It was a Friday night and Peter was out as Spider-Man after his police scanner had picked up a robbery at an electronics store. He quickly went to work jumping down and webbing up the goons loading stuff onto a truck while also using his webs to disarm them. Plus he was getting the hang of avoiding gunfire; "Spider-Man; you may have taken down my minions but beware for you shall face the wrath of your greatest foe yet; the mighty atrocious amphibian known as Leap-Frog!" shouted a voice and out from the store was a man wearing an oversized Halloween frog costume along with yellow boots that had thrusters on them. He then made some dramatic looking poses as if he was some sort of powerful villain.
Peter stood there and looked to one of the defeated criminals and asked them "is this really your boss?"
"No off course not; the idiot got the idea to become one of you costumed types and got us to play along!" muttered the criminal as Leap-Frog then tried to make some acrobatic moves and his attempt at a flying kick as well as punches were so pathetic that Peter didn't even feel his Spider-Sense go off.
Peter was easily dodging his attempts to fight and Leap-Frog was becoming tired out; "Let's see how you fare against the Leap-Frog's mighty leap!" Leap-Frog shouted as he prepared to activate the thrusters on his boots but then there was smoke and then he yelled in pain and fell to the ground looking pathetic as his boots and costume came on fire.
Peter went to qork quickly ripping the thrusters off and got the guy out of his costume causing him to shiver as he was standing in the cold night in his boxers and dress shirt. "I didn't even fight you... What quip could I use to make you look more pathetic than you actually are? You know the other day I stopped this guy calling himself the Bodega Bandit whose only costume was a robber's mask but he was alien invasion levelled threat compared to you! I am utterly embarrassed to think that I now have to go on thinking that my rogues gallery has Leap-Frog..." Peter muttered and the police came and he easily tossed Leap-Frog to them as he web slinged off shaking his head.
The next morning Peter was out with Debra and Grady as they were looking at a new poster for Colonel Jupiter as quickly put together by the Mayor's office and workers were sent to put them up and remove any remaining Scorpion posters. The poster showed John heroically catching a car up in the air; "Can you believe this; no credit whatsoever for the name that I came up with! You know I bet the Mayor has someone come up with all of the headlines and never had any originality himself!" fumed Debra as they began walking along to go to their favourite comic store but as they were passing by a basketball court a basketball came flying out with Peter catching it.
Peter then threw it back and it ended up going up in the air and through the hoop; Peter then chided himself for doing that and looked nervously at Grady and Debra who were stunned. "Since when could you do that Peter? You always sucked at basketball! The gym teacher kept you on the bench to stop you embarrassing yourself!" Grady muttered stunned.
"Lucky shot I guess!" Peter replied with a fake smile on his face thinking people would start asking questions if they saw him show off like this from now on.
"Well work on it and you could try your hand at being the first scientist basketball champion!" Debra said as coming over with the ball was an African-American man with a goatee along with a 10 year old African-American boy.
"Hey kid; I saw that and if you're not busy then you could try your luck against us!" the man offered looking like he was about to toss him the ball; before Peter could respond there was a police car parking itself.
Peter looked and saw Jefferson walking out glaring hard and the man returned; "Aaron; what do you think you are doing? I thought that we made it clear that you are not welcome near this family anymore!" Jefferson angrily told the man as Peter, Debra and Grady stepped aside.
"Jefferson; Miles was the one that found me practicing my throws and he wanted to join in. What kind of uncle would pass this opportunity to bond with the nephew whose folks want away from him?" Aaron retorted shaking his head.
"Dad; what do you and Mum have against Uncle Aaron?" Miles asked as Jefferson looked down at him softly and said that they will talk at home.
"Let's leave them to this family drama..." Debra said with the other two nodding with them leaving; Peter was thinking that the officer he knew as Spider-Man must have some issues with this guy who was either his brother, brother in law or someone who used to be a friend close enough that his son knew the guy as an honorary uncle.
In the Mayor's office; Jameson was looking at posters with his deputy Mayor Edward Saks nearby; "Saks; the good press about my boy is good but if only there was a faster way to convince everyone that Spider-Man is a menace! He still has good support for some godly reason and I am trying to make sure that the city sees John as the true superhero!" Jameson grunted looking at the latest opinion polls.
"Don't worry Sir; I am sure an opportunity will come forward soon for everyone to see John as a big hero!" Saks replied hiding that he had already set something into motion.
Peter was now perched on top of a building overlooking an art museum as he was calling Daredevil; he had spotted a figure going in and told Daredevil "Okay teach I saw a purple masked guy in a black armor suit sneaking into the art museum so I think catching this guy will more than make up than the mortification of having to deal with Leap-Frog."
"Since I know you will ignore me if I try to tell you to stand down; I am going to instead suggest that you proceed with caution. It sounds like the Prowler; a professional criminal who uses advanced technology and has hired himself out for clients of all sorts." Daredevil warned him and it sounded like this could put Spider-Man on the map.
