"Peter," Gwen squealed as Peter walked into her home. His wounds were healed with his healing ability, but his tongue was swollen purple from his fight with Green Goblin the day before. He could barely say a word that starts with S without mumbling a single word. "You made it five minutes early." She hugged Peter tightly and welcomed him into her house. "If you have to go to the bathroom, it's the first door in my hallway on the right," she said as she showed.

"Thank you," Peter thanked Gwen and himself for not mumbling. "When can I meet your father?' He was a little nervous about meeting Gwen's father for the first time because he knows how the minds of fathers of daughters worked: No one is good enough for their little girl. Well, hopefully, he was going to redefine the way that fathers think.

"Peter," a new voice called out from the living room. Peter and Gwen turned their heads to see a tall man with dirty blond hair walk up to them and study Peter hard. The man was dressed in a gray suit with a tie on, indicating that he had somewhere to be tonight and could not stay long for dinner. "So, you must be Peter Parker, correct? My daughter has told me a lot about you." He held his hand out, waiting for Peter to shake it. Peter's grip was surprisingly strong and he didn't even realize it. "That is some grip."

Peter became suddenly aware how much of his subconscious spider-strength was showing by shaking George, so he released his grip slightly to make a softer handshake. "Nice to meet you, sir," Peter mumbled on 'sir' before rubbing his combed hair in the process, embarrassed at his slight speech pattern. "I hear that you are the police captain."

"That is correct. I hear that you take pictures of that Spider guy for the Daily Bugle. A job paying well for you?" Peter wanted to talk, but he spared himself more embarrassment by just nodding respectfully. Then George looked at Gwen with a glare that sent some kind of secret message that Peter could not comprehend. "So are you hungry? We made lasagna."

"I love lasagna," Peter choked, swallowing a huge gulp of spit down his throat to focus. "I've been starving myself all morning for this dinner here."

"Well then, you won't be disappointed because my wife makes the best kind of lasagna." George then tilted his head when he stared Peter into the eyes again. Then George twitched slightly and his smile faded for a very brief split second.

Peter was taken to the table where he was introduced to Gwen's mother, Helen, younger brother and sister, Paul and Jill Stacey. Peter remembered to be polite and to not say anything rude and to always be smiling and to make sure that he didn't open his mouth a lot to the point where they could see his swollen tongue. He cut the lasagna on his plate and maybe he spilled some of his food into his soda inadvertently when no one was looking so he had to drink the cup of soda whole with the food in it to avoid humiliation. After that, he had to politely ask for a refill but other than that, the night was going really well. Peter was having a good time getting to know his girlfriend's family.

"So Peter," fourteen-year-old Jill Stacy called to her sister's boyfriend. "How is it that you are able to get pictures of Spiderman?"

The fork with the food was halfway to his half-open mouth when she asked and he had to think of an excuse. "Spiderman gives me a call." He then realized that he now had to explain it. "So, when Spiderman battled Dr. Octopus in Time Square, I was already there with my camera. Right place at the right time. Just before he left, I stopped him for a couple of pictures and asked if I could be his personal photographer. We both came to a mutual agreement and now whenever he is on his way to stop a crime or supervillain, he would give me a buzz on where is going and I try to get there as quickly as possible." He was praying that his excuse sounds realistic because everybody was looking at him like he was stupid, especially with him mumbling through his purple swollen tongue.

"Wow," Jill said in awe. "Just, wow."

"It takes a lot of guts to do what you are doing, Parker," George said suddenly. "Not a lot of people run towards the crosshairs when there's a fight."

"In order to be a photographer, you have to have guts," Peter justified, constantly mentally slapping himself for mumbling.

"It's not just an act of strength, it's an act of sacrifice," George explained. "You see, people like Spiderman, he attracts people who were already messed up in their own ways. There is just no way for anybody to counteract it because that is the way of life. It's always going to be Good vs. Evil but we have to know what Good is and what Evil is."

"Spiderman saves people," Peter nearly choked on his food as he spoke.

"That may be true, but people could die because of him. If someone were to find out the man behind the mask, then all hell could break loose. I mean, sure, Spiderman's heart may be in the right place, but, he just doesn't do what is necessary."

"What do you mean?" Peter hoped that Gwen's father could make things more clear with him for his secret alter-ego.

"So he locks up this Otto Octavius man with eight arms calling him, 'Dr. Octopus' fully aware of the fact that he could just very well break out and cause even more damage. I'm not saying that Dr. Octavius deserves to die, what I am saying is that maybe the worst of the worst criminals are just better off in a coffin."

Now Peter was hoping that he could change George's views. "Well, it doesn't have to be like that all the time. I mean, if the worst of the worst die, then there is no way for them to face true justice."

