It had been three weeks now and Peter has never been this happy.
Gwen and Peter's relationship has rekindled once again but this time but there was a certain intensity that Peter had never ever experienced before. He was happy about it. He wanted to be serious with Gwen and he got that.
Both of them went to school together and Peter even followed her to Oscorp and then accompanied her home most of the time. This went on for almost every day.
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It was a typical Monday morning. Peter had become more regular to his classes and automatically his grades had become consistent. But his superhero persona had taken a serious toll. He was no longer New York's "friendly neighbourhood" spider-man as he had serious gone physical with Bail Ulrich. The person who attacked Gwen right in the alleyway.
Thank god, Peter was there nearby patrolling when he found her.
She had been in a pitiable state. Seeing her so vulnerable, so weak, her clothes strewn aside, Peter couldn't think straight.
Peter's mind had seethed with black anger and he had become too physical against the guy.
He could have taken him out clean, but no, he wanted it to be dirty this time. He knew, that no matter how much he struggled to curb crime and all the crime fighting that he had done nothing ever seemed to stop. He prevented one but more and more people took up their mantle.
It was like this continuous never ending process.
He was absolutely sick of them.
They seemed to creep from somewhere deep within the shadows from those stinking garbage dumps... those filthy vermin trying to devour the innocent people of New York with nothing else better to do. Peter loathed them.
But deep within, he pitied them now seeing their condition. He knew that he was much better off them. Maybe he was too harsh on them. But it didn't matter to him anymore.
After all he was a human... a mutated one in fact.
Besides his relationship has never been better. They were moving forward with an increasing pace building their relationship with a renewed vigour. And he was happy for himself.
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It was pretty late that night.
Peter and Gwen were sprawled out his couch. Aunt May had gone outside to run errands. They were watching "The Notebook" with a large bowl of popcorn gingerly in front of them.
As the end credits rolled.
"You know what, I didn't know how I could have missed watching this movie in my life. And how come I have never heard of this before? I really liked it. You know what I could go and watch it all over again?" said Gwen grinning at him stupidly.
He could see why.
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams were all over her face.
Well who hated it?
Right?
The epic love story, ripe with lush and physical beauty, between Allie and Noah had surpassed themselves delivering a schmaltzy yet very romantic, emotional wallop that had truly taken his heart away.
Peter couldn't deny that.
"Yeah I know . Mary Jane suggested it. She said this was a really good movie and that we should watch it.. together."
Peter understood why she wanted both of them to watch it together. It was a movie delving on the deepest cockles of human heart that excites almost everyone ensuring an overflow of emotions that usually girls like to prefer. And most girls were a sucker for such films with extreme emotional overflow, Peter could see that.
"Mary Jane...the pretty red haired girl that you once told me about ... the one who is currently dating Harry Osborn?" said Gwen trying to sit straight on the couch trying to loosen her cramped muscles.
"Yep, that's her alright"
"Well, I think I should get close to her. She sounds pretty interesting" said Gwen as he looked at Peter and gave Peter a mischievously coy smile.
When any girl (particular your girlfriend, gives you such a smile) you know better. If she would ever try to dig something past from your life you get sudden palpitations. You don't want her to know anything embarrassing that had ever happened to you.
And that was the same thing Peter had in his mind. He racked around his mind furiously for anything embarrassing that he might have happened for which MJ might have been a real witness in the past.
"Heh.. hah .." Peter gave a nervous laugh.
Peter stared at the ceiling fan and concentrated on its rhythmic squeaking.
His mind replayed the most touching moments again. It had been long... he just couldn't place when he had actually seen such a movie that his emotions running on overdrive.
He could almost find himself in the movie as the protagonist making his moves on Gwen.
He relived the most romantic moments of that scene and he found himself blushing pretty bad. He had some of the similar fantasy of being with Gwen. Sweeping off her feet. Felt cheesy enough but still….
He knew that he should never force too much on something or else it might backfire on him someday.
That was what scared him the most.
This thing that he has with her was what that kept him strong and it was absolutely super. He had to live in the moment... enjoy it as much as he could.
"Pete, lets grab something. I am starving" Gwen said rubbing her stomach as she got up from the couch and stretched herself.
Peter and Gwen walked on to their way talking as they went. They were getting along so good. It didn't seem that they actually had fallen apart once. Things were smooth. It seemed as if they had been doing this for a long time. Just two friends hanging out sharing thoughts... discussing their common areas of interest and of course with some hot make out at times.
Peter's stomach growled when he heard the mention of food. He could feel his stomach doing flips.
Peter hadn't realised that even he did not have anything decent since breakfast.
That was when he was remembered, previously before that time what he was doing.
