Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

A Tangled Web we Weave

Nine

"GWEN?" May Parker blinked in surprise at seeing the pretty blonde who was standing at her doorstep.

Gwen Stacy smiled back, the two quickly hugging. The woman was about Peter's age, and wore a woman's business suit. She looked very grown up, especially compared to her punk phase when she and Peter had been high-schoolers.

"I'm so sorry I haven't been by sooner," Gwen apologized.

"I know you moved on," May told her gently as they sat at her table.

"Well, sort of," Gwen admitted. "Peter sort of was part of my job, actually."

"Hmm?" May asked as she poured them coffee.

Gwen took out her wallet and showed her the SHIELD ID.

May looked a bit startled as she asked her, "Didn't they treat you badly during that whole Carnage mess?"

"They did," Gwen conceded, "but I'd rather be in a position to keep a close eye on them, than not. You know?"

"True," May conceded.

"I know the Vice Director already came by, but I wanted to say that everyone at SHIELD admired Peter and what he did," Gwen said quietly. She added, "I'm so sorry we dropped the ball on Fisk's plan."

"How did...," May trailed off.

"We knew he was doing something, but Fisk wasn't high on our radar. And, honestly, we were relying on Peter keeping him under control," Gwen admitted.

"Which he was normally good at," May sighed.

Gwen nodded as she continued, "I promise, we're keeping a lot closer eye on him. And we're ready to help the new Spider-man, too."

May was a trooper, and kept any reaction from her face.

"We know he's Miles," Gwen told her, smiling impishly. "You two aren't THAT sneaky."

May sighed, "Please don't let it get out. I don't want that young man in any more danger than he is, already."

"We're keeping it covert, I promise," Gwen reassured her.

They talked a bit longer, then Gwen left.

May sighed and phoned Miles. He should know that at least some people at SHIELD knew he was Spider-man...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Well, Spider-man's no longer wanted," Jefferson Davies noted to his wife as he poured a cup of coffee.

"That's good," Rio Morales brightened. "I was worried someone would end up shooting Miles..." she mused.

YES both of them had figured out Miles was Spider-man. Neither were stupid. And his acting oddly had coincided with the new Spider-man popping up. So...

"Did the chief say why?" Rio asked her husband.

"No evidence of wrong doing," Jefferson said. "And he's jumped in to help us pretty often, too," he added.

"That's good. I worry about him," Rio mused.

Jefferson drank his coffee thoughtfully, "I STILL want to know where the spider powers that he got came from..."

"It certainly doesn't run in my side of the family," Rio agreed.

Of course, neither brought up Jefferson's brother Aaron, aka 'the Prowler.' They had known he was into bad stuff, but not necessarily that he'd been a costumed criminal. So yes, that stuff apparently DID run in that side of the family...

"Should we tell him we know?" Jefferson mused.

"Maybe not," Rio mused. "It might make him self-conscious."

"And you want him to make the decision to tell us," Jefferson noted.

"Well, yes," Rio admitted.

Jefferson reached over and hugged her. "Give him time," he said.

"Hmm," Rio sighed. She smirked, "We should call Miles tonight. He needs some parental guilt about not paying attention to us."

"Yes dear," Jefferson chuckled.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"WHERE IS PROWLER," Spider-man growled, hoisting the gang banger up one-handedly.

"I don't know?! Really?!" the guy squealed.

Miles had found out about some jerk wearing his Uncle's Prowler gear. The idea of someone carrying on in crime while wearing that... it was hugely frustrating. The problem was, finding the dude.

"You know, I could web you to a flagpole and just... leave you there. Dangling," Spider-man added coldly.

"Eeep," the man whimpered.

Miles felt kind of guilty all of a sudden. This really felt like bullying.

Besides, Miles was pretty sure he was telling the truth. He webbed the dude and his drug stash against a nearby wall.

"Hey!" the guy yelped.

"I called the cops, they'll be by to pick you up," Spider-man waved, then swung off.

Annoyingly Miles had learned that Prowler was mostly turning up in one area of the city, but that was pretty much it. And he was NOT getting arrested, instead taking off when encountering cops.

'Wonder if he's leading the cops off intentionally?' Miles found himself wondering.

The older lady struggled with her packages, and Spider-man casually dropped beside her. "Let me help," Miles offered cheerfully.

"Spider-man?" the lady blinked.

Amusingly, Miles was a bit shorter than her. Well, he was a growing boy...

"Thank you SO much," she smiled as he walked her to her apartment. "I should have Ubered, but it was a short way."

"Glad to help ma'am," Spider-man said as he dropped her stuff off at the door. "Have a nice day," he waved and swung off.

Miles noted the time and realized he needed to get back to the Academy. It had been a half day, but he still needed to get in some lab time.

"Miles?" May's voice came through his ear-piece.

"Yeah? It's been pretty quiet today," Miles noted.

"Well, something's come up," May sighed, and explained that SHIELD apparently knew who he was.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The Goblin floated in a tank at Oscorp. The bio-tech facility was owned by Alchemax, and through them, Wilson Fisk, and they were working on various projects.

"Don't tamper with the Goblin," Miles Warren warned.

Sam Sterns looked indignant, "But the potential! The regeneration alone..."

"The OZ formula is unpredictably mutagenic," Miles shook his head. "Just look at what exposure did to my clone."

In a nearby cage, Miles' copy 'The Jackal' hissed angrilly at them. "I'M THE ORIGINAL," he wailed, "the clone disfigured me! It's true!"

"Yes, yes, all clones say that," Miles ignored that.

"I know you're the senior researcher, sir, but...," Sam said.

Miles shook his head, "Unless Mr Fisk authorizes it, no. We need to focus on viable projects, not random experimentation."

Sam tilted his head, "But the cloning project isn't..."

Miles gave him a look, and the man subsided.

"We're having problems with the Fisk family DNA," Sam said with a sigh. "The replication process isn't working."

Miles grunted. He had a process that SHOULD be able to create perfect copes of the originals. He had even developed a method of simulating the previous person't memories. But it was still in the experimental stage.

"We might need to exhume the corpses," Miles mused.

Sam looked at him, aghast. "Fisk will never go for it," he said.

Miles shrugged, "Scientific progress requires sacrifices."

"Good luck asking Mr Fisk," Sam shook his head.

Over in his enclosure, the Jackal stewed angrilly. And over in it's preservation tube, the body of the Green Goblin twitched slightly...

To be continued...

Notes: It occurred to me someone from SHIELD should talk to May. Especially when in the Ultimate Comics verse, Nick Fury was actually planning to recuit Peter Parker as a SHIELD agent/Avenger.

I like Miles' parents, so wanted to feature them again.

I'm not sure how angry Miles would be over another Prowler running around, but I think it'd bug him.