Chapter 3

"And that's how you post any changes you want to make to the home page." Said Peter finishing the online tour of the updated Bugle web site that he had been giving to Robbie for the last ten minutes.

"Peter this is excellent work but could you create a memo listing the changes you made and anything else people will need to know about the new system."

"Err sure."

Robbie smiled at the unsure Peter. "Betty can help you if you need it."

"Okay I'll get that done then I'm out of here see ya later Mr. Roberts."

Peter approached Betty's desk and waited for her to finish with the call she was on. She put down the phone and shot Peter a smile; she had been extra kind to him since his 'mugging'. "Hey Pete you need something?"

"Yeah Robbie asked me to do a memo about the new web page only problem I have no idea how to do that." His face was rather sheepish and became even more so when Betty chuckled.

"You basically built a brand new web page for a national news paper but you have no idea how to file a memo."

"Be fair I'm only a photographer for a national news paper not a file clerk." He quipped back, and though he had only been joking Betty was suddenly reminded how unusual it was for someone his age to even been in this industry. He was only 16 and he was the best photographer that they had and apparently he was just as gifted with a computer as he was with a camera. God and he was still in school and not only getting straight A's but doing an internship at ESU science labs.

Peter's voice brought Betty out of her thoughts. "Hey Betty could you help me please I've got plans this afternoon."

"Sure Peter this shouldn't take long." 10 minutes later they were done and Peter was grabbing his bag getting ready to go. "Peter your forgetting something." Peter began absentmindedly patting his pockets checking for his wallet and phone.

"No I'm good to go." Betty sighed he might be incredibly smart but he was still a man and apparently couldn't pick up subtly without a high powered telescope. She held out two cheques and waved them in front of his eyes. "Your payslips but if your fine without them I'm sure Mister Jameson will be happy."

Peter took the payslips gratefully and read the first one and stopped dead at the second "Betty this says 500 dollars." His thoughts were racing, with this money he could finally get all the needed components for his new web shooters as well as develop some of the ideas he had for improving them. Hell this would cover all that and still leave him with a tidy sum left over.

"So what are you going to do with all your new found wealth?" Betty asked smiling at the stunned expression on Peter's face.

"Well right now I have to go see my friends play at the community theatre and I suppose after that I probably will have to buy her dinner now I'm rolling in money."

"Hey Pete!" Both Betty and Peter looked over and saw Ned Lee weaving his way through the Bugle office trying to reach them. His arms were carrying a load of papers and he was using his chin to make sure they didn't fall.

"Hey Ned what's up? And what's with all the research?" asked Peter as Betty just looked on twirling her hair absentmindedly.

"I'm doing a story on the Fisk Foundation and how they are expanding their operations in New York and I need a photographer for the event where they are going to reveal who is receiving grants this year and as they give out a lot of science grants..."

"You were hoping I could explain all the science stuff so you don't have to do more research." Said Peter stating the unasked question. "Sure I don't see why not and I wouldn't mind seeing what's being funded.

"Thanks Peter its next Wednesday no need to dress up."

Peter was about to reply when noticed the clock on the wall, a look of shear panic spread over his face and he turned and bolted for the elevator.

Ned turned to Betty with his best charming smile and jerked his thumb towards the fleeing teen. "What's that all about?"

Betty returned his smile and casually replied. "Oh he's just late for the theatre."

xxx

"Scott man this great thanks for bringing us along."

"Yeah like this is so much fun."

A group of six were walking down the bustling Manhattan street, there was a skinny pale kid with his arm around an attractive black girl. There was a beautiful girl with fiery red hair who held a bag of shopping in one hand and the hand of tall handsome young man with red shades, in the other. The last two were both girls but couldn't be more different if they tried, the smaller of the two had her hair in a ponytail was wearing a pink top, jeans and sandals and carrying a fair amount of shopping. The other was dressed in the Goth style with pale makeup and dark clothes and heavy boots and had one small shopping bag dangling from her hand.

