Peter returned back to MJ's house with a headache still and crept inside, starling her.
"Couldn't you knock!" She asked, a little jumpy.
"Sorry, everything is hurting. Mainly my-head. Crap, just forget what my head was called. Words are hard, right." The young man sat down on her bed.
She looked over at him, concerned. "Guess you got your bell rung, huh?"
"Could say that." He paused for a moment making a face. "I'll be alright. I met a newbie, tried to crush my brain from the inside. At least it felt like that. I have no clue how." He rubbed his head. "Even turned off my Spider-sense I suspect or my being abducted did not meet the criteria for panicking."
Her concern raised, which was visible in her face as it tightened more. "As in the thing that protects you the most? Tells you when to move from bullets headed your way? Or perhaps giant monsters intending on crushing you and etc.?"
His concern sprung upwards too. "Yep. Could be permanent for all I know." He replied somberly in tone.
"Well, that wouldn't be good. To say the least. I'm going to make an assumption that you'd even without Spidey senses still put your life into the line of fire." Mary Jane said with knowing his response.
"Of course, just how I am. You know the speech." Peter replied sarcastically.
She smiled slightly. "I know, always the hero. Who was this creep, anyway?"
"I don't know called themself The Crime Master. Could tell if they were a guy or gal or what. They had a voice modulator, and their clothing was a bulky hoodie, a cheesy hat and a mask with white lines." Peter said, shaking his head.
Mary Jane thought hard about her next response. "Weird." This was all she said, leaving silence in the room for about a minute. "Do you think this creeper wants you dead?"
"No, I honestly don't know. I'm going to need rest, I think. Brain not working."
"Don't see much of a difference."c
"Hey!" Peter replied, hurt. "I'm-alright, you win. We'll talk later. I need to sleep, and I got to work tomorrow." The young man went to return home before she remembered to ask a question and stopped him.
"Could you maybe, please, talk to Foswell?" She asked with a compiling tone of voice.
He sighed. "I'll try, he's been busy lastly. Working on something bad, he said. Or maybe I'm talking nonsense thanks to my brain being what is the word?"
"Just go to bed, Peter."
He went off again, and she whispered in his direction, so neither of their aunts nor neighbours could hear. "Don't die, or I'll kill you." It was unclear if he heard or would listen.
The next day Peter woke up with his headache gone thankfully. However, he woke up a little late, which was to say lightly, not good. Rushing out, the door was becoming a more and more common occurrence. Eating breakfast was not an option as he ran out the door. He at least managed to say bye to Aunt May, which was positive.
Taking the bus typically was what was done to get to the Bugle. Fortunately, a bus trip would get him their relatively a time.
As he sat on the bus headed to work, thoughts of The Crime Master filled the young man's mind.
Oh, was, were they? What did they want? How much trouble are they going to cause? Why spare his life? Will the Bugle be reporting on this new menace? What of the scary lady? Her fate was left up in the open. What of my Spider-sense?
All these thoughts and more stayed with him, nearly making the distracted youngster miss his stop. Rushing off the bus and inside was smooth. Not getting yelled at once, getting into the office was another story altogether.
A day that did not have J Johan Jameson yelling would mean the end times would be approaching soon. Or he had a cold. Today was like every other day. Of course, the man shouted ever words that came out of his mouth. The inside voice was never a lesson taught to him. No one dare mentioned that.
Luckily for Peter, the old loudmouth was quite busy, more than usual. So was Foswell still working away on his secret project.
"Morning, Peter." A voice said. Peter turned to see Ned Leeds.
He was a relatively young rookie reporter, at least in spirit. Peter never asked for his age. Leeds always greeted Peter warmly, said he reminded him of himself at a younger age and could tell he had heart. Which, to him, was essential for this business. Others would disagree.
"Your looking exhausted!" He exclaimed.
"Long night, massive migraine, you know how it is, I'm sure," Peter replied.
He chuckled. "Yeah, of course. Jonah gives me them with all his shouting. Even more ferrous today wanting to know about his wacko calling himself The Crime Master. Silly name, huh?"
"Yeah, what happened?" Peter asked, hoping they might know more then he did.
