I was tired. So damn tired. More than usual at least; to the point that most of last night was a blur. After the fight, if you could even call it that, I’d left to grab my stuff to see Grandpa Will. I’d had to get a new set of clothes from home, because someone had decided it was a good idea to steal random clothes people left in alleys. That or I’d forgotten which alley I’d left it in. It was probably the latter. After grabbing the clothes I’d had to stop a few crimes. Some idiot trying to steal a motorcycle, a bunch of thugs trying to rob a gun store, and even some lady trying to steal someone's cat. That had been weird.

Anyway, by the time I’d gotten back to the hospital, Liz was already there. I’d had a tough time trying to explain that away, but I’d just used the burn as an excuse. Something about a guy spilling coffee on me. After we’d searched the tents and found Aunt May and Grandpa Will, who both seemed happier to see me than I’d expected. That’d made me feel bad.

We’d all stayed together, laughing and talk amongst ourselves despite the bleakness of the situation, till they’d taken Grandpa to a new hospital. After, I'd called Sajani and the others to let them know what was happening, but by that point they'd already seen the news.

Then Lucas had called. I remember being just as surprised as I’d been the first time he'd called me. I’d spoken to him for a bit, but I’d been running on fumes by that point, and he could probably tell. I couldn't remember a word of what we'd talked about, but I remember he'd seemed sad. I needed to call him back. I sighed. After that I'd hit the hay and slept like a log. Now I was back at Liz’s, watching the news as we ate toasted bagels, snuggled up together.

Footage of the wanton destruction from last night played on the TV, before cutting to a video of Max, wreathed in electricity shouting as he faced away from the camera. He glanced back, the camera momentarily capturing his face before he cried out, electricity crackled through the air and the video stopped. The feed cut to a picture of the Max’s face as a voice over continued.

“The man shown in the picture is Max Dillon, a former firefighter, who yesterday evening attacked a hospital. Reports say nineteen were killed and over fifty were injured in the attack. As of yet nobody knows what caused this sudden outburst but-“

I tuned out. Nineteen dead. And they were making Max out to be a villain. Sure, he'd caused it, but it had been clear to me something was wrong with him. He hadn't wanted to hurt people. I should've made that clear to the media, dammit. He needed help, not this. I needed to find him. I probably should’ve been out patrolling already. I glanced at the time. It was 12:05. Already a later than I usually began patrol, and I had a ton of stuff to do after as well. I needed to get started on making the spider bots and get them out on the streets. There was so much I had to watch out for, on top of day-to-day crimes. The Prowler -sorry, Prowlers. Then there was Max, and those killer robots. I needed to go, but the warmth of the space refused to let me. I was so comfortable right now. I looked down at Liz. Dammit.

“Liz” I whispered. She looked up at me, catching my sad expression. Her face fell slightly. No words were needed. I kissed her on top of her head, then moved out from under her, stretching as I stood up.

“You look tired” she said, watching me closely.

“I feel tired” I said, forcing a grin. I grabbed my jacket and pulled it on, before scooping up my bag.

“Do you really have to go? Come on it’s the weekend” Liz said standing up.

“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll be back before four” I said, slipping into my shoes.

“… fine. Not like you wouldn’t go even if I wanted you to stay” she said. I made a face. “Oh you know what I meant. I know how important your work is to you. Go.”

I gave her a quick kiss, then made my way over to the door. I opened it and stepped out into the hallway.

“Oh, and don't forget as soon as you get back, we’re sorting out what to wear tomorrow”

“Got it. See you later babe” I said, making my way down the hall.

“Bye Petey” she cutely, giving a small wave. I waved back before stepping into the stairwell. I checked up and down before glancing back down the corridor. Liz waved at me again and I waved back.

'Love you' she mouthed.

"Love you too" I said back softly. She closed the door and I sighed. I dug into my pocket and switched on my burner phone. It opened to a hundred and seven voicemails. I already wanted to go back and snuggle up with Liz. Instead, I trudged up the stairs as I opened my bag, fishing out my web-shooters. I could already tell this Saturday was going to be a long one.

-

“You should floss. It helps your breath more than people realise” I joked, before leaping out the way of a glob of acid spit. I webbed the villain’s mouth together then laid him out flat with a quick punch. I looked around. That was all of them. I webbed them to the floor then pulled out my burner phone. I paused then pointed to one of the pedestrians.

“Can you call the MDA for me?” I asked. They nodded, slightly in awe.

“Perfect” I said, flashing them a thumbs up. Quickly, I leapt into the air and swung away.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The city was in absolute chaos. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but every time I tried to stop something; two more things popped up. It was like every small-time villain had decided to do something on the same day. I had more voicemails than when I’d started, and I still hadn’t even made it out of Brooklyn either. Hey, at the very least I got to test out new material.

I pressed the phone to my ear, letting it stick as I swung about. “You are listening to voicemail 54 -beep- Uh… hi. Uh… this is kind of weird… kind of surreal too… sorry. Spider-Man, ha ha, uh… I’m Jodie, and my son’s name is Terrence. I know we’re probably not supposed to use this line for this, but it’s my son’s birthday today and I thought if you have any time at all, it would be really cool if you could drop by. We’re on 69th Road, Forest Hills, and he’s turning eight today. You can't miss the house cause of all the birthday banners outside. He’s a really big fan and I just want him to have something good happen after everything with his dad and… sorry. If you’re busy with… superhero things, it’s ok. The party ends at five. I… just think about, please. Thanks”

The voicemail ended and I found myself, stuck to a building face, thinking. Technically this was a spam call. I should ignore it, but... Forest hills. That wasn't too far from May's. A kid’s birthday party? Now that I knew about it, I’d feel bad if I didn’t go. I’d show up for a few minutes at the end of my patrol, then I could grab some things from the shed to get started on the bots afterwards. I grinned. See? It all worked out in the end. There was another beep and a different voicemail started playing, I paused it as the sound of sirens blared through the streets. Fire sirens. They were close.

