Author Note: Thank you to all the good fellows who reviewed. Keep at it.

Summary: Bitten by a genetically-modified Nephila clavipes (a golden silk orb-weaver spider), boy genius and grade A nerd Peter Parker becomes New York's newest golden orb-weaving, friendly neighbourhood protector.

The Orb Weaver
Book One
Chapter Six - A Shock to the System

Midtown High
Biology Class

"Regeneration," Cindy heard Professor Connors' voice in the background of her mind, as she drilled holes into the back of the new girl, Daisy Johnson's head, "is the process by which some organisms replace lost body parts. Now, there are a number of regenerative mechanisms inherent in different species. Regeneration is most common in invertebrates, occurring in almost all coelenterates and planarians, most annelids, and many insects. Now, which of you young, aspiring biologists can define 'Autotomy'? Hmm?"

The question snapped Cindy out of her murderous thoughts regarding the brunette sitting in the desk in front of her. She was about to raise her hand, but the Professor had his eyes on the brunette in question, who seemed to not really be paying attention and, instead, was doodling something on the blank page after the Foreword of her Bio textbook.

"Let's give the new ones an opportunity to shine, hmm? Miss Johnson?"

Daisy looked up at the Professor, before stuttering. "H-Huh? I, uh..."

Professor Connors gave a slightly disapproving look. "Miss Johnson, I know it's your first day, but understand that joining in the middle of the term only means that you should strive harder to catch up- yes, Miss Moon?"

Cindy had raised her hand then, and she stood up once she had Connors' attention. "Autotomy is defined as the spontaneous loss and replacement of a body part. It occurs in many insects and crustaceans, and enables them to shed a crippled leg or claw."

"Excellent, Miss Moon. Please sit down," Curt gave an approving smile, before placing his good hand on the stump attached to his right shoulder. "If that's too hard to retain for your exams, class, just remember that 'Autotomy' is the one superpower Professor Connors really, really wished he had."

At that, many students in the class smiled while some - including Peter - even laughed at the Professor's lighthearted jibe at himself.

Daisy leaned back in her seat, her mood clearly soured. Cindy sat back down, a triumphant smirk on her face. 'Ha, serves you right, not paying any attention in class right from the very first day. What a troublemaker... poor Peter must be really annoyed, being forced to live with someone like her of all people. She's almost as bad as Liz.'

Cindy spared Peter a glance, who too was in front of her, in the desk next to Daisy. She saw him leaning closer to Daisy and whispering something to her, and Daisy turned to him and smiled again.

Cindy instantly glowered at that scene. 'What the heck, Pete?!'

"Don't worry about Doc Connors, he means well. You're the computer geek, I'm the bio geek," was what Peter had whispered to Daisy, when she turned to him and smiled in response. Peter, his spider-vision far exceeding that of anyone else, could clearly see what Daisy had been doodling: a sketch of a little girl next to two elder figures, the female having the same hair as the girl and the male a similar face.

Peter couldn't really imagine what that felt like. At least he knew who his parents were, and he had their photographs plus a few, early memories. Daisy didn't even have that.

She had begun sketching again. It seemed that what she excelled at other than hacking was drawing; Peter saw her draw mini-figures of herself, him, Harry and Cindy standing together, the resemblance being spot-on. Underneath, she signed 'SM Inc.,' and Peter hid his laughter at that. Maybe one day he'd tell Harry and Cindy too. Once the situation with Harry's Dad cleared up... he had intended to pay Oscorp a visit last night, but then he had to reschedule to help Daisy move in.

"An artist and a hacker, intriguing combination," Peter whispered to her again. The great thing about having spider powers was that he knew exactly when to speak without Connors noticing.

Daisy grinned at him, and unbeknownst to the two of them, Cindy seethed behind them almost at the same time as Flash Thompson communicated, through hand gestures, to his friends Kong and Rand, plus his girlfriend Liz and her group consisting of Gwen and Sally. He directed their attention to the whispering and laughing Peter and Daisy.

'Target acquired,' Liz Allan smirked at Dumber Dorker and his new 'girlfriend', knowing full well what Flash was trying to say.

