Chapter 46: The Criminal Clairvoyant Part I

Chapter Forty Six: The Criminal Clairvoyant Part I:

“Seriously what’s with these criminals and their obsession with robbing banks this early in the morning,” thought Spider-Man in an irritated voice, as he left a group of thugs webbed up. “Couldn’t they pick a decent hour of the day? As in one that won’t make me late for school? Which I’m going to be late again, for like the third time this week. Five minutes…yeah that’s gong to be a tough one to spin and….why is there a tent in the middle of the street?”

Spider-Man swung around and seconds later, Peter Parker reemerged from an alleyway, as there were many people who looked annoyed, being stopped on their way to work, as there was a tent on a platform and taking a tentative step forward, but he was stopped by two surly looking guards, dressed in chain mail.

“Hey what gives?” asked Peter.

“Be silent and respectful,” said a guard shortly.

“The grand mystic has blessed you and to shun this gift will bring a curse upon yourself,” said a second guard as there was some angry people walking around, as the curtain opened up with an Indian Man, dressed in robes of some sort exited.

“Greetings friends,” said the Indian man in a jovial voice. “And may many blessings greet you on this fine day. But truly this is the start of a blessed day, as the grand mystic, Reo has decided to come to this land to bless you with his wisdom. He has the ability to foresee the future.”

There was much disbelief and Peter just stood there with a frown on his face, as the curtain opened, and a man, with his face obscured slightly in the shadows, only his eyes visible sat in front of a crystal ball, where green smoke billowed out of it.

“Yes, yes, yes, I do believe that Mr. Reo has decided to give us the benefit of his foresight and has the following prediction about a grave incident,” said the Indian man. “A crime is to be committed within this very city.”

“Really, a crime committed, in New York of all places,” thought Peter sarcastically. “I mean, you must be clairvoyant to predict something like that.”

Reo did not move and a creepy detached voice came from where he sat.

“Mischief is at hand. Yet it can be averted. Stop and listen to this proclamation. Time is of the essence. Each second counts dearly. Risk ignoring at your own peril. I give this prediction Orion’s star will be stolen.”

The tent immediately closed at these words.

“He has spoken. All hail the grand mystic. All hail Reo.”

“Wow, vague much,” thought Peter. “I mean, either give a prediction or don’t give one. Orion’s star..what does that even mean? Let’s see, Orion is a constellation, but how can anyone steal a constellation. I’m thinking this Reo guy is a crackpot and not even a convincing one. And now I’m ten minutes late. Maybe I can get there during the end of the first period.”

-

Unfortunately the day was not about ready to get worse as Peter had run afoul of a substitute teacher.

A particularly cranky and elderly substitute teacher that looked about ready to crumble to dust any time and looked like she absolutely hated everything about having to teach. She was glaring at Peter, her beak like nose flaring with anger.

“Wow, I didn’t know the Vulture had a twin sister,” thought Peter.

“Mr. Parker, do you realize that you are nearly thirty minutes tardy,” said the substitute teacher.

“Wow, that long, boy time sure flies in the morning, look there was this crazy mystic and this tent and I got tied up,” said Peter which caused a few disbelieving glares and the teacher was buying none of this.

“You think you’re funny young man?” asked the substitute teacher. “Let’s see how funny you’ll be when you spend some quality time in detention.”

Peter just winced, he had been hoping to avoid a detention, it was looking bad on his permanent record to get so many because of his habit of being late as Spider-Man. He sat down in the chair, as the foul old bird of a substitute. He sank down in the seat, barely paying attention.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Man, Pete, a week worth of detentions,” said Harry. “Good job in hacking that old bird off, I don’t even think I could have done that well.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that she was going to get upset that I would correct her when she got a simple scientific fact wrong?” asked Peter.

“Simple for you, or simple for a normal person,” said Harry.

“Depends on what your definition of complicated is,” commented Gwen as she walked in behind them and joined them. “Let me guess, you were late again.”

“I was not going to be that late this time,” said Peter. “Long story, but this one isn’t my fault this time.”

“Yeah, just like all of the other times weren’t your fault,” said Harry. “Well at least you make it to school, it’s the thought that counts. Remember during my Freshman year when I forgot that this place existed half of the time.”

“Vividly,” said Peter as he walked down the hall. “You improved though, you actually show up most of the time.”

“I guess you can call it that,” said Harry. “Better head off, it’s a bit of a walk to next period. Catch you later, Pete, Gwen.”

“Okay, bye Harry,” said Peter.

“See you later,” said Gwen half interested before she turned to Peter. “I don’t supposed your lateness had anything to do with the robbery this morning.”

