Peter later in the day returned to The Daily Bugle, quite exhausted from his adventure with Black Cat, but wanted to know if there would be any aftermath or better yet if Hammerhead himself was caught red handed again.
Eddie and Foswell were speaking intensely about something.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Peter questioned wondering what could be wrong after it seemed like he won.
Foswell sighed. "My informant is saying Hammerhead is pissed and that another friendly face is looking to take advantage of this. A guy named, The Foreigner."
Must, reist, saying, inappropriate, joke! He thought to himself and then actually reasoned out loud. "Who exactly is that?"
"New player, he's from out of town, as I'm sure you imagined. Unfortunately for us, he's got a major stake in NYC. Spider-Man was seen helping out Black Cat, I guess we'd have to assume he helped her get out of this mess. JJ's undoubtedly going to call Spider-Man a crock for it." Foswell explained.
Of course he will.
Now Eddie added in. "Hammerhead's gotta be pissed. I mean the guy was outsmarted by Spider-Man and that cat burglar. He's definitely going to get into trouble now, this whole thing's going to be a mess. He screwed up."
"He wasn't aware of what would happen. It's clear this guy means well, but he doesn't understand how all the criminal underground works." Foswell replied and then sighed. "Now, here's the kicker. My informant wants to talk with Spider-Man, figure this whole thing out. He sounded pretty serious, wanting help and hoping he could work together to take on his now former employer. He's certain his talking to me has been discovered."
Peter was interested. "Who exactly is your informant? And say, why are you telling me?"
"Foswell thinks you know Spider-Man. I mean, do you tell him about that whole Hammerhead Black Cat situation?" Eddie interjected.
"He's right, I do think you've gotta still be talking to him right? Even if not that time, how about now, my guy, goes by Chance needs help." Foswell expressed.
Chance! Working as a mole for Foswell? I thought there was a chance I'd see him again. Ah crap I did it again. I hate facing off against Chance, I start saying things like that! Even if he's really turned a new leaf, I mean he wasn't the most deadly foe I faced before, certainly not now with my Goblin problem.
Foswell waved his hand in front of Peter. "Are you okay? Seemed like you kept going into your own world there."
Peter was embarrassed and cleared his throat. "No, I mean yes I'm okay. You think Spider-Man will come to me about Chance? Or that I could possibly find him and tell him everything going down?"
"Exactly correct!" Foswell exclaimed.
"Can't you find him after all?" Eddie added.
"Well, uh, yes. I might be able to find Spider-Man. Should I start looking for him now? I mean it might take awhile right?"
Foswell nodded. "Absolutely you should do that as soon as possible."
"Do you have a meeting place? Alone I'd assume that Spider-Man doesn't seem the most trusting, that's why he'd probably not see you a lot?"
"Uh, well, yes kinda. He'd be pretty angry if I told you sorry. Like you said, Spider-Man isn't the most trusting guy. And because I work for The Bugle with all the articles written about him you know, he's always paranoid. I'm going to try turning him in or tell a secret to JJ. That guy's a bit wacko, but I'll do it!" Peter said, about himself, maybe pushing it a bit too far.
"Okay, well good luck then Peter. Oh and here, the address can't forget about that." Foswell said, handing it to him and waved to him.
Peter rushed out and thought he'd wait a couple blocks before suiting up, he was suspicious of Eddie following him, fortunately that didn't happen.
Now as Spider-Man, he suited up and swung off heading towards the location where Chance was apparently waiting. In a time like this, the only person he wanted to talk to was MJ. Even if talking to captain Stacy could've been more objectively helpful.
"Hey Peter, how goes being Spider-Man again?"
"Ah well, you know the usual. Met up with that seductive cat burglar again after she stole from Hammerhead and surprisingly helped her out! Believe me that was the last thing I was expecting today, then to make matters even more interesting now it appears Hammerhead might be teaming up with another one of my badies. On top of that, I'm currently heading off to meet up with that guy Chance, who apparently is trying to reform now." He explained, sounding winded.
There was a brief pause. "Very eventful day then. Could there be a chance this whole reform thing from Chance is a trap?" She then paused again. "Did I just do the chance thingy you mentioned?"
"Yep! It's a curse, that's his real most devious power." Peter joked.
"How do you seriously know this isn't a trap?"
Peter shrugged in the air. "Mr. Foswell told me he's been an informant for him and we do trust him last time I checked, hasn't led me astray yet and some of the tips have helped out Spidey this year, even if he never knew it."
