3 Chapter 3: The First Case

It was over a week of my new training schedule when something happened that was even remotely interesting.

It was Sunday morning when I woke up to uncle Ben watching the news, which was reporting on how there was an accident in the Baxter building, resulting in a small explosion.

To uncle Ben that may not seem like much, but to me? It was fucking world shattering.

For a while now I assumed this was the Marvel cinematic world, meaning only the movies would be included. But now? The Baxter building was home to a special group of people, Marvel's first family!

The Fantastic Four!

Holy shit! They're real!

I moment I realised this I booted up my computer and searched for them. Reed Richards was young in this universe, just 25. Sue was even younger at 22, Johnny was a teenager at 16, Ben Grimm was 25 and Victor Von Doom was 30.

It sounded like they were the Ultimate version of the Fantastic Four, but it didn't feel like so. Reed was smart and very collected and Doom was in fact ruler of his own nation at this moment. They were college batch mates, and by the looks of things on Doom's scientific accomplishments, he didn't value Reed at all, often mocking the man in his papers.

I honestly didn't know what I should do at this point, I mean, they were the FF, was I supposed to help them? No, no they can handle themselves. Maybe after I get a suit made I can introduce myself, but until they I'll stay put.

So with that done I found myself enjoying a relaxing Sunday. I had no training, no homework of note and best of all, aunt May and uncle Ben were going out in the afternoon to visit friends and would only come back late at night!

I needed to take advantage of this, and I will. But first things first, a costume. I felt silly trying to be Spider-man without a costume, so I started to browse through Ebay to find one.

I honey wasn't surprised to be completely horrified at the choices I had. They were all so disgusting! Fucking hate these things! Can't I just get armour? Oh wait...I'm poor. Forgot about that.

But that didn't mean I had to be fucking stuck with shitty looking spandex. I bought two, one red and one black. I wasn't a big fan of the whole red and blue classic costume, and if you didn't figure it out, I'm going for the whole, 'Superior Spider-man' thing. So black and red it was!.

The costume would arrive in few days, good thing too, gave me time to learn how to stitch. It took me most of the morning watching videos upon videos on how to sitch on Youtube, but I did it. It was a very brain numbing job, didn't really involve heavy thinking, so it was an easy concept to grasp.

When May and Ben left for the day I went to my room and changed into a nicer set of clothes and went out. I didn't want to be stuck in one house all day, plus I was near New York! The greatest city on Earth! I had to explore!

I took the train into the city and sighed as I enjoyed the sights. I know I may be giddy like a tourist, but I didn't care! This place was so amazing! I walked down to Harlem, curious to see what it was like now.

Needless to say was a wreck, people were still cleaning things up, apparently the military did what they could, but the party de was still huge. Debris was still being cleaned away, people were volunteering, a new organization called, 'Rebuild Harlem' was on the scene.

My curiosity now satisfied I left the place, knowing it was in good hands. But as I passed through the Apollo theater I looked around and noticed the road was still cracked. This was where they first clashed, and when I looked down the road I could see the crater whether Bruce landed and transformed into the Hulk.

I grew curious and walked over there, people were told to keep back, but obviously no one listened. People were taking pictures and such, but now all the attention the hole drew was gone. I found myself staring at it in silence.

I was about to leave, when I saw some something under a rock. I walked into the hole and carefully lifted the heavy stone, and there it was, a brownish stain. Blood. Hulk's blood.

I immediately knew this was dangerous. Not only was it extremely volatile but it did some funky ass shit. I remember people were mutated when exposed to it, some guy grew super smart when it seeped into his head...so what would it do to me?

I was curious, I wasn't going to inject myself with it, but….I wanted to know what it was.

I took the rock up and put it in my pants, it was around the size of my hand, not too big. I left Harlem quickly and stuck around the city for another hour for lunch. Soon I was back home in my basement lab holding the blood soaked stone.

I scraped off a little bit of the dried blood into a test tube and be the process of making it useful. It took some time but soon I had a vile of Hulk's diluted blood ready to go. I put the stone under my desk, away from sight. I would need to find a better place to hide it and soon.

But back to the blood. I analyzed it under a microscope, not much I could see, but I did find the blood cells were still active. Usually dried blood would mean dead cells, hence why they lose the colour, but now….the Hulk's cells have some amazing properties.

I studied the blood a bit longer, noting a few more properties it had, like how any form of food I introduced, like glucose or carbohydrate, was consumed within seconds. It was almost like the damn thing was alive.

