Chapter 7

Without Great Responsibility

John slowly made his way over to the couch where he sat down next to his sister. Emma was looking at her brother with concern as were John's parents. John wasn't really paying them much attention as he was focused on the news cast. There was no mention of the bomb he found and threw over the river which John found weird. You would have to figure at least one student saw me swing away with it and the news is obviously going to interview the students so why hasn't it been mentioned, John thought to himself his exhausted expression slowly becoming one of confusion.

This had they effect of making his family even more worried about him. They all sit there collectively thinking that maybe he had sustained ahead injury during the attack making him forget it happened and now he was being confused upon learning about it. It was this concern that made Emma ask a question with some degree of hesitance.

" John do you need me to take you to the hospital?" Emma asked with concern and worry for her brother in her voice. This made the young man look at his sister now even more confused. What the heck is she going on about why would I...oh that's whats going on, John thought to himself pausing about how to respond.

" No I am fine," John said his voice reassuring his sister with a smile. " I wasn't even at the school during the fight anyway."

Of course that was just a half-truth as he was there during the first and last half of the fight but he was hiding that fact from his family in order not to worry them more then they already were. John decided he should examine them to make sure they didn't catch him not being entirely truthful with them.

" Well were glad you made it out without injury," Haruteru said with a smile to his son. This helped to ease the fake hero's fears a little bit as it would have been difficult for him to explain without them becoming more worried. After all John himself was not eager to repeat the experiences that he had today especially since he didn't have powers.

" Still it is a miracle that only one girl ended up injured in the entire attack," John's mother said her concern for the safety of the other students in her voice.

" Well Williow is Tony Stark's daughter so it makes sense that she was able to keep things from getting things to out of hand," John said with somewhat perplexed expression on his face. " Plus some of the other students helped the staff to make sure everyone got out of the building or at least that's what I heard from a friend."

" Seems like Horizon High is filled with potential heroes if that's the case," Haruteru said with a smile at his son. You have no idea how literal that statement is dad, John said thinking about Willow. After all he had manged to catch her while she was wearing her armored suit and it was able to help her hold her own against a supervillian with greater firepower so John was sure that she would become one of the greats like her dad. Meanwhile he was siting on his couch wondering when he would get to quit playing hero as it was a role he wasn't cut out for.

" Well lets order something in for dinner since I am sure we are all warn out from the news," Emma suggested and after having both her father and her mothers approval she went and ordered some delivery from a Japanese restaurant. It took about thirty minutes for the food to arrive at which point they all gathered around the kitchen table and ate their dinner which once that was done and the trash was taken care of everyone went back up to their rooms. John sat on his bed staring at the mask for his replica suit wondering what had happened to make it so the original Spider-Man could have been gone so long.

" Well I don't have any clues to figure out where I should even begin looking for him and until I solve my questions about my high school getting attacked I don't have the time," John said muttering to himself exhausted and falling back into his bed. After all its not everyday that high schools experience supervillian attacks, John thought to himself closing his eyes before they bolted open as an idea struck him. He bolted off his bed grabbed the mask putting it on.

" Alpha-1 wake up I have something I need you to research and send to the computer in the lab," John said a slight amount of excitement creeping into his voice.

" Of course sir just tell me what it is," Alpha-1 said in his monotone A.I voice.

" Look up a list of every time a high school or college was attacked for the last four to five years and then cross reference that with Spider-Man sightings," John said with a smile.

" I will have all the data ready and transferred in about an hour and half sir," Alpha-1 said before immediately beginning the process of gathering the data that John said he wanted. John just smiled and quickly grabbed his costume quickly putting it on before leaping out of his window to begin swinging towards his lab at a very quick pace as he was excited to think he may have found a clue into helping him return the suit. It didn't take him long to reach the tunnels and reach the abandoned section of subway where he kept the lab. He quickly entered the lab and removed his mask.

" What have you got for me A.D.A.M?" John asked with a smile before a multiple holograms appeared before him with newspaper articles about all the specific attacks he had asked for. It seems as if every high school and university in the city had been involved in an attack by a supervillian at some point. John then noticed that three names had popped up a lot more then any of the others which immediately caught his attention. " Give me the three most common."