Ssssssssssssssssssss
Peter had gone out during his lunch break after he heard a wail of a distant fire brigade.
He looked at Gwen and saw her staring her back to him. Gwen nodded, came to him and give him a quick hug.
"Promise me, that you are going to take care of yourself."
She looked at him sternly. But there was something very reassuring about her.
"Yeah..." Peter smiled at her hoping to keep her mind at rest.
Gwen worried about him too much and yet he couldn't blame her.
Peter gave a give peck on her upper lip.
Fortunately no one saw that.
She smiled but rolled her eyes at him the same time. Gwen knew that people might be against him for what he had done. It was school and Peter and Gwen agreed on the need to show less of public affection but sometimes he couldn't help himself. Maybe a tiny peck her and then won't hurt … would it?
Peter could see the concern radiating from her. He wanted to run to her and spend more time with her but he knew that the world needed him more.
"With great power, comes great responsibility", right?
He promised himself that he would make it up to her. The world needed him more than her. He had his duties and he couldn't shun from them.
He knew Gwen understood him.
He had to go back and protect people. This was what he had been destined to do. He was no longer people's favourite but he had to build his own reputation. He had to work harder.
Ssssssssssssss
Peter slipped through the school's emergency exit and sprinted through into the street when he let his spider-senses do all the speaking. It was like as if he could track the sound of the screeching tyres of the police vehicles miles away. His mind figured out how exactly he should navigate himself to the place of the mishap as quickly as possible. Neurons firing away like the pistons of a V12 engine.
Peter quickly changed into his costume and swung beside buildings. He looked around and that was when he heard distress screams, wails and cries of people.
As he followed the commotion of people, he could see why there were people running around wildly like they had lost their minds and he couldn't blame them.
It was a residential flat of ten floors. The seventh through tenth floor were ablaze.. It was like a setup just as he had seen in a film but only this time it was very real.
A real inferno …
There were sudden continuous explosions that were blowing the sides of the building revealing the intricate complex steel frame work. He realised that at this rate the building won't remain upright for much long.
That was when he glanced down and to his relief the policemen and firemen were trying their best to clear the people. He felt thankful to them as they were doing a decent job in controlling the massive exodus of people.
He knew that this wasn't his strong aspect particularly as whatever he did or ever tried to accomplish there were usually a lot of collateral damage. He was sloppy.
That was when he heard a faint cry of a little girl. His head snapped into consciousness as he gazed at the blazing building.
Thanks to his heightened senses he could make out the pained cries emanating from her throat as she was trying desperately to draw attention of the people below. There was no one to look at her.
Fortunately Peter was there to see the girl. He had to save her. As Peter approached the failing building, there was a deafening explosion. He was almost knocked out by the blast. Still he kept moving towards the blazing inferno.
He was focussed.
He took the momentum from his web and propelled himself forward. Debris of broken cemented, smouldering pieces of wooden furniture came flying towards him as though they were fired from a shot gun. Peter found it increasingly difficult for him to enter the building unless there would be another explosion to blow a clean hole so that he could move in.
His prayers were answered all right when a huge hunk of a pillar came hurtling towards him after another deafening explosion.
Peter tensed.
He had to time it perfectly or else he couldn't afford losing his speed. It would probably cost the girl her life.
Every second mattered. Also he couldn't allow the huge mass of cement to fall all the down below as he didn't any more damage to his already tainted image.
Thanks to JJ Jameson.
He was really helping him out there other than shouting "The wall crawler's a menace...blah blah blah" about him in public.
Just as he was close enough, he put his legs forward and absorbed a quarter of the impact. He shot straight high up into the air.
"Hunh..!" Peter exclaimed as he tried to deflect it away downwards.
He looked below and knew just exactly what to do. Without further delay shot long strands of webbing from both his wrists. The web wrapped around the humongous pillar and over one tenth of a second it was completely enveloped in his web.
Peter was slowly loosing height now. He shot another web to the pillar mass that now looked like a huge gooey ball of web falling down at an accelerated speed. Shot another line from his free wrist and aimed it at fifth floor. He had to use only a fraction of his strength to bring the two webs closer to attach both the ends of the web that erupted from its wrists. The huge silvery mass lost height and was just as it was about the hit the floor, when it came to an abrupt halt.
Peter had almost descended to the level of the topmost floor. He saw her frantic arms waving at him through the hole and several cracks of the ruptured walls trying desperately trying to get his attention. Peter was losing height. Without a moment of delay, he shot another web line to the inner ceiling of the floor. And he pulled himself inside the ablaze apartment through the large hole.
