CH13: Halloween (Part One)

"So, I saw you fought some new villain on the news," Ben said over breakfast. "What was his name? The guy with the fishbowl on his head?"

"Mysterio, Master of Illusion," I said. "He was planning some kind of 'Ghostbusters Finale' type deal for Halloween, but I found him early after he stole some chemicals for that, so we fought early."

Thank god for informants.

"That's good," May nodded.

I grunted an agreement, lost in thought. Halloween was just around the corner, and I was pretty fucking sure that something stupid and/or Goblin-related was going to happen. The only question was how and why.

And also what. What was also important.

I guess the whole deal was important, although that wasn't quite as dramatic.

I finished my pot of coffee (not hyperbole) and got up.

I typically slept in the guest room of the Parker home. That day was a Saturday, so I decided that, since I was gonna be free all day, I should just spend the whole day being an illegal vigilante, like most kids my age would.

Peter finally shambled down the stairs from his room, with bags under his eyes so dark that it looked like he'd been punched in the face twice.

"Ugh," he groaned.

"How many hours did you spends going over your formula?" I asked.

"Lost count after 5am," he admitted, grabbing the second pot of coffee that May had already made and starting to drink directly from the rim. A bad habit he got from me, I think. "I finally sent it when my brain was too used up to be useful, so now I just have to hope Mr. Richards likes it."

"He will," I said, taking my mug to the sink and giving it a quick rinse. "Anyways, I gotta go. You call me as soon as you get an answer, okay?"

Peter made a vaguely-agreeing pitiful groan, and I headed for the back door.

The Parker home was similar to the Ultimate version of it. Small and in the suburbs, but close enough to the city that I just had to run a little before I could start swinging from buildings. There was plenty of foliage behind the houses, and with my senses and training I could avoid being seen leaving the house.

"Wait, wait!" May called out as I put on my mask and hood. She went into her room and came out with a black sweater. "They said it was going to be cold today, so I knit you this!"

"Um," I took it hesitantly. "I appreciate it, but I don't think I'll be very intimidating in a home-knit sweater."

"Oh, pish-posh," she said, because she knew nobody says that anymore. "I made it to fit your look. Or are you going to tell me you're too old to wear a sweater your mother knit you?"

"Never," I chuckled. I thought of the Parkers as family, but it was always a relief to hear them say they thought the same.

I unfolded the sweater, and my jaw dropped.

"You like it?"

"This is the greatest thing ever," I whispered. I lifted my mask over my nose, kissed May on the cheek, and ran out the back door, putting the sweater on as I ran.

It was completely black, except for the long-legged white spider on the chest.

It was so freaking awesome.

Osborn was sitting in his office, glaring at the simpering fool giving the report.

"You mean to tell me," he said, slowly, watching the scientist shake in his boots, "That our mutated spider got out of its cage, snuck out, and died biting some nobody?!"

"I-I'm sorry, Mister Osborn!"

"Sorry doesn't get my specimen back!" Osborn shouted. He took a few deep breaths and continued in a calmer tone. "What happened after the bite?"

"The student hit the spider as soon as he was bit. After the room went on lockdown, it was found dead from impact a little ways from where the student was."

Osborn grumbled some more between gritted teeth as he dismissed the man with a gesture.

As he made two small mental notes regarding the firing of that simpering fool and the payment for the Fletcher boy's hospital stay, Osborn contemplated the footage of a young 15-year-old getting bitten by a million-dollar spider on his laptop.

You know, I'd been Spider-Man for a while. Since a little after the start of the school year.

So it was safe to say that I'd gotten used to some things: the feeling of my fist connecting with someone's face, the sensation of my body cutting through the wind as I swung in a perfect angle before letting go, thus becoming, if only for an instant, perfectly weightless and free.

And, most importantly, the feeling of my web pulling taunt as it held my weight.

So, when instead of that, I heard a cracking noise, I was understandably scared.

And when I looked up and saw that my web, suddenly a lot more solid and broken that I liked it, I understandably panicked.

