Where a spider starts to spread its webs and gets into other predator's grounds


Part 1 - Chapter 4: Serious Talks

It took almost three days of coming and going at the library until Peter got a reply for his email.

He was still embarrassed from the previous day, when Mrs. Gordon, the red haired librarian, actually heard his stomach growl and almost forced him to accept a sandwich that she brought with her.

Peter suspected she actually had bought it just for him, since she had two with her that day, so he had to finally admit, eating just what he could at the homeless shelter was taking a higher toll on his body than he had expected.

Three days might have sounded like no time at all for some, but for a super human like him, with senses dialed to eleven and stamina and disposition to swing across the whole Island of Manhattan throughout the day? These were three days of almost utter soul-crushing boredom, of nothing but waiting, and he was not even able to web-sling his stress away to help.

And the wait had ended with one message, consisting of two phrases and an attachment. The text, simply reading "Gentleman, you had my curiosity… but now you have my attention." made Peter blink in surprise.

'The man is one the most intelligent scientists in the world… and he answers with a meme.'

The attachment, much more useful, was a screen capture from… Querioo Maps, of a diner ten blocks to the north of the Library, with a date (it was the following day) and time (noon) added on top of it, probably with Microsoft Paint, by the looks of it.

At the appointed time and location, having had arrived at least ten minutes earlier, Peter had already been seated at one of the window tables. The waitress had given some odd looks, probably from the look of his clothes, but a few smiles and some common courtesy quickly got him politely ignored by her.

Almost on the exact time of meeting, Peter soon recognized the newly arrived man from the magazine photos - tall, almost in his mid-forties, still auburn hair and blue inquisitive eyes.

Though not really athletic right now, Peter could see signs that this man used to be far more in shape not too long ago, still lingering muscle toning on both arms, visible even under the button-up shirt, and the strong neck, 'definitely uncharacteristically for a rich scientist', Peter pondered.

The man quickly crossed the distance to his table, pulled up a chair and joined Peter.

"Hello. Ted Kord, scientist, entrepreneur, and chairman of the board of Kord Industries. You must be Peter Parker.", and offered him his right hand.

And to answer the yet to be asked question, Ted gave a pointed look at the paper in Peter's hand then back to his face.

"Hello, Mr. Kord, I am Peter Parker.", the younger man said, a 'firm' hand shake following which was promptly waved off by the multimillionaire. "It's Ted, Peter, you can call me Ted."

A new and much more welcoming waitress came and went, both men only ordering water for the moment.

"Ok, formalities out of the way", Ted changed gears, now much less friendly and more inquisitive. "Tell me about this."

And he tapped a finger on top of the reason they were meeting, the noted paper.

"Well, I found it on the Internet, your… presentation at Central City University, three years ago…"

"You can call it as it is, kid, it was a recruitment pitch. I've got to get my name in before S.T.A.R. Labs can snatch the best graduates for themselves. Continue."

"Well, I was doing some research on technology advancements in the last five years, and Kord Industries' name popped-up, specifically about smart self-sealing fabrics."

"Yes, I remember that speech, and these smart fabrics were practically a footnote on the whole exposition of how Kord Industries were ahead of their competitors, experimenting with the self-replicating properties of E. coli bacteria."

"I was actually fascinated by this, have there been advancements on the project?", asked Peter in legitimate curiosity.

"Some", Ted replied, mysteriously. "But that is nothing compared to what you sent me."

"Well", Peter looked at his paper, theatrically. "It's all theoretical, really-"

"Kid, I punched the numbers into my best calculator, and they were solid. What you have here - if you can make it work - is nothing short of a miracle. Unstable. Molecules. Fabric."

At this moment, Peter made a small mental apology to Reed Richards, but if he had to get himself a seat at the big boys table in this Earth, he would have to swing for the fences and sell the idea that he had come up with this all on his own, so now…

… now it was time to BS his way into his 'discovery'.

"Well, I had always been fascinated by the works of Palmer and Choi in the subatomic and quantum field, and their mentioning of 'unstable molecules' they encountered"

'And thank God they had', Peter remarked to himself.

