The next morning Peter was awoken at 8:16 by someone knocking on his door.
"Two hours of sleep," he thought, "A new record."
"Hey," A very groggy Peter greeted the visitor at his door.
"Hey," Mary Jane knew her time with Peter was limited- he was always running off as Spider-Man, and she had rehearsals to go to. "We never got to finish our conversation last night."
"Last night I-"
"We'll forget about that." "For now," Mary Jane thought.
"I was trying to get a hold of you because I wanted you to come with me to a movie premiere. It's this Friday, I have a friend who's starring in it so she gave me two tickets."
"Sure."
"Great! I'll have the limo pick you up outside your building at eight. This is going to be so great!" Mary Jane momentarily forgot about all the past incidents, "Ha ha, I rhymed." She was giddy and she didn't care, "Oh, and you'll have to get a tux. Wait til you see my dress, you'll love it."
"I bet, you look beautiful in everything."
"Thanks Pete, that's why I keep you around. Sorry for waking you, I thought you'd be up by now, but I've gotta run, we're shooting at Central Park today."
Mary Jane kissed him on the cheek and left.
"Might as well stay up," Peter thought. He got dressed and ate a hurried breakfast, and went to the library where he spent the morning finishing up some homework and doing more research on lizards. After stopping for some lunch he made his way to the Natural History Museum to check out an exhibit on lizards. He figured he should do all the research he could.
Peter was only there a few moments before his spider-sense starting tingling.
"Let's get outta here," he heard a gruff voice say. Peter looked behind him to see two suspicious looking characters. Peter found a closed off section of the museum and quickly changed into his Spider-Man costume. When he came back, the two men were trying to take a hostage. Still unseen, he swung a web and in a Tarzan-like fashion, grabbed the female hostage and whisked her away to safety before either thief could realize what was going on.
"I'll be taking those," Spider-man said as his webs grabbed the guns before they could shoot.
"Run!" One of them yelled, and they both attempted to run off with the jewel, but Spider-Man swung in front of them.
"I didn't know you were on the track team. A museum is a bad place for a race."
"Aw, shuddup webhead," one said and tried to punch Spider-Man, but he ducked and came back with a punch that knocked them both down in one swoop.
"So he's not working with some other mutant freak, he's a part of an international ring of jewel thieves."
"He was stopping the thieves, sir." After the incident Peter had gone back to the apartment to develop his pictures, and accidentally fell asleep. He awoke five hours later, and rushed to the Daily Bugle before J. Jonah Jameson left for the day.
"Yeah, so he could take the jewel himself I bet. I'll give you seventy five for it, last offer."
Peter willingly took the paycheck and as usual handed it to Betty.
"You get off work in a few minutes, want to grab a coffee?"
"Sure. I've been worried about you Peter, you seem so worn out lately. Everything ok?"
"Fine. It's just, you know, school. Finals are killer," It was a partial lie, but Peter was used to lying, although it wasn't something he was proud of.
Peter waited for Betty, and they left.
Minutes later hey sat down with their coffees, Betty bursting with excitement.
"You were right about Ned, Peter, he asked me out! We have a date tomorrow night. I'm so excited, I haven't had a boyfriend since high school."
"Congradualtions," Peter was relieved he had been right.
"Thanks. I'd love to do that. Be a reporter like Ned, I mean."
"You still can be. I bet most of your college credits are transferrable and you can still earn a degree. And I'm here if you ever need help in any science classes."
"You're a real pal, Parker."
They talked for a while, and eventually Peter offered to walk Betty home because it was dark out and getting late, and continued to chat along the way.
"I bought Mary Jane something, I don't know if she'll like it, I need another opinion."
They stepped underneath the ray of the streetlight, Peter taking out the necklace he had bought Mary Jane.
"It's emerald, her birthstone," he explained. Betty took the black velvet box containing a silver pendant with a heart shaped charm incrusted with tiny emeralds.
"Oh, she'll love it!" Betty exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane was at her actress friend's new apartment after a long day of shooting. Mary Jane finally went over to see the new place. It wasn't as great as she thought it had been- it was spacious but looked pretty run down and the balcony with an "amazing view" was actually just a view of the streets, not a skyscraper or pretty landscape in sight. The noise from the traffic must have been annoying at night. Mary Jane and her friend were standing on the tiny balcony, overlooking the street. And by pure coincidence, it was right across from where Peter and Betty were standing.
Mary Jane stopped mid-sentence in their conversation.
"What's wrong?"
"Something has come to my attention." Mary Jane shuddered. Weren't those the same words Norman Osborn had used two years ago? She made some lame excuse and by the time she had left and made her way down to the street, Peter was gone. Mary Jane wanted to approach Peter back at his apartment, but she was too upset to even think straight.
