M.H. Pintner - Yeah, that's something I've been working on. I understand what you're saying. I plan to work to improve it moving forward. I guess I like to dive into the relationships more than focus on the villains of the story. Again, I'll work on fixing that in the future.
Think of a secret that you have. Think of the biggest secret that you have. Now imagine if that secret got out.
What would it be like? Would anyone blame you for keeping it a secret over the years? How would your world be affected?
As of now, it was just a few moments after Peter's identity was revealed by the Jackal that somehow survived the explosion that claimed the life of Otto Octavius. Peter was sitting in a dark room when a light shone on him, causing him to flinch and cover the light.
"Peter Parker. Are you Spider-Man?" Ned Leeds asks Peter.
It has been going off like this for at least an hour, with an interrogation from everyone but Betty. She left after she had enough of the arguing about if the Jackal was telling the truth and felt sorry for Peter being stuck in the middle of this.
Peter rubbed his eyes from tiredness and looked up at them. "For the hundredth time, no!"
"Then how come that green guy said differently?" Ned asks him.
"You mean the guy who calls himself the Jackal? Does that name inspire trust in you?" Peter asked him back, feeling that taking the word of a super-criminal isn't the best move.
"Then how is it you're the only photographer that's been able to get pictures of the web-slinger in action?" Leeds asked him.
Peter had to think fast, but his brain was currently tired after everything that's gone down. So, he went with the only thing he knew that they would accept.
"Look, the guy shoots me a call or a text before he goes to fight some baddy." Peter threw himself under the bus. Yet again, it was to save himself from being thrown under the bus. Man, his life is a mess. "The guy is kind of a glory hound."
"I knew it!" Jameson cried as Roberson turned on the lights. "I knew that headline hog was using me to get free publicity!" He then turned away to talk to himself. "But a buck's a buck, so..." he turned to his reporter. "Leeds, I want you to go out there and interview everyone that the wall-crawler weasel has ever met!" He then pointed over to Peter. "Hell, interview everyone that Parker's ever met."
"I'm on it!" Leeds said, already afraid of Jameson and was already on top of this as he ran out the door.
"Wait!" Peter tried to stop him from involving his friends and family. "You can't-"
"Go home, Peter. Get some sleep." Robbie tells him and Peter sighed as he started to walk out.
"With my worlds about to crash into one another. Sure." Peter scoffed as he left the room.
As soon as they were alone, Jameson looked over to Robertson with a question in mind. "What do you think?"
Robertson scoffed at the idea. "He's a kid. Not Spider-Man."
"Yeah..." Jameson had a similar thought in his mind. "But...just in case?"
Robertson sighed and showed an article for the paper if this turns out to be true. "We're ready to run with this..."
"Peter Parker is...SPIDER-MAN!"
The article came with a photo of Peter smiling, looking to be taken from his schoolbook, and half of it was replaced with his old Spider-Suit mask.
During the time Peter Jackal was revealing Peter's identity at the Bugle, inside the school, Max Dillon was working on the tanks in Connors' labs filled with bio-enhanced electric eels.
Experimenting with alternative electric properties, he was changing the bio-electric enforcers to keep the experiments under control and not fry the entire laboratory. But while he was finishing the job, one of the pieces of equipment fell on the controls, causing it to backfire on him.
The blast sent him flying into the eel tank where they all started to attack him and shock him all over his entire body as it started to conduct the electricity just like them.
After a few attacks and conducting too much energy at once, the tank glass explodes, sending the eels and Max flying out.
He was later discovered by the fire department which was responding to the fire alarms the accident caused to go off. Moved to a hospital to be cared for, which was a little difficult due to the difficulty that was raised to touch him. Taking him to the isolation ward, his body started to become more and more like electricity with every passing moment.
When Peter got home that night, he found his sisters were already asleep, along with May. So, he couldn't warn any of them about the possible encounter with Ned Leeds if he decides to track them down. The only reason it took him so long to get back was due to the interrogation and the fact that he had to walk home, to make sure that nobody was following him.
