"He's not answering his phone…"

Gwen Stacy held her thumb hesitantly over the send key, debating the merits of a third text message. A fifth actual call would probably just as effective; not at all.

"That chem test must be pretty important."

Harry hadn't turned around from the couch, his eyes glued to the TV, but totally unfocused.

"It's not for M3." Gwen swallowed. She wasn't worried about keeping her voice even, she was worried at how easy it was. "I just need to check up on some things for Dr. Connors."

"You mean Warren, right?"

"Right."

Gwen's hand tightened around her cell. She hadn't know Harry had been keeping that up to date with her life.

"Everything okay in here?"

George Stacy stood in the doorway.

"Couldn't be better, sir." There was something about Harry's smile that made Gwen feel freezing and exposed in her own home.

George's eyes drifted to his daughters, stopping when she didn't quite meet his gaze.

"Okay then. Got to go. Just got a call."

"About this?" Harry moved a lot faster then either of them were comfortable with, turning up the volume.

"…just reaching us now of what appears to be a fire orchestrated by the super villain Mysterio in the offices of Landau, Luckman and Lake. Although most of the firm's employees have been evacuated, police and fire crews are still keeping their distances, at least until they're certain of what role Spider-Man is currently playing in the…"

"Yeah." Stacy quickened his pace, pulling his jacket on. "Harry, you'll probably have a wait for a ride home…"

"No big, Mr Stacy." Harry breezed. "I'll probably just call a cab now. Lucky I've got all this inheritance money to spend, since me and mom can't use any more of the funds Mr Menken's making at Oscorp."

He said it a bit too cheerfully, making Gwen wince.

"I'm sure." Stacy sounded distracted, pulling his badge into place. He raised his voice over the TV. "Gwen, dinners in the fridge, okay?"

"Okay…"

Gwen paused as George marched up to her, pulling her into a brief embrace.

"I'll be back soon sweetie." Her gaze drifted to Harry, then back to her father's firm eyes. "Be careful."

And then he was gone, leaving them alone, Harry still standing by the couch, not really looking at anything. But still smiling. After a while the sound of her dad's car faded away, and Harry stopped smiling. His eyes flashed to hers briefly, then lowered.

"I really should go." he mumbled, scooping up the remote and lowering the volume all the way down.

"Yeah." Gwen waited for a few seconds as Harry pulled on his own coat, then walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Harry…I really had a great time at the movie tonight."

"It was a play." Harry was smiling again.

"Play. Right, right. I, uh…wondered about the smell."

"So did I."

Harry still had the remote in his hand. He was looking at it instead of her.

There was a silence between them that really should have been awkward, and was starkly terrible because neither of them seemed sure what it was.

"Gwen…" Harry began.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She said hurriedly. "I, uh, I should really see if I can reach Peter."

She waited to see if this was really an okay subject to bring up, trying again before Harry said something.

"It's just not like him to disappear for so long."

She knew it was a stupid thing to say. That was exactly what Peter Parker did these days, and they both knew it.

"Yeah, Pete been such a reliable guy and all." Harry gently placed the remote back on the cabinet next to the sofa. "You'd think you could depend on him for anything."

Another silence.

Then Harry leant over and hesitantly kissed her on the cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Count on it."

He trudged out of the door without another word. Gwen glanced out of the window, but couldn't see a single hint of green. He couldn't have gotten down the street that fast…

She went back to the phone, hesitating as she caught sight of the remote.

There was a slight dent at the base of the remote in the shape of a thumb print.

---

"You really don't want to do this Misty…"

Peter slowly lowered his hands, letting them hang limp at his sides. The air was probably too thick with Mysterio's leaking acid compound for his webbing to do any good anyway.

"I really wouldn't tell someone in my position what to do."

Even through the voice amplifier, Beck managed to keep his voice steady. His hand shook, not quite from the damaged gauntlet. The secretary stayed frozen in his hold.

Peter backed up slightly, uncertainly, then stopped as a gout of flame smacked against the wall behind him. Even if he got the woman away from Mysterio he wasn't sure where he'd take her. He needed to stall for time he might not be able to use. The floor was groaning under them.

"Okay then." It was bizarrely easy to talk with a calm he didn't at all feel. "How about I just ask you what someone in your position wants?"

