The Day After (Spiderman Fanfiction)

Part 4 - Palladium Battery

Peter walked in the shop, It was just opened, 7:30 am. The streets were empty beside few important people walking around with their suits on.

"Good morning sunshine!" Scott beamed at him.

Peter chuckled, "What's with the energy this early?"

"I did not sleep!" Scott lifted an energy drink, "now that's my, sixth already?" He gestured to the can, "anyway, cheers!"

"That's not going to end well." Peter shook his head laughing. "How's last night went?"

Scott sighed dramatically, "oh man, that was hell! We called the cops, they said it was just a gang fight, you know, the usual. But I'm sorry I kind of abended you, had to take care of crazy girls who thought they're gonna die y'know."

Peter nodded, "yeah, yeah, for sure." He assured him. "Gang fight huh?" He studied Scott, curious to see if he knows anything else about that.

"Yeah Pete, it's really not that of a big thing. I mean gun shots are kind of usual to hear down the streets those hours, but that explosion, I don't know what that was," Scott downed another sip of his energy drink, you could basically see the caffeine in his eyes. "I'm just sorry that this was your night out, please, I feel like I need to make it up for you." He smiled at Peter.

"No man," Peter hurried to respond, he really was glad for how Scott tried to help him blend in the "new" place. "I had great time! Met your friends, Nathan and Lola," Peter forced a smile, "I mean they're great guys!"

Scott huffed, "oh please, I saw your face. Don't worry, me and Nate, it's not something real, I just keep my eyes up next to him, don't wanna make trouble with him, he got short temper, wouldn't wanna mess with this kind." Scott put his fingers to his head, signaling at his brain. Peter laughed at the gesture, seeing his opened wide eyes made him look like a crazy person.

"Really? Funny how they introduce themselves as the 'right people'" Peter used his hands to make air quotes.

"Nah, don't pay attention to him, Nate is quick to make new costumers, before someone else will get you." Scott explained.

"Costumers?" Peter asked confused, even though he felt like he knew the answer already.

"Yeah Pete, He's selling drugs." Scott raised his eyebrows.

Peter nodded, he wasn't stupid, but considering he went to the nerdiest school around the city, and befriended the nerdiest people in that school, it was kind of new to him. "You.." Peter nodded towards Scott, not sure of how to phrase it, "you in this business?"

Scott laughed, he had a feeling Peter wasn't familiar with the stuff, literally, but he was a nice guy overall, and he knew he's new to NY, so he found his cluelessness kind of funny. "What? Drugs? I do the simple shit, but I'm not into the crazy stuff Nate's selling, I ain't dealing with this area." He said with his hands raised in surrender.

Peter nodded, he knew that doing drugs doesn't makes you a bad guy, but Scott did assured his suspicions about Nathan, Scott just gave him another puzzle piece.

Peter spent the rest of the morning looking online everything he could about last night. Scott was right, gang fights were often on those streets, so much that the police hadn't said anything about last night, other than 'shots were fired, no one got hurt'. They didn't even mentioned anything about the grenade, which he knew was in the story, probably it was hidden to not create any more panic among the people. Sure, he was a New Yorker, he wasn't frightened of gun shots, but drug gangs with grenades? Now that was something that didn't showed up everyday.

He looked for Nathan's social media, his Instagram was private, but he knew who's wouldn't be. Lola was a kind of girl that was fed by likes and comments. Peter found her pretty quickly, looking at her pictures back from Australis, she did moved a year ago like she said, and since then almost all of her photos were with Nathan, he still wasn't sure if they were official, not that he cared, but he did sense that their relationship was more of a give and take situation.

A horn made Peter look up, the street was now busy, cars were swarming, and people hurried away. He noticed a bus reach the bus stop across and suddenly looked at the clock, it was close to 8:45. Fuck. It was the first day that Peter didn't look for MJ's bus. He was so caught up in figuring out what happened last night that he totally forgot.

He felt like crap, ever since everyone forgot about him he did everything he could in order to remember himself. He didn't dare thinking about the day he'll move on, it seemed not possible. But there he was, for the first time in the last month, he forgot about MJ's bus.

Scott was in the back, his head rested on the back counter, next to all the repairing tools. The caffeine probably wore off and made him close his eyes for a bit, taking him to the sleep he needed to catch up on.

The door opened, young woman walked through the door, she wore a black hoodie, her hair was pulled back and on her face, right under her eye there was a tiny cut. She looked down as she approached Peter.

"Hello," Peter smiled, "May I help you?" He was waiting for her to pull out her phone and ask for a sim exchange or say that her screen went black.

"Yeah," she still had her eyes down, her eyebrows furrowed, "you got a palladium battery?"

Peter was taken back, obviously he knew what she's talking about, but he wasn't sure how. Palladium is a rare metal, it has a lot of uses, but the main of it is being a high energy resource, it has nuclear properties, making it very powerful, borderline dangerous.

"Um.." Peter stuttered, "why do you need it?"

"That's not really your business." The girl said flatly.

"Well, I think it is if I'm the one selling you this." Peter chuckled, sure she didn't really understood what this is, she probably was sent by someone, a really smart someone.

"Look," she looked up, Peter's eyebrows shot up once he saw the color of her eyes, he could swear he knew those eyes from somewhere. "If you got it, I'll give you the money for that, that's how stores work, got it?" She snapped.

Peter stood there, not knowing what to say, of course they didn't have Palladium batteries, that thing could be found at top secret labs, he didn't knew if places like MIT even had those materials. 

"Well?" The girls raised her eyebrows, getting even more impatient if that was somehow possible. 

"No, we don't have it, but-" Peter finally said.

"Thanks." she put her hood up and left the store, not wasting a minute.

Peter let out a breath he didn't know he was hiding. He wanted to follow her so bad, dying to figure out where he knew those eyes from. He looked back, Scott was still passed out on the counter. Peter sighed, just more 4 hours and he's free. He closed all his tabs, thinking there's nothing more he could achieve by looking at Lola's Instagram.