A lot has happened in the last few days, and Peter doesn't know what was going to happen next after something like this. He had to find and locate the Jackal again and learn what he was up to now. Otto destroyed his machine, but he sounded like he already had some of his blood left over.
Who knows what kind of damage he can do with that sort of DNA in his possession?
Who knows what is going to do? But whatever it is, Peter knows he needs to be stopped. And revealing his identity was a way of distracting him.
Back at the hospital, Max's condition has begun to get worse, to the point that every time he touched someone, his body would shock them. He needed to wear some gear that kept his power under control, but his body wasn't pulling out the stream of electricity that you could see in his veins once in a while.
"This gear will be able to protect you and others from the electricity," Connors explains to Max, who helped design and create the gear he was wearing. "I promise, Max, I will do everything possible to help you."
But Max didn't respond and just ended up looking in anger toward Connors.
"Just...try and get some rest." Connors decided to go with when he noticed the look.
The next morning, Peter was waiting outside his home for a ride after missing Teresa's lift. This would be the first time that he asked for a ride as he usually swings around for a while. He would swing around, fight some criminals, and then make it to the school. But there was no way that he could do that now with constant reporters badgering him everywhere.
As he looked down the street, he noticed GoGo driving by on her motorcycle as she came over and pulled to a stop. "Hey, fellow nerd."
"Thanks for the lift, GoGo," Peter said as he walked over and took her spare helmet.
"Yeah, what's up with that?" GoGo wonders, never being asked for a lift from him. "I've never had you ask me, or anyone for that matter, for a ride before."
"Let's say some...news got out." Peter tried to explain to her. "That I was Spider-Man."
GoGo raised the eye shield of her mask and looked at Peter in shock. "You?"
"Yeah, the Jackal visited me last night at the Daily Bugle and declared that I was Spider-Man," Peter said as he got on the back of her cycle and she drove off. "Can you believe it? All of a sudden, I'm the most famous guy in the city."
"Yeah, I'll believe it when I see someone who actually believes you're Spider-Man." GoGo declared as she focused on getting them to their destination.
GoGo then got them to school and parked them at her usual spot, only to suddenly be swarmed by reporters. Neither of them even knew where they came from and shielded themselves from the camera flashes.
"Hey, Spider-Man!"
"Is it true?"
"Are you Spider-Man?"
"Sling us a web, Spidey!"
Peter looked to GoGo with a raised brow at her with the sight of all the reporters around him. "Okay, I lose faith in the news."
"Can you prove to us that you're not Spider-Man?" A reporter asks him.
"Hey, buddy, is that your girl?" A reporter commented on GoGo being near him.
"Hey, what's it like kissing a freak?" One of them asked when they pulled GoGo around.
GoGo pushed herself off of him and sighed. "Can they use it against me if I punched them?"
"Possibly." Peter was sorry to say. "Just follow my lead."
"What's that?" GoGo wondered when he just grabbed her hand and ran off towards the doors.
They ended up running away from all the reporters as they expect to see him use his powers to escape. The two made their way into the school where the reporters couldn't follow them and allowed them to relax.
"I could have done that without you grabbing my hand," GoGo said as she showed he was still holding it.
"Right. Sorry. I just didn't want to leave you behind for the vultures." Peter said as he gestured to the reporters still taking photos of the two. Then he looked and noticed he was still holding her hand before letting her go. "Wonder if the others made it in okay."
"Depends on who you ask." Someone said, getting them to turn and see Tadashi was there waiting for them. "Everyone else made it inside okay, but since some of them saw me and you together during Otto's rampage on my aunt's place, they tracked me down."
"Yeah, what did you tell the others?" Peter wonders.
"That there's some rumor going around, I didn't really know what to tell them so that was the best I could say," Tadashi said and then thought of something. "Did you two come in together?"
Peter and GoGo then blushed at the reminder and nodded. "Yeah, we did."
"Did I miss something?" Tadashi asked them.
"I'll explain it to everyone later," GoGo said as she pecked Peter. "Good luck with this."