The rest of the holograms disappeared leaving only articles containing three names, Midtown High, Horizon High, and Midtown University. Bingo, John thought to himself with a smile. He was glad as now he had a search radius to begin looking for information though he didn't know where he should start. He began to pace around the lab considering his options when he thought of something else that might help him narrow down his search.

These schools where probably attacked because either the villians deduced that Spider-man was a student there or that someone in them knew he was, and either way its to good of a lead to pass up, John thought to himself deciding that starting tomorrow he would begin looking into the school records to find any possible leads that he could use. So once he had a new plan of action he headed back to his bedroom via swinging and quickly went back bed after taking off his costume and throwing it in the closest.

He then went to bed pulling his blanket over top of him. He then begin to sleep as peacefully as he could tossing an turning throughout the night. The next morning John got up when his alarm went off. He slowly stretched his arm over to the alarm clock to turn it off. Before he got up he stretched his body foe a little bit. After that he went to his closet and put on the replica costume except for the gloves and mask. He then slipped on his civilian clothes over the top of the suit, put the gloves, mask, and web shooters in his backpack.

Once that was done he went downstairs and made some rice for him and the rest of the family for breakfast that morning. The rice took about seven minutes to cook which gave John a few moments to plan his detour route to school as he was hoping to be able to ask some question about the villain attacks on the other schools and maybe try an access the student records to see if he could find out who to return the original suit to. He was continuing this train of thought when the rice finished and John prepared the bowls for his family.

The bowls for the rest of the family being prepared, he quickly grabbed his bowl of rice and headed to the couch to eat turning on the news as he sat down. The news program turning on covering the attack on Horizon before switching over to cover where Jameson's new rally was going to be held. Apparently the owner of the Daily Bugle was trying to run for mayor which John didn't see going well. A lot of people himself included do not care about the old mans crackpot theories about masked heroes.

John just shook his head as he listened to the news eventually turning it off as he finished eating his rice. He then got up from his seat and walked over to the kitchen and washed his empty bowl before he dried it putting up it back in its cabinet. Once he had his bowl squared away he began the walk to school deciding to take a detour to Midtown High which he stopped at to ask the teachers about supervillian attacks.

They gave him what little information that they could as most of the attacks took place years ago and told him they wouldn't give him access to the student records as they were private files and unauthorized access was illegal. John just sighed as he left the school as while he was now sure that something was weird with the school back then there wasn't a way for him to dig into without access to a bunch of sealed records. So he started his way to Horizon or at least that was the plan until he looked up to the roof of a building and noticed a green mechanical suited figure that he couldn't really make out darting across the rooftops which John found suspicious. It looked to John that the figure was heading to Jameson's rally which gave John a bad feeling as he remembered reports of a certain villain having it out for the news host.

As much as the young pretend hero didn't like the old man John knew it wouldn't do for him to do nothing with his bad feelings so he did something that had become routine to him at this point which was duck into an alley, on his replica of the classic red and blue suit, and swing to save the day after parkouring his way up a building. The thought had crossed the young half-Japanese boys mind that he was about to do something incredibly stupid though he had also had that thought with this entire " filing in Spider-Man's shoes plan" this entire time.

The rally for Jameson was bustling and full of people who were showing support for the old man. John didn't really care about the fact that the rally was going well or at least it was before Jonah himself took the stage. It was at that moment a green armored figure leaped into the crowd causing the civilians to scatter as if they were nothing more then terrified insects. John wished he could have been one of them but he had a job to do for the sake of his plan and slightly more important to him at this point saving the people from a crazy supervillian with a Scorpion motif.

John swung down to confront the villain before more chaos could ensue. "Scorpion, you're not ruining this rally!" John declared, ready for action though he was sweating nervously under his mask the memories of how his fight with the last supervillian he fought flashing through his mind.

Scorpion chuckled, his tail lashing out with surprising speed. John only manged to dodge the strike thanks to Alpha-1 guiding him to duck underneath the strike. The dodge wasn't perfect however and the tail only manged to graze the fake hero. John then rolled away as the Scorpion launched another strike with the green armored tail which was just barely another miss as John jumped up from his roll to attempt to punch Scorpion in the face. The two engaged in a fierce acrobatic battle, flipping and dodging between the rally attendees. The crowd screamed and scattered as the hero and villain clashed.