It went quite. Even the sound of the flames and the sires seemed to peel back, fleeing the two faceless men staring uncertainly into each other. A final choking sob from the secretary sucked them back into reality. The sparks seemed even closer to her face than before.

Beck drew in a grating breath through the helmet.

"Here--here's where we find out exactly what kind of man our Spider is…"

He yanked her close to himself, suddenly, experimentally. Peter snapped forward and stopped in the same instant.

"I'll let her go if you take her place for this thunderbolt in her stead."

Even if his costume wasn't soaking wet right now, Peter was sweating enough from the fire to be more conductive than a statue made from all three metals.

The woman was just as soaked. And there was always the fun little possibility that Mysterio's busted wrist would backfire and bust a whole lot more.

And even if he

Above them he heard the sound of the roof straining. Like pretty much everything around him right now. Cracks had started knifing through from Spider-Man's world into Peter Parker's life…and things were starting to sag through.

Literally.

Like, water mains, electrical cables…he checked further down, calculating. Looked behind him at the rubble blocking the stairwell at the far end of the corridor, hemming him in. No room to bounce around. No room to reach them if he tried anything fancy. No room to reach them if he tried anything crude. Only this moment, and the ultimately painful future after it held in Mysterio's clawed, sparking, trembling hand

Yeah. Yeah, okay.

His hands clenched into waiting fists, bracing.

"Take your best shot."

Mysterio's arm snapped out, trailing sparks through the gas filled air, aimed dead at the spider in the middle of Peter's chest…

"Fulmina ven--"

Spidey had already been moving on the F, charging down the corridor like a tidal wave.

That probably helped. Made Mysterio yank his arm up, involuntarily or instinctively, but never the less.

Up enough for the bolt to miss by a few seconds. Up enough for Peter to jump, up and over the bolt, curling into a ball so tight it felt like his bones would splinter into his organs.

Up enough to hit the exposed steam pipe jutting out of the decimated ceiling, jumbled in among the now soaking wet electrical wiring.

Peter really hoped it was his Spider-Sense that slowed everything down like that, because if not he really was as lame as Flash had been saying all this time. It also gave him more time to take in the almost palpable feeling of the shockwave.

Actually scratch that, the shockwave was all too palpable. Even the burst of steam that almost annihilated everything the shock wave didn't. He slammed his eyes shut, diving into the adrenaline charged hyper seconds of Spider-Sense, Mysterio a sketchy outline of instincts at the front of his brain as the shockwave accelerated him, closing the gap between them. He felt the charge of another bolt coming, but Mysterio would never get he chance to aim.

He flipped, eyes snapping open at the searing heat that bled though his shirt and almost melted his ribs. His clenched right fist shattered through Mysterio's helmet, bowling the creep over while his other hand grabbed the poor lady by her suit's shoulder, dragging her into the air with him.

The steam caught up with them, crashing down on everything and obliterating all sense of direction. Surprised, Spider-Man flinched back involuntarily and was pitched forward into the ground as the shockwave caught up.

For uncountable seconds everything was just the warm breathless world inside the mask, then he straightened up, expecting breathing to get easier but met only with the dry texture of the fire.

Knew that'd be painful…'least it's an improvement over that wall paper. When Mysterio has better taste, it's time to change decorators.

That was easy, keep joking. Don't think about how big a risk you just took. He checked over his shoulder, squinting through the pain and light and steam. It seemed to have the desired effect. The blast had cleared the wreckage out the stairwell, punching a hole through the floor and into the office below as an added bonus. No sign of Mysterio, but even assuming the jerk was conscious the steam spewing from the remains of the ceiling should provide plenty of cover. Assuming he didn't start firing blind.

Big risk. And still plenty left with what little time this building had left. Where was the secretary?

She was just a little ahead of him, scrambling for an office at the very end of the corridor and clutching her wrist. She froze as he staggered to his feet and caught up.

"Come on, I'll get you out of here. It's okay."

She whimpered, clutching her wrist even tighter. Spidey leant back a little, hands held up placatingly.

"Really. Would this face lie to you?"

The steam evaporated to a transparent mist, almost invisible as the headache light of the fire smacked back into the world. Peter almost leapt out of the costume as electronics started imploding behind the walls, cracks darting through the walls, the sagging ceiling, the trembling floor.

"Lady, I'm not kidding around anymore, this place is coming down. We've gotta speed up! NOW!"

