It was 3 AM, and Will was sitting on top of the Chrysler Building.

Previously, he had never been one for late nights. But he had been having weird amounts of anxiety for the last few weeks (coincidentally ever since Nico had transferred to his school), and he had found himself unable to sleep. Not to mention the annoying amounts of midnight crime recently.

His lost sleep hadn't been good for him. His grades were slipping, he had felt lethargic, and he could tell his friends and mom were worried about him. So, instead of tossing and turning, he had gone out to clear his head. Which was why he now found himself a thousand feet in the air, thinking. More specifically, thinking about Nico.

Will would like to think he had made progress with Nico. He had been sitting at the lunch table every day with Will and his friends, and he had gotten a bit more talkative in first hour. Will still felt like he hadn't really cracked Nico's shell yet, though. He could tell that Nico was gated, didn't like sharing things. Will wasn't going to pry, especially considering the amount of things he was hiding himself.

Will felt like a creep for even thinking about it, but he once again found himself daydreaming about him and Nico being, well, more than friends. Will had never dated anyone, which he wasn't exactly proud of. He wondered if Nico had ever dated anyone. He sort of hoped not. Then he felt bad for hoping that.

All that to say, Will had absolutely no idea how to flirt with someone. Lou Ellen had tried to coach him on dropping hints, but whenever Will was around Nico, his mind seemed to slow down and he could barely talk normally, much less flirt.

Maybe Will could give him a compliment. A simple "I like your jacket" or "your shirt is cool" or "holy shit you're the most attractive person I've ever seen". Well, maybe not that last one, despite the truth behind it.

His police earpiece buzzed in his ear, jolting him out of his thoughts. Will listened closely. A robbery on East 42nd? Not the most interesting crime, but enough to distract him. Maybe it would wear him out enough that he'd be able to fall asleep.

Will stood up, pulled his mask on, and swung down off the building. His ribs ached. Stupid binder. That was something Nico didn't know about him. Well...at least, Will hadn't TOLD him. He wouldn't be surprised if Nico had picked up on the amount of slurs that got thrown at Will as he walked through the hallways. It would be a bit embarrassing if he had.

Will landed on the street. The radio transmission had said the robbery was happening at a McDonalds. How boring. If you're gonna rob somewhere, at least make it a cool place, Will thought as he ran into the restaurant. He hid behind a small wall inside the doors as he looked over the robbery.

It wasn't very impressive, all things considered. A 20-something in a mask, wearing all black leather, sort of reminding Will of Epia-something's outfit from a few weeks ago. They were holding a gun shakily, and the handful of the people who were in the restaurant were cowering under tables while the young cashier nervously shoved money in a bag.

Easy situation. Shoot some webs, grab the gun, leave the guy tied up for the police. Well, that's what he thought would happen. As he went to shoot a web to snatch the guy's gun from their hands...nothing happened.

"Oh, WHAT??" Will hissed to himself as he clicked his web shooters over and over. Nothing. Okay, that was fine. He could do this the hard way. He tried to run towards the guy, maybe give them enough of a shock that Will could simply grab the gun from their hands, but when he tried to move, everything was...slow.

That was the best way he could describe it. His legs felt like they were moving through gelatin. At first, he thought that his lost sleep was finally catching up to him. But this didn't feel like regular sleep deprivation. It felt like someone was messing with him, slowing him down through science or even...magic.

As Will continued moving (very slowly), he looked up and saw something he hadn't seen before. Two people sitting at a table, a man and a woman. Both dressed in black leather. They didn't seem to be in fear of the gunman. In fact, they seemed to be amused. And the man was staring directly at Will.

As soon as they made eye contact, the man smirked, flicked his hand, and Will was moving in normal speed again. He wasn't exactly expecting this, and at his sudden change in momentum, he stumbled and fell on his face, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant.

The robber paled when they saw Will, despite how stupid he looked sprawled out on the floor. "Spider-Man?" They squeaked out.

Will pushed himself up from the ground and tried to look impressive. "That's right!" He said, faking confidence. "Surrender now, leave the money, and no one gets hurt."

The robber nodded, dropped the gun, and ran out of the store. Will wasn't surprised. Most robbers just wanted to look cool, and totally freaked out if they ever had to face the consequences of their own actions. Will talked to the cashier quickly, but the police conveniently showed up and took all the legal matters into their own hands. Will turned to leave, but...