Despite John's agility,help from Alpha-1's predictions,and immense effort to keep up the false heroes lack of superpowers was becoming a massive hindrance. Scorpion's mechanical tail was proving to be a formidable weapon as it moved quickly and occasionally to fast for Alpha-1 to predict and even the times the A.I could predict it John was only just barely managing to dodge. Each strike reverberated through John's body, and he winced in pain. The crowd watched in horror as their beloved hero struggled against the relentless assault.

As the fight raged on, Scorpion managed to land a powerful blow that sent John crashing into the stage. The hero groaned in pain, struggling to get back on his feet. Scorpion loomed over him, a sinister grin visible through the visor of his armor.

"You can't save them all, Spider!" Scorpion taunted.

John, battered and bruised, tried to muster the strength for a comeback. However, Scorpion's tail struck again, this time knocking him to the ground. The hero's vision blurred, and he knew he couldn't continue the fight. The campaign rally was in disarray, and John lay battered on the stage, struggling to get up. There were tears in his costume from which you could see cuts and bruises from the fight. Scorpion's laughter echoed as he made his way over to where John lay intent on finishing off the fake hero though to him he thought he was fighting the real thing. The crowd was still in shock, unsure of what had just transpired.

John was pretty sure that he was going to die after all he had no way to stop a supervillian and his beat and bruised body didn't really have the energy to execute a plan even if he had one. He closed his eyes waiting for Scorpion's tail to stab him or something when a familiar sound made him open them again and look up to see Scorpion's visor covered with white webbing that he was struggling to get off. Suddenly, a figure swung down from above, landing gracefully beside John . It was Spider-Woman, her sleek red and white suit contrasting with the chaos around them, her brown hair flowing in the wind..She surveyed the scene with a determined look or at least John though so as it was heard to tell with the mask.

"Need a hand, Spidey?" Spider-Woman asked, extending her hand to help him up. John, grateful for the assistance, nodded and accepted the help. He had no clue why she called him Spider-Man sure he was wearing the suit but he was pretty sure she knew he was a fake so the fact she wasn't bringing it up confused him but he figured it could wait until they had dealt with the problem that was Scorpion first.

"Thanks, Spider-Woman. Scorpion got the drop on me this time," John said as he decided that it would be best to keep up his charade a little longer in front of the crowd. After all he could clear up the misunderstanding later once the big green scorpion tailed problem in front of them was dealt with.

Scorpion having realized that he was outmatched now having two heroes to deal with decided to turn tail and run. John had to be honest with himself if the situation had been reversed and he was fighting two supervillians at the same time he would probably do the same at least until he could find a way to even the odds. With the Scorpion running away John took a glance at Spider-Woman and nodded before the two of them took off after the Scorpion.

.The two heroes swung into action, chasing after Scorpion through the city streets. Spider-Woman's agility exceeded Johns's who was barely managing to keep pace due to what he assumed yo be adrenaline, and together they closed in on the fleeing villain. Scorpion, realizing he was no match for this dynamic duo, tried to evade their pursuit. However, the combined efforts of John and Spider-Woman proved too much for him. They cornered Scorpion, and a synchronized attack brought the villain to his knees.

"You're done causing trouble, Scorpion," Spider-Woman declared, her eyes narrowing.

With Scorpion defeated and webbed up for the authorities, Spider-Man turned to Spider-Woman with a nod of appreciation.

"Thanks for the save. I couldn't have taken him down without you," John said with a smile under his mask before his expression turned serious.

" We need to talk," Spider-Woman said her voice coming out from her mask somewhat harshly. John figured it was because of him pretending to be the wall crawler and doing a pretty poor job of it.

" I know a place where we can talk in private," John said to her before jumping off a building and swinging less gracefully then he would like due to his injuries. Spider-Woman quickly followed after the boy not wanting to lose his chance for answers.

Authors Note: Okay this chapter is a bit late but it took me a while to figure out how I wanted everything to go. This chapter is after all supposed to set up something important for the next chapter at least concerning John. Now the inclusion of Jessica Drew in this story is a bit of a thing that I did not originally plan for but a member of the Spider Family ( is that what they are called ) needs to be involved to help John find his place and Ben and Kane would be a bit to rough to do that at least at this point in time. Kind of a shame I can't include them but whatever I might do something with them in another fanfic. Anyway I hope you all enjoy and of course as always see you all in the next one!