Author's Note: It appears that in issue #43 Peter Parker and his Aunt May go all the way to California to see Mary Jane, only to have her give him the cold shoulder. Oh yeah, Dr. Octopus appeared too. So...yeah, no Jennifer Hardesty in there, but it's kind of a relief to me because I was afraid my idea might have been used by J.M.S. in issue #43. I wonder what happened to Lieutenant William Lamont...mmm, well, since he's such a stand up guy, he'll be included in this story as well. (For those who don't know, he's Steve/Johnny's case officer.)
A big thanks to: Kat, Blaque Cell, DominoDS, Mossberg, deLurk, Serena, and Jade.
Special thanks to Jade for providing details on issue #43, as well as making me curious enough to find some more information on issue #43. Also, special thanks to Serena for being the closest thing to a real live muse.
And now, I proudly present another chapter to add to the archives...
- Peter Parker: Responsibility -
- By Brian Marcelo -
- brianmarcelo@hotmail.com -
- PG-13 for language and content -
- Chapter Three -
***
"Huh." mumbled Peter, as he watched a faintly red leaf fall from a tree outside of his window, "some teacher I am, I told Jennifer that winter was already here when it's still fall. Man, I must've been really out of it yesterday..."
Turning his attention away from the withering tree, he focused on Jennifer, who was still sleeping on his couch, tired and beaten from the previous night. After he had saved her from some gang members he had brought her back to his apartment, since her 'home' had been deserted and ransacked. Despite the fact that it was a dangerous move for him to do so, it was the only option he had.
So for the rest of the night he had been drinking down cans of Coca-Cola for it's caffeine while dabbing a cold compress on to Jennifer's black eye that looked like it hurt *a lot*. After all the injuries that he himself had sustained over the years he had picked up a sense of how much something had hurt (which was also useful for making sure he sufficiently pulled his punches against non-superhumans).
"Poor Jennifer," he whispered aloud, as he dabbed the cold compress a bit, "having to learn to grow up so fast..."
As he glanced over to the clock to check what time it was, his jaw fell down slightly in shock at the blinking red numbers.
7:55.
"Huh...?" he mumbled in a sleepy daze, until he realized that he had stayed up the entire night tending to Jennifer's injuries.
"I'm late! School starts in 20 minutes!" he yelled out in distress, accidentally causing Jennifer to stir a bit, "Oh no...I can't miss another day of school, especially after I called in sick during that fight with Morlun a few days ago..."
"But...so sleepy...and...Jennifer's in my apartment...and...uh..." he muttered in a half-sleepy-half-distressed daze as he packed his school bag, "well, she looks like she's still knocked out, so...maybe when I get back she'll still be...knocked out...which I'm suppose to think is bad, but in this case..."
Taking a nervous glance at Jennifer, then his blinking red clock, and then back to Jennifer, he decided that as long as she didn't wander into his room, where his suit and web shooters where, everything would be fine. Taking a much needed sigh of relief at his conclusion, he drank down the last few drops of coke that he had been drinking, wrote down a hastily written note to Jennifer, and proceeded out of his apartment with all the spider-agility he could muster without looking suspicious.
***
May Parker walked briskly on her way to the mailbox, ready to deliver the last batches of mail she was sending to all the major newspapers in New York City.
Hopefully for her, one of those newspapers she had been writing to would run more positive (and hopefully enlightened) views of Spider-Man, who she recently discovered to be her own nephew Peter Parker. After getting over the shock of seeing her nephew half-covered in bandages and bloody bruises, along with *his* tattered Spider-Man costume lying on the floor, she had confronted him about it, and she was finally allowed to know what her nephew had been doing all those years. At first, she was shocked, frightened, outraged, scared, and then finally...understanding.
They both shared guilt in his death, Peter more so since he felt he could've stopped that burglar so easily, yet he didn't. Ever since that fateful day, May learned, was that Peter lived by the old saying that his Uncle Ben had recited ever now and then when he was still alive.
"That with great power comes great responsibility".
May understood that Peter felt it was his responsibility to use his power for good, even though she didn't exactly approve of her nephew going out every night to fight against criminals with *guns* and superhuman freaks with powers she didn't even want to think about.
