Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everything still felt unreal, everything was actually going my way. I watched Mr. Osborn speak from behind the black curtain. “It is in an era of tumultuous and often disastrous events, that necessity births invention.” The man had a deep voice that carried a commanding sort of professionalism, the kind you could probably only get from decades of experience talking to crowds or a lot of speech coaching. “An era that has forced companies like my own to rise to the occasion, when Behemoth attacked our city the devastation drove Oscorp to pioneer reconstruction efforts beyond anything we’d seen on a standard scale.” Oh god, was he really going to do that? “These Finalists have embodied that same principle here today. Creating something incredible in response to a great need!”

He was, this man was actually comparing this competition to Endbringer relief! I poked my head out to see if it had pissed anyone off, an intern had to pull me back before too many people noticed me. I was being so stupid, why had I thought I could just stick my head out like that? In response to my stupidity my hand came up to smack against my face in a habit Ben had been trying to break me of for years. I was wishing he’d been more successful when the thud picked up on the mic that the same poor intern had stuck on me earlier. The other finalists stared at me, but Ned gave me something that I think was a supportive smile. Norman to his credit only paused for a second before continuing, but that glare he shot me from the stage could’ve curdled dairy. “Unsavory elements occupy and corner markets in our city in ways that make it near impossible to compete. Why hire a legitimate security firm when a tinker from The Elite can build and maintain something far better for you? I present the first steps in erasing that blight! The finalists of Oscorp’s “Think like a Tinker” competition, technology on par with the impossible made by the truly intelligent!”

Oscorp had been in a silent war with The Elite for years, a cutting edge company that provided complex expensive solutions to various problems couldn’t keep up with slightly villainous super people that did the same thing. But Norman was trying and I respected that. I also respected the Five thousand dollar cash prize he was offering to anyone who could make anything “Tinker-like”, because god, I needed that money. Ned Leeds, a student from Empire State University, put a comforting hand on my shoulder, he was a bigger guy with Asian features. He flicked his mic pack off and whispered “wish me luck?” I smiled and nodded, I liked Ned. Ned Leeds was the kind of guy I wanted to be, confident, smart, funny, and laidback. How anybody becomes that last one I’ll never know. 

“Ned Leeds From ESU!” Norman announced and I stepped out of Ned’s way to let him through. While Ned stepped out to speak with Norman on stage and introduce his invention to the gathered crowd, I got my first real glance at the sheer size of the audience. Oscorp had students from nearly every school in New York here, on top of company executives and their families, this was crazy. 

I could do it, I had to do it. I was determined to pull it off and I knew the web fluid was good. Yeah, the dispersal device was bulky and it might have been a cheaper knock off of containment foam, but it would win. Because it actually worked, it wasn’t a concept or a proposal like with the other finalists I had a tangible presentable product. Ned finished and I heard Norman call for me but I wasn’t listening to exactly what he said. So caught up in the buzzing excitement of no more loan sharks hanging around after school asking me about the money. No more lying to uncle Ben about where I got the money for May’s medical bills. I could finally breathe easy again, no more secrets.

“And with a practical demonstration!” I heard Norman finish and stepped onto the stage, Ned returned his mic to an intern and was free to join the audience. Another intern wheeled out my device. Partially constructed using a high pressure fire hose and a water jug full of my soon to be patented web fluid. “Uh” I started. “Hi.” Absolutely nailing it. Norman turned to face me and held out his hand. “Hello.” That got a laugh out of some people. I stepped forward and, it’s dumb in retrospect, I was stunned by just how wavy the man’s hair was in person. Like the man had a lunar body pushing and pulling on his hair. 

Norman coughed, some more people laughed. I shook his hand, he leaned forward and said. “If this really is what you’ve claimed Mr. Parker, then you and I are going to change the world.” I smiled wider than I think I’ve ever smiled. I pulled away and began to start my pre prepared speech when a massive boom went off. The deafening sound made my heart rise up, but then it immediately sank deeper than it ever had before as columns began to collapse and I felt my salvation slipping away. There’d be no chance to present, as selfish as it was, my thoughts were only about how terrible it was for me.

I tried to look up at where the explosion had originated from, but I was only met with smoke and rubble cascading down over the stage. It was only then that the horror really began to set in. It was like slow motion for me. A large piece of column came tumbling down near the intern who had already begun to run away. Without the intern, the closest thing for the impromptu boulder to crash into was my web fluid device. On instinct, I tried to dive for it, push it out of the way. This device was the one thing that was going to save me from the debt hole I had dug myself. It was supposed to help Ben, and May. The impact crumpled the aluminum frame that made up the bulk of the device. With the connection with the main device itself now broken, the web fluid tank spilled lazily out onto the ground, which contrasted the chaos surrounding me. 

My eyes naturally turned to gaze out into the crowd. People were running, some were already crushed by debris. I could even see one man who was struggling to hold up an especially large chunk that had fallen over him as well. My eyes went back to the stage floor. My dive was ineffective. I was on my hands and knees on the stage itself. Wanting to get away from it all I tried to use the freshly polished mahogany stage as a focus point to drown out everything around me. But then my web fluid that had spilled out, managed to trickle its way into my view rolling towards me. When the web fluid made contact with my hands and I was pulled back into the chaos around me, I— 

[Destination]

[Agreement]

BEEP BEEEP BEEP BEEP. I lazily hit the top of my alarm clock, and arose with a groan. “Same dream again, huh?” I whisper to myself as I reach for my glasses and get out of bed. No time to process my trauma, I had had a month to do that. Not that I’d actually done much processing. Too busy tinkering, I’d gone from emulating tinkerers to actually being one myself, and it wasn’t even my only power. I had powers! Plural! 

Some sort of karmic overbalancing of the scales or something. The exact science wasn’t worth looking into for me. My life had sucked and now it didn't have to, I wasn't willing to look that gift horse in the mouth and ruin a good thing. Who cared where powers came from when it was what you did with them that counted? Maybe in the future when I’d had my fun I'd  give the whole hero thing a try, but for now, I just wanted to use my powers to have fun, and post videos on PHO. 

A knock at my door managed to get me out of my own head. “Peter? Are you awake?” May spoke in a controlled voice outside my door. I appreciated that she never opened my door without permission. She was always one to respect my boundaries that way.

“Yeah, I’m up.” I said pulling on some pants that I was fairly certain were clean from a pile in my corner.
“Good. Breakfast is ready, and Ben has already headed out to work, but he’ll be home for dinner tonight so we can eat together.” 

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be down in a minute.” My reply came out muffled while I pulled on a shirt. I could hear the sounds of May’s footsteps moving away. I used that opportunity to put on my harness. It was an essential part of my suit. I had bought the base from a nearby hardware store and went to tinker town on it, adding a couple of web shooters on the back of the shoulder straps. This was to help stop me from falling to my death if I missed a normal web shot and started plummeting. Never knew what could happen, so I put it on over my t-shirt then put my Midtown High hoodie over it. 

Then I  grabbed the rest of my “suit” and stuffed it into the back compartment of my backpack, just in case I saw an opportunity to do some stuff after school. Pulling my backpack on, I look at myself in the mirror to make sure the harness isn't too obvious then head downstairs to have breakfast with May.

“Oh you look nice today Peter.” May complimented me as I came downstairs.

I rolled my eyes, it was hard to imagine I looked nice in my baggy hoodie and tousled hair “You say that everyday Aunt May.” Aunt May laid a plate out for me on the table, she gave me a kiss on my forehead as I sat down. “That’s because it’s always true Peter.” I rolled my eyes again and she pulled out her chair to sit beside me. “Okay.” I just shut up and ate my toast.

May was quiet, and barely touched her own plate. “Peter.” She began, and I had to quickly swallow the large bite of bacon I’d just taken. “Yuh.” I choked out. May’s expression softened in a way that told me this was going to be something serious. “Yes, Aunt May?” She reached out a hand over the table and spoke. “Are you sure you’re ready to go back to school?” This again? “I’m fine.” I said hurriedly. “Do I not seem fine?”

Aunt May’s face soured the same way it had when Ben would bring me home from a trip to Central Park, our nice ironed clothes wrinkled and covered in dirt. “How would I even know, Peter?” That was… intense. “I…” I was trailing off, this whole month I’d been shut up in my room tinkering and making my debut as The Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man, but May had taken all this month off from work to be here with me and I’d just blown her off. I felt like a bag of trash. “You’re always shutting yourself in your room, this whole month we’ve barely spoken, even before what happened you’d been pulling away from us.” Oh, I guess I had. That sucked to realize too. “I’m sorry.” I said, breakfast forgotten.

I reached out and took my aunt’s hand in my own. “I needed space, but I’m getting better, I’m just… struggling, but I think school will be good for me.” Aunt May smiled, happy to see me putting in some effort again. “I think so too.” She gently squeezed my hand and pulled back to finally eat her own plate. “Okay, but go wash your face and put on some deodorant, you reek kiddo.” I laughed and walked into the bathroom to do that. I probably shouldn’t go in on my first day back smelling like the dead, Flash would probably start telling people I’d actually died in the explosion and was just a walking corpse. 

I came back into the kitchen, gave May a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, then we left for Midtown High. 

Before leaving her car I’d had to reassure May one final time that I’d be alright. After that I entered the building and was weirdly shocked by how unchanged it was, I’d been gone a month and Midtown was still the same old Midtown. “Weird.” I’d spoken that thought out loud, I felt the softest touch of a buzzing on my neck seconds too late for me to react to, my danger sense was the least reliable of my powers, some days it gives plenty of forewarning, other days not so much. I didn’t have the reflexes yet to respond in time and felt Kenny “King” Kong slam into me. “Talking about yourself Parker?” Kong was a massive guy, one of the ace players on the football team, I don’t have a clue what position he played though, as far as I knew he was quarterback maybe? 

In the past I would’ve stayed silent, but I didn’t have to do that any more. “I was talking about your mom, shitlips.” His eyes went so wide I wished I could’ve taken a picture, I needed to make a pocket camera or something for moments like these. “Puny Parker has bark.” Kong smiled one of those ugly wicked kinds of smiles. “But does he have any bite?” I was aware there was a threat now and responded to that buzzing sense in my head in time to step out of Kong’s reach. Another voice cut me off before I could think of a reply. “Kenny! Fuck off! Parker’s my bitch, get your own!” It was Flash Thompson, he was another football player, possibly captain. Kong stepped back giving me a dopey grin. “You’re in for it now Parker.” I probably was, Flash wasn’t anywhere as big as Kong but he was a hell of a lot faster, and usually a hell of a lot meaner.

“Parker.” Flash barked out, but snapped his attention back at Kong “Ken, I told you to fuck off, so do it!.” Kong just nodded at him and ran off. Once Kong was gone Flash glanced around the halls. Somehow we hadn’t drawn that much attention but it was starting to become a scene. “Flash.” I glared at him, this guy had my life hell for years, if he wanted to fight I wasn’t gonna say no. “What do you want?”

Flash just shrugged at me. “To get some air, talk a little.” That had to be code for a fight. “Okay, yeah, lead the way.” I quickly responded. He looked relieved that I’d agreed. We walked out of the building, May had dropped me off early so we had another twenty minutes before  classes actually started. I started stretching, my brute power making me stronger and more durable with physical strain, the more I was exerting myself the stronger I’d be. Flash turned around to see me stretching and laughed at me. “Fuck are you doing?”

I frowned in confusion. “Stretching.” I’d explained. “Well, quit it. I’m not going to fight you.” I shook my head, continuing to be confused. “You really just wanted to talk?” He nodded. “Jesus Pete, you survived a bombing. That shit… it fucks with people.” The sad reflective way Flash spoke forced me to reexamine him for the first time in years. He was the blonde,  blue eyed captain of the football team. But the idyllic highschool jock also had his own problems didn’t he? “My dad survived ‘94, but he was just outside the kill zone for a long time. I’ve heard stories about what he used to be like, the man he used to be. I wish I could’ve known that version of him.” 

“Flash.” I was as confused as I was touched. “The world has enough assholes, I know, I’m one of them.” I shook my head and asked him the question burning at the top of my mind. “When did you get so introspective?” He frowned. “It’s not like I was on the stage, or even in the audience, but the rest of us non egg head types were there too on that trip, safe in another building, for sure. But we had to watch on TV as our classmates were at ground zero of a terrorist attack.” Me and the other students who’d been in the Oscorp Science building had been given a month to process the events, but they hadn’t extended the same courtesy to the students who’d witnessed it from the factory tour most of my class had been doing at the time.

I’d lived but a lot of people hadn’t, of the hundreds there that day, fifty people hadn’t made it. If the tower had actually collapsed it would’ve been astronomically worse, as was Oscorp’s presentation hall and its occupants had been the only victims. I was a bit too outgoing for most of the other dorky types and much too dorky for the more outgoing types, I’d never been close with that many people. 

Flash, as a popular football bully,  probably knew the three from our school who’d died in the partial collapse better than I did. “It must’ve been a lot to process on top of school.” I said awkwardly. “Are you okay?” I asked, and Flash shook his head. “I’m trying to be.” He turned to look at me. “How are you holding up?” He asked and for the first time in a long time I answered that question truthfully. “Barely, but I’m trying.” He nodded, and we stood in weird comfortable silence until we needed to book it to our classes.

Classes came and went, a few people asked me about Oscorp, most just talked about it around me like I couldn’t hear them. It was all in all a fairly normal day, that is until lunch came around. I sat my bag down at the end of a table most people avoided because it was too far from the lunch lines. It’s where I normally sat, I never had anyone to talk to much so I didn’t need much time to finish my food. Flash gave me another weird nod, I guess this was just the new normal for us, amicable respect of each other's trauma? It beat getting shoved around so I’d take it. 

There was a girl in front of me I recognized from the morning of the Oscorp trip, her name was Cindy Moon. Cindy and I had shared a few classes before that but never talked. I remember speaking to her a bit on the bus ride, she’d been nice, and I remember feeling dumb for never talking to her before that. I’d completely forgotten about her in the chaos that had followed. Seeing her now brought a lot of sudden feelings though. The first was relief that she was fine, I hadn’t seen much of her after the other finalists and I had been separated from our respective classmates. 

The second and immediately alarming feeling was that of an almost buzz on the back of my neck, like that of my danger sense, she seemed to have had something similar because we both seemed to shiver at the same time. The third and most embarrassing feeling was that I thought she looked like the prettiest girl I’d ever met. Relief, danger, and attraction mingled in my brain and I struggled to find the right words here.

If that shiver had been connected to mine did she also have powers? Shock and anxiety joined the already chaotic concoction brewing in my temporal lobe. I was staring for too long, she quirked an eyebrow at me. “Peter? You’re okay.” She’d said it out of relief that I was alright but I took the words and applied them in a new context. ‘You’re okay, Peter, this is fine’ I told myself. It’s cold in here and I might’ve just mistaken a regular chill for the sensation of my vague hard to gauge thinker power. “Yeah.” I said, then quickly added. “And so are you, I didn’t see you again after everything, so I wasn’t sure.” She nodded, collecting her tray and walking away, she had this graceful way of walking that I found myself distracted by. Not in a lecherous way, I mean that there was something so poised and elegant in the way that she maneuvered around things that felt sort of off to me, like each step she took was perfect.

