Dreadful Worries...

After I ran away from Daredevil (effectively leaving any problems including Peter Parker or Spider-Man at his feet) I've been carrying on as normal or well as normal as can be when you're working as an intern under the first family of the Marvel Universe AKA the Fantastic Four since they're always bringing their superhero business to the office and while I have seen some superhero it business in action usually catching the tail end thankfully I've not been getting to involved usually just watching the tail end of the incidents and while there have been a few incidents while I was at work such as a portal or something randomly opening and swallowing up the Fantastic Four I've managed to avoid any interference by grabbing onto anything I can while the portal sucks the rest of them in and secretly using my wall crawling abilities to attach my fingers to the object so that while the rest of them got pulled to god knows where I managed to stay at the Baxter building and using my suddenly free time to use the resources of the Fantastic Four to my while and diving into their databases for whatever tickles my fancy without worry of being caught until they pop back up at which point I feign my worry for them stating that as the reason I stayed at the Baxter building till they came back (sometimes days) when I really had no reason to worry about them since they are the Fantastic Four and their safety was all but assured, it's been three months since I talked to daredevil about helping Peter and everything has been just fine for me attending Empire State University on Mondays and Tuesdays, intending at the Baxter Building for the rest of the week, having random one night stands whenever me and Johnny went out for a night on the town including the rare few occasions during the last three months when Gwen appeared and enticed me but apart from that I've been focusing on my research with whatever free time I can get and I'm getting closer and closer to a breakthrough but sadly I've been getting less time to focus on my research as after I told Mary Jane that I enlisted Daredevil's help in order to aid Peter she got really happy and as of late we've been hanging out a lot aside from my tutoring her and while we haven't crossed any sort of lines yet we've been getting close to it though I always stop before anything can happen.

Life's been pretty great for me lately and it's been even better by the fact that nothing has happened in the last three months to upset my life and it's been awesome since I've not had to be stressed at all just focusing on my life and not worrying about anything else not even Peter Parker better known as Spider-Man has been bugging me after I dropped all of my problems off with Daredevil and forgetting all about him and I don't even know if Daredevil has actually done anything or even been training Spider-Man but that's not my problem anymore and I don't think I'll find out anytime soon since I usually just hear about Spider-Man's activity on the news or in the newspaper but it's never live and there's not much footage shown on TV since they usually focus on the bigger guys like Iron Man so I can't actually tell if he's improved or anything and while I can probably search for new videos of him on YouTube I'm not gonna waste my time with that plus if I do see a video of him and he's not improved then I'm gonna wonder why he hasn't gotten better and if Daredevil isn't training him for some reason and if that's the case I'm gonna be obliged to step in and find out why so it's better if I just ignore it so that I can get on with my research with the least amount of distraction as possible, as such for the last three months life has been as normal as possible as it could be for me and it's currently a Tuesday which means I'm currently attending a class at Empire State University and the class is Biochemistry which is taught by Dr Curt Conners who I know to be quite pervasive in the Marvel Universe considering the fact that he eventually changes into a giant ass bipedal lizard that stalks the streets and sewers of New York and tries to turn the rest of New York into lizards as well but thankfully at this moment in time he's just mild mannered Dr Curt Conners who only has one arm and isn't green and scaly which I'm thankful for since this is one of the only lessons I attended that I actually feel like I can learn something at because the man is a genius in his field but it's a shame the man will become a Giant Lizard in the future without the use of his brilliant mind but thems the breaks.

I'm actually paying attention to the mans lectures since he can actually teach me something that I don't already know unlike the rest of these staff members who are just here for a pay check and aren't actually passionate about their subjects so it's a unfortunate that in a few short years this mans mind is going to devolve into a lizard brain so I'm glad I'll be able to suck whatever knowledge I can from him before he's no longer in a state to tell anyone anything, he's in the middle of his lecture when suddenly the bell rings out signifying the end of the lecture which takes both me and professor Curt Conners by surprise and he chuckles while scratching the back of his head in response to it. "I guess I lost track of time, well that's what happens when you get caught up in the wonder of science. Alright before you go remember to read up on the next twenty pages of your text book in preparation for our next class, if you don't then you're going to be lost so make sure that you do. That's it, you can all go." He says but everyone has already left their seats and are heading to the exit without heading the professors words but that's their loss since they are most likely gonna turn up to the next lecture and not have any clue what's he's talking about unlike the other professors who literally teach out of the textbook Doc Conners asks us to read ahead in the textbooks and then in the lecture he talks about things that require that knowledge which further imprints it on out minds which is why I actually pay attention in his classes and I've already read all of my textbooks and memorised them so I don't really have any 'homework' to do so I do enjoy these lectures, I move towards the exit to leave the lecture hall but all these students are like animals trying to shoot through the door as fast as possible crowding around the door so instead of joining the wild herd I instead laid back and waited for the crowds to thin out so I could walk out calmly instead of joining the wild frenzy and getting some weird looks at the fact that I was literally immovable while the rest couldn't get past me so it's best that I hang back while they all get through but this isn't normally a problem since I'm usually the first one out the door so I can get home and start researching as soon as possible it this time I took a closer seat because the lecture was interesting which means I'm gonna get out later than usual.