After my little experiments with Hulk's blood I went out once more, this time to the hangar in the abandoned train yard. I jumped over the fence and walked towards the hangar. But when I got there I noticed the doors had already been opened.

I groaned, whenever I left this place I made sure to close the doors, who else was here? I pushed the hangar doors wide open and walked inside. "Hello? Is anyone here?" I asked.

"What the heck?" a voice came from inside the hangar. Stepping out from behind the stack of iron beams was Flash and Liz, followed by Harry and MJ, all looking surprised to see Peter there.

"Parker?!" Flash growled, "what the hell are you doing here?"

I raised an eyebrow, "painting the ceiling, and you guys?"

"Hey Pete!" Harry called out with a smile, acting like we were old buddies, which sadly we were, but not anymore. Guess he brought them here, I remember him and Peter finding this place together back in the day, "I was just showing these guys this amazing place! I didn't know you still come here!"

I shuddered, "from time to time," I looked to the side and saw MJ blushing red, I narrowed my eyes. I looked at Liz and spotted her looking frustrated at me. I could see her hair was a mess and Flash looked pissed as well.

Suddenly realisation dawned on me, "ah, so you guys came here to make out, I see."

Liz's face turned red, "what?! No! Get your head out of the gutter Parker!"

I shrugged, "says the girl who looks like she just got thrown into a washing machine," I then made eye contact with MJ and she blushed even harder, "well, I suppose congratulations are in order, I'll leave you guys alone. Lock up when you're done."

I turned to leave when suddenly MJ spoke up, "ah wait Peter," she looked nervously at Harry, "I think I better go as well. My aunt would be getting worried."

Harry looked hurt, "what? Are you serious? But we just got here."

"Yeah I'm sorry, I'll see you in school Harry, bye Liz, bye Flash," and with that she practically ran out of the hangar.

I groaned as I followed her outside. We walked to the fence where I helped her climb over it. When were walking away I finally asked, "so...you and Harry huh?"

MJ's eyes widened, "what? No!"

I rolled my eyes, "you don't need to lie Mary Jane, I don't personally care who you are with, it's your business, not mine."

MJ looked away as we walked back to our home. I honestly didn't want to go, but MJ looked kind of shaken up, I couldn't help wonder if something happened between her and Harry.

"He...he thought I wanted to make out," MJ spoke up finally.

I raised an eyebrow, "oh? And why did he think that?"

MJ shook her head, "I don't know."

"Mary Jane...did he try and force something?" I asked.

"What no! He didn't do anything! It's just," she looked ashamed, "I guess I must have seem interested. I...it's my fault really, I'll apologize to him tomorrow."

I looked at her, so beaten and hurt. Nothing like the amazing girl I meet the first week I was Peter Parker, none of the life or joy. I was honestly horrible to watch.

"Don't apologize," I spoke up gaining her attention. She looked up curiously and I explained, "he hurt you, tried to push the boundaries, don't apologize to him. Make him say he's sorry. Harry is...he was a friend, or something like that. Now he's just a jerk, he likes getting his way, don't let him push you around."

MJ looked surprised but nodded silently all the same. We walked back to her house, she looked deep in thought. When it was time to go our own ways she finally spoke, "Peter...thanks, for coming when you did, I...I know I haven't really been the best friend but-"

"-Enough," I snapped, getting pissed at the pathetic apology she felt she had to give, "it's fine, just get home safe. Remember, don't let him walk over you."

"Peter I'm trying apologize. I know I haven't really been spending much time with you in school and I feel bad. I'm sorry."

I shrugged, "it's fine, I don't mind," I walked away.

MJ blinked, "Peter?"

"Night Mary Jane," I wished her well before going inside my room and slamming the door behind me. I wonder if I was being hostile, heck I didn't even call her MJ. But it hurt, it fucking hurt and...fucking teenage hormones.

The two weeks went by quickly for me, too quickly. I had training, the few times I snuck into the train yard for an impromptu workout, learning as much as I could and then making the Spider-man costume.

Colleen really began to push me the second week onwards. She realised I could probably become one of her most gifted students. She had me moved to the second hour classes and always pushed me to learn more and fight harder. I never used my full strength, but I was beginning to see why the Hand trusted her to teach possible future recruits.

School was dull, whenever I had a lesson I found pointless or if it was something I already knew I took out a book to learn something else. I was passable in French now, I could probably hold up a conversation, so now I decided to pick up Spanish.

I did read up on a lot of Reed's theories though, they were simply fascinating. They spoke of different dimensions and the ways to access them. I already knew this, you know considering I came from another world, but it was still amazing to see such scientific evidence for it.