So I don't think anyone can judge me for screaming "SHIT!" as I plummeted to the sidewalk mid-swing.

I bounced a couple times, before skidding a little on my face and flopping face-up.

"Fuckin' ow," I groaned.

"Are you okay?" some pedestrian asked.

"Do I look-!?" I stopped myself. "No, no I'm not. I appreciate your concern, though."

I got up, rubbing a sore spot on my hip, and looked up. My web-line appeared to be frozen solid. It had been really chilly lately, but this was just dumb.

"What happened?" some other pedestrian asked.

"Well," I said, shooting another web-line, but letting it hang. In seconds, the whole this was fragile and solid. "It appears I just discovered what happens to spider webs in winter."

"It's still autumn, though."

I didn't even look at the guy who said that. I just put a finger to my chin and looked up at the building I'd tried to swing off of.

"Fuck it," I declared. "I'm gonna Parkour this shit."

With that said, I walked a little backwards, and raced up the building.

Halfway up, I jumped off, landed on a streetlight, and jumped away to another building. I heard some people cheering from the street, and I continued with a grin. Maybe this wouldn't be that bad.

"Spider-Man, huh?" Osborn was grinning at his laptop, watching the footage of a young boy in a clearly home-made costume taunting OsCorp's latest business partner. "Not too subtle, but you've clearly got brains."

So far, one of the wealthiest men in New York had only heard rumors about Spider-Man, but this shed light on that little matter.

So far, Osborn had no real evidence on the Cape's identity, but as he watched the video, some of his workers were comparing voice samples of Jake Fletcher from the security footage of that class trip.

Osborn's smug smile grew as he watched the costumed teenager jump around. He practically salivated at the thought of what a grown man with training could do with those powers.

"More than a spider, you're my golden egg-laying goose," he said, in a tone almost affectionate.

"… And that's about it," Aaron finished, and I put a period at the end of my notes.

"Thanks for this, man," I put the notebook and pencil back in my utility belt as I spoke. With everything the Trio got me, what Aaron just told me, and the rumors Bob heard, I had an advance on crime of about two weeks.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's New York, so I had about thirty organized crimes per day to look forward to.

Surprisingly, I was actually looking forward to them.

"No problem," Aaron cracked open one of the beers from the six-pack I got him. "I gotta say, I'm starting to like this whole… thing."

"Yeah?" I was sitting on the edge of the rooftop we used as a meeting spot, and he was in the middle so that no one below could see that he was working as my informant.

"Yeah," he took a sip. "I was just doing it 'cause you'd send me to jail otherwise."

"What changed it?"

He didn't answer for a while, just sipped his beer. "You know, I never really was the social type, crime-wise. I just had enough connections to get a gun and know where I could rob that wouldn't get me an ass-whooping."

I nodded. That seemed reasonable.

"But now that I poke around, some of the things these people will do…" He threw the can away. "Some of them live in the same fucking street as Miles, man."

I nodded. "If you want, I could try to keep a close eye on him? Make sure no one messes with him? I've stopped schoolyard bullies before, I'll do it again."

"Nah, man, people would notice. Besides, Miles' a fighter. He ain't afraid of no bullies."

I laughed. Yeah, anyone that could take up the mask wouldn't really be afraid of bullies.

That sounded kinda like ego-stroking, huh?

Osborn stood on a metal walkway, overseeing the ongoing experiments of Project Arachne.

So far, there had been no success in recreating the spider that made Spider-Man. The idea that a sample of the original spider or the product of the original might be required had been thrown around a few times, and Oscorp was starting to consider it.

Said original spider was dead, and had been thrown away in a moment of carelessness. Osborn had made sure that the appropriate punishments had been handed out.

However, as time passed, Spider-Man both proved the value of his mutation, and showed that it was going to be harder and harder to obtain a sample of his DNA. An entire team of analysts was dedicated to watching recordings of his fights, and the data showed a clear increase in strength, speed and durability. Not to mention that he had started to actually use techniques beyond proper kicking and punching.

With a final look at a screen that showed a red sign declaring the latest batch a failure, Osborn came to a decision.

