Disclaimer: I do not own Spider-Man, or any other marvel owned characters mentioned here in this story. However I do claim ownership over the Warriors and the characters in it. So don't go using them without my permission! But if you ask, I'll probably say yes.
Setting: This takes place in the Ultimate Spiderman Universe, in Issue 59 in the four-month gap between the end of the Hollywood story arch, and the premier of the Spider-Man movie. Gwen knows that Peter is Spider-man, and so does MJ.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoy the story, and please review! Even if it's a flame!
Chapter 1: Webs
Parker Residence, 4:13 P.M. ThursdayA man with heavily tinted shades stood in front of the door to the Parker home dressed in black matrix-persona-like attire from head to toe, complete with flowing trench coat. He was about six foot, maybe a bit taller, and had a medium build to him. He paused for a brief second and then knocked on the door.
"I'll get it!" Aunt May called walking out of the kitchen to the front door as Peter, MJ, and Gwen sat in the living room, studying. "Can I help you?" She asked as she opened the door.
"Yes, I'm looking for a Peter Parker, I was told he lives here." The man replied looking up to the woman from behind his shades.
"May I ask why you're looking for him?" May asked coolly.
"I'm here to offer him a job, he came highly recommended from the daily Bugle." The man answered.
"And you are?" She asked as she raised a brow slightly.
"Oh forgive me, my name is Thomas Walkner, I represent Kame Industries." He said as he adjusted his sunglasses.
"Well I must say this is unusual." She said opening the door. "Peter! There's a Mr. Walkner here to see you, says he wants to offer you a job!" She called into the living room from the front door.
"What?" Peter asked as he appeared in the living room entrance, Gwen and MJ still on the couch with textbooks spread out all over the coffee table.
Thomas smiled. "Mr. Parker? My name is Thomas Walkner, I represent Kame Industries." Thomas said as he came in.
"Uncle Tom?" Gwen asked as she stood up from the couch in surprise.
"Gwen? Oh my... I haven't seen you in years! You were... little, last time I saw you." He said with a slight smile. "I heard about your father... I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the funeral, but I was in Japan and didn't find out about it until the week after." He said apologetically.
"It's okay." Gwen said suddenly a little more sullen. "Oh, Peter, MJ, Aunt May, this is my uncle Tom, he's not really my uncle, he was my dad's college roommate way back when."
"It wasn't that long ago." Thomas said with a smile. "I'd love to catch up but I'm afraid I didn't realize you'd be here, I'm here on business, so for now I need to talk with Peter in the kitchen. Is that okay with you Peter?" He asked turning to see Peter.
"Uh... Yeah, that's fine." Peter said still slightly confused about it all.
"Follow me." Aunt May said with a nod. "Can I offer you something to drink Mr. Walkner?" She asked as they entered the kitchen.
"Some caffeinated soda would be good or some water. In fact, never mind the soda, I'll just take some water." He said as he took a seat at the kitchen table, and motioned for Peter to do the same. "Now Peter, have you ever heard of Kame Industries before?"
"To be honest... No, I can't say that I have." Peter said as he sat down.
"That's fine. Not many people in America have." Thomas said with a nod. "It's a Japanese company that handles mostly electronics and computer software. It's owned and run by my employer and friend Mr. Kamesama who inherited the company from his father roughly five years ago. When the headquarters were moved to New York last year Mr. Kamesama incorporated a high school internship program for those who were considered to be... 'Talented' in the field." He paused as he took a sip of the water that Aunt May had just set on the table in front of him.
"And I'm talented." Peter said questioningly.
"Quite so. And in more ways then just computer smarts. You're high school records show straight A's through out all of your classes. Well... Except for gym." Thomas said with a shrug. "But that doesn't really matter anyway."
"So how'd you come across me?" Peter asked as he looked to his Aunt May.
"Well we found out about you because we work with your high school through this internship program. You're one of the top students not only in your class, but also in your school as a whole. So somehow your name was on the list that was given to us. In fact it was at the top. Now with all that, and your work experience in the field at the Daily Bugle, you're perfect for the job." Thomas said with a smile as MJ and Gwen came into the doorway area.
