New York
August 12, 17:30 EDT
"Oh, yeah. That's nice."
Peter rested atop a residential building's water tower by the Hudson River, letting the cool metal of the tower and breeze off the river cool his body.
"I knew making the suit from spandex would bite me in the long run, but who would've thought it would happen so fast? It was like I was wearing a portable sauna. Not to mention, thanks to the holes burned in it, I already need a new one." he mused out loud as he fanned himself with a fan made from his web, "I'm just glad I was able to find Mei in all that smoke and fire."
Peter's physique had been greatly enhanced, and naturally, his five senses were also enhanced, but not to an extraordinary degree. They were certainly better than those of an average person, but compared to someone like Wolverine, they were greatly lacking. In a burning building with smoke everywhere, his senses might as well be like an average person's.
"If I had Wolverine's senses, I could've found Mei a lot faster. Since I don't, once I have the materials, I can recreate the Advanced Suit from the game but add some of the capabilities of the Iron Spider Suit, like the biological sensors and multiple vision settings. Doing that should help whenever I'm in a similar situation again. I would hate for what happened in the second movie to happen to me."
He remembered how guilty and distraught Peter was in the second movie when he found out he had failed to save a person in the burning building. He knew that if he were put in that same position, he, too, would feel that level of guilt.
Feeling inspired and determined, he wrote down some ideas and sketches about possible future iterations of the suit. Thankfully, he always carried a notebook in his gym bag after a few times he thought of something great but was unable to write it down and lost it.
After a few minutes of silent drawing, he felt like he had done enough for the time being. He put away the notebook in his bag and stood up, ready to swing home and help in any way he could on the way there.
As he was about to jump off the roof, he heard the loud yowling of a cat and the obnoxious laughter of two men coming from below. He walked across the roof to take a look and saw two men with punk mohawks and a bunch of piercings walking along the river carrying a sack that had something inside it thrashing around.
"This cat is going crazy!" said the one holding the sack, letting out another obnoxious chuckle.
"You think it'll die when you launch it into the water or when it drowns?" asked the other.
"Who cares? It'll be funny either way." said the one holding the sack, making to throw it into the river, "Bon voyage!"
Peter instantly jumped off the roof toward the men, webbing the sack to the man's hand so he couldn't throw it.
"What the hell?!" said the man, trying to shake off the bag as Peter landed behind them, cracking the ground and scaring the men so bad, they fell on their asses.
Without saying a word, Peter webbed the men's crotches, using the thick blast option to cause more pain before webbing their entire bodies to the ground, even going so far as to web their mouths and noses shut. The two men were shaking in fear and trying to scream but were unable to because of the webbing on their mouths.
As angry as Peter was at the two men for what they were about to do, he was no killer so he crouched down and quickly unblocked their noses so they could breathe. But he wouldn't do anything else for them. He was going to let them stay there until the webbing naturally dissolved.
After unblocking their noses, he quickly tore open the sack. Thanks to a tingle of his spider-senses, he grabbed the hissing and growling cat before it could tear up his face.
"It's okay. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
He held the dark blue-colored cat away from his body as it thrashed around, waving its claws in anger, trying to get free from Peter's grasp. The cat with a fish-shaped nametag named Dexter on it started biting Peter's hand. After biting him repeatedly, Dexter looked right at Peter and bore its fangs, hissing with a rage so intense that Peter felt like he could see and feel it emanating from the cat.
He didn't know what had happened, but he could tell that Dexter was feeling a level of rage that shouldn't have been possible in an animal. Looking at it thrashing in his hands, trying everything it could to break free, he could tell it had gone through something and he wanted to help.
"No one's going to hurt you anymore." he said, looking into Dexter's eyes, "I'll protect you."
As Peter tried to show Dexter his sincerity, his spider-senses throbbed harder than they ever had before.
He looked up and saw a red ball of light getting closer, and he knew it was approaching him. He couldn't tell how fast it was approaching so he put Dexter behind his back to shield him.
'Day two and I'm staring down the barrel of an unidentified flying phenomenon. That damn Parker luck.' he thought as he felt Dexter stop thrashing.
"Don't worry Dexter. I'll protect you." he said looking over his shoulder and smiling at him before focusing back on the red object.
He began running simulations in his head about what he would do and how he would respond to the object, mapping routes he could take to move away from where he was so as not to cause any damage to the surrounding residential buildings.
As his mind raced through everything, he noticed the red object suddenly stopped. It hovered in mid-air but because of the light surrounding it, he couldn't make out what it was.
A few seconds passed before the red object suddenly shot back up into the sky, quickly disappearing and leaving Peter very confused.
"Meow."
Snapped out of his thoughts by a gentle but sorrowful meow, Peter moved Dexter back in front of him. He was no longer thrashing around, hissing, and trying to free himself from Peter's grasp but was licking at the bite marks he left on Peter's hand, looking sad and regretful.
As a person who liked animals, especially cats, it tore at his heart to see Dexter go from rage to sadness so quickly.
"You're okay now." he said, resting Dexter against his chest and petting him, hoping it would soothe him even a little.