"Stormed one of Hammerhead's operations. Got into a massive shootout. A couple of Hammerhead's guys were popped. The majority of them survived. Seemed like he showed mercy for some reason. We know there's more to the story, Eddie got some pictures. Even a blurry one of some huge woman looks unhuman. Freaky stuff. It's why I stay put in the office. Nothing bad happens here." He said.
"No giant human scorpions or mad threats here, right?" Peter said sarcastically.
"Does that count? Seemed like folk to me."
"Hope so," Peter whispered under his breath.
"Anyways, I should go. Got some work to do. Good luck with whatever you're working on, Peter." Ned said, preparing to walk away.
"Thanks, Ned," Peter replied.
After Ned walked away, Peter wondered if he should try to determine what the Bugle knew about Crime-Master or wait for them to publish info they had. Considering it could be questionable why Peter Parker would be so interested in such a subject, it wouldn't be good overall. This place was crawling with reporters, surely that would mean curiosity would be high over anything. Still, he thought of perhaps asking Eddie Brock what he saw. Of course, the man was out and about.
Maybe some time to focus strictly on work wouldn't be so bad. With school returning, work time would be shortened, and somehow it seemed like everyone in the building appeared to have no basic understanding of computer or any tech for that matter.
Sitting down just made the young man spin with thoughts of everything going on in his busy life, which would only worsen once school returned. If only Crime-Master showed up during the summer. How much better that would have been. And less sleep deprivation. Felt like this would be a year-long issue.
To distract or perhaps amplify these issues, J Johan brushed out of his office. Old loud mouth naturally began shouting about Crime-Master. It appeared the old man wasn't a fan of this guy.
He began shouting, "This crime guy, he's one of the worst menses this city has seen! We must use our power to bring down this Wilson Fisk wannabe! Get out there and get me answers on this guy!"
Everyone scattered. As they did, Jonah spotted Peter staring.
"Parker!" He shouted. "Get back to work!"
The young man nearly jumped out of his skin. With all the threats faced so far, Jameson was still on the top of the list. Never before did he believe a man could excite off of sheer rage and never have their head explode like a volcano with living to tell the tail. Sometimes you just had to wonder if he was even a human!
After getting some work done by cleaning up Robby Robertson's computer, who happened to be returning to work soon as just before Peter arrived, he gave birth to a second child. The young man noticed Foswell returned to the office heading straight to his desk.
Peter headed over to see if he was busy, hoping to ask MJ's question.
"Hey, Mr. Foswell? I have a question, might seem odd." He began saying.
"Hey Peter, could you give me a minute. Sorry, not to be rude, of course, just need to get something written down. An address could help with a case I'm working on." The man typed away on his computer. "Ah. Have to love these. Can get info on pretty darn well anywhere." It was unclear where this was, but Peter kept a mental note. Perhaps Spider-Man could use it? "So, that's up?" He asked the closing that was on screen.
"My friend, not sure if I mentioned her. She thinks you might know about her father and mother?"
He paused. "Is that Ms. Allen? Poor girl."
"No. Her name is Mary Jane Watson."
Foswell's face changed. No words were spoken.
"Is everything alright?"
"I-what does the young lady want to know again?" He asked.
"Um, she believes you could possibly have helped put her dad in jail."
"I did put that man in jail really nasty fella. Listen, I just recalled I have more to do today. Could we talk about this another time?"
Before Peter could respond, Foswell got up and started walking away, waving at the young man heading off in a hurry.
That's not sketchy whatsoever. Peter thought, now wondering what was being hidden.
This would have to be dealt with later, of course, as now work was the main focus.
Elsewhere Harry Osborn was dealing with the aftermath of yet another party. His father had a business trip, and his butler wasn't doing so well. Recently his brother passed away, so he had to visit his family. Norman was okay with this. Claiming family was necessary when the man asked for his leave.
The young man sat once more as he paid a couple people to clean the house and make sure nothing was broken. Perks of being rich after all. At least, the place wasn't that messy, just a few people that needed to get booted out. One of which looked familiar, prompting him to confirm their presence.
"Liz Allen?" He asked, confused. Not expecting her to be partying, let alone one of his.
"Hey, host! What up, my man!" She said, clearly drunk and tipsy.
