Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental multi-fandom project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 7 July.
On A Personal Note; It seems that yesterday's entry actually pushed me over the 500k word mark. Yay me...

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."

Disclaimer: "Spider-Man" is the property of Marvel Entertainment and "Justice League" of DC and Warner Brothers, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

Just a little response to a common theme I've seen in many "Spider-Man joins the Justice League" stories...

-o0O0o-

"Spider Solo"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

-o0O0o-

It had been a bad day, even by his generous standards. After all, how many days exist where a guy can get served with divorce papers, slandered by the newspapers, end up in a fight against a Mesopotamian god - which was odd, really, because usually it was Greco-Roman or Norse gods - watch helplessly as his own living relative's house was firebombed by one of his arch-enemies, be caught in an explosion while fighting said arch-enemy and nearly die...

And still not get out of it all that easily, instead falling through some kind of dimension portal and ending up in another universe that had absolutely nothing in common with his own besides having its own kind of heroes. The first introduction would probably have gone better had that portal not dropped him right into the middle of a meeting in their secure headquarters, and on their part if they hadn't decided to 'shoot first, ask questions later' and caused years of dealing with NYPD officers who bought into what Jameson sold to kick in and have him toss off a couple one-liners before making a break for it. Okay, maybe not the best thing he could have done in an unknown location surrounded by 'capes' he didn't know, but he didn't know them and he'd been the subject of enough injuries that he tried to avoid them whenever he could - especially considering the way that three of them were using those weapons they had. Sure, he'd been the one to show up unannounced in a secret location, but it's not like he'd had a choice in the matter.

It really was too bad for the red guy that even if he was faster than Quicksilver, he didn't seem to think as fast as Spider-Man's fellow Avenger and ended up falling for the old 'net on the floor' gag.

'Seriously,' Spider-Man had thought to himself as he supplied some extra webbing to hold the guy in place, 'Way too many people fall for things I get from watching Looney Toons.'

He'd gotten Angel's girl-counterpart with some of the 'impact webbing' that his 'brother' Ben had come up with all of those years ago, she'd been too distracted charging him with that mace and when she swung to knock the ball of webbing out of her way, she caused it to activate and caught herself in a web. Unfortunately for Spider-Man, she had distracted him just long enough for that guy that looked like a seasick Xavier to knock him out with some kind of mental whammy.

He really hated it when that kind of thing happened. Every time it did, he ended up helping stock in Tylenol go up while he dealt with the headaches it caused.

-o0o-

A few days later, Spider-Man stood in the same room he had first arrived in, looking at the members of the 'Justice League' in disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

The guy in primary colors that he'd learned was called Superman repeated what he had said, "We'd like to extend you an offer to join us; become a member of the Justice League."

"That's what it sounded like you said," Spider-Man looked at them as though he thought they were nuts, "Are you kidding?"

The speedster in the red pajamas - 'The Flash', appearantly - spoke up, "Nah, most of them have no sense of humor anyway."

Behind his mask, Spider-Man's eyes narrowed, "Let's see; you attack me before even trying to find out what happened, you hunted me through your space station like some kind of animal, went into my mind without permission..."

Spider-Man leveled a hard glare - noticible even with his mask on - at the green guy they called 'J'onn' when he listed that one, "Unmask me - something you should know is a definite no-no between masked crimefighters, went into my mind again, took my stuff and studied it... and you think just letting me in your little club will make it all better? Are you incurably deluded or does it just come and go?"

For all the cold and emotionless nature that he'd been accused of having, Batman was also a student of psychology and human nature as part of his ongoing fight; Superman's secret identity was a top reporter at one of the world's largest newspapers; The Flash, despite his seemingly childish attitude towards everything, was a police forensics scientist; J'onn's primary identity for moving about Earth undetected when he needed to was that of a private investigator; over all, the majority of the Justice League knew enough about reading people to know when the smart thing to do was to back off and give someone space and time.

Diana, outcast princess of Thymiscira and the heroine known to 'Man's World' as Wonder Woman was not one of them, unfortunately. Her royal upbringing on the hidden isle of Thymiscira, also known as 'Paradise Island', under the known protection of the Olympian goddesses had left her with a certain imperial attitude towards the world around her that rubbed many people that encountered her the wrong way. And after years of being the target of J. Jonah Jameson's bile, police officers who considered anyone with super-powers to be a threat, and just about every super-powered criminal or would-be world conquerer whose ambitions brought them to New York, Spider-Man didn't put up well with superior attitudes - well, except for Captain America's, but Cap was an American Icon and such a nice guy most times that even when he got on his star-spangled soapbox, you just had to like and respect the guy. Despite the red-white-and blue color scheme, Wonder Woman was most definitely not Captain America. When she started speaking, the first thing that came to Spider-Man's mind was 'preaching to the savages'. It was the same tone of speech that he'd heard Xavier use when talking about 'Peaceful Human-Mutant Co-Existance) and Magneto use with 'Mutant Destiny', he'd heard it dozens of times from Doctor Doom - even without Reed Richards around to set the Latvarian dictator off... actually, Richards had used that tone plenty of times himself, too... hell, half the time it was Tony Stark's preferred way of speaking to someone - as though they were less intelligent than him and they should feel grateful that he's taking the time to explain a concept that any person should be able to grasp.

"Okay," Spider-Man interrupted her, "Let me put it to you as simply as I know how; After what I've seen, I've got two words for what you can do with your 'Justice Friends' and your offer, and they rhyme with 'Puck Cough'."

Diana gasped in shock at the impertinance, Green Lantern glowered at the disrespect, Superman frowned at the rudeness of what Spider-Man was implying... Batman managed to suppress the sudden urge of his mouth to twitch in the faintest hint of a smile. Spider-Man looked at The Flash, the only one that he could see who hadn't grown arrogant with his power and being part of this 'Justice League'.

"Look, Little Red Running Hood, you seem to be the smart one here," Spider-Man informed him, "Just drop me off in some major U.S. city and I'll take care of myself from there."