Dexter enjoyed the petting for a few seconds before he let out a cry full of sadness and tears began to fall from his eyes, surprising Peter.
He had already deduced that Dexter was abnormal due to the odd color of his fur, which he had not seen in any other cat in all his years of life. However, this could be attributed to something relatively simple, like a genetic mutation. The fact that the cat was crying from sadness like a human was even more surprising to Peter since cats did not shed tears of sadness like humans.
Dexter had already shown levels of emotions that were abnormal in an animal. The rage it had exhibited earlier and the sadness it was experiencing led Peter to believe Dexter may be a genetically modified animal. In the world of comics, genetically modified animals were a dime a dozen so it wasn't odd that Peter stumbled across one.
Still, feeling Dexter shake and shiver in his arms, seeing tears roll from his eyes, and hearing his sorrowful cries, Peter didn't see a genetically modified animal. He saw a cat in distress and he wanted to help him out.
With the odd red object gone, he remembered about the two webbed-up punks and looked over to see they weren't moving and had their eyes closed. He checked their pulses and breathing, which were fine, so he guessed they must have passed out as the red object approached.
Seeing they were fine, Peter made sure he had a good grip on Dexter before leaping and swinging his way back to the water tower. As he landed on the water tower, Dexter started thrashing around again, but unlike before, it wasn't angry thrashing, it was more like he was trying to escape. That's when Peter realized Dexter might have an owner and was trying to get back to them.
He flipped Dexter's name tag and saw an address and apartment number written on it, which was only a few blocks from their location.
"Do you want to get back to your owner?" Peter asked Dexter.
"Meow." he responded while frantically nodding his head.
'I mean, he nodded yes at my question. At this point, there's no doubt he's a genetically modified/mutant cat that's smarter than an average cat.'
"Hold on tight." said Peter.
After picking up his bag and making sure he had a firm hold on Dexter, he took off swinging, making his way to the address on Dexter's tag. Because it was only a few blocks away, he got there in no time flat, but as he stopped on the roof of the building next door, he noticed a few cops and onlookers at the entrance to the building.
Dexter realized they were near and started getting even more antsy, pawing at Peter's arm and meowing. Peter took a look at the building and noticed one of the windows had a bunch of police tape across it, and Dexter was looking in that direction.
"Is that where your owner lives?" asked Peter as he pointed at the window.
"Meow." said Dexter, nodding.
Peter put his bag down before nimbly hopping down the building and into the fire escape outside the apartment. He couldn't see inside the window thanks to a curtain blocking the view, so he put his ear on the glass to see if he could hear anything and he could.
"You done?" asked a male voice, sounding impatient.
"Yeah. Not much to check for, but I'm done." said another male.
"Nothing ever comes of home invasions. The person who did this will do it again until he ends up dead from breaking into the wrong place."
"Probably, but at least we have a description." said the other voice as he zipped up something, "Poor cat though."
"Had to kick it out of here before it contaminated the place. Dumb animal." said the man, his voice trailing off before the sound of a door shutting was heard.
Peter listened to the window for a few seconds longer to make sure they were gone. Once he was, he opened the window and entered.
As he entered, he noticed he was in the bedroom, but before he could look around more he was hit with the smell of blood along with the faint odor of chemicals. Dexter began thrashing even harder so Peter let him go. He immediately jumped to the bed and laid down on the pillow, tearing up as he did so.
Seeing Dexter so sad and smelling the blood, Peter deduced that his owner must've been killed earlier in the day during a home invasion gone wrong. After that, Dexter was kicked out by the cops and ended up on the streets where he was abducted by the two punks and was about to get tossed into the river to drown. With that chain of events, Peter could see why Dexter had been so angry; he was grieving.
'I'll help find whoever killed his owner. It's the least I can do.' thought Peter, clenching his fist in determination.
Before looking around the apartment and investigating what happened, he looked down to check if he had stepped in anything that might count as evidence but saw nothing. Glad he hadn't botched the crime scene, he decided the best way to traverse the apartment without messing anything up would be to crawl on the ceiling.
With a small hop, he stuck himself to the ceiling and got a good view of the room. The bedroom was a good size for NYC, though considering they were in Tribeca, it made sense the apartment was nicer. The room consisted of a queen-sized bed, a small bedside table with a lamp and a fallen-over framed photo, a rather large dresser with all of its drawers opened, a knocked-over vertical rack for shoes, an open double-door closet, and the door that led out to the rest of the apartment.
Now that he was taking a good look, he could see the room was trashed with clothes and other things strewn about, which lent to the theory it was a home invasion. He also noticed the yellow crime scene tents used to mark evidence around the room. There was one marking the blood-soaked sheets of the bed, the blood splattered on the walls, floor, and the bedside table. There was also another on the bedside table along with some black dust, most likely from the fingerprint powder.
He crawled over to where the bedside table was, lowering himself using his web before picking up the frame. The framed photo was of a smiling Black woman holding up a younger and smaller Dexter licking her face. He looked over at Dexter who seemed to have fallen asleep before carefully putting the frame back down.
