The Month Peter Parker Learned Humility
Chapter 5: Wednesday September 5th
"So, Mr Parker, if I'm correct, can you define for the class what the five super-powered government branches are?", asked Mr Bagley, Peter and MJ's new Supers History teacher. "SHIELD, SWORD, Department of Mutant Power Registry, Bureau of Super-Powered Humans, and…" "It's a trick question, those are the only four branches!", MJ added in defense of her tiger cub. "Yes and no, Ms…" "Watson. Mary Jane Watson." "Ms Watson, there was also the now-defunct Department of Sentinel Mutant Neutralization. But that was beyond your time, and just beyond mine. The 70s and early 80s were a boom time for mutant discrimination. Does anyone here happen to know a mutant affected by the SMN program?" "Mr Bagley, I know someone who was!", replied a teen all the way in the back, hiding under his hoodie.
"You mind telling us, uh… mystery student?" "Name's Randy Robertson. My grandpa was taken by those giant purple robots back in '72. Shit was printed in the Bugle front page; you know it, the photo where those metal henchmen are grabbing niggas with powers like him right out their own apartment buildings and houses in Harlem. So yeah, I know someone who was affected." "…That's some powerful stuff, Mr Robertson. Very harsh language, but I'll let it slide since it's quite the tale."
Once the class was over, most of the teens left off to find their new courses. MJ and Peter, however, wanted to talk to a fellow classmate. "Randy, that's your name, right?", Peter asks. "Yeah, what do ya want?" "I wanted to say hi. I used to intern down at the Bugle during the summer, before…" "Before it got downsized to a TV show?" "Yeah, I was the photographer for Spider-Man—" "Wait wait wait. You were Spider-Man's photographer?" "Yeah. I used to hand over my photos to either Jonah or your dad, Robbie." "Oh yeah! Dad used to talk about you all summer long, said ya came in looking like you climbed those walls with Spidey himself!"
"My tiger being an absolute mess? Sounds about right", MJ sassily replies. "She ya girl, 'tiger'?" "I'm not his girl; he's my boy", she replied, firmly hugging Peter. "My big, bad tiger cub boy." "Yo, is she one of those furry chicks or something?", a confused, concerned Randy whispered to Peter. "You wish. MJ's just the best", he replied, slowly choking from her bear grip on him. "Speaking of the best, you two wanna take me to the nearest N train? I got a lot of second day of school homework to finish." Suddenly, Peter's phone got an Avengers Alert, summoning him to the Mansion at once.
"C'mon, you can finish that on the subway platform no problem!", Peter stated. "Why not head on back to the West Village one last time, before summer's really over?" "My guy, you're in high school right now. Summer's very much over", added Randy. "It's not over till the 21st, as per basic science", the young couple simultaneously replied. "Wow, where did you two meet; Nerd Nexus?", Randy sarcastically replied, shocked at the couple's chemistry.
"It's a long story", Peter answers. "You see, way back in the day—" "Kindergarten. We've been friends since kindergarten", MJ adds. "Anyway, you wanna go back down to the West Village or no? I may or may not have a surprise for the two of ya there." "Pete, it's work calling you, isn't it?" "Yeah, it's work. They're calling me in early." "Wait, where you working at now that the Bugle is just a TV show?" "…It's a Stark Industries part-time job, I'm gonna see if that'll count as my internship class." "Nice. Good luck with that, Tig—" "Randy, you wanna walk me to the train? I don't trust these new kids, and Pete takes a different train than me", MJ interrupts Randy's not-so-subtle teasing.
"I don't wanna cross any lines. Peter, you mind?" "She asked you, not me. You wanna walk her back while I go to work?" "If you say so, Pete. Good luck at work", Randy states, barely agreeing to this situation. "C'mon, I'll show ya the way to the N, Paper Boy!", MJ whimsically says to Randy, inviting and dragging him to walk away as Peter needs to change into his Spider-Suit.
Soon after that talk, Spider-Man can be seen swinging across the Queensboro Bridge on his way to Avengers Tower. "Hey guys, what's up?", Peter states, greeting Iron Man and Hank Pym on the Helipad. "I, uh.. we got a lot to talk about, and not all of it's good", Hank replied, with a small stutter in his throat. "There's some serious shit going on inside that tube of goo", Reed Richards added, walking outside to greet Peter. "Reed? How bad is it?"