"Try, after everything, Mr Foswell hasn't proven himself to be untrustworthy. And has helped us a lot. It's just, everything has seemed hectic as of late. I'll never forget what he did for me so, yeah it's gotta be true what he told you." She replied.
"Looks like it's settled, I'll give Chance, a chance. That was internally and it hurt me so badly, ugh." Spider-Man then noticed Chance sitting around in an alleyway. "Looks like my chance is waiting around. I really need to stop the bad jokes, don't I?"
MJ chuckled softly. "Never stop the corny jokes."
"Gladly! Where would all be without my corny jokes? We'd all be so much worse off. I'll call you back later, once all this is over assuming I don't pass out." Peter said and hung up, then landed above Chance hearing he was on the phone speaking to someone.
"That's right Marko! I'm working with a real superhero now! No more of this criminal life for me! I'm putting it all behind me!" Chance paused, clearly hearing a response that Spidey himself couldn't hear. "Come on man! Why do you gotta be like that?" After a pause he continued. "You can be a real jerk sometimes you know!"
There was a pretty sizable pause now. "Glad that's worked out for you, but I've had it with my butt getting handed to me. I'm going on the straight and narrow! Maybe we might not talk as much, but whatever I'm doing, what I gotta do! I'll show you!" He hung up and threw his phone.
"I heard you were looking for me." Spider-Man interjected hanging upside down.
Chance stood up. "You heard right, it's about time you came. I was getting worried, kept looking over my shoulders, literally!"
Spider-Man put his hands on his hips. "Why exactly are you so paranoid? You really think people have figured out what you're up to?"
"Yes! I'm sure of it and even if not, I've kinda gambled with some bad people. And not killing you cost me a lot of money man!"
He stared at him, arms crossed.
Chance laughed nervously and put his hand over his shoulder. "Listen, no hard feelings, I don't want to kill you! And I never did anyways it was my bookies who wanted it down! Owing all that money got me into a lot of heat! Killing you I thought would be my only way out of that mess, at least that's what my people and my pal, Marko told me. Now I see this is my chance to do the right thing!"
"Alright, fine, I believe you. For now. What exactly are you planning on doing to fix help? Something to do with that Foreigner guy? Hammerhead?" He asked.
He nodded rapidly. "All the above!"
Before Spider-Man could ask for a clarification, his spider-sense went off and he pulled Chance to the ground out of the way of an incoming drive-by. Immediately it wasn't over, as a sniper was also watching over and tried to take them both out, if not for Spider-Man's reflexes they'd have been in big trouble. So he climbed them both up the building in front of them. Once up, he threw Chance and webbed the sniper rifle out of the shooter's hands making them run off.
"Okay, I believe you!" Spidey said and looked around for more danger. "Who exactly were those guys?"
"My guess would be The Foreigner, I'm sure Hammerhead's too busy to send his thugs after little old me."
Spider-Man changed his webbing cartigues and then looked back at Chance. "So who and where is this Foreigner guy then?"
"I'll bring you to the jerk's club! Yeah, we'll teach him a lesson!"
"Hold on a sec, if you kill anyone, steal, or even think of hurting someone really badly. You know just stay out of my way in fact. I don't want to put anyone's life in danger in case you can't keep that promise." Spider-Man said seriously.
"Fair, I've gotta prove myself to you huh? Cause the last and only time we met I tried killing you, guess that does make it harder to trust a guy."
"Certainly it does." He replied and then departed to find The Foreigner.
The club Chance mentioned wasn't far away, but had guards around it appeared like his guy knew trouble would be coming soon.
"Waiting for you? Or for me I wonder?" Spider-Man said allowed.
"Are you talking to me?" Chance asked.
"Neither mind, just stay put please. I've got some bad guys to beat up." He moved over carefully to the club looking for an air vent to sneak inside.
I really hope this isn't a trick or a trap. I'm going to feel pretty stupid if I got outsmarted by the likes of Chance! Assuming this is the real deal, I might be taking down a crime boss. Though I can't exactly arrest the guy or get Captain Stacy to go through with it. What exactly am I going to do? He wondered sneaking around the club all to overhear a conversation with some thugs.
"The boss is heading out of town because of a thug like Chance?" One questioned.
"And Spider-Man could be on his tail! Not like he's a resident of here, so it was expected. Besides, he wanted to see his wife, idiot." Another added.
"How was I ever meant to remember that?"
"His wife's hot! Why would he want to be around us ugly mugs?"
