New York City, hustle and bustle at all hours of the day and night. The only true serene part of the city was the skyline. The lights of the skyscrapers lit up the horizon at night to create a postcard-like image. The tranquility of the scene was beautiful. Suddenly though, it was disturbed.

A figure clad in red and blue swung through the air, catapulting himself from rooftop to rooftop. This figure was familiar to the skyline, they had shared many nights together, but on this particular night, the New York skyline could hardly recognize the knight that normally patrolled her.

The figure was in a frenzy, going at a pace that was not customary to his usual laid back approach. The figure has every right to be in frenzy though. Many things have transpired in the past few months, culminating in his loved one being taken from him. He will not rest until she is returned to him safely, because he is

#2 - Detective Work

By John Stevenson

Spider-Man landed on a rooftop, and paused for a moment. He put his head in his hands and then shook it. He began to think to himself out loud.

"Okay Spidey, now is not the time to lose it. You have to think straight. You're not gonna find MJ by swinging through the city like a lunatic. But where do I start? Hit every crime center I know? That wouldn't help, this guy's not your regular brand of criminals. He's an average joe with a huge obsession for my wife… grrr… I'm no detective, I'm a super-hero, I'm a scientist, I'm a photo-journalist, but I'm no detective. I think I need help… but from who… the only detective that I can trust to help me is probably Arthur Stacy and he's… well, God knows where he is. I'm supposed to be looking for him too."

Spidey shook his head again. "Too many missing people that I care about, and for once it has nothing to do with me being Spider-Man. Maybe it would be better if it was. At least then the bad guys come to me…"

Spidey brought himself back from this unhelpful train of thought. "I guess I have to start searching using the only tool I have."

Aunt May looked around the penthouse apartment that she was currently calling home. In truth she didn't really like it. It was far too cold and modern for her tastes. She preferred her home in Forest Hills much more. All the same, she couldn't ask Peter and MJ to move their lives on account of her. They were already doing far too much for her.

May Parker sifted through her belongings, she picked up a frame that held a picture of herself, her husband Ben, and her nephew Peter.

She smiled as she ran an old finger along the picture. She missed Ben a lot. She took some comfort in the fact that he had moved on to a better place. He had been the world to her. He and Peter were her entire life.

At that thought she put the frame away. Peter was all that was left for her, and now, with the decision she was taking, she felt she was abandoning him. Especially now, with Mary Jane missing, Peter needed her now more than ever.

May pushed that thought away. She had to remind herself that she was not helping Peter at all. Peter didn't want to talk to her, he was out most of the time, trying to find a way to help in the search probably. If anything, she was one more thing for him to worry about, nothing more than a burden. The deed had to be done. It was for the good of all the parties involved.

… And yet, even as she said that, she looked back at the old picture, and couldn't help but feel that she would be leaving behind the one person that mattered the most in her life.

At that moment, Aunt May heard a knock at the front door of the apartment, and the jiggling of keys.

"Peter?" she called out hopefully.

The door to the front of the apartment opened to reveal a young woman with long black hair.

"No. Sorry, Mrs. Parker, it's only me," Jill answered while closing the door behind her.

May came out of her room, "Oh, hello dear. How are you?"

"I'm good," Jill lied, "So, I take it Peter's not home?"

"No, I'm afraid not. He's out helping with the search. He hasn't been home all day."

"I see…" Jill tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. "With MJ gone missing, it must all be very hard on Peter." Everyone tried to avoid using the word kidnapped.

"Definitely, those two have their ups and downs, unfortunately a lot of downs, but they love each other more than anything else in the world."

"Ya," was Jill's only reply.

"Well dear, I have to get back to something I was doing in my room. I hope you don't mind if you let yourself out."

"No, of course not Mrs. Parker," Jill answered as she walked towards the couch in the living room and flopped down onto it.

Jill let her head fall into her open hands. She had found out about Mary Jane's kidnapping through the morning news. She had then called the Parker residence, only to get no answer.

She decided to drop by to see if there was anything she could do for Peter. Unfortunately, it seemed Peter was not home. She could understand. Peter was not the kind of guy to sit around doing nothing while his wife was most likely in dire peril.

Truth was, she really had hoped to find Peter here… but he wasn't. With that, Jill gathered herself and got off the couch. Walking over to the door she shouted, "Goodbye, Mrs. Parker."

The scene was a car shop in a quiet neighborhood of New York City. Little did the denizens of this neighborhood know that this car shop was extremely active during the late hours of the night.

