Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-Man- the character was created by Marvel Comics and this version appeared in the movie directed by Sam Raimi-, nor do I own the Charmed Ones, who were created by the very talented Constance M. Burge
Feedback: This is a risky story I'm attempting; I'd like to know it's appreciated
.elementbabe.: Just luck, I guess
Wolflver: Well, the date is here, and believe me, something is going to go wrong…
SlayerWitchGilmoreGirls: You asked, and you shall receive
Sean Malloy-1: That'll be happening pretty soon; if not this chapter, than the next one… And yes, the Coven is going to get their heads handed to them
Sara Wolfe: Here you are- and, yeah, it was a pretty stupid thing to ask
SpartanCommander: Yeah, I heard a bit about those, but I'm setting this in the movieverse, so those events never happened; I just want a Spidey with no experience in dealing with something that isn't scientific in nature
Webs and Witches
Standing at the street corner near the restaurant, Peter, dressed in a blue-and-cream checked shirt and blue jeans, glanced at his watch again. Still six-fifty-five; Paige wasn't due to arrive for at least five minutes at the moment.
Nervously, Peter checked his wallet for money, relieved to note that he still had a decent amount on him; a hundred and forty dollars. He'd need to be careful about how much he ate, but, if all went well, he should manage to cover their dinner himself and still have a bit of money left over for the future…
"Hey!" a voice called out from down the street.
Peter turned and smiled as he saw Paige running towards him…
And his jaw almost dropped as he saw the clothes she was wearing. Tight black leather pants that hugged her slender, elegant legs… a dark brown blouse with the top two buttons undone in a manner that showed her slender neck while also showing teasing images of the lacy bra over her breasts…
Only one word crossed the mind of Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, at that moment.
Wow.
Maybe he could see about moving down to San Francisco…
"Hi, Pete," Paige smiled as she finally reached him, smiling slightly at the reaction her new clothes appeared to have provoked in him; evidently, she'd chosen well when picking out her outfit for this evening.
"You look… um… nice," Peter said, smiling at her with a slightly sheepish grin on his face, as though embarrassed at his earlier behaviour.
"Thanks," Paige said, looking him over briefly. "You look good too," she smiled at him, before offering her arm to him. "Shall we?" she asked, in a slightly mock posh accent.
"Why, we shall," Peter replied in a similar accent, taking the arm and walking into the restaurant.
About twenty minutes later, Peter and Paige were tucking into their chosen dishes; Paige had selected medium roast pork with vegetables, and Peter was tucking into a plate of spaghetti bolognas.
"That looks good," Paige commented, indicating the spaghetti as she cut a piece of her pork. "You know, bolognas has always been an old favourite of mine back home."
"Really?" Peter asked, looking back at her. "Then why didn't you order it?"
"Well, you know, I've had my sister's home-made stuff for so long, normal bolognas sauce just doesn't really taste the same," Paige said, as Peter began to put some spaghetti on his fork. "She used to be a chef; did I mention that?"
"No, you didn't," Peter replied, as he swallowed his spaghetti and looked back at her. "Which one?"
"The one who owns the nightclub- her name's Piper, by the way," Paige added, as Peter swallowed his spaghetti. "She made most of her money in the chef business for about a year, but opened the club with some financial help from her other sisters- before I met them, by the way- and it's been going strong ever since."
"Not bad," Peter said, smiling at her. "I'll have to remember to drop by sometime; sounds like it's definitely worth checking out."
"Trust me; it is," Paige smiled, before looking at him curiously, a more serious overall expression on her face. "How about you? How'd you get into the photography business?"
Peter shrugging in an apparently casual manner; he'd practiced his cover story in the event it was ever needed several times before now.
"Well, I was working my way through college, but stuff kept on coming up that stopped me from keeping to any regular work hours," he explained, as Paige cut up her stake and swallowed the piece in question. "Then I saw an ad in the Daily Bugle- you know, the newspaper- asking for photographs about Spider-Man and promising good money, and I thought I'd give it a try. It went down well, and I've stayed with the Bugle ever since." He smiled slightly at the thought. "The publisher can be a bit of a pain at times, but at least the money isn't too bad."