"And it's done!" Sue said, handing me the new glasses. I walked over behind a privacy screen she'd set up and put them on my face. I blinked as the world went from blurry to HQ.

Johnny had messaged me about his sister wanting to talk to me. Turns out, he mentioned how I needed glasses, and she made some special glasses that would adjust to my needs as time went by. She also made several sets of lenses that worked the same way for my masks, which was awesome of her.

"Unstable molecules are bullshit," I muttered. "Thanks for this, Sue. Constantly getting new glasses while my powers adjusted was starting to get expensive."

"No problem," she smiled. "Reed's been looking over what your friend sent, and he was about to call you over anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he sent this formula for something called Kinetic Goo?"

"He finally figured it out?"

"I guess so, but Reed was too excited to explain it."

"Basically, it's Super Kevlar, but incredibly light and something you can put inside a hoodie or something."

"… Oh." Sue whispered, clearly shocked.

"Yeah, Peter's a genius," I said, proud as always when someone recognized my best bro's brains. "He's a big fun of you guys."

"You're a good friend for getting him this opportunity, then."

"Bah, nothing he wouldn't do for me given the chance." I put my mask back on and slipped the glasses back into my utility belt. I'd replace the glasses later. "Is Johnny here?"

"Yeah, he's in the kitchen, I think."

"Great, I'm gonna see if he wants to foil a bank heist," I rushed out of Sue's lab.

About an hour later, Johnny was sitting on a rooftop, watching me walk tightrope on a wire.

"So, you're just like, strong, balanced and constantly alert?"

"Pretty much," I started doing ballet pirouettes to show off. "It's not as showy as being a human star, but I've been training to make the most of it."

"Clearly," the younger Storm said, watching me spin like my name was Billy Elliot. Eventually he spoke up, "It was weird, stopping that heist."

"How so?" I did a full split on the wire. "I'm probably biased, because that's just my Friday evening."

"Yeah, but most of my hero-ing is like," he gestured vaguely. "Going to another universe and punching a space-tyrant, you know?"

"Not really," I dropped to the side, grabbed the wire with one hand, and flipped up, doing three back-flips, before landing on fourth position. "I mainly focus on street-level stuff. But I get what you mean. When you spend so much time stopping the universe from blowing up, it must be weird to get a reminder of how there's still stuff like muggings, no?"

"Yeah, exactly!" he said, pointing at me. "I guess I'm just surprised."

"Well, you don't have to worry about it," I left the wire and sat next to him, grabbing my McNuggets and moving my mask up to my nose. I tossed the nugget up and caught it in my mouth. "I'm here for the streets; you're there for the planet, right?"

"… Yeah," he bumped my shoulder. "Yes we are."

Harry was blathering about some inane thing or another, and Norman was ignoring him with practiced ease.

Lately, he had been having trouble focusing on anything but Jake. That wasn't much difference with Harry, disappointments weren't worth Norman's focus, but the parasites at OsCorp's director's board had noticed his waning attention. Some were moving to stab his back, but they were being dealt with as he read.

Apparently, his gambit had succeeded. The hired assassin, disguised as a common mobster, had managed to knick Jake with a knife, obtaining a sample of his blood in the process.

Of course, Norman had the man killed for hurting his precious specimen, but that wasn't important.

From the sample, OsCorp scientists had managed to develop a physical enhancer. It wasn't much compared to the abilities Jake was beginning to demonstrate, but that was fine for starters.

The second phase of Norman's plan was beginning.

Now if only he could get that Ben Parker annoyance to sell him the rights to Spider-Man's image. He was lucky that he'd wormed his way into Jake's affection, or Osborn would have had him killed a long time ago.

The sun was setting, and I was still parkouring around the fucking city. Peter was finally having dinner with Gwen's dad.

(He didn't know that he was the Chief of Police, and I didn't tell him, on account of how funny that was.)

Gwen had been putting off letting them meet out of fear of how her dad would react to Peter's… Peter-ness. It was a big moment, so I told Peter that the new web formula (that wouldn't freeze in fucking autumn) could wait for tomorrow.

