Chapter 2B: 2 Young Heroes Vs Reality

…

Of course, returning back to real life in New York was hard. The Roaring Sevens and the Park Avenues united the teams and imagined the power they have with the Young Prodigies that spooked Team Shield, so much that rumor has it that the government kidnapped Cholo straight from his home. As they decided to look at videos and listen to some newspaper oracles about how Mike trains. Turns out he's psychologically weak, but he's trained well. He's simply more tolerant, more carefree, and more experienced. So to try the same thing on some of their youngest members, they tried to test them to see if they could take the crown from the Roaring Sevens' New "Government Villain".

Of course, some of them can replicate his training, but with a few imperfections, and they somehow can't realize how he's managed to chuckle and stay happy when his life was straight in the gutters, being a gangster and working at a Pizzeria.

Casa Pepino's was certainly getting quite the attraction due to it being the home of the Spider-Man's Apprentice's Weapon, a Modified Uzi with a Wired Stock that comes with a bar that holds Cholo's wrist in place when handling recoil. There's still the signature smell of Pizza Oil on the Gun, and the burning was still there, smelling like toasted seafood, probably when he used the burning muzzle to sear the symbiote off of his body.

Everyone who paid a good amount of money had the chance to hold the gun, but no one made a robbery in the pizza shop, because apparently, cooling the gun after burning it broke the original gun oil, preventing anything from shooting out. And why bother to fix the gun when you can buy another at the same price? And with that decision, the city dubbed this gun the retired "The Bumblebee", because according to Shield, that's how much it hurt Venom with one bullet.

The Seedrian Family all stuck together and sometimes imagined the gun in action again, it was like watching a movie right in front of your eyes. But they, too, question Spider-Man and this city, as well as locating Venom.

Cosmo had the thought of revisiting their earth, and she's been praying to some celestial being to bring back her friends or put her back into her world.

…

In the Allegiance Office, a huge place within the Government and the Agency of Shield, located in a place in the Atlantic Ocean, they had Spider-Man and Cholo in a room with many people that they know, including some heroes. Heroes that not even Cholo had get to see. But ever since being kidnapped while doing drugs after 2 Days with nothing but chips and water to eat, Cholo decided to buy some food from the vending machines and cook some Pasta Alfredo, even though this was something that'll get him banned from his own store and Italy.

Spider-Man was watching Mike's every move as he could smell the Butchered Italian Dish being made, it was enough to make Spidey's stomach growl. Cholo could hear it as he served Spider-Man a plate.

"Here. Eat." Cholo replied as Spider-Man looked up at Cholo handing him a plate. "Don't worry I won't look…"

Cholo flips his chair to the other side, facing away from Spider-Man as he sits down and digs into his food, as Spider-Man did so himself, but not before peeling his mask to expose his mouth and nostrils. It was a fine pasta.

The Agents of both powers watched as Spider-Man and Cholo became more interesting to watch. Meanwhile, cameras and microphones studied the two.

"How's it feel… to be a criminal who's a hero…?" Spider-Man awkwardly asked Mike.

"I do this because I need money. I saved you because I now know how precious heroes can be when there's people like Venom around." Cholo replied. "Politicians don't do anything for people less fortunate like myself. But chances are that they don't do anything for you either."

"With great power comes great responsibility. A good person told me this before…" Spidey sighed as he remembered that quote from Uncle Ben.

"So tell me this. If you have great power and you have a responsibility to take care of your city. Tell me, with a great power like yours, why don't the city be responsible for you? It wouldn't hurt to ask for some paper pay." Cholo replied.

"If I would, I would spoil myself. At least I thought it'll happen to me." Spider-Man forked some pasta into his mouth after that phrase.

"And now? Look at the city, with powers from you, and a gangster who did too much, now they expect us two to fight for New York, for free." Cholo huffed angrily, as he hated not being paid for war. "There were times I failed at heists and missions and there were times I had to eat what I reap, and it didn't stop my pain… I bet there are times that this city hates you, too. If not by powerful people, then there's the useless population of citizens…"

"I'm surprised you're not a hero at all, you could've been a great Hawkeye or Black Widow replacement." Spider-Man reminded himself of the Avengers in a city not too far from here.

