A silent alarm was triggered in yet another jewelry store, as like nearly every night for the past week. Still, once the police arrived, the place was empty seemingly. Robed without a doubt, broken glass, jewelry stole right from the cases. Clearly, a whole crew of crocks were responsible for this and someway escaped faster than ever before. Every other night a slight trace could be found.

"Late, again." One officer remarked, shaking their head.

"Too old for this sh-" Another nearly said before a figure appeared for a brief second.

A third officer approached the spot the figure appeared to be standing in. "Are we being punked here?"

A laugh was heard. "Tad bit yeah."

The officers looked around, unable to see where this came from.

"Show yourself!" One exclaimed, shining a flashlight around, as did the others.

"No." The voice replied, just as their lights went out. "The Crime Master wants to rob in peace. This little dance is getting old, officers. Let's stop, this huh? What do you say?"

They looked at each other.

The oldest officer spoke up. "We've got morals, and it's our job to keep this city safe. We're not going to back down to your empty threats."

"Suit yourself,'' The voice replied.

Suddenly the officers started getting pushed around and got their guns grabbed.

"What the devil!" Another exclaimed.

"Come on, you should runoff. Can't see me and lost your weapons, bad look gang. Give up." The speaker continued saying.

Every officer besides the toddler one compiled and left. He stood alone in the dark, not afraid. "I'm not afraid of a crock like you. Heroes are around, like Spider-Man, who won't stand for all your trouble-making! Stop it now. Rethink your life and what you're doing here! Do you really wish to commit crimes?"

The mysterious young man appeared in front of the officer. "You're brave. What's your name, officer?"

"It's officer Lee to you." The man said proudly and confidently.

"Bravery can be a mistake. Tell all the officers to back off! Trust me, man, the Crime Master is a scary guy." The young man said genuinely, seeming to be thinking of the guy's best interests truly from his perspective.

"No way, as long as I live, I'll never give into punks demands!" He exclaimed proudly.

The young man was confused. "Weird. Perhaps you need a scare? No offence, test me. It'll be for your own good."

"Haven't you ever heard putting fear into people isn't exactly nice?" A voice asked before kicking the young man back.

"Same warning applies to you, Spider-Man." He said.

Spidey looked confused. "Sorry, buddy, I wasn't listening."

"You mock me, uh, Phase Walker!"

"Void Walker? Really?"

"Phase Walker! Work in progress." He replied.

Spider-man revealed his secret weapon as he got distracted, flashlight on his belt with spidery's face on it. Worked perfectly, exposing him to the light, and he leaped off, kicking him in the face.

Unfortunately, he escaped still.

Peter shook his head. "We've gotta stop meeting like this!" He exclaimed, figuring the guy, who he suspected greatly was Liz's boyfriend. Now it was over, he turned to the officer who stood his ground. "That was pretty brave of you." He said, surprised, noting how old he must have been.

The officer laughed. "Bravery is my specialty, son. For darn sure, a couple of weeks away from retirement. Hard to believe. At least there are people like you out here, fighting for the good of the city. Making this world a better place, teaching this generation to stand up and fight powerful, spectacular way. It's highly respectable, glad I could meet ya in person, Spidey!" He said happily, shaking his hand.

"Thanks, officer. Means a lot to me."

"No sweat, kid and hey, call me Stan! Best of luck, excelsior!" He said happily, leaving the joint.

"Huh, nice fella," Peter remarked before swinging off once again into the night heading back on home.

Peter silently snuck in back home, having Harry mostly being stuck in his room helped a bit with not getting caught by him. Still, he couldn't help feeling bad for his friend. Knowing how shocking it must be, having such a small space, compared to a penthouse, could feel like prison to him.

He went over to his buddy's room and knocked on his door. After a moment, he answered. "Oh, you wanna talk now?" Harry asked.

Peter felt dumb. Crap.

"Sorry, Harry, I kinda passed out." He faked yawned. "I'm so tired these days."

"Yeah, I can tell, man, damn. You seem out of it, are you alright?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah, you know, some people are more active than others, right? I'm one of those real sleepy people, always tried, not able to do much. I've passed out too many times to mention at work, got an ear full from my boss JJ."

"Oh yeah, mister yells a lot. Has he ever blown any fuses?"

"Positively, yeah, I think the building shook a few times. I've heard him yell. Huh, wonder if he's some sort of you know."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, he's covering his tracks by hating anyone with superpowers, a fine plan if I say so myself!"

