"Did it take?" Fisk asked, his voice spreading from him and filling the room.

Ledge kicked back in a chair and lit up a cigarette. He put his feet up on the table. "He fell down the steps this morning and horked in the toilet at the airport. I'd say either he's powerless or he's a really good actor. He's been walking around like a twitchy rabbit."

"Good," Fisk nodded. "Mystique has not yet left town. Follow Parker. It should be easy now that his…enhancements are deactivated. When Mystique makes her move on him, find out what she wants and capture them both."

"Capture?" Ledge said skeptically.

"Alive," Fisk specified.

Ledge clenched his jaw and scowled. "That's a lot harder. Double my usual fee."

"Done," Fisk said with a wave of his hand. "Do not fail. Your status as my retainer is on the line here."

Ledge just grinned. "Yeah, okay," he said. "I'm on the case."

xXx

Mary Jane pulled up to a stop at the school. She turned and looked at Peter, putting her arm over the back of the seat.

"I want you, Peter Parker," she said solemnly. "I want to be there for you."

"I can't," Peter said. "Not yet. Once I've finished out this business with my powers, once I've taken care of the threats that are looming over me right now, then. I'm not a free man. I need space."

She looked him in the eye for a long second, then nodded. "Don't make me wait," she said.

He nodded and stepped out of the car, shut the door, walked up the steps to the quad. She pulled away and drove around the corner.

Peter hurried to the student union, his head down, lost in thought.

"MJ is my dream, I've wanted her since I met her," he muttered to himself. "But I didn't want her to break up with Harry like this." He shook his head. "I don't even know what I think. I sure don't know how much say I have with MJ and Harry. I feel like I'm in the middle but can't pull on the ends." He realized he was listening. He also realized that he was entirely talking to himself. "And me without my spider advocate," he said. He almost smiled, but he couldn't quite manage it.

"Great," he muttered. "I'm lonely without the voices in my head. Heh."

Somehow, the joke wasn't funny.

"Time to come up with some kind of plan to deal with Mystique," he muttered. He closed his eyes and focused. Tried to think up a plan. He sorely missed the lightning fast calculations of his thoughts, he felt like he was pushing through cotton trying to focus enough to come up with a plan to deal with Mystique and regain his powers.

Even without his spider mind, he was a smart kid. Peter smiled to himself as the edges of a plan began to form.

"She'll be watching the house," he murmured. "Okay." He pulled out his check card and kissed it with a grin. "Let's make us a trap," he whispered.

xXx

Fisk sat alone in the cavernous board room when his telephone softly warbled. He picked it up, not saying anything.

"This is Ledge, she's staking out his house. She is even using the vantage I'd use. Balcony, second story of a house down the block. It's a good view, and the occupants probably don't even know she's there. A good blind setup."

"Parker eluded his tail," Fisk rumbled.

"So which one do you want me to follow?" Ledge asked, trying not to sound annoyed.

"Parker," Fisk said. "Wherever he goes, she will find him."

"Fine," Ledge said. "Just fine. How about I get started looking?"

"That would be advisable," Fisk said. He hung up, and the door opened allowing a troop of underbosses and lieutenants. Fisk smiled benignly at them as they convened to do business.

Outside, night settled on a city that was very, very quiet.

Friday, December 13

Peter leaned against the light pole, watching the sun rise. "Freaky Friday, Friday the thirteenth," he murmured to himself. "A day for turning the tables. The planets must be aligned." He slowly exhaled, looking at the world through a plume of his own breath. "I can't lose," he said softly.

His hands were shaking, and he was more tired than he had been in months. He pushed off the pole and took a step to the pay phone. He dropped in his change.

xXx

Mystique was instantly awake, listening to the bug she had placed in the Parker living room. Phone ringing. The answering machine picked up. Bla bla bla, leave a message. Mystique waited with a pencil and a pad of paper.

"Yeah, Mystique," came Parker's voice on the machine. "I'm running out of time, but before they get me there's something you should know. I'll meet you in the parking garage behind the Sam's Club, here's the address."

She started scribbling as he rattled it off. "Second floor, northwest interior row. Look for a U-Haul. We should be able to meet safely enough in there."

Mystique grinned, stood. She holstered her silvered plasma pistol. Then she slung on her heavy duster. Time to go. Sounded like a trap, but it would be all the more sweet to let him fail before taunting him.

xXx

Ledge jerked awake as his radio blared. "Ledge! I'm watching the Parker place. Mystique just got a call inviting her to a meeting with Parker. Here's the scoop."

As the lowlife started reading off the directions, Ledge didn't even bother writing them down, he memorized them. Nodded to himself. He fired up the car and kicked into gear.