Twitter Account: QuestOpCosgrove

Peter Parker Quest

CHAPTER 58

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Opening Song: The Tender Box - Spectacular Spider-man Theme

-RESUMING PPQ

Your mask feels firm against your face and from a quick check from the camera feed on fast forward, it doesn't seem like your mask was taken off, not for a lack of trying. Your subconscious desire of people not knowing who you are probably caused that. Regardless, it seems like they treated your wounds- the last thing you recall was fighting the Silver Sable.

"What happened to the girl?"

Frank Castle studies you for a moment. "You mean the Kravinoff's girl? She's safely back with her father at this point. You've unwittingly gotten yourself involved with a terrible conspiracy. If you don't get out now, you'll likely only end up another casualty of this long, drawn out tragedy, kid."

"That… that isn't an option. Exactly who are you and where am I?"

"Who am I? Well, that's a long story…"

Frank Castle draws introspective and quiet, like he's relieving a bad memory.

Frank Castle, if that's his name, draws quiet for a moment. A few moments later he shakes his head and glares at you, his face tired and more line with weary than you've ever seen. "Whatever. Your coat's over there. There's a door out the back. If you come back here, you won't find anything."

He gets up, pulling on a coat. "Anyway, I warned you."

"Wait, what do you-"

He turns and you pause as you see a cold, deadly stare. "I've told you all I plan to. And if you want to try to force that information out, there's been better attempts by worse people than you. Now get the hell out."

You grab your webshooters and coat and head out before the man decides to use one the gun on him- and he seems like the type to do it. And you've got a good inkling- something on the edge of your perception-that warns you he's not joking around.

Heading outside, you find that its evening- still Sunday- but almost nightime. Heading away from the.. .well, safe house you'd guess, you go and make sure nothing's been inserted into your costume while you were out, especially not a tracking chip. Finding something inserted in a pocket between armored areas, you pull out a small device and crush it, before thoroughly making sure there were no others on you.

When you're finally, FINALLY, sure you're clean, you head back to your clothes and get dressed and head home- the cold weather and your attire covering any clothes you'd have. It's a little after eight when you get home.

You decide to go ahead and head to bed. You're sore and tired and should rest off that beating of yours. After double checking your wounds- which is to say there are no open wounds it seems- you lay down, set your alarm, and head to bed.

Waking up I the morning, you find that most of your bruising is gone, but you still wear a long sleeve sweater. Partially because of the bruises, partially because of the cold. Regardless, you find yourself tied and slowly making your way to school in the morning, your neighbor Mary Jane trailing behind you.

She seems to be focused on one of her videogames again, which is hidden and gone by the time you step into school as she heads towards her locker. You're still trying to piece this puzzle together. Your neighbor, Frank Castle, seems to have saved Spider-man from being killed by the Silver Sable. He then warns you that you need to stop looking deep into this. Which means he likely knows about the Silver Sable. No guarantee he knows about Felicia, but its possible.

Felicia got a tip-off about something, and has gone for the Kingpin. Seems like someone's pulling the strings here- and it might be this Kingpin, and it might have to relate to Felicia's father maybe. You've not found any real leads to the Kingpin barring Silver Sable, and she was skilled enough that she could outmaneuver your superhuman strength and reflexes. She's also interested in going after you for ruining her record- and it seems personal.

Maybe you're looking into the Kingpin the wrong way? Thugs don't seem to be an answer, soits more of a question of finding out suspects of who COULD be the Kingpin and narrowing them down? No, that might also be impossible…

Then there's also that business with Flash on Friday. And the Battery with Spyral. And… something else. You're not sure what… Right- that weird girl you met. Before you know it, its lunch.

Gwen seems to be sitting alone, as does Flash, who looks a little under the weather. Harry is… well, screw him. He seems to be ingratiating himself with some group of jock-looking people.

It's tempting to go sit and talk with Gwen. She might have found out something, but looking at Flash, it might be best to check up on him. Sitting down across from him, you see that his face is somewhat flushed and he overall seems unwell. He cracks a smile at you. "Yo, Peter. How's it going?"

Raising an eyebrow you look at him. "Better than you it seems. You not feeling well?"

Flash looks a little uncomfortable before shaking his head. "Nah, I'll be fine. Probably just a bug. … Sooooo, about that thing?"

Shaking your head you start in on your food. "It's been taken care of, the best I can anyway. Hey, you sure you're alright?"

Swallowing uncomfortably, he gives a tight nod. "I… I'll be fine, man. Don't worry about it. Honest. And- don't you dare think I've been doing some shit or anything. I'm just not feeling well."

"Whoa man, I wasn't gonna say that. I was just worried about you. You sure you shouldn't call it as a sick day?"

"Nah, can't afford to miss any more school." And with that, Flash focuses on shoveling down his food. When he's done he gets up and pauses. "I'm probably gonna be out of studying for the week, sorry. I'm really busy."

Walking away, you watch Flash with a sense of worry- especially as he staggers slightly before he heads out of the cafeteria.

The rest of the day passes relatively quietly.

Catching up with Gwen as she gets ready to leave, she blinks at you in surprise from behind her glasses. Pushing them up, she raises a curious eyebrow. "What's up, Peter?"

"I have some new info on the whole Kingpin thing, and I figured I'd link up and compare notes with what you've got."