I jumped between rooftops, and stopped to watch the sunset.

"Hm," I muttered. "This would look better a few hundred more feet in the air."

"Miss your webshooters?"

"Yeah," I could hear Black Cat flinch in surprise at my lack of surprise. She probably thought she'd sneaked up on me. "What's up, Cat? You caught me in a good mood, so I probably won't chase you down."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah, I'm feline great."

She groaned, and I cackled.

"Listen, I happen to be in need of a hero, and you happen to be the only one that would take the bet," she stared at me as I turned around. "Even if you happen to be wearing a dorky sweater."

"Hey, my mom knit this!"

"Jeez, what are you, twelve?"

"On a scale of one to ten, sure," I grinned. "Age-wise, I'm fifteen years old, actually."

She seemed surprised. "Wait, what? I thought you were like an immature adult or something."

"Nah, I'm an immature teen."

"Huh," she shook her head. "Anyways, I happen to be in trouble with some seedy people."

"You stole from someone important, probably Tombstone, and want to manipulate me into the middle of a gang war so that you can steal something even more important then get away."

She stared at me, I stared back.

"Um, I mean…" she was sweating, and I could hear her heartbeat picking up.

"Sounds like fun, I'm in."

"What?"

"Yeah," I shrugged, pulling out my notebook and leafing through it. "I've had Tombstone's personal address for a while, but I didn't have him with his hands dirty until now. You think he has something important stashed there?"

Black Cat blinked some more, before she shook her head again. "Uh, yeah, there's this big important necklace, it was kinda like the Hope Diamond, except with worse security."

"Cool beans," I put my notebook back into my utility belt before I started walking. "Come on, time's a-wasting."

She took a second, but started following. "You're a weird one, Spider."

"You think so?" I shrugged. "I just don't see the point of all the running around. I mean, it can be fun, but sometimes I'd rather jump to the end, no fuzz or muss."

"Hm," we started running, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. "I'm sixteen."

"Pardon?" I almost tripped and ate it.

"I'm sixteen," she repeated. "So, you know, might want to show respect to your elders, Spidey."

"Hey, if you wanna call yourself old…"

"Shut up!"

We shared a laugh. I could see how someone could fall for her.

Not that I would do something that dumb, of course. I'm not an idiot, Dating Catwoman rarely ends well.

"Mister Osborn, are you sure about this?" the person asking this was one of the scientists, a mousy little thing that was doing a terrible job of hiding his attraction to Norman.

He didn't pay much attention to him, and only gave a silent nod as he was finally strapped down to the slab. The young scientist was clearly charmed with his stoic determination to "advance science", as evidenced by the luminescent blush that decorated his face as he finished preparations. He was the only one that Norman was comfortable giving the controls for the device, on account of his gullibility.

The capsule closed around him, and needles pierced his arms. The device was based around the one used to make Captain America, but with better technology, of course. Norman felt that this was fitting, as he too would become the best of humanity.

The Serum entered his veins, and Norman's world became fire.

As it turned out, Tombstone's little mansion was packed with armed goons. Cat and I had tried to sneak in at first, but that had lasted about a minute before things went predictably sideways, and we had to fight the rest of the way.

"By the way," I said, knocking out a goon with a swing of one of my sticks. "Could you do me a solid and not betray me?"

"Hm," Cat said, giving an exaggerated pout as she Judo-flipped some guy into the furniture. "I don't know, let me think on it."

"Come on!" I begged, kicking a guy so hard in the stomach that he got stuck in the ceiling. "I'll let you get away with one heist."

"Only one?"

"Fine! Two free heists if you don't stab me in the back, and that's my final offer."

"Sounds good to me, but only if I can pick what heists go unpunished."

"Well obviously, I'm not trying to screw you here."

"You're not?" as I knocked out the last mook on that floor, she gave an overly-dramatic expression, wrist on her forehead and everything. "And here I thought a handsome gentleman was finally showing interest!"

"First off, you don't know what I look like," I deadpanned. "Second, I very much doubt no one else showed interest in you before."

