CHAPTER 7

(Peter Parker/ Spider-Man)

Peter felt embarrassed when Jackie invited him over to her house. He definitely could not invite Jackie to his, or else she'll questioned the odd mechanicals on his desk.

The moment Peter stepped inside, he felt his heart pounding fast. What would her parents say about him? Would they chase him out? However, all his worries vanished immediately.

Peter stood dumbfounded. Jackie's apartment was so small. He took in his surroundings. The living room is the dining room and there was a mini kitchen across the room. In the middle was a narrow corridor leading to two rooms. A bedroom and a bathroom.

After Jackie was done preparing some stuff in her room, he made his way over. Peter felt his anger rising with him. She acting so nice right now. It was so different in school. Half the time I realised she was snickering with MJ.

"So um... about the Chemistry project... what do you want to do?" Jackie asked kindly.

"Stop! You don't have to pretend to be nice to me, Jackie," Peter snapped as Jackie almost fell off her seat. "Wha- What do you mean?" Jackie murmured. "You know what I mean, you never wanted to do this project with me. I know you make fun of me with MJ every time my back is turned," Peter retorted.

Jackie grew silent, not meeting Peter's gaze. Peter felt guilt tugging in his belly. Shit. You made a girl upset. After a few heartbeats of silence, Jackie spoke up. "Look, you're right. I did everything you said. But... I didn't mean it, really," Jackie said.

They sat in silence until Peter felt his spider sense tingling. Straining his ears, he heard a faint sound of sirens. Both Peter and Jackie looked up at the same time. Finding an excuse, Peter took out his phone and said, "I... er... I need to go, my aunt is calling. We'll continue tomorrow?"

"Yea, yea sure. I... I need to do something too," Jackie murmured. Then Peter took his bag and left.

Gwen POV

His phone didn't even ring. He has to find a better excuse than that. Calling his aunt. Gwen chuckled as Peter left. He's so cute and dorky. But I feel bad. Today isn't really the best day, I guess. Making sure that Peter had finally left the house, Gwen immediately reached in for her drawer and pulled out her suit. Giving it a quick flap, she put it on quickly, opened the window and hopped out.

The sky was darkening but she was sure her spider sense told her that something was happening. She swing from buildings to buildings until she landed perfectly on a streetlight. She saw a bank up ahead, but everything seems normal. Then she heard gunshots from her left and diverted her attention to a museum.

There, she saw several dark figures running into the museum, firing gunshots. Gwen groaned in annoyance and swung her way stealthily. Noticing a huge glass window on the roof of the museum, she landed there. One of the window was left ajar as Gwen crept inside. Monitoring her moves, she silently crawled on the ceiling.

She heard a thud from a room and crept quietly in. She pause behind the door and pushed it opened slightly. She peeped in and saw a dark figure. She looked around for others, but there were none. Confused she crept closer in to see what the robber was doing.

To her horror, the robber was covered in gooey black slime as some of it trickled on the floor. The robber was gathering priceless jewels into a sack, not knowing that Gwen was just a few metres above him. This better not be one of Draven's minions like the last time.

Suddenly, a flash of red and blue crashed through the doors and started attacking the robber in a flurry of punches and kicks. Spider-Man. Gwen rolled her eyes. Gwen watched from the shadows as Spider-Man fought the dark figure.

Gwen stifled a gasp when she saw the robber's face. It was covered in the black goo, with long sharp white teeth stickingout form his mouth with huge white eyes with no pupils.

She decided to stay hidden in the shadows as she watched with narrowed eyes as Spider-Man punched the dark figure. The figure snarled in anger, it's jaws opening wider as it snapped at Spider-Man's arm. But Spider-Man was too fast. He avoided it just in time by an inch as he did a backflip.

Gwen sighed in relief but turned to a gasp of horror when the dark figure extended one of its black slimy limbs and cling to Spider-Man's leg, pulling him down as he landed with a loud 'thud'.

The creature screeched as he swung Spider-Man away, causing him to smashed into a pillar. Gwen winced as she saw Spider-Man struggling up to his feet as he groaned in pain.

Gwen couldn't bear to watch this brutal figment any longer.

She leaped down right on the creature's back, shooting a web around its neck as she pulled the web backwards. The creature, now choking, clutched the web tightly, trying its very best to pulled it out. Growling in menace, the creature suddenly stumbled back, shoving Gwen to the wall as the breath got knock out of her. Not wanting to give in, Gwen kicked the creature's back over and over again until it yowled in agony. The creature threw Gwen over his head as she landed on the floor on her back.

Grunting, Gwen tried to find her feet but was picked up by the neck by the creature until her feet was dangling off the floor. The creature roared as a long tongue rolled out of its mouth. Panicking, Gwen gasped for breath as she felt her lungs tightened. The creature gripped tighter as Gwen started coughing.

As she was about to give in to unconsciousness, she felt the grip on her loosen as she fell to the floor. Eyes blinking weakly, she tiled her head upwards only to see Spider-Man fighting the creature. He shot his webs on the creature and swung it away, sending it reeling into a bunch of plastic dinosaur bones hanging from the ceiling. As the bones toppled over, creating a racket, the creature screamed and a man emerged out of the black goo.

The man fell to his knees, gasping for breath, as he looked up, confused. Gwen stared in shock. She had seen weird things before, but not this weird... or creepy. Then, a hand reached out towards her. It was Spider-Man.

With a scowl, she took it as she heaved herself up. She folded her arms and glared at him. "Trust me now?"

Spider-Man scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Fine... I guess I owe you an apology..."

Gwen grunted in acknowledgment, still fuming about it.

"Wait... where's that black slime gone to?" Spider-Man questioned. Both of them gave quick glances to their surroundings, but only saw a man kneeling on the floor. The man, looking pale, sat up, clutching his hands and was shivering uncontrollably.

Gwen cautiously made her way towards him. "Sir? Are you okay?" The man looked up at her with wild eyes, muttering under its breath. Suddenly, foam started to form bubbling in his mouth. The man gasped and shrieked until he fell to the floor, eyes hollow and dull. The man was dead. But what killed him? The creature?

Spider-Man, stared in horror at the dead man as he stepped towards it. He knelt down beside the man and frowned. Fumbling between the man's arms, he pulled out a dart.

"Who would have done this?" Spider-Man whispered to himself but loud enough for Gwen to hear.

Suddenly, memories flashed into Gwen's mind. The slip of paper from Draven's minions.

The 'Dark Slayer'.

Was that bunch of black slime the 'Dark Slayer'?