It felt like it had been forever since I had been on the subway. Probably a couple days before I was kidnapped, and that had been about six weeks ago now.

Either way, hoodie pulled on tight and head bent over a phone, it definitely left me feeling claustrophobic. Ah, New York, gotta love your trains.

My spider-sense tingled down my spine. Someone was watching me. I looked to the side and found a little kid, maybe five or six, hugging a black and red spider-man plush tight and staring at me with wide eyes.

I lifted a finger and pressed it against my lips, smiling. She nodded like she was in a daze. I kept my head down, but while looking in her direction, I rolled a bit of spider-web into a tennis ball sized ball. I gestured for her to catch it, and when she held her hands out expectedly, I gently chucked it in her direction.

She marveled at it, squishing it, rolling it. She looked back up at me and mouthed 'thank you.' I grinned and mouthed back 'you're welcome.'

The train screeched to a halt, tilting everyone as it braked. The doors opened and I hurried out, grabbing the top of my hoodie to keep it firmly on. I practically ran up the stairs.

Then I was out onto the street. I looked around. Alright, so I never normally came this way out on foot. It was so much easier to get around with a bird's-eye perspective, but alas, I was banned.

Either way, after getting myself orientated, I made my way towards the bank. I felt lucky that no one recognised me, but then again, would anyone even care? They would probably just want me to see me with my mask on.

Less than ten minutes later I was on the footpath outside of it. Police were still milling around, and a couple of news shows too. Neat. I tipped my hoodie back and approached the first police officer.

"Hey officer, how's it going?" I said casually, peering past the police officer.

Said police officer had been nursing a coffee, but barely started at the sudden sight of me. "Spidey? Thought you were injured?"

I moved my clothes aside so he could get a peek at the wrappings. "Yeah, I am. Not allowed to be Spider-Man, but they never said anything about Miles," I said with a cheeky grin.

He snorted, "Clever kid. You here to find out more about your imposter?"

"What, you think I'm just here to get arrested?" I grinned, folding my arms and jutting my hips out.

He raised a singular eyebrow. "What an honorable decision. Nah kid, evidence is stacked in your favor. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

"Ah, ok, that's good. Do you have any leads?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Nope, sorry, kid. Whoever was doing it was pretty high tech to replicate your powers as closely as they did. They didn't leave many clues for us either. Sad to say, but I don't think we'll find out who did this."

I frowned, "Surely there's some way…"

He shrugged, "Believe me, kid, we're trying our best. But there's only so much we can do. When you're allowed to be Spidey again, you might be able to find more clues than we can."

I thought for a moment. "Do you think I could take a look at the scene? You can lead me around and everything, I won't mind."

He seemed to think about that before calling out to one of the other policemen. "Yo Dave, Miles here wants to have a look around."

Dave came over. "Are we even allowed to do that?"

"He's on our suspects list, but it's Spidey. I'm sure we can cut past protocol just this once," the cool policeman said.

That reminded me. "What's your name by the way?"

"Mark," he replied.

Dave talked briefly with some other police officer before gesturing us over to the tape. "Come on through."

I stepped under the tape, following the two officers into the building. There were some glass shards littered around the place, and the vault's door was ripped clear off the wall and onto the ground. If you ignored that, the place looked fairly fancy and nice. Well, it was the bank after all.

I stepped past the officers and approached the vault door. It looked like it had been blown off, or torn. I frowned, looking at the wall still attached to the door. I crouched down next to it. It looked like the colour had been tainted…

"Hey guys, take a look at this," I said, gesturing them over. They came hovering behind my shoulder.

"What, did you find something?" Dave asked.

I nodded, "Look closely, I think they used small bombs to weaken the door. If they weakened it and then someone with a bit of strength pulled, well, down it goes."

Mark squinted at where I was pointing. "I don't see anything."

I blinked. "Really? It looks pretty obvious to me."

Dave shook his head. "I can't see anything either."

I frowned. "My eyes aren't tricking me. The colour is off at these spots. I think you should get them checked out."

Mark patted me on the shoulder. "Good job kid, you got us a lead."

Monday morning was interesting, to say the least. Ganke, though? He was a lifesaver.