"No, but not a lot of gentlemen," she laughed.

"You're not going to dupe me because of some flirty remarks, Cat," I kicked the door to Tombstone's office open and gestured for her to go ahead. "Lady's first."

She fanned herself, earning a roll of my eyes, and went inside. It was very hard to keep my eyes off of those swinging hips. Odin give me strength.

"Now, if I were a bulletproof albino mobster, where would I hide a million-dollar treasure?"

I didn't even look at her, just walked to a huge portrait of the Tombstone hung behind his desk and tossed it aside, revealing a safe. I punched the thing, breaking the door, and pulled out a diamond necklace. "Bada-bing, bada-boom, here's a necklace for the lady."

"It's so pretty I'm going to ignore you said that," she whispered, taking it in her hands. "It's so beautiful! It's so gorgeous! It's so…"

Her face fell. "Fake. It's a fake."

"Dammit, I thought this might happen." I groaned. "Where do you think he actually hid it?"

Black Cat shrugged. She was probably going to say something before a klaxon started sounding off. We looked out the window and saw that the reason the alarms were finally sounded was the large amount of cops entering the property.

"Hey, they got my message!" I cheered.

"You have a cop's number?" Cat asked, looking surprised.

"No, but you can text 911."

"Really? I never knew."

"You learn something new every-" I was interrupted by the sound of a flushing toilet.

As it turned out, I had been so focused on making jokes for Black Cat and impressing her by instantly finding the necklace that I didn't notice the door to the left of Tombstone's desk. It opened to reveal a private bathroom and the man himself rushing out, one hand adjusting his pants and the other holding his gun.

I had been spending months training with Matt and Natasha. If someone shot at me, I was ready and prepared to do anything short of catch the bullet with my hand, and I would probably be able of doing that eventually.

But I'd never had a partner in Cape-ing before. So when Tombstone shot at Black Cat, I panicked and did the first stupid thing that crossed my mind.

I jumped in front of her and caught the bullet in my stomach.

I was a bit busy lying on a pool of my own blood to pay attention, but the next thing I remember is Cat picking me up, slinging one of my arms over her shoulders. She had a bruise on her jaw, and I saw Tombstone, with his head resting in the splintered remains of his desk, out of the corner of my eye.

"You took him out on your own?" I asked, a bit woozy from blood loss. "Nice work, Cat."

"Shut up," she bit out, clearly angry. "Why would you do something so stupid, Spidey? I could take the damage."

"I panicked," I admitted. "Besides, I'm a superhero, you know? Can't let damsels get hurt on my watch."

That sounded really corny out loud.

"I'm no damsel, idiot."

"No, but I like to pretend."

"Just be quiet, I'll get you out of here," she helped me out of the office. "I know somewhere you can get help."

I made a sound that was vaguely related to the word 'no'. "I can take care of myself. I have a first aid kit."

"Where?"

"Queens."

"That's on the other side of New York, dumbass." She put us in a hidden elevator I didn't know about. She left me against a wall and pressed a button, while I pulled out some bandages from my belt and covered up my wounds.

"Was this elevator part of your betrayal plan?"

"… Yeah?"

"Nice, very elegant. I had no idea this was here."

"Thanks, I guess." She shook her head. "This'll take us to Tombstone's secret garage. I'll drive you to Night Nurse's place."

"Oh, she helped me out once," I finished wrapping and secured it with webs. "I didn't really meet her, because I was out cold."

"What happened?"

"A bird monster person tossed me over the New York skyline."

Cat blinked at me. "Your life is so weird, dude."

"Ha! Ain't that the truth?"

I had honestly expected Cat to leave while Night Nurse patched me up, but she was waiting on the lobby when I came out.

"How are you?" she asked upon seeing me.

"Bah, I'll be fine by morning," I shrugged. "I heal fast."

"Right."

We stood there in silence. I knew she probably had something dramatic to say, so I waited.

This seemed like one of those moments that would build romantic tension in a Will-They-Won't-They relationship. She'd say something about how she didn't need looking after, I'd brush it off, and we'd go our separate ways.

