『Hero or Villain』

So as they were exiting the side of the school, Gwen's things in her cyan blue backpack, Jack turned his head to look at her with a curious and quiet gaze.

"...So how did you get your... New found skills anyways?"

Now that they were outside and no longer in the building, making their way towards the tree lined eastern wall, he seemed to be talking a bit more clearly than before. He was more comfortable with Gwen, at least outside of school.

"I think it was from when I was bit by the weird florescent glowing spider during my lab trip earlier... I think," she sounded somewhat unsure. She never had this or heard of this happening before. She stared at her hand where she had been bitten, the bite was gone. "Pretty sure it was radioactive..."

"Where's the spider?"

"Squished. Flash idoitically crushed it and threw it into a trashcan before I could capture it with a container," she said with a frown, rubbing the location of the bite with her hand. "Just happy I'm not dying from rad poisoning."

"Ah... Must have been an Osborn experiment." Jack shook his head lightly, "that man has problems."

Blinking a few times when she heard him, "What do you mean an Osborn experiment?" She blatantly ignored the fact that Jack said he had problems.

Jack shrugged as they reached the wall and looked up the massive construct which shadowed over them. "Lets see you climb this wall," he'd look over towards Gwen who was staring at him, boring holes though his face.

"What kind of experiments are you talking about?"

Jack stared right back at her for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "He wants to be able to manufacture mutates as a major military contract."

"I know the difference," She craned her neck forward as she looked at him with a near empty gaze. "But that does sound kind've risky and confidential. I didn't even hear of this before."

"That's because it's not public knowledge, and their 'business' partner make sure it stays that way." Jack muttered quietly to himself as he had a personal grievance against them. Of course when he referred to the business partner, he meant Advanced Idea Mechanics.

"My so-called parents worked for them."

That dull look on her face became that of shock.

"Yup..." Jack could read that look on her face pretty well, leaning against the wall, he pretended to look prideful as he studied his the reflections in her eyes. "I'm a designer mutate..."

Despite him trying to make light of the story, without any warning, she slammed into him again. This time though... this time he didn't fall. Her arms were wrapped around him and her hand forcing his head into her shoulder. She was hugging him.

Jack just closed his eyes, not entirely used to the idea of multiple encounters with prolonged physical contact over such a short period of time. He didn't move, he didn't embrace her. He just let the feeling of her touching, caressing, his neck comfort him.

"That makes me one too," Gwen whispered quietly.

Jack was pretty sure she was smiling wide outside his field of vision. If she only knew the pain he had gone through since he was young. The torture, the experiments, the mutations.

"...The wall." Jack stated as he lightly nudged her lower rib with his palm.

Gwen smirked as she giggled, lightly pushing herself off of him. "You really need to get better at hugging, you've been over my house plenty of times. We should be a bit more familiar, don't you think?"

There was that hopeful look in her eye that he didn't quite recognize. Jack hardly understood the kindness she bestowed upon him, and despite liking it, he was still skeptical.

As an assassin, you don't trust anyone, but you make everyone trust you.

Rolling his jaw, he gestured towards the wall beside them with his hand. "Climb."

Nodding she turned towards the wall and looked up. It was approximately thirty five feet high. The school loomed slightly over it by an entire story as each floor was about ten to fifteen feet in height.

She knew she could do this. As she gave her hands one more glance, she would place them against the wall and concentrate on the feeling she had before. When she was stuck, she found that there was a certain feeling, a certain instinct, that accompanied what she was doing.

Jack watched as she began to clumsily make her way up the wall by two feet. "Use your knees," Jack placed his own hands against the wall and crawled up to her height in a matter of seconds, which had taken her minutes to get up to.

"You are fast!" Gwen laughed a suppressed laugh, somewhat looking down on herself. Though she was happy he wasn't snubbing her like he sometimes did. Instead it seemed like all his attention was on her.

Why was he helping her? Perhaps it was because she was like him now, or maybe it was to repay the kindness her family and her best friend Mary Jane had shown him. Not that the courtesy existed in his head.

Pressing her knees against the wall, she began to ascend faster. She pressed the thin soles against the wall as well and continued to climb. One foot after another, one hand after another.

She was gaining quickly, and Jack was moving with ease at her pace if not a little slower to make sure he caught her if she fell. How would he explain her going 'splat' from so high up to a school official?

As they reached the top of the wall, they both stood up together to look on at the suburban city of Forest Hills. "Whoa..." Gwen stared off along the tops of houses and trees. This place, this high, without the walls of the school felt amazing and free.

She felt the gusts of wind in her hair. When she turned around, she saw the empty halls of the school through the windows.

"We should get down before people see us," Jack warned as he looked over at her for a few moments, before glancing towards the windows. "Hall monitor will pass by those windows in the next ten minutes."