"Didn't know you were a party girl! He exclaimed.
She got close to him. "I'm sure there's a ton you don't know about me. Would you like to find out?"
Harry felt tempted by the offer, assuming the meaning. He'd never admit that for a moment, it was too tempting. She was in short shorts and showing cleavage after all. However, he knew better deep down, she was drunk, and Peter had a thing for her. A double companion for trouble if he wasn't careful. "I would love that." He began saying as she got closer, but continued. "However, I'm going to be a buzzkill and reject. See Peter, my best friend-"
She scoffed, hearing that. "Don't mention him. We can have our own thing. He rejected me, after all."
Harry was surprised. "Really? I mean, I'm hungover a bit but, Peter cared a ton about you."
She started looking around the room. "Past, not present, silly. Come on, give a girl some attention?" She started getting closer to him once more while he backed off.
"Na, I'm just going to ask you to sit down, cool off and chill. Got to get soon cause my dad will be back soon, and he'll be one pissed off fela, let me tell you!" Harry exclaimed, laughing nervously.
"Fine, Mr. Buzzkill." She collapsed on his large couch.
"How's the cleaning going!" He shouted, turning to the cleaners. They were going at a moderate speed. "Go faster!"
The elevator made a dinging sound. Harry turned to his horror, it was coming up.
"I'm screwed. So screwed." He said aloud as it got higher and higher. "Come on, ideas?!" Harry shouted, spinning his head around the room, freaking out.
Nobody responded or really cared. They did more once the elevator doors open with Norman stepping out.
"Dad, I can explain." Harry began to say.
Norman spoke over him. "All of you leave our residence, or I will call the police!" He exclaimed, motioning everyone to the exit door, which meant they'd all have to take the stairs, which would've been better than jail.
"Listen, dad, let me explain." Harry began saying.
Norman once more cut him off. "You listen, son, I'm not going to yell at you this time or ground you. Not disappointed. Believe me when I say all I'm feeling is a true deep concern."
Harry scoffed. "Please. Just ground me and be leave me be."
"I admit. Mistakes were made during your upbringing. I see my faults, my failing. Harry, I'm truly sorry. Clearly, yelling at you didn't help anything. You escalated! Throwing parties, making messes bring strangers into our home! If you pull a stunt like this, I'll have to take more drastic measures." Norman said, holding his hands to his chin frowning. "Please, I'm practically begging you. Be on your best behaviour for your final year of high school. Let this party be the final expression of rebellious tendencies from you. Understand?"
Harry groaned and rolled his eyes, looking away from his father. "Fine, you win."
"It's not about winning, Harry." Norman was unable to finish his sentence as the phone rang. He picked it up and mentioned Harry to not move. "What?!" He asked, enraged to the person on the other end of the phone. He listened to them for a moment. "I don't give a damn what Tooms wants right now. I'm busy," Norman listened once more. "Screw it. The project can go up in flames. Don't let him leave with those prototypes." After another moment of silence, he repeated himself and hung up.
"You leaving?" Harry asked.
Norman turned to him, brightly for once. "No. Not again. You're more important. Like I was saying. I don't win by ruining your life if that's how you see it. I've lost something more important. You. If you hate me. I've lost. Repeated history. Your mo-" He stopped himself speaking. "My father was a horrible man who only cared about moulding me into his successor. A success, just not as intended. I hate his guts. Always will. He lost the game of life. His memory is a ratchety man who I'm glad is dead. I hope that I'll not be the same with us. Now, I'm not going anywhere until you clean your mayhem yourself."
Harry's mouth dropped. "Seriously? I paid cleaners prematurely."
"Lesson for the future. Don't pay in full if the job has a high percentage of falling apart. Tell you what, how about I change out of my suit, and help if you get an adequate amount of work done. Deal?" Norman said, putting his hand out.
"Deal," Harry replied, immediately shaking his hand.
Peter returned back home from another day at the Bugle. It was a good day overall. All he felt like doing was visiting MJ after checking up on May, who had to work soon. She'd be heading out the door almost immediately after getting home. All they had time for was hugs and quick small talk about one another's day.
Afterwards, he went in to visit MJ, who wasn't surprised this time around, already expecting his visit to share about any findings.