"Say Spiderman catches a serial killer, who has murdered over eighty-five people and he is released from prison because there is not enough evidence against him. We all know he is the killer, but the facts are wrong so they release him as a free man. Is that justice? Is it justice where a serial killer is set free to kill more while the police are on a wild goose chase? If we were to put that man to sleep permanently, we could save hundreds of souls, possibly even thousands of souls."

"But it wouldn't be right. I've actually spoken to Spiderman - a very nice man - and he believes that you should always do the right thing even if it doesn't seem right."

"But there is a blurred line in the sand between what's right and what's necessary. Sometimes doing immoral action is the necessary thing. Sure, the right thing is never the wrong thing, but the right thing might be the necessary thing to do."

Gwen put a stop to the conversation by saying: "Is there room for any leftovers?" She quickly disputed the tensions between her boyfriend and father quickly and went to go put her plate in the sink. "So, Dad? Where are you going?"

George looked at his wristwatch and realized what time it was. "Crap, I gotta be down at the station in fifteen minutes."

"What's going on?" Peter asked, curious about whether it was a situation that required Spiderman. "Is there some kind of crime?"

"No," George shook his head. "Today is a recruitment day for rookies. They need me to be at the station to teach them the basics. Sadly, this is something that I can't decline." He got up from his seat, Gwen tossed him his keys and he moved to the front door. "I'm sorry that we couldn't get to know each other any better, Mr. Parker," George said regretfully without even looking at Peter. "Take care of my daughter when I'm gone, understand?"

"I will," Peter swore. Peter watched Gwen move from the kitchen to hug her father goodbye. "It was nice getting to meet you, Mr. Stacy."

George closed the door behind him to leave Gwen standing there at the door, staring into emptiness. Her head slowly tilted down, thinking that it was sad that if George Stacy and Spiderman met, then they would never be friends. She attempts to do her hardest to replace her sadness with something else and that was only achieved when Peter walked up to her and leaned his head on her shoulder.

"You okay?" Peter slowly wrapped his arms around her back with affection. "You seem a little down."

Gwen put her hands on his arms and leaned back on him. "Nothing, just thinking how the two people that love me will never get to love each other."

"Hey," Peter began. "Spiderman doesn't love you, Peter Parker love you."

"Dad made me promise to not get attached to someone connected to Spiderman…"

"But you broke his promise," Peter finished. "You know, broken promises are the best kind there is."

Gwen's face went from a sad expression to a small smile, but a significant smile of happiness.

"What?"

"I'm telling you," Peter confirmed. "Norman Osborn, Harry's father, was the Green Goblin." Peter paced around the middle of Gwen's room. "Just twenty-four hours ago, the CEO of Oscorp tried to murder me in cold blood and I had to activate instant-kill mode to take him out." For inexplicable reasons, most likely out of impulse, Peter leaped from the floor and onto the ceiling, pacing back and forth. The door was already locked and his Spiderman suit was concealed under his long sleeve shirt tucked into his pants. "I don't like killing people, but Karen told me the only way to take him out was to activate the instant-kill mode."

"Who's Karen?" Gwen suddenly wondered and asked with suspicion. "Is she a cousin, friend...you brought her with you on your trip to the Statue of Liberty so obviously she knows about your identity."

Peter suddenly realized what he said and reached up into his front right pocket to pull out his mask. He walked above Gwen's position and handed it to her. "Put on the mask and speak into it."

Gwen gazed upon the mask that her boyfriend wore in her hands with admiration and star-struck feelings that only a fan could get when they receive something from their idol. She turned the mask so the eyes were lined with hers and she placed it on. It fit like a glove and she could see clearly as if she had nothing on. "Hello?"

"Hello, Gwen?" Karen spoke into Gwen's ear, startling her slightly. "Peter has told me so much about you and is it awesome to finally get to meet you in person? Feel free to ask me anything."

"What are you?" For starters.

"I am a natural-language user interface artificial intelligence. I am Spiderman's sidekick."

"Wow, what can you do?"

"Well, I can identify an enemy's weakness, activate a number of different web combinations, help improve his combat skills, and I can record everything that Peter sees through this mask, I even can just converse with him.'

"How did Peter get spider powers?"

"I got bit," Peter answered for Karen from the ceiling. "This is my other sidekick." He reached into his left front pocket to pull out a container the size of a half dollar with Redips inside. "This is the spider that bit me." He showed her the container, making Gwen jump in surprise. "Remember at ESU? The unknown species of spider? This little guy gave me my powers."

"Really?" Gwen yanked off the mask and took the container in her own hand. She marvels the container with Redips inside and smiles gleefully. "What can he do?"

"He has human-like intelligence, can follow my orders, and I have a tiny camera attached to him so he can sneak into places that I can't. He's my seeker and eye in the sky."

"That's cute of him." Gwen watched Redips move around a bit before she hands back the spider to Peter. "What does it feel like being Spiderman?"

