There's a face that we hide
Till the nighttime appears
And what's hiding inside,
Behind all of our fears
Is our true self,
Locked inside a facade.
"What's this?" May asked the next morning as she came out of her room to find her nephew was in the process of making pancakes and scrambled eggs.
"Uh...breakfast?" Peter replied, still holding the spatula as he stared at the food he'd cooked. "It's this thing where it's like, the most important meal of the day, or something like that," he said with a smile, dodging his aunt's light smack at his snark.
"I know what it is, but why are you up so early cooking breakfast?" May asked.
"There's this new kid at school, and I offered to help him study a few nights a week after school, and his dad invited me to dinner on the nights that I help him. Since tonight is our first night studying together, but it was my night to cook, I thought I'd uh, make breakfast instead," he said, biting his lip in anticipation of what his aunt was going to say. He dished up a plate of eggs for her, adding two pancakes to the plate as well before he handed it over. She accepted it gratefully and leaned back against the counter, grabbing a fork from their dish drain as she began to eat.
"You're helping someone study?" she asked as she took a bite of the scrambled eggs. "What about your whole 'night job'? These are really good, by the way," she added as she swallowed her first bite, gesturing at the eggs with her fork. "Pass the salt?"
Peter reached into the cupboard and grabbed their salt shaker, passing it over to his aunt as he replied. "It's only gonna be for an hour or two when I do go help him," he said. "Besides, I think he could use a friend, and isn't that part of my whole schtick? Friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man?" Peter asked.
"I'm not complaining," May said, holding her free hand up. "If you're off the streets doing things for school, goodness knows my life will be a little less stressful. So who is this new kid?"
"It's um, Harry Osborn," Peter said, shoveling his own pancakes into his mouth. He had to leave for school in a few minutes, and it had taken a lot longer than he thought it would to get the hang of cooking a pancake without burning each side.
May stared at her nephew, eyes slightly wide in surprise. "Osborn?" she clarified. "As in son of Norman Osborn, CEO of OSCORP, Harry Osborn?"
"Nope, I don't think there's any relation to those Osborns at all," Peter quipped at his aunt, though she could tell he was joking around with her and not meaning to be disrespectful.
"What is it with you and rich, billionaire CEOs inviting you over?" May asked, polishing off the last of her breakfast.
"I dunno, I guess I'm just lovable," Peter said with a shrug and a smile, setting his plate down in the sink and grabbing his backpack from where he'd dumped it on the floor the previous night. He started to walk past his aunt for the door, but as he passed her, she grabbed him from behind in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"You're darn right you're lovable," she confirmed, ruffling his hair as she released him.
"Thanks, May," Peter said, turning around and giving his aunt a full hug, kissing her cheek as well. "I'll see you later tonight!" he said as he opened the door.
"Have fun," May called out as the door was shut.
0-0-0
Harry sat with Ned, Peter, and by default, Michelle at lunch again, and Peter was glad to see that the new kid seemed to be a little more comfortable with everything than he had been the day before. Flash and Eddie were shooting death glares at their table, but Peter decided to ignore them, which seemed to irk them even more. Thankfully, they didn't do anything stupid, and Peter, Ned, Harry, and Michelle at their lunch in relative peace.
"Hey Pete," Harry said suddenly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. "Let me get your number, and I'll text you my address."
Peter recited off his number to Harry, who compiled a text message and sent it. A few moments later, Peter's phone vibrated on the table, and he looked at the cracked screen.
"Thanks man," Peter said, picking up his phone and adding Harry's number to his contacts.
"Ned, you're more than welcome to come too," Harry said, turning to Peter's other friend. "And Michelle, you-"
"Pass, thanks," Michelle interrupted without looking up from her book. Harry stared at the girl quizzically; he didn't get her at all.
"What are you guys doing?" Ned asked.
"Pete's gonna help me with my homework tonight," Harry explained.
"I mean, I wouldn't wanna impose," Ned said with a shrug, though Peter could tell his friend looked a little put-out, thinking Osborn was just inviting him to be polite.