The guy with red shades waved off the thanks with a bush of his hand. "Guys it was no problem, besides it nice to get back together seeing as I haven't seen you guys since you went home for the summer."

The red head leaned close and started whispering in his ear. "I for one think it's very sweet especially letting Kurt bring Amanda." She looked at the young couple in each other's arms as they walked along. "Rouge said he was missing her a lot when they were in Germany."

The girl in the pink top turned to her Goth friend "come on rouge lets go into one more shop I'll let you pick."

"Kitty no, I can't take anymore shopping." She tried and failed not to yawn. "Besides I still jet lagged."

Amanda unhooked herself from Kurt and started looking across the street. "Hey Kurt I'm going to get a paper, they have an article on this Bagman I've got to check it out."

Her boyfriend smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss. "Okay I'll take your shopping back to the car and help Kitty with her mountain of shopping."

"Hey I hardly have that much, but I could use a hand if you're offering." She added sweetly.

Jean moved up next to Kurt as he watched Amanda cross the street and move towards a news stand. She bushed her red hair out of her face as the wind blew it about and laid a hand on his shoulder. "So you and Amanda seem to be doing well."

The look on Kurt's face was one was of pure bliss as he watched Amanda buy a paper. "Yeah it is." He gave himself a small shake and turned around to help kitty with all her shopping when he heard the scream. All over the street people stopped what they were doing, the sound seemed unnaturally loud. The five teen immediately went into battle mode, this was because of the training they had been given at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters where they learnt to help the world with their amazing gifts. Time slowed and their minds began to process the information to see if they could help, but there were far too many people so they had to let things play out. They still looked to see what was happening and every single one of their hearts stopped. Someone had grabbed Amanda and was trying to carry her away.

"AMANDA!" But Kurt's voice was drowned out by the screech of brakes and the crash as a grey car hit the news stand, travelling through the spot Amanda was standing in just a few moments ago when the person had grabbed her.

Amanda's mind was blank, 'I should be dead' that was the first thought to have finally broken through the stupor, followed by 'the guy who grabbed me saved my life'. It was at that point she realized she was standing on her own two feet and there was no pressure around her waist from someone holding her. She turned around unsure what she was going to do.

There was no one there, well that wasn't quite right there was a crowd of people circling her looking like an audience at a magic show, but there was no sign of the person who had grabbed her. It was at this point that her legs decided they had done enough and would like a chance to recover from the shock as well and crumpled beneath her.

On the other side of the street the X-Men replayed the incident in their minds as they tried to get to the other side of the street to help Amanda. They heard Amanda scream and saw her being dragged backwards by a guy with brown hair and a blue shirt. Next thing a grey sedan, brakes screeching, flew up onto the sidewalk ramming into the side of the news stand. As they dodged cars in the street their thoughts started going in separate directions, Jean and Kurt were worried about Amanda as they could no longer see her due to the people surrounding her, Scott and Rouge were wondering about the guy who grabbed her and kitty was wishing she didn't have so many bags to carry.

When they pushed through the crowd Amanda was sitting on the floor talking to the man who had been driving the car, it turned out his tire had blown and he'd lost control. While Kitty, Kurt and Rouge went to tend to Amanda, Jean and Scott started searching for the other player in this street performance.

"There he is." Said Jean pointing through a gap in the crowd at the quickly retreating form of what now could be seen as a teenager.

Scott looked to where she was pointing "Why's he leaving? I mean he a hero why not stick around and get the credit?" he gave Jean a very pointed look. "Can you get a better read on him?"

Jean nodded and closed her eyes and concentrated. She lowered her psychic shields and bushed the mind of the young man trying to get away. What happened next was surprising to say the least. Normally when she made a brief connection with someone, what she got what was their immediate thoughts and intentions, it could be anything from their inner ramblings to feelings that were very hard to describe. However when she connected with the mind of the teenager with the blue shirt all she got was an odd buzzing and a sudden sense of panic. Her eyes fluttered open the connection lost partly due to surprise partly because the buzzing made it hard to focus.