I stood and sprinted up the face of the wall, before pulling myself to the top with webs. I landed on the roof and looked around quickly spotting the rising plumes of black smoke from a building nearby. It was a big one, the heat from the fire causing the air to flicker about viciously. Seriously, today just kept getting busier and busier.

I jumped from the roof, and fired out a web, swinging gracefully through the air. I frowned as I scanned the streets, recognising the area. I turned my attention back to the building. This was another one of the research labs I’d interviewed at. Roxxon. Shit. It had to be the robots again. I picked up the pace, and reached the building, swinging inside. I waded through the smoke into the remnants of a laboratory. It was empty, the only sound being the fire alarms and the sputtering of the sprinklers. Had I been wrong? I jogged through and spotted the mangled corpse of a cleaner. Dammit. I hadn’t been. They were here, or at least they had been. I was probably too late. Thank God, it was a weekend, or this could’ve ended much worse. I jogged towards a separate area where smoke pooled out of and came to a stop. One side of the lobby was a mess of debris, and fire. On the other side a robot stood completely still, staring out the window of the lobby, as if looking out over the city. Strange. I crawled up onto the wall, watching it as I positioned myself overhead, perplexed. Now that I got a good look at it, I could tell their tails of their armour had been modelled after scorpion stingers.

I furrowed my brow. This one was different somehow. It wasn’t just mindlessly rampaging, hell bent on destruction and for some reason it hadn’t blown up. Messed up programming? Well, that was good, I guess. Less casualties and destruction. I cracked my knuckles. Time to get started. I’d end this quickly, and carefully.

I fired a web, grabbing the robot’s back, and yanked it backwards, and up, swinging into open air. I blasted it with webs, wrapping it in a cocoon as it shot into the sky. I watched and waited for the explosion, but none came. Instead, the robot ripped free of its restraints and screeched as it began to fall, arms wide. Shit.

I charged up the side of the building, flying past storey after storey, as I lined myself up with the scorpion robot. With a burst of strength, I leapt up to meet the robot in the air, shattering the glass underfoot. I fired a web at it, but it cut through with its tail and stretched out towards me. We slammed into one another and hurtled towards the roof, crashing against the concrete. I rolled on the floor, winded but stood to face the monster. It leapt towards me arms extended. We met each other, our hands slamming against the others in a test of strength. The stinger attacked, but I blocked it with the robot’s own arm.

It roared and switched to pulling against me, I stumbled forwards, and the robot raised me off the ground. I kicked off their chest, ripping myself from the iron grip as the telson shot towards me, grazing the side of my face. I grabbed onto it, holding it tightly, as the robot tried to pull away. We stood in a tug of war over its stinger, the ground cracking beneath our feet. I let go, and the robot stumbled back crashing to the floor. I didn’t get the chance to use my opportunity though, instead stumbling as nausea gripped me. What the?

I stumbled to and fell to one knee as my senses betrayed me, all violently assaulting each other in a mess of noise. My body felt like lead. My spider sense buzzed, and I looked up. The robot was up, and it screeched the sound rattling my brain, before diving at me. I rolled to the side, but it caught my shoulder and slammed me to the ground. It held me down as it’s stinger snaked around turning to face me. My spider sense buzzed and in a panic I uppercut it hard. It flew upwards and panic gripped me. But no explosion came. It crashed to the ground, part of its mask sparking.

I lay still trying to make sense of everything through the weird fog. My cheek throbbed and I reached for my face. Poison. Great, so they weren’t just for skewering people. The robot stood up, shaking its head thoroughly as it felt at its mask. I frowned and then it turned to me. My eyes went wide in shock and my spider sense buzzed. Instinctively I threw myself backwards, shielding my eyes from a flash of light, as a blast of heat and shrapnel slammed into me.

I flipped backwards through the air, still disorientated, before catching myself. I breathed heavily, dangling off the side of the building by a finger before pulling myself to the wall. I gripped it tightly, my entire body shaking. Eyes. I’d seen human eyes. They weren’t robots, they were people inside suits. What the hell was going on?

Slowly, I climbed back up to the roof, taking in the destruction and debris. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as before. For some reason the explosion hadn’t gone off properly. My eye caught a shiny piece of green shrapnel, the sunlight glinting off of it. I picked it and turned it over, running my fingers across it. It was part of the suit. I paused, staring at a small, slightly bronzed chrome part that peeked through the green covering. I recognised the indent. It was the symbol for a research lab. Lupus Labs. A small front facing wolf. I froze.

That’s where my former biology professor, Miles Warren worked. Worked was an understatement. It’s where he was head of research operations. Why was their logo even here? Did they even make materials? Or where they behind this? It made sense it a twisted way, I mean, they were eliminating competition. But why this? And the people in the exploding scorpion suits? What was that? I glanced back at the destruction with a sinking feeling. I couldn’t tell whether the attack today had been to limit loss of life or not. This was starting to make more and less sense at the same time. “Seriously, what the hell is happening?” I mumbled.