"Please," Harry said. "It's nice being able to say that I have friends coming over, and we'll have plenty of food, so you could come for dinner too," he said. Ned still looked like he was going to say no, so Peter cut in.
"One of the things we're going over is the history assignment," he said. "You've always been better at history than I have, so I bet Harry'd be more excited to have your help with that than mine," he pointed out.
Ned looked slightly embarrassed at Peter's praise, but he finally shrugged his shoulders, pretending to be super nonchalant about the whole situation. "I'll check with my mom and see if it's okay," he said, pulling out his own phone and shooting off a quick text to his mother. A few minutes later, his phone dinged. "She wants to know what time it's at," he said.
"I think we said 6:30, didn't we Pete?" Harry asked, looking to Peter, who nodded in confirmation.
Ned sent the reply to his mother, and after waiting another few minutes, she responded again. "She says it's alright," Ned announced with a smile as he read his mother's text.
"Great!" Harry said, looking more and more comfortable with each passing moment. "Well, I guess you could just ride with Peter over then?" he asked.
Ned and Peter shared a look; since they weren't studying until 6:30, Ned knew Peter was going out being Spider-Man until then.
"Maybe," Peter replied. "I mean, I'm gonna be out and about, and May works until 8 or so, so she won't be able to drive us. I'll probably just, uhm, make my way over there. Take the train, or something."
"Yeah, I'll just get my mom to drop me off when she goes for her shift at work tonight," Ned replied cheerfully.
"Okay," Harry said, looking slightly confused. "Well, I'll make sure to let Dad know we've got someone else coming for dinner. You saw how he is when people don't tell him things," he added, directing the last sentence at Peter.
"Yeah, doesn't seem to like it very much," Peter agreed. "Probably made surprise birthday parties a little harder, huh?"
Harry chuckled. "You have no idea."
The bell rang, letting the teenagers know they needed to get to classes, so the group of friends split up. "See ya at 6:30," Peter called out to Harry, who held up his hand in farewell and confirmation. As Peter watched his friend walk down the hallway, he felt a small feeling of peace come over him.
While there was still a bit of tension surrounding the new kid, Peter knew he was feeling more and more accepted, and from experience, Peter knew that was one of the biggest things when you went to a new school. After he'd moved in with Aunt May and Uncle Ben when his parents left, he'd been that new kid; he knew exactly how Harry felt. Peter knew he wouldn't have been able to make it through his elementary and middle school years if Ned hadn't been there and befriended him, and Peter hoped that he'd be able to make that difference by being Harry's friend now.
0-0-0
"Is everything ready?" Osborn asked as he walked into the lab, taking off his coat and tossing it onto a nearby chair.
"Yes, sir," Tessa said shortly. Tristin was over by the machine, making sure everything was working correctly, and he glanced over at his boss and co-worker. Tessa was still upset that Osborn was forcing her to do the test so soon, but both scientists also knew that Osborn could ruin them if they didn't do what he wanted.
"And how did the computer simulations go?"
"About as well as we could hope, with how little we have to go on," Tessa replied, stressing the last bit of her sentence, hoping against hope that she'd be able to derail Osborn's insistence that they test their new serum on him.
"Good. Let's get to it, then," Osborn said, obviously either not getting Tessa's drift, or (a more likely option) was simply choosing to ignore it. Osborn took his shirt off, leaving nothing but an tank top on underneath. Immediately, goosebumps began to rise on his skin, and he looked at his scientists, raising his eyebrows. "It's a little cold in here, don't you think?" he observed as he looked around, spotting the thermostat, which was set to sixty-two degrees.
"For the amount of work these machines are going to put out, trust me. You'll want it as cold as it can be," Tessa said curtly.
Osborn thought about it and shrugged, motioning for Tristin to open the door.
"Mr. Osborn, I really don't think that we should be doing this," Tessa said, trying one last time to get her boss to abandon his crazy idea. "Nothing good has ever come from scientists doing these sorts of experiments on themselves!"
