CHAPTER TWELVE: Kingpin of Crime

PART ONE: The Return

It's been two months. Two months since I've seen Norman Osborn. Two months since I wore my costume. Two months...since my mother died.

Every Sunday for the last month, I've been attending church with Angel. I still haven't found the answers I was looking for. But then, I guess I don't have anybody to blame but myself for that. I shouldn't have expected to find them in the blink of an eye. Life's just like that sometimes. I keep telling myself that the answers will come soon enough.

I've been trying to occupy my mind with other things, to keep my mind off of my mother. I've been reading a lot lately. Been listening to a lot of music (most of which I purchased from Superhustler). I even started studying. I figure I may as well bring those grades up before school's out. We have about four months left. It'd make my dad happy to see that I'm not at the bottom of my graduating class, after all.

Even though it's only March, Prom Fever has already swept my school. Everybody's been saving up money for the prom. All I hear anymore is "What color suit are you wearing?" and "Are you going in a limo?" and so on and so forth. It suddenly occurs to me that my black ass needs to get a damn job if I'm going to pay for anything prom related. To that end, I don't even know if I'm going.

I find myself pondering this while I'm sitting alone at lunch one day. I've been planning on asking Tiffany about the prom, but I haven't seen her all day. Just as I began to wonder where she was, Brian and Angel enter the lunchroom and sit down across from me.

"Rob, glad you're here. Got a new CD for ya," said Brian.

"...the hell? I just bought one from you this morning..." I replied.

"I know. I made another one in the computer lab," he said with a wily grin.

I try to brush that thought aside and turn to Angel.

"Let me ask you a question. Are you planning on going to the prom?"

"Yeah, I'm going with Andre," Angel replied.

"How 'bout you, Brian?"

"Hell yeah! I'm going with Alysha. Where do you think all my CD money is goin'?"

"Hm..." I started to contemplate whether or not I wanted to go.

"Aren't you going?" Angel asked me.

"I dunno. I don't think I have any money to go. And anyway, I dunno if Tiffany wants to go. I wonder where she is, anyway..."

"When I saw her yesterday, she said she was feeling kinda sick," said Brian.

"Yeah? I hope she's alright..."

I continued to wonder about Tiffany and the prom for awhile. Nothing of much importance happened in school for the rest of the day. I made a mental note to call Tiffany when I got home.

After school that day, I decided to make a little detour. I headed downtown to Krass Brothers' Plus, one of the best places in town to buy a suit. I checked out a few suits, all of which were at least two hundred dollars. I figured I'd have to pay for my clothes, transportation, dinner, and the prom tickets themselves. That alone would run me several hundred dollars. For a minute, I actually considered putting my powers to use as a pro wrestler so I could earn some money. I quickly dismissed that idea.

Leaving the store, I headed home. As I sat on the trolley, I thought of my life and what it had become. This was a distraction, and nothing more. Thoughts of my mother still lingered in the back of my mind. I wondered about Osborn, too, and what he was up to. What exactly had he turned himself into? And what was he planning on doing with Mark?

When I got home, I attempted to distract myself from those thoughts again. I grabbed the phone and called Tiffany. After the phone rang a couple of times, she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, babe. You okay?" I asked.

"Hi, Rob. I'm not feeling too well," she answered.

"What's the matter?"

"I dunno. It's probably the flu or something. I've been feeling really sick the last few mornings."

"Want me to come over?"

"No, I don't want to make you sick too. I'll probably be back to school tomorrow, anyway. So, did I miss anything important today?"

"Nothing much. Everyone's just talking about the prom and everything. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you..."

Suddenly, I heard Tiffany gasp.

"Oh my god!"

"What is it?"

"No...this isn't fair...this isn't fair..."

"Hey, I'm not too happy about the whole prom thing either..."

"No...Rob...turn to channel six..."

I thumbed my remote and turned my television to channel six. The news was on. Turning up the volume, I listened carefully.

