"What the?" Belle exclaimed. "Don't tell me there are other guests that have turned around and come back."

Judge motioned to Josh Sr. and Deanna's dad, Mike, to help him open then close the wind lashed door. "Ready?" he asked.

Judge turned the knob to open the door as the other two kept it from flying. The door tried hard to fly open, fighting the men with every fiber of its inner fury, but the humans won. Along with wind, rain and debris, two slicker-cloaked men barreled in. As soon as they were through, the door was jammed closed, once again kicking the raging tempest out of the house.

"Hi, fellas. What's got you guys out in a storm like this?" Judge asked.

"We decided a little too late to evacuate and our truck broke an axle down the road a-ways," one of the gentleman said. As he slid off his hood, an inch long scar could be seen running across his chin. "It's a good thing your place was here. I'm not sure what we would have done if it weren't".

"Here, why don't you give me your coats. You can come join us in the living room for some hot coffee." Judge offered. He took both of the men's coats and reached for the satchel that one of them had placed on the floor. The stranger snatched it up and glared at Judge with unblinking ice blue eyes. "I would rather keep this with me," he said a little coldly. Or maybe it just seemed cold to Judge because of his eye color.

"That's fine. Have a seat, my wife Belle will be back with a cup of coffee for both of you. By the way, I'm Judge."

"I'm Darryl and this here is Billy Bob."

Peter was sure he saw the man with ice for eyes communicate to the other his displeasure at having his name given. It was so slight however that no one else caught it.

The two bad guys took their seats in the large spacious room a distance away from the others. Peter's spidersense was ringing off the hook but he couldn't tell why. He wasn't sure if it was the two new additions to the group or if something was about to happen to the house, like another tree branch. All he could do was to wait and try to figure out why his personal alarm was blaring.

Young Josh called over to the newest visitors saying, "We were just talking about Spiderman and all the neat stuff he does."

Peter groaned as he dropped his head into his hand, shaking it. He tried to shrink smaller in his chair, realizing he really blundered by discussing the superhero. He heard one of the fellows say, "Yeah, right kid. He's just a myth. A comic book character."

Mary, Josh's mom, once again answered in defense of her son, "Well according to Peter over there, he is a real person. He even takes pictures of him."

The blue eyed man, who was called Billy Bob, looked over at Peter, "So you say this guy is real? Is it human? Does it have eight legs? Is it married to a Black Widow?" and with that last question burst out laughing at his own joke.

Peter wanted to web the guy's mouth shut, but just sat quietly. It was then that Viola asked the question again that she broached earlier, "Peter, do you have photos of him?"

Peter just shook his head, "Not with me, no. I usually sell them all to the Bugle."

To Peter's relief the one who introduced himself as Darryl broke the line of conversation, "Where's the john?"

"It's around the corner the first door on the right," Judge answered pointing the gentleman to the rest room.

As Darryl got up, Josh Jr. glimpsed something under his shirt that looked an awful lot like a gun. He tugged his father's shirt, "Dad, that guy's got a gun. I just saw it."

Being ever the optimist his dad replied, "Well, son, maybe he's a police officer, or he is carrying it for protection. I'm sure there's a good explanation for it."

That didn't sit well with the boy. He didn't like the looks of either of these men and he was suspicious of the way the other one, the one with the mean looking eyes, was holding onto his bag. It got his curiosity up and he wanted to know what was in there. He sat pensively for a while, trying to think of how he could take a peek inside. He could do it when that guy fell asleep, providing he didn't fall asleep himself. "Or what about creating a diversion," he thought. "But what kind of diversion?" His young vivid mind was running wild with all sorts of possibilities.

"I don't like it here," Darryl whispered to Billy Bob when he returned. "They're getting too close a look at our faces. S'pose, they suspect something and give the cops our first names and a description? You know the cops gonna find us then."

"And you would prefer?" Billy Bob said sarcastically. "Besides, we'll be long gone by the time they get a call out and the cops come."

Darryl realized BB was right. The hurricane was in full force now. They wouldn't last five minutes out there. But he was bothered by how calm his buddy was about this whole situation. His partner in crime was a hothead and a worrier. Which in turn is why he was now worried.

Peter's wound was pinching where it was sticking to the bandage, not to mention, it was time for his meds. He looked to his hostess and said, "If you'll excuse me for a moment," then he grabbed one of the candles and headed up the dark stairs. Alone in his room, the creaking of the house was eerily loud due to the gale outside. It was unnerving to hear, but Peter believed Judge when he said this house had withstood many hurricanes worse than this. This whole ordeal had his nerves on edge and he had the feeling the worst was yet to come.

