Sorry for the wait. I was a little busy working on the foundation for two other stories. One is a Spider-Man/Ben 10 crossover called Venomnitrix. The other is a DC story based off the speedster, Godspeed. I hope you check them out as well. I will try to routinely update all three of my current stories as regularly as possible.

I will try to use this chapter to lay out a bit of back story for our hero. Let me know how I do.

I freeze upon seeing that I just ran into the lab of Johnny Storm. The son of the head of the Baxter Foundation. One of the main people who can get me fired with barely a word to the big boss. Fuck.

Additionally, I just ran from his sister. The woman who literally just hired me. The person who can effortlessly un-hire me. Double fuck.

Furthermore, apparently Gwen is here. Triple fuck.

Like Jason Sudeikis from the movie Horrible Bosses would say, life has really bent me over a barrel and shown me the fifty states.

In case that was little obscure, life has fucked me over in a way that seems like a cruel joke. Goddamn Parker luck.

"Hi," I say waving at Johnny. "I'm Peter. Your sister just hired me about ten minutes ago. Hopefully, I will still be employed tomorrow."

"What did you do?" he asks, suspicious of me. He seems to be eyeing the storage cylinder for my drones like he thinks I might have stolen it.

"I ran out on the introduction tour," I say. "I brought these from home by the way." I pat the cylinder.

"Why did you run off?"

"Would you believe it was because of a girl?" I ask.

"Actually, you might be surprised to know that yes, I would believe it," he says with a look of almost fond reminiscence on his face. "Anyway, you should probably get off of the floor."

Once I stand up, I actually notice my surroundings a bit more. It is almost like it is set up to act as a mechanic's workshop had a baby with a high tech lab. I see a lot of tool shelves equipped with wrenches, screwdrivers, bolts, clamps, power tools, and more. Along with this are numerous computers displaying part configurations and engine designs, what looks like a three dimensional printer, and mechanical grabber arms that could be equipped with tools. A halfway dismantled car sits on a lift in the middle of the lab. From what I can see, it looks like a vintage Pontiac Firebird.

"Pull up a chair and tell me what ails you," Johnny says. He plops down in a comfortable looking leather chair. I sit in a metal chair I see nearby.

"Many don't know this, but I am trained in another discipline besides mechanical design," he says. "I, in fact, hold a doctorate in love science. So, tell the love doctor what seems to be the trouble today." I am honestly amazed that he seems to be entirely serious right now.

I think it over and say to hell with it. It might do me good to get this stuff off of my chest with someone who wasn't there for the whole fiasco.

"Okay, where should I start," I ask myself. "I guess that I should go to the beginning."

"I never really fit in as a kid," I say. "I know that a lot of people say that, but it is none the less true. I was always seen as the absurdly smart kid. I had the whole ostracized genius thing down. You probably don't know much about this, but children always hate what doesn't conform. Since I was distinctly smarter than just about everyone, I was left out in just about anything. No one bothered to try and be my friend because they hated the fact that it seemed like I was talking down at them. Nobody wanted to feel like an idiot."

"Why don't you think that I know what it feels like to be left out like that?" Johnny asks.

"I mean come on," I say. "You are rich. You have the whole happy go lucky thing going on. You were probably super popular in school. Even if you weren't and you were left out based on IQ, at the ends of the day, you still had Sue. Someone that could understand you."

"You didn't have anyone?" he asks.

"My parents died when I was young," I say. "After that, I was raised by my aunt and uncle. Even though I love Aunt May and Uncle Ben with all my heart, they just didn't think like I did. My parents might have because they were supposed to have been geniuses too, but they weren't around. That means that I had to go around without that support I could lean on. Eventually, I found that."

"This is where the girl comes in," Johnny says.

"This is where the girl comes in," I confirm. "I was signed up for a science fair competition in sixth grade by my science teacher because he thought that I could really do well in it. It turns out that it was a collaborative event where you are randomly partnered up with another person from around the city. A couple of days later, I met my partner. Her name was Gwen Stacy."

I see the look of realization in Johnny's eyes as he know who I am talking about.

"Yeah, that Gwen Stacy," I say. "When I met her, I finally found what I had always been looking for. Another person like me. Someone to connect to and who would understand me. We worked on t he project all year. I remember it clearly. We wanted to replicate the webs produced my spiders in a easier way that could be produced quickly. She did the biological information to understand how they are produced. I found the ways to recreate it with chemicals and machines. We won first prize by a landslide when we showed off web fluid that could create strands capable of holding up a fifty pound weight.

"After that, we stayed best friends. We would always make sure to hang out and talk whenever we got the chance. We could not have been closer throughout all of middle school. Then I learned that she was moving close to my neighborhood and we would be going to the same high school. I was finally going to be able to spend that much more time with her."

