It was two days since the take down of the black suit, confessing his feelings for Mary Jane and officially being together. On the less brightside, there was still a bounty on his head, still a crazed goblin on the loose, Hammerhead dead leaving a hole in the criminal underworld, everything with his other friends, etc. With all that going on, Spidey was trying hard to keep himself under the radar. Not particularly wishing to get spotted considering how popular in the worst way he was currently.
Right now Peter just wanted to have some time out with MJ, having their first official date at a nice little pizza place. It would probably be costly and require getting some overtime pay from the Bugle, but with this being their first real date he wanted it to be as special as possible. He decided on asking Robby about it, figuring JJ wouldn't be in the best mood for that.
"First date huh?" Robby asked, looking cheerful about it.
"Yeah, overtime wouldn't be a problem then? I really want everything to work out between us, she means a lot to me." Expressed Peter genuinely, wanting to make things up to her.
Robby seemed to understand this. "After being married for a little over 20 years to the most special woman, I can see why you'd want the first date to be a treasure. I'd talk your ear off, but I'm sure you'd not want to hear about it. Point is, I hope it'll go great for you, the date with the girl."
"Her name's Mary Jane and she's the best. Thanks Mr. Robertson, I'll work my butt off as soon as tomorrow!" Peter said cheerfully, his mind then shifted over to JJ. "So uh, how are things with that bounty on Spider-Man?"
Robby looked disappointed. "Still full force, he's in trouble legally with the police, but he's got a lot of money and is fighting it trying to keep the bounty going as long as possible. Hopefully once John is better, he'll drop it. Still can't believe what happened to him out there in space, differently not the expected result you'd be worried about turning into a werewolf!"
"Yeah, definitely not. It's horrible what happened to him and what Spider-Man did." Peter said with a frown.
"Well, I feel as if there was something going on with that black suit of his. Hopefully it's all over now whatever was happening, I'm sure he feels guilty enough and he's probably beaten himself up more than anyone trying to collect on that bounty." Robby said, looking closely at Peter, which made him a little uncomfortable.
Peter nodded slowly. "Probably, yeah. Though who knows with that guy, seems like a very mysterious dude. Anyhow, I should get back to work."
"Course Peter, have a great night with Mary Jane." Robby said kindly.
Peter was barely even getting to sit down for long before seeing sirens outside making him sigh heavily, part of him desperately wanted to just take a quick peek outside to see what was going on and if the city needed Spider-Man, even if the city might be gunning out for the wallcrawler.
He decided against web swinging, sticking to the rooftops jumping from building to building finding where the police headed off to, a few cars had exploded which wasn't a good sign. There was no criminal, which wasn't good either.
"My trap senses are tingling." Spider-Man remarked, concerned. This turned out to be correct as his spider sense for real activated, making him move out of the way of an incoming attack.
A man dressed similarly to Spider-Man showed up behind him attempting to kick Spidey off the rooftop. "Hey! Who are you? Trying to rip me off!"
"Call me, Tarantula. I'm here to collect the bounty on your head. My mission would require the money and a little theatrics!" The man exclaimed moving quickly, continuing trying to fight Spider-Man. His glovers turned into sharp claws. "How about you make it easy and die!"
"Hmm, I had plans coming up and I just got back in my old suit, I don't want to die after that! I just washed it!" Spidey remarked sarcastically kicking him back, but found he wasn't too bothered by this getting right back up. "Let me guess, you got bitten by a radioactive tarantula?" Peter shuttered thinking about it. "And I thought getting bit by a spider was freaky!"
He ignored this, continuing trying to fight Spider-Man, slashing at him and failing to get any hits in yet. "I might not have super powers, but I don't need any." Tarantula revealed a flash blinding Spidey for a moment, getting a good slash on the suit and cutting poor Peter who tried to fight back, cracking him across the face. "Okay, that hurt and made me pretty mad!"
A helicopter came overhead. "More friends of yours?"
Tarantula stared at it ducking for cover, as it opened fire on Spider-Man with guns coming out of the front of it following after him, forcing the necessity to start to web swing out of there. On the street people were seeming conflicted, some giving a few cheers for seeing him back in red and blue. Others were saying quite nasty words cheering on the chopper on his tail. This is mighty unfortunate, I shouldn't have left the building, have a date tonight and then overtime. I can't die. I won't. After defeating an alien trying to take over my body, this shouldn't be so hard.
