Posted: 6/1/09.

Acting Innocent.

Debra, Flash and Kong sat together at a round table in the school library. It was a makeshift study hall, as the usual classroom was closed that day. But the three of them weren't using the time to study schoolwork. The table was covered in newspaper clippings, Internet printouts, and handwritten notes, all about Spider-Man.

Debra sighed. "I spoke with our eighth suspect. He also had an alibi for the time of the shooting. Two of his friends confirmed it."

Flash crossed out another name on their list. Seven of the eight were eliminated. It was sad how routine dead ends had become. "Let's focus on Spider-Man himself," said the football player. "You both saw him during the shooting. Couldn't you tell anything at all about him?"

"Well, we know it's not a girl pretending to be a guy," Kong said. "I would have noticed if a girl was in that skintight outfit. But besides that, he never stood up straight or stopped moving, so..."

Debra opened that day's edition of the Daily Bugle. "The Bugle still can't get a good photograph. There are many eyewitness sightings, but none much better than our own. From the newspapers, Internet, and our own observations, my best estimation is that his height is between five-foot four and five-foot ten."

"That still leaves a lot of people to go through," Kong moaned. Silence filled their table.

"I feel totally pathetic," Flash mumbled, slouched against the back of his chair. "It's been like two weeks since we started this investigation and we haven't made any real progress. All we do is think of new suspects and then write them off the list five minutes later."

"Our original suspect, Peter Parker, is notably absent among the suspects we can eliminate," Debra reminded him.

"You're still going on about that?"

"I think Debbie's got the right idea," said Kong, ignoring Debra's response of "Don't call me Debbie." "At first I couldn't believe it either, but then we all heard what Pete said on his date with what's-her-name. Everyone else we thought of had a good story for where they were at the shooting, but all Pete has is 'I was unconscious.' Lamest alibi ever."

"That's not proof," Flash countered. "He really might have been knocked out by the shooter. Back in middle school, I could get Puny Parker to pass out just by scaring him."

Debra spoke up. "Still, we can't confirm Peter's alibi. His new sleeping habits still haven't been explained. And he is our only suspect right now."

Flash refused to believe it. It's not that he disliked Peter--the only reason Flash bullied him was because it was easy. To think that the helpless Peter Parker was secretly an infamous superhero, it almost felt like his way of getting back at Flash. The idea did not settle well.

But Debra and Kong were being insistent. And they were out of extra suspects again.

"Fine, we'll focus on Parker," Flash said. "I want real evidence on whether or not he's Spider-Man."

"How do we get it?" Kong asked. "Do we sneak into his room at night and see if he's not there?"

"Even if he wasn't there, that could be explained a number of ways," Debra said. "We need something more direct." She put the end of her pencil on her lips and thought in silence for a few minutes. Her eyes lit up. "I have an idea."

"Yeah?" Flash and Kong were all ears.

"We should invite Peter to help us look for Spider-Man."

Silence again.

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"I'm perfectly serious," she argued. "He'll decline whether he's Spider-Man or not. You two used to bully him so he won't spend more time with you than he has to. The invitation is merely a way of letting Peter know what we're doing. The real Spider-Man would be nervous after hearing that we're looking for him."

Now Flash's eyes lit up. "I get it. We tell him just to see his reaction. When Parker's nervous, he can't hide it to save his life--not without a mask, anyway."

"But if he's Spider-Man and knows we're looking for him, won't it be harder keep watching him?" Kong asked.

"Parker always has his guard up around you and me anyway. But if he starts avoiding Debra too, that'll just make him look suspicious."

"That's true."

"Even if he tries to act innocent, he'll inevitably drop some clues by accident," Debra added.

"Sounds like we have a plan of action," Flash said. "Are we all in favor?"

"Excuse us. May we sit down here? There's something I'd like to talk about."

Debra, Flash and Kong were carrying their lunch trays and looking expectantly at Peter from across the cafeteria table. The question surprised the brunette. Peter wasn't on bad terms with Debra, but they never really socialized before. Actually, Peter never socialized with anyone except Gwen and Mary Jane, who were currently sitting with him already.

But he had no reason to object, and neither did the two girls. Debra sat directly across from Peter, with Flash on her right and Kong on his right.

Debra wasted no time. "See, Peter. We've been doing a special project for some time--not a school related one, it's just personal interest. But you could say we've run into a snag. Then this morning I remembered how intelligent you are, and I was hoping you could join our investigation."

Peter reached for his water bottle. "Investigating what?"

"Well..." Debra deliberately waited until Peter was drinking. "We're trying to learn Spider-Man's true identity."

To Debra's disappointment, Peter didn't spit out his drink in shock. But Mary Jane did.

