Peter woke up the next day in his bed, his body aching all over. His two costumes, the red one and the black one, were both strewn across the floor. He pulled himself out of bed, before picking up the two costumes and folding them both up, tossing them in a suitcase before throwing the case into one of the drawers under his bed.
He walked out of his bedroom and into the bathroom, dropping his pyjamas onto the floor before getting into the shower. Ten minutes later, he got out, wrapping a towel round himself and picking up his pyjamas, tossing them in the laundry basket before walking out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom, pulling on his clothes. As he finished pulling up his jeans, there was a knock on his bedroom door.
"Aunt May, I'm not dressed." He said, going to the door and opening it slightly, sticking his head round the side "What's up?"
"Well, I feel slightly awkward asking you to do this, Peter, but an old friend of mine, Anna, has just come back into town. She's moved in next door." May said "She's got her niece living with her, and the girl doesn't know anyone. I was hoping you'd be able to show the girl around the area, maybe introduce her to some people."
"Aunt May, I've got a girlfriend." He said "I appreciate the thought, but I don't need you setting me up with anyone."
"Oh, no, you've misunderstood me, Peter." She said, smiling lightly "I'm only asking you to be a friend to the girl. Help her to meet new people and feel comfortable."
"That's it?" He said, raising an eyebrow "No hidden catch?"
"No hidden catch." She replied, laughing "So, should I tell her you'll be round for Mary Jane in a little while?"
"Fine, but make it very clear, this is not a date." He said, slightly more aggressively than he'd hoped to be "I don't need the kind of hassle that would come with that, not with what's been going on lately."
"What do you mean?" She asked, looking worried "Peter, are you in some kind of trouble?"
"No, no trouble." Peter said "Just going through a lot of changes, a lot of adjustments to make, you know what I mean?"
"Yes, I do." She said "Your father was exactly the same at your age."
"Not exactly, trust me." Peter said with an inward grin "Anyway, I'm going to get dressed. Tell your friend I'll come and meet her niece in about an hour."
He closed the door then sighed to himself. He didn't know why he'd got aggressive there, even if it was only for a split second. It worried him slightly. Something was different, and he didn't know what it was; the whole spider powers bit or something else.
He shook the thought off before going into his wardrobe and pulling out a dark blue short sleeve shirt. He pulled it on, doing up the buttons before looking at the drawer under his bed. He wasn't sure what to do. He didn't know if he should take his red and blue suit the one he felt perfectly normal, or as normal as he had done lately, or if he should take his new black suit, the one that felt amazing. The feeling he'd had in the suit had been amazing, better than he had done in a long time.
After a moment, he decided to stick to the plain old red and blues, pulling the case out from under the bed and tossing it into a back pack along with his camera in its case. He never knew if he'd need to go to work or not. He slung the bag over his shoulder before heading out of his room and down the stairs, walking into the kitchen.
"Why the backpack?" May asked him, before smiling "Not planning on running away from home, I hope."
"No, nothing like that." He said with a chuckle "It's just in case I get any kind of call, you know, from the Bugle. Got my camera and stuff in it."
"Okay then." She said, looking at him quizzically for a moment before going back to the oven "I was just about to make some pancakes, do you want some?"
"Yeah, that sounds good." He said "I'm starving. I had one hell of a night last night."
May turned and looked at him. He'd gone and done it. He'd slipped up. He had all of three seconds to come up with some reason why he might have had a hell of a night. One other than 'I was out dressed in a weird black costume fighting some super villain. Oh, did I forget to tell you I'm Spider-man?'
"I had a bad dream." He said, settling on a fairly feasible excuse "You know, about all the stuff that's happened."
"Okay, are you sure you're okay to go out?" She asked, concerned for her nephew.
"Yeah, I'm fine Aunt May." Peter said as he went to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice "Just a little tired, it's no big deal."
She went back to the stove, pulling the pan with the pancakes off and putting a few on one plate and a few on another as Peter poured out two glasses of juice, tossing the empty carton in the rubbish. He sat down as she put the two plates down then pulled a bottle of syrup from the cupboard and put it on the table, sitting down as he covered his pancakes in syrup.
