Chapter 36

"Excuse me, Boss," J' Jonah Jameson AKA JJ looked up from his desk in time to see his secretary, Miss Brant, rush into his office, holding a mug of coffee that she quickly placed on his desk for him. "You're wife is on the phone, she wanted to know if you wanted sparkling or regular water for your meeting?" She asked, referring to a dinner that he would be hosting later this evening with the company shareholders.

"Tell her to save some regular water for private but to bring sparkling water for the meeting, I don't want to look like a cheapskate. And tell her to bring out the cheap alcohol, the one that tastes expensive." JJ barked before looking back down at the documents in front of him. He heard her leave just as a slightly heavier set of footprints walked into the office.

"Jonah," Robbie said as he stopped in front of his desk. "We're going to need a different reporter to cover the Spiderman story."

"What?" JJ looked up from his desk. "What happened to the reporter we already put on it?" He demanded.

"Mr Holland refused to work on the article," Robbie explained with a small shrug of his shoulder.

"Re...refused?" JJ repeated in a confused and irritated voice. "Why is he refusing? We not paying him enough?"

"He doesn't want to write a piece bashing Spiderman," Robbie explained with a small sigh. "He's rather upset that - in his own words - the Daily Bugle is writing biased opinion pieces on one of America's greatest heroes."

"One of America's..." JJ sputtered for several seconds. "...Is he out of his damn mind?!" JJ demanded. "America's greatest heroes are Captain America, our proud soldiers! Our firefighters, policemen, astronauts and us news publishers! Why on God's green Earth should we include a masked weirdo in spandex on that list?!"

"Jonah," Robbie rubbed his eyes for several moments. "You do remember that report we did a couple of days ago on a building fire where Spiderman rescued some of the building inhabitants?"

"From a fire that he probably caused, yeah, I remember it." JJ nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything.

"Well, Mr Holland's wife was one of the people that Spiderman had saved," Robbie explained. "Now, admittedly he's a bit annoyed that Spiderman had to go and save his father-in-law as well, but not enough to write what he considers a biased opinion piece against the guy who saved his wife. And quite frankly, I don't blame him, I wouldn't push him on this Jonah. He's a brilliant worker with years of experience here, if he leaves then he can easily get picked up by other publishers like the Daily Globe." JJ growled for several minutes before taking a calming breath.

"Boss," Betty walked in again. "Your wife wants to know if she should get the upstairs rooms ready as well for the guests?"

"Why the hell should she?!" JJ snapped. "I'm hosting a meeting for shareholders! Not hookers! They got no business going upstairs in my house!" He yelled at Miss Brant who had already turned and started walking away, far too used to JJ's rants to be offended or even bothered anymore by his shouting. JJ took several more deep breaths before turning his attention back to Robbie. "Fine, put someone else on the article about the menace. But I want Holland placed on at least the next twenty crappy low-level stories we end up getting."

"Fine, but Jonah, I'm telling you, we need to change up." Robbie replied. "We're the only news reporters that are actively bashing the web-head."

"And we're still the biggest and best publishing firm in the country, so we're clearly doing something right." JJ said stubbornly.

"Jonah," Robbie said in a tired voice. "The guy swings around the city doing everything from pulling cats out of trees to stopping muggers, yet we're consistently calling him a villain without any conclusive proof. We - and when I say the word 'we' I actually mean 'you' - are speculating and accusing. That is not journalism, not the sort of journalism that we all signed up for."

"You signed up to be journalists and that means that you report what your editor tells you to report!" JJ snapped. "As long as I am here, the Daily Bugle will report what I say! Got it?!" He yelled at Robbie who looked at him coldly for several seconds.

"Got it," Robbie said in a cold voice before turning and walking out of the room. JJ half got out of his seat, ready to call after him, but stopped and sat back down.

'Robbie will get over it,' He told himself. He knew he shouldn't have snapped at Robbie like that, sure the man was his employee, but he was also his friend. Robbie was the only one in the whole building who JJ actively tried not to shout at. 'Why can't people see it?' He wondered. 'Spiderman is just another menace, why am I the only one who can see it?'

"So," Dr Connors said as he stood in the newly refurbished Oscorp lab, the walls, floors and ceiling were all made up of white hexagon-shaped tiles. There were several different desks scattered around the room along with various different pieces of scientific equipment and computer screens placed all around. Harry Osborn and his two friends were standing in front of him with their hands behind their backs and doing a fairly decent impression of innocent and angelic children as they smiled up at him. "Do any of you three want to explain to me how it is you ended up meeting Spiderman?" He asked, arms crossed and a single eyebrow raised.

"Nope," The three of them chirped cheerily.

"I thought not," Dr Connors said, not at all surprised. "None of your guardians know about this?"

"Nope," Harry repeated.

"Thank God," Peter muttered, suppressing a shiver at the thought of his aunt and uncle finding out about this.

"Do you kids even have a plan here?" Dr Connors couldn't help but ask. "What are you hoping to achieve?"

"Simple," Gwen spoke up. "Our short-term goal is to assist Spiderman in helping to keep the city safe."

"As long as he's out there, fighting for hope, he'll inspire people and scare criminals. Just like Batman." Peter added.

"Exactly like Batman," Harry said, a tad too proudly.

"Anyway," Gwen continued. "In the short term, we are going to be helping do our best to reduce the crime rate of the city, in the long term we hope to use this opportunity to invent and create things that can hopefully help improve the lives of as many people as possible."

"We already have a lot of ideas," Peter smiled widely.

"That is fine but you three are just teenagers, no offence," Dr Connors interrupted. "What makes you think that you three can accomplish these goals of yours?"

"Firstly, we are determined," Gwen spoke up.

