It had been about a week now since Peter's encounter with The Black Cat and he'd been wondering greatly about what trouble would be coming next. In that time, Herman Schultz went to Captain Stacy to discuss everything going down with the Thieves Guild and work out a formel deal with the NYPD to be an informant. It was going to help a lot, but for now he had nothing to give besides how dangerous they were and they had a plan for breaking into an unknown building's special vault. In less crazy news, Harry continued planning on asking Gwen about that party stuff and they all kept on going to class, which was where Peter was heading to now with the special route.

Spider-Man swung through the city streets, not finding any trouble, but danger was looking for him today leading to his webs being shot out of midair. Thankfully he landed on a rooftop to get a clear idea of what was happening now.

Why does something always seem to happen when I'm heading to class? He wondered to himself looking around for danger, which the spider sense told him.

"Ninjas!?" He exclaimed allowed and avoided a few small knives thrown at him. "It's finally happened, ninjas are here to kill me, wonderful!"

A few approached pulling out swords and got into attack stances.

"Could we talk about this? I'm afraid of sharp objects." Spidey claimed, but of course it did work as they started swinging at him. "I'm insulted!" He exclaimed and gave one a right hock to the face, then leaped over two kicking their backs webbing them to the ground. However more ninjas as Peter said showed up. "Uh, I'm going to go now." He decided to leap off the building and yet again had his web line cut, hitting the side of a building grabbing hold.

Okay, forget webs then. Going to get away the old fashion way. Running away as fast as I can until I'm far enough away to use web swinging again. He did this plan climbing up the building and running. Hate running from a fight, never an enjoyable part of my day, class is in session and I haven't got the time to deal with those guys.

Spider-Man rushed away running across rooftops, while his opponents continued the pursuit after him eager to get him. A ninja nearly got the drop on Spidey sticking there sword through him nearly. If not for his quick web usage, it could've been an extremely painful outcome.

After more running and knocking back more of his foes, it seemed like he was going to escape and ducked down to the streets. "Okay, I think I'm good. Time to keep it low." Now it was time to keep on swinging and sure enough Peter was now able to escape. "I. Hate. Ninjas. Did I even enjoy them in the first place?" He pondered and swung away from the area heading to ESU.

After escaping he headed to class, it was a pretty decent one, but at the end surprisingly doctor Conners stopped him before he could leave with his friends. "Peter Parker, why do you keep coming to class so late? You'd be out doing Ms. Stacy if you were here more often, on top of your class. I've been trying to wrap my head around it." He said looking at him bewildered.

"I'm sorry, I feel awful about it. I've got strange work hours and my Aunt is relying on me to get money for us." Peter explained, telling the half truth.

"Acting like this, it could cost you in the future. It's a slippery road you're on. It leads me to my question." He paused. "You're a brilliant young man, same with Ms. Stacy. I need a lab assistant, a reliable one. My hope is it could be you, naturally I need to know you'd be able to be around. It's not a paying position, it however could help your future career endeavors." He expressed looking hopefully for Peter's answer.

Unfortunately, Peter was excited for a moment, but knew his answer. "I'm sorry sir, I can't make that promise. Gwen would be an excellent assistant and is the most talented scientifically brained person I've ever met. Not to mention incredibly reliable. Something I'm not." He frowned.

He nodded. "I'm very sorry to hear that Peter, I do appreciate your honesty. You're welcome to talk to Gwen about this, I'll be asking her next class about being my lab assistant." He sighed. "I hope you'll be able to work in a lab one day or tech, your brain is one of a great scientist, you should share it with the world." Conners said and turned away walking off.

Peter did the same, as he left Max Dillon was spotted again being harassed by that jerk again. "Hey! What's the matter with you! Leave him alone!" He exclaimed, preparing to push the guy off himself.

"We were just trying to make amendments." He claimed, while Max's black eye told a different story.

"Yeah right pal. What's the matter with you?" Peter asked, furious with him.

"That guy tried to flirt with my girl." He claimed.

Peter looked completely dumbfounded. "You're furious at Max for flirting with your girlfriend? If that's even true and you're not just super paranoid!"

"I don't need my eyes to be checked." The guy replied, crossing his arms.