"He was with some other girl....and he was giving her jewelry? Peter was always so responsible, and now he's not taking our relationship seriously. How could he be cheating on me after everything? I had felt like I was cheating on Peter when I was engaged to John. Which was funny, considering we weren't even dating then. But now we are, so it's different. I thought I knew Peter, even though he held so many secrets. Maybe he's still got a few more I don't know about."
Meanwhile, back at Connors lab:
Dr. Octavius was hard at work. He was so focused he didn't even notice when someone came through the window.
"I made you a present," A female voice said mysteriously.
"Adalheida, you shouldn't have, " Octavius responded dryly, setting down his work. "I still have the scars from the last one you gave me. How did you get in here, anyway?"
"The window was open, I figured I'd find you in a chem lab somewhere, I've been searching all night. Let's let bygones be bygones."
She picked up a tinted tube with some kind of liquid in it.
"I feel horrible about the scaring on your face, and I'm assuming you have additional scaring elsewhere, so I made a formula to help clear up some of the scaring and promote healthy skin growth. It's basically glycolic and salicylic acid combined with other hydroxic acids, and copper peptides. The bottle will probably be enough to remove nearly anything, it's higher concentration than anything that you can get in a drug store, so your skin will appear more reddish the next few weeks, but should go away. I also made a highly powerful antiseptic for your back, I'm surprised you haven't died of an infection yet."
"You should have been a dermatologist. It's a shame I'm not a willing patient."
"That's stings, Dr. Octavius-"
"Like the chemicals you through at me?"
"I was hoping we could be......." she came towards him, too close for his comfort. "Friends."
He distanced himself.
"I'm not in the mood for games, what is it you want?"
Adalheida dropped the act. "I want your work Octavius, your life work. You might not be able to fix it by I can."
"How DARE you come in here and insult me. I am the superior one here, my work is far beyond your comprehension."
He had drowned out the voices of the arms so long....they came back full force now, begging, pleading, coaxing, demanding that Adalheida be killed. Octavius was happy to obey, a tentacle reaching out towards Adalheida before she even had time to register and scream. He was about to tear her limb from limb when a certain wall crawler came in.
"Hey, what's going on here, Ocky?"
"Spider-Man!" Adalheida had found her voice.
"We were just..uh..talking......." Octavius said, scrambling for an excuse.
"Put her down."
Dr. Octavius did, "I don't think it's best to let her go."
"Oh, don't worry, I won't be calling the cops. You still have something I want." With that, Adalheida left through the window from which she came.
With some tension in the air, Octavius and Spider-Man worked in silence the rest of the night.
"Two hours of sleep," he thought, "A new record."
"Hey," A very groggy Peter greeted the visitor at his door.
"Hey," Mary Jane knew her time with Peter was limited- he was always running off as Spider-Man, and she had rehearsals to go to. "We never got to finish our conversation last night."
"Last night I-"
"We'll forget about that." "For now," Mary Jane thought.
"I was trying to get a hold of you because I wanted you to come with me to a movie premiere. It's this Friday, I have a friend who's starring in it so she gave me two tickets."
"Sure."
"Great! I'll have the limo pick you up outside your building at eight. This is going to be so great!" Mary Jane momentarily forgot about all the past incidents, "Ha ha, I rhymed." She was giddy and she didn't care, "Oh, and you'll have to get a tux. Wait til you see my dress, you'll love it."
"I bet, you look beautiful in everything."
"Thanks Pete, that's why I keep you around. Sorry for waking you, I thought you'd be up by now, but I've gotta run, we're shooting at Central Park today."
Mary Jane kissed him on the cheek and left.
"Might as well stay up," Peter thought. He got dressed and ate a hurried breakfast, and went to the library where he spent the morning finishing up some homework and doing more research on lizards. After stopping for some lunch he made his way to the Natural History Museum to check out an exhibit on lizards. He figured he should do all the research he could.
Peter was only there a few moments before his spider-sense starting tingling.
"Let's get outta here," he heard a gruff voice say. Peter looked behind him to see two suspicious looking characters. Peter found a closed off section of the museum and quickly changed into his Spider-Man costume. When he came back, the two men were trying to take a hostage. Still unseen, he swung a web and in a Tarzan-like fashion, grabbed the female hostage and whisked her away to safety before either thief could realize what was going on.
"I'll be taking those," Spider-man said as his webs grabbed the guns before they could shoot.
"Run!" One of them yelled, and they both attempted to run off with the jewel, but Spider-Man swung in front of them.
"I didn't know you were on the track team. A museum is a bad place for a race."
"Aw, shuddup webhead," one said and tried to punch Spider-Man, but he ducked and came back with a punch that knocked them both down in one swoop.
"So he's not working with some other mutant freak, he's a part of an international ring of jewel thieves."
"He was stopping the thieves, sir." After the incident Peter had gone back to the apartment to develop his pictures, and accidentally fell asleep. He awoke five hours later, and rushed to the Daily Bugle before J. Jonah Jameson left for the day.