As she dropped the batch of letters into the mailbox, she couldn't help wondering if Peter and Mary Jane would get back together.
'The last time I saw Peter he looked so distraught over missing Mary Jane. Sigh, I wonder what on earth that boy had gotten himself into in order to completely miss her by a whole day.' she thought to herself wearily, as she turned around and started heading home.
"Hopefully, those two will realize that love is suppose to conquer over all." she said to herself, as she put her hand onto her forehead in disappointment, "Young people...sometimes they just totally forget the rules of love and then decide to make up their own..."
***
11:00.
Mary Jane yawned groggily as she noticed the blinking red numbers next to her bed.
She frowned a bit; she had been having a very pleasant dream where she was swinging alongside Peter, observing the New York Skyline and how beautiful it was. Then Peter told her she was more beautiful then anything he had ever seen and then...the dream ended with the sounds of her alarm clock ringing incessantly loud.
"Time to start making that movie I signed on to..." she mumbled, as she let go of her pillow and got out of bed, putting herself through the paces that she was accustomed to since she had started modeling. As she put on her make up and such, she remembered how Peter would sometimes watch her do so while he brushed his teeth, making comments such as her not needing any make up to look flawless to him.
She laughed a little, when she first caught Peter attempting to put her make up on his face to cover up bruises from a tough fight. They both had gotten a huge kick out of it, especially the end result where he looked all dolled up.
Remembering that he was on the other side of the country, she became solemn as she put on the finishing touches on her make up.
***
"What the hell happened last night? Didn't I tell you two morons to take care of our little problem?" asked a figure who looked quite angry.
"We're so sorry boss! That damn Spider-Punk got involved while we was thrashin' that girl and then webbed us up against a wall!" said Big Billy, who was behind a glass barrier that was built to separate the visitors and prisoners from each other, "It's like that Spider-Fool has a thing for that girl or something, boss!"
"I could see that, you idiot..." hissed the figure quietly, as to not alert the prison guards, "perhaps I can use that to my advantage...that way, I could get rid of two birds with one stone..."
"What do you mean boss?"
"Shut up."
***
"I'm sick and tired of this family! I want out!"
"Fine, leave us for your stinking skank of girlfriend then!"
"At least she's smart enough to use the pill ever time we do it! You're the reason we were cursed with those good-for-nothing kids of ours! Hell, I bet that daughter of yours will turn into a whore just like you!"
Jennifer suddenly awoke in a cold sweat from her nightmarish memory of what had happened the day her parents had both left her. She could still remember that fateful day despite being only a young girl when it happened...she could still remember how much they yelled...how they both left her and Steve to the streets to fend for themselves, and how later on Steve became dependant on drugs to block out his depression.
Panting in deep breaths, she slowly felt pain in her right eye. Putting her hand to it, she realized it was swollen pretty badly. As she took in her surroundings, she tried to recall what had happened last night. She could remember walking home, then she was captured and tortured by two ugly looking gang members, and then...Spider-Man saved her. Then the next thing she knew, she awoke in some strange apartment instead of her little room in the abandoned basement she lived in.
She quickly realized whom the apartment might belong to.
"Spider-Man...could this be Spider-Man's apartment...?" she yelled out in excitement, throwing away the blanket and hopping off the couch.
She was so excited, she was actually in her hero's pad, for better lack of a phrase. She anxiously went around the room, trying to find anything of significance in the somewhat normal living room. As she started scanned the kitchen, she noticed a yellow piece of paper with the words Jennifer in bold. Carefully picking it up, she read it with high interest.
Jenny,
Spider-Man told me what happened to you and how your basement home was cleared out, so that's why he brought you here. Err, I hope you don't mind staying here for a while, especially since I'm your science teacher and all. Don't worry about being absent from school today. Oh yeah, don't worry about your homework either, I'll bring it straight to you personally. One last thing I'd like to add is that I'd really appreciate it if you don't go looking into my room, it's a real sty in there, trust me on that.
- Peter
P.S. Help yourself to the fridge. Just try to remember that I'm poor because science teachers don't make too much.
