[While Peter was on the 3rd floor, the front gate] (Ethan's POV)

After Peter rushed to the Lizard and fought him, I followed the crowd and left the school from the front entrance. The crowd all gathered at the front. Some were hugging their friends, some were crying, some were panting in exhaustion... OK... Where the fuck was the girls?

Scanning the chaotic crowd as fast as possible, I spotted Gwen in the far corner, glancing around as if she was looking for someone. Well, she's possibly looking for Peter.

Waving my hand and rushed forward, I quickly ran to her side. "Gwen! You're fine!" I said with a wide smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," The blonde nodded, glancing around for a second before looking at me again. "Where's Peter?"

Yeah, I was right.

"He's holding off the Lizard, leading it to somewhere not as crowded," I quickly answered, completely ignoring that she didn't know that I knew Peter's secret identity as well. "Lizard is targeting him."

"That idiot..." She hissed under her breath.

"I know," I shrugged, looking around for MJ and Felicia. "Gwen, do you know where are Mj and Felicia?"

Suddenly, two familiar voices rang behind me, catching my attention. "Right here!" I turned around at the voice, and it was MJ and Felicia.

They two girls ran over to our side, MJ was panting heavily from all the running while Felicia just crossed her arms with a confused look.

"What happened?" The silver-blonde asked, looking around the crowd. "Where's Peter?"

"Lizard problem," I answered, giving out a heavy sigh.

"Oh."

However, before I could ask anything else, MJ suddenly perked up and stared at me. "Why the hell would that Lizard thing target Peter?"

Oh... Shit. How could I explain it without spoiling his secret identity?

"Uh... I don't know why either," I awkwardly laughed, rubbing the back of my neck as I remembered something. "Wait, where's Rachel?"

"I didn't see her," Gwen said, shaking her head. "She should be alright, I guess."

"Yeah, she's gonna be alright, Ethan," MJ reassured me with a beaming smile. "Put some faith in her."

"I hope so..." I nodded.

...She should be fine, but... I didn't get any calls from her. Maybe I should call her to check if she's OK. Wait, she told me she's going to the News Team meeting, and the studio was over there...

I glanced at the other side of the school, which Peter was leading the Lizard over...

You've got to be fucking kidding me!

"Shit, this is really bad..." Murmuring to myself, I ignored the others and rushed toward the school.

[Meanwhile, the 3rd floor]

After running across the whole third floor, Rachel and Betty finally stopped for a second and regained themselves. Looking around, the raven-haired girl only saw rooms and rooms in her sight.

"Where are the stairs..." She murmured, giving Betty a worried glance. "Betty, you're OK?"

"I... I've never run this much..." Betty said in between heavy panting, using her knees as support. "But I think we were running in the wrong way..."

"W-well, I'm not familiar with this floor..."

"I don't blame you," The blonde shook her head with a somber smile, using Rachel's should as support to get up straight. "But Spider-Man's here. We should be fin-"

Before Betty could even finish, the wall next to them suddenly busted with a huge 'BANG', and a blur of red and blue was slammed to the wall at high speed. Screaming, the two girls stumbled backward and landed on their asses.

"O-oh my god!" Widening her eyes in fear, the blonde blinked for a few times and realized who was knocked into the wall.

Grunting in pain, Spider-Man got off from the wall, staring at them with widened eyelids. "Why are you two still here?" He asked out loud.

"W-we got lost," Rachel stammered, standing up and helped Betty to do the same thing. "It's my fault."

"OK ma'am, I don't blame you for anything," Spidey said reassuringly, brushing off some of the debris on his suit. "But there's some bad news. The debris blocked the stairs... So-"

"We're... trapped in this place," Betty finished for him, widening her eyes in horror.

"But it's fine, you're going to be alright," Spider-Man quickly reassured the blonde, internally hoping that she's calming down. "As long as I'm here, that Lizard won't get to-"

Suddenly, the Lizard sent out a bone-chilling roar from the room, interrupting him. "Find somewhere to hide, NOW!" With that said, he instantly web-zipped himself toward the former-doctor.