"Okay..." Peter said now curious about all of this.
"Well you see I came here personally because my employer is picky, he likes people he can trust, and he trust me and me only to find the fight person for the job, someone who knows the meaning of responsibility. I can promise you that this job will not take away anything from your school, or job at the Bugle. You work as many hours as you want to, starting at twenty bucks an hour."
"Twenty dollars an hour?" Peter repeated looking to his Aunt May. "What exactly is the job?" He asked looking back to Thomas.
"Nothing that you don't already do for the Bugle. Maintain the web site, updating it, things like that." Thomas answered. "This job is designed primarily to help you out in life. For every dollar you earn a dollar goes into a scholarship account that will be awarded to you upon your high school graduation."
"Where is this Kame Industries?" Aunt May asked looking to Thomas.
"It's in the city, but the beautiful part I think is that if you wanted to work from home, Peter, you could." Thomas said adjust his shades slightly. "Kame Industries will even supply you with a mobile computer with wireless capabilities so that you could work from anywhere, if you needed one. And it'd be yours to keep even after your graduation, or if you quit the job."
"Would I still get the scholarship reward if I were to quit before my graduation?" Peter asked curiously.
"Yeah. You'd get whatever money you earned for it at your graduation." Thomas answered.
"This sounds too good to be true. I've never heard of this kind of program before." Aunt May said skeptically.
"Well it's new. I like to say it's revolutionary. So far I think that Kame Industries is the only corporation that has this kind of program in the country, if not the world." Thomas said sitting back in his chair. "But I assure you that this is for real." He said reaching into his jacket's inside pocket. "Here, if you want to you can come by headquarters any time. Ask for Tom and I'll be at the front desk faster than you can blink."
"When does this job offer expire?" Peter asked as he took the card.
"When you graduate from high school." Thomas answered. "But the sooner you start the more money you earn." He said with a shrug. "Here, I'll give you a call in a week if you haven't stopped by HQ by then. My number is on that card there. Feel free to call me anytime, or email me, but keep in touch. If you decide that you don't want to take it, tell me, and I'll stop checking up on you, but if you change your mind just come to HQ and say so and the job is yours." Thomas said if he stood up.
"Do you have to go?" Gwen asked from the doorway.
Thomas glanced at his wristwatch and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, but yeah, I have a meeting to be at in ten minutes back in the city. I'm going to have to hustle. Next time Gwen." He said with a nod. "And say hello to your mother for me."
"She left." Gwen said as May stood up to see Thomas to the door. "Just before dad died. I'm staying here with Peter and Aunt May now."
"Oh." Thomas said with a sigh. "I'm sorry." He said again. "Here. This is my cell. Call if you're in trouble or need to talk or whatever. Or stop by the Hub. I'm sure Amanda would be glad to see ya."
"You still own that place?" Gwen asked curiously.
"Yeah. I got Amanda running it for me now. You know, my niece from Montana? She's doing a pretty good job of it." He said with a smile. "All of you stop by some time if you want to hang or whatever, it's a nice place for teens like yourselves to get some studying done." He said with a laugh.
"I'll see you to the door." May said as he began walking back towards the front door. "It was nice meeting you Mr. Walkner, we'll keep in touch." She said with a smile as he left and gave a slight wave good bye.
Peter was staring at the card as he came into the hallway, still amazed that all this had just taken place. "The hub?" He asked looking over to Gwen.
"Yeah, well its full name is the Cyber Hub, it's a computer Internet café slash hang out slash study place. It's hard to describe but Thomas started it when he first moved into the city, I've only been there once, it's like a... Well it's basically a hang out for teens and stuff in the city; it has everything from games to a study area. It's pretty nice." Gwen answered.
"We'll have to check it out." MJ said with a shrug. "So what are you going to do about the job Peter?"
"Well... I... I guess I'm going to stop by Kame Industries tomorrow after I get off work at the Bugle." He said with a shrug. "This is all pretty weird..."