I pulled my attention away from Cindy and grabbed my own tray, I’d been content to just write the whole thing off as weird and not think about it again. Cindy however had walked perfect measured steps over to my table. “Hey, you don’t have to sit with me.” I’d said. “I’m not in desperate need for friends or anything, I’m doing alright with everything.” Cindy nodded at me again, she really was beautiful. Her dark hair was styled into a bob cut that served to frame her sharp, yet elegant features perfectly, she spoke and snapped me out of my head. “I know I don’t have to, I just want to, maybe I’m the one who needs a friend.” Oh, I was kind of being a self absorbed ass. “Right, sorry.” She smiled and shook her head. “It’s fine, I’m not actually hurting for more friends right now either, I just wanted to talk with you again.” I could understand that. “Yeah, I’m still kicking myself about how we never hung out before, I would’ve loved your help in that Chem lab last semester.” She laughed. “The one where you and Flash nearly burned down the school?” I smiled, laughing too now. “Hey! He started it, it’s barely even his fault too though. We told Mrs. Frink that we’d kill each other if she made us partner up, and we nearly did just that.” Did this weird truce between Flash and I mean no more classroom endangering antics? I hoped so. “She thought cooperation would mend your conflict, but made it so much worse. I actually ran to get the fire extinguisher off the wall and Liz had to take it from me because I was being too slow with it.”

I didn't know that part. Turns out we had a lot of stories like that, and spent the lunch period retelling the other’s stories from our own perspectives. It was nice, but all the talking meant I’d only barely finished my food before the bell rang. “Did anything weird happen to you during the explosion?” She asked me and I considered the weird shiver thing before and her steps that seemed so calculated. Like getting powers? I’d considered asking. But what if she was a Ward or involved with a team or something? I didn’t want to be part of anything like that, for the time being, Spider-Man is a solo gig strictly for having fun. 

“Other than almost being flattened by debris? No, not really” I lied, shrugged, and then asked “What about you?” She smiled and for the first time it looked sort of awkward. “About the same.” I was sure she was lying as well, but… it didn’t really matter. “I’ll see you around?” I tried not to sound too hopeful. “Yeah, I’d love to sit with you again tomorrow.” I nodded and internally celebrated getting to spend more time with my crush who might be a lying parahuman. That last bit was fine though because so was I.

After school May picked me up and took me home. I snuck out for an hour to collect a bit of swinging footage for my next upload,  snuck back home, stuck my camera into my computer, and started editing. I heard Uncle Ben call me down for dinner, paused the edit, hid the tab, and then came downstairs.

When I came down I was greeted with May’s worried face, that she seemed to always have recently, and Ben’s warm smile. Ben worked as an electrician and was always working himself to the bone even in his old age. Seeing his determination is what made me feel like I needed to help support this family too. In my own weird way. Ben greeted me in his deep yet soothing voice, “Peter, how was school?” I raised an eyebrow, “It was good, didn’t Aunt May already tell you?” “Well I wanted to hear it from you as well.”

I shrugged at that, not really getting what Ben was going at. I sat down at the table and we all began to get our portions of food. Today May had made some meatloaf, with mashed potatoes and gravy. It was, as always, delicious. Aunt May was the best cook I knew, not that I knew of many other cooks at all, but she was still the best. It was when I was about done with my first plate of food eating in silence, that Ben decided to interrupt the tranquil ambience of forks scraping plates.
“You know Peter,” At Ben’s voice I looked up from my food with an arched eyebrow. “I know it’s been tough for you these past few weeks. You’ve been holed up in your room working on whatever next science project or whatnot, and in the process you’ve been kind of ignoring May and I for a bit.” Oh it was about this? Brought it up this morning, and it’s not entirely wrong that I’ve been kinda ignoring them. I’ve just been so caught up in this tinker and power stuff that it’s kinda taken over the majority of my free time. And I guess I do feel kinda bad for making Ben and May feel alone. I should probably agree with Ben when he will inevitably say that I should stop–

“And I think that what you’re doing right now with your little science project you’re working on isn’t all that bad.” Ben’s words interrupted my line of thought. He was telling me to continue holing myself away and separate myself? Is this the same Uncle Ben I’ve known all my life. Before I could speak he continued, “Now don’t get me wrong, you should try and be a bit more social with us, but I understand how throwing yourself into your project is your way of coping and handling what you went through.”

“Yeah?” I reply somewhat meekly. When I looked at him Ben was staring me directly into my soul, “Peter, I’m no scientist, but you were on that stage in the first place because a powerful man thought that something you created had the potential to help the world. That something, came from your own head, your own mind, your own intelligence. And Peter those smarts of yours are a great boon and a great burden for you to carry. It's a power that requires balance to use effectively.” He looked over to the stairs, “I don’t know what next project that might attract the attention of some big wigs you’re working on up there, but if you take any advice I give you,” 

He looked me in the eyes, “With great power, comes great responsibility. Peter your great mind, and whatever you use it for, try and be responsible with it and do something good. Do you understand?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I got it Ben. Now can you pass the potatoes?” I half listened to Ben’s speech, one of many he would give me if he thought I was feeling down. And with a somewhat pensive sigh, Ben passed the potatoes over.

(Bonus, here is some character designs, that I (Carbon) drew for this story, hope you like) 

(Next Chapter Drops, September 6th 2024.)

(Also, we have an audiobook option! https://youtu.be/ADLQXL3N5u0 right here!)

Chapter Text

(Audiobook for this chapter can be found here: https://youtu.be/x1qglvBiMGM )


I’ve never really liked capes, to me the whole thing was this weird joke. You’ve got all this power and you run around like an idiot in a silly costume fighting other guys in silly costumes until you all die fighting a colossal monster. There were a few exceptions to that, I understood, but as a whole it just looked like a joke to me. But now at least, I was beginning to see the fun telling that joke, the fun you could have on the other side of the mask. This whole cape thing so far, has been a blast.

I started out posting videos of my web swinging in costume to a new PHO account “Itsybitsy_Spider-Man” and I had gotten a lot of fans really quickly. People seemed to respond well to my whole vibe, I was treating it like the joke it was and people who got it really liked my content. I pivoted away from just swinging and started doing challenge videos. I even ran into an actual villain once or twice. “Spider-man versus The DeathKiller” was still sitting as my number one upload with around two million views. Online video stuff was still kind of new so there wasn’t exactly a way to monetize it yet, but it felt good to blow up like that.

I still didn't know if DeathKiller was going for an irony thing like I was or if he’s actually serious about the “Killer of Death“ thing. If the guy was actually serious he was oddly harmless for a guy who had crammed death and killer into his name. Cool power though, maybe when I had a bit more time I could try and base a gadget on it. For now though, I focused on suiting up, I’d just hit 500,000 followers and needed to make a new video to celebrate. 

I started with my hoodie, since it was the only part of my ensemble, aside from my shoes, that didn't have any tinkering done to it. I had spray painted a simple red spider onto it with a white smiley face layered on top of it that added to my whole irreverent vibe. The paint itself came from leftovers Ben and May had from spray painting a shelf Like the American Flag. The most important thing I’d made was my harness. The durability I got from my brute power took time for me to build up so I needed something to prevent me from snapping my neck or breaking my spine by swinging too fast. 

The web shooters were my favorite though. A blend of tinker tech and my own. The formula for my web fluid hadn’t changed much since Oscorp, but the way I was able to use it, absolutely had. I’d taken inspiration from a spider’s legs when thinking about how my web fluid could be best deployed, but I didn’t have any idea how to make the arms as small and precise as I needed them to be.

It wasn’t until I got my powers that I actually had any idea how to make that work, getting them to weave the fluid into ropes that I could use to swing or pull things forward with. The tensile strength was crazy strong as well. Currently the web shooter’s were rather clunky bracelets connected to a pair of red gloves. I had ideas on how to slim it down but it would take me time to iron that out in a way that didn’t render the whole thing too battery dependent.

I slipped on the gloves and made sure the clasps on the shooters themselves were secure. I was already wearing the bottom half of my costume, an old pair of Ben’s work pants he had grown out of decades ago. They were made of this baggy fabric that wasn’t too constricting and had lots of pockets. I appreciated that, it was nice being able to carry around some tools and little devices. Little devices, as far as I understood, seemed to be my specialty, Compact covert gadgets. 

Ben and I watched this spy movie a week ago and I had to make us leave the theater in the middle of it because I couldn’t get all the ideas for Pen guns and Umbrella shield generators out of my head. Neither of which I even ended up finishing. The pen gun was too violent, and I couldn’t think of any other way to power the umbrella than a small nuclear power cell and I didn’t want to do that. Tinker problems, I guess.

Aside from my discarded attempts at cool spy gadgets, I have a special pair of goggles that I made to help me see clearly since I can’t wear glasses whilst in costume. I even went a step further with them and managed to cram in zoom and night vision features! And besides that I didn’t really have much else. I had dozens of work in progress projects back in my workshop/bedroom, but nothing that I could trust out on the field. So I stuck to what I could trust, my webs, my harness, and my goggles. 

It was the evening of my fourth day back at school. The week itself was going as smoothly as the first day back. I still had that weird trauma bond thing with Flash going on, and Cindy’s been sitting with me at lunch. We chatted about random topics, and sometimes her friend Liz joined us. Liz was nice, I don’t think we’d ever speak to each other if not for Cindy, but she was cool. But all of that could barely cement itself in my mind at the moment since it was racing with ideas for what I could do for my 500,000 follower special. My main idea was somehow having another encounter with DeathKiller. It would be easy enough to find him. I’d trailed him for a little bit after our last fight. I didn’t see him unmask or anything like that, I just wanted to see if he really had a lair. Guy had bragged about his lair in our fight Saturday, I had been kind of jealous that he might have his own space and wanted to see it for myself.

He really did have one. It looked like he’d rented out an apartment for his cape identity to store stuff in. It made me suspect he lived with family or friends outside the costume. I knew where he hung up his skull mask but it just wouldn’t feel right to my audience if I broke into his apartment to fight him without some kind of setup. The solution was simple though, just catch him in the act of doing something criminal so I have an excuse to break into his apartment and have a comedic confrontation. 

With that goal in mind, I set out to find where my favorite wannabe villain was doing business today. DeathKiller never operated outside of Brooklynn. I was pretty sure he was a new cape like myself and was probably too scared to operate anywhere that served as claimed territory of any of the gangs. So as far as I knew he just resorted to petty burglary where he knew it was mostly safe. We were the same like that, just dipping our toes in the water, blowing off steam.

Since I didn’t know for sure where he’d be or if he’d even be out in costume, I decided to locate his apartment and fan out from there. That meant, it was swinging time, which itself meant I’d need to make it up to the roof. I opened up my window and imagined the contact between me and the surface of the wall. One of my powers was this tethering ability. I could attach myself to a surface and walk or run on it as if I was on the ground. Not the most maneuverable thing, but I was pretty sure it still counted as a mover power. 

The downside to this tethering power is that my connection to the surface is usually really weak, if I stumble, trip, or get hit by something I’ll become untethered and fall to my doom. Rather than walk on walls I usually just crawled, the tether was stronger the more points of contact I had. I crawled up to the top of the roof and lined up a good anchor point to start swinging from. I fired out a strand of rope and tested the connection before running back and leaping off the building, holding tight onto the “rope”.

There was nothing that felt more liberating than swinging around the city. Having all these powers was cool and all, but this feeling right now could never be beat by anything. When I got into the air I could let all my troubles go, no more guilt or shame. While swinging I could be free of responsibility, the only thing that mattered was where I was headed, and where I shot that next web. I had already noted a good anchor point to attach my web at to get maximum distance. And before I could even begin to fully fall, I aimed my wrist, pressed the button of the web shooter, and a highly dense and tensile strong string of web shot out and attached itself to a nearby telephone pole and I started swinging again. 

Swinging took a lot of mental focus. I spotted another decent looking anchor point that I shot for, but as I did I felt my danger sense kick in. I let go of that web and shot another for a landing point and pulled myself down to recollect. My thinker power didn’t help me choose good anchor points, but it did let me know if I chose a bad one. It never told me what would happen if I committed, and I never pursued that answer so I focused on just choosing the best points I could, and that process felt like a bit of a mental puzzle in its own right.  But little mental puzzles were just my thing, so I figured my way through it with no problem.

I made it to DeathKiller’s apartment building quicker than I’d expected. I used my surface clinging power to “land” on the side of the building and began to climb my way up it. I made sure my harness was on tight in case I fell. I made it to the top of the apartments without any issues, and I felt the strength and endurance of my brute power starting to build up in response to the strain of the climb and the swing here. I chose a good perch and began scanning the area with the zoom function of my goggles.

“If I were an edgy loner with a name like DeathKiller where would I go to blow off steam?” I spoke to myself aloud to keep my boredom at bay.

“A store? In broad daylight? No, not fitting enough. If he’d rob a store it would be darker out. So he might be someplace dark then. So an alleyway? What a corny place to stage a robbery, but capes are all about corniness right? Let’s check that one.” Spotting a potential robbery alleyway, I jumped off the edge of the roof.  

I made it to the alleyway I spotted and landed on a roof’s edge above it. And what do you know, I struck gold on my first try, DeathKiller was actually down there. I reached into my backpack that I still carried with me and pulled out a camera. Not tinker tech, at least yet. Ben bought it for me last year for my birthday and I had been using it for Itsy Bitsy videos for the past couple weeks.

“Really DeathKiller, an alleyway this close to your lair? You gotta step your game up my guy.” I whisper to myself as I watch the scene below me unfold through the lens of my camera. The scene below me was of a woman in her thirties being faced down by a man in a black hoodie with the words “Death Killer” spray painted on it like it was a metal band name. The guy couldn’t have been any older than twenty. He was also wearing army green cargo pants. The only thing that really shouted cape about him was the skull mask he wore that had this ghostly green shade to it. 

“Wh-what do you want from me?” The woman spoke, her voice shaky. DeathKiller responded in the fakest, most gravely voice you’ve heard from someone whose natural speaking voice was a much higher register. “Just drop the purse, and any other money you got on you and walk away like nothing happened,” DeathKiller held up his hand, with his palm facing upward. A bit of smoky mist, that I’d known from experience was intensely cold, began wisping out from his palm. The mist floated just a bit above his palm, remaining there. Energy in little static tendrils burst out and wrapped around the mist and then hardened, encasing the fog in a glowing green forcefield in the shape of a skull. 

The skull left Death Killer’s palm and floated over to hover beside the woman, “Cause if you don’t, then something bad really is gonna happen. And you aren’t gonna like it.” To emphasize his point, the skull opened its jaw to let out a menacing bit of fog. She had probably felt a bit of a chill, but from what I knew about DK’s powers, that much mist wouldn’t hurt her.

I pointed the camera at myself to provide color commentary, “As far as threats from our favorite killer of death go, I’d give that a 6/10. He really would have benefited from summoning that skull before he started mugging her.”  I turned the camera back around in time to see the woman set her purse down and began to slowly walk away, after a bit of distance she broke into a run. DeathKiller carried himself smugly as he picked up the bag and began to walk off. I stopped the recording there, stood up and walked over to the center of the roof. 

Clearing my throat I prepared myself to record another segment of the video. I turned the video back on and pointed the camera at myself. “As you all just saw right there, my old pal DeathKiller is running around robbing poor defenseless ladies. Well, I don’t really know for sure that she was poor, but she’s probably poor now. And it just goes to show that he has not changed his ways whatsoever. So I plan to hold a bit of an intervention. I’ll see you guys there.” I stopped the recording and began the next phase of my plan. Go inside of his apartment and wait for him to return to give him the intervention of the century by kicking his ass and getting the money back to the victim. This was gonna get me so many likes.

I made my way back to his apartment. Not wanting to go through the front door in costume, I decided to take an outside approach and go through one of the windows on the outside of the building. It was laughably easy, I just climbed around the building and used a little spray of the web fluid to get a solid grip of the window to pull it up. Then I was in DeathKiller’s apartment. 