Despite feeling kind of disappointed that it was just Mr. Parker's apartment and not Spider-Man's, she was happy that he was willing to let her stay for awhile. She liked Mr. Parker, especially since he was the first person to care about her in a long while. In fact, Mr. Parker was one of the only adults she had ever known who had actually tried to lend a helping hand; he even got Spider-Man to help her too.
Feeling hungry after not eating since lunch from yesterday, she gladly took Mr. Parker up on his offer and opened the fridge, mildly surprised to see that he didn't have any alcohol of any kind; not that she was going to drink any, merely that she had always grown up expecting a fridge with a few Heinekens, Coronas, and Millers. Inside the fridge were milk, orange juice, and fortunately, a few cans of Coca-Cola. Taking a can of soda from the fridge and a half full bag of Lays from the counter, she wandered back to the living room, where a big photo album caught her curious eye.
***
"So what is your name?" asked the figure, as he examined his new enforcer thoroughly.
"Just call me Mirage." replied the man confidently.
"Mirage doesn't seem like a very intimating name for an enforcer for us...what the hell do you do anyways?" the figure asked again, wondering how this person even got here in this first place.
"I've been subject to a lot of testing by scientists, you know, since they've been trying to find what causes those damn muties-freaks to be what they are. So anyways, I was tested with so many serums and potions and what not that, well...if I use any sort of addictive drug..." Jon said, as he took out what looked like pills, "I can secrete hallucinatory gases powerful enough to make someone see things, make them relieve buried memories, or even make 'em die of an overdose. The only drawbacks are that it takes more energy to overdose 'em, and that my power only lasts for thirty minutes. After that, I need another dose of the good stuff."
"Interesting..." the figure said while rubbing his chin, "You're no Shade, but still very interesting...but tell me, how the hell will you do that gas thing you do if Spider-Man reaches you and starts beating the crap out of you before you can even do anything about it? He's pretty damn fast, you know."
Mirage smiled as he played with a pill in his hand. "No need to worry about that, sir."
- End of Chapter Three -
Please-please-please rate and review! I crave feedback of any kind as long as it's constructive!
Don't worry if you think Mirage is a little bland/a rip off of Mysterio, because what he will do to Peter will be pretty bad...so um, yeah. Trust me on that...I hope. *gulps*
By the way, I've already thought of a sequel to this story after it's finished, so...yeah.
Review! Please!
A big thanks to: Kat, Blaque Cell, DominoDS, Mossberg, deLurk, Serena, and Jade.
Special thanks to Jade for providing details on issue #43, as well as making me curious enough to find some more information on issue #43. Also, special thanks to Serena for being the closest thing to a real live muse.
And now, I proudly present another chapter to add to the archives...
- Peter Parker: Responsibility -
- By Brian Marcelo -
- brianmarcelo@hotmail.com -
- PG-13 for language and content -
- Chapter Three -
***
"Huh." mumbled Peter, as he watched a faintly red leaf fall from a tree outside of his window, "some teacher I am, I told Jennifer that winter was already here when it's still fall. Man, I must've been really out of it yesterday..."
Turning his attention away from the withering tree, he focused on Jennifer, who was still sleeping on his couch, tired and beaten from the previous night. After he had saved her from some gang members he had brought her back to his apartment, since her 'home' had been deserted and ransacked. Despite the fact that it was a dangerous move for him to do so, it was the only option he had.
So for the rest of the night he had been drinking down cans of Coca-Cola for it's caffeine while dabbing a cold compress on to Jennifer's black eye that looked like it hurt *a lot*. After all the injuries that he himself had sustained over the years he had picked up a sense of how much something had hurt (which was also useful for making sure he sufficiently pulled his punches against non-superhumans).
"Poor Jennifer," he whispered aloud, as he dabbed the cold compress a bit, "having to learn to grow up so fast..."
As he glanced over to the clock to check what time it was, his jaw fell down slightly in shock at the blinking red numbers.
7:55.
"Huh...?" he mumbled in a sleepy daze, until he realized that he had stayed up the entire night tending to Jennifer's injuries.
