Peter's eyes finally opened as he rolled onto his right side in bed, reaching up and rubbing his eyelids. He glanced over to see the thin rays of light from the morning sun streaming in through his window and he reached over to pick up his phone off his nightstand to check the time.
8:07 A.M.
"What?" Peter moaned as he chastised himself internally. He thought for sure he'd set multiple alarms to ensure something like this wouldn't happen; indeed, a check revealed they had indeed been set. His body had simply ignored them and overslept... by nearly an hour.
"Great..." he muttered as he forced himself out of bed. He quickly grabbed the first set of decent clothes he had in his closet and dressers, which was already rapidly dwindling. Throwing them on over his red and blue Spider-Man suit, he quickly arranged his hair so that it was at least marginally acceptable to display before the public, put on some deodorant and rapidly headed downstairs.
As he did, he thought he heard the sound of something steaming in the kitchen. Leaping down the last few steps, he quickly turned to find his Aunt May, who was scurrying around in her wheelchair, rapidly trying to quell what seemed to be an out-of-control situation.
"Here, let me help!" Peter urged as he hurried past her, quickly grabbing a mitt and opening the oven door. A puff of smoke came out in addition to the batch of biscuits he pulled out, which were looking a few shades darker than their usual golden brown. He then helped his aunt get everything back to where there was at least little chance that the house was going to burn down.
"I'm sorry that you had to see that first thing after coming down," May apologized once the crisis had been averted.
"May, what were you doing?" Peter questioned. "I'd told you I was going to make breakfast this morning."
"Peter, you've been making or otherwise providing most of the meals every day for months now," his aunt challenged him. "I just thought I'd try and do something for you again for a change. I know you have a busy day today; that's probably why you slept in a little."
"In my defense, that last part wasn't on purpose," Peter replied, burying his hands in his face. "But you're right, I do have a lot going on today."
"Besides, I think it's high time I started doing some stuff around here again," his aunt said.
"May, I'm supposed to be the good nephew taking care of you, remember?" Peter challenged.
"And you've done a marvelous job, Peter," she said. "But I think I can handle at least some things now, don't you think?"
"I mean..." Peter started as he glanced around the room, primarily to the extra crispy biscuits.
"Okay, so I bit off more than I could chew this morning, but I..."
Peter's aunt was interrupted by another alarm on his phone. He glanced to it, observing that it was a reminder that today was the day he needed to be at Fireheart Enterprises on time even more than usual due to a meeting he was supposed to attend with Deb and the others of their "Think Tank" were having with the board.
"We'll talk more later," he said. "Anna will be over soon, but I'll be back in time for your appointment, I promise. In the meantime, let me know if you need anything at all."
"I'll be fine, Peter," his aunt assured him. Her somewhat somber, or at least reflective look didn't go unnoticed by him, but he opted to store that further back in his mind to be addressed later.
He then bent down, giving his aunt a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I love you."
He then hurried out the door.
Releasing his latest web, Peter immediately fired another one, leaning back a little as he gripped it to increase his momentum. The morning had already not been kind to him since he'd left the house, with him having had to both rescue a window washer from falling to his death and stop a car chase. He was close though, the Fireheart Industries building now just a couple more blocks away. Also, as of last he had checked, he was still doing okay on time too, if only by mere minutes, so with a little luck and a private back alley, he should still be able to...
The sound of an alarm going off below caused what little hope he'd had to cease almost immediately. Releasing his web, he descended into a free fall for about fifteen stories before firing another web, landing on the edge of a smaller nearby building. As it would turn out, some guys were holding up a bakery of all things. He could see that the lone store worker was being held at gun point while another guy cleaned out the cash register. Grateful that not every small business in the city had bells by their doors anymore, he quietly let himself in, staying low to avoid being seen.
Fortunately, the thugs seemed much too worried about the worker and grabbing the cash rather than keeping watch outside, so he was able to get to about fifteen feet away before firing a web, immediately yanking the gun away from the man holding the worker hostage, the employee immediately fleeing out the back.
"Guys, come on," Peter said. "Robbing a bakery in the middle of the day? Seriously? How did you think this was going to end?"