I knew I was never going to be as smart as Reed Richards, I can't build a teleporter in my garage with a few spare parts lying around. No, but what I can do is be a practical and sane mind. Scientific inventions wasn't the only form of genius.

My personal training session in the training yard become more of a challenge than anything else. I wanted to push my body to the limits, see how far I could jump, how much I could carry, how flexible I was, how good my balance was.

I was slowly improving myself, slowly, but surely. And thanks to my advanced regenerative powers I could recover from strenuous exercise the very next day, talk about a cheat code.

And then finally came my costume. I was similar to the classic costume, expect instead of blue I used black. I had to stitch on the webs for the costume, I cut up parts of the black spandex suit to sew into the red portion and create the patterns needed. I used parts of the bottom half of the red suit, not in use, to make gloves and leg coverings with a sole pad sowed into the bottom.

The suit was a two piece, the top half mainly red with black bits sworn into the sides and back. The bottom half was black with red shin high red feet coverings. I had to work on the mak a bit, make it less face hugging, cutting out eye holes and putting in lens of an old pair of glasses.

When I put the suit on and looked at myself in the mirror I gasped. In complete honesty….it was shit. It looked pathetic. Like a child drew it on a piece of napkin. The stitches were wrong, the measurements were horrible.

I wasn't a master tailor, over all it has been a waste of time.

I threw the costume under a loose floor board, a secret compartment where I stored sensitive items, like the rock containing the Hulk's blood.

I honestly didn't know what I should have expected. I don't know how the original Peter would have made his costume, but I'm shit with a thread and needle. I can't make my own costume, so for now, I'll just keep working on my web shooters.

Speaking of which they were coming along great. I managed to fix up a bracelet like bands to use as my new shooters. The shooters themselves were the important part, I made a knob on the top that could be used to adjust the web pressure, thereby giving me different types of webbing. The process of making them itself was difficult, no doubt about that, but it was worth it.

It was the weekend again and I found myself traveling to the Chikara dojo by train. Usually I had the weekends off, but it seems Colleen had other ideas. She told me to be ready for a more practical training exercise, whatever that means.

As I walked towards the now familiar building I noticed a few of my fellow students standing there waiting for something. I noticed one in particular, Marcus, a black kid that I remembered seeing in the Iron Fist TV show, one day he is going to join the Hand, but for now, he's just a kid.

"Peter, over here," Marcus called out.

"Hey Marcus," I nodded, "hey all," the others simply nodded to acknowledge process, "does anyone know what this is all about?"

"Sensei didn't tell you?" asked girl named Agatha, who we call called Agie.

I shrugged, "she just said it's going to be an interactive training session."

"Okay, so basically here's the deal, we're going to basically mug her," Marcus explained.

I blinked, "crazy person say what now?"

The kids laughed as Marcus explained. Colleen was teaching them real life skills, and apparently that included training kids to gang up and attack someone. They all thought it was just some basic stealth and teamwork building exercise, but I knew the truth, it was training for when became members of the Hand. They were being trained to assassinate people.

"So where is sensei?" I asked.

"Sensei Wing is hiding, she's somewhere in the city. It's our job to find her and get the jump on her. Basically our job is to grab her blade and run away before she can catch us and get it back. We are supposed to find out way back here and if we do that, we win!"

I could see it now, in the future the mission won't be hide and go seek, it would be locate and terminate. And the running back to base would be running to an extraction point. Truly the Hand were a sick group of people, smart, but sick.

We waited for another hour for more people to show up before we split into groups. Usually it was up to you to find a group to travel with, but since I was still fairly new at this and inexperienced, I got to tag along with Marcus, a kid named Brandon and Agie.

We four decided to check the surrounding areas for clues. Most of the other groups went in random directions but Marcus decided to check her favorite hang out spots first. We ended up wasting an hour of our time, by thoint Colleen could have been in Harlem, Downtown or even Queens for all we know.

But then I got an idea. I ask myself, how would Batman do it? How would he track the Joker? And I got an answer.

I would think like him, so I did. I thought like Collen. What was her objective? To train her students. So that means she'll be close, maybe somewhere open and where a woman carrying a katana can be easily spotted. This would also remove chance for her students to hide and getting the jump on her.

So a park, mostly likely Central Park. Not that far far away from Chinatown and she must have had so much free time she would have made it easily. But where in Central? Where can she hide and yet fight given enough time? Where can she fight without having people try and stop them because they didn't realise this was training?

