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Early in the morning, Dan had just woken up when he got a call from Stark.
"Damn it, Dan! Didn't I tell you to keep a low profile? Why the hell did you just go in and start a fight?!"
Dan stared at the screen, confused. What fight? I just woke up!
"Stark, what the hell are you talking about? I literally just got out of bed. Who did I fight? Explain yourself."
Stark looked just as confused when he saw Dan's face.
"You didn't take out the Yuster Corporation?"
"Yuster… you mean the company trying to buy the orphanage land? What did I do to them? What even happened?"
Dan was still totally lost.
Stark rubbed his goatee and explained, "Last night, there was a shootout at Yuster's headquarters. Their CEO and every single vampire in that building were wiped out. You're seriously telling me that wasn't you?"
Dan looked totally baffled.
"Wiped out? I swear that wasn't me. I didn't even leave the house last night."
Suddenly, something clicked in Dan's mind.
"Wait—it must've been Erik! He went out on patrol yesterday and still hasn't come back."
The moment Stark heard that, everything made sense. Erik didn't know anything about the conflict between Yuster and the orphanage—Dan had only told Stark. So if Erik happened to sniff out vampires during his patrol, it was just his nature to take them out without a second thought.
Stark rubbed his temples and let out a long sigh.
"This world, man… the kind of coincidences we run into."
Dan just shrugged.
"Well, whatever. At least I wasn't involved this time."
"And even if you were, so what?"
Stark was speechless for a second. Fair point.
Seeing Stark go quiet, Dan just shrugged again with a "not my problem" kind of look.
Stark waved his hand, rubbing his temples again.
"Alright, whatever. At least now we know who did it. You just focus on school for now. I'll handle the orphanage situation."
And with that, he hung up.
Just as the call ended, Erik sent in a comms request.
Stark answered.
"Erik, I was just about to call you—guess you beat me to it."
Erik blinked. Then said, "You were looking for me? Did you find another vampire nest? Just send me the coordinates."
Stark's face instantly darkened. This guy seriously couldn't go three sentences without bringing up vampire hunting.
"No, that's not it. I wanted to ask what you were doing last night. That thing with the Yuster real estate company—was that you?"
"Yuster real estate?"
Erik paused, trying to recall. "Oh yeah, I think that was the name of the place I hit last night."
"So it was you."
"Yeah. I caught the scent of vampires while on patrol. Then I found a bunch of them in that building hurting people, so I wiped them out. Problem?"
Stark scratched his head. For Erik, this was just business as usual.
"Ugh… alright, I think I better fill you in."
So Stark explained the whole situation—Dan, the orphanage, the shady company—and Erik finally got the full picture.
"Ah, got it. Yeah… in that case, I really acted without thinking."
"Don't blame yourself. You didn't know what was going on."
Stark leaned back in his chair, thinking things through. Honestly, it was probably for the best. With Blade handling it, that old guy from Aranca probably wouldn't suspect a thing.
"Oh right, why'd you call me?"
"Actually, I need a list of high-level people who've been turned. That shouldn't be hard for you, right?"
"That? Nah, it's easy. I actually organized that file a few days ago."
He snapped his fingers.
"Jarvis, send Erik the encrypted S+ file."
"Yes, sir."
Jarvis transmitted the file over the secure network.
Erik glanced over it.
"Thanks."
And just like that, he hung up.
"…This guy."
Stark had barely started grumbling when Jarvis suddenly spoke up.
"Sir, Aranca Corp has agreed to sell us Yuster Real Estate."
Stark grinned.
"Heh, now I get it. They refused to sell before because the building was crawling with vampires, huh? But now that Erik wiped them out, the building's worthless to them. In a way, Erik just did me a huge favor without even knowing it."
With that thought, Stark was in a great mood.
"Jarvis, call Pepper. Tell her to handle the property transfer. We've got a charity gala to plan."
He stood up and straightened his collar.
"I want this charity gala to be the biggest event New York has ever seen."
...
8:00 AM – Midtown High
Students were slowly streaming into the school.
On the way there, Dan was a little distracted, still thinking about Stark's call from this morning.
"Yo Dan! Morning!"
Peter spotted Dan from afar and jogged up to him.
Dan gave a little wave. "Morning, Peter."
"Whoa, what's up? You look like something's bugging you."
Peter looked genuinely concerned.
Dan rubbed his face.
"Ha, is it that obvious? Didn't sleep well last night, that's all."
The two chatted casually as they walked.
Just as they turned a corner, someone dashed out from the other direction and slammed right into Peter.
The collision sent Peter flying—right into the path of an oncoming car.
At that moment, it looked like our friendly neighborhood Spider might be isekai'd before he even got his powers.
Dan grabbed him and yanked him back just in time.
"Thanks, Dan," Peter gasped, clearly shaken. He thanked Dan repeatedly.
"No biggie, just a reflex."
The person who ran into him finally recovered, and quickly bowed in apology.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! Really sorry!"
Now they got a good look at who it was.
A tall blonde girl, bright blue eyes, fair skin with a healthy blush, and legs for days under her short skirt. With that killer figure, she was the textbook definition of a high school dream girl.
Peter was instantly starstruck.
Dan nudged him back to reality.
"It's fine, really. I should've looked where I was going, too."
The girl looked up and saw them both.
"Peter Parker! Dan!"
She seemed way more excited to see Dan than Peter.
"You know us?"
"Of course! After what happened yesterday, who doesn't know you two? I'm Gwen Stacy—we're classmates!"
Dan blinked, and thought to himself:
"Well damn… Gwen Stacy. One of Spidey's classic love interests."
He glanced at Peter, who was still sneaking glances at Gwen, face redder than a tomato.
"Tsk, not bad. The Spider-Man-to-be already triggering his romantic subplot."
"....."