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Grian Gameson liked to think he was living a fulfilling life. He owned the Daily Bugle, everyone in Hermitville knew his name. Not just Hermitville. Everyone knew his name.
Or so he liked to think.
But when all was said and all was done, G. Grian Gameson had one thing that was incredibly unsatisfactory.
SpiderGuy.
Well he didn’t have SpiderGuy. But he would. Soon. He was going to be the one to catch him and unmask that pesky pesky vigilante. And he was going to do it now.
Pearl, his editor in chief, said it was unnecessary, he didn’t have to do it. But who was Grian if he listened to her? She knew that as well, trying to tell him that his onslaught of accusing SpiderGuy of the thirty crimes he never committed and then having to put out apologies for the same was in fact very stupid.
But like, who cared? His paper was the number one in the city if not in the state. Everyone bought the Daily Bugle . If they didn’t they were tasteless and Grian considered them unworthy of his time.
Okay maybe he was being a little harsh, but he had been sitting in his car in the shadiest alleyway he could find for the past three hours.
Why?
He was waiting for SpiderGuy. Obviously.
His friend over at the police station had been ever so gracious to let him hack into the police radio wavelength. He hadn’t, but that’s the story Grian was going with. Okay?
Anyways, that had been what led him into this dark and wet and rather stinky alleyway. Grian had his binoculars out, waiting and watching.
He also wanted to be the one to get pictures of SpiderGuy. Not Scar. Scar always got them before him. It was Scar’s one and only assignment to be fair. Grian trusted him to do it and by void did Scar do it well.
You could technically say that was why everyone bought the Daily Bugle in the first place. For the SpiderGuy pictures. But Grian liked to think it was because they appreciated and liked his newspaper articles about the said issue.
The police radio crackled to life as Grian straightened up. He peered out of his car, binoculars focusing on the skyline. The moment SpiderGuy appeared, he was going to get chased down .
“—they’re moving down route 224.”
Grian was right in position. And surely enough, a familiar webby vigilante swung past, clearly chasing something Grian couldn’t see.
But the criminals were none of Grian’s concern as he stepped down on the accelerator and took off, eyes trained on SpiderGuy who swung from building to building like he was made of air and wings.
Today, Grian would track him down. Today, Grian would find out who really is SpiderGuy.
The roads ahead were blocked off by the police, clearly trying to apprehend the criminals that were escaping. Grian haphazardly parked his car, wheels screeching as he fell over himself trying to exit the car.
He didn’t even have to show his PRESS badge to the police, the man in charge letting out a laugh as he saw him. Which was frankly quite insulting but Grian had bigger problems to worry about.
And somehow, just somehow , Grian was too late. The three criminals hung from a trap of sticky web things that SpiderGuy used as a part of his stupid gimmick. But that wasn’t the only thing that beat him to the chase.
Stupid stupid Scar Goodtimes was already there, hair messy like he ran to get there, camera ready. And he was taking photos of the whole scene. His scene. Grian’s scene.
Oooh did that make Grian see red. But, was he really to blame Scar? It was his assignment. That Grian did happen to assign. And well Scar looked quite— alright, Grian supposed. Someone cleared his throat behind him and Grian turned around to make eye contact with Gem who raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Scar beat you to the scene again?” she said, very obviously failing to hide her smile. Grian groaned, about to complain when he saw the Inspector walk up to the criminals, poking the web-like substance.
“I couldn’t care less about that,” he grumbled, walking up to the police inspector.
“Inspector,” he greeted, staring at the criminals who were knocked out cold, “SpiderGuy did your job again.”
“Clearly,” the inspector said, however the man didn’t seem unhappy about it. In fact the inspector seemed quite happy. Grian couldn’t believe his ears.
His main number one ally when it came to SpiderGuy had just turned on him! This was horrible! Grian was going to take this vigilante down .
He went back to where Gem was standing, Scar joining them. Grian’s bad mood had tripled now, sniffling in offense before turning towards Scar.
“I want all the pictures of today on my desk by nine thirty tomorrow morning,” he said, before turning and walking to his car.
“But Grian you come to the office at ten?” Scar protested. That protest was then stifled after Grian shot him a look. “They’ll be on your table by nine.”
He nodded, leaving Scar and Gem and went back to his car.