At first, it was smoke was all that filled his view, then a bright glint of orange. The fire screamed and he held back a sob on his own as he witnessed the area around set in flames. The cackle of the yellow paint was all he heard. The drapes and curtains resembled ghost flying around thrashing around wildly as in a desperate attempt to escape the inferno that even it couldn't escape, There were flyers and papers set ablaze flying around like phoenixes.
It was a horrible sight.
Soot filled his lungs.
He wad having difficulty in breathing.
There was a huge hole on the floor. The building was going to fall apart any second now. He saw the girl sprawled on the floor. She was coughing hard. She was desperately trying to stand up. Her frail hands somehow supported her weight. She was shaking,
Peter had to hurry up. Or else she would pass out from excessive intake of carbon-dioxide that would put her in danger.
Peter jumped through the hole, right in to the mouth of licking flames...
sssssssssss
Peter closed his eyes as he landed on the wooden floor. It creaked horribly beneath his weight. He had to be very careful. The girl was behind a debris of broken tables and chairs as trying to devour it and it was slowly trying to reach the girl in a hope to make her a part of it.
Peter took a few steps forward and leaped forward.
His feet on the front aimed at the debris. He imagined to himself to be Bruce lee doing a super flying kick that even Bruce Lee would put his head down in shame.
His feet made contact with the debris. It exploded into a million pieces. The heat torched his legs. He could feel the extreme temperature trying to bypass his spandex costume. Thanks to his mutated genetic makeup, he body could sustain more damage and heal at astonishing rates.
Peter ignored the slight burning on his calf muscle and tore through the soot filled air. The girl just a few steps away from him. He picked up his pace and stood near the girl. He picked her up. She was unmoving . Her breath was shallow and ragged. She had difficulty in breathing.
She had taken a lot of carbon dioxide in her system. He had to take her away as fast as possible.
Peter picked up the unmoving girl . He had to find an exit point.
Around a hundred yards away diagonally, he saw a window that was still not consumed by the inferno. He could easily run through the hell fire and leap through the window.
Peter doubled up his pace and dodged , leaped and tore through he red room.
As he neared the window, he saw that it still had the glass pane intact. He realised he had to break the window frame. The flame was moving swiftly, covering, and distance following him like a prey. Peter knew that he couldn't make it out on time. He was only twenty five feet away from the window. Through the licking flame, he shot a web line to the adjacent wall. As soon as it made contact, he pulled himself towards the window aimed himself at the glass pane. He concentrated on saving the girl. As he flew mid-air, punched the window pane with his right fist keeping a protective arm around the girl with his left.
Sssssssssssssss
There was a huge shatter as he shot clean through the window … away from the poisoned air.
There was still a medic down besides the ablaze building. He swung his way slowly towards the van.
People below seeing the unconscious girl in spidey's arms cleared his way. He saw a crying woman near the medic van. She was in her mid-thirties. Assuming her to be the mother he descended towards her.
Peter landed on the ground walked briskly to the doctor. He saw the tear stained mother as her eyes fell on her baby hardly believing her to be still alive. She took a step forward as Peter handed the girl to the medic.
"The girl's barely breathing" said Peter in a tensed voice.
The doctor quickly put her inside the van and put the oxygen mask on her face.
The woman approached spiderman.
She folded her hands. "Thank you spider man . Thank you . I could never ever repay you ever. "
Right then the little girl fluttered her eyes open and saw spiderman. She gave a sweet little smile. Then he saw the woman move towards the girl with her own motherly affection and cooed her rubbing her palms over her forehead.
"Spiderman, we hate to say it, but without you we probably could have never ever saved the girl"
said the fire men as he approached him.
He gave a salute to him.
Spidey returned his salute with one of his own.
Suddenly he heard the wail of a police vehicle approaching him.
"Hey spiderman, I think you should take off, The police are looking for you."
Spidey ran and said "Yeah, I bet".
He , Peter Parker felt happy. He knew he could right his wrongs.
He swung away into the horizon as he saw the trail of police vehicle below him trying to tail him.
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
"Yeah lets do that" said Peter as he paused the trail of thoughts leaving him his mind.
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Both of them walked through the sparsely empty streets as they walked around hand in hand... fingers laced around each other.
"I know this totally awesome place just nearby my apartment. We could go there and get some Chinese. What do you say about that?"
Her eyebrows were high up her forehead as she questioned him.
She was everything he needed.
"Cool cool and I like chinese anyway so lets do it."
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After a scrumptious meal of chopseuy and Manchurian, Peter walked Gwen to her apartment.
Helen Stacy opened the door.
"Hello Peter? How have you been?"
"Fine Mrs Stacy."
"I am happy that you are looking out for Gwen. After the recent incident I tried my best to warn her and keep her safe. She worries me sick. All right the two of you get inside." Helen Stacy motioned both of them inside.
