Posted: 3/13/10.

Proof vs Truth.

Gwen and Mary Jane walked into the school library and noticed a familiar group. Peter, Debra, Flash and Kong were sitting together at a table, each of them will a messy stack of papers in front of them.

"It's kind of surreal seeing Peter make friends with Flash and Kong," Gwen muttered to her friend.

"Yeah." I wish it was under better circumstances. Mary Jane was desperate to get Peter out of the investigation team, but she couldn't think of a way that didn't seem suspicious.

Peter looked up from his pile and saw them. He waved, and two girls sat down at the table.

Gwen saw a newspaper clipping with a very blurry picture of a certain costumed person. "Still doing the Spider-Man hunt?" Mary Jane briefly looked annoyed, but no one noticed.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, but we haven't really made any progress."

How unfortunate, Mary Jane sarcastically thought.

"The other day we decided to focus on students who recently quit a sports team," Peter summarized. "Any results, Flash?"

Flash took a piece of paper out of his pile. "I put a red X next to people who had an alibi for the time of the shooting. I put a black X for people that don't match up to Spider-Man's estimated size."

Peter took the page and looked over it once. "There's an X for every name."

"I noticed."

"But this is just the guys who recently quit," Kong said. "Maybe we should look further back."

Peter shook his head. "The list already goes back to before Spider-Man's first appearance. Maybe we should try something else."

Debra looked at the two girls. "Do you have any ideas?" she asked.

"Not a one," Mary Jane replied without even thinking about it.

Gwen tried to be more helpful. "Maybe instead of looking at people who could be Spider-Man, you should focus more on Spider-Man himself. You know, get better measurements for height and body type."

"It's not that easy," Flash complained. He tapped a finger on the newspaper clipping. "The Daily Bugle STILL can't get a decent picture, when they have a picture at all. And the eyewitnesses are useless. Spider-Man never stops moving long enough for people to get a good look."

Peter said, "Although, those are witnesses who talk to the news. Maybe there's someone here in the school who can be better help." He turned to Gwen and Mary Jane. "Neither of you saw him then, right?"

Don't drag ME into this, Mary Jane mentally complained. It's bad enough you're digging your own grave. Now I have to lie about how I DIDN'T see Spidey and--

She stopped.

She fervently collected her thoughts, not even paying attention to what Gwen was saying. She examined her idea.

I'm so dang stupid. The answer was right under my nose the whole time!

"Mary Jane?" The others noticed that she didn't respond at first.

The redhead diverted her eyes, suddenly acting nervous. "A-Actually... I have a confession to make."

"What's wrong?"

"Well..." Mary Jane seemed reluctant to get her words out. "The truth is... I did see Spider-Man that day."

Debra, Flash and Kong leaned forward, suddenly very interested. "You did? Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"B-Because..." She looked guilty. "That day, I was there when Spider-Man started fighting that white-masked guy. I sort of panicked and I ran upstairs. When I got to the floor above, I saw Peter lying facedown on the ground."

Peter blinked. "You saw me after I was knocked out?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay, but I was like, spazzed out so I ran away and looked for another stairway." She lifted her head, and her eyes were watering. "I felt so awful since then. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to admit I left somebody behind. I'm so sorry, Peter."

"N-No, it's okay," Peter tried to reassure her. "Don't be upset. Everything turned out fine, right?"

"Of course!" Gwen put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Even if you stayed, there was probably nothing you could do. Don't beat yourself up over this."

Mary Jane smiled weakly. "Thanks, guys."

Debra spoke up. "Um, uh, let me see if I understand. Peter was on the floor above where Spider-Man was?"

"Yep."

"Are you sure it was Peter?"

"Yep."

"And you saw him while Spider-Man was fighting?"

"Yep." So there.

Debra, Flash and Kong were all silent.

After school the trio was alone. This allowed Flash to speak his mind without restraint.

"I told you so!" yelled a triumphant Flash. "I knew Parker couldn't be Spider-Man." He looked at Kong's face. "But you were like, 'No way, Flash. That alibi was so lame it has to be him.' But I told you!"

He was enjoying this way too much.

"Okay," said an exasperated Debra. "We were wrong. I admit it."

"So the next time I tell you you're wrong, you'll believe me?"

"Don't push your luck."

"I hate to pop your bubble, Flash," Kong began, "but who do we suspect now?"

Debra pulled a new page out of her notebook. "Well, using the assumption that Spider-Man would like himself, I was thinking we could look at students who think Spider-Man is cool."

"Sounds great. Who's first on the list?" Flash asked.

"Actually... you are."

He blinked. "Me?"

Debra peered closely at Flash's face. "Where were you during the shooting?"

"A-Are you kidding? You're not kidding..."

Peter, Gwen and Mary Jane stood outside the school gates. Pete put his hand on Mary Jane's shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up over this. It's all in the past, alright?"

Mary Jane nodded. Peter and Gwen both smiled, and then they started walking home together. Once they were out of earshot, the redhead smirked.

"I commit perjury and one of the greatest acting performances of my career for him, and that's probably the closest thing to 'thanks' I'm ever gonna get. But the good news is--unless something crazy happens--Spider-Man's secret identity is now perfectly safe."

Sitting side by side, alone in their lab, Natasha Quarter and Howard Backyard diligently studied the pictures inside an old middle school yearbook. Quarter turned a page and suddenly, excitedly, she jolted and pointed at one picture in particular. "There he is!"

Backyard followed her gaze. The yearbook was a little old, but the picture was close enough to the face they both remembered. "That's him all right," he muttered. "His name is Peter Benjamin Parker."

Quarter handed him a phonebook. "You use that. I'll look on the internet." She walked to her laptop as her associate greedily flipped through the pages.

"In just a few minutes we'll have the addresses of every Parker household in New York City." Backyard's eyes scanned the first page of the Ps. "It's a conveniently short list."

As Quarter typed on the keyboard she said, "Everyone wants to know the secret identity of Spider-Man and all it took us was that yearbook. Can you believe the Kingpin didn't want to buy a description of the kid's face? He's such a cheapskate."

"If he treated us better, we might have offered him the information. Too late now."

Author's notes: I apologize for the long absence. Nine months is a new record for me. (Groan.) I wanted to make this chapter longer, but I've been busy with a few other writing projects. Such as...

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Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-Man.