"You need to be careful, Peter." She said as Peter started wolfing down the pancakes "You don't exactly do a lot of exercise. Eating that much junk will make you fat if you're not careful."
"I'm sure I'll manage." Peter said with an inward grin as he downed his juice before finishing the pancakes "Well, I'm off. I want to get some time alone before I have to go and show your aunt's friend around."
He got up, kissing her on the top of her head before picking up his bag and walking out, letting the breeze blow the front door shut behind him. He walked straight across the road without bothering to look. His spider sense would tell him if there was something coming that was dangerous. He went round the corner and headed off down an alley between a pair of apartment blocks. He figured he might as well go out swinging for half an hour.
…..
Norman woke up in his bed alone. He'd had a weird dream during the night, about fighting Spider-man all the while on the prototype glider Oscorp was working on. He got out of bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He had light bags under his eyes. It looked like he'd barely slept at all the night before.
He walked down the stairs into the kitchen of his mansion home where Harry was sat eating a bowl of cereal, watching Two and a half men on the TV mounted on the wall. He didn't bother acknowledging Norman as he came in; both of them knew it would be pointless. Instead, he sat there watching the TV as Norman got himself his own bowl of cereal.
"So, dad," Harry said, finally talking "how come you went out in the middle of the night?"
"What?" Norman said "I didn't go out in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, you did." Harry said "You passed me as I was coming out of the bathroom. You totally blanked me. What was up?"
"Sorry Harry, but I think you must have been dreaming." Norman said, flashing what was the closest thing to a smile Harry had seen from his father in a long time "Last time I left the house was about half seven last night and I was back an hour later."
Harry looked at his father quizzically, before deciding not to push the matter, instead going back to his breakfast before disappearing out of the room, muttering something about going to see someone. Norman picked up the TV remote and changed channels to the news. At the bottom of the screen was the headline 'Mid-night heist at Oscorp'.
He turned up the volume, listening to the report.
"This isn't the first incident at Oscorp recently." The woman on the screen said "Police are currently investigating the disappearance of Doctor Mendel Stromm, one of the companies head researchers. More on this story as it develops."
Norman switched off the TV, getting up and picking up the phone on the counter, calling his office, knowing one of his assistants would be there.
"Hello, Norman Osborn's office, James Mad-" His assistant began.
"Save it James." Norman said "What was stolen last night?"
"Oh, Mr. Osborn." James said "I was told you were given details when you came in about it an hour after we found the state the place was in."
"No, as far as I knew, only Stromm's disappearance had happened recently." Norman said, pushing the fact that he was the last person to see Stromm out of his mind "What went missing?"
"Oh, well sir, so far, the flight suit, the glider and both new grenade prototypes are all we know are gone." James replied "The designs for the grenades are gone too. Who ever took it plans on making more."
"Okay." Norman said "James, you are not to tell the press anything about this. If they pester you, tell them that we're in the process of running an inventory."
"Sir, that will only hold up for so long." James said "Isn't there another excuse to give them?"
"No, stick to the inventory one for 24 hours." Norman said "After that, decline to comment. I'll hold a press conference about this in a week's time. Have all the details of everything we've found ready for me by then. If need be, prepare a cover story."
"Sir, is that ethical?" James said.
"Ethics have no bearing in this, it's business." Norman said "Good bye."
He pressed the hang up button. He walked out of the room and went upstairs, back to his bedroom. He went into his closet and withdrew a suit. As he did, he jostled against a loose board at the bottom of the wardrobe. He tapped it, feeling it was hollow. He pulled the board loose, finding a switch. He pressed it and the back of the closet opened silently. He looked inside the room.
It was a metallic room, full of computers and other devices. In the corner was a purple and green suit of body armour that he recognised instantly as the stolen flight suit, repainted. The flight mask had been altered to resemble a demonic face with bright yellow eyes, a hooked nose, a fang filled grin and large pointed ears. Beside the outfit was the glider, repainted with a purple similar to that on the armour. He turned around to see a device that was silently pumping out more of the grenades.
It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. There was no way his dream could have been true. No way that he'd stolen all this stuff. No way he'd killed Stromm.
He clutched his head in pain as the realisation hit him, waking up something under the surface. He got up, grinning to himself before laughing maniacally as he moved over to the flight suit and began to change into it.