"Good thinking there." Peter laughed too. "Would be too surprised either if he was an alien, come to dismantle our planet, one person drove mad at a time!"

"Oh yeah, good thought too!" Harry replied.

They paused.

"So, have you spoken to Gwen yet? Or at least tried, please tell me you have." Peter said, crossing his arms.

"Well, yeah, no. Listen, I tried to call her or text her. Believe me, I did. I've got nothing really to do around here other than thinking. It sucks!"

"Get that," Peter replied, thinking aloud.

"Anyways, I don't know, man, it's been a while. Do you think she'd even wanna hear from me? After seeing how things went down with Liz. You know." He continued.

Peter looked embarrassed. "Yeah, could've totally gone better. I regret how that played out. I feel pretty stupid." He paused. "Whatever, we're talking about you. Now, promise me you'll call Gwen, tell ya what buddy, I'll even give her a head's up, how about that?"

Harry nodded along. "Sure, thanks, Pete, it means a lot to me. And I swear, I'll call her or text if I'm feeling cowardly."

"You're not a coward Harry, I've got that covered for the both of us!" Peter joked, trying to make his friend feel better.

"The best cowardly friend a guy could have!" Harry joked back and smiled.

Peter waved to his friend and went back to his room, feeling a sense more trouble might be in store for the city. So texting Gwen and sleep wasn't exactly going to be the end of the night as hoped for.

Elsewhere in NYC, Jamie returned homecoming inside, finding Liz waiting for him, happy to see him back at last.

"Not loving these late shifts." She said, crossing her arms, unhappy.

"It's fine; everything is going to work out." He replied confidently.

Liz shook her head. "Is this job of yours even legal?"

"Yeah, of course, pretty sure, just moving lots of crap is all and no questions asked, it doesn't matter, it'll be okay." He said, trying his best to hide the lie.

"Promise me? No lies?"

"Of course not, Liz. Once school is finished, we're going to leave this city, and everything is going to work out. We're going to be okay. This money is going to help; nothing is going to stop this. I'm playing it safe, I swear." He said, continuing to lie, but felt badly having to hide the truth.

"How's your day been? No more partying, right? We promised for no more of it. For now, chilling would be good, right?" He said, concerned.

"Yeah, you sound like my brother."

He shrugged. "Not the worst thing I could sound like. Right?"

"Right. I'm trying to be chill, stay away from the hard stuff and be a good citizen of this city." She frowned. "I'm feeling trapped here."

"Hey, come on, Liz, we won't be. We're going to get out of this. Soon, only how many months of school left? Hardly any!" He pointed out, trying to stay hopeful.

"Yeah, fair enough." She looked at him, unsure.

"What's up? Come on, please talk to me, Liz?" He questioned and sat down next to her.

"Nothing is the matter. It's fine. Everything is fine."

He looked even more concerned. "I'd guess that means nothing is fine then?"

"I went to see Mark a couple days ago. He's uh, I don't know. Said fine, but you know how we are. Fine, but not fine." Liz said.

"Right, it's ridiculous he's in prison, god." He thought out loud but wondered a little to himself if he could perhaps do something to fix things for Liz.

Liz frowned. "He has bruises. People are hurting him, doing who knows what. Mark was always so." She paused. "Sometimes, I want to help him, get him out, you know?"

"How'd you be able to do that? Even if you could, Liz, I'd never want you to get hurt. And he wouldn't either. I'm positive about that. I'd love to meet him with you to confirm that fact."

She smirked a little. "Yeah, I'm sure he'd love to meet you too. Likes you more than all my other boyfriends. And uh, I wanted to tell you abo-"

Before she could finish her sentence, he got a call which had the ringtone Liz intensely disliked due to what it meant every time it came from his phone.

"Sorry, it's the boss. I've gotta go for a bit. Got a job, and he'll be furious if I miss out." Jamie said, preparing to leave.

Liz approached him seriously. "Promise me, you're not lying."

"I swear I'm not; I love you sexy, now I gotta go alright?" He kissed her and left promptly

As he did, she grabbed a bottle filled with alcohol and took a chug.

Peter paced around his room, keeping one ear out for anything suspicious on the police scanner while looking down at his phone, thinking of texting Gwen to give a heads up about Harry thinking of her and feeling badly how things were going.

What to do? What to do? I don't wanna butt my head in, I think. It's pretty tempting and a bit fun if I think about it. No, hold your horses. I don't want to be pushing either one of them to do anything. Some people don't combine well after all, which sucks. Well, I did promise I'd text. Let's try.