"Hey, Peter." She said calmly.
"Do you have Spider-Sense now?" He was surprised by how she detached him so quickly.
She laughed slightly. "I was expecting you. Duh."
"Fair enough," Peter replied, sitting beside her.
Mary Jane sighed and turned. "You have no information? I can tell from how relaxed you are."
"Yeah, nothing. Mr. Foswell wouldn't say a pep. Could tell something was being hidden. The question now would be, what?" Peter shook his head. "Felt like pushing harder, but couldn't risk him getting suspicious or my job if it came to that. May working sucks enough."
"It's fine. We'll get to the bottom of it. Thank you for helping at all. How's May holding up?" MJ asked, touching his shoulder.
"I always help you when I can," Peter said, looking directly into her bright eyes. He cleared his throat. "May's fine, I think, just hate how she's needing to work. I blame this all on me. Good thing you're well off."
She shrugged. "We're better off than you, money-wise. Won't last forever, soon I'll be needing a job too. And Peter, you shouldn't be beating yourself up over that. Like it or not, they never really prepared for a tragedy to fall upon them."
"A tragedy that fell because of me." He replied coldly.
"How does beating yourself up help? She asked.
He put his hands to his chin. "I'll be better, I've got to be greater. Stronger than anyone else because I can do it. My powers allow that."
"Your powers don't help your mental part of yourself. Nobody has been put in a position like you. Maybe some people, hardly anyone before you correct me. You're strong, but you'll break under the weight of all you're trying to accomplish."
He nodded. "Your right. Sure, you are happy hearing that. Spider-Man, supervillains, Bugle, you, your family mystery, didn't even mention Harry, Liz Allen, Gwen, school and Aunt May going through all she is. Crap, who knows what else. Graduating school this year, which means it's going to be it's roughest. Sorry, I'm just ranting, and raving aren't I?"
"It's fine. Your life is insane."
"True."
"Oh! Oh my gosh. Completely forgot. More fun for our lives."
Peter pretended to faint dramatically. "Now what!" He exclaimed, falling over, holding his head.
She snickered a little at this and prepared to reveal her news. "Well, for whatever reason, my school felt it necessary for a transfer. Overflow of students. So. I'm going to my new school soon-"
Peter cut her off, shaking his hands in the air. "Oh god, don't say it."
"Midtown."
"Oh, boy."
"Yeah, that'll be awkward. Guess your multiple lives are colliding into one another, huh?" She said.
Peter shrugged and stuttered his words. "Could be kind of neat having you at Midtown for our final hectic enough year. Where you never really met Gwen and Harry. Or the bane of my existence, Flash and co. Oh boy. Might pass out for real this time!" He exclaimed.
"You're silly."
"What else could happen? Oh no. Why did I say that?" He asked himself aloud.
"Whatever comes next, we'll fight it together. I promise." She held his hand softly.
He nodded, feeling at peace at this moment. When she said it, he couldn't help but believe her words.
That's the end of the beginning of what I'm calling Vol 2! Again, a little longer than usual as I consider this and part one to be the same chapter split into two so I'd have more room to ramble! And the chapters might be expending.
Fun side notes, to me anyway. On the day I write this, my second story goes up today officially. Batwoman related. (Ironically, as I'm about to post this, I'm about to rework/take down the one I'm referring to and moving forward with another one that's proven more popular) Wouldn't have been expecting to write that a few months ago. So, go read that, I guess. Another related fun thing is how it's not delaying my work on here as I've been doing excellent with writing as of late. My words per minute have increased, and time that I work. All around, having side projects has led to more work being done towards this series. It's insane to think that I couldn't get a chapter out in less than a month only two years ago. I'm impressed by that, which is good due to how I'm never impressed by myself lol. 2020 has sucked, not for my working process. Can be thankful for that, at least. (Might have spoken too soon. I'll explain more in a couple more chapters
(I'm writing this part as of Sept 11th, r.i.p to all affected 19 years ago and still have issues today. It was coincidental I started looking over this story today, which takes place in NYC. I've now decided to upload this today, sorry for the downer ending section, but it was critical I mentioned this. Important to never forget about all the people.
Best wishes to you all and stay safe.