The two girls took a few moments to pick themselves up and rushed to a nearby classroom. Closing the door, they quickly curled up in a far corner of the room.

"We're so dead... We're so dead..." Betty murmured to herself, again and again, causing Rachel to give her glances of worry.

"Betty?"

"W-what can we do..."

"Betty?"

"I-I..."

"We're not going to die, Betty," Rachel said with a reassuring smile, holding her hands as she looked into the blonde's azure eyes. "Spider-Man's here, put faith in him-"

"What if he isn't strong enough?" Betty retorted, closing her eyes to stop the tears from spilling out. "I-"

"Then I'll protect you."

It took Rachel a few moments to finally realize what she just said. 'Why did I suddenly say this?' She thought in her head, trying her best to find a reason. She admitted, they were close friends, sometimes even more intimate than Ethan.

But, it didn't matter right now.

Widening her eyes in surprise, Betty tried to find anything to reply, but nothing came out. "...B-but you're not a superhero." She finally said, opening her eyes and meet Rachel's.

"Does it matter?" Smiling, the raven-haired girl gave her hand another squeeze. "Trust me, OK?"

Even though she was still hesitant, scared, but Betty returned the smile with a much fainter one. "Y-yeah..."

"By the way, I do have some pow-"

Before Rachel could even finish her sentence, Lizard suddenly busted through the door, covered with webbing.

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Widening her eyes in surprise, Rachel quickly turned around and held Betty's cheeks with her hands, shielding her from the sight of the fight. "It's OK Betty, just look at me."

Even though Rachel kept reassuring her friend, the Lizard kept stalking around at a slow pace, its eyes locked into them. Feeling a bone-chilling cold creeping along her spine, the raven-haired girl closed her eyes, fighting the shiver over her body.

"R-Rachel..." Glancing over her shoulder, Betty only shivered in fear, her eyes darting between Rachel and Lizard. "I-it's coming..."

"I know..." Murmuring to herself, Rachel released her grip, tightening into fists. "And that bastard won't lay a hand on you."

Closing her eyes to concentrate, her fists started to be covered by blue sparks, then amplified to lightenings. "Let's hope that this will work..."

Meanwhile, Betty could only stare at her hands in awe, darting between her and Lizard. "O-oh my god... Rachel, y-your hands..."

Sending out another primal roar, Lizard broke himself free from the webbing, picking up its pace. Taking a deep breath, the Rachel dashed forward toward the Lizard, the sparks glowing brighter and brighter.

Narrowing her eyes, she ducked a right slash from Lizard, connecting her fists to its torso.

"Stay!"

Then another straight punch to its head, knocking it back.

"Away!"

Then another one.

"From!"

Tightening her hist, her fist's spark glowed brighter than before as she readied.

"BETTY!"

She exclaimed in anger, sending it to the other side with a direct strike.

Crashing into the wall, the human-reptile hybrid roared again and rushed forward. Taking a deep breath, dodging another attack from its claw and struck, sending a left hook to its head. Taking this as her opportunity, the raven-haired girl's leg started to glow as she kicked Lizard's chest.

Sending waves of electricity toward it, Rachel hastily charged her other leg with energy, jumping up and dropkicked it. Landing with a soft 'thud', she quickly did a backward roll and got up. However, the sparks on her body suddenly disappeared, and she collapsed in exhaustion.

"D-darn it..." Murmuring to herself, Rachel narrowed her eyes at the Lizard. "I just used too much energy..."

However, the Lizard quickly got up and growled, extending its claws.

[Meanwhile, in the hallway] (Ethan's POV)

I never thought I'd say this but... this god damn school was too big! Running down the hallway, I quickly grabbed my mask from my school bag (My suit was in my room). Thank god that I remembered to bring my mask for an emergency.

After a minute of pure dashing, I finally reached the closest stairs. "Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me..." It was blocked by debris, goddammit.

