Darryl and Billy Bob glanced at each other with a gleam in their eyes. They were one of the few people other than storm chasers who actually looked forward to major storms. In fact in their own way, they could be called storm chasers themselves. If a large hurricane was scheduled to make landfall anywhere in Florida and even into Alabama, these two could be seen traveling against the flow of traffic heading into the area being evacuated.

Although a dangerous way to make a living, these two took advantage of the migration to loot stores. The storm's fury made great cover for their getaway.

"Hey, what about hitting the Western Union over on Poleka?" Billy Bob asked.

"Dunno. Won't the money be locked in a safe, like a bank?" Darryl responded.

"Ok then, what about the jewelry story at 5th and Mason?"

"Hey, yeah, good idea. I'd been promising my girl a fancy navel ring. When do you want to hit it?"

Billy Bob was staring out the window of their rented room. Let's give it a couple more hours. I want to be sure everybody's gone. Big Bubba can handle the floodwaters," he said referring to his ultrahigh, extra-heavy duty monster truck.

The thieves grabbed a couple of beers and sat down to watch the Giants/Eagles football game being played in New York since all the local games were cancelled.

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After changing into dry clothes Peter came downstairs and found Judge. Showing mild anxiety, he asked, "How're feeling Peter? Think you can lend me a hand?"

"Would one hand be acceptable?" he said jokingly, waving the fingers of his left arm now back in a sling.

"Anything would be of help. A hurricane warning has been issued and it looks like Fiona is a cat 4 now."

"What does that mean?" Peter asked.

"Cat 4 means category 4. Five's the worst, but four's got winds up to 150 MPH. It means we are in for a rough ride and it's too late to evacuate now. Think you can close shutters for me?"

Pete nodded.

"Great, start on the top floor and work your way down. If you have any problem ones, leave them and I'll get them later."

Just before he headed up the stairs Peter asked, "Have you seen Deanna?"

"Oh, uh, yes. I forgot to tell you. She told me to tell you goodbye and she gave me this," and Judge handed Peter a piece of paper with her home information on it. "Her parents decided to do a last minute bailout and she didn't have a chance to tell you. I told them I thought it was way too risky as the storm is already upon us."

Peter looked at the paper and seemed disappointed that she wasn't still there. "Thanks" was all he said and he headed upstairs to the top floor. Starting in the far room, Pete opened each window, got blasted with needle point rain, then reached around and grabbed a shutter. As he closed and latched each one, he moved onto the next. With each window he opened he was sprayed with a fine mist and high winds. 'I should have stayed in my wet clothes,' he thought as the fresh dry clothes were now clinging to him. Even with his injury, he still was very strong and was able to get all the shutters closed and latched on the top two floors.

He finished with all of the windows and headed back downstairs to the main room. The few remaining guests were filtering in and Belle would periodically give someone a chore to do. Although feisty for their ages, the three sisters were left jobless. But Belle grabbed the youth as soon as she saw him. "Pete, how are you holding up?"

Although tired and needing rest, he lied, "I'm fine, what else can I do for you?"

She gave him a close scrutiny, not really pleased with his coloring, but decided that they really do need to get a few things finished before the storm really hit hard. "Downstairs I have storm candles. They are tall glass cylinders each with a candle inside. Some are boxed, other's loose. Can you bring them up? I'm thinking six per room down here and two per guest. They could carry one, and leave the other in their room. That's close to 50 candles." Looking at the wet young man who was starting to slump a bit, she added, "That's an awful lot of work for you."

She now hesitated, sorry she just asked him to do such a big chore. He would only be able to carry one box, maybe two up at one time. That was a minimum of six trips up and down the cellar stairs. But she saw that he wanted to help out. So she came up with a suggestion. "Josh is a nice young boy, he can carry a lot of candles too. It will cut your trips in half."

"Sure thing, Belle. We'll have that done in no time. Where you do want us to put them?"

"Just put the candles on the table here. We'll light them then put them around the house when we lose the electricity." She said.

"You say that as if we are definitely going to lose power."

"We will Peter. We definitely will. It is a question of when not if. So I would like as many candles up here as possible before we lose the lights. I don't want you two doing those stairs in the dark."

Peter called over to the youngster, "Hey Josh wanna give me a hand?"

The 10 yr old was more than happy to help. "Yeah, what do you want me to do?"

Peter hesitated, thinking that there has to be something to carry more than what they could hold in their hands at one time. His eyes rested on a log carrier over by the fireplace. "Josh, go get that leather thing over there."

Down in the basement, the two young males found the store of candles and decided to load up the log sling with as many as they could. Six boxes fit safely in it without a chance of spilling out. "Josh, can you carry two more boxes?"

"Yeah, Peter, but you can't carry that by yourself."

Using his super strength, he picked up the log carrier with his good arm and proceeded to head upstairs with the 10 yr old right behind him. "This isn't that heavy, Josh….I just have to make sure not to use my bad arm."