He put the candle on the vanity in the blackened bathroom. It hardly dented the dark. But there was enough light for Peter to examine the wound. It had finally stopped oozing and the stitches were crusted over. He gently cleansed the area and dried it, but before he could replace the dressing, he heard someone in the room. He snapped around ready to fire his webbing. But he stopped short when he saw Josh there.

Josh did a startled step backwards not expecting the kind of reaction Peter just gave. He stammered, "uh, uh,….the door was open," as he pointed to the hallway door. "I'm sorry Pete, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh, um, I just wasn't expecting anyone, that's all."

"Gee, you really are hurt bad," the young boy said, wide eyed, as he saw Peter's injuries for the first time.

Subconsciously, Peter turned away from Josh. "Its feeling better, really," and he quickly put on a fresh piece of gauze. He slipped his undershirt back on, then a regular 'T'.

"Did that hurt when you did it?" the boy asked.

"It was numb at first, but then it really started to hurt a lot," came the truthful response.

"What about now?"

"It's getting better, but I still have to be careful. It hurts sometimes if I use my arm too much." After a moment's pause he then asked, "So why did you come up here anyway?"

"One of those new guys downstairs has a gun. I saw it. He has it hidden under his shirt."

"Did you tell your dad?"

"Yeah, but he just poo-poo'd it away. Said, the guy's probably a cop or something."

"Was the gun in a holster?"

Josh shook his head.

'That would explain the spidesense acting up' Peter thought. Then asking Josh, "Does anyone else know?"

"Uh-uh. But I want to see what the other guy's got hidden in his bag. I bet he robbed a bank and there's a million bucks in there."

Peter sat down on the edge of his bed, most of his features lightly silhouetted from the candle still in the bathroom. He motioned Josh to sit next to him. "You know, your dad's probably right, he could be a cop. Or maybe he does have money or valuables in there that belong to him. And he needs the gun to protect himself. Unfortunately, in times like this when a lot of good comes out, a lot of bad does too."

There was a long pause, then Peter continued, "However, I think it's good that you told me. I will keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't do anything. If he is a bad guy, maybe they will just ride out the storm here and be on their way and leave us alone. I just don't want them to hurt anyone."

Just then a knock came from the open hallway door. Peter looked up. There stood Deanna, a candle in her hand which threw bizarre shadows across her face. Josh started to giggle as he thought about all those horror movies, which always happen during a major storm, with the lights out and ghosts and ghouls floating about. The lights always came from below the actors allowing shadows to play across their face in bizarre shapes.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothin'" and Josh giggled harder. Peter just stared at him also missing the joke.

Looking back at the doorway Pete asked, "Anything wrong?"

"I was just wondering where you were," she said and she kept shifting her weight from one leg to the other as if she needed to say more.

She did finally speak, "And I didn't like the way that creep with the bag kept looking at me. I wish they would leave. Better yet, I wish they never came."

Josh, still too eager to tell breaking news, said, "And one of them's got…"

His sentence was stopped short when Peter slapped his hand over the boy's mouth.

"What does he have?" she asked.

"A vivid imagination." Peter replied.

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Back downstairs, the two goons were whispering between themselves. "I don't like this. Where did those three go? Suppose they got a cell phone and are calling the cops?" Darryl asked.

"Even if they can get through, the cops won't be able to get here until the storm breaks. We'll be gone by then."

"But they know who we are. They can ID us."

"Don't worry about that." Billy Bob said quietly. Darryl didn't like the sound of that.

Mary began to worry, "What's taking them so long upstairs? I think I will go up and check on them." As Mary got up to go, Billy Bob stood up and blocked her way. She took one look at him and didn't say a word, she just sat back down.

But Mike had something to say, "Hey, what do you think…" His question trailed off without completing as Billy Bob showed him his gun.

"Now, just sit quietly and no one will get hurt. As soon as the storm breaks, we're outa here." He said ominously.

"Now see here young man," Viola started to complain.

She stopped in her tracks as ice blue eyes glared back at her, "No you listen, you old bag. We don't wanna be here anymore than you want us. But the storm forced us to change plans. You and your old cronies just behave yourselves and maybe you'll get to live through another hurricane."

She melted back into the chair she rose from. Judge, standing beside the seat his wife was in, reached down and grasped her hand and held it tightly, as if it alone would protect her.

Peter, crouched at the top of the stairs, motioned to the other two to keep quiet. He heard everything.