"It feels awesome for starters, but extremely stressful because of the weight of the responsibilities. I mean, how am I going to tell Harry that his father died and will I ever balance a normal life? I mean, you are the only person that knows who I am beside Karen and Redips." Peter reclaims his mask and puts it back in his pocket.

"You can still balance a normal life," Gwen insisted and she stood up and lined her head with Peter's upside-down head. "I will help you with your Spiderman life. I know that there are going to be risks, but I want to face these risks with you. Nobody else but you." She put her hand awkwardly on his shoulder.

"I don't know," Peter said uncertainty. "You are my life. You are my life and I don't want you to die if my enemies find out about you."

Gwen put her head to the side of Peter's head, her breath hot against his skin as she said, "Guess what? You are my life, too."

Gwen gently gripped the back of Peter's head and they awkwardly embraced with Peter hanging upside down on the ceiling. Once they broke away from the embrace, they kissed each other tenderly on the lips. A romantic upside-down kiss that would surely make the books if he was in his costume. The kiss lasted what felt like forever before Peter slowly and reluctantly pulled his head back, making a frowny face so it would look like a smile from Gwen's perspective.

All of a sudden, a series of sirens started blaring outside. Peter turned towards Gwen's only window in the room with disappointment. He hops down from the ceiling and attempts to open the window. Gwen helped open it for him while he stripped out of his clothes, threw them on her bed, and jumped into his costume. When she turned back after successfully opening the window, he was in his superhero costume save for his mask, which he held in his hands.

"That kiss…" Peter began as he slowly put on the mask. "I gotta admit, that kiss, felt…"

"Awesome?" Gwen suggested. "Lovely? Iconical? Un-Superficial? Genuine?"

"I was going to say that kiss felt like something that was going to stick with me for the rest of my life." He placed the mask over his head and became Spiderman. "I'm sorry, but I gotta go."

Spiderman leaped to the window jamb, crouched down, took one last glance of Gwen over his shoulder before leaping out, having to run on foot through the suburban area before reaching somewhere where he could actually swing.

(())(())

Monday morning and school seemed slower than ever, but the day was going pretty well today. It was almost his lucky day you could say. His tongue healed completely, but was still purple, he made it to school on time, aced an algebra test, and even got free cheese pizza from the cafeteria. He thought his mourning friend, Harry, would tell him to get lost and push him away constantly, but he embraced Peter and Peter helped him grieve because he knew what his best friend was going through. As for Ned, he successfully set him on a date with Betty Brant, made Michelle, the stotic conspiracist, laugh at one of his jokes, got a one hundred and one percent on his project about spiders that he got done in one day, and he even got to sit with the cool kids during lunch.

And even when the day was three-fourths over, there was still one thing that Peter still wished he would see. One girl he wished wasn't absent from school today. What happened to you?

When school was finally over, he went over to Gwen's house to see if she was alright. He even brought soup in his backpack just in case she was sick. But when he knocked on the door and Gwen's mother answered, she told him that her father and herself have been gone all morning. Their exact location, she wasn't let on any details.

Peter paced around the neighborhood for a while, connecting his blue wireless earbuds to the Bluetooth on Karen so he could speak to her. "Karen? Can you call Gwen in one hour? Hopefully, she'll be home in like one hour."

"No problem, Peter," Karen said without any worry. "I already have her phone number in my data drives and I will set a timer for sixty minutes."

"Thanks, Karen." He knew he could rely on her. "I better get home and feed Redips. Speaking of spiders, Karen, are there any concurrent crimes happening?"

"None that I can see of."

"Any sightings of that Jackal guy?"

"None that I can see of."

"He doesn't commit crimes, he's an anti-hero necessary evil who kills criminals." He suddenly remembered what the Jackal was saying about Dr. Octopus just by talking to himself and decided to ask Karen, "Was Jackal telling the truth when he said he killed Dr. Octavius?"

Karen read off a news report found online. "According to the Daily Bugle, Otto Octavius was found dead at the Raft in his cell with a neck snapped at a one hundred and eighty degree angle just three days after his capture by Spiderman."

Peter grumbled. "Of course he did. Uh, did you scan for any of his weaknesses?"

"On who?"

"On Jackal."

"No weaknesses found on the Jackal."

"Nothing, seriously? Okay, well, just give me a heads up whenever the Jackal resurfaces."

"Will do."

Peter removed the earbuds and turned them off, put them away, and then jogged back home to work on his homework and make more web fluid.

He snuck into his home, narrowly avoiding his Aunt May, and locked himself in his bedroom to work on the web formula. He was listening to music on his playlist via wireless earbuds through Karen and when one hour has officially passed since he walked home from Gwen's house and made a tremendous amount of web formula, Karen updated him on two things: The Jackal's identity and Gwen's whereabouts.