Sighing in annoyance, I looked for the closest window and jumped out of the building. Then I fired a line of webbing and pulled myself up, attaching to the wall and climbed through a window.

Landing with a roll, I scanned the room. So I'm in a classroom...

Without any hesitation, I quickly opened the door and dashed through the hallway. Only to be greeted by the sight of... Peter struggling with a severed Lizard tail, and that tail was... twitching? "G-get the hell off me..." He said, using all his strength to push the tail away.

I instantly fired my web-shooter and attached the tail, trying to pull it away. And Jesus Christ, it's strong! "Peter! Push!"

He glanced at me in surprise, but quickly recovered and pushed the tail with all his strength. With both of our forces combined, the tail finally got pulled off from Peter, still twitching and dragging itself toward Peter. However, before the tail could even move an inch, I fired a dozen web-bullets, punning it to where it was.

"Ethan? What this hell is this costume?"

"Where's Rachel?" I ignored his question, holding out my hand. "And why are you still here?"

"She was hiding somewhere with Betty Brant," Sighing, Peter breathed as he took my hand and got up, looking at the tail behind me. "As for why was I here..." Trailing off, he pointed at the tail.

"Dr. Connor purposely detaches the tail, using it to pin me down," Spidey explained, wiping some blood on his suit. "But it came to target me... why would it just pin me down and leave me here?"

"How would I know?" I retorted, glancing behind for the final time and started to walk. "But Rachel and her friend are still in danger. We can't just leave them at their hiding place."

"They should be fine-"

"Curtis Connor is either becoming more like an animal, or he is becoming smarter," I interrupted him, staring at his eyelid with anger. "No matter which one is correct, both of them are in danger!"

He stayed speechless for a moment, letting the reality sunk in. "...You're right. We need to find them now!"

"At least you don't have a thick ass skull to get through," With that said, I turned around and sent out my Spider-Wave. Scanning through the whole floor, I noticed two red dots in a room on the other side, and another one approaching them.

Shit, that bastard was coming for them!

"I found them," I said, my feet started to move on their own, picking the pace with every single step. "But that fucker is coming to them."

Before Peter could even process my words, I was already around the corner, leaving his sight. "W-wait! Ethan!"

I continued my mad dash toward them. The lockers around me passed by in a blur. However, just as I was about to reach them, the voice of Rachel and the sound of buzzing electricity suddenly rang through the busted door.

"Stay! Away! From! BETTY!"

No no no no no, what the hell was she doing! This is bad, real bad!

Picking up the speed, I dashed through the door and Lizard was about to slash her with its claw. Why was she kneeling there and not move at all?!

Without any hesitation, I fired a web-line and attached its claw and the ceiling, stopping it for a split second. Using this as my only opening, I rushed forward and took her aside, making some distance between Lizard and us.

Taking a second to process what just happened, Rachel turned at me with wide eyes. "E-Ethan?" She murmured, not loud enough for Betty to be heard.

"What the hell were you thinking..." I said, narrowing my eyes at her. "If I went in here a second late, you're already dead!"

"I know..." She trailed off, and her breathing slowed down to the normal pace (Wait, was she panting?). "B-but if I don't do anything, Betty would get hurt..."

OK Ethan, she's only doing this for Betty. Let's not went down on her too hard.

"Well, I understand where you're coming from-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, Lizard suddenly broke free from my web and slashed toward us. Instantly grabbing her shoulder, I pushed her away before crouching, ducking its slash and punched the torso.

Surprisingly, I was able to knock it back, and it roared in pain. Weird, I shouldn't be able to do that, what did Rachel do to it? Wait, her power was similar to Electro's power, and she probably used all of her energy to Lizard... What if she overloaded the nervous system, and now it's susceptible to pain?

However, Peter fired two lines of webbing and pulled Lizard away before I could think about that. Giving out a low sigh, I turned around and glanced at Rachel for a moment, then rushing out and helped Spidey on his battle.

