"Are you all right?"
The next day at school, Gwen looked at Peter with a hint of concern. Peter quickly assured her he was fine. In truth, it was nothing major; after his conversation with Matt the previous night, the two of them had decided to search for traces of the Hand on the spot and immediately teamed up to head out.
They spent the better part of the night sweeping through a dozen gang hideouts in Hell's Kitchen, but there wasn't a single trace of those undead ninjas. Peter had even scouted the sewers, yet found nothing. It was as if the Hand had vanished into thin air.
Later, upon returning home and checking the Avengers' communications, he learned that Odin, before entering his slumber, had made a trip to Nornheim to beat the three Norns and seize a large quantity of Norn Stones. He had also visited Svartalfheim to crush the Wild Hunt army. Unfortunately, the members of the Council of Realms had already fled, so Odin failed to capture them.
With Loki among them, his illusions were sufficient to prevent even Heimdall from tracking the location of those scoundrels. Furthermore, as Odin had been fighting consecutively, he required a much longer Odinsleep to recover his strength, forcing him to let them go for the time being.
Thor was destined to be away from Earth for a long time, and the clues regarding the Council of Realms had gone cold, leaving only Roxxon Energy—which Tony was tasked with investigating and handling.
By the time all of this was finished, it was already the early hours of the morning.
"I stayed out a bit too late last night, so I'm just a little sleep-deprived. It's nothing."
Hearing this, Gwen simply nodded. She knew Peter had been busy lately, but she hadn't been involved in many of those affairs. Sometimes she wondered if her powers had some kind of side effect—otherwise, why was such a useful ability never called upon for these incidents?
Could it be that everyone had truly forgotten her?
In reality, the reason Peter didn't call Gwen for many of these events was precisely because her powers were difficult to account for in a strategy. Many times, especially in battles like the one against Carnage or the War of the Realms, there were massive area-of-effect attacks flying everywhere.
If Gwen participated, let alone the enemies, even her allies wouldn't be able to find her. With lasers, missiles, divine power, and magic exploding in every direction, it was hard to say if Gwen could dodge them all even with her current Spider-Sense.
Moreover, considering Gwen's ability was an active one, if something truly happened while she was using it, it was unknown if she could deactivate it. If things went south, she might die somewhere and no one would even remember she existed.
The thought sent a shiver down Peter's spine. He waved to Gwen and headed toward his classroom, only to find that Harry's complexion looked even worse than his own.
"...Why do you look like you haven't slept at all?"
Peter asked curiously, omitting the "worse than me" part. Did Harry have some reason to pull an all-nighter as well?
"Uh, oh, I just stayed up too late playing video games. I'm fine, buddy."
Right, shouldn't have asked.
Peter, who had genuinely thought something was wrong, shrugged helplessly. Soon, class began. As he sat through a boring math lecture, spinning a pen in his hand, Peter suddenly felt a jolt from his Spider-Sense. He looked around and realized immediately: something was about to happen.
"Everyone, get down!"
Peter Parker's sudden shout confused everyone, but the ensuing explosion proved him right. Following a violent blast, an entire wall by the window was blown open. A figure Peter vaguely recognized flew in on a hover-disk, drifting inside at a leisurely pace.
"How many times have I told you, Klaw? Don't be so crude. What if you hurt our guest?"
Peter "knew" this person. It was the tech-wizard, Bentley Wittman, the Wizard. However, the last person using that name had clearly been a puppet for Doctor Octopus. Why had another one popped up?
Did Otto steal your account, or did Otto show up in person? And who is this guest? Could it be me?
Under Peter's watchful gaze, the Wizard floated over and tossed an anti-gravity disk toward him.
It latched onto Harry.
Harry, who hadn't even recovered from the shock, began to float. The Wizard then tossed him toward another person—a very tall, robust woman. Her muscular build was terrifying, making her at least two heads taller than Peter.
At this point, not only was Harry dazed, but even Peter was stunned. Then, he finally realized what was happening.
Is this... a kidnapping?
Subconsciously, Peter prepared to turn invisible and strike, but he hesitated and stopped. He watched as Harry was hoisted up by the woman, staring back at Peter with innocent eyes. Shortly after, a flying car drove into the campus, and the woman tossed Harry inside.
Then, Klaw—who had blasted the wall with sonic weapons—the tech-wizard posing for the crowd, the muscular woman, and the driver stood together atop the flying car, making their criminal debut announcement.
They even had equipment ready for a live broadcast.
"Listen up, everyone! We are the Frightful Four! We have me, the Wizard; the indestructible master of sound, Klaw; the Herculean warrior, Titania; and Trapster, the king of snares who can freeze any foe! Now, go tell Norman Osborn that his son is in our hands. Deposit five hundred million dollars into this account immediately, or his son is dead meat!"
Are you serious? You're kidnapping someone at Midtown High? And aren't at least two of you escapees from the Raft? Instead of finding a hole to hide in, you came to New York for a kidnapping?
Looking at Harry's face, he didn't even look scared; he looked like he was trying not to laugh.
"Aren't you going to stop them?" Cindy had moved to Peter's side, ready to go. Peter shook his head and shrugged. "Nah. I'll just rescue Harry in a bit. I just need to make sure he doesn't get caught in the crossfire. There's definitely someone else coming to deal with these guys."
Cindy tilted her head in confusion, feeling this wasn't quite Peter's usual style.
"I just hope they don't jump out too fast, or people might realize they're students here."
Before Peter's words had even finished landing, a young man wearing a gold star-crested helmet and high-tech armor descended from the sky, slamming the Wizard directly into the ground. Nova, Richard Rider, grinned broadly. "Huh? The Frightful Four? Never heard of 'em. Also, your helmet is way too ugly!"
Cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd. Nova raised his head happily, listening to the excited calls of his fellow students.
"It's Cloak and Dagger!"
Huh...?
He turned around and saw a pair of heroes, one in black and one in white—already somewhat famous—charging toward the scene.
As for Nova?
Evidently, no one had ever heard of him.