“A couple of guys knocking off a convenience store, really standard procedure,” said Peter.

“Not exactly,” said Gwen. “I just heard right after I left first period. Someone knocked off the museum, they stole one painting, I can’t remember the name of it, but it was worth a lot of money, something not to do about a constellation.”

“Would it happen to be called Orion’s Star?” asked Peter suddenly.

“Yeah that’s it…so you do know,” said Gwen.

“So that prediction that he made was right,” said Peter and Gwen looked at him with a curious expression.

With that, Peter proceeded to explain to Gwen what happened during his encounter with the mysterious mystic.

“This is too perfect to be a coincidence,” said Gwen after a moment but the warning bell rang.

“Worry about it later,” said Peter. “I don’t want to miss another class.”

“True,” said Gwen as the two parted ways.

“I smell a rat,” thought Peter. “The guy predicts a crime that happens and then it happens. Almost too perfect. I don’t believe a guy can tell the future.”

XXXXX-XXXXX

That afternoon, the tent had arrived in the middle of the city and an even larger crowd had gathered, just as Peter had made his way from detention. An even larger crowd had gathered around than before, at least half as large, all of them gathered around at the tent, as the mysterious Indian man stepped outside, to address the crowd.

“Friends, the power of the grand mystic is true as you have seen, the crime has been committed this morning, the theft of a priceless painting, worth a small fortune,” said the Indian Man. “His power is very real and the power flows within him. The matter of foresight that Reo has is the truth. You should all accept him, he can sense what is to come and perhaps if the heavens smile upon you enough, he will bless you with his presence with another proclamation of what’s to come.”

People muttered excitedly even though there was a few people that were skeptic.

“So, that’s the mystic?” asked Gwen as she arrived. “Figured that I’d wait up for you.”

“Thanks Gwen,” said Peter gratefully.

“No problem,” answered Gwen. “I’m a bit curious myself about this.”

“You can’t be buying into what this guy is saying,” said Peter in disbelief.

“No don’t be ridiculous, but there’s a lot of people here that do,” muttered Gwen, as the two teenagers were getting a lot of dirty looks about daring to break the silence and the atmosphere in the area around them.

“Wow, serious business,” said a red haired girl dryly standing right behind Peter and Gwen. “What, is this guy going to give us the key to world peace or curing all disease?”

“No, he’s going to predict a crime is going to happen,” replied Peter without thinking.

“All that hype that, what a bring down,” muttered the girl before she caught a good look at who she was talking to. “Peter, Peter Parker? Is that you?”

“Pardon me?” asked Peter in surprise, as did Gwen, who was very curious how an attractive red head had knew Peter. “Have we met?”

“Well, technically we haven’t mean, but I’ve heard a lot about you, my aunt’s neighbors with your aunt,” said the girl eying Peter with interest. “I’ve seen you a couple of times when I was over to visit my aunt during the holidays. Mary Jane Watson by the way.”

“Oh, you’re Mrs. Watson’s niece, of course,” said Peter remembering something. “Aunt May mentioned you might be moving in permanently, I didn’t really pay it much mind until now.”

“I’ve actually been there for a week, but never got a chance to say hello until now,” said Mary Jane brightly. “I mean you’re running off all of the time, not getting back until later at night and that’s when I go out. I mean, I’m not about to stay in a house in a neighborhood and be bored in a city like this.”

“Well if this city has anything its excitement,” said Peter. “Whether that’s good or bad, well that really depends on you.”

“At least it’s never dull and beside’s what’s life without a little bit of danger,” said Mary Jane.

“Peaceful,” remarked Gwen and Mary Jane looked at Gwen with a raised eyebrow. “Oh sorry, Gwen Stacy, I’m Peter’s girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you Gwen, wow, girlfriend, it’s no wonder your aunt stopped talking to my aunt about arranging us on a blind date,” said Mary Jane and Gwen looked at her. “Oh don’t worry, this was a couple years ago, I bet a long time before you two even had the nerve to get together.”

“Well, pretty good thing that happened, Mary Jane, I mean you seem like a perfectly nice person,” said Gwen. “I would hate to have to hurt you.”

The two girls just laughed in amusement.

“You know, I thought you were the straight and narrow type, I mean, your Dad’s Police Captain, right?” asked Mary Jane and Gwen responded with a nod. “I think we’ll get along good enough.”

Gwen just nodded with a smile, but it was a slightly uneasy one, as if she was trying to access how much of a threat this girl was.

“Besides don’t worry, I won’t try anything with Peter when you’re with him,” said Mary Jane as if she sensed Gwen’s worries before she added with a wink. “Unless you get bored with him and by all means let me know.”