"Make way! Not-criminal-Spider-Man coming through! Yes his shoulder is injured! Move on people! Make way! Not-crim-" Ganke yelled like a mantra, dragging me along by my right arm. I couldn't even complain, the looks everyone were giving the two of us were downright hilarious.

"You know you're making a scene, right?" I whispered in his ear.

He snorted, "You're already the talk of the school for like, the twentieth week in a row. You should be old news by now."

"Oh, so when I say they're going to eventually give up, I'm totally wrong, but now you're saying it-"

"Yeah, I'm a hypocrite. But it's kind of fun. Us two nerds, versus the world of highschool. One a superhero, one a super lego maker, together they fight crime!" He declared, karate chopping thin air.

I grabbed his hands, stopping him from embarrassing us further. "You've never helped me fight crime."

Ganke gasped, mock hurt, "I told you go to that warehouse! Like, two days ago! And already you've forgotten. Oh, how could you-"

I pulled down my shirt, showing him the still wrapped wound. It was almost scarred over by this point, but Mum had insisted anyway. It did make for a dramatic reveal, according to the now staring students. They didn't even try and hide their looks! "Yeah, and look where that got me genius."

"Well, lets see. You grabbed those thingies so they can't make any more super soldiers, got that blueprint, overheard about those two supervillains-" he started, numbering them off on his fingers.

I slapped a hand over his mouth, "Have you ever heard of the word 'quiet'?" I hissed. "Ixnay on the superhero etails-day!"

He grabbed my hand and pulled it away from his face. "Yeah, yeah. You've gotta keep at least one aspect of your superhero life secret and what not. Come on, we've got physics first. Try not to show off your injury to the whole world."

I flushed. "Ganke! I was not showing it off!"

"Keep telling yourself that!" he declared, starting forward again. I grumbled, but fell into step beside him.

We walked into class together and sat in our normal spot. I pulled out my notebook and a pen I had 'borrowed' from Ganke. It had me all over it. As in, the design was of my costume- except a cartoon- all over the pencil. I still had no idea how he had found it, but what was self-branding if not for wearing it around like a crown?

Miss Calleros approached our spot. "Mr Lee, Mr Morales, did you have a fun weekend?"

I resisted the urge to groan and hide under some blankets for the rest of the week until this whole thing blew over. "You could… say that."

"I hope your injury won't inhibit your learning," she said, giving me a Look. What was with people and giving me the Look? I knew what I was doing!

I fiddled with my pen. "Trust me, it's fine. It was hardly a scrape. I'll be back to being Spider-Man, like, tomorrow. Shouldn't you be starting the class?"

She folded her arms, her lips twitching up. "Don't tell me how to do my own job, young man." But, she did head up to the front where the screen was. "Alright class, lets begin."

Ping! Ping!

Ganke and I both looked at our phones. The teacher also stopped and raised an eyebrow. I sheepishly shrugged, "I'll be one moment."

I walked into the hallway and closed the door behind me. Now, what's got my phone pinging? I opened my phone up and went onto my news app. 'New Challenger For Spider-Man,' huh? Sounded like something urgent.

I skipped past the reporting to the video. Even from the still image it looked like it was set in Times Square. No point in waiting. I clicked play.

A man climbed up on top of one of the screens. He was wearing what looked like a lion themed suit. "Citizens of New York!" the guy shouted, though it sounded like he had hacked the speakers so everyone could hear him, "I, Kravinoff, have a challenge for the protector of the city, Spider-Man! I am the mightiest hunter in the world, and I have come to prove it! The hunt begins in two weeks time, starting from this very spot! If you win, New York territory is all yours. If I win, I hang your head on my wall next to my other hunts. If you refuse to participate, I will hunt down all your friends and family and hang them all on my wall."

The cameraman zoomed on his face, letting me get a close up of his grinning face. "See you in a two weeks time, arachnid."

The video abruptly cut off, leaving the hallway so quiet I could have heard a pin drop. I clenched my webshooter, hidden under my jacket's sleeves. This guy sounded insane! Who even was this Kravinoff guy?

I looked back in the classroom, then back down at my webshooter, then to my shoulder. Stupid injury! This guy was threatening everyone close to me and I just had to sit around? When was this video even filmed? Ten minutes ago? This guy could be long gone by now and I couldn't do anything.

