The weekend had been blissfully uneventful for Peter. No gang wars, bank robberies, or high-speed chases, just physics homework and some time with MJ. But the new week had started, and he was once again short on cash. 'Time for a little trip to the Bugle', he thought.

The Daily Bugle building was loud and busy as usual as Peter made his way to Jonah Jameson's office.

"Hey, Pete. Pretty bizarre weekend, wasn't it," Betty Brant greeted him.

"What happened," Peter asked. Betty's phone rang.

"I can't chat now, but I'm sure JJ will fill you in."

Peter nodded and opened the door to JJ's office.

"Hi, Mr. Jameson-"

"Incredible! Fantastic! Amazing," Jonah said sarcastically, a copy of his own paper in front of his face. He seemed to notice Peter and put the paper down.

"A security guard for a jewellery store claims that he saw a flash of light, and the next thing he knows, the jewels are gone. Says it was aliens. What's next? Martians wearing fishbowls on their heads robbing mini-marts," Jonah said in his usual hurried voice, and laughed. Peter took his file-folder of pictures out of his back pack.

"Mr Jameson-"

"What've you got for me? More pictures of the webbed freak?"

Peter actually smiled at this.

"Better. Pictures of both of them," Peter responded.

Last week, he'd borrowed some cameras from other students in his photography class, and set them up around the bank before he'd encountered Spider-Woman, and had gotten several shots of her throughout their meeting. Jameson snatched the folder out of his hands and flipped throgh it.

"Terrible. Were you shooting with your eyes closed?"

Nevertheless, he wrote off a check for $400 and handed it to Peter.

"You're lucky the girl's pretty, or I wouldn't be so generous. Keep bringing me pictures of her," Jonah said.

"But Mr. Jameson, I don't know if I can. I don't know where to find her," Peter said.

"Ask Spider-Man. I bet the two of 'em are dating."

"What? No. No, they're not," Peter responded.

"How do you know? Quit wasting my time and get going. I'm not running a little school paper here."

Peter turned to leave, but Robbie and a handsome, dark-haired man Peter didn't recognize walked into the room.

"Jonah, we just got a fax from the police department. There's a man in Times Square who seems to be blowing up cars with with electric bolts coming from his hands," Robbie said, with a bit of a sigh, as if saying 'What's wrong with this city?'

"Well, what do ya know? We've got our two freak experts right here. Smith, Parker, get going. I need pictures and reports, ASAP," Jonah ordered.

"Mr. Jameson, I'm only here to drop off a report-," the man protested.

"Oh, really? What's so important?"

"A date," the man said flatly.

"Your girlfriend can wait an hour. Both of you, get out of here," Jameson bellowed.

Peter and the man reluctantly left the office and started to leave the building.

"Well, I guess we're working together," the man said as they exited through the front door. "I'm Devon Smith," he added.

"Peter Parker," Peter responded.

"Do you have a car," Devon asked.

"No," Peter said. He'd left his moped at home.

"Want a lift," Devon offered.

'No', Peter wanted to say. But he couldn't just pull a disappearing act and somehow come up with pictures. He would have to ditch this guy somehow.

"Sure," Peter said.

They got into Devon's car, and as he drove toward their destination, he commented,"It's strange that I haven't met you before now."

"Why's that," Peter asked.

"Well, you take pictures of Spider-Man, and I write reports about him."

"What kind of reports?"

"Where he's been, what what time, who he was with, what he was doing. Not that trash that ends up in the articles."

Peter smiled. He liked this guy's attitude. Then he had an idea.

"You mentioned you have a girlfriend," he said.

"Well, not officially. I've only seen her twice, and once was for an interview. Do you remember the El-Train wreck," he asked. Peter's smiled faultered.

"Yeah."

"She was on the train. Her name's Alexia. Pretty name, isn't it?"

Alexia, going out with a Bugle reporter? 'Oh, god, please say she hasn't told him anything', Peter thought. He needed to get out of here.

"Yeah. I just thought of something. How about I take some notes for you, and you can go see your girlfriend," Peter suggested.

"You'd do that? Thanks," Devon replied.

"In fact, just drop me off here."

"Are you sure?"

Peter nodded, and Devon pulled over. They said goodbye, and after he was sure Devon was gone, Peter ran into the nearest ally to change. Alexia's strange relationships could wait until later. Spider-Man had a new super-villain to deal with.