"Why don't you take the candles out of the boxes while I go back for more. One more trip oughta do the trick," Peter told Josh.

Just as Peter returned with another load of 5 boxes, bringing the total number of candles to 52, more than enough, the lights went out. Although it was dark in the house, it was still daytime and there was enough daylight to see. Peter looked for matches. Searching around the mantel first then in a small desk beside the fireplace, he found what he was looking for. As he started to light the candles he told Josh where to place some of them. He wasn't going to light them all just yet, he wanted to save some of them for the night.

"Oh Peter, wonderful. How did you manage to do that so quickly?" Belle exclaimed.

"Peter is super strong!" Josh said admiringly.

"Well actually, Josh was a big help. I couldn't have done it without him." Pete quickly stated.

The three sisters were the first to enter the main room, "My, isn't this cozy," Mabel said to Irene.

"Reminds me of Hurricane Candice back in '55," Viola said to Mabel. And with that, the three started to argue what year Candice actually hit.

Since it was mid afternoon, they had a lot of time to kill. Even though there is something exhilarating about a hurricane, the 10 yr old looked like he was just getting a little frightened at the gale blowing outside. Sometime when they were in the basement, the rain had started, and they could hear it pelting the shutters. Pete looked up just as Judge came through the front door in a yellow slicker. He took off his hat and shook it, then shed his coat.

"Man, I just finished with these downstairs shutters when the rain kicked in. Looks like it's gonna be a doozy."

"Oh Honey, you're dripping all over the floor!" Belle yelled and quickly escorted her husband out back.

BANG.

Everyone jumped at the crack of something hitting the wall outside the dining room. Judge, who obviously heard the sound from the back, came running in and headed towards the window, where there was now a constant hammering.

"Dang. The shutter broke," he cursed loudly.

Belle who followed her husband in, complained, "Terrific, are we going to have to listen to that commotion the rest of the storm?"

"I'll go get the hammer and some nails and see if I can't at least nail it still," Judge said and he disappeared downstairs.

Peter noticed that Josh seemed a little upset with the howling winds and slamming of the shutters. "So Josh, where're you from?"

"Maine."

"Oh, so you've never been through a hurricane before, then have you? Well to tell you the truth, neither have I."

"Where are you from, Peter?" Josh asked obviously enjoying the attention the young man was giving him.

"I'm from New York."

"New York City?" Josh asked as his eyes widened. "Have you seen Spiderman?"

Peter rolled his eyes and thought, 'oh great, I can't even escape Spiderman way down here in Florida.'

But Josh's mom broke in, "Sweetie, Spiderman is just a myth. A story some drunk probably made up."

Peter really wanted to take sides with the mother, but he needed something to occupy the kid during the tempest. So as he thought about going into tales of the superhero, the house rumbled and shook with an extraordinary blast of wind. The decision was cemented.

"Well actually," Peter said talking to the parents, "Spiderman is real. I'm sorta his unofficial photographer." Then to the boy he decided to embellish on the well known lie, "In fact, that's how I hurt myself. I was trying to get another shot of him when I fell onto a two by four."

Josh's mom admonished, "I would prefer if you would not fill his head with make believe, Peter."

"I'm not." Peter defended. "Spiderman is real. I've spoken to him. He's flesh and blood."

The kid's eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Is it true that he flies?"

"Well, in a way. He swings from a web like a spider."

Do bullets bounce off him?"

Peter gagged at that, still feeling the pain of the bullet ripping into him. "No, that's Superman. Spiderman is human with, uh, extraordinary talents."

He looked around and found that he held everyone in rapture. Even the sisters were quiet. He turned towards Belle when she spoke, "Peter, would you hold the storytelling for a minute? I want to bring some snacks and drinks out for everyone."

He nodded 'yes'.

Belle was back out quickly enough. She had a cheese and crackers platter beautifully accented with fruit. Judge, who had just finished nailing the shutter, went into the kitchen as well. He came out with several bottles of Martinelli's non-alcoholic sparkling cider. Belle looked towards Peter and gave him her 'ok to continue' look.

He started with the World Unity Day where both Spiderman and Green Goblin made their big entrances. Although Spidey had been helping others before, this was the event that really brought him to the forefront and introduced the supervillain.

Josh's father was the first to speak in a long time, "You've got to be kidding about the Goblin guy, right?"

Peter's face suddenly took on a mournful look as he just shook his head. "I wish I was. But he was real."

He quickly went on describing fire rescues, saves in collapsed buildings and many of the heroic feats that Spiderman had performed over the years. When he started talking about Doc Ock, the eyes widened even more especially when it came to the train save. He chose to leave out the unmasking part, however. He was afraid it might have led to more questions that he might have had trouble answering. He didn't bring any of the Mary Jane rescues into his story telling. He didn't want his face or voice to give away his true feelings for her.

Suddenly Peter stopped talking as his spider sense started screaming at him.

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Billy Bob turned from looking out the window, "Let's do it."