"It's probably over-sensitive to pain right now!" I exclaimed, dashing forward before dropkicking its head. "We have this as our advantage."

"That's some good news," Peter nodded. "But we are not going to get him out of Midtown, that priority."

"I think getting him out of this floor is the real priority here."

With that said, I looked for any window where we can kick it out of while dodging and exchanging blows with Lizard. Peter, on the other hand, was trying his best to keep the damage from being too much to the school.

However, after a few vicious punches and kicks from us, the Lizard suddenly growled in pain and slammed on the ground. The shockwave knocked us a few meters away from it, and the smoke clouded our sight for a second.

Once the smoke was cleared, it revealed a giant hole on the ground, and Lizard is nowhere to be found. Goddammit, it got away again.

"Not again..." Peter sighed, putting his hands on the knees as he took a few breaths to calm himself.

"I have to give him credit, I didn't expect he would escape by this," I said, wiping the sweat built up on my forehead. "By the way, we need to get Rachel and her friend out of this floor."

"Right," Nodding, we ran through the floor and reached the room they were in. Thank god they're still safe... Rachel was sitting down exhausted, leaning against the wall while Betty was looking after her.

Noticing us coming through the door, Betty instantly rushed to us with a worried look. "...So what now?" She asked.

"Lizard ran away," I sighed, glancing at Rachel for a moment before shaking my head. "But the police are coming. We'll get you two out of this floor, don't worry."

With that said, Peter and I escorted the two to exit the school. Betty had Rachel on her shoulder, and it's somewhat awkward because... they seem fine without us.

Well, the school fight ended kinda anticlimactically... but there's something more important than that right now. Once we're finally out of the school, Peter told me that he's gonna talk with Yuri for me, and I quickly rushed into a dark corner and took off my mask, stuffing the mask and the web-shooters into my hoodie's pocket.

Then I hastily walked around to search for the girls, but my phone's sudden buzzing caught my attention. Taking it out from my pocket, I checked what happened and... Oh my god, there's a bunch of missed calls. Seven from Catherine, four from Gwen, two from MJ, and... twenty-two from Felicia?

Gulping, I hesitantly called Felicia back, the beeping from the speaker only intensified my nervousness. "...Um... Sorry 'bout that, Felicia-"

"ETHAN TURNER! YOU IDIOT!"

Before I could even finish my sentence, Felicia's yelling suddenly burst through the poor speaker, and I had to put my phone at arms-length to keep my eardrum from breaking.

Well, it's seemed like my fear did come true.

"I-I'm sorry, but Rachel's my sister, I can't just leave Peter to do the job-"

"Please tell me you have something to conceal your identity..."

"Of course I have, I kept my mask around me for an emergency like this..." I sighed, looking at the crowd of students and police from a distance. "Wait, where are you?"

"I'm still with Gwen and MJ, but how's Lizard and Peter?"

"Lizard got away again, and Peter is talking with Ms. Watanabe," I explained, finding a way to get back to the group without being too suspicious. "Anyway, tell them that Rachel's fine. I found her in a classroom with her friend."

"...You're lying, right?"

"Just tell'em that, it's the truth, I'm not making lies," With that said, I walked back to the group with an awkward smile, and they weren't too happy with me (other than Felicia, she was a bit softened in comparison.)

Well... I couldn't say I didn't deserve it.

[Evening, Ethan's Room]

After some real interrogation from the girls and soul-crushing hug from Catherine, I could have a moment of silence in my room. Rachel's sleeping in her room, and I was checking the internet for any lead for Lizard's next move.

Since we're probably following the plot of the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, so the next battle would be at the Oscorp tower. However, when would it attack that place? And would he still go along with that cliche and stupid plan of turning everyone to Lizard?

After searching the web for any news about Lizard's whereabout, I came back with nothing even as a lead. Rubbing my nosebridge, I was surprised when Catherine suddenly came into my room with a cup of chocolate in her hand.