"I'm late! School starts in 20 minutes!" he yelled out in distress, accidentally causing Jennifer to stir a bit, "Oh no...I can't miss another day of school, especially after I called in sick during that fight with Morlun a few days ago..."
"But...so sleepy...and...Jennifer's in my apartment...and...uh..." he muttered in a half-sleepy-half-distressed daze as he packed his school bag, "well, she looks like she's still knocked out, so...maybe when I get back she'll still be...knocked out...which I'm suppose to think is bad, but in this case..."
Taking a nervous glance at Jennifer, then his blinking red clock, and then back to Jennifer, he decided that as long as she didn't wander into his room, where his suit and web shooters where, everything would be fine. Taking a much needed sigh of relief at his conclusion, he drank down the last few drops of coke that he had been drinking, wrote down a hastily written note to Jennifer, and proceeded out of his apartment with all the spider-agility he could muster without looking suspicious.
***
May Parker walked briskly on her way to the mailbox, ready to deliver the last batches of mail she was sending to all the major newspapers in New York City.
Hopefully for her, one of those newspapers she had been writing to would run more positive (and hopefully enlightened) views of Spider-Man, who she recently discovered to be her own nephew Peter Parker. After getting over the shock of seeing her nephew half-covered in bandages and bloody bruises, along with *his* tattered Spider-Man costume lying on the floor, she had confronted him about it, and she was finally allowed to know what her nephew had been doing all those years. At first, she was shocked, frightened, outraged, scared, and then finally...understanding.
They both shared guilt in his death, Peter more so since he felt he could've stopped that burglar so easily, yet he didn't. Ever since that fateful day, May learned, was that Peter lived by the old saying that his Uncle Ben had recited ever now and then when he was still alive.
"That with great power comes great responsibility".
May understood that Peter felt it was his responsibility to use his power for good, even though she didn't exactly approve of her nephew going out every night to fight against criminals with *guns* and superhuman freaks with powers she didn't even want to think about.
As she dropped the batch of letters into the mailbox, she couldn't help wondering if Peter and Mary Jane would get back together.
'The last time I saw Peter he looked so distraught over missing Mary Jane. Sigh, I wonder what on earth that boy had gotten himself into in order to completely miss her by a whole day.' she thought to herself wearily, as she turned around and started heading home.
"Hopefully, those two will realize that love is suppose to conquer over all." she said to herself, as she put her hand onto her forehead in disappointment, "Young people...sometimes they just totally forget the rules of love and then decide to make up their own..."
***
11:00.
Mary Jane yawned groggily as she noticed the blinking red numbers next to her bed.
She frowned a bit; she had been having a very pleasant dream where she was swinging alongside Peter, observing the New York Skyline and how beautiful it was. Then Peter told her she was more beautiful then anything he had ever seen and then...the dream ended with the sounds of her alarm clock ringing incessantly loud.
"Time to start making that movie I signed on to..." she mumbled, as she let go of her pillow and got out of bed, putting herself through the paces that she was accustomed to since she had started modeling. As she put on her make up and such, she remembered how Peter would sometimes watch her do so while he brushed his teeth, making comments such as her not needing any make up to look flawless to him.
She laughed a little, when she first caught Peter attempting to put her make up on his face to cover up bruises from a tough fight. They both had gotten a huge kick out of it, especially the end result where he looked all dolled up.
Remembering that he was on the other side of the country, she became solemn as she put on the finishing touches on her make up.
***
"What the hell happened last night? Didn't I tell you two morons to take care of our little problem?" asked a figure who looked quite angry.
"We're so sorry boss! That damn Spider-Punk got involved while we was thrashin' that girl and then webbed us up against a wall!" said Big Billy, who was behind a glass barrier that was built to separate the visitors and prisoners from each other, "It's like that Spider-Fool has a thing for that girl or something, boss!"
"I could see that, you idiot..." hissed the figure quietly, as to not alert the prison guards, "perhaps I can use that to my advantage...that way, I could get rid of two birds with one stone..."
"What do you mean boss?"
"Shut up."
***
"I'm sick and tired of this family! I want out!"
"Fine, leave us for your stinking skank of girlfriend then!"
