A Spider's Guide to Heroism

Chapter Three

Late, he was so late! Peter quickly swung from the highest buildings he could find to cover the most ground. He had slept in and he was late for work. Probably wouldn't have slept in if he wasn't so wore out form the incident last night. Still didn't change the fact he was late and going to get an earful.

Peter Parker worked as a photographer for the local news company, The Daily Bugel, run by a strict boss, Jay Jamerson. JJ as Peter jokingly liked to call him, outside of his earshot of course. JJ didn't like it when his employees had disregard for rules and failed to show up on time, and this wasn't the first time Peter was late. He had his warnings, and the last thing he needed was to get fired today. Nothing could possibly spare him today, no matter how fast he spun his webs, he was late and wouldn't make it on time.

He sighed heavily landing on the roof of the building, ducking behind an air duct and making sure he was out of sight of any on lookers before removing his mask. He removed the backpack he carried with him and dug through it quickly tossing on a shirt and pants, discarding his gloves and boots. Peter had gotten used to dressing to hide his spider suit under his normal clothes, it saved time when a quick costume change was needed whenever danger was nearby. He stuffed the remainder of the costume set into the bag and headed to the door located on the roof.

"You're late again Parker!" The familiar boom of his boss caught him sneaking by the office door, hoping to reach his desk unnoticed. "Get in here!"

Peter took a deep breath, he had to face up to it eventually, it was just too hard to try and balance a normal life and the not so normal life. He turned and walked the path into the office, standing in front of the large desk piled high with paper and photos, the thick smell of fine cigars hung in the air.

"Good morning sir-"Peter started but was promptly cut off.
"Don't you good morning me!" Mr. Jamerson exclaimed. "It is indeed not a good morning, Spider-Man was seen last night in cahoots with a red suited terrorist, and you're late this morning instead of going out there getting me pictures and information on Spider-Man!"

Peter rolled his eyes, little did ol' JJ know but the reason he was late was because he was actually there last night, being in "cahoots" with the so called terrorist. Little did Jamerson know that the source of all his troubles and weird obsessions, the bane of his existence, the web-headed menace was standing right here in front of him right now. Oh if only he knew, Peter liked to imagine how it would go. Would he be shocked? Would he be angry? Peter wasn't really sure if JJ hated Spider-Man or was just extremely curious and wanted more info so he went around giving the hero a bad name but... It would be great if he could show him. Just a small little webbing to the wall to teach him a lesson.

"Look Parker, you're a good kid." Jamerson started in. "And you're a hell of a good photographer too, but you have no regard for the rules and that's what builds the bases of a good news company, employees who actually follow the rules." He sighed. "I'd hate to have to do this but you leave me no choice, I'd benefit better from a photographer that's on time as opposed to a tardy one. Parker, you're fired."
Peter nodded, he saw that coming. "But Mr.Jamerson sir..." Might as well at least attempt to fix it before he went looking for more jobs. Usually something happens that convinces the boss man to give him another chance more often than he probably deserved. "It won't happen again, I promise! Also I'm the only employee you have who's had this much experience in dealing with Spider-Man."
"Nonsense!" Jamerson replied. "I got your nice little lady friend Mary Jane, she's a damn good reporter, always throwing herself into the action and has had first hand experience with with Spider-Man, even scoring a few recorded conversations and interviews. That's a lot more useful then some photos."

"Right..." Peter sighed, he forgot about his best friend, MJ. The girl didn't know where boundaries are suppose to lie and more then once had gotten herself into a dangerous situation which made Peter wonder what would of happened if her friend wasn't in fact a superhero. It annoyed him that she was so unaware of his double life as well, he wanted to tell her but it was just too risky and with her passion for covering news stories, this was one thing he couldn't trust her with.