"A nine PM curfew!?" Spider-Man snapped, web swinging over a car and landing on the back of a sixteen wheeler "How the hell am I supposed to do this and keep to a nine PM curfew!?" He sat with his legs crossed and his arms folded, scowling furiously underneath his mask as the city moved past him. After he'd gotten home an hour later than he'd supposed to, May had said that she was unable to trust him any more and had limited him to a nine PM curfew until she was able to trust him to stay out longer, as well as having to call her at three PM and and eight PM in order to tell her where he was, what he was doing and, in the case of the second call, how close he was to coming home. He'd been furious about the new restriction and knew that it was going to affect his superhero life, but at the same time he knew that he'd worried his Aunt May and angry or not he knew that he was in the wrong. Looking ahead of him he was able to see a traffic jam and he then decided it was better to start swinging again. As he swung through the air he grumbled several sentences under his breath, going through his mental to-do list for that day.

"I've wasted too much time on menial shit, I need to get back on the trail of the Big Man" he said, angling his body to swing around a corner before firing another web "Where to start with that... I'm guessing the people who know the most about the Big Man would be the police... so I better pay a visit to Captain Armour first and see where we can go from there" Spider-Man used his photographic memory to remember where Shining's house was, or apartment, he corrected and once again changed the direction he was going. He knew that he was wanted by the police but he hoped that Shining would be reasonable enough to listen to him and be willing to help him out.

"It's a risk, a risk for both of us" Spider-Man sighed "But I get the feeling that I'll be able to talk him round and get him to help me out... at least I hope so" The distance reduced as the minutes went by and soon enough Spider-Man landed on the balcony of the penthouse Shining and Cadance lived in.

"Why is it that everybody I know lives in really expensive penthouses?" Spider-Man asked himself quietly. He knocked on the glass door of the penthouse and jumped up onto the railing of the balcony, resting in his usual high-knee crouch with his fingers stabilizing him as he rested on the post. Several seconds went by before Shining came into view, looking at Spider-Man with a peculiar gaze. He slid the door open and walked out to the balcony, leaning against it with his back and resting his elbows against the railings.

"You do know that I'm supposed to arrest you, right?" Shining asked.

"I am aware of that fact Captain" Spider-Man nodded "But I've got something to say that might make you change your mind"

"Which would be?" Shining asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I think that I can help you track down and arrest the Big Man, if we work together that is" Spider-Man explained. Shining slowly turned his head to look at Spider-Man, a look of amused disbelief on his face as he spoke.

"And what makes you think I need your help?" Shining asked "I've done fine with just my squad and my intuition"

"Uh, no disrespect meant Captain, but you didn't even know the name of the Big Man before I came along, you'd been working on the case for a long time with no leads" Spider-Man stated "And with me being on the scene for five minutes I managed to get one of his grunts to talk, I'd say that you do need my help" Shining angled his head to the floor, nodding slowly before sighing and looking up.

"Alright, maybe I could use your help" Shining agreed "But if you're going to help me then we're doing this by my rules"

"Which would be?"

"Anything I say, you do, you follow my orders to a T and never question a thing I tell you to do" Shining listed "I outrank you and I'm the one that'll be keeping the rest of the force off your back, remember that" Spider-Man nodded slowly, chuckling to himself before looking back at Shining.

"Right, that seems horrendously unfair but I'll go with it" he agreed "So Boss-Man, what's our first move?"

"Well, we've had a tip from an anonymous source that the Big Man has two employees that he trusts above all others, now we don't know the name of his second in command but we've got a partial I.D on his third in command-" Shining said "Come on in and I'll tell you what we know" Spider-Man followed after Shining as he walked inside his house, shutting the glass door behind him and walking into the living room. Cadance was sitting on the floor wearing a pink sweater and loose-fitting pajama bottoms with bunnies on them, her hair tied up in a ponytail behind her head with a pair of circular glasses on. She looked up, noticing her husband first and then looking extremely surprised to see Spider-Man.

"Uh, Shiny" Cadance said "What's Spider-Man doing here?"

"He's here to help out with the Big Man case" Shining answered, walking over to her and kneeling down, kissing her on the cheek "You don't mind him being here do you?"

"No, I just wish that I was dressed properly is all" Cadance sighed.

"Don't worry, you look beautiful anyway" Shining said, standing up and walking around the corner and into his office. Spider-Man looked down at the floor, only then noticing that Cadance was trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle, having done about two tenths of it already.

"Slow day?" Spider-Man asked.

"Extremely" Cadance nodded "The internet's been down all day and I'm bored with all my books"

"Huh, you should try playing video games, it's a good pass-time" Spider-Man shrugged.

"I could never get into them, the controller just threw me off every time" Cadance said with a shake of her head.

"Alright" Shining said, walking back into the living room with a brown file in his hand "This is everything we've got on her"

"Her?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yeah" Shining nodded, handing the file to him "Her" Spider-Man opened the file and began to flick through it, spotting a regrettably familiar outline.

"Black Cat" he sighed, taking out a photo from the file. The image was extremely blurry and had been taken from quite the distance but he could tell it was her from the body shape.

"You know her name?" Shining asked in a surprised tone.

"Not her real one, she's the one that got me framed for robbing that jewellery store a few days ago" Spider-Man nodded "I knew that she worked for the Big Man but I didn't think she was that high in his chain"

"Neither did we, we're not completely sure to be honest, but we've got a strong hunch that she organizes and commits most of the major thefts of single items while his second in command organizes the large-scale robberies and heists" Shining said "In the file's a list of all her different heists and jobs but besides what she's done, we've got no information on her"

"Maybe I could try and find something out about her" Spider-Man suggested.

"A good idea, but until we get a real name or anything close to an identification, we've got nothing to go on" Shining sighed.

"You haven't tried planting a mole in his organization?" Spider-Man asked.

"We tried, but no one was brave or stupid enough to agree to do it" Shining said.

"I could try, I think I could look after myself" Spider-Man offered.

"Wouldn't work, you've proven yourself to be a good guy, he'd never trust you with anything crucial" Shining said with a shake of his head.

"Right, I never thought of that" Spider-Man nodded. He looked around the room with his arms folded for a long second before an shaking his head.

"I've got nothing" he growled irritably, dropping his arms down to his sides in frustration.

"Me either... I tell you what, I'll give you a few files on a couple guys we've got our eyes on and we'll work something out from there" Shining said.

"Sounds good" Spider-Man nodded.

"I'll be back in a sec" Shining agreed, walking back into his office quickly.

"I think you two are going to make a good team" Cadance said with a small smile.

"D'you think?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yeah... just look after him for me, alright?" Cadance asked.

"I will, promise" Spider-Man nodded.

"Good, I'll hold you to that" Cadance chuckled, setting about her jigsaw again. Shining came back out with a small pile of files under his arm, handing them over to Spider-Man as he began to speak.

"Right, these files have got everything we know about some high profile targets that work for the Big Man, they're suspects but they're also too good to slip up" Shining explained "Go through a few of them and see what ideas you can come up with"

"Right, I will Shining" Spider-Man said "Thanks" The two nodded at each other and after a quick string of goodbyes Spider-Man left the penthouse the same way he came in.

Peter sat with his legs crossed on his bedroom floor, a pen in his mouth and a collection of notes and files around him. He removed the pen from his mouth and jotted down several key locations that had been suspected of shipments being moved and changing hands. He had drawn up a small map on a sheet of paper that he believed mapped out the most popular routes for shipments and gun-running. The most popular area for back-alley business was in, strangely enough, SoHo and this was a place he planned to make a trip to relatively soon. His work was interrupted as his phone began to ring loudly in his pocket. He took out the device and answered the incoming call, this one from Harry.

"Hello?" Peter asked.

"Hey Pete, are you busy right now?" Harry asked. Peter looked at the notes and files all around him with pursed lips before nodding.

"Yeah, quite" he answered "Why, what's up?"

"Nothing important, it's just that Twilight and I talked about you coming to visit me last night to talk about my medication and we both felt bad about you not coming along" Harry answered "But if you're busy it's not too big of a deal" Peter screwed his eyes shut for a long second, debating whether to postpone his work and hang out with his friends or whether he should continue with it to try and stop the Big Man.

"Where are you right now?" Peter asked, making this the deciding question.

"Well we just got off the train to SoHo so we can wait here for you if you want?" Harry answered.

"Bingo" Peter thought triumphantly "On second thought, there's stuff I need to do in SoHo, so yeah, I'll meet you guys there soon, where abouts should we meet?" There was conversation between the two on the other end of the phone before a decision was reached.

"You know the Fanelli Cafe on Mercer Street right?" Harry asked "We'll meet you there"

"Sure, sounds good" Peter nodded "I'll see you there" Peter hung up his phone and stuffed it into his pocket with a smile on his face.

"Well that worked out alright after all, maybe this whole superhero thing won't kill my social life after all" Peter smirked.

Peter stuffed his mask into the bottom of his bag just as he rounded the corner of Mercer Street, seeing the cafe in question and just being able to make out the colours of Twilight's hair in the window.

"Right, in good time there Parker, now I just need to-"

"Somebody stop that guy!" a voice yelled. Peter's head whipped to the side as he saw a man in a ski mask brandishing an Uzi sprinting away from a grocery store at full speed, the owner of the grocery store standing in the doorway waving his arms and yelling. Peter's eyes darted back and forth between the cafe and the robbery before growling angrily and running back into the alley.

Twilight's head moved to the side just in time to catch what she thought was her friend disappearing into an alley. Her puzzled look got the attention of her boyfriend who looked past her with his own confused expression.

"What's up Twi?" he asked. Twilight looked for a second longer before shaking her head and turning back to her boyfriend.

"Nothing Harr" she said with a smile, tugging on the sleeve of her black sweater.

"Alright... if you insist" Harry said slowly, knowing that Twilight wasn't sharing something with him but deciding to drop it "So, you need a refill on your coffee?"

"I'm good thanks Harr" Twilight said politely "I've already had two, I get another one and I'll be sticking to the ceiling all night"

"That would be interesting to say the least" Harry chuckled "I know one thing that makes me go insane is energy drinks, I remember the first time I had one and it did not end well"

"Why, what happened?" Twilight asked, wrapping her hands around her empty mug.

"I'd rather not say, but what I will say was that involved me, a radiator and the Jaws of Life" Harry said mysteriously.

"Damn, sounds painful" Twilight commented.

"It was" Harry nodded, checking his watch "Isn't Peter supposed to be here by now?"

"Yeah, he said he wouldn't be too long" Twilight agreed. There suddenly came the sound of the cafe door swinging wide open and someone rushing inside.

"This might be-" Harry began before a loud gunshot interrupted him. There came a loud scream from a woman followed by a loud yell.

"Everybody get the fuck down now!" the man brandishing a gun yelled before turning around and aiming at the windows "You hear me freak, you come in here and they all die!" Harry, seemingly prepared for this kind of situation, moved around the table of the booth they were in and grabbed hold of Twilight's shoulder.

"Get under the table" he ordered.

"Harry, what are you-" Twilight began.

"Twilight, now" Harry snapped. Twilight fell silent, ducking under the table and watching as Harry pressed himself against the booth, looking at the man brandishing the gun. He waited silently until the man whipped around, grabbing a blond woman and pulling her over to him, pressing the barrel of the Uzi against her head and screaming.

"You come in here and this bitch if fucking dead freak!" he bellowed. Harry, seeing that the man's back was to him, bolted across the cafe and ducked under another table, grabbing the salt pot from above him and preparing to throw it.

"Easy buddy" came a thick Manhattan accent from outside "There's not need to get violent, just let her go and we can settle this man to man"

"Fuck you freak, there's no way I'm letting you put me back in, I ain't going back to jail!" he yelled, moving the gun away from the woman's head and firing several rounds into the windows "Get the fuck out of here!" Harry, seeing an opportunity, threw the salt pot to the other side of the cafe, the smashing noise causing the gunman to whirl around, away from Harry's direction and fire wildly into the wall where the noise had come from. Harry moved again, sprinting forward silently and leaping over the counter of the cafe, seeing the cashier cowering in fear. The cashier turned to look at him with fear in her eyes.

"You got a gun anywhere?" Harry asked in a hushed tone.

"Y-Yeah, shelf just under the cash register... what are you going to do?" she asked in a terrified tone.

"Stop him" was all he said. Harry silently moved over to the cash register, seeing a black box with a thin clasp on the shelf beneath it. He took the box off the shelf, trying to be as quiet as possible as he opened it. Inside the box was a handgun, a Colt 1911A1, if his training had taught him anything about firearms. He slowly removed the gun from its foam surroundings and removing the magazine. He slid the magazine into the handle of the gun and cocked it, taking the safety off and holding the gun out in front of him with both hands tightly gripping it. He moved to the corner of the counter and peaked around, seeing the man still aiming his gun at the woman's head. He was breathing heavily and his hands were shaking violently.

"Alright..." Harry said, quickly standing up and moving towards the man "Freeze!" The man whipped around and aimed the gun at Harry but upon seeing him he began to laugh nervously.

"Are... are you fucking kidding me?" he asked "You're seriously aiming a gun at me?"

"Let her go" Harry ordered "Or I will shoot" The man looked over his shoulder, obviously more worried about the fact that Spider-Man was still outside.

"Did you send him in freak!?" he bellowed "Getting kids to do your dirty work?!"

"Listen pal, I don't wanna have to shoot you, I want us both to walk away from this unharmed and I sure as hell don't want that poor lady to get hurt" Harry said slowly, the barrel of his gun aimed squarely at the man's head "But if you don't let her go and put the gun down I will shoot you, here and now" The man gritted his teeth in fury, his grip tightening around the woman's throat.

"Do you think that just cause you've got a gun, you think you scare me?" he demanded "I've fought and killed guys five times bigger than you with nothing but my bare hands... if you think that I'm gonna back down to some pint-sized little cunt like you just because you've got a gun then you've got something seriously fucked up in your head, kid"

"I'm warning you, don't make me shoot" Harry said "This is your last chance" The man laughed loudly before scowling furiously.

"How about I shoot you right now?" he demanded, raising the gun up to Harry as he spoke "And then we'll see who the-" There was a loud gunshot followed by the sound of a skull splitting from a bullet wound. The man went limp, allowing the woman to throw herself away from him as the blood began to trickle down his forehead. He fell to the ground with a heavy thump as the last gasp of air left his lungs in a quiet sigh. Harry eased his finger off the trigger and rushed over to the man, kicking the Uzi away from him just as Spider-Man smashed in through the window and looked around.

"What-" he began before he saw the dead man and Harry holding the smoking gun in his hand, the teenager having a stern expression on his face "Holy shit" Harry's face became extremely pale as he put the back of his hand to his mouth to prevent himself from heaving. He threw the gun to the side and stared at the floor for a long moment. Spider-Man walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You alright?" he asked him.

"Y-Yeah... I think so" Harry nodded, cracking his neck and taking a deep breath "Holy fuck"

Harry sat with a blanket around his shoulders in the back of the ambulance, the police and medical services having shown up on the scene several minutes after the man had been shot. Twilight was allowed to see him after being questioned by the police and she ran over to him.

"Harry?" she asked, checking him over with her hands "Thank God you're alright!"

"Yeah... I didn't get hurt or-" he began before Twilight placed her hands on his face and pulled him towards her, locking lips with him as a tear ran down her cheek.

"You scared the shit out of me!" she snapped, only just now realizing how shaken she was. The feeling of relief she felt that Harry was safe was one of the strongest she'd ever felt, a notion that only served to tear her heart in half. She knew that she was dating Harry and she was beginning to care for him more and more everyday while another section of her heart yearned for contact with Peter. The overpowering flux of emotions inside her heart and mind were enough to cause her physical pain as she knew that this would only get her into trouble. She wrapped her arms around Harry and held him close, his arms closing around her chest.

"I don't know what I would've done if you'd gotten hurt" she said, tears still streaming down her face.

"It's alright" Harry chuckled "I'm a little shaken but nothing's damaged, I'm still here and still with you" Twilight rested her face on Harry's shoulder and smiled.

"Good" she stated.

"Hey kid, you're not allowed to be here!" one of the police officers snapped.

"Listen, those two are my friends and I need to talk to them" Peter's voice came from around the ambulance. Twilight stuck her head around the side of the ambulance and saw Peter standing next to a police officer just outside of the police line.

"Peter?" Twilight called out to him. Peter's head turned to Twilight with a smile on his face.

"See, she knows me, can I go in now?" Peter asked. The police officer looked back at Twilight who nodded at her.

"Fine" she said reluctantly "Just don't get in the way" Peter thanked her and rushed over to his friends, seeing Harry sat in the ambulance.

"Shit dude, what happened in there?" Peter asked, pretending to be unaware of what had gone on.

"Some guy came in, grabbed a hostage and threatened to kill her" Harry said quickly "So I got a gun and... and shot him"

"Holy fuck man, you holding up alright?" Peter asked "That shit isn't easy to deal with"

"I'm fine... wait, Peter... how do you know that?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"I... uh" Peter mumbled, his eyes dropping down to the ground.

"Fuck, Peter, you... you..." Harry said slowly but upon catching his friend's eye he decided to drop the subject "Yeah, I feel sick to my stomach" Peter stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and looked up into the air, exhaling slowly. As he was looking up his eyes caught a glimpse of movement on the rooftops, the movements of a sleek figure dressed in black. Peter's body tensed and he recognized the long, white locks of the Black Cat racing along the roofs with trained grace.

"Pete?" Harry asked in a confused tone "You alright?"

"Y-Yeah... listen man, I hope you feel better soon and I'm really sorry this happened" Peter said, moving away from Harry as he spoke.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked.

"That thing I talked about... yeah, I've gotta do that" Peter answered before turning around and hurrying off, ducking into another back alley to change into his costume and go after the Black Cat. Next Chapter: Jolly Co-Operation Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 20 Minutes