Peter Parker

Carmilla and I managed to get registered in time for The SAT. It really wasn't that hard, but every key stroke for me felt a bit heavy. I was still kicking myself for forgetting about the SAT. And beyond that, I was really worried about whether or not I had time to properly prepare or study, even though Kitty said she'd make sure I would. The last time I took the SAT, I scored high enough to get into any college. But, I still got that Parker Luck, so…

"Knowing my luck, I'd probably end up with a bad score because I'd bubble in the right answer for one question on the line for a different question and kept repeating that mistake until the end," I grumbled as I cut into the chicken parmesan.

"It won't be like that, homie," Craig said as he took a seat. "You got this. All you got to do is study, and you'll ace that test with no problem."

"I just wish we didn't have to prepare for this test while Elmer Fudd is running around," Carmilla said. "Like seriously, he couldn't come in June?"

"Somehow, I don't think reading the room and consideration for one's time is covered in the Bad Guy curriculum," Kitty deadpanned. "But, we'll make it work."

I looked at Kitty. "Did you and Craig take the SAT?"

She nodded. "We did." She put a piece of her food in her mouth and chewed.

"We both scored high on it, too," Craig bragged. "Of course, Kitty scored higher than me – she aced the whole thing. But I also scored high enough to be heavily considered by every college."

I smiled at him. "That's awesome!"

"Braggart," Carmilla deadpanned. Craig gave her a look. She merely smiled back.

"But yeah, don't worry too much about the SAT," Kitty said. "Just make sure you study. We'll all be helping you." She smiled briefly. "On another note, regarding tomorrow's rotation…"

"About that," I spoke up. "Um… I know Craig and I are supposed to be teaming together on Saturday. But, I was kind of hoping we can go out tomorrow, if that's okay with him, and if it's okay with you."

Craig looked at me and narrowed his eyes. "Okay, I gotta ask, why?"

I looked down sheepishly. "…MJ wants to go on a date."

Craig chuckled as he shook his head. "Of course she does." He then shrugged. "I don't mind. What do you say, Kitty?"

"I'm fine with it," Kitty said. "I'm sure Joanna will appreciate the break."

"I know I will," Carmilla said in agreement. She looked at Craig. "Are you sure you okay with going patrolling on back to back nights?"

"I can handle it," Craig assured. "Besides, there's this stash house I want to move on in Harlem as soon as possible. From what I understand, we'd be doing Luke Cage a huge a favor."

"You know I'm in," I spoke up.

That's exactly what we did.

The night after, I went with Frictor to the stash house in Harlem, donning my quick change outfit. Things went extremely well. We took care of the thugs that were already there. While I took them out of the building and webbed to the wall of another building, Frictor burned everything that was in their stash – that included the money, the drugs (which included a lot of pills, heroine, and marijuana – all of which was laced with Fentanyl), and their equipment. Well, he burned most of it. He made sure to leave some of it intact for the sake of evidence. After we walked some blocks away to where we left Frictor's Scion, he made a direct call to Buford Hollis.

"Yeah, I burned most of it," Frictor said into the phone. "Yes, that includes most of the money, too… No, I didn't take any money for myself this time… Okay… Okay… Yeah, might want to let them know to bring some masks for the air. Breathing in Fentanyl is not something you want to do…. Okay… You have a goodnight… Bye." He hung up the phone and looked at me. Even with his mask on, I knew he was smiling. "Well, I think we can say it's a job well done!"

I nodded. "I'm surprised you didn't take any of the money, though," I remarked as he turned on his car.

"Dude, I'm sitting on a lot of money. Like, too much money."

I tilted my head. "How much? I know you stopped counting after at least a hundred million dollars."

"Yeah, about that. After my appointment with the IRS agent, and after paying the taxes, I had a little over six times that amount."

My eyes went wide. "Are you serious?"

"No cap, homie. I gave half of it away to different food banks across the five boroughs. I wasn't comfortable having that much, especially with Misty Knight on my behind about it." He put the car in drive and before he drove off. "So, because of that, any money I get, I either drop it off at a charity or I burn it." He glanced at me. "Sometimes, it's not about the money. It's about sending a message."

