Chapter 4

At least Peter tried to go home. Jameson caught him as he passed the Daily Bugle.

"Peter Parker. Just the person I wanted to see! There's still a job open for you at the Bugle you know. Just come to me, any day any time!" Peter waved to him but didn't slow down.

"Thanks Mr. Jameson! I'll be thinking about it." He hoped he wasn't passed Aunt May's time limit for him to be out. She'd been a little over concerned with late homecomings since Uncle Ben's death. Not that peter could blame her. The bad parts of New York City were just terrible after sunset. Heck, if he weren't Spidey, he wouldn't even go there in the daytime. Period.

As he passed his house, Peter saw something moving in a corner of a dead end alley. He moved to check it out. Harry Osborne walked out of the shadows. Then he remembered. This had been a place special to the two of them. They had sat and talked for hours in an old empty dumpster as Peter cried.

Harry had consoled him here after Uncle Ben's death. They'd made a promise to each other that this would be where they'd meet for comfort from similar tragedies and that the next time Harry needed to talk to a friend, Peter was the person to talk to and this would be the place. By the look on Harry's face, the time had come. Now the roles were switched. Peter rushed forward,, aware even as he was doing so that he had no idea what to say or do. Whenever he'd had to comfort and encourage his team, he'd seen what they needed and how to help them. But Harry wasn't a superhero, wasn't his team. Harry was Peter's best friend and now he didn't know how to help him.

"Pete," Harry started. "My dad's the Green Goblin. You know that already though right? Anyway, he's gone crazy again and he wants Venom. I can't get the symbiote out of my system and I can feel it trying to pull on me. I want you to know that I don't blame Spiderman anymore, some guy called Iron Fist had a chat with me and explained everything. Just, talk to Spidey and get him to help ok?"

"Yeah ok Harry. You wanna talk about it?"

He and Harry sat in the old dumpster for another hour or so. Harry going on about his fear of Venom, his love for his father that was never returned, since his mother had died giving birth to him, his sadness over his father being the Goblin. He started crying at one point, but after a few minutes he pulled himself back together. After this encounter, Peter realized that it was almost midnight and Aunt May was likely to be profusely worried. She might even ground him, and Aunt May never grounded him. That would put his mission at risk. Ugh, sometimes being a superhero was a huge problem for his family.

Sure enough, when he walked in, Aunt May rushed over and checked him for any kind of injury "Peter Parker, where have you been?" She asked in a small voice that he'd never ever heard her use before. "Uh, late night bowling." It was a statement but it sounded like a question. He cringed a little inside at that. She just stared at him. "No? Uh, let me think up a better excuse."

"No way buster! You're grounded until you tell me the truth." Uh oh. Looked like the end of that one. He'd have to tell her, or she'd jeopardize his mission. But telling her about the mission would jeopardize her.

(Mini cartoon in Peter's head)

"Aunt May, I'm sorry to tell ya this, but I'm Spidey. Look, wall crawling, suit, you know, the works. I have a mission that I have to go on that could kill me, my boss doesn't even know about it, and I have to leave tonight so if you ground me... well someone could die."

"Peter Parker... I don't know what to say, but I know what to do. It pains me but I'm turning you over to the authorities! To think my own nephew is such a public danger."

"Nonononono! Aunt May, you don't understand! Let me explain!"

(spidey screech)

Nope. Not an option. Now he was really stuck.