The living room had been the same since the last time he visited the Stacy's.
They were a family of five. The deceased captain George Stacy. His wife Helen Stacy. Gwen is their eldest daughter. She has two younger brothers- Frank and George each aged nine and ten years. Both of them doted Peter and they looked up to him as an elder brother. Peter had always been alone with no one to relate to. He found Gwen's brother to somehow fill that craving that he always had.
They ran towards Peter when he saw him enter with Gwen.
"Yay... its Peter" they ran at him with force and tangled themselves around Peter's leg. .. Both of them grinning madly at him.
"Hey fellas, how have you been?" said Peter as he bent down and ruffled their hair.
Both the brothers were cute little monsters that Peter absolutely adored. Frank had bark chocolate brown hair and Frank was blond just like Gwen.
Both of them smiled revealing the tiny gap in their milky set of teeth and along with their huge innocent eyes, they were simply to die for. Both of them
"Peter tell us that Goblin story that you had told us about." said Frank
"Yeah, right and Spiderman came and whopped up his ass for good"
Peter had once narrated the boys a little fiction of own where spider-man defeats the Goblin.(Well he got this idea by the way he saw Norman Osborn transform. It was just like a goblin with extreme features).
Whenever he thought of Harry's dad, Peter is usually scared. Because he had never seen anything like it. It was just like some twisted mutated life form.
And to his surprise this story stuck in their mind just like a bee looking out for nectar.
"Boys language, you have got to keep a check on that or else your PlayStations will be put away for good" warned Mrs Stacy. Both the boys stuck out their lips and stood pouting at her.
Peter laughed lightly.
He looked at the boys and saw a miniature himself fight with his aunt fighting over small petty things that seemed to be a big deal to him at that time.
How he missed those days ... those carefree days when he had absolutely nothing to worry about. He had Uncle Ben and Aunt May to look out for him... and most importantly without responsibility.
" Boys, its past your bedtime. You get to bed on time because what did I teach you..." Mrs Stacy waited for them to fill in and made an expectant glance at them waiting to hear sometime that she looked like she had tried to inculcate in them for so long.
" Early to bed, early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". The boys chimed in together.
"Say good night to Peter and your sister, boys"
"Goodnight , Peter. Gonnight sis. So when will you be telling that story to us?" Frank looked at Peter expectantly with those doe shaped caramel eyes.
"Boys, he can tell that to you tomorrow alright? .Peter why don't you come to our place tomorrow after your school hours? I will be making dinner and then you could narrate them your story, alright?" said Mrs Stacy.
Peter could see that the past year had been too harsh on her. After the sudden death of her husband, suddenly the weight of the world fell on her shoulders.
He could see that the one year had taken a serious toll on her and on top of that handling the continuous banter of her two small children every day was taking a serious toll on her.
Peter knew that all of them were going through a difficult time, especially Mrs Stacy. He could see Mrs Stacy going quiet occasionally and that was when he truly understood how she felt.
Right after Peter lost his Uncle Ben….
There always seemed to be a dark cloud that hung over their faces every day and Aunt May had the hardest time of all.
Peter could often hear her aunt crying silently when he was in his room lying down pretending to be asleep.
Even for Mrs Stacy, it was the same. Her face looked more aged since the last time he visited her. There were wrinkles on her cheeks other than her impossibly blemish free clear skin.
Just like a string of worries mellowed by time…
Peter felt bad for her
Mrs Stacy looked at Peter and smiled. Those distant deep blue kind eyes were a complete contrast to her overall facial expression.
"Take Peter up to your room while I try to get them to sleep. Okay?" Mrs Stacy mouthed those words at her.
Gwen gave her a thumbs up and motioned Peter to follow her to her room.
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He had previously visited Gwen's room countless number of times but he couldn't remember the last time he had actually done that … officially.
Maybe this was his third time as far his memory could place it.
Her bedroom was just the opposite of Peter's. Her bed was neatly made. It was a queen sized bed and the bed sheet that adorned the bed was simple. It was yellow with large flowers on it of various sizes. There was a table and a chair and a three seated couch beside her bed. The cupboard had an assortment of various books neatly stacked in a pile. There was a chart of periodic table fixed on her table. Pencils, pens and crayons had their respective place. Even her computer table was clean. Not even a scrap of paper or anything useless. Peter stared and looked around with a bit of awe. He had never noticed her room so clearly.
It was nothing compared to Peter's room.
His room had always been a mess.
He room didn't even come close at the category of being organised. Pencils, pens, papers always lay strewn around his room. Of all pens, not a single pen was good enough to be used for writing. Some of them were broken or some didn't have ink.
Shirts and pants hung haphazardly over the wooden beam that ran across his room horizontally.