I opened my phone pulled up a map. I searched and searched until I landed on the perfect spot.

"Guys," I got their attention, "I think I know where she is."

"What, how?" Agie asked surprised.

I smiled, "just a guess."

It took some time, but I convinced them to follow me. I brought them to the Park and we began looking around the South West gate, the place with the least amount of people and wide open space.

And in a few short minutes we found her standing by a fountain, eating ice cream. We held back, hiding behind the trees, watching her, she didn't look at us she didn't know we were here.

"Alright here's the plan, Agie, you and Brandon distract her, Peter and I will sneak up and grab the blade. I'll run back to the dojo while the three you hold her off. Got that?" Marcus ordered.

"No offence man, but that's a stupid ass plan," I snorted.

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow. Was he trying to intimidate me? Really? Who the hell does he think he is? I'm Peter fucking Parker!

"It's too open, she chose this place for a reason Marc," I pointed, "a few people, not enough for us to hide behind. She'll spot them a mile away and us just as quick."

"What's your idea then?"

"We wait, wait for her to move, or make her move. Do something to distract her and the people around her to draw the attention away. And then we strike."

"Peter, no, that will never work, the moment we do that she'll be on us," Brando shook his head, "we go with Marc's plan."

"Yeah, I'm with Marc on this," Agei agreed.

I glared, "then good luck doing it without me."

"Peter, this supposed to be a team exercise!" Marcus hissed, "we need you with us!"

"No, it's a stupid plan Marc and it will not work, listen to me. We have to distract her first before anything else!"

"No Peter, we've been over this," the boy sighed, "fine, you want to come you don't have too. Come on guys, we can do this ourselves." The other two nodded as they got into position.

They looked so confident, so determined….I give them five minutes

Six minutes later:

Colleen chuckled as she walked away from the fountain with three of her students limping behind her, "did you really think you could have rushed me like that? Come on guys think!"

"We almost had you," Brandon grumbled.

"Almost isn't the same," Colleen smirked, "you needed to be smart about this. You should have distracted me first, then tried to grab the sword. Teamwork is important guys but so is forethought."

"Heh, funny, that's Peter said, guess we should have listened," Marcus grumbled as he rubbed ore shoulder.

"Wait, Peter was with you?" Colleen asked surprised, "where is he? Why didn't he fight?"

"He called us ideas stupid and refused to join in," Agie sighed, "guess he was right."

"Wait, he said it was stupid?" Colleen blinked as she walked under a bridge, following the road that lead to the nearest exit, "hm, maybe I should have a talk with him."

"Maybe," Marcus nodded.

As they walked to the other side of the bridge though Colleen saw the shadow of a person leap down. She stopped in surprise as I landed before her, stepping back in shock. I didn't let her recover.

I grabbed the strap of the katana around Colleen's body with one hand and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying back as I pulled the sword over her head.

I looked at the other kids and winked, "in this case, you three were the distraction," I turned, and ran.

Marcus' face dropped, "so cool."

Colleen got up, her stomach hurt as she held in pain, but at the sight of me running away with her sword must have ticked her off. She got back on her feed chased me, yelling, "get back here!"

Marcus and the others began to run now as well, trying best to slow Colleen down, but our teacher wasn't to be underestimated. She threw off their attacks and continued chasing me, I turned around and grinned, 'now this is training!'

I ran out of the park and across traffic, not stopping for the signal. People yelled at me but I payed them no mind. I ran down an alley way and saw a fire escape leading to the roof top. Time to take this chase skyward.

I jumped onto the first floor sky escape, just as Colleen and the others managed to catch running into the alley as well. They watched in awe as I ran up to the roof and began jumping from building to building.

"Peter get back here!" I heard her yell.

"Make me!" I cried back.

I took me an hour to get to Chinatown, a freaking hour. I landed on the roof of the building that owned the Chikara dojo and climbed down the side. I was panting now, guess even I had my limits. But one hour of constant running? Not half bad.

I sat on the curb and waited, ten minutes later Colleen reached with the others following right behind her. They were all drenched in sweat, I stood up and grinned holding up the sword, "guess that means I win."

Colleen smiled, "okay, yeah, you win….just, let me catch my breath," she and the others collapsed on the building steps.

"Peter," Marcus spoke between pants, "next time, we'll do it your way."

I grinned, "sweet."

"You kick like a mule," Colleen groaned holding her stomach, "I swear it's like you kicked the lunch out of me."

"Sorry," I winced, "I may have gone a bit overboard."