Naturally, the thugs quickly turned their weapons on him, the other one pulling out a gun as well and opening fire alongside his partner in crime, who'd pulled out a second gun of his own. Of course, they were only able to get a couple of bullets off each, with Peter deftly avoiding each one before coming upon them, snatching their weapons with superhuman swiftness.
"Okay, I was trying to give you all a chance to see how completely incompetent you were being before," Peter said from his squatted position on the counter. "This is your last chance: give up, or am I going to have to make you both go night night?"
The two men then glanced at each other before raising their hands in defeat.
"Just what I was hoping to hear," Peter spoke up. He could hear the police sirens fast approaching, so he quickly tied the hands of the criminals with webbing before hanging them out over the streetlight. By now, the worker had come out to check on things, thanking Peter profusely for saving his life as well.
"Happy to do it!" Peter said, giving a salute before swinging off. As he finally landed in an alley just a building over from Fireheart Industries, Peter's mind continued to be baffled by the brazenness of the two thugs. He'd encountered many criminals over the years that had made some choices that made him seriously consider if they had been held back a few years in school, but it took a special level of either confidence or stupidity to pull a stunt like those two guys had. Then again, ever since Fisk and then the Goblin had been taken down, criminals had recently seemed desperate to do anything that would get them "respect" or whatever, regardless of how ridiculous their ideas were.
In any case, he didn't have time to dwell on the matter, so he hurriedly threw on his outer clothing over his Spider-Man suit, stuffing his mask inside his pocket and making sure it was tucked deep within just as he left the alley. Hurrying into the building, he took the elevator up to the twentieth floor and made his way to the room where the meeting he was supposed to attend was... which, of course, had already started by the time he arrived, the whole room turning to eye him as he barged in.
"Sorry," he apologized to no one person in particular. "My taxi guy was new; seriously, how do you hire someone who doesn't know their Times Square from their Central Park...?"
The lack of a reaction to this joke only increased his embarrassment, so he quickly took his seat next to Deb in the back.
"You're late!" she said in a whispered tone.
"I couldn't help it!" Peter said, also trying to keep his voice as subdued as possible. "I had... you know... the thing!"
The two then turned their attention to the screen, with one of the board members pointing towards what appeared to be projections of revenue over the next few months. They kept talking about "changes" though, prompting Peter to realize that the ten minutes he'd not been present for must have been more important than he'd expected.
"What did I miss?" he questioned.
"Apparently, Fireheart Industries was purchased recently by some other company," Deb answered. "They haven't said who though, which is strange."
"What?" Peter questioned. "How could..."
He then glanced up and noticed that one of the board members appeared to be eyeing him and Deb, so Peter opted to curb his questioning for the time being, sitting back up and trying to pay attention. Fortunately, the meeting didn't last much longer, with information being relatively ambiguous the rest of the way other than the promise that they would be kept up to date on potential changes that would likely be coming soon.
After the meeting was dismissed, Peter hurried up to the main board guy he knew, at least in a relative sense.
"Excuse me!" he said, hurrying up to the man. "Mr. Stern, sir? Hey, I was wondering if I could have a word about..."
"If this about when your solar technology will be on the market, I'm afraid I still don't have an exact timeline for you," the man replied, his tone not hiding his annoyance at the question he'd heard many times over the last couple of months.
"I'm sorry," Peter replied. "I'm sure today is an especially bad time, given the big change happening."
The man allowed himself a sigh, taking a moment to compose himself.
"I'm sorry too," he said. "Look, Peter, I just want you to know that I do appreciate your persistence, especially given that you're clearly not in it for the money or the recognition like most of your peers. I know you just want it out and available for anyone to use, and that's noble. Frankly though, there's a lot of uncertainty right now, so just hang tight and let us figure this all out."
"Yes sir, of course," Peter conceded. The man then turned and walked away, and his look of concern didn't go unnoticed by Peter as he left the room. His words had also carried a tone that conveyed the same, which made him wonder if the "uncertainty" Mr. Stern had mentioned was about much more than how fast products would make it out to the public.
"Well, that was... vague," Deb said as she came up beside Peter.
"Yeah," he replied as they walked out of the room and down the hall. "Something seemed up with Mr. Stern just now though."
"What do you mean?" Deb questioned.
"I don't know," Peter replied. "He seemed almost nervous, like he was afraid."
