6
Peter opened the door to his apartment. Throwing his keys on the table, he noticed MJ wasn't there. Was she okay? Had his spider-sense faltered again? If it had happened once it could. He spotted a note on the table.

At rehearsals. Locked door using key from janitor. See you Tiger. MJ.

"Phew." Just to make sure, Peter checked the handwriting. After the fifth time, he knew that it was definitely hers. Taking off his coat, jeans, and uniform, he pulled on his PJs and crawled into bed.

*****

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake UUUUP! It's 7 'o clock in the morning on this lovely day, 5th of August, and in case anybody's forgotten, it's the brand spanking new Unity Fair! Harry Osborn is organising, and paying for, I wouldn't want that job, the fair to open his new company, OctoExperiments! Weird name, huh?"

Peter hit the radio and ran the new name of Harry's company through his head. "OctoExperiments?" remembering his Latin, Peter recognised 'octo' as "Eight." Showering, eating and dressing only took a couple of minutes each. Peter ticked the items on his list.

"Camera? Check. Film? Check. Pad? Check. Pen? Check. Uniform? Check." Peter left and made his way to the Unity Fair.

*****

Harry Osborn peered over the restored balcony at the hundreds of stupid people scurrying around in their Swedish or French or Spanish costumes. Harry wasn't one to lie but he did lie to Peter yesterday. I mean why not? He thought. He lied about everything to me. Harry spotted the eager beaver with his camera, snapping the huge inflatable globe.

"Well, Parker," Harry said to himself. "You're in for a shock this year because it'll be JUST as eventful as last year's fair."

Peter looked up at the new balcony and saw Harry. He waved to him. Peter waved back. Scanning the area for photographs, his frame landed on a pretty blonde girl.

"Peter? Peter Parker?" she smiled a pearly white smile.

"Yes, that's me." Peter lowered his camera.

"Don't you remember me?" She smiled again. It was a huge and pleasant smile. She had pale skin, blonde hair in a ponytail and blue-brown eyes. She was wearing blue Levi's, black Doc Martens and a white fitted blouse, her lacy white bra showing through. This woman was very attractive. So much so that Peter was having trouble with his words.

"No..Sorry....I...."

"Liz Allen ring a bell?" Peter opened his mouth in amazement.

"Oh my god! Liz, you look fantastic!" Peter had only known Liz as an awkward geeky girl at High School, about two more steps down the social ladder than he had been. Her hair had always been untidy, her glasses huge and her braces.She was sometimes known as 'Metal Mouth'. Puberty had obviously been a good thing for her.

"Aw, jeez." She started eyeing his biceps. "You don't look bad yourself, Peter." Liz smiled that amazing smile again.

"Did you get contacts?" Peter knew it was a stupid question. Obviously she had got contacts but maybe she would appreciate him noticing them. Even still, and rather odd this was, she hesitated and looked down at the floor, as if thinking about it.

"Umm.. Yeah! I did! Do they look okay?"

"Yeah! Great!" Peter was still amazed at how she cleaned up so well.

"So, Pete. Did you get a job after graduation?"

"Yes. I'm a photographer." He gestured to the camera. "And a freelance reporter."

"No kidding! I'm a reporter! Wow, where?" Liz slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

"The Daily Bugle." Liz's eyes lit up again.

"Me too! Isn't Jonah such a drag?" Peter nodded. Coincidences! It was just his lucky day.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm just mooching around. Some other bonehead got the reporting job instead of me." Peter blushed. "I think it's Oliver. Met him?" Peter shook his head. "Oh, don't. He's a pain in the ass." They both laughed.

Liz then shut her eyes and squeezed them, as if experiencing small pain, and then furrowed around in her pocket. Bringing out a tiny ringing phone, she answered it. Peter looked away and tried not to eavesdrop. Aunt May had always told him how bad it was to listen in on other people's conversations.

"Listen, Pete, I have to go now but maybe we could meet up sometime. For a drink perhaps?" A girlfriend? Peter thought. That could be good. But, MJ.She wouldn't mind. We both have to move on. Now that would be even harder, considering she now knew his identity.

"Yeah, okay." Liz took his number and put it on her phone. I have to get one of those, thought Peter. She smiled at him and then walked off into a crowd of people. As he was positioning a shot of the inflatable animals, his spider-sense warned him. Before he could think what it was, Harry appeared on the balcony again, as if ready for a speech. Everybody turned round and started to clap. Peter joined in. Harry was finally getting on with his life.

"My friends. My new company, OctoExperiments, will break the boundaries of human evolution." Harry used an extract from his father's journal. "We have barely touched the surface." This sparked off spontaneous applause. "Now, enjoy yourself!" he disappeared into his study. Peter started to frame the animals again. Click! Went his camera. He heard a squelch and looked at his wrists to see if one of his webs had 'gone off' by itself. Nothing. Then came the laughter and clapping. He looked up and saw..

"No! It's not possible." A person, clad in red and purple, was swinging towards Harry, using webs. This was probably just for show, but when Harry leapt out of the study with a handgun, he knew it couldn't be.

Jumping into the shadows, Peter ripped off his shirt and jeans and pulled out the mask from his camera pocket. Appearing again, he saw Harry turn to shoot him. Peter had forgotten about Harry's oath to kill Spider-Man. Dodging four shots, the fifth made him pull a muscle in his neck. It throbbed with pain but Peter ignored it, staggering back into the shadows. His spider-sense gave him a quick jolt. What was it now? Looking up at the balcony, Peter saw the other Spider-Man dangling in front of Harry, the gun now pointing at Harry's head. A closer inspection of the gun-holder showed that the figure had slight hips and chest marks through their uniform.

This was no Spider-Man.

This was a Spider-Woman!