"Yeah, just a bit."

Eventually all the other students arrived as well, collen told them my group and I had won and we then went into detail about how we found her.

"Honestly, it was Peter's idea," Brandon admitted, "we just followed him."

"He was also the one who jumped sensei," Agei shrugged, "plus he did warn us that our first plan would fail."

"So Peter, care to explain?" Colleen asked as the entire class looked at me.

I shrugged, "I just wondered what you were trying do," I then went into detail how I came to the conclusions I did. Needless to say the kids were all impressed.

As a reward for winning Colleen bought coke for all of us, we sat on that curb and drank our cold drinks, chatting.

I quickly found friends in Marcus, Agie and Brandon. Guess that's one good thing this day gave. Seems making friends isn't that hard, it's just Peter's image at school was so fucking damaged there's no hope for people to not start making assumptions about me.

Marcus and I began to talk about Chemistry, the kid was horrible at it, I offered to teach him and he couldn't thank me enough. It seems we both lived in Queens, only Mus lived in the poorer part of town. We took the train together back home and Marcus lead me to his house.

As we walked through his neighborhood I noticed it was in bad shape, really bad shape. The place was dying, but I didn't say anything. Instead I listened as to Marcus explain just what he was struggling with. But just then-

"Get that boy homie!" and then a gunshot.

"Get back!" Marcus ordered as he grabbed by the hand and pulled me into an alleyway

"What's going on?!" I asked. Marcus just shushed me and pointed at the meet. And then I saw them.

Five thugs dressed in green, guns waving about as they chased another man down the street. They laughed and cheered as they shoot at the man, none of the bullets meaning to kill, rather just to scare.

"What the hell is goin on?" I asked seeing the thugs run across alleyway, Marcus and I crouching behind trash cans like rats.

"That's the GST, the Grass Stained Thugs," Marcus explained, "they run the streets around here, they terrorize everyone. The cops can't do anything them, hell half the kids in my school are addicted to dope because of these guys."

"And the police can't do anything about them?" I asked.

"Hell no," Marcus shock his head, "they basically run this place."

I narrowed my eyes, guess I just found my first case. All I need now is my costume and gear. Soon the coast was clear and Marcus quickly took me to his home. It was a small apartment in a large complex, dirty and old, but I honestly didn't care.

We spent the rest of the day over a Chemistry book as I did my best to teach him what knew. And during the short study breaks w took I pumped him for questions about the GST. They operated out of a stripclub, because of course they did, dealt with cocaine, money lending, racketeering and even gang on gang violence.

Needless to say I have my work cut out for me.

I went back home that day and began research into the club. Peter didn't really have a mind of hacker but he did know his way around computer. That reminds me, I should probably try and learn how to hack, seems like an important thing to know about.

The leader of the GST was a guy named Razor, a tall, mean looking mother fucker. He was the main suspect for four murders the past year alone and is known to be ruthless. He does have one weakness I can see through, women. Lots and lots of women. Man was a whore.

I needed to bring down this gang, too many people are getting hurt because of them. To destroy a gang I need to destroy their credit, meaning public embarrassment. Just beating the shit of people wouldn't be enough, I would need to make sure they can never reform again.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on my web shooters and ideas for a new costume. I honestly did not want to wear spandex, it was a horrible idea. I may look good in it, but it was so uncomfortable. I didn't like the way it clung to my skin, nasty.

On Monday, after my class with Colleen, I came back home at around 7. I finished whatever work I had and pretended to go to bed. At around 11 in the night though, after making sure May and Ben were asleep, I snuck out wearing dark clothes and a ski mask.

I had my new web shooters strapped on and ready for a test drive, tonight I begin my research. I went to the bad part of Queens, Marcus' place was just a few blocks away. I found myself on the roof of the GST strip club. I found an air duct and crawled in, shimming my way trh the small space.

It wasn't anything like the movies made it out to be. It was dirty and smelly, I was really glad I wasn't wearing white.

The loud music from the club downstairs were painful to hear, and so were the stripper's names. Honestly, 'Diamond in the rough?' Who came up with these names? 8 year old boys?

However I did manage to find my way into the more quiet part of the club, the rooms without windows in the heart of the building. I peered through the vents, I could see people stripped bare to their underwear packing in what looked like small bags of cocaine. Guards surrounded them with sub machine guns. Looks like they did their drug distribution here as well.

I kept crawling and sure enough I came upon a room where a couple of thugs in green sat around smoking weed with a tall man sitting on the couch with a gun on his lap.

