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Peter was bored.
The crime rates of the city were at an all-time low, and Mr. Stark had banned him from going down to
DC. Which was fair, when you thought about it.
He turned on the TV and started flipping channels.
Lost cat.
Missing keys.
Nothing very interesting. Although he would make sure to keep an eye out for the cat.
He was about to change the channel again, but an ad for the Children’s Hospital came on. Apparently,
some of the kids couldn’t go out for Halloween, but they were going to do a super hero themed party in
one of the wings. Huh.
Peter pulled out his phone and Googled the hospital’s number.
“Hello?” He made his voice deeper, in an attempt to hide his age.
“NYC Children’s Hospital, how may I assist you?” came the cool feminine voice over the line.
“Right this is Pe- uh, Spider-Man, and I heard you were doing a super hero event. Would you mind if I
dropped by?”
“How are we supposed to know you’re Spider-Man?”
“Uh. . .” Peter realized he hadn’t really thought this through. Too late now. “I could stop by the front door and you could see for yourself?”
“. . .Did your voice just get a little higher?”
Frick. “. . . Must have been the connection.”
“Mm. Well, if you show up and are the real Spider-Man then yes, you may join us.”
“Thank you so much!” Peter forgot his voice disguise in his excitement.
“Sure.” the lady sounded amused. “See you then.”
They hung up and Peter took a deep breath.
Just then May got home.
“Hey Peter! What’re you watching?” she said, dropping her grocery bags and glancing over at the TV,
which was now playing an ad for Google AI.
“Guess what?” Peter was so excited he forgot the question, which was actually pretty impressive,
considering as it had been asked only moments before.
“Wha-”
“I’m going to a hospital! As Spider-Man! For kids!”
“Peter that’s great!” she said, pulling him into a hug. “Are you going to tell Mr. Stark?”
Peter thought about that. On the one hand, he really liked talking to his mentor about pretty much
everything, on the other. . .
“No.” Peter answered, shaking his head to further his point. “I’ll wait for him to find out afterwards.”
The next day after school Peter pulled on his suit and swung towards the hospital. He had let May know that he was heading over straight after school and told Ned about the whole thing.
“Dude, that’s so cool! Are there gonna be cameras?”
“I don’t know. The lady on the phone wasn’t 100% convinced that I was being serious, so I think they’re keeping it on the downlow.”
Peter narrowly missed smacking into a building and had to throw himself to the left.
Keep your head in the game Parker.
He spotted the cement of the hospital parking lot and let himself into a free fall. He felt the air rushing
past him, and at the last second-
Swoosh. He opened up the wings on the suit and glided to halt right in front of the doors. As he took a
few running steps to finish the landing, he saw a lady walking towards him.
In the split second where he was pulling in his wings, Peter tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his
face.
Brilliant. Spider-like balance my foot.
“Right, uh-” Peter fumbled for the words to explain his clumsiness. “That- That normally doesn’t happen, so. . .”
“Indeed.” She looked apprehensive but reached her hand down to help Peter up. “I’m Liz, by the way.
And I know who you are.”
Peter’s mind flashed back to Homecoming. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.“Uh, cool. So, kids?”
Liz smiled. “Up the stairs and-”
“Actually,” Peter interrupted, holding up a hand and grinning under his mask. “I was going to ask you
about something.”
A few minutes later Peter was sticking to the wall next to the event room’s window. He peered in, and a
girl who was staring absentmindedly out of said window jumped.
“Guys, guys!” she called, pointing frantically at Peter. “Lookit!”
A boy ran over to help with the window, and after a moment’s struggle it flew open.
Peter scrambled inside and looked around. A stunned silence filled the room.
I should probably say something.
“Ooh, Pin-the-Sheild-on-Cap? Can I play?”
Pandemonium ensued.
“Are you really Spider-Man?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Can you lay eggs?!”
“Woah, uh, slow down.” Peter raised his hands in surrender. “Yes, I’m really Spidey, I’m here to visit, and no, no I cannot lay eggs.”
“Wicked.” the voice belongs to the girl who spotted him.
Peter turned to her and crouched down. “Hey, what’s your name?”
