---

Peter Parker walked out of Midtown High and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He dialed her number. After several rings, someone picked up. There was a few seconds of silence.

“Hello?” he finally said. After several more seconds, he finally heard MJ’s voice.

“Hey Tiger,” she said. “We need to talk.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked. “About what?”

“You’re going to hate me,” she said.

“I’m not,” he said. “Just tell me.”

“I need to work late,” she said. “A few members of the chorus are sick, and it’s delaying rehearsal pretty badly.”

“Late dinner or no dinner?” he asked.

“You mind grabbing yourself something?” she asked. “Jo is buying pizza.”

“No problem,” he said. “I was going to spend some time tutoring Johnny and Mari with Phil anyways. Just gives us a little extra time.”

“Fantastic,” she said. She sighed. “We okay, Tiger?”

Peter smiled and ran his hand through his tousled hair. “We’re getting there,” he said. “Love you.”

She giggled slightly. “You too.” The line went dead.

He smiled and flipped his phone shut. It had been three long and difficult months for Peter and Mary-Jane Parker, but things were going in the right direction. They had legally separated before deciding to make things work, Spider-Man or not.

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. Peter grinned. Time for the real work to start.

---

It was a quiet day in Manhattan First National Bank before the gunshots rang out. Three masked men advanced towards the tellers, each armed with shot guns. Two other men and a woman, each armed with submachine guns, stood near the doors. The first to reach a teller emptied another round into the ceiling.

“Empty your drawers!” he screamed. “Now!” Each of the tellers began to comply as quickly as possible. One of the tellers made sure to pull a particular bundle of ten dollar bills. In many banks, one slot in a teller’s cash drawer is armed with a silent alarm, rather than the traditional button used by Hollywood in many movies. The moment she handed the robber the money, the police knew.

Lucky for her, help was already on the scene.

“I love the theatrics, guys,” said a voice from above them. “It’s like we’re in a movie or something.” Spider-Man descended slowly from the ceiling. He quickly fired a net of webbing at the machine gunners, then the men with the shotguns, snagging all of their weapons.

“That was easy, guys,” he said. “Used to be, the criminals in this town actually had some skills.”

“We still do,” one of them said. The man threw one of his hands out and an invisible force shoved Spider-Man and sent him tumbling.

Peter spun and caught his balance on his feet. “Skills, powers, two different things. You know, math skills, bo staff skills… skills.”

“Yeah, whatever.” The powered robber advanced on him and stretched him arm out, using telekinesis to grab him by the throat. He lifted him off the ground. Peter felt his throat begin to close.

“You’re forgetting something,” he choked.

“What’s that?”

“Superheroes team up.” A purple-gloved fist punched the robber across the face, then kicked him in the gut. The Green Goblin stepped back, his cloak flowing around him. Still doubled over, the robber threw his hand out and shoved the Goblin. He jumped to his feet and started to run, but Spider-Man fired a webline at his feet. He fell face-first.

“And that’s how it’s done!” He hurried over to the telekinetic and yanked his mask of his face. He looked between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, a look of fear on his face. He was a middle-aged black man, his hair short cropped.

“What th—” he muttered. “Where am I?”

Spider-Man and the Goblin looked at each other. “You’re joking, right?”

“No, really, where am I? What are you doing to me?”

“What’s your name?” the Goblin asked.

“D-Derrick,” he replied.

“You just robbed a bank, Derrick,” Spider-Man replied.

“WHAT?! My wife’s going to kill me!”

The two superheroes looked at each other again. “Let the police figure it out?”

“Sure.”

Almost on cue, the first squad car arrived on the scene, followed closely by several others. The first officer inside nodded at the heroes and waved them out. “Go,” he said. “I think Chief DeTores might want to talk to you tonight, though.”

“Ten-four,” Peter said. They hurried outside; Spider-Man fired a webline into the sky, and the Goblin jumped onto his waiting glider. A few blocks away, they stopped at a rooftop where a young man and young woman waited for them.

“Are you serious?” Ricochet laughed as they talked towards them. “‘And that’s how it’s done!’ Are you that out of touch, Peter?” Peter Parker pulled off his mask and raised an eyebrow at Johnny Gallo.

“Whatever kid,” he said. “I’m the bomb.”