The boy had stopped and turned and was staring right at her like he was trying to figure out what was going on. It was like he had sensed her but that was impossible she had been so gentle and connection so brief.

"Jean what's going on?"

"Scott I think he sensed me. He must be a mutant." Her voice was barely a whisper but Scott was so close at this point it didn't matter.

"Jean see if you can make a connection we need to know who this guy is."

Jean nodded and turned back to the teen who was still giving her the most complex look she had ever seen on a guys face. It was part bewilderment, part anger, part inquiry and if she was any judge a bit of appreciation and attraction. She put it out her mind and pushed outwards with her mind. She felt the buzzing but continued pushing through.

She opened her eyes the world was suddenly red and vast and still buzzing. In front of her stood an old man; he was tall with grey hair and had a handsome face for someone his age. She suddenly noticed he had kind eyes that were giving her the once over. Then he spoken and his voice was one that crackled with warmth and understanding. "Now young lady I don't think you belong here." He gently grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle pat. "Why don't you go back where you came from, it's rather rude to barge into people's minds."

Jean open her eyes, looking around she realized she was back in the real world and that guy was still giving her that look but now the intensity was kicked up to the max.

"Jean what happened? What did you find out?" she leaned into Scott and started to whisper in ear. "He has psychic defences, nobody has psychic defences unless they use to psychics." She was about to elaborate when Scott yelled in her face "he's running" and took off at full speed. She quickly checked that everyone else was still with Amanda and then started following Scott thinking how this was supposed to be a stress free shopping trip.

xxx

Peter looked back and saw those two weird people were following him. He sighed, it would be so easy to lose them all he needed to do was just actually start running at his top speed and they'd never see him again but running down a New York street faster than a gold medallist would probably attract a lot of attention. He gave them one last look then turned down a side street, why couldn't things ever be easy.

Just a few minutes ago he had been pounding down the street making great time, one of the many wonderful things of having about having his powers was his reflexes he could run through a crowd without breaking stride and though his aunt would kill him if she knew, he never bothered to look as he crossed the street anymore, his spider sense would warn him if there was any cars coming. He glanced down at his watch and realised he was already later for MJ's play, how he wished he had been able to fix his web shooters already. If could have web slung his way he would have been there five minutes ago.

He was just about to pass a news stand when his spider sense started ringing, grinding him to a stop. Something bad was going to happen, he didn't know what but it was coming. As he looked around cursing his luck he noticed a girl standing near the news stand was engrossed in a paper, without pausing to think he grabbed her around the waist and ignoring her ear curdling scream lifted her up and carried her out of the path of danger. As her failing legs were hitting his shins repeatedly a diver lost control and crashed into the side of the news stand. The girl he was carrying instantly fell silent and stopped struggling so he set her down as gently as possible before strolling through the gathering crowd trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

He was just thinking that he had gotten away clean and he could start hurrying towards the theatre when he was hit by a familiarsensation and his spider sense. The sensation was very similar to something he had felt before; something was trying to access his mind. Panic flooded him but as quickly as it had started the sensation stopped, before his spider sense finished ringing he had turned around to face whatever kind of sick monster was attacking him this time. To his surprise what he saw was a beautiful red headed woman who looked like a more developed version of Mary Jane. His mind had million thoughts running through it, 'how dare she, why, was the symbiote controlling her', but also there was the part of his brain, the part of the brain that belonged to every single teenage boy thought 'god she's hot'.

He was still deciding on his course of action when his spider sense rang out again and he felt another presence in his mind. Acting on pure instinct he reached for the part of his mind that had helped him defeat the symbiote, the part of himself that was everything good and pure, and the very ideology of Spider-Man. Uncle Ben.