He grabbed her wrist with all the speed and subtlety of a lightning bolt striking a branch. Her yelp almost shattered his mask lenses, but he opened his ears to the down pouring chaos around him, flinging her onto his back, but still grasping her wrist as hard as he could as her nails bit into his neck.

He tensed the second they hit the lower floor, the momentum hovering in his ankle, bouncing into the air and out through a shattered office window. Her scream was a white noise sound even in the stark outside air, away from the death throws of the building.

He shifted her around, holding her close and firing from both shooters, weaving a web chute as fast as he could and grunting as their bodies jerked sharply from the slowing momentum. They caught a thermal, gliding to the sidewalk.

Captain Stacy came up to him, said something he didn't understand but nodded at anyway, then scooped the trembling woman up and away. She stared at him, freezing up when he raised a hand to show he was okay.

He looked up at the crumbling building, adrenaline burning away with the ornate façade. He wasn't sure he could blame her. First Mysterio, then himself, surrounded by fire…who wouldn't be terrified? Even of a super hero. The inhuman way he moved. The colour of his costume in the fire. The risks he'd taken because…he wasn't sure why he'd taken them.

All this stuff with peter Parker had capsized into Spider-Man's world, and the result was he and an innocent woman almost didn't walk away from Mysterio. Mysterio! The guy who made Doc Ock look tame. What was wrong with him?

Nothing.

Nothing should be this wrong with him, and nothing was. He was a super hero. He saved a life tonight. But because he was a high schools student this morning, he almost didn't. He could never stop being Spider-Man, but there was no way he could stop being Peter Parker.

Could he?

Everything was wrong with one half of himself and neither was ever really in sync, but he didn't know which one he'd get rid of, if at all.

He moaned low in his throat, groaning enough to vibrate loose his molecular structure and melt into the sidewalk. He forced his arms to move, not waiting for Stacy and swinging away, forgetting about Mysterio. Let him fry.

Any other night I'd probably wonder what bubble head was after. Tonight…I could care less.

---

Quentin Beck flinched as his hacking cough echoed slightly inside the remains of Mysterio's helmet. Disgusted and craving air he tore it from his shoulders and tossed it behind him. It shattered, the pieces scattering across the abandoned parachute built into his ragged cape.

Beck stumbled down the alley behind the burning ruins of Luke, Luckman and Lake, feeling nothing, hearing nothing, seeing nothing. A non man. His broken gauntlet had stopped sparking, dead along with all feeling in his hand. The other one didn't seem to want to work.

Strip away the illusions and throw him up against something as primal as a fire, the threat of jail, and what was he?

Just another thug hiding behind a woman.

Enraged, Beck rammed a fist against the alley wall, frustration shattering at the pain he really should have expected. He stared long and hard at the brickwork pattern etched into his blistered hand like a locomotive barring down on a baby rabbit.

A spot light slammed down on him.

"Freeze!"

Beck glared out through his fingers as the vague shadows of approaching cops, then slumped to his knees, hands held up.

They'd take him away. Probably not even to the Vault. But at least he'd know what he was in there.

---

George Stacy nodded at officers Carter andDeWolff as they led someone in the wreckage of a Mysterio costume to a parked squad car. If the perp looked uncomfortable now he'd be a wreck by the time they got him to a prescient. After the last couple of fake outs they'd put him through an extensive check to make sure he was human. No more robots. The mayor had even gone so far as to take out an extensive recycling policy on the things so they wouldn't seem like such a waste.

He made his way through the rushing fire fighters, leaning against his Oldsmobile and acknowledging the CSI

"Little early for you boys, isn't it Cooper?"

A snort. "If it wasn't us, it'd be the Bugle. Not that they'd bother. Way this baby's going we won't have any answers until morning. Seems pretty open and shut anyway: super villain opens his big yap, super hero saves some girl and shuts him up. End of story.

If only, Stacy though dryly. It was all too easy to think dryly around a fire. He noted the direction Cooper had come from and indicated the flashing lights of the small city ambulance lights and EMTs.

"How's she doing?"

"Not too good. Don't know what she went through but it can't have been good."

"Meaning…"

"Something grabbed her wrist. Something strong. Way too strong. Almost crushed the poor kid. Good thing Spider-Man showed up, eh?"

Stacy went still.

"George?"

He shook himself.

"Yeah, yeah…I guess so. Thanks Ray."