Gwen plopped at the side of her bed dropping her back pack on her chair and heaved a sigh of tiredness.
"Hey Peter are you going to stand there all day? Come. Sit." Gwen gestured him with her hand calling him and motioning him to sit beside her.
Peter quickly scuttled away and sat slowly beside her. He was scared to destroying the creaseless bed sheet.
Gwen gave a sudden laugh seeing him so alert.
"Hey you there is no one in my room right now. So you know, could chill out a little bit" said Gwen as she arranged the pillow behind her back.
"Come now, get comfortable" said Gwen.
"Yeah, huh.." Peter gave a nervous laugh as he tried to be little more comfortable.
"The bed won't get hurt" Gwen stifled a giggle as she witnessed Peter turn and twist around to face Gwen.
"Yeah, I am comfortable now.." said Peter as he smiled at her.
Peter spoke to her about a range of various subjects. He enquired if any further progress had been made at Oscorp about the cure that were working on to their daily life activities.
He was happy to share things with her that he usually couldn't. give her a perpective how he saw things. Because he could no longer be a nerd left out all by himself with no one to talk to.
He didn't feel left out all alone and Gwen made him feel just that.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Shit! Is it already so late?" said Peter as he checked on his watch. It was pretty late.
"Hey Gwen I should be going or else Aunt May's gonna go berserk on me." Said Peter as he laughed nervously.
He got up and put on his snickers
"Yeah alright. Then I will see you tomorrow" said Gwen as she slowly leisurely got up from her bed and approached Peter.
"Stay safe, Pete" said Gwen as she put her arm around Peter's.
"Yeah" said Peter as he wrapped his hands around her waist and slowly pulled her close to him until she was just a few inches away.
Peter could feel Gwen smile although he was just a few inches away from her mouth.
Peter slowly moved forward and kissed her upper lip and she dug on to her lower lip.
It was heaven .
Slowly their rhythm intensified. He could feel the rush of emotions endorphin suddenly taking full on, on himself.
Just then, there was a click of Gwen's door.
Peter just ignored it thinking it to be wind. They were too wrapped up in each other's embrace to think of anything else. Peter could feel Gwen's body merge into his own as he slowly started to crash his teeth with hers. He kissed her hotly and could feel Gwen doing the same.
"Arhmmmmm…"
The sound abrupt noise drove both of them move apart. Peter almost jumped.
It was Helen Stacy at the door staring at them with suspicious eyes.
Peter quickly moved away from Gwen and stared at her for a second before looking down. He quickly bent down feigning an attempt to adjust his sneakers.
He looked up at Helen as his finger fumbled around the laces of his sneakers.
"huh Mrs Stacy, I was just going out. Its late." Said Peter having nothing better to say.
"Yeah mom, he was just leaving and we were just trying to figure things out so.. um ..ha.." Gwen was flustered all over. Peter looked at Gwen and she was wide eyed and stared right in to Peter.
Yep, I should get going, he thought.
"And Mrs. Stacy thank you for inviting me over ."
"Yeah. Anytime"
Peter could make the grin that she had in her face. She was surely thinking about Peter how he was all over Gwen's face made his face go all beet red. He could even feel small beads of sweat starting to form on his brows..
Shit I was hasty, Peter thought as he walked through the main entrance as he wished goodnight to both Gwen and her mother.
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The next day was nothing eventful. To tell the truth, he had planned on spending a few days free of his worldly free services and do stuff that just pleased him, for once.
His classes were a breeze.
He even got partnered up with Gwen in the recent science fair that was coming up.
Luck was surely tagging along with him. He just wished that his luck would not turn his back on him and run out on him and preferable not jinx it.
Everything was smooth.
On one such day, he then happened to pass by the library during lunch break. He saw a Mary Jane stooped over something. It looked like newspapers and papers strewn all over the table. Her palms were on her forehead. Her mouth was gaping wide as he could make out the movement of her head along the small lines of various clipped articles.
Peter stepped in the library.
Her face showed concern.
What was so important that MJ of all people was tensed?
He moved past various students and finally reached the table that MJ had currently occupied. The place was a complete mess.
"Hey MJ…" said Peter pointing at the hoard of cuttings
"You won't believe what I have stumbled into. I had applied for a position in journalism for the school's weekly newspaper. Pretty cool huh?" said MJ without even facing Peter.
"Yeah its awesome. But what's all this?" enquired Peter as he looked at the highlighted phrases and words.
"This is what that has been going around in our school you know, The Steel Serpent." Said MJ dabbing her finger at the strange black serpent like symbol that looked like a question mark.
It just looked some snake open mouthed maybe hissing. Peter had never ever seen something like this … ever.
