrugs and grabs her own pizza. "God rumor travels fast in this school."

We all sit down at our usual table, "Gossip is that you two were just playing hooky together, but maybe…"

Kitty waves her hands in front of her face vehemently, "Stop right there Stacy! I'm tired of rumors about Peter and I."

I look around nervously to make sure Mary Jane is nowhere near us. Gwen just giggles and folds her hands under her chin, "So then what were you doing?"

I guess there's no harm in telling the truth, or at least most of it. "Kitty was helping me move."

Gwen wipes her face with a napkin before speaking again, "You moved? Why didn't you get movers or something? I would have helped if you had called me. Do you even have a cell phone?'

I shrug taking a sip of my milk. "I honestly didn't have too much stuff, Kitty just happened to be there so she offered to help, I really didn't need it, I only had like two bags of clothes." Not that Kitty helped carry anything anyway.

Now Gwen just looks confused, "But what about your folks?"

I try not to let my face cloud up, my parents have been dead for my entire life, I don't remember either of them, and yet the pain of their loss is still fresh in my mind. "They passed when I was little."

Gwen covers her mouth in shock, I notice Kitty puts her hand on my back, and it's comforting. "Oh my god Peter I'm so sorry I-"

"Gwen, really its okay." I shake off the sadness and manage a weak smile.

She smiles back and reaches across the table to squeeze my hand comfortingly. "So, who are you living with?"

I just gesture to my self, "Just me really. I'm fine on my own."

"Wait you have your own place? Peter that's kind of awesome. How is it?"

Kitty cuts in before I can even answer, "Holy crap it's like huge! It's got a chandelier, and a huge T.V. it's awesome!"

Gwen chuckles at Kitty's child like excitement. "So Peter, when do I get to see your 'awesome new place?' You did say you would make more time to hang out right?"

Why do I say things like that? "How about tomorrow? After school."

She smiles back, "Looking forward to it."

After school Katherine and I wave goodbye to Gwen and start walking towards the junkyard. "So Kitty, are you sure that your aunt and uncle are okay not knowing where you are? You kinda crashed at my place last night without calling them." She rolls her eyes and I just shrug, "I just don't want you to get in trouble because of me."

She looks at me with a tired expression before letting out a sigh. "Honestly I've been kind of avoiding going back. My cousin Fin, the one they love so much, he's in trouble with them." I raise an eyebrow because so far that all seems irrelevant. "Bonnie found a joint in his room, and started freaking out. Of course the little bastard started blaming me, saying that I left it there, like honestly if I did smoke why would I do it in his room. But anyway because apparently Finn can do no wrong I got in a huge argument with my aunt and ended up storming out."

I can't help but narrow my eyes. Maybe I need to talk to this Finn kid. "When was this?"

"Sunday, I told you they wouldn't care if I was gone."

"You could always stay at my place." That was spontaneous, I honestly have no idea where that came from, but it does make sense. "I've got like three extra rooms, it would be no problem."

Kitty stops walking for a second stunned. "You're serious?" I nod. "I mean I really appreciate it Peter but wouldn't it be like weird?"

Weird? What's weird about it, I swore to protect my friends I don't see how this doesn't count. "I don't think so. I told you that you could rely on me right? I don't make empty promises."

She looks flustered, "Well I mean, you have two bathrooms right?" I hold up three fingers. She doesn't say anything for a few moments thinking through some mental dilemma I don't understand before finally looking up at me. "Okay, let's do it!"

I start walking again and she falls into step next to me, "Great, that'll make our 'jobs' easier too."

"Um, Peter I really don't want to go back there alone. Do you think you can come with me when I go to get my stuff?"

Is that all she's worried about? As I answer we arrive at the junkyard, "Sure, I'm sure you'll need help carrying your stuff too. In fact we can go right after practice."

She smiles before looking confused, "Practice? Did you join a sports team or something?"

I hang my backpack on the mirror of an old car. "You told Fisk that you would help me on missions. I'd rather you stayed safe but now that he's expecting your help, it's kind of beyond my control."

She puffs out her chest confidently, "Afraid I'll show you up Spider?"

I can't help but roll my eyes; she's so childish at the worst moments. "I'm worried that you'll get hurt."

"Haha!" her laugh catches me off guard. "Peter, did you really forget your talking to miss bullet proof here? If anyone tries to hurt me they'll phase right through me." God she's missing the whole point. I guess she'll just have to learn the hard way. I kick out her ankle and she falls flat on her face. She spits out some dirt and glares at me from the ground. "What the hell was that for?"

I hold out my hand and she takes it. "What if we're against more than bullets? Have you seen the news lately? There are weird people out there, people like us. You've heard of Captain America, Iron Man, and we both know that the number of mutants is rising."

I move my hand to grab her wrist and throw Kitty over my shoulder; she manages to phase through the ground and comes back up looking very pissed. "Oh you wanna play like that tough guy?" She cracks her knuckles showing a not so friendly smile. "Then let's play."

[Two hours later]

Kitty and I both lean against the solitary brick wall in the scrapyard out of breath. My fist is bruised from when Kitty phased through my fist and I ended up punching the hood of a car, and her own fist is possibly sprained from when she dodged my attack and punched me in the back of the head. At least I hope it's sprained, she can hit hard.

I extend my less hurt hand, "Truce?"

She sighs and bumps her fist to mine. "Truce. I get your point, but can we not do that again?"

I laugh weakly, "Yeah that got out of hand pretty quickly."

"You think?"

"I only meant for us to practice our powers a bit, although you really should work on your reaction time. With your power there's no reason for you to ever get hit."

She sighs, looking up at the setting sun. "Okay I guess practice can't hurt, but no more beating the crap out of each other. Agreed?"

"Agreed." With some effort I push myself to my feet, and Kitty follows. "So to your place?"

She rubs her forehead in exasperation, "I completely forgot about that. Yeah let's go."

Katherine's house is a nice two-story place in a good neighborhood, when we get there the sun has set and the moon is just starting to make an appearance. Kitty knocks and I look at her confused, she does live here right?

She notices my look, "With how I left I think it's better if I knock, that way they won't think I'm here to steal their junk or whatever."

After a second a tall blond woman opens the door, she sees Katherine and immediately frowns. "Looks like the druggie is back, have a good fix? And who is this, your dealer? You better not be planning on taking him in my home."

Kitty meets her glare without flinching. "If you want to know about fixes go talk to your son. Anyway I'm not here to argue with you." She gestures to me "Peter is just here to help me get my stuff."

Her aunt looks surprised and gestures for us to come in, "I'll be damned if I believe your lies but if you plan on cleaning all your crap out of my house be my guest, let's just see how long this lasts before you come crawling back."

Katherine walks past her aunt up the stairs, before I follow her though I stop and look her aunt in the eye. I don't say a thing yet somehow she looks shaken; she closes the door and storms off to some other part of the house. Guess she saw something she didn't like.

I turn to go up the stairs; a door is open on the left with a sticker of a cat on it. I'm just gonna assume that's Kitty's. I walk in to see Kitty putting clothes into a bag, and digging stuff out from under her bed. "Oh hey Peter what took you so long?" She points to a pile of stuff in the corner. "Go ahead and put that stuff in a box and we can get the hell out of here."

It's a pretty average pile of stuff: hairdryer, combs, laptop, notebooks, ect. But no box, "Where can I find a box?"

"Er," she doesn't even look at me as she continues to fold clothes. "There should be some in the garage. Down the stairs first door past the front door."

I head down the stairs to the garage, as soon as I open the door a stack of boxes is easily recognizable however I'm not alone. A short man with a thick mustache wearing a bowling hat is in the garage going through a toolbox. He looks up at me surprised. "Who are you?"

I walk over to the flat pile of boxes and grab the top one as well as a roll of packing tape next to it. "I'm Peter, a friend of Katherine's, she sent me down here for a box. Are you her uncle, Jake?"

He pulls out a wrench and closes the toolbox, standing up. "A box? Don't tell me she was actually serious about moving out?" I just nod, really wanting to get out of here. "She's not moving in with you is she?"

My brow twitches a bit, what the hell does that mean? "I've got an extra room. Why do you even care? From how your wife talks about Katherine it doesn't seem like you two are fans."

Now Jake looks angry, "Listen here, I love Katherine, she was my brother's baby girl after all! We just don't need bad influences around our kid!"

God this is ridiculous, "Kitty told me what happened, you can't honestly believe that the drugs you found in your sons room are hers." He doesn't say anything, "You really don't do you? So what, you love your niece by letting your wife berate her and blame her for things you know she didn't do?" The guilty look on his face says enough. I can't help but be disgusted, my foster parents may have treated me badly but there was never any confusion, they never pretended to love me. Somehow this is worse. I look over my shoulder as I open the door that leads back into the house. "Katherine will be safe with me. As her uncle if you cared for ever even a little bit, you would make sure you and your wife, leave her alone." He nods and I walk back up to Kitty's room.

We leave only an hour after arriving; I'm carrying a duffel bag, and a box in each arm, while Kitty walks behind me dragging a suitcase. Its now well past dark with the moon high in the sky. We're maybe halfway there when I hear Kitty scream from behind me. I drop the boxes in my arm and whirl around to see a ski masked mugger with his arm around Katherine's throat, he's holding knife with his other arm pointed at me. My fists clench but even with my speed I'm don't think I'm fast enough to get to him before he could hurt her, only fast enough to make him regret it. The thief smirks at me, "Make a move tough guy! Do it and I drop her and kill you! Wallet on the ground!" I slowly reach towards my back pocket and toss my wallet in between us.

"Now let her go." I'll make sure it's the last thing he does.

His smile only gets creepier, "Not a chance, me and girlie here are going to have some fun."

Kitty starts struggling even more, she's panicking. Which is not good because I'll need her co-operation to get her out of this.

"Katherine calm down." She stops struggling and looks at me with teary eyes. "Stop crying, remember who you are. You aren't some damsel in distress. We trained for this."

It takes a second but she finally calms down. The would be rapist, looks at me annoyed, "Bastard it's always better when they struggle." If Kitty doesn't kill this guy I will. I see Katherine take a breath before phasing through the mugger's chest to stand behind him, "What the-" She kicks him between the legs and even I cringe as he goes down.

Katherine runs towards me and I give her a hug as she calms down, "Good job, you did great."

I let go of her and start walking towards the future dead man. "Peter don't!" Wait what? "I know that he's scum and deserves it, but you don't have to go there! Let's just leave. Please, I want to go home." How can she be so…good? I raise my fist and punch the thug once in the head before turning around. "Thank you Peter."

I shake my head, "He really deserves worse you know. I'm sure he'll get what's coming to him eventually. Right now it's more important to get you home." She wipes a tear from her eye and forces a smile; I can tell it's only for my benefit though.

[1 hour later]

As soon as we got back Kitty, just fell over into her new bed. I can't really blame her she had a tough night. I do know who to blame though, and I know where he is.

I swing from building to building the heads-up display in my helmet directing me to the spider tracker I placed on the thug. Spider trackers are nice little devices I made from my various radio shack ventures, they're hard to notice and emit a signal that I could probably pickup from anywhere in the city. I was lucky enough to be carrying one on me and placed it on the thug's mask when I punched him in the face.

The signal leads me to a rundown apartment building. I climb up the wall to where the signal is strongest, and turn on the infrared vision of my helmet and see just one person sitting in a chair. I head-butt the window and jump inside the small apartment. The thug turns from the T.V. and pulls a knife, "Who the hell are you!" His mask is off, I'm surprised that looks completely normal. You wouldn't be able to guess that he goes out a night mugging and raping people. Guess you can't trust anybody. "Hey wait a minute I recognize you! You're that Spider guy! Bet the cops will pay me big bucks for you." He starts walking towards me slowly with the knife. I slowly place both hands on the side of my mask and take it off showing my face. "Hey wait a minute you're the kid from earlier tonight!" He rubs his bruised face. "Maybe instead of giving you to the cops I'll just pay you back for earlier!"

He lunges at me with the knife but I easily side step and grab his arm by the wrist and elbow, I push up hard with my right arm and hear a sickening snap as I break his arm. "I hid my face from the cops, the media." He scrambles away form me on the ground clutching his broken arm. "I wear the mask so enemies don't recognize me." He hits the wall and I just keep walking to stand over him. "So why would I show my face to you?" He's silent; I can see the fear in his eyes. "Because you're the only one who isn't going to live to tell."

Bam Chapter 6! I may have skipped in my story update cycle but I honeslty wrote this in like two sittings.

Tell me what you think about it!

Thanks for reading!


	7. Why don't we be real?

"Wow is this really the building you live in?" Gwen says as the three of us walk through the doorway. I press the up button and Gwen sets her bag on the ground while we wait. "So how are you liking it so far?"

I shrug, and step into the elevator as it opens, "It's fine."

Kitty rolls her eyes, "Don't listen to Peter, it's awesome! He's kind of a kill joy."

Gwen giggles as the elevator closes, she's standing near the floor buttons, "Which floor?" Katherine reaches around Gwen to press the top button. Gwen just rolls her eyes, "Yeah I'm sure that you're living in the penthouse. Which flood do you actually live on?" She looks at me when she asks.

"That's it."

Gwen sighs and crosses her arms, "The joke isn't actually that funny, but if us going all the way to the top and then back down get's you two a laugh I guess there's not much I can do about it."

Katherine looks at me barely suppressing her laughter; I think we actually will get a laugh out of this.

The elevator stops at the top floor, Kitty and I walk out with Gwen trailing behind us. Kitty looks at me pleadingly, "Oh Peter, can I do it?" I give my usual shrug, and she takes out the spare key that I gave to her and opens the door. Katherine looks back at Gwen and breaks out laughing, even I can't help but laugh at her surprise.

Katherine and I are still laughing in the doorway while Gwen walks inside, "You guys were serious?!" Her face is still frozen in shock and I actually feel my eyes tear up from her expression, "I can't believe you live in the penthouse!" She looks at the two of us and crosses her arms looking annoyed as Kitty and I catch our breath. "How the hell did you afford this place?"

I hang my backpack on the hook by the door and throw myself on the couch. "Apparently, my aunt used to own it. It was supposed to go to my parents but as the last living relative, it's all mine."

Gwen hangs her bag next to mine and sits down on the armchair across from the couch. "It's sad that your aunt died but, this place is awesome. So when is your first party going to be?"

Kitty high fives Gwen and perches on the arm of her chair, "That's what I'm talking about!"

I snort, "How about never? I'm not exactly the partying type."

Gwen's eyes roll, "And why not? I'm sure like everyone would go with it in this place."

Sometimes I forget that Gwen is a normal person and not a social outcast. "I highly doubt it. Even if it were true I avoid most people in our school whenever possible. As far as I'm concerned you two are the only people that are even allowed up here."

She crosses her arms and let's out a humph, "Alright I get it. So what's up with all the boxes around here?" She motions to all of Katherine's unpacked stuff. "I thought you said you finished moving in?"

During the entire conversation Kitty has been leaning more and more to the point where she's now practically laying across Gwen's lap. "Oh that's my stuff."

Gwen looks at me shocked and I just point back at Kitty. "Katherine, why is your stuff in Peter's house?"

"Uh cause I live here too?"

Gwen blinks a few times blankly before answering, "Wha-?"

Kitty pokes Gwen in the stomach interrupting her question, "And another thing, I think you should stop calling me Katherine. It sounds so long and boring. Why couldn't I have like a cute name like Gwen?"

"It's actually Gwendolyn but back to wha-"

Another poke, "It's rude to interrupt me before I'm don't talking Gwen. So anyway you should call me Kitty ok?"