"At least she's smart enough to use the pill ever time we do it! You're the reason we were cursed with those good-for-nothing kids of ours! Hell, I bet that daughter of yours will turn into a whore just like you!"
Jennifer suddenly awoke in a cold sweat from her nightmarish memory of what had happened the day her parents had both left her. She could still remember that fateful day despite being only a young girl when it happened...she could still remember how much they yelled...how they both left her and Steve to the streets to fend for themselves, and how later on Steve became dependant on drugs to block out his depression.
Panting in deep breaths, she slowly felt pain in her right eye. Putting her hand to it, she realized it was swollen pretty badly. As she took in her surroundings, she tried to recall what had happened last night. She could remember walking home, then she was captured and tortured by two ugly looking gang members, and then...Spider-Man saved her. Then the next thing she knew, she awoke in some strange apartment instead of her little room in the abandoned basement she lived in.
She quickly realized whom the apartment might belong to.
"Spider-Man...could this be Spider-Man's apartment...?" she yelled out in excitement, throwing away the blanket and hopping off the couch.
She was so excited, she was actually in her hero's pad, for better lack of a phrase. She anxiously went around the room, trying to find anything of significance in the somewhat normal living room. As she started scanned the kitchen, she noticed a yellow piece of paper with the words Jennifer in bold. Carefully picking it up, she read it with high interest.
Jenny,
Spider-Man told me what happened to you and how your basement home was cleared out, so that's why he brought you here. Err, I hope you don't mind staying here for a while, especially since I'm your science teacher and all. Don't worry about being absent from school today. Oh yeah, don't worry about your homework either, I'll bring it straight to you personally. One last thing I'd like to add is that I'd really appreciate it if you don't go looking into my room, it's a real sty in there, trust me on that.
- Peter
P.S. Help yourself to the fridge. Just try to remember that I'm poor because science teachers don't make too much.
Despite feeling kind of disappointed that it was just Mr. Parker's apartment and not Spider-Man's, she was happy that he was willing to let her stay for awhile. She liked Mr. Parker, especially since he was the first person to care about her in a long while. In fact, Mr. Parker was one of the only adults she had ever known who had actually tried to lend a helping hand; he even got Spider-Man to help her too.
Feeling hungry after not eating since lunch from yesterday, she gladly took Mr. Parker up on his offer and opened the fridge, mildly surprised to see that he didn't have any alcohol of any kind; not that she was going to drink any, merely that she had always grown up expecting a fridge with a few Heinekens, Coronas, and Millers. Inside the fridge were milk, orange juice, and fortunately, a few cans of Coca-Cola. Taking a can of soda from the fridge and a half full bag of Lays from the counter, she wandered back to the living room, where a big photo album caught her curious eye.
***
"So what is your name?" asked the figure, as he examined his new enforcer thoroughly.
"Just call me Mirage." replied the man confidently.
"Mirage doesn't seem like a very intimating name for an enforcer for us...what the hell do you do anyways?" the figure asked again, wondering how this person even got here in this first place.
"I've been subject to a lot of testing by scientists, you know, since they've been trying to find what causes those damn muties-freaks to be what they are. So anyways, I was tested with so many serums and potions and what not that, well...if I use any sort of addictive drug..." Jon said, as he took out what looked like pills, "I can secrete hallucinatory gases powerful enough to make someone see things, make them relieve buried memories, or even make 'em die of an overdose. The only drawbacks are that it takes more energy to overdose 'em, and that my power only lasts for thirty minutes. After that, I need another dose of the good stuff."
"Interesting..." the figure said while rubbing his chin, "You're no Shade, but still very interesting...but tell me, how the hell will you do that gas thing you do if Spider-Man reaches you and starts beating the crap out of you before you can even do anything about it? He's pretty damn fast, you know."
Mirage smiled as he played with a pill in his hand. "No need to worry about that, sir."
- End of Chapter Three -
Please-please-please rate and review! I crave feedback of any kind as long as it's constructive!
Don't worry if you think Mirage is a little bland/a rip off of Mysterio, because what he will do to Peter will be pretty bad...so um, yeah. Trust me on that...I hope. *gulps*
By the way, I've already thought of a sequel to this story after it's finished, so...yeah.
Review! Please!