The Amazing Spider-Man 4

Chapter 18

Peter had barely made it to the floor of the Bugle that his desk was at before a certain zealous individual came alongside him.

"What is it?" he asked as Eddie came right in stride with him.

"I've got a lead on our guy, Alistair Smythe."

That news stopped Peter in his tracks. He turned to his friend and coworker, prepared now to give him his full attention.

"Really?" he asked. "Where is he?"

"I did some more digging last night, and I managed to track down a small convenience store that the man has been frequenting," Eddie explained. "I gave one of the worker's my contact information, and he just called me less than five minutes ago saying that he'd just come through."

"So, he's probably already gone, or will be at least by the time we get there," Peter lamented.

"Probably," Eddie replied, pulling out his phone and scrolling through it, "but here's where it gets interesting: I pulled up a layout of that area after I learned that Smythe frequented that store, and I found out that this is the section of the city with the most abandoned or condemned buildings within about a ten to fifteen block radius."

"Which would be a perfect place for a guy building killer robots to hide out and work undisturbed," Peter said, his mind feeling as though a literal lightbulb were going off inside of it as he put the pieces together. Eddie raised his eyebrows, an overall look of eagerness and anticipation dawning on his face.

"What do you say, man?" he asked, "ready to find our guy?"

----

Peter had nodded eagerly at the time, but as they were in the cab on the way to the area in question, he began having concerns. What would happen if they found Smythe, but were caught in a bad spot? His spider sense would surely alert them to any possible danger, but how was he supposed to discourage Eddie without telling him how he knew they should stay away? Once his coworker and friend got into his intrepid reporter mode, there was very little that could discourage him from pursuing whatever lead he was trying to track down or finding whoever he intended to find. Eddie was not out to be a hero, just get the story, but there were still many dangers involved.

All of this just felt like a weird position to be in. For several years, Peter had no one that he would've considered a true friend, and May had found out his secret years ago, so he'd no longer had to hide being Spider-Man from her. As lonely as it had been, it also had made it a whole lot easier to keep his identity hidden. Now, however, he found it weighing heavily on his mind as he and Eddie were likely to walk into something unpredictable. There was always the chance that this was a wild goose chase and Peter was worrying about nothing, but Eddie was a good reporter, and his sources were rarely wrong.

Obviously, if push came to shove, he would do whatever had to be done, regardless of the consequences to his secret identity. He just really hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

Finally, they reached their stop, and Peter and Eddie stepped out of the car. They were at an old warehouse that used to be a shipping facility prior to the company being bought out. It was the closest abandoned or condemned building to the store that Smythe had supposedly been sighted at, so it was the most logical place to start. As they approached the building, Peter kept his senses on high alert, particularly bracing himself for his additional sixth sense to go off at any moment.

"Why don't I go first?" he tried to insist.

Eddie ignored him though, instead slowly opening the door and stepping in. Peter followed close behind, peering around the room as they entered. The first thing that he noticed was that the building seemed to be somewhat well kept, at least as far as old and out-of-use buildings went. It wasn't exactly newly remodeled or anything, but most places like this in his experience tended to be more rundown, with the occasional rat scurrying out from underneath some debris or something. There didn't appear to be anything indicative of someone using the place though, at least not at first glance.