Peter looked at this phone and started to text away feeling pretty confident in himself, saying his texting aloud.

"Hey Gwen, someone was thinking of you, I'm sure you could guess whom. He's missed you a lot, and I think being trapped with me has been an eye-opening experience for him. If it didn't open his eyes, I'd whack him over the head, gently. Surely that'd do the trick, am I right?"

Uh, is this any good? Of course it is. Right? Uh continuing.

"Harry is changing for the better." I think. "I know you too can be friends again, and I know you wanna try. He wants to as well. So why not right?"

There we go. Maybe I should? Before he could think further, the police radio started to report a crime in progress. Ah crud, my luck. Welp, guess I'm sending this message regardless of the quilty, let's go and hope for the best.

Peter suited up fast and made his way to the crime, a robbery.

Swing there the police were on their way too, but he got their first crashing inside to his surprise, seemingly finding nobody.

"Huh? Is anybody home? Come on I don't like to hide and seek so much. Wasn't my favourite game I most-"

"Enough." A voice appeared in front of him, but hardly able to see the speaker, but Peter knew who it was. Liz's boyfriend. "My boss is sick of the warnings. It's time for real action now, Spider-Man." He tried saying confidently.

"Oh, I'm so scared." Peter replied sarcastically before his Spider-sense went off moving out of the way of a car smashing into the store. "More upset for the poor store owner than scared right about now!"

Upon saying this, he noticed Looter was in the car and some other costumed person behind the way of the wild-looking car.

"This is a little rude here gang, 3 against one I mean come on?"

Jamie appeared in the car, and it's windows rolled down. The driver looked over at Spidey. "Come on hero, how about a chase?" He asked cocky, ramping up this engine. "People might be in a little danger, with a reckless driver! Oh and call me, Overdrive!" He zoomed off.

Should I really follow? Seems like a trap, who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to chase after! Peter quickly thought to himself and began the chase trying to keep up with the speeding car, as it drove very recklessly, thankfully nobody was out.

Peter chased right after it, hopping onto the car, but finding a great shock, literally getting electrocuted after being on it for too long.

That hurt. Let's try something else. Spidey continued chasing after them not going onto the car, instead trying to web the tires to make it crash. This didn't work out either, it's tries seemed to shake off, so to speak, the webbing. Seeing this didn't work either, he kept chasing after them trying to come up with a different solution. He wondered if a more significant object could stop it in its tracks or somehow get pushed down an alleyway. Or if the car had some sort of counter masseuse.

Peter didn't need to think too long as suddenly it came to a halt.

This is going to hurt. He thought to himself, getting close to the car, before he could smash the driver's window, lasers started pointing at him from two buildings side by side.

Crap.

Overdrive rolled down this window laughing. "Wow, you really walked right into this! I thought this would be harder, you've been annoying the boss a lot. So, he's got a little surprise for ya. I wouldn't try to move, personally."

"Why would that be?" Peter asked, hoping it was a bluff, but his Spider-sense was screaming the exact opposite of that.

"If you move, you're going to be a very dead bug, riddled with bullets. Not the best way of exiting life. So, you better stay very, very still." He laughed. "Oh and yeah, it's specialized to only target guys wearing red and blue spandex. So, don't worry about civilians, hey one solution would be taking off the get up! Wouldn't you like to do that?"

Peter shook his head. "Na, I don't feel like it. Personally."

"Fine, suit yourself, have any final words?"

"Your name isn't great; you should go back to the drawing board." Peter joked.

He grit his teeth annoyed and pressed a button, running up his windows.

The turrets began firing rapidly at Peter, who narrowly kept dodging the bullets, but getting his shut torn up a bit little by little.

"We should leave, the police will be here soon!" Looter said.

"And I'd rather not be watching this guy get riddled thanks. And I've got somewhere I need to be." Jamie added.

Overdrive frowned. "Fine, party poopers. Let's go; it'll be your butts on the line if he's not dead!" He drove off, leaving Spidey continuing to avoid the bullets, now with the car gone starting to shoot off webbing where the shots were coming from jamming some of the turrets. It wasn't too hard stopping enough so he could escape, clearly they understated his agility, even Peter was shocked by how he didn't die.

Jeez, if they stayed around, I would've been a Gooner for sure. I wonder if that was good luck or MJ's dad having a heart or maybe even Phase Walker as he called himself. Gotta be the latter, I have no luck to speak of.