Unfortunately, this activity was somewhat of the illegal variety. The business behind the business was known as a chop shop. This garage was actually a hot spot for organized crime hijackers. As such, the workers had knowledge of things, that they probably would not want to have the knowledge of.

Still, they try to ignore the illegal nature of their work and carry on. Most of these men are ordinary men who are just trying to make extra money.

In the calm created by welding torches, a window shattered and everyone's head turned.

The mechanics' tired eyes were greeted by a blue and red costume and face-fulls of webbing.

"Holy - It's Spider-Man!"

"Hmm… I thought that was my line, but thanks for saving me the trouble," quipped Spidey while he hit one mechanic with a left hand and splashed some webbing in the eyes of another.

Less than five seconds later, every man in the shop was either webbed up or groaning from a hit to the head. Except for one, he was the unlucky one.

Spider-Man held the man by the collar as he cowered in fear.

"Please, please. Don't hurt me. I have a wife and kids. I'm just doing this to make a little extra cash," the man whimpered.

Spider-Man paused for a moment running the words through his mind. Finally, he spoke.

"You won't get hurt if you tell me what I need to know. I'm sorry, I wish I could use a line that doesn't sound so corny, but my creativity's been stunted. Now, what do you know about Mary Jane Watson-Parker's kidnapping?"

"N - n - nothing. She got kidnapped at a photo shoot. I read it in the paper. That's all."

Spidey sighed inwardly. He had gotten this response too many times tonight. "What about Senator Ward. What have you heard about him?" asked Spidey trying to find anything, even if he was out on a limb.

The mechanic's face went from a look of fear, to a look puzzlement, "Look, Spider-Man. Ward's a big gun. Us little guys here in the shops don't get to hear much about what he's doing."

"Are you saying Ward is involved with the underworld?"

"Well, yeah. But I don't know how. All I know is there's some cop who's really hot under the collar trying to get after him."

Spider-Man's heart began to race. "Tell me more."

"Umm… the guy's got a personal vendetta and…"

"Do you know where I can find this guy?"

"I don't, but a guy that comes by here pretty often, knows a guy that this 'cop' gets his equipment from."

"Give me his name and his address, NOW!" Spider-Man paused for a moment, "And another thing, don't you think your wife and kids would rather have you home right now? You need to get your priorities straight."

In a United States government office building, national business stopped being taken care of hours ago. Yet the Senator of the State of New York was still at work.

The question: what kind of work was the Senator doing?

The door to Senator Ward's office opened, and his secretary walked through. "Senator, phone call on line one."

"Who is it?"

"It's… umm… one of your 'supporters'."

"Ah - I see. Thank you very much."

Ward reached for his phone and hit the button for line one. "Yes, hello - Everything's in order? - Excellent. - Yes, we'll talk some more on a more secure line. - Goodbye."

The Senator hung up his phone, and put his feet up on his desk. And then he began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh…

"HAHAHAHA - SKRCH"

Arthur Stacy flipped the switch on the recording device, and the maniacal laughter that was echoing in his headset suddenly stopped.

The old detective took his earphones off and flung them onto the panel with loads of switches. He dropped his head into his hands and let out a long sigh.

Ward was up to no good, and he knew it. Only problem was, he had no way of proving it. To the majority of the citizens of New York, Senator Ward was their ever-loving representative in the United States Senate.

Stacy knew there was more to him than that. A whole lot more. The man had a side to him that was scary beyond belief, and Arthur Stacy knew about it. Sometimes, he wished he didn't, then it would be up to someone else to do what he had to do.

The white-haired detective slammed a fist against the control panel. It was so frustrating. He knew what Ward was up to, but he had no way of proving it. And the alliance he had formed with his new "supporter" made the Senator more dangerous than ever. That was the other part of Stacy's frustration. This "supporter", his style, his voice, the way he ran things, they all seemed so familiar and yet the detective could not place him.

Arthur Stacy let out a low growl, "I swear Ward, even if I have to put my neck on the line, I'm going to bring you down. Hard."

At this time of the night, all the lights in the Jameson home were usually off. Even the hot-under-the-collar-always-wired-publisher of the Daily Bugle would normally be resting peacefully in bed next to his wife.

But on this night, only two of the three residents of the household were asleep.

J. Jonah Jameson sat awake in his study thumbing through some old archives, he could not bring himself to sleep.

In recent times, JJJ's sleep had been haunted by the recurring dream of Spider-Man and Venom. * It always seemed to end just before he could get to unmask the villainous Spider.

