Chapter Text
Peter Parker dashed across the ESU campus, heading toward the Erskine building as fast as his feet could carry him.
‘First day of classes and I’m gonna be late! Ugh…’
If he hadn’t stopped to catch that purse snatcher, he would have been to class with five minutes to spare.
‘Made an exception once.’ Peter reminded himself. ‘I can’t do it again.’
He dashed up the stairs and opened the door to find the smiling face of Debra Whitman there to greet him.
“Good morning, Mr. Parker! You’re late!” Debra chimed. “Any particular reason why?”
‘Oh, god, not again!’ Peter mentally groaned.
“My subway train got delayed, Deb.” Peter shrugged. “I didn’t even have time to grab a coffee.”
“Oh, I’m sure you weren’t when you were stopping a purse snatcher.” Debra said, lifting up her phone and playing a YouTube video that someone had posted only ten minutes ago (and had already breached into the tens of thousands of views), showing Spider-Man leaping down and taking out a purse snatcher before swinging away. “That’s you, isn’t it? C’mon! Tell the truth!”
“Deb, I don’t know where you get these crazy ideas from, but I have class to get to.” Peter said, brushing her off. “So do you, in fact.” He sidestepped her and headed on to class, not wanting to entertain her any further.
‘A glorious dose of ‘too close’ to start out the first day at ESU. Lovely.’ Peter thought with a sigh as he ducked into his first class, slipping into one of the chairs at the back of the room, getting out his pen and notebook.
“Hey, Parker!” A familiar voice called out to him, and Peter turned to see Flash Thompson walking his way. His former Midtown High letterman jacket had been replaced with an ESU one.
‘Already?!’ Peter thought.
“Hey, Flash. What’s… up?” Peter asked, finding it still weird to be on speaking terms with his former bully. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to it.
“You’re an egghead. Can you tell me why ESU’s rising new football star has to take Physics 101?” Flash asked.
‘I’m trying to figure out how you got admitted to begin with, meat head, but okay.’ Peter thought.
“Pretty sure you’d need Carl Sagan to answer that for you,” Peter quipped.
“Who’s that?” Flash asked.
“...oh, boy…” Peter muttered under his breath, thankfully distracted as the professor entered the room and immediately took command of the class, instructing everyone to get to their seats as he began to write his name on the board.
******
“I made this company!” Adrian Toomes grumbled as he sat at his desk, seeing the minutes from the previous meeting along with a letter of intent from his Board for the upcoming one. The old man grimaced as he looked over both and looked over the financial reports from the past five years.
He had to find something, anything that might get him out of this nosedive he’d been pulled into.
‘Curse Osborn and his bravado!’ Toomes gritted his teeth as he stewed over the source of all of his woes. After many years as a competitor, Oscorp was finally poised for the coup de grace against Toomes Aeronautics.
‘If this buyout goes through, then Oscorp is going to swallow my entire company whole!’ Toomes was enraged at the very thought of it, his entire legacy wiped away or having his company reduced to “Toomes Aeronautics: A Subsidiary of Oscorp”.
To have been high above all others and brought so low. He was reminded of Icarus, only Icarus fell due to his own hubris.
This, what Norman Osborn was doing, was murder. Plain and simple murder.
Digging into the files on the Avvoltoio project, Toomes found himself grinning.
He had his piece, and he would be heard.
If he was going down, then he was going to go down with a fight.
******
“Well, as you can see, distinguished members of the Board, there can be no question,” Norman Osborn stood at the podium at the head of the table, gazing down at the sixteen members of Toomes Aeronautics’s Board of Directors and its Chairman - Adrian Toomes. The old man was glaring at him with a look of pure murder in his eyes, “Toomes Aeronautics has seen an unfortunate and very apparent downslide in both development and revenue over the last five years. Being absorbed into Oscorp will allow your employees to keep their jobs as well as give you access to technology and resources beyond anything you have been able to grasp within the last half decade. Simply put, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to pack it in. The horse needs to be put out to pasture, and Oscorp is willing to help you do that. And to move on to a brighter future.”
‘There’s no way they can believe a word of this!’ Toomes was fuming, but continued to be silent as he watched Osborn do his showboating.
“Thank you, Mr. Osborn.” Another member of the Board spoke, and some light applause was had for the gentleman as he sat down. Infuriating Toomes even further, Osborn didn’t even glance in his direction.
‘Can’t look into my eyes as you take my life from me, you snake?!’ Toomes gripped the table tightly.
“If that’s everything, then I believe-”
“A moment!” Toomes nearly shouted. “As Chairman of the Board, I-”
“Now, Chairman Toomes, we really-”
“NO!” Toomes slammed his fist down against the Board Room table. “I will be given the chance to defend myself and the company that I’ve built!”
“The by-laws are very clear that-”
“I WROTE THE DAMN BY-LAWS!” Toomes roared at him. “Now, keep your mouth shut and listen to me!”
The room was dead silent, and Toomes was somewhat gratified to see that he did indeed have Osborn’s attention.