'Razor,' I realised and I listened.

"Man day by day Cotton Mouth's getting pushy," Razor snorted, "I mean what the fuck does he and his cousin think their doing? Fucking rebuilding Harlem? Fuck that man!"

"Yeah, you said it Razor, those two are fucking crazy man!" said lakey #1.

"Hey, did you guys know I was there when that big green guy showed up and wrecked the place?" lakey #2 asked.

"The Hulk? You serious man? You were there?" Razor looked surprised.

"Yeah man, him and this other dude, grey looking guy. They like brought down a military chopper man! And then they began tearing up each other!"

"Don't' forget that rope kid man!" lakey #3 yelled out.

"Oh yeah, sorry man, I almost forgot! Suddenly this little dude like shows up and saved everyone man! He took out the big guy in like five seconds! He choked him!"

"Woah," Razor whistled, "damn, wish we had guys like that."

"Yeah, he used this rope, like sticky string to choke him man. And then he like stood over his body and laughed! It was fucking psycho man!"

I rolled my eyes, I so don't do a psycho laugh...well, I don't usually do it outloud. Maybe in the privacy of own head.

"Alright enough of this shit," Razor grumbled getting up, "that fucking mexican expects the drugs tonight. We need to pack up the shit and move. You guys ready yet?"

"Almost boss, maybe just a few more minutes," lakey #1 replied.

"Great, show me," Razor spoke as he and the others left the room, switching off the light. I quickly shimmied in reverse and followed him into the drug packaging room.

Razor yelled a lot and got his people moving. The moment the last box was packed they all moved downstairs and I needed to get out well.

I climbed out onto the roof, sighing into the cool night air. I ran to the roof edge and found a large van parked in the back. Razor and his crew put the drugs in there and got on. They even took off into the night and I knew I had to follow.

I took a running start and leaped off into the air. I clicked the shelters and shoot a webne across the street, swinging across the road. The wind howled at my ears, it suddenly became too cold for me. I didn't understand how Peter managed to swing in the cold night wearing nothing but spandex. Maybe thermal underwear?

I followed the van via roof tops to the harbour. They stopped before a warehouse, number 153, and waited for the doors to open. The moment it did they drove in, and I snuck in by opening the sky light and crawling along the wall, sticking to shadows.

I saw a mexican man in a nice suit waiting for them. A suitcase by his side and guards around him.

Razor got out of the van men loading out the drugs. "It's here."

"I'm sure," the mexican spoke with a hint of an accent. He handed Razor the case, "your payment."

Razor opened it and examined the money, "all right, we good."

"The Kingpin would like to extend his gratitude, it was very hard to get the...medicine we needed into the city, what with the army crawling all over Manhattan." I gasped softly the Kingpin? Already? The first crime group I follow and land up in the middle of one of Kingpin's deals?! Fuck me!

I took out the camera and began to film the scene before me. If I ever fight the Kingpin, this will be great evidence to put him away. And if a certain blind lawyer is willing to help me, then all the better.

"Keep giving me cash and I'm a happy fish amego," Razor grinned, "anything else?"

"The next shipment?"

"Same time," Razor shrugged, "oh, and I want double."

The man sighed, "Mr. Razor, we are already paying you three times what this stuff is worth."

"Take it, or leave it," Razor spat.

"Or else?"

"Or else I'll sell to someone else," Razor smirked, "I heard Cottonmouth got his hand on some dough, maybe he could help me out."

The man in the suit sighed, "I really wished you hadn't said that...very well," the snapped his fingers suddenly his men aimed their guns at Razor and in seconds tore him into pieces.

I had sure to keep my fingers steady to not shake the video, tho I was shocked to my system. They killed him? Just like that?

The GST gang member couldn't do a thing. Before even one of them could drop the ce of drugs they carrying and draw their weapon Razor was dead and the steaming nuzzles were pointed at them.

"Next time, don't be so greedy," the man spat on Razor's corpse. He turned to the people staring at him, "how's in charge now?"

Lakey #3 stepped up, he gulped, "I am."

"I expect the shipment to be delivered at the time next week. Any mistakes and...well, you already know," he walked away with the drugs leaving behind the money and the corpse.

GST and I got out of that warehouse as quickly as we could. And while they ran away I sat on warehouse rooftop stunned in school. I watched the video I captured as it played over over again. They killed a man, in cold blood they killed a man.

I pulled up my mask and puked. I couldn't handle the sight of blood, and a dead body? That was a first for me.