“Well my mind is at ease,” said Gwen dryly.

“Seriously, you two look very happy together and I wouldn’t want to ruin that,” said Mary Jane. “Besides, I don’t think I’m up for anything that committed right now. I’m more of a go with the flow type of girl and this relationship thing just isn’t my cup of tea but I guess some people are that committed, like you two.”

Mary Jane looked up as the crowd was tense and they seemed suddenly annoyed by the conversation going on.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to rain on these people’s parade,” remarked Mary Jane. “I’ve got to get going anyway, things to do, people to meet. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

Without waiting for them to respond, Mary Jane walked off.

“So, what did you think of her Peter?” asked Gwen calmly.

“Interesting,” said Peter who felt this was the safest answer possible. Of course, considering that he was not sure what he thought contributed to a great deal of his vagueness.

“That’s one way to put it,” remarked Gwen in a hushed voice, but her attention was diverted by the smoke appearing from the tent and it opening. The crowd went into a silent hush, as Peter prepared to dash into action.

“Reo speaks, he imparts his wisdom on you! A crime will be committed. ”

The door opened and the only thing that was visible from the shadows was a pair of unmoving eyes, before Reo began to speak in his emotionless monotone.

“Mystic sands unravel to show ups what is to pass. You will learn much if the veil behind this words are pierced. Stop and pay attention to this premonition. Errors will be costly should you ignore this. Rows of diamonds will be purloined. In precisely fifteen minutes from this time. On the fifth street from liberty.”

There was a gasp as the tent closed as there was an eerie feeling and Peter went over the words.

“Sounded like a bunch of fragmented nonsense to me,” muttered someone.

“He predicted the crime earlier to the letter, he can do it again!”

As he went over the words in his head over and over again, the light bulb went off in Peter’s head.

“Gwen, see you later, I’ve got to go to work,” said Peter giving her a quick kiss before he moved off to change into Spider-Man. If he hurried and this was not a bunch of nonsense, he might be able to catch the thieves in the act. Thieves that he was certain were tied to this Reo character in some way.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Alright, we need to get these diamonds out of here so we can have them fenced,” said one of the thieves, one of a trio. One had a crowbar that he pried open the glass case but a line of webbing shot out and pulled the crowbar from the grip of the thief.

“Great, it’s the web creep, I just got out of jail and I was there because of him!”

“Just don’t stand there, get him!”

“Don’t you know that never works,” said Spider-Man shaking his head, as he dodged one of the thieves charging him, but obviously the attack missed and the thief connected right with the wall. Spider-Man shot a line of webbing around the thief to incapacitate him. A swing was avoided as the second thief was webbed up. “And that doesn’t really work all that much either.”

The third thief held a switch blade and sliced at the air towards Spider-Man but Spider-Man dodged the attack and pulled the weapon from his hand, before he flung the guy up and webbed him to the ceiling by his feet.

“Okay, I’ve got questions, I’m pretty sure you got answers,” said Spider-Man. “What’s this Reo’s game?”

“Reo, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” stammered the thief as he swung from the ceiling. “We’re not working for anyone, I swear, except with each other, split the take, we’ll cut you in if you let us go.”

“I’m not asking you again,” said Spider-Man in a frustrated voice, as if it pained him to say this. “Look, Reo predicted this crime and obviously set it up for some bigger purpose to scam the city. Why did he do it?”

“Are you saying that some kook fortune teller told you that we’re going to pull this job?” asked the thief in disbelief before he began to laugh like a crazed lunatic. “That’s a good one, a really good one. I think you’ve been inhaling your own webbing too much, Spider-Man.”

“Great, these goons don’t know anything, which means that Reo is not behind this and might be actually legit,” thought Spider-Man but he shook his head side to side. “No get a grip, Spidey, no one can predict the future. He’s trying to dupe me into thinking something like that. Think, there has to be something that I’m not missing. An important piece to the puzzle and I know just where to find that piece of the puzzle. Go straight to the source.”

XXXXX-XXXXX

“So you were there, both you and Peter, when that mystic gave his prediction,” said Captain Stacy, as his daughter sat at the table late in the evening.

“Yes, the so called mystic, and it turns out he was right about both crimes,” said Gwen. “Maybe its just me, doesn’t that seem odd to you?”

“Odd doesn’t cover this, Spider-Man apprehended three thieves that were behind the second crime that Reo predicted,” said Captain Stacy. “As it turns out, these thieves weren’t that human. In fact, they were robots that the bomb squad had to deactivate immediately before they detonated. No one got hurt and I’d imagine that Spider-Man didn’t even know they were robots.”

“Robots, why didn’t Peter’s spider sense not pick that up?” thought Gwen.