“Behold, ladies and gentlemen,” Toomes said, having a measure of his composure back, “the Avvoltoio.” He pressed a button on the table, a small hologram projector displaying the schematics for a personalized aerial harness. “This is the next generation of technology to be used by our soldiers on the battlefield. A personal aerial harness that will allow rapid elevation, it has silent flight for stealth missions, is bulletproof and highly resistant to concussive force from grenades and other explosives. This is where the field of military defense is going, ladies and gentlemen. This.”
He pointed down the table, directly at Osborn.
“Not him.”
Silence fell over the room, and not a few members of the Board looked at each other uncomfortably.
“If the Chairman and Mr. Osborn will withdraw so the Board can make its decision, please.”
Toomes, his jaw tightening, stood up and left the room.
After a few steps, the door had closed behind him.
“Toomes, if I can have a moment of your time.” Osborn said. Toomes turned on the spot, still looking at his longtime business rival with sheer rage. “I just wanted to thank you.”
Toomes scoffed. “Thank me?!”
“I know you may not believe me,” Osborn said, “but doing this gives me no pleasure whatsoever.”
“You’re right.” Toomes said, flatly. “I don’t believe you.”
“It has been quite a lengthy rivalry between our two businesses, but I promise you that I am doing what is best for both of us.” Osborn said, before extending his hand. “No hard feelings?”
Toomes stared down at the hand, then back up at Osborn. His expression of anger now mixed with disgust.
“Go to hell, Norman.” Toomes said pointedly, turning on his heel and leaving. He didn’t need to hear his Board, he knew what they were going to do.
Traitors. Traitors, one and all.
******
Peter stirred, drifting out of his sleep with a soft groan.
“Oh, Mr. Parker…” Gwen Stacy’s sing-song voice drifted into his ear, his eye popping open to look upon his girlfriend lying next to him, nothing but a smile and the bedsheets over her. “You were snoring.”
“I was not!” Peter protested, laughing a little as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Besides, you were scratching my legs in your sleep.”
“Okay, now that I was definitely not doing,” Gwen chuckled.
“You’re right,” Peter said, “you were as still as a log all night.”
“Well, not all night.” Gwen smirked a bit.
“Gwendy!” Peter gasped, laughing a little.
“Hey, c’mon… we’re in college now. It’s hardly scandalous.” Gwen said, nuzzling up to Peter’s chest. “I don’t want to get up.”
“Mmm… me neither,” Peter said, “good thing I don’t have class until ten o’clock.” He leaned in, kissing Gwen happily, a little more heatedly now.
“Mmm… hang on…” Gwen said between kisses, though it was clear she was feeling the draw of it as well.
“Mmm… what?” Peter asked, between kisses, not wanting to stop.
“It’s… ten fifteen.” Gwen said.
Peter stopped suddenly, his mind running through processing and then catching up to what Gwen had said. “Oh, crap!”
He leaped up from the bed, gathering his clothes.
“Not the most romantic exit from your girlfriend’s dorm room, lover boy.” Gwen said, almost sarcastically.
“I gotta go, I gotta go! I can’t be late! Sorry!” Peter said, sliding into his boxers, pants, and t-shirt in record time, leaning over and kissing Gwen once more, a bit more sweetly this time. “Love you.”
Gwen kissed him back, smiling. “Love you, too.” She wrapped the sheets around herself like a makeshift toga as she watched him head out of her window and onto the fire escape, rushing down to get back on campus quickly.
She laid back on the bed, smiling ear to ear and giving a happy sigh.
Life, for Gwen Stacy, was good.
******
Life, for Adrian Toomes, had become a living Hell.
All night he had been locked up in the Avvoltoio lab. All night he had refused any visitors and had not answered his phone.
He knew where things had been going and he knew there was no stopping them.
Not as he was.
“I’ll show them. I’ll show them all.” Toomes had kept mumbling, for hours on end as he had worked, seeing to it that every single imperfection in the harness was removed, as if he were scrubbing the dirt and rocks and grime off of a diamond and polishing it to perfection.
As the clock struck ten thirty, he had finished his great work.
“I’ll show them all!” He said with a grin, fingers tapping the keys to unlock the harness from its containment unit.
******
Jean DeWolff pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed deeply.
“A… giant… man-bird.” She muttered, echoing the statement she had just been given.
“Yes, Detective.” The young trophy wife of a woman, clad in a black dress and having been crying so hard her mascara had started to run, was starting to annoy DeWolff. “It was a giant, metal man-bird!”
DeWolff sighed deeply, writing that down in her notepad. “Got it, okay. Thank you, Mrs. Williams.”
Stanley Carter stepped into the room, and DeWolff moved over to him quickly.
“She’s out of her mind.” Carter muttered.
“Yeah, but she’s not wrong, if I had to guess.” DeWolff said.
“How do you figure that?” Carter asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” DeWolff said, glancing over to a section of wall that looked as though it had been blasted through, leaving it in pieces all over the floor of what had once been Mr. Williams’s private study, “just a strong feeling that I have.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a smartass, DeWolff?” Carter asked.