The helicopter stayed close to Spider-Man's behind, making the jump backwards hopping onto the chopper climbing aboard. "Land and surrender to the police!" Listening wasn't their strong suit as the guy beside the pilot tried shooting at Spidey making the helicopter start to lose control, making it start to fly higher into the air away for now thankfully. "Well, that worked out at least." Strangely his spider sense started to go off once again with him moving out of the way of another incoming foe. A blast from the past in fact.
"It's payback, Spider-Man!" The villain shouted proudly.
"Me oh my, is that the human fly? I can't believe you came back already, let me take a guess, coming for that bounty?" Spidey remarked amused.
Human Fly smirked. "You're mostly right."
Peter was grabbed from behind, getting caught off guard, but managed to break loose throwing them off, seeing to his surprise, there were now two. "Ah, great. You got yourself a friend in prison."
"Right you are. And we're going to get rich by taking you down!" The second Human Fly exclaimed in a cocky way.
Spidey scratched his head. "And splitting the cut will go great right? I mean, didn't you hear what happened to his last partner?" He said, spinning up a lie.
This worked making the second glare over at the original. "What's he on about?"
"He's lying! It's all a little devious trick!" The Human Fly exclaimed frustrated.
Unconvinced, the second gave pause, which didn't last as Tarantula returned, arriving onto the building with a couple of goons.
"Ah, great, the whole gang's here. You know, flies don't have much of a chance against us arachnids." Peter pointed out.
The two Human Flies looked at each other. "We'll take that chance!"
"Glad to hear. Nothing can be easy for me." Spider-Man remarked, rolling his eyes annoyed by this occurrence and jumped back kicking the two over avoiding shooting from Tarantula's guys. "Wait your turn!" He rushed over to them, finding them to be better fighters than expected, managing to keep up with him trying to hit them dodging the incoming hits, with Tarantula trying to shove his blades into Spider-Man.
"Your death and the profit we'll get from it will save countless lives!" Tarantula claimed.
Peter didn't believe it, shaking his head. "Yeah, I highly doubt it pal! You don't seem like any type of hero!"
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good! I'll kill anyone who stands in the way of my ambitions. I am a freedom fighter. My mission is the most important thing in my life." He smirked. "And I admit, money and fame is a nice bonus."
Spider-Man laughed. "Figured as much." He moved out of the way when one of The Human flies came at him, who then got into the way of the Tarantula who was about to kill him and would've too if not for Spider-Man pulling the man away from danger into his loving fists knocking him back still.
"Why save one of your own enemies?" Tarantula asked, bewildered by this action.
"Comes to me naturally. I'm not a jerk like you guys." Spider-Man remarked and smacked him pretty hard knocking him to the ground face first seeming to knock down Tarantula for the moment, taking a sigh of relief, only to have more spider sense getting triggered to his confusion. Another figure appeared on the rooftop looking to have the intention to kill. "Oh for the love of. Can't you see I'm taken? Don't you know it's rude to interrupt a tag team!"
"There is a good price on your head, Spider-Man, I'm collecting." The mysterious new assassin said drawing a sword.
"Fine, how about a name then?" Spidey asked, moving in for a fight, looking behind him and seeing The Human Flies getting back up.
The masked killer looked at him. "Call me, Ronin." They responded by rushing at Spider-Man trying to slash at him getting another stab in.
"Come on! I just fixed this suit up!" Spider-Man remarked back angrily and clocked Ronin in the face knocking them down, but was surprised by a leg sweep at the sametime from them. On top of that The Human Flies decided now to dog pile him making it worse.
"How about a three way cut!" The original Human fly exclaimed hopeful.
After a moment of silence Ronin nodded. "That's acceptable. Let me get the killing blow, nice and quick." They said, preparing to put their sword into Spider-Man's chest.
"Not a chance!" Spider-Man shouted and used his strength to throw off the Human Flies and kicked Ronin back knocking away the sword webbing into the ground, then spotted one of the flies about to fall off the building, making him rush over to grab them bringing them back up, but did give a knockout punch.