“But, Dad, shouldn’t that be a reason to arrest this Reo guy?” asked Gwen.

“The problem is, even though it’s evident that Reo may be behind this, there is no proof that will hold up in court and nothing tangible to get a warrant,” said Captain Stacy with a defeated sigh. “Besides, there are more than a few people that buy into his predictions as the gospel truth.”

Captain Stacy just sighed.

“There aren’t any laws against people making predictions about crimes that will happen, even though that does raise some interesting suspicions,” said Captain Stacy. “Gwen, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, some conman predicting a few petty crimes is nothing to lose sleep over.”

“I find exploding robots to a concern,” said Gwen but she felt she had to relay this information to Peter, because he would find it very interesting. “I just remembered, I have some homework to get done, must have slipped my mind in all of the excitement.”

Gwen hurried away without another word, leaving her father sitting there. Had she turned around, she would have seen the knowing smile on his face.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Robots, you say, Gwen,” whispered Spider-Man.

“Yes, that’s what I said, rigged to explode,” said Gwen.

“No wonder that didn’t know anything, because they were being controlled,” said Spider-Man. “But why didn’t my spider sense pick it up?”

“That’s what I wanted to know,” answered Gwen. “Maybe they weren’t a direct threat to you.”

“That’d be a first,” dead panned Spider-Man as he moved in. “Yeah, you may be onto something, but what?”

“Isn’t that what you’re trying to find out?” asked Gwen.

“Well, yeah, but I have to find the place first…found it!” muttered Spider-Man triumphantly. “No one appears to be around, that’s a good side, I’ve got to go.”

“Okay, talk to you tomorrow, Peter,” said Gwen. “Don’t get blown up or anything.”

“Thanks for the encouragement Gwen,” said Peter.

“Seriously, really don’t,” replied Gwen. “Bye.”

“Bye,” said Spider-Man as he quickly put his cell phone away, before he dropped down to the ground carefully. The area that the tent was located looked mostly abandoned but looks could most certainly be deceiving to even the most observant person.

“Looks normal from the outside,” thought Spider-Man as he went around and carefully checked underneath the platform. “Nothing out of the ordinary underneath here either, no traps, not even any dust…wait, yes there’s something, residue of some sort, maybe from that smoke show that he did. Now to look inside.”

With a careful movement, Spider-Man put his hands on the side of the tent but suddenly his spider sense went up as two large guards walked out from the shadow.

“The same two goons that grabbed me when I got a bit too close this morning,” thought Peter.

“Halt, who goes there?” demanded a guard.

“You are charged with trespassing,” said the other guard.

“Go forth or we will remove you from the premises,” said the first guard as he grabbed Spider-Man by the arm but Spider-Man caught him with an uppercut.

“Look, your boss is up to something and I will find out what,” said Spider-Man but he winced as a second punch just struck solid abs.

Solid metal abs that caused a great spasm of pain to come through his hand. The guard reached forward and grabbed Spider-Man before he flung the web slinger off to the side with great ease. Spider-Man bounced back to his feet and the guard walloped Spider-Man with two punches that knocked the wind out of him.

The other wrapped his arms around the web slinger with great strength.

“These guys are too strong to be humans, robots of course,” thought Spider-Man as he struggled, in an attempt to use all of his spider strength to break free but he found that effort to be futile.

The guard stepped forward but at the last second, Spider-Man kicked off, managing to free himself. With expert precision, he landed right on his feet and then shot a line of webbing out, wrapping around the arms of the robot guard. The guard just broke the webbing and plowed Spider-Man down to the ground, causing the ground to crack slightly.

The two robot guards hoisted Spider-Man up and walked him over.

“Let go of me!” shouted Spider-Man and two guards obliged by throwing Spider-Man right across the street, causing to land on the sidewalk with a thud. The two guards walked off, as the platform began to roll across the street and Spider-Man brushed himself up.

The web slinger shot a line of webbing across a street post and began to swing forward right towards the platform as it continued to move down the street, with the two guards moving along with it. The platform had continued to move and had turned a corner.

At that moment, Spider-Man swung around the corner and stopped short at what he saw.

Or rather what he did not see.

“Vanished, how, it couldn’t have vanished, could it?” thought Spider-Man in a confused manner as he swung around the corner as he looked around but sure enough it was gone. There were no tire tracks, no anything, no sign that it had ever been there at all. “A moving platform with a tent and two giant robotic henchmen who looked like they came out of a Roman Gladiator movie…why does an Indian mystic have Roman henchmen anyway? That doesn’t make any sense…oh well best not to think about it Spidey, you might fry your brain.”