It was practically unfurnished. Just a small futon for him to rest on. And a kitchen he kept stocked up with a bit of food. This simply could not be his main place of living. He probably rented this place using money he stole from people like that woman from earlier and uses it to store other things he’s stolen or just rest. My first order of business was writing DeathKiller a little note. I ripped out a piece of paper from my notebook and wrote “Don’t take your mask off” And signed it with a scribble of a spider and taped it to the front of the front door. I planned to record him after all when he came in, and though I do joke around with this stuff, I’m not about to go and break the unwritten rules by ousting someone’s secret identity. 

Then I set up the scene. I set up my camera, angled at the door and connected a string of web to the ceiling and attached the camera to it. It would hold it in place so I didn’t have to when we fought. Then I activated the two web shooters on my shoulder pads to attach to the ceiling as well as I hung there in wait. It took DeathKiller about 20 minutes to arrive after I had already set up, and I could tell he was coming by the sounds of his clunky steel toed boots against the thin apartment building floor outside. I quickly pulled myself up against the furthermost corner of the room, and turned on my camera. 

“Alright everybody, I have managed to find DeathKiller’s villainous lair. He should be here any second now-” 

“Spider-Man! The fuck is this shit man? You broke into my place?!” The door shook with an angry slam. 

I shook my head in disappointment, he was ruining the kayfabe. “Well yeah, but you’re supposed to act like you don’t know I did that!” He shoved the door open, didn’t even take the note off the door. 

“I’m gonna beat you unconscious for this.” DeathKiller growled out, the skull mask he wore left enough of his face exposed that I could see his mouth downturned into an angry grimace. 

“You didn’t think I’d look for it after you bragged about your lair? I couldn’t just let you flex on me like that.” It seemed that DeathKiller was not going to entertain the back and forth today. Mist began to pour out from his entire body, wispy tendrils of energy pulled the mass of mist close together as it began to coalesce into one large skull. 

“Woah, you’ve been holding out on me man?” 

“GET OUT!!!!!!” DeathKiller roared as the giant skull came flying at me. Normally I’d listen to a demand like that, but the fans were expecting something big, I couldn’t let the Itsy Bits down.
“DK C’mon!” The buzzing sense on the back of my neck flared up, my power alerting me of the danger I could clearly see in front of me. I shot my hands into the air and fired two strands of webs and yanked myself onto the ceiling then stuck myself there with my power. DeathKiller’s skull rushed forward just as I pulled myself out of its path, it just barely stopped before slamming into the wall.

I fired a few bursts of webs at DeathKiller from my spot on the ceiling, he was already in the process of creating another skull projection. I wasn’t the best shot but I landed a few, the impact pushing him hard enough for him to back out the door. I leapt down and ran after him, the giant skull was big and just as I had hoped it couldn’t  fit through the doorway after me. DeathKiller was still concentrating on making more skulls to attack me with. I closed the distance, the mist from the forming skulls was colder than anything I’d really ever like to experience, but I only needed to experience it for a few seconds. I pushed him with what brute strength I’d built up left, and sent him knocking into the door of his neighbor across the hall. “I really hope your neighbors aren't home.” I raised up web shooters aimed for his wrists and ankles and webbed him to the door.

DeathKiller glared at me, we both knew I had around three minutes before his mist made my webs brittle enough for him to break them. “Breathe, man.” I said taking a breath myself. “The footage is gonna be gr-“ I turned around and realized the best shots were completely obscured by his big ass skull. “Okay so it’s not gonna be killer, but like most of it is good I think.”

DeathKiller sighed from his position on the door. “Yeah, but I know a way I can help you make it better.” 

I shook my head. “I’m not letting you out of the webs man, I’m gonna blast new ones onto you if anything.” DeathKiller looked ticked that I hadn’t bought into that. “We’ve got the footage we got, I don’t want my videos to feel fake, you know?” I hit him with some more webs just to be safe, the ones keeping him stuck to the door were already looking hard and brittle. I felt my danger sense tingle, so as was becoming a reflex for me, I yanked myself up onto the ceiling.

The skull still in DeathKiller’s apartment had exploded, flakes of green force field shot out like glass shrapnel and mist erupted all over the villain’s lair. I was glad to not still be in there. “Fuck!” We’d both exclaimed at the same time. I looked at a confused DeathKiller, which only furthered my confusion. “Why do you look so surprised? You’re the one who did that!” DeathKiller shook his head at me. “I didn’t mean to, it just timed out! I don’t want my shit frozen, man! I’ve got paintings in there under the futon, nice ones that I was gonna hang up!”

“Your camera is still in there right? Let me get out of these webs and I can get our shit before it freezes.” His anger at me had completely dissipated at this point, he really was just worried about his stuff. “Yeah, okay.” I shook my head. “Please, that camera’s from my Uncle.” He looked at me with an expression I couldn’t gauge with the mask, but he nodded. “Yeah.” DeathKiller busted out from the webs, I didn’t reapply them and he went running into the area his power had transformed into a frigid disaster zone.

He came back with my camera in one hand and a bunch of gold framed paintings under his shoulder. “You shouldn’t break into people’s lairs man, it's not cool.” He held the camera out and pulled it away from me when I went to grab it. “C’mon, say you’re sorry. Or at least thank me for getting your camera, I had to stand on the futon to grab it.” Okay, so maybe DeathKiller was cooler than I thought. “Yeah, sorry man. Um, thanks.” The smile that appeared on his face quickly disappeared when I added. “But I’m still gonna need that woman’s bag back, the returning the stuff part is always a big draw for the emotional crowd.” 

DeathKiller sighed and walked back into his lair for the bag and came back with it. “Okay. Just never come here again? The fights are fun, but I live here.” I had kind of skirted around villain and hero courtesy by doing this in the first place. “Yeah, for sure. Next time I’ll keep the surprises to places with more room to kick ass.” I took the bag from DeathKiller and ran down the hall, then right out of the fire escape.

Not long after my encounter with DeathKiller, I had made it back home and began editing my 500,000 follower special. There were some good scenes here, though a large portion of the footage from DeathKiller’s lair was of his giant skull failing to fit through the doorway and blocking the view of our faceoff in the hallway. I could maybe use it in some kind of blooper reel, but it made the video come up short a bit lengthwise and I wanted a bit more to spice up the video. I was trying to think of a way to make it better, but I was getting too into my head about it so I decided to cool off and take a look at PHO. 

When I logged in I noticed I had a ping from my DMs. And when I checked it, I just knew that this would save my 500K Special. The message was from a kid who fancied himself my “nemesis”. 

♦  Private message from Shooting_Star10:

Shooting_Star10: hey itsy bitsy do you wanna race again today?????

Shooting_Star10: Or I’ll unleash my powers on the banks!!!” ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑

The kid went by “Kid Astronomy”. And much like a kid would want to do, he just wanted to mess around with his powers. It also seemed like he was a fan of mine, and when he got his powers he thought it would be fun to make videos together as my nemesis and rival. I went along with it. I wasn’t sure what was going on in his life, but it seemed like he needed someone who also had powers to hang around and I indulged him. It was better than him going down a DeathKiller route anyways.

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: Sure, wanna meet at the same place as last time?

Shooting_Star10: Yeah that's cool

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: Alright, see you there.

 I put my computer in rest mode, gathered my bag, and camera then went downstairs to head out. As I did I saw Aunt May who was starting to prepare dinner, “Oh Peter you’re heading out?” 

“Yeah sorry, I should be back soon, was just gonna meet with a friend for a little bit.” I wasn’t sure I could fully call Kid Astronomy a friend, but he definitely wasn’t an enemy. She nodded in understanding, “Okay, just make sure you’re back in time for dinner. Ben should be on his way home soon as well.” I waved back as I left, “Gotcha, Love you!” As I darted out the door I could faintly hear May’s reply of “I love you too”. As I usually did, I ran around the house to the backyard under the cover of a fence to slip on my costume and then using a tree, I yanked myself into the air to find the rooftop, Kid and I usually used as a meeting point. Kid was already waiting for me as I got there. “Wow, you got here fast.”I remarked.

 He shrugged, “ I don’t live far from here and I wasn’t doing anything..” Kid Astronomy had a cape outfit of sorts. It was a costume like the ones you’d get from a halloween store. It was one of those superhero costumes with the fake muscles and flimsy mask to boot. It was merch for one of the triumvirate themselves, Legend. It was kind of charming, cause if he was walking around the streets you’d just think he’s a kid playing pretend, but in reality he did have very real powers. Kid had laid some pillows down on the rooftop as well. The fact that he managed to climb up here with all of that made me think that he probably lived in this building, but I wouldn’t force it out of him. 

I pointed to the pillows, “Seems like you got yourself a nice set up.” 

He smiled mischievously, “Heh, yeah pretty smart huh? Now I don’t have to worry about getting bruises when I use my power and fall over.”

“It is quite smart. So about this race. What kind are we doing this time? A loop or some kind of relay?” I was pulling out my camera getting ready to record.

Kid brought a hand to his chin in thought, “I guess we could race to my–I mean the nearby school and back.”

“Sounds like a plan Kid Astronomy. And to let you in on an Itsy Bitsy secret, this is gonna go in my 500 thousand follower special. I just had a run in with DeathKiller earlier and this race is gonna be in the same video.” As I said that, Kid Astronomy looked really excited.

“Woah! Really?!” He collected himself, “I mean that’s only natural. I AM your nemesis after all. So it makes sense.” 

“It really does, doesn’t it.” I chuckle a little bit. I quickly check my harness and web shooters to make sure they're good to go. “Alright, ready?!” 

Kid Astronomy got himself into position, he sat down on the pillows and cupped his hands into a circle. Blue light filled the gap between his hands and Kid nodded to me. “I’m ready, Itsy Bitsy! Are you ready to lose?” I stepped up to the ledge, my danger sense ruled out the first few anchor points I eyed, I found one that didn’t trigger any buzzing and without looking back at Kid I responded. “Nah. I’m ready to win.” 

Kid Astronomy reacted by laughing. “So cool.” The blaster released the bolt of energy from his hands and fell back onto his pillows. I leapt down from the roof and dived, I trusted my harness to keep me alive before my other powers built up enough energy. I pulled up and fired my webs at the corner of one of the taller buildings in this part of Brooklyn. The speed I was building from the dive let me pull myself up fast. I swung up and was neck and neck with Kid Astronomy’s projectile. He called it the Starbolt, he could apparently see through it and his body would completely space out while he used it. The longer it flew without hitting something the faster it became, the starbolt would also hit harder when it did hit something.

The Starbolt twinkled as if surprised to see me and suddenly sped up. I fired two strands of webs at the building in front of us to web pull myself forward so I could maintain my current lead. I yanked myself over to the right to go around it, Kid Astronomy however had the starbolt fly upwards then over the building. The change in altitude probably took him longer than expected. I passed over an alleyway, Someone ran out of one of the buildings from a side door leading out of the alley, he was wearing a purple sweatshirt and hauling a big duffel bag. A woman ran out right after him, she saw me swinging overhead and yelled at me. “He’s a thief! That’s our money! Please do something!” I glanced at them, if I wasn’t busy I’d have helped her, but this wasn’t my problem.

“Sorry Lady, not my problem.” I swung past, ignoring the duffel bag bandit and swinging ahead of the starbolt. “You Ass!” I heard the woman yell, some people could be so self absorbed. Did she expect me to just quit what I was doing anytime someone needed help? I had a race to win and I needed to make it to the halfway point quickly to turn around soon or the starbolt would be too fast for me to keep up with. “C’mon!” I shouted. “C’mon!” I swung with all the strength my arms allowed and touched down on a building by the school. I took the second I had earned to stretch and leapt off the roof to keep swinging

I heard a gunshot some distance away as I swung my way back to the roof, the starbolt was right next to me though, I needed to keep moving so I didn’t have time to check it out. Besides, paramedics could handle it if someone got hurt. I landed on the roof seconds before the starbolt thudded into the roof leaving a crack in the concrete. “I win!” I celebrated with a little victory dance. 

“You did!” Kid Astronomy was awake now. “I’m impressed you can keep doing this without flying!” I nodded, It really was Impressive.. “Thanks kid, this was-” My phone ringing interrupted me. I pulled it out and saw it was May. “-Fun. Hold on for just a second, Kid, I probably have to take this.” I was a little irritated to have my outing interrupted, but I took the call anyway. “What’s up? This isn’t a great time for me, can-” May interrupted me. “It’s about Ben, Peter.” She sounded so terrified. “These paramedics called, they said he got shot trying to stop a robbery, they’re not sure they made it in time but are taking him to the hospital.” She kept going but I was frozen. Ben had been shot? That alleyway where I’d let that thief go had been pretty close to where I had heard a gunshot. Thinking about it, Ben would’ve passed by that place on his way home.

I started swinging back towards that alley, Kid Astronomy stared at me but I didn’t have time to explain. I tuned back into May’s voice. “Peter, I’m on my way to the hospital, can you try to be there too? I need you kiddo.” I wanted to tell her I would be. I wanted to be there for my aunt like she and Ben had been there for me my whole life.

Instead I told her, “I don’t know.” 

She let out what sounded like a sob “Peter! Are you running? You sound winded!” She cried. “I can’t really talk right now, I’m sorry!” I responded then hung up and shoved the phone back into my pocket, it rang again but I just ignored it. I had to know. If what I worried had happened was true I may as well have shot Ben myself. Now able to swing with both my hands free, I made it over to that alleyway, sure enough I heard sirens. 

As soon as I caught up to that ambulance I couldn’t stop myself, I landed on the roof. “What the hell! Did something fall on us?” One of the paramedics asked. I didn’t have time for any of this, so overwhelmed with panic I pried open a window of the ambulance and climbed inside. One paramedic, a young man with black messed up hair, stared at me widely. He grabbed a scalpel or some other sharp piece of medical equipment and pointed it at me, my danger sense didn't go off so I ignored him. My focus lied solely in my Uncle lying on the stretcher. His eyes which in this moment looked so cold lit up with life again as he saw me.

 “Don’t.” He said, his voice so calm, even when he sounded so weak his voice carried this strength with it. So absorbed in myself I hadn’t noticed the paramedic getting closer with his maybe scalpel. Ben gestured for me to unmask. Seeing him like this, bleeding like this, I did as he asked without any hesitation.

“This is my son, Peter.” I wanted to bawl, I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. I knew that that was how my uncle and aunt saw me, they had raised me since my parents death when I was less than a year old. But hearing him just say it like that broke me. I held his hand, the paramedic kept working, trying to keep Ben alive, the fact he could even speak at all was a miracle. 

“I’m here, Ben.” He squeezed my hand. “Look at yourself Peter, look at what all you’re capable of.” I took stock of everything I could do, everything I could do that I should have done to take out one unpowered thief without anyone getting hurt. “H-how long have you known.” He smiled, I didn’t know how he could smile at me like that still. “I meant what I said. You’re my son, Peter, I’ve always known you’d do incredible things.”

“I’ve been wasting them, wasted them today, I could’ve, that thief? I could’ve stopped him, I didn’t and I..” he brought my hand up to his face bringing my eyes back up to meet his. 

“You just needed time to see what I saw. There’s no shame in that, Peter.” I still felt ashamed, but it helped to hear him say that. 

“What did you see?” I asked him. “I saw that you are capable of being so much more than just a joke.” Something was going wrong. His hand started to spasm and shake, I held onto it tighter. “Why’d you do it Ben, why’d you try to stop him?”

He looked me in my eyes and said. “Because I could, and somebody had to.” And then wrapped his other arm around me and whispered. “Take care of May for me, the two of you are gonna need each other.” I didn’t know how to respond to that, I didn’t even want to hear it. But I just nodded and held his hand. 

