It was another successful night for Paul as Spider-Man. He stood over the top of a building and so far there was no sign of any crime or any form of trouble.
"Looks like it's going to be a quiet night." Paul said. "I don't see anything up here. Are you picking up anything?"
"It doesn't look like it. Perhaps you should just head home and call it a night." Peter said.
"I guess you're right." Paul said. "I got to get some rest. I've got a lot going on and it's making my head spin."
"Are you talking about you and Jean, you slide dog?" Peter mocked and Paul wasn't laughing. Ever since Jean kissed him at Thomas' party, he just isn't sure what to think. "Being Spider-Man doesn't hurt your chances with the ladies. I should know. I've actually had a few girlfriends."
"Now is not really the time for one of your old lover stories." Paul said, but his spider sense was alerting him of danger. "What the? I'm getting something, but I don't know what." He looked around until he felt something blast him in the back and he was shot across the street and on another building.
"Paul, what's going on?" Peter said. Paul groaned from that shot he got.
"Hold that call." Paul said. "All right! Who's the cowardly wise guy that just shot me in the back?" He turned around, but it wasn't what he was expecting. It looked like a giant mechanical spider. "What is that thing?"
"It appears to be mechanical spider that's the size of a truck from what I'm seeing." Peter said.
"I know that's what it looks like, but I'm wondering where that thing came from." Paul said. The spider shot a laser from it. Paul jumped as far as he could to avoid the blast, but the spider wasn't letting him go that easily. Jet engines shot out of each of its legs and started flying.
"That doesn't look good." Peter said. The spider kept shooting lasers at him, but Paul was doing his best to stay out of it's reach.
"What is this thing and why does it appear to have it out for me?" Paul said.
"I have a theory, but you need to lose it first." Peter said. Paul landed down on a building, but the giant robot spider got in his way. It was about to fire again, but Paul thought of a way to stop it.
"Can't hit what you can't see." Paul said as he shot some webbing in its sensors that acted like eyes and stopped its attack. "That should work." Paul swung away and the spider acted like it didn't know what to do since it couldn't see. It just started it's engines and flew off again, but it wasn't going after Paul. "What the heck was that?"
"If I didn't know any better, I say it was a spider slayer." Peter said.
"A what?!" Paul said as he did not like the sound of that.
"It's a type of robot I've dealt with a few times." Peter said. "They've always tried to crush me a few times. Paul, why don't you head home and call it a night. I'll see what I can learn about it."
"Yeah. Like I'm going to sleep after getting attack by something that's named to kill me." Paul complained as he shot a web and swung away.
…
The Next Morning
Paul didn't get much sleep after being attacked by a giant robot spider. He came down where Mark and Trisha were already up and having breakfast.
"Look who finally decided to wake up." Mark said.
"Stuff it, twerp." Paul said as he had a seat and was having some cereal.
"Paul, don't talk to your little brother like that." Trisha said. "Which reminds me, do you have any plans going on for tonight, Paul?"
"That might depend if Mr. Parker needs me or my boss needs some photos." Paul said. "You know how it is. It's sort of on-the-go-deal."
"Well, let's hope that doesn't happen." Trisha said. "I'm going to need you to watch over Mark tonight since I'll be heading out with a few friends of my own."
"Aw. I don't want him as my babysitter. He's no fun." Mark said.
"It's not up for discussion." Trisha said. "Paul, if you're not going to be home by six, I need to know ahead of time and don't wait until the last minute or I'll never find a babysitter. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Mom." Paul groaned. He wasn't exactly looking forward on watching his little brother either.
…..
The Spider
The spider that attacked Paul last night was locked down in a hidden lab and there were two others. One looked like a daddy longlegs spider and the other looked like a golden orb weaving spider. Someone stepped into the lab and was doing diagnostics on all three.
"Spider-Man might have been able to elude the Tarantula, but let's see how he does when Daddy Longlegs and Orb Weaver are there to help it." He powered the three of them up and it looked like they were ready for action.
…
Midtown High
"Let's hope for a quiet night." Paul said as he was in the middle of free period and was over the phone with Peter. "My Mom needs me to watch over my brother tonight."