(* See last issue to see exactly what dream we're talking about -ADS)

Just as Jonah flipped a page everything in the room went black and the familiar scene unfolded as if he were there.

The dream continued for a few minutes, and then, Jonah approached the figure of Spider-Man and reached for his mask. Normally, this would be where the dream would stop, but no, it continued. Jonah pulled the mask off his foe's face and looked upon the face.

And then Jonah woke up.

"Wh - what the hell!?"

Jonah gathered himself as he realized he had just been dreaming again. He thought back on the end of the dream. He had pulled the mask off of the vigilante, only to see his face covered in shadows.

JJJ groaned and walked off towards the kitchen to get a drink of water, that would hopefully clear his mind.

In the same little room as earlier, Arthur Stacy had drifted to sleep over the same crowded console. Only he knew the contents of his dreams.

The room was no bigger than seven cubic feet. The walls were not painted. There was a door on one wall, and on the opposite wall, a window that opened up to the world outside. The room was something of a forgotten corner in a typical Manhattan skyscraper, it was on one of the upper stories.

As Arthur Stacy snored through the night, the window to his small room began to budge, after a few jerks from super-strong arms, the window opened.

With the sound, the old detective jumped from his sleeping position and drew his revolver. Unfortunately for him, his tired movements were far too slow for the enhanced reflexes of Spider-Man.

A webline hit the gun and as Spidey yanked, the weapon flew into his hand.

"Tsk, tsk. This is a very dangerous toy. You could put someone's eye out with this," said Spider-Man as he climbed into the small room.

Arthur Stacy rubbed his eyes knowing that he had no chance of escape. "Spider-Man, I have work to do and I'm not leaving. So, I think it's in everyone's best interests if you just leave."

Spidey understood that there was no malicious intent behind the words, so he decided to put the quips on hold for the moment and level with the man. "Detective, I don't know exactly what's going on, but your family misses you."

"I miss them too, but this is something I have to do."

"I understand what it means to have to do something. So, what do you say I forget I found you, if you'll help me out."

Arthur Stacy looked at the costumed crime-fighter obviously intrigued. "What exactly would you need from me?"

"I'm sure you've heard of the kidnapping of Mary Jane Watson-Parker."

"The what?"

"You haven't?"

"I've been somewhat out of touch, I guess. That's terrible. I know the Parkers."

"Ya, well, so do I. They're good friends of mine, and I need you to help me find Mary Jane."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the best detective I know."

"That's very flattering, but what makes you think I'll help you?"

"First, you're a good guy, and you'll make the right decision. Second, the way I see it, you don't have much of a choice," Spider-Man said letting only a hint of threat seep into his voice.

Arthur Stacy sighed and looked at his headset. He then turned his gaze back to the web-swinger. "I'll help you Spider-Man, but after that, you forget you ever saw me."

"Done," said Spidey as he extended his hand.

The two men shook hands and then immediately began their business… there wasn't a moment to spare.

In a boathouse somewhere near the docks, a very familiar red-head sat tied to a very uncomfortable wooden chair.

She had been sitting here for a little over a day now. Luckily, so far her captor had not done anything to harm her, but she wasn't so sure how long that would last. After all, the man was obviously mentally unstable.

"Speak of the devil," MJ thought to herself as her kidnapper approached.

The man looked definitively insane. He wore a green cap, dark shades, he had a lollipop in his mouth and wore a smile that said, "I'm nuts, so sue me."

"So, how are you finding the accommodations my dear?" asked the stalker as he held MJ's chin in his hand.

Mary Jane shook away from the disgusting hand. "You will regret this. My husband's going to find me."

"Hmm… I see. Apparently, as long as your husband is alive, you will never willingly give yourself to me. I suppose I'll just have to kill him."

MJ scowled. "You're nuts."

Then, suddenly, MJ heard a loud sound. It was the sound of a child crying.

"Ah - you'll have to excuse me my love, I have someone to attend to," said the lunatic as he left the room.

MJ's head dropped. "Peter. Oh, Peter. Where are you?"

Will Peter find MJ? What's going on with Aunt May? What is Senator Ward up to, and who is "the supporter"? What's going on with JJJ's dreams? We'll finally get some answers.

Author Notes

It's been a long time since issue one. A lot of things came up, but I'm back at the helm and expect issue 3 very shortly.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any comments, suggestions or criticism send ‘em my way at devilsadvocate450@hotmail.com.

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