At this point Gwen just looks confused. "Uh, sure Kitty but-"

"Yeah just like that! Hey you want to see my room? Oh you can even let me unpack! God knows Peter would be useless, come on!" Kitty jumps out of the chair and drags Gwen up the stairs in less than two seconds.

I decide to use the rare silence to try and catch a nap when I hear an irritating buzzing noise. I sit up looking annoyed, I think anyone else could ignore it but with my enhanced hearing it is impossible to ignore. "How the hell do I have flies already?" I slowly walk around and track the sound to one of the many boxes in the room. Before I call Katherine down to tell her about it, I notice a label on the side, "This is… for me?" I open the box and right on the top I see a letter written in familiar font.

'_Dear, Mr. Parker,_

_I hope that the abode is to your liking. Within this box are several things that I believe you would benefit from owning, most importantly a cellular phone which already contains my number, the password is spider….'_

I set the letter aside for a second and grab the phone from the package. I enter in the password and see a singular text from a contact named, _'Employer' _– _Come tonight, I have another job for you, you may want to leave your accomplice._ I can't help the smile that spreads across my face; I was getting bored. Although it is curious that he suggests I leave Kitty. In the rest of the box was, a laptop, a tablet, and various chargers.

"Hey Peter?" I look up to see Gwen calling down to me from the second floor and quickly shove the letter into my pocket. "Kitty says there's a box down there labeled, 'More junk' can you bring it up?" I notice the box on the floor near the kitchen and easily pick it up and head up the stairs. Gwen notices the phone in my hand as I walk past her towards Katherine's room, "Wait is that your cell phone?"

I see Kitty peak her head around the corner, "Peter doesn't have a- you have a phone!" Katherine walks over to me angrily, "What the hell man I thought we were buds but you hide your cell phone from me? Imagine all the times I was bored and could have texted you!" She points an accusatory finger at Gwen, "Now that I think about it I don't have either of your numbers! This is unacceptable, it's not fair that I let you call me by my nickname but you won't even give me your numbers!"

Gwen moves Katherine's finger out of her face, "I would use 'make' instead of 'let' in that last part."

After finishing helping Kitty pack Gwen noticed the lack of food in our kitchen and invited the two of us to her place for dinner. Never one to turn down food Katherine immediately said yes, I excused myself saying that I really did need that nap. With them both gone I was clear to don my suit and head to Fisk's tower.

I take off my helmet as Fisk's guards let me through the door. Fisk is sitting on his couch a glass of wine in hand. "No spaghetti today?"

He chuckles and gestures to the other side of the couch. "Not tonight, I can get you a glass if you'd like."

It's hard not to breath a sigh of relief when I sit on the luxury couch, "No thanks. So what's the job so secretive that you want me to do it alone?"

"Peter, do you have any idea how I got to where I am today?" I shake my head no, "I won't bore you with the details but you should know that I am a self made man. I run this city and I got here alone. From a gang I started, a company I built." Fisk presses a button on the remote and a picture of a middle aged Italian looking man appears. "This Anthony Costa is nothing compared to me. A gangster with connections, with little wit, and no strength his only attributes are his bravado, and his family. A new player on the New York scene, I would normally overlook him except that he has ties to the Costa crime family. His presence in my city is an insult, I've contacted his relatives and they claim that he's not here under orders."

It's not too hard to see where this is going, "And you don't believe them?"

"Would you?" Probably not.

"So you want me to like scare him?"

"No I want to scare his family, I want him dead." I look at the picture again. One middle-aged gangster. Easy enough, after all with this suit I'm practically unstoppable.

"And if I do this you'll continue to provide for Katherine and I?" Fisk nods. "When and where can I find him?"

Wednesday. During class it's hard to pay attention while I'm thinking about the hit. I've killed before, but those were random thugs, I don't feel sorry for them it's just the way the world works. Yet this is different, those were random I didn't know their names I didn't care. But this guy, Anthony Costa, this is premeditated. But I need to do this, because if I don't… What happens if I don't? I confirmed that Fisk will continue his support if I keep doing jobs for him, but will he really just let me go if I fail? No, you don't get to where he is by leaving loose ends.

"Peter!" Kitty shaking me snaps me out of my thoughts. "Helooo in there! Class is over!"

"Huh? Oh sorry about that." I look around and realize that we're the last two students in the room, "Let's go get lunch." I pick up my bag and start walking to the cafeteria.

"So what were you thinking about? You looked all broody."

I just shrug, Katherine may be in this mess with me, but she shouldn't have to deal with my thoughts, I'm still just speculating and I certainly don't want her to know about Costa. "Nothing, how was Gwen's place?"

I hold open the cafeteria door as Katherine talks. "It was fun, we had girl time, nothing that would interest you." I thank her in my head for not sharing the details. "Her dad is fine though, if you care."

That was weird. "What's that about? Did I say something mean about him or something?" I don't remember doing so.

She rolls her eyes, "You do remember that only like half a week ago some costumed _creep_ broke into his office, people are saying it was a botched assassination."

"Botched? That's a big word for you, you've been studying?" She punches my arm and I can't help but to snicker at her frustration. "But even so, I would hardly be worried about an assassin that attacks when his target is gone."

Katherine crosses her arms. "But you're not Gwen." Ah so that's what this is about. "She's scared Peter, her and her mom are convinced that some super villain is after her dad. Don't you wish we could do something to make her less scared?"

I do a quick look around us as I grab my calzone to make sure no body is listening. I still whisper just in case. "Are you insane? That's the fastest way to wind up in handcuffs!"

She glares as she whispers back to me. "You don't know that, but if it was anyone else they would have been in handcuffs, don't you feel bad about what you're putting your _friend_ through!"

"I did what I had to." She looks appalled at my answer, "Don't forget, that that's the same job that got us the home we live in."

She looks down and mutters almost under her breath. If it wasn't for my enhanced senses I wouldn't even hear her. "I know, you're just doing what you have to but that doesn't mean that you need to become heartless." She looks back up at me. "Peter two days ago you almost killed that man." She doesn't need to know that I tracked him down and killed him later. "I just don't want you to ignore the impact your decisions have on others. I realize that you're going to have to do more stuff like that. Just please at least think about the repercussions."

I sigh, I guess I can see where she's coming from. "I get it, you're right I'll make sure to take consequences in account from now on." She looks at me skeptically, I notice Gwen walking towards us with her tray. "Gwen's gonna be here in a second, we'll talk about this later."

Gwen sets her tray down next to Katherine's, "What's going on you guys look so tense?"

"Lovers spat?" I almost jump out of my seat when I hear Mary Jane from next to me. I'm the Spider! How the hell did she sneak up on me? On the other side of the table, Katherine is smiling at Mary Jane while Gwen is glaring. Before I can say anything MJ puts her hands up jokingly, "that was a joke Peter, I know you two aren't a thing."

At this point she might just be a part of my life I can't avoid. So I just sigh, "Hi." I'm sure my face when I say it more accurately conveys my feelings of 'fuck off.'

She looks surprised, "Well look at you being civil for once, didn't know you had it in you."

She's clearly mocking me. Her presence makes me want to grate my teeth together. "Don't push it MJ."

"Don't worry Parker." She winks at me and I almost gag, "You'll learn to love me." She turns from me to look at Katherine. "So how are you Katherine? Peter getting on your nerves?"

She's not even being clever about looking for gossip. Kitty just smiles, "Not really, I mean he's a little stubborn but I'm used to it."

Weirdly Gwen grins at Mary Jane, "What about you MJ? How's your boyfriend?"

I didn't even know she had one, who would date someone as annoying as Mary Jane? MJ's smile melts off and she levels a glare at Gwen, "You know Harry and I broke up."

"Really?" Gwen fakes ignorance, "Must have slipped my mind."

Mary Jane looks about ready to pounce before she closes her eyes and takes a calming breath. When opens her eyes she's smiling at Gwen, "Oh don't worry about it I'm sure you've been too busy worried about your father's assassin lurking about."

I didn't completely believe Kitty when she said Gwen was scared but now looking at how her face changes from laughing at MJ's misfortune to fear and anger, I guess there is more she's not telling me. Maybe this has gone too far. "That's enough Mary."

She just snorts and responds while still smiling at Gwen. "Don't look at me Blondie here started it."

Gwen's gripping the table angrily, her lunch fairly untouched. "As if money bags leaving you is the same as someone trying to kill my dad!"

The bell rings and I thank god. Mary Jane gets up with her tray. "We'll settle this later."

"What's your problem with Gwen?"

As usual Mary Jane is sitting next to me in health. The teacher is showing another video, Mary Jane looks at me annoyed. "I finally get you to talk to me and you have to bring up Stacy, can't we talk about something else?"

Now it's my turn to be startled, she actually sounds pained by my question, it's probably the first time I hear her sound sincere. I feel strangely compelled to indulge her. "Fine, what do you want to do after school is over?" It's been something that I've been thinking about more since getting my powers.

"I'm not exactly sure. I think I want to be an actress, or maybe I'll start a band." Her annoyed face changes to look at me with a slight grin. "What do you think?"

As much as I dislike MJ she is definitely one of the prettiest girls at our school, she's definitely got the looks for an actress. "I can see you acting, you do it all the time."

She bats her eyes at me and I can't help but to roll mine. "You noticed?"

"Of course I noticed. I feel like this is the first time you're not being completely fake with me. It's refreshing."

Mary Jane rubs her chin contemplatively, "How about this, if you stop being such a dick to me I'll be more real with you deal?"

What could possibly go wrong? "Deal." And if I want I can always go back to hating her.

It's midnight when I crawl out my window with Katherine already asleep in her own room. Only about a minute after I leave I get the files I get a call on my cell phone, I already know it's Fisk. I land on a flagpole and take a second to connect my phone to my helmet. "Fisk."

"Hello Spider. On the hunt I see?"

I checked this helmet twice for bugs, and the cell phone four times, just how the hell is he tracking me? "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Ha, I've got eyes allover this city. It would appear that we're in luck tonight. The target has just left his safe house, if you hurry you can get him while he's on the road."

"On the road? How am I supposed to fight a car?"

"That would be your job to figure out Spider, Your helmet is already preloaded with a tracking feature as I'm sure you know. One of my men has just tagged the target vehicle a black SUV Costa is sitting in the center back seat. Don't fail me."

I hang up and start swinging. I activate the tracking feature and swing towards my target, it may be on the other side of the city but with my abilities he's only a few swings away.

When the black SUV comes into view I swing in wide arcs zigzagging over the busy street. I drop onto the roof with a 'thud' One thug sticks his head out of the back right window, I grab him by the back of his suit and he quickly finds himself skidding on the street at sixty miles an hour. I swiftly hop into his seat next to a startled Anthony Costa "Mind if I drop in?" Immediately his goon in the passenger seat and on the other side of Costa have guns trained on me with their fingers on the trigger. "Tough crowd."

_**And that's chapter seven! What did you think? Not a lot of action I know but I wanted to focus more on the character relationships between Peter Katherine and Gwen a more, also introducing Mary Jane as more of a character than just a random antagonist. Next chapter Shadow cat makes her debut!**_


	8. Puppet strings

"Awkward…" Both Costa and his men are too shocked to move. Not surprising as I just pulled his buddy out of the car and jumped in. I casually put my arm over Anthony's shoulder as if we're just two buddies hanging out, "You guys might want to put your guns down, unless you're absolutely positive you won't hit your boss here."

They look to Costa questioningly, "Do what he says, I wouldn't trust you mooks to hit the broad side of a barn. Or not hit it in this case." Looking disgruntled they shelve the guns. Costa takes a second to slick his hair back, seemingly trying to regain his composure. "You're the one who attacked the police station, the Widow or something?"

I strengthen my grip on his neck and pull his head closer, "Aw come on man, it's the Spider. I've only been all over the news." Keep my voice light, attitude playful; no point in showing them how nervous I am.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." This guy has some serious balls to brush me off like that. "So what can I do for you Mr. 'The Spider.'"

This next part is going to be fun. "Well that's easy, just hold on for a bit."

"Hold on?" Before he or his men can react I kick open the door to still moving car and leap out over traffic with a screaming Costa in tow. Costa grips my arm for life as I use my web shooters to swing up over the streets and on top of a near-by building. Costa falls to his knees with a thud as I land gracefully behind him. His face is pale as he looks at me before turning and vomiting off the side of the building. When he turns back to me his face is pale. "Please just tell me what this is about! I didn't do nothing to you I swear!"

God is he going to beg? This is pathetic. "Listen, Anthony. I think we both know what's going on here. You didn't do anything to me, I've got nothing against you personally."

He breathes a sigh of relief before reaching in his jacket and pulling out a wad of cash. "A job then right? Whatever they're paying I'll double it! Hell if you bring me the one who called this hit I'll quadruple it I swear, I'm a man of my word!"

The begging is really getting on my nerves. I take the wad of cash and throw it on the ground. "So am I." He starts scrambling backwards until he's perched near the edge of the building. He glances back perhaps hoping to survive a jump. Then he realizes that we're about twelve stories up, with only the cold concrete below. I grab him by the throat and hoist him up above the street. He goes into full on panic, sweat racing down his face, his arms clawing at mine, kicking and screaming. It's so pathetic, so pitiful.

I know what happens if I don't do this, Fisk will be furious, he'll lash out at me, and probably at Kitty, but still I've never killed anyone that didn't try and hurt me or my friends first. I don't have a choice.

I almost jump when a loud bang rings through the night, out of reflex I yank Costa back over the edge and crouch down. That was louder than any gunshot I've ever heard! I scan the roof tops across the street, activate the zoom and night vision features on my helmet. Over two hundred yards away I'm able to make out a figure crouched on a building holding what looks like a sniper rifle looking in my direction. An assassin? Was that shot for me? I give my self a once over making sure that I wasn't hit and in shock or something. While I'm completely unscathed in my check I happen to see a pool of red building up behind me and see Costa motionless. I cautiously walk up to him and see that the entire area where his left eye was is now just leaking crimson.

I suppose somebody just did my job for me, it would be rude to not say thanks. I turn and see the figure already packing up, but I'm already on the move. I don't swing directly at them, I go around hoping that my new 'friend' here doesn't see me coming. Just as I'm about to land on his building my danger sense goes off and I yank hard on my web just barely traveling over the blast from some explosion. I'm thrown off balance as a bullet bounces off of my helmet, it throws my neck back and I land on the rooftop in an ungraceful heap. My ears are ringing, even with this vibranium helmet it still hurts to get shot. When I look up it's into the barrel of a gun, and holding the gun is a man in his mid thirties with an angry look on his face. He looks armed to the teeth with a black trench coat surrounding the ominous white skull on his t shirt.

There's no way I'm getting taken out by an old man. I kick off the ground into a handstand kicking his gun in the process. I use my arms to jump, flip into the air and gracefully twist my body to dodge his second shot. I'll be damned If I get shot twice! I twist my body to kick at my attackers head only for him to dodge at the last second. I land in a low crouch both web shooters at the ready as my new friend's pulls a second gun from underneath his coat. "You're pretty quick for an old man."

He scoffs but the frown never leaves his face. "And you're not too bad for a kid." His voice is gruff like he'd spent all night smoking, and from his accent he sounds like a New Yorker, although it doesn't sound too heavy. "You're not one of Costa's guys are you?"

I wish he could see me rolling my eyes. "Oh yeah, I totally work for him, he likes for his employees to dangle him ten stories in the air."