But now the question was this, what to do with the video? Keep it? Destroy it? Would it even do any good? Could even be useful? I don't know, but I knew one thing, this world I was trying to challenge was a ruthless one and one miss step, one mistake and everyone I love could be dead.

I went back home as fast as I could. Not really sure what to do. But as I snuck around in the trees trying to get home I noticed Harry talking to Mary Jane in the side of her home. Her window was open, guess she snuck down to meet him.

"I don't understand," Harry growled, "why won't you be with me?!"

Mary Jane looked hurt, "I-I told you Harry, I just don't like you that way."

"What do you mean?! I am not rich enough? Or fucking handsome enough for you?!"

"It's that Harry I just-"

"-Is it Peter?" he snapped. Mary Jane paused, hell, I paused, my brain stopped working. 'Does not compute!'

"Oh my God, it is isn't it, you like him," Harry spoke in a quiet voice, "you actually like him more than me."

"Harry now, Peter and I just friends and...and I realise how poorly I've been treating him. I feel bad. But I'm not in love with him."

"So you feel sad for him?"

MJ nodded, "yeah."

'Okay, and you're back to being a bitch,' I rolled my eyes, sad for me, who the hell is she to feel sad for me?

"So then you just don't love me? Is that what you saying?"

"Yes...I'm sorry Harry."

"Whatever, you fucking bitch," he cursed as he walked away, got in his car and took off. I hoped he didn't crash it somewhere, it would almost be a tragedy...almost.

I looked at MJ, she sniffled, she was crying. She leaned back on her fence and cried. I knew I should probably leave, leave and never look back. But...but it wouldn't be fair.

I sneaked around the corner and dropped down. I removed the sky mask, gloves and web shooters, putting them all in my pocket. I took a deep breath and walked towards her.

"Hey Peepers, why the tears?" I asked in a quiet voice.

MJ's head shot up, "Peter?" she wiped her tears and got up, "h-how much of that did you hear?"

I shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Peter-"

"-I'm serious. I saw Harry's car driving away like there was no tomorrow. I'm guessing everything isn't alright in paradise?"

"For God's sake I don't like Harry Osborn! He and I aren't together!"

I smiled, "you know if you told him that the same way you told me he might actually stop pestering you about it."

MJ was quite, she sighed, "I-I'm sorry I got mad at you."

"It's fine, a temper is to be expected, after all you are a redhead," I chuckled at her glare, "oh lighten up Peepers, it's not the end of the world. So one guy called you a bitch, big deal. If I was worried about all the things people called me I won't be able to get of bed the morning."

"It's not that, it's just that I...I don't know if it's my fault," she sighed, "Harry's a great guy, smart, funny-"

"-Rich," I added.

MJ glared, "I'm not shallow Peter," I shrugged, "but...I don't think I like him that way. I don't think I like anyone that way. I just wanna live my life you know, it's not like I need a boyfriend to survive."

"So? Tell him that, and the next guy after that and next guy after that. Until you're ready to start something new," I shrugged.

"Yeah...you're right," MJ nodded, "thanks Pete."

"Don't mention it," I walked away waving at her, "sweet dreams Mary Jane."

"Wait Peter I...I'm sorry."

I turned around, "for what?"

"You were my first friend here and I...I'm sorry I haven't been better to you."

"Like I said Mary Jane, it's fine. I'm used to it," with a shrug I turned and left.

"Good night then," she whispered. I turned the corner and quickly climbed into the trees again. I watched her climb back into her widow and tuck herself into bed. Guess my work here was done.

I took a shower and washed my clothes, don't want Aunt May asking questions on how I got my stuff so dirty. As I went to bed that night I stayed up wondering just what I'm supposed to go now.

The Kingpin wanted GST running so that they could get him his drugs. The GST hated his guts and wanted free. A gang war will cost people's lives. How do I defuse such a situation?

Oh, and another thing, just what the hell is going on with my love life?! Fuck it man, I fucking hate being a teenager again! I suppose it makes sense, just because we got along, held hands and went on one date didn't mean she liked me. It just meant she could bare me, nothing else. Fuck it, I'm tired being angry with that girl, I'm going to bed!

The next day was school as usual, though I did notice a few things had changed.

As I walked into the school corridor I began to notice more people looking at me. Staring at me. I meet their gaze until they looked away, something was different.

I went to my locker to grab first periods books, when suddenly my spider senses flared up. I could feel a ball coming towards me, I ducked immediately causing the ball to bounce off my locker door harmlessly.

