Chapter 29: Gotcha!

The first thing I want to do when I get home is to call Mary-Jane, but then I notice that my fingernails are turning into sharp and massive claws. I glanced down at my hand, and the wounds were scaly right in front of my eyes. It's barely been half an hour, though! Good thing Gwen didn't see it.

Maybe it was the stress and the wounds. The transformation was accelerated by external factors. The heartbeat, the surges of adrenaline and other hormones, all contributed to the speeding up of my transformation into a Lizard. As did the extensive wounds, apparently they also spurred my regeneration. I need more tests.

I inject myself with the antiserum and, after waiting for the external factors to disappear, I call M.J..

"Hello," she answers immediately, in a worried voice. "Peter, is that you?"

"Yes," I answer and feel an uneasy feeling in my chest. I had just kissed another girl... I realize that polygamous relationships are the norm in this world, but the dogma that's been ingrained in me since I was a kid makes me feel guilty for MJ.

"Are you okay? Where are you? Did they let you go?" A hail of questions came flying at me from the frightened girl.

"Yes, yes, I was rescued by the Spiderwoman, she brought me home, I'm fine, and where are you?"

"I'm still near the cafe, I'll take a cab and I'll come to you, don't go anywhere," she answers with relief.

So as not to worry the girl unnecessarily, I decide to immediately change into something clean and bathe. I go to the shower and quickly rinse off the traces of blood and burning.

Five minutes later the phone rings again, and then the doorbell rings.

"I can't get to you, the doors are locked!" The girl on the phone says agitatedly.

"Wait, I'll get it," I get out of the shower, unplugging the phone.

Just as I open the door, M.J. throws herself at my neck, nearly knocking me down. Her clothes are disheveled and there are tear marks on her face.

"I was so scared!" she screamed, clutching me in her arms. "I thought they were going to kill you!"

I only now realize what a fool I have been. I was so used to Mary Jane's understanding and acceptance of the risks of my hobby in that world that I didn't even think about how much she was worried about me. I'm not a superhero anymore, after all. In her eyes, I'm just a regular sixteen-year-old kid taken hostage by gangsters.

"It's okay," I whisper to her, stroking her back soothingly, "see, I'm fine. I'm not as easy to kill as I look."

"Don't joke about that!" M.J. pulls away to look me in the eye, and I notice an abrasion on her forehead.

"Hey, what's that?" I ask, pulling aside the hair that covers the wound. "Is it me?"

"What?" Mary Jane touches her forehead in surprise and looks at the drops of blood on her fingers in bewilderment. "I must have bumped into the table next to me."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you so hard!"

"Fool," she says quietly, "you were trying to protect me."

What do you mean, tried to protect you? I did, and quite successfully! But Mary Jane, with a light, tender kiss, deprives me of the opportunity to say it aloud.

I like this turn of events, but my joy is premature. The girl's phone rings.

"I'd like to stay," she says in an apologetic tone, "but I've already missed three calls from my mother."

"In that case, you'd better hurry up and not play with fire," I smirk.

It just so happens that I don't want to sleep again, for the second night in a row. All because of the effect of the Lizard serum, the body has renewed itself and needs action. I'd love to spend that energy in bed with M.J.... but being a schoolgirl puts a lot of restrictions on her. I'd somehow forgotten about it because neither Aunt May nor school has much influence on my life. But legally, neither Mary Jane nor I are responsible for ourselves yet.

To keep myself busy, I created my own social media accounts and immediately posted a picture of me and Gwen and Bunny together. The meaningful caption, "Gotcha!" took on an even more meaningful meaning in this world. They were both caught in my web, though in different ways.

I was sitting there smiling stupidly, looking at this writing, when I heard a knock on my room window.

"Peter, it's me, open up," I heard a familiar voice.

"Mary Jane! What are you doing there?" I hurriedly opened the window, letting the girl in. She was only wearing short denim shorts and a red tank top.

"My mother punished me," she explained as she climbed in. "I am now without a phone, without a computer, and under house arrest for not answering her calls."

"And you decided to make it worse by running away from home?" I wondered, picking up the girl by the waist so I could sit her on my lap.

"I just thought you barely go to school, and now we can't see each other until my mom calms down," she kissed me passionately on the lips.

It was impossible to ignore such an obvious offer.

***

The morning started with the doorbell ringing. I had a bad feeling about it, so I didn't get to the door until after I'd put on my combat gear: web shooters and a hoop with the last of the Lizard serum.

"Open up, police!" came from the other side.

Of course... since my face was caught on so many phones, I wasn't even trying to hide my involvement in yesterday's incident, but I didn't think they'd be here so soon.

I also didn't expect that the person they would send to my house would be a police officer I already knew.

"There you are, Parker!" Doakes grins, flashing his bald head.

