Keemia

Wendsday (04.11.2009)

After Saturday's events, things around New York were fairly calm as Marko didn't make another appearance. This gave me ample time to swing around and grind experience.

My favorite place was the Tinkerer's hideout I found while looking for Marko. The place had lots of high-leveled guards who, to be frank, had been having too dull of a life, so I decided to spice it up a little for them.

I would do my usual route around the city to capture any criminals before popping by the hideout roughly every 15 to 30 minutes, wake up any napping guards, stick a few to walls and ceilings with my webs, knock some out and leave them hanging from high places and leave.

After only two days of this, the entire place is now constantly on high alert, and it looks like the guards are just about ready to shoot anything that moves even a little.

In fact, I have seen them shoot each other a few times when I'm there just to make noise and mess with them.

It's been a very entertaining sight for me.

I've also been using my magic skills extensively while on patrols, and some have taken to calling me Magicman instead of Spiderman, but thankfully the name hasn't quite caught on, and the majority still like Spiderman more.

Currently, it's the last class before the lunch break, and just like the past few days, I am sitting in the back with Gwen and reading books to grind my skills.

Some teachers were a bit unhappy about me ignoring their classes in favor of reading unrelated books, but it seems my homeroom teacher told them to mind their own business as long as I continue getting good grades.

After all, it's good for students to be passionate about subjects and be proactive in learning.

While reading, I keep throwing glances at Gwen sitting next to me.

To be honest, after Saturday's events with her nearly getting kidnapped by Sandman, I was expecting her to maybe have some trauma, but she seemed completely normal as if nothing happened. What a strong girl.

Another reason I keep an eye on her is that I realize I screwed up a bit.

After Sandman got away and I was talking with George, I had called Gwen by her first name despite Spiderman never having met either of them.

George didn't seem to notice it at all at the time as he didn't mention anything, but Gwen was standing right next to us. As far as I know, not many people call her Gwen since, for some reason, she even has our classmates calling her Gwendolyn.

It's a constant teasing point for me since whenever I call her Gwen in class, the people around us send smug looks my way.

The old Peter tried to insist on calling her Gwendolyn as well but got strongly reprimanded by Gwen instead.

Well, she didn't seem to notice or at least didn't connect the dots as nothing seems out of the ordinary with her.

My secret identity is still safe. (doubt)

After the event, George and I set up a plan for capturing Sandman the next time he appears, and we exchanged contact details just in case we needed to get in touch at some point. It doesn't hurt to have contacts in the police either way.

I, of course, gave him the phone number for the phone Yuri gave me instead of my personal one.

As for Sandman… well, I wasn't too sure on what to actually do with him.

I don't know a lot about him from the comics, but if I recall correctly, he had a sick daughter that was the whole reason for him turning to crime in the first place.

Immediately a lightbulb went off in my head. If I somehow help out her daughter, could Sandman be redeemed? Maybe I could even gain a future ally for myself this way?

However, when I asked George about Marko's daughter, my hopes were crushed before I got to think too deeply about the topic.

"Eh, Marko's daughter? Well… he did have one… but…"

George wasn't too happy talking about it, but deciding it to be essential for capturing Sandman gave me a short summary of what happened.

Marko's daughter Keemia was kidnapped by Hammerhead and the Maggia years ago, and George was put in charge of rescuing her.

Despite trying his best to find the girl, George failed but not by his own fault. The extensive corruption in the police force meant some higher-ups had taken bribes from the Maggia in exchange for declaring the girl to be dead and shutting down the search efforts.

George was promoted to the position of police captain to keep him quiet, and at the time, he never questioned the decision and was just happy with the promotion.

In short, Sandman isn't after him to get revenge for putting him in prison but is instead trying to avenge his daughter, which is why he was just as happy to go after Gwen when he couldn't get George.

Well fuck.

The question still remains on what to do with him. I obviously don't want to kill the guy, and I can't just let him go as he will keep going after George and Gwen.

The best option is to let him get captured by the police, in which case Shield will probably take over his imprisonment and have him under high security. The only negative here is that Shield basically equals Hydra right now, and they would love to have someone like Sandman working for them.

I've been trying to think of a better way for days, but my head remains empty. Sorry, Marko, I will try to make it up to you in the future.

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[New Quest - Fate of Keemia]

[Description - Investigate to find out what happened to Keemia after Hammerhead kidnaped her]

[Reward - A follow-up quest, 25 free stat points]

[ACCEPT?]

[YES / NO]

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I'm surprised by the sudden quest, but I was a little interested in this anyway and seeing as there are no penalties, I accept without a second thought.

Shortly after accepting the quest, the school bell rings, signaling the end of the class and the beginning of the lunch break.

Gwen and I pack our bags and head outside. Today we had plans to eat with Rogue and some others she would introduce us to.

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Note: Eh… So those curious about my other book, "God's Cafe," I wrote like an entire six chapters for it before just deleting them since I think I was writing myself into a corner, so idk what I'm gonna do with that.