Upon thinking that some police rolled up, along with Captain Stacy.

"Whenever I hear trouble, I can expect you're not far behind." He said coming up to Spidey, along with another woman. "Crime Master I'd assume?"

"Right, who's your friend, hi, my name is Mr. Spider-Man." He joked giving out his hand.

She smiled. "Captain Watanabe, your as jokey as I've heard. If not more. I've been hearing a lot about you."

"All good I hope." He replied.

She didn't.

"The captain is helping the investigation, I trust her deeply, so I figured some extra help wouldn't be an issue. Seems like we've got a lot more trouble brewing with all those jewels on the rise vanishing, being sold off." He looked around at the street filled with bullets. "Fine mess."

"I try my best giving the finest messes seen in these parts. I meet another goon they've got, a tricked out car driven by a guy calling himself Overdrive. I'd feel embarrassed, dying to a fancy car. Have either of you heard of him?"

They both shook their heads.

"Where is the Crime-Master getting them all? A supervillain hotline? Could use a super hero hotline." He paused. "I might have a lead, I've just gotta do a little digging first, I'll let one of you know if I can find anything. Good day, err, night." He left promptly.

"Why must we be working with him? I don't know if I trust the kid completely." Captain Watanabe said, unsure watching Spidey swing off.

Stacy sighed. "He'll grow on you."

Elsewhere, later into the night, back with Jamie, he returned home once again, finding a distraught Liz, intoxicated a bit.

"You keep lying to me, and I've had it!" She shouted.

"Woah, Woah, what on earth is the matter, Liz?" He asked, trying to be confused, but deep down, knowing the jig was up.

She sighed. "Every time you leave to go do a job, a store is robbed. They've put out a description now, which fits you perfectly. Stop lying!"

"Fine, fine, yes, it's true. I'm sorry, Liz. But hey, listen! What I said about money is true! We can leave, and nobody would be the wiser. I've got enough now to bring us anywhere you'd like. We're set! This guy, Looter, hooked me up, helped me sneak it behind our boss's back. Nobody will ever know. We've made sure of it. I'm free to go. We both are. Why stay stuck in this stinking city any longer? Please, Liz, forgive me and come with me!"

Liz shook her head, shocked. "No, no, you lied. All you've done is lie! You're not even human, Jamie! You never told me, that's a big deal! Is your name even Jamie? I bet it's not a long criminal like yourself. Having a long time doing this, it seems like you're a natural-born one and a liar. Everyone I've ever cared about was a liar. Mark is the only one who tried to truly protect me, raised me. I've had enough of not having him around. If I'm leaving NYC with anyone, it's going to be Mark."

"He's in jail, and I do love you, but I'm risking my chances of freedom for breaking out your brother. I'm sorry." He said dismissively.

"I know." She replied, looking furious and starting to glow.

Peter was heading to where Liz lived after finding it more accessible than expected, but with one point of easy, nothing else would, as an apartment exploited and a body came flying to the ground smashing into a car. Another burning figure began walking away after touching the ground, Peter went up to the hurt person, finding it was Jamie, clinging to life, which shocked him greatly.

"Oh my god." He paused for a moment. "Hey, you're going to be alright, what the heck did this to you?"

"My girlfriend, her name is Liz, please, please don't hurt her. Help her, please."

Oh.

Little bit of a twist at the end there, was anyone expecting that? I was planning that one for months now, it feels nice to have it finally pay off in the next chapter. I've been waiting for this one for a while, hoping you all liked the surprise. Peter is really going to be having a rough night.

I'm getting excited for the point we're reaching in this volume, I believe it's going to be really ramping up for the story and trouble Peter has to be juggling in his life. Along with a few more surprises along the way, like The Crime Master reveal, I'm looking forward to having them become more of a threat. Along with other stories going on.

I feel like Volume 3 is where the story is really going to take off. I'm glad a lot of people seem to be enjoying it so far. I'm always excited to see new readers following and favouring this series. It means a lot; I can promise the best is still yet to come! I hope you'll all be sticking around, best wishes as always.

Oh and one last thing, I'd recommend keeping your eyes open for another story that might interest some of you that's going to drop soon, a recent trailer inspired it for a clue, it's not going to be expected I think which character it's starring, but they're in that movie…

(Also random, kinda funny how Overdrive has been turned good right now in the comics and how big of a part Boomerang is getting, Lady Beetle too, I love The Suppery Foes of Spider-Man. Shocker needs more love tho...hint, hint for nothing in this series...)