He stands up a little straighter, and moves his hand from what I assume is a holster underneath his jacket, to instead place it in one of his many pockets. "Then I have no beef with you."

Maybe he doesn't, "You shot at me!"

He shrugs and pulls a cigarette from his jacket. "Don't feel special kid, I shoot at a lot of people."

I stand up, straight as well, although still cautiously with web shooter aimed at him. "Who just shoots at people, what are you a mercenary?" He certainly has the gear for it.

He pulls a lighter from his other pocket and cups his hand over his cigarette before taking a long drag. "More like an agent of justice." Oh great he's crazy. There's a crazy man who happens to be armed to the teeth not five feet away from me, great. "They call me the Punisher. What about you kid? You're no assassin. I watched you for almost a full minute before I took my shot, you weren't going to kill him. "

"I was before you shot him!" Seriously, crazy, stupid, and armed that's the lottery of terrible traits to be found in a random stranger.

"If you were going to kill him you would have done it already, clearly some one else is pulling your strings. Who?"

Pulling my strings? I work for the Kingpin, I get that, but the idea that I'm a puppet being led around for someone's amusement. That's something else entirely. "I am no ones puppet."

He shrugs, "Regardless, any enemy of the Costa family is a friend of mine." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black business card. "This is a dark road you're walking down kid. In a world like ours you make allies where you can." He holds the card out to me expectantly. I use my web shooter to yank it from his hands, and he rolls his eyes at me taking another long drag from his cigarette. "Call it or don't, I couldn't care less. I'm planning on being in town for the next couple of weeks, after that don't count on me answering."

He turns his back to me and continues disassembling his sniper rifle. I just don't get this guy. "Why give me this? What do you stand to gain from helping me?" No matter how I see it this doesn't make sense, with this number I might even be able to find him, figure out who he is. You don't just give your number to everyone. "I haven't given you any reason to trust me."

He chuckles as he closes his sniper case and stands up. "As long as I can breath I can fight. It's not that I trust you kid. I'm just not afraid of you." I can feel myself getting annoyed as he begins to walk to the fire escape. "Maybe you can fight me, maybe you'll win. But if you can't get your self to kill scum like Costa, you sure has hell can't kill me."

I consider going after him, showing him that he's wrong, but I have this sinking feeling in my stomach that he's right. Regardless I have a job to finish. I connect my phone to the helmet and redial Fisk. "It's done."

I groggily lift my head from my desk in English. As some bothersome individual speaks it at me.

"You ok buddy? You look like crap."

Surprisingly I'm looking into the face of Harry Osborne, I didn't even know he was in this class, and I still don't care. "Late night."

His face sours for a moment. "Were you at MJ's party? I heard it was 'amazing'." He says with no small amount of disdain.

I raise an eyebrow at that, "I wouldn't go if I was held at gun point." I was but that had nothing to do with it. "I take it you weren't there either?"

He shakes his head slowly, "It would be awkward after our breakup." Silence, crushing awkward silence. Luckily I'm saved by the teacher walking in.

Halfway through P.E. I'm resting on a bench after my laps drinking some water when the coach walks up to me. As is usual for me now, I'm finished far before the rest of the class without even breaking a sweat. "Peter I've noticed that you've made some significant improvements since the start of the season." Great where is he going with this, I hope it's not a drug test. I almost chuckle at the thought that I might not even test as human. "Have you ever considered joining the track team?"

Oh this is much easier to deal with. "Not interested."

I turn back to my water hoping that he gets the message and leaves.

He doesn't. "Peter, I don't know what work out you've been doing but you are fast." I roll my eyes at that, "We're talking scholarship fast, maybe even a full ride. But no one is going to offer it if your not willing to show them."

"I said that I'm not interested."

"But Peter-" Ok now I'm getting annoyed.

I stand up from my bench, to look at my coach eye to eye. "Drop it." Our gazes meet for a scant few seconds before he backs down, like Gwen's aunt when I met her. I

can't help but to grin.

When I get to the cafeteria, it's to the welcoming smell of meatball subs. Possibly the most edible thing they serve here. Katherine is behind me scrolling through her phone. We had just sat down with Kitty across from me when she holds her phone out to me.

Her face looks sullen. "Peter have you seen this?" On her phone is a video taken from some bank security camera that got leaked. People are walking around normally when suddenly the room fills with smoke. Twenty seconds later when the smoke clears all the civilians are on the ground while several figures enter the frame. There are only a few of them, five in total. Two stick out though: the first because he's crouched on all four's and even through the terrible quality of the camera his skin looks sickly. The second because he floats above the rest almost regally. He wears a red a purple outfit with some sort of armored helm. All in all a very imposing figure. He's speaking but the video has no sound but I can guess from the way that the people on the ground squirm that he's not saying anything reassuring. He then raises an arm and the camera begins to shake. The back wall of the bank explodes causing even more smoke to cover the screen. When it clears a giant metal container, what I assume to be the banks vault, is floating off screen. The mysterious figures gone and many of the civilians buried in rubble. "This was two days ago in Nevada."

I hear a chair scraping the ground and look up to see Gwen sit down next to Katherine. "Are you guys talking about the mutant attack?"

Mutants, that explains why Kitty is so anxious. "Were they all mutants? This is the first I've heard of it." Not surprising seeing as my schedule hasn't left much time for searching the net.

Gwen nods opening her lunch box. How she can eat a packed lunch on meatball sub day is beyond me. "Eight people died in the attack. There was no sound on the video but one person later that day recited everything that they said." Gwen pulls out her phone and scrolls for a second before pulling up a news report I assume. "_When the smoke cleared I looked up to see a man floating above us, all dressed in purple. He said: 'If there are any mutants among you, rise up! We are of the same breed.' A moment of silence. 'I am Magneto, master of magnetism, and we are the Brotherhood of mutants! Heed my words humans; your time is coming to an end. It is time for you to make way for your betters behold my power!' There was a cloud of dust as he raised his arm and I nearly shit myself when the entire bank vault burst from the wall. I couldn't see him but I could still hear his voice through the smoke screen. 'I tried to do things the nice way I offered you my hand once. Now you will know only fear.'" _

Something about that message and his words bother me. "Why did they steal the money? From that account it sounds like they were trying to send a message not rob a place. Also why some random Nebraskan bank?"

Gwen shrugs, "Who knows what those psychos are thinking, it's scary to think that there are people out in the world with so much power. From the other accounts underneath the strange clothes they looked normal too. To think that mutants could be anywhere. It's frightening."

I see Kitty stiffen out of the corner of my eye and look down at her sandwich. "I mean they're not all bad right?" I may not have liked Bobby, but I can't imagine him doing terrible things like that, like me. "The Fantastic four seem to be good guys." They were in the news at least once a week for some, I'm sure, exaggerated heroics.

"I'm more of an Iron man fan myself." I almost jump as Mary Jane speaks from the seat beside mine. How the hell does she manage to do that?

For once Gwen doesn't instantly snap at Mary Jane. "The number of people with superpowers is increasing exponentially. Most are isolated, like Captain America or in small groups like the Fantastic four. This brotherhood is scary because they're all mutants, and there's evidence that their numbers will only grow if they were to all unite Magneto's threats alluding to humanities extinction might not be far off."

"What about the X-men?" Our eyes turn to Katherine as she speaks for the first time since Gwen sat down. "There hasn't been much about them but I've been following forums about them. Apparently they're a group of Mutants dedicated to doing good."

That sounds a lot like what Bobby was trying to recruit us for. Mary Jane raises an eyebrow, "Why haven't we seen them yet if they're out there? Shouldn't they be fighting the Brotherhood or something?"

Katherine answers shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "They are, but some people say that they're super covert, like they have this stealth plane that they drop out of. There have been sightings of them all over the U.S. and even a few in the E.U. Just no pictures yet."

Closing her now emptied lunch box, Gwen looks at Kitty skeptically. "I hate to agree with Watson," From the look on her face she really does, "But if this group does exist and they really want to help why would they be being so secretive? Wouldn't they want to assure people that they were helping?"

Kitty looks from Gwen to Mary Jane before finally settling on me with a pleading look in her eyes. Why am I being drawn into this? But with a sigh I speak anyway. "Maybe they're too scared to show themselves." Kitty gives me a pointed look. Another sigh, "What I mean is that with all the anti mutant sentiment from this Brotherhood they might be worried that people will take their aggression out on them." Katherine mouths a thank you to me and I roll my eyes, I honestly don't know why she cares so much.

"Explain to my why I'm doing this again?" I ask as I pretend to struggle with the weight of this drum set.

After school just as Katherine and I were about to head home, Mary Jane stopped me and asked for some help moving something. Seeing as we had decided that being friendly is better that openly antagonistic as I was before I groaned and sent Kitty on ahead.

Of course Mary Jane answers me without a second delay "Because apparently they needed it for a physics demonstration and forgot to put it back, and I have band practice in ten minutes."

"Band Practice? I thought you wanted to be an actress or something?"

She just shrugs next to me, holding cymbals while I have every drum in the set stacked in my arms. "I have hobbies, don't you?"

Considering that my hobbies entail swinging around at night bashing heads in and breaking into the police office once. "Not really."

"Shame." She holds open the music room door for me. "If you're looking for something to do we could use a bassist."

I set the set down on the ground next to the other instruments. "I think I'm good. Need anything else while I'm here?" I really, really want her to say no.

She gives a little wave as she starts to stand up the drums. "I got it from here." She flashes me one of her sincere smiles. "I'm good. Thanks Tiger."

I almost stick around to ask her shy she chooses to call me by that nickname but decide that it's not worth the chance of being talked into some other menial task.

I took so much self control to take the bus home rather than throw on my web shooters and swing through the streets. The real reason that I didn't is because there's no way I could fit my helmet in my backpack and I'd rather not swing around Manhattan unmasked.

So it was with great relief when I finally arrived at the top floor of my building and unlocked the door.

When I walk in I immediately notice an opened box on the floor. Odd seeing as Katherine finished her unpacking just the other day. I walk over to it and see that it's empty except for a small piece of paper. Just as I reach down to grab it I hear a voice by my ear, "Boo!"

Immediately I jump from the ground onto the nearby wall eyes searching for the hidden intruder, heart going a thousand beats a second. Where are they? My eyes scan the room, seeing no one but myself. I would think I was loosing it if the voice wasn't so clear, no way I imagined it. Maybe my ears then, I close my eyes and still my breathing listening. I hear something, focusing harder I hear… giggling? Familiar giggling. "Katherine?"

It sounds like it's coming from the couch. The giggling turns to full on laughter and I open my eyes to see that the couch is indented as if some one was laying down. I focus on the area and am able to make out a figure, that's not quite invisible. Easy to overlook at first it's almost as if I'm looking through clear water. I reach a tentative finger out and poke to feel cool leather. The form shimmers and reveals a figure dressed entirely in black with a large hood over the head and a mask covering the nose and mouth. The giggling stops and the figure pulls the hood and face mask down to show a grinning Katherine. "You found me."

I release the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and take a seat on the couch next to her head. "It wasn't easy though." I take another look at her suit and notice the seamless craftsmanship, it looks tailor made for her. "Fisk?"

She nods, "Yup, It's like super cool!" It came with this long instruction manual though, I was going through it but when I read that it had active camouflage.."

"You had to try it out on me." Her grin is all the answer I need. I feel the hood and frown. "Doesn't feel bullet proof. No helmet?"

She shakes her head, "I think the idea is that I don't get shot. Besides," I'm suddenly filled with the same cold feeling as usual as Kitty phases through me to sit on my other side. "I'm practically bullet proof anyway. You worry too much."

I'm about to retort that she worries too little when suddenly the television clicks on and I'm surprised to see Fisk's face appear on screen looking smug. It takes a second before he speaks, "I trust you're enjoying the suit Ms. Pryde?"

"Wow, I didn't realize that the T.V. was like a computer! Thank you for the suit Mr. Fisk, it's awesome!" Katherine is looking at the screen amazed while I'm much less impressed. In fact I'm down right pissed off. He's spying on us. I searched this place up and down for camera's and found none. The thought that despite my best efforts he's been watching us at his leisure is unsettling.

My eyes narrow at the screen. "I assume you have a job for us Mr. Fisk."

If he's offended by my rudeness he doesn't show it. "That is correct Mr. Parker. You two will meet me here at midnight tonight. It is time to put your skills to the test."

"What will we be doing?" I don't see any reason to meet him if he can tell us now.

His laugh does nothing to alleviate my annoyance. "Ha, you'll understand when you get here Spider, I have a few other associates I would like for you to meet. Their assistance will be necessary for the coming operation. I shall see you both tonight."

The screen cuts off right as he finishes. Nothing he said was a suggestion, or advice, or even an offer. They were orders. Tonight Katherine and I are going to Fisk tower to meet with unknown people to do an unknown job. The business card in my back pocket returns to my mind. I'm starting to realize that I might not be as in control of the situation as I'd like to believe. I don't take well to being strung around like a puppet.

_**I'm sorry, I though for sure that when summer started I was gonna be turning out chapters left and right. Then summer started and I did nothing but play video games. Apparently writing fan fiction is just my way of not paying attention in school. So with no classes to ignore I did other things. Not that I don't find it fun, I just find other games more fun. **_

_**Good news though, I'm back in school and I have a 3 hour astronomy class that I am so ready to ignore. So I guess my season of Fanfiction is starting again! **_

_**Tell me what you think about the chapter! Any feed back is appreciated!**_


	9. Testing my Patience

Wilson Fisk's voice booms across his penthouse, "I'm glad you could all make it." I roll my eyes behind my helmet. Kitty stands stiffly next to me in her new costume as we listen to Fisk talk. In addition to Katherine, King Pin, and I, there are two other people in the room. The first is a man who is easily taller than Fisk with an absurd amount of musculature; he wears a grey skintight costume in the likeness of a Rhino with a huge horn on his head. Standing next to him is a slightly smaller man still with huge muscles, wearing normal clothes, just a black and green striped shirt and a pair of pants. Fisk left out a small platter of food that the Rhino man is currently tearing through, the other man is sitting in an armchair facing the desk that Fisk is addressing us from. Other than Fisk no one has said a word. "I've got a job for the four of you. I have a feeling that you'll form a powerful team with your talents combined, especially with my coordination." Like a puppet master behind the screen but just what is Fisk after? "But first I believe introductions are in order."

Fisk gestures to the striped shirt man sitting on the couch. The man shifts in his chair so that he can see the rest of us, "Hey, name's Flint, but people have been calling me Sandman." To punctuate his words his fist seems to turn into sand and grow to twice it's size before it shrinks back down, interesting.

Being the next closest the Rhino man takes a second to clear his throat of the chicken wing I just saw him inhale. He nods towards the group, "Alex. Call me Rhino." Before going back to eating, by now he's nearly emptied the entire snack carousel.

I shift from leaning on the wall to standing up straight, I may not be as big as these guys but I need to show that I'm not also a coward. "I'm the Spider." My voice comes out confident and calm. Which is good considering that I'm sweating buckets. There's a pause like they're waiting for me to say my name, which is moronic. Honestly we're all criminals, the fact that Rhino and Sandman gave their names speaks volumes of their intelligence. I guess they could always be fake names but from what I see of Rhino I highly doubt it.

The silence is cleared when Katherine speaks up next to me. "Um hi." She gives a small wave. "Uh, you can call me Shadow Cat." Shadow cat? I like it, actually I'm a little jealous that she thought of such a cool name while I'm stuck with the Spider.

