A/N: Hiya everyone. No I'm not dead. My work life has just been all encompassing lately. I am moving to a new city, got a new job coming up. So between making sure i left my current position on good terms, coordinating the shipping of all my stuff, Getting ready for a new place, well, it's been exciting. I appreciate you all waiting. I'm gonna be getting a new story started soon, but here is a little one shot to hold you all over.

One Shot: Pizza Time.

Peter looked through the pile of paper in front him. His lab was filled with paper, and hard drive loaded documents and video filled multiple windows on his computer screens. His projects hadn't been touched in days. His focus had been drawn to a singular field of research the scientific community had though was dead. The Neo-Genetics debate opened up again. The process that was being proposed was something that resembled science fiction in the 1990's.

Previous experiments and theories focused on using radiation to fuse a culture of mammal DNA and DNA from other branches of the animal kingdom. The process involved using radiation to mutate the cells from both cultures together at once and getting them to bond. The procedure worked, but was a mess. Peter compared it to putting a loaf of bread with a jar of peanut butter, and a jar a jelly, and then hitting all three with a hammer. Sure, the result had all the ingredients and taste of a PB&J, but you probably didn't get the ratio or structure you were aiming for. The DNA merged together, but usually not in the way you wanted, and with radical side effects.

The new process was two stage. Stage one used enzymes from bacteria that acted as DNA scissors to cut traits from that an outside source. Stage two then used an RNA strand to sew the cut strand into the host DNA. It was like using a knife to cut the bread and spread the peanut butter and jelly on the aforementioned sandwich. The process was cleaner, more deliberate, and didn't rely on radiating people and things. Peter looked in amazement over the research.

The process could advance stem cell research in organ and spinal injuries. It could be used to attack diseases such as AIDS, HIV, and STDs. Cancerous cell could be removed. Disabilities could be fixed. The only limitation was that host and foreign DNA both needed to be mapped to find what needed to be cut, pasted and replaced. In that fact, the new method was going to be very expensive, because the genome had lots of information that needed to be identified, and would change from individual to individual.

Peter rubbed his eyes from staring at the screens and paper, and checked his watch. He'd been in his lab since 8:30 this morning. It was now past 4:00 in the afternoon. He had been so engrossed that time slipped away. Now that he had been pulled back to the world from his mind, he noticed that he was hungry. Really, really hungry. Only one thing made sense in this situation. Pizza.


Spider-man landed in an ally behind Fracano's, a little place in Greenwich Village. The family run place was currently owned by Frankie Jr., though some argued that his wife Mary was actually in charge. Frankie's brother-in-law Paulie was the chef, and worked in the place since he was fourteen. Fracano's made your typical Italian-American food, but their main draw was the pizza. It was one size (12 inches), came on one type of crust (thin), only offered marinara sauce, and only had six toppings to offer (cheese, pepperoni, sausage, onions, green peppers, and olives). Not the most expansive menu, but they did it perfectly every time. It was also small enough to carry when web slinging through the city.

Peter quickly put on more appropriate attire and walked through the front door. Frankie was working the counter, taking orders and passing food to the customers that were waiting for their orders. Paulie could be seen through the pass-through window to the kitchen. The place had a small crowd getting ready to pick up their orders, and some families sat at tables with their red and white pattern tablecloths, food, and plastic cups of drinks.

"Peter!" Frankie exclaimed. "Always happy to see the smartest guy I know."

"How many smart people to you know?" Peter asked. Frankie loved banter.

"My wife, my wife, and my wife." Frankie said with a laugh. "15 years and I know that she's smarted than me at least. He's your order."

Frankie handed three pizza's. Two were pepperoni. One was onions, peppers, and olives. "Got more than usual today I see."

Peter usually stopped by for lunch from time to time, or for a bite when he was on patrol. But he decided to pick some up for Felicia just in case she was home, as well as some for breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

"Pepperoni is for me. The other two for my girlfriend to make a decision." Peter said with a grin.

