The Spider-Man

L A T E R

Peter had been following the group of girls for a few hours now, and he'd yet to be noticed. He had almost been caught a few times, but was able to keep those few times at a close call.

Even though he hadn't been caught, however, he had also learned absolutely nothing about where they'd be testing out their experiment. They'd brought up just about everything except for that, in fact.

Peter knew that he'd have to head home soon, but he figured that maybe they'd mention it soon.  It was 8:00, so it had already started to get dark outside.

They had all been out for a while, shopping and talking. Those girls had brought up a variety of things while they all conversed, such as fashion, science, parties, sports, and even farming.

Peter had actually wished he could join in on those conversations a few times, but he knew that would probably blow his cover.

After a few more minutes of following them, he figured that he should finally go home to his aunt. He wasn't too far from the neighborhood that he had recently moved to, which was a relief. He had actually worried about how far he'd be from home at first.

He was on top of the same bakery he had started following them at when he decided to head back to his aunt's house, and so were the girls. They were sitting inside of the bakery, talking about something.

Peter turned to climb back down into the alleyway that he'd climbed up the bakery's wall in, but saw a woman with teal glasses and magenta hair quickly walking into it, being followed by a suspicious-looking guy, who was wearing a nice, baggy, black coat.

As soon as they were both far enough down the alley, the woman turned around, and opened her mouth to talk, but the man pushed her to the ground before she could. As she hit the floor, the man swiped her handbag from her, and began looking through it.

Peter knew that this would end badly. He reached into his jeans' pockets, and pulled out a folded red mask. He also took his sunglasses out of his jacket's pockets, and put them on. After putting these on, he pulled his hood over his head, and took action.

"P-please just take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me..." The woman said, her heart beating faster and faster in fear.

The man frowned in disappointment, then threw the expensive handbag down onto the dirty, cold ground. "I won't hurt you as long as you tell me where your wallet is."

The woman began to reach into one of her coat's pockets, and searched for the wallet. "Here! I-it's in my coat!" The woman said, taking the wallet out of her coat, and handing it over to the mugger.

"Thanks, lady." The thief said as he turned around and started to walk away. While he walked away, there was a ring coming from the door of the bakery, indicating that someone had just walked out of the bakery.

Hearing footsteps besides his own, the criminal slowed down.

He stopped moving completely when a girl with long, pink hair and butter-colored skin started walking past the alleyway, before stopping, and looking into the alleyway. When the girl did this, she gasped louder than the robber had ever heard anyone gasp before.

"M-mom?!" The girl said quietly, looking at the woman that the mugger had just robbed.

"Fluttershy, RUN!!!" The woman shouted, her voice cracking a little bit.

Fluttershy didn't move at all, though. She just stared at the man in shock and fright. The thug started to walk towards Fluttershy, rather slowly, in order to create an intimidating effect. Fluttershy began to whimper in fear, letting the man know that it worked.

"Hey, why don't you be just like your mother, and give me whate-"

Before the goon could finish his sentence, a web shot out of the darkness, and yanked the man back.

"WHAAAAGH!" The thug screamed as he was pulled through the air, and landed on the ground.

The thief stood up, pulled out a balisong knife, and started opening it. Before he could, though, another web shot out from the darkness, and hit his hand, pulling it to the wall opposite to the bakery's wall.

"What the hell?" The man shouted, trying his hardest to pull his hand off of the wall.

"Man, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" A voice said, presumably the one that had trapped the man against the wall.

Peter walked out of the shadows of the alleyway, and looked at the criminal. He had a red mask on, accompanied by a pair od shades, so that no one knew what he looked like.

"Who the hell are you?!" The thug asked, still trying to pull his hand off of the wall.

"Oh, I wouldn't try and pull that stuff off the wall. The pressure that you're applying with your hand is just gonna make your hand really sticky. Really sticky. I need to find a way to make this stuff adhere less to skin. That'll probably get annoying soon." Peter said.

"Hey, come on, man! Let me outta this stuff!" The thug pleaded.

"I think the cops will do that for me. Now, let's see what all you've taken from people tonight!" Peter said, shooting a web at the criminal's other hand, trapping the his other hand to the wall, too.

