Peter awoke and felt in some pain, getting up from bed, soon realizing that it was almost a day of sleep. Pretty insane, but at least all of the external injuries seemed to be healing up. Though it hurt quite a bit still, understandably.
A lot was on his mind. It was racing with thoughts of everything going on, now pile on having to explain why he was so tired, not to mention his injuries if anyone spots them and needing to get those pictures safely to Ned. And continuing to search for Crime Master and Looter. It'd be a pretty busy day.
He opened his door and found Harry right outside it.
"Hey Pete! I thought you would never wake up!" He exclaimed.
"I thought about sleeping the rest of the day, but changed my mind. Okay that wasn't one of my better jokes, but I'm still waking up." Peter confessed.
Harry laughed. "It's alright buddy, I just missed you. Was getting lonely around here, okay, bored. Your Aunt May is pretty awesome, but I can only listen to your embarrassing childhood stories so much and that I basically know and lived some with you too so it doesn't help the feeling of boredom. I might actually fall asleep."
"Well don't do that, pretty early in the day." Peter replied.
"Subjective. From my perspective it could be night time." Harry said confidently.
Peter looked out the window, seeing it was daytime. "I hate to break it to you buddy, but it's daytime and if you disagree I might have to swing, uh bring you to the hospital."
"Ha ha very funny. You know I'm not convinced you were sleeping all that time buddy." Harry said with a smirk.
Peter looked concerned. "What uh do you mean Harry buddy old pal?"
He continued smiling. "You know what I mean you player!"
"Player? Me? Peter Parker? What are we talking about?" He asked, confused.
"You know, you and MJ? Right?" He asked curiously.
Peter was flustered. "Me and MJ? You think that what? We're doing stuff together?"
"We're almost adults now you can say sex. You're totally doing it!"
"You literally just said totally doing it right after saying we're almost adults Harry." Peter pointed out with an eye roll.
"Okay well screw it then, Pete are you with MJ or just having a friend with benefits thing going on?"
"No, I'm not doing any of that. Me and MJ are just great friends. That's about it I think. Though." He paused for a moment.
Harry had a sly look. "Oh now Pete's got himself a crush don't you know? You totally want to be with MJ! That's awesome buddy!" He exclaimed, which was a surprise for Peter to hear.
"I can't believe you're playing matchmaker right now."
He shrugged in response.
"Well you know, MJ and you have some pretty awesome chemistry. Just saying it's pretty cool how you two are together." Harry pointed out.
Peter gave his friend the same look. "Kinda like you and Gwen right?"
He looked expressed and looked away. "Wouldn't put it like that, Gwen and I don't have chemistry like that. You are MJ, Pete, that's something special man. You should totally pursue her dude! You'd be the biggest idiot in the world to let her go!" He exclaimed.
"Are we still talking about MJ right now Harry?" Peter asked.
"Yeah we are and maybe, just a huge maybe, about Gwen too." He confessed.
"Of course, I knew it. Take your own advice Harry, go run to her! Not literally though you could fall over if you did that, you don't have great balance." Peter joked.
Harry nodded and smiled. "You're right Peter, I should run to her!" He said proudly and literally did run out the door.
"Thanks for listening to me Harry," Peter said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and going down stairs seeing Aunt May in the kitchen.
"Oh hey Aunt May, I'm going to imagine you're wondering what the heck Harry was up to now." He said sitting down next to her.
She nodded. "Quite right, I love that boy, but he's a strange one to be certain. What's our guest up to today?"
"Going to try to apologize to Gwen finally." He replied happily.
May looked quite happy too. "It's about time, those two crazy kids clearly have feelings for one another. It reminds me of you Uncle, he was scared half to death when trying to speak to me he'd be a bit of a duffus which I know is quite a shocker."
Peter laughed. "He always seemed pretty confident in himself."
"Yes, he did when getting older, though always questioned if he made the right choices. Which he always did even if he wasn't certain. Anyways, he acted a bit like Harry back decades ago when we were his age. I always found it funny how he'd be tripping over himself at times, I never minded him making mistakes as I knew in my heart he always meant his best. Harry does too. Even if he doesn't always show it."
"Well, I don't know if Gwen would agree. He was being a big duffus with her, I was being pretty disappointed with him with how stupid he was being." Peter admitted.
She nodded. "Yes, he's made mistakes, but I believe he'll make it alright."
