"It's not that simple Parker. I wish it was." Cindy warily turned to Peter. "Shall we get your file?"

Peter retracted his arm and pointed to a smoking vent that they could see from their vantage point.

Cindy laughed outright. "That's the wrong vent."

"That's the right vent. Smell the paper. It was last held by my father so you should be able to smell me through that vent."

Cindy closed her eyes and breathed through her nose. She was intimately aware of Peter sitting next to her, but she ignored his aroma to focus on the faint odor coming from the vent Parker had indicated. She instantly had a stream of images flash thru her mind-the steel of the vent, the curves and twists, a revolving fan, a pair of green-gray eyes, a coffee soaked moustache, fingers turning pages, a ruffle, then the paper itself-Peter but also not.

Her eyes flickered open and she turned to Peter. "It's there. Sitting on the commissioner's desk. Do we both go get it or is it just me? Why didn't you just get it yourself and email me the PDF or bring me the PDF on a flash or hard drive? Why did you drag me all the way out here in the middle of the night if you could just do it yourself."

Peter threw a clump of webbing at the vent and instantly a stream of lasers vapourized it.

Cindy laughed outright. She moved through Peter's field of vision and before he could blink the lasers were caked with webbing and the grate of the vent was pushed aside. She was sitting upright in the awning of the vent. Her hair was blowing wildly and her eyes were shining with mirth. "Are you coming, Spidey?"

"Ok" Peter was unsettled by the burst of enthusiasm. He was wary. "Are you sure? All I really needed was just someone to deal with the lasers. If you're not interested you can leave."

"I want to stay. It's not as bad, the whole Silk-sense, as long as I keep moving it's just background noise. It's nice to have the clarity around you."

Peter leapt over next to Cindy and knocked himself a bit askew into her. She righted him, but didn't seem irritated by the act. Usually she would have been furious. Peter noticed his own Spidey-sense was dulled. He wondering if the airshaft had something to do with it-some strange new material to negate his or Silk's ability. It was rumored S/H/I/E.L.D. was trying something. He considered it before dismissing it. Silk was just learning control.

"Well, in any case," Peter said finally, "as long as it doesn't interfere with our work here."

Cindy sniffed the air curiously. "It's this way." She crept head and Peter wordlessly followed.

The shaft itself was clean, almost sterile, like it had been just recently added to the station. It was built with false corridors and gaps where there was no grate over a giant steel fan that loomed around them like a complimentary chainsaw. The lights would sporadically flicker on and off like a scene from the Ring. Once, Peter could've sworn that he saw the ghost of a caped crusader behind them.

"Cin-you do know where you're going right? Maybe we should've marked-"

"Shut up, we're here." She pointed to the area below her butt. "How do we remove the panels? I don't want to create any more damage than we already did. I can make it so it looked like a raccoon got in at the front gate."

Peter cleared his throat. He pulled a screwdriver out of a webbed fanny pack around his waist. "No as sophisticated as the Batman utility belt, but this should work for this."

Cindy scoffed. "Low tech." She crossed her arms and gave Peter some space to unscrew the panel. As he was carefully twisting the tool, Cindy wondered aloud, "Do you think we could ever make tools out of webbing?"

Peter paused to shift the loose screws to his pouch before continuing on the thread. "I doubt it. Our webbing as a spongy consistency with air pockets. The necessary detail to crystallize it would need practiced concentration to specialize it to that level. Theoretically yes, but the physics behind it would need like a Buddhist monk's level of concentration. You could try it when I screw the bolts back in if you want."

Cindy contemplated the idea as Peter gently lifted the panel. Both peered down into the darkened office. Peter made a move to start webbing before Cindy smacked him. Cameras, she mouthed as he recoiled from the blow. Cindy quickly disabled the cameras by maneuvering herself stealthy to fog up the lenses with water. The easiest way would have been to cover the cameras with webbing, but since the point of the exercise was to avoid detection, a more organic approach was more appropriate.

Peter searched through the pages on the commissioner's desk. He was tempted to pick the lock on the safe, but knew a research paper wouldn't be deemed as something that important by a non-scientist. He tried to sniff the document out. But the aroma eluded him. Cindy could see he was having some issue so she started helping. They combed through his desk and it wasn't until Cindy checked the bookshelves that she saw a file shoved between two heavy instruction manuals.

"It's here."

"Good job, we can get out of here."

"Shouldn't we make a photocopy instead of just taking it?"

"There are multiple copies floating around Sil-the guy is just going to think that he misplaced it. It wasn't even in the safe, his assistant or secretary could have easily come in here and grabbed it by mistake."

They returned back through the way they came meticulously erasing evidence that they had come and rendezvous back at Cindy's apartment. The contents of the document file were spread across a table top as both spider heroes simultaneously called in sick to read through all the information available to them, The majority of it was cross referencing the names and articles referred. The magnitude was immense and the implications jarring.

The team responsible for creating the spider was in major violation of the Geneva conventions. There was downright human torture at moments supplemented with graphic images of screaming subjects or autopsies. The bodies usually had half missing with another half sewn on.

The magnetism between them would pulsate at times and they would both look away or move to opposite sides of the sofa until it subsided. Cindy was much too disturbed to want that kind of attention. She couldn't believe that Peter's parents were at the helm of something this grotesque. Peter himself seemed conflicted.

It was midnight when they'd finally finished. They broke their fast with a delivered pizza.. They ate in silence for a couple minutes before Peter quipped, "I don't think this is real?"

Cindy paused amid a bite. She considered this briefly before continuing her chewing. She tried to be careful with her words. "It is hard to admit that your parents weren't good people. For anyone that would be devastating. Especially if you spent so much time with an incorrect viewpoint or an idea of who they should've been. I thought Albert was going to be the perfect brother, but he is a recovering drug addict. He's not a strong person."

"My parents were good people. They didn't lock me up in-no, I mean Cindy they took care of me and made sure I had everything I needed in order for me to excel. They were strong enough to realize it wasn;t something they could provide."

"You were a kid when that happened. That's what your Aunt May wanted you to believe. If you thought they were strong maybe then you would become the strength they never had. Do you understand my logic, Peter? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm telling you to face the possibility. Your parents were human, they made mistakes too. I know it's a harsh reality to face."

Peter sat stock still for a couple seconds before grabbing the hood of his suit. "I need some space to figure some things out. I need to ask questions."

Cindy nodded as she looked down to take a sip of her tea. "We are not a couple. You don't need to ask my permission." As she finished her sip, she saw he had left before she'd finished.