"Mmm," Paige said, nodding in agreement as she swallowed another bit of stake before looking back at Peter. "You know, my sister and I saw one of your photos of Spider-Man in the Daily Bugle; good job, I have to say." She raised an inquiring eyebrow at him. "How do you do that?"
"Oh… um… just luck, I guess," Peter said, trying to conceal his surprise at the question; normally he didn't have to deal with any questions about his photographs.
Then again, most of the people he met these days had known him a while before he started taking photographs, so they were prepared to ignore little details like how he did it, knowing he'd tell them if he wanted to.
"Really," Paige said, in a manner that suggested to Peter that she was going to get back to that eventually, but was prepared to ignore it for the moment.
"So," Paige said, deciding she might as well try a direct approach, "those disappearances… you think he is involved in them?"
Peter shook his head. "Nah; not Spider-Man," he said, a quite certainty in his voice as he looked back at Paige. "I may know him more in a… well, professional capacity, I admit… but he wouldn't do this sort of thing."
"You're sure?" she asked him.
Peter nodded.
"Positive," he said, in a tone that made it clear that, as far as he was concerned, that was the end of the matter.
Paige nodded slightly as she turned back to her steak. Her Whitelighter side may not give her the ability to know when someone was telling the truth, but she could hear the sincerity in Peter's voice easily enough; he was absolutely certain that Spider-Man couldn't be behind these disappearances.
But why? Paige thought to herself, as she and Peter put off conversation for a few moments as they continued to eat. What makes him so sure that Spider-Man can be trusted…?
Shaking her head, Paige stood up, putting her knife and fork on either side of the plate and looking up at Peter.
"Sorry; gotta go," she said, smiling at him. "Call of nature, you know."
Peter smiled in understanding. "Fair enough," he assured her. "I'll be here when you get back."
As Paige left the table, Peter turned back to his spaghetti, already musing on Paige's odd question earlier. He didn't like to sound big-headed, but if she'd known about him having taken the Spider-Man photos when he'd met her, she'd probably have asked him about it earlier.
But she didn't even seem all that interested in the actual photographs; she'd seemed more curious about the disappearances rather than how he managed to take the photographs…
Then a sudden sharp burst hit his spider-sense, and he quickly scanned the restaurant, already willing to hit whoever had caused it; just once, he'd like to be able to enjoy a quite night out with a beautiful girl without his other life getting involved somehow…
Then his eyes fell on the cause of the alert; at least, his spider sense was giving off stronger signals now that he was looking in the direction of these guys. The subjects appeared to be two tall men in business suits, apparently well built under the fancy outfits, one with close-cropped brown hair and another with longer ginger hair, and both had a gleam in their eyes that didn't strike Peter as being a good thing…
And they were following Paige!
Getting up, Peter pulled out his wallet, tossed some money onto the table in case this took longer than he was expecting, and headed off towards the gents'. If he was going to tackle these guy, he'd prefer to do it in his costume; at least then he wouldn't face any awkward questions from Paige…
As Paige washed her hands at the sink, she smiled slightly at the thought of her date. She had to admit, despite the annoying fact of the disappearances still hanging over her and her sisters, she was enjoying her time here in New York. Charmed business to attend to or not, she was still grateful for the chance to spend time with Peter.
Who knows? Paige thought to herself, smiling. Maybe I can find some way to keep seeing him when we go back. After all, I can orb…
Then there was the sound of a door opening, and Paige found pinned to the ground as a large form suddenly grabbed her arms and trapped them behind her back, as another hand forced itself over her mouth.
"You should never have come here, Charmed One," a voice said in Paige's ear. "Now…"
Paige swallowed as she felt a dagger at her neck.
"You die," the voice said, as he chuckled slightly while stroking the dagger lightly over her neck.
"Oh, and I wouldn't recommend trying to orb out," another voice said, as a gold-and-green amulet was suddenly dangling in front of her eyes. "We neutralized your abilities with this; you can't do anything while this is active."
Paige couldn't believe this; this was how she was going to die? In a bathroom, cornered by a couple of randoms who she knew nothing about, for no reason that she knew of, unable even to try and fight back because of a stupid amulet?
She could only hope they wouldn't go after Peter once they'd killed her…
Suddenly, something seemed to land on the ground beside them; at least, Paige heard the light slap of something hitting the ground some way away.