"Secondly, we are pretty smart," Peter grinned.

"And we're stubborn as fuck!" Harry finished with a matching grin. Dr Connors paused and took a good look at the three smiling teenagers in front of him, his gaze going back and forth between the three of their smiling faces for several long moments. The good doctor pulled off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes for a few seconds, he let out a heavy sigh as he placed his glasses back on. He took in a deep breath, exhaled, took in another, exhaled again, and stared at the three teenagers who were still smiling at him.

"I hope I don't regret this," He muttered.

"Damn it, Jonah," Robbie sighed as he drove back to his home late that night.

He was well aware of the fact that Jonah hated Spiderman, Robbie wasn't upset about that, that would just make him one of hundreds of others who hated the idea of having a masked vigilante swinging around the city. He had no problem with Jonah disliking Spiderman, the problem was that Jonah hated Spiderman and was letting his hate guide him. Robbie remembered the sort of man that Jonah used to be, the sort of person who would stop at nothing to find the truth and wouldn't let anyone stop him from reporting it to the public. But now, it seemed like the power of being editor had gone to Jonah's head, it appeared that the only opinion that mattered even a pinch of salt in the Daily Bugle was Jonah's.

"He's ignoring any evidence he doesn't like and is only focusing on the ones he wants to," Robbie complained out loud. The way Jonah was acting was not good for business or for any of their reputations. Jonah was happy to ignore every life that Spiderman saved in favour of every mistake, big or small, that the web-swinger would or could have made. And Robbie wasn't the first to pick up on this, the other news papers were making themselves more popular at the expense of the Daily Bugle. The ones that Spiderman saved were now going to the other publications to report their stories as they were no longer trusting the Daily Bugle to report the story accurately.

Robbie pulled up into his driveway and got out of his car, wondering what he could do to make Jonah see sense.

"Dad!" A voice called.

Robbie stopped and turned around, seeing his son, Liam, standing just a short distance away along with several boys that looked to be a few years older than him. All of them were dressed up in dark coloured street clothes, including ripped jeans and hoodies. Robbie wasn't one to judge people based on their appearances, but for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that the older boys would be trouble.

"Alright, Son?" Robbie asked, locking his car. "Isn't it a school night? You should have been home two hours ago, right?"

"Sorry, Dad," Liam apologised with a small smile on his face. "Me and the boys were just hanging out and we lost track of time."

"Yeah, we did!" One of the boys chortled.

"Yo, Mr Robertson, you don't happen to have a 'Ciggy' do you?" One of them asked, holding a lighter.

"I don't smoke," Robbie said simply before turning his attention back to Liam. "Liam, inside please, I'd like to talk to you."

"Ok, Dad," Liam sighed before turning to the other boys behind him. "See ya tomorrow," He nodded to them before walking back into his house.

"Thank you all for making sure my son got home safely, goodnight." Robbie politely said to them before turning to follow after his son.

"Actually," One of them spoke up. "Before you go, someone wants to talk to you." He said, pulling out a small phone, he tossed it at Robbie who caught it and stared questioningly between the phone and the boys just before the phone started ringing. "Better answer that." He told him before the boys all turned and walked off, laughing and chatting with each other as they did so.

"What in the hell..." Robbie trailed off before he answered the phone, placing it against his ear. "Who is this?" He asked.

"Oh come on," A male voice purred, sending shivers down Robbie's spine. "Don't tell me you don't recognise your old pal?" Robbie froze, his eyes darting around widely as if the owner of the voice might suddenly pop up somewhere.

"Lonnie?" Robbie whispered with disbelief, regaining control of his body enough to look around to make sure that nobody would overhear him. "Is that you?"

"Oh, so you do remember me," Lonnie replied, sounding rather pleased. "That's good, good, very good. I was beginning to worry, I thought that you had forgotten me. But I always did leave a memorable impression."

"Lonnie? What the hell happened to you? Where are you?" Robbie asked rapidly.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Lonnie chuckled. "I think a better topic to talk about is you. You've done so many interesting things since we've last met, I mean look at you, working for the Daily Bugle, one step away from being the head honcho, right? Going to work everyday in that nice lil' car of yours, dressing up in them pretty, clean suits. And then coming back to that pretty little family you have. How is Moira by the way? Your wife making meatballs again?"

"What do you want?" Robbie asked almost robotically as his face paled, realising that his family was being watched.

"I want to talk about your disappointing run as a parent, Robbie," Lonnie drawled. "I mean, honestly, look at cute and precious little Liam. Do you think I'd have my claws in him if you had done your job right? For shame, Robbie, for shame."

"You leave my son alone!" Robbie hissed, his voice far shakier than he would have liked.

"Relax," Lonnie chuckled. "We've been teaching little Liam the good things in life, I've taken pictures of those good things, for memories. Pictures I don't think you'd want the police to find out about, personally I think drug smuggling is a prime example of hard, honest work. Unfortunately, the law seems to disagree."

"What do you want, Lonnie?" Robbie asked in a defeated voice.

"We need to meet up,"

"That's remarkable!" Dr Connors gasped as he sat at a desk, staring at the computer in front of him while Harry, Gwen and Peter stood behind him.

"We told you," Gwen added, pointing to the bionic arm design on the screen. "If you just reroute it to point three then it'll cancel out the stalling problem."

"Plus," Peter spoke up next. "The material we suggested should be a third lighter than the original design."

"And a quarter cheaper as well," Harry added before placing a couple of notes down in front of Dr Connors. "These changes we came up with should also negate the delay of the secondary motor, speeding it up by at least two seconds."

Dr Connors blinked before he looked at the screen then back at the kids standing behind him before once more staring at the screen.

'I'm in a lab with three, underage goddamn geniuses.' He thought to himself.