Grian was going to have SpiderGuy one way or another. Preferably stuck in a web of his own creation. Now that would make for a good headline.
The next two weeks were the exact same. Grian chases SpiderGuy down. Scar somehow beats him to the chase. Scar gets the most perfect photographs imaginable of SpiderGuy and the crime scene. Grian goes back home to cry.
Well not cry . Lament maybe. Sit in a bit of disappointment until Mumbo came home from work and knocked some sense into him with a cup of tea.
Mumbo made some wonderful tea to be fair. So that made up for a lot. Pearl said he was going crazy trying to unmask that pesky little vigilante before more crime befell Hermitville.
It was driving Grian insane.
He was G. Grian Gameson for gods sake! He was one of the most influential people in the city. His paper was what everyone turned to first. And what he said was what goes.
So Grian did the only thing he could think of. He called Scar to his office. Now Scar was a bit of an interesting case really. He was a relatively new journalist. Assigned purely to SpiderGuy cases because that was what pulled Grian the most revenue.
Not just any SpiderGuy article. Scar’s SpiderGuy articles. Grian really couldn’t tell what the public liked so much about them. He was the one who had the final say in all the articles so it wasn’t like there was anything crazily different in them.
But that wasn’t the only thing Scar got to be different at. Grian let him get away with a lot of stuff he didn’t usually let his employees get away with. But he didn’t really know why he let all that happen.
Whatever the case, Scar always had the perfect shots of SpiderGuy at the perfect angles. They were beautiful really. And that got Grian thinking—
Scar was just special like that, Grian guessed.
He signed off on another article, something about Kingpin and whatever his investigative journalists had gotten their hands on. It wasn’t just SpiderGuy the Daily Bugle was after in the end.
Scar entered his office, new photos in a manila folder which was placed in front of Grian. He beckoned the other to sit down, Scar looking a little concerned at that.
“Scar.”
“Grian.”
“I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
“Am I being fired?” Scar asked, eyebrows raised.
“What? No,” Grian frowned, “well, it depends.”
Scar’s expression dropped so quickly it nearly gave Grian whiplash.
“Oh, then what’s the question?”
“Are you—” Grian squinted as Scar’s eyebrows shot back up, “are you sleeping with SpiderGuy?”
He watched the question physically loading in Scar’s brain, a multitude of expressions flitting across the other’s face. Grian wasn’t sure what to make of it. But it was his only likely theory.
“You—” Scar looked speechless, “you think I’m— sleeping with SpiderGuy?”
“I mean,” Grian shrugged, “I’m not one to judge, except for the possibility of you hiding his identity from me . It’s the only reasonable explanation for these. ”
He pointed at the manila folder in front of him. Scar looked at the folder then back at Grian, looking baffled. Grian was beginning to think he might have been wrong in his theory.
“My— photos— make you think I’m sleeping with SpiderGuy?”
Grian nodded, although the ridiculousness of the statement was now making itself clear to him. And Scar seemed to have finally processed what Grian was asking because the man then burst into laughter.
He gasped in offense as Scar struggled to sit upright, wiping a tear from his face.
“I could have you fired for laughing at me like this Mr. Scar Goodtimes,” he said, frowning at the laughter as Scar stood up from his seat.
“Oh but you won’t, you like me too much for that,” Scar said with a wink that caused Grian’s frown to disappear and shock to appear on his face instead. Now it was Grian’s turn to lag as Scar left the office.
Pearl entered a moment later, an unreadable expression on her face as she sat down in front of Grian who shook his head and reached out to open the manila folder he had been given. Pearl leaned over to take a look as well.
“Oh wow,” she said, Grian’s brain echoing the same sentiment.
Somehow, Scar had managed to get the most wonderful shot of SpiderGuy balanced against the side of a building. Grian could already see the headlines he was about to print with this.
“ SPIDERGUY WREAKS HAVOC IN HERMITVILLE”
“SPIDERGUY’S WEB OF DESTRUCTION MUST BE STOPPED”
Oh, it was beautiful. Grian could almost cry. Then he remembered Scar’s wink and then he decided he was going to rage instead.
Pearl seemed to pick up on the multitude of emotional changes Grian was going through, flicking his forehead before leaving to go back out into the office. Grian was going to take SpiderGuy down or else his name wasn’t G. Grian Gameson.