"Well, no doubt you haven't heard of it. This is some sort of a drug, just like cocaine and meth mixed into perfection .. some perfect concoction that is around ten times more potent. This goes on deep within the people, somewhere deep underground … under mafia I would like to think as far as the report I have collected so far say. And this has been the talk of the city ever since. And the most alarming part is that I found one of these in my classmates hand bag. Well you could say I stole it"
MJ darted her eyes across the room and then carefully pulled out a small a cellophane paper pouch that contained a small cubic paper envelope approximately two square inches in length with the same weird mark of The Steel Serpent at the centre.
MJ handed him the sachet as Peter looked at the symbol closely.
Why didn't I come to know about this sooner? Maybe I was adrift , enjoying life too much. Not even two days and the world comes crumbling down. Peter thought scolding himself mentally.
Peter just couldn't believe that such a major revelation had just passed through him and he wasn't even aware. He tried hard to maintain a straight face.
Why had he never ever come across this?
"May I?"
"Yeah , but just be careful, I don't want the two of us huddled over such a thing" said MJ making a disgusted face half terrified if anyone would come around and notice them.
Peter twirled the cellophane pouch along his fingers.
It just had one symbol it. The Steel Serpent.
"Hey you thing if I submit an article on this I might get a chance to be a on the school's paper?" asked MJ as peter handed the pouch back into her hands.
"Yeah, of course, MJ. This stuff that you have dug up is .. I must say.. its amazing. Of course, you have a very good chance. And this is actually very serious. You are narrowed down something very big that is going on in our school unnoticed. You would make hell of a reporter."
"Thanks."
"I have to get going, Gwen's waiting on me"
"Oh, right. Isn't that her?" MJ pointed towards the entrance of the library.
There she was walking briskly towards the Peter. MJ waved at Gwen. She smiled and waved her.
"Ah Gwen, this is Mary Jane Watson. MJ, Gwen"
"Gwen, nice meeting you"
"Yeah same here. Peter told me about you. You are his neighbour, right."
"Yeah, you got that right."
"Hey why don't we get hang out sometime? Right? It would be fun. You could bring Harry too."
"Yeah, we could do that."
"What's all this?" said Gwen pointing at the highlights and circled words on the articles.
"This is what I am working on right now."
MJ explained Gwen about the The Steel Serpent and the drugs that they had been circling for almost weeks now. MJ explained its potency. Gwen listened carefully. After MJ finished up Gwen gave a brief side glance at Peter.
"Hey MJ. Please try to be careful. If you have decided to go deep on this subject, try not to go too deep in this matter. You might end up getting your hands dirty if you go deep in such topics, please be careful and just don't be too rash. And we will catch up later, right now Gwen and I have this important project that we are working on and we are on a clock. So we should get going."
"Yeah go on." Said MJ plunging her head deep into those stack of papers.
"See you" said Gwen
"Hmm.." MJ didn't even look at them as they went on their way.
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"Did you see that ?" asked Peter looking at Gwen wide eyed.
"I had just gone for a few weeks and this is what happens." Peter said remorsefully.
This was true. Every time he cuts himself some slack and the world starts to topple over.
"Hey hey. This isn't your fault." Gwen tries to comfort Peter.
But it was all in vain. This the evil had incubated long enough to even take his classmates. He considered himself responsible. He was answerable.
"I must go. I have to track this down."
"Hey Peter, now now don't be too rash. Okay, I agree you have to go and check whatever this is and I will help you."
"What ..what ? No. no Gwen just stay out of this mess. I will take care of it".
Peter shook his head just ignoring whatever she just said.
"No Peter don't do this. You promised that we would be doing everything together. Don't do this?"
Damn she is really adamant sometimes . He had to pacify her. This wasn't going the way he wanted it to
"Alright. Let me look out and if I can score the same drug, you could run some tests and brief me up what really is up to that drug"
"Okay" Peter could see that Gwen was a little sad.
She wanted herself to be more involved in his life and he was again pushing her away.
"Listen Gwen. This stuff is pretty dangerous and I wouldn't want you to be a part of something that might turn out to be life threatening."
Peter cupped her face with his palm and looked at her. Deep in to her.
"Gwen, I love you. I don't want anything to happen to happen to you. So I want you stay at your room. Don't stray away from your home."
"I love you too Peter, but how do you think I would have some peace of my own if I don't know what you kind of horrors you might be facing every night as I stay safe and comfortable in my room."
Peter smiled at her.
"Don't worry. I will come and visit you. So quit worrying about me." Said Peter as her moved a strand of her fair hair away from her forehead.
"Okay then promise me"
"Yeah I promise you" said Peter as he took her hands and kissed lightly.