"That's another part of being Spider-Man. You need to learn handle responsibility on both sides." Peter said.
"Did you learn anything new about that spider slayer? Do you think White Streak sent it?" Paul asked.
"I'm not exactly sure, but it doesn't seem like it." Peter said. "I can't find the logo like with the technology some of your other enemies had. Hydra was his main scientist, but he's still locked up. Either he has someone new and he learned to cover his tracks or someone else sent it. Just keep your eyes open for anything suspicious."
"Got it." Paul said and ended his call. Paul was wondering how he's going to get himself out of this. He looked out a window and spotted Monica and it looked like she was feeding something. Paul headed out to see what she was up to. "Monica!"
"Oh! Hey, Paul." Monica said as she turned to face him and saw she had a small cat in her hands.
"What are you doing with a cat? You know the school is going to freak if they see you with that."
"I know. That's why I called animal control. They're sending someone to pick this little guy up." Monica said. "In the meantime, I'm just looking out for him until someone comes and gets him."
"Wow. That's really nice of you." Paul said.
"You know what they say. It's always the little things that matters." Monica said. "You want to pet this little guy?" Paul was a little hesitant, but he reached out for it. "Come on." Monica grabbed his wrist and helped him place his hand on it with the little kitty purring.
"I guess you're right." Paul said. The two of them looked up and had their eyes meet each other. Monica was able to get a good look and saw a bit of gentleness in them behind the tough guy he tries to be. "I suppose the little things do matter, but I hope that applies to tonight. If I'm not home to look after my little brother before six, I'm going to be a dead man. Anyway, I'll see you around." He said and went back in the class with Monica wondering what's going on with her lately when she's around Paul.
….
Peter
Peter spent most of his time looking over what he retrieved from when Paul fought against that spider robot. He was trying to figure out where it came from, but he wasn't having any luck. He was starting to have his doubts on where they originally came from.
"This can't be from White Streak. Nothing about it really says it's from him." Peter said. "That's what's starting to worry me. If this thing didn't come from White Streak, where did it come from?"
…..
Paul
Paul was patrolling the city when school ended to make sure there's no crime going on before he has to go and watch his younger brother. So far, nothing is really happening.
"Looks like I'm in luck." Paul said. "It looks like a quiet night. I guess I should just head on home." Before he had the chance, his spider sense was going off. He looked around until he saw the same spider robot from before. "Not this creep again." Paul jumped over to another building and was getting ready for round two. "I'm ready for you this time." However, his spider sense continued to go off. "That's weird. My spider sense never went off when I'm looking right at the threat." He heard a noise and saw the other two coming at him. "There's more?" Paul moved away from the other two so that he could face it. "Old man, I could use some help here. Can't believe I just said that."
"I'm here and I already see what's going on. Just try to keep your distance from them." Peter said.
"Not going to be easy." Paul said as he had no choice, but to take part in this spider showdown. Daddy Longlegs opened up at the bottom and unleashed flying disks at him. Paul moved away from them, but they exploded on contact. Tarantula and Orb Weaving started to fly over to him. Energy cannons came out of their backs and were ready to fire.
"Paul, you need to keep them from doing so much damage to the city. They could destroy everything with those weapons." Peter said.
"You want to take over? Just age backwards by like forty years." Paul said. "I've got this." Paul swung around and landed on Tarantula. "If these things want to take me out, they're going to have to shoot at their companions first." Or Weaver turned around and shot out a rope from it and it wrapped around Paul. "Hey! Let go!" Paul tried to struggle his way out, but he felt himself being electrocuted. The spider bot pulled at him and had him hover in the air and started to carry him away.
"Paul, are you awake?" Peter said.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Paul said. "I don't know where these things are taking me, but there's no way that I'm going." Paul shot out a couple webs and had them stick to a building. It turned into tug-a-war between the two and it was starting to be painful to Paul. "Come on. Let go before I stretch like taffy." The spider released him and he dropped down. Luckily, his webbings still held and the rope dropped off of him.
