Chapter Text
It’s been a week since you got hurt, and you got discharged yesterday.
You came back to your dorm to find your new suit waiting neatly folded on your bed.
Safe to say, it’s almost exactly what you imagined.
A white suit with black eye outlines, black web patterns running across the fabric, and a small spider emblem colored with blue legs, a blue head, and a red body.
It feels strange holding it.
Real.
Your phone vibrates.
Peter :)
“Training rooftop. Now.”
A second message appears immediately after.
“Also there may or may not be another guy with electric murder gloves downtown”
You stare at the text for one second.
Then grab the mask.
———————————————————————————————————
Shellshocker slammed both gauntlets together.
The shockwave shattered every nearby window instantly.
“WHY IS IT ALWAYS WINDOWS?” Spider-Man yelled.
You swung low across the street, webbing civilians away from the collapsing sidewalk, but the glass still followed.
“Maybe New York just has weak architecture!”
“That is NOT comforting!”
Sparks suddenly burst wildly from Shellshocker’s gauntlets.
Spider-Man froze mid-swing.
“…Uh oh.”
“That sounds like a bad uh oh.”
“That’s my worst uh oh voice.”
The gauntlets whined louder.
“Ready for some FIREWORKS, New York?!” Shellshocker shouted.
Energy crackled violently across the street.
Civilians screamed.
Your spider-sense exploded through your skull.
And suddenly—
you understood.
The gauntlets were going to blow.
You fired webs from both hands straight onto Shellshocker’s gauntlets before they could spark one last time. You pulled yourself to them and stomped into his face, pulling his gauntlets away from his hands, revealing heavy scars. The gauntlets fell to the side and powered down. You webbed the villain to the road one last time, and glance back to see civilians huddled at the side.
“Nice job, intern,” Shellshocker spat. “But I’ll be back!”
“It’s Thread now,” you replied automatically.
Then you paused.
“…And you’re under arrest?”
Spider-Man stared at you.
“Wow,” he said. “You REALLY are new at this.”
———————————————————————————————————
You sit on the rooftop where you first learned to swing.
The city stretches endlessly around you, glowing yellow beneath the evening sky.
Spider-Man sits beside you carefully.
“You know,” he says after a moment, “most people don’t get punched through a building during their first week.”
You glance sideways at him.
“…Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No,” he admits. “But statistically, you’re doing great.”
You laugh quietly.
For a while, neither of you says anything.
Cars move like tiny streams of light far below.
Somewhere downtown, sirens echo faintly through the city.
Spider-Man leans back against the rooftop ledge.
“You did good today,” he says eventually.
You stare down at the black lines running across the sleeves of your suit.
“I still messed up.”
“Yeah,” he says easily. “That’s part of it.”
You blink.
Peter looks out across Manhattan.
“Nobody gets this stuff right immediately,” he says quietly. “Trust me.”
Silence settles softly between both of you.
Then:
“So,” Peter says, nudging your shoulder lightly, “what kind of hero are you gonna be?”
You open your mouth.
Then stop.
The city wind moves softly through the rooftop air.
Below you, New York glows alive and endless and complicated.
You think about:
MJ laughing in the cafeteria.
Ned yelling every five seconds.
Peter throwing forks at your face.
Getting hurt.
Swinging between buildings for the first time.
The people you managed to save.
Thread.
You smile slightly beneath the mask.
“…I don’t know yet.”
Peter laughs softly beside you.
“Yeah,” he says. “That sounds about right.”
Above the city skyline, two webs fire into the night.
And together, both Spider-People swing forward into the dark.