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The elderly butler—who had served Norman Osborn, then Harry Osborn, and now Felicia Hardy—listened to the three visitors explain why they'd come, his face a picture of utter confusion.
The moment those words left his mouth—
MJ looked like she'd been struck by lightning.
Gwen's mouth fell open slightly.
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
Well, well...
Had Peter figured it out? That working hard was pointless when you could just find a rich woman to take care of you? So he'd dumped MJ and eloped with the Black Cat?
Wait.
He remembered—not from the movies, but from one of the Spider-Man comics—there was a version where Black Cat Felicia and Spider-Man Peter were actually a couple.
So technically, this probably couldn't be called eloping.
But that still didn't make it okay!
How could anyone allow this?
The guy hadn't even broken up with MJ yet. This was textbook two-timing. Classic scumbag behavior.
As someone whose entire personality was built on loyalty and devotion, Hawk's mind wandered as he mentally condemned Peter's actions with righteous disdain.
Just then, Gwen, sitting beside him, caught sight of the smirk spreading across her fiancé's face. She immediately elbowed him in the ribs.
Hawk snapped back to reality, glancing at Gwen.
Gwen shot him a glare, then turned to MJ—whose face was frozen in shock—and quickly wrapped an arm around her best friend in a preemptive gesture of support. She looked at the butler. "Did Peter or Felicia say where they were going? Or why?"
The butler shook his head.
"No. But Miss Hardy and Peter left in quite a hurry."
"A hurry?"
"Yes."
The butler nodded, then continued, "If you'd like more details, you can call Miss Hardy's satellite phone. She called just yesterday."
Gwen's eyes lit up. "Could we use it to call her?"
MJ had gone completely silent.
The butler smiled warmly. "Of course."
He turned and gestured for the three of them to follow him inside. After asking them to wait a moment, he disappeared to retrieve the satellite phone.
Gwen pulled the silent MJ over to the living room couch. "You heard him. They left in a rush. It must have been something urgent. Peter probably doesn't have access to a satellite phone, which is why he couldn't contact you."
Normally, a friend would encourage a breakup, not reconciliation.
But that was the behavior of fake friends.
Gwen was a real friend.
So she did her best to cover for Peter.
As Peter's best friend, Hawk stayed completely silent. Gwen wasn't just MJ's real best friend—she was also his fiancée. In a situation like this, it was better to let Gwen do the talking. If he jumped in to defend Peter too, it would look like the two of them were ganging up on MJ in Peter's defense.
That wouldn't be a good look.
MJ listened to Gwen's attempt to rationalize things, and the frantic worry that had been etched on her face gradually began to settle into something calmer. "But Felicia has a satellite phone. He could have borrowed hers."
Gwen froze at that, her expression faltering. She turned to Hawk with a silent plea for backup.
Hawk caught the signal. His mind raced as he prepared to jump in and save the conversation.
Just then, The butler returned, holding the satellite phone. "The phone is already—"
Before he could finish, MJ was already on her feet, snatching the phone from his hands. She said a few quick words, then listened as Felicia's voice came through on the other end. Her tone was eerily calm as she said, "Could you put Peter on the line?"
A moment later, Peter's voice crackled through the satellite connection.
MJ gripped the phone and walked off to the side for privacy.
Gwen and Hawk exchanged a glance before turning their attention to the butler, who had just returned.
The butler's expression was tinged with curiosity. "When I called Miss Hardy and mentioned that you were here looking for Peter, he said he'd already called Aunt May. Didn't you go to her first?"
Gwen blinked in surprise. "Aunt May? She said Peter hadn't called her at all."
Hawk, sitting beside her, let out a soft laugh. He glanced at Gwen. "Aunt May never actually said Peter didn't call her. She just said she got home late last night and that she and MJ didn't see Peter in his room the next morning."
Gwen's head snapped toward Hawk, her expression stunned.
"Are you saying... Aunt May lied to us? Why would she do that?"
"Who knows?"
Hawk shrugged.
As far as he was concerned, all that mattered was confirming that his friend Peter hadn't vanished for no reason.
As for why Peter had called Aunt May but not MJ—that was Peter's personal business.
Gwen, seeing that she wasn't going to get anything more out of Hawk, gave up on the conversation and turned her attention to MJ. She stood by the window, speaking quietly into the satellite phone. Her expression was no longer panicked or worried—just calm. Unnervingly calm.
For some reason, Gwen had a bad feeling about this.
A few minutes later—
MJ ended the call and walked back over, her face still completely neutral. She handed the satellite phone back to the butler with a faint smile. "Thank you."
The butler accepted the phone.
MJ then turned to Gwen. "Sorry for the false alarm. Peter's fine. We can go now, Gwen."