"Yeah, I have a feeling I'm not gonna get much done," Peter commented when he saw some of the students come past him and started to record him. GoGo left the two of them alone and Peter could speak freely to Tadashi of his plan, but he was more curious on this thing with GoGo. "I've got to find the Jackal and a way to get my identity back."
"Can you really close this can of worms?" Tadashi wonders. "I mean, this feels like something you can't escape."
"That's where I need your help. Jameson sent out a reporter to look into everyone I've met as both Peter and Spidey." Peter informs him. "So, I need you and the others to try and throw them off."
"Don't worry, man. We got you." Tadashi promises him. "But I wanna hear when this thing with you and GoGo started."
"Noted." Peter promises him.
Ned Leeds is currently inside Peter's aunt May's home and sitting on her couch with a tape reporter out to get her statement.
"Is your nephew...Spider-Man?" Ned asked her dramatically.
May didn't even ask that as she looked extremely confused and started to look around, picking up some of the pillows as if looking for something.
"What are you doing?" Ned asks.
"Looking for the cameras," May replied as she looked back at Ned. "This is a joke, right?"
Ned decided that would be her official statement, it was a joke to believe her nephew was Spider-Man.
Back with Max, he was getting frustrated when his powers were starting to interfere with the tv signal as he tossed the remote.
"I can't even watch the game anymore." Max cried in anger as he got up and looked out the window. "I had plans. I planned to have a life. Maybe meet a girl."
"Mr. Dillon, you need to calm down. You just need time to adjust." The doctor tries to calm him down.
"Adjust to what, doc?!" Max asks him. "I'm a freak! I can never go back to my life before this!"
He then waved his hands around, sending an electrical blast out that blew the equipment, the television, and a blast of electricity shot him backward. Looking down at his hands, he started to run off and made his way out of the hospital.
Ned somehow made his way into the school and found himself in the labs with all of Peter's friends and went to question them about their thoughts.
"What are your thoughts on the recent news that Peter Parker could be Spider-Man?" Ned asks all of them.
Wasabi and Honey Lemon looked at one another before thinking for a quick second. Then the following second, they burst out laughing at the idea.
"That's..." Tadashi tried to state how crazy the assumption is but was too busy laughing. "That's the most..."
Honey Lemon was the first to stop laughing while actually thinking of it. "Although...it could explain a few things."
"Oh, come on, Honey Lemon." Wasabi scoffed at the thought.
"But what about..." Honey Lemon started to think back to all the times that Peter disappeared only for Spider-Man to appear.
"That's a little farfetched," Wasabi replied, but then started to think of it himself.
"And yet..." Honey Lemon said as they both became a little worried.
That is when both of them decided to reply with. "No comment."
Peter was currently on top of the school while keeping himself away from all of the reporters before sneaking back into his suit. The others inside the school, with help of Tadashi, start to believe he's hiding from people until this all cools down.
"Everything's a mess." Peter sighed as he rubbed his eyes while looking over his suit. "I can't let them know who I am. If they discovered who I am, everyone who I've ever encountered would go for my sisters, my aunt, and go after all my friends...and the Jackal knows who I am. There has to be some way to get my identity back..."
Then he sensed something wrong when he looked out to the city and noticed some blocks' lights flickering. Wondering what was going on, Peter puts on his mask and sneaks away from the school and avoided the reporters before going toward the scene of the crime.
Ned was still in the labs and found GoGo while she was working on her bike. While she was going over the blueprints for the wheels, Ned was sitting in front of her with a recorder out.
"You were one of the recent individuals to be rescued by Spider-Man, and people saw you were with Peter Parker in the aftermath," Ned commented on why he was here. "Is it possible to say that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are one of the same?"
GoGo looks upward with this annoyed look in her eyes. She thought of it herself and even thought of a few things that didn't make sense with Peter and Spider-Man. Especially back in the Jackal's lair. Spider-Man called her 'GoGo'. Only her closest friends know and call her that.
While she was thinking, she blew a bubble and popped it after coming up with her answer. "No."
That's at least what she told him. Her on the other hand, started to look deeper into the statement and questioned a few things.