I turned around and saw Flash and Harry staring at me in surprise. It looked like Flash had been the one to throw the ball, I looked surprised as slowly the hall began to quieten, looking at me and Flash.

"What the hell was that?" I growled.

"It slipped Parker," Flash shrugged in an unconcern way.

"Slipped? Slipped? If you're that bad at holding the ball maybe you should just quit the team Flash," I spat walking away.

"What did you say to me?! Get back here Parker!" Flash roared as he tried to follow.

"Don't bother Flash, it's not worth it," Harry stopped him with one hand, "you now he won't actually do anything. All bite, no bark."

As I sat through first period English I noticed people giving me weird looks. Even Mary Jane looked like she was trying to gain my attention but stopped herself before she could. I just didn't understand what going on.

If I was already swinging around in red and blue tights I would be paranoid into thinking somehow they all found out I was Spider-man, but since that wasn't the case I just couldn't figure it out!

Guess that's the problem with not having a social life.

By lunchtime the stares were really getting to me. I ended up sneaking into my little haven, the chemistry lab, but there once again I found I wasn't alone. A heavy kid named Reggie was there too.

He and I shared a lot of similarities, apart from our body size, he was smart and quite. He did have friends though, his fellow nerds, but he did like his own quiet space from time to time.

"Hey Peter," Reggie wished me.

"Hey Reggie," I greeted him back. We sat on opposite ends of the classroom each doing our own things. But soon the mystery of what was going on was starting to bug me. So I had no choice but to disturb the quiet kids solitude.

"Hey Reggie...do you think you can help me out here?"

He blinked, "sure Peter, what's the problem?"

"Well...have you noticed people have been staring at me lately? I mean...it's noticeable right? I'm not just going crazy?"

Reggie nodded, "oh that. Yeah, they're staring you for sure. It's because they think you and that new girl, Mary Jane? They think you're an item now."

I blinked, "fat boy say what?"

"Harry was telling everyone how MJ turned him down for you, and how you turned her down because…." Reggie paused, "because you don't date stupid people."

"What?! Why would they even think that?"

Reggie shrugged, "well, that's the impression you give off. You don't talk to anyone, you answer every question on the board and then some. You give the teachers a run for their money and you're probably the smartest person they will ever meet. So yeah, they don't like you."

"What?! Are you fucking serious?! Holy shit man, all this time I thought it was because..." I blinked, it made sense. If I went to school with a kid as smart as Peter Parker I would be careful around him too. And if it was a child like Bruce Wayne? I wouldn't even walk in the same corridor as him.

I thanked Reggie for his input, and I walked out of the chemistry lab, my head spinning. Honestly it was weird, people kept staring and now that I knew why I found it strange. I did my best to ignore it but, hell, this is weird man.

And just then who would happen to walk up to me by the cause of all this, the Peeper herself.

"Peter, we need to talk," she spoke, Liz Allen following behind her, glaring a hole into my head.

"Ah, sure, what about?" I asked.

"It's Harry, he's told everyone that we are going out," she admitted looking sorry.

I pretended to be shock, "what? Really? Oh I'm so sorry Mary Jane, I didn't expect he would do something like that!"

"Yeah, so look I...wait...are you making fun of me?"

I grinned, "yup."

"This isn't the time for jokes Parker," Liz snapped, "Harry's actually trying to get people to make you miserable."

I shrugged, "yeah, and? What's the worst he can do?"

"Have the entire football team beat the shit out of you."

"I have amazing stamina, I'll just run away" I shrugged, I turned to the nervous looking MJ and sighed, "honestly it's fine MJ, I'll be fine."

"I'm sorry Pete, I swear I'll try and get him to back down, but I...I'm sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," I shrugged and walked away. Liz looked a little pissed at the casual dismissal but didn't say anything, simply grabbing MJ and walked away.

I honestly didn't know what the big deal is. So the rich boy got anger issues, big fucking deal. Unless he's got a glider, a goblin mask and jacked up on goblin formula he isn't even on my radar. What I was interested in though was bringing down the GST, and the wear more important than some stupid school drama.

As I opened my locker to put my books away my spider sense went off. I jumped to side as foam exploded from my locker. I looked inside and found my locker covered with foam.

"Damn Parker, guess you lucked out on that one huh?" I turned to see Harry scowling at me.

"Yeah….I guess….I don't suppose you saw who did this?"

"No, sorry man. Can't say that I did."

"Of course you didn't..." I glared at him, slamming my locker shut. I walked away growing, okay, so maybe I should take this a little more seriously.