Blinking again with a slight shrug, she glues a half-smile on her face. "Alright. Let's go, then."

Heading out, the two of you wait until you're far enough away and begin discussing news. Mainly at the fact that Silver Sable planned to kidnap a celebrity's kid to get him looking for you. That, and she kicked your ass. Not to mention your neighbor being some sort of shady fellow who might be involved.

Gwen looks at you with a worried look momentarily before she adopts a more business-like persona. "Well, honestly, there's not much to find unless you know where to look. The Kingpin's good at covering up his crimes. Which means, not surprisingly, he's got money. But he's got to have a lot of money, and that's not entirely easy to hide. Your theory of the looking in a different way might not be wrong, but there's a good number of rich, suspicious people in the area. Norman Osborn, Justin Hammer, Aldrich Killian, Bolivar Trask.

"All of them could be the Kingpin. The kingpin might not even be one person, really. And there could be others."

Gwen rolls her shoulders and pops her neck. "And that's the problem. There's too many leads. But if This Silver Sable is an actual mercenary- there might be something there. But, Peter, you're… well you're…"

Gwen raises her hands in defense with an almost pitying smile. "Well, before your powers, you were probably the easiest person to beat in a fight if they could catch you…"

Gwen looks away as you notice her ears start to turn pink as she starts mumbling. "…From what I've heard, anyway. Anyway… I should probably be going…"

She seems both eager and reluctant to flee as she starts heading off.

Calling Doctor Spyral, you wait a few moments before the phone is picked up. "Hello, Mister Parker."

"Hey, Doc, I was curious how we were gonna get back to work- since the whole Stark thing."

There's a pause before the Doctor sounds interested again. "So, we're back to work then?" Grunting in assent, you continue. "I'm back to school and looking into some matters, but yeah, I was gonna try to get some work done."

"Wonderful. Be at the building as soon as you can."

Less than an hour later, you're back to work on the Battery.

Miniaturization I Complete- 85/85- Miniaturization II complete- (135/135), Miniaturization III- ongoing- (30/135)

The beginning of the fruits of your labors have started. The First stage has been reached! The size of one of those Barnes and Noble Lovecraft collections- which is to say a really big book, instead of a golf cart battery- sits in front of you. Its able to be carried around now, but it still isn't as far as your boss wants it, yet. However, this is big progress. Even at this size, there's a lot more possibilities for this battery now.

Spyral seems pleased as she studies the battery. "Yes, we're getting there. However, we should report this to our boss and lock up. This is not something that she be allowed to be stolen."

After calling Miss Potts- and her have someone send the battery to a more secure location- she sounds greatly impressed with your progress as a team. "I might have more things for you if you can keep up this level of productivity."

Heading home after a long day of work, you collapse into your bed and fall asleep after grabbing a quick reheated meal.

After five days straight of work, you and Spyral have made the Battery the size of one of those old camera batteries- you know the type I mean. It's still not normal battery sized, but it is technically able to fulfill the needs to the client at this point. And yet… you and Spyral are sure you could take it one step further if you applied yourselves even more.

"While this is usable, its not as good as it can be, Miss Potts. Doctor Spyral are going to work on it further, but we have a workable prototype now that we can deliver to you. This is not the finished product, but we figured you should at least know we have something that works now."

"That's awesome. I'm going to be there shortly, okay? See you soon."

Hanging up from the video call, you look over at the time and then at Spyral. "I've got an appointment to keep, so you'll need to deliver our product to Miss Potts when she arrives, alright?"

As she's testing the battery- a success- Spyral nods seriously. "This is the first step, Mister Parker."

Leaving the building, you find yourself in a hurry to go get changed to the costume you secured nearby and with a little time to spare you're already at the George Washington Bridge. Standing atop one of the structures, you keep and eye open as a figure rises from the shadows.

Colors shifting into a black and white Spider-man like outfit, The almost predecessor version of the Future's Venom is standing before you as the name involuntarily slips your mother. Cocking his head, the figure in front of the moves to scratch at his head. "Venom, eh? That's this thing's name? I was wondering what I should be calling myself is all because Black Spider-man sounds well… a bit racist is all."

Staring at this person, standing in front of you, you struggle to get control of yourself.

You focus on the hear and now, Starting for a moment as Venom takes a step forward, almost in concern. "Spidey?"

Shaking your head, you wave him off. "I'm fine. More importantly, you have something that might be very dangerous on you."

Venom's posture becomes more withdrawn as he rubs at the back of his neck. "Yeah, no kidding. I realized that, so I arranged a meeting with you for help. See, this thing freaked out when-"

The sound of something landing makes him pause as you both turn towards the figure on the roof- dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, a skull-like visage covered in flames is standing there and steps forward. As she gets closer, you notice Venom takes a step back, his form almost convulsing.

The first apparent change is the eyes- from lens to tattered white in the shape of eyes, as a jaw began to form. "ST-Stay-STAY Back!"

The Blue lights that act like eyes stare down at the kneeling form of Venom, who is slowly retreating. The inhuman visage makes it almost impossible to tell her intentions. Stepping between the two of them, their heads turn towards you- her light like- pupils from her skull-like visage locked on to you, while Venom seems like he's having trouble controlling himself.

"Great. One more person, and the gang's all here."

Can this situation gets any worse?

END

To Be Continued