“Better a smartass than a dumbass.” DeWolff said, tapping Carter’s nose with the eraser of her pencil before putting both it and her notepad back into her coat. “Come on, we apparently have to put out an APB on a giant, metal man-bird.” She said, leaving the room.
“Christ, this job is weird!” Carter muttered as he moved to follow his partner from the room.
******
“And in the business world today, Oscorp Industries has secured its buyout of long-time rival in the field of defense contracts, Toomes Aeronautics.” Robbie Robertson was reporting from behind a desk at the Bugle. “The deal, in total, grants Oscorp access to every asset owned by Toomes including patents, real estate, and in-development projects as well as their contracts with the U.S. military.”
Eddie Brock wasn’t listening too much as he got photographs of the Williams’ house, in particular the massive hole currently in their second story that was cordoned off by yellow police tape.
“In related news, member of the Toomes Aeronautics Board of Directors Frederick Williams was reported missing from his home late last night. His wife, Sandra Williams, reported a quote ‘giant, metal man-bird’ unquote, as the party responsible. The NYPD is still investigating.”
“And that brings us to the Final Word!” Jameson barked through the radio, the short intro to his editorial segment popping up with a loud guitar riff and Eddie winced as he had to pull his earbud from his ear to avoid completely losing his hearing. After a moment, he put the bud back in.
“-and the real question I have, ladies and gentlemen, is what kind of superpowered freak are we dealing with here? Over the last year and some change, we’ve had a giant lizard, a damn stegosaurus man, a man on fire, and now a giant metal man-bird. I mean, where does it end?! What are we going to have next? The Human Rat?!”
“Pretty sure you have the job if it comes up, JJ.” Eddie muttered as he snapped a few more shots.
“It’s time we stop letting vigilantes like Spider-Man make merry all over our fair city. It’s time for us to strike back! And that’s the Final Word!”
Eddie managed to get the earbud out of his ear as the outro music played through the speaker, then set it back in his ear.
After surviving Mysterio’s little shoot-out at the Bugle, Eddie was more than a little accepting of Spider-Man and his activities. He hoped that the webslinger had been paying attention to this stuff with the giant metal man-bird.
If he wasn’t, though, Eddie couldn’t say he blamed him.
He was pretty sure Jonah was the only person that didn’t get tired of the sound of Jonah’s voice.
******
‘Well, if what we’ve had running around isn’t enough, now we have a giant metal bird man flying around!’ Peter thought as he swung through New York. ‘Or so the Bugle says. Next JJ will be ranting about alligators in the sewers.’
He paused for a moment to contemplate that.
‘...well, you know what they say about broken clocks, Spidey.’ He reminded himself, putting the thought from his mind as he leaped toward another roof. ‘Still, I should probably keep on the lookout for any sign of the new bird in town, just in case.’ Pulling out his phone from one of his belt pouches, Peter checked the time. ‘Okay, I’ve got another hour and a half before my next class. I can do a good swing around…’
He took off into another swing, propelling himself parallel to the street below.
‘An hour and a half, time to kill…’
His path took him over a bank, or rather a place with four ATMs within it that was marked as belonging to one of Manhattan’s banks. Four men in bulkier than usual coats for this time of season were heading toward the place and, just before they went into view of the obvious cameras outside, Peter saw them pulling out and putting on ski masks.
‘Alright! Go time!’ Peter said, swinging down and keeping well overhead of the four men so as not to give away his position before his eventual drop in. He watched them from a distance as they entered the cashpoint and scanned the room. Luckily, no civilians were present which definitely put Peter’s mind more at ease.
He crawled in, sticking to the ceiling above, as he watched one of the men try to wedge a crowbar and force one of the ATMs open.
The other three stood guard, guns in hand.
‘Like shooting fish in a barrel…’ Peter thought as he quickly pulled the three men up rapidly while the fourth’s back was turned. One by one, he knocked them out and webbed them and their gun to the ceiling so it wouldn’t clatter to the floor and give away his position.
“I got it! I got it!” The criminal with the crowbar shouted out excitedly as he managed to pry the ATM open and started pulling stacks of cash from it.
“I hope you’ve got a deposit slip for all that,” Peter quipped after landing in on all fours on the wall right over the machine, “I hear they’re very strict about fraud prevention here.”
“Spider-Man!” The man gasped, nearly dropping the crowbar. “Waste him, guys!” After hearing no response from his comrades, he worriedly looked back to find none of them there, and then looked up to see all of them dangling upside down by spider webs. He looked back to Peter nervously. “N-N-N-Now, Spider-Man! I did-did-did-did-”
“Save it for the judge, buddy.” Peter said, quickly webbing the guy to the ATM.
“Oh, c’mon! Give me a break!” The man protested, getting his mouth webbed over for his trouble.
“No breaks,” Peter said, “I can’t cover your hospital bill anyway.” He said before ducking out through the front door and webbing off.