Victor Cranston sat down and stared at his grandfather and mother. His emotions were jumbled. He was angry that they kept the truth about his father from them, but also anxious, and a little nervous that they were about to tell him. It also caused a bit of disbelief, because they had kept the truth hidden for his entire life.
"What prompted your sudden interest?" Lamont asked.
"The interest wasn't sudden," Victor replied. "It's always been there, but I was just over at Peter's and he found out something about his parents." He turned to look at his mother.
"How much did he tell you?" Lamont inquired.
"Just that mom and dad appeared on the Parkers' doorstep, asking for help on the night Peter was born."
"Then it's time I finally tell you what happened," Kelly Cranston said. "We went over there that night because your dad was afraid that his identity had been compromised by someone he was after. A drug dealer or something. Having learned of Agent Parker, he was hoping for some help. We laid low for a few weeks, staying with the Parkers. But finally, Richard and you dad decided it was time to do something. Because Mary had just given birth to Peter, and you were only a few weeks old, we ladies stayed behind.
"Richard told your dad to go back home. He thought that if he returned home, he would be found, and that would lead them to whoever they were after. Sure enough, in a matter of hours, someone did come . . . "
An hour later, Victor was still sitting down, wide-eyed. It was going to take some time for the information to process in his brain.
"So, dad got hit with the Doomsday Weapon, and that's why he's . . . not here?" he asked, recapping the end of the story.
Kelly nodded.
"Do you know what was in the weapon, to do that?"
Kelly shook her head. "I was never privy to that information, and I never got a chance to ask the Parkers. They went deep undercover soon after, and then finally . . . "
Victor was silent for a moment, and then asked the question that he had always wanted to ask his entire life.
"Can . . . can I go see him?"
"No," Lamont answered forcefully. "Under no circumstances are you to visit him."
"Oh, come on!" Victor protested, standing up. "You kept the truth from me for eighteen years, and now you can't even let me go see him once I find out what happened?"
"There's a reason we kept you away from him."
"I just hate to think that he'd miss my graduation for some stupid reason."
"It's not like he'd even be aware of it . . . " Kelly muttered.
Victor just stared at her in shock and went up to his room.
The next morning, Victor woke up and stared at the ceiling. Two seconds into the day, and he was already deep in thought, still processing the information he had received the night before.
He looked at the clock. 9:01. He smiled, knowing that he should have been at school an hour before, had it been a school day. As it was, classes were done, and the seniors were just waiting for Saturday to roll around.
Reaching over, Victor grabbed the phone off of his nightstand and dialed a familiar number.
"Hello?" the female on the other end answered, sounding only half awake.
"Rise and shine, beautiful," Victor said. "Wanna do something today?"
"What time it is?"
"Little after nine."
"Okay, meet at eleven?"
"I'll be there."
Victor hung up the phone and got out of bed. He walked downstairs to the kitchen. His mom was sitting at the table with her checkbook and a bunch of papers spread about.
"Well, good morning," she said, looking up. "Sleep good?"
Victor nodded, walking to the refrigerator. He found the pizza box left over from the night before and carefully pulled two pieces out. In one quick motion, he opened the cabinet, pulled a plate out and slapped the pizza down on it, and closed the refrigerator.
"Pizza for breakfast?" Kelly asked.
"Hey, it's soon going to be the standard for all meals," Victor replied, biting off a piece of pizza.
"I'm sure campus dining halls will have plenty of options other than pizza."
"Doesn't mean they're going to be good."
Kelly looked back at the bills. "Doing anything exciting today?"
"Lunch with Natalie. Might hang out with Peter and MJ this afternoon."
"Be careful. I know things have been getting pretty exciting lately."
"Not really."
"That's not what this hospital bill is telling me."*
*(from Victor's stay at the hospital in issue #31)
"Wouldn't call that exciting so much as painful."
"Olsen!" Perry bellowed into the City Room of the Daily Planet.
Jimmy raised his head real fast when he heard his name. "Yes, chief?"
