Spider-Man | Stranger Things AU

Chapter 13

It's Saturday morning and Mike finds himself walking into the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man pictures in hand.

He has a tired expression as he walks through the room. Despite having slept for about ten hours, he still feels exhausted from the day yesterday.

Murray is sitting at his desk, and Charles Sinclair at his, when Mike walks into the room. Murray immediately looks up to see the boy, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Mike scowls at the man, thinking about how he literally asked him specifically to get pictures of Spider-Man, "You wanted me to get you Spider-Man pictures?"

Realization dawns on Murray's face, "Oh yeah, Spike!"

Mike winces and Charles shrugs apologetically. Mike sighs, "It's Mike, sir." Even though he knows Murray won't remember.

"That's what I said." Murray nods and kicks his feet up on the desk, "Now what have you got for me?"

Mike slides three pictures on the desk, and Murray's eyes light up. He then hides his expression and closely examines each paper, "Crap, Crap, double crap."

Mike just shakes his head, "Well take it or leave it."

"I'll give you one hundred dollars." Murray offers, hoping the kid will just take it.

Mike scoffs, "Three hundred, just like last time."

Bauman wastes no time writing the check, "Now get out." He hands it to him, then hands the pictures to Charles, "Sinclair, here's your page one." He then looks up at the ceiling as he's imagining the headline, "Masked Menace blows up building."

Mike stops in his tracks and turns to look at Murray with a bewildered expression, "What!?" He yells a little too loudly, "Spider-Man was helping!"

"Maybe that's what it looked like to an amateur like you." Murray chuckles.

"No, he was beating up criminals..." Mike shadowboxes to prove his point, "And saving the people in the burning building."

"Well how did the fire start, genius?"

Mike quiets, and Murray laughs, "See, you're just a kid, now get out of my office!"

Mike groans and walks out of the building. 'Maybe Murray is right, I did start that fire. Maybe I should have just let the police handle it. Hold on a minute, but I saved everyone, didn't I? Yeah, from a fire that I caused.'

Mike turns Into the alley where he left his suit and wastes no time putting it back on. 'Maybe I've still got time to go to the bank and cash this check before I go to detention.'

~

Kline slams his fists down on his wooden desk, rattling everything on it, "How does he keep stopping us!?"

His assistant just looks back at him with a blank expression, "He is quite skillful, sir."

"I should have killed the freak when I had the chance." He mutters to himself, thinking about that night a few weeks ago where he almost managed to kill Spider-Man. He had him. He had beaten and bloodied him until he couldn't fight anymore.

"It seems so..."

Kline groans, "If we're going to destroy Brenner, we can't let Spider-Man get in our way. He already stopped us from stealing the drive, and we had to resort to stealing Tritium."

"Well what do you suggest?"

Kline slams his hands down on his desk again, "We kill the damn Spider-Man!" He freezes when he hears a picture frame shatter on the ground.