"Funny you'd say that. Iron Man is rich, none of your heroes are broke like you or me. So why compare diamonds to pieces of rock?" asked Cholo. "I get it, we have people who overshadow us until today. Maybe not you, but for me? I made a big name for myself, I thought I love the attention, but the truth is now I know how you feel… I wanna shoot the animal who DARED to put you here to suffer, and who kidnapped me from my house…Chances are that we're both granted powers and fame, but not money nor women…"

"Yeah…" Spider-Man looked into himself, reminding himself of Mary Jane.

"And you know what sucks being you or me? We both have people better than us, but they do absolutely nothing and hope we clean up the mess…" Cholo seemed to collect rage as Spider-Man pulled down his mask as he placed the plate on the table.

"I get your pain…" Spider-Man sighed.

"And I got a free sample of yours…" Cholo replied as he chuckled. "One more day of being a government weapon and I'll shoot myself one of these days."

After that quote, a female agent wrote what Cholo said as she writes "Subject: Gangster, is considering Suicide. Refer to Therapist after the interview if he shows depressed or furious emotions".

"Hey, at least you got a taste of being a hero." Spider-Man tried enlightening things up. "It's not easy for people to keep up with me. How did you even figure out Venom's weaknesses?"

"I'm surprised you never have a Fresh Bagel, some coffee and go read newspapers. I'm sure you've never heard of street oracles, like any other gangster in America." Said Cholo.

"Street Oracles?" Spider-Man was puzzled.

"I'm not snitching who taught me those tips, I'm taking my secrets with me. But I'll tell you that your first Venom fight was caught on Camera, stored and processed into movies. I know some of your villains, but I picked the right one. HAHAH!" Cholo chuckled loudly, shocking some of the agents. "And who knew that we actually have street DeeJay's as well! I thought I was the only one who simply drinks purple, celebrating tradition!"

The Female Agent writes "Subject: Gangster might also be under Codeine influence".

"Tradition?" Asked Spider-Man. "I know what Codeine is, but what tradition are you speaking? If you don't mind."

"You see, I make music and I play what I have, composing melodies. They're just good sleep beats, but the tradition was that only people who make good music are allowed to celebrate with this drink." Cholo explained.

"Huh… interesting…" Spider-Man thought.

"What about you? You don't take holidays while patrolling, do you?" asked Cholo.

"You'd think one day you'd have a break, but in the end, you might have one on the wrong day." Spider-Man admitted. "Kinda like the same way for being a gangster, I think. No offense or anything."

"No, you're good. We have several stupid things that start war such as party wrecking and more. I can't imagine who'd start a crime scene on Christmas. At least bring some cookies and chocolate milk." Cholo joked.

Spider-Man chuckled at Cholo's demeanor and the joke. It was true, if Spidey were to ever fight a villain in Christmas, they'd at least have to buy him a present, or better most, a Christmas Cookie and something nice to wash it down.

But thinking the same ideas, Cholo and Spider-Man deflected the rage and sadness away discussing which holidays should Gangsters and Heroes would recommend if they were to fight enemies on days like Saint Patrick's Day, Halloween, Mother's Day, and so on, each with a unique type of food expected.

But one holiday that got Wolverine interested was the fact that when Cholo brought back the idea of villains or rival gangsters buying the two a fresh green beer during Saint Patrick's Day if there was a fight, despite the fact that neither Mike or Peter were alcoholics. Those were mostly childish jokes to mask the different emotions that were having, being kept away from their will.

The female agent began writing this; "Subjects: Spider-Man and Gangster seem to get along though they maybe have gone insane".

Wolverine, taking a peek at the paper, frowning at that last part, stole the pen and scribbled out the part that dissed both of them. You see, Wolverine likes beer, mostly because he likes the taste and because of his powers, alcohol does nothing to him.

Wolverine walked past the agents and stared down Spider-Man and Cholo, who both were unaware of his presence until he stepped up. Spider-Man felt uneasy being stared at by the Mutated Hero, while Cholo wished he had a gun, but after learning that even with his weapon, there was nothing Cholo can do to kill Wolverine, but Cholo doesn't mind that, all he wanted was something to punish the aggressive bozo for staring ay him like that.

Right behind Wolverine were agents, and a few representatives who sat down around the table as they had a chance to interview Spider-Man and Cholo.