Water sprayed onto Kong's shirt and the redhead began coughing violently. It was so bad that Gwen had to pat hard on her back before Mary Jane was able to compose herself. Finally, she weakly said "...Thanks, I'm okay." She looked up and noticed five sets of eyes were fixed on her.

Mary Jane just smiled and shrugged. "...Wrong pipe."

Kong began wiping his shirt with a napkin. Debra started talking again. "Well... as I said, we want you to help us reveal the true identity of Spider-Man." She watched Peter again.

But Peter wasn't nervous. He calmly thought for a few seconds. Then he nodded. "Sure. I'll do it."

"What?" said Debra, Flash and Kong in unison.

"What?" said Gwen in mild surprise.

"What??" said Mary Jane in extreme surprise.

Peter looked around at the five of them. "...What?"

"Well, Flash and I are in this investigation too," Kong said. "We were afraid you wouldn't wanna join if we were involved. After all, we used to be pretty mean to you." Kong almost sounded like he was trying to talk Peter out of it.

"Well, yeah..." Peter said softly. "But, you haven't picked on me for a long while now. I figured I'd be mostly safe, right?"

Flash and Kong gave Debra a subtle sideways glare. She was the one who kept telling them to stop bullying people. This was the first time it had a hindering effect for them.

Debra didn't know what to think. She hadn't planned for what to do if Peter accepted the invitation. "Well... here's something important I noticed. Normally, Spider-Man only shows himself at night, but he made an exception on the day of Mr. Believe's shooting. That suggests Spider-Man was already here when it happened. And since the police confirmed the alibis of the entire faculty, Spider-Man is most likely a student here at Midtown High."

This was a test for Peter. If Peter were Spider-Man, he would say something like 'he could've been here for another reason.' He would say anything to deflect suspicion from himself.

But what Peter actually said was, "I never even thought of that before. But your reasoning makes sense. Spider-Man has to be a student here."

Mary Jane was quiet.

Debra continued. "So far, we've investigated by choosing suspects from different sport teams and checking their alibis."

"Why sport teams?" Peter asked.

"It was my idea," Kong answered. "Spider-Man's really strong and fast, so I figured if he was a student, he would try to take advantage of it."

"But his powers are superhuman--he would have to hide it to appear like a normal athlete, right? I don't see why he would put himself in a position where he could accidentally expose his powers. Spider-Man wears a mask because he doesn't want to be found, right?"

"...So, you're saying he can't be an athlete?" Flash asked.

"Well, I guess he could. But it makes more sense if he wasn't on any team."

The three investigators didn't know what to say.

Mary Jane winced slightly. Peter, YOU are not on any team. Because of my dumb promise with Spidey, Peter's incriminating himself and doesn't even realize it.

Mary Jane was desperate to stop this, so she changed the subject to the first thing that came to mind. "Um, so what will you guys do if you do learn who he really is?"

"Actually, we haven't thought about that much," Flash responded. "We were going to decide for sure after we found him."

"We're mostly doing this for the sake of intellectual curiosity. We might not even do anything," Debra added.

Peter was confused. "You mean we're not doing this to turn him over to the police?"

"To the police?"

Mary Jane thought of something that never occurred to her before. "Peter... do you not like Spider-Man?"

"No, not really."

"What do you mean, 'not really'?!" Flash cried. "Spider-Man is a hero!"

Peter instantly got nervous and looked down at his food.

Debra pulled Flash back. "Don't let Flash intimidate you, Peter. I'm very interested in your opinion of Spider-Man. We all are," she added while looking at Flash and Kong.

"Well..." Peter was still afraid Flash or Kong would get angry again, but he eventually convinced himself it was all right to speak his mind. "It's not like I hate him. He just doesn't seem trustworthy. And taking the law into your own hands isn't exactly encouraged."

"Stopping muggers and bank robbers isn't exactly a crime, either," Flash retorted.

"Yeah," Kong added. "Spider-Man helped a lot of people. He helped this school when that white mask guy showed up!"

"That's not what I heard," said Peter. "I heard the shooter was already leaving when Spider-Man provoked him into a fight. Innocent people could have been hurt. That's not helping. That's just irresponsible."

"He was trying to stop a murderer from escaping."

"But he escaped anyway. So Spider-Man put people in danger for nothing. And another thing: why does he hide his identity? If he didn't, he could join the police and get proper training."

He hides his identity because it's not his identity to reveal, Mary Jane thought solemnly. But she didn't make a vocal response. Nobody did.

"I admit Spider-Man is doing some good, but I still don't like him. He's just a loose cannon." The seriousness of the moment was broken when Peter sneezed.