In his mindscape he once again saw the very attractive red head but the memory of Uncle Ben he had created kindly told the young woman to leave which she did. He stayed for a few moments glad once again to see his uncle before the real world claimed him.

Back in the real world Peter watched as the red head was being talked to by a man with red sunglasses as the girl turned to speak to the guy he decided to make a break for it.

They had been following him for about a minute and he was getting slightly annoyed as they were making him later and later for MJ's play. These two were obviously in good shape to keep up with him and they hadn't lost track of him or even fallen behind yet, despite the crowds. Well they couldn't keep up with him for long they would tire long before he even started to sweat and he had one other advantage, an incredible knowledge of New York including all its alleys. One thing he'd discovered while being Spider-Man was that alleys really were a place to find a lot of the crime so he often made sure to check them and now this knowledge was about to become very useful. He increased his speed to the point he was at the level of an Olympian athlete and made an abrupt left turn into and alley with no windows and more importantly a 12 foot high fence. He leapt the fence easily turned the corner and stopped.

'If I go back I might be able to get an idea on who they are.' Peter thought

With a plan in mind peter leapt onto the side of building and made his way to the roof when he arrived he crept over to the edge and peered over to watch the two people following him. They soon arrived both of them slightly out of breath.

"That guy is fast." Said Scott as he and Jean stopped and stared at the fence, both stared at it sizing it up.

"I could fly us over it." Whispered Jean.

"Why? We lost the guy and if he was fast enough to lose us and climb this we'll never catch him."

They turned around and made back for the friends. Peter glad they had decided to stop chasing him though wished they given some clue about who or what they were, but right now he needed to run so MJ could kill him for being late.

Ten minutes later Peter was inside the community centre feeling very confused. MJ had told him the play started at 3 but it was now 3:45 and people were only just starting to enter. He ducked backstage saw Mary Jane and went over to say hi.

"Ah Lady Macbeth you look wonderful."

Mary Jane looked up from doing her makeup and gave Peter a wide grin. "Good sir you honour me with your presence."

"So telling me the play was at 3?" Peter left the question unspoken but floating in the air.

Another grin lit up Mary Jane's face. "How else could I be sure you would actually turn up on time."

Peter sighed and MJ got up gave him a pat on the shoulder and lent in. "you better get a seat tiger before all the good ones are gone." Peter gave her a weak smile and started to walk away but stopped at the sound of MJ's voice. "But if you disappear like last time I will hunt you down." Peter didn't need to turn round to know there was a smirk on her face. He started walking and thought maybe he should take her somewhere nice for dinner. Hopefully it would take his mind off those people following him and how that girl had attacked his mind well he couldn't do anything about it so he might as well enjoy the show.

Back at the scene of the accident Scott and Jean were explaining why they had run off.

"So we think this guy is Xavier school material but we've lost him and there's no way we can track him down." Said Jean making sure to carefully choose her words as there were still a lot of people around.

"Can't we just use Cerebro when we get back to the mansion?" Questioned Rouge not bothering to use the same care as Jean as no one would know what they were talking about.

Jean shook her head. "I would need something to go on, I wasn't able to get a good read and Cerebro can't track his" she lowered her voice "x gene unless he uses his abilities and who knows how many of us there are in New York."

Kurt who had been with Amanda as she gave a statement to a cop joined then and held something up between his fingers. It was a plastic card with the words Daily Bugle written on it. "This might be a clue ja. Amanda says she found it on the ground when she collapsed."

Scott took it and gave it a once over, he looked at it thoughtfully "well I suppose it could be his maybe he's a copy boy or something and Amanda knocked it off when she was struggling." His face darkened suddenly "of course this could have been on the ground for days and has nothing to do with that guy."

Kitty spoke up breaking the silence that had fallen. "We should take it back maybe the professor or Mr. McCoy could use it to track him down."

AN well there you go now thing are going to get moving. Its been a while and the only reason for that is im evil and enjoy making you wait. MAWHAHA MAWHAHA!