Uncle Ben never made it to the hospital, he passed in the back of the ambulance holding my hand. After I had processed it, one of the paramedics handed me my mask. “You need to go, we’ll take him where he needs to go.” He was talking about taking Ben’s body to the hospital, was referring to him as a body against protocol or something? “But you have to get out of here.” It occurred to me then that they’d seen me unmasked, and suddenly, I froze up. The guy who’d threatened me with the maybe scalpel before, put a hand on my shoulder. “We’re not going to tell anyone anything we saw, okay? Just get out of here so you can make your old man proud.” I slid my mask back on, and climbed out the same way I came in.

(Wow guys, wasn't that such a silly and goofy chapter, here's some accompanying art to go with it!)

Chapter Text

(audiobook version here: https://youtu.be/3IkDwUkqA74


It had been five days since his passing, and there was only one day left before Ben’s funeral. May and I had spent the entire time mourning and getting the funeral plans together. She handled reaching out to family and friends, sending invitations and the like. I took up the task of getting things arranged with funeral services. It was all handled now, so I found myself with a day of free time. Along with that, I finally had time to self reflect, and I wasn’t very happy with the person I’d become. I’d gotten powers and what had I done with them? I told jokes and brushed off any opportunity to do some real good with them the moment any came my way.

‘You are capable of being so much more than just a joke.’ Ben‘s words echoed through my mind and hit me like one of DeathKiller’s skulls to the chest. He was right, Spider-Man had been envisioned as nothing more than a joke, and I couldn’t be that kind of guy anymore. I would think of some other theme or costume to wear when I needed to use my powers. I knew too well now that I had a responsibility. I’d brushed Ben off when he’d said it before, but I knew now what his words had meant that night. Anything I could do with these powers to help others, I had an obligation to do it, simply because I could and someone should.

Those thoughts led me to stare blankly at my computer screen on my P.H.O. account. It was all this Spider-Man crap’s fault, me being an absolute fuck up is what caused Ben’s death. I wanted to throw all of this stuff down the drain, let it sink down into the depths and out of my life forever. I hovered over the delete account button with my mouse. “Goodbye, ItsyBitsy.” I clicked delete, and a window opened up “Are You Sure?” I went to click the “Yes I’m Sure.” response.

May suddenly knocked on my door. I jumped, jerking my mouse  away from the response window and when I did. I accidentally clicked down and was taken off of the window. My account deletion was now stalled it seemed. I stood up and moved away from the computer. May and I had settled into giving the other their own space to grieve outside of funeral planning, so it surprised me to have her come knocking before the afternoon. 

“Peter, that… boy is here.” She said the word boy with barely concealed irritation in her voice. There was only one person I knew of that my aunt could talk about with contempt. 

“I tried to shoo him off, but he says he has your schoolwork. He also said that he’s leaving you alone now? Is that true?” She sounded so tired, none of this had been any easier on her, and now the kid who threw tomatoes at our window in the fourth grade was showing up at our door the day before her husband’s funeral.

“Um yeah.” I replied. “Flash and I are...” I couldn’t actually call him a friend, he’s been a weirdly supportive presence, but I don’t know if I’d ever be willing to call him my friend. “We’re at peace, I guess.”

“That’s good, the war is over. Woohoo~” Her voice had relaxed, I think she’d needed some kind of good news. Her “woohoo” still came out as the most low energy exclamation of excitement produced by a human.

“Alright, I’m coming out, I’ll uh, go get my homework.” This Flash thing was so weird to get used to. May patted me on my back as I left my room. I was quick to shut the bedroom door behind me, I didn't want Aunt May to see any of my left out tinker tech.

I left my home and awkwardly waved at Flash, he was standing outside his dad’s little pick up truck he was always driving around. “Parker.” Once I reached him, Flash pushed a stack of papers into my chest.

“You’ll have to ask your girlfriend for the stuff from your physics class, she told Mr. Coulson that I was going around taking your school work to fuck with you.”

 I frowned, there were two things wrong with that statement. “I don’t have a girlfriend.” 

He shrugged, “Your friend, that's a girl then.” He amended. 

“Cindy?” Cindy was trying to defend me from Flash? I thought I’d told her we were peaceful now.

 “Why did Cindy think you were trying to prank me?” I asked, and was getting a little annoyed with how much Flash liked to shrug.  

“Dunno, probably cause I told people that’s what I was doing.” I glared at him, and he decided to spite me by shrugging again.

“I have a reputation, it's why I’m able to look out for all of the nerdlingers like you now. I can’t keep that reputation if people know I’m not actually fucking with anyone anymore.” Flash spoke with usual unwavering confidence.

My confusion about what a nerdlinger was aside, had Flash said ”all of?” and “like me”? He was doing this kind of thing for other kids as well? That was… huh. “Right. I’ll call her about it, try and explain what’s up.”

 I awkwardly smiled. “Thanks Flash, you’re a uh, real stand up guy.” Vomit inducing words if it was two weeks ago, but now it felt like a true statement.  

“Yeah? Thanks Pete, it’s… not been easy” He seemed to have perked up at my words.

It wasn’t. I was learning that too, how hard it was to be a better person. I nodded at him, “I get that. There’s a lot of stuff I need to make up for too.” I had a great responsibility to fulfill, one that I was only just now learning to live with.

Flash gave me a look that started with a bit of concern then turned into something resembling, what was it…pity? “Look Parker, I don’t know everything that’s going on in that egghead of yours, but you aren’t a bad guy.”

That statement was followed by an awkward air of silence until Flash turned around to his dad’s truck. “I’m out of here. I’ll bring your homework next week too, just tell your girlfriend to let me bring your physics shit too.”

“She’s not my-”

“Yeah yeah whatever. See you around Parker.” Before I could protest further he climbed into the truck and turned on that thunderous car engine that somebody was going to have to take a look at at some point.

After he left, I pulled out my phone and dialed Cindy’s phone number. I had gotten it from her the last time we were at school .I had just been too nervous and then later too busy grieving to call her. I felt guilty for the ways that butterflies fluttered in my stomach waiting for her to answer, life was moving on without Ben here and it didn't feel right. He won't be there to see my accomplishments anymore.

“Hello?” Cindy answered, her voice wary in response to a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize. 

“Hey Cindy, it’s me, Peter. Flash told me you had my physics homework?” 

“Pete! I’m glad you called, I’ve been worried about you.” She’d been worried about me? “Are you oka- wait Flash wasn’t lying?” It seemed like she was going to immediately ask how I was, but her concern was thwarted away by the shock that Flash wasn’t actually trying to screw me over. “For real?” 

I laughed and nodded even though she wouldn’t see me over the phone. “Yeah, I guess he’s patron saint of the Nerdlingers now.”

“Nerd-linger?” She sounded as lost as I was

“It’s a Flashism, I’m choosing not to overthink it.” She laughed, and I felt like an ass for resenting the way her laugh was making me smile. 

“I’ll do the same thing… Hey, Pete.” She trailed off and picked back up. “How are you holding up?” I shook my head, slightly frustrated to have to answer that. I’d really wanted to tell Cindy the whole truth, to just vent about the stress of the guilt and let her know about all the weight I was placing on my shoulders. I thou ght if I could tell someone about this responsibility maybe it would sit just a bit easier. But I barely knew Cindy Moon, and she hardly knew me. Just because the two of us had become fast friends didn’t mean I could suddenly put something like that on her shoulders. “It’s hard, May and I are both still just trying to process it, but we’re managing.”

“It’s a good thing you have each other” 

I nodded again and after too long of a pause I hastily responded “yeah, it is.” Cindy and I talked for a little bit longer. 

“Would it be okay if I stopped by the funeral tomorrow? I might be busy, but as your friend I want to make an effort to pay respects to you and your family..” She sounded… a little off to me. It was like she was stepping on eggshells carefully picking out the best word. I’m not sure if I’d have picked up on it if I wasn’t so used to her much faster natural way of talking. 

“Yeah Cindy, that would be great.” It would be nice to have her there just for emotional support. I hung up and walked back inside.

I made my way back upstairs to my room, sat back down at my computer, and went to finish deleting my account. I noticed that I had a lot of messages from Kid Astronomy. I decided I should read them before I deleted my account.

♦  Private messages from Shooting_Star10:

Shooting_Star10 *New Message*: hey itsy bitsy, are you okay? You ran off really suddenly.

Shooting_Star10: i know i can be a bit much sometimes, so if it was about me you could say and I wouldn’t mind

Shooting_Star10: I really like hanging out with you cause you’re super cool and I don’t wanna lose a friend like you.

Shooting_Star10: if i can be super honest it’s kind of felt like you’re my only friend for a little while. before we started hanging out I learned about some stuff that made me really really scared 

Shooting_Star10: I couldn't really sleep at night so I decided to look at PHO. I think Uber and Leet are really funny but had kind of watched everything that I could get to. and then i found your videos and you made me laugh so much more than they ever had.

Shooting_Star10: Your video where you got in a fight with DeathKiller,  you just cracked jokes and were so confident, it made me feel like I could do that too. That I didn’t have to be scared anymore.

Shooting_Star10: When I asked you to collab, I was so relieved you said yes. That  you agreed and you were just as funny and cool in person

Shooting_Star10: I guess I'm just trying to say you’re important to me, and I Hope you’re doing okay, Spider-man.

I read the messages over and over again, taking a long time to process them all. Kid’s words were like the beacon of a lighthouse shining through thick fog. Spider-Man wasn’t the problem that I thought he was, as Spider-Man I’d actually helped someone. Being more than a joke didn’t mean I had to stop telling jokes. If the persona I’d created as Spider-man could inspire a scared little boy to be less afraid, then I had just as much of a responsibility to keep it around as I did to use my powers for good. I still needed to consider the future and how I would use my powers, but having it set in stone for myself that I would still be Spider-Man felt nice. I smiled and quickly typed out a reply to Kid.

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: I’m okay.  You didn’t do anything wrong. 

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: Thank you, for everything you said. 

Shooting_Star10: No problem! I meant every word.

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: You’re the best nemesis a cape could ask for. 

The next day came, and I was nervous. I had a speech prepared for the funeral, and was hoping it would turn out well. I mean the last time I tried to give a speech, the stage I was standing on got blown up. I already didn’t have a good track record. I wore my fancy black suit which had been a gift from Ben. I’d worn it to the Oscorp competition, and it seemed to be some great ironic destiny that it would be worn again for this tragedy as well.

May and I had arrived early. Ben had wanted an open casket funeral, and since we were his immediate family, we came to get our private moments before services began. The way the mortician had Ben presented, he looked good. May and I had our time to cry on each other’s shoulders and then collect ourselves before guests began to show up.

The first few were some distant family members that I almost never interacted with. So I had a few awkward conversations there. One of the first people to arrive that I hadn’t recognized was a tall white man with blonde hair that was half way on its way to gray. His hair looked almost silver draped in the sunlight poking through the blinds he stood beside. He was wearing a navy blue suit, his police badge clipped to the left side of his suit jacket.

“Officer.” I straightened up immediately, I knew there were people looking into Ben’s death, looking to arrest the man who’d killed him. 

“Relax Son, I’m just here to pay my respects.”

“Right.” My shoulders eased up as I let myself relax again. “You knew my uncle?” I asked him, and the man seemed to scan me over with his eyes. 

“You’re Peter?” I nodded. “I went to college with your uncle when he got that philosophy degree.” I’d never heard anything about a philosophy degree.

 “Ben had one of those, a philosophy degree?” 

The man nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure he wished he could’ve gotten more use out of it. But I think he was happier being an electrician.” It felt nice to learn more about Ben, it was relieving that I could still do that even when he was gone. 

“It’s nice to meet you..” I held out my hand and trailed off. 

“Ah.” The man took my hand in a firm shake. “Captain George Stacy.” 

I smiled. “Nice to meet you Captain Stacy.”

“George!” Another man, one I also didn’t recognize came up to talk with George. He was dressed in a tan suit which complimented the man’s dark skin. On second thought I did recognize this man. 

“Robbie Robertson?” I asked a tiny bit starstruck. Robbie Robertson was an ace reporter for the Daily Bugle and something of a local celebrity. The TV news networks and even the rival newspapers had covered the bugle reporter’s brush with the villains Tombstone and Felix Swoop for weeks after it happened. “You’re famous.” 

The man shook his head. “I’m locally famous, there’s a big difference. You say my name outside this city and it doesn’t have the same pizzazz.”

I held out my hand for him to shake. “I’m Ben’s nephew, Peter. He mentioned once that he knew you but he never mentioned how.”

 Robbie took my hand and smiled. “I had this column called Hometown Heroes, Jonah had it hidden in the back of the paper but it did alright.” He shook his head, so fed up with whoever this Jonah was, that the very memory of his antics still exasperated him. “I’d speak to people in the park or on Times Square and your Uncle’s name never stopped coming up as a suggestion. It got to the point I think I ended up interviewing him four times for that column.”

George and I both laughed, the police captai n’s hand smacked down on his knee. “I remember that, he called me once just to ask how many times you had to be lauded as a hero in the paper before you could call it harrassment.” George and Robbie both burst into laughter, I was distracted noticing the two men May was speaking with.

Danny and Max were two of Ben’s union buddies from other cities. Maxwell Dillon managed the Electrician’s union in Boston while Daniel Hebert managed both the Dockworker and Electrician’s union in Brockton Bay. The three of them had had a sort of three cities alliance thing going on for years. Ben had actually taken me and May with him to the funeral for Danny’s wife, Annette, years ago. 

I excused myself away from George and Robbie, then walked over to where Aunt May, Danny, and Max were talking. 

“No, not for a second.” Danny was finishing up a sentence, his words must have served as a wild response because Max looked like his eyes would fall out if he opened them any wider. Max had that kind of bug eyed face some people had, short eyelids that made any expression look cartoonishly wide eyed. He’d shaved his head bald recently, I thought it looked good on him. 

“Uh Hey! Peter’s here.” Max coughed out.

“Yeah.” I muttered awkwardly.

 “Hey, Kiddo.” Danny’s voice was soft and tired as he ruffled my hair. He was a lanky guy with glasses that kind of reminded me of myself sometimes. “I think you might be as tall as Taylor now.” Taylor was Danny’s daughter, she was my age and had always been a few inches taller than me. 

“Really? Did she come with you?” I kind of wanted to see that for myself.

“Mmhmm” Danny hummed out, he pointed out the door of the funeral home. “She’s out on the stairs reading a book.” 

May put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a nudge in that direction “Why don’t you go catch up with her.” They were being really pushy, but I could respect wanting to keep some conversations to themselves.

I went outside and sat down on the stairs. Taylor and I were maybe the same height now, at least while we were both sitting down. “Hey.” She jumped slightly as I sat down. I didn’t remember her being this skittish. 

“Hi.” She turned back to her book and I let her. I didn’t want to force a conversation if she didn’t want to have one. I saw a figure in the distance approaching the funeral home. Couldn’t really make them out except that I could see them pause and then turn around.

 “Ben was nice, he didn’t deserve that.” I turned back to look at her but her face was still buried in the book. 

“Thanks, neither did Annette.” She let out what sounded like a sob, we were hardly close, but some instinct took over and I put an arm over her shoulder. She flinched and I thought she’d scoot away, instead she pressed into my side.

“Life’s not fair.” She hiccupped and I realized something now that we were closer.

“I know, you’re still like half an inch taller than me.” We laughed and she punched me in the shoulder. I pulled away from her. “Are you gonna be okay?” 

She narrowed her eyes at me, glaring from behind her glasses. “It’s your Uncle’s funeral, you shouldn’t have to ask me that.”

I shrugged like Flash had the other day, I was starting to see why he did it so much. “He’d want me to.” 