"Just take a rest, Ethan," She said with a soft sigh, placing the mug next to my laptop. "It must be a long day for you. You deserve it."

"I know..." I nodded, closing the laptop and pinched my nosebridge for a second. "But after what happened in school, I couldn't just sleep as nothing happened."

"I understand how you feel, Ethan," Catherine smiled, pulling out a chair from aside and say down next to me. "You know, life is like-"

"Like a box of chocolate," I finished for her, unable to hold a light chuckle from escaping my mouth. "You've watched too much Forrest Gump."

"Well, I'm sorry for being 'too old'," She jokingly rolled her eyes, using her fingers to emphasize 'too old' part. "Actually, it's kinda unrelated with what just happened, but I just want to say it."

"It's fine, Catherine..." I trailed off, biting my lips for a moment. "I don't mind."

"OK then..." She nodded, pausing for a second, and looked into the wall in front of her. "Well, life has it's high and lows, sometimes... It can be soul-crushing, I mean soul-crushing to the point that you have nothing to live for."

"I can see that."

"Yeah, but also there's some high that you would remember forever," Catherine said, glancing at the direction of Rachel's room. "...For me, it's Rachel."

"It's somewhat the same for me too," I smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Even though we're not blood-related, but she's still my sister."

"And she sees you as a big brother as well," She faintly smiled, caressing my hand softly. "I know you care about her, but don't blindly sacrifice yourself for her."

"Rachel has lost too much, I can see it from her eyes the day I brought her back," She continued, still caressing my hand. "She doesn't want to lose you, or me, or anyone."

"I understand where you're coming from..." I trailed off, a sense of guilt suddenly crept from the depth of my heart.

I felt terrible for lying to her. How would she react to the fact that her nephew was risking his life every day, fighting people that he shouldn't be involved with? Devastated? No, it's worse than that.

I'm walking on a cracking eggshell...

"And what would Felicia react if you get seriously hurt or get into trouble?"

...Wait a minute. How did she know about Felicia? I didn't tell her about it, we're just friends... for now, and Catherine would only tease me to death if she had the wrong idea!

"H-huh?!" I gasped, widening my eyes in shock and stared at her. "H-how did you know about Felicia?"

"Rachel mentioned your friends," Catherine explained, a playful smirk crept onto her face. "And she mentioned someone called Felicia, who was very close to you."

"W-well..." I stammered. "We're just friends..."

"Jack told me the exact same thing when she first met Ann in college," she giggled, and the atmosphere around us relaxed. "It seems like you're becoming more and more similar to Jack."

"No, I'm not."

"C'mon, you're now more into investigations, and you would stay up all night if I don't force you to sleep," Her giggle turned into an innocent laugh, which basically was becoming the norm here. "And now you're falling for a girl, and your sister told it to your parental figure."

"And you're gonna say 'like father, like son', right?" I giggled.

"Not exactly," She shrugged. "Just... don't make it a regret when you are looking back to it, I'm serious."

"...You're giving me relationship advice?"

"Yeah, I am giving you one," She said. We stared at each other for a moment before she suddenly started to giggle uncontrollably. "C'mon, You don't need to be this nervous. It's usual to have a crush on someone."

"I'm not nervous, and I don't have a crush on anyone for now," I deadpanned, pinching my nosebridge again. "But I promise, I'll find someone for me, don't worry about it."

"Well, you're my nephew, I couldn't help but worry about you."

"I know," Smiling, I sighed before leaning back into my chair. "Thank you, Catherine, I mean it."

"Thank me for not leaving any regret, and don't stay up too late," With that said, she left the room and closed the door for me.

God... it felt terrible to keep my other life as a secret to her. It didn't feel great, but it's to keep her safe. Anyway, how's Peter progress too? I was about to call him when someone called me instead, and it was Felicia. Now she knew I'm Noir all along, I changed her contact from 'Cat' to 'Felicia'... but after what Catherine just said, it felt a bit awkward to talk to her right now.

