Peter Parker

MJ wasn't the only person making questionable decisions.

Things returned to normal on Monday… sort of. I still went to school and I still went to work. However, my powers haven't returned yet. I had to remind myself of that on a few occasions whenever a crime happened nearby. As much as I wanted to go save the day, I had to keep myself from intervening. It was nothing more than a normal human. A stray bullet could definitely kill me, even if it didn't hit anything vital.

You know that feeling you get when you want to help somebody out, but you can't? Well, that feeling gets even worse when you lose your ability to help out.

Tuesday morning rolled around. I got a text from Kitty telling me to come over to The Bunker. Something told me there was something major to talk about. So, after putting on a pair of jeans, a blue plaid shirt, and a grey hoodie, I made my way over. When I arrived, I saw a red Durango Hellcat. Buford was here. Yup, this was going to be something major. I punched in the code before I opened the door. After I was inside, I closed the door and made my way over to the light switches. I flipped them up in a certain order. Once I did that, a part of the floor opened up, showing the staircase. I made my way down the stairs. Kitty and Joanna was sitting at the roundtable with Buford. Craig and Carmilla were standing at the Keurig machine, each with a cup of coffee as they talked.

"Hey guys," I greeted, getting everyone's attention.

"Been a minute, Peter," Buford greeted. "How're you holding up? Kitty told me that you had an eventful last few days."

I scoffed. "I believe people would call that an understatement. But, I'm handling it well, I think?"

Buford nodded. "Good to hear."

"Let's gather around," Kitty said. I took a seat between Kitty and Joanna. Craig and Carmilla sat between Buford and Kitty. I looked towards the table for a moment, seeing a dark blue folder that lay in front of Carmilla. "The reason I called everyone here is because Carmilla's people were able to get some information out of the person looking over Peter when we rescued him. So, Carmilla, if you would kindly…"

"Yes ma'am," Carmilla spoke up. She grabbed the folder and opened it up. She then passed the folder around so we could look at what was inside of it. "The man we captured is Anton Miguel Rodriguez, hailing from the South American country of Delvadia. He wore quite a few hats over the years. He was a revolutionary, fighting to overthrow the aforementioned country's government. However, he ended up working for the government when the rebels cut ties with him for being too extreme."

"Too extreme?" Joanna repeated as she got the file and looked at it. "In what way, exactly?"

"Well, said rebel group performed bombings, kidnappings of politicians for ransom, and assassinations. However, killing a civilian in cold blood, even if they're a security guard of the bank you're robbing, crosses the line." As Carmilla said that, Joanna passed the file off to me. I looked at the folder, seeing a picture. I figured this was Anton. His hair was medium length, and he had a goatee, both of which were black. His skin was tanned and he had brown eyes. As I passed the file to Kitty, Carmilla continued. "So, after he was expelled from the rebel group, he ironically ended up working for Delvadia's government, operating under the name of Tarantula, a costumed identity. He was basically paraded around as the country's fascist version of Captain America and sicced him on the very rebel group he used to be a part of… until he had to flee the country. It turns out that killing a prison guard for not allowing you to beat a captured rebel doesn't make for good PR. He's been a mercenary around the world since, now employed by Kraven."

"I'm glad to know Kraven is surrounding himself with only the finest of humanitarians," Buford quipped, his Southern drawl underscoring his sarcasm.

"Okay, so this Anton is a whole menace," Craig cut in. "What did he have to say?"

"Well, when I called ahead before we dropped him off, there was one thing in particular I was curious about was Kraven's sudden increase in physical attributes, such as his strength and agility," Carmilla explained. "I was able to confirm that, even though Kraven has always been athletic, he was never a superhuman until extremely recently, like between his fight with Craig and Peter and the riot."

I blinked a couple of times. "So how did he get stronger?" I asked. "Was he bitten by a radioactive animal or something?"

Carmilla shook her head. "No – close, but no. He had his DNA spliced with that of a lion's. And, unfortunately, his strength and agility isn't the only thing enhanced. He also has enhanced speed, reflexes, stamina…" She frowned. "…and senses."

Craig quickly stood up. "I'm sorry, what?!"

I looked at him. "What's the issue?"

Craig slowly turned his head towards me. "What's the issue? Don't you get it?! He has enhanced senses, which means he has an enhanced sense of smell! He fought most of us here after you were kidnapped and he most likely saw you while you were captured! That means he'll be able to find us while we're out of costume!"

It slowly sunk in, what he said. I then started to panic. Craig wasn't wrong. If anything, he wasn't panicking enough. I stood up, turned away, and walked forward a few steps. I covered my mouth as my eyes shifted left and right. I wasn't just thinking about the fact that Kraven can find me out of costume. I also knew that a person's scent could rub off on me. And considering all the times MJ cuddled with me, made out with me, and been to my place… and considering all the times I hung out with Ned and how I work with Betty…

"He knows my scent," I thought out loud. I then turned towards the others. "He most likely know MJ's scent, Ned's scent, and Betty's scent too!"

"Probably not," Kitty said in a calm tone. I glared at her. "Peter, chill please. Prior to your kidnapping, it was a couple of days since you've seen MJ and a couple of days since she's been in your room. Unless you didn't shower properly, the chances of him picking up MJ's scent on you are practically zero."

