Nineteen years ago, March
Richard Parker snuck around the back of the warehouse. His shirtsleeves were rolled up, and his collar was undone.
He was followed by a blonde haired man in a paramilitary looking outfit.
"Parker, you shouldn't have come here alone!" he hissed.
"And you should have stayed back, Koeing!" Parker hissed back. "If I'm going to get Mary out, I can't have you hanging out behind me in full SHIELD uniform!"
"Someone had to make sure you didn't get yourself killed!"
"So you're going to get me killed."
Agent Eric Koeing rolled his eyes. Richard felt the wall, looking for a secret opening. There was no such luck, but he did find a regular door. He opened it slowly, peering in. He looked back a Koeing and nodded before heading in.
Koeing followed Richard into the darkened warehouse. They were creeping through a side part that was not completely open to the main part of the warehouse. The two moved closer to the main part. Richard saw a medium sized guy standing guard, facing the opposite direction. He took the opportunity to catch him off guard and knock him out.
Richard was immediately greeted with a punch to the face.
"You think we weren't expecting that?" a young man asked, no older than twenty-five.
Richard held his nose, which was throbbing, but fortunately not bleeding. "Where's my wife, you son of a bitch?"
"She's over there," the man replied, gesturing to a where another, older, larger man was holding Mary with a gun to her head.
Richard looked at his wife, and she saw his glance, knowing what he was planning. He continued looking at her, and lunged for the man who had punched him in the nose. Mary used the distraction and stomped down on her captor's foot. He pressed the gun closer to her head. She took advantage of his wider stance, and brought her foot up hard into his groin. He doubled over, dropping the gun, and letting her go.
"You should have known what you were getting into when you kidnapped me, dumbass," Mary said. She then ran over to her husband, who had been knocked down again. But she was clotheslined by the man who continued to pummel Richard.
"Enough," Koeing said, stepping out of the darkness, aiming his gun at the man. "Now, back the hell up."
"Sure . . . " As he backed up, he carefully pulled a syringe out of his back pocket. He stepped closer to Mary, and in a flash plunged the syringe into her left arm.
Mary screamed in pain, and Koeing pulled the trigger on his massive weapon, causing the man to get blown backwards several yards, hitting the ground hard. Mary collapsed.
"No!" Richard shouted, rushing to his wife's side. "We gotta get her to a doctor!"
The doctor looked up from his clipboard. "Everything checks out positive. There seems to be no lasting effect of whatever you were injected with Mrs. Parker. You must have busted the world's dumbest drug dealer."
Mary and Richard both breathed a sigh of relief. Mary was sitting on the counter in the infirmary, and Richard was standing beside her.
"However, I will want to run some follow up tests for a while," the doctor continued. "Just to make sure that the baby won't be affected."
"Baby?" Richard asked.
Present day . . .
"Okay, nice story, what does it have to do with anything?" Victor asked. He was sitting in Peter's bedroom, looking over the files that Ezekiel had recently given Peter.
"That was the first encounter that my parents had with Scarecrow. They didn't know what it was at the time, but they soon found out."
"Oh. Oh." Suddenly, Victor was hit with a realization. "Dude, your powers could be a result of this whole mess."
"I know," Peter said. "It makes sense that whatever that was that my mom . . . " Peter paused a moment. He wasn't used to saying the words "my" and "mom" together, and just hearing himself say it sounded weird. " . . . whatever my mom was injected with, whether it was Scarecrow or not, did something to me."
"And the spider bite just activated it all."
"In simplest terms . . . " Peter trailed off. "Wait a minute. First time I met Ezekiel, he was cryptic, but he basically hinted at this . . . "
"I remember. You thought maybe your parents experimented on you. So, we decided to check your blood against Harry's. See if it was Oz. What ever happened to that anyway?"
"Inconclusive. Couldn't find any traces of anything, except residual radiation."
"But there's still room for you to have been born with that stuff in your system."
Peter nodded. "I mean, a radioactive spider biting a human? I should have died. Something kept me alive."
"So, it's possible that whatever she was injected with was a catalyst for your powers," Victor suggested.
"And Scarecrow is known mainly as a catalyst . . . " Peter trailed off. "But why did Ezekiel play around with me for so long? I mean, he should have been able to give me those files to start with."
"Maybe he forgot he had them until now."
"Possibly, but something doesn't make sense there."
"I dunno. This is all well and fine. Very interesting stuff. But why did I have to get over here so quickly?"
"There are a couple of more files you should look over. Apparently, we aren't the first generation of our families to have met."
Eighteen years ago, January
Richard Parker opened the door to find a man his own age standing in front of it. Behind him stood as similarly aged woman, holding a baby in her arms.
"Yes?" he asked.
"You are Richard Parker?" the man asked.
"That is me," Richard replied. "Who are you?"
"I know this may seem strange, but I need your help. I am Lamont Cranston, Junior, and this is my wife and son. I know that you don't know us, but I would be grateful if you would let us inside so I can explain."
"Normally, I wouldn't let strangers inside my home, but I see your child, and cannot in good conscience let him stay in that cold weather. Please, come in."
"Thank you," Lamont said, coming in, and ushering his wife in as well. He saw Mary Parker coming up behind her husband, and very clearly with child. "Good evening, ma'am. I am Monty Cranston. This is my wife, Kelly, and my son, Victor."
"Cranston?" Mary asked. "I believe I've heard of you."
"That was most likely my father. He was quite wealthy, and did a lot to help the city." Lamont turned to Richard. "Is there a place we may talk in private? I wish not to alarm the ladies at the moment."
"My study, yes," Richard said, turning to his wife. "Mary, can you take Kelly and little Victor into the living room?"
"Yes," Mary said. "You look like you could sit down . . . "
In the study, Monty sat down in front of Richard's desk. Richard looked over his bookshelf.
"I know you are SHIELD," Monty blurted.
"Excuse me?" Richard asked.
"I've seen you. Your mission this past fall. A drug bust."
Richard paused, and pulled a book off the shelf. He tossed it on the desk. "Your father wrote this."
Monty nodded. "The Shadow adventures are all true, as happened to him."
"And you continued the legacy?"
"You are very deductive."
"They didn't make me a top agent for nothing."
"So, you admit you are SHIELD."
"Yes. But you still haven't explained why you are here."
"My family is in danger. I believe I was found out on a recent mission."
"And why come to me?"
"Like I said, I saw you in action. It didn't take much to learn of your identity. Plus, I also have reason to believe we are working on the same case."
"How so?"
"Well, the reason I was in that warehouse was because I was chasing those drug dealers. I didn't realize that SHIELD was involved until that day."
"Let me guess, you discovered that the drugs weren't of the normal variety."
"I've heard the word Scarecrow more times over the last five months that I care to," Monty replied. "As I'm sure you have as well."
"You've been found out?"
"I was in China, and accidently stumbled across part of some weapon. I think I heard the word 'doomsday'."
Richard took a deeper breath than usual.
"China too?" he whispered.
Suddenly, Kelly Cranston came rushing into the room. "Mr. Parker, your wife! She's in labor!"
"What happened next?" Victor asked.
"I don't know, it just says that your family met mine the day I was born," Peter replied.
"I have to know more. That wasn't too long before my father disappeared. A matter of weeks, or even days. But, how could Ezekiel have found this?"
"He did some digging, I'll tell you that. These were private files my father made and hid somewhere that not even SHIELD found."
Victor stood up. "This is too much. It's like I've finally reached the third act of a four act movie, and the projector's cut off."
"Your mom should know."
"They've only been hiding the secret for eighteen years. I'm graduating high school in two days. I deserve to know."
Natalie was lying on her bed, slowly turned the pages of her scrapbook. It was something she had made after she filled up her last diary. Taking the pages from the diary, she pasted them into a large book, and surrounded them with pictures. Most of them were of her and Victor. She tried to hold back tears.
She looked up when she heard a soft knock at the door. "Come in," she said.
"Hey," Mary Jane greeted, sticking her head in the room. "You called?"
Natalie sat up. "Yeah," she replied. "Come on in."
Mary Jane walked over and sat down beside her on the bed. "Still feeling down about LA?"
Natalie nodded. "I don't know why. I made the decision myself, fully knowing what I was getting into."
"You had a safety net. Before you could leave, you had to finish high school. And high school is over."
"Except for one little ceremony. . . . It just seems so weird. I mean, I never felt like I was ever going to get out of high school. Even being a senior seemed like it was for others."
"Sometimes it seems like forever. But in other ways, it feels like the last four years, especially this year have just flown by."
"And I'm going to be thrown into the real world."
MJ chuckled. "Honey, college isn't the real world. Not what my friends tell me. It's got all the advantages, with none of the disadvantages."
"Still, it's such a big change."
"I hate to say it, but you did choose to go across the country, even with plenty of schools on this side of the country that you could've gone to."
"But, I wanted . . . "
"Don't give me that 'wanted to test the relationship' garbage. You've known each other forever. You're running from something else, not Victor. It's just a shame that you're dragging him through this emotional mess."
Natalie sat, unmoving. Finally, she spoke. "You're right. Are you majoring in psychology?"
"No," MJ replied. "It's just that your problems were a little too obvious. But maybe being across country will help you. Get a new perspective on life."
"Thanks," Natalie said. "You really helped."
Victor stormed into his home, and charged into the living room, where his grandfather and mother were watching television. He walked in front of it, and pressed the power button.
"Where is my dad?" he asked.
"What?" Kelly wondered.
"Dad. Why haven't I ever found out why he isn't here? You know what happened, where he is! Why haven't you told me!"
"Victor, calm down," Lamont said, trying to ease the tension.
"I am calm! It's just that I'm eighteen years old, about to graduate from high school, and all I know about my father is that there was some accident, and he doesn't live with us."
"Yes, that's true," his mother said.
"Enough with the pretentious bull! You think I haven't noticed? You think your little coverup of an accident is enough? How come we've never gone and seen him?"
"You're absolutely right," Lamont replied.
Kelly looked at him.
Lamont continued. "We've kept you in the dark for far too long. But we haven't lied to you. Your dad did have an accident, and he is elsewhere. You're old enough now, I believe you have a right to know . . . "
"Thanks a lot," Peter said. "Those files really helped."
"You're welcome," Ezekiel said, on the other end of the phone line. "Have you learned any more?"
"Nothing concrete, just a few conjectures. I'm working on them, though."
"Gives some meaning to our first conversation."
"How did you find those files?"
"I have sources."
"More cryptic messages . . . "
"I can't tell you yet. Actually, I'm not completely sure."
"It wasn't first hand."
" . . . "
"Ezekiel?"
"Uh, no."
Peter frowned, but then dismissed it. "Well, I gotta go. Stuff to do."
"Sure. Later," Ezekiel said, hanging up the phone. He stood from his desk, and put his coat on. He didn't see the red dot until it was too late.
The bullet shattered the glass of his office window and ripped through his body.
Ezekiel fell to the floor, lying in a pool of blood.