He was no expert on criminal forensics or blood spatter analysis so he couldn't tell how she died but judging from the large amount of blood on the sheets, he assumed it was a stabbing.
Over the next half-hour, he looked around the entire apartment, examining what the police had marked as evidence and checking to see if he could find anything they had missed. The only thing he found that the police did not was a red sticky substance on the outer walls of the terrace. He couldn't tell what it was, so he took a sample to analyze later.
'Definitely not Batman-level detective skills, but at least I found something the cops didn't.' thought Peter as he crawled back to the bedroom.
Awake on his feet, Dexter tilted his head as he looked up at Peter crawling on the ceiling.
"You're awake." said Peter, falling back to the floor where he initially entered.
"Meow." said Dexter, moving to the edge of the bed and near Peter.
"I'm sorry about your owner." said Peter, stroking Dexter, "I don't know who did this, but I promise I'm going to bring them to justice."
"Meow." said Dexter, jumping onto Peter's chest and snuggling up.
Peter stroked Dexter while thinking of how he was going to convince his mother to let him keep him.
"Who the hell are you?!"
Turning to look at the door, Peter saw a man wearing a shirt that said CSI and carrying a tool bag.
"Uhh ... just a concerned citizen?"
"Wait, you're him! You're the guy they gave in the description!" he shouted.
"Me?" said Peter, confused, "I'm a guy wearing a red and blue suit. I don't really match a typical description."
"The eyewitness said they saw a man wearing a red full-body suit through the window!"
"Talk about a coincidence." said Peter, astounded another person was wearing a suit running around the city, "But that wasn't me."
"If it wasn't you, then turn yourself in. Prove you're innocent."
"No thanks. I'll find the culprit myself." said Peter, diving out the window before swinging to the roof where he left his bag.
'So someone is going around the city dressed similarly to me. That's going to be a problem sooner or later. Especially since they're killing people. At least, James Jonah Jameson doesn't exist in this universe or he'd use that coincidence to tear me apart.'
"Meow." said Dexter, snapping Peter out of his thoughts.
"I'm fine. Just thinking about stuff." he said, scratching Dexter's chin, "I forgot to ask you, but do you want to come with me? I love cats, and I have a sister who loves cats too so you won't ever be lonely or unloved."
"Meow." said Dexter, nodding.
"Perfect. Let's go home."
~
New York
August 12, 19:00 EDT
Back in his workout clothes, Peter entered his home through the front door.
"Peter?" said his mom from the living room.
"It's me." he said, making his way to the living room, but not before putting Dexter behind his back to surprise the family.
As he entered the living room, he was surprised to find his neighbor, Zatanna's father, and superhero Giovanni Zatara, a middle-aged man with green eyes and a prominent black mustache, sitting on the couch across from his parents.
"Peter. Nice to see you again. How have you been?" he asked with a slight accent.
"Mr. Zatara. It's nice to see you too. I've been good, thank you for asking. What about yourself?" said Peter.
"I've been good as well, thank you. My magic shows keep me busy." he said.
"I bet." said Peter, smiling knowingly, "What are you doing here?"
"Giovanni was just thanking us for taking care of Zatanna while he was away." explained Richard.
"Yes, but I believe I have taken up enough of your time." said Zatara as he stood up, prompting Richard and Mary to do the same, "Again, I must thank you."
"Please, there was no need to thank us. We're more than happy to help. What are friends for?" said Mary.
"Still, thank you. Sindella's passing has been ... hard on both of us, but I'm glad Zatanna has a friend like Teresa to help support her even when I am unable to." he said.
"Giovanni, if you need to talk, we're here for you." said Richard.
"Thank you." he said as Richard and Mary saw him out.
The door shut and Mary immediately turned around and looked at Peter with a look that said she knew he was hiding something, but before she could even open her mouth to ask what he was hiding.
"Oh my god! Look at the kitty!" said Teresa, who had appeared behind him and seen Dexter.
"Kitty? What kitty?" asked Richard, confused.
"This kitty." said Peter, taking out Dexter from behind his back and revealing him.
"Look at it! Can we keep it?" said Teresa, practically teleporting to Peter's side before petting Dexter.
"Oh wow. Look at the color of its fur. That's magnificent." said Richard, approaching to get a closer look at Dexter's fur.
"Peter. Care to explain yourself?" said Mary.
"I saw it getting picked on by a bunch of other cats so I picked him up. I named him Dexter." said Peter, telling her the story he came up with.
To make it more believable, he had to take off Dexter's collar but he had it in his bag since he didn't want to deprive him of his previous owner's memento.
"Can we keep him, Mom? Please?" said Teresa while giving Mary puppy dog eyes.
"He is cute, I'll give him that." said Mary, putting her hand near Dexter who sniffed it before giving it a lick and sealing the deal, "Fine. He can stay."
"Yay!" said Teresa while Peter smiled.
"But he is your responsibility. I will not pick up after him, is that understood?"
"Got it. My responsibility. Thanks, Mom." said Peter before looking at Dexter, "Welcome to the family, Dexter."
"Meow." said Dexter, closing his eyes in contentment.
"Does anyone smell smoke?" asked Richard.