Curt, Martha and I worked at the lab almost till midnight. I had made sure to call Uncle Ben and let him know I might be late. When he had asked why I just told him it was lab-related, which was technically true.

All things considered, the Connors and I made pretty good progress that night. The first two pieces were complete, they were thin metallic disc with a diameter of about a penny. They worked well, too, designed to absorb all impact within a roughly four-inch radius per piece (though admittedly there was a limit to how far we could go with the testing in the lab).

Curt and Martha hadn't had the exact parts needed to make the discs obviously. The boxes we had brought in had been full of discarded machinery, spare pieces, odd bits and stuff like that. Apart from being hella smart, they both turned out to be pretty decent with tech as well. And my/Peter's big-ass brain also proved quite useful.

We put together the necessary parts by stripping down old gadgets and using their pieces. It took quite a bit of trial and error, but we were able to put together a working model after several hours of hard work.

We were only able to complete two pieces that night, but that was okay. We had the formula figured out now. The remaining could be made a lot faster.

Unfortunately, school was a thing. And I still had to attend.

Third period was Biology, and the teacher Mr. Danton handed us the results of yesterday's surprise test. I got a B-plus, which took me by surprise. It was a good grade sure, but it was the lowest I had gotten in my time as Peter Parker. Maybe it was because I had been rather pre-occupied with other matters yesterday but still, I had made some pretty dumb mistakes in the test...

Fuck you, Goblin.

I noticed Gwen to my right leaning over to try and get a look at my score. I flipped the paper over so she wouldn't see, but judging by the satisfied smirk on her face, it had been too late. She herself had gotten an A-plus. We were usually neck-and-neck but for the last couple of weeks I had managed to get better scores than her on most tests and homework assignments. And she had not been happy about that.

Oh, I could almost hear her gloating already.

She jogged over to me after class as I opened my locker.

"Peter," she said, a grin plastered on her face. "Peter,"

"Ah, Christ," I said. I knew what she was here for, I fished out a 50-cent piece from my pocket and tossed it to her. "There. Happy, you nerd?"

"Very much so," she said, grinning as she caught it.

Oh yeah, there had been a bet. Turns out Gwen had been really salty over me getting better grades. So, to mess with her, I challenged her to a bet that whoever gets the better score in the next test or assignment gets 50 cents. Not exactly high stakes, and I had been pretty confident that I would beat her again, but then the other night's events happened and… yeah.

Fuck you, Goblin.

I got my stuff and made my way to English class, passing Liz along the way who was chatting with a friend next to her locker.

"Hey, Petey!" she said brightly.

"Hey, Liz, what's up?"

"A-minus!" she squeaked.

"Huh?"

"I got an A-minus on the biology test!"

"Oh," I said. "Wow, that's- that's great news, good job, Liz!"

"Wouldn't have done it without you!"

Maybe it would have been a bit damaging to my ego that Liz Allan of all people had gotten a better score than me, but then again, I had been (more or less) the main reason she did well. So, I see this as an absolute win!

Remembering that we had a study session later that night, which conflicted with my other commitments as Spider-Man, I said, "Uh, by the way Liz? I'm gonna be a bit… busy tonight, so do you mind if we cancel tonight's session?"

"Oh, sure. Go ahead, I don't mind," Liz replied.

"Great! Thanks for understanding,"

"Sure," she said. "And thanks a lot… for helping me out with studies,"

She leaned forward, hesitated for a fraction of a second, then gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

"Okayyy," I said, aware of the fact that I was blushing slightly. "You know what? This tutorship thing… ain't so bad after all,"

She let out a small laugh at that. "See you around, Petey," she said as she walked away to join her friend, whose jaw had dropped to the floor.

"Oh no, you did not just give that nerd a kiss, Liz!" she exclaimed.

I watched them walk away arguing, before remembering I needed to be in class as well.

[…]

After school let out, I went to Curt Connors' lab at Columbia University.

While I had been stuck in school, the Connors had made about seven of the little pieces, bringing the total count up to nine. A couple more would probably enough to cover the upper body, which is where most of the Goblin's attacks will be directed anyway.

"We've tested them individually," Martha said. "They absorb and release the energy well. We're not one hundred percent sure as to what the maximum amount they can store is, but they can probably handle a fair bit. Just remember, don't store up too much energy, just to be safe. It might end up breaking the discs or maybe even the suit. After all, they're still a rough model,"

"Got it. Thanks a lot for the help, guys," I said.

"Don't mention it, Peter," Curt said. "Now, we need to make just a couple more, and install them into the suit,"

"I'll do that bit myself, you two have done a lot already, you're probably tired,"

They tried to protest but eventually gave in, and I got to work. According to my designs, four of them would be installed in the front of the torso, four in the back, one in each hand, and one in the mask. So, eleven in all, meaning I needed to make two more.

It took me a while, but I managed to get it done, and all without a single electrocution accident!

The discs were to be fitted on the inside of the suit. That part was easy enough. Hooking them up to the suit's central system, so that they could actually function in accordance with the suit, would be trickier.

By the time I finished, it was starting to get dark so I headed out into the city.

Taking down the Goblin was my number one priority. After that, I'd need to find the formula as well. The best way to do that would be to defeat the Goblin and get answers out of him. It wasn't a guaranteed success but it was worth a shot. The upgrade to the suit would help me out a lot, especially since he would be chucking those pumpkin bombs at me.

After a while of web-slinging through the city, I dropped by the building where I had first fought the Goblin, close to the East River. He had said he'd be waiting for me there when the time was up, so I decided to stake out the place. I hung back at a nearby rooftop that gave me a good view of the place.

About forty minutes left till Goblin's deadline.

Christ, really? That long?

As I waited, I got a call from Harry.

"Hey, Harry, what's up?" I asked as I picked it up.

"Hey Pete," Harry replied. "Listen are you busy right now? My dad's holding a fancy dinner party in a bit, and there's really no reason for me to stick around. Can I hang out with you? We could watch Revenge of the Sith, it's being played in theaters right now,"

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, really,"

"Ugh, it's honestly tempting, dude, but I…" I trailed off, trying to think of an excuse for why I wouldn't want to watch one of my favorite movies in theaters again. "Uh, I promised Uncle Ben that I'd… help him paint the kitchen tonight,"

"Ah… okay, well, I'll figure something out, see ya," and he hung up.

Oh, what wouldn't I give to be watching Revenge of the Sith in a cinema with my best friend right now… instead of waiting for a supervillain to show up so I could beat him up and interrogate him.

Fuck you, Goblin.

After a few minutes of waiting, I heard voices. I looked around and saw a couple men climb up to the rooftop on the right of mine. They were wearing all black, with jack-o-lantern masks, and carrying big briefcases with them. They hadn't seen me yet.

I'm guessing these guys are reinforcements the Goblin brought along in case I didn't play ball. Looking around, I spotted groups of two or three goons arriving on some of the buildings surrounding the one where I was supposed to meet the Goblin.

The Goblin himself hadn't shown up yet, so I decided to even the playing field a bit in the meantime.

I fired shock-webs at the two guys on the closest rooftop. Shock webs would knock them out but wouldn't do any permanent damage, so they were pretty useful. The goons fell down, unconscious but twitching a bit. I opened one of the briefcases they had been carrying, and sure enough, the guns they had used when I had first encountered them a few nights back were inside. Only this time I'm guessing all of the guys had them, rather than just one.

They were too destructive for me to use, against the other Goblin Gang members anyway, so I decided to just stick to shock webs.

I managed to clear out the rooftops without any real noise going off. Most of them never realized what was going on until it was too late. By the time I finished webbing up the unconscious criminals I noticed a fleck, flying around the skyscrapers in the distance. It couldn't be the Human Torch, not bright enough. That meant that it was probably the Goblin, and zooming in on the object confirmed that.

Ooh boy. Here we go again.

I got into position. The Goblin swooped by and stopped, gazing around and seeing the unconscious henchmen.

Before he could spot me, I fired two weblines at the wings of his glider and pulled myself upwards, tugging the glider down a bit as well. I shot upwards towards him, and landed an uppercut when I got within reach, knocking him off of his glider and landing on it myself. He fell some fifty feet on to a rooftop but got back up immediately.

"There you are!" the Goblin sneered as he got back up, he took out two of his pumpkin bombs and threw them at me. I made no effort to try and dodge them, as they would only give me a powerup. They exploded, and I almost fell off the glider but managed to keep both feet on it. I felt a tingling, almost electric sensation that I hadn't felt before. Maybe it was the suit's new upgrades doing their job.

I swooped in towards the Goblin, making me realize that the glider was much more difficult to control than it looked. I kicked off at the last second, and punched the Goblin in the face, letting out some of the energy I had stored up.

It worked like a charm, and The Goblin went flying back, and fell off the side of the rooftop. I landed and walked towards the edge but my Spider-sense started tingling. Instinctively, I jumped back just in time to dodge the Goblin soaring up towards me on his glider. The glider automatically goes after its rider if they fall off, and I guess it had gone for the plummeting Goblin rather than me who was already safely on the ground.

"I see you've been busy taking out my reinforcements, Spider-Man," the Goblin said. "But you're sadly mistaken if you think that was all I brought along,"

My Spider-sense went nuts as I felt a threat incoming from behind. I jumped upwards in time to dodge a missile headed towards me. The missile changed direction and shot towards me again. So, it was locked on to me… shit.

I tried to lose it but it was no good, it hit me square in the back and exploded, sending me flying straight into a building under construction. Even more than that, I had actually felt the explosion hurt a bit, but not too much though.

Well, at least I got a power boost from that.

I got up and looked out the hole in the wall I had made. The missile had come from a what appeared to be a flying jack o lantern in the distance. No, wait, it was a helicopter with the cockpit designed as a jack o lantern. Talk about keeping up with the theme.

The Goblin flew over towards me and hovered, some fifteen feet away from the building.

"So… Spider-Man," he said. "What have you thought about my… generous offer?"

"Gee, I dunno," I said. "Does the fact that I took out two dozen of your goons and then attacked you answer your question?"

"Very funny. So, you decided to choose the wrong answer," Goblin sneered. "Tut-tut, I hoped you'd be a bit more sensible,"

He quickly threw a pumpkin bomb at me but I caught it with a webline and flung it back at him. It him in the face and exploded, knocking him back. I took the opportunity and jumped at him, landing a right hook and letting out some of the energy from the missile blast, which sent him flying back again and he fell on top of a building.

The chopper fired two more missiles, which flew towards me leaving trails of green smoke behind them. I tried to dodge them but it was no good; they hit me again.

Okay, I really gotta get rid of that damn chopper. I fired two weblines at two buildings, across the street from each other, then moved as far back as I could, stretching the webs. Then I let go, and shot forwards towards the chopper.

It fired another rocket at me, which I dodged by inches mid-air. I crashed through the front windshield of the helicopter right into the seat next the pilot. I punched the guy in the face, knocking him out.

Only then did I realize that now there was nobody to pilot the damn chopper, because I sure as hell couldn't.

Oh, and that missile I dodged in mid-air? Yeah… it was coming back right towards us.

I grabbed the unconscious pilot, and jumped out the side of the helicopter, just split seconds before the missile made contact and exploded, blowing up the cockpit.

After landing on the nearest rooftop, I left the pilot there and turned around. The helicopter, now missing a big portion of its front, started spinning out of control as it plummeted towards the ground.

Oh… fuck.

I needed to stop it from crashing into the street, so I jumped, and landed down on the street where the chopper would more-or-less hit. I fired webs at the buildings on both sides, creating sort of nets, stretching from one of my hands to the buildings on that side of the street. Then I joined the two nets together into one big spider-web and let go. The helicopter slowly got closer meanwhile, and I pulled myself away from there by firing a webline.

"Gideon, will the webs… uh, y'know, hold?" I asked.

"Calculating… affirmative,"

"Oh, thank god,"

The helicopter hit the webs, causing the webs to bounce a bit, like a trampoline but not as extreme. The chopper stuck to the webs, suspended some twenty feet or so above the ground. The rotor blades managed to cut through one or two lines of webs- not enough to risk falling- before stopping as well.

Woohoo! I just stopped a helicopter from falling to a street with pedestrians!

A sharp cackling sound off in the distance snapped me back to the matter at hand.

I looked around and saw the Goblin flying off into the night on his glider.

Oh, hell no! I began swinging after him.

I followed him through the city for a few minutes, trying to take aim at him or his glider, but he always moved to took a turn that ruined the aim. Finally, I was able to fire a webline that actually managed to stick to his glider. but before I could actually make use of that in anyway, he took a sharp turn right, and slashed and cut the webline, sending me flying straight into a building.

I crashed through the window into the building, to a collective gasp and a couple shrieks. Looking around, I saw a bunch of people staring at me that I didn't recognize, they were all wearing fancy clothes so I assumed it was some kind of… I dunno, rich people event or whatever.

Although, the interior of the place did look familiar…

Then I spotted Norman Osborn in the crowd, looking just as taken aback as everyone else there, and it clicked. I had just been yeeted by the Goblin straight into the Osborn residence. And Harry had mentioned that his dad was holding some kind of dinner party or whatever.

My Spider-sense started tingling and I turned around; the Goblin flew through the broken window right at me, and swung his fist, which I dodged easily. The Goblin flew past me, and I fired a webline at his back, flung him around and straight out the window. I tried to grab the glider as it flew after him, but missed just by an inch and it caught the Goblin before he could fall.

The crowd suddenly erupted into screams and started to run.

"Spider-Man- what are you doing?!" Norman Osborn demanded angrily.

"Gee what does it look like?" I snapped back. I figured it's probably best to take this fight out of the dinner party (I know, genius) but before I could do that the Goblin threw another pumpkin bomb, but not at me, at the crowd of people who were still trying to run. I fired a webline and caught it, and flung it right back at him, but he threw another bomb which collided with the first one, creating a big cloud of green smoke as they both exploded.

My Spider-sense tingled again, and the Goblin came flying towards me out of the smoke. This time I swung my fist, but he flew just under it and past me.

I turned around and saw him grab Norman Osborn and another lady from the crowd and flew out the window, in the span of barely a second.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Holding the two hostages, he stopped and turned around mid-air to face me.

"You brought this on yourself, Spider-Man!" he spat at me. "If you had just been intelligent enough to accept my offer, you wouldn't have been in this situation,"

I didn't bother retorting with a quip; now wasn't the time for that, I had to come up with something, anything to save Norman Osborn and the other lady from the Goblin…

"It's a tragedy," Gobby went on. "Alas… you heroes and your morals…"

He let go of them and flew away cackling, I ran out the window and leaped after Norman and the other lady as they fell.

They were already much farther below me, and I couldn't catch up to them like this. So I fired two weblines at a balcony far below and yanked myself forwards, giving me a speed boost and allowing me to catch up with Norman Osborn. I grabbed him around the waist, and tilted myself right, towards the lady and grabbed her as well.

It was at this moment that I realized, that because I had my arms around two people, I couldn't manipulate webs or swing well.

"Uh… Gideon?!" I said as I plummeted. "Any suggestions?!"

"Emergency parachutes ready to deploy,"

"Parachute- yes! Deploy!" I said. Ah, god bless Reed Richards for putting a fucking parachute in a Spider-Man suit…

The parachutes opened, slowing us down and we landed safely on the street below.

Yes, it was a bit lame, that I, the amazing Spider-Man, had to use a fucking parachute. But at the end of the day, I had saved two people from going splat on the sidewalk, and I guess that's what matters.

"You guys, okay?" I asked

"Yes… t-thank you, Spider-Man," Norman Osborn said shakily. The lady just nodded weakly, before clasping a hand to her mouth, waddling over to a trash can, and throwing up.

Yeesh.

Can't exactly blame her though.

Then, I realized with a sinking feeling in my gut, that the Goblin had gotten away. I immediately fired a web and started swinging around the buildings, through town, in search of the Goblin but he had disappeared. Shit!

I know I've said this a million times today, but seriously…

Fuck you, Goblin.

I had promised to call Curt and tell him about everything that went down afterwards, so I told Gideon to call his number as I began web-slinging back home.

"Peter? What happened?" Curt's anxious voice said.

"So, doc, I got good news… and bad news," I said.

[…]

(Elsewhere in New York City)

In an abandoned subway tunnel in Brooklyn, two teenage boys were busy spray-painting a wall. One of them, slightly taller and considerably skinnier than his friend, stepped back and looked back at their work.

"Y'know, Ganke? I think this might be our best one yet," he said proudly.

The boy named Ganke stepped back as well and took in the sight. "Damn right it is, Miles," he said, fist-bumping his friend. The mural was a large spray painting of Spider-Man in a mid-web-swing pose towards the viewer, the sky and buildings in the background bathed in golden sunlight. They had been working on it every evening for the past three days.

Miles's uncle had shown him this abandoned tunnel a month ago, and since then it had been frequented by Miles, usually accompanied by his uncle or by Ganke. It had basically become an art gallery of sorts, with half a dozen murals spray-painted on the walls. No one else ever came down here, making it the perfect place for such activities.

Ganke looked at his watch. "Yeesh, it's almost ten. We should probably head back Miles,"

"Oh… yeah," Miles replied, still looking at the spray-painting. Tonight had been by far their longest session, and they had lost track of time working on it. "Yeah, lemme just take a few pics, then we'll go,"

He pulled out his phone and snapped some pictures, then they both began walking towards the exit when they heard a distant crash. They both stopped and turned around, it had come from the opposite direction, deeper into the tunnel.

"Uh, what was that?" Ganke asked.

"I dunno," Miles said. "Let's go check it out,"

"What?! No, are you crazy?!" Ganke said, trailing after Miles as he started walking towards where the noise had come from. "Miles, why do you always have to be so adventurous? It could be dangerous,"

"Dude… relax," Miles said as he continued walking.

"Ah, yes, relax after just hearing a mysterious sound in an abandoned subway tunnel at nighttime," Ganke said sarcastically.

"Look, if you have a problem with all this, then go back," Miles said. "I'm not asking you to come along,"

"But what if it's something dangerous? I can't let you die," Ganke said. "How'd I explain all this to your parents? And your dad's a cop, he'd suspect me since I was the only one with you,"

"I'm not gonna die, Ganke. Don't be so dramatic," Miles said. "We've been down here a thousand times and nothing's ever happened,"

"Because no one else has ever been down here before! And we've never been down here this late either!" Ganke hissed at him.

"It's probably just a homeless guy,"

"Or it could be The Lizard," Ganke said, grabbing Miles's shoulder and stopping him.

"Dude, why would the Lizard be down here?" Miles said, turning around to look at his best friend. "Spider-Man took care of him, remember? Like, two weeks ago?"

"Well, no one actually knows what happened to The Lizard. He vanished after that one night. For all we know he could be lurking around somewhere. Maybe hibernating or something,"

"Hibernating… in spring? Yeah, right," Miles scoffed. "Ganke, listen- oof-!"

Ganke suddenly clasped a hand to Miles's mouth, eyes wide with fear, and pointed behind Miles. Miles turned around slowly and froze.

Maybe a hundred feet ahead, was a figure in what appeared to be green colored armor. He was hovering in midair on some kind of glider.

"The… Green Goblin," Miles whispered in fear. Ganke nodded and they both slowly backed away.

Thankfully the Goblin hadn't noticed them. He hadn't been looking their way, but rather at one of the walls. The two teenagers watched him push certain bricks on the wall like some kind of buttons or pressure pads, and a portion of the wall slid to the side, like some kind of doorway and the Goblin went through it.

When the Goblin had entered what was presumably his lair and the wall had sealed up behind them, Miles and Ganke let out a collective sigh of relief.

"That was- that was the Green Goblin," Ganke stammered. "The guy who fought Spider-Man a few nights ago!"

"I know who he is!" Miles said, sweating a bit now. "C'mon we gotta get outta here!"

[…]

"Well, the good news is," I said as I swung my way back home. I could hear police sirens all over the city, guess they were busy after the whole goblin mess. "The upgrades work like a charm,"

"And… the bad news?" Curt Connors asked.

"Goblin got away," I said with a sigh. "I had been so close to getting him but- wait, hold on a sec,"

"Spider-Man! Spider-Man, help!" a voice below cried out.

"I'll call you back in a minute, Doc," I said and hung up. I swooped down to the street, which was empty save for two teenage boys, maybe a couple years younger than me.

"Alright, I'm here," I said as I landed. "Uh, everything okay?"

For someone who had just called out a superhero for help, they seemed relatively calm, though… perhaps a bit nervous.

"Uh, yeah, everything's okay… well, sorta. We have to show you something! It's urgent," one of them said.

"Um… what is it?" I asked. I was a bit suspicious at first, but my suspicions pretty much went away when I saw who these two kids were on Gideon's facial recognition.

Miles Morales and Ganke Lee.

Holy shit-

How had I not recognized them? They looked exactly like their PS4 video-game versions.

Also, what did they want to show me? And had Miles been bit by the spider yet or not? If he had already been bit, then that's a bit of a problem. Usually, Peter had been Spider-Man for at least a few years by the time Miles shows up. I've been Spider-Man for barely two months and I do not have the necessary experience to train Miles beyond the very basics.

"It's about the Green Goblin! We found his hideout!" Miles said.

"You- what?" I said, completely taken aback. "How did you find it?"

They explained what they had been doing and how they had found the hideout. After telling me where it was, I said, "Okay, well thanks for telling me. You guys should probably go home now. And uh, did you call the police?"

"Ah… no," Ganke said, suddenly realizing this.

"They… probably wouldn't have believed us," Miles interjected. "And even if they did, we couldn't just show them a blank wall and tell em to blow it up to see what may or may not be on the other side,"

In all honesty, I was a bit glad that they hadn't. If Curt Connor's formula was stashed at the Goblin's hideout, then police involvement would be very tricky. The formula was something that must never come to light, because the slightest investigation would be enough to figure out where it came from, and someone would put two and two together and realize that Curt may have been The Lizard.

Needless to say, that would screw him over big-time, consequences ranging anywhere between losing his job, to losing his job and going to prison.

Maybe he deserves it, heck he himself seems to think he deserves punishment for his actions. But that was a whole other rabbit hole, and personally I wasn't gonna risk anyone finding out that Dr. Connors was the Lizard. He'd helped me out a lot already and he seemed genuinely remorseful for what he did. Plus, it would do no good whatsoever if he got sent off to jail or whatever.

Also, if I hadn't been a dumbass and acted in time, this whole mess would never have happened to begin with.

"Okay, you guys should head home now, I'll take care of the Goblin," I said.

"Wait, we're coming with you!" Miles said.

"Wait, we are?" Ganke said.

"Absolutely not," I said. "It could get messy down there and I don't want you guys to get hurt,"

"No, I meant, it's a specific wall," Miles clarified. "We know which one it is so we'll just show you, and then leave,"

"Uh… no, I'll manage," I said. They might remember which specific wall it was behind but my suit could see through walls, so I'd be fine.

"Oh… okay, sure," Miles said.

"Okay, well you two go home now," I said. "I'll take care of the Goblin,"

You know what? This night may not be a big turd pile after all!

I'd still rather be watching Revenge of the Sith though.

[…][…][…]

And that was the chapter! Sorry for the long wait, it's been what, two and a half months? Sheesh, sorry about that.

This is by far the longest chapter I've written in my short time as a fanfic writer. I hope you liked it.

I'm introducing Miles Morales now, but he hasn't been bit yet. I'm gonna wait a while before doing that, I wanna build his character up a bit more. Next chapter is gonna conclude this arc, so stay tuned. I'll try to post that one as soon as I can, hopefully it won't take as long as this did.

And that's about it, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

(I know my action sequences still suck, I'm trying to improve)

I'll see you next time.