"Hey, would you guys care to step away from the lady?" a voice said from off to one side. The two men holding Paige down turned to look in the direction of the voice, Paige glancing in the direction herself…
And was amazed to see a pair of red skintight boots- although covered in a black web-like pattern- below a pair of blue… tights, for lack of a better term.
"Spider-Man?" the men said in surprise, accompanied by Paige.
What's he doing here…? Paige asked herself.
"The one and only," the web-slinger replied, slightly tensed as though ready to spring into action at any moment as he stared at his new foes. "Now, do you want to do this the easy way, or does this have to get nasty?"
He sighed in an exaggerated manner as he looked around at the two men. "Although I'd really prefer if it didn't have to; I'd rather not have vandalising the woman's toilets of such a nice place on my record, even if it is because of you guys."
The two men looked at each other, then, looking back at Spider-Man, roared- literally roared- at him, and leapt towards him, sending him crashing into the wall outside the door into the toilet…
And leaving Paige free.
As he crashed against the wall, his throat in the clutches of one of the men while the other grabbed one of his arms, only one thought crossed Spider-Man's mind as he stared at their faces, now suddenly twisted into an almost dog-like appearance- gleaming eyes in sunken eye sockets, sharp teeth, a slightly protruding forehead…
Ah crap.
He didn't know what these guys were, but he thought he'd be correct if he started with the assumption that they weren't human and worked his way up from there.
The question was, what were they? Mutants? Aliens of some kind? The results of some freakish genetic experiment?
Then one of them- the one holding him by the throat- raised up a hand with some kind of glowing energy ball in it, and Spider-Man decided he'd be best to place his cards in the 'mutant' category until further notice; it was the one that made most sense. In desperation, he lashed out with his free left fist (They must have been in too much of a rush to pin everything) and struck the ball-wielding 'mutant' in the chin, sending it staggering back and causing it to lose its grip on his throat. Landing on the ground, Spider-Man yanked his right arm towards himself- the other mutant still holding it in a death grip- and lashed out with a punch that met his foe's nose with a satisfying crunch-
"Athame!" a voice cried out from behind him. Spider-Man spun around, instinctively acknowledging that his current foe would be out of it for a short while at least, and saw, to his surprise, a knife in the other 'mutant's' hand disappear in a swirl of blue lights…
And reappear in Paige's hand, from where she was standing right behind the man in question; evidently she'd recovered from the earlier attack.
"Paige?" Spider-Man said before he could stop himself.
Paige looked up at the red-and-blue figure in front of her in surprise at that last comment.
He knew her? But how…
Then the warlock whose knife she'd just stolen spun around to face her, and Paige didn't have any more time to ponder that little mystery; she just lashed out with a quick punch with her right hand, following it up by stabbing him in the chest with the athame.
"NO!" Peter cried out, as the knife plunged into the man's chest. The wall-crawler raised his arm, ready to fire off a burst of webbing to stop Paige's arm, knowing, even as he attempted it, that it was a doomed attempt, that the man was already dead…
And then, as the knife struck his chest, the web-slinger could only watch in amazement as the man…
Burst into flames?
There could be no mistake about it; flames were indeed spreading across the man's entire body. His arms, legs, face…
All burning up.
Just as Peter was turning to look at Paige, ready to ask her what, exactly, had just happened in front of him, there was a sudden blare in his spider-sense…
And the 'mutant' he'd been fighting earlier kicked him in the small of his back, forcing him forward sharply even as it grabbed him by the forehead, apparently aiming to break his neck…
At least, that was what might have happened if the 'mutant' (Or whatever he was; Peter was pretty sure that no natural mutation would cause the subject to combust after being killed) hadn't somehow managed to grab Peter's mask so hard that he pulled it off rather than snapping his neck.
Peter didn't even stop to worry about the fact that he was unmasked in his Spider-Man costume; he just spun around and lashed out at his opponent, hitting him in the face again with such force that the man's head was knocked back, accompanied by a sharp crack…
And then there was another glow of blue light, and there was a knife in his chest, like the one that had put an end to the life of his colleague. As the fire spread across his body, Peter pulled his mask out of the 'man's' hand with a webline, and then turned around…
To meet Paige's wide, startled eyes.
"Peter?" she whispered in surprise.