I paused for a moment. She was right. I took in a breath before I cleared my throat. "…You have a point there."

Kitty gave me a small smile before she frowned. "Still, we'll have to watch our backs out there."

"Or not," Buford said. Everyone looked at him.

"What'chumean?!" Craig demanded.

Buford turned towards him. "Son, have you ever gone hunting before?"

"No, I haven't. Deer ain't exactly common where I come from."

"Well, as you can all probably imagine, one of the main issues with hunting deer is that deer also have pretty good senses, 'specially hearing and smelling. You can't do much 'bout the former. But, the latter, though? That can be handled with some scent neutralizers. As a matter of fact, a whole Elimishield kit for each one of y'all should do. It'll be a while, though, if we ordered it online."

"It probably wouldn't be wise to order it online anyway," Joanna said. "Is there any place we could just get it off the shelf or something?"

Buford looked at the ceiling in thought. "You probably could pick some up at Bass Pro Shops." He raised his eyebrows briefly before he looked back at Joanna. "Problem is, the nearest one is all the way up in Auburn, and that's about four hours away."

I looked over at Kitty as she leaned back in her seat. She was quiet for a few moments as she looked around at all of us. "…Okay," she finally said. "Carmilla, Joanna, I'm assuming you guys having nothing major planned for the day. Am I right?"

"I got nothing," Carmilla confirmed.

"I was just going to do some grocery shopping, but it can be done tomorrow," Joanna answered.

"Good. I need you two to take a trip to Auburn and buy a good amount of the stuff Buford is talking about, or something similar. Got it?"

"Yeah, we got it," Carmilla replied as she and Joanna stood up.

Kitty nodded. "Take the Rivian R1S from The Bunker. It should be fully charged."

Carmilla nodded. "Catch you guys on the flipside. Come on, Joanna. We're taking a girls trip." She gave us the peace sign with her right hand as she and Joanna left. Kitty turned towards the rest of us.

"As for the rest of you, just keep a low profile. And if you hear about Kraven being in the area, avoid him as much as you can. For now, I'm going to see if I can investigate further into how Kraven has gained his new abilities."

"Okay," I said as Craig nodded.

Kitty sighed. "Maybe we should reach out to Kaine."

"Yeah, don't bother," Craig said. "Peter and I already talked to him earlier in the week. He doesn't have the heart for people."

Kitty tilted her head. "Did he say that?"

"Almost word for word," I confirmed. "He also mentioned trying to keep a low profile, but he has a dislike for the people of New York, and me getting posthumously screwed by Quentin Beck didn't exactly do much to change his opinion. If anything, it reinforced it."

Kitty frowned. "That's disappointing." She then tilted her head briefly. "But I can't say I blame him. Well, that's it for this meeting. Back to life, back to reality."

"Peter, Craig, come on," Buford said as he stood up. "I'll drop you boys off."

The next morning, I thought it was going to be a normal day. It wasn't.

I was at a subway platform, waiting for the train to Time Square. I had my camera with me. I also had Edith with me as I sat on a bench with the pair of sunglasses on my face. She talked to me about random happenings in the world, like Scott Lang's book tour, the exploits of X-Force, and an upcoming shareholders meeting for Hammer Industries. I nodded along. As much as I wanted to speak, I couldn't. I didn't want to appear crazy. But, then again, this was New York. Would me talking to myself seem out of place?

Probably not.

So, remember when I said that MJ wasn't the only one making questionable decisions? Yeah, about that…

As I waited for the train, a man walked past me before coming to a stop a few feet away from me. He was on his cellphone. I didn't think anything of it at first. I just kept on waiting for the train. But then he spoke. It was in a language I didn't quite recognize. That, in and of itself, wasn't enough to make me suspicious. What really made me suspicious was the fact that he was constantly looking around as if he was looking for someone. Suddenly, I got a feeling in my gut. It wasn't my Spider Sense. That wasn't back yet. But something told me that this guy was dealing in something illegal. Of course, I needed to be sure.

I try my best not to profile people on assumptions.

Casually, I pulled out my phone and went through my contacts until the name "Edith Parker" was highlighted. I tapped the contact then wrote a text message.

"Edith, would you kindly listen in on that man's phone call?" I wrote before I sent the message. Seconds later, I started to hear the phone call. I didn't understand what they were saying. I sent another text to Edith. "What language are they speaking?"

A second later, Edith responded. "They're speaking Russian. Would you like me to translate?"

I typed. "Yes."

Within the lens of my sunglasses, subtitles appeared.

"…and maybe I would've gotten here faster if you allowed me to just take a helicopter there!"

"We can't allow you to bring attention to yourself. The Jackal doesn't want to be found."

"This is ridiculous!"

"This is a needed precaution. Just get there."

The called ended. During this, the train began to pull into the station. As the trained slowed to a stop, I took a few moments to think about what I wanted to do. I could just leave it alone and tell Kitty about this. Or I could follow this guy and… do what exactly? I didn't know. But as the train doors opened up and the man entered, I found myself standing up, hesitating a moment, then walking onto the train. As I did so, I sent a text to Edith.

"Edith, please share my location to Craig so he can track me. Also, compose an e-mail to Robbie that I'll be a bit late this morning."

I took in a breath, then put the phone into my pocket.

Kitty's going to kill me.