Spider-Man came down upside down on a webline. "Now, now young man, negative talk isn't good for the soul. You should apologize to yourself and your pal!"
They looked at each other. "Spider-Man!"
"Right! It's me and I've gotta do my whatever Spider-Man can do stick. In other words, kick some bad guy butt!" He exclaimed and kicked them both in the face, then webbing the only door shut. Backup started trying to break it down, as Spidey has some questions about what he heard. "Where's your boss going? I want a face to face with this guy, tell me where he's going!"
"Never you freak!"
"Yeah we don't spill to mutants!"
Spider-Man webbed them together. "Hmm, this mutant is hungry! Has a taste for people who lie about important things!"
They looked at each other nervously sweating up a storm. "Alright! He's heading to an airfield, outside of the city! You'll never get there in time!"
"We'll see, this spider can be very creative and clever when I need to be." He saw the door starting to crack. "And this spider knows when to get out of dodge." Spider-Man flung himself back into the air vent as the goons busted in shooting at him narrowly getting him from the moon area.
That was a close call! Spider-Man moved as fast as he could out of there.
Below the goons were all getting armed heading out to cut him off, fortunately Spidey beat them to the side of the building climbing up the side of the building avoiding the goons who rushed out to catch him. Naturally considering it was broad daylight and evidently those goons were smarter then Hammerhead's, for the most part. Lighting up a city street wasn't an option.
Spider-Man rushed up to see Chance. "We've got a problem! Foreigner is heading to an airfield, outside of the city!"
His reluctant ally thought about it for a moment. "I've got an idea. There is a high chance it'll work!"
"Only a high chance?"
"I'd bet on it! My jetpack could carry us along to that airfield, it'd be faster than your web swinging in the long run!" He exclaimed.
"Gambling hasn't exactly got you into the best positions. How much of a chance do we have of this working?" Spider-Man questioned unsure.
"Very high! And worst case my pack would malfunction, making us fall. But I've seen you in action, you could catch us! Also you stayed on my back before if I recall correctly!" He sounded confident.
Spidey shrugged. "Okay, I always did want to fly." Though I hoped it'd be with Iron Man or anyone else. Never on a plane. Never can trust them, not with my track record.
"It's settled! Hop on board!"
He listened and they flew off. Wow! It's actually working! Ugh, why would I think that?
After a while of flying, they arrived at the airstrip outside of the city, finding a man boarding a plane grabbing a former looking woman's hand.
"She looks familiar, of course! The daughter of Silvermane!"
"You've met her before? Mean lady, not a chance I'd wanna go near her! I think I'll agree with keeping to the sidelines!" Unfortunately for them both, the fear of the jetpack breaking down, happened and they both fell down. Spider-Man made a parachute landing on the ground. "Happy landings!"
"Emergency landing wasn't fun, I can't believe that the odds were against me! Would it be alright if I lay down now?" Chance said and fell over.
"Welp, looks like I'm on my own." Spider-Man said and rushed over to the plane running over pulling himself forward quickly, seeing it take off slowly. This is a very bad idea. Extremely bad, no completely super dubber bad! What on earth are you thinking? He thought and webbed onto the moving plane grabbing a hold onto it peaking in through the window. "Hey there bad guys! How about we stop the engine or I'm taking this plane down right now!" He shouted.
It seemed like neither one of them heard him. Foreigner raised his gun, but his wife knocked it out of his hand, slapping him. She then seemed to call someone.
"Marriage trouble? That sucks!" Nobody could hear him and he started to take off, so Spider-Man realized there was really nothing to do pulling out another parachute. While he went down, some cars started moving towards Chance who woke up running away as shooting came his way.
"Crap!" Spider-Man exclaimed, moving in the way of the cars, landing on one. "Hey there! Pull over jerk!" He said and put his hand through the window punching out the driver making it spin out, then jumped on a second car. The second was more prepared, having a goon in the back pop out with a shotgun. Bellets from it grazed Spider-Man's suit, annoyed he webbed the gun whacking them in the face and knocked out the driver punching them out. Car number 3 zoomed right at Chance, quickly Spidey webbed onto the car pulling it to a full stop with all his strength for a moment enough for Chance to move out of the way.
"Should I defend myself?" Chance asked.
Spidey was hanging onto the car. "Non lethal? Sure!"
He nodded and aimed for the tries blasting them out making the car spin. Spider-Man jumped off, as soon as the car stopped move he leaped back down grabbing both goons in the front seat pulling them out knocking them out.
