Severing Ties
Summary: Things are looking up for Peter. It had been a few months since Doctor Octavius passed away, and Peter was getting his life on track except for a few things that wouldn't let him be. That's all about to change as someone, somewhere, needs Peter, and he's going to be in for a wild ride.
Chapter 4: Questioned Beliefs
On Friday, Peter noticed that Felicia wasn't in class the whole week. It was then it dawned on him. Felicia? The Black Cat? He put two and two together, and got the same result. The girl who talked to him the day he met Jackie was the criminal Black Cat. He shook his head as he realized that he should have known sooner. After class, he went to a payphone to call Jackie about tutoring.
"This is she," she said.
"Hi. It's Peter."
"What's up?" she asked, sounding concerned.
Do I sound that depressed? Peter thought to himself. "Nothing. I was just wondering if we were still up for tomorrow."
"Yeah. Nothing changed. You okay? You don't sound too good," she noticed.
"I've been sick lately. It's nothing a trip to the doctor won't cure." Speaking of which, I need to get there soon.
"Sure? I mean, I know some remedies and stuff that'll get you rested if you're stressed or something," Jackie offered.
"No thanks. I'll be fine. I gotta go. Payphone's only let you on for a little while. Bye."
"Later, Pete."
He hung up the phone and started to make his way to the doctor's office. Peter still trusted him, now he just knew that the doctor knew zip about dreams. He got there and started talking about how he almost got shot, and how he'd been losing strength.
"How'd you almost get shot?" his doctor asked.
"Wasn't really noticing where I was, and I walked straight into a gang war."
The doctor shook his head as he tended the gash. Peter bit back a wince. After the appointment, Peter had to admit that his shoulder was feeling better. The doctor gave him some sleeping pills so that he'd get more rest at night. He sincerely hoped it worked.
The next morning, Peter was surprised to wake up energized and ready to go. His shoulder was just a bit stiff, and as he practiced punching and kicking the air, he found he was moving faster. He got in a shower before the landlord woke up, and he was out the door, going to take pictures of Spider-Man. He took the pictures he had to the Bugle.
"Mr. Jameson, sir?" Peter said as he walked into his office.
"You, again? I suppose you want me to pay you five hundred for a couple of little pictures?" Jameson snapped.
"No, sir. The pay is good enough for now."
"I don't like the sound of that 'for now.' What have you got?"
Peter handed him the shoots.
"Crap." He looked at the next one. "Kind of crap." He flipped to the one after it. "Really crap." His comments varied from picture to picture, as was normal. A few tense minutes passed before…"I'll take 'em all. Give that to the girl at the desk." He handed Peter a slip of paper.
"Thank you, sir."
"Get outta here."
Peter headed out and got his money. He took a deep breath and smiled at his good day. Got to remember to thank my doctor, Peter reminded himself on his way to the college. He said he'd meet Jackie out front.
He saw her as he came closer. She was talking to a dangerous looking man with wild, dark hair, and an air around him that said 'Mess with me, and I guarantee it'll be the last thing you do.'
"I'm doing the best I can. It's so much more different than from school," she said desperately.
"You know what you have to do, Jack," the man growled.
"Yes, I do. Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds!"
"You volunteered for it. You knew the difficulties and risks."
"Hi, Jackie," greeted Peter.
"Hey, Pete." Jackie's face broke into a smile.
Peter saw the annoyed look on the man's face.
"Peter, this is Logan. Logan, meet Peter Parker," she introduced.
They shook hands, and Peter noted how rough Logan's hands were.
"I have to get going. Remember why you're here, Jack. Nice to have met you, Parker," Logan said before turning and heading to a parked motorcycle.
"Is that his?" Peter asked as Logan started to hotwire it.
"Nope." Jackie laughed as he sped away. "He's something else, isn't he?" she said with an indulgent smile. "He's from my old school."
"Where'd you go to high school?" Peter asked.
"I went to a private school. Not even supposed to tell people the name." Jackie shook her head. "So…do we just walk in here?" she inquired curiously.
"Basically. They have tours all the time," Peter explained as they walked in. They joined a small group of people for the next tour.
"There are over thirty-two thousand known species of spider in the world. They are in the order Araneae."