"You're not out of the woods yet." Peter said. He saw the tarantula bot come at him and took aim at him with its cannons. Paul pulled himself up just as the robot fired and caused some damage. Daddy Longlegs came at him and shot lasers from its fangs and Paul got hit and crashed on a roof.
"Do these things ever run out of fuel?" Paul questioned. Daddy Longlegs continued to shoot at him. Paul was able to avoid each shot and grabbed a hold of one of it's legs. "There has to be some way to stop these things."
"See if you can find the power source." Peter said. He looked around on the robot and tried to find something that could help him until he spotted some bolts.
"Wait. That might be it." Paul said.
"What?" Peter asked.
"The little things matter. That applies to assembly as well, right?" Paul said.
"You want to take them apart? That will take forever." Peter said.
"I don't need to undo every small bit." Paul said. "I just need you to run an analysis on these guys and find the most vital parts."
"When you put it like that, that might work." Peter said. "Just try and stay alive until I can find something."
"I'm going ahead." Paul said as he dived down to the streets and swung off. Good thing for him is that there was a hardware store nearby. He went right in and was looking around for something until he found a good wrench he could use. "I'm going to need to borrow this." He took the wrench and swung back in the fight as all the spiders kept trying to blast him. Paul started with Tarantula and started to undo the bolts around its legs. Just undoing one bolt started to throw it off balance.
"Paul, I think I found something." Peter said. "I'm picking up traces of energy in the heads. It might be their power source."
"I'm way ahead of you." Paul said. He webbed a building to try and steer Tarantula and had it smash against Orb Weaver. Paul smashed the wrench against both of their heads and busted them open and saw a bunch of circuit boards and power coursing through it. He smashed both of them and both of the robots fell out of the sky with him jumping away as the two of them crashed into the ground. "Two down and only one to go." He saw Daddy Longlegs crawling its way to them. Paul leaped at it and smashed the wrench against the fangs to keep it from fighting back. "Say AW!" He saw an opening large enough for him to fit the wrench in and he was messing with it on the inside. The spider bot began to malfunction and it began to fall. Paul jumped away and stick to the building as it smashed into the ground.
"Nicely done. You used a little brain power instead of just pure muscle." Peter said.
"Yeah, but we still need to figure out who sent those things." Paul said. He was going to go down and investigate, but he felt his phone go off. He saw his Mom was calling and it was already past six. "Oh shoot." He answered the phone, but he knew he was in trouble. "Mom, listen. I know it's late, but I'm only a few minutes away."
"Paul, I'm calling to make sure you're okay." Trisha said and he thought that was a little weird.
"I'm fine. Why? What about Mark?" Paul asked.
"It was already taken care of." Trisha said, but Paul didn't understand.
…..
Paul's House
After his Mom called him and told him what was going on, Paul hurried home. When he made it, he opened up the front door and saw Monica was in there and she was watching Mark.
"Look who finally made it back." Mark said.
"Hey, Paul." Monica said.
"Monica? What are you doing here?" Paul asked.
"After we talked the last time, I had a feeling you weren't going to make it to watch your brother in time. I didn't really have anything planned so when I saw you weren't going to make it, I stepped in." Monica said.
"Wow. Thanks." Paul said. "Of course, Mark's my brother and my responsibility. It's just like you said. It's the little things that matters. That includes objects, animals, and people. That's why I got your favorite pizza, Mark!" He said as he stepped inside with some pizza.
"Really?!" Mark said as he was excited.
"Yep. Half cheese, half banana peppers, and all delicious." Paul said.
"Awesome! Thanks, Paul!" Mark said.
"You want to join us, Monica, before you go?" Paul asked.
"Sure." Monica said as Paul said. He placed it down and all of them grabbed a slice. Paul is still learning how to be Spider-Man, but at least he learned to not forget the small things. They're more important than they appear. Of course, that didn't settle his mind.
'I may have stopped those spider slayers, but I don't think this the end.' Paul thought. 'On my way back, Peter told me he doesn't believe that White Streak was the one behind them. If he didn't sent them, who did? Something weird is going on.' Who did sent those robots to attack Paul? It seems like that there's more out there than just White Streak.