"Maybe he's afraid new ownership might change things up even at the top," Deb said. "It's hard not to wonder, especially since they didn't exactly offer many details other than what their financial projections they were hoping to meet by the end of the year."
"Yeah," Peter said as they turned and walked up the stairwell towards the next floor. "I wonder who the buyer was? It's not exactly like this city is short on multi-national tech conglomerates."
"Guess it must not be important enough for us to know about yet," Deb replied.
"That, or someone doesn't want us to know," Peter suggested.
"Well, I guess doing what you do really has made you a skeptic," Deb said.
"Hey, when you've seen the things I have, you'd have even less reason to trust places even like this," Peter said.
"I guess so," Deb said. "So, meet later to discuss that project we were looking into?"
"Yep," Peter said. "I won't have a ton of time though; I'm taking off a little early to pick up May for her latest checkup."
"How's she doing?" Deb inquired.
"She's... adjusting," Peter said. "It's been over seven months, but I guess we both still are in a way."
"Well, let me know if there's anything I can do to help," Deb offered.
"Thanks," Peter said. "I'll see you later."
He then strolled into his lab, the ding of a text coming from his phone as he did. He pulled it out to find that it was from Mary Jane:
"Morning; just wanted to say I'm looking forward to tonight!"
Peter could feel the dorky smile coming over his face. Even though they'd been dating for over a year now, little reminders that the woman he believed to be the most beautiful in all the world actually anticipated time with him still made his heart threaten to skip a beat. On top of that, they hadn't seen each other as much recently as he would have liked, so he was intent on making certain that was rectified, something he assured her of in his response:
"Wouldn't want to be anywhere else!"
The man continued to stare out the window as the city continued to pass him by. It was interesting to see how much the city had changed over the years; when he'd last been able to properly lay eyes on it, most of the people in the streets were either glancing at newspapers or eagerly looking ahead as they marched towards their next destination. Now, people were staring at their smart phones, watches or some other technology, hardly even paying attention to where they were going until they seemingly had to.
Not that the man believed technology itself was the problem; after all, he himself had plans to utilize the most recent advancements for his own purposes. No, it was the lack of discipline, of purpose that frustrated him. At the same time, perhaps that would only make things easier for him.
Eventually, his car pulled into a parking garage, the driver finding a spot to park it. The man then waited patiently for the driver to come and let him out, the door opening almost precisely when he expected it. He then stepped out, though it took an extra couple of seconds to move his legs out of the vehicle and force himself to a stand. Ignoring this fact, the man then began the walk out to the nearest elevator, heading straight for the top floor.
Once the doors opened, the man immediately walked out and took a right, not even looking at the doors on either side, as he knew exactly where he needed to go. This was the door at the very far left side of the hallway, the man's driver promptly giving a few knocks. Maintaining his straight, arms-at-his-side stance, the man waited patiently before the door finally opened, revealing a black-haired woman of thirty-six years old behind it.
"Welcome home, dad," the lady greeted him, opening the door more widely for him to enter. The man dismissed his driver for the time being before entering the room.
"I'm impressed you let him accompany you that far," his daughter said as she shut the door.
"You were right," the man spoke up as he set his suitcase on the floor, heading for the window. "Times have changed... I've changed, and I need to change with them. Is everything in order?"
"I've got guys keeping an eye on the materials you gave me," his daughter replied. "They'll let us know when they can move in on any of them."
The man then came over, placing his hands gently on his daughter's shoulders.
"Thank you, Alicia," he said. "There were times when your letters and your visits were all that got me through my time in prison. Far more than I can say for any of your brothers."
"They were all weak, pathetic sycophants anyway," Alicia responded. "Also, why didn't you want me to arrange a meeting with the other Maggia family dons?"
"Like I said, I'm not like I used to be," the man reminded her. "I will not show myself to them until I've regained the strength I need to show them."
The man then turned and walked over towards the window again, staring out into the city.
"Don't worry, my dear; it won't be long before the underworld learns that Silveo Manfredi is taking back what is rightfully his."
Well, buckle up for part 3 everyone! Hope you enjoy! As always feedback of any kind is welcome and appreciated, as long as it is polite. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts as we go forward!
Continuing to pray for you all; stay safe and healthy!
"You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you." Psalm 86:5