"Yeah lets go and drop you off and don't you dare protest about going alone cause that is never happening when I am nearby " said Peter.
"Okay then" said Gwen knowing that it would be absolutely futile.
She smiled at Peter as he locked his fingers with Gwen.
Gwen's warm and supple hands were simply to die for. Both of them locked fingers as if vowing never to let go of each other ever again as he walked to her apartment under the cool evening air.
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Where do I start from? Peter thought hard as he perched on one of the gargoyles.
Things started to turn to be difficult as he around trying to rack his brain for something useful to come up.
Maybe its best of I should just take a tour at the place where all the trippy coke heads come from. They ought to know something.
He leaped from from the gargoyle breathing in the night air. He shot a line of web aiming the adjacent building nearby. And he took off to the destination he put on his mind,
As he roamed without any luck until he found a group of five people all huddled together sitting at the corner of an alleyway. There were no people nearby.
He saw the same serpent insignia that MJ had shown him and Gwen on all the pouches that lay on the pavement. He made his way to the people.
As soon as they lifted their heads to see to get a look at spider-man, Peter could see their almost poking out of their eyeballs. Purple veins protruded below their eyes like they were malnutritioned. Their eyes were glazed over as though they really couldn't differentiate reality from virtual world anymore. Their shoulders were slack and their faces lifeless, white from exhaustion that he had never ever seen in his life. They were unmoving just like zombies.
Peter for the first time in his life, he was scared. He had never seen anything like this.
He was even scared to approach them in the beginning.
He jumped straight down from the ledge he was sticking on to and made a small thud.
Immediately the five pairs of eyes snapped up at him, stared at him with their cold hard gaze.
"Huh, people, I have come here in peace. I just need to know who had supplied you with these .. um .. what ever you guys are on right now?"
No sooner, he finished his sentence, his spider-sense blared at his senses alarmingly.
These people moved at a berserk speed at threw a rain of punches at him.
Peter was distracted by their sudden ferocity as he tried to leap up to the wall that was behind him.
Not even a single one hit him .. thanks to his spider-sense.
"Wait guys, I guess I will be going then as you are in no mood to talk this out. No need to strain yourself.." .
Peter shot a web line straight at the pouch and pulled it towards him.
In the blink of an eye, one of them caught his web line and yanked it towards himself. Peter came hurtling forward when he heard a maniacal laughter emanating from their twisted crooked mouth.
Peter quickly let go of his web. He did mid air summersault to break his momentum and then quickly shot another web at the man. Peter tried to punch him but then they just disappeared thin in to air. Peter looked around trying to figure where they had exactly gone. Again his spider sense warned him and he leaped forward.
They had actually dodged his punch and had gone behind him.
Peter was now more curious than ever.
What is it that they got exactly in tot their bloodstream? He wondered.
They were super fast.
Somehow it looked like they were fast quick enough to dodge his punches.
What was in that drug anyway? Right then he saw one of those sachet lying beside his boot. He quickly picked it up and clutched it tightly in his fist.
"We are coming for you spider-man." said one of the men with a raspy voice that made his blood run cold.
Then suddenly their eyes closed of its own and their shoulders slacked on their own. They feel don onto the pavement as though the five on a deep slumber. They never woke up.
Without thinking or delaying even a moment, Peter took off
Peter took this cue, to silently crawl around the building away from their death stare.
He didn't want to face those freaking zombies right now.
He had to know more about them.
And specially more about the drug with The Steel Serpent insignia on it.
Peter opened his fist as he straightened out the crumbled bit of paper pouch analysing the content that had spilled out a little on his hands. They of a mild and were faint gold in colour. Of course, It just wasn't any ordinary drug, he was sure of that.
And most importantly he had to track its source
Shit, that is some seriously messed up thingy that they have in their bloodstream Peter thought.
Surely that is something else entirely that they had down there. A concoction of cocaine and meth won't have such a drastic change in any one's physiology that they would start throwing punches at me. There must be something else in that along with meth and coke.
Peter swung away knowing that it was really futile taking on these guys unless he had the right amount of information.
Maybe he could ask Gwen to analyse the substance as she was already acquainted with the situation and he knew that she desperately needed some involvement.
Maybe this was the safest way for her to get involved. thought Peter as he made his way to Gwen's place.
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Peter entered Gwen's room through the window that she kept open for Peter
Peter quietly made into her room and found Gwen sitting idly on her bed with her MacBook.
"Oh hey spidey, found something interesting?" asked Gwen as she slowly placed her laptop beside her and straightened up to see if he found something.
"Yeah.. this" .
Peter sat beside her and showed her the sachet that he had collected.
"God." exclaimed Gwen as Peter handed her the sachet so that she could take a better look at it.