"My office, now. And don't call me chief!"
"Right, chi - er, Mr. White!"
Jimmy briskly walked into Perry's office and sat down, letting the door close behind him.
"It's been common knowledge around here for a while that tomorrow is graduation," Perry began.
"Yes, sir."
"And you and Peter are graduating and going to college in the fall."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, I know that you're going to school down south, and won't be working for us in any official capacity."
"That's right."
"Are you still planning to continue in journalism?"
"Of course."
Perry smiled. "Good. I'm glad to hear that. Anyway, like I said, you won't work for us in any official capacity, but I was hoping that you'd be our eyes and ears down there. If anything major happens that's newsworthy, call me. Or if you can get a picture or two."
It was Jimmy's time to smile. "I'll try, Mr. White."
"But that's not the only reason I called you in. Is Peter here today?"
"I haven't seen him. He might be in this afternoon."
"Okay, I'll tell him later. But because you two have done such excellent work, I've been authorized to grant both of you special scholarships. Two thousand dollars a year for every year you are an undergrad."
Jimmy's eyes widened. "Thank you, Mr. White. I don--"
"Oh, don't thank me. Thank Mr. Wayne. He's the one that authorized it. And provided most of the endowment. And you don't have to feel any obligation to the Planet. That's all been covered by the excellent work you've done already."
Lois looked up from her typing to see a young female standing at her cubicle.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Do you know where Jimmy Olsen is?" the girl asked.
"He's talking with the chief," Lois replied. "He should be out in just a minute."
"Thank you," the girl replied. "I'm Carolyn, by the way."
Lois pointed at Carolyn. "Jimmy's prom date, right?"
Carolyn nodded sheepishly. "Yeah."
"He showed me the picture. That was a lovely dress you wore that night."
"Thank you."
Just then, Jimmy stepped out of Perry's office. He looked across the City Room and saw Carolyn standing by Lois' desk. His smile slowly faded.
"Hey, Jimmy!" Carolyn exclaimed, rushing over to see him. She wrapped herself around his neck. "I was wondering if you had time for lunch."
"Well, er . . . "
"But first, you have to give me that tour of the dark room that you promised you'd give me."
"I promised . . . ?" Jimmy wondered.
"Yeah, on senior skip day."
Oh great, Jimmy thought. She had me making promises while she knocked me out. "Sure, let's go," he said. If he was lucky, and stalled long enough, Peter would come in and give him an excuse to go, or some big emergency would come up.
Jimmy opened the door to the dark room and motioned for Carolyn to go on in. He shut the door as he walked in.
"Obviously, we only use three red lights to provide - mmphfph!" He was interrupted by Carolyn suddenly grabbing onto his neck and kissing him very passionately. He tried to break loose, but her grip was strong. Soon, she had pressed him up against the wall. He went with the flow.
Out of Jimmy's line of sight, Carolyn pulled a small device out of her pocket and pressed it against the wall. It stuck. She let go of Jimmy.
"What the hell was that?" Jimmy asked.
"It's called making out."
"I know that, but why here? Why now? We have a very strict no making out in the dark room policy."
"Huh?"
"It's something Peter and I agreed on last summer. Besides, pushing me back like that, you're lucky you didn't spill anything, or break a light."
"Sorry," Carolyn said. "What if we clear the tables?"
"Might work," Jimmy replied, no longer feeling uncomfortable.
Ben Urich looked at the corner of his computer screen and frowned. The wireless network icon popped up, and said it was operating at full capacity.
"Huh?" he thought aloud. "But we don't have a wireless network within the building."
He double clicked on the icon and brought up a screen showing the available wireless networks. He tried a few options, to learn the source of the sudden network. Suddenly, his screen went blank and his computer shut down.
Ben pushed the power button several times, and nothing happened. He stood up and looked down into Lois' cubicle.
"Lois, problem," he said.
"What is it?" Lois asked.
"I think we're getting hit with another virus."
"Damn. I just got my computer cleaned of the last one."