The next interaction he had with SpiderGuy was a couple days later when Grian hadn’t even thought of the possibility of meeting or finding SpiderGuy.
He was driving home when the earth began to shake. Which was very inconvenient because Grian wanted to go home and sleep . This was stopping him from doing so.
Grian blamed SpiderGuy for this.
What he didn’t expect was to be snatched by the weirdest mechanical device and pulled up into the air the moment he stepped out of his car.
So he decided to do the best thing he could think of in the moment—
Scream.
The mechanical arm decided as a result to just drop him from where he was in the air. This was it, this was how G. Grian Gameson died. From being dropped by a large mechanical arm of unknown origins. Pathetic.
Then something crashed into him and that only caused Grian to screech again before he turned and came face to face with—
“ SpiderGuy?! ” he yelled, his nose practically touching the infamous mask that he was so desperate to uncover. Well not at that moment, Grian was more desperate to not die.
“Please don’t drop me,” Grian whispered, horrified at being twenty thousand feet in the air.
“Now why would I do that?” SpiderGuy said, voice muffled by the mask as they finally reached the ground, “I’m not a criminal Mr. Gameson.”
Grian sputtered as the vigilante shot back up in the air, clearly going back to defeat the large mechanical arm that had grabbed him in the first place.
After a moment of calming himself down, Grian begrudgingly decided tomorrow’s news wouldn’t be slandering SpiderGuy. He owed the stupid vigilante that much. But only that much.
The next day, Grian was at the office at seven, waiting for Scar’s latest photos of yesterday’s attack. SpiderGuy was once again, headlines of the Daily Bugle . This time, for a positive article.
Surprising for everyone really. Including Grian.
Scar entered his office at seven thirty as instructed, two coffees in his hands and the folder of pictures under his arm.
“Why are you carrying two coffees?” Grian asked as Scar set them both down on his table.
“One for you and one for me!”
“For— me?” Grian raised an eyebrow as he accepted the manila folder.
“Yeah for when you see— yeah— that—”
The first picture was Grian holding onto SpiderGuy for dear life. Somehow Scar managed to click this and keep Grian looking like he was only a tiny bit terrified.
“I edited that, the original didn’t look very flattering for you. The original is at the end.”
Well that was enough for Grian’s ego. He took out the last photo and his mildly smug smile dropped.
He looked like a mess .
Grian then put that photo through the shredder. Ignoring Scar’s gasp of horror. He then took out the shredded bits then put them back through the shredder just for good measure.
“You know I still have the photo right?” Scar said, staring at the shredded photo.
“Burn it. Don’t even think twice, just burn it.”
The article that followed in the next edition of the Daily Bugle , was an article Grian hoped to never hear about again.
SPIDERGUY SAVES G. GRIAN GAMESON IN HEROIC BATTLE
Which turned out to be something that wouldn’t happen, the papers selling out at an abnormally fast rate.
He called Scar back into his office that evening, staring at the sales reports of the day. The man seemed to be very antsy at being called into the office so late. Grian assumed it was probably because Scar too, wanted to go home and sleep.
“Y’know you didn’t have to call me in so late,” Scar said, slumping in his seat as Grian paced, looking at his computer updating the statistics of today’s sales. “This doesn’t even concern me.”
“How did you get that photo?” Grian asked, “how do you do it?”
“I set up my cameras in multiple buildings,” Scar shrugged like that was a perfectly reasonable answer, “and what do you mean how do I do it?”
Grian stopped pacing and looked at Scar who grinned. He rolled his eyes and waved his arm, trying to get Scar to leave.
But he didn’t get the hint, instead Scar stood up and went to the soft board Grian had set up with clues to SpiderGuy’s identity.
“Wow this is detailed. Is any of this accurate though?” Scar asked, squinting at the list of suspects Grian had.
Grian shrugged, coming up to stand next to Scar. He lowkey hated doing that, the man was way too tall for his liking. Scar hummed as he looked at the clues and theories before shaking his head.
The two of them left the building a little later, Grian all but praying he didn’t have to meet SpiderGuy or any weird villain on the way home. Scar left with a shout and a wave as they parted ways.
The next encounter Grian had with SpiderGuy was oddly familiar. It was almost deja vu inducing. Grian decided they had to stop meeting like this.
Well stop meeting at all really. He really did not appreciate having to hang onto SpiderGuy as he was flown through the city to a safe spot like some damsel in distress.
