Peter Parker's perspective:

It was just another day at school. That was until Flash Thompson walked up to Peter with a surprisingly nervous look on his face.

"P-Parker," said Flash. "The final exam's comin' up. You wouldn't consider helping me out with it, would you?"

"No," said Peter, walking away.

"Aw, c'mon," pleaded Flash. "You know I'm not like I used to be. I've matured."

"A little bit," admitted Peter.

"And I did give you advice that you needed to keep your relationship with MJ alive - don't deny it," Flash pressed his point. "Please, I've got a future in football, but I'm told that I need at least a 'B' to get a scholarship."

He had a point. His relationship advice had helped Peter out. Besides, Peter's promise to use his abilities to help others had to apply to himself as well as Spider-Man. Which brought Peter to another reason to help: Flash was Spider-Man's biggest fan. Could Peter really turn down his plea for help?

"OK," said Peter. "You study with me on evenings starting at 7:00 PM."

"Great," smiled Flash before running through the hall with joy. "'Scuse me, pardon me, sorry!"

Peter shook his head as he watched this. Now all I gotta do is make the bull-headed idiot smart. Sounds easy.

Hydro-Man's perspective:

It had been three months since Morrie Bench, a sailor on a cargo ship, had accidentally fallen off when sailing through rough currents. The water below had been contaminated by a scientific experiment involving radiation and chemicals. Morrie's body had become watery. This enabled him to assume any shape he desired but more importantly, to go unharmed by physical force. Abandoning his old life, Morrie began calling himself Hydro-Man.

Hydro-Man was in New York. Because if he could make it there, he would make it anywhere. And with his new powers, he knew he could.

Peter's perspective:

"Name the first ten U.S. presidents," coached Peter, knowing that this was on the final.

"George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin..." attempted Flash until Peter shook his head.

"Franklin wasn't even a President," Peter said.

Flash slapped the library table they were sitting in out of frustration. "Can't even get half of 'em right!"

"Just read some more," said Peter. "It's not football, but you've got it in you."

"You're terrible at lying, Parker," grinned Flash. As he kept reading, Peter checked the news on his phone. Looked like a new super-criminal had robbed an antique store. Spider-Man had to take action.

"Uh, Flash," said Peter, "I need to go to the bathroom."

"Go right ahead," said Flash.

Peter had to be quick. He did not want Flash to be suspicious. They may not have been enemies anymore, but neither were they exactly friends.

Spider-Man's perspective:

Every second counted. Spider-Man had to take this new thief out before Flash began to wonder. Fortunately, this new criminal was arrogant enough to not care who saw him with a bag of antique jewelry. And he had been given every reason to be arrogant; the police were in retreat.

Spider-Man web swung over the criminal before dropping down in front of him. Spidey looked at his foe, a fairly large man at six foot one, two hundred pounds. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt.

"Too cheap for a costume?" asked Spider-Man.

"You're gonna be too busy begging for mercy to care how conservatively I dress," grinned the criminal. "They call me Hydro-Man."

"So you're not a modern day fairy tale like alligators in the sewer," Spider-Man immediately recognized the hood's name. "You're wanted by the cops from Edmonton, Canada to Mexico City! You're proud of that, aren't you?"

"Oh, yeah," beamed Hydro-Man "Everybody wants Hydro-Man, but nobody can get him!"

The Web-Slinger cast a line of webbing that encircled Hydro-Man's body and elbows. "You were saying?"

But Hydro-Man seemed unconcerned. His midsection seemed to turn into water and grow thinner, causing the webbing to fall to the ground.

"I don't know how you did that," admitted Spidey, "But you'll soon wish you'd made it easy for me."

"If you're already impressed," threatened Hydro-Man, "You're in some deep shit!" He motioned to his chin as if challenging Spider-Man to hit it. An uppercut seemed to turn the chin into water that splashed up and down before the chin reformed itself. Spidey paused in surprise before punching his fists at Hydro-Man a few more times, each time with the same result.

A giant blue hand shot out of Hydro-Man's belly and pushed Spider-Man hard into a trash can, knocking it over and giving Spidey a sore back! Hydro-Man then transformed into a watery bear. Out of the mouth of Hydro-Man came a hard stream of water that held Spider-Man down.