Taylor smiled. “Yeah, I think I will be. Thanks Pete.” I stood back up to walk inside. “No problem.” I walked back into the funeral home.

When I went back inside, there was still an hour and a half before the service itself would begin. I had some time to go over Ben’s eulogy, I carefully unfolded the piece of paper I had written it on. I began reading through the speech for what might be the last time before I had to deliver it. 

A crackle of static sounded off, and I looked up to see Captain Stacy grabbing his walkie talkie. “Watanabe, is that you on the line? Can this wait?”

Garbled from a poor signal, a woman's voice came out “No time Captain, The Carradine bust has gone sideways, we need you here.” This sounded serious, it must’ve been if the captain was getting pulled away from a funeral. I folded my speech back up and slid it into my pocket. 

“I’m on my way.” George walked over to May before he left. “Work’s calling me, I’m sorry I won’t be able to stay for the service.” 

My aunt patted him on the shoulder. “No need, Ben would be livid if his funeral got in the way of someone helping people.” She shooed him off towards the exit.

Hearing her words convinced me of my own course of action. “Hey Max!” I raised my voice calling to one of the first people I saw that I trusted to talk to my aunt for me. 

“Yeah, Pete?” He looked concerned.

I gave him the best excuse I could think of on the fly. “I left my speech at home, I need to go grab it, can you tell May for me?” Max shot me a suspicious look, Crap.

 “Weren’t you just-” I didn’t let him finish that thought.

“Really gotta run! Thanks, Bye!” With that said, I ran right out the doors of the funeral home’s entrance.

I passed Taylor again as I did so. “Pete, where are y-” I didn’t want to stop, I needed to quickly get out of here so I could follow after Captain Stacy, if something dangerous was going on, Spider-Man had a duty to help. 

“Left my speech at home!” She watched me run off, I think I heard her yell. “Good luck!” But I was a bit of a distance at that point.

I dashed into an alley then pulled my mask and gloves from my suit and pants pockets respectively. No time to fully suit up all the way, my harness was on under my shirt and suit jacket. I pulled off the suit jacket and webbed it to the corner wedge a few feet off the ground. Now looking as different as I had time to, I pulled myself up onto the rooftops. Using the zoom feature of my mask, I found Captain Stacy’s police cruiser. Leaping off the side of the building I’d been using as a vantage point, I began swinging after him.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to handle this. The police sometimes worked with heroes on TV, but wasn’t that usually only when things turned out to be parahuman related? Even if they wanted to work with me, could they? Would the officers get in trouble for letting a relatively unknown independent cape interfere?

I followed the cruiser to Bushwick, seeing a warehouse surrounded by police vehicles, I swung up ahead of the Captain over to it. I perched down on a nearby building, the closest I could get to without risking my landing being heard. One of the officers spoke with enough volume I could hear him from where I was perching 

“This guy’s ridiculous, he wants protection? This isn’t how you get it.” Protection from what? Aware of the attention the sound of any web zips this close to them would garner, I waited for Captain Stacy to pull in. When he finally did I trusted the noise of the siren and the engine to cover me. I fired a string of web connecting the rooftop I was on and the roof of the warehouse. Carefully I walked across my impromptu tightrope. My surface tethering made walking a tightrope something I could do fairly easily, unfortunately it still scared the hell out of me.

I walked over the heads of the NYPD, despite all the people that could fly, no one ever looked up anywhere as much as you think they might. Having made it to the warehouse I listened to the cops as they gave a rundown to the just arrived Captain Stacy. 

“Perpetrator has been identified as Dennis Carradine, an alleged associate of Wilson Fisk.” Fisk as in the Kingpin? He’d been running crime in Queens and a good chunk of Brooklyn for years, at least everyone was pretty confident he did. Evidence, witnesses, and former employees willing to spill the beans had a way of disappearing. Nobody was sure what exactly, but it was commonly accepted the man had some sort of hidden power that had let him maintain his control of areas in the city

I’d actually taken a loan from someone who was supposedly part of the Kingpin's network. It was when May had been in the hospital for her hip and the insurance hadn’t covered her surgery. It was that stupid mistake which led me to frantically trying to earn the money to pay him back in the same way I’d told Ben I’d gotten the money for the loan, by winning a competition. It had been a mess, but I had done it. At the time, once I had paid off the loan I thought I’d never need to think about any of that ever again. How naive.

The officer continued. “He’s taken a hostage, who we’ve identified as Gloria Davila. Carradine is armed and we should assume he has every intent to terminate Ms. Davila in the event that we do not cooperate with his demands.“ I had no reason to doubt she was right, I was no negotiator, if I ran in there I might make things worse.

I decided I’d just get up and leave, the stinging in the back of my neck told me to do otherwise. Using my tethering ability, I brought myself down onto all fours and crawled down the side of the roof through an empty window. My danger sense was flaring and driving me to action. It hadn’t exactly worked this way before now, but I got the sense that Gloria was in immediate danger. Once inside I made my way to the ceiling. I trusted my tether power a bit more than usual, the connection felt sturdier today. I crept up on Dennis upside While down.  

I could see the hostage and I vaguely recognized her as one of many homeless people in the city. Carradine looked just like any two bit thug wearing the Kingpin’s royal purple. He held his gun to Gloria’s head. The woman looked so terrified, and I felt horrible for her. Dennis was breathing heavily, wild eyes, clearly not right in the head. That coupled with the pressure of being surrounded by police made him a very dangerous man. He was mere moments away from firing that gun. How should I go about this? I could drop down and try to knock him out, but he could shoot the woman. Try and get the woman away? No, I’m quick, but not faster than a bullet. Then I would need to get rid of the gun in the first place. How could I do that? Jumping down and grabbing it? No, too risky. What tools do I have then? My web shooters were the best option I had. But such a precise shot at this distance? That would be dangerous……

Hold on… my danger sense could warn me if I was about to choose the wrong anchor point and hurt myself, then it should be able to help me aim a shot that shouldn’t put me or Gloria in danger. I put the theory to the test, but theory is a lot easier than practice it would seem. Trying to aim a shot that gave me the least amount of danger tingles was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It didn’t help that since they were constantly moving slightly, I couldn’t line up the perfect shot. 

I closed my eyes. That gun is going to be used to take someone’s life. In the past my inaction got Ben killed, but the difference between that day and today, is that I now knew the weight of the responsibility I held. I knew exactly what happens when I do nothing. I opened my eyes, and aimed my wrist, there wasn’t going to be a perfect moment, there would always be a danger when it came to weapons like these. Trusting in my instincts I shot a web out when I felt a very low amount of danger. When my web made contact, my danger sense flared, and in reaction I yanked the gun out of Dennis’ hand and the danger sense waned. 

“Heya Dennie! Didn’t your mother teach you not to play with fire arms.” The gun now in my hands, I webbed it onto the ceiling and hopped down. The woman, Gloria, ran as soon as the gun was off of her. I hoped she’d be alright. 

“The fuck!” He went to swing at me but was much too slow to fight a guy with danger sense. I leaned out of the way of the blow and got a good look at him. That sweatshirt, his face… this wasn’t just any thug. Dennis Car radine was the man who killed my uncle, I recognized him from that day. When he threw a second punch I grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the right and pushed him back. 

“Hands off!” I barked out, and he seemed like he was starting to understand there wasn’t going to be a real fight here, not for him anyways. 

“Ben Parker.” I barked out, surprising myself. “Why?” I pulled on the collar of his shirt and managed to lift him up off the ground by it ever so slightly. 

“What? The old guy? It wasn’t anything personal man! I know that guy didn’t deserve it, but it was him or me.” Bullshit.

“How was it you or him? He was an unarmed man pushing seventy! Was he gonna lecture you to death so you decided you had to shoot him!?!” The sirens blared once more outside, the cops had probably gotten to Gloria now that she was out of the building.

“It ain’t like that, I’m not a killer! I’m usually just Muscle. But I had to jump ship! Scorpion’s busted out of transport and when he gets back to the city it’s gonna be open season on anybody still wearing purple. You have to shed innocent blood if you want to be a part of The Teeth. Old guy came at me, tried to get me to return what I’d taken and I just took a shot at him and ran.”

Scorpion? He was the guy from the Teeth whose breaker form could withstand Legend’s blasts. “Why the hell is Scorpion going after Kingpin? He was caught by the protectorate.” Dennis shook his head.

“The PRT raided his home while he was sleeping, before he could use his powers! How do you think they knew where to find him!” 

Fisk had sold out the Scorpion? He had sold out the man’s lair, and from the way DeathKiller reacted I think that might’ve been a bit of a taboo. His story sounded believable, but something was still bugging me about it 

“I haven’t seen anything on the news about Scorpion.” I shook Dennis until he spoke.

“Why would you? You think they’re gonna tell the public they fucked up? No, they’re gonna wait until Scorpion comes up to start shit and stop him after.”

I heard the loud footsteps of officers approaching but I needed more information . “What makes you think that?.” 

Dennis had the guts to shrug at me so I shook him like an eightball. “Chill! Chill! I think that cause that’s just how they handle slippery fuckers like Mac! It’s just the way things shake out, safer in the long run to nab him after he makes a move on Fisk than to risk fighting him where civilians might get hurt.”

He meant it, this man truly believed the protectorate would let men like him die. What was that called in ethics? “You think they see you all as an acceptable loss?” He nodded.

“Yeah kid, that’s what we are… but not me. I’m gonna live! You hear me! I’m gonna-” we were interrupted by the cops arriving on the floor we were on. I punched him directly in the face, he went out like a light. Before the officers could fire at me I leapt up onto the ceiling and made my way out of the warehouse. I could see that one of the officers had draped one of those trauma blankets over the former hostage, Gloria. I hoped she’d be alright.

I swung back to Ben’s funeral. I took a deep breath before going back in. That was intense, Scorpion was going to kill people, I needed to find either him or where’d he strike and stop him before he had a chance to kill. First though, I had to mourn.  I ended up missing a bulk of the service but was able to be there before everyone left for the cemetery and got to be present when Ben’s casket was lowered into the ground. May didn’t say anything about my disappearance during the ceremony, just put a gentle hand on my shoulder.


(Here's character art for this chapter)

Chapter Text

https://youtu.be/DPCIovrXi5M?si=EiFwD0jsX38OVMN8 (Audiobook Version here)



After the funeral,  May and I returned home. The service had been held early, so we arrived home a little bit after one in the afternoon. My mind was completely fried from recent events. I sat alone in the living room and let myself start processing. My eulogy for Ben had gone undelivered, I was brimming with worry about this Scorpion situation, and I’d just faced down the man who killed my uncle. I needed so badly to get these feelings out somehow so I could just… focus. I couldn’t talk to May, I refused to burden her like that, not while she needed me to be the solid dependable nephew.

I thought of someone else I could try. Flash? We had been growing closer, and that thing yesterday with my school work had been nice. But the thought of sharing my innermost thoughts with Flash Thompson made me want to scream. Cindy? I shuddered at the thought of how pathetic that would be. We still hardly knew each other, the thought of dumping all of this on the girl I was crushing on screamed of disaster to me.

I didn’t really have an outlet for this. Ben had been the person I told everything to, even when I was keeping secrets from him I’d still try and tell him honestly how I was feeling. Now he was gone, and I didn’t have anywhere to put my thoughts. I glared at the coffee table and noticed a piece of paper that I had left sitting there for two months. 

When freshman year started I had entered this pen pal program where students struggling to make friends in their own school were partnered with a student from a different school suffering the same problem. I had been partnered with a student from a private school named Mary Jane. MJ was a theater kid who I imagined as being very awkward. At first we’d exchanged a few letters regularly, but overtime I got busy with everything going on in my life. I hadn't had the time to write to my pen pal since before our sophomore years had begun, and now we were nearing the end of them. I’d tried to start writing to her again a few times but with how long I’d left things it was starting to feel weird. 

The paper that sat on the coffee table was one such unfinished attempt at a letter to that penpal. I had only gotten around to “Dear Mary Jane” and hadn’t written anything else. I decided that now is as good a time as any to begin writing.

Hey MJ how was theater camp? I know you’ve wrapped that up ages ago by now, but I’m still curious. Sorry it’s taken me so long to write back I’ve been bus-

I started over, striking through the text. 

Hey MJ I know you’ve probably forgotten about this, hopefully made some actual friends by now… but I’m ya know, around and

Again I started over.

My uncle died almost a week ago now, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before. When Behemoth attacked Time Square, I was a baby. I lost my parents but it has never really been something that hurt me because the only family I had ever known were my aunt and uncle. Ben’s gone now and I think I finally feel like the sad kid everyone expected me to be when they came up…

I stopped writing, I couldn’t send this now, it was getting way too personal... But I still felt the need to finish it, I’d just write out all my angst into this letter and then toss it later.

He was something else, MJ. Ben Parker would give you his coat in the cold and his umbrella in the rain. Selfless, in a way I’m not. I’m not a very good nephew. I’ve not been a very good son. He called me that before he died, son, and it’s been eating away at me. My own father died holding my hand, and just like always his only concern, even with a bullet lodged in his chest, was how I was doing. I failed him, and he was the one comfort-

I stopped, not because I was finished but because tears were dropping from my eyes and onto the paper. I laughed, because what better metaphor could there be for what I’m doing than that? The stupid poetic irony of it all loosened some of the pain and I wiped my eyes. This letter wasn’t even that anymore, it was less letter and more an open wound. But I couldn’t shut that wound by just ignoring it, couldn’t shut any wound that way. I kept writing.

-ing me. He told me something once I can’t let go of, even if I wanted to. These words he’d said at dinner, one night. Words I’d once ignored that have driven me out of bed every morning since he died. I think they might just be the most important words anyone can hear. “With great power, comes great responsibility.” It’s so simple, it’s so common sense. But I’d missed their meaning before it was too late.

Ben died attempting to stop a mugger, who I had minutes earlier had a chance to stop without putting myself at any risk and just chose not to. I had a responsibility to do something and I just ran by.

But it’s not been all doom and gloom.

It hadn’t? I stopped writing, shocked by that sentiment, shocked that I really did believe that.

I’ve been thinking more about how to live like he did, got to see some of the lives he’d affected at the funeral and I want that. When I’m gone I want to be remembered the way my uncle is. I helped someone earlier today and it felt good. Getting to see her in a better spot than she was before because I’d done something only I could do.

There’s this thing going on that I might need to get involved in. The people who normally handle this sort of thing probably aren’t going to do anything until after things start going bad. But I think I can do something before it gets that far. Truthfully I’m kind of terrified, but I think I can do this. I think I can make a difference, I think I can make my father Uncle proud.

Thank you for this. Sincerely, Peter Parker.”

I sat my pen down. The little thank you and the sign off were unnecessary considering I had no intention of sending this off. I probably could have been more open as well. But writing the letter as if it was something I’d really send out let me feel like I was actually getting these feelings out in a conversation. The catharsis was relieving and I could finally focus. Scorpion!

I folded up and sat the letter down on the coffee table. I was considering keeping it just to be able to read back over it in the future, I decided to run upstairs to my room instead of making a decision about what to do with the letter right now. Dennis Carradine had made it sound like Scorpion would be striking on Fisk any minute, any day now. I didn’t have any love for the supposed crime lord, but I wasn’t about to let people die so that I could find Scorpion just because they were criminals.

I logged onto my computer and navigated to the PHO page for the Teeth, from there I pulled up the subpage for Scorpion. I needed to have some idea what I was going up against and the guy had had enough public incidents that his page was probably somewhat informative. “Let’s see.” When the man had gone to trial and received a sentence to the birdcage his name had become public record. “Mac Gargon what can you do that got Dennis so riled up?” I read through the page and gulped at what I saw

Mac Gargon was one of those capes whose power blended and skirted around the classifications. He could form a breaker state around himself made of sleek otherworldly chiton. In the blurry images on the site it looked matte and sort of reminded me of metal. His breaker form looked like a massive Scorpion, seven to nine feet tall maybe? They’d given him a changer rating here because it looked so different from his normal body. “Breaker/Brute Eight. Changer Two.”

That eight was really high for a brute, it’s a good thing they’d caught him the way they did the first time. There were also some things about his power taking a while to be turned on, and that once it was, it took just as long to turn off. The non-power parts of the wiki were where the really upsetting stuff was. Scorpion was one of Butcher Thirteen’s right hands, and had given the group the power they’d needed to establish a more full time residence in the city. Before he’d joined four years ago, they’d moved back and forth between here and Boston, never sticking anywhere too long.

This is all to say that his wiki contained images and stories of violence that matched with what expectations one might have for someone powerful enough to carve out a spot for his gang in the city with the highest cape population. Cars bisected by his breaker state’s claws, buildings destroyed, people dead in gruesome ways, and the testimony of a former PRT agent who Gargon had tortured for information. Thankfully no images of any of the bodies, I didn’t want to see what someone who’s torso had been squished between breaker claws looked like.

I’d seen enough to know that I wasn’t going to be able to do nothing. I still hoped Carradine was wrong, I hated the idea of the heroes just waiting for Scorpion to strike at Fisk. I couldn’t dismiss the logic of it though now that I had a better idea of what Gargon was. It was smarter to let Scorpion take out Fisk, keep an eye on the mob boss and after Gargon tired himself out and started letting himself out of breaker form you could containment foam him. But how many people were you risking there? 

Wilson Fisk has long held the claim that the gang of criminals hailing allegiance to The Kingpin were simply weaponizing a false narrative, hoisting up the rumored kingpin as a shadowy figure they could rally behind to use the reputation that the media erroneously gave him. I doubted that as much as everyone else did, but I had no more proof than anyone else. The man employed a great deal of people in the city through as many legitimate means as his supposed illegal dealings. Scorpion killing him would take out a mob boss, but also one of the biggest employers in the city, he was just as likely to take innocent lives in that scenario than if he was ambushed before that point.

I was taking Caradine too seriously, letting his thoughts and perspective poison my own. I shouldn’t operate on the assumption that the Protectorate is doing nothing about Gargon. I still needed to look into it for myself as well though. I’d start with the villain’s lair, that house in the Bronx where they’d jumped him. Maybe the PRT left behind some clues, or I could get lucky and he went directly back to the same spot he’d hid the last time. I don’t think my luck would work like that though.

With my Spider-Man stuff packed in my backpack,as usual, I went downstairs and told May that “I need a breath of fresh air, so I’m gonna go on a walk”. She seemed to accept the lie, telling me to “Be safe.” Which I only nodded to, since I didn’t have the heart to lie out loud. I was headed towards the lair of a highly dangerous cape, so this was the opposite of safe. 

Doing my usual routine of getting to a safe place to suit up, I set out towards the location of Scorpion’s lair. It was a good distance away from my home. Which was a very good thing cause I don't know how I'd feel if May were to be so close to such a dangerous person. It was also a good thing because it meant I had a decently long swing trip, time for my brute power to build up, so if Scorpion had come back I would have some extra oomph and durability. 

Mac Gargon’s address hadn’t been hard to find and turned up quickly after enough snooping. The man’s neighbors had been quick to talk to reporters and post online about how off the man had always seemed and what it was like living next to the infamous villain. I perched on a nearby apartment building and I was truthfully taken aback by how mundane the villain’s house was. Aside from a few signs of wear and tear where the home could’ve used better upkeep, it was the same as any other home on this street. I’d expected a real villain’s lair to be something more foreboding, I thought the place would have some sort of presence to it.

Instead Mac’s lair was a simple two story brick home, like a few others on his street the house had been painted white. There were a few spots where the paint was chipped away and you could see the red underneath. The normalcy was weirdly mind boggling. Sitting on the street parked beside the house was a rusted over pickup truck which must’ve been Mac’s. 

I really hoped not to be seen breaking in. Mac’s neighbors had already proven to enjoy speaking to the media about this kind of stuff. I leapt down from the apartment, spending some of my brute charge to get down quickly without hurting myself. I walked over to the house and tried the door, it was locked.

Scorpion was a top member of the Teeth, he bossed people around, surely he’d sent people to his home to get things in the past while he couldn’t be there. He probably had a spare key sitting out somewhere. Hopefully the PRT hadn’t already found and confiscated it during their own investigations. I bent down and lifted up the welcome mat, my prize glittering in the midday sun. I picked up the spare key and unlocked the front door to let myself inside. 

Mac Gargon’s living room was cramped. The house was relatively small, and so the living room had clearly been made to serve as much purpose as possible with the small space. Sitting on a couple of shelves Gargon had a few terrariums containing actual Scorpions. “The Scorpion keeps pet scorpions? That would be endearing if I hadn’t read about him bisecting a man earlier.” I quipped to myself. The contents of his end table were less funny. A drill and a roll of thread sat beside a handful of human molars, he must’ve been in the middle of a crafting project. Human teeth necklace, fun.

An armchair, a tv, a lot of terrariums, and a loveseat whose position in front of a scorpion terrarium would leave sitting guests with no leg room. Was his power more malleable than he let on? This scorpion obsession feels like if he had the power to take any particular shape, it would be that one. I looked at a pin board on his wall that had a few specimens pinned to it. There were a few non scorpions, a colorful moth, a black widow spider, and a beetle of some kind. “Guy loves bugs.”

I creeped upstairs, hopefully he had some papers or something in his room. I needed to find some kind of hint to where he’d be hiding. Where his living room had been crammed with furnishings and decor, his bedroom was practically spartan. A dresser and an empty bed frame were all that was up here. If the PRT had snuck in and foamed him the moment he’d returned to his lair and plopped into bed then they’d probably have ended up foaming him to the mattress. I could imagine it, Scorpion returning from whatever business he’d had with the Kingpin and ending up dragged out of his home glued to a mattress. I laughed at the thought, of course he wanted to crush Fisk and his empire, that kind of humiliation he’d experienced destroyed villains. Gargon clearly preferred his living room, everything he was he seemed to display openly there. Did he like company? Bring the other Teeth over and show them his bugs.

I laughed to myself, and started digging through his dresser. “Here Butcher check this out, it's called the pinky-yellow moth.” I cackled in a fit of hysterics. Mac’s dresser wasn’t too informative, mostly old clothes and rags. The bottom drawer was full of extra red cloth that I guess he used for sewing up his costume. I knew he had one even if it never really got worn into fights.

A lot of the teeth, especially the non powered ones, wore Red hooded shawls in the winter. Did he make those? Was the scary murder monster man sewing and knitting shawls so his people didn’t get cold. It bothered me that the man could show compassion for other murderers but so easily take the lives of innocents.

I could hear a car pull up to the house. Taking a peek outside I saw two men in the front seat, the driver I didn’t recognize for sure, but the guy in the passenger seat was one of the Teeth’s capes. I wasn’t sure which though, either Animos or Spree probably. Three men, two with guns at their hips and the third with a rifle strapped to his back came sliding out of the car. They were coming here. Crap! Did Scorpion have a security camera somewhere? I should’ve been more careful. If they know I’m here it won’t be easy to sneak out if they’re all on guard. I need to consider what I’m up against. 

The people with guns were the ones leaving the car, but the two in the front seat stayed there. One of them I knew was a cape, and if this was a situation where capes were sitting back to let their goons do their bidding, then they probably don’t know a cape is in the building. But I can’t rule out that they did and just thought I could be handled by normal guys.

For now I’d wait upstairs in Gargon’s room. I could hear what I assumed to be the rifle guy, he’d been a bald headed man who wore a crown of animal bones, and his voice was as gruff and surly as I imagined that guy sounded. “Door’s unlocked.” I couldn’t see them from where I was now that they were at the door. I think he’d held an arm out or something because one of the other guys said, “Don’t be so spooked, PRT probably forgot to lock it back after the raid.” I heard them moving into the house, their voices much louder. “Let’s just get Mac’s bugs and his threads so we can leave.”

Threads? They’d be coming up here for the cloth then. Crap, I needed to prepare to fight whoever comes up here without alerting anyone else. I zipped up onto the ceiling, maybe I could drop down on them like I had with Dennis. After a minute, one of the men came up the stairs. It was Rifle Guy and he was talking to someone on the phone, “I’m getting it. Relax Tumor, he’s not about to suddenly freeze to death without a shawl, it’s still April.” What kind of a name was Tumor? I could hear a loud voice over the phone but couldn’t make out their words. “Yes sir, and all that crap.” said Rifle Guy. He hung up, and I swung down.

There wouldn’t be much opportunity for another surprise strike like this one if he fired off that rifle, to that end I had to be brutal. I swung downward in an arc, fired a web at his face, and with whatever brute strength I’d built up from the swing here I kicked him. The kick took him with me as I completed the arc, his back slammed against the ceiling. I fired another blast of webs to stick him there. Thankfully he wasn’t hanging upside down, so despite some major discomfort later, he’d be fine.

The noise of the strike was loud, but I was counting on it being the kind of thing you could rationalize as normal in an old house like this one. I grabbed a web cartridge from my pants pocket and reloaded my right web shooter. I needed to take these other two out then sneak out the back door, maybe come back and follow them when they take this stuff to Scorpion.

I began creeping down stairs and would’ve met eyes with one of them if I hadn’t been wearing a mask. They were both coming up the stairs with their pistols drawn. It turns out criminals are suspicious of loud noises and will not just write them off. “Th-” the one to my left was about to speak but I couldn’t let him, to be fair to myself it was probably just going to be “The Fuck?” So I don’t think I missed anything invaluable when I webbed his mouth and interrupted him.

My danger sense pinged from the other guy and I dived to my left and fired a web at the man on the right’s hand and yanked the gun out of his hand and webbed it onto the ceiling. My danger sense reminded me that the man whose mouth I’d webbed was still armed, not much time to do something about it. I tackled him and pushed the gun downwards so he fired into the stairs instead of into me. Crap, I had been hoping to avoid any gunfire. The man was strong, but the harder he pushed against me the more I strained and the more strength I built up. 

I pried the man’s gun arm down and pulled the fire arm from his hand. There was no point in being silent any more. “What’s with you guys and the guns, I thought the Teeth’s whole vibe was animalistic killers.” I webbed the gun onto the ceiling with the other one. “Shut up!” The unwebbed guy yelled, he swung and I messed up the dodge, the blow didn’t hurt that much though, my brute power was still building up as I fought.

“I’m serious though.” I hit Webbed Mouth with a punch to his chest and webbed him onto the stair railing. “When’s the last time you saw an animal use a Glock? I’m just saying. I think they’re off theme for you guys.” The other guy turned around to start running, I felt bad for doing it but I still webbed his shoes to the ground. “You should stick to knives and claws, it’s way more on theme. Easier to dodge too, ya know?” I didn’t expect an answer but the goon who’s mouth hadn’t been webbed asked. “Don’t you ever shut up?”

“Not really, no.” I walked past him, I needed to get out of here quickly. I was much too late though.

“Good!” A voice spoke behind me, it came from a man, he was wearing red pants, and a black compression shirt. Adorning the shirt were an array of bones. Prominent femur bones acted as a frame of sorts on both sides of his chest and hanging between them was a string with a series of teeth. It was strung in a way to look like an infinity symbol.

The man also had razor sharp blades on shoulder and knee pads as well as some on his wrist that protruded over his hands. Shaggy brown hair almost covered his face, a mask with some kind of sharpened bones layered over it covered his mouth. The parts of his face I could see were covered in red war paint, or knowing the Teeth could even be some kind of blood. He looked like a guy that if you got too close you’d get hurt some way or another. 

“Because I’m hoping to get some answers.” He eyed my costume with a look of recognition. “Spider Guy! Oh boy what a treat!” This was the man I’d recognized as a cape, though I still wasn’t sure which one. I frowned behind my mask and did my best to keep my voice steady.

“You recognize me? I’m touched, but you’re not who I’m looking for at the moment.” I needed to focus on the much more violent Scorpion, as long as he was in the city he was an active danger. “Maybe I can get you my autograph later…” I trailed off.

“You don’t know who I am? I know you’re fresh but making moves on a group without knowing who their members are is just sloppy.” I planned to let this conversation go on as long as he let it, I wasn’t dumb enough to swing on another parahuman when I didn’t have a clue what they did.

I shook my head. “I’m not moving on the Teeth” not yet, but eventually I probably would be butting heads with them as a whole. “Just Scorpion. What's he planning? I know he’s back in town-”

The cape cut me off. “Hey little Trigger I get it, you’re stepping up into the big leagues and you wanna make a big splash. I’ve been there!” He held his hands out in my direction, it would’ve been a friendly gesture if he hadn’t had blades on his wrists. “Back in Boston one of the earliest things I did was start beef with Blasto!” So this guy was Spree, the clone guy.

I remembered hearing he had stuff in Boston before the Butcher moved him and the rest of the Teeth to New York full time. “But listen, I’m gonna give you a chance here. Just walk out of here and we don’t have to fight. You’re new and I like your stuff, the videos are a riot, man.”

“Just like that? I web up three of your guys and you just let me go?” I asked, I couldn’t believe he was being serious.

He shrugged. “They’re still breathing?” He asked and he sounded bored, like I was asking him why he was okay with me taking one of his french fries and not why he wasn’t trying to beat me to a pulp for beating up men who worked for him. 

“Then yeah, just like that. I don’t care. We’ve put them through way worse than this just for fun, they’ll be fine.” This whole interaction was feeling weird to me until I remembered something I’d heard from DeathKiller of all people.

 I’d ran into him after he robbed a pizza place of one of their pizzas. At the time I was still unaware of the responsibility my powers gave me. I accepted DeathKiller’s bribe of pizza to not make him return the cash he’d also stolen. We just kind of ate pizza and talked powers for a while on a bench in Central Park. “Gangs and teams are crazy about tinkers.” He’d said between a bite of pepperoni. “Knew this guy who like Tinkered pipes and stuff, water pipe shit.”

I had eaten my own slice while he talked, and waited to speak until I’d swallowed. I generally avoided speaking with my mouth full when I could. “Like sewer pipes?” 

He shrugged “Yeah, kinda. Other stuff too but always kinda in that zone. He just disappeared one day, straight up got snatched.” I remember thinking ‘oh shit!’ He nodded in response to the way my exposed mouth had quirked into an o shape. “You’ve got other powers so you’d be a lot harder to just grab, but you’ll probably get a lot of weird shady offers.”

I nodded. “Yeah?” 

He nodded back. “Yeah, Tinkers are bullshit man, everybody wants one on their side.”

Fucking hell, Spree was trying to recruit me! Gross! “You’re trying to recruit me, letting me off easy now so maybe I'll be more receptive in the future? Not happening man!”

He looked offended. “What’s so wrong with that! We’ve got a good reputation these days!” Only true in the sense they weren’t viewed as the failures they were before Scorpion had clawed them out of obscurity. They were still known murder hobos, just not as bad as many of the other murder hobos out there.

A large figure emerged in the doorway behind Spree. The man looked almost like a bodybuilder, he wore a red tank top that showed off his muscle definition and he wore dark baggy pants. Unlike other members of the teeth, he didn’t have any of the weird bone decorations. Though there was one article on his person that did creep me out which was a full face covering mask that was designed to look like a muscle. His blonde hair poked out from atop and around the mask. “What’s with all the chatter?”