Spider-Man swung around, as if hoping for the platform to magically appear. It was quite possible, that he had mistaken the street that it had went down at his high altitude although it was not a mistake that he had made before. Swinging around, Spider-Man went to the other side street, but knowing his luck, all of the time that he was looking for the platform, it had made a clean getaway.

The moment Spider-Man had left the side street, the platform had reappeared, with the two guards and a shadowed figure, with a hint of a cape and a bowl shaped head watching in the distance as Spider-Man had swung in the distance.

Everything was going to plan.

XXXXX-XXXXX

“Well, I’ve seen quite a few insane things in my day,” thought Peter as he had made his way into school the next morning. “However, this is the craziest of them all. That platform, vanished, with no trace on either side, not even a track, not even a hint. Maybe this guy is some kind of…this is absurd. There has to be a perfectly logical explanation for this”

“You won’t believe this,” said Gwen suddenly, as she walked up and Harry and Liz were right behind her.

“Believe me, I’ve seen much more insane things,” said Peter but before Gwen could respond, Harry cut in.

“That mystic predicted another crime but the strange part about this is Spider-Man’s the one who he says is going to commit it,” said Harry.

“Pardon me?” asked Peter.

“Yeah, but he’s been right on all of the other crimes, maybe he’ll be right on this one,” said Liz.

“Or he’s behind it,” suggested Gwen calmly and Liz just shrugged.

“What did he predict?” asked Peter.

“Oh, something, let me see, I wrote it down,” said Gwen.

“Why did you even right that down if you thought it was sketchy?” asked Harry.

“For reference,” said Gwen but before Harry could ask for what, Gwen read the prediction. “Mystic forces have been unraveled. Yarns of fate have been snapped. Spider-Man will be the culprit now. Theft will occur from the man who had assumed to be ally will fall. Right at the Halls of Midtown High School. In the pause between bells. Only Spider-Man will profit.”

Gwen paused for a few seconds as she read over the absurd sounding statement.

“I feel my IQ dropping reading this,” concluded Gwen.

“The pause between bells?” asked Harry.

“Maybe between the warning bell and the tardy bell,” suggested Liz.

“Which is interesting because Peter’s not normally here when the first bell rings,” commented Harry.

“I wonder what Reo’s game is,” thought Peter but suddenly, there was sounds of screaming in the hallway.

“Alright, kids, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is here to take a bit of his well earned payment to protecting all of you people,” said an exact replica of Spider-Man as he swung into the hallways. A pair of teachers moved in but they were webbed up immediately. “Now, none of you, I’m just going to get my just do and I’ll be out here right away.”

Peter took a step towards a hallway to change, but the duplicate had swung a large net of webbing, which wrapped around Peter, causing him to slam right down to the ground.

“Alright, none of you are going to move and none of you will find yourselves in a sticky situation,” said the duplicate, as he swung to the wall.

“What does he want?”

“Give him anything, just get him out of here!”

“Spidey’s gone bad?”

“Always knew there was something wrong about him.”

“Just take what you want, just leave the kids alone!”

“Don’t mind if I do,” said the duplicate, as he crawled in a space between two bells and he pried a solid gold plaque. “Nice item, located in the pause between the bells. Should fetch some cash for me.”

The duplicate crawled off as Peter felt helpless. He could easily break out of this webbing, mostly due to the fact it was a cheap knockoff of his own and not as storng, but it would reveal that he had his powers and then he would blow his secret identity. He moved out into the city as there was absolute chaos in the hallway. In the chaos, Peter broke the webbing wrapped around him when no one was looking.

“I’m not going to get him, not in time, boy this is going to give Jameson some fuel to the fire,” thought Peter. “Not to mention not going to be good for my PR. I’ve got to find a way to fix this but how?”

“Peter, over here!” called Gwen and Peter moved over there, while they were a way out of the chaos.

“I don’t think Mr. Reo was too fond of me trying to uncover his little scam last night,” started Peter but Gwen’s eyes just snapped up and something clicked in Peter’s head at the same time.

“Mr. Reo?” asked Gwen suddenly realizing something about at the same time Peter did.

“Mister Reo?” repeated Peter before slowly breaking it down on syllable at a time. “Mis-Ter-Re-Oh!”

The two teenagers exchanged a look and Gwen quickly rewrote the last prediction down on back of a piece of paper, each sentence occupying one line at a time.

Mystic forces have become unraveled.

Yarns of fate have become snapped

Spider-Man is the culprit now

Theft will occur from the man who you judged to be a hero

Even those who had assumed him to be ally will fall.

Right at the Halls of Midtown High School.

In the pause between bells.

Only Spider-Man will profit.

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