"She sure can't be your wife. Mine makes all my decisions for me." Frankie said smiling big. "That's $22.00"

Peter handed over the money and took the pizza. He walked out the door and took a turn down the ally he landed in previously. He put his red and blue uniform back on and webbed up is cloths. He then used his webbing to make a backpack to carry the pizza. He jumped up and started to make his way to Midtown.


Peter was almost to his and Felicia's apartment. The after-work traffic of cabs, cars, bikes, and foot traffic was reaching peak capacity. The buildings put everything on the street in the shade. Despite the number of people, there was a way that the people just moved through the city to keep from bunching up, except at spotlights.

As he went down the road, he saw two guys in suits escort a third man into an ally. The action went unnoticed by everyone. Why would they? Just a couple of dudes going down an ally. Spider-Mans didn't like what he saw though, and went to investigate. A quick drop and he was above them in the ally.

"C'mon guys, it was a slow week. I'm good for it." The man in the middle said.

"You know I don't want to do this. I hate doing this." Big Guy Number One said. "It's an unpleasant part of the job, but it's the same as the bank. You don't make payments, we need to take efforts to sure that you do, and that we recoup some losses. It's just business."

"I'll get you guys collateral." The man said.

"You could have done that earlier. But you didn't, and we need to ensure you have some kind of cash flow." #1 said.

"Might get an insurance payout of this." Big Man Number Two said. "I'd use it wisely." #2 finished as he put on brass knuckles.

Spider-Man slowly lowed himself on a webline down the wall. Needed to keep himself upright to keep the pizza in good condition. "Now what might we have here. Seems to be an extortion attempt." Spider-Man mused aloud.

"Spidey. Thank god." The man said.

"Piss off bug. He's gonna have to pay up anyway." #2 said.

"What my associate means to say is. This is a business conversation, and even if this meeting were to be postponed, it will just be rescheduled to the earliest convenience for our boss, and not quite for this gentleman here." #1 said.

"This is the unpleasant part of the job. Same as police. You threaten an individual with violence, I have to ensure the public safety. It's just business." Spider-Man said.

Fast as he could, Spider-Man webbed up #2 fists to take the brass knuckles out the fight. #1 started to pull something out of his coat, but Spider-Man was faster, and fired another web, pinning his hand to his chest like he was pledging allegiance to the flag. #2, unable to use his hands, tried to kick him, but was surprised when his leg was webbed up to a fire escape. Spider-Man looked over to see #1 running toward the ally entrance. A webline, a hard pull, and another net of webbing later, #1 was secured to the wall.

The hero looked over to the would-be victim. "Thanks man. I owe you." The man said.

"Seems like you owe some others as well." Spider-Man stated.

"Yeah…."

"I can't babysit you. You're gonna need to figure something out."

"Yeah. No duh."

Spider-Man was always unhappy in these situations. A guy gets himself into a situation. The guy in the situation get some people sent after him, but their boss stays away. Spider-Man gets the guys sent, but not the boss. And the victim has to wait to get his ass kicked.

'Typical extortion.' Spider-Ma though to himself. "I think you should go to police. Tell them you borrowed money illegally. Now you're in hot water. If your lucky, the guy who did your lending is on their radar, and they might forgive your financial transgression." Spider-Man said. Whoever this loan shark was, he's lucky that Spidey didn't have time to pursuit someone across the city every time he had a loose thread.

Spider-Man jumped into the air and started to swing away.

The man looked as the hero traveled further and further down the street. He smelt the air, and the familiar scent of pizza. "Damn. That smells good."


Peter swung through the window to his apartment. He took of his mask and unslung his 'backpack'. He went into the kitchen and saw a note on the table. Peter picked it up and read it.

-Peter,

Went out to dinner with some people from work. Dinner meeting with big clients. Be back later tonight.

-Felicia 3

"Sweet. Pizza for two… for one." Peter said with glee as he opened the boxes.

A/N: A little work life, a little humor, a little action, a little home life stuff. Hope you all enjoyed it.