Gwen looked at MJ's expression, wanting to say something, but in the end, she just nodded. She stood up from the couch and turned to the butler. "Thank you so much for your help."
Hawk also stood and offered his thanks.
The butler smiled warmly as he escorted the three of them back to the front entrance.
Not long after—
The yellow Toyota Corolla's engine roared to life. With a sharp screech, it was already pulling out of the Osborn estate.
As Hawk drove toward MJ's house, MJ—seated in the back—began explaining the conversation she'd just had with Peter and why he had suddenly disappeared in the first place.
"Peter didn't just disappear out of nowhere."
"It was Felicia."
"That day, Felicia called Peter and told him she'd found something while cleaning up the estate. She said she'd discovered videotapes related to Richard Parker and Mary Parker—and that there might be new leads."
"Peter's parents."
"When Peter heard that, he dropped everything and rushed over to the Osborn estate immediately."
"..."
Gwen, sitting beside her, frowned as she listened. "Peter's parents... didn't they die in a plane crash when Peter was really young?"
Hawk, keeping his eyes on the road, glanced at Gwen through the rearview mirror. "That's what the reports said. The plane lost contact over the Pacific Ocean. But they never found the wreckage."
If this were the real world, the lack of wreckage wouldn't matter. They'd be declared dead regardless.
And officially, that's exactly what had happened.
But...
This was the Marvel Universe. When you factored that in, as long as there were no confirmed bodies, there was actually a pretty good chance Richard Parker and Mary Parker were still alive.
Oh, right.
He probably should have asked Mephisto about that while he was in Hell.
Hawk's eyes lit up at the thought, then he shook his head with a quiet laugh.
MJ, sitting in the back, continued her explanation after Hawk and Gwen's brief exchange about the plane crash.
Back then, both Richard Parker and Mary Parker had worked for Osborn Industries.
At the time, Norman Osborn hadn't deteriorated to the point where he was bedridden. The spider serum the Parkers had been developing was originally intended to cure Norman's mysterious illness.
Of course, it had since been revealed that Norman's condition wasn't an illness at all—it was a curse placed on the entire Osborn bloodline by a Hell Witch.
But the Parkers and Norman himself hadn't known that at the time.
And then, During their research on the spider serum, the Parkers accidentally contaminated it with their own blood. They discovered what made the serum work—but they also caused the spider to mutate.
To put it simply:
The serum was personalized. The mutated spider, now carrying fragments of Parker DNA, could only work on the Parker family. Specifically, on Peter.
For anyone else, the serum wasn't a cure. It was poison.
The Parkers reported this to Norman Osborn and requested access to a second specimen—the one known as the Golden Spider.
But when Norman told them where that spider had come from, they made a decision. They left young Peter in the care of Ben and May Parker, boarded Norman's private jet that very night, and flew to the origin site to conduct their research.
And then, The plane crashed. Richard Parker and Mary Parker never came back.
Norman sealed the Golden Spider away in the Osborn Museum. And after that, the rest of the story was pretty straightforward.
Years later, when Peter visited the Osborn Museum, the long-forgotten mutated spider—purely by chance—bit him and triggered the transformation.
"So..."
"Yeah. The videotape had coordinates. The location where the spider was originally discovered."
"Where?"
"Peter didn't say. He said it's an Osborn corporate secret."
"...Fair enough."
Gwen nodded, not particularly surprised by that answer. Then her thoughts drifted back to Aunt May. She frowned. "But why didn't Aunt May tell us? Even if she didn't want to tell us, MJ was about to call the police. She should have at least told MJ privately, right? Why didn't she say anything to her either?"
MJ shrugged, glancing at Gwen. "Maybe because I'm an outsider."
Gwen opened her mouth to respond to that.
"MJ, you—"
"Peter's safe. That's all that matters. Everything else... doesn't matter anymore. Right?"
MJ met Gwen's gaze, her face lighting up with a smile that looked almost like relief—like she'd made a decision and was finally at peace with it.
Gwen said nothing.
...
Half an hour later.
MJ stepped out of the car, hugged Gwen briefly, then walked directly toward the Watson house on the right.
Hawk drove off with Gwen—who had moved back to the passenger seat—heading home to Bleecker Street.
"Hawk."
"Yeah?"
"I think MJ's going to break up with Peter."
"Yeah."
Hawk's tone was flat as he nodded.
He wasn't an idiot. Just watching MJ's reaction back there had made it pretty clear.
Gwen frowned, her thoughts still on Aunt May. "Why do you think Aunt May didn't tell us? Even if she didn't want to tell us, MJ was freaking out enough to call the cops. She should have at least told MJ privately. Why didn't she?"
Hawk thought about it seriously, then glanced at Gwen, who was still deep in thought.
"Maybe..."
"She doesn't think Peter and MJ are a good match either."
"..."
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