"Then MJ was right. This really exists. And oh, its not empty. Let me pour it out on this piece of paper."
As Gwen poured out the contents of the sachet, he noticed that the powder was almost transparent but had a faint shade of gold when viewed at a particular angle. It was something that he had never seen in his life.
Peter felt the substance and rubbed it between his fingers.
It was soft. It was too fine. It wasn't normal. They had to careful as the slightest breeze might blow this stuff all over.
"Peter I have never seen anything like this. MJ said that it was a mixture of coke and meth right? But the texture says so otherwise." Said Gwen as she observed it carefully.
"Lets see, let me analyse this during my lab hours and I will let you know as soon as I find something"
"That will be wonderful. And there is something else as well." Said Peter unsure whether he should really reveal the stuff that he had seen tonight. He knew that it would be wrong on his part to hide things from her. Relationships are built on truth. He couldn't hide anything from her especially when everything was going on so smooth between them.
It would be unjustifiable on his part to shun away especially when he had promised her never to hide anything.
"um, there were these people I faced today. It looked like they were on these drugs."
"What? Are .. Are you all right? How were they behaving?" she almost stumbled while saying.
Gwen came nearer to him and put her left palm over his right.
Peter knew that she was pretty concerned about him.
Peter narrated her what exactly had happened and how their behaviour was.
She was particularly taken aback when he mentioned them dodging and trying to attacking him.
Gwen took a hard long look at the faint gold crystalline salt that lay beside her and shuddered a little.
"There must be something in this that made them do this."
He could see Gwen move the paper that held the salt away from her. She looked scared as if it would effect her as well. She quickly wrapped up the salt in the paper it self so that none could spill out.
Seeing her in discomfort, he said "why you don't have to look into this. I just wanted to show you what I had found"
"No no . I will look for this. But there is something definitely off about this. I just hope this is not what I think it is."
"What? You know what this is?" Peter said in a surprised tone.
"But before I say anything about this you promise not to say this to anyone else yes?"
"Of course, Gwen. What is it?"
"I think judging from the behaviour of whatever you just said about the used, this could be Extrimis"
"Extrimis .. What is that any way?" said Peter not knowing what on earth that could actually be.
"I have heard talks about this among the scientists in our lab. As far as I could make out, it was something dangerous and they were all hush hush about it."
"Okay now this is bad. Some unknown drug is out on the streets and no one can find its source."
This was not what he was expecting. Extrimis was a drug that was unknown and maybe something that he had never ever heard before. But what could he do? He knew that those people who were addicted were in no mood to speak to him. And worse, they were somehow physically enhanced.
Spider sense tingling. What could it be now?
Then he remembered those hooligans had mentioned something about tracking.
Peter's heart skipped a beat.
Was it true?
Could they could actually track him?
"Gwen … shh … lock yourself in the bathroom right now. And don't open unless you know for sure that its me."
"What is it?"
He could see that Gwen was now freaking out a bit. The topic of extrimis had already set her on the edge and now he could see that she was jumpy.
"I just need to check that they hadn't actually followed me here."
"What? They can do that?"
Peter's spider sense suddenly buzzed and he knew that they were somewhere around. He put on his mask quickly without any further delay.
"Maybe I am not sure. Go inside now"
Gwen quickly entered the bath room and locked herself in. Peter jammed the window so that only he could open. He crawled around and leaped off again.
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There a sudden flash in his mind.
He saw someone else lurking in the shadows. It was so dark.
It came to him all in flashes and that was when he witnessed.
No more than one second , he saw a mystical glowing hand appear out of no where.
Took out all the five guys that came after him in five single leisure blows.
The man was bare. The burnt dragon insignia on his chest was hard to ignore.
His entire frame seemed to be enveloped with some sort of an aura.
He could make out the golden mane of healthy hair.
It held wisdom .. ancient wisdom that no man ever dreamed off.
It looked to be a person .. commanding sort of.
And those eyes had something strong, deep and serenity in them.
Wait that just did not happen
Was he seeing him through his spider sense? This is not right. But somehow, he could see the man as he turned his gaze towards him.
It was almost like, he wanted him to see.
Clearly his physique was to die for. Muscles shaped, enhanced and cut just at the right places.
That was when he looked at Peter directly, like into his mind before everything went dark again…
He came back tumbling where he found himself stuck outside Gwen's apartment.
Peter had come back to the real world. And who was that mystery man .. or mystery warrior (to be precise)
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Author's note- Hello once again. I am sorry I couldn't upload one on time. I hope I am able to get to you through my writing. And I hope everyone is enjoying it. Positive and negative reviews will be wholeheartedly accepted by me. So write away if you have anything better. And can you figure out who I am trying to bring in here? :)