Max was currently making his way down the streets when the lights around him flickered and got him to get a little irritated. He started to pick up and started to run down the street.
When Peter made it to the scene where his senses were leading him, he found a man wearing a lot of gear running down the street and had to guess that it was this guy who was causing the trouble. That was confirmed when he watched him grab a light pole and caused the light to explode after electricity crawled and blew it up.
"Okay, that's a new one," Peter said as he swung over and grabbed him by yanking him upward. "So, how did this happen to you?" He wonders as he creates a web to hold him. "Get bit by a lightning bug?"
Max just tried to pry himself free of the web, which let him blast off the electricity that fried Peter's webbing before falling and landing on his feet.
Once he touched the ground, all of the cars nearby were thankfully parked cars with nobody in there. All of the bystanders start to panic and ran away as Peter and Max started to go at it.
"Why did you attack me?!" Max asked Peter as his electricity exploded a few television screens nearby.
"Well, attack is a strong word," Peter commented as he backed away from Max.
"What's your game?" Max asked as he pointed a finger, only for electricity to blast off his finger towards Peter.
Thanks to his senses, Peter was able to detect the attack coming before it came at him, allowing him to jump out of the way and land on the wall. Getting an idea, Peter leaped above Max and shot several strands of webbing at the screens behind him.
"Alright, Electro-Boy. Time to unplug!" Peter cried as he pulled the screens at Max, only getting him irritated and a giant blast of energy leaves him.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Max cried as he started to aim to hurt Peter this time as he goes to punch him. But when he got too close, Peter realizes he didn't think this through as he ends up being electrocuted and sent flying.
While he was down, the area started to be swarmed by the news and reporters who were taking snapshots and footage of the fight and battle between the two of them.
"Who are you?" One of them asks him.
"Is it true you're Peter Parker?" Another asks.
"Show us your face!"
Peter just jumped and dodges the reporters coming in to take off his mask. That's when someone in the crowd cries out.
"That proves it!" Someone stated. "If he wasn't Peter Parker, would he resist this much?"
"The guy's got a point." One of them said.
"Yeah, show us who you are!"
"Come on, just because I'm not the Parker kid doesn't mean I'll reveal who I am!" Peter scoffed as he crawled up the side of the building as Max continues his attacks. "It's called a secret identity! And you're getting your information from the guy who tried to blow up the city covered in green fur! You can't trust those guys."
Max then charged a giant blast as Peter took cover behind a board before panting.
"There has to be something I can do," Peter whispered before he noticed something. "That could help."
Max was however getting annoyed by the cameras and photographers and blasted them all with electricity. The reporters then ran away from the man as he just keeps shooting electricity.
While he was going, constantly frying all of the metal and electrical equipment hit by a giant blast of water, but this time he was sent flying into a bus stop and knocked unconscious.
Nearby, Peter was holding the front of a fire hose while some other firefighters were holding the rest to help him take care of the situation. "Whoo! That's enough." He then shuts down the water and sighed in relief. "That's one nasty spark plug, isn't it?"
Seeing the threat had been taken care of, Peter saw he needed to escape before the reporters came back to ask him more questions. He ran away to get as far from them as he could before ripping off his mask to breathe.
Looking down at his suit, he saw that it was able to hold up thanks to his advancements and was only left with a scorch mark he can wash out with a few scrubs on the metal parts.
"I need to get home. Without being spotted. And need to find out how to get this identity thing taken care of." Peter sighed as he tried to juggle all of these things happening in his life.
Ned was now in the home of the old face of Peter Parker's back to the first villain that he ever faced. He took his recorder again and placed it down to get what they had to say.
"Your father was the first person that fought Spider-Man. And Peter Parker wrote the stories and took the photos that took him behind bars." Ned explains why he was here. "Do you think that the two of them could be one of the same, Janice Lincoln?"
The figure then leaned out of the shadows and was revealed to be a young woman with long raven black hair. "I've never met this Peter Parker. But if he is Spider-Man...I want his head on my wall."
Then she looked over to one of the cases and had a smile on her face. And that's exactly what she was going to do...