Finally done with his meal I notice the Rhino turning his full attention to the group. "You got a team now, so what's this job boss?" He's got a slight accent. Some sort of eastern European?

Fisk takes a sip of his wine, the bottle is next to him, Petrus, Pomerol, France, 1978. That's a two thousand dollar bottle, another show of power on his part. A way to show us that despite all the superpower in this room he's the one in charge. It's downright infuriating. "I said that you **will** become a powerful team. All I see in front of me is a group of super powered individuals. The actual job I need done is delicate, and we'll likely only get one shot. So before that we're going to undertake some teambuilding exercises."

"I'm not here to play around Kingpin!" It's Sandman who has the outburst. He stands from his chair, "You said that this was a job, I'm not going to mess around with games."

He stops speaking as Fisk raises a hand. "Calm yourself, Mr. Flint. Do not forget to whom you speak." There's a hard silence for a few seconds before Sandman sits back down. "As I was saying, you can think of these exercises as smaller jobs, each with it's own pay, and you will do them until I believe that you are ready for the mission. Any objections?"

The way he says it makes it obvious that objecting is not an option. I just want to get this over with. "So what's our first 'team building exercise'?" With how I say it I'm sure that Fisk can practically see my eyes rolling.

Fisk presses a button on a remote and the same screen that he showed me the police building schematic springs to life. This time on it is a high-end jewelry store in Manhattan. "We're going to start off simple. A simple robbery; you will fill several bag of jewels," he gestures to the counter where there are several bags, "and deliver them.." The screen pans west and zooms in on an area underneath a bridge nearby. "Here, although feel free to take some small baubles for yourselves at your own risk. Any questions?"

I'm about to question the timeframe of the assignment when Kitty beats me to it. "When is the due date for this, uh, job?"

As if amused Fisk takes a second and looks at his wristwatch, "How about in the next four hours. I'd get a move on if I were you."

To say I'm annoyed would be an understatement. This is asinine and Fisk's attitude is at best flippant. He's toying with us, moving us around as if this were a chess board, and the worst part? It's all for fun, he doesn't need jewelry or any more money, but of course I keep my thoughts to myself as we leave the room and our strange group rides the express elevator down to the loading bay I first entered this building through.

I hear talking and realize that Rhino and Sandman have been exchanging stories while I fumed in anger. "When the fuzz came I hid the money on the roof, turned into sand, and just drifted away with the wind."

Rhino answers back with enthusiasm, "Ha! Dumb cops, why did you not just go through them instead? Much more fun."

Flint shrugs and looks to me, "What about you Spider any close scrapes?"

I'd rather not indulge these idiots but seeing as I'm going to be forced to work with them it's better not to isolate myself so early. "Back when I first got my powers I would go around fighting thugs and stealing their haul. It worked out pretty well until Fisk got to me." They both get a chuckle out of that. Katherine doesn't make a sound and with that hood down I can't tell what she's thinking either. The elevator reaches the ground and we all walk out.

"What about you girl? I've even never heard of you."

Katherine freezes for a second at the accusatory tone of his voice before exhaling and walking confidently forward. "That's because I've never been caught." Technically not a lie, I like it.

She stalks forward ahead of the group and It unnerves me to see how our other two 'teammates' eyes follow her. I speak up if only to get their attention "So what's the plan?"

Rhino looks away from Katherine and at me confused. "Who needs a plan? This is just a jewelry store, easy compared to the bank I robbed last week."

From where we are we're only about a twenty-minute walk to the store, or a five-minute web swing. I could easily grab Kitty and get in and out before either of those idiots get there.

Shadow Cat speaks us before I have a chance to just leave, "I'm guessing that you're a big strong guy right?" Rhino nods his head with a goofy expression on his face. "And Sandman you look pretty tough too am I wrong?"

He smirks, "You know it toots." I think I want to gag.

Katherine turns her attention to me, "I saw you on the news Spider and you seem like the stealthy type." I don't know what she's going for so I just shrug and follow along. I trust her. She turns back to the other two, "So since you guys are sooo strong you can cause a distraction while Spider and I sneak in. Good plan right?" Rhino looks like he's about object when Katherine cuts him off. "I know that you probably can just bust in the front entrance cause you're so tough, but I think that you're even tough enough to take any cops that show up and get them off our trail right?" He smiles and nods dumbly. Who knew Katherine could be so manipulative. "Spider and I will fill all the bags and meet you at the drop off location."

It's a good plan. I would have had Katherine and I do everything while those two buffoons stand clear but I'll follow her lead. If she wants to be in charge of this team I'm fine with second in command. It puts me in a better position to watch her back. "Exactly what type of distraction did you have in mind?" Sandman smiles as he voices his question, cracking the knuckles on his fist.

I take a moment before putting in my two cents. "There's a bank about two blocks from the target location."

If possible his smile grows. I check the internal clock in my helmet's display, 12:35. "Can you two get into position by 12:50?" They both nod. "Then that's when we begin. When we hear sirens we'll start our part." Sandman nods and turns into fine grains of sand and starts floating in the general direction of the bank. I notice Rhino heading in the wrong direction. "Where are you going?"

He doesn't turn around as he walks away but I can hear his voice. "That bank your talkin bout is on the end of Mercer street. I'm gonna get a running start."

With the Rhino costume and the horn on his head it's not hard to imagine his plan. I'm glad that Katherine stepped in when she did. I hold my hand out to her. "Ready to go leader?" I say with no small amount of sarcasm.

She bat's my arm away and walks around to behind me and jumps on my back. "Shut up. I didn't see you doing anything about it, isn't it you who said we should avoid cops?" I shrug and she flicks the back of my helmet. "Shut up and swing."

[12:46]

Katherine and I are both crouched on the roof of the jewelry store when we hear police sirens heading in the direction of the bank. Seriously can these idiots not keep time? "They're early." Katherine seems to have similar thoughts as I hear her complain next to me.

I shrug, "Either way is seems that that's our queue." With a nod she grabs my shoulder and I'm overtaken by the same strange cold sensation as she fazes us through the roof.

When we land it's in near darkness. With my natural spider agility I touch down with barely a sound on the linoleum, Katherine takes advantage of her powers by fazing through the ground and then rising up to the floor to avoid making a sound. After standing still for a second to be sure that no one is coming we proceed with the job. I start filling my bag with all the display pieces While Katherine uses her powers to grab the locked away jewelry in just a few minutes we meet half our quota. When out of the corner of my eye I see a necklace fall through Katherine's hand onto the floor. **Clang**. We both freeze, luckily it's seems that we're still alone. Since we're still in the clea- "Did you hear that?" I can just barely make out a female voice coming from what must be the back office of the floor.

Katherine looks to me and I wave my hand in front of my face. She get's the message: Disappear, pressing a button on her sleeve her form shimmers as the light bends around her and she disappears from sight. I follow her example and jump up onto the ceiling sticking to it with all fours. I hear another voice come from the room, this one male. "Fine, fine, I'll go check it out." Damn it we still have a job to do. I see the necklace pick itself back up and find it's way to our haul. The door in the back opens and the lights flick on. A man with cleanly styled blond hair walks out wearing nothing but a pair of blue pants. Something seems familiar about him, with his looks he could probably be an actor. Now what the hell is he doing here? "See there's no one here every thing is-" he suddenly stops taking in the half emptied store.

I see the woman peek her head out of the door, from what I can tell she's also not wearing much. That explains it. "Is everything alright?"

He turns back to her, and I notice that when he does a set of rings disappears from the display case. "Stay back Sharon! Someone was here." With a squeak the woman disappears behind the door and closes it and Johnny turns back around. Unfortunately he sees the nearly full bags of jewelry . "Someone is still here." He starts stalking toward them, towards Katherine.

I drop down from the ceiling purposely making noise as I land. "Caught me red handed pretty boy."

He whips around quickly to face me. I expect him to freak out, to back pedal, to run for the phone to call the cops; after all popular rumor is that the Spider is an assassin not a jewel thief. I almost groan as I realize that now this is going to be apart of my reputation. However instead of reacting like a scared civilian he smiles. "Decide to face me like a man huh? Brave."

Behind him I see Kitty unloading more and more jewelry. If I can just keep this guy talking for another minute or so, she'll probably grab the stuff and faze out, which is good because I'm not exactly eager to beat some one up in front of her. She thinks poorly of me already. I cross my arms at this guy's attitude. "Big talk for a man whose half dressed. Tell you what why don't you go back to your girlfriend, get dressed, and when you come back I'll be out of your hair?"

He actually laughs. "You know what I like you. Not often you find a villain with a sense of humor. How about I cut you a deal? Take off the helmet and come quietly and I'll put in a good word for you."

The bag behind him is nearly full. Just a little bit longer and we're out of here. The more I look at this guy the more I feel like I recognize him, I don't keep up with celebrity gossip or any of that other crap. So for me to actually feel like I recognize him is pretty odd, he must be a big name. "Now that is a good deal. Just give me a second." I raise my hand to either side of my helmet before snapping my fingers. "Damn you know what? I just forgot that my mom made me promise not to show anybody. What a shame. Although, she didn't say anything about beating up pretty blond boys." I notice the bags start moving towards the door and crack my knuckles in anticipation.

The man chuckles again. "You really don't know who I am do you?"

The bags and I assume Katherine disappear through the wall. I scoff, "Your name doesn't matter, all the money in the world isn't going to protect you."

His smile lessens a bit, "and I was having such fun talking too." He turns his head sharply cracking his neck, "My name is Johnny storm." My eyes go wide behind the helmet. I remember where I've seen him before on news sites and all over the television. "Last chance to back out." From his eyes I can tell he wants nothing more than for me to turn that offer down. I don't disappoint. I crouch down in a comfortable stance my web shooters aimed at him. "Didn't think so. FLAME ON!"


	10. The end of an era

Oh boy. The good-looking witness just so happened to be Johnny Storm, **The** human torch; I have the worst luck.

Immediately after yelling 'Flame On!' his entire body bursts into flames and he starts hovering about a foot off the ground. Even through the fire I can still see his cocky smirk. "Reconsidering my generous surrender offer, bug?"

He wants to fight, maybe I would have indulged him if he was a normal but I really don't have time for this. Rhino and Sandman are on a rampage while Katherine goes to make the drop on her own. I shoot my webs at mannequins to his left and right and with a flick of my wrist they go flying towards Torch. I see him raise his arms to either side the flames on both of his hands glowing in intensity. While he's distracted I shoot at the display case behind him with both webs and pull, it's a lot lighter than I thought; it too goes flying towards him. That should slow him down.

Leading with my helmet I jump through the window and shoot my webs at the nearest building to gain some distance. I can hear Johnny behind me, "You think those are enough to-" I assume that's when the display case hits him. I can't help but smirk as I swing away. That was a close one, a drawn out fight with the human torch wouldn't be good; I land on a nearby building and rub a tender spot on my side. I'm honestly still a little banged up from the fight with that gun-carrying psycho from the other day. Why do I keep running into these people? "Is that really the best you can do?" Goddamn it. I don't need to turn around to see the glow of the human torch in the night. My danger sense goes off and I roll forward just in time to dodge a ball of fire that passes right overhead. I continue my run and dive off the side of the building. "Ah ah, you're not getting away from me!"

Can't this guy just back off! I'm sure to any bystanders looking to the sky I make it look good but dodging fireballs while trying to swing is not easy. "Give it a rest man!" I'm forced to arch my back to dodge another close call, I think his aim is getting better. "Don't you have a lady friend to get back to?"

I hear him laugh behind me. "Business before pleasure!" He puts his arms together and sends a huge ball of flame at me, I'm forced to abandon my current web and hook onto a lower building to yank myself out of the way.

This isn't going to work. He's just too fast for me to outrun. I flip around to face him for the first time since this chase began, and shoot webs on buildings to either side of him. Fine then, you want some? Come and get it! I yank on the webs the tension launches me forward like a slingshot towards the Human Torch. I extend my feet out to catch him with a double kick to the gut. But he quickly ascends dodging me. I can hear his laughter. "Is that all you got Spider?"

I grit my teeth as I flip around in the air, I'm trying not to let his flippant attitude get the best of me, but I want to knock that smile off of his face so bad. "Not even close match stick!" But I'm starting to realize that this location isn't to my favor. "Catch me if you can!" I turn and start swinging away. There's no way I can beat him in an open area like this, his aerial maneuverability is too much better than my own.

I turn a sharp corner but still feel the heat as a lance of fire flies in the space where I used to be, his aim is definitely getting better. I turn the corner and immediately grab the building next to me to stop my motion. Johnny is floating right in front of me. "Are we really back to running away? If you're not going to be more fun I might as well just end this." Holy crap how did he get there? Just how fast is this guy? "I bet right now you're thinking: Man this human torch guy is fast, how am I ever going to outrun him? Bad news pal you aren't." Unfortunately I'm begging to think he's just toying with me. I strike out with my fist and catch him in the jaw while he prepares to monologue more. This suit is fire resistant and heavily padded, I still almost cry out in pain when the punch lands, I turn to swing, I know I can't outrun him I just need to gain some distance. My right arm is numb from the pain and my entire sleeve is blackened. I really don't want to see what it looks like underneath.

I activate my helmet microphone and dial Katherine, she picks up after a second. "Peter where ar-"

"Kat, no time! Human Torch! I'm headed to the Baxter building hide there; I'll need you to get me out! Three minutes!" I end the call and look over my shoulder to see a bright figure headed my way.

I can't help but smirk behind my mask as I notice him rubbing his jaw as he speeds after me. Glad to know I'm not the only one who suffered for that. Just like I wanted his grin is gone, it's instead replaced by a serious look. I come to a stop on a nearby rooftop and he flies in front of me. "I'm done playing around spider. Unless you really want me to get serious, I suggest you give up." He levels a hand at me that's almost white with the flame that's built up there.

If I had time to prepare, if I had a plan I might be able to beat him. But this isn't Bobby the undertrained mutant teenager that I'm fighting. This is one of the members of the fantastic four, arguably one of the more powerful members. I know when I'm outmatched. I slowly raise my hands up, "Your right, you win. So what now? Are we going to the police station? The human torch snags another criminal?"

He keeps his hand aimed at me as he talks. "Just so you can get away? No, I've got something else planned." He raises his free hand to his ear, still never turning away from me. "Reed. I've got something… That guy that attacked the police station about a week ago… Mhmm. Yeah, he packs a hell of a right cross too… Ok, I'll hold him here, and hurry up would you, I was kind of busy when he showed up…Thanks."

That didn't sound good. "So I take it that wasn't the police station?"

He doesn't answer, just looks me up and down. "Where is the jewelry?" I just shrug. He narrows his eyes at me in response. "Lose the helmet, I want to know the punk who managed to land a punch on me."

"I think I'll pass." I'm forced to take a quick step to the left as a small fireball hits the roof where I was standing a second ago, apparently it wasn't a suggestion. Damn it this couldn't be going any worse. Not only is he not taking me to the place where I told Kitty to wait for me, but now this. I don't really have a choice. I place both my hands on either side of my head and remove the helmet.

He looks surprised. "Little young to be an super villain. What are you kid, like, fourteen?" I don't answer. Even if he knows my face the less information about me he has the better. "Not so talkative anymore." I hear a whirring sound and turn my head to see a slick silver flying…car? Driving it is a middle aged man wearing a blue jumpsuit with the signature 4 on in. Mr. Fantastic: leader of the fantastic four. "Where are Ben and Sue?"

