The People on the Train

Seeing Spider-Man battling Doctor Octopus, the big-hearted New Yorkers only found it exciting and all wanted to get closer to cheer for the fighter they supported... They were treating it like a show.

Only when the battle affected them, when that sense of deadly danger came rushing at them, would it trigger the New Yorkers' panic. As for the three girls in the rear carriage of the train, Marty Franklin was eager to make a move. "We should help Spider-Man beat up the bad guy, right? What do you think?"

By comparison, before Julia Carpenter was pushed past her limit, she did not have much of an opinion of her own. Marty's enthusiasm could always easily sway her.

But Anya Corazon, the South American girl who had once been an illegal immigrant, was not nearly as enthusiastic. Still, she knew she could not persuade that restless Black girl through ordinary means.

Just as Marty reached up to yank her little jacket over her face again, Anya said coldly, "If you get photographed by a Daily Bugle reporter again, that nickname, 'Spider Freak Girl,' will never come off you for the rest of your life."

The excited Marty Franklin looked as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over her, and her expression fell. "It can't possibly happen again, can it? That Eddie whatever guy can't photograph me again, right?"

"That photographer is called Eddie Brock. Maybe you can try shouting for him on the train. Maybe he happens to be here too, and you can take advantage of the chaos to beat him up."

"I'd love to say that's a good idea, but is this really the time to be thinking about that?"

"Look!" Julia Carpenter interrupted the bickering pair. "Someone got thrown out of the train. Should