Peter webbed down and found the open window entrance that Prowler used and snuck through it; he saw Prowler setting up a device and putting it on a security camera. It was probably to turn them off, "You know this seems excessive, you could have just bought a ticket to see the exhibits during the day!" Peter joked and Prowler noticed him and then started using some impressive acrobatic skills to punch and lunge at Peter with him dodging what he could.
Prowler sent grappling cables to tie Peter up and he took the punches before he was able to rip open and used his webs as well as kicks against Prowler. "Supposed to be a simple quick robbery but now I have to deal with you..." Prowler said but Peter felt his Spider-Sense go off and went to take cover when there was blasts from the windows and spotted people flying in wearing black and silver full body full body armor.
More and more came out and Peter felt his back being touched and there was Prowler who took his mouth with his hand before he could make the sound; "Looks like you are my best bet to get out of here so truce?" Prowler asked and Peter sighed as he gave a nod; he did read when in comics superheroes would have to make unlikely temporary alliances with bad guys.
One of them brought in a bomb device and had a camera as he showed it off saying to the video "we are Pterodax and this is a message to city hall and the police department; we have this bomb that could blow the entire building and we will activate if any police shows up!"
"With a name like that you would think that their suits would be more dinosaur themed!" Peter joked to Prowler and even though his helmet covered his entire head; Peter could get from the body language that he wasn't amused by the remark. Prowler showed all his fingers on his hands and used it to count down from as they then began stealthily take down the Ptereodax goons. Peter shot his webs to bring them forward and smash their jetpacks as Prowler used his grappling cables to tie them up.
Peter was also using the time to direct the security guards that Ptereodax took as hostages to safety. One Ptereodax goon got close enough to the bomb to activate the counter. Peter saw Prowler grapping up to the window he used to enter; "You are leaving? This could blow and kill everyone inside!" Peter shouted out but Prowler continued prowling up.
"Heroes become martyrs, professionals stay alive!" Prowler shouted right back at him before leaving causing Peter to glare behind his mask. He looked to the bomb to see if he could disable it but teenage science whiz or not this looked complicated for him.
Probably didn't help that he sucked at bomb disposal minigames in video games...
"Never fear for Colonel Jupiter is here!" John shouted coming in through the door having taken care of the Pterodax goons in his way. John then looked to the bomb and grabbed it, he held hugged it right to his chest managing to crush it and contain the blast that came out.
"Wow; thanks for that Colonel... Could have been nastier!" Peter told John as they heard the sirens of police cars coming; John gave a head motion along with his grateful smile and Peter took it as his cue to leave.
"That was great work saving the day last night John my boy; shame Spider-Man escaped!" Jameson told John in his office as he contacted Robbie at the Bugle to make sure that they cover the whole heroic story of John taking care of the incident at the museum. The witness statements from the guards of having been helped out by Spider-Man and some spotting the Prowler leave, Jameson had the implication that the two could have been working together to rob the place put into the story.
John acted all humble as there were execs from the Daily Bugle Communications to set up a TV interview for John; Saks watched on with glee that his plan worked. Good thing he made sure him hiring Pterodax to rob the museum so they could be foiled couldn't be traced back to him; the suckers thought that the whole point was to make off with as many art treasures as possible...
Peter thought that it sucked about failing to catch the Prowler before he escaped but the bomb was stopped; plus while he was miffed about DBC implying he was working with them he doubted most people would believe that. The next morning he was helping out May at FEAST when he saw Liz enter through the door. "Hey Liz; do you need last minute tutoring?" Peter asked and Liz shook her head.
"No I wanted to come here and tell you; I am holding a party at my place on Wednesday night and I was wondering if you wanted to come? More thanks for the tutoring and since you're my friend... What do you say Petey?" Liz asked and Peter was startled but ended up nodding.
"Off course I will be there; if that's okay Aunt May?" Peter asked and May shot a grin as she nodded; Liz smiled as she bid them a farewell.
In a secret subway lair Aaron was hard at working working on advanced equipment with technology that came from clients that he reworked for his own uses; he picked up a framed photo of him smiling with Miles when he was younger and sighed. He then placed it down next to a framed photo of him after leaving high school with his first boss; Wilson Fisk before he claimed the title of 'Kingpin'.
"Going need to be prepared if I Spider-Man comes across me again..." Aaron muttered as he looked to a table that that had the Prowler gear.
As much as I love the Leap-Frog look from the She-Hulk show and the use of of combining the character with his son Frog-Man together, I think the large frog look of the costume would be funnier to use than the show's suit which is a cross between a Power Ranger and Kick-Ass (appropriate as they both involve someone failing at being amateur superheroes only Dave was able to become competent). Pterodax comes from the MTV Spider-Man cartoon.
Prowler's line about heroes and professionals comes from the Tangle & Whisper comic series which was a spinoff from the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comics featuring two original characters who became popular and I do reccomend the comics.