"Is your wireless network icon popping up in the lower corner?"
"Uh, no."
Ben frowned again. "I wonder . . . Does your computer even have wireless capacity?"
"I don't think any of these do."
"Mine is new," Ben remembered. "Replaced just three months ago." He glanced toward the large windows and saw what looked like a man hovering in front of them.
And then the glass completely shattered. Lois stood up. "Not the glass, not again!"
The reporters in the City Room all froze.
"I really thought Jameson was going to replace those windows with something else after last time, but no . . . " Ben muttered.
Hovering in the air was a demon looking creature on a metal looking disc. His face looked as if his skin and muscles were ripped off, but burnt with a redish tint. He wore all black, a cloak and hood, a tunic and pants.
"Looks like a Hobgoblin . . . " Lois muttered.
Hobgoblin looked around. "OZ!" he shouted in a booming voice.
In the dark room, Carolyn perked up.
"What was that?"
"I have no idea, but it sounded like those windows got blown out again," Jimmy said, crawling close to the door.
"Sorry," Carolyn whispered, coming up behind Jimmy and knocking him out with a lamp.
Peter walked into the office, careful to trend very lightly. Cops were swarming the room, taking evidence.
"Peter, so glad you could make it," Captain Stacy said.
"I'm not sure I am," Peter replied, looking at the pool of blood on the floor. "Why did you call me?"
"Did you know Ezekiel Sims?"
" . . . Kinda," Peter answered slowly. "This is his office?"
Captain Stacy nodded. "We found him lying dead on the floor, bullet through his torso."
Peter was stunned into silence. "So, why am I here?"
Captain Stacy handed Peter a folder. "This. It's a printout of what we found on his computer when we came in."
Peter opened the folder to find a photo of himself and a brief, and very incomplete biography.
"The file we believe to be corrupted," Captain Stacy continued. "Any idea why Mr. Sims would have a file on you?"
Peter closed the folder. "He must be paranoid. Sure, we talked a few times, but mostly about journalistic matters."
"Ah," Stacy said, taking back the folder. "Thanks for coming."
"You're welcome," Peter said, turning around and leaving. A cop brushed past him as he went out.
"Captain," the cop said. "Something's going down at the Daily Planet."
Peter instantly found the nearest exit.
As he raced across downtown Manhattan, the city started to fade around Spider-Man.
"What the hell?" he exclaimed as he let go of his webline.
But instead of falling, he just sort of hovered . . .
A female form was walking to him out of the fog.
"Madame Web!" Spidey exclaimed. "This better be good. I'm kinda in a hurry right now."
"You will be facing a difficult time soon. Many emotional conflicts will arise in the coming days," Madame Web replied.
"Any idea what they will be?"
"I cannot tell you."
"Then why are you even warning me?"
"I want you to know that you are being tested. There are even greater conflicts ahead."
"What did I say about this cryptic crap last time we met? I hate it! Why can't people just come out and say what they mean?"
"Be ready. For anything . . . " Madame Web said as she disappeared. The fog receded, and Spidey realized he was falling.
"Damn it!" he shouted, shooting out a webline for the nearest building and swinging on top of it. "What kind of test was that? Reaction time? Newsflash! I do that all the time!"
He sighed. It was no use. He knew he was a pawn when it came to Madame Web. Unfortunately, he did not have the time to ponder the situation. He quickly came up on the Daily Planet. Looking in, he noticed the windows to the City Room were blown out again. Seeing a figure hovering, he assumed that was who he needed to attack. A quick zip of the webline and hard tug pulled Hobgoblin backwards violently and grabbed his attention.
"Come on, that a boy! Come to the bright shiny superhero!" Spidey taunted.
"You do not interest me," Hobgoblin replied, pulling the webbing off of his back. He turned back towards Perry White's now empty office, since Perry was standing in front of it, staring back at
Hobgoblin.Hobgoblin lifted his right hand and gestured toward the office. With a loud explosion, the door blew outward and the office erupted in flame.