He climbed into the car and took off. He needed to get home, to his study. He did his best thinking in his study.

He knew he wouldn't have any answers by morning either.

---

"Careful now."

Vulture gingerly took the glass case from Kraven's claws and almost dropped it on the van floor. He swallowed the sheepish smile burning at his face. Adrian Toomes didn't do that anymore, Vulture didn't.

He steadied the case, wiping away an offending smudge, revealing the second half of the tablet of time. It seemed to sing in his hands, eager for it's twin.

"Calypso and I have fulfilled our part of the bargain," Kraven rumbled ", do not contact us until you have better need of Kraven's skills."

"I'll keep that in mind." Toomes muttered, looking up, but Kraven was already gone. Probably skulking in the shadows looking for a way to the rooftops. He willed some life into his old arms and slammed the van doors shut, glad of the van's warmth. Even with the heat of the burning Manfredi warehouse he'd hate to fly home in the night cold.

The van pulled away, leaving the industrial sites on the borders of New York behind, taking the unmarked roots and back roads. Toomes ran an appreciative hand over the tablet.

"An exemplary effort from all involved, I feel Phineas."

"Glad you think so." The Tinkerer clipped some unassuming device to the steering wheel, removing his hands. The wheel kept turning. "I'm going to get some sleep now if you don't mind. It's been a long night."

"Longer for Mysterio I should imagine." Toomes smirked. "Not a bad event as preventative measures go."

"Actors." Mason muttered, flashing a grin almost wider than Kraven's.

"My thoughts exactly. Had we allowed his grandstanding along on our mission we would have fallen, hard. And I hardly think he'd appreciate the skill of the Da Vinci designs hidden in the layers of this tablet the Manfredi family used to rob rich and poor alike in 16th century."

He delicately placed the tablet in the holding crate they'd set up for it.

"Entirely useless of course. But while that bungler Beck kept that irritating arachnid preoccupied, we showed the world that with simply three agents we were capable of effectively raiding not just a heavily guarded complex but tangling Spider-Man up within a web of our own. And Mysterio will be far easier to direct after a few weeks in prison reminds him to depend on resources we provide rather than his own good luck."

Vulture leant back in his seat. Smiling.

"Soon the entire world will no who we are….forever."

---

"I should so be in bed by now…"

Flash smirked, gently slipping a muscular arm around Sha Shan, warming her as he drew her closer.

"You're 16 and you're telling me you've never snuck out before?"

"Some of us want to get up in time for school, QB." Her smile was a softer yet stronger mirror of his own. "Although maybe not tomorrow. I'm going to be in so much trouble with my dad for being out this late."

"I'm always in trouble with my dad." Flash said far too honestly. He desperately tried to think of something else to say. Since this was Flash Thompson it took him awhile.

"You're pretty quiet. Been quite all night. Where's the impressive after dinner conversation of Midtown's star Mustang?"

"You're the only person I've never had to impress." Flash said without any kind hesitation. He gave into temptation since she seemed to be waiting for it, and let some of the quarterback charm seep into his voice.

"Come on, you're not saying the rare sight of the late night karaoke at the Silver Spoon, toped off by getting escorted back by your's truly after we stopped laughing enough to order coffee wasn't a great way to wrap up a night."

"Not going to lie, I had fun." Sha Shan's eye brows rose as facetiously as her smile. "You even paid for the subway."

"I know how to treat a lady right." Flash's mood soured instantly. "Unlike some people."

"You should lay off Peter. He probably feels lousy enough as it is." Sha Shan wrapped her arms around Flash's tenderly, her voice soothing. The slight outbreak had been too sudden.

"He should." Flash's face could have been carved from stone. "You just don't jerk people around like that, even if you're the king of the jerks."

"I though Liz dumped him."

"She'd like ya to."

"'Cause I know her." Flash squeezed his eyes shut. "Look, we didn't come out here for that. We're gonna get enough of school and everything else tomorrow. Right now, it's just us."

They'd stopped, not in the patch of moon light a few inches ahead, which would have been perfect. The reason that it would have been perfect wasn't the reason they'd stopped. Flash looked irritably at the tower of smoke somewhere over the skyline, impressed despite himself.

"Think Gwen's dad will be there?"

"Stacy?" Flash blinked. "Maybe. Her dad's kinda cool and all. Spider-Man's all kinds of cooler though. He'll probably be there."

