This was a type of day that seemed to go rather smoothly, at least at first. Then the night turned around something completely different. There were numerous calls for a disturbance. The sounds of gunshots could be heard in a rather bad part of town. It was rumored to be a part of the Russian Mafia's operations. Only no one had able to be to confirm them for one reason or another. That was just the rumors that had been told through the grapevine.
It was hearsay at best. There was enough evidence to indicate that the Russian Mafia was operating out of the city. No one was willing to talk on the record but there were whispers.
A car pulled up at the location that they had been radioed in. A woman was the first one to exit the car. She had a dark shade of red hair and she wore a detective uniform. Her partner was a young man with dark hair and a grim demeanor. He exited the car.
"What are we supposed to be looking for, again?" he asked. He had no idea what they were looking for honestly.
His partner looked around. She allowed a momentary sigh to leave her lips. "We'll know when we….find it."
Her voice trailed off suddenly. She found something alright and it was something big. The woman didn't know how they missed something like that. Detective Jean DeWolff shifted her eyes towards the downed man on the ground. She took a tentative step forward and looked him over.
Her partner, Stanley Carter, looked at her. There was an equally wide eyed expression on his face. It seemed like it took a while for his mind to completely reboot as if to process the information. It was the mafia hitman that was known as the Rhino. Only he was completely out for the count.
"So, do you think we need to call in a crane to move this guy?" Carter asked. DeWolff raised her eyebrow. "I mean look at the size of that guy. He's not going willingly, if he's awake. And now he's dead wait."
Another car pulled up. The door opened and George Stacy exited it. He walked forward. There was a determined expression on his face when he approached the two detectives. It was obvious that he heard some rumors, the same rumors that the detectives heard. He wanted a status report.
"Status report, please," Captain Stacy commented.
"Well, we got a call that there was a fight at this place," DeWolff commented. "We've got all sorts of reports coming in, but the most reliable reports indicated that this guy was involved."
She extended her finger forwards to the downed man. Stacy raised his eyebrow and he looked down at the man.
"Sysevich," Stacy whispered. He recognized the Rhino anywhere. He wasn't about to forget a mug that ugly any time soon.
"Yeah, that guy," Carter confirmed. He seemed excited about something and was tripping over his words. He took a few seconds to gather a deep breath. "The mob was attacked, someone saw the entire thing. There's some kind of giant spider person that came in, complete with webs."
"Some kind of giant spider person?" George Stacy asked. He was completely skeptical by what happened but he was willing to give them all the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.
"Yes, some kind of giant spider person," Carter repeated. It looked like he was about ready to gush about this.
"The eyewitness account says that she took out the Russian Mob….."
"Are you sure it's a she?" Stacy asked, frowning.
"That's what the eyewitness accounts say, sir," DeWolff said. Stacy nodded in response and motioned for her to continue. "The Mob was taken out and then this giant Spider person got into a fight with Sytsevich that lasted up until the point he decided to head butt an electrical transformer."
Stacy nodded. That would account for the condition of the man before them. He should be dead but the man was still breathing, just barely. There would be the matter of medical attention before they could take him down town. Providing of course they could keep him there.
'One problem at a time, Stacy, one problem at a time,' he thought to himself.
"And there's something else," DeWolff said. He was jolted after his thoughts. "The person who is believed to have been responsible for killing Ben Parker in a home invasion has been found dead."
"He was in a car, a short distance away," Carter added.
Stacy frowned and he decided to go in for the obvious question. "Is there any conceivable reason that the two incidents are connected?"
"Likely," DeWolff admitted. "It looks like a car accident, but that could be what the person who killed Carradine wants us to think."
"Always assume homicide until you figure out beyond a shadow of a doubt," Stacy said. He thought that this giant spider person was something out of the strangest realms of science fiction.
A mob war he could deal with. Any problems with the Russian Mafia and this so called Big Man, he could deal with. A giant man who called himself the Rhino, he could deal with.
Anything like a spider themed vigilante, that was another matter entirely. He frowned when he looked at both Carter and DeWolff.
Unfortunately, for him, someone else pulled up before he could say anything else. He should have known at the press would have caught wind of this. A middle aged man with a mustache exited the car first. It was a beat up rental car. A young man with blond hair who was built like a gorilla exited the car next.