SpiderGuy seemed to have thought the same, lowering Grian to the ground slowly.
“We really have to stop meeting like this Mr. G,” SpiderGuy said, hanging off of that weird webbing that was attached somewhere high up, “if you really wanna see me you just have to say so!”
Grian scowled and rolled his eyes before something occurred to him.
“Who are you?” he asked, and SpiderGuy didn’t seem to expect that, surprise somehow clear on his face. Even though it was masked. The vigilante was incredibly expressive for someone with a mask on.
Grian hadn’t really seen his costume up close before, well other than pictures obviously. It was fully black with orange and cyan details all over the suit, resembling the webbed pattern of a spider.
“Why would you ask that?” SpiderGuy asked, deciding to go higher up in the air. Grian almost reached out to pull him back down.
“Well,” Grian shrugged, “maybe I wanna know.”
“You already know me, Grian,” SpiderGuy said cryptically before shooting a string of webs and disappearing before Grian could even process what he had just been told.
“What the hell does that even mean!? ” he yelled at the sky, SpiderGuy long gone, “stupid pesky vigilante.”
Grian’s latest strategy was in the form of a poster.
WANTED: SPIDERGUY IDENTITY & INFORMATION
PRICE: $5000
CONTACT: G. GRIAN GAMESON AT THE DAILY BUGLE
“Surely this will work,” Grian said, exasperatedly, Pearl humming over the poster he had printed out, “surely.”
“I mean,” Pearl said, “it’s worth a try. We’re going to get so many spam calls with this— poor Jim—”
“Yeah who cares, we are going to uncover who SpiderGuy is and we’re going to do it now .”
Pearl snorted like she had a tough time believing what Grian had said much to his chagrin. Was she right? Probably. Did Grian ever care? Not at all.
So he sent the poster forward for printing the wanted poster in the evening edition of the paper. It was the perfect scheme. Obviously.
The following weekend, Grian was off work. The destruction of Hermitville wasn’t though, and Grian sighed as he saw something explode in the far distance as he sat in the park feeding the ducks.
He sent a text to the office, warning them to be on alert and to send a PRESS van to the site. Grian then began to walk in the general direction of the fight.
Yes. Walk. Who takes their car to feed the ducks in the park?
As Grian expected, SpiderGuy was on the scene. He was still too far to get a good look at what was really happening, SpiderGuy the tiniest speck flying around with his webs.
He had to admit, SpiderGuy was a good fighter when it came to it.
By the time Grian could hear the police sirens, the fight seemed to have subdued a bit, SpiderGuy having disappeared from the scene as the police took over. Grian wondered where he went, the vigilante had taken some nasty hits.
A movement in the alley next to him caused him to turn and look inside.
No way .
Grian could identify that black suit with cyan and orange details anywhere. And— SpiderGuy wasn’t wearing his mask.
Was this it? Was today the day he found out who SpiderGuy is?
He could see the back of SpiderGuy’s head. A messy brunette. Grian watched with bated breath as SpiderGuy seemed to stand and stare at the ground. He took the tiniest step closer, not wanting to be discovered.
However, SpiderGuy seemed to have heard something, his head tilting ever so slightly towards Grian. But before he could see anything further, the mask was back on.
He cursed under his breath as SpiderGuy turned to face him, web like fluid shooting past him.
“Oh it’s you!” SpiderGuy seemed almost excited to see him, “I was wondering where you were. Although I was glad you weren’t being flung around this time. That would’ve been horrible. For you, I mean.”
Grian’s scowl had returned to his face as SpiderGuy walked up to him. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at the vigilante.
“You know all you have to do is ask right Grian?” SpiderGuy was now dangerously close to Grian. His frown began to falter as the vigilante leaned down to come face to face with him.
“Who are you SpiderGuy?” he whispered, leaning in so that his face was pretty much touching the other’s mask. SpiderGuy was silent and the silence caused Grian’s heart to race as the other placed a delicate finger under his chin.
Oh .
“You’ll find out soon enough buttercup,” SpiderGuy said, smirk evident and infuriating in his voice, “haven’t you ever learnt to be patient?”
Grian was speechless as SpiderGuy latched onto something and swung away before what he was just told hit him in the face like a freight train.
“ Buttercup!? ”