The girl tucked her hands behind her back and smiled. “I-I’m Charlotte.”
“That’s a cool name! And everyone else?”
The chorus of voices rose again, this time calling out names.
“Jonathan!”
“Joyce!”
“Pierre!”
“Lily!”
“Slow down guys!” Peter laughed. “One at a time, alright?”
The kids started raising hands, and after a little while Peter was fairly certain he had matched everyone
to their proper name.
“So, anyone up for that game or what?”
From the looks on the kids’ faces they would like nothing better than to play with Spider-Man. Halfway
through Pin-the-Sheild, a boy, Darrel, tugged on Peter’s sleeve as he waited for his turn.
Peter bent down.
“You’re my favorite superhero.” said Darrel confidentially.
Peter lifted up the bottom part of his mask so Darrel could see him smiling. He was over the moon.
I’m a favorite superhero!
“Well, you’re my second favorite.” said another voice, belonging to another boy, this one with blond hair, Luke.
“Who’s your first-favorite?” asked Peter, sitting on the floor.
“Iron Man.” was the prompt answer. “I like his inventions.”
“He’s my favorite too!” Peter burst out before he could stop himself. “He made my suit, actually.”
“Really?” Darrel asked, eyes widening. “D’you know him?”
“Yeah really! And yes, I work with him.”
“So cool!” said the boys in unison.
Charlotte walked over and plopped down next to Peter. “I like Black Widow.” she added shyly.
“She scares me sometimes.” Peter admitted. “But she’s nice. Makes some wicked Russian pancake
things.”
“Hawkeye’s the best.” called the girl who was currently up in the game. “The different kinds of arrows
are the best. Also, he’s got hearing aids, like me.” She tapped her ears for effect.
She stuck the shield right onto the poster’s arm.
“Nice.” she said, lifting the blindfold.
“Can you show us your web shooters?” Pierre was in bed connected to an IV, but seemed to be enjoying himself, nonetheless.
Peter hesitated. Then; “Sure, why not.” he tapped his wrists a few times.
“These are my electric webs.” he explained. “I’m gonna point them at the door so no one gets hurt and-
I AM SO, SO SORRY MS. NURSE IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR.” For at that exact moment a nurse had
walked through the door and gotten a bit of a nasty shock. Not full force, fortunately, but enough to
make her stumble backwards.
The nurse simply shut the door and walked out, leaving Peter with a room of laughing kids.
“Right, so we’re not doing that again.” Peter decided. He fiddled with the settings for his shooters, and in the process accidentally fired the bouncy web option.
“Oops!” Peter and several children ducked, narrowly being missed by the bouncy ball-eques webs.
The missiles ricocheted off of the walls, bouncing all over the place. Miraculously, they all hit a piece of paper, making a splatter of webbing across it.
That gave Peter an idea.
“It’s safe to come out now guys.” he called sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”
As the kids crawled out of various unlikely hiding spaces, Peter carefully set his shooters to rainbow mode. He aimed, steadied his arm, and fired at the paper.
The fluid splattered gloriously across the paper, making a masterpiece. Peter blew on to to make it dry, then passed it to Charlotte. “Here.”
Peter grabbed more paper and made one for each kid. Some remembered to thank him, others simply s
tared at it in awe.
Peter checked the clock. Five minutes. “Listen up guys!” he announced. “I have to leave soon-”
A collective “Aaaaw. . .” filled the room.
Peter held up his hands for silence and continued. “But I would like to take a photo with each of you and maybe a group photo too.”
Cheers greeted that.
Everyone (Except Pierre, Peter went over to him first.) scrambled to get in line.
“If we use the tag #Spidey will you check it out?” asked Darrel.
“Buddy, if you use the tag Spidey, I’ll follow you.”
After all was said and done, Peter walked out the door, waving goodbye. “See you guys later!”
It took a while to find his way downstairs (He accidentally gave one nurse a heart attack by dropping from the ceiling to ask directions), but Peter finally walked out the door.
As he was swinging home, Peter thought of two things. One: He was going to get the Avengers to make a video for these kids, and two: he was going to get them all something special.