"Yeah, you're right, Aunt May. I think I might go see him. Or MJ. And then the Bugle, I really do have to go there." He replied.
May smiled at him. "You've been seeing her a lot lately haven't you, remember to always use-"
"Aunt May!" He said cutting her off.
"I'm pulling your leg Peter, I know you aren't together with her. Otherwise you would've told me all about it. Or she would've. And you two are smart and safe even if you are having some fun." She smiled.
Peter laughed. "Thank you Aunt May, I'll see you later and love you!" He exclaimed and rushed off.
He decided he'd suit up instead and go onto patrol quickly before going to check up on The Bugle. Though he also had an urge for checking on MJ, but thought against it as the thoughts of a romance blooming were fresh on his mind right now and he really wasn't intending on saying something stupid to her of all people.
Spider-Man swung from building to building, feeling pretty great on top of the world and ran across the walls to spice it up. This never gets old does it? I always love it! He was feeling pretty great and then spotted someone with a bag of cash running across rooftops, oddly dressed like a fly.
"Alrighty then, my que to check that out." Peter remarked to himself hopping onto the rooftop in front of the person. "Hello, would that cash happen to be stolen?" He asked.
"Ah, my new nemesis. I was wondering when you'd show up!" He exclaimed.
Peter was amused. "Nemesis is a strong word there buddy. Whoever might you be anyways?" He wondered.
"The Human Fly of course! You've met your match Spider-Man!"
"A Fly? Why not the Fly? Or anything else at all. Also I thought I dressed a bit stupid, but wow you take the cake! Your eyes are hilarious, they're huge, how do you see? And the rest is just a black bodysuit, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't broad daylight! Ah, classic. You should honestly be arrested by the fashion police!"
"Oh you think you're such a wise guy huh? Well, wait until you see what I'm capable of. I just robbed a bank and escaped after all!" He exclaimed back.
Peter nodded. "That's true, I wonder however if everyone was laughing too hard to stop you from robbing the joint. If that's your power, honestly not bad." He admitted.
The Human Fly looked at him and put his hand under his neck, in thought. "It wouldn't be half bad, but my powers of acrobatics will bring you to your knees!"
Spidey still looked pretty unconvinced.
"Ah, a demonstration is required then!" He exclaimed stretching and leaped up high over Spider-Man starting to run away.
"That was impressive, I think." Peter replied and went after them seeing then shot out a tightrope across buildings. "Um, Fly Boy, not exactly sure if that's a safe or effective way to cross that gap, just saying." He remarked, confused.
"I'm an exceedingly talented tightrope walker!" He exclaimed proudly.
"Serious? And you don't believe I am then huh?" Peter asked, trying very hard to not break out into laughter.
He nodded. "I'm superior to you! Flies used to fear the spider, but now the tables have turned in my favor!"
Peter couldn't hold in the laughing anymore and just let it out. "So you're telling me, you think you are currently superior to me, cause you can walk across a tightrope?"
"Indeed fool! I'd love to see you try to stop me from escaping." He exclaimed quite confident in himself and not bothered by Spidery's laughter.
Spider-Man shrugged his shoulders and stood on the tightrope. He stared at the Human Fly for a moment, then the ground and then decided to do a little jump to test he's highly intelligent opponent's balance. Unsurprisingly, it made the tightrope shake leading to the Human Fly falling and Spider-Man quickly webbing him to the tightrope.
He crawled over to him upside down on the rope. "So, what was all that about being my match again? You must have something else in your bag of tricks right?"
"How did you do this? I don't understand I should've been you, my reflexes are better than yours by far!" The Human Fly exclaimed furious.
"Well, you clearly don't understand why Spider-Man is a predator to Human Flies then clearly I'm afraid to say. Maybe you're not as smart as you'd like to believe." He said to his now defeated foe and gave him a tap on the head, processing to bring him down to the police to take away.
"Friend of yours?" One of the officers joked.
"I certainly hope I have better friends than him." Peter replied sarcastically. "This delight said he was my nemesis."
The Human Fly turned to look at Spider-Man. "You are my nemesis and I'll have my revenge, just you wait Spider-Man I'll get you yet!" They pulled him away and drove off in a police car.
"Some nemesis right there." Peter remarked to himself and gave a wave to the police who helped out, swinging off heading to the Bugle.