I nodded as I looked forward. "Well, at least you still have enough money to buy comics from that series you like."

Frictor scoffed. "I dropped that comic," he replied.

I looked at him. "Why?"

"Because, once again, they want to do something 'new' with the main character. They want to shake up the status quo. So what do they do? They end his iconic relationship with the love of his life… again. They then hook him up with the one character who, great as she is, wouldn't make sense for him to be with because they have too different ideals and it's been made perfectly clear that she loves his costumed identity a lot more than she loves him. Apparently, these writers think we, the readers, won't be interested in a series where the main character grows up, starts a family, and all that good stuff. No, apparently we want to see him constantly get screwed six ways to Sunday because, apparently, he doesn't deserve nice things." Frictor shook his head. "Like honestly, can we – "

He kept talking. I was no longer listening. It's not that I didn't care. Quite honestly, I understood where he was coming from, and I always enjoyed it when he nerds out over things (something he rarely does). However, my Spider Senses were going off, I started to look around trying to see what could have been setting my senses off.

"Ay Spidey, you good?" Frictor asked.

All of a sudden, something drove through the hood of his car. Frictor suddenly hit the brakes. I heard the sound of something scraping the pavement. I felt my body going forward. Luckily, my seatbelt held me in place. The car skidded to a stop. After taking in a breath, Frictor looked at me.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm okay," I replied as I looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"We're 'bout to find out in a few seconds." He unbuckled his seat belt before he stepped out of the car. I did the same thing. We both moved to the front of the car. Steam was rising up from underneath the hood, and for good reason. There was a huge shaft that went straight through the hood of the car. Frictor and I looked at each for a moment, then looked back at the object. We both kneeled down and looked underneath the car. What we saw was the head of a spear, which was actually dug a bit into the pavement. We stood back up and looked back each other.

"Kraven?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

"It has to be," Frictor replied.

"You would be right," a voice said behind us.

We both turned around. There was Kraven, lion vest and all, standing about ten feet away from us. He wasn't alone. Along with him was a pack of dogs – I would later find out that they were Rhodesian Ridgebacks. They were growling loudly and looked ready to attack us at any given moment. From what I can see, there was about six in total.

"Look man, if you're looking for The Humane Society, check 59th," Frictor deadpanned.

"I'm not here for the Humane Society," Kraven sneered. "Nor am I here for you. Quite frankly, you're on the bottom of my list, so you can run along now." He turned his attention towards me. "I'm only here for the spider."

"Okay, first of all, rude," I replied. "Second of all, I'm really not in the mood for this. So, if you can take your dogs and go back to Russia, I'd heavily appreciate it."

"Mood or not, you don't have a choice in the matter. A lot of people want you out of the picture, especially The United States Government. Even with that aside, revenge is mine for the taking." I balled up my fist. I was ready to fight. Frictor, however, decided to try and reason with him.

"See, that right there is my problem," Frictor began. "Like, I understand the bounty part. I really do. But you're motivated to take down Spider-Man – for the sake of revenge by proxy – because Tony decided to go a different direction with his company?" I looked over at him in time to see him shake his head. "Bruh, Stark is dead. And, I'm sorry he was no longer providing your family with precious weapons of mass destruction." He said that last part sarcastically. "But, the world became a better place because of it. So, maybe instead of hunting us, you should do something else better with your time, like sit down with a psychologist. I know a guy in New Orleans."

"I'm already here, and I always get what I hunt," Kraven snarled.

After he said that, I heard the sound of rotors. Slowly, I brought my head upward. I then sighed. Of course, there was a helicopter in the sky, and of course, belonged to The Daily Bugle. I looked over at Frictor as he laughed and clapped his hands while he was looking up at the helicopter. He then turned his attention back to Kraven.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy stomping you out live in 4K!" Frictor said in an almost happy tone.

