Marvel Nights - Spider-Man Ch. 04

The two of them hold hands, and his portion of the suit slides back into MJ. I giggle, as the black pajamas he was wearing disappear into nothing.

"Oh think that's funny do you?" Pete says with a big smile. He grabs me up in his powerful arms, tenderly placing me on top of the kitchen table. "Well, I'm still hungry!"

"Ohhh!" I squeal in delight.

**********

LUKE CAGE

I roll up to the Parker house in my sky blue caddy. Forrest Hills was a lily white suburban area in Queens, and it felt weird being the only brother in sight. I wasn't really scared, of course -- being bulletproof has its advantages. But still, whenever I find myself anywhere below 110th street I just couldn't shake that awful feeling of leaving my people behind. I had been wrongfully imprisoned on bullshit charges once, so fool me twice shame on me, fam.

I knock on the door, careful not to splinter it with my enhanced strength. A few seconds later a pretty redhead opened the door. She was a sexy little thing, rocking black hiphugger jeans and a black mesh shirt that didn't really hide her nipples at all. Let's just say I was at a loss for words.

"Can I help you?" The red-haired vixen asked me after a moment. I tore my eyes away from her perky titties back to her mischievous green eyes.

"The names Luke Cage. I'm a private investigator with Heroes For Hire. I been having trouble getting in contact with one of my employees. She has a guy named Peter Parker as her emergency contact."

"That's my husband. Hey Peter, there's a guy named Luke Cage here for you," she called back into the house, lounging against the door frame. I head a thud from the back of the house and a guy said "WHAT?" before sounds of scrambling around. I frown, the voice is kind of familiar but I've never met Felicia's emergency contact.

A few seconds later a guy I assume to be Peter Parker came to the door. I tried not to bust out laughing. Apparently he had to get some clothes on in a rush, because he had on a pair of blue sweatpants, backwards of course, and a pink girl's T-shirt that had "Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda" written on it in bold black letters. Judging by the boner the sweatpants were barely hiding, I had interrupted some intimate time. I could tell that worked out more than a little bit, but even with the lean muscle he was kind of a scrawny looking guy, his brown hair was a mess, and he slid his thick glasses back up his nose.

I looked back and forth between the ginger goddess and this skinny fucking nerd. I guess the dude had money, plus he was really packing under the sweatpants, I dunno.

I coughed into my hand to cover my mouth. "Sorry to, ah, interrupt your day. I'm looking for a missing person."

That got the guy's attention. I've been doing the hardboiled Harlem detective thing for a while now, I can pick up on certain things during an interview. The guy wasn't nervous, but he had the tension of a coiled spring. "Who's missing?"

"Felicia Hardy. You seen her?"

"Yeah. She's not missing, she's here right now."

Okay, I blinked at that. I rarely get easy cases. A few minutes later the buxom blonde former jewel-thief that had been moonlighting as my security consultant sauntered into the room. She was wearing a faded old NASA T-shirt, and nothing under it apparently since her massive boobs were lifting the hem of the shirt up her hip enough to show off lots of leg. I watched Felicia as she slid her arms around Mr. Peter Parker's torso, pressing herself into his back.

"Mmm, Pete, MJ, come back to bed!" she purred. Her eyes weren't focused, and she looked like she was on something. Rolling on E? I was immediately suspicious.

"Felicia are you okay?"

"Oh, hey Luke. How's Danny?"

"Danny's fine. Do you need me to give you a ride home? The receptionist at your penthouse hasn't seen you around..."

She giggled. "I am home! Pete and MJ are letting me move in with them."

"I see. You know, we been missing you at the office, Felicia."

"Oh sorry, I guess I should have called to let you know I wasn't coming in yesterday."

"Felicia, I haven't seen you in a week."

She frowned. "Oh. I'm sorry. I've just been busy getting settled in here."

"Yeah its been pretty crazy around here," Peter said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"Felicia will come back to work soon." The red-head responded. "We only agreed to waive the first two months of rent, after all," she added.

"Right. Well." I stood there awkwardly, not sure what to say or how to approach this situation. I'm more of an ass-kicking first, ask questions later kind of guy, that's why I hire people like Felicia to do the more delicate stuff. But Felicia was alive and I knew where to find her. Like Iron Fist would tell me, we would have to consider a course of action and come back later. "Talk to you soon."

As I get back in my car, the Wu Tang Clan ringtone on my phone lets me know that Danny is calling me.

"Yo, Fist. Get me everything we can find on a guy named Peter Parker."

**********

Back at the Heroes For Hire office, I look around at my troops, such as they are. Danny Rand, the immortal Iron Fist. Colleen Wing, Daughter of the Dragon. Misty Knight, bionic super cop.

Misty pulled out the shiny new Rand-Meachum laptop that Iron Fist donated to organize our casefiles and business paperwork. I preferred Stark-Fujikawa computers myself, but hey beggers can't be choosers.

"The Parkers had been listed as Felicia's emergency contact from the beginning, so nothing suspicious about that..." Misty skimmed through. "Hmm, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, I've seen her on TV. She sucks, can't act or sing. Always gets cast in bit parts for some eye candy, though."

"I'm guessing she probably met Felicia at some high society party," I say as Danny nods in agreement. "Some eye-candy modelling thing."

"What about the husband?" Colleen asks, her samurai sword resting across her knees.

"Peter Parker...hmm. Not much on him. He's a scientist for the NYPD. Went to Empire State University...but seemed to have trouble graduating before his doctoral work under Curtis Connors."

"The lizard man?" Colleen raises an eyebrow. "And Otto Octavius. This Parker guy sure knows a lot of mad scientist super-villains."

Danny pulled the laptop closer to him. "His private sector work is interesting. Horizon Labs? That's big time. Max Modell only hires people with talent."

"So Dr. Parker is a good enough egg-head to make a mind control serum, maybe?" I ask, a hypothesis forming. "But after his mentor becomes a giant lizard, he goes and gets shit-canned from Horizon Labs..."

"Huh, our science whiz had side hustle in photography, too," Misty continues reading Parker's file. "He's listed on some paparazzi shots from a few years back, working for that sleazeball Dexter Bennett's tabloid rag. The old Daily Bugle paper too."

"Okay. Okay. So the nerd poses as a photographer takes pictures of hot supermodels, and then puts the whammy on them to get them into bed." I nodded. "That's why a skinny dork like that can get two fine ass bitches drooling over him."

"Fine ass bitches, huh?" Colleen asks me with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, you know, for white girls anyways." I add hastily.

"Mmm hmm." Misty snaps the laptop shut.

Danny taps the table. "Do we need to worry about countermeasures? Robots or giant lizard monsters running around?"

"I'm sure as long as we catch him away from his chemistry set, he won't put up much of a fight. Okay team. Let's go rescue the Black Cat."