The man and the woman were still sitting at that table, and now Will was certain they were staring at him. Against his better judgment, Will turned and walked to their table.

They didn't seem surprised to see him walking to them, but they played dumb anyways. "Hello there," the woman said, sickly sweet. "How can we help you, Spider-Man?"

"Save it," Will said. He looked at the man. "You were messing with me. Messing with speed, with time. How? And why? And why are you here?"

"So many QUESTIONS," the man groaned out. "Slow down, please. Or I'll make you slow down."

Will would much rather not feel like he was moving through syrup again, so he sighed and obliged. "Okay. Fine. Why are you people here, watching a robbery like it's playtime?"

The woman sighed. "Oh, we were bored. Picked the kid up off the street, handed them a gun, sat back to watch the show."

Will did a double take. "You set this up? For fun?"

The woman shrugged. "There's no harm. No one got hurt! And the kid gave up as soon as you showed up." She sighed. "Such a pity. They could've had potential. We didn't even give them a card. Mother won't be happy."

Will was confused as to what most of that meant, but he decided to turn his focus back to the man. "Okay. So you set this robbery up. Makes sense why you'd want to mess with me, stop me from getting involved. But how did you...do that? Slow me down?"

The man shrugged. "How does anyone do anything?"

That was possibly the stupidest answer Will had ever heard. He gritted his teeth. "Fine. I don't know. Clearly you two aren't going to answer any of my questions, and I'm too tired to care. Maybe I'll just let the police take care of you."

The woman laughed. "Oh, they won't bother with us."

Somehow, Will knew she was right. It irked him. "Whatever," he sighed. "It doesn't matter. You two have fun playing your little games. Stay out of trouble, all of that. I'm not going to let you off this easy if I see you pulling this again." He turned on his heel to leave.

"Wait!" The woman called after him. He turned back, exasperated. She grinned. "Wouldn't you like to know our names?"

"Not really, no." Will said sharply.

The woman frowned, wiping her eyes dramatically. She held out a slip of paper. "At least take a card."

"FINE." Will muttered, snatching the card from her hand and storming out of the restaurant. He attempted to shoot a web towards the nearest building to start swinging home, and promptly remembered that he had run out of web fluid. How ANNOYING. Angrily, he started walking towards home, thinking everything over.

He knew he probably shouldn't have let those two get away with what they had done so easily. He should've at least warned the police about them. But the woman was right. The police would've just thought they were simple bystanders, and even if they had suspicions, the woman would have manipulated them out of it.

Plus...something about them made him uneasy. The man's ability to mess with him and slow him down scared him especially. If he ever had to face off against them in combat...he didn't want to think about that. And the card...

He looked at it more closely. The front had a border of black bugs, surrounding a logo of a house. On the back, the words "The Mansion of Night" were sleekly printed. Below that was a phone number, and a sentence that had clearly been hastily written on.

From your friends Eris and Hypnos ! Big things are coming XOX

Eris and Hypnos. Well, at least Will had some names to put to faces. He assumed that the woman was Eris and the man Hypnos, considering the man's powers that could almost be considered hypnotism.

He wasn't sure what the message meant. Big things are coming? Probably some takeover plot that would fall apart in thirty seconds once it was actually put into action. That's what usually happened when villains told him "big things were coming".

However, Will couldn't help but feel like there was more merit than usual behind the message this time. Eris and Hypnos freaked him out. They were manipulative. Powerful. And based on what Eris had said, they weren't even the highest level of their organization, this mysterious Mansion of Night. There was someone they followed, someone named...Mother. Ugh. Creepy. And reminiscent of the Mafia. Cecil would be pleased.

He shoved the card up his sleeve as he reached his apartment building, and he began painstakingly trudging up the fire escape. After a few very long minutes, he reached his window (which was fortunately unlocked) and slipped through.

He was once again too exhausted to take off his Spider-Suit, and just flopped down on his bed. His mind swirled with anxious thoughts about, well, everything. The card kept nagging at him. Big things were coming. Big things were coming. Big things were...

His thoughts trailed off as his eyes fluttered shut and he fell into a restless sleep.