"What...?" Gwen looked over at him as he was speaking with some tact. "How do you kno--" She didn't get to finish her sentences as he this time lunged at her.

With one arm wrapping around her shoulders across the collar of her chest, she found herself being forced off the other side of the wall. "Jaaaaaaaack!" She squealed as she felt the wind whipping through her hair and the top of the wall getting farther and farther away.

WAP!

Suddenly they were swinging along the wall, vanishing below tree tops and into the bushes a neighboring office park with a lowly crash.

Poking out of the bush with twigs and holly leaves in her hair, Gwen blew strands of her blonde locks out of her face. "You had to land in a holly bush?"

Jack shrugged as he hopped out of the bushes, before turning to hold out his hand for her.

Taking his hand after inflating her right cheek, she let him pull her out of the bushes and firmly onto her feet. "Thanks for the assist, but I'll get you back for giving me a heart attack." There was a slight mischievously playful glint in her eye.

"Ah..." Jack pretended to show fright in a sarcastic manner, before pocketing his hands. "Lets go?"

Nodding, she fixed her backpack straps around her arms, and began to follow him. She remained three paces behind him, watching the back of his head and the way he walked.

Did he go back to ignoring her? No, that didn't seem to be the case. Even though he wasn't turning his head to look back at her, she was sure he had his ear to her.

"So... What do you do when you get home? Since you don't live with your parents... Obviously."

Jack glanced over his shoulder and raised a brow, "Eat. Sleep... The usual."

Blinking several times at the boy, she wasn't quite sure what was up with him. Did he not have any video-games? Did he not stay up at night?

As they were walking along the sidewalk, Jack's eyes narrowed on a newspaper.

The Headline read, 'Recluse Assassin, Villain turned Hero? Savior or Serial Arsonist?'

A few days ago Jack had saved over a hundred people from a series pf burning buildings which had been apart of a plot from some network of criminals. It had all been in order to drive out a vigilante who was now hospitalized due to a fatal illness they contracted by breathing in chemicals.

At the time, Jack had been anonymously hired by Eddie Brock to cover for the hero, promising to change the public's opinion of him. That headline definitely got his name out there.

Gwen followed the shift in his gaze and raised a brow at the newspaper which was littering the ground. It had a picture of a person wearing a black and blue spider-themed armored suit.

Her eyes then darted back towards him.

She couldn't imagine him killing anyone, he was too withdrawn from other people. Though it wasn't until today that she learned he could and will defend himself.

She put a note in the back of her mind, but she wasn't going to ask him anything sensitive just yet.

"So... Want to hang at my place?"

Jack looked over at her, as if taking the whole 'hang' as the literal sense of the word. "Why...?"

Gwen stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head, "Video games?" She placed a hand on her hip as she came to a stop, shifting her weight slightly.

Jack stopped and turned to face her, raising a brow, looking her over.

"What...? Do you think I study all the time?" She quipped sarcastically with a light laugh, only to see him nod ever so subtly. "You're kidding me right...? You're so coming over."

"Mm..." Jack turned his head before turning his body away from her, wadding off towards their homes since they were next door neighbors and all.

"What is 'Mm' supposed to mean?" She threw her hands in the air as she rushed after him, jumping slightly as she hooked an arm around his neck as if she was one of the 'bros.'

They were about half way home when her cellphone in her back rang. Reaching back and into the side pouch of the blue pack on her back, she pulled out the flip-phone and looked at it.

It was Mary Jane.

"It seems God is calling us," flipping it open as she was walking beside Jack, she placed the phone to her ear. "You've reached the city morgue! How can I help you? We got bodies and we got body bags!"

Jack just stared at her as she had said this.

"Oh hi City Morgue, my name is Mary Jane Watson. Do you have a Gwen Stacy in your inventory?"

Gwen laughed aloud, "No?"

Jack shook his head as he watched her chat on her phone.

"I ran into Jack in the hallway... I think I gave him a concussion after knocking him over, so I'm walking him home." She lied to her best friend, or at least gave a white lie. "Yeah yeah, he can walk in a straight line, but I'm sure he sees halos."

Jack blinked at her once before looking ahead towards her house which was down the street they just turned down. Letting out a sigh, the two would stop in front of the porch.

When she flipped the phone shut, Gwen put the phone back into her pack and retracted her arm from around his shoulders. Trading the phone for her keys, she walked up onto the porch.

Jack followed behind her, before pausing as he rested on a police cruiser which came rolling up to the front of the property. "Uh... Gwen, we got a problem..."

"What're you talking about?" Glancing over her shoulder as she finally put the key into the front door. She froze almost immediately seeing the cruiser sitting in front of the house. "Crap."