"There's a first time for everything. Besides, for advances to be made, risks must be taken," Osborn retorted as he stepped into the glass container. Tessa's face fell as she realized there would be no changing her boss's mind, and she stopped her vocal protesting. As she walked over to grab the vials of serum, she turned on a small recording device and began recording the date, time, and steps the three of them were taking for her scientific notes.
While she did that, Tristin walked into the glass container to help strap his boss into the machine. Straps were secured around Osborn's biceps, wrists, thighs, calves, and chest, as well as one around his forehead.
"Sir, there's still time to call it off," Tristin said quietly. "If the shareholders want something, we can give them the glider and exoskeleton," he offered.
"Thank you, Tristin, for your concern," Osborn said as the last strap was buckled into place. "But I'm afraid the stockholders wouldn't be as happy with the glider as they would with the OZ enhancement serum," he pointed out. "People like Stark are always coming out with new armored technology; heck, Stark created a machine to fight the Hulk. A flying machine with the exoskeleton wouldn't be enough to impress the shareholders or the board members. However, if we are able to present the OZ enhancement serum along with the glider and suit, that might be enough to grab their attention."
"But the OZ serum isn't designed to be a long-lasting drug," Tristin pointed out.
"Precisely," Osborn said with a smirk. "Imagine it. Giving it to soldiers so they can complete a mission, but they're not stuck in the same juiced up body for the rest of their lives. They can have the edge to do what's needed, but at the end of the day, they can go home to their families just as normal as they were when they left that morning," Osborn explained, his eyes alight with the idea of how much this new enhancement drug could help.
Tristin couldn't argue about how effective it would be, but he was still wary to try it on his boss.
"We're all set," Tessa announced, coming over to the two men. "Is the machine ready?" she asked Trstin.
"Ready to rock and roll," Tristin said, trying to lighten the mood. When Osborn and Tessa simply stared at him with deadpan stares, he cleared his throat. "Yeah, it's ready to go," he amended.
"Let's start small," Osborn said. "A half dose should do the trick for now," he instructed Tessa, who nodded stiffly. Tristin made sure one last time that all the restraints were in place, and then he and Tessa walked out of the container, shutting the door and locking it behind them. The two of them walked over to the main computer, entering different numbers and codes into the machine.
"Ready to begin injection," Tessa said, holding her hand over the 'Enter' key while she looked up at their boss. Osborn took a deep breath before he replied.
"Let's do this."
0-0-0
Peter glanced at his watch. It was just after 6:10, and he decided it was probably time to grab his backpack from the alley he'd stowed it in and change back into normal clothes if he wanted to make it to the Osborn's house on time. He had just started swinging his way towards his backpack's hiding place when Karen suddenly announced, "Incoming call from: Harry Osborn."
Peter accepted the phone call, more grateful than ever for the hands-off phone system his suit was equipped with. "Hey Harry, I'm on my way," Peter greeted as he answered his phone. As he waited for his new friend to answer, he continued swinging through the streets, but suddenly his senses went on high alert, and he glanced around, trying to pinpoint where the disturbance was coming from.
"Actually Peter, I can't do anything tonight," came Harry's slightly frantic-sounding reply.
"Hey, are you okay?" Peter asked as he heard how upset his friend sounded.
"I'm fine, it's just...there was an accident at OSCORP, and we can't get ahold of Dad or anyone," Harry explained.
"Wait, what's happening at OSCORP?" Peter asked, pausing in his swinging and sticking to the side of a building. He glanced over in the direction where the OSCORP building was, and he felt his stomach sink to the bottom of his feet as he saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky, coming from the OSCORP tower.
"I dunno, but the alarms just started going off, and when they go off at OSCORP, Dad has them set to go off here too, just so that he can know about everything that happens. Dad's not here at the house, though, and he's not answering his phone. I'm so sorry I have to bail on you, Pete," Harry apologized finally.
"Hey man, don't worry about it," Peter insisted. "This is way more important. I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay?"