For Spider-Man, the answers they got were the fact that it was true that he still feels the power of the Black Suit, though only through some minor degrees. Spider-Man also can get along with Cholo, but doubts he'll invite him to more missions, but the coordinators approved since this was a simple human with a weapon. About the fact that the aliens he was with, he has no idea who they are. For their information, there was the revealing of the Avengers, and some more heroes in this world that he shared with Mike, but that was all since Cholo seemed to not care for Spider-Man was the only hero who shares his pain, but Cholo could tell that their joy from their conversation is seeping into Wolverine who simply grunts at Spider-Man and Cholo backed him up.

Then the interview moved to Cholo, but on the condition that Spider-Man can get up and stretch his legs by walking around and doing as he pleases. Unfortunately, the agents made that negotiation that Spidey stays in the room, which Spider-Man accepts, but Cholo felt defeated and so bargained with that deal.

The answers they got from Mike was he was originally from the city underneath a bridge and he moved up by himself with several crimes that either weren't detected or were ignored by his city. After his own civil war, he and his brother separated from the family where Cholo was using his invisibility to commit more crimes and was recognized by the Roaring Sevens, growing up in school and being hired was the part of the story that was uninteresting for the agents, for they mostly did not care where did he came from, but one of them took notes for trying to grow an artificial hero, thing was, he hid it from Wolverine.

More answers revolving around the Aliens and his bravery that happened during the war with Venom and the Gang War simply was extricating to cover, for Cholo was trying to protect the Seedrians. But he did what he could to form a sneak peek.

To unveil a pinch of it, Mike saw the Seedrians while he was participating in the war. When he felt the urge to protect the family of plant aliens, he collected something that possessed his mind, which he hated, and it felt like he was juiced on a best product that made him feel invincible, some of the pain felt like he was numbed, but felt worse when the power faded away. He felt tired, he felt sleepy, he felt like he survived 9 matches with Mike Tyson with him taking every hit around his body for 5 minutes, in his words. But according to Cosmo, that item was called a Chaos Emerald. He did have plans to turn it into jewelry, but what are the odds of it possessing his brain again doing the most punishing things to his body? When he handed over the Chaos Emerald to Cosmo, she gave him another one which was claimed to be fake, but it was a real gem, a separate color from the one he was possessed by, and it had the value of a real green emerald. It didn't creep out Cholo by a hit for he knew aliens exist, and because of his friend who took astronomy and found a planet the size of Jupiter that's completely made out of diamonds.

They've also asked where the aliens are now, but Cholo refused to answer, to which some of them weren't happy to hear that answer. To safely pick apart the bones with the agencies, Cholo simply replied "NO EXPERIMENTS!".

After some time interviewing the two, they were released back to their lives in New York, but not before Mike and Peter exchanged phone numbers and kept it a secret.

For Peter, it was no surprise that things didn't go as welcomed as before, for Mary Jane was "waiting forever" for Peter to come back, but Peter had to "Give a full oral report" (in Mike's Fashion of words) on why he disappeared. Mary Jane was worried for Peter as she and him went out talking about the gangster kid known as Cholo, but Spider-Man insisted to keep it that way, because Mary Jane calling him Mike feels awkward since she never appeared in the meeting. Mary Jane wasn't invited to the meeting.

For Mike, it was a regular season, working at his busier pizzeria, ordering large shipments of Pizza Oil, and lugging them around for days because gangs that were not present during the Venom War were buying heaps to keep themselves prepared for another Venom War. Hardly anyone bought Pizza, not even a cookie. As much as it was confusing for the owner, this made Mike question his actions… The Chaos Emerald was the one to blame, but at the same time, it was his death that could lead to New York's death and Peter's death, or he carries everyone on his shoulders. As people would flock to Casa Pepino's to interview Mike, it was painful to know they're only here for Spider-Man secrets, to which Mike explains that he's no snitch. For if anybody gets a single fact about Peter through him, Mike will have to kill them, with or without Peter's consent.

Coming back to crime fighting and crime making, the Seedrians kept an eye out for the two, as they got settled in their apartment. Revealing to Cholo where'd they come from, it seemed like listening to a chapter of Anime and Videogames that got Mike obsessed with the adventures of Cosmo, Tails, Sonic and Friends on the Blue Typhoon. It didn't take anything to picture this adventure, at all. Maybe with printable merchandise, he'll make his own millions and possibly fund a portal to get Cosmo and her family back into her universe. Where he got the idea, is something he doesn't know.

(End of Chapter Piece Ending)