“Kid thinks he’s gonna take on Scorpion.” Spree explained.

The new guy laughed at that. “Yeah?” He asked, looking me over. “You’re a tinker, right? You know…” he trailed off, I think the way Spree looked at the other man told him the soft sell hadn’t been working. “Okay.” It was like I could see the wheels in his head turning. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to speak.

“I’ll ask you since your friend didn’t want to help me, where’s Scorpion, when’s he hitting Fisk’s people?”

The new guy stared at me stunned. “You know about that?”

I glared at him, which was dumb because he couldn’t see it behind my mask. “Fisk sold him out, his men know payback’s coming, It has them agitated and people are getting hurt.” He and Spree laugh at that.

“The fuck does that have to do with you?” Spree asked.

“Everything!” I found myself yelling. The muscle themed guy quirked tilted his head questioningly at me, Spree stepped back. “Tell me where he is or I’m going to make you tell me.” I was losing my cool a bit now and decided to threaten.

“Unlike some people out there, the Teeth aren’t rats.” The muscle cape spoke. “Spree, if he wants to play hero, let him.” 

Spree looked at the muscle cape and nodded. “Alright, Tumor. Let’s squish this bug.”

So this was Tumor? That name was so morbid. I took stock of my situation. I hesitated with Spree, tried the talking approach and was now face to face with two angry capes. Not exactly face to face though, I was standing at the bottom of the staircase and they were both in the doorway. I had a nice ten to fifteen feet between me and them that I might be able to use. Spree hunched over slightly like he was bracing himself for an impact.

I went to fire a web at him to stop whatever he was doing with his power, but Spree was experienced in fights like this and my aim was poor. The duplicator went into a combat roll to dodge my webs and without missing a beat when he came out, three Clones flickered and burst out of him. He’d been bracing for the recoil I realized. The clones fired out of him, one was moving too fast to stop and went flying into the wall, the second slammed into a terrarium getting glass everywhere, and the third Spree double was able to get his feet on the ground and charge at me. I was lucky that I was fighting him in such a cramped space, under normal circumstances the momentum would’ve just been enough to give the clones running starts, but here it meant they’d be smashing into the wall more than me.

Before the first clone could get to me Spree had fired more volleys in rapid succession. It took the man less than half a second to make them and he wasn’t stopping, what stunned me was that only every other group was being sent into the house. The other half of Spree’s double’s started pummeling into Tumor. I watched as the places where Spree’s fists made contact would bloat and expand into harder more durable muscle, It seemed like Tumor was some sort of Crawler lite. The villain’s body became bloated and disfigured as the onslaught kept going, the transformed muscle exposing itself outwardly. Tumor’s muscle mask fell from his head and I could just see his real face now. He had a blond goatee that I thought made him look like a douche.

That would be interesting if there weren’t five identical men running at me. I fired out webs to halt two of them, his clones seemed a bit less experienced than the real deal and neither managed to dodge. I was glad that worked, but in that time there were already another four making their way with the three whose approach I hadn’t stopped.  There were too many to dodge in almost any direction, except up. 

I shot a web rope to the ceiling and yanked myself up, clinging onto it with 3 limbs and leaving one arm open to shoot another rope at one of the webbed up Sprees. I then yanked him towards the group that I had avoided and a number of them got caught up in the webbing of the one I had turned into an impromptu weapon and they all got stuck together. it was weird that they weren't  struggling then I realized that some of them had gone completely unresponsive laying limp. It seemed the clones didn’t seem to function long, but in return Spree could pump waves of them out in seconds.

Speaking of which, my attention had been so focused on the one wave, I didn't notice till my danger sense pinged me of a clone being launched out of the main Spree flying at me. I should’ve been treating him more like he had a gun, the way he could fire out his clones.  I couldn't react in time being upside down and I was tackled off the ceiling falling hard onto the ground. Spree had produced even more waves in the time I was being tackled and before I knew it all of the Spree clones had dogpiled me.

Fists and spikes pummeled and stabbed at me as they piled on. I pushed against them and my struggle was frustratingly futile, even with my brute power I wasn’t going to be able to build up enough strain to push the mountain of Sprees off of me. I still tried but the pain in my muscles was unbearable, I couldn’t handle the pain it would take for my power to build up like I needed it to. “Some hero.” I heard Tumor speak, his voice deeper now probably a result of the way his body had grown. 

Tumor was right, some hero I had turned out to be. I was stupid to think I had a chance against real villains, this wasn’t a game where we both went home after, like with DeathKiller. 

“Why’d he even try?” I heard one of the Sprees speaking, the original one. The clones must’ve gone brain dead after a few seconds because the first few seem to have lost their ability to apply pressure, but it didn’t change the weight or that there were still new sprees joining the pile. My danger sense blared at me and it was really bothering me when I knew very well already that I was in danger. The pain of being crushed was unbearable but a thought reached my brain. ‘Why had I tried?’

Because I could.

I was doing this because someone should, I was fighting because I had powers and people were going to get hurt if I did nothing. It didn’t matter how many or how strong they were, I had a responsibility to the people around me to do this because I was the only one in the position to do it. I sure as hell couldn’t let it end like this.

I had thought it would be easy, that I could simply use my powers and win whatever battle came my way. But it wasn’t that simple. I needed to do more than just have powers. I had to prove equal to the tasks ahead, be worthy of the powers I had or else I didn’t deserve them. ‘C’mon Spider-Man’ I thought. ‘C’mon Spider-Man’ I began to push.

There must’ve been over fifty Sprees on top of me, maybe more, and the crushing weight upon me strained and scratched the floorboards beneath me. I started to push and strain and my muscles ached more than they ever had before. The pain stung and tears welled up in my eyes. I felt the pulling and tearing of my muscles as I pushed myself up into a partially standing position. 

This life wasn’t going to be easy, anyone could win a fight when the odds were easy. But the real battles in life were the ones that mattered. When the going got tough, When there seemed to be no chance of winning, that was when I needed to give it my all. My vision was going blurry, the strain I was putting myself through was absurd, but I just needed a little more.

I pushed and sent the clones flying. I had done it! I was free! Spree and Tumor stared at me stunned, at some point they’d written me off as dead under the mountain of meat.

 “Because someone has to!” I yelled, I didn’t care if he’d forgotten the question, I fired my webs at Spree and in the surprise he failed to dodge, my aim had struck true and my webs stuck him onto the wall. Spree tried to duplicate himself but the clone couldn’t be fired out with the webbing around him. It seemed to flicker out and just be pushed back into him.

Too focused on securing Spree, I didn’t notice Tumor’s attack. Fortunately for me, my danger sense did. I whipped around and saw the now rather big cape had crushed up one of the Spree clones into a bombardment of bone and flesh. Like some sort of siege weapon he hurled the missilized Spree at me. I ducked under the debris evading the first volley.

“Sorry Spree” I apologized and web yanked up one of the Sprees who had only just seconds ago stopped breathing. With the Spree clone as a shield against Tumor’s volleys, I made another charge at him. Bone thudded into and poked out of the clone as I ran for Tumor.

Tumor stared at me as I charged him, he had a strange calculating expression. He hadn’t gone for another attack even though there were more clones on the ground around him. I dropped what remained of Spree’s clone that I’d used as a shield at his feet, ready and raring to begin trading blows with him. Instead the changer just held out his hands. “Stop!” He roared. “I’ve changed my mind.” I leapt back to take a defensive position. 

I frowned behind my mask. “What do you mean?”

His hands were raised up in the air like he was being held up by a cop and not a teenage vigilante. “I’ll tell you about Scorpion.” I eyed him suspiciously, was this a trap? I glanced at Spree on the wall. If Tumor really was about to sell out his teammate, Spree didn’t seem to mind. I’d gotten the impression from snooping through his house that Scorpion had a great deal of affection for his gang. Maybe that affection wasn’t a shared one.

“You’ll tell me where he is?” I asked. “I can’t do that, he’s with the Butcher… But I can tell you where and when he’s gonna strike.” I stared at him then tilted my head to look at Spree. “You’re okay with this? Tumor just telling me this?”

Sulking in the webs Spree seemed like he’d be crossing his arms if they were free. “Leave me out of that man! I can’t do shit to either of them, If Tumor wants to start something with Scorpion that’s all him, not me.”

Fair enough. Tumor spoke up. “If you’re done asking for his opinion, I was giving you what you came here for.” ‘Yeah’ I thought ‘He’s a douche.’ “The Amethyst Rose some time after ten.”

He didn’t mention a date. “Tonight?” I asked.

Tumor frowned, I wondered if he was reconsidering telling me anything. “Yes tonight, webs for brains! You think he’s gonna wait any longer?” He spat.

Of course it had to not only be on the same day I’ve been running myself ragged, but late on a school night too. “No, I guess not.” Could I just leave? Should I? Before I decided that I needed to know. “Why?”

I got another look like I was stupid. “Because I want to move up, and I never will with Gargon around. So he needs to go, and I think maybe you’ve got a chance.”

Tumor and Spree were bad people, I knew Spree was a killer from the bones on his costume. The Teeth typically implemented parts of their victims into their costumes as trophies. But what about Tumor? He hadn’t had any bones on his costume, I knew in order to join you had to shed innocent blood, so he must’ve killed at least one person, but had he not killed after that?

It dawned on me that I was deliberating over letting actual killers off scott free, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have much brute strength left, it had taken almost all of it I’d built up with the strain to get the bodies off of me. I did however have a good bit of webs left, if I could just…

As Tumor walked over to perhaps try yanking Spree off of the wall, I adjusted my web nozzles on my web shooter so that I could fire out all of my remaining web fluid. I pulled on the last tiny bits of brute strength to shove the bulked up changer against the wall and sprayed out a barrage of web fluid that looked more like I’d encased him in white containment foam. “The fuck man!” Spree was the one to yell out, well Tumor also yelled but I couldn’t hear him from under the mountain of webs. “He told you what you wanted!”

“You’re murderers, I can’t just walk away!” Spree looked offended, not at being called a murderer and more I think, that I had such a problem with it. “Just hang tight until somebody comes to get you guys, okay?” He looked pissed but I didn’t care too much about how he felt. He had tried to kill me back there after all. 

I walked out the door of Gargon’s house, and realized I had no webs left to swing home with. Ugh, I’d take a bus. I pulled out my phone and called the P.R.T hotline number. “This is the Parahuman Response Team, this is Hugh speaking, what’s the subject of your emergency today.”

“I just…” I didn’t want to say beat up, it sounded too violent and full of myself. I’d barely gotten out of there alive and it was only thanks to my webs that I was here to make this call. 

“Just survived a fight with the Teeth and I’ve got them webbed up but someone needs to come get them.” I could hear Hugh on the other line frantically trying to write something down. 

“Who is this? What did you mean by webbed up?”

I didn’t want to spend all day on the phone with him or hear him try to pitch me the Wards. “Spider-Man, the webs are kind of like containment foam. It dissolves after an hour and a half. There’s a couple of non-powered guys upstairs, they should be fine but try to get them down soon.” I told him the address.

“Were there Capes there Spider-Man?” Hugh asked.

“Yeah,” I told him. “Two. Spree and this guy called Tumor.”

There was a pause on the phone. “You took them down by yourself? They’re still “Webbed up” correct?”

I hummed approvingly. “Yep.”

I heard another pause and could hear him starting to go on a big spiel about a Wards/Protectorate membership and or signing up as an independent partner of the PRT. I didn’t listen though, I didn’t have time to. “I’m sorry but I’ve got to get off of here.” I hung up.

After a bus ride home I had another six or so hours before ten, which left me some time to tinker. I changed out of my very ruined costume and snuck back into my room. I walked out of my room to check on May before I shut myself in to Tinker. She looked up at me with her eyes widened in horror. “Peter what happened to your face!?!” I glanced down at my reflection in the sleek metal countertops of our kitchen. I healed a bit faster than normal people, somedays this effect was stronger and other days it was weaker, it turned out today was a weaker day because I still had a cut on my cheek from one of the Spree’s arm blades. I’m sure I also had a bunch of bruises but thankfully May couldn’t see those.

“Aunt May, I’m fine. So calm down, alright?” She shook her head. “My nephew has a gash on his cheek, that’s not fine.” May insisted I let her clean and bandage the cut while I explained to her how I got it.

I came up with a lie close enough to the truth. “There was someone in trouble and I came over to help, then I got caught up in it and tripped and split open my cheek on the sidewalk.” May told me to be more careful in the future, I promised her I would and ran upstairs to tinker so that I could keep that promise.

My suit in its current state was totaled, but the Harness was fully salvageable. The web shooters could be slimmed down some if I used a new design I’d been thinking of for my suit. I also had a firm idea of what I could make based on DeathKiller’s power and had some ideas on how I might be able to use it against Scorpion’s scales.

May had gifted me some of Ben’s clothes from his closet. An old blue jumpsuit sat out on my bed, it was one he had liked to wear for work. I’d needed a new style for a while, so it was probably for the best that my suit was tattered. I gave Scorpion some crap in my head for all the red cloth in his drawers, but I actually had a bunch in my own bottom drawer as well. I’m kind of a hypocrite, but mine isn’t for knitting shawls for killers. Mine was for knitting killer shawls.

It was this silly tradition I’d started with May when she’d taught me to sew and knit. That was back when I was around ten and had been stumped on what to do for May’s birthday that year, Ben suggested I ask her to teach me to sew. She did, and when I presented her my first scarf she said “The best gift was getting to spend all this time with you.”

So every year I’d knit her something, it meant I had a lot of extra cloth to work with. My design in mind, I was ready to start sewing. Before I did though, I logged onto PHO and downloaded all the videos I had with DeathKiller and his power. I let my tinker power take the reins as I coded a quick program to analyze the footage to see what data I could get from the footage and hopefully make something usable.

With that going I started sewing. I was going for something more professional with this, a much fancier suit than what I’d worn before. If I had put the effort in I could have had something nice from the start, but I hadn’t wanted to, Spider-Man had just been a joke character to me. He didn't need a nice costume.

I cannibalized the jumpsuit, I liked using something of Ben’s for this and May was never going to ask me about Ben’s old jumpsuit. There wouldn’t be any questions about what happened to it. Red and Blue made for a rather nice color combination. 

The bulk of this new suit was nearly finished so I moved onto the mask. I popped my lenses out of the old one and got to work tinkering something new out of them. I felt myself enter the fugue state I associated with tinkering as I molded the lenses into something that could respond to my facial expressions, letting me emote more with the mask.

When that was done I got to work on the harness. With this new suit I’d installed wiring throughout in a webbing pattern to plug into my web shooters. I built a battery that I could charge with electricity and would hopefully last a while. The spider battery was the centerpiece of my new and improved harness.

Finally I got to work on the new web shooters. I phased into that tinker state of mind as I started laying down the groundwork for the web shooters. Something bothered me while I worked, with tinkering sometimes my power would take over where I lacked certain materials or physics got in the way and just kind of made it work. But sometimes it tried that when it wasn’t needed.

For some reason I’d started zoning out using this aluminum mesh when the copper basis I’d designed with the concepts from my power would work just as well as whatever nonsense I was fiddling with. My power kicked out and I felt a bit of whiplash as I was pulled out of the zone and had to readjust to what I was doing. “Be gentler about that.” I said to my powers, I knew they weren’t alive or anything like that, just my subconscious driving other worldly powers, but it was funny to personify it.

“I can figure some stuff out on my own, we don’t always have to jump to whatever weird reality warping we do sometimes.” I finished with the base and calibrated the new web shooters, these ones would need the extra power granted by my battery. 

With the program done I could start on my secret weapon against Gargon, hopefully it would give me the edge I’d need to get through his breaker form. I only had another three hours to tinker and hopefully pull this off. 

Chapter Text

(audiobook link here: https://youtu.be/wKGMZ6aqTN0 )


1953

Dinner had started off wonderfully that night. Mom had made us mashed potatoes and a meatloaf. The whole meal looked so yummy. When dad got home from work and hung his hat up I ran over and hugged him. Now that I was eleven I was a little bit over waist height with him.

He leaned down to return the hug, “What’s for Dinner Mayflower?” I giggled and pulled him by the arm to where mother was in the kitchen. He took one look at the gorgeous spread on the table and balked.

“Doll, what’ve you done!?!” He yelled, I hated when he yelled. He knew that I hated it, I saw the way his face twinged with guilt at seeing me flinch. But he still yelled anyway.

“I made dinner.” Mother was so matter of fact, so poised and confident in the face of father’s anger.

“We can’t afford to eat like this! That bowl is enormous. In a few days when that mash spoils, what’re we gonna do for dinner? Those potatoes were supposed to last!” 

Mother looked offended, “May’s a growing girl, she needs to eat.” 

Father ran his hands through his hair and groaned in frustration. “I know full well what my girl needs, and this is not it! You’ve just never gotten it into your head Claire! You married a poor man! We are poor! You are poor! We can’t eat like this any night, let alone every night.”

Mother finally shrank, “Well I-” she was interrupted by father. He grabbed at the pretty new table cloth raising it up. 

“And what’s this?” he asked, hoisting up a corner. "How much did it cost?” 

Mother looked so nervous now. Gone was the earlier poise and elegance replaced by desperation. “Albert please!” Father looked at her with the devil in his eyes. 

I knew from experience where this was going and sat up. “May I be excused?” Father didn’t offer me a real response, just waved with his hand. It was the best I’d get from him now, he wasn’t himself when he got like this.

I stood up and quickly made for my room. I returned to the book I’d been reading before. “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. It was the third time I’d read it. I loved the Cratchits, the family of Scrooge’s poor overworked clerk. They were poor, but they were happy. And it was all because they had each other.

I could still hear them despite closing my door. “How Much?” Father growled out. 

“They were going to throw it out. It was a steal! Albert I’ve been good, I got it at a discount!” Mother cried

I could hear the whooshing sound of the table cloth being pulled off of the table and the following rattling of dishware. “How much Claire! How much of my money did you throw away on this gaffe of yours!?!” She answered so quietly I couldn’t hear her words, but I could tell that my mother had spoken.

The house grew quiet and I heard the opening and slamming of the front door. I wished so badly at that moment that we were like the Cratchits, that we were a family who was poor but had each other. Instead the Reillys were a family that was poor and not one of us had anyone.

1959

I was walking down the hallway with Johnny. He was my boyfriend, and I supposed I liked him. He was a jerk, but he was wealthy, bought me clothes, and took me dancing, all things I’d never had someone do for me before. Mother was happy I had something keeping me out of the house more often, and I was happy to have an excuse to stay away. Home had never been perfect, but it had become miserable since father left.

Lost in my thoughts about everything, I accidentally tripped over my own feet and fell over. Johnny refused to carry my books for me, and I dropped all of them on the ground. Johnny turned around at the noise, and without much interest in his voice, “Dang, guess I’ll see you in class May.” He left me behind as I was clambering to grab all my textbooks and papers. 

As I bent down to start cleaning up, I saw that someone else had come over to join me. He was a boy I was vaguely familiar with. Ben Parker I think his name was. As he approached I saw a face that read of pensive frustration. Without looking at me he quickly gathered up my mess, “What a piece of work. You date the girl but you can’t be bothered to help her out? Somebody ought to throttle him someday, that’d teach him some manners.” 

Ben seemed to have been speaking entirely to himself and not really at me. It was a bit odd, but I would’ve felt awkward if I didn’t even try to thank him. “Uh, Thanks Ben. I know he’s kind of a jerk.” 

As I said that it seemed to knock some kind of awareness back into Ben as he looked me in the eyes and gave a warm smile coupled with powerful embarrassment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult him like that. I tend to blow a gasket when I see that kind of thing.” 

”I’m not sure I’d be all that mad if you had meant to insult him.” I wouldn’t have been, I was getting pretty fed up with stunts like this.

“Oh?” Ben stood up, a pile of books and papers gathered neatly between the crook of his right arm. “I’m not sure it’s very polite to let another man bad mouth your boyfriend.”

I gathered up the last of my school supplies, Ben offered me his left hand to help me up and I took it. “I’ll worry about being polite where Johnny’s concerned when he does the same for me.” I stood up and decided to just go ahead and shake the boy’s hand while I was already holding it. “I’m May, if you didn’t know.”

He shook my hand. “I know.” His face flushed an awkward but adorable shade of red. “Ben.” 

I liked Ben, and didn’t want to let him die of the embarrassment I’d cause him, if I reminded him I’d already said his name once during that conversation. I let go of his hand and took the offered books. “Nice to meet you, Ben.”

1960

Johnny and I had hardly lasted another week after that. Ben and I quickly became fast friends and even faster found ourselves becoming something more. We were set to graduate by the end of the year, I knew our relationship wasn’t likely to last much longer with Ben heading off to college and me with no real direction in life. Ben might’ve put up with me now, but my mother was right, no educated man was going to want a floozy with no prospects like me. So when he’d told me we needed to have a talk about our future I’d smiled at him sadly and accepted his invitation to dinner.

I would hold my head high and let the one good thing in my life go, because that was what was right. “May,” He said, his hand reaching over the dining table to reach for mine. I took it and imagined that this might be the last time his hand ever comforted mine. “I’ve been scared as hell to talk about this because I’ve just been so happy these past eight months.” He spoke, his lips shifting from nervous frown to gentle smile. Had it only been eight months? It felt longer somehow.

“But I need to just get this out there. I know I’m heading off to college soon and I’m not gonna have the same amount of time to spend with you.” Here it came, here came the cutting blow. “But, May Reilly I just can’t imagine a life without you in it.” Ben got down on his knees, had he needed to tie his shoe… wait that’s… he’s only on one of his knees. “Will you marry me?”

I stared at him, stunned and crying. “Yes! Yes! Goodness gracious Benjamin Parker! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” He stood up and I pulled him into a hug and a very chaste kiss on the lips, we were in public after all. “I thought you were going to break up with me.” 

Ben’s face frowned, and his hand began to rub the back of his neck. “What gave you the idea I’d go and do a stupid thing like that?” 

I was embarrassed now, I sat back in my chair. “My mother. She said an educated man wouldn’t want to settle down with a floozy with no prospects like me.” 

He looked at me and I could see that despite the irritation that I knew he felt from hearing my mother’s words, his expression was soft and comforting as we met eyes. “May, the only woman I’ve ever met who I’d not have an issue hearing called something like that is your mother. You shouldn’t listen to that hag.”

“Ben, that’s my mother! Show some respect, please.” I was offended that he’d say that about her. 

“I’ll worry about being respectful where she’s concerned when she does the same for you.” Ouch. “Fair enough.”

Ben sighed, it was a happy sigh, one that felt as if he was letting go of all of the stress he was carrying before now. “You know May? I still have one very important question for you.” 

I frowned, “What kind of question could be as important as marriage?” 

Ben gave a sly smirk, one that he gave with a quirked eyebrow whenever he felt like he was about to tell a joke he found hilarious, “Where do we want to get married at? There are so many great places that I can’t narrow it down. So I figured that you and your particular kind of taste-” Ben looked down at my plate of food as he said that.

I playfully smacked him on his shoulder. “Are you saying I’m picky?” 

We both stared at each other for a moment then burst into laughter.

1960, Many months later.

Today was supposed to be the happiest day of my life, and yet here I was in my wedding dress stuck in a room with my mother. This was one of the last places I’d ever want to be. I wanted to keep her involved to a degree, just perhaps wish I’d kept her a bit more separated.

“Are you certain that’s the dress you want to wear dear?” She had been scrutinizing every aspect of today. Even complained that the grass should have been more green when we went to check the venue.

“Yes mom, even if this wasn’t the dress I wanted to wear I don’t have another wedding dress.” I mentally smacked my forehead after finishing that sentence cause I already knew what my mother was going to say. 

“I still have my old wedding dress in my closet, you could wear that.” I can’t believe she was still trying to do this. Trying to make this about herself, if I put on her wedding dress I’d never hear the end of how she saved my wedding and how much I owed her. Regardless, I liked my dress, I loved it actually.

“I’m fine mom. I still need to put my face on, and get my stuff together before Anna comes to pick me up.” I turned away from her to face my mirror as I began to apply makeup. 

“Don’t you think you’re both a bit too young though?” I spared her an annoyed glance and a raised eyebrow she could see in the mirror. “It’s a reasonable concern!” 

I sighed finishing the last little touches on my makeup. “You and dad got married after high school, this isn’t any different.”

She did that snooty little laugh she did whenever I left myself open for a barb, the woman viewed every conversation as an argument to be won or lost. “And look how that worked out.” 

Talk about a direct hit. Mother’s words struck my brain like an arrow thudding into a bullseye. “We’re nothing like that, Ben and I have each other.”

“We’ll see.” Said Mother, she turned to look out the window. “Anna is outside, you should head out.” I nodded, put on my last little touches and got into the car of my Maid of Honor.

1960, Minutes later.

Anna Watson and I have been friends since I’d started highschool. She had been two years above me, this cheer captain Junior who’d taken me under her wing. I was so heart broken when she’d left for college that I’d started dating that jerk wad Johnny Jerome. She hated him and I could tell from how she would look at him during the few visits she made back to the neighborhood to come see me. She never actually said it though, but when I finally broke it off with him no one except maybe Ben had been as happy as her. 

Anna had been the very first person I had thought of for my maid of honor. She adored Ben, thought he was the best thing since apple pie, it had been her who’d urged me to give him a chance when Ben and I were just friends. I owed Anna Watson a great deal, an astronomical debt for all the little things she’d done for me over years of friendship.

I never thought I’d have to pay her back like this. Anna sat in the passenger seat of her car, my veil held up to her nose to stop the bleeding. “B-b-but it’s not fair, May!” She bawled out. “Y-you’re gonna miss your wedding!” 

I sighed, “Anna you fainted and your nose is dripping like a faucet full of rubies, my wedding can wait.” She just sobbed more. 

“I’m such a bad maid of honor.”

“You’re a great maid of honor, Anna.” I spoke sincerely while I focused on the road ahead of me. We weren’t too far off from the hospital. “Who else gets to have this kind of story on their wedding day?” That got the smallest of smiles I’d ever seen the other woman give me, but it was still a smile. 

“But what about Benny? He’s gonna be so worried about you!” 

I laughed, he hated that nickname. “Worried about me? Anna, he'd be a lot more worried about you if he knew what was going on.” 

She sobbed again, the poor girl was really going through it now. “May, what if he thinks you ditched him!” 

I plastered on a big grin and let out a laugh. “Ben Parker knows I love him. He’d never believe I’d do a thing like that.” My grip on the steering wheel tightened, I really hoped that was true.

The Wedding

I was running almost two hours late, I’d been lucky that Anna and I had left early. With all the time it took to drive out of the city and get out here to the venue I would have been so much later if we hadn’t. I took stock of myself in the rear view mirror. My veil had been completely ruined by Anna, there had been no salvaging it so I’d just do without it. The dress was mostly fine, though my hair and makeup looked awful. I’d had to help a nurse carry Anna up a few flights of stairs and the whole affair had been a mess. But she was fine now, apparently some new diet pill she was taking was actually just straight up poison. 

I had parked outside the venue a few minutes prior but was taking time to compose myself. I took stock now of all the cars here, there were fewer than there should’ve been. Some people must’ve already left, writing up the bride as a no show. I hurried to get out of Anna’s car, I needed to get over to the arches and the tables, and had to get over there to where Ben was waiting for me in his crisp clean suit.

A car pulled in and parked beside me, a familiar light blue car. “Ben?” What was he doing only pulling in now. He looked to be soaking wet. Ben’s face was wracked with guilt and shame as he stepped out of the car, but then he saw me. 

My fiancé’s eyes widened with shock and confusion as he stepped over to me. “May? What’re you doing out here?” He asked and I laughed at how absurdly the day was going. 

“Me? Ben, what are you doing, soaked down to the bone like that?”

“That pond a few miles down. There was a boy playing by it as I was driving past. Kid tripped and tumbled in. I saw he was drowning so-” I interrupted him.

“So you pulled over and dived into a filthy pond on the day of our wedding.” He looked down, I placed a hand under his chin, lifting his head so that our eyes would meet. “Ben, do you really think I’d be mad at you for a thing like that? You saved a life.”

Ben had never looked so vulnerable as when he spoke his next three words. “It’s our wedding.” 

I shook my head. “It’s just a day.” 

It was Ben’s turn to shake his head. “It’s the start of our lives together.” I nodded, traditions be damned. I brought our lips together for a kiss. 

I pulled back and spoke into his ear, “And we both started It by lending helping hands to people who needed it, I think that’s a pretty good start to a marriage.”

Exactly two hours late to a crowd only half the intended size, Ben and I were married.

1993, August

Ben’s little twerp of a brother, had gone and had a baby. It felt like just yesterday that Richard had been the little boy at our wedding party who followed Ben around like he was the man’s shadow. Now he was in his thirties and had a little boy of his own. Richard carefully oversaw the passing of the newborn from his wife's arms into his brother’s. “Ben, May. I want you to meet the newest Parker.” 

Ben looked down at the precious cargo in his hands and with a wide smile he asked Mary, “What’s his name?” 

Mary responded with a weary smile, the birth had been hours ago but she would be winded for sometime. “Peter Benjamin Parker.” I laughed and so did Ben. 

“Benjamin! You named him after me?” Ben asked, Richard gently placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder.

“Just his middle name, Ben you’ve been there for Mary and me so much, you too May.” I smiled hearing that, we’d only done as much as anyone would do for family. “We’d decided on Peter or Penny a long time ago, but for middle names it was gonna be either Benjamin for a boy or Maybelle if we had a girl.

“That’s so sweet Richie.” I gave my brother-in-law a big hug. “So when do Ben and I get to babysit our nephew?”

1993, August hours later.

I sat in the passenger seat of mine and Ben’s car. Normally I preferred to drive, but I couldn’t bring myself to get behind the wheel now. Ben drove us home quietly, letting me take the time I needed to cry. “Would ours have looked like him? All warm and alive? Such a bright baby, the way his little eyes darted everywhere taking in all the world that he could see.” Ben didn’t answer, he just kept his focus on the road.

After a few minutes of silence, Ben spoke “You did really well back there.” 

“I’m so happy for them but…” Ben had trailed off, so I decided to finish his sentence for him. “It’s hard seeing a baby. I just keep thinking about that miscarriage decades ago and the children we’ll never get a chance to have with my heart as weak as it is now.”

Ben nodded while he drove. “Did you see the way he spat up on Richie?” I laughed and let myself get swept up into a new conversation.

1994, March

“He’s getting so big, Mary!” I marveled at the baby boy my sister-in-law held in her arms. 

“I know!” She exclaims and her voice is mirthful but exasperated. “It feels like we’re buying him new clothes every few weeks.” She laughs, Ben’s finished setting up the playpen so she gently sits him down inside.

Mary placed her hand on mine and spoke sincerely. “Thank you again, for doing this. We owe you so much for this.” Richard laughed at his wife’s words. 

“I wouldn’t thank them,” Richard said.

That was uncharacteristically rude of Richard. Ben, mostly unbothered, raised an eyebrow in response to his baby brother and asