Peter Parker's perspective:

It had been two weeks since Peter had officially gotten a job as assistant to Curt Connors, one of New York City's better scientists. This was a big exception to the ol' Parker luck; he was making decent money on his first job. Of course, this had to work, since he could not do both this full-time job and go to college.

Peter set up a down payment for a house in a Manhattan suburb. It was time to say goodbye to his Aunt May.

"Goodbye, Aunt May," Peter held out his arms.

Aunt May smiled uneasily and hugged him. "Goodbye Peter. I'm going to miss you. I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it any easier."

"No," Peter sighed. "It won't. I'll visit. I promise."

As he drove away from his old home, Peter looked back and sniffed. It was so hard to leave. Perhaps he should not live alone. He picked up his phone.

"Hello?" asked Michelle "MJ" Jones.

"Hey," said Peter. "How's film school?"

"Well enough, Peter," said MJ. "More boring than I thought, though. Guess film school is still school."

"I never found school boring," said Peter.

"That's because you're a science geek," MJ teased. "You're lucky you found me."

"About that," Peter hit her with it. "I've gotten my own place. You... you want to move in with me? Of course, if you don't that's fine too."

"I'd love to," said MJ. "We're practically living together anyway. Besides, you'll never make it on your own."

"Probably right," Peter chuckled.

In another week and a half, Peter and MJ were awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call.

"Who could it be past 3:00?" yawned MJ.

"Who knows?" asked Peter, picking up the phone.

"Sorry to bother you," said Dr. Connors, "But a meteorite is going to hit the upstate area soon. I know we mostly do genetics, but I'm still not passing up this opportunity. I'll need your help getting it in." Dr. Connors had lost his right arm when he had briefly served in the Army to earn money for college.

"I'll be right there," Peter promised.

They arrived at the spot twenty-eight miles north of the Westchester. After an hour, Peter asked, "Are you sure this is the right place, Dr. Connors?"

"Positive," said Dr. Connors. "Although I'm less certain about when the meteorite will hit the area. Wait. Here it comes. Keep an eye on it."

Fortunately, it did not land near either Peter and Dr. Connors. They used plastic-laminated foil to get the hot meteorite into a wheelbarrow, then loaded it into the trunk of Dr. Connors' car.

They looked again at the meteorite in the wheelbarrow.

"Uh, why is this thing black?"

"I don't know," said Dr. Connors. "I'm most intrigued."

They took the meteorite back to the lab. It was still irradiated but for some reason had changed its color to a traditional Earth tone.

"The Hell?" asked Peter.

"Perhaps the color change is the result of the ion radiation wearing itself out," speculated Dr. Connors. "No time to waste."

But their studies got a fix on the radiation the meteorite had gotten well before it dissipated. The discoveries were more than significant.

"This is going to be big," smiled Dr. Connors. "Wait till the big shots in Washington and California get a load of this! And I won't ignore your contribution either, Peter." Dr. Connors slapped Peter on the left shoulder. "Good work."

Peter smiled. He liked work a lot more than school.

Spider-Man's perspective:

Despite his good fortune, Spider-Man did not forget about patrolling New York. He landed on a sidewalk and sent a web line at the trunk of a getaway car.

"Don't be impolite," taunted Spider-Man. "The police want to see you."

The police caught up and arrested the driver of the car that Spider-Man had stopped. Another crime thwarted by New York's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Peter's perspective:

Having only gotten a few hours' sleep, Peter was dog-tired by the time he got home.

"MJ," said Peter, "I think I'm going to bed early."

"Yeah," MJ looked hard at Peter's face. "You really need an early rest." So Peter went to bed.

Peter had a dream. He was walking on a sidewalk when he saw a beast with a huge mouth, tongue, and sharp teeth, drop down in front of him.

"We shall be one, Peter," This being spoke in a monstrous voice. It wore a costume similar to Spider-Man's, although it was black and the spider symbol was white, big, and spread horizontally from chest to upper back.

"Who are you?" asked Peter, preparing for battle.

"Leave him alone," shouted an unknown but somehow familiar voice behind Peter. Either his eyes were playing tricks on him or this was Spider-Man.

Um, last time I checked, I'm Spider-Man.

"You're weak, Wall-Crawler," sneered the monster. "You wouldn't do what needs to be done. With Peter's help, I'll clean up this town." It rushed an assault at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man's perspective:

Spider-Man awakened to find himself clinging to a wall in town. Had he caught a particularly bad case of sleepwalking? Apparently not. From the moment he woke up, his eyes were fixed on a man in black clothing and a knit cap. He entered a nearby store and left with a stuffed bag.

Spidey was preparing to pounce at the burglar when he had unwittingly done so. He delivered a kick at full force that floored the burglar and left him bleeding through the cap on his forehead.

Oh, no, didn't mean to hit him that hard!

Spider-Man covered the wound with his hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Soon enough, he had.

Just before The Web-Slinger would have set off the burglar alarm to attract the police to the burglar, he saw his own reflection in a store window. He was in a black costume similar to the one from his dream, although without the giant jaws. Triggering the alarm, Spidey got a good distance away.

Now on a rooftop, Spider-Man paused to reflect on everything. First he had a weird dream, then he almost did something that he would have regretted for the rest of his life, and finally, he was in a new costume. And this skipped over the fact that he felt in his heart that he had stopped a few crimes before this altercation.

Needless to say, it was time to head home.

Peter's perspective:

Still in the black costume, Peter returned home. As he entered the bedroom, his costume seemed to transform into pajamas.

This sure raises more questions that it answers. Where'd I get the ability to do this? Was it the black stuff that covered the meteorite? If so, it must have come to me. But it's handy.

Peter entered the living room to see a worried MJ. Hearing Peter, she turned to him and said, "Where do you get off taking off without telling me?"

Peter gulped. What was he supposed to say? MJ would never believe him. Peter was not sure he believed it himself.