Ethan Ethan Ethan... What the hell is wrong with you?

Sighing, I tapped the 'accept' button and put the phone next to my ear. "Felicia?"

"Hey Ethan, I wanted to know how's Rachel doing."

"Rachel's sleeping in her room right now," I replied, spinning around in my work chair. "Other than that, she's fine... But you're not calling to purely just check on her, right?"

"You caught me, Noir," She chuckled. "I... I don't know, but does some late-night patrol sound good to you?"

"Late night patrol?" I raised an eye, glancing at the night sky and city outside of the window. "Sure, why not? I need something to distract me from the Lizard business too."

"Fantastic! Just wait a minute," Felicia said, and the call suddenly ended, leaving me confused and sitting at my chair.

"O...K," I shrugged, getting up from my chair and pulled out my costume from my closet. Taking off my loose shirt and slipped on my black undershirt (a new addition after the Bayside battle), then my jacket-

However, someone suddenly knocked from my window, grabbing my attention. It was Felicia in her full Black Cat costume, waving at with me with a smile. So that's why she ended the call this abruptly...

Opening the window, I raised an eyebrow at her sudden appearance. "If you're here already, you don't need to call me or anything, Cat."

"I just want to have some fun with you," She shrugged, pointing at the costume lying on the bed. "Can you let me in your room? You don't want a girl hanging outside your window, right?"

"Of course," I shrugged, gesturing her to come in. "Just... don't stare at me, OK?"

"I"ll try," Cat chuckled, turning around so her back was facing me.

Sighing to myself, I continued changing into my costume, occasionally glancing at her to see if she's staring at me or not. And unfortunately (or fortunately?), she kept shooting me glances or even stared at me.

Well, I couldn't just shove her away and yelled at her. I'll let this slip for now.

After a few moments, I finally changed into my costume, tapping her shoulder to let her knew I'm finished.

"Now that's out of the way, let's go, shall we?" Felicia smiled, pointing at the opened window.

I nodded in response, letting her exited my room before I following her.

Jessica Jones wasn't having a great time, not at all. After the whole thing happened in Midtown High, she came here to see if she would find anything that could as a lead.

"I hate waiting for anything to happen..." She murmured to herself, pinching her nosebridge to keep herself awake. "...Why did I even decide to come here for a possible lead, it's all Matt's business right now."

However, just as she was about to leave and went back to her agency, she noticed two figures climbing out from a window. "...No fucking way."

It was Noir and Black Cat.

Without hesitation, she grabbed her camera and snapped a few photos. And within a blink, the two were nowhere to be found.

"...So this is where Noir lived..." She muttered to herself, checking the photos in her camera. "...Should I tell Matt about this?"

So uh... After about two months of not doing anything, Chapter 12 is finally here!

So we finally saw Rachel's power in action, and the final battle against the Lizard is coming close! Unfortunately, this battle won't happen right after this chapter. It's been a non-stop fight after fight with Lizard for a few chapters now.

Also, with Jessica Jones know where Ethan lives now, what would she do with this information?

Review Response:

Death Fury: Thank You! And I'm really sorry for making you wait for about two months for this chapter.

Raidentensho: Actually, I'm still unsure about how the new suit would look for Ethan. But I'm sure that I'll take your advice and consider them :)! However, I don't think he would be having his own 'Way of The Spider', so sorry about that. And I'm not sure if Ethan would have a love triangle with anyone, but I'll be focusing more on their relationship slowly evolving instead. It's more a slow-burn romance between them.

Deal With Itt: Um... Ethan did know that Peter is Spider-Man (He got tossed into this Marvel universe). But he just chose to do everything on his own.

OGbacon: First, thank you for liking the story so far! And I know this arc is progressing very fast right now, but there would be quite a lot of pure highschool moments between everyone. (Even though it's a Spider-Man fic, but they're still high school students) And don't worry, there would be more Ethan and Felicia both in and out of costume :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story so far!