The car comes to a stop at the edge of the building and Mr. Fantastic stretches out of the vehicle. "Your friend here isn't the only one causing trouble tonight. Some kind of Rhino man and a sand monster are wreaking havoc over by the freeway. I'm thinking it's related."

They look at me expectantly and I just shrug. "I'm just a normal guy, Rhino men and sand monsters? That sounds like crazy talk to me. So since this is clearly a misunderstanding I'll just be on my way and-" My entire body is overtaken with a familiar chill and I'm suddenly hit with an intense sense of vertigo as I start free falling _through_ the building. "Kat?"

There's a shimmering of light to my right and I see the dark hooded figure of Shadow Cat holding on to my arm. "You called?" The falling sensation stops as we fall through the ground floor of the building into the sewers below.

My grin is so large it just might split my face in two. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now." I pull my helmet back on my head, It feels so weird to wear the suit without it. "How did you find me? And did you make the drop?"

I can't see her face but I can tell that she's grinning at me through her mask. "I was near the Baxter building when you called. I saw Mr. Fantastic getting in the car so I hitched a ride. I gave the bag to one of Fisk's goons at the drop off location." She starts walking through the sewers and I follow. "Let's hurry up and get home." Her voice sounds a lot less now that I'm not in any immediate danger. "We need to talk."

We were able to make it back home to the penthouse without any further incident. Mostly thanks to Katherine just phasing us through the sewer system letting us walk in a straight line. The majority of it was in silence. She seemed deep in thought I can imagine why. That job was a lot more dangerous than it was supposed to be. I have my own doubts about whether or not this was worth it. Regardless of what I decide the answer to that is, I don't have a choice. I don't get to make my own decisions, Fisk does.

I sit on the couch rubbing burn salve on my arm while Katherine paces in front of me. "Are you sure that's going to be okay?"

I try not to wince while carefully wrapping the bandage around my arm. "It should be fine. It's a lot better than it looks." I don't actually know that. I know nothing about burns but I hope It's true because it certainty looks bad. From my wrist to my elbow the skin on my arm is a bright red with some black parts on my knuckles where I made contact with him. If it wasn't for my suit I'm not sure I would still have that hand. In hindsight punching him was pretty stupid.

"Peter, you fought one of the Fantastic Four."

I nod, not liking where this is going. "I know."

She stops her pacing and puts her hands on her hips, she looks a cross between annoyed and worried. "Do you though? Peter the fantastic four are the **good **guys! The best, people love them, I love them. They've saved the world Peter. Doesn't it bother you that we're the bad guys?"

It does. A lot more than I thought it would. I've never tried especially hard to help or impress others. Growing up I had my own problems to deal with. Now though I have strength, I have power, I should be able to choose, I want to be good. It's a bit of a shocking realization. Maybe years of being ostracized by my pears has made me want some positive attention but I definitely don't want to be known as a villain. "You're right. I don't want to be the bad guy."

Katherine looks like she was about to say something else before she hears me. She looks a little surprised before sighing and collapsing on the couch next to me. "So can't we just stop?"

I want to. "We can't." But it isn't that easy. It's never that easy. "Fisk won't let us. He bought this penthouse we live in. He pays for food, bought these suits. He's invested in us. He's not the type to let investments just walk away." And even worse than that, "He'd probably rather see it destroyed than risk someone else taking advantage of his hard work."

It's grim but it's the truth. Kitty's head rests on the shoulder of my good side. "So what? We just have to put up with it until one of use winds up in jail or worse?"

No. I won't make Katherine go through that. I promised that I would protect her. I fought Bobby just to prove that point. "I'll figure something out. For now though, let's get to bed. We still have school tomorrow." I glance at the clock 2:11 Am on a Tuesday. Tomorrow will not be fun.

As I predicted, school was awful. I made sure to wear a long sleeve shirt to cover my arm but only working on four hours of sleep I might as well have been half dead. I slept through the majority of English, P.E managed to wake me up; at least that's what I thought before I made it to math. I waved to Katherine before taking out my note book and taking a nap on it. Ms. Appleseed stops the lecture to wake me up twice before the period is over. Katherine fares a little better, probably from not trying to out run a human fireball last night.

By the time lunch rolls around I feel a little bit better, my math nap must've really hit the spot. After waiting in line Katerine and I both plop down at our usual table, Gwen is already sitting there with her homemade lunch. She raises an eyebrow at the two of us. "You two okay? I think I've seen zombies with more energy."

I just roll my eyes at her while taking a bite of my pizza. Thankfully Kitty answers for the both of us. "The person in the room below us was super loud last night. I don't think I got to bed until like three."

"Oh is that all?" Maybe it's thanks to my drowsy state that I don't jump out of my skin when Mary Jane materializes in the seat next to Gwen. I still wonder how she does that? I looked down at my pizza for like a second. "I was hoping that you two were up doing something a little more exiting." The suggestive tone she has leaves no question to what she's implying. I wisely decide to just ignore her.

Katherine however looks a little pink. "What? What are people saying?"

Mary Jane laughs, "Nothing, I heard some people gossiping on what the two of you could have been doing together. I made sure to tell them that the two of you were just working on a project."

Now that is something I didn't expect. "Why? Isn't starting rumors about us kind of your thing?"

She shrugs, "You've been holding up your end of the bargain, figured you wouldn't want people jumping to conclusions. A lot of people seemed to jump to the same conclusion, I was all over school today correcting them."

There's always a reason. "Thanks, I owe you one."

She smiles back, "Yes you do."

The rest of the school day passes by without incident. As Katherine and I ride the bus home. I get a text from Fisk's number that we'll be meeting again tomorrow for our second job. I need to do something about this. As much as I hate to admit it I need help.

We're just stepping off the bus when I make the decision. "Kitty, I'll catch up with you later. I've got to meet someone."

She looks at me suspiciously. "Who? No offense, but you have three friends."

Ouch, "Hey I know people!" She just raises an eyebrow. "Why does it matter? I won't be long."

She just huffs and walks into the building. What's her problem? I never thought of her as the clingy type. I walk a few blocks before pulling out my cell phone and a black business card from my pocket. I dial the number and it rings twice before I hear a voice on the other end. "I didn't actually think you would call me kid." He sounds out of breath like he's running or something.

"How did you know it was me?" I never gave him my number or anything.

"No one else has this number. So did you change your mind about letting me meet your boss?"

I almost tell him about my dilemma right there but then I remember who got me this phone. I wouldn't put it past Fisk to hide a bug in there somewhere. "Can I meet you somewhere?"

There's a loud bang from his side of the phone. "You must really be in a bind to get so trusting. I just happened to have finished my business. There's a deli called Fatastisubs in the north part of midtown. I'll be there for the next hour or so."

I can't help but chuckle at the irony at walking into a fantastic four themed sandwich shop the after the night I had. When I walk in I recognize the dark figure siting at a corner table, but my stomach decides that I grab a sandwich before I sit down. As I'm waiting in line I glance at him a few times, he's wearing thick boots with black pants tucked into them. Thankfully he's forgone the gun filled trench coat and is instead wearing a brown hoodie; he's still just as intimidating as before. I sit down with my 'Human Torch' sub. (Ham, turkey, cilantro, yellow peppers and a LOT of hot sauce).

The Punisher chuckles as he looks up at me. "You really are too young for this kind of work."

Why does everyone comment on my age? "You said I could call you for help." He nods. "My boss, he calls himself the Kingpin."

From the look in his eyes I can tell that he knows exactly whom I'm talking about. "I can see why you didn't want to talk over the phone. Big guy has his fingers in everything, ears all over town." At hearing this I glance around nervously. "Don't worry, I eat here for a reason. I have my own reason to keep clear of Kingpin."

Now that's a surprise. "You used to work for him? What happened?" If he got away so can we.

"I did a few jobs for him a couple of years ago." He pauses for a second to take a bite out of his sandwich. "I thought it would be freelance. He wanted a personal assassin. We had a disagreement."

The way he says it makes me afraid to ask, but I have to know. "Disagreement?"

"He tried to kill me." That's exactly what I was afraid of hearing. "I'd be careful if I were you kid. I'm one of the few of his former employees that isn't six feet under. He doesn't take desertion lightly."

"So what do I do?" What can I do? All of this is my fault. I should never have made the deal with Fisk. I shouldn't have thought beating up gangsters was a good way to make money. "He knows my name, my face, my friends."

He takes another bite of his sandwich. "That is not a good situation. You have two options kid. You either do what he says, and live with it; or you put him down."

I grab my old bag and leave the house around midnight, dressed in my full suit. My arm feels a little better but it's still tender. A reminder of why I'm here. I land on a building where I can see the light coming from Fisk's room. Good he's there; at least I won't have to go looking for him. I swing around back to the service elevator, and ride it up to the top floor, I want to smirk from behind my mask at how easily they let me in but I'm too nervous. I've seen what Fisk is capable of, no matter how easy it is to get to him; this will be no cakewalk.

The guards at the front door know by now to let me through. I open the double doors to Fisk's room and am a little annoyed to see him look up from his steak dinner at me with no surprise. The doors close behind me and I'm met with the finality of my decision. There is no going back now. I walk in with my hands behind me and discretely spray my webs over the door handle. "Mr. Parker, I know you had a troubled childhood but I had hoped that one of the people who raised you would have mentioned how rude it is to show up unannounced."

I slowly walk towards him, making sure to keep my body between him and his vision of the webbed up door handle. I want to get as close as I can before he finds out. "Heh, guess it slipped my mind. Something important came up, and I knew I had to go straight to you with it."

He puts down his fork and looks at me with interest. Just a little closer. "Well? What is so important that you felt the need to interrupt my meal?"

Almost there, I unsling my backpack and set it on the table. "It will be easier if I show you." He continues to look at me with interest as I open my backpack, I reach my hand in and feel the handle.

I freeze for a second as Fisk responds. "Peter" He calmly places his fork and knife on either side of his plate and removes the napkin from his shirt. "Are you **sure** that this is important? If not you can walk out now and we can just forget about your mistake."

He knows! How does he know? Has he been watching me? Of course he's been watching me. It doesn't matter anymore, he may preach forgiveness but I doubt he practices it. I'm in too deep to stop now, and I really don't want to. I take a breath in and out, I'm not Peter Parker, I'm the Spider now; and the Spider is no one's puppet!

In one swift motion I pull the gun out of my bag, unlock the safety, and pull the trigger. "Consider this my letter of resignation!" Fisk dives to the side, but I can see a red stain on his white suit jacket where I must have hit him. I glance back at the door and can see that the guard is trying to get in. I take a second and turn to spray more webs over the doors. They're going to have a hard time getting through that, this batch of web is stronger and longer lasting than my usual formula.

I turn my attention back to Kingpin who is standing with the aid of his cane. Despite the bullet wound in his side he's smirking. "I'll be sure that your little friend suffers for this as well."

I level the gun at his head. "I'd die before I let that happen."

He smirks adjusting his grip on his cane as I go to pull the trigger, "You will." Just before I pull the trigger I'm brought to my knees by a terrible high pitched screech that becomes my entire world. I put both hands on the side of my helmet and try to pull it off to no avail; it's stuck on my head! Some where through the massive pain and all the nose I can hear Fisk laughing. "You didn't think it would be that easy did you Mr. Parker? I didn't get to where I am by taking chances. Let me explain what's happening to you." My body is a slave to the pain, as much as I want to ignore it and shove that gun down Fisk's throat I can't, the only thing I can do is continue to roll on the ground clawing at my helmet as my baser instincts demand that I make this noise stop. "The hyper sound wave emission system that's installed in your helmet is bombarding your eardrums with as many high frequency sound waves as money can buy. If you feel any moisture in your helmet that's because your ears have begun to bleed. Soon your eardrums will burst, then your eyeballs will pop and so on. I don't really want to get into the details. I'll tell you how to stop it though. All you have to do is break my cane. If you do then the signal will stop and so will your pain."

I think I'm begging to black out. My eyes are screwed shut from the pain and I've since stopped flailing around. I'm just clutching my helmet waiting for this to be over. I can't blame anyone but myself. I wonder if this was what was destined to happen? I can still hear Fisk in the background, "I had my doubts about controlling you. A violent seemingly moral-less youth. You know I had prepared for you killing me?" From the moment that spider bit me was I destined to end up here? It's too bad that I had to drag Katherine down with me. With her powers though maybe she'll be able to escape Fisk, I don't see how he could catch her. "Although that doesn't seem likely now." Through all the pain I manage a weak smile through my mask at the hope that maybe I didn't get my best friend killed along with me. I'm definitely blacking out, the white noise is fading into the background and I feel myself falling further and further into darkness.

It's like a breath of fresh air when it stops. The noise ends abruptly leaving me in a world of silence, the pain is still there but lessened, in one violent motion I throw my helmet off thanking god for whatever saved me. I feel hands on me and open my eyes to see the hooded figure of Shadow Cat. "Katherine?"

"P—r …o" I can barely hear her. I touch the side of my head and examine my fingers finding them slick with blood. Katherine helps me up and starts pulling me towards the window. "We need…ow!" She sounds kind of panicked, I still feel disoriented from that entire ordeal. I glance around the room and see Fisk motionless on the ground his broken staff beside him, there's a pool of blood but oddly instead of underneath him it's behind him. It's also odd that there isn't more blood coming from his bullet wound. "Peter! We need to go now!" Oh thank god I can hear. We get to the window and Katherine phases us through it. We fall for a few seconds before I realize that she expects me to web sling. I feel like my center of balance is a little off as the two of us swing through the night sky but I adjust to it long enough to get us home. I swing at the window and Katherine phases us through it into our living room

"Peter what the hell were you thinking!" She sounds mad, she stumbles over to the couch and sits down, I notice that she has my helmet in her hands. "If I hadn't notice you leave and followed you would have died!" She pulls down her hood and I can see the tears in her eyes.

I sit down on the couch next to her. She's right, I almost died. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, I messed up, it seems like all I do is mess up. But he's dead now everything is going to be ok. He can't control us anymore, we can be the good guys!"

Katherine shakes her head, this is what she wanted right? "No we can't! Not like this, not after I.." She covers her mouth for a second before phasing through the back of the couch and running into the kitchen. I follow and find her heaving in the sink. "Peter I killed him. How can I be the good guy after committing murder?"

No, I'm not going to let her blame herself for this. This is exactly why I went alone. "Katherine, you did the world a favor tonight! Fisk was a mobster kingpin who organized all the crime on this half of the country! No body will miss him, and now we're free."

The glare she gives me makes my blood run cold. "And that makes it okay? A hero catches the bad guys, they don't play god."

Why can't she see that this was necessary? "Katherine you didn't play god, yo-"

"I pulled his heart out through his back!" I remember the scene back at Fisk tower, it explains why the blood puddle was next to him. "It was you or him; the choice was obvious, but does that make it right?"

"You had to." I would rather have been the one to do it, but it's too late for that now. "It was him or US. He wasn't going to keep us around forever."

She makes another dry heave while I rub circles on her back. "I know. It doesn't make me feel any less awful though."

"You should get to sleep. I think we both need some rest." Truth is if Katherine wasn't having a breakdown I probably would have hit the floor a few minutes ago.

She wipes her mouth and takes a sip of water. "Peter can you sleep in my room tonight? I'd really don't want to be alone right now."

She looks so broken; her eyes are puffy from crying and her lips looked cracked and pale. The worst part of this though, I can tell that she needs me from the look in her eyes. And I like it. I instantly hate my self for feeling this way but that doesn't make it stop. After years of isolation and dependency on abusive foster parents, and after that being dependent on Fisk it feels good to have someone depend on me. Although if I think about it we're both equally alone, neither of us has any family to go to or even other friends that we can truly rely on. "Of course, I'll grab a sleeping bag." When it comes down to it we really only have each other.