The criminal continued to tell Peter to let him go, but Peter ignored him, and went for his coat. He opened it, and began to shuffle through the pockets.

"Hmmm... let's see..." Peter said, feeling around for the woman's stolen wallet.

"Oh, hey, ma'am." Peter said, turning his head to the woman who had just been mugged. "Don't worry about your wallet. You'll get it back in just a second."

The woman just nodded, obviously confused and surprised about what was going on.

Peter removed his hand from the muggers jacket after a moment, and pulled out-

"Wow, man. Three wallets? You've robbed three people tonight?" Peter said, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" The thief barked at Peter.

"Just that it's not right, really. But man, you're good enough at being a criminal that you've mugged three people tonight, but you're still too stupid to wear a mask while you do it. You know, you're smarter than the guy who discovered black holes, you know that? I mean, you could probably discover white holes, or something if you felt like it." Peter said sarcastically.

"Y-you, too!" The thug said, making Peter burst into laughter.

"Oh, man! Ha-ha! Hey, that's a nice comeback! I might use that one day!" Peter said, taunting the thug.

"Hey, shut up! " The thug said, his face turning red in embarrassment.

"Hey man, I might just do this a little more often if this is the reaction I'll get from the people like you!" Peter said, continuing to humiliate the crook.

"Shut the hell up!"

"Hey!" Peter shot a web over the man's mouth, silencing him. "Really! These nice people might not like your foul mouth, mister!" Peter said, pointing at Fluttershy and her mother.

He turned to them, and started walking towards them, making them back away.

"Hey, woah, woah, woah! I'm not here to hurt you two. I'm just trying to help you out." Peter said, backing away carefully in response.

"You aren't...?" Mrs Shy said.

"Ma'am, if I wanted to hurt you, I would've done that already! I'm just here to help you get your wallet back." Peter said. "Here, is this one yours?" He said, taking one of the three wallets he held into his other hand, and holding it out.

"Y-yes..." Mrs. Shy said, still shaken about the current situation.

"That's great! Here, do you wanna catch it, or should I just hand it to you?" Peter asked.

"Here, I'll... t-take it..." Mrs. Shy said, slowly stepping towards Peter. When she got close enough, she took the wallet, and stepped back.

"Alright, good. So... uh..." Peter looked at the two other wallets in his hand. "Do you mind taking these to the police station? I can call and  let them know what happened, but... I'm not sure they'd be so warm and welcoming to a guy in a mask... y'know since that usually fits the profile of the bad guy?" Peter asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh, yes! O-of course I can do that! I... I have to repay you for... well... saving me." Mrs. Shy said.

"Oh gosh, thank you so much, ma'am, I-I really appreciate it. I should be repaying you right now." Peter said as Mrs. Shy took the other two wallets.

"Oh, no! You saved me first, so I should be repaying you!" Mrs. Shy said.

"Ma'am, I was just doing what should've been done. I should be repaying y-" Peter glanced at Fluttershy, and noticed that she was totally still, and that her eyes were as wide as pizza pies.

"Hey, miss? You alright back there?" Peter asked. Mrs. Shy looked over at her daughter, then ran right up to her, pulling her into a big hug.

"Oh, I'm so sorry you had to see that, Fluttershy! You're still in school! You should've never witnessed any of that!" Mrs. Shy said. Fluttershy hugged back, hanging her head over her mother's shoulder.

"Why would anyone do this?" Fluttershy thought, looking at the man who was trapped against a wall, and still struggling to break free.

And them she realized that the boy in the mask was nowhere in the alleyway.

"M-mom! He's gone!"

Mrs. Shy let go of Fluttershy and turned around, hoping that Fluttershy wasn't talking about the thief. She was relieved to see that the thief was still stuck to the wall, and silenced, but she was confused about where the masked boy went.

"Fluttershy, we need to make a trip to the police station. I need to give these wallets to them, and I need to tell them what happened." Mrs. Shy said.

Fluttershy nodded, and thought about what had happened for a moment.

And then one thing popped into her mind.

"Was that the boy from the video?"