"Okay. And hey, Pete," Harry said, grabbing the Spider's attention before he disconnected the call.
"Hmm?" Peter asked, already webbing a nearby building to begin his journey to OSCORP.
"Thanks for being so understanding."
"Of course, man. I'm sure everything's going to be fine. I hope you get ahold of your dad soon," he added. Harry thanked his friend, and the call was disconnected. Peter focused his full attention on getting to the OSCORP building as fast as he could. He swung from billboards, skyscrapers, and at one point, he had to drop onto the top of a bus before leaping to the closest tall building again.
When he finally reached OSCORP, he perched on the corner of a nearby roof as he observed the scene. There was already a decent crowd of people on the street below, including cops and firemen. Most of the smoke seemed to be coming from the top floors, and Peter knew that help wouldn't make it up there in time. He jumped off the rooftop and webbed a hovering helicopter, giving himself momentum before swinging towards one of the windows the smoke seemed to be coming from. The glass was already partially shattered, so when Peter made contact with it, he got through without using much force. He used his excess momentum to tuck himself into a roll before he came to a stop in a crouched position, his fingers splayed slightly on the floor.
The wall crawler blocked out all the noises that he could and simply listened, straining his ears for any sign of life. Finally, a noise to his left grabbed his attention, and he quickly made his way through the thick smoke.
"Hello?" he called out, trying to peer through the smoke. He coughed as he inhaled some of the smoke, but when there was no answer, he tried again. "Hello?" Still, no response came to his hailing, and Peter decided to try something else. "Karen, can you find any life forms?"
His AI did as requested, and soon the display screen on Peter's lenses pointed out where the people were. There were two figures lying prone on the ground next to a large glass container, and when Peter got closer, he realized that there was also someone inside the container. The young man thought quickly; the fire around them was getting bigger and bigger with each passing moment, and he knew he didn't have time to make two trips.
Before he could move, the ground began shaking, and Peter's senses told him to jump out of the way. He lunged forward, pushing himself into the two people on the ground in front of him as a section of wall collapsed where he'd been. Peter panted, coughing again as his heavy breathing caused him to inhale more smoke, but he knew he had to push his own discomforts aside.
Making a split-second decision, he grabbed the two unconscious people in front of him, setting them on the ground back to back before webbing them together. After making sure the webs were thick enough to hold the two adults, he knew it was time for the person inside the container. He backed up a few paces to get a running start; once he reached the optimal distance according to Karen, he ran straight at the container. As he ran, he bent down and scooped up a piece of metal piping from the floor, straightening back up and throwing it at the glass with all his might. When the debris made contact with the glass, it sent cracks splintering up the container, giving Peter a good contact point.
The teenager jumped at the glass, curling into a ball right before he hit. He hissed as he felt something slice through his suit and felt something warm start to trickle down his arm. The rest of the sharp glass shards rained down around him and the person on the inside, and while Peter tried to cover the unconscious man as much as he could, he knew that wounds from the glass would be minimal compared to what was going to happen if he didn't get everyone out of the building ASAP. He gripped the unconscious person inside by the shoulder, turning him over so he could get a better hold on him. When Peter saw who it was inside the container, he paused in disbelief and shock.
"Mr. Osborn," he muttered. "Guess this is why you're not answering your phone," he added, confused as to why the CEO himself was inside the glass container. There was something that looked like a vertical operating table inside the container, and there were straps on the ground that Peter assumed used to be attached to the table, but he shook his head, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand, which was getting Mr. Osborn and the other two out of the building before it exploded.
Peter could smell gas around him, and he began to feel the pressure in the room building; he knew their time was limited. He hoisted Osborn up onto one shoulder and jumped through the hole he'd created in the glass, quickly stepping over to the other two unconscious forms he'd webbed together. When he reached them, he set Osborn down next to them with his back against their as well before firing even more web at the three of them, sticking them together. Once he was sure the webbing around the three of them was tight enough, he grabbed part of the web and lifted the three adults up. He used his uninjured arm, so carrying the three of them through the wreckage wasn't as bad as it could have been, though he did wonder how he was going to get everyone down to the ground safely. As he hurried over to the window he'd crashed through earlier, he double checked with his AI to make sure that these three were the only ones on this floor at least.
