Parker Luck

Examining Briefs

It was a fine day in New York and things had been good for Spider-Man lately. Since his S.H.I.E.L.D training he really felt that he'd improved as a hero. As he'd demonstrated a few days ago by stopping a gang of bank robbers single handed without a mark to show for it as well as rescuing the hostages. Things were also good for Peter Parker as school was going well and even better the Avengers' hot medic had joined the growing list of women who he'd slept with. Best of all however was the fact the people were finally back on his side after the London incident. With one exception that is.

"And look at this; being an Avenger wasn't good enough for him, oh no, he has to make the hard working men and women in the NYPD his glorified cleanup crew." J. Jonah Jameson was on yet another rant about "The wall-crawling menace that is Spider-Man." This time about his efforts in the bank where he'd left the would-be thieves webbed up for the police. Peter scoffed and rolled his eyes before swinging away. When people had started to trust Spidey again JJJ seemed to have taken it as an insult and had begun haranguing the webslinger even worse than before. Peter had been trying to ignore it but he couldn't deny it was beginning to get on his nerves. Despite this he continued to watch.

"Man, Jameson seriously has it in for you doesn't he?" Ned commented over his friend's shoulder. The duo were sat in the lunch hall where Peter was watching the news on his phone. "Announce his identity to the whole school why don't you Leeds?" Snarked MJ who'd just joined the boys at their table. "But seriously Peter, why do you keep watching that jerk?" She asked. "I don't know." Groaned the teen hero, "I guess I'm just hoping he'll change his mind and say something nice about me or any other hero. But unless Mysterio comes back from the dead I don't see that happening." His friends nodded in agreement "I still can't believe Beck tried to expose who you are to the whole world. Can you imagine if he succeeded?" Said Ned and Peter repressed a shudder "To be honest Ned I'd really rather not think about it." The trio finished the period in silence but before they left Michelle spoke again "You know if I were you I'd try sue the guy." Spidey laughed at the suggestion but couldn't get the idea out of his head.

When the school bell rang Parker prepared to sneak off to suit up, but a hand on his arm stopped him before he could. Michelle then took Peter's hands in hers "Listen Peter I'm not great at this pep talk thing but here goes; Don't listen to what Jameson says. It doesn't matter what he thinks. You are a hero. You've saved so many lives, including mine, and you don't care about what people think or what they call you." She ended her speech with a tender, loving kiss on Peter's lips "Take care out there tiger." She said after pulling away. "Tiger?" Smirked Peter which made MJ blush "Shut up. Just get going hero." She gave him a friendly thump on the arm. Grinning from ear to ear Spider-Man slipped into his costume and swung off into the city.

Spidey didn't think anything could bring his mood down, not even Jameson's rants and insults were having an effect on him (although he did make sure to web up the image of the newsreader on the screen).

Then JJJ started getting nasty and turned on the rest of the Avengers. "So not only do these so called heroes get carte blanche and operate completely independently from any government let's have a look at who it's made up of shall we? War criminals, lab experiments, space aliens, spies and all manner of killers. Including the murderer Spider-Man, who remains the only Avenger with an unrevealed identity." Peter was furious, he was sick of the allegations that he'd killed Mysterio and whilst some of the Avengers had less than squeaky clean backgrounds, they didn't deserve to be demonised like that. "You know what? Screw you Jameson." He said to himself.

Returning to his apartment, Spidey stormed into his room to dig through his drawers. Eventually he managed to find what he was looking for; a piece of paper with names and numbers written on it. Spidey dug out his phone and typed in the number on the bottom of the sheet. "C'mon already." Muttered Peter to himself as the phone rang. "Nelson, Murdock and Page Attorneys. This is Karen Page, how may I help you?"  A woman's voice eventually answered. "Uh hi Ms Page I'd like to get legal advice." There was the sound of fingers on a keyboard. "Okay and your name is?" Karen asked. Peter hemmed and hawed but said "Well I'm Spider-Man." The line went quiet for a minute and then Karen sounded annoyed "Look buddy, do you know how many people we get calling us claiming to be superheroes just because we represented Frank Castle? It got old quickly now either be serious or hang up." Peter winced at the lawyer's tirade "I am being serious, i really am Spider-Man. I got this number from Jessica Jones when she helped me out a while ago, ask her." There was a pause and the woman spoke again "Alright you'd better not be bullshitting me. Please hold."