"This helped me theorize that, since they exist in the angstrom-edge between matter and energy, with the ability to become either, could there be a way to perform a quantum-entanglement between U-molecules and 'anchor' them to normal unaltered ones?"

Peter grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and held them up to the multimillionaire.

"And, as the Palmer-Choi studies show, when there is an atomic shift in their proximity, these U-Molecules mimic that change"

He turned the salt shaker in his right hand upside-down, then did the same to the pepper shaker in his left hand.

"So, theoretically, through particle transference, these 'Anchors' would be altered in the same manner, only, when their environment returns to normal…"

Both shakers were set right side up.

"... so would they, defaulting to their anchor settings.", Ted finished the thought process along, his face clearly in awe. "So, if you synthesize-"

"Theoretically synthesize", Peter added, because normal supergenius graduates should not know that the Government and some superheroes actually had the technological capability to actually do it in real life.

"Theoretically synthesize", Ted Kord corrected himself, as if humoring the younger man. "these U-molecules and bond them into a fabric, you could 'anchor' them to thermoresistant materials to make it practically fireproof."

"Or radioactive resistant, or bulletproof, it only depends on the material they are entangled with", Peter completed, remembering how these fabrics were the basis to many superheroes' costumes, having been originally developed by Richards for his own team, the Fantastic Four.

Then, cheekily, Peter had to add: "Theoretically."

Peter was banking on Ted Kord to have some connection to the US Government or maybe some of the Justice League heroes.

The multimillionaire's presence at the diner, coming from Chicago or El Paso or Palmera City or whatever other Kord Lab he was working on this week, to meet him in person - it all told Peter this: Ted had more than just 'checked' that his calculations were correct, he had worked with the U-molecules before and knew that his notes could work.

"Peter Parker, you are one scary son of a gun", Ted Kord wondered. "I had to come here to make sure someone else wasn't pulling my leg, but I have to give it to you, you impressed me."

"Really?", Peter put as much surprise as he could into his voice, making sure not to oversell it.

Ted nodded. "To be honest, Peter, I am always looking for good people, innovators, with intelligence, yes, but also with big ideas, no, the biggest ideas! We are at the precipice of new technological advancements. What was fantasy in the past", Ted Kord lifted his left index finger, "is about to become reality tomorrow", now the right index finger was also lifted.

"It only depends on the person that can make the jump.", he got both fingers side-by-side. almost touching one another. "And the gap is getting ever so smaller. Biomimicry engineering, Neogenic recombination, Zero-size intelligence."

"And you think I'm one of these people, because of this?", Peter pointed at his notes.

"Pete, what I just told you will be tomorrow's news. Your notes?"

Ted pointed at one of the last lines of his theory, where Peter had consciously left a vague enough equation to show he was still 'not there yet'.

"They're in the realm of what the competition will only dream about in the next decade. This is terra incognita, nobody has ever looked into this like you did. And I want you to work for me, getting all of this... into reality."

"Just making sure, you really want to hire me?" Peter asked, in a serious tone.

"Kid - Peter - my boy. I want you to be on my top team at Kord Industries' Gotham Division's Labs.", Ted dropped the bomb, with a smug.

"That's how serious I am."


One day later.

"You can't be serious", said the costumed man in front of him, a mask shaped like a letter 'T' covering most of his face, his trademark 'Fairplay' jacket on the nearby chair.

"Oh, but I am", replied Ted Kord, still in his Blue Beetle costume, sans mask. "This guy is the real deal. You had to talk to him to see it, Michael. He knows his stuff and he has many other ideas as well, and check this out, this whole unstable molecules fabric idea? He came up with it on a whim."

Michael Holt, aKa Mr. Terrific, hummed. "And what Doctorade does he have?"

"None."

Now that caught the attention of the one called Third Smartest Man in the World.

"Self-taught, homeschooled, GED, up until he graduated in two majors, Chemistry and Physics. Orphan, he went to live with his aunt, who died of heart issues. An already bad economic situation got worse, the boy had to sell his home to pay for the medical expenses bills and came to live in Gotham."