I restlessly began to pace. I knew this was going to happen! I knew it! This is why me and Peter and Gwen and all the other spider-people had a secret identity! Because things like this happened!

Oh, god, how would I even protect everyone? If he had a team of people like the Owl did then he could attack everyone before I even got to one of them. I had to take this guy on, but if he was really that confident as to not only challenge me, but make it a really public challenge, then maybe he could actually beat me.

What had he said would happen if I didn't 'join in the hunt' or whatever? Oh yeah, hang my head on his wall like I was some sort of trophy!

I stopped pacing, instead leaning against the wall and burying my face in my hands. Why was everything happening now? Couldn't have all these villains spread themselves around so I could take down one and then deal with the next?

I paused. Wait, how many was that now?

There was the Owl, but that was a whole gang of people. Then there's Alchemax and there evil experiments, and also the fact that they want to kill me. That guy that has yet to show up and didn't want to take me down because morals. This impersonator, and now this Kravinoff guy.

Laughter bubbled up inside my throat and I couldn't stop it if I even tried. I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. It was all so funny. All these villains wanting to pick on me. Hilarious!

The classroom door creaked open and Miss Calleros peeked her head out. She looked me up and down, head still mostly buried in my hands, hunched in on myself and barely holding back my laughter. She frowned and came into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

"Are you okay?" She asked, folding her arms.

I shrugged, trying to give her a reassuring smile. It came out like a grimace. "Do you know how to take down a criminal empire, stop an impersonator and stop a super villain all at once? I could really use an instruction manual."

She looked pretty sympathetic. "No. Have you tried talking to anyone who could help you?"

"I would like the spider-gang back," I muttered.

"Pardon?"

I shook my head, "Never mind. I'll, uh, go talk to some people after school. Sorry for interrupting your class and everything."

She smiled, "Well, it's not every day you have a superhero in your classroom. The class is just working on a worksheet at the moment, yours is on your desk."

"Thanks miss," I said, stuffing my phone back in my pocket and heading back into the classroom, Miss Calleros following close behind.

I was out of school faster than you could say 'You're Doomed' at the end of the day. I stuck to the 'No Spider-Man' rule, as much as I hated it, and caught the train, then the bus towards Queens.

I didn't even bother that hard with hiding my face, this time. I didn't even bother with hiding in the corner. But I guess I had a determined enough look on my face because people stared, but didn't comment or ask me about Spider-Man stuff.

Maybe I should use this look more often…

The downside of not being Spidey? It took a whole hour to get to May's house. Sigh.

I knocked impatiently, resisting the urge to start pacing again. I just wanted to swing, and jump and kick a guy in the face. But noo, just because I have super-healing doesn't mean I can just go out fighting crime when I'm injured. Nevermind that it was healed already and these dressings were superficial at best!

May opened the door and beckoned me inside. I hurried in and she was quick to lock all her locks. When she was done, she finally turned to me. "You've had an adventurous week."

I groaned, digging the heel of my hand into my eyes. "You can say that again. I need help, like, stat. And an upgrade."

"Shed?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yep, shed."

We walked to the shed and went into her fancy secret cave. It was just as impressive as the last couple of times I had been here. And then I wondered, how did she dust this place? Maybe I should offer some time, cause there were some pretty high points in here…

"Alright Miles, let's see... First, tell me what's been happening," she said, sitting down in a swivel chair by the control panel.

I sighed and began to explain. "Alchemax were the ones who kidnapped me and also they're giving goons my powers, a group called The Owls are starting some sort of criminal empire with help from Alchemax, there's some sort of villain who The Owls are convinced could take me down but he's not because morals, the impersonator guy used small tiny bombs to weaken the vault walls and Kravinoff just threatened me and I don't even know the guy."

She looked satisfied, if sympathetic, at the news. "Unfortunately, I don't have all the information you need. But I do have some." The big screen filled with villains of all sizes, shapes and mutations. There had to be a good thirty up, but even then it could have been way more. I whistled appreciatively.

"Why didn't you let me have a look at all this information in the first place?" I asked, folding my arms.

She shrugged. "Wasn't really relevant. You've only fought small time baddies after the spider-people fiasco."