"I think the best thing you can do is at least look into it. It's about time all your studying and hard work paid off Peter." Aunt May said with a smile. "Now you three get back to your studying, I have some grocery shopping to do." She said grabbing her coat and keys that were by the front door. She gave a smile and a wave and the three said goodbye as she left and they returned to their studies. Except for Peter, his mind was somewhere else.
"You're wondering if it's going to interfere with your Spider-Man time aren't you?" MJ asked looking over to Peter. "Personally I think Spider-Man would be one of the reasons that you'd take this job."
"What?" Peter asked looking over to MJ.
"Well how many times have I heard you complain about how expensive web fluid is? I mean at twenty bucks an hour you could practically have a whole store house of it." MJ answered.
"Hmm..." Peter said deep in thought. "I didn't think of that."
Gwen smirked. "Well stop thinking about it and let's get back to studying. We can all go to the Hub tomorrow after school, and then you can meet with Tom again. And maybe he'll even take you over to Kame Industries."
"Yeah... we'll do that." Peter said with a nod.
Gwen sat back down on the couch but instead of picking up her books picked up the remote and turned on the TV that was there in the living room. "Police say that the armed man inside calls himself the Shocker. He appears to have two high tech devices attached to his hands that have highly destructive abilities. Police have been unsuccessful so far in convincing him to let any of the hostages go..." The camera panned to show the bank building surrounded by police cars and a female sergeant trying to bargain with the man over the bullhorn.
"...Peter..." MJ started as she looked over to him.
"I'm going." He said as he headed out of the living room.
Suddenly the glass doors of the bank shattered and one of the police cars was hit with a high frequency blast from inside. Suddenly the man that had been holding up the bank was tossed out by an invisible force, and landed harshly on the ground, disarmed. Police swarmed and cuffed him. "Peter wait!" MJ called as Peter rushed back into the room.
"Confusion abounds here as the robbery is stopped unexpectedly by an unknown force. The man responsible is apprehended but his high tech devices have been destroyed and left in the hands of one of the hostages. Witnesses claim that a phantom is responsible for foiling the robbery. Excuse me!" The reporter called as the camera and reporter ran over to a released hostage. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"I- I- I have no idea. First this guy is pointing those things at us, those things on his wrists. Then he starts acting funny... like he's being beat up by someone. He turns and fires at the door but no one was there and then he gets his weapons taken from him, and kicked out the door. All I saw was some guy in black, a black outfit, black coat, and a black mask. He was there in the air one second, and then he was gone. A.... A phantom." The man said quickly and out of breath.
"Well, I guess you have it then. A Phantom has stopped this man's bank robbery. On a previous note, this man's last two robberies, a bank robbery, and an armored car robbery, were also foiled, but by Spider-Man. For some one who has failed three times, you'd think that he'd realize by now that he's struck out." The reporter said the lame joke with a smile, and the news switched to something else. Gwen muted the TV.
"Dude, now there's a new super-hero? What the heck? No offense Peter, but you'd think this city would have enough with you, and Punisher, and uh... that guy in red tights... Devil or whatever his name is." Gwen said as she took a sip of her drink that was resting on the coffee table.
"Well they're probably not doing a movie on him." MJ said with a teasing smile to Peter. "Who knows maybe it's not a super-hero, maybe it was just a mutant who decided to do the right thing, maybe he was one of the hostages."
"Maybe..." Peter said as he sat back down. So much has happened to him, so much had just occurred within the last few minutes. First that guy with the job offer, and now this, now there was a new superhero... a Phantom. Someone that was either really, really fast, or could teleport, or could become invisible, or something... So much had happened; he didn't know what to do next.
END
Coming Soon... Chapter 2: The Cyber Hub
Author's Note: I know this chapter was a little shorter than my usual chapters, but that's okay I think. Please write a review. Flames welcome! Compliments welcome! Criticisms welcome! Thoughts welcome! REVIEW! PLEASE!!!