As the three boys returned to Peter's apartment, Peter felt his cell phone buzz in his pocket. He hurriedly dug it out, his heart sinking as he saw that it was, indeed, a message directly from his laptop. He didn't bother to read it, but he knew that it meant that somewhere in the city, a crime was being committed.

"I just thought of something I…have to…go do," he said lamely, halting and tugging off his backpack. He pulled out the books that Ned, Wade, and himself had checked out from the library and handed them to his two companions. "You guys take these home. I'll be there in…an hour or so. Probably."

"What are you doing?" Ned demanded, annoyance entering his voice.

Peter felt guilty for abandoning his best friend, especially with Wade, but shot him a meaningful look. After everything he knew and had seen, Ned should have known better than to question him in front of those who didn't know about his secret identity.

"I'm going to stop by the grocery store," he answered slowly, cramming as much hidden meaning into his words as possible.

"I already went," Wade reminded him, his expression confused.

"I'm checking to see if they have a rare…spice," Peter managed.

Wade nodded slowly, his expression unreadable. Ned's eyes suddenly - finally - widened in realization.

"What'd you get at the library, Wade?" he asked casually, turning and starting down the street at a good pace so that Wade would be forced to hurry to follow him.

Peter ducked down an alleyway as soon as both of them looked away, hoping that, if Wade were to look back, he would assume that Peter had simply disappeared into the crowd.

He grabbed his spidey suit and wasted no time in webbing his backpack high up enough on the wall of one of the buildings so that nobody could reach it - except for himself, of course. Then he hastened to change into his suit, and scaled the wall easily.

His phone had said that there had been a 911 call coming from a nearby locally owned pet store. Why someone would steal from a pet store, Peter wasn't sure, but he had to stop them.

Peter webbed his way across town, arriving at the scene of the crime only a few minutes after receiving the initial distress text. The police were already there, aiming their guns at the building. So, can't take the front entrance, then.

Spider-Man stayed low to the roof as he crept towards the store. He didn't want anyone to know that the spider-like hero had arrived - not yet.

Thankfully, the pet store was a back door that opened into a wide alley. Whoever the thieves were, they were inexperienced - this door was free of a barricade.

Peter entered the building carefully. Although the criminals might have been amateurs, they could still be armed, and sometimes, amateurs were more dangerous with weapons than experts.

Sure enough, when Peter peered from the tiny back room into the main building, he saw one man standing in front of the large front window, his gun pressed to the temple of a sobbing teenage girl who had likely been working the register, based on her uniform. Another man was rummaging through the register about a foot away.

Spider-Man burst into the room and immediately shot a web at the man holding a gun to the girl's head. It knocked the handgun from his hand, but he reacted quickly enough that his hand pulled away from the gun so he still had a grip on the girl.

The man at the register was now alerted to Peter's presence, but at the moment, the hero simply couldn't care. The girl is the top priority.

He dashed toward the man, who was now strangling the girl in the crook of his arm. She was making terrible, sobbing, choking noises.

Just before Peter leapt to tackle him, the man released the girl, who collapsed to the floor, and ducked out of the way. Peter bent, tugged the girl to her feet, and kicked open the front door. He shoved the girl outside and shouted, "Go!" before turning back to the store and the two robbers.

One man attempted to tackle Spider-Man, but the teenager rolled to the side, stood up, and shot a glob of webbing towards the criminal within the span of a few seconds.

Somehow, the man dodged it.

Peter's brow furrowed under his mask. What kind of people were these, who robbed a pet store of all places so inadequately but had reflexes nearly as quickly as those of Peter's himself?

No matter. All that mattered at the moment was winning this battle, and Peter threw himself completely into that task.

He engaged in this furious struggle, yet gaining no ground, for a good amount of time before someone crashed in from the back room, temporarily stalling the action.

"Hola, bitches!" Deadpool screeched, hefting his guns high.

Spider-Man groaned. "Dammit…"

Before he could make a move, Deadpool shot one man in the stomach. He pointed his gun at the man who was currently staggering to his feet by the front window of the store, but Spider-Man jumped in front of the gun before he could fire.

"Move, dude," Deadpool commanded warningly.

Spider-Man turned quickly and shot webbing at the criminal, knocking him to the floor and pinning him there. "You can't just shoot people!" he shouted, turning back to Deadpool.

"Why not?" Deadpool asked innocently. "I just did."

Peter strode across the room and grabbed the other man's arm, tugging him into the alleyway behind the shop. Deadpool did nothing to stop him, but didn't put his gun away, either.

Suddenly, before Deadpool could react, Peter pinned him to the alley wall with webbing and returned to the shop, the villain's shouts following him.

Spider-Man exited the building via the front exit and was met by an overwhelming wave of cheers and cameras flashing. Ignoring them all, he crossed over to an ambulance, one that wasn't caring for the teenage girl, who looked to be currently in shock.

"A man's been shot in there," he told them. As the paramedics nodded and hurried inside, Peter crossed over to the teenage girl. He didn't recognize her - this area was outside of his school district.

"Holding up okay?" he asked gently. The girl nodded, turning her glazed gaze to him.

"You're Spider-Man," she said slowly.

Peter nodded in confirmation. "Yeah."

"Thank you," the girl said, starting to cry again. "Thank you so much."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Peter told her softly, wincing in sympathy at the bruises already appearing around her neck. "I hope you'll be okay."

He reached down and hugged the girl tightly. Then, he returned to the shop, passing the paramedics who were quickly carrying out the shot criminal. As far as Peter could see, the man was still alive. He breathed a sigh of relief, his relief hardening to anger as he thought of the man who was responsible for that man's near death.

He stalked out into the back alley, where Deadpool was still pinned. "This stuff is strong!" the villain exclaimed cheerily.

Peter glared at him. "Listen closely," he growled. "We need to talk."