Peter sooned arrived at the Bugle rushing to find Ned Leeds to give him the photos, it was top priority. Until Foswell stopped him for a moment.
"Hey Peter, it's been a bit since I last saw you. How's everything going?" He asked.
He looked distracted. "Uh I was helping out Ned Leeds with something, a top secret kind of thing. I shouldn't have said that, top secret isn't my speciality."
Foswell laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Understandable, I won't ask too much about your little top secret case then. Hope he's been careful with you, I saw you limping a bit." He pointed out looking suspicious.
Completely forgot about that, crap. Peter realized he was still injured even if he was ignoring it. "You're going to love where that limp came from. I hit my foot coming through the front door and then spun right on it. A complete stupid mistake, I think all that top secret stuff was making me a clutz." Peter joked.
"Makes sense, well be careful if he's making you look out for Crime Master, that guy seems pretty dangerous." Foswell said with a kind smile.
Peter gave him a smile back and went to speak to Ned, finding him looking over a bunch of files. "Hey, I've got the pictures." He whispered to him.
"Oh great, I'll get them to safety now. You did great." He said confidently. "Now, there is something I need to talk to you privately."
They walked away from the view of everyone in the office and out of ear range. "Listen, I think we've got someone in here who's a wolf in sheep's clothing." He started to explain, looking around. "Someone here has got to without a doubt be working for Crime Master or even the guy himself Peter. I think it could be Foswell or Eddie Brock, that'd be my own suspicion." He revealed.
Peter looked completely shocked, he couldn't believe Ned's suspension. "How can you be so sure of that? You can't believe it? I don't know Brock so well, but Foswell is working for the Crime Master? Or even him?"
Ned nodded, looking stressed. "I'm afraid they're the only ones who'd know about our plans. I had someone try to kill me, only minutes after I spotted Foswell following me. Mr. Brock he's even more suspicious, he's always eavesdropping on conversations. I don't like the guy, he's up to something. Planning something I'd have to bet, my gut tells me he's a thug. Maybe both he and Foswell are working together." Led suggested.
This can't be true, I trust Mr. Foswell. Peter thought to himself upset. "I just can't believe it, Foswell has helped me with learning things. You can't believe all of this, we've got to find more evidence first!" He exclaimed.
He sighed at Peter. "You're right, we'll find more evidence first. I'm hoping I am wrong, but it all seems off. Not to mention how Spider-Man went after the place we were watching over, was he following us?" He wondered.
Peter tried to avoid being suspicious. "I don't know, well you know I've taken a few pictures of him, maybe he's following me? What a creep!" He exclaimed, shaking his head thinking of it, hoping he wasn't over playing.
Ned smirked. "Yeah Spider-Man is a strange one right?"
Peter nodded with a smile. "You bet."
"Anyways, enough joking around. We need to be careful alright? I'll get these pictures safely and try to find anything I can, okay? Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
"Don't you worry I'll keep an eye out. Though aren't you worried about someone trying to kill you, Ned?" Peter asked, confused.
He waved it off. "You didn't know it, but it's not the first time I was nearly killed. Wilson Fisk the Kingpin nearly killed me once when I was investigating his suspected corruption years before he was revealed as a crock. Quite frankly Fisk is a wessel and I wouldn't be shocked if he got his way out of this mess too. Fish even out of the picture now still have power." Ned expressed looking angry thinking of him.
Peter looked at him, feeling like something was left out of that story, but he didn't question it, leaving now trying to not look suspicious.
I can't believe this, Foswell working for Crime Master? Why would he, it's insane! This all seems so wrong, I won't believe it's Foswell. I need to follow him, as Spider-Man and Eddie Brock, my money would be on him. It couldn't be Foswell. It just couldn't be. I swear I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Well Spidey, looks like my day is still going to be quite an interesting one.
Next up, The Crime Master shall be revealed! Hopefully the reveal will be worth the long wait. This chapter's purpose was to set up the events coming up and give some much needed build up. I added in the Human Fly bit on the spot as I wanted to toss in some fun and action, hope it served that purpose. I only know of the Human Fly from the 60's Spider-Man show which I've got a lot of nostalgia for. Got lots of exciting stuff coming up and I can safely say, at the time of writing this part I'm writing chapter 52 which is the first post Crime Master chapter and has a lot of exciting stuff lined up. Safe to say, I'm not going anywhere yet.