"Enough talking!" Kraven yelled out. After that, he brought his fingers to his lips before he whistled. The dogs, who I almost forgot about, started to run towards us.

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered out.

"Stand still!" Frictor yelled out. He brought his arms out. Within seconds the, dogs slipped and lost their footing. "Okay, Spider-Man, do your thing!" He lowered his arms. Quickly, I jumped into the air. I brought my arms and fired several bursts of webbing. I flipped in the air before I landed on the ground on all fours. I looked forward to see the dogs webbed down to the ground.

"You know, it is common courtesy to leash your dogs," I said as I stood up.

"I can see why Scorpion had trouble with you," Kraven commented. He then reached behind his back and pulled out a kukri. "I guess I'll have to do things the hard way." With that, he charged forward.

Frictor and I didn't wait as we rushed forward as well. I ended up ahead of Frictor, making a beeline towards Kraven. Kraven tried to slash at me with his blade. Quickly, I stopped in my tracks and flipped backward, kicking the blade out of his hands. After I landed on my feet, I looked over shoulder, just in time to see the blade pierce the roof of the Scion xB. I cringed as I turned my head forward.

"Sorry, Fric-" I didn't get a chance to complete that apology because I was grabbed by the arm and flipped over, my back hitting the pavement hard. I grimaced underneath my mask as I arched my back in pain. Kraven looked down at me before he lifted up his foot. I rolled away right before the sole of his boot could hit my face. I quickly moved to my feet. Right after that, Frictor ran in and tackled Kraven to the ground. I watched as the two of them scrambled for a bit before Kraven ended up on top. He started raining punches down on Frictor's face. Frictor brought his arms in front of his face to block the punches the best he could. I was about to move in, but after the fourth punch, Frictor caught Kravens arm before he quickly brought his legs up and locked them around Kraven's neck in a triangle choke. As he tried to choke Kraven out, he sent elbow after elbow into the top of his head. Kraven struggled for a moment. After taking another, elbow, however, he caught Frictor's arm, got his feet up under him and lifted Frictor off of the ground.

That's when I moved in – I've seen too many MMA highlight videos to know what was coming next. Just as Kraven reached a vertical base, I lowered my shoulder and sent it into the back of his knee. As Kraven bellowed out and fell backward, Frictor flipped off of Kraven's shoulders. He then dove on top of him. After mounting Kraven's midsection, he sent forearm after forearm into Kraven's face. At one point, Kraven was busted open, but Frictor didn't stop until one blow made Kraven's body go limp. He stood up from atop of the hunter, who was now unconscious and bleeding slowly from a wound below his left eye.

"World's greatest hunter, huh?" Frictor spat out. "Miss me with that!"

"Well, that was rather uneventful," I commented before I webbed Kraven down to the pavement. I then looked at the car. "What do we do about The Scion?"

Frictor sighed. "Nothing. We leave it here."

I looked at him. "Aren't you afraid you'll be tracked?"

"The VIN is fake, the license plate is fake, and the person who it's supposed to be registered to died three decades ago. Plus, the two of us have never been arrested, so any fingerprints or DNA they might find won't show up in a database. Let's just get out of here while we can."

I nodded before I moved next to him and wrapped my arm around his midsection. "Um, hold on."

"Why? What are you OH CRAP!"

I began to websling away. As I did so, Frictor held on for dear life, but didn't yell out or panic. I made sure to evade the Daily Bugle helicopter before we both ended up in an abandoned warehouse. After we waited about twenty minutes, Frictor called up Carmilla for a ride to The Bunker. She showed up in the armored SUV about thirty minutes later. Frictor and I piled into the vehicle before she drove off. During the drive, I looked outside of the window. I wanted to be happy that we made short work of Kraven. I really did. But, I couldn't help but get the suspicion that things went a little too well tonight. Kraven was supposed to be the world's greatest hunter. Certainly, he must have done his homework on us. So why did he think he could just take us head on? There was a certain feeling in my stomach. Something wasn't adding up. As I continued to look out of the window, there was only one thought going through my head.

This wasn't over.