"And in other news, Jerome 'Rhino' Waller was acquitted of all charges and released from prison today. Sources cited lack of evidence as the reason for his release. Waller was, as you'll recall, accused of several counts of murder, as well as drug trafficking and extortion. He's also been accused of working with a so-called 'Kingpin of Crime', whose real identity remains a mystery. In any case, all charges against Waller have been dropped and he is now a free man."

I stared at the TV in shock. I was responsible for Rhino being arrested in the first place. And now he was being released. As much as it upset me, I knew that it must have broken Tiffany's heart. This was the man that had killed her father. I knew exactly how she felt. My mother's killer was free, too.

"How...how can they let him out...? He killed my father..." Tiffany said angrily.

"I put him away...this doesn't make any sense..." I was just as dumbfounded as she was.

"He killed my father..." she repeated.

"Listen, baby, it's gonna be alright..."

"No...it's not...even you couldn't stop him..."

I didn't respond. She was right. I put him in prison, and months later, he's walking the streets again. I didn't know what to do.

"Listen, Rob...I'll talk to you later, alright?"

"Yeah, okay. I love you baby."

Tiffany sighed. She paused before responding.

"I love you too, Rob."

I put the phone back on the hook and stared at the TV. I was sickened by this. How the hell was Rhino back on the streets after what he did? He deserved to rot in a cell for the rest of his life. Even I couldn't make him pay for his crimes. And hearing that report on the news confused me even more. Who was this "Kingpin of Crime" that they were talking about? I remembered hearing a rumor or two about a big boss that ran all the crime in the city, but that wasn't believable and it never became anything more than a rumor.

I wanted to know. I wanted to know who exactly this Kingpin of Crime was, and if he had anything to do with Rhino's release. But what could I do? I hadn't done anything worthwhile with my abilities and hadn't even put on the costume in two months. I had been afraid to even look at it for some reason. I never even had a good reason to put it on. But this...this was for Tiffany. For her, I would do anything. She deserved justice.

I pulled a suitcase out from under my bed and opened it. In it was my Spider-Man costume. Not the same one that I wore on the night of my mother's murder, though. That one was damaged and stained with blood. Tiffany made me a new one, even though I hadn't planned upon wearing it ever again. She said it was "just in case." I stared at the mask, and it stared back at me. Was I really ready to put it back on? Just looking at it made me think about my mother. It made me think about Osborn. But then, thinking about Osborn made me think about Rhino. They were both murderers who were running the streets. That thought alone helped me make my decision. I stood up, holding the costume in my arms and staring into the mask.

"This isn't for me," I said as I began to put my costume on. "This is for Tiffany."

I put on my mask and stared out of the window. My choice had been made. I jumped out of the window, fired a webline, and began to swing into the city.

I was Spider-Man again.

It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it again. Aiming the weblines, predicting what angle I would be swinging at and adjusting my body in a bunch of twists and turns. It was a rush. I released a line and let my body freefall for a few seconds. The ground rushed up at me, and I fired another line and yanked myself back into the sky. I let go of the line and spread my arms like a bird spreads its wings. I felt free. I felt rejuvenated. For the first time in months, I felt alive. I fired another webline and let myself swing past several buildings before finding myself clinging to the side of an apartment building.

Crawling around the building, I searched for a specific window. When I found the window I wanted, I peeked inside. There was a very familiar young woman in the apartment. She looked kind of sad. I smiled weakly and tapped on the window. The young woman looked up at me and jumped, and then she stared up at me in awe. I waved to her, and the young woman smiled and opened the window. We were now staring into each others' eyes, though I was upside down.

"Hiya, Tif," I said happily.

"Rob? What are you doing?" she asked me.

"I'm on the case, baby."

"You...put on the costume..."

"Yup."

"Why?"

"Because I love you, of course."

Tiffany continued to smile at me. She pulled my mask up to my nose and kissed me. We kissed for a few moments, strange though it may be that I was upside down, and then she pulled my mask back down. She took a step back and winked at me.

"Go get 'im, Tiger," she said.

I smiled under my mask, fired a webline, and was off.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE