C L A S H

Janice had found the perfect space for Clayton to do his work, and was thoroughly impressed with herself for finding it in such a short period of time. It was small, maybe, but it had everything he should need to conduct his business – she had converted the space into a fully functioning lab for him, fitted with computers and anything else he should need. She was pleased with herself, and she mentally reminded herself to speak to her father about Clayton. Janice was still unsure as to why he had sent Clayton to her, but she wasn’t one to question his intentions – whatever he had planned, Janice was just glad to be able to be apart of it. 

She had texted Clayton the address earlier in the day, and had gotten there before the agreed meeting time to fully inspect the space – to make sure it was up to her standards. She had paid the men who had set it up cash in hand, and made them sign a non disclosure agreement. There was no way she was letting anyone find out about this little project. She knew it was to create his super suit, but she also wanted one of her own. 

It would be going against her father’s wishes for her, but it was something she desperately wanted. She wanted to be a super villain, she had wanted it since she could remember. It was a lifestyle that appealed to her, and she always got what she wanted, one way or another. 

“Hi, Janice. Sorry if I’m here too early.” He said as he half jogged to close the distance between the two. He was looking around in awe almost as if he were a kid in a candy shop. This. This is what he dreamed of as a kid and while he was locked up.  A place like this where he could throw himself into his tinkering and test out what ever his brilliant mind managed to imagine.  “This place is... Wow.” He said with a small laugh as he extended a hand to shake. “Thank you so much. I mean this is what I’ve always wanted!” He was beginning to look a little too giddy for his own good but he couldn’t help it. This was heaven. 

Janice smiled. “Clayton,” she started, leaning forward in her chair. “I completely understand that you want to keep this between us. You’re on probation, and the last thing we want is for you to end up back in prison.” She paused for a brief moment, running through ways to work around such a thing in her mind; she wasn’t above bribing people, but this had to be kept on the down low. 

“Who’s your probation officer?” She asked, pulling up a screen on her computer. “I have a… Friend in the DA’s office who owes me a favour.” She had got his son out of a sticky situation back in February, and he had promised her a favour in return; Janice could be a nice person, but only when it suited her needs. 

 “He should be able to pull a few strings and get you one who I think would be much better suited for our purposes.” She didn’t want some random probation officer with an over sized ego screwing this up for her. “I will get that sorted for you, either way.” She added with a wave of her hand, turning back to face him. 

“Now,” she started, folding her hands together on the desk. “I will get you everything you need - lab, office, somewhere to sleep - for you to do this, but I do have some conditions.”

“Th-Thank you so much!” He finally spat out failing at stifling his excitement. “I’d love the opportunity to work with you, what do you need from me?”

“Henchman?” Janice leaned forward, propping her chin on her palm, staring at Clayton. She hadn’t been expecting that, but she did need someone to do the dirty work – finding dirt on the people testifying against her clients. “Okay, Clayton. Aside from being a genius, what are your other skills?” She paused, “and tell me more about this super powered suit. What would it do?”

“Well, I’m a robotics and computer expert, I have experience with infiltrating protected servers and computers, I can make a sonic weapon in less than a minute if I have some of the basic supplies.” He paused for a minute, looking around paranoid. He wasn’t allowed to have this technology, it’d violate his probabtion, but so would meeting with Janice so no matter what it was too late. “Well, I’ve got a few pieces on me right now that’s going towards the next generation. Just let me-” He trailed off as he put a small black sphere on the table. With a twist a black energy field came from it as they were surrounded in total and complete silence. “You’ll understand if I don’t want anyone hearing about all of this right?” He asked rolling up his sleeves and sliding on a metal skeletal clove that he curled his fingers into and braced on his wrist. 

“It does a few things but I don’t want to destroy anything so I’ll keep it simple.” He said as he stood up and aimed his glove at the ground. Flexing his fingers sound began escaping through the speaker on his palm, keepitsimple  keepitsimplekeepitsimplekeepitsimple it repeated in his voices until he began floating in the air awkwardly and unbalanced.  A look of pride began to show itself on his face as he began to demonstrate his efforts. “Now imagine having this on both your feet, and then when you turn up the volume you can even shatter glass or deflect bullets, or if you make it low decibel it’s great for crumbling brick walls and breaking bones.” He said as he relaxed his hand and floated back down to the ground. 

“If you want to learn more look up Spider-Man vs Clash at Midtown High. It was his first...” He paused hating what he was about to say. “Super villain fight.”

The last time Peter came home with four bags of gummy worms, May looked at him like he had walked into the apartment carrying a bloody knife. Alright– no, that was too dramatic of a way to describe it. But the look she had given him was bad enough to make him pause as he stood in the candy section of the corner store he found himself in. He was right in front of the gummy worms, two bags already in his arms and he was ready to grab a few more. But his aunt might kill him if he walked in with four bags again. Two bags were enough. He would just have to convince himself that two bags were enough. And besides, he still needed to order his sandwich. Even though his stomach was empty enough to swallow practically all the food in the entire store, he would make do with a sandwich and two bags of gummy worms.

After making the tough decision to walk away, Peter let out a sigh and turned to walk back towards the counter. As he dragged his feet slowly down the row, someone walked by and caught his eye. It made him pause, trying to figure out if the passing figure looked familiar or not– and then it hit him. Once Peter thought he had figured out who it was, he clutched his precious cargo closer to his chest and jogged to the end of the aisle, hoping to catch the familiar face before they got away.

Yeah, it definitely looked like him. This whole five year gap thing was still something Peter was getting used to– people getting older and he wasn’t around to see it happen. Still, he thought he was pretty good at remembering faces.

Peter was afraid he was staring too long and diverted his eyes, hoping Clayton didn’t think he was being weird. He debated just letting him be and going to order his food, but in the end he couldn’t just walk away. It had been so long since they saw each other– it felt wrong to not say anything, even if there was an awkward tension in the air.

Just tucking into the bodega he began thumbing through the change in his pocket. Just about two dollars left in loose change. Should at least be enough for a can of Pringles right? God he needed money. Maybe the Italian’s needed some back up for something. A hack job maybe? He hated working for that side of the law but he felt like he had no choice at times. He was half tempted to start saving funds to upgrade what was left of his suit and just go out on his own. Put the henching aside and be his own boss if no one would hire him.

It was as he reached for the pizza pringles that he caught someone eyeing him from the corner of his eye. It took him a second to realize who it was. That Parker kid from Midtown High. His grip tightened on the pringles can as he quickly tried to make his way to the register. He didn’t want to deal with anyone who knew who he was, what he was accused of doing. 

Just a few more steps. Three seconds top and he’d be at the register ready to pay and leave, that was until he heard his name. “Dammit...” He muttered to himself before turning to look at him. “Uh... Yeah it has...” He was at a loss for words and visibly uncomfortable. “So... Peter, right?”