[The next day (3rd person)]

There's still a bloodstain in Fisk's penthouse from where he was slain the night before. Immediately after the guard finally happened to break down the web secured doors they called for the house doctor. There was nothing they could do though, with his heart removed from his body, Fisk was dead before Peter and Katherine left.

Standing in the room now are six individuals each dressed in a very unique fashion. The first and most normal is Maro Flint aka the 'Sandman' dressed in his usual clothes. Next to him stands Aleksei Systevich, a former Russian super solider who is more often referred to as 'Rhino.'

Also in the room is Maxwell Dillon dressed in a flashy green and yellow outfit with a mask that resembles lightning bolts. A mid aged electrician who has fought the fantastic four several times, his trademark is the lightning power he wields and his preferred title is 'Electro.'

The fourth figure Adrian Toomes is a balding man dressed in a skintight green suit with a plume of feathers around his neck. From each of his arms extends many large feathers. His chosen persona mirrors his physical appearance as the goes by 'Vulture.'

Next to Toomes stands a man wearing a yellow padded body suit underneath a red tunic and boots with thick gauntlets over his arms. Herman Schultz, or 'Shocker' is a well-known muscle for the Kingpin using the high frequency air blasts from his gauntlets to enforce Fisk's rule.

The final figure resembles a giant green scorpion. With a long prehensile barbed tail behind him it's no wonder that Mac Gargan chooses to go with the alias 'Scorpion.'

The all turn to the door as a sixth figure walks into the room. He's a sleazy looking man dressed in a suit and tie. He walks to the front of the group and sits down in Fisk's chair. When he speaks his voice is nasally but resounds through the whole room. "Last night, Wilson Fisk, otherwise known as the Kingpin was killed. The reason that I've brought you here is because about a week ago he called me and had me organize a portfolio and a job for you in the event of his death." An exited silence goes through the crowd, none of them are particularly sad that someone decided to off kingpin, each of them is just thinking of what he could possibly want as his last job. The sleazy man presses a button on Fisk's controller and the monitor clicks to life, showing the images of two teenagers on screen.

The first is a skinny looking boy, brown hair, very plain looking and kind of bony. The second is a girl about the same age, brunette hair and a little on the short side. "Their names are Peter Parker, and Katherine Pryde. Otherwise known as 'The Spider' and 'Shadow Cat.'" He presses another button, and a half a screen of information appears about each of them. Including home address, school, and known powers. "And as of right now each of their heads are worth a million dollars."

**And Bam! How'd you like that! **

**First of all as far as the Spiderman vs. Human torch debate, maybe an experienced peter parker who was prepared would put up a better fight. But peter as he is in my story only lasted as long as he did because Johnny was testing him. As to how Sandman and Rhino got away, I'll leave that to your imagination. **

**I've honestly been wanting to write this chapter for MONTHS, god it's taken me so long to get here. I consider this the end of an arc. THE KINGPIN ARC IS OVER! How did you like it? The fanale? The arc? Let me know what you liked I really appreciate the feedback.**

**For bonus points, to whomever can guess what the next arc is going to be about ;)**

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Can't get any worse

Spiders 11

When I wake up the next morning, it's on the floor of Katherine's room. There are still boxes around from the few things she's yet to unpack. From my spot on the floor the suns rays are shining directly on my face, which must have been what roused me from my slumber. The clock reads six twelve in the morning, school doesn't start till seven but after last night I really think that I deserve a day off anyway.

I sit up from my position and see Katherine's bed empty. '_She's up already?'_ I sigh and stand up, stretching in the process. _'With how she was handling last night I guess I should be surprised if she slept at all._'

I make my way to the kitchen area to see Kitty sitting at the table with a bowl of oatmeal fully dressed. I grab a box a cereal, a bowl, and milk and move to sit across from her. Her hair is disheveled and her eyes have deep bags underneath them. She hasn't looked up at me since I entered, her eyes have remained firmly locked on her full bowl of oatmeal which I'm beginning to suspect has long gone cold. "Morning Kitty. When did you get up?"

She still doesn't look up, with one hand she starts stirring her oatmeal with a spoon. "I didn't sleep much. Kept having nightmares."

From her tone I can tell that she's not in the best mood. "We don't have to go to school today. It's alright to call in sick. Honestly I'd really like to stay home today."

She stops stirring her oatmeal and stands from her seat. "Stay if you want. I'm going to school." A clear dismissal. She doesn't look at me as she moves to grab her backpack and walk out the door.

After accepting what she did, she's angry at me. Everything that happened yesterday was my fault. I can't really blame her. I can't just leave her though. With a sigh I also stand to grab my school stuff, I'll go just to keep an eye on her, even if she doesn't care.

[School]

Somehow I manage to stay awake in English, I can really feel the stress of the last few nights start to pile on me. I don't think I've slept decently this entire week.

Not feeling like participating I mostly sit on the side in P.E. while the rest of the class plays a game of basketball.

I had hoped that Kitty would be in a better mood by math but wasn't surprised when she showed up as sullen as in the morning. The bags under her eyes are harder to make out though; I think she covered them up with makeup. Despite my efforts to talk to her, the entire period I only get one or two word responses from her.

With the period over the two of us walk our usual route to the cafeteria. It being the dreaded, 'mystery casserole' day doesn't to anything to lift our spirits. The line is slowly moving in front of us and I can almost see the dwindling supply of pizza getting smaller as more people opt out of the casserole. "Do you think we're going to get stuck with mystery lunch?" Kitty just shrugs, and I frown. I didn't think that her behavior would affect me as much as it has been. I had assumed that I would just deal with it until she returns to normal, but her attitude is starting to get to me. I miss the Kitty that was full of energy and happiness. I'm regretting my actions more than ever.

When the two of us sit down with our mystery casserole's its not long before we're joined by Gwen, who sits next to me and across from Katherine. She set's her boxed lunch on the table before glancing at the two us suspiciously. She looks at Kitty and then at me. "What's up with you guys? Another loud party?"

I feel bad lying to one of my three friends but I'm not exactly about to tell her about the night we had, "Yeah. It was… rough."

Katherine responds while pushing her casserole around on her tray. "Yeah…"

Gwen looks a bit taken aback by Kitty's lack luster answer, "Riiight, well you guys should probably talk to the manager. I'm sure there's something you can do. I'm surprised they didn't get shut down after the first night where they must've kept half the building up."

Shut down huh, I actually manage to smile a bit, "Actually I went and talked to them. I think that that's the last party they throw."

"Good." Mary Jane casually slides into the seat next to Katherine. "Because I'm not sure how long people are going to believe that the two of you were up all night working on a project." Her grin is almost predatory, "That's two you owe me bye the way tiger."

I roll my eyes, "And just what exactly could you possibly want from me?"

"Besides Watson." Gwen to the rescue, "Isn't helping with rumors just something that friends do? Since you two are trying to be more friendly shouldn't his thanks be all the reward you need?"

"Ah, ah ah." MJ wags a finger back and fourth. "I think that you're underestimating the amount of work I have to go through to keep these-" I cover my ears out of reflex as a loud alarm cuts off Mary Jane.

Everyone starts looking around while cautiously standing up. It's more likely that someone pulled the fire alarm as a prank rather than because of an actual fire. I stand up from the bench to almost fall over again as the ground shakes beneath us. Is this an earthquake? By now most students are standing up and the teachers in the cafeteria are starting to ushers students to the emergency exits. Our group of four starts to make our way over when there's another tremor and the whole room seems to shake.

The fire alarm shuts off and the room is filled with a strange silence as the formerly blaring siren is silent. There's the tell tale click of the P.A system as another tremor racks the room. They're getting more frequent. "My apologies." That is not our principal's voice, the voice is dry and raspy echoing all over the halls. Something's not right here. I can't tell if it's my danger sense or my own instincts. Regardless I move to stand closer to Katherine, just in case. "There are so many buttons here took me a while to get the right one." Another tremor. "But let's get down to business."

There are several screams as the far wall and doors explode inward blasting the whole room with dust. I'm forced to cover my eyes to protect them. When I finally look up I see a single figure standing at the impact sight towering over the rest of the student body, a huge muscular figure wearing a grey skintight suit with a large horn coming from the top of his head. Katherine and I share a look. '_Rhino!' _The entire crowd is sort of cowed into silence by his hulking figure; no one moves a muscle and the room goes silent with the exception of the loud speaker.

Rhino raises his hand to his ear, and mutters something as he scans the crowd of students. _'Just what is he looking for?'_ The speakers continue, "Ah it would seem that my ally has arrived! Ladies and gentlemen, meet Rhino, I'm sure you recognize him from the news. Now as for why we're here, relax we aren't going to kill all of you. We are looking for someone specific, help us and the rest of you can go home tonight happy to be alive. If not then well, I guess we'll have to kill everyone won't we?" I see Rhino grin at the prospect, I never liked him, "Now give us, Peter Parker, and Katherine Pryde and we'll be on our way."

I feel as if my stomach has turned to lead inside me. This can't be happening! How? How do they know us? The not only know our names but where we go to school? And why? Why are they here?

It's at this moment that I remember something Fisk said to me as he was gloating before Kitty came to my rescue: _"You know I had prepared for you killing me?" _Prepared, I've had too much on my mind with Katherine to really give anytime to what he said. This must be it, his failsafe to get back at me if I betrayed him. I'm still paying for my mistakes.

Mary Jane and Gwen both seem to freeze in place and stare at Katherine and I wide eyed. This could not possibly be any worse.

The voice on the loudspeakers, keeps talking, "Now before you get any stupid ideas about protecting your fellow students before you know all the facts. For example, The villain that's been all over the news as of late. The Spider, he fought NYPD, a few weeks ago and even the human torch a few days ago. Who would believe that he could ever be puny Peter Parker."

Gwen and I lock eyes, I can tell that she doesn't want to believe it. She's silently asking me for confirmation that everything that's being said is a lie. I can't give that to her. Tears begin to well in the corners of her eyes and she takes a step back from me, it hurts a lot more than I thought it would. If I had known that making friends would be this painful I would have tried much harder to turn Katherine away, and Ignoring Gwen. I'm surprised when I look over to Mary Jane and instead of a similar reaction she's motioning towards the emergency exit. "Peter!" No one can hear her whisper-yelling over the loud speaker. "Grab Kitty and get out of here." I look over my shoulder and see Kitty looking at me for direction. Us leaving is probably the best solution. Hopefully when they see that we aren't here they'll go look for us else ware instead of wasting time attacking. At least I hope that they're that logical. It's better than the definite casualties from if I tried to fight Rhino here. I reach over and grab Katherine's hand and start to lead us over to the exit. Mary Jane places her hand on my shoulder and gives a light smile. "That's three you owe me. Be sure to come back so I can cash in."

I give her back a grin and a nod. I won't forget this. As we creep through the crowd, most are too focused on the speaker or the hulking figure of Rhino still standing in the crater of the wall. If you look behind him you can see the holes in all the walls that he had to run through, to get to this point going all the way out to the street.

As we near the emergency exit, the sinking feeling in my gut, I turn my head to glance at Rhino, and see him smirk as we make eye contact, oh shit. Kitty almost trips as I break into a full sprint still dragging her behind me. The crowd becomes suddenly aware of the situation as Rhino lowers himself into a stance, horn forward. I can hear people screaming and scrambling out of the way as Rhino shoots off towards us. I glance over my shoulder and see him advancing like a grey rocket.

We need to go faster! Barely thinking about it I yank Katherine forward and lift her off her feet. My danger sense goes off, and I can hear Rhino right behind me. "No one can run from RHINO!" With Katherine in my arms I leap into the air just in time to see Rhino pass underneath me, a second slower and we'd have been gored on that horn of his.

With my powerful jump we're still sailing upward towards the ceiling. I'm sure Kitty wants to make sure no one got hut because of us but right now we have much bigger problems. "Kitty! Ceiling!" She looks up just in time to phase us through the cafeteria ceiling so that we land on the roof.

Hopefully we've got a minute or two before Rhino or the loudspeaker man figures out we're up here. I take a second to set Katherine down, and put on the web shooters that I keep in my bag. What I wouldn't give for my helmet right now though.

"Peter, where are we going?" Now that we're free of everyone's gaze I can see the panic in her eyes. "We can't just run away Peter, Gwen and Mary Jane-"

"Will be safer the farther away we are!" It's the reason that I don't feel any guilt over running away. "If we try and fight them here people will get hurt. Our best chance is to run and hope that they follow us. They're making threats assuming that we care about what happens to them. If we run they have nothing to gain by hurting them. We just have to make it look like we don't care."

Katherine looks at me skeptically, "Do you care?"

Really? We do not have time for this. "Of course I do! You aren't the only one with friends down there. Now let's go so that we can protect them. Once we get our suits, we can see about dealing with Rhino."

My danger sense goes off, I dive forward and push Kitty down in time for a blast of orange looking energy to pass over us. In the direction that it came from is a man wearing a yellow padded body suit underneath a red tunic and boots with thick gauntlets over his arms, both of his hands are raised with visible waves of heat around the gauntlets. "Stand Still!" The voice is the same as the one on the loud speaker. His gauntlets hum slightly just before my danger sense alerts me again, I grab Katherine and leap off the side of the building just in time to dodge another wave of energy.

While in the air I move Katherine to my back so that I have both hands to swing. "Keep an eye out, phase us through anything I can't dodge." I can't see her but I can feel her nod into the back of my shirt. I glance down at the road and can see Rhino following us from the ground. The gauntlet guy is still shooting at us from the roof, with no success, so I'm going to assume that he can't fly. "We're heading straight home to suit up. Get ready to phase us through any buildings, we need to get there as soon as possible."

[Home]

Using Katherine's abilities we were able to lose Rhino and that other jerk pretty fast. Currently we're suiting up but I really want to get out of here as fast as possible. I have no doubt that those creeps know where we live. I'm wearing my suit with my helmet in my hands when Katherine walks out of her room in full costume. I should put on the helmet, I can see the scratch on the side where it deflected one of Punisher's bullets; it's already saved my life once. However, 't_he only thing I can do is continue to roll on the ground clawing at my helmet' _I'd rather not. I look up when Kitty puts a hand on the helmet. Her own hood and face mask are down. "You don't have to wear it anymore. Not if you don't want to."

She's right, it's not like I need to protect my identity anymore. With the Internet I bet all of New York will know who I am within a few hours. Katherine is holding a duffel bag filled with our essentials. Clothes, toothbrushes, as well as spare webbing that I had made. I hand her my helmet and she puts it into the bag.

I take a moment to look around the room. All of our stuff is thrown about in our scramble to grab the things that we need. We both understand that we won't be coming back here. I look around at the extravagantly furnished penthouse. To think that I'm about to leave the best home I've had in years. I feel as if a dark shadow is being cast over the happy parts of my life. "Peter!" Kitty's voice pulls me from my thoughts to realize that the shadow I was imagining is not just figurative. The entire room is lamp shaded in darkness, there's a huge cloud around our entire floor.

Something isn't right, the cloud isn't stagnant, is constantly moving, rotating around the floor. I reach for Katherine's hand, while still staring out the window, when I focus on the cloud and really take advantage of my enhanced vision I see what about it disturbs me, the entire cloud is made of sand. "Kitty, down!"