Johnny rolled his eyes. “What do you think Wanderer?”

“Out of touch,” Mariana Pacheco agreed.

“Okay, rookie,” Peter said. “Superhero Banter 101 starts Monday.”

“They’re right Peter,” Phil Urich said, removing his Green Goblin mask. “Have you been watching MTV or something? That’s not even close to being cool.”

“Well… the Hills is pretty cool to-“

“Stopping you before you lose a man card,” Mari said. “Trust me. Stop.”

Peter rolled his eyes, a smirk on his face. “Again, whatever,” he said. “So what do you think was going on back there, Phil?”

“He could have been faking it,” he said, “but that would take some serious acting. That guy sounded pretty sincere.”

“Yeah,” Peter said. “He was not faking those powers though.” He painfully rotated his arm. “I haven’t been thrown around by someone like that since… I don’t know… ever.”

“Doesn’t take much skill to do that though,” Johnny offered.

“No, it doesn’t,” Peter said. “Might have to check with X-Corps.”

“You okay, Spidey?” Mari asked.

“Okay enough,” he said. “Might call it a night, though. Can I talk to you alone for a minute first?”

“Sure,” she said. Peter led her away from the Goblin and Ricochet. The little quartet had been formed in a somewhat coincidental manner. They all showed up at the same fight about two months before, and then another and another. They unmasked to each other a little while later. When Mariana had showed up the first time though, he knew who she was instantly. She was one of his students, after all. What surprised him even more was how similar her powers were to his own. With the exception of some sort of energy ‘venom’ she generated, they were exactly the same.

Because of this, Peter took her under his wing, an apprentice of sorts.

“How are those web-shooters I put together for you working?” he asked.

“Great Peter,” she said. She held up her wrists, showing him the snug bracelets that hid the webshooters. Much more inconspicuous than his own, with a lot of credit going to Reed Richards on design.

“Great,” he said. “And how about your homework?”

“Oh come on!” she said. “You kn—”

Peter held up his hand. “Yeah, I know you’ve been busy, in and out of costume,” he said. “But you remember our deal. Stay caught up, or we’re done here, and I’m done covering for you at school.”

“Got it,” she muttered.

He nodded. “I’m going to run,” he said. “I’m going to surprise MJ with some coffee and cookies. Be careful, okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Okay.”

Peter turned and nodded to the others. “Same time, same channel tomorrow,” he said. “Getting less rusty by the day, Phil.”

“Thanks.” Peter slipped his mask off, turned and broke into a run. He jumped over the edge of the building. He dived face-first for about five seconds before he twisted and fired a single webline and pulled. He swung in an elegant arc about six yards over the street, and then fired another and tugged, pulling him in another tight arc. His thoughts drifted to his small group.

He’d convinced Mari to tell him everything pretty easily. He was already aware of Ricochet and the Slingers when he met Johnny, and there was very little to tell. Phil on the other hand… Peter was on the west coast when Phil was active the first time. Ben was wearing the webs at the time, and to his knowledge the two never worked together much. Phil had claimed the Onslaught crisis had ruined his equipment beyond repair.

When Peter asked how he finally repaired the equipment, he didn’t get a straight answer. When it came to the Goblins, that was never a good thing.

---

Mary Jane Parker stood on stage left, trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible. Although her revival of the Pajama Game was considered Off-Broadway, it wasn’t far off, and actually had some skilled actors involved. Unfortunately that meant many of her female co-stars looked at her as the ‘model-turned’ and not a legitimate actor within the company, despite landing the lead role. Or perhaps especially because of it.

And because of that, when one of the girls decided to act like a diva, she hid as quickly as possible. It didn’t help tonight that everyone was irritated and tired, but MJ still wanted nothing to do with it. She had zoned out of the argument between the actor, Hallie Faire, and the director, Josephine Michaelis, at this point, and tried to keep her attention anywhere else.

The stage door swung open, throwing light onto the stage. MJ turned and saw a sight for sore eyes. Peter walked in, a coffee cup in one hand, a slightly greasy paper bag in the other. Hallie and Jo each glared at him for two or three seconds, then went back to the argument. Peter walked up to MJ, handed her the bag, then the cup, and gave her a short kiss on the cheek.

“Mocha and root beer barrel cookies,” he said.