"Boy, these presentations never change," Peter commented.
"You've been on a tour in here?" Jackie asked.
"Yeah." Peter carefully avoided telling her when.
"The way I figure it, Spider-Man must have been in one of these tours a week before he was noticed. Two days before he becomes a superhero, he goes into amateur wrestling and creams the defending champion. That match was where he got his name. The Amazing Spider-Man. He didn't get his cash, so he was pretty pissed. But what made him become a vigilante?" Jackie's rambling interested Peter. She'd dug so deep as to know that Spider-Man had tried his hand at amateur wrestling before he fought crime. His Spider-Sense got a bit louder. Understanding that it wasn't about an immediate threat, he ignored it.
"Are you writing a report on Spider-Man? Or how he became Spider-Man?" Peter questioned suspiciously.
Jackie blushed with embarrassment. "It just intrigues me, is all. I want to know what makes him tick, even though I'm researching how he got his powers."
"—into these fourteen, genetically designed super-spiders," was the next thing Peter heard.
"Didn't there used to be fifteen?" Jackie asked out loud.
"Yes," the female scientist replied, "But it died in testing."
"Why?" a little boy asked.
"Somehow it took in DNA that was completely different than its own. It couldn't handle that radical of a genetic mutation, and it died."
Something clicked in Peter's mind. "Do you suppose the spider could've bitten someone? And the DNA was human?" he inquired.
"We have no theories on what type of DNA it was. All we know is that the spider wasn't strong enough to adjust to the alteration. Can we please move on?"
Jackie shot Peter an admiring smile that showed her gratitude. They walked through the rest of the presentation, Jackie taking notes on the important information on genetics. At the end, they stayed behind.
"I hope you enjoyed today's presentation," said the scientist.
Jackie still had questions. "Do you suppose, Doctor…"
"Ling," the scientist supplied.
"Doctor Ling," said Jackie. "Do you suppose your super-spiders are a bit radioactive?"
"We have them under radioactive telescopes but I am not aware of the change that makes in them," Ling replied.
"Well, suppose on of your super-spiders bit a person, how would that bite change the person?"
"It might make them sick, depending on whether or not they are allergic to arachnid-poison. The person might get a tad dizzy, or they might get a fever."
"Do you think it would alter their DNA?"
"It might make them less immune to another bite, but that's about it."
"I think you're wrong."
"Jackie!" Peter stopped. "The doctor's said it wouldn't happen. There must be another explanation. Let's go," he beseeched.
"No! There is no other explanation, and you know it, Peter! Spider-Man was bitten by that fifteenth spider, Doctor Ling." Jackie was getting hysterical, as though her beliefs were being questioned.
"Jackie," Peter said warningly. He held onto her arm and started gently pulling her back, away from the doctor. The doctor left and Jackie wrenched her arm out of Peter's grasp.
"You know as well as I do what happened!" Her nostrils flared and her breathing was heavy.
"I know, but you don't need to get worked up about it."
She regulated her breathing, and her nostrils didn't flare anymore, but her lips were pouted in a determined look. "I'm going to find out what happened to him," she promised. "I'm going to find out what happened to him if it's the last thing I do."
(A/N: Well this is certainly going faster than I thought. I hope you won't be too surprised by the certain twists this takes.
DiabloDude1: Sorry to say that the bouncer guy is never going to show up in this story again. Feel free to write something where he gets pummeled or something. I'd be delighted to read about it. Upset about their break-up, are you? It'll get better, I promise. Sadly, I can't just kill off MJ without loosing readers, and her and Peter just don't like not being together...oy...Thanks for reviewing!
laurajslr: I didn't see her face in the movie...I was too busy looking at Peter. I know they're gonna have problems. Probably not like this story. MJ's face was probably like that because she was worried about him getting injured or killed or something like that. I wonder if you caught the reason why it wasn't his 'lucky week.' ;-) No one's seemed to mention that...almost making me wonder if you guys didnt catch it, or something...Thanks for leaving a review!
Darth Zelda: You came this close to not being in the author note...you're lucky my computer malfuctioned! XD Thanks for reviewing! Hope you like this chapter!!)
-Big grin- I like reviews. So do everyone else on the planet. Could you please review? I'd love to hear about what you think.)