My danger sense goes off as soon as the words leave my mouth and the windows burst around us, Katherine quickly reacts and the empty feeling that I'm getting used to fills my body as we phase through several floors. We stop at the first floor where we can't see the sand through the window. The apartment that we stop in is empty and Katherine immediately latches on to my back with the duffel still over her shoulder as she phases us through the window.

"There you are!" I have to double take as I look above us at the sound of the voice and see a like seventy-year old, green, birdman speeding towards us. Why does the weirdest stuff happen to me? My danger sense goes off and out of reflex I yank hard on my current web in time to dodge a barrage of feathers that shoot out from the birdman's wings. "None can escape the Vulture!"

Katherine looses grip with one hand and flails a bit behind me before regaining her grip. "Kitty you okay?"

I feel her nod into me as I continue to swing away from Vulture, the Sand cloud seemingly hearing Vulture has ceased it's assault on the building and is drifting towards us, perfect. "He hit the bag." I look behind us and can see out clothes, and toothbrushes as well as my extra web fluid and shooters. "I managed to your helmet." I can feel the vibranium helmet pushed up against my back.

Another glance at my back and I can tell that Vulture is gaining on us. Where the hell are the fantastic four now? Half of the villains in new york are on my ass! I swing around a tight corner to dodge another blast of feathers, a fist of sand swings from around the building straight at us. With no time to dodge I thank my lucky stars that I met Kitty as she phases us through it.

This is ridiculous! Vulture is too fast to get away from and I don't even know how to fight back against Sandman. It's probably only a matter of time before Rhino and that other jerk catch up too. We need an exit strategy, I only have so much webbing, we can't run forever, we need help. I grab my phone from my pocket in between webs and hand it to Katherine. "Kitty, dial the three nine two number in my recent calls!"

With her arms wrapped around my neck it takes her a few seconds, she holds the phone to my ear as I swing and after one ring he picks up. "Figured you'd be calling." The grizzled voice of the punisher comes through over the line. "I heard about the Kingpin, didn't think you had it in you. I assume that you're calling for help. With birdman and sand cloud?"

"I just need you to get them off of us!" I kick off of a building and let the razor sharp feathers hit the concrete.

"I've been watching. You two are all over the news. Lucky for you no one can get a good angle on your face." As if it matters anymore. "Keep going north and head low over the bridge. I don't know about Sandy but I can get the bird off of your back."

"Thanks."

He almost laughs, "Don't thank me kid, you owe me one. I don't work for free." Why do I always owe people?

Punisher hangs up and Kitty moves the phone from my ear. "Who was that?"

Kitty phases us through several feathers that I wasn't going to be fast enough to dodge. "A friend."

"That I didn't know about?"

I really don't want to do a Q&amp;A right now. "No you didn't know about him. Why because I didn't tell you. I'd be happy to share more but can we please discuss this when there aren't maniacs trying to murder us!" She doesn't say anything after that.

We reach the bridge in only a few minutes and I pray that Punisher was able to make it in time to help, I follow his instruction and swing fast and low over the bridge, I'd wanted to avoid this because here the cables are the only things I can swing from limiting my mobility. But I really don't have any choice but to rely on his help right now.

I'm half way over the bridge with Vulture's cackling not far behind me when a gun shot rings through the air. I glance back and see Vulture spiraling out of control towards the ground, great one down, two to go.

Figuring out how to evade sandman is another matter entirely, how do I get away from someone who can travel as a cloud of sand. It's even more troubling to think that somehow two nights ago he managed to evade both the thing and the invisible woman while I was tied up with the human torch. "Peter, take the next left."

Katherine's voice surprises me, it's been a few minutes since she's said anything. "Where are we going?"

I swing down the street that Katherine wanted me to. "Just trust me" I don't question Katherine is one of the few people that I do trust, and with this sand cloud chasing us if she has a plan I'm all ears. "Take a left through the alley, land on that roof there."

"Wait you want us to stop? Sandman is right behind us!"

"Do you trust me?"

After all I've put her through my trust is the very least I owe her. "Alright." I swing us to the roof of an ordinary looking building downtown. Kitty get's off my back and we turn together to face the encroaching sand storm. "What's the plan?" I do a quick check on my webbing and grimace to realize that I've got at most two hundred feet left.

She grabs my hand and her presence is somewhat comforting. "Don't move." I look her in the eyes and see her absolute confidence in this. All right guess it's time to put my trust to the test. My danger sense goes off but I ignore it, Katherine wouldn't trick me, I'm going to trust that she knows what she's doing. There's pressure like someone is holding my arm before it feel like the air around me shifts. My vision is a blue blur for a second before it finally clears, and when it does I'm not on the roof anymore.

Katherine and I are still holding hands, but we're standing in the aisle of some sort of plane, it's air conditioned, and has two rows of seats on either side of us. Even from the inside I can tell this is no ordinary plane, maybe some sort of private jet? There are a few individuals facing us all dressed in similar black and gold uniforms. The first is a girl that looks only a few years older than us with orange hair, on the other side of the isle is a tall looking man wearing some sort of visor, just from his stance I think he's the leader. Immediately to my right is… Bobby. That must mean that these are the group of mutant heroes that he tried to recruit me for. Great.

[End]

**Now that the Fisk arc is over let's start the X-men arc! You had to have seen this coming, I've been hinting at it since the third chapter. Not to mention that I can't just skip over it since Kitty is a main part of the story.**

**I got a few mentions about a possible symbiote arc, so here's what I think about that: There is no way that I can leave the symbiote out of this story, it synergizes with this Peter so well. There probably won't be a 'Symbiote arc, just because I can't see Peter minding too much, I've been trying to justify why he would ever get rid of it. Point is don't worry, I've got plans. **

**Tell me what you liked, Tell me what you didn't all reviews are welcome**

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. Playing nice with others

I look at the eyes on my helmet and I almost feel as if they're looking back at me. I'm sitting on a seat of the X-Jet with Katherine sleeping in the seat next to me.

Apparently when Katherine was changing back into her suit she took the time to call Bobby for help. I wish I could be angry that she didn't trust me but she was right not to. Despite my best efforts I couldn't protect us; I failed.

Apparently the X-men were heading back from a mission across the world and Bobby convinced them to come pick us up. After we crossed the bridge, the red head, used telepathy to contact Kitty and tell us where to go so that Night Crawler could pick us up. I glance across the isle at the blue skinned teleporter reclining in his seat. Apparently immediately after teleporting us up to the jet he jumped back down, and led Sandman in a different direction before returning. His appearance doesn't bother me but I am curious as to why every other mutant I've seen looks normal but his appearance change is so drastic. I kind of feel sorry for the guy, he has no choice but to join the x-men, no mask could ever protect his identity.

The man wearing the visor, turned out to be appropriately nicknamed Cyclops. As far as I can tell he's the one in charge here. As soon as we were teleported he immediately asked if we were okay. When I asked why they helped us, all he said was 'because you asked'

I narrowed my eyes at that one. No one helps people just because they ask, there's always a motive when I asked again he just said that their leader would explain things when we got there.

It's not like I could refuse anyway, we're on a jet twenty thousand feet in the air, besides it's not like I could abandon Kitty who has no intention of leaving.

My helmet seems to look back at me as I sigh, trying to ignore the glares from Bobby. At the very least he hasn't given me an 'I told you so'

The windows go dark as the jet descends into some underground hangar. I give Katherine a shake as the wheels touch down. She silently rubs the sleep from her eyes as the loading bay doors of the jet open. We follow Cyclops and the others out and I squint my eyes at the bright lights over head.

When I do look around I can't help but be impressed at the amount of technology in the room. I quickly wheel around and for the first time see the jet that I was in for the past hour. Even with a quick glance I can tell that this is something almost out of a sci-fi movie, as black as pitch with a long cabin and two massive engines on each wing. Even the military jets that I see on the news don't look as impressive as this.

When Bobby first pitched this group to me I had imagined a small group of crazy mutant freedom fighters or something. This however… Just who are these guys?

I turn back around and see a man in a wheelchair rolling towards us. He wears a simple brown sweater and black slacks, his bald head reflects the bright over head lights and he has a sort of knowing smirk on his face. "It's nice to finally meet you two, Peter, Katherine."

I look over at Katherine who hasn't said a word since we were rescued. With her hood and facemask down I can see that the deep bags from this morning haven't diminished in the slightest. She's not even looking at the man as he talks, she just keeps looking at her hands. I meet the bald mans gaze, "We appreciate your help, if it wasn't for your assistance I don't want to think of where we'd be without you, so uh thanks."

The wheel chaired man chuckles. "Ah there is no need for thanks, it is our duty to help those in need. I hope you have been getting along with my X-men, I'm sure that they've done their best to be accommodating. My name is Charles Xavier, although most people here just call me professor I've been monitoring your situation from here and it seems that returning to the streets of New York would be ill advised. We have plenty of rooms available and the two of you may stay as long as you like. However I must insist that you at least spend the night. Is that all right with you?"

"At least until we figure out where to go next." I say Kitty nods.

The old man's face lights up in a smile. "Excellent! Unfortunately I have another duty to which I must attend. Mr. Summers and Ms. Grey will show you to your rooms."

Just like clockwork, when he says this two people emerge from the round metal door at the end of the room bearing a giant X. One of them is a tall red haired woman that I recognize from the jet who is now wearing jeans and a button down shirt, the other is a tall stern man wearing jeans, a leather jacket, and a pair of red shades.

The professor turns his chair and wheels through another door as the two draw closer. The woman approaches us first with a smile on her face "Don't worry about anything while your here, the professor has spent many years making sure that this academy is a safe place for people like us. I'm Jean, and this.." She gestures to the sun-glasses clad man who gives a nod. "Is Scott. If you need anything while you're hear feel free to ask either of us at any time. We'll give you the full tour of the grounds but first how about we show you to your rooms so you can get changed."

"That would be best" I glance at Kitty and I still in full Shadow Cat and Spider gear. Scott and Jean lead us through several chrome lined halls with large X signed doors, I pay careful attention to all every turn and room we walk past while Katherine chats with Jean. The only thing of note is that at one point we pass by a glass window where I see a short looking man in a yellow suit with large metal claws ripping apart machines. We step into an elevator that is the first non science fiction thing we've seen since landing. Scott presses the buttons for the fourth and fifth floors and when he does the buttons for floors b1, b2, and b3, are hidden by a panel that slides closed. Before I can ask Scott says, "Most of the students here are just people without any place to go. We do our best to keep them sheltered from the rest of the mansions activities." He tilts his head in my direction and I get the subtle message, 'keep your mouth shut'.

The door opens on the fourth floor and Kitty follows Jean out. I take half a step to follow them when I feel Scott's arm on my shoulder. "Fourth floor are the girls rooms. We're all going to meet up on the second floor after you two get changed."

Kitty gives me a glance as she steps of the elevator, she's got the same dead look as she did this morning. She doesn't hesitate to step out of the elevator and get away from me. I shift around a little uncomfortably, after all everything she's been through the last two days is my fault.

I can't help but feel troubled as the doors close. I told myself that I'd be strong enough to protect what I care about. I see my best friend traumatized being led by a stranger away from me, a perfect reminder of my failure.

"The professor seems to trust you." I glance at Scott from the corner of my eye. Compared to Katherine this guy is an open book, his mouth is a set in a thin line, I can see the corners of his eyes from the edge of his sunglasses clench. I'm guessing he's not a fan. "So I'll follow his judgment, but if it turns out he's wrong and you hurt anyone at this academy." He turns his head to face me and I swear I can see his sunglasses glow red. "I'll take care of you personally."

I'm not afraid of him. He could shoot energy at me and it wouldn't even be the first time today. For a second my fist clenches and I think about letting him know. But then I unclench my hand and nod at him as the elevator comes to a stop. "I'm not planning on starting any fights." He looks at me for a second before turning and leading me out of the elevator doors.

Somehow I wasn't the least bit surprised to find that they had clothes exactly my size in the closet of the large sparsely decorated room. I did raise an eyebrow however at the lack of Katherine when we arrived at the second floor elevator. I spot Jean sitting at a small end table with a book and Scott and I walk towards her. She looks up and closes her book at our approach, "Katherine said she was tired so I told her to get some rest and I'll show her around tomorrow." Considering how little she slept last night that's probably a good thing. "Well Peter why don't I give you the tour? Scott, I think Logan wanted to speak to you." I observe as Jean and Scotts eye's both land on me for a second. That's right, Jean is the telepath from the plane. Which means they could be having a private conversation about me right in front of me.

Which is understandably infuriating "Forget it. Why don't you both go talk to whoever. I'll look around my self."

My danger sense goes off as Scott grabs at my shoulder, I deftly step back outside of his reach; he looks like he's ready to make another attempt when Jean places a hand on his arm and they do that same thing again with their eyes. I'm positive now that there's some communication happening in front of me. After just a second Scott straitens back up and I relax the fist I didn't realize I was clenching. Jean keeps her hand on Scott's elbow as she speaks. "That's fine Peter. If you want to look around the grounds yourself all we ask is that you don't disturb any ongoing classes." She uses her other hand to point towards a set of large double doors. "If you get hungry the cafeteria is that way."

I merely nod and she and Scott begin to walk towards the elevators. I don't fully relax until the doors close, I really didn't expect them to let me wander on my own, or at least to do so without an argument. Not that I'm complaining anyway. I take a moment to take in the room, it's a large foyer area with two windowed double doors opening up to what looks like a rather large backyard, from here I can make out a basketball court with some people on it as well as a lake with a small number of occupants. Inside this room, there are several cushioned chairs with matching tables in them, of the few people in the room I spot a few glancing up at me, whether because I'm new or the overheard me talking with those two I can't be certain.

I choose a random hallway and decide to walk down it. I do so with my hands shoved into the pockets of my new jacket and my hood up. There are a few groups of people I pass but most just glance at me and pay no mind. I however briefly pause as I see what must be a seven-foot tall blue Yeti stuffed into a suit. He notices me as well and stops a few feet away and extends his hand. Despite his size he speaks with a normal human voice, "Why hello there, I don't believe we've met. I'm professor Hank McCoy nice to meet you young man."

Maybe it's because very recently a large animal like man tried to kill me despite my quiet danger sense I hesitate a moment before offering my hand. His enormous blue fist completely encompasses my own. "Peter."

He releases my hand and checks an oversized watch on his wrist, "I would love to stay and chat but I'm already running late for a class, if you ever have any interest in physics I'm sure we'll meet again." He gives another parting wave and bounds down the hall.

I never expected this place to be normal, but that was just weird.

I end up stepping into the cafeteria around ten pm to grab a late dinner. I pick up a burger and start snaking on fries as I survey the cafeteria for a place to sit. I spot a head of brown hair at a table in the middle and see Kitty sitting with another girl with a strange mix of brown and dyed white hair. I take a few steps in her direction when she raises her head and her tired brown eyes look at me, her lips that were just curled into the slightest smile turn into a sad frown as her eyes meet mine.

I don't turn to see if the person she's with notices me or cares, dump my tray and reach the exit in as few steps as possible. I'm not hungry.

I'll just give Kitty some space. She can't be mad at me for long right?

The next morning the first thing I do is head to the chemistry lab to make some more web fluid, I may not particularly want to be in this academy but I'm sure as hell going to take advantage of it.

I'm so focused on my work that I don't notice as someone walk in. "Peter Parker huh, yeah your just as scrawny as I woulda thought." I turn in my chair at hearing the rough voice from behind me. Leaning in the door way is a gruff looking man a little on the short side. He's got long black sideburns straight out of an eighties movie and a wild mess of black hair on his head. He's wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans and even from here I can smell the scent of smoke that hangs heavily around him. "What're ya doin here alone kid? Shouldn't you be in class or something?"