When the crowd finally thins out with most of them out the room I can finally leave and so I head out the door and make my way in the direction of the nearest exit which is coincidently very close to my lecture hall and I'm usually out very quickly because of it but this time because I had to wait other people throughout the building have left their classes and are also headed for this exit so whereas usually I would be out with minimal trouble this time I'm impeded by a heavy amount of traffic because of the student populous many of which I've never seen very much of because I'm usually out of here as soon as possible and so I find it takes a long time for all of us to start funnelling towards the exit and I'm following the crowd quite calmly when suddenly I stop and create a barrier for all of the other students behind me but I don't far since across the hall past the exit I can see Gwen in a less crowded area which is fine since I see her sometimes but what really catches my attention is that a guy has his hand in her shoulder while talking to her and it's making me feel a sense of dread, I trail the palm on Gwen's shoulder back up to its owner and my sense of dread worsens even further as I see an older man dressed in a brown suit with a white shirt and red tie but his distinguishing features are his grey hair, his thick glasses and his bushy white moustache moustache along with his kindly smile as he talks to Gwen but I can spot something in his eyes as he looks at her that unsettles me and so without caring about any consequences I fully out my left hand to the side to grab a male student by the shoulder who was passing by me and dragged him towards me and though he struggles and tries to shout at me I use my superior strength to clench down on his shoulder to the point of pain which gets him to calm down so I can ask my own question.

"You see that guy across the hall in the brown suit with the white hair, what's his name? Is he a professor?" I ask with a calmness that's unbefitting for the wariness I feel inside and it shocks me that I'm this calm when I have a whole bunch of suspicions running through my mind, the student I grabbed clearly realising that he can't escape my grip decides to just answer my question in the hopes that I'll let him go. "Dude, that's Doctor Miles Warren. He's a professor that teaches here, he's one of the professors that teach biochemistry and apparently he's some sort of genius or something." Having my suspicions confirmed without thinking I let go of the students shoulder in shock and filled with dread and as I trail my eyes back from his face to the hand he has on Gwen I can no longer see it as his hand holding onto Gwen's shoulder but I instead see it as his hand caressing Gwen's shoulder and that invokes in me an indescribable rage that I didn't know I was capable of, right now Gwen is in close proximity to the man known as the Jackal thanks to my meta-knowledge and thanks to that knowledge I also know that this man has a sick obsession with Gwen Stacy in the 616 universe and while I'm sure that this isn't that universe I can't help the dread and worry that fills me as I watch him stand next to Gwen and the fact that there's a single universe out there in which he targets Gwen Stacy is one universe too many and so I'll have to do something about this man sooner rather than later and I'm gonna have to start investigating him to find out just how much he's like the 616 version of Jackal and how much he's progressed in his path.

I stay absolutely still and watch the man like a hawk and I'm relieved when Gwen turns to leave and heads to the exit but even then I don't take my eyes off of the older professor making sure to keep an eye on him as he moves through the hallway and talks to other students and faculty members even as I get abuse thrown at me for blocking up the hallway but I just ignore it and focus on the man for I don't know how long before I watch him finally open a door in the corridor and go in before closing it behind him, I stare at the door for a few minutes more before I realise that the halls are absolutely silent with no one else around except me but all that does is give rise to the deep seated negative emotions I'm feeling right now only exacerbating the worry and dread I'm feeling at such a dangerous man being so close to Gwen, too close...

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<AN> I now have a Pa treon up and running and when a chapter is ready it will go up on Pa treon first so please take a look. Some support from you guys would be appreciated and motivate me.

Currently 34+ Chapters.

(www.pa treon.com/GutsyRipper)

A special thank you to my patrons Stormrall, Turtle, Matthew Laird, Sage Honos, Derrick Porter, Manuel Arauio, Darth Bane, napier Crawford, Marcus Lane, Arun, frank ivkovich, Alex and Kieta Aki. Thank you for the support.