"So this alien creature is alive, and although I can't trace its planet of origin, I can classify it as a symbiotic slime", Reed informs Peter matter-of-factly, holding the metal tube with the goo. "Wait wait wait, 'symbiote'? You mean that thing is gonna control me?!" "Not exactly", Hank replied. "It's not a very intelligent creature, it only has basic survival instincts." "This alien does have the potential to enter its host's mind, and have full control over the body rather than the usual 'I'll eat my host and move on to the next' behaviors of a symbiotic creature", Reed adds. "There's serious potential for a boost in intelligence and danger."
"So what do we do with it?", asks a concerned Peter, getting only more and more scared of it. "We aren't sure how to kill it, as fire, molecular separation, and even lethal gas doesn't affect it in any negative way whatsoever. For now, I'll keep it and store it in—" "No you won't, Reed; that's Avengers and SHIELD property", Hank sternly replied. "We fought it, we trapped and studied it here, we keep it in our facilities. So, cough it up, Stretch." "Hey, only Ben can call him that, TINY!", Peter yells at Hank, already sensing a mid-level Spider Sense blare. "You stay out of the grown-up conversations, kid! Reed here is breaking a law—" "That's my friend you're disrespecting, and doesn't the Baxter Building have free-range SHIELD permits?" "…Thank you for that, Spider-Man. I do have Level 9 SHIELD access to any and all super-related items." "Don't care, I don't think you're smart enough to handle this—" "Were you deemed Scientist Supreme of Earth, Hank? Were you? I don't remember The Watcher making you that", Reed asked in an extremely rude, almost disdaining tone towards his fellow super and super-scientist.
"Guys, guys, let's calm down for a minute here", Cap calmly negotiated, rushing in to put out this heated disagreement. "Nuh-uh, Stars and Stripes! Stretch here needs to remember who owns that damn goo", replies a very heated Ant-Man. "I said only Ben can call him Stretch, Tiny!", Peter repeats in a much angrier manner, this time pushing Hank Pym to the ground."Oh, you think I'm just a tiny dude, huh, kid? I'll show you who's tiny!", Hank replied, growing to a height of 30 feet. "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!", Cap shouts at the top of his lungs, throwing his iconic shield at Hank's Pym Particles belt. Iron Man flies in, holding down Reed and Hulk jumps in, holding down Peter.
"Now listen once and only once, you brainiacs!", Cap bellows. "Reed gets to hold the creature, because I know for a fact he contributed more than we can thank him for in terms of scientific research. Now, apologize to Reed, Hank, and apologize to Spider-Man again for him having to see us like children!" "…My bad, Reed. I don't know what got into me there. Take the goo for as long as you need." Hank shrank back to his normal height, walking away in shame. "Don't walk away from this yet, Pym! You still owe apologies to our newest member here", Iron Man yells within his metal helmet. "Fuck that kid, let him learn some respect first."
As the tense afternoon at Avengers Mansion simmers into a late, brisk night inside the labs of the Baxter Building, Reed Richards can be seen experimenting one last theory with the black goo. "Reed, come to bed already, it's almost midnight", Sue begs her persistent husband. "Let me squeeze it one more half square foot of space; I want to see if lack of oxygen can end this very real threat", Reed replies, sounding half asleep. Through his sleep-deprived testing, the containment cage cracks slightly, with our goo creature sliding out towards freedom. "Sue, force field it now! It's symbiotic!", Reed orders, now with authority and alertness encompassing his voice. The slimy alien slithers out of its cage and underneath Sue, desperately trying to find a window in this giant laboratory. After a quick crawl through the Richards' lab and living room, it clings onto the window and forces it open. "Who put the AC on ten here?", asks a bewildered Ben Grimm, wearing a VR helmet.
"Close the window, Ben! Close it!", replies a scared Sue, preparing a force field outside the window. Ben sprints towards the open window, closing it with all his stone-layered might. Although Ben shut the window proper, the goo escaped the force field by half an inch. "Where is it?", asks a frantic Reed, holding a new, stronger metal tube. "Where'd it go?" "…Honey, we tried our best, but.." "It's gone, isn't it?" "What's gone, Stretch?" "That alien slime Peter encountered back at the Avengers ceremony. It's a living creature that got loose, Ben. It's now somewhere in this city, and—" "Slim, can't ya track its radiation or use some other fancy schmancy science GPS type thing to find it?" "…Give me five minutes." "What's with all the noise, I'm trying to sleep here?!", groggily yells Johnny Storm.
As this wanted slime ball scatters across the boroughs, it clings onto the N train towards Forest Hills. Sniffing and careful tracking leads the goo to an unsuspecting house, where Peter Parker sleeps blissfully unaware of the impending danger. The goo soon opens the window, slinks into Peter's bed, and bonds once more to Peter.
END OF CHAPTER 5