"Karen," he panted as he navigated his way through the debris and wreckage. "Is there anyone else that I didn't get?"
"My scans show no additional life forms inside the building," the AI responded. That confused Peter; OSCORP was a huge company, operating out of a huge building that employed hundreds of people. Why were these three the only ones inside?
His musings were cut short as they finally reached the window, the young man glanced down, eyes widening slightly under his mask. It was at least a forty story drop, and while Peter figured his re-installed parachute would kick in and deploy, he didn't know if the material would be able to support the other three passengers he was carrying.
The teenager looked around quickly, his spider senses alerting him to the fire closing in behind him. Just when he was getting ready to take a chance and web the building across the street, a helicopter appeared, hovering just above the window and giving the web-slinger the chance to stick his webs to one of the foot steps on the bottom of the helicopter.
As he hung onto the web with his injured arm, the helicopter began to descend. He was glad he was simply able to hang in place while the chopper lowered them down, because even with his super strength, the arm holding Osborn and the others had begun to shake. His injured arm had begun throbbing as well, but he knew he should be able to hold on until the touched down.
The helicopter was a few stories away from the fire when Peter felt the hair on his arms and the back of his neck rise, alerting him that there was something wrong. He looked up just in time to see the window they'd escaped from get blown completely out of the wall as a massive explosion pushed a wall of flames from the window.
Glass and brick rained down on the helicopter and it's unorthodox-riding passengers, and the machine was thrown to the side. Peter felt his grip on the three people he'd rescued slip, and his injured arm started shaking as well as the helicopter continued its wild descent. A rather large piece of brick bounced off Peter's shoulder, and while that was nothing compared to what he'd been through in recent months, he couldn't help but think that it was just icing on the cake.
"Yeah, Peter's been battered and bruised, let's just add an explosion and a wild helicopter ride to the mix, with a little sprinkle of falling debris on top," he thought snarkily to himself.
Thankfully, the helicopter soon righted itself and began descending at a more normal pace once more, soon reaching a height that Peter would have felt comfortable falling from with his passengers.
His injured arm had been shaking almost the entire time, and the arm holding the adults began as well. Glancing down and judging the distance, Peter decided that he would be able to let go of the people he'd rescued without them getting hurt. As he released them, he swung his arm slightly as his fist unclenched, making it so the three webbed adults were out of the way of the chopper as it touched down.
As Peter let go of his own web holding him to the chopper, he simply fell on his rear end, lying down briefly to give himself a rest. His fingers began cramping slightly as he tried to straighten after keeping stuck in one position for as long and hard as he had. The pilot of the chopper turned off the large machine and clambered out, hurrying over to Osborn and the two scientists to make sure they were okay as Peter slowly pushed himself to his feet. When the teenager looked around, he realized the cops and firemen were surrounding them, and one of them pulled out a knife, slicing through the webs Peter had used to keep the three people together.
"Let's get some paramedics over here!" one of the firemen yelled as they separated Osborn and his companions. EMTs appeared almost out of thin air a few seconds later, and everyone who'd been stuck in the lab at the time of the fire was loaded onto a gurney. One of the medics tried to insist that Peter get checked out as well, but the young Spider politely declined.
He swung away, ignoring the EMT's calls to come back. He knew they meant well, but he also knew that he had a doctor available to him if he was actually hurt, and he was just fine with that doctor being the only one to know his identity. He glanced down at his arm, wondering if he needed stitches or not. He did know that he was going to have to sew up his suit, but finally decided that he didn't think his arm needed stitches. With his fast healing, he knew that the cut should be fine within a few hours, and he really didn't want to travel as far upstate as the private hospital was.
As he was swinging away, Karen once again announced that a phone call was coming in, though this time it was from Ned instead of Harry. Peter internally smacked his forehead; he'd completely forgotten to tell Ned that they weren't studying anymore!