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The woman tries to enter the house, but I block her way.

"What's the meaning of this?" I ask, not even trying to hide my displeasure.

"It means that you've had enough..." She begins, but I do not intend to tolerate her rudeness.

"Are you threatening me?" I interrupt her.

Doakes Partner comes to my rescue and explains that I'm only being called as a witness in the case. Actually, it could have been done with a notification, but Officer Doakes volunteered to notify me. Deciding not to waste time, I agree to go to the station with the police officers.

The second policewoman clearly sympathizes with me and becomes a willing buffer between me and the angry black woman.

At the station I am escorted through an office packed with cops like canned herring, and handed over to not just anyone, but Captain Stacy. As you might guess, Jane Stacy is Gwen's mother. It's a small world.

When we are alone, the woman walks to the glass door of her office and closes the blinds.

"Have a seat," she says, pointing to a chair.

Stacy tries to be neutral, to avoid being rude, and in general, to treat me in an overly soft way. The reason soon becomes clear: Doakes was in such a hurry to get me to the station that she didn't even bother to get permission from the guardian.

After I describe yesterday's events, Stacy begins cautiously inquiring about subjects that really interest her.

"What about this... web? Is what Spiderwoman said true?" I notice Jane grudgingly wince when she talks about her daughter. Obviously, she doesn't know who's hiding under the mask of a superheroine.

"And what did she say?" I ask cautiously.

"Haven't you seen the news?" Surprised the woman, and then calls the secretary. "Marie, show him the tape."

The captain's secretary promptly finds the tape of the short interview that Gwen, it turns out, managed to give to the journalists after she broke up with me. This girl just can't get past the reporters' cameras pointed at her, can she?

She didn't say anything, though, that I wasn't going to say myself. She simply admitted that the web she uses in combat and to move around town is not her own invention, but a gift from a friend, the same one who helped apprehend the White Rabbit yesterday.

"Yes, that's right," I confirmed Gwen's words. "Why, is there a problem with that?"

Jane gave me a stern look, lit her cigarette, and took a puff of smoke into her lungs.

"Who do you think this Spiderwoman is?" asks the captain, "A hero? A savior? No! I'll tell you who she is! The Spiderwoman is a vigilante! She interfered with the police and made fools of us!"

Jane was emotional for a second and raised her voice, pointing with a cigarette clutched in her fingers at the monitor.

"People like her only get in the way of police work!"

"With all due respect, Spider-Girl is the one who came to my rescue. She saved me! And yesterday I made her a new batch of webs. And I'll make more! If that's all..."

And then I finally find out what's causing Doakes to become overly animated.

"No, that's not it," Stacy replies, calmly and sharply. "The three detainees claim you beat them up. They also say they saw your wounds heal in seconds."

"And you believe them?" I am astonished. "What next? They'll say that the White Rabbit is an alien, that he's subjugated their minds, and that they're innocent in the first place, and you believe them?"

"I only believe what I see with my own eyes," Stacy replied, "I saw you get out of an overturned car and beat a mugger with your bare hands. There's only a handful of people in my precinct who can do that, and they're all grown women with military training."

After taking a short break to put out her cigarette, Jane continues:

"And just one such female officer, whom I wouldn't hesitate to trust with my life, claims that you were the one who beat her up herself and drove her partner to a nervous breakdown a week ago."

While I'm trying to gather my thoughts and think of an excuse, I hear some noise coming from the office. Jane opens the door to see what's going on, just in time to see the denouement of events.

Doakes was standing in front of the door of Stacy's office, blocking the way of a tall woman in a business suit and sunglasses. I suspect the officer was conducting a psychological attack on her guest with her bulging, murderous eyes.

However, the guest was absolutely immune to this.

"What is it, Officer?" she asks in a calm voice. "Are you going to attack a defenseless blind woman?"

"Like hell you're defenseless!" the policewoman snarls back. "What do you want here, Murdock?"

"I'm here to offer my services to Mr. Parker," she loses interest in her vis-a-vis and "looks" directly at me, then turns to Stacy. "What's going on here, Captain? Did you apprehend the boy? Do you suspect him of something?"

Murdock tried to get around the obstacle, but Doakes stepped in her way again.

"Doakes!" Stacy sassed her. "That's enough."

Reluctantly, the officer complied and stepped back, staring at the lawyer with unblinking eyes, like a lapdog ready to pounce at any second.

I stared at the local version of Daredevil with surprise. Why would she want to protect me? Besides, I don't need protecting if I'm not being accused of anything, do I?

But... it's Murdock. If there was anyone in my world I could trust without a second thought, it was certainly Matthew Murdoch, a man of steely principles and will, a man who was always on the side of justice, as a hero and as a lawyer, even if it hurt his case.

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