Part Five

            "If you think that you're going out anytime soon, you've got another thing coming." Ben Parker said scolding his nephew who squirmed as he sat in the kitchen. "This whole superhero business is getting out of control."

            Peter sighed, "Uncle Ben, I didn't mean for that to happen. It was completely out of my control."

            "That's why you're grounded for the rest of the month!" He barked angrily, "You're not going to throw away the last three years of high school for this gimmick." Ben leaned against the counter and sighed, "Peter, just go upstairs, I'm so upset right now."

            "What if something happens in the city?" Peter asked trying to find a way out of predicament.

            Ben shrugged, "Plenty of other people can handle it. Remember the police department? They're the guys who are trained to handle problems."

            Peter nodded sarcastically, "Yeah they're the people who keep showing up half an hour after stuff goes down."

            "Go to your room!" Ben screamed angrily, blood flushed to his head, and his eyes seemed more ferocious than Peter had often seen. "Stay there and think about the fact that the principle was gracious enough to let you take the tests."

            "For a fee of course." He mumbled stomping up the stairs.

            Ben sighed once Peter was gone and wiped his eyes wearily, "Sometimes I just don't know what to do."

            Mary Jane came forward out of the corner she had tucked herself in, "Pete feels suffocated when he's kept away from the costume."

            "That's the problem; he's become dependant on it. He can't walk out of the house without that damn thing under his clothes." Ben lowered his shoulders in defeat, "I'm the villain to him."

            "Peter loves you." MJ said confidently, "He may curse under his breath a little but he does."

            Ben nodded slowly, "Has he seemed different to you? Since that whole thing happened with…what did he say his name was…Venom?"

            MJ frowned, brushing away a strand of hair from her eyes, "What do you mean by different?"

            "I don't know, sometimes he gets snappy. He's more head-strong, angrier, at first I figured it was hormones, but I haven't seen him this angry since…May died."

            Suddenly, a lump formed in MJ's throat. She hid her face nervously with her long hair. Peter still hadn't revealed what he believed to be his responsibility in May Parker's death. He spoke of it often and seemed afraid that Ben would be overcome with grief and rage.

            "I guess he's a little different." MJ looked at the stairwell leading up, visible through the open doorway from the kitchen, "I'll talk to him."

            "Thanks." Ben responded.

            A thousand thoughts were running through her mind. Ben had told her he'd been different since his scuffle with Venom, what could that be about? Maybe he was different, Peter often talked about his stay with the suit, he had never said it but she could hear it in his voice. He had been afraid. He was afraid that it had altered him somehow, that he had been corrupted.

            MJ opened the door to his room, "Hey, tiger, how are things going?" She entered and immediately her face expressed the somber mood overtaking her.

            The window was open and he was gone.

            Peter swung through the city with amazing grace despite the anger bellowing through him. DareDevil had seriously gotten under his skin. It gnawed at him annoying everything that he did.

            He had to settle the score. Peter had no intention of killing him, but publicly humiliating him sounded very appealing. He just needed to see some contacts; first he imagined it wouldn't be that hard to find where this guy could be hanging out at. That is unless he was a high school student with some geek-like tendencies.

            The Kingpin casually walked into his warehouse located in a bad part of Hell's Kitchen, the strong-point of his power. The building was a dark cove filled to the brim with boxes.

            He glimpsed into the darkness from which his nemesis emerged, "You are the mighty DareDevil?" He asked slightly surprised.

            DareDevil stared back at his huge opponent. "You expected someone different?"

            "Somebody taller, perhaps, I'm not accustomed to having small men become such large annoyances." The Kingpin gestured towards the vigilante, "Why have you brought me here?"

            "I'm not here to kill you." DareDevil said calmly, "Simply I wish to lay down the rules of warfare between us."

            The Kingpin grimaced, "Who are you to dictate anything to me?" He smirked, "I've created empires, weighed men's lives in my hands. You're nothing but any punk off the streets who thinks they can off me whether their motivations may be."

            DareDevil's acute radar sense echoed outward. He could hear the Kingpin's collected and focused heartbeat. He could hear the pigeons in the rafters. He could even hear the goons moving along the roof towards the large windows situated near the ceiling. "You were supposed to come alone."

            "And risk losing such a prime opportunity to destroy you? No, that wouldn't do at all would it." The Kingpin laughed, "Tell me, before you are executed what is your reason for making me the focus of your failed war on crime."

            They were close. He was surrounded; his planned escape route was cut off. He should have known better, men like the Kingpin had no honor. He had just made the biggest mistake of his life. Matt Murdock closed his fist; this'd be hard, he needed to move fast; otherwise he'd never make it out of this warehouse. "You want to know my reasons? After you wake up tomorrow in that tower of yours take a nice long look in the mirror and see if there's a human being behind those cold eyes."

            Kingpin frowned and seemed ready to give the order. DareDevil prepped his body; it'd be the fight of his life. He had no chance.

            The side of the warehouse was split open and all attention was drawn to it. An enraged Peter Parker came crashing through in his Spider-Man costume. He immediately landed a glancing kick on his designated target and DareDevil crashed into a pile of boxes.

            "That was for hitting me with the club!" Peter wasted no time advancing and landed on Matt's stomach forcing him to gasp for air, "That was for causing me to miss my mid-terms you jerk."

            Then in an instant, Peter realized he wasn't alone. The Kingpin's goons slipped into the room on cables like highly trained commandos. He glanced at DareDevil for a moment and then back at the Kingpin. "Sorry guys, I'll come back after you're done playing cat and mouse with horns here."

            Kingpin clenched his teeth at the balls that this Spider-Man had to have to interrupt his crowning moment, "Kill them both!"