"Listen Doug, stop being a jerk and leave Max alone!" Peter exclaimed and gave him a bit of a push, which made him fall to the ground.

He looked mad, but complied, leaving again.

"Are you okay Max?" Peter asked, coming towards him.

"I didn't need help, my father told me getting help is weak." He said looking ungrateful.

"No offense Max, that's not great advice, everyone needs help sometimes. It doesn't make you weak at all." Peter said kindly.

Max looked unconvinced. "My dad isn't a happy guy, when I disagree with him. He'll probably get pissed as soon as I get home, seeing the black eye."

"That's awful, should be pissed at the guy who gave you the black eye!" Peter exclaimed, shocked and disappointed.

"You're right, but that isn't the father I have. I'll show him and make him proud. I'll show everyone I'm stronger than they all believe." He said cryptic starting to walk off.

"Hey Max, it'll be alright!" Peter said, trying to be hopeful.

Max turned to him. "I'm going to make it right. Thank you for trying, nice to know somebody cares." He said and left.

Well that wasn't sinister at all and sad hope that'll not come and come back to bit me. I should keep an eye on Max, maybe I can help him. Peter thought to himself looking concerned.

Shortly later Peter went to find his friends, easily finding them and approaching. "Hey everyone, Gwen I heard something pretty exciting. Conners wants to make you his lab assistant!" Peter exclaimed and decided on leaving out her being the second choice.

"Really? That's amazing! Oh that's super exciting!" She exclaimed happily hugging Harry.

"Uh, what's that mean?" Harry asked, confused.

"Actually you're right, I'm not sure what the doctor needs help with." Gwen admitted.

Peter shrugged. "I'm not sure either, probably should've asked." He paused. "Uh well, it wasn't my business I guess. Didn't really think about asking." He lied.

Gwen accepted it. "Should I go ask him now, I should really find out what I'll be expected to do, right?"

"I'm sure you can wait a little bit until tomorrow. Don't you have another class to go to?" Peter replied.

She nodded. "Yeah, I should get going." She kissed Harry on the check and left.

"Lab assistant huh? So, what's that mean for Gwen and me?" Harry wondered.

MJ looked at him. "What do you mean? You think you'll have less time together?"

"Yeah! Being a lab assistant must be busy right? She'll be incredibly busy with all that siencey work. So much science." Harry said, looking concerned.

Peter put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You shouldn't have to worry about that, I'm positive Gwen won't ever let you become less important."

Harry nodded. "You're right, I can't believe I'm worried. I think maybe that party stuff is making me more nervous, sometimes I feel like I'm walking through a minefield with her at times, that's not great isn't it?"

Mary Jane and Peter looked at each other.

"I'm sure that's fine." Peter lied.

MJ nodded in agreement looking a bit concerned about his comment.

"Thank goodness, I want everything to go smoothly with Gwen." Harry remarked.

"Try just being there for her and making sure you both listen to each other's needs. You both have to be on the same page" Mary Jane suggested.

"You're totally right about that. Ah, I should get something to eat, do you two want to come with?" Harry asked.

They both shaked their heads.

Harry understood and walked off. "Sometimes I wonder if they're hiding something from Gwen and I, na probably nothing just overthinking!" He muttered to himself.

Of course, he was correct in his brief assumption.

MJ and Peter then talked.

"Why were you late today?" She was interested in his response.

"Oh you're going to love it, ninjas today, very dangerous ones and quite rude. I assume it has to do with the Thieves Guild, they're stealthy and thief-like." Peter replied.

Mary Jane looked at him pausing. "Ninjas today? You really do have very strange days and enemies. I can't believe you had to face them."

"Yeah, killer ninjas were something else. Almost got into big trouble, they were quick and cut some of my weblines. Had to desperately grab some buildings for dear life, they really didn't like me. Whatever is going down, it's coming soon." Peter reasoned.

As soon as he said that, his phone rang and it was surprisingly Captain Stacy, surprised he even showed it to MJ.

"Why would he call you?" He wondered.

Peter shrugged and answered.

"Hello? Captain Stacy?"