"Hey Ned, I don't know if Harry called you, but we aren't studying tonight; there was-"
"An accident at OSCORP," Ned finished. "Yeah, I'm watching the news right now, and dude, you were awesome!" Ned informed him, quietly geeking out.
"You saw it?" Peter asked, slightly out of breath as he swung through the streets, though he was glad Ned didn't sound too upset.
"Everyone did," Ned confirmed. "It's all over the news, Peter," he added.
"I guess that makes sense," Peter replied. "I just didn't see the news trucks or anything."
"J3 News was there covering it in their choppers," Ned explained.
"That would be why I didn't see any trucks," Peter said in slight exasperation. J. Jonah Jameson was the CEO of a news company called J3 News, which operated and gathered their information mainly through air travel. The station covered many of the acts of Spider-Man, though for some odd reason, most of the time the stories were trying to paint the web-slinger in a negative light. Peter didn't know what he'd done to Jameson or his station to deserve such hate and scrutiny, but it didn't matter. Most of the city still considered him a force for good, much to the dismay of Jameson.
"Peter, are you okay?" Ned asked, pulling Peter out of his thoughts.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm good," he assured his friend, though he stifled a cough right after saying that. "Hey Ned, I gotta run. I'll see you at school tomorrow," he said, bidding farewell to his friend.
"See ya," Ned replied, ending the phone call. Peter's thoughts were consuming him; what was Osborn doing in OSCORP alone with two other scientists? Where was the rest of the staff? Why had Osborn been in that glass container? What caused the fire?
Suddenly, his thoughts strayed to his aunt, whom he was sure had seen the news. "Karen, call Aunt May," he instructed, knowing that he needed to call her and assure her that he was alright. The phone didn't even fully ring once before his aunt picked up, meaning that she was on her phone, more than likely waiting for her nephew to call, or just getting ready to call him herself.
"Peter," she greeted, relief apparent in her voice. "The accident is all over the news at work; are you okay?" She added the last part in a softer voice, not wanting to speak too loudly and let someone in on the fact that he'd been at OSCORP.
"Yeah May, I'm fine," he tried convincing his aunt. "Just got a cut and a bit of a scratchy throat," he added, knowing that if he lied to his aunt about his acts as Spider-Man, there was every chance in the world that she would catch him, and he knew he wouldn't like the consequences of being caught in a lie to her.
"You should go home and get some rest," May suggested.
"I will, soon," Peter promised. "I just wanna make sure things are okay before I head home."
"Peter," May said, drawing his name out like she did when she was warning him not to push her.
"I'll be good, May," Peter tried assuring his aunt. "I'm not studying with Harry anymore tonight, so I wanna stay out just a little longer, try to clear my head," he explained. "I promise, if I start to feel sick, or anything starts to feel wrong, I'll go home," he added. He could almost hear his aunt chewing her lip, and in the background, Peter heard someone call May's name.
"Fine," she said, though she didn't sound happy about it. "I gotta get back to work, but call me if you need anything," she insisted.
"Okay, May," Peter agreed. "I'll see you tonight," he added.
"Love you," she said.
"I love you too," Peter replied. The call was ended, and Peter once again resumed his swinging. His throat was rather scratchy, so he decided to swing by a park, finding the closest water fountain. He lifted his mask up halfway so that his mouth was uncovered, and he took several long drinks of water, trying to get rid of the scratchy feeling in his throat the smoke had caused. He also rinsed off his arm as best he could while trying to avoid getting his suit completely soaked. Once he'd cleaned off his arm as well as he could, he grabbed another drink before taking off again.
As he swung through the streets, Peter's thoughts kept going back to Osborn; what had he and those scientists been doing, and why had the CEO been strapped into the glass container like some sort of experiment?
You guys know the drill! Lemme know what you think, especially since I think I've been working on this for so long that I can't really tell what's good and what isn't at the moment XD Are you guys liking it okay?