Spider-Man: Blue Part 2 Of 6

Chapter 2 Let's Fall In Love

"Klik Wjhrrr Um… Where was I? I put down the tape recorder for just a second and… Huh… I lost my train of thought. I'm… I'm not sure who is ever going to listen to this, but this story our story is something that should be remembered. So here I am with this tape recorder that's so old, it probably my Uncle Ben's… talking to a girl that… That… Just like that thought I lost I can't get it back again. People stay with you for as long as you remember them. I don't want to forget you Gwen Stacy. Stay with me…"

Spider-Man hung upside down on a webline near a newsstand reading the Daily Bugle the headline Green Goblin Dies In Fire. Spider-Man Flees Police At Scene. The man at the stand was annoyed.

"This aint no lendin, library." He said "That's two bits for the paper."

"With all the news I make for J. Jonah Bonehead, you'd think id get a free subscription."

"Yeah whatever. Twenty five cents or I call a cop."

"The Green Goblin was dead. There it was in black and white. Of course, you've got to question anything you read in the Daily Bugle. After all according to them, I'm a menace. Me."

Spider-Man dropped a quarter on a webline.

"Thanks you can keep the change."

"Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

"Everybody's a comedian…" the man said as he removed the quarter and watched as the hero swung away.

Suddenly a shadow covered figure appeared near the man at the newsstand.

"Let me see that newspaper."

"Mister for twenty five cents you can own your very-"

The figure just grabbed it.

"T-Take it, I'm just trying to make a livin'-"

"Quiet."

The figure quickly read the article Spider-Man had been reading through.

"Then it is true, The Green Goblin is dead. Then that's bad for me and worse for Spider-Man."

The scene shifts to Professor Warren's class at the ESU campus.

"Now if I wasn't about to take the Daily Bugle's word, I certainly wasn't about to take the word of Norman Osborn himself. So I regularly "unintentionally" dropped by to visit Norman and oddly enough, more and more became friends with his son Harry. The closer I got to Harry at the hospital, the closer that meant back at college the closer I got to… you."

"Do you like what you see?" Gwen asked as she stared at Peter through a beaker as she sat next to a cluttered table in the classroom.

"Okay I admit at this point I wasn't the smoothest… you should try talking to Gwen Stacy sometime and see how you do.

"Um… Hi Gwen."

"The chemical reaction you got when you added the catalyst to the two polymers. Did you get the reaction you expected."

"At this point Gwen, I don't know what to expect."

"Hmm."

"Just because I had spider-sense didn't mean I had common sense"

"Well maybe we could or should get together for a study session…?"

"Sure how about… tonight…?"

"Eight O'Clock? The Silver Spoon?"

"You have to understand. I was just making the transition from Peter Parker bookworm to Pete's not such a bad guy and not everything was going to plan."

Flash suddenly showed up behind Gwen and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Ooo… and Flash Thompson picks off Parker's forward pass."

"More like pass interference, Flash." Gwen said

"I'd say it's off-sides, for sure." Peter added

Just watch yourself Parker. Just because Harry gives you a hall pass, doesn't mean you get a free ride.'

"Uh-Oh two metaphors in one day, Flash careful you don't hurt yourself—"

"Mister Parker." Warren interrupted

"Professor Warren-? Peter said facing his teacher.

"Do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

"Uh—No sir. I'm sorry, sir."

"Maybe if I separate you from your little social club back there, the rest of us could get some work done."

Flash grinned as he and Gwen watched Parker walk away.

"See you later, Parker like in another lifetime." Flash said

"Flash does anything ever get through that football helmet you have permanently strapped to your head?" Gwen said thoroughly annoyed

"You've got me wrong gorgeous, when Flash is off the field the helmet gets in stored.?"

"Along with what's in it."

Peter and Gwen's eyes meet as he briefly looks at her over his shoulder.

"And I remember being foolish enough to think let's fall in love."

An hour later Peter started swinging towards the Bugle.

"It was silly, really impossible Gwen Stacy interested in me?"

Meanwhile the Rhino was locked up at the police station in a room full of knockout gas. Two cops stood watching him through the glass.

"Can you believe they're going to let that thing into the courthouse?"

"Everybody gets his day. They don't know how to get that suit off, so he goes as he goes."

"Hate to think what happens if he wakes-"

"Suddenly a figure sneaks up behind them and smashes there heads together. He doesn't even watch them go down as he punches the air flush button. The Rhino groans as the gas starts to exit the cell.

A few minutes later Spider-Man is just one swing away from landing on the roof of the Bugle.

"As if my life weren't complicated enough, I knew that if I wanted to seriously take a run at dating Gwen, I'd have to be able to… Well… Pay for the dates. It wasn't just that either. I had college and the motorcycle and Aunt May and that meant my weekly go-around with J. Jonah Jameson.

Peter stood next Jameson as the publisher headed towards his office.

"What is it with you and money, Parker? Didn't I just pay you last week?"

"Sure and that was for the pictures I took last week. What about the ones from this week? Look Mister Jameson, all I'm asking for is an advance so my Aunt doesn't have to worry about the bills."

"Listen kid I used to have an Aunt who worried about money all the time too."

"Really what happened to her?"

"She died!" Jameson said as he slammed his office door closed.

At that moment Robbie showed up ready to help as always.

"Hello Peter. Don't let Jonah get you down his heart is in the right place."

"Yeah in somebody else's body…"

"Look, Um… The Rhino just busted out of Midtown and is tearing up Broadway."

"The Rhino?!"

"You get us some photos and I'll speak to Jonah."

"I won't let you down Robbie!"

"I know you wont Peter. I know you wont…"

"You see, this was the so called comedy of my life. I wanted a date wit h a girl like Gwen, but I didn't have the money, I could get the money, but only if I took some photos of the Rhino beating the snot out of me.."

"I Want Spider-Man!" The Rhino yelled surrounded by destroyed buildings

"Any way I did the math…"

Spider-Man slingkicked the villain from behind.

"It was worth it!"

"Yarh!"

"Geez, Rhino if you want to get together you don't have to wreck the city you could do it the way all supervillains do. Just send flowers and a note although a candy-gram is nice."

Spider-Man leapt over the Rhino's head as he charged oblivious to the figure watching the battle from above.

"There really wasn't much known about the Rhino at the time. He was unbelievably strong maybe the strongest guy I ever fought up till then.

"You think because of my size I'm slow." The Rhino said

Spider-Man punched him in the back of the head while upside down his feet sticking to a nearby wall.

"No I think because of your size you should lay off the fast food. If you ask me "do I look fat in this outfit?" You're not going to like what I have to say!"

The Rhino finally managed to deliver a might blow to the webslinger knocking him off the wall.

"This hide is what makes me the Rhino! This hide is what's going to kill you!"

Before Spider-Man could even get to his feet he was firing webs from both wrist at Rhino's head.

"Well then let's get you out of that old thing and into something more practical."

"Like a tutu." He added as he vaulted over the charging villain. Rhino proceeded to crash through the nearest building which quickly began to collapse ontop of him.

"Gotta hand I to you Rhino you really bring down the house!"

Spider-Man hanged upside down over the wreckage as he searched for his enemy in the rubble it wasn't long before the police showed up and Spider-Man found a small piece of the Rhino armor that had fallen off.

"That was a pretty brave thing, going one on one with that monster!" a cop said

"Thanks do me a favor an write a letter to the Daily Bugle."

"What is that thing?"

"I'm not sure… it looks like a piece of the Rhino's can you guys hold down the fort while I go check this out?"

"Take your time he's not going anywhere."

"Don't be so sure I'll be back as soon as I can."

As Spider-Man left the scene a small chunk of the rubble moved. The hero soon found himself in Connors Lab at ESU crouching on one of his desk. Connors was examining the chunk under a microscope when Spider-Man spoke up.

"What do you think doc?"

"I think… I know what were dealing with here…"

"I took the problem to Doctor Curt Connors. Poor doc if my life was made up of bad things turning good… his was the opposite. How else does a devoted family man who wanted only to regenerate his missing arm become… the very thing that would keep him from his wife and son?"

"It' a pretty sophisticated manipulation of actual Rhinoceros DNA and something similar to Kevlar or Adamantium. Self replicating not unlike… the genetic manipulation that brought about… my own problems."

"Can we separate the DNA bond? Introduce a catalyst that would create a chemical reaction with two polymers?"

"I keep forgetting that you have a background in science."

"Actually that one was courtesy of a pretty girl I know. How's your lady and the boy?"

Conner's used his one hand to unlock a freezer door.

"They're well, thank you. In fact I'm confident enough about my… condition that I've invited them up from Florida next week. I'd like to show them the city."

Spider-Man descended from the table as Connors removed some items from the freezer.

"Doc… in order to help me, you'll need to come into contact with the same chemicals—"

"That may or may not turn me into the Lizard? You said people's lives are at stake so long as the Rhino is free-"

"Sure, but…"

"Then Id say it's worth it wouldn't you?" Connors said as he gazed at a photo of his family as Spider-Man went to work with the compounds.

A half hour later the Rhino continued his rampage neither gunfire or police vehicles seemed to be able to stop him.

"You Cant Run From Me Spider-Man! I'll find you If I Have To Bring The Whole City Down."

Suddenly the Rhino was struck in the face with a thick stream of orange colored webbing.

"Hold it right there, young man." Spider-Man said as he fired more webbing at the armor on his head and neck "I leave you alone for a few minutes and look at this mess you've made." He leapt twenty feet over the Rhino's head and fired some webbing on the blinded enemies shoulders "You're not going anywhere until you've cleaned this all up." He fired more webbing as he hung on a line just a few feet from the struggling villain. "Then we're going to have a little talk about your allowance." He now hung inches from the face of the nearly mummified Rhino. "You're in a lot of trouble son."

Even restrained the Rhino continued to blindly thrash about.

"Uh-Oh." Spider-Man said as he leapt out of the way.

"Enough." Rhino said "Itsy" he punched Spider-Man in the chest "Bitsy" he knocked him over so hard he broke a fire hydrant "Spider." He finished as Spider-Man lay on the ground.

Spider-Man started to rise and saw that most of Rhino's armor had dissolved just as he had hoped.

"Gahh! What—What's happening to me?!"

"Well whatdya know? Down came the rain and washed the Rhino out. Hope you liked the special webbing a friend and I cooked up for you. I know it's not quite cupcakes, but didn't we talk about you weight?"

"Spider-Man moved in to deliver a blow to O'Hurn's gut.

"Guess what I just realized, Tubby for all your talk, your not so tough. You're just a big bully."

Spider-Man delivered an uppercut that knocked off what little remained of his enemies head armor.

"I know something about being bullied."

O'Hurn collapsed to the ground.

"More than anybody me age should know."

As Spider-Man left the scene he was oblivious to a figure that had watched the battle from a nearby rooftop

"That night I had aches and pains in places I didn't think could have aches and pains. But I had beaten the Rhino the strongest brute this side of the Hulk and all I could think about was how a little innocent comment from Gwen had saved the day."

"Once again a figure stands outside the Parker home waiting.

"Maybe it was only going to be a study session, but the way I looked at it, every second I could spend with Gwen, I was the luckiest guy in town."

Peter walked down the stairs in a suit to go out to his "study session."

"Okay Aunt May! I'll be back later so don't wait up-"

He stopped as he saw Aunt May serenely standing between himself and the door.

"Or stand there… Aunt May is there something wrong?"

"Wrong? Oh, heavens no. I was just thinking how handsome you look."

"Yeah but who'd notice when I'm standing next to the prettiest girl east of the Mississippi?"

"It's just that you took so much time to get ready and here you are… all just to meet Mary Jane Watson."

"I… did? Peter said with a surprised expression on his face.

"Oh Peter, your too funny."

Ding Dong

"Why…here she is now…"

"Mary Jane Watson was Anna Watson's niece. The sort of girl I pictured as "She has very nice friends" and "she makes homemade soup" and "she can knit." Believe me, all that was on my mind was, how long could it take? I'd be polite and greet this nice whatever and be on my way and maybe, just maybe, id be a little late and Gwen would understand."

His aunt opened the door.

"How long…"

"Peter this is Mary Jane Watson."

"could it…"

"You're Mary Jane Watson?" Peter asked amazed as he stared at the most gorgeous redhead the eighteen year old had ever seen.

"take?"

"Face it, Tiger you just hit the Jackpot!"

"And all at once, Gwen I didn't think you'd understand at all…"