His voice answered. "I need Spider-Man down at the federal reserve. Schultz told us, but it was too late they're hitting there now, we need help! We need backup, there are two Beetles here hammering us."

"Beetle? I remember him and he's got a friend now? No, wait I remember his friend too if it's the same person. I'd be happy going to have round two against that jerk. Nobody else is going to die because of him." He declared and looked over at Mary Jane who gave him the look to go. "I'm on my way Mr. Stacy! Hold on tight!" He exclaimed, rushing off to suit up.

Spider-Man soon arrived seeing two Beetles flying around, one red and one purple shooting at the police.

The red one instantly spotted Spidey as he got closer. "The annoying child." He muttered, zooming towards him.

"Oh, crap." Spider-Man said and tried to avoid his speeding enemy, but failed getting pulled along for a ride.

"Die." Beetle said calmly.

"Beetle! It's been awhile since I saw you, looks like you've gotten a friend." Spider-Man said and webbed his jetpack, doing nothing. "Dang it." He got flung off at great speed crashing into a wall. "Ouch."

Beetle shot a rocket at him which he grabbed midair with a web aiming it to the sky throwing himself at him punching his helmet.

"Think I've had it with you!" Peter exclaimed continuing to hit the suit getting it dent and managed to push him off, then webbed him pulling him down to the ground with himself, causing Spidey to hit the ground along with Beetle, but it worked out as his suit was looking significantly more damaged.

Beetle looked up at Spider-Man starting to fire a large amount of rockets at him causing a bunch of destruction. Spidey went and helped get civilens out of the way of the battle, looking back very angry at his foe. "You're going to hurt innocent people!" His enemy didn't seem to care, glaring over at more, launching more rockets, which Peter webbed in the air making them fall into the road breaking it and blowing up a few cars. "This is insane!" He exclaimed and grabbed a civilian moving them to safety. "Alright Beetle, I'm sick of this."

Spidey rolled over a car shooting out as many webs as he could at his enemy and pulled him forward with all his strength leading him into a big punch knocking him to the ground, processing to break the suit apart. Now he sat down with a defeated and webbed up Beetle.

He fell over to the ground. "I might lay here for a second, would someone lay with me and forget the world?" He remarked.

Stacy rushed over to see Peter was pretty injured, bleeding a bit though his suit. "Are you alright, Spider-Man?"

"Yeah I'll be fine, I hate that Beetle guy. You said two of them didn't you? Great, just wonderful." Peter replied, getting back up.

"That other Beetle went inside of the building, Schultz is in there too. I told him to do whatever he needs to do to protect his cover, so he could attack you." Stacy explained looking at Peter's injuries.

"We'll work something out, looks like I've got some badies to stop." He said stretching and went off.

After taking a deep breath, he kicked in the doors entering the building. "Hello! It's me, Spider-Man and you are all done here!" He exclaimed, trying to look tough.

He found Beetle making a hole in the wall along with Shocker, trying to get them to escape and Black Cat sitting around with some tied up guards.

"Oh Spider, you shouldn't have come here. And you're not looking so hot, no offense." She remarked getting up coming toward him.

"You should all surrender now!" He cried out.

The other Beetle turned to Shocker. "Finish the hole, I'm going to kill this fool." She remarked, zooming over, opening fire with a lot of bullets. "Black Cat! Help!"

She looked unsure. "I'm sorry Spider." She said frowning and looked at him closely, as bad luck befell him.

Thankfully Spider-Man feared this and quickly ducked for cover before the bad luck had struck him. "Oh great, now what!" He was under heavy fire getting continuously shot at with no chance of getting past. "Can I still talk? How about I surrender!"

"You locked my mother away!" She roared at him now firing rockets.

"Crap!" He exclaimed moving out of the way, getting hit by the blast. "Can you be more specific? I've arrested a lot of people! Well I lead to their arrests!"

She approached him, grabbing Spider-Man. "You wouldn't know her name, her real one. You'd know her by Tombstone."

Peter's mouth dropped. "Oh small world. You're quite angry with me huh?" Thanks for the heads up Herman. "Are you going to kill me?"

"I'll make you suffer for taking my mother, we planned on patching things up!"

