Peter Parker

When I got home, I sat on my bed for a bit. I thought about the night before. I couldn't help but find that night to be rather bittersweet. On one hand, hanging out with MJ and Ned was a great time, as usual. And MJ's parents seemed to think I'm okay. On the other hand, though, I wondered if it would all be for nothing. I was still trying to brace myself for a possible breakup. Even if I didn't have to worry about that, I also realized that, sooner or later, her parents would have to know the part of my life that only a handful of people know – the part of my life as Spider-Man. How would they take it? Would they be okay with it? Would they want MJ to break up with me? Would that cause problems between her and her family?

I sighed as I laid myself out on the bed.

"It's about five o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm already done with this day and the rest of the week," I grumbled to myself. I was taken out of my thoughts when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I reached for my phone and fished it out. I checked my phone, seeing I got a message from Kitty. I read the text. I then sat up.

"So much for staying home for the rest of the evening," I muttered to myself.

After I suited up in my quick change outfit, I swung through the city towards the Bunker. Maybe the city decided to have pity on me, because the only delay to my trip was a floating balloon that managed to slip out of a little boy's grasp. After grabbing the balloon and returning it, I made a beeline towards the Bunker.

Once I arrived, I made my way inside and down to the meeting area. Kitty was there, along with Craig, Carmilla, and Joanna. They were all seated at the roundtable.

"Hey guys," I greeted as I took a seat next to Joanna. "How's everything?"

"I guess things are okay," Kitty replied. "Before we begin, are you okay? I know you've had quite a bit to deal with lately."

I shrugged as I removed my mask. "I'm doing what I always do. I cope." Joanna patted me on my shoulder consolingly. I looked at her and smiled thankfully before I looked back at Kitty. For the sake of changing the subject, I decided to tell a joke. "This isn't an intervention, is it? Because I told you, I can stop my Star Wars hobby any time I want."

"Doubt it," Carmilla deadpanned as Craig chuckled.

"We'll get to your Star Wars addiction at a later date," Kitty said with a tone of amusement as she smirked. She then became completely serious. "But, the reason why I called this meeting is because of what Carmilla and I found from the files we lifted. Carmilla, you want to take it away?"

"Yeah, I got it." Carmilla looked at all of us. "It was a lot to go through since Kitty grabbed pretty much every highly encrypted file she could find, along with some other things. There were a couple of things that stood out. Chief among them was the bank records. There was a mass sum of money used to buy cryptocurrency, specifically Ethereum. Kitty was able to track down the wallets the Ethereum has been deposited in. And there were several. Once we tracked them down, we were able to find transfers going to another wallet that's not tied to them, from what we can tell."

"I couldn't find the identity of the person behind the wallet," Kitty continued. "However, the wallet itself was referred to as The Man in Red. I can't be hundred percent sure, but there's a chance it could be The Jackal."

"Okay, but why?" Craig asked. "If The Jackal is working with Hammer and Kraven, wouldn't he be on government payroll?"

"They're probably doing it for the sake of distance," Joanna answered. I looked at her as she frowned. "During my PMC days, I got hired out to do jobs for different governments around the world. It's their way of getting certain things done without being connected to it. Considering what we saw from Peter's recording, I think we can conclude that The Jackal is not exactly someone the U.S. Government wants to be publically associated with."

"That's what I'm thinking, too," Kitty agreed. As we looked at her, she continued to speak. "That's why Carmilla and I have a bit of an idea. It's an idea that's extremely illegal."

I grimaced. "Isn't most of what we do highly illegal?"

Kitty shook her head. "Well, we'll be dancing on a line." She grimaced. "See… Carmilla and I may not have gotten wind of a corporate retreat happening in Houston, Texas."

"…What are you two suggesting?" Craig asked slowly as he looked back and forth between Kitty and Carmilla.

"Well, we've been playing defense, for the most part," Carmilla began. "So, I was thinking, we could do something to put us back in control of things. The idea we came up with is… well… we would be… we would be…" Carmilla trailed off as a certain look came over her eyes. "Screw it. Guys, we're planning on kidnapping Justin Hammer and bringing him back to New York. We'd set up a fake ransom and lure Kraven and The Jackal out, and then we'd take them on right there and then."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Joanna lean forward. "Excuse me?" she uttered.