Trouble continued as Tarantula got right back up jumping back into the fight attacking Spider-Man from behind flashing him giving a temporary knock off balance again getting a couple good blows in. Fortunately, spider sense picked up the slack of not being able to see at the moment, giving some blows right back at him punching Tarantula into submission knocking him down and about to web him up if not for Ronin nearly getting a fatal blow on Spider-Man. The Human Fly punched him from behind, making Spidey's attention turn to him, leaving him vulnerable to an attack from Ronin who got in close and started to try close quarter combat.
Matters only got worse, Tarantula joined into the fight getting in close, now all three villains were attacking him close on. Spider-Man got into focus, blocking all the incoming blows, giving punches right back. He got an opportunity to jump up spinning around in a cycle knocking them all over and then did the same move webbing them all neatly up in a bundle. This would've ended the fight if not for Tarantula having his blades ripping right through the webbing. Expecting this, Spider-Man knew he'd have to take him down first and knock him out. He cracked him hard across the face, tangling them from the building webbing it to the side, leaving him for the police in theory.
Ronin moved in swiftly, attacking Spider-Man managing to knock him off the building too, pulling a gun opening fire rapidly.
"What kind of a ninja uses a gun!" He shouted in response to this running alongside the building avoiding the gunfire.
He needed a moment to breathe, not being given this as the helicopter returned starting to rain down fire onto him once again. "Ah great!"
"Die bug! This is for The Rose!" They shouted out.
Spider-Man leaped down from the buildings. Okay, this is enough. These assassins are all coming out of the woodworks, I have to handle real crimes until this bounty is called off, surely it'll be soon. This is insane and a waste of my time! JJ can't keep this going forever, it's going to be called off soon I know it, one way or another.
He started to swing away, deciding on leaving the helicopter alone, thinking it'd be best to not tempt fate with crashing it into the city. With that decided he managed to avoid trouble, for now at least and decided on trying to go home, to get ready for the date with MJ not wanting to be interrupted.
Back over with the villains, The Human Flies were still both knocked out cold. The other two, were still standing with Tarantula breaking loose and the mysterious Ronin disappearing. The thugs went to help their boss, meeting him in the ground with Tarantula being frustrated. "Spider-Man was a tougher opponent than we figured he'd be. It's time we make a better plan and form up to carry out our mission here in New York City."
"Perhaps we should group back home, build the empire up further. That Spider-Man was a tough enemy to beat." One of the thugs expressed.
Tarantula looked unsure. "This is a great opportunity to seize power. Our men could take the underworld, the money we'd get having a foothold in New York would be huge for us, to our people."
"It could be too big of a risk!" The other thug exclaimed, putting their foot down. "This could end everything we've built!"
The options of his men mattered to him, making Tarantula think about what was said by both of them. "Your right, not worth the risk. Better to play it safe. Once we return, it'll be far better that time around." They expressed leaving with their men, while being watched by Ronin who looked relieved by them making the decision to leave the city having bugged one of them, now turning away to leave as well.
Peter went home, after some more minor shenanigans, one poor driver almost hitting another person and a perch snatcher who was easy enough to catch after they practically took themself down, falling over. He walked through the doors taking a sigh seeing Aunt May looking at bills. As usual she hid them.
"Oh your home, getting ready for that big date of yours?" She said with a smile. "I'm very happy for you Peter, it's awfully exciting having your very first and with Mary Jane is even better. I always thought there was something special between you too."
"Me too, mostly freaking out I have to say." Peter admitted.
Aunt May walked over to him putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's going to go great Peter, if you're anything like your father and I know you are, it'll be amazing without any effort. Be yourself, which I know is overused these days, but it's true! Why else would you be having this date?"
"My dashing good looks?" Peter remarked sarcastically and then hugged Aunt May. "I'll follow your advice, thank you Aunt May."
There was a knock at the door, with it being Mary Jane. He exited with her going to walk off to the restaurant now. "You're sweating a little. Don't faint." She said and nugged at him playfully.
"Me? Faint, never. I have to say, walking around with the most beautiful woman in the entire world could make me a little wobbly." He remarked back with a smile.
"Always the charmer." She smiled back. "I heard Spider-Man was back out there, wearing his best suit."