"But then," Johnny says. "There is always a but."

"We get to the high school and she gets approached by the cheerleaders who start to allying to her. I wanted to give her a chance to make friends, so I went on ahead to our first class. By the time she got to the class, her and the other girls are talking like they are old friends. Gwen asks me if she can sit with them. I say yes because I think that it is fine since this is her first day and she should have a chance to get to know other people besides me.

"Classes pass without Gwen even talking to me. Eventually, lunch rolls around. Gwen and I had planned to eat together. I had sat at my usual empty table and waited for her to show up. She comes in along with the girls she had been inseparable from the entire day and automatically goes to the popular kids table. She did not even spare me a single look. Suddenly, I am that eleven year old kid that never had a friend. If I thought loneliness was bad, abandonment was worse.

"After school when we were on the bus, she finally talks to me like nothing wrong had happened the entire day. I put on a smile and acted like I was fine. Throughout the year, Little by little, I lost Gwen. She stopped hanging out with me. She stopped talking to me. Hell, I just became another faceless student when she passed by me in the hall."

"I have a feeling that this story doesn't improve from here," Johnny says.

"And you are right," I say. "I eventually began to see more of her. It is not because I became closer to her. My new best friend was Flash Thompson, the school's number one quarterback, and was a part of the friend group that Gwen was a part of. I got pulled into the group through my connection to Flash. This didn't help repair the bridge between Gwen and I.

"Over the years, I also began to grow a crush on Gwen even though we didn't talk anymore. As senior year rolled around, I thought that it was around time that I tried to make a move. I regret that idea every moment since."

"Why?" Johnny asks. He doesn't seem to get why I have such a bad reaction to the memory.

"I decided to ask her to prom," I say looking up at the ceiling.

"Oh," Johnny says. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah," I say. "That didn't go well. I got the courage up to ask her out. When I finally do, she says that she already had a date. It turned out to be Flash. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if some of the football players hadn't overheard the exchange. They immediately told everyone that the pathetic school nerd tried to ask out one of the most popular girls in a school and was promptly rejected. Flash and my only other friend, Liz, tried to stamp it out quickly, but it soon got to big from them to stop. Liz used to be the most popular girl in school and part of the same friend group as Flash. After I became friends with Flash, I befriended her too. Both Flash and her lost some power by becoming my friend, but they were happy to do so. Since they had ceded some of their authority, they couldn't stop me from being the school joke."

"Jesus," Johnny says. "Your love life is all kinds of fucked up."

"Yeah," I say. "After that, I never talked to her again. I just couldn't stand to see her without those feelings of abject humiliation practically smothering me. The worst part is as far as I knew, Flash and Liz are the only ones who tried to stand up for me. She never did a thing. I made sure to go wherever she wasn't. I avoided Oscorp because I didn't want to chance running into her. That and Norman Osborn creeps me out. But more the former than the latter. I thought this was my dream job."

"And now it is a nightmare," Johnny finishes. All I can do is weakly nod in response.

"I think that I have a way for you to simultaneously work here and not have to address the whole Gwen thing," Johnny says.

"What is it?" I ask. "A cleverly crafted disguise? A phony mustache?"

"As you said before, more the former than the latter," he says with a grin.

Johnny and I walk over to where Sue is working with Gwen in the biology department.

Johnny has me dressed in a pair of coveralls, a respirator he had lying around for when he painted his car, a Yankees cap, and a pair of sunglasses.

"Hey, sis," Johnny says. "I found the new guy that you seemed to be missing. It was great to meet you, Ben." He pats me on the shoulder.

Sue is about to say something about that not being my name by Johnny gives her a look that only siblings can do between each other. It practically said to just go along with it.

"Hey, Gwen, this is the guy that I was trying to introduce to you earlier," Sue says. She gives me a look telling me to say something.

"Hi, I am Ben Reilly," I say, giving her a wave.

"I'm Gwen," she replies with a smile. Thankfully, the respirator muffled my voice to the point where it is not recognizable.

"I found him wandering around amongst the engineering department," Johnny says with a laugh. "He helped me with part of a project and I realized that he would be the perfect fit working with me. So, I call him."

"That was already the plan, Johnny," Sue says, still confused on what is going on, but just rolling with it for now.

"Cool," he says. "See you ladies later. Us men need to go play with some cars."

As we walk away, Johnny says, "and that is how I have learned to deal with all manner of exes. Avoidance. Copious avoidance."

I think that I am going to like it here.

There goes another chapter. I hope you enjoy. As always, please review, favorite, and follow.