Peter's eyes lit up with interest and he made sure his earbuds were secured in his ears before he spoke into them. "Karen, who is the Jackal?"

Karen answered in her usual voice, "According to a number of sources, including the Daily Bugle, Daily Globe, and New York Times, the identity of the Jackal has been leaked as former ESU biochemist, Miles Warren."

Peter nearly jumped out of his seat upon hearing the familiar name. "The sub we had like two weeks ago? He's the Jackal?"

"Not just that, but according to my calculations, there are actually two Miles Warren."

Now Peter was as confused as a baby being born for the first time and rubbed his brows. "Please explain, Karen."

"Miles Warren actually has a younger identical twin brother named Raymond Warren," Karen explained in a detailed fashion. "Like his older brother, Raymond Warren teaches biochemistry at Forest Hills High."

Peter was having a hard time trying to register what he was hearing and began playing with a pen. Two Miles Warren. "I can't believe that Miles Warren is the Jackal; I turned in my frog of the frog-shark project and I got an A+. When Miles Warren was subbing in for us, was that Miles or Raymond?"

Karen did a few calculations silently before giving a short answer response. "Most likely Raymond as a Jackal-like figure was already spotted in Brooklyn at the concurrent time. Most likely, Raymond is an accomplishment to Miles and is helping his brother."

"What about his wife? Monica, was that her name?"

"Warren's wife died at ESU and the wife you saw at the school was actually an actor."

Peter leaned back in his chair and threw his hands up in the air in frustration, the pen in his hand slipping from his fingers. "Man, there are twins and traitors left and right. Can you track the Jackal's location?"

"Negative, he is well hidden from surveillance."

"I'll keep my suit on just in case," Peter reminds himself. "But anyway, what about Gwen? Can you call her for me?"

"Already on it, Peter."

Peter leaned as far back as he could in his chair, picked up the pen to play with it between his fingers eagerly, and listened to the dial tone as he waited for Gwen to pick up. He rubbed a hand through his hair as he listened to the dial tone for what seems like forever. Once the dial tone ended and the clock started on his phone, he spoke in. "Hello?"

"Hello?" A voice replied back in Peter's voice, leaving Peter stunned for a second, thinking that maybe he was hearing an echo.

"Who is this?" He waited to see if he would hear the echo again and much to his surprise, there was the echo. "Are you playing with me, Gwen?" The echo once more. "Okay then, I guess I'll just call back later because my phone isn't working."

"I hear you loud and clear," a deep voice said on the other end before Peter could even hang up. He jumped out of the chair and eyes widened as he recognized the voice. "Yeah, you remember me, don't you?"

"Miles Warren," Peter said, exposing his identity.

"The one and only perfect mastermind behind putting a permanent end to criminals who deserve to die while maintaining a double life as a biochemist. And you, you're the stupid nerd with the big glasses."

"What do you want?" Peter threatened. "Why do you have Gwen's phone?"

"So many questions, only one answer: Spiderman." There was a silent, but an ominous pause that traveled through one end of the phone to the other. "Yeah, can you feel it? Can you feel the cold shiver running down your spine? How does it feel? How does it feel to know that someone else is in possession of your girlfriend's phone, not knowing whether your girlfriend is dead or alive? How does it feel to know that if you had done the right thing by keeping away from her, then none of this would've happened? You call yourself a hero for doing the right thing but you are a hypocrite. You've got no one but yourself to blame because people like you, they always do what is right instead of necessary and in this case, the right thing would've been to stay away from Gwen and not reveal your identity at all."

"You better not touch Gwen," Peter said with pure venom in his voice. "You touch her and I swear I will make you hurt."

"Doing what you think is necessary by threatening to beat me to a pulp? You always liked to be the hero, but you do realize as a hero, you are supposed to make the hardest decisions and the hardest decisions are always the necessary choices? I'm not a villain, I am trying to make New York a better place. I'm trying to improve you. You are a savior but you still need to spread your wings. I'm helping you. I'm helping you spread your wings. By the end of the day, you are going to thank me because I have prepared you to make the necessary choice for a perilous choice to make in the not-so-distant future."

"Wrong, you are a villain," Peter corrects. "You kidnapped my Gwen."

"Who says I kidnapped her? I didn't trick her, she got in my car and I know who you are and I know who you love. Gwen is the key to unlocking the necessity within you. She will play a big role in your life and if you make the decision correctly and I know you will make the proper decision, then I know that she will live to help you face all kinds of risks in the future but face them together."

"Where are you?"

"You really want to know, Spider? I know that you are a smarty-smarty since you go to MSST so why don't you go on your computer and trace Gwen's phone number to my location? Trust me, I will not be going anywhere, so there is no need to rush. Goodbye, Spider, and I hope that you are prepared because you are going to be making the hardest decision you will have ever made in your entire life."

And with that, the call ended.