George Stacy sighed. They wouldn't be able to get anything done with the Bugle hovering around. Not to mention he still had to figure out how to get Rhino out of here.
"I tell you, sir, a crane will be our best bet," Carter said. He crossed his arms.
"Yes, maybe," Stacy conceded briskly. He could tell that this was going to be a long night. Which was a shame because he was supposed to be meeting his daughter and her boyfriend for dinner once he got off of his shift, but that would have to wait for another time.
Gwen sat patiently on Harry's bed in the Parker residence. Or perhaps she was a bit impatient but no one could blame her considering the circumstances. She figured that she got lucky in the battle against her enemy tonight.
Fortunately, he came off a little bit worse than she did. At least, she was able to be conscious and they slipped away just as the police arrived. Harry teleported her away at least.
Gwen mentally went over what happened several times. Everything moved so fast tonight. Her life seemed to be different, more interesting, and more dangerous over the past couple of weeks. This wasn't a complaint, more like an observation.
"Well, I've got some good news."
Harry finished running his glowing hand down her forehead to finish what he was doing. Gwen looked at him with bright blue eyes and frowned deeply.
"The good news is that you're pretty much clear to go," Harry said to her. She looked at him. "It's a hairline fracture of your wrist, but that's the extent of your injuries. It already appeals to be healing, slowly."
"So, I've got some kind of healing factor or something?" Gwen asked. Harry responded with a smile and a nod.
"Yes, there's some kind of enhanced healing," Harry told her. He gently pulled her arm out. "That's good news because a splint should do a good enough job of keeping it immobile until it can heal. And you won't need a cast if that's the case."
Gwen smiled at the thought. All and all, it wasn't that bad. Her worst injury is taken care of.
"And now, I need for you to strip off your clothes," Harry told her. Gwen raised her eyebrow at him. "I need to take stock of any of your injuries that you might have and see if I can do anything about them."
"Ooh, that makes sense," Gwen said. Without any word, she carefully removed her shirt and her pants. She was left in nothing but a pair of bra and panties.
Harry gave her body a good looking over. She smiled when he looked her over.
"So, what's the diagnosis?" Gwen asked. Harry gone silent and she didn't really know what to believe about that.
"You're pretty banged up, as I expected," Harry said. He placed his hand on her shoulder and ran it lightly over her body. He double checked things to make sure but his initial prediction was correct. "You're pretty banged up, but it's nowhere as bad as it could be and you already seem to healing up."
Gwen nodded, that was good. Something was about ready to go right tonight. She thought for a moment she got some kind of bad spider luck curse thing with her powers.
"And while the bone has to heal naturally, there's something that I can do to help you with this," Harry said to her. He slowly ran a glowing hand over her worst areas.
He used a slight healing spell. It was just to accelerate her really formidable healing abilities. Harry's magic just caused the spark to start the work.
Surprisingly, Gwen allowed a giggle to appear after her mouth. She shivered suddenly.
"Sorry, sorry," Gwen commented in an exasperated voice. "I'm….sorry, just sorry."
It was obvious by this point that she was extremely ticklish. She was barely able to resist breaking out into laughter. Barely, she just barely did it, she was holding things back.
She snorted briefly and her façade broken. Granted it was a fairly cute snort but that was beside the point.
"We're almost done, don't worry," Harry said. He slowed down the magic a little bit and caused more shivers to come down her spine.
"Doing it on purpose," Gwen muttered in a mock accusatory whisper.
"What?" Harry asked her.
"You know what," Gwen hissed through her teeth. She started to laugh once again when Harry returned fire on her.
The group ceased their activities where the door leading down to the basement suit clicked open from the outside. Both of them stood up and wondered who was coming down.
A rather rattled looking Mary Jane Watson staggered down the steps into the room. She was hugging her arms when she moved and she looked like she saw a ghost.
Anything she was said was lost in the midst of any attempt to speak. She was caught off guard by the current position that greeted her involving Gwen and Harry. She noticed the current position that they were in and also the splint that was on Gwen's hand. She frowned.
