A/N: This is the second movie installment, and once again, I own nothing. Characters belong to Stan Lee and Marvel.
Perenna Parker rode up on an old Kawasaki; the engine puttering and coughing. She knew it was going to keel over an day now, a hotbox with the Mineo's pizza logo on it. He leapt off the Kawasaki and ran into the pizzeria as her pager beeped.
She hurtled to the front counter, frantic and out of breath as she yanked the pager out of her pocket. "Sorry! Mr. Aziz, I'm sorry."
Mr. Aziz, the store owner, hung up the phone and the pager topped beeping. "Twenty-one minutes ago, in comes an order from the high-quality law firm of Foehn, Harmattan & Buran for seventeen extra deep-dish pizzas. In eight minutes, I am defaulting on the Mineo's twenty-nine minute guarantee." He started and Perenna glanced over at the numerous banners proclaiming the same thing. "Then not only will I be receiving no money for these pizzas, I will lose the customer forever to Pizza Yurt. And they are killing me already."
"Why did you send Salim?" Perenna asked.
"Salim was deported yesterday. I have no hope but you. You must make it in time." Mr. Aziz said shoving the pizzas at Perenna, stacking them in her arms until her face is covered up by the boxes in height. "You are a nice young woman, Perenna, but you are not dependable. This is the last chance I can give you. You must cross forty-two blocks in seven and one half minutes. Or your ass is to be fired."
Perenna checked the clock in the store and it read 5:44 pm. Seem her stop to the Bugle to drop off her pictures was going to be a short one. She ran out to her bike, and dumped the hotbox and she climbed on it. She kicked it, but nothing happened. Feeling somewhat incredulous, she kicked it again. "I don't believe this!" she yelled. She kicked it one last time and it sputtered to life, and she was off.
The wind whipped around her face as she raced down the street. She halted suddenly and checked her watch. 5:47. She sighed heavily as she saw that a van collided with a Town Car, the drivers on the street shouting and threatening each other. The passenger of the car got out too and the three men came to blows.
Perenna shook her head and hopped her bike onto the sidewalk. Only a second later did she realize what a mistake it was. Perenna saw an old lady in a wheel chair and hit the brakes, swerving to avoid the lady. She kicked wildly at the starter as the bike stalled. She glanced at her watch again. 5:48.
Perenna leapt off the bike and with a mighty heave, she wrenched the hotbox right off the back of the motorcycle, snapping bolts and twisting the metal of the bike. She quickly looked around before ducking into an alley.
She swung out of the alley after shedding her clothes to reveal her costume and put her mask on; she really to find a better transport than stuffing her clothes into the hotbox. Not in the pizzas of course. She had the hotbox under her left arm and was forced to swing one-handed. Her destination is the Woolworth building, but her spider senses tingle as she looked down and saw two boys chasing each other and a basketball into the street, and don't notice the car coming at them.
Spider-Woman heaved the box away as it arcs heavenward and with both hands now free, she shot a strand of web and a lasso of web encircles the boys and yanks to the opposite side of the street and set them on their feet. The car passed them, horn honking and the boy are looking daze, one of the them catching the ball as a red and blue blur shot passed them and they look up into the sky.
Spider-Woman caught up to the hotbox as it rapidly moved earthward and snagged it with a web and dragged it back up. She saw the Woolworth building looming ahead and snagged its pinnacle, and arcs around it, circling in.
Spider-Woman came in through a window and when she saw that no one was near, he quickly put her clothes back on, took her mask off, and rushed into the office out of breath, her hair still looking dishevelled and wearing a big grin. "Pizza time!" Perenna chimed as she put the pizzas on the desk.
The receptionist though stared at her, then at the pizzas, disgust showing on their face. Perenna looked down and sees there's a glob of webbing on the top box. She wiped it away sheepishly. "Sorry."
A
After retrieving her Kawasaki, Perenna headed back to Mineo's Pizza and strutted in with a grin. "Mr. Aziz! I'm back-I-"
Mr. Aziz whirled around from behind the counter. "You are fired, that is what you are. The pizzas arrived three minutes late! Perenna, the twenty-nine minute guarantee is a promise. I know a promise means nothing to you, but to me it is serious."
Perenna winced. "It's serious to me too, Mr. Aziz. Honestly. Please, I need this job, please give me another chance.