The three investigators stared at their first suspect. Debra thought to herself, Could this really be just an act?

"It was definitely an act! Definitely, definitely!" Kong proclaimed.

School was over. Kong, Debra and Flash were walking out the school gates. Peter wasn't with them, so they could talk freely.

"Peter only said that stuff to make himself look innocent," Kong continued. "And I bet he agreed to our investigation because he's secretly planning to sabotage it."

"I considered that too," Debra said, with her eyebrows lowered in confusion. "But it doesn't account for the advice he gave about Spider-Man not being an athlete. That wasn't sabotage. It's actually good evidence against Peter. Would saying it be worth acting innocent?"

"It's what he would have said if he wasn't Spider-Man, so he has to be Spider-Man! Wait, that didn't come out right..."

"What about that bashing on Spider-Man he did afterward--which still has me really mad," Flash said. "If that was an act, he deserves an Oscar."

"Well I still think it's him," Kong said. "What do you think, Debbie?"

Debra sighed. "I don't know what to think."

The three walked in silence for a few moments.

"And stop calling me that!"

Jason Philip Macendale Jr. leaned against the side of his truck in boredom. The search for Spider-Man and his suit was moving very slowly for him. And Jason's work as a glorified deliveryman hadn't done much to entertain him in the meantime. At this rate, it could take forever for the fake Kingpin to take out the real one. But Macendale didn't mind. He could be patient.

Macendale had driven his truck to an abandoned warehouse and two other men were unloading the crates he brought. Jason met with them often when he delivered weapons the organization stole, but he could never remember their names (That would require caring about them). He didn't bother to help them empty the truck. It was hot this afternoon and they seemed to be doing a fine job on their own. Jason half-listened to their animated chatting.

"Explain to me again why we're doing this in broad daylight?" asked the tallest.

"These are the fanciest weapons we snuck out of OsCorp in a long time," replied the other. "Rumor has it that Kingpin's making extra sure Spider-Man doesn't bust us."

"You and your rumors. As if Kingpin was afraid of Spider-Man. He's not afraid of that guy, is he?" He said it while nodding his head toward Macendale.

The mentioned man looked at the two workers, suddenly listening very closely.

"Nobody thinks that rumor's real anyway."

"What rumor?" Macendale called out. He stood up straight and began walking towards them.

The two workers set their current crate inside the open warehouse. The shorter one waved his hand dismissively and casually said, "There's just this joke going around that you're pretending to be Kingpin and that you're planning some big mutiny. The guys don't actually believe it, so don't worry."

They walked past Macendale toward the next crate in the truck. Macendale looked around: nobody there but the three of them. He pulled out his gun and shoved it into the shorter worker's back.

"Somebody had to start that rumor. Who was it?" he asked coolly.

The taller worker was about to run at the sight of the gun, but Macendale stopped him with a glare.

"Y-You mean it was true?" the shorter one nervously asked.

"That's not what I asked you." Macendale pressed the gun a little harder into his back.

"W-Well I don't know! Everyone's saying it now. No one knows who said it first."

"Who do you mean by 'everyone'?"

"Everyone who works for Kingpin. Or at least low-ranking guys like us. The only reason you didn't hear it is 'cause you never socialize with people."

"Why is everyone talking about it if you don't believe it?"

"...I guess somebody's actively spreading the rumor. I really don't know who! Honest!"

Macendale put the gun back in his pocket. The two workers ran inside the warehouse.

"'The guys don't believe it,' he says." Macendale narrowed his eyes. "Kingpin would believe it. The only reason I'm still alive is because he thinks I don't have a snowball's chance." He walked back to his truck. There were still a few crates of OsCorp's technology inside. "It doesn't matter who started that rumor. Kingpin knows about me, about Backyard and Quarter, and about what I'll do to him once I get the bio-suit. He probably set up a countermeasure ages ago."

Macendale opened a crate and examined its contents. "Well... if he knows what my old plan is, I'll just have to be a little spontaneous."

Author's Notes: Without even realizing it, I completely missed the one-year anniversary of when I posted this story. Some authors would feel a surge of pride on such a milestone, but all I can think of is how little I've written in that year. (Groan...) To make matters worse, I didn't receive any reviews for the previous chapter.

In the past, I thought directly asking for reviews sounded just plain desperate. However, I actually am desperate for reviews so I might as well admit it.

My reviews so far were surprisingly positive and I am thankful. But I want advice on how I can keep the story good. To be precise (inappropriate for somebody desperate), I want reviews that answer two questions:

1: What's the best thing about this story/chapter?

2: What's the worst thing about this story/chapter?

Even when I don't admit it, I'm always second-guessing myself while writing this story. And I really think this would help. Thank you.