"What the hell is going on?" Mary Jane asked. Her words were completely blunt and to the point. That's what they all appreciated about her.
"I was knocked down by a crowd trying to catch the train, those bastards didn't care about stamping on my hand," Gwen said. She told her story with such conviction that Mary Jane had to agree with it. "Harry is looking over everything, he's got medical training, so he should be able to figure out anything that's wrong."
Mary Jane tilted her head briefly. She looked at them with narrowed eyes for about ten seconds.
"Yes, I guess that's plausible," Mary Jane said.
Gwen turned to Mary Jane and she had a question of her own. "How did you get into this room? I swear that the door was locked."
"I gave her a key," Harry said. Mary Jane looked nervous and this was news to Gwen.
Gwen was rather cool and calm when she responded. "And why exactly do you have a key to Harry's room?"
"Just in case of an emergency," Mary Jane said. She looked at Harry, who deduced the state of why she was here. There could be only reason why she was here and his voice grew grim.
"Phillip Watson is in town," Harry said grimly.
Mary Jane nodded, grimly. "Yeah."
"Your father?" Gwen asked. Mary Jane looked at her crossly.
"I prefer the term sperm donor myself," Harry said to her.
'Gwen, do tread carefully here, this is a touchy subject,' Harry reminded her through the bond link.
'I know it's touchy,' Gwen thought.
"Oh, I see, well….I understand why you're here then," Gwen said. She lurched forward and slowly wrapped her arms around Mary Janet with a tight hug.
There was no need to bring up that fact again. It was a touchy subject for Mary Jane for the obvious reasons that it was.
Gwen's phone rang and brought her attention elsewhere. She took a moment to answer the phone.
Harry, Gwen, and Mary Jane made their way upstairs for dinner. May was there, she was still in a slight daze, she was much better than she was but she was still not one hundred percent after that happened.
"Your father is running late, isn't he?" May asked. She was glad to have herself distracted by something else other than the insanity that had been going on in her life.
"Yeah, that's who it was," Gwen commented. She took what was dished out in front of her. "So, we should just start eating, because he's not going to make it. Also, he says that he's sorry, Harry."
"What does he have to be sorry about?" Harry asked. He waved off the apology Gwen gave to him. "Things come up, I understand."
"I know that you understand, but he doesn't want you to feel like he's ducking you," Gwen said. She placed her hand on his, the one that wasn't injured at least. "Just to make sure that you know that he's just rather busy."
"I know, trust me," Harry said, waving off the apology.
May had just come home about a little bit ago. She actually called ahead to Harry a little bit ago to make sure that someone was home. When she confirmed that Harry and the girls were there, she came home and they all decided to have a quick dinner at the Parker Residence.
"You know, it's a good thing that you're finding things to keep you busy anymore," May commented, in amusement. "You always used to blow through your school work so fast and when someone of your intelligence gets bored, well things tend to happen. And you gave teacher's all kinds of hell."
"Oh what happened?" Mary Jane asked. Harry frowned and looked on in amusement. Mary Jane smiled at him.
"Well for the most part, nothing too dangerous, well actually it was more amusing and to prove that he could do something," May said. She folded her arms together and smiled when Harry sighed. "There was one time that you set things up so a timer would set itself when your Science teacher opened the door."
"Oh god, I remember this," Harry commented. He chuckled in amusement. It was actually a trick one of his friends taught him, the one that he met when he had one of his misadventures off world.
He could not find his way back, he could not locate that friend, who was slightly more than a friend, one never forgot their first after all. Harry tried not to dwell on that, hoping that she was safe and alive, but a small part of him felt like it was missing.
He returned back to the conversation and not the fact that he had been separated from one of his soul mates. Her world was in danger of dying and she promised to find Harry, but things happened. Harry sensed that she was still out there, but where was the question.
"And when the timer went off, it covered the classroom in pink foam," May continued. "You were around nine at the time, and just graduating Junior High. They didn't want you to go too far, all the way up to High School. You were sent to the Xavier Institute and went there just about until you were ready to start High School."
May took a deep breath.
"I'm not sure why you decided to come back home to attend school at MCU," May admitted. That was something that baffled her and Ben and they never got a straight answer out of Harry.