"Yeah, so he could take the jewel himself I bet. I'll give you seventy five for it, last offer."
Peter willingly took the paycheck and as usual handed it to Betty.
"You get off work in a few minutes, want to grab a coffee?"
"Sure. I've been worried about you Peter, you seem so worn out lately. Everything ok?"
"Fine. It's just, you know, school. Finals are killer," It was a partial lie, but Peter was used to lying, although it wasn't something he was proud of.
Peter waited for Betty, and they left.
Minutes later hey sat down with their coffees, Betty bursting with excitement.
"You were right about Ned, Peter, he asked me out! We have a date tomorrow night. I'm so excited, I haven't had a boyfriend since high school."
"Congradualtions," Peter was relieved he had been right.
"Thanks. I'd love to do that. Be a reporter like Ned, I mean."
"You still can be. I bet most of your college credits are transferrable and you can still earn a degree. And I'm here if you ever need help in any science classes."
"You're a real pal, Parker."
They talked for a while, and eventually Peter offered to walk Betty home because it was dark out and getting late, and continued to chat along the way.
"I bought Mary Jane something, I don't know if she'll like it, I need another opinion."
They stepped underneath the ray of the streetlight, Peter taking out the necklace he had bought Mary Jane.
"It's emerald, her birthstone," he explained. Betty took the black velvet box containing a silver pendant with a heart shaped charm incrusted with tiny emeralds.
"Oh, she'll love it!" Betty exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane was at her actress friend's new apartment after a long day of shooting. Mary Jane finally went over to see the new place. It wasn't as great as she thought it had been- it was spacious but looked pretty run down and the balcony with an "amazing view" was actually just a view of the streets, not a skyscraper or pretty landscape in sight. The noise from the traffic must have been annoying at night. Mary Jane and her friend were standing on the tiny balcony, overlooking the street. And by pure coincidence, it was right across from where Peter and Betty were standing.
Mary Jane stopped mid-sentence in their conversation.
"What's wrong?"
"Something has come to my attention." Mary Jane shuddered. Weren't those the same words Norman Osborn had used two years ago? She made some lame excuse and by the time she had left and made her way down to the street, Peter was gone. Mary Jane wanted to approach Peter back at his apartment, but she was too upset to even think straight.
"He was with some other girl....and he was giving her jewelry? Peter was always so responsible, and now he's not taking our relationship seriously. How could he be cheating on me after everything? I had felt like I was cheating on Peter when I was engaged to John. Which was funny, considering we weren't even dating then. But now we are, so it's different. I thought I knew Peter, even though he held so many secrets. Maybe he's still got a few more I don't know about."
Meanwhile, back at Connors lab:
Dr. Octavius was hard at work. He was so focused he didn't even notice when someone came through the window.
"I made you a present," A female voice said mysteriously.
"Adalheida, you shouldn't have, " Octavius responded dryly, setting down his work. "I still have the scars from the last one you gave me. How did you get in here, anyway?"
"The window was open, I figured I'd find you in a chem lab somewhere, I've been searching all night. Let's let bygones be bygones."
She picked up a tinted tube with some kind of liquid in it.
"I feel horrible about the scaring on your face, and I'm assuming you have additional scaring elsewhere, so I made a formula to help clear up some of the scaring and promote healthy skin growth. It's basically glycolic and salicylic acid combined with other hydroxic acids, and copper peptides. The bottle will probably be enough to remove nearly anything, it's higher concentration than anything that you can get in a drug store, so your skin will appear more reddish the next few weeks, but should go away. I also made a highly powerful antiseptic for your back, I'm surprised you haven't died of an infection yet."
"You should have been a dermatologist. It's a shame I'm not a willing patient."
"That's stings, Dr. Octavius-"
"Like the chemicals you through at me?"
"I was hoping we could be......." she came towards him, too close for his comfort. "Friends."
He distanced himself.
"I'm not in the mood for games, what is it you want?"
Adalheida dropped the act. "I want your work Octavius, your life work. You might not be able to fix it by I can."
"How DARE you come in here and insult me. I am the superior one here, my work is far beyond your comprehension."
He had drowned out the voices of the arms so long....they came back full force now, begging, pleading, coaxing, demanding that Adalheida be killed. Octavius was happy to obey, a tentacle reaching out towards Adalheida before she even had time to register and scream. He was about to tear her limb from limb when a certain wall crawler came in.
"Hey, what's going on here, Ocky?"
"Spider-Man!" Adalheida had found her voice.
"We were just..uh..talking......." Octavius said, scrambling for an excuse.
"Put her down."
Dr. Octavius did, "I don't think it's best to let her go."
"Oh, don't worry, I won't be calling the cops. You still have something I want." With that, Adalheida left through the window from which she came.
With some tension in the air, Octavius and Spider-Man worked in silence the rest of the night.