Spider-sense then went off and he spun around seeing another goon getting up from a stopped car opening fire. Shockingly, Chance got in the way pushing him out of the way taking a hit or two. Spidey webbed the gun pulling it out of their hand, making them run off and he threw it back at them knocking them out.
"Chance? Are you okay?" Can't believe I'm showing care to this gubber.
He got up feeling himself. "Ugh, I think I've been shot, a flesh wound, but still that hard a lot man!"
"Why'd you do that? I have spider-sense, why risk yourself?"
"I thought you needed help, you didn't really move. Didn't want you to die man! I'm trying to do this whole reforming thing. I'm trying to do better now." Chance explained.
Spidery looked surprised. "You do seem genuine and you did try to help me today. Maybe we could work something out, I have a police captain friend."
"You do? That's great! How would that work?"
"Uhh, I don't know. I'll call him right now and-" He paused and saw some police cars zooming towards the airstrip. "Wait, who the heck called them?"
"Oh no! What happens if they spot me! Get me out of here!" Chance exclaimed, freaking out now.
Spider-Man looked at him. "It's alright I'll explain to the nice officers you were helping me out with stopping bad guys and to call Captain Stacy!"
The nice officers didn't seem as cheerful as they stopped guns being raised at them. "Freeze! Don't move a muscle!" One shouted.
"Woah now! Let's hold on to their gang! This guy I know he's kinda a supervillain and probably hurt people and broke out of prison. Tried to kill me too. You know what never mind, let me start ov-"
"On the ground now! Final warning!" The officers continued to warn.
Chance listened. "Marko's going to find this funny!"
"Come on! I repeat call Captain Stacy!"
"He's got no authority here, freak!" The police started shooting at him, so Spider-Man ran off getting shot at.
"You've gotta be out of your mind! That guy's a hero!" Chance said making sense which showed how bad it was.
Spider-Man ran off and hid as the police were chasing him down. This is ridiculous! And how'd they even find out where I was and what was happening? None of this makes sense, this sucks! He then noticed a familiar looking reporter arriving on the scene, it was Eddie Brock. Spidey immediately went up to him. "You! I remember you! How'd you get here so fast?"
"Surprised I see, well as soon as I learnt what you and my boss were up to, I knew I had to get involved and stop this! Even more so after I saw you and Chance flying off all chummy with each other. He's a criminal and so I informed the cops!"
"Why? He was helping me, unless you know something I don't." Spidey said, crossing his arms.
Brock looked angry. "Chance was a criminal! No good piece of trash! Nobody in their right mind would regret a guy like that heading back to jail!"
"I was going to get him a deal with my police buddy. He could've helped make life better for him at least. Hopefully he still can, after all he ratted on some dangerous people! I nearly even caught them!"
Brock dismissed his point. "Chance isn't a good man in need of saving. He's a gambling addict who gets off to the thrills of committing crime! I bet he was just trying out helping you for now and would go back to his old ways. I got a criminal off the street today, a major super criminal who escaped prison. You didn't."
Spider-Man, upset, grabbed him for a moment. "Listen jerk, I-" He stopped himself and pushed back Eddie. "You're not even worth it!" He concluded and swung off.
Can't believe I was betrayed by that guy, maybe there was some baggage after I accused him of being Crime Master. Would he be that pedy? Unless maybe he was right, maybe being so trusting of people like Chance and Black Cat could bite me. I really want to believe the best in people. Always. Lots of questions, but right now I know I've gotta get Captain Stacy up to Speed, not to mention hopefully helping out Chance, it's the last I could do and call MJ. Honestly, at this point I think I'd love to spend the rest of this day with her. Being with Mary Jane is the greatest feeling in the world. He thought to himself departing heading home.
Thank you for reading, I liked bringing back Chance and giving the chance (I'm a comedic genius, said nobody) of a redemption arc. I love using a lesser known villain like him, along with building up Foreigner and my spectacular Spider-Man inspired version of Silver Sable. I considered giving them a real speaking apprecence, but for now I have gone against it, I think I gave enough details for now.
More importantly at the end there, I wanted to have Spidey and Eddie have conflict, mostly on their view on criminals for now. It's important for me and I wish I set it up sooner that I want them to be butting heads.
Next chapter will be another really important one, finally bringing in Doc Ock. I'm looking forward to it, and expect a lot of big moments happening for the foreseeable future. I feel as if the story is really starting to heat up. Hope everyone is loving the new twists and turns.