Time passed. Spidey had no idea how long he had gone without air or how much longer it would have been before he drowned. Without the basic physical combat training he had gotten several months before by Michelle "MJ" Jones, he would have drowned. But using all his strength and willpower, he managed to free himself from the stream of water and began running and hopping in circles around Hydro-Man.

After a full minute of trying and failing to spray Spider-Man again, Hydro-Man returned to his human form and clapped his hands. "You're not easily beat... but I don't get beat at all!" Those words were terrifying, because Spider-Man knew he was right. Hydro-Man turned his hands into aquatic mallets and stretched his arms out to pound Spider-Man.

The Web-Slinger was starting to tire. He could not hold out forever, but his heart told him that Hydro-Man could! If he was to prevail, it had to be now! He hopped several stories up a building, dodging Hydro-Man's "hammers" all the way, and shot webbing into Hydro-Man's eyes. "Here's mud in your eye!" Spidey knew this would not buy him much time, so he divebombed Hydro-Man immediately, literally tearing him apart!

"I did it," Spider-Man jumped for joy. But then guilt hit him. Had he just killed someone? He would be able to sleep that night, albeit not without a nightmare. For Hydro-Man's watery body gathered itself back together in a puddle.

Hydro-Man's face re-formed in the middle. "Did what, Wall-Crawler?"

Spidey felt faint. He was tired and could think of no way to stop Hydro-Man. Could things get any worse?

Then the loud sounds of armored cars could be heard. But just as Spider-Man would have passed beyond hope, he noticed that it was the SWAT Team, and smiled under his mask with relief. They were coming to help him, not Hydro-Man. "Looks like I win, Hydro-Man," said Spider-Man. "I don't know much about what those supercops carry, but it's powerful enough stuff to make water evaporate, so you'd better give up!"

"Guess again," said Hydro-Man, turning totally into water, crawling to a sewer grate, and pouring himself into it. "I'll kill ya next time!"

Still, it was the best case scenario for Spider-Man. He had prevented a robbery, even if he had needed help and had no idea how he was put away a criminal who was almost indestructible. Even with his powers, Spider-Man had gotten a bully in his life. Just like Peter Parker did.

That reminded him. Flash! Peter had been gone too long.

Peter's perspective:

"If this wasn't a library, Parker," Flash quietly raged at Peter, "I'd chew your ass out! Jerk off on your time!"

"Sorry," said Peter. "We've still some time to study."

"Some," said Flash. "Say, how come you're all wet?"

"I-I showered before I came here," Peter lied.

"OK," said Flash. Fortunately for Peter, Flash was not thoughtful enough to realize that Peter would have dried off by this time had he showered.

After another hour of studying, Flash had managed to go through ten consecutive history questions from Peter without a mistake.

"You're well on your way to passing this," smiled Peter.

"Lots of stuff besides history," said an unconvinced Flash.

"We've got time," Peter assured him. "Believe in yourself."

That's something we're both gonna have to do.

Hydro-Man's perspective:

In his apartment Hydro-Man pounded a table in frustration. Spider-Man had been very lucky. If the cops with lethal weapons had not come at just the right time, Hydro-Man would have gotten him! And what was worse was that he had needed to leave the jewelry he had stolen behind.

But there would be another day. Unless Spider-Man was sensible, they would meet again, and that would be it. Almost nothing could hurt Hydro-Man. Spider-Man was out of his league. He had merely gotten lucky that day. Hydro-Man would show him what a big mistake it was to tangle with him!

Peter's perspective:

"You're actually helping that creep?" asked MJ in the school cafeteria the next day.

"I know," Peter tried to explain. "But he's changed. Grown up. And he did give me good dating advice."

"Suit yourself," said MJ. "Although I think he might be too stupid to help."

"I sure hope not," chuckled Peter.

That evening, Peter and Flash worked on science.

"How does a nuclear bomb work in a way that is different from a regular bomb?" asked Peter.

"It's bigger and badder?" asked Flash.

"Besides that," sighed Peter.

Flash paused for a second before saying, "It splits an atom to create a chain reaction that leads to nuclear... fission?"

"That's right," smiled Peter. "You're getting it."

"I am, ain't I?" Flash smiled proudly.

Spider-Man's perspective:

A look at local news on Spider-Man's phone the next day at 6:23 PM informed him that public and sewer water were somehow going haywire not far away. Spidey had an idea of who was doing it, but he had to do something first. He dialed Flash's number.

"Parker?" asked Flash.

"Something's come up," said Spider-Man in the lighter, mild-mannered voice of Peter Parker. "Could you wait another hour before coming to the library?"

"Only if you promise to be there," said an unhappy Flash. "This isn't the first delay."

"At least I did it the right way this time," Spider-Man argued.

"Don't get smart with me," snapped Flash. "You better be there. The final's tomorrow, and you promised."

"If I'm alive, I'll be there," Spidey promised.

"Bye," said an uncertain Flash, hanging up.

What Spider-Man had neglected to tell Flash was that he might not, in fact, live to help him.

Here goes nothing.

Spider-Man web swung to the block where water was spraying everywhere. As he suspected, a smiling Hydro-Man was behind it. He had been blasting a fire hydrant from above with a water-arm to overload all nearby water.

Perched on a lamppost, Spider-Man shouted to be heard. "Why this, Hydro-Man? It doesn't sound like a very profitable crime."

Looking up at The Web-Slinger with glee, Hydro-Man stopped overloading the hydrant and said, "I wanted your attention and a rematch. As for the crime, I'm not that into money. I just wanna have a good time." For him, that apparently meant hurting people.

"I expected nothing of your character," said Spider-Man, "And I still feel let down."

Hydro-Man turned his right fist into a bigger, blue, and wet fist, extending it towards Spidey! Spidey jumped off the lamppost and divebombed Hydro-Man again, knowing full well that the head and chest he had reduced to water would regenerate. And so it did. Spider-Man summersaulted away from another big punch.

Hydro-Man's gut and chest became water and protruded liquid spikes.

Uh-oh!

One after another, the spikes were launched. Spider-Man dodged them all, a few with difficulty.

Some more water blasts from Hydro-Man came. Spider-Man did some more dodging. One blast finally knocked Spider-Man against a wall. A giant blue fist conked him across the face.

"It's over," proclaimed Hydro-Man as he moved in close. "You can't beat me. Accept it."

"Beaten by water?" asked Spidey. "I'm not going out like that." He whipped a stun gun out from under his costume. "Better keep your distance."

Hydro-Man burst out laughing. "You think they haven't tried burnin' me? That dumb thing can't hurt me."

"Maybe not..." Spider-Man conceded. He struck Hydro-Man with the stun gun. At first the electricity did not hurt. Then Hydro-Man started screaming out. Not in pain but surprise. After thirteen seconds of yelling, he fell unconscious.

"...But I can shock you out cold." Spidey finished his sentence. Still, he would have to stay until the police arrived with the equipment to contain a water man. It was a good thing he had told Flash to go to the library late.

Peter's perspective:

After more studying, Peter wrote ten advanced math problem for Flash. He got eight of them right.

"I think you're ready," smiled Peter.

"I hope so," said Flash. "But what's the point of algebra and trigonometry?"

"You have to think to see the value in them, but..."

"Parker," Flash interrupted. "I don't give a damn. But I had to learn it. Never could have without your help. Thanks, Par... Pete."

"Pete?" asked Peter as shook Flash's hand. "Nobody's ever called me that before."

Peter had known all along that he, himself, would ace the final. After they had left class, Peter noticed Flash looking sad.

"You can't be serious," insisted Peter.

Flash showed Peter his copy of the test. Flash had gotten an 88. "Gotcha!" They both laughed.

"Guess I'm goin' to college," said Flash. "Hope to see you there, Pete."

"Maybe not there," said Peter. "I'm told that because of my high grades in science and the dependability I've shown in my photojournalism work, I'm on the list of candidates for Dr. Curt Connors' new assistant."

"I think I remember you mentioning him," said Flash. "I hope we can be friends anyway."

"Us?" asked a surprised Peter.

"I owe you one," said Flash. "Besides, I've done with bullyin'. It's time to grow up." He made a fist. Despite not being used to this kind of alpha male show of friendship, Peter pounded Flash's fist with his own.