Ted gave his friend the resumé he got from Peter and that he himself had researched before ever meeting the young genius - which didn't stop Mr. Terrific from researching the data for himself.

"He is also living in a homeless shelter", Michael revealed, and he checked his colleague. "And you knew about it as well."

"Of course. I may not be the World's Greatest Detective, but Parker wasn't willing to reveal much about himself beyond his past, so I checked it out myself. No money left from the house, still he helps out in one of Gotham's charities in exchange for food and bed. Offered him an advancement for his first salary, and I didn't take a no for it. Boy needed some food, that's for sure."

Michael Holt wondered for a moment then advised: "You give an unknown person a huge offer like this, but you know nothing about him except from a lunch."

"It was those eyes of his, Michael. There was loss in his life, but also determination, and cunning too. He's ambitious, I'll give you that. His move on sending me these notes? It was really transparent, he discovered something that would interest me and gave it to me practically for free. Why? Because he didn't come from riches and doesn't care about the money. A guy like this craves something more, and I think you know what it is."

Michael nodded.

It was that itch, the explorer gene, the yearn for the next big discovery.

Some people could never understand it, that hunger to make the next leap in science, not for the glory of having their names written in the annals of history, but to make sure that they helped the scientific community take the next step.

"Nobody ever gave him a chance before, not the one that matters, the chance to achieve greater heights. Might as well see what he is capable of when properly sponsored, don't you agree?"


"You can't be serious."

Jason Todd, in his guise of Red Hood, had just arrived at a reportedly active crime scene, only to find, once again, he had been too late.

The third time in a row this sort of thing had happened, in fact, and he missed them all. Today's perps - four low life scums with barely any firepower besides a couple of revolvers - already dealt with, though, this time, instead of a couple of thieves hanging from light post by their feet, held by improvised ropes, the four men were tied together with some sort of white stringy rope, and the money they stole from the convenience store down the block, along with their firearms, was all enveloped in the same substance as well, like a plastic bag, or some sort of… web.

Jason quickly snatched the note stuck to them - because why not, whoever did this had to promote themselves - and read the message left behind.

"From your Friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man."

Oh, and he signed with an emoji drawing that seemed oddly familiar… 'Ah, the masked freak Duke met last month.', his memory aided him with the answer

Jason recalled the meeting and the red mask with large white lenses.

Now he had a 'face' and a 'name' to pin on the latest nuisance.

The white substance, now he could identify it, was the rope that Spider-Man used to flee from Signal - that thing that dissolved into nothing after Duke brought it back for analysis.

Todd evaluated the bruises, and could guess this Spider-freak was at least passable in hand-to-hand, several points of impact showing strikes done to end the fight quickly, but the new guy had made a mistake, a big one.

He had been hunting in Red Hood's territory.

Ever since his return to the "good guys" side, Jason Todd had been adamant on the Mission.

There had been much discussion in the family. There were investigations and finally proof that his more homicidal tendencies were derived from the mental corruption caused by his reanimation via Lazarus Pit.

There were solemn promises of no killing and to visit a therapist every week - two of Batman's non-negotiable demands he practically strong-armed out of his prodigal son.

And there had been his demand that the Narrows and a good chunk of Park Row - just stopping at Crime Alley - were his to maintain and keep clean.

And if this guy started to roam around, bringing his own brand of justice in Batman's city, and Jason did nothing about it, then maybe the Old Bat would start questioning his competence.

Maybe Jason Todd would not be useful as hero.

Maybe… he would have to be dealt with, as a criminal again.

With a harsh press of a button on his belt, the red helmet's HUD gave him a trail of thermal traces, the hot spots where Spider-Man climbed over a fire escape ladder and… the wall?

"Fine. You wanted the attention, buddy? You got it.", he said outloud.

No other vigilante crossed his area.

The Spider wanted to do it?

Well, that now made the new guy his problem to investigate.


To be Continued!


Author's notes:

And this makes five chapters!

Thank you for the support and taking the time to read another piece of my story!