“You must be some kind of superhero,” she whispered, returning the kiss. “Maybe with a ‘bail your wife out’ sense.”

“You know me,” he said. “How long they been at it?”

MJ glanced back at the center of the stage. “Almost twenty minutes,” she said. “Another five or so and Jo will call it a night.”

“Let me know,” he said. “Text me and I’ll come pick you up.”

She smiled and grabbed his hand. “I’ll just grab a taxi Tiger,” she said. “Isn’t tonight your normal ‘coffee with the Chief’ night?”

“Yeah, it is,” he said. “Still wonder why she picked me. I mean, Luke and Danny, or even Matt would make more sense than me.”

“Maybe,” she said, “she just sees that spandex and wants a little for herself.”

Peter laughed then squeezed MJ’s hand. “Love you,” he said. “Let me know on getting out early.”

“Will do,” she said. “Go get ‘em Tiger.” Peter grinned. “Always.”

---

The rooftop of NYPD Headquarters was well lit by the time Peter reached the building. That was always a sign for him to stop, that someone was waiting for him. As he swung in to land, he realized that tonight there were actually two. The first was the woman he’d come to know very well. Police Chief Alia Detores had wanted a working relationship with the city’s superheroes from day one. For some reason she’d chosen Spider-Man. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t ask. As he saw the rooftop’s second occupant, he wondered if he was the reason why.

“Hey there, Uno,” he said. “Long time, no see.”

“Since the Avengers mansion bombing,” Nick Fury replied. “And I’ll ignore the nickname. Use it again and I’ll shoot you.”

“Still testy about the eye patch,” he said. “Wow. You’d think…”

“Spider…”

Peter held up his hands. “I surrender,” he said. “So what’s up, Chief?”

“Well,” she said, “Colonel Fury wanted to pass a message on to you, but it seems you’ve already encountered what we wanted to warn you about.”

“The amnesiac telekinetic?” he asked.

“Yup,” Fury said. He pulled a small disk from his pocket and pressed a button on its side. A small holograph of several people appeared in front of them. He recognized the person on the far right as the middle-aged man claiming to be ‘Derrick.’

“Meet our bank robbery suspects,” he said. “Six total. Five men, one woman. With the exception of this man...” He touched the image of a young Asian man, which highlighted him in the image. “…all of them were reported missing three days ago.”

“And him?”

“Lives alone, full-time student. He simply had no one to report him as missing.”

“That sucks,” he whispered. “So what makes this a SHIELD case?”

“It’s not,” Detores said. “Colonel Fury is consulting only.”

“So anything else, Consultant Fury?”

“None of them have any memory to the robbery,” he said. “We’ve had psi-division here this afternoon to confirm it. This goings with one of the intelligence reports we received of some of the superhuman activity coming into the city since the bombing of Avengers mansion.” The image of the banks robbers disappeared, replaced by four costumed individuals. “Meet our prime suspects. The Corruptor, Mandrill, Crossfire and the Wraith.”

“Mind controllers?” Peter asked. “I thought the Wraith was dead.”

“Mind controllers,” Detores confirmed. “As for Brian DeWolff, his body-hopping powers make him damn near immortal. Wish the reports of his death were true though. However, new players in New York confirm a suspicion of ours. There’s a new player in the world of organized crime.”

“I love hearing those words,” he said. “And that person is…?”

“His name is Lonnie Lincoln,” Fury said.

Peter’s eyes narrowed beneath his mask. “Also known as Tombstone.”

---

Tombstone drummed his fingers on his granite desktop, idly staring out the window opposite him. He took each breath slowly, the sound not unlike the wind through a graveyard. It unsettled most. Not the tall man in the corner of his office.

“We need an example,” he finally said. “A message sent to the superheroes. My Controllers are already sending a message to Fisk and the others. The superheroes need one now. Something that will resonate.” He turned slowly and looked his guest in the eyes. “I need you to kill Spider-Man.”

The guest began to chuckle. “A simple feat,” he said. “One my father could never complete.”

Alyosha Kravinoff leaned forward with a feral smile. “I, however, will have no problem killing the Spider.”

---

---

To Be Continued...

Next: In Amazing Spider-Man #6: Spider-Man is trapped in the middle of the newborn gang war as he faces the Controllers and Kraven!

---

Previous Issue | Next Issue