He glanced over at the sudden silence.

"You okay? Ya looked little…out of it."

"That's because Gwen's seemed a little out of it lately." Sha Shan's grip tightened around Flash's arm almost imperceptibly. "We're not that close, I just…wonder what her dad thinks of Harry Osborn. That's all."

"I know what I think of Harry Osborn."

Sha Shan broke out of it, looking up. Flash was glaring at the smoke.

"Guys like Spidey, they do everything they have to, y'know? Everything they can. Guys like Osborn are…kinda like me."

She cupped a hand around his chin, turning him to look at her.

"You're only human Flash."

"Guys like me make mistakes. I guess that's why I always wanted to be like Spidey. Not totally human, y'know?"

He smiled, running a hand down her cheek.

"No right an' wrong. No problems, no doubts, no compromise. Just the right girl. The right time."

As first date kisses went he'd arguably had better, certainly more skilful. But he'd always remember this one.

---

"Who's in here?"

Dorian Bromwell flung the door to Peter Parker's room wide to come face to face with…Peter Parker.

"Doctor Bromwell?" came a muffled voice somewhere from the suspended t-shirt. Brown eyes stared out from the thatch work hair sticking out of the top.

"Peter?" Bromwell looked around at the disorganized room as Peter finished pulling the shirt over himself. He frowned.

"I was just getting my coat after getting your aunt to bed. Didn't hear you come in."

"I've, uh, I've been here all the time." Peter felt his teeth almost fuse together and tried to smile less idiotically, which just made him look more desperate. "Well, not here here, but…around."

"Right." Bromwell's unimpressed gaze drifted from Peter to the open window. Then he wrinkled his nose as though stung.

"Has…someone been smoking in here?"

"Uh, no." Peter tried to burn the thought of his costume stuffed under the bed out of his mind.

"Right." Bromwell said again.

Peter could almost hear the rush of the drafted excuses as he held the doctor's gaze for a few seconds, but Bromwell beat him to it.

"Look Peter, I think you're a good kid, and that's the only reason I'm ignoring what's in front of me this time. But only this time. If there's a next time, I'll have to consider what kind of steps I need to take no matter who your aunt is. She deserves that from me and better from you."

He closed his eyes, trying to relax his face. He hadn't raised his voice the entire time he'd been speaking but the room still rang after he'd finished.

"You're a good kid Peter. You know that's who you are. But you need to remember that's you'll do the right thing when you have to, no matter what anyone says or thinks. You deserve it and they deserve it. That's how the world works."

Peter blinked, felt the gaze of Uncle Ben's photograph behind him, then nodded hesitantly.

"Right Doctor. Thanks."

Dorian nodded once, then pulled on his coat and headed downstairs.

Peter waited until he heard the front door close, then started throwing off his clothes. To late to do anything now anyway. Or maybe not…

He stood around in his undershirt and shorts for a while, then rummaged under the bed, pulling his phone out of his cartridge belt. He dialled a number he hadn't been sure he still had, waiting

Answering machine. Nuts. He thought about hanging up, but if he didn't do this now…

Beep.

"Hey, Liz. It's me. Peter."

He looked for something more, then simply sighed.

"Look, I'm not doing this over the phone, but if you do get this…could we talk? At school tomorrow? I have a lot to apologise for and I need to do it even if you don't want to hear it."

He took a breath.

"Because you deserve it. And even though I was a jerk, I need to explain why I was because it's part of who I am. And I deserve to know if we can be friends after this, if we can move on. And if not, I'll still do the right thing. Because that's who I am too. That's how the world works."

There was a click. Peter leant forward desperately.

"Hello?"

Another click. Dead air.

Peter shut off his cell with a sigh. He tried. And he'd keep on trying tomorrow, no matter who he was. That was who he was. He wasn't sure f it was enough but maybe he never would he. At least he'd know who he was.

Kinda.

He laid back on his bed and shut off the light, closing his eyes. Above him the shadow of a spider web in the corner of his window was cast gigantically across his wall, falling over him as he went to an uncertain but determined sleep.

---

For the record, Mysterio's spell list;

Dormite! = Sleep!

Fulmina venite! = Come lightning!

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas! = Thank you for not smoking!

Nullae satisfactionis potiri non possum! = I can't get no satisfaction!

and

Subsisto in nomen of diligo!=Stop in the name of love! (Hopefully)