"Hear me out," Kitty said as she stood up. "It wouldn't be all of us. It'd just be four of us. Specifically, it'd be me, Carmilla, Peter, and Craig."

Joanna scoffed. "And I have to stay home alone?"

"You won't be alone, per se. You'd be working with Kaine." Kitty smiled. "Don't take it the wrong way, Joanna. It's not that I distrust you or doubt you. It's that we want to do this as quickly and as stealthily as possible and… you stand you're kind of a tall drink of water, to say the least."

Joanna sighed. "So, I've been told. But be that as it may…"

As they were talking, I was trying to wrap my mind around what I was hearing. I wasn't going to act like I never bend the rules before. You kind of have to bend the rules when you're a vigilante. But kidnapping somebody? I wasn't so sure I could go through with something like that, even if the person in question is Justin Hammer.

"So we're kidnapping people now?" I spoke up. "Don't you think we're taking things a bit too far? I don't like Justin Hammer any more than anyone else here. If anything, I probably hate him more than anyone else here. But don't you think we may be crossing a line?"

"Yeah, I got some reservations myself," Craig said. "Other than the aforementioned possible line crossing, this would be a huge hit to the X-Men's PR. Right now, we have a significant amount of the public's opinion on our side. The moment we start kidnapping people and word gets out, all of a sudden, The Accords doesn't seem like too bad of an idea. And worse than that, people are going to be looking at mutants with an even more distrustful eye."

"I get that," Kitty said with a nod. "Which is why I'm proposing that, if we do this, we do it while disguised and with minimal power use."

"…Are you married to this idea?" Joanna asked.

Kitty looked at Joanna. "Do you have a better idea?"

"I think I do." We all looked at Joanna. "Look, your plan is not bad, per se. But I think we should use that as a Plan B. I think we already have the key to getting to both The Jackal and Kraven in one go."

"And what key is that?" I asked. I felt a bit hopeful that we were going to go another direction.

"That key is Kaine. We can have him become more active underneath the suit, getting Kraven's attention. He puts up a fight before he takes a dive, he's get hauled off. He'd have a tracker on him, and we'd move in rather quickly and get the drop on them." All of a sudden, kidnapping Justin Hammer didn't seem like too bad of an idea. I opened my mouth to say something. Before I could, Joanna looked at me and continued. "That's if he's okay with it. We won't twist his arm on this."

Still, I shook my head. "I don't want to put him in danger."

"Like I said, we'll just ask him. If he says no, we'll either go with Plan B or think of something else."

"And, to be fair, I think Kaine has proven himself to be rather capable, to say the least," Carmilla pointed out.

"It would be a bit cleaner," Kitty mused as she looked down at the desk in thought. She nodded before she looked straight at me. "Let's you and I pay him a visit. If he says yes, we'll go with it. If not, we'll do with Plan B." She then tilted her head. "You don't have any plans for the night, do you?"

"Just my normal daily dose of brooding," I deadpanned. There was a bit of sincerity underneath that bit of sarcasm. I stood up. "Ready to go?"

Kitty nodded. "Yeah."

We made our way over to the bar Kaine worked at. Kitty insisted we drive. She wanted to talk to me in private.

"So, how're you holding up?" Kitty asked as she drove. "Like, how are you really?"

I frowned as I looked out the window of the passenger side door. "I've been better," I said.

"Talk to me." I looked over at Kitty, who gave me a sideways glance. "This whole MJ situation has been weighing on you, hasn't it?"

I nodded as I looked straight. "It is. I… The night before, Ned and I swung by MJ's place to cheer her up with some Legos. And then her folks came home. I ended up eating dinner at her house. Her folks got to know me a little bit. It was a great time honestly, even when they asked me about my parents. And yet…" I shook my head. "I wonder if it'll be meaningless in the coming days. Mirror MJ… she resents me. She resents me a lot. And I don't blame her." I looked at Kitty. "When MJ and I reconciled after she kept her distance from me, I thought that her not wanting anything to do with me was something I didn't have to worry about anymore." I shook my head. "So much for that." I frowned. "I'm trying to be optimistic. Betty and Pepper both tried to get me to be optimistic about it but… I don't know." I sighed. "What is your take?"