She had a point, even if I felt a little insulted. It wasn't my fault that super-villains hadn't come out of the woodworks till now. "Can you at least send me an email with all of this?" I pleaded.

She shook her head. "No can do. Don't want any information leaking anywhere. If you ever want to find out, you're going to have to come visit this little old lady."

I sighed; at least I had tried. "Uh, anyway, what do you know?"

The list fell away until there were about ten villains on screen. She enlarged one. The guy looked kind of savage; hair everwhere, talons on his fingertips and a long cape that made him look more like a vampire than a person. "Meet Owl, aka Leland Owlsley. He has worked with Fisk before, but with the power vacuum created by his arrest I believe he's decided it's his time to be the Kingpin. Through my channels I unfortunately haven't heard about where he is, or who he's working with, but I'm sure with him getting more active we should find out soon."

"What are his powers? Should I be worried?"

"Well, he can fly short distances and the last time Peter-" she barely hiccuped over his name "-fought him, he did notice that he seemed faster than a normal human. Those talons can also rip flesh pretty well. He wasn't Peter's hardest villain by a long shot."

"So yes and no?" I summarized. She nodded. "I guess he realised that too, which is why he might be signing up other people to do the dirty work for him."

May looked interested. "Do you think the other villains might be working with him?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. It would explain why all of them are popping up now. Anyway, what are your other leads?"

She enlarged a guy called the Chameleon. He was wearing some sort of white cap all over his face. It almost looked like it was melted into his skin. "Your most likely suspect for your impersonator is this guy. A Russian man with an unknown backstory and no name. He was able to frame Peter for a crime while mimicking Peter's abilities fairly closely, you might remember that one. Series of bank robberies committed by Spider-Man. When Peter proved it wasn't him, Chameleon disappeared again and we haven't heard anything further about him, until now."

"Huh," I said, "I remember that. It's what made my Dad distrust Peter. Decided that if 'anyone can dress up as him, then Spider-Man could be just as bad as the criminals.'"

May shook her head, though I could see a faint smile plastered on her face. "It took a long time to gather everyone's trust back. You're lucky that people know who you are. I was surprised at how much people jumped to protect you."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, me too. I guess the whole fifteen-year-old kid thing throws people off accusing me."

Finally, she enlarged the other eight villains. "Since we don't know who this mystery man is, we can only go off of 'nearly defeated Peter.' And these are the ones."

"Nearly defeated as in 'almost killed the world but at the last second got stopped' or 'Peter went through a meat grinder fighting them.'" I said slowly.

May looked at me from over her shoulder. "The second, unfortunately. I discovered his secret identity after his first fight with the Rhino, it was that bad."

"In other words, I'm screwed," I muttered.

"Not necessarily!" she declared, standing up. "You're just woefully under prepared."

"Gee, thanks," I said, laughing. She beckoned me to follow her and I did so, peeking over her shoulder. "Should I be excited or scared?"

She pressed a button on yet another control panel and the wardrobe of spider-man costumes suddenly came out of their cases, moving towards us along with more from the ceiling. I looked on in awe.

"You need an upgrade from that suit. Something better to protect you and with a combination of features that can help you fight any of the villains Peter's fought, if not more." She looked me up and down. Still in my school uniform, super suit nowhere in sight. "Your shoulder has healed already, right?"

"Uh, pretty much," I said with a small shrug.

She grinned. "Perfect. Better for you to test out all these suits and get a feel for them and what you like now rather than after it's already made."

I stopped and looked at May. "I am not playing dress up. There's like, fifty costumes!" She didn't look swayed. "May, I would like to sleep tonight please."

"Well, what do you suggest? I'm sure with no knowledge of what Peter's already been able to incorporate into his suits, your trials and errors in the two weeks you have will be more than enough to face this Kravinoff guy," she said absently, strolling through the wardrobe of spider costumes.

"Well, we don't even know what powers this Kravinoff guy has up his sleeves," I pointed out. I started to look through the costumes anyway.

"Exactly! Now do you want to get beaten by a low-powered villain like Owl or make him look like a fool!" she declared, popping out of some spider costumes and almost startling me. She passed me a costume, which felt more firm than my current costume.

"Now you're speaking my language!"