Authors Note: This is a sequel to The Car. You do not need to have read it in order to follow this story, but it fills out the characters better.
Disclaimer. I do not own Spider-ma/Peter Parker. However I do own, Vinny, Joey, and Dr. Jackson, and the storyline.
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"Hey, Vinny!"
The rookie cop turned around and looked up. "Hey, Spidey! How's it hanging?"
Spider-man using his feet to stick to the wall and his knees as leverage, lifted his hands off the wall and tilted his head. The smirk almost visible behind the mask.
Rubbing his neck, Officer Vinny called up, "Do you think you can come down, so I don't get a permanent kink in my neck?"
Gracefully, the red and blue clad hero somersaulted down. He thrust his hand forward and grasped the police officer's hand, giving it a hearty shake. Vinny pulled him into a quick bear hug with a slap on the back. "Hey Spidey, long time no see."
Standing back and studying the cop in uniform, Spider-man asked, "So, how's the job working out?"
"Love it. You know ever since you saved my bacon back at the warehouse, I knew that this is what I should be doing with the rest of my life. When I got out of the academy, I decided I didn't want to be one of those stone-faced cops that people were afraid of approaching. I wanted kids to be able to run up to me at anytime knowing that I'm their friend and that I'm here to help."
And as if on cue, two kids road by on bikes, "Hey Officer Vinny! Whoa, you know Spider-man!" They slammed on their brakes and coasted over to talk to their human hero and super hero. They ended up just staring at Spider-man, with mouths agape.
"Timmy, Carmine, I want to introduce you to my friend Spider-man." Vinny stated.
Neither kid moved.
"Hi guys," Spidey said waving a red gloved hand.
They sat on their bikes staring.
Spider-man shot webbing into the air, allowing it to float down on top of their heads, his personal silly-string. That seemed to have broken their trance. "Oh cool," they said in unison as they played with the semi-sticky substance.
While they played with it, Vinny pulled Spider-man aside before the crowd of gawkers grew. "I wanted to let you know, I met someone."
"Yeah? Is she nice?"
"Real nice. And I won't have met her if you hadn't straightened me out. So nice in fact, I'm gonna pop the question but…" he paused, "I want you to come to the wedding."
Seeing a crowd already gravitating towards them, Spidey said, "Vinny, I am honored. Really. But I don't want to cause a commotion at your wedding. And as you can see," he nodded towards the onlookers, "I draw a crowd. But I'll tell you what. I have a buddy, a photographer, he'll do your wedding for nothing. Then I get to see the pix he took. His name is Peter Parker."
"The Bugle photographer? He'd do that for us?"
"You bet. I know he would love to. Say, how's Joey?"
"Doing good. He studies hard, hangs with good kids. Stays outa trouble mostly. He'll be sorry he missed you."
"If he's around, I can pay him a visit."
Vinny smiled, "He'd like that. He's always talking about you. How great you are." Then sheepishly added, "But he doesn't talk much how he got to meet you. I think he doesn't want to embarrass me, now that I straighten out my act and became a cop. Last I saw him today, he was hanging close to home."
Seeing the crowd growing, Spider-man said, "I'd better be going before a riot starts. I'll do a fly-by to see if Joey's around."
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Sitting in the middle of the apartment roof, Joey and Tony had secreted up there out of sight of parents and nosey neighbors.
"Whatcha got?" Tony asked.
"It's my brother's gun."
"Your brother let you have the gun?" Tony exclaimed wide eyed.
"No way, he'd kill me if he knew I had this. I'm gonna put it back, I just wanted to show it to you." Joey caressed the weapon.
"I thought he's on duty, how'd you get it?"
"It's his off-duty piece. He hardly ever brings it out. I asked him if he would take me shooting one day. He told me he wanted me a little older. Don't you think I'm old enough to learn how to shoot?" the 10 yr old asked his buddy.
"Sure. Why not."
Subconsciously fingering and playing with the weapon, Joey asked, "Hey, did I ever tell you howcum Vinny became a cop?"
"Uh, uh."
"He was a real asshole a couple years ago. Picked on me all the time. I used to hide in an abandoned car. One day, Spider-man showed up at the car and started talkin' to me. Like I was a real somebody. He sat down and asked me questions. I was tryin' not to let him know what was wrong, but he was so, like, ordinary about it that before I knew what happened, I told him everything. Next thing…….he scares the pants off Vinny when he comes after me again."
"Vinny became a cop because Spider-man went after him?" Tony asked.
"Nah, Spider-man saved his life. He got wrapped up with the wrong gang, went to rob a warehouse. I knew it was bad. Real bad and I found, um, looked for Spider-man to let him know. Hey. My brother was an A-1 jerk, but he was still my brother. I didn't want him dead and all. Anyway, the warehouse thing was a setup and it was blown to smithereens. Spider-man got Vinny outa there in the nick of time. Things started to get better after that. Pop started listening to Vinny, and I dunno, things just got better."
"Cool. Did you ever see Spider-man again?"
"Yeah, lots of times. He stops by sometimes to say hi. He showed up at Vinny's graduation from cop school, but only me and Vinny knew, he was hiding in the back. But I haven't seen him lately."
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"Gee, I haven't seen Joey in a while. I should keep in touch with him better," Spider-man thought as he swung through the soon-to-be-hot day. Lightly touching down on the roof of a tall building he peered over, checking into some of the places that he had seen Joey hang out. Since the boy wasn't at the first two stops, he continued on. He swung over another block and checked the rooftops of the lower buildings from his high vantage point. A smile, although hidden, came to his face. He saw two boys sitting in the middle of the roof, doing whatever young boys do. He couldn't tell from that distance if it was Joey or not, but he thought he'd head closer to check them out.
His spider-sense screamed and the smile disappeared like tigers in a magician's cage. Those boys had a gun. He couldn't tell if it was loaded but the way they were handling it, they did not know guns. Besides, he felt that no one that age should have a gun. Rocketing to action, he started a free fall dive to get to the roof as fast as possible, webbing at the last second to prevent him crashing. Halfway to his destination he recognized his young friend, and screamed out his name.
"JOEY!"
Shocked at the sudden outburst from nowhere, the boy fumbled the gun.
It fell and went off.