Peter nodded, looking cheerful. "Yeah, I couldn't keep away. Help a couple people and had a run in with a bunch of crocks thinking they'd get one over on me. Nothing I can't handle, though I have to wonder where all these guys keep coming from and how exactly to send them back!"
She laughed. "You're a popular guy. Made me feel better seeing you wearing the suit again, being back to normal. You seem so much more like yourself, I can see it now in hindsight how you weren't wearing that alien or visavera. It was more subtle, little details, but I really can see it now."
"You always do see right through me, in the best way. Without you around, I don't know what would've happened. Might've lost myself to it. The best thing about that stupid alien was making me see how dumb I was being. Should've asked you out a heck of a lot sooner. It's always been you who's there for me. Keeps me honest and good."
"Hey now, don't sell yourself short. And I feel that way too. Without you Peter, I can't tell how my life would've gone. Even now I feel directionless at times, but knowing you're around and always got my back no matter what I do, it's the best. I've never had the best luck with people, but I think it's safe to say, Tiger, we both hit the jackpot." She smiled at him and then stopped for a moment, having a romantic kiss as the sun was starting to set down on the city.
Later into the night two of Spider-Man's enemies were heading back to their hideout, as rain started to come along.
"Can't believe Spider-Man beat us both, imagine the money we could've had!" One of Human Flies exclaimed frustrated exiting a car, processing to get rained on.
The other nodded in agreement. "He's a slippery one. On the brightside, at least we're not going back to prison. It was a close call there!" While saying that he looked for keys to a doorway.
The Human Flies entered a frightening sight when returning back to their base of operation, finding a figure cloaked in shadows waiting for them.
"You idiots nearly killed Spider-Man, that won't do! Try collecting on that bounty again and you won't live to use the money!" The voice roared at them, with its appearance being black, apart from a white symbol on its chest.
"And who do you think you are? We don't have to answer to anybody! You don't scare me one bit buddy, show yourself! Are you a coward?" One of them asked, not intimated laughing about it, looking over at the other.
This wasn't a good choice, as a tentacle zoomed out grabbing onto them and throwing them across the room, it looked painful.
"How about it? Take me seriously!" The voice shouted and got a rapid nod in return from The other Human fly. "Good, now turn yourselves into the police or I'll be back to pay you two a far less friendly visit! Spider-Man will be a joke once I'm done with you criminal scum!" The figure threatened and left, heading off into the downpour.
Thank you for reading, there was a bit of a break for me in writing the last chapter finished up in July or August I think and now it's almost Christmas Day and there was a nasty snow storm. So not the summer anymore.
I wanted a breather after the black suit saga wrapped up, ending as you'd expected it too, with guess who, just around the corner. In fact only have to wait until chapter 75 to see his smiling face.
For now two new villains were introduced who aren't relevant to right now, but I wanted to set them up for down the road (assuming I do anything with them, 2024 spoilers, I won't sorry) for now I just wanted some lesser villains trying to take on the bounty for Spider-Man. Some of you who know about Ronin would probably be surprised by that, I wanted to try doing something different with them. (Though I don't know who's behind the mask yet, I have other storylines more important right now, so no clues to their identity and sorry again, 2024 hindsight wish hadn't made that little mystery, as I doubt it'll ever be solved. Unless I get that Avengers series back off the ground) Secondly was Tarantula who I was skeptical of using, just based on his name. (I'm serious **** spiders, but good god man **** those more times a million!) Anywho, as hinted here he won't be around just yet full time and will likely have some sort of connection with Ronin or conflict, you'll find out. Probably. Don't quote me on it. ):
Finally I was happy to give Peter and Mary Jane their first date, I would've written more about it, but to be completely honest I'm not a very major fan of love at the moment and feeling pretty crappy, so, sorry if I cut it short.
2024 update and overview.
Most of this chapter will age poorly, so I apologize for that. And can promise if there is any other continuation series for Spider-Man in this universe or Avengers or hell even White Tiger I'd give a resolution to the plots set up here. Though don't hold your breath about it.
I posted this on July 25th and have officially begun posting the final bunch of chapters now. If you're reading now, the next 10 or 11 chapters should be coming shortly. Thanks for sticking with me.