"Well, the science program was enticing," Harry said. It was obvious they all knew that there were more reasons.
"I'm sure that there was something else," Gwen replied.
"Well, I had a falling out with Professor Xavier," Harry said. "Let's just say that I wanted to go one way with my education and he wanted to go the other way. There's nothing else other than to that."
"But, aren't you still civil with each other?" May asked with a frown.
"I can respect the man's accomplishments and some of his opinions even though I don't respect all of them," Harry said. "We're still fairly civil and I guess that I get along with most of the students at the school. Some far better than others granted, but I don't have a problem with any of them."
"But do they have a problem with you?" Gwen asked.
"Interesting question," Harry said evasively. "I never really asked."
He didn't want to know the answer to that question. He knew that Xavier tried to convince him to stay and every time he came up there for a visit, he tried to convince him to return. He didn't really press the issue all that much.
"I go up there for a fair bit each summer, and I've formed certain bonds with some of the students," Harry replied.
Gwen jumped in instantly. "So, that's where you met Jean?"
"I figured that you might have met her somewhere," Mary Jane in an excited voice.
"Well, we were among the earliest of Xavier's students, at least in this current generation of his students," Harry said. He decided not to go into the history of that because that wasn't his business to go into the history of that.
"What did you do to your wrist, Gwen?" May asked. She noticed it earlier but she decided to say so when they all had plenty to eat.
"Someone knocked me down when I was trying to catch the train and they stepped on my wrist," Gwen commented. "But it was nothing serious, Harry looked it over."
"Well if Harry says that it's healed enough, then I believe him," May said. She had a feeling that there was something more to what was happening, but she was not going to press the issue any time.
"How are you doing?" Gwen asked. She didn't want to bring up the fact that Ben's killer was dead, because she didn't know if May knew.
"I'm on the mend," May said. "Even in tragedy, you got to understand one thing. Life goes on. It's just whether or not you want life to go on with or without you."
"Words of wisdom to live by," Harry agreed. He didn't want to press the issue either, and he knew that there would be plenty of time to discuss matters later. "That's what Ben would have wanted."
"Yes, it is," May agreed and they switched to another, less depressing topic.
The parking garage in some area of New York was one that there was an interesting meeting of several nights previous. And there was another interesting meeting that was happening, even though the individuals meeting were different.
One of the individuals wore an extremely stylish fedora complete with a long coat. The other man was the same man who wore the J. Jonah Jameson mask a few nights previously. It was unclear completely whether or not he was wearing that mask or he was wearing another disguise. He was a man of many faces after all.
The man of many faces spoke. "Where is Mr. Shaw?"
"He had to leave the state temporarily," the Gentleman in the Shadows commented in a rough voice. "He was merely just the messenger though and I had intended to pick up the package in person. But, I'm sure that you were able to pick up the package."
"It was our arrangement and you should know that the type of work I do is acceptable," the man, a virtual chameleon with his many disguises, stated. "There has been a complication though."
"What kind of complication?" the man in the shadows asked. He didn't like complications. They ruined even the best laid plans.
"I'm willing to negotiate on the payment for a favor," the Chameleon commented.
"What is the complication?" the Gentleman repeated firmly. His voice was calm but there was a sense in his vocal tone that indicated that he wanted to know what exactly he meant. "I don't like complications, especially when they ruin the best laid plans."
"The Rhino was arrested earlier this evening," The Chameleon informed him in a low voice. "And such an arrest complications the long term plans."
"Yes, I see," the Gentlemen stated. His arms crossed over his chest. It was a pose that betrayed no emotion.
"I would like you to use your contacts to ensure his freedom," the Chameleon commented. He waited to see how he would react to this.
The Gentleman pondered this matter while in the shadows for a moment. "Yes, I agree for your request, and I will take compensation out of your planned payment."
"Very well," the Chameleon commented.
"And now the package, as promised," The Gentleman said. He was half expecting some kind of double cross.
"Norman Osborn" stepped out of the shadows carrying the high briefcase. This contained the cylinder that was stolen from Trask over the last chapter.
The Gentleman corked his eyebrow when he looked at him. There was only one word that he said when he reached forward to retrieve the package. "Cute."