I don't feel like dealing with this. I turn back to the centrifuge and answer over my shoulder, "I didn't sign up to be a student here, and I don't plan on staying here for very long either. Now can you leave me alone, I have work to do?"

I hear him chuckle from behind me, his shoes clacking on the linoleum flooring of the lab. "From where I'm sitting it looks like your just hiding in this lab. I went to the cafeteria last night to get some grub I caught you running with your tail between your legs at just the sight of that girl you came here with."

Taking a breath I set down my most recently made web fluid canister and turn to face this asshole with a glare, "I don't know who the hell you are or why you think you know who the fuck I am but," I stand from my seat fists clenched to look down at the intruder. "If you're trying to pick a fight with me then just say so."

He smirks and reaches into his pocket to toss me a key card. "B3 ten minutes. That is if you aint scared punk."

Oh I'm gonna enjoy this.

I'm standing dressed in a set of sweatpants and a t-shirt that I found in the closet of my room. "Last chance to back out short stuff."

The man standing on the other side of the training room rolls his shoulders and gives me a cocky grin. "You only say that cause you don't know what happened to the last guy that said that." I take half a step back in surprise as four-foot metal claws extend from his hands. "Bub!"

When the tiny man with giant metal claws is lunging at me I take a moment to really think about the turn my life has taken, I should probably take the next moment to dodge.


	13. Friends I haven't met yet

_**AN: I'm annoyed cause everytime I put a page break in it never goes up right so I'm going to start marking how much time is passing in between each scene**_

I glare at the short, clawed man as I lean against the wall of the training room as I clutch my bleeding arm. How could I not glare as his leg cracks back into place as if I'd never broken it. "I hate you." He lets out half a laugh before stopping with a pained expression on his face that makes me grin. "Broken ribs heal slower huh?"

He gives me a grin "We'll see if your still laughing when I'm up tomorrow and you'll be cradling that arm of yours." I take a second to stop glaring as I survey the damage. My recently healed right arm is bleeding from two large scratches on my bicep and three smaller ones on my forearm pretty sure my ankle is sprained, and I might be concussed. I look up at the man again as he pushes himself to his feet using the wall as support for a few seconds before letting go. "You may be fast Parker, but you don't know the first thing about fighting."

I scoff, "You aren't exactly a martial arts master yourself, the hell do you know about fighting?"

He shuffles over to me and looks down with his cocky grin never leaving his face. "We'll I'm sure as hell better at picking my fights." If I thought I could I'd spring up and deal another punch to the face.

He holds his hand out to me, "You hungry kid?"

I look at the hand for a second before painfully shrugging and taking it, "I don't feel like going to the cafeteria."

With a pull he hauls me to my feet and I grit my teeth, Oh yeah that ankle is _at_ _least _ sprained. "Who said anything about the cafeteria?"

-twenty minutes later -

I take a sip of the drink in front of me and have to suppress a gag, I glance at the scantily clad girl dancing on the stage and avert my eyes to the man that somehow got me in here. "I thought we were getting lunch."

He doesn't even look away from the dancer as he starts his second drink, "We got food."

Again if I wasn't so hurt I think I'd strangle him. "This-" I point to the basket of chips on the table, "is not lunch!" Why the hell is a place like this even open at this hour?

He grabs a handful of chips while tossing a couple dollars on the stage, "Anything is lunch if you're hungry."

I just sigh and shove some chips in my mouth. They're actually not bad, I glance over at the ugly bastard that brought me here and a thought occurs, "What's your name?"

He takes another big gulp and lets out a belch, "Logan."

It sounds familiar but doesn't quite ring any bells, "If you're drinking so much how the hell are we gonna get back? If you're hoping I can drive a motorcycle then your wrong."

He chuckles a little at me while motioning to one of the servers to come over. "Relax kid, drink your beer, eat your chips and forget the small stuff for a while." A server wearing a tiny dress with giant high heels comes over and I watch warily as Logan whispers something to her. I am slightly alarmed when she giggles and walks over to me, "Peter this is Candy, she's gonna help you relax." I move to get up but wince as I put pressure on my ankle and sink back into the booth as 'Candy' slides up beside me. I wince as I down the rest of the beer in front of me. This is going to be a long day.

-the next morning-

I wake up on the floor of a strange room and panic for a second before realizing that I just moved in yesterday. There's a dull ache in the back of my head as I sit up wincing as I feel the still healing cuts on my arm. I stand up being careful not to put too much pressure on my still tender ankle as I stretch. Then I realize that this room is much bigger than mine.

I take a lf a step still trying to adjust to my surroundings when I feel and hear the crunch of an empty beer can underneath my foot. Now that I look around the whole place is littered with cans. I hear a sink turn on and slowly creep my way towards the sound, despite my danger sense I almost collide with Logan as he strolls out of the bathroom wearing jeans.

"Where the hell am I?"

Logan just raises an eyebrow at me as he walks past towards what looks like a bedroom, "Where the hell do you think?" He sniffs a white t shirt before throwing it over his head and looks at me as if he's surprised I'm still here, "Not my fault your drunk ass couldn't remember where your room is, should be thanking me for not leaving you in the hall."

I'd hurry up and get dressed if I was you, heard the professor wanted to speak with you."

Of course he does, annoyed and slightly hung over, I leave Logan's quarters as quick as possible to try and figure out exactly where I am in this maze of a mansion.

-Xavier's office-

I'm sitting very uncomfortably in one of the extremely comfortable chairs in front of the professors office, not because of the Xavier who is looking in my direction with a small frown, but because of Katherine who is in the other chair glaring at me.

"Ms. Pryde, Mr. Parker, I've asked you both here to speak of a sensitive matter." Thankfully his voice draws her gaze, "I'm sure that your time is valuable so I wont waste it by mincing words. You both have the power and instincts that with training I believe that you could one day join the ranks of the X-men. I'd like to make abundantly clear before I ask this that your answers are in no way related to your tenure here. As I said previously you both may call this place home for as long as you wish. That said, are you interested in standing up for the rights and liberties of both man and mutant along side me and the other X-men?"

The room is silent for a few seconds, just when I'm about to speak Kitty beats me to it. "I-i." She clears her throat, "If you would have me; yes, I'll join the X-men."

The professor smiles and nods in her direction before his gaze lands on me. With Katherine's answer said there's not much to think about, "Same."

I can't tell if he's pleased or not at my response, "I'm glad to hear so." He slides a key-card like the one Logan gave me across his desk towards Katherine. "This will allow you to access the lower floors. Mr. Parker I believe that you already have one?" I nod and hold up my card. "If you have no prior engagements I'd like to ask you to head to floor b1 and introduce your selves to the others."

A clear dismissal, I stand from my seat and move out the door, looking around this floor is empty except for myself and Kitty who is just closing the door to the professors study. "Kitty can we talk for a second?"

I've never seen her hazel eyes look at me so angry. "No, we can't Peter."

She goes to walk past me towards the elevator but I step in front of her, "Tell me what's going on, we're friends right? Why are you so mad?"

From the way her eyebrows shoot up and her glare intensifies that was probably the wrong question to ask. "Why the hell are you acting so normal, what the hell is wrong with you?! I-!" she lowers her voice from shouting to a near whisper, "I killed a man Peter! _**You**_set out to kill someone and because of it there's blood on _**my **_hands! Friends don't get their friends involved in the mob and then make them become murderers." Before I can get a word in to reply she phases through the floor, probably all the way down to b1.

I'm left there alone feeling a mix of anger and sadness. I take a moment to rest and lean against the wall as I take a deep breath. After a moment I push my self to my feet and step into the elevator, I've had no friends for most of my life, I'm not willing to give up on the one friend I have left.

-1 month later-

I leap up from my crouch and flip over the robot kicking off of the ceiling and launching myself towards the goal. My danger sense goes off and I twist my body midair to dodge a laser and land in the goal with a back flip.

I hear Scott's voice over the intercom _"45 seconds not bad Peter wash up and come to the meeting room." _Not bad? That's the third best time ever! In a race like this it's not as if I have any chance of beating Night Crawler or Shadow Cat's times. I think Kurt's record is two seconds, and Katherine's is ten.

-5 minutes later-

My hair is still a little damp from the shower when I step into the briefing room. Katherine, Kurt, Bobby, and Anna Marie aka 'Rogue' are all sitting in the briefing room with Scott standing a the front. I try to make eye contact with Katherine as I walk in the room but as soon as she notices me she turns towards Scott. I can't help but to let out a small sigh, this is the hardest I've ever tried to be someone's friend and after a month of the silent treatment it's an understatement to say that I'm getting frustrated. If it weren't for my lunches with Logan I think I'd have lost it by now. Or at least ditched the mansion, it's a fantasy I consider more seriously every time.

The screen behind Scott clicks on as I take my seat. "All right listen up everyone. We've got an assignment."

Finally!

An image of an ugly man wearing thick goggles appears on screen. In the picture he's using an extremely elongated tongue to throw a motorcycle. "This is Mortimer Toynbee aka Toad. One of Magneto's lieutenants in the Brotherhood." The image changes to a streetlight photo that shows Toad mid hop into the window of an old looking building. "He was spotted last night in New York. We're going to find out what he's doing there. All of us except two have run in with toad before." I glance over at Kitty again but she still childishly refuses to look at me. "Because this is a stealth mission, in order to best make sure that we're not noticed Shadow Cat and Spider will be doing the infiltration while the rest of us standby in the jet. Any questions?" No one says a thing. "Alright let's go X-men!"

-2 hours later-

"Remember you two aren't here alone, if anything happens we can be there at a moments notice." I glance over at Kurt and he nods. "Remember your there for reconnaissance nothing more, you raise the mayday at the first sign of trouble."

I can't help but scoff, to think that I went from running with the most dangerous criminals in New York to getting babied in less than a month. "We'll be fine Kitty and I can watch each others backs."

M grin drops when I turn to look at Katherine. She turns away from me and steps off of the jet with a few parting words, "Try not to kill anybody this time."

I can't help but wince as I leap off of the jet after her.

I spy her rising from the ground in an alley right around the corner from the target building and swing to a stop in front of her. This'll be the first time were alone since landing at that mansion. "Listen Kitty, before we go can we talk for a second?"

She doesn't even look at me as she walks past, "We've got a mission to do, maybe later." My shoulders sag just a bit, I suppose it's better than a 'no'."

We walk out of the alley and into the streets that are more crowded than usual with foot traffic. "At least blending in will be easy." It's when we start to make our way to the target building that I realize that it's a little too easy, everyone is going in the same direction. I thumb the communicator in my ear, "You guys mind telling me why two hundred people are all heading to Toad's 'secret' hideout?"

Scott's voice answers in my ear, _"No, just keep your heads down and go with the crowd, this may be more complicated than we anticipated." _

Why are things never simple?

I lose sight of Katherine as the crowd sweeps us away towards the abandoned building, no telling if that's intentional on her part or not. When the crowd finally settles we're in a large open area packed with I would guess around four hundred people. There's a stage of some sort set up but from where I am it's a little hard to see. My headset buzzes with Kitty's voice, _"I've got eyes on Toad, he's got friends too."_

Just a second later the room brightens as two large suspended monitors come to life broadcasting the stage so people in the back like me can see. I see Toad, along with a tall woman with blue skin a white dress and red hair, "He's with Mystique."

Scott's voice sounds tense when he replies, _"Are you sure? We had heard-"._

I interrupt him when a figure cloaked in iconic magenta armor with a billowing red cape walks onto the screen, "Magneto's here."

The line is silent for more than a couple seconds before we get a response, "If Magneto's here that means that this is big. We stick with the plan, stay with the crowd, when everyone starts to clear out you disappear. Under no circumstances do you engage Magneto understood?"

Kitty answers with a small amount of trepidation "Got it."

"_Peter, lay low you hear me?"_

As much as I hate being bossed around by Scott even I'm not dumb enough to think about fighting Magneto. "No problems here."

The entire crowd is silent as Magneto strolls into the room. The way he walks it's as if he expect people to follow, a confidence that's scary, along with the power to back him up. There are very few people that can pull this off. He walks to the microphone in the middle of the stage with Mystique and Toad on either side of him as he addresses the audience. "Look around you. These people, the faces that you see, these are your Brothers and Sisters. Too many of our family decide to separate them selves into groups fighting over petty things while our real enemies grow stronger. I can't let this continue any longer!"

The crowd erupts into cheer, although I can see not everyone is as thrilled, there are a few people that I can see that look about as nervous as I feel. There's one tall guy I see on my left in a trench coat that's sweating bullets.

The cheering dies down as Magneto raises his arm, "Now is the time for us to unite! The humans aren't so stupid as to ignore our superiority. They are as we speak plotting against us, creating newer machines to-"

My danger sense goes off and I dive to the right seconds before the man on my left rips open his trench coat, exposing black body armor and tosses several spherical objects around him screaming, "Die you Mutie bastards!"

The crowd erupts into panic as several explosions rock the building. Windows shatter as body armor clad people burst in through the entrances, exits, and even a few weapons, all with the letters F.O.H. emblazoned on their chests.

I roll to the ground to avoid a laser that flies past my face, and then jump to avoid a mutant with spikes sprouting from his body running towards an exit, He gores the trench coat guy who presses reaches into one of his pockets "For Humanity!" and the two are engulfed in flames.

"_What the hell is going on down there?! Get clear from the crowd, I'm sending Kurt for extraction."_

He doesn't have to tell me twice, I think about stopping to look for Katherine, but in this chaos I'd have almost no chance. With her powers though I'm sure she'll just waltz right out.

I shoot a web at the ceiling to get above the crowd and figure out how the hell I'm going to get out of here. With all the chaos happening my danger sense is going off constantly, which is why I'm not able to dodge fast enough when a large figure dressed in black tackles me mid air slamming me into one of the walls of the auditorium.

I feel a hand on my throat pressing me into the wall, the person holding me looks like a man in a full skin tight black suit with small holes for eyes, "Thought you could escape you filthy freak?"

I can't help but grin through the pain, "You just jumped ten feet in the air and tried to break concrete with my body and you think I'm the freak?"

I brace myself against the wall and manage to get my feet plated in his chest and kick as hard as I can. He does a flip in the air and lands crushing someone that was trying to flee in the process. He cracks his knuckles and looks up at me. "I just found a way to even the playing field."

"_Peter where are you? Get the hell out o-" _I rip the earpiece out and throw it to the side, I crack my neck as I ready myself sticking to the wall with just my feet.

This time when he jumps at me, I jump to meet him. The developing bruising on my neck shows that he's stronger than the average human, probably faster too, he's gonna have to do better than average to beat me.

Now that I' focused when we meet in the air my danger sense goes off and I'm able to see his fist as if he were moving in slow motion, I grab his wrist and web up his hands while I flip him over my body throwing him at the floor. Before he lands I've already attached webbing to the ground on either side of him and slingshot myself feet first towards the ground. He lands with a crash belly up and I follow him driving my feet into his chest.

I flip back and wait a second to see if he gets back up, when he doesn't I can't help but let out a little laugh, "I'd say your odds were less than even." I swing out of an open window putting the earpiece back in. Not noticing as the black of his suit sticks to the bottom of my shoe, leaving just another terrorist.

"_-amnit! Peter I swear to-" _

"Relax Scott I'm out side of the building on the northwest side."

Kurt appears seconds later to take me back to the jet.


End file.

Spider-Man, Adventure, Angst