Mr. Aziz shook his head and Perenna gave up. Maybe she could still sell her pictures at the Bugle. That was worth a shot.
A
"Parker, you're fired!"
Perenna tried not to scowl as her stack of photos are tossed back at her. She thinks there very nice, even maybe a little too nice.
"Dogs catching Frisbees in the park…some fat old geezer playing chess…autumn leaves." Jameson continued.
"I was thinking maybe the Bugle could shoe another side of New York for a change-" Perenna tried to explain.
"Parker, if I believed for one second those pictures were an accurate reflection of this town, I'd hang myself from the top of the Chrysler Building." Jameson retorted. "I don't pay you to be a sensitive artist! I pay you because for some reason that psycho Spider-Woman will pose for you."
"Well, it's like I told, Mr. Jameson. Spider-Woman won't let me take anymore pictures of her. She says you only use them to slander her, and try to turn the whole city against her." Perenna explained as calmly as she could.
"A fact I'm very proud of!" Jameson boasted. "Having that lunatic around has weakened the moral fibre of New York! The police are demoralized! The citizens lazy! Now get your pretty little "portfolio" out of my face before I go into a diabetic coma!"
"Mr. Jameson, please. You can't fire me. Even working two-worked-jobs I can barely make tuition, and Aunt May's social security doesn't amount to…" Perenna trailed off as Jameson mimes tying a noose around his neck, threw his head back, and thrusts his tongue from his mouth. Perenna folded.
Though she felt very annoyed. "What is-all right, what if I did have a shot of Spider-Woman?" she questioned as she reached into her backpack and took out a manila folder. She slide out a fantastic shot of Spider-Woman saving a nun from an oncoming meat truck.
Jameson eyed the photo hungrily. "It stinks. I'll give you three hundred."
He reached for it, but Perenna snatched it back. "No. there's no way I can sell you this shot...until you agree to run more balanced coverage of Spider-Woman."
"I take my journalistic responsibility to present balanced coverage very seriously Parker, you know that. Fine. I'll give you four. I'll nominate you for a goddamn medal, Parker. You have my word."
"Five." Perenna countered.
"That's outrageous." Jameson said. "Done." Perenna let go of the photo and has a sinking feeling that she just made a very big mistake. "All right, you've wasted enough of my precious time, Parker. Get lost."
"Time. Right." Perenna nodded and exited the office. She took the slip over to the receptionist Betty Brant and hoped against hope that this covered the advance she had asked for. She failed to notice the blond standing nearby though.
"Hey Perry." Betty said.
Perenna smiled. "Hello Betty, is this enough to cover my advance?"
Betty took the offered slip of paper and Perenna held her breath. After a moment, Betty nodded. "Lucky you didn't ask for much, huh?"
"You have no idea." Perenna said letting out her breath. She walked away with putting her check in her pocket and checking her watch. 6:25. Perenna walked into the elevator and the door was about to close when a hand stopped it and the blond from the office stepped in.
Perenna felt distinctly uncomfortable as she tried to look at anything other than the person standing next to her. She had only met Eddie Brock twice in the year she had been work-er freelancing for the Bugle, and on both occasions he had always looked at her weirdly. It actually reminded her of the way Harry had looked at her after her 'change.'
What was with that anyway?
"So, you doing anything?"
Now it was Perenna's turn to stare. Did he just…? No, she must have misheard that's all. After all, she couldn't get a date to save her life. But that had been before her 'change' hadn't it? And that was with the same gender. Things were different now, right? Part of life was too experiment, yeah? She should still make sure though.
"Excuse me?"
Brock looked faintly annoyed. "I said; are you doing anything?"
"I know what you said," Perenna stated, "what I want to know is why."
"You're kidding, right?" Brock questioned with a look of disbelief. Perenna's answer was only an owlish blink. Muttering under his breath about "denseness," he restated his question. "Would you like to get something to eat?"
"Oh." Perenna replied. Now she felt conflicted, but if M.J could move on, so could she. Though that ache in her heart would always be there. Still, maybe spending time with the opposite gender-besides Harry-would do her some good. If only some. "Uh, sure."
The elevator dinged as it reached the bottom floor and Perenna stepped out and follwed Brock out the doors, a slight look of apprehension coming over her face. Whether or not this was a 'real' date, she was still nervous as hell.