"Oh really? After your mom killed a bunch of people? In between working for The Crime Master helping him do a bunch of evil crap?" Spider-Man remarked, shaking his head.

Beetle moved in for a killing attack, however Shocker pulled her back motioning her to leave as exit was opened. Black Cat looked at her in agreement, pulling her back. She thought back and tried to shoot Spidey who leaped back though the doors.

"Damn, he got away!" She exclaimed furious.

"You're not a killer! Come on!" Herman shouted at her and she finally listened, following them out to escape.

"Crap, crap. Come on Spider-Man get up." He said to himself rushing back inside, unfortunately having a missile shot at him when he tried entering, his spider sense reacted making her jump back before getting hit by the blast. "Extra crap, they're going to get away!"

Stacy and some officers rushed over.

"Are you okay Spider-Man?" Officer Dewolff asked him.

"Yeah of course, just hurt, pretty badly. Wait sorry that's not the answer you were after was it? I'll live, that's better." He joked and then turned to Stacy. "They got away, annoyingly. If not for literally getting bad luck, I think I would've gotten them. Oh and uh, they didn't steal anything. So that's a win right?"

Captain Stacy looked puzzled. "Why didn't they steal anything? They had a chance to steal a lot with how long the standoff went on for. Something isn't adding up. We're going to need to tear that place apart. And got a helicopter to hopefully spot those criminals. Let's hope we'll get some clue of what's happening now."

Spider-Man nodded.

Later on, the Shocker returned with everyone else having escaped from the police.

"Why didn't we breach the for the gold?" Black Cat asked immediately upon seeing Odessa approach them.

"And we lost the other Beetle!" The woman revealed herself to be Janice Luncoln.

"That's unfortunate we lost Jenkins, he was just a common mercenary so it could've been a far worse loss." She claimed.

Janice looked pissed. "We worked together, closely." She said angrily.

Herman Schultz looked surprised by this information, but tried to hide that.

"After the real heist we'll have so much money you'll forget about your loss. This plan is going to work, you three proved yourself to be competent enough." Odessa said, looking at the group. "Now it's time to hit our real target, we needed them to believe we wanted to gold. They'll believe we're after simple money, a great diversion just like the giant wheel we sent out to distract as we secretly tested our real target's defenses. The vault of Tony Stark, where all his greatest inventions are kept, including all of his armours." She declared.

"We're going to steal from Iron Man? Sounds very risky and bold. Dangerous." Black Cat said looking interested.

Odessa nodded. "Yes, we'll be selling his weapons to the highest bidders."

"Sounds good to me." Beetle remarked.

Black Cat now looked unsure. "They're very dangerous weapons, haven't we stolen in our history for fun? My father wouldn't have-"

"Your father is gone and times are changing. We have to adapt. It's very important we do." She replied, cutting her off looking serious. "We're all going to get a very big payday from it. So, don't complain, my Black Cat." She walked off with some of her minions.

Janice looked over at Herman. "Aren't you excited about this? What's the matter with you, something is wrong with you. Are you keeping something from me?"

He shook his head. "No, no it's just uh, I can't believe how this is all going. It's just uh, shocking you know? Hard to keep up." He lied, not even sure if he knew the woman in front of him anymore.

She looked at him closely and at Black Cat. "None of you better screw this up."

"Janice, this isn't like you. James wouldn't do any of this." Herman pleaded.

"You two were always more pathetic and never even knew me truly. It's sad, very sad how you two are. Best buddies for life, a lot of great things it did for you two." She said mockingly and walked off.

Herman frowned, realizing he didn't really know his friend anymore and he'd be having to tell Captain Stacy about everything, hoping Spider-Man would be able to stop the Thieves Guild before they could carry out their plans.

Thanks for reading, this arc is almost over. I hope you are all enjoying it so far, I enjoy using a different part of Spider-Man's many villains, the more sneaky thieves or lesser so during this storyline anyway. I was happy using the Beetle continuity I set up way back when and continuing to use Shocker at long last. Along with whatever is going on with that Max guy.

Black Cat and the newer character from the comics Odessa Drake are also nice to have brought in now, overall I'm enjoying having The Thieves Guild around. I think it's going along nicely.