"…Sweetie, I don't want to answer that," Kitty said in quietly.

I grimaced in confusion. "Why not?"

"I can only go only one of two directions on this. Direction one, I lie to you and fill you with hope. Direction two, I tell you the truth and fill you with despair. I don't want to lie to you, and I don't want to make your feelings about the situation worse than it already is. I'm sorry little brother, but I got nothing for you."

I pressed my lips together as I nodded. "That's fair," I conceded.

"Just promise me something. Promise me you won't withdraw if worse comes to worst. Whatever happens, just know we're here for you. Okay?"

"I won't withdraw." I smiled slightly. "I promise."

We arrived at the bar Kaine worked at. After we parked, we got out of the car and made our way inside. Once inside, we found Kaine behind the counter, wiping down a mug, as per usual. We walked up to him. He looked up at us. He sighed.

"Let me guess, you need me for something?" he asked in resignation.

"We do," Kitty said as she sat on a stool. "Feel free to say no, though, because what I'm asking of you is rather drastic."

Kaine narrowed his eyes. "In what way?"

"…Well… It would involve you playing superhero." Kaine's eyes were still narrowed, but he didn't say anything. As I swallowed a lump in my throat, Kitty continued. "It's like this. The Jackal wants you, and Kraven wants you. After what we pulled, there's no doubt that they know we're working with each other. Because of that… we're asking you to be bait for them."

"To draw them out?"

"More like to give them a false sense of security. We'd put a tracker on you and you'd lose a fight with them on purpose and get captured on purpose. That way we can track you to wherever their base of operations is." Kitty sighed. "I know we're asking you for a lot, but –"

"I'll do it," Kaine interjected.

I raised an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

"The sooner I get my hands on The Jackal, the better. I'm getting tired of hiding from him. Even with that aside, if he created me, what's stopping him from creating another clone that would actually follow him?" I was actually given pause. I didn't even think about that. Even though I didn't know for sure at the time, I had a feeling that Kaine was stronger than me. He was probably even faster than me. While I've taken on people stronger than me before, such as Thanos and Mac Gargan (or Bootleg Scorpion, as Craig calls him), I never took on someone who matched my abilities. And I really didn't want to have to deal with that.

What the heck?

"So we're in agreement," Kitty said with a nod. "But, you know, we're going to have to give you a codename."

"Do we really have to?" Kaine asked.

"It would make things easier."

"What about Tarantula?" I offered. "I think it's straight to the point."

"…It would make for sweet irony considering what we did to Anton," Kaine said thoughtfully. He then nodded. "Well, there it is. New York gets a new hero. Fucking Tarantula!" He smiled a wryly. "I hate this already."

I scoffed. I then frowned. "Are you sure you're okay with this? I know you already agreed to do this, but I need to make sure. I don't want to lose a family member… again."

"I… appreciate your concern. I really do. But between Kraven and The Jackal, I guess this was inevitable. All this would is speed things up." He then tilted his head briefly. "I guess I already had a coming out party of sorts, anyway."

"Well, I'd welcome you to the X-Men, but I think Scott gets final say," Kitty commented. "But, for the time being, I'll just have to owe you dinner, just you and I."

Kaine stared at Kitty for some seconds. He then raised his eyebrows briefly. "I… wouldn't be opposed." It took all of my willpower not to smirk in amusement. "Now you two run along. This place is still closed, and I don't want the owner walking in on me and thinking I'm dilly-dallying."

"We'll be on our way." Kitty stood up. "When we have everything prepared, we'll contact you. But, for now, keep your head down, will you?"

Kaine scoffed. "I think I did a good job of doing so. You found me off of a fluke, remember?"

"He has a point," I said.

Kitty chuckled. "Well, either way, have a good night, Kaine."

"You two, as well."

Once we were back in the car, I gave Kitty a sideways glance as I put on my seatbelt. Kitty stared at me.

"What?" she said.

"Remember when you asked if I have a brother that's six-four?" I said in amusement.

Kitty stared at me for some seconds. She then faced forward. "No comment."