"I didn't need you to jump in like that," right on cue, Cat.

"You did ask for help, dude."

She frowned, before walking forward. Whoa, was she going to kiss my cheek? How scandalous!

I let her lift my mask up to my nose, expecting her to turn my head. She looked comically focused on the task at hand, hands on my shoulders and staring into my mask's lenses.

Wait, how was she going to turn my head if she held my shoulders?

WHOA, OKAY, THIS IS A KISS! FULL LIP CONTACT!

I reacted (eventually) and by pure instinct started practicing what Natasha taught me. Every lecture on lip movement, hand placement, and so on.

After a while, we separated, breathless and red up to our ears.

"Oh, wow," she gasped.

"Hm," I said, in a moment of clear-spoken intelligence.

"I, uh," she coughed into a fist and stepped back, forcing a teasing smile. "I have to go. Call me, Spidey."

She winked and ran off. Her teasing was set back by her bright red blush.

Eventually, my brain rebooted and I pulled down my mask. That was… uh…

"That was adorable," I turned around and found Night Nurse there, smiling. "You kids were cute. Now please get out of my clinic."

I nodded and ran off, embarrassed.

Norman didn't have much recollection of everything that happened after the machine went off. All he had was flashes of color, the feeling of metal breaking under his fists, the sound of a snapped neck, and his own laughter ringing in the laboratory.

Of course, it was a trivial matter for someone with Norman's resources to dismiss all questions as to what happened to that idiot scientist. He had bigger concerns now.

Ever since he first saw the results of his specimen, Norman had been developing an obsession. The part of him that created OsCorp from nothing wanted what an army of Spider-Men could make.

The part of him that drove him forward despite all adversities wanted what Spider-Man could do.

At his core, Norman Osborn wanted power in all its many forms. He had money, he had charisma, and he had political pull.

But what Jake could do? He didn't have that, and until dear, sweet Jake came into his life, there was no real way for him to obtain it.

Had he been a man more prone to navel-gazing, Norman might have pondered if this was the real objective of the Arachne Project all along: to discover a way for him to empower himself.

That didn't matter anymore. The formula had brought a clarity that Norman had lacked before.

His glider was ready, and so were all his other tools.

There was only one thing that really mattered anymore: how he stacked up against his beloved specimen.

I was sitting on a water tower, head on my hands.

'What the fuck did I do?'

I knew how dating Black Cat ended, every time: the gap between Hero and Criminal became too wide, and everyone ended up hurt.

'Can't I just avoid that if I know how it goes?'

No, I couldn't.

'But can't I?'

Dammit, no!

I sighed and started pacing on the rooftop, trying to clear my head.

… Maybe, if we went slow and careful…

Maybe it could be worth it?

A small smile appeared under my mask, before I sighed and shook my head.

I was a stupid, hormonal idiot, and I was going to date a sexy cat lady because I was an idiot.

'Whatever,' I turned to the direction of Queens. 'It's late, Peter should be back from dinner with the Stacy's, and I need to replace all my lenses.'

[Two turbines, approaching surprisingly quietly. The sound of a round object being thrown in my direction.]

I jumped out of the way just in time to dodge some kind of orange ball, which exploded upon contact with the rooftop.

I landed on all four on a streetlight, and I stared at the cackling form atop a high-tech glider.

"Little early for Halloween, buddy," I grimaced. "You caught me in a bit of a mood, so why don't you fuck off back to Pumpkin Town and try again next week?"

"Oh, I will come back for Halloween!" The Green Goblin said, floating down to be face-to-face with me. "I just wanted to give you an early notice…"

He got in close so that his face was almost stuck to mine.

"The Green Goblin is coming for your head, Jake Fletcher!"

He probably wanted to freak me out. Surprise me with an explosion then drop my civilian name.

Bitch please.

"You're playing with fire, Osborn," I growled.

He reeled back, and that was all the opening I needed to punch him in the face, sending him spinning down to the street.

He caught himself just in time and floated up to my level, a little far away.

Mess with the best, die with the rest, Normie.