Episode 67: Truth in the Details!
While Nick Fury returned to give Eddie Brock's PDB back to Professor Banner before leaving for real, Peter decided to go back to sleep. Later, he woke up feeling miraculously better. It was early morning, as indicated by the lack of sunlight outside the window in Peter's hospital room. Yet Peter didn't feel tired, so he decided to get out of bed and wandered around the hospital looking for the Marémon Care ward of the hospital where he figured Spidermin and his other Marémon were.
Despite wearing nothing but a hospital gown, he managed to avoid running into any doctors or nurses by somehow sensing their presence beforehand. As Peter was trying to figure out this sensation, the Marémon Care ward came into view. Like the maternity ward, it was a large room with small beds that had rows of Marémon sleeping in them with a large glass window that allowed people to see what was going on. But Peter was not alone as Felicia was staring into the room at a Blaccet with bandages on her waist.
"Funny seeing you again," Peter said, catching Felicia off-guard.
"Oh, hey," Felicia said, covering her embarrassment with a fake smile. "Nice outfit."
"It's less embarrassing than the one you made me wear."
Taken aback, Felicia returned her gaze to the window. "So you figured out who I am."
"Well, you and Black Cat do have similar hair. Black Panther also found the tracker you put on me during our fight. Not to mention the Blaccet's injury, assuming she's yours."
"Yes, she's mine," Felicia confirmed as Peter stood next to her, staring at Spidermin who was sleeping peacefully. "Are you going to turn me in?"
"Depends on how you answer my questions, starting with your father. Is he really dying?"
"That part is true. It's why I agreed to work for Hammerhead, because Don Fortunato's stolen Maggia money would have been more than enough to bail my father out of jail and allow him to live comfortably for the rest of his remaining life."
"But Hammerhead found out you double-crossed him — or at least, that Black Cat double-crossed him. So he threatened to kill her if she didn't steal the Infinity Stone for him."
"Exactly," Felicia nodded. "But I guess he got too greedy and tried to steal the stone himself, which is now gone along with the money."
"I know there are more legitimate ways you could raise money to get your dad out," Peter said encouragingly. "The Marémon Lovers Festival, for instance, offers a large cash prize in addition to the Heart Cup."
Felicia seemed interested. "Maybe I should look into that. Do you have any other questions?"
"Were you aware that Hammerhead and Silvermane were working for HYDRA before you agreed to steal the stone for them?"
"Not them specifically, though I heard rumors of the Maggia's past dealings with HYDRA."
Peter paused and then said, "I'll agree to not tell any one of who you are if you agree to not do any further work for HYDRA or the Maggia."
"Sounds reasonable," Felicia said, holding up her hand to shake. "After all, there is honor among thieves."
As Peter shook hands with Felicia, a nurse spotted them. She immediately took Peter back to his room, where Alexander and Rider were standing in their uniforms.
"Peter Parker?" Rider asked.
"Yeah, I'm him," Peter acknowledged.
"I'm Cadet Sam Alexander of the Nova Corps Centurions," Alexander said, and nodded to Rider. "This is Prime Centurion Richard Rider."
"You look better than before," Rider said to Peter. "Almost…too better."
"Rider and I checked up on you while you were sleeping last night," Alexander explained. "You were completely out, not to mention sick-looking."
"Okay, but why were you guys checking up on me?" Peter asked, worried they had figured out he was the masked guy that was with Black Cat.
"We had hoped you could shed some light on the masked individual known as Spider-Man," Rider said.
"Spider-Man?" Peter blinked, trying to feign ignorance. "Who's that?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Alexander said. "He sporadically appeared inside the Nova Corps headquarters with a young lady in a catsuit. We thought they were the thieves who broke in according to an early report, but Spider-Man claimed he and his lady friend had taken care of the thieves. They proceeded to give me and Mister Rider the Infinity Stone that was being kept in the facility along with a flash-drive that contained important data on a Maggia crime boss called Don Fortunato before leaving us."
"How do you know this guy is called Spider-Man?" Peter questioned.
"We tried to go after him, but then we got told the vigilante Black Panther was in the area," Rider continued. "So we went to deal with Panther, who was chasing after another Maggia crime boss called Hammerhead. But before Panther could nab Hammerhead, he was snatched by the Wild Pack in their jet. I heard Panther mutter the name 'Spider-Man' before his Panthack grabbed the Infinity Stone from us and took off. Now while this was happening, several witnesses reported a masked person that looked like Spider-Man scaling the radio tower where a girl had been kidnapped by a strange creature calling itself Veneo. That same masked person appeared to have a Spidermin with them, which Spider-Man had when we encountered him, and so we guessed the masked person on the radio tower was Spider-Man."
"Yet Spider-Man seemingly vanished after being consumed by Veneo," Alexander added. "But not long after, you end up in the hospital with an injured Spidermin. The doctors even told us they extracted some unknown poison from your system. As a result, we think you might have been involved with Spider-Man in some way and our Novi are going to prove it."
Suddenly, Alexander's helmet glowed brightly. In an instant, the helmet was gone and in its place floated a star-shaped creature that was dark-blue with red points and white eyes. As for Alexander, he was revealed to be a young man with short dark hair and a confident smile.
To be continued…
