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Chapter 57 - ch. 57 Peter Parker

Standing outside of Midtown High School, Nick was leaning on his car as the school bells rang.

His car was a used 2005 BMW 3 Series, he was incredibly rich now but his cars always got destroyed one way or another. At this point, he just bought cars with the idea that they'll eventually be destroyed in mind, so now he buys cheap but reliable vehicles.

Perhaps that would change later when the idea of a $200,000 car being destroyed meant nothing to him, but not now.

As the students rushed out of school talking about what they'll do later that day, those that spotted Nick began walking away from him the moment they saw him, as he gave off a dangerous vibe.

He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with jeans, his arms were laid bare and completely showing off all of his scars. The time he got stabbed deep in his arm by a mutant in New Mexico, a couple gunshot wounds from Edward Kim's drive-by, a human bite wound from where the ghoul he absorbed had bitten him, and a couple more scars from Nick's adventures.

That was just his arms, his chest and back had a massive scar from being stabbed through the heart alongside all of the other scars he accumulated. At this point Nick was just glad he didn't get any facial scars, he wasn't a vain man but facial scars were avoided at all cost.

Scanning the crowd of fleeing bodies, Nick found his target! Walking forward through the crowd of students, the boy turned to look up at the muscular, scarred-up man.

"Peter Parker, may I have a moment of your time?" Peter, who was mid-conversation with his friend Harry Osborn, stopped.

"Uhh, do I know you?...I really need to finish a project, so I can't speak right now." Peter began to walk past Nick towards a Bentley that Harry Osborn's chauffeur drove.

"Really? I just wanted to return something of yours." Reaching into his pocket, Peter's eyes widened in worry about a possible weapon, but his spidey sense didn't go off.

Instead of pulling out a weapon, Nick activated one of his ability to create slightly stronger than average spiderwebs!

Just as Peter spotted the faintest hint of webbing, he immediately grasped Nick's hand harshly, preventing him from pulling it out. Nick's wrist was in pain, he felt his bones creaking from the strength in the grasp, but he didn't show any reaction causing Peter to frown.

"I can spare an hour... Harry, I'll come to your place later to work on the project, don't worry we'll finish tonight." Frowning at the scene, Harry ultimately nodded before getting into his Bentley and driving off.

"Follow me," snatching his wrist back, Peter began following Nick in tow as they walked back to his car and drove off in silence.

'Whatever I do, I mustn't show Peter my wings, telekinesis, or even me being a decent swimmer. When I killed the vulture in front of him, I had shifted into a different man's identity, so he does not know it was me but he is a genius! Seeing anything even remotely correlating to that might tip him off and label me a villain!'

Nick's telekinesis grew stronger with the more life energy he gained, because of this he didn't plan on trading out the Creeper for a very long time, so this means he must make sure Peter doesn't find out about those powers.

The two drove in silence for over thirty minutes, as the minutes ticked by Nick could see from his peripherals Peter breaking out in cold sweats. The longer the silence grew, the more nervous he became until he eventually broke down.

"How did you find out about my secret identity? How come my webbing fluid didn't dissipate? What do you want with me?" Hearing the barrage of questions, Nick just smiled.

Peter's face was trying to be calm and serious towards this stranger who knew his identity, but it was apparent for all to see that he was terrified.

"I didn't know you were Spider-Man. I had a hunch, but you confirmed it just now. As for why your webbing didn't disappear, you can see for yourself." Reaching into his pocket, Nick tossed the bundle of webbing to Peter, who caught it with a puzzled expression.

"These...aren't my webs! You tricked me!" Peter realized he had just exposed he was Spider-Man because somebody flashed a bundle of normal spiderwebs!

"Yup, and for what I want with you...it's a partnership!" Peter's expression twisted at Nick's words.

"Partnership... what?" With his confusion evident, Nick stopped the car as he arrived back at his lab.

"Yup, partnership. I'll show you what I mean." Peter's guard was up but he remained with Nick nonetheless; his spider senses didn't give him any bad feeling about Nick.

Bypassing all his multiple security measures, Nick led Peter into his research lab, his eyes shone with wonder as he looked around at all of the state of the art equipment.

"I'll give you full access to my lab, any materials you need just ask and I'll buy them." Peter felt his excitement rise at the offer, he'd been using the school's science room to create his web fluid but this could be a game changer for him.

"You're 16, right? Old enough to get a part-time job and work for me, just help out on my projects for a couple hours a day and you can use my lab for whatever you want afterwards." Peter took everything in, ideas on what he could build flooded his mind but he was still doubtful of Nick's identity.

"Why are you doing this? Just because I'm Spider-Man?" Peter was obviously worried about Nick's intentions.

Nick remained silent for a few seconds, he prepared multiple speeches to convince Peter and he just hoped they worked on the genius.

"...I used to work for the NIA. I saved lives and helped people, but I came to realize something terrible whilst on the job... Hydra, the very same extremist group that allied itself with the Nazis in WW2, is still active and is working within the highest branches of the government!"

Peter's face shifted, he read about Hydra in the history books at school but he thought Captain America stopped them!

"I dont know who works for Hydra or not, thats why I plan on building up a force capable of stopping Hydra whenever they finally show their ugly head, and I'd certainly like for you to be a part of it." Extending his hand for a shake, Nick looked directly into Peter's eyes who didn't falter from the gaze.

"If what you say is true and Hydra is still active and taking over our government... then I'll join you!" Peter firmly shook Nick's hand.

"It'll be a pleasure working with you. I haven't introduced myself yet, I am Nicholas Valentine but you can call me Nick." Nick was glad Peter believed his Hydra story, it was mostly all true of course, but Nick's real intention wasnt to combat Hydra but to recruit Peter into his company permanently.

"Can I ask you something? How did you get a 'hunch' that I was Spider-Man?" Peter asked, wanting to know how to hide better in the future.

Nick began to tell a preplanned story that weaved in facts and half-truths, he talked about eyewitnesses describing Spider-Man's voice as being childish and him being 5'5" tall, giving Nick the idea that Spider-Man was still a kid. He talked about how Spider-Man only appeared in and around the Queens area, which narrowed his search.

He talked about how he used his NIA connections to look up intelligent people who are capable of building those webs in the queen's area, narrowing it down further. Then at that point nick just personally checked the people on the list until he arrived at Peter, that was the story Nick prepared.

He couldn't just say he knew it because Peter was the main character in a comic book after all. Peter just nodded at the explanation, his mind realizing how sloppy he'd been.

"I like what you're doing Peter, going out and stopping criminals. I'll give you all the resources you need to gear yourself up to fight crime, in the meantime, I'll build up the company's forces to combat Hydra!"

Peter nodded with determination, his face was serious realizing what they were up against when a thought popped into his head.

"Oh yeah, Mr. Valentine, about my salary..."

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