Daisy's phone vibrated in her pants' pocket twice. Alarmed, she sneaked it out; she knew what the double-vibration signified, she had set it up her herself. The moment Dr. Connors turned his back to them, Daisy nudged Peter and showed him her phone at a strange angle from her under her desk; she knew he could see the scrolling lines of text clearly thanks to his spider-vision.

'SNIPS: CNN: Suspected terrorist attack at New York Community Bank. NYPD Freq: All units converge on New York Community Bank immediately, one terrorist, armed with some sort of sonic weapon, extremely dangerous. The terrorist has hostages, saying 'I want the Spider-Man'. SWAT Freq: All teams converging on the Bank now-'

"Doctor Connors," Peter raised his hand.

Confused by the interruption, Curt looked behind. "Yes, Parker?"

"I uh... I need... to go the... bathroom?"

New York Skyline

Snagging web-line after web-line, the Spider-Man swung as fast as he could. Peter had been so lucky he had decided to wear his Spider-Man suit under his typical college clothes; it had been too much Superman for his opinion, and if there was one comic character Peter wasn't a fan of it was the Man of Steel, but Daisy had insisted it was a good idea. Guess she was right about that one.

"Ahsoka, update me on the hostage situation at the Bank," Spider-Man said.

'Displaying live feed,' in one corner of his HUD, Ahsoka pulled up a small picture-in-picture video of a news network reporting live from the seen. He saw that the terrorist or whatever he was had blown a giant hole in the bank wall, and the reporter was already citing multiple casualties.

"Oh crap," Spider-Man hissed under his breath as he pointed his clenched fist at a flag pole, a golden thread attaching it it and he tugged with all his spider strength, shooting through the air like a bullet. "What does that weirdo want with me?"

Midtown High
Biology Class

Daisy was counting the seconds in her head as she stared at the clock on the wall. The bell finally rang, signifying the end of class.

"Oh, that's it for today I guess," Professor Connors said as students began to get up. "I wonder whatever happened to Mister Parker, he never came back... oh, and class, remember to pre-read page 213 to 215 of your Bio textbook for our next lesson!"

Literally shovelling everything into her bag Daisy and bolted faster than anyone, almost out of the door when the Professor called her name. "Miss Johnson?"

'Crap, crap, crap, not now,' Daisy put on her best smile before turning to the Professor. "Yes, sir?"

"Miss Moon, you stay behind as well," the Professor added, and Daisy exchanged a glance with the Korean girl, who was looking at her strangely. The class emptied, and Daisy really wanted to strangle Professor Connors then and there. Peter needed her, she needed to be next to a freakin' computer or smartphone, not stuck in Bio class, not right now.

"Yes, Professor?" Cindy asked as she approached Connors' desk, where he sat and Daisy, restraining her anxiety, walked over there as well.

"Miss Johnson," the Professor began. "I understand this is your first day, and since we're already a quarter of the way through the syllabus, you've fallen quite behind. Miss Moon," Curt turned to Cindy. "I've always believed in cooperation among students, ever since I was one. Since you excel at this subject, I'm assigning you as Miss Johnson's tutor for the next few months. You are to help her catch up, whether during any free lessons or after school is up to your discretion."

Daisy and Cindy exchanged another glance, both clearly apprehensive of the idea, but for vastly different reasons.

'Oh...'

'... no...'

New York Community Bank

Standing with one foot on top of the heap of rubble he had created that had once been a bank wall, Shocker called out to the police gathered outside through a horn. "A'right, I'm gettin' tired o' waitin'. Find me the Spider in five minutes or e'eryone still breathin', won't-"

Two powerful, black-clad feet came out of nowhere faster than Shocker's eyes could track and planted themselves in his face, launching him through the air and crashing him into a cash counter as the guy behind the counter leapt for cover, screaming.

"Suzie, I'm home! Did you miss me?"

Spider-Man landed in a crouched four-legged position on the ground. Knowing Shocker was momentarily disoriented, he spared a glance at the hostages, before standing up straight, alarmed. There was a vibration signature here that registered in his spider-senses as familiar, too familiar... his eyes caught sight of a mop of red hair in one corner of the collapsed wall.

"N-No..." voice quivering, Spider-Man leapt, landing next to the fallen female he knew too well. 'AUNT MAY!' he shouted in his head, his heart sinking, as he quickly turned the unconscious woman onto her back and placed two fingers against her throat to check for a pulse.

A faint one, but it was there.

Weakly, she opened her eyes, and looked at him. "No... don't... S-Spider-Man...?" were three words that came out of her mouth before her eyes closed and she relapsed into unconsciousness.

Ensuring that her pulse was still going, Peter quickly lifted her up bridal style before shooting a web-line out of the building through the open wall Shocker had destroyed.

"Medic!" he shouted, as the rescue workers, filing their amazement and/or apprehension at seeing the Spider-Man this close to the back of their minds to do their professional duty, slid the gurney over and Spider-Man laid May down onto it, gently.

Moving back, his heart settling in the pit of his stomach as he saw them begin the emergency treatment, Spider-Man asked, "I-Is she gonna be alright?"

He would not receive an answer as right then and there something hit from from the side. Something that felt like the lovechild of an African elephant and a blue whale.

"AH!" Spider-Man yelled as he was launched through the air and crashed into a nearby police car, bending the car's frame into a giant hole. He slipped down onto the road butt-first, back against the horrifically deformed car, every bone in his body feeling like it had turned into powder. His left gauntlet sent out shooting sparks, the web shooting mechanism he had designed for his artificial webbing had been fried. Plus, he couldn't even get back up - whatever Shocker had hit him with had overloaded Peter's vibration sense so he couldn't even focus properly without suffering an intense bout of vertigo.

Midtown High
School Hallway

Daisy sprinted down the school hall towards the doors - she needed to get away from the other students and somewhere private to help Peter; it would mean she would have to cut the next classes but that was a small sacrifice that she knew she had to make.

She was almost at the door when, suddenly, she felt something press against her shoulder she was pulled back. She saw it was a girl from her class, who pulled her back and then pushed her straight into two other girls from the same class.

Gwen Stacy and Sally Avril held onto Daisy's arms to prevent her from escaping as Liz Allan walked up to her with a confident smirk on her face.

"Hey! What're you doing?! Lemme go, I have to be somewhere right now!" Daisy protested, but the two girls at her side prevented her from leaving, one latching onto each of her arms. "Hey!"

"Where? With your 'boyfriend'?" Liz Allan sneered, and Daisy stopped moving and glared back at Liz. "Oooh... a girl with some fight in her, I like that. This'll make what I'm about to do even more fun. Think of this as an Orientation: see, since its your first day and you decided to bunk with the Geek Squad, we're gonna show you who's at the top of the food chain around here, and who's at the bottom."

As she said that, Liz pulled out a can of spray paint from her purse, "Let's turn that pretty brown hair of yours a bright shade of pink."

Daisy sighed. "Okay, just remember, you forced me to do this, you Creepy Paint Lady."

Daisy suddenly slammed her elbows behind into Gwen and Sally's stomachs, knocking the wind out of them and pushing them both screaming onto the floor below. Seizing the moment of shocked confusion, Daisy ducked under Liz's side and bolted out the door.

"Get her!" Liz shouted, but by the time Gwen and Sally were on their feet again, clutching their aching midsections, Daisy was long gone.

From one corner, were narrowed eyes, Cindy Moon observed the whole fiasco take place.

Outside the Bank

"Hehe, yer not as big as ye were on the damn TV," Shocker said as he stepped out of the rubble. "Yer comin' with me, Web-Head."

"Grr... you f**king bastard," Spider-Man growled, his mind suddenly clouded with predatory, feral feelings that he did not even know he could feel. He wanted to punch this man's face into the ground until it bled, and then some. He had hurt - almost killed - Aunt May.

Mayday Reilly Parker. The only one Peter had left in this world.

"Good ta know yer language is more colourful as yer outfit," Shocker thrust his palm forwards, and Peter finally recovered enough of his senses to see the gauntlet sending compressed air waves in his direction.

Moving fast, Spider-Man flipped over the deformed police car behind him to land behind it. The shock wave hit the car, literally flattening it and sending it tumbling towards Spider-Man behind it, but Spider-Man sensationally fast, performing a handstand on reflex and twisting his legs before smashing both feet into the car and sending it hurtling towards Shocker.

The villain-in-question's eyes widened behind his yellow mask and he ducked for cover moments before what-had-once-been-a-police-car crashed onto the road where he had been standing a moment prior.

Growling, Shocker fired shockwave after shockwave at the Spider-Man, but the Web-Head was fast, too fast. Spider-Man flipped, rotated, twisted and dived out of the range of every shockwave, as if seeing it coming before it even hit him. Through his spider senses, that is exactly what Spider-Man could do.

Normally, Peter would attempt to slay his opponents with his wisecracks, but seeing Aunt May in the state she was on, Spider-Man was determined to end this as quickly as possible. Somersaulting in place to dodge another shockwave, Spider-Man landed on all fours before shooting a golden web straight at Shocker's face, blinding him.

"AH!" Shocker yelled, moving back to pry the web off his face, but Spider-Man flipped to land on his hands right in front of him, before performing a handstand and launching two, spider-strength powered kicks at the man. Spider-Man could feel his feet come into contact with Shocker's padded suit, and in a passing thought the Boy Genius realised that Shocker's suit had been padded thus to absorb the backlash from his own shockwaves.

That gave him an idea.

Shocker, meanwhile, skidded on the ground and landed a few feet away, face first, due to the force of Spider-Man's double-kick.

Spider-Man turned his attention to his golden bracelets. The web-shooter in the bracelet on his left arm had been fried, that was the one that also contained his tracers.

"Ahsoka, right web-shooter. Set to Impact Web and increase pressure to 500 psi," Spider-Man whispered to his AI.

"You got it, Skyguy. Right web-shooter, setting: impact, pressure: 500 pounds per square inch. Left web-shooter, malfunction. Watch out!"

His spider-senses registered the next shockwave even before Ahsoka's warning and Spider-Man flipped towards his right to avoid it, before shooting an organic golden web-line straight towards Shocker. Shocker blew the web-line away by shooting his shockwaves at it head-on, and the wave continued after tearing through the webbing before hitting Spider-Man again.

"AAH!" Spider-Man screamed as being hit with the shockwave directly overloaded his vibration sense while shooting him straight through a pole, which bent and snapped into two by the intensity of the sonic blast and Spider-Man crashed behind it into the pavement, surrounded by a newly formed crater.

"Alert, vitals unstable," Ahsoka's voice echoed in his head as numerous numbers flashed across his HUD, but for once, Spider-Man was not paying attention. "Heart rate 102 bpm, temperature 38 degrees C, blood pressure 180/90, respiratory rate 60 breaths per minute. Contacting Remote User: 'Skye', to make sure you don't die."

Spider-Man didn't really care if Ahsoka was trying to contact Daisy and tell her his sorry state; his head felt like it had been crushed under a truck, the intensity of the migraine was so severe that Peter's vision was literally swimming. He could feel the blood from his bleeding nose drenching his mask from the inside. Everything hurt so much that Spider-Man found himself unable to move.

Grinning proudly behind his mask, Shocker panted and stood up straight, before walking to the bleeding and writhing Spider-Man in the crater. Seeing him in that state, Shocker let his guard down, but Spider-Man was still conscious. Opening a single eye, Spider-Man saw Shocker's approaching feet and, with his artificial web-shooter still set at 500 psi, Spider-Man forced every muscle in his body to move as he raised his arm so fast it was a blur to Shocker and shot an Impact Web straight at Shocker's chest.

"WHAT?!"

The glob of artificial, silvery webbing struck straight at Shocker's chest before it expanded, surrounding his entire body and encasing him in an extremely durable web cocoon. So durable, that it absorbed his shockwaves much like the padding in his own suit, so that even when Shocker tried to fire his way out of the giant web ball he was now trapped in, he found his gauntlets rendered ineffective.

Spider-Man, still bleeding, pulled himself out of the crater. Peter was hurting, bleeding, angry, and he wanted to strangle this man right here for what he had done to Aunt May, but he had to get to where his aunt was first, because his work here was almost done. Spider-Man saw the police and SWAT teams surrounding their location, moving in.

"Wh-What did you want... with me?" Spider-Man growled out painfully, and Shocker, still struggling to free himself from the impact web, glared back at him.

"F**k off, you shitty bug."

The police took this as an opportunity to step in and do something really, really productive: "SPIDER-MAN, FREEZE!"

He didn't have time to deal with this right now. Spider-Man pulled his arm back and smacked it into Shocker's face so hard he was instantly knocked unconscious before, through all the pain and groans, back-flipping into the air, all in one swift movement that was so fast it was almost a blur to the surrounding police officers. Shooting a golden, organic web-line, Spider-Man web-zipped away into the New York skyline.

"He's gettin' away!" an officer yelled, before firing a shot that missed the escaping Spider-Man, but Captain George Stacy grabbed his hand and lowered.

"Let him go, son," the Police Captain said, turning to the unconscious Shocker trapped in the giant silvery web ball, "We're pretty much gonna have our hands full with this one as it is."

Random Alley, Manhattan

His head throbbing, ears ringing dumbbells and nose bleeding rivers, Spider-Man found himself unable to coordinate himself in the air anymore. Being hit with Shocker's shockwaves head-on, twice, had literally overloaded his vibration sense. A web-line Spider-Man fired missed its target anchoring point by a good meter and Spider-Man fell into the alley, only for his fall to be broken by an open trash container into which he fell. He was disoriented, every muscle in his body aching, but nothing was as severe as the migraine that had engulfed his head.

"Peter? Peter are you there?" he heard Daisy's voice in the receiver in his mask, and almost gasped a sigh of relief. "Peter!?"

"C-can't m-move, head hurts... ugh!" Spider-Man groaned out, barely keeping himself unconscious through the pain.

"Oh, my goodness... Peter, hold t-tight, I'll track you through Ahsoka. I-I'm coming, Peter, okay? Stay awake and just follow the sound of my voice. Peter? Peter, stay with me, stay with me! Peter, are you there? PETER!" those were the last words Peter heard before the darkness overcame him.

An Hour Later

"Peter?"

As he began to come to, Peter felt like someone had run a truck over him, but as the memories came rushing to him he shot upright to sit on his hips.

"Ow!"

"Ah!"

Only for his head to hit a girl's - it was Daisy, Peter recognised the mop of brown hair once his vision cleared somewhat. "Wha-where?"

"I had to deal with Professor Connors, skip the next two classes, fight through three crazy bullies, exchange two taxis and come all the way from Midtown to here, and I get greeted with a freakin' head bump?" she ranted, as she held her forehead which had been hit with Peter's own masked head. Peter, due to his enhanced durability, hadn't even really felt the blow, but Daisy felt it hard, and it hurt.

"I'm sorry," Peter apologised, before passing a hand over his face and then looking down at himself: the shirt of his costume was off, but the mask was still on. "Why am I...?"

Daisy blushed and still holding her head, crouched down to pick up the black shirt with a golden spider pattern from the ground before throwing it at Spider-Man and immediately looked in the other direction. She hadn't expected him to be so... well-toned.

"I know basic First Aid," she explained, still looking away, as Spider-Man put the shirt on to complete his costume, "I've been on the streets long enough before to know basic survival skills... I had to make sure you were alright. We're lucky you decided to blank out in a dark, abandoned alley with no people around to ask questions... I made sure no one was looking and unmasked you for a little bit. You were bleeding through your nose, I didn't know what to do about that, but I cleaned it up, and you had huge blue bruises all over your chest but they seemed to have faded just before you woke up... you just heal really fast, I guess."

She turned around to see Spider-Man sitting on the ground, fully costumed again, and held out her hand, which he gratefully took and pulled himself onto his feet.

Then, Spider-Man pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her mid-riff and she blushed again - now she even knew what he looked like underneath that already skin-tight costume of his, and she couldn't shake the image out of her head - before he fired a yellow silk-line above and zipped himself along with her through the air. He flipped, with her, as she screamed and then laughed, and the two of them landed on the roof.

"Whoo!" Daisy gasped, as Spider-Man let her go and she found herself on the roof.

"This is wrong," Spider-Man said. "This is crazy. You shouldn't be here. You promised me you wouldn't come out into the field. What if someone saw us?"

Daisy glanced at him incredulously. "I thought you... you stopped talking. The built-in tracer in your suit was not moving. I was afraid you were dead, Peter. What the crap was I supposed to do, go home and wait for you with May?"

"Aunt May..." Spider-Man's yellow lenses widened. He grabbed Daisy's shoulders. "Daisy, find Aunt May. She was at the Bank. She was hurt. Find out where they took her, now!"

"What?! How?" she pried his arms off her shoulders before pulling out her smartphone. While the Hospital or the authorities would've contacted Peter themselves once they had ID'd her, Peter had put a tracer in May's phone as well, just in case.

"She's at Bellevue-hey!"

Spider-Man didn't even let her finish as he wrapped his arm around her waist, fired a web-line, and leapt off the building.

Bellevue Hospital Center
First Avenue and East 26th Street, Manhattan

Peter Parker, in civilian clothes, and Daisy Johnson came running through the hospital corridor towards the reception desk.

"I'm Peter Parker!" Peter interrupted whatever the receptionist was doing, visibly upset. "My aunt... she was injured, in the attack at the bank-"

"May Parker?" she inquired, both Peter and Daisy nodded vehemently. "We just finished ID'ing her and I was about to call you. We just moved her out of the trauma center."

"So, that means she's alright?" Peter asked, a trace of a relieved smile on his face.

The receptionist shook her head. "She's stable, so we're moving her into a separate room. But she's comatose and she's suffered a traumatic disc herniation, so, even if she wakes up, she'll most likely have trouble walking for several months. I'm sorry."

And Peter Parker's whole world shattered apart.

CNN

"Greetings New York, this is Sally Floyd bringing you the 'Views On News'. Today's top story: the terrorist attack at New York Community Bank; the terrorist in question apprehended by the police with the help of none other than the Spectacular Spider-Man. Yet, there were eleven casualties along with tremendous destruction of public and private property in the ensuing battle royale between the Spider-Man and the Shocker, and although no casualties have been reported deceased, one, a lady named May Parker, is in a coma. Joining us is senior investigative journalist, Dr. Ned Leeds, to give his take on the whole fiasco. Dr. Leeds?"

"Hey Sally, hello New York. Glad to be here today."

"Dr. Leeds, a hot trend on social media right now suggests that the Spider-Man and the Shocker may have been working together, staging a fight in order to garner more popularity for the Spider-Man. This is supported by the fact that the Shocker specifically called for the Spider-Man as his only demand, instead of any ransom or anything else. What are your thoughts on that?"

"I don't know. We don't know. We don't know anything about the Spider-Man or the Shocker, especially since the NYPD is keeping any investigations from the latter under wraps until further notice... but, and this is my opinion, I don't think that's the case. The Shocker, from his modus operandi, appears to be more of the psycho-'I-wanna-challenge-you' kind of... bad guy, even more so than a terrorist. Uh... he probably wanted to test the strength of these 'shock gauntlets' he invented - and I think that is what they're being called now - against the, uh, Spider-Man, whom he must have considered some kind of an exotic challenge. But until we know for sure... until the Spider-Man actually talks to us or decides to tell us who he is like Tony did... because til now he's just been this huge, web-slinging mystery... there's really no way to be sure, I guess, and there is a lot of mistrust in the general public about... 'Enhanced' people like the Spider-Man."

That night
Times Square

A man clad in a long, dark trench coat, most of his face concealed beneath a black hat, stood beneath a light pole as he stared at the giant screen in the middle of Times Square, displaying the CNN news show along with footage of the actual battle between the Shocker and the Spider-Man that had taken place earlier that morning.

"So you finally slipped up, didn't you, Schultz?" the man muttered, his voice hoarse, as if water hadn't touched his throat for years. His lips, a dark blue, fashioned into a malicious smirk across his unnaturally pale visage. "The NYPD, eh? First I'm gonna kill you... then there'll be no one to keep me from Osborn. I'll end you both, slowly and painfully, the way you ended me...!"

In a sudden, blinding flash of light, the man disappeared instantaneously as if he had never been standing there. Bolts of lightning shot out from the place where he had been standing a second prior and struck random passerbys, who yelled out of fright and confusion, running away.

No one noticed the bluish-white arc of electricity dancing around the street light at the top of the light pole; the street light which burst apart a moment later. Small shards of glass rained down on from the street light on the electrified but otherwise empty street.

May Parker's Room

A tear flowing down his eye, Peter stared at the unconscious form of his aunt as he sat at the side of her bed, his right hand on her's. Daisy stood beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Pete," she said softly, but he remained silently.

The two remained there in silence after that. Minutes turned into hours, and Daisy sat on the bench next to Peter, before she finally broke the silence. "Maybe... I should just leave."

"What?" Peter turned to glance at her. "No, please, I don't want to be alone with my Aunt or anything... I think I actually need the company."

"No," Daisy smiled sadly at him and squeezed his shoulder again. "I mean... leave. I go to the Brodys, six days later the whole building goes up in flames. I move into your house and two days later, this happens," she waved her hand at the comatose May.

Peter gave her the 'have you lost your mind?' look.

"Look, Peter," Daisy sighed. "I'm sixteen years old and I haven't lived in the same place for more than two years. Ever. Something... bad... happens every time I feel settled somewhere. Maybe my parents were really bad people? Because I think I'm... I'm cursed or something. I bring bad luck wherever I go. Maybe I should become a crappy cat burglar and start calling myself 'the Black Cat'."

Understanding, Peter sighed and shook his head. "That's nonsense, you can't be cursed if you didn't do anything wrong. Stop blaming yourself... besides, this is my fault."

"No," Daisy turned to look at him. "No! You did everything you could. You almost died out there, fighting that creep, but you won, and now he's behind bars."

Peter scowled. "But he wanted... he wanted to fight 'the Spider-Man'..."

Daisy nodded. "Yeah, the same Spider-Man who saved May, and a lot of other people, from dying. This isn't your fault, none of this is. May was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Peter sighed and shook his head, trying to clear up the cobwebs. Why had that Shocker guy wanted to fight him, was it just for a challenge?

'No', Peter remembered. "He said, 'you're coming with me'... he wanted to capture me."

Daisy glanced up at him, confused. "What? But, why?"

"I don't know," Peter got off the bench, turning towards the closed window. "But I'm going to find out."

Daisy stood and followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to pay our friend 'Shocker' a visit," he clarified and Daisy found herself debating whether it was a good idea to let Peter go and break into police custody while he was still so massively emotionally compromised.

Peter slid open the window, the cool night breeze entering the room and dancing around them, blowing back her and Peter's hair.

He placed one foot on the window sill, "Meanwhile, I need you to find a computer, I'm sure there's one for public use in this hospital somewhere. Do your thing. There's bound to be something on this guy, somewhere. Police files, CIA, FBI, SHIELD, just find me anything you can anywhere on 'The Shocker'. Who he is, what he is, and most importantly, who's he working for and has worked for in the past."

Daisy understood and nodded as she hugged herself for warmth against the cool breeze. "Okay, but Peter, please, I beg you," she sounded desperate. "Don't do anything stupid."

Peter remained as he was for a few seconds, unmoving. Then, his chest rose and fell in a deep sigh and he nodded, before jumping out the window.

Daisy walked over, glancing out the window to be greeted by the colourful night-time New York lights, before spotting a black dot swinging away on a yellow thread down below. She closed the window but kept it unlocked for Peter to come back. Turning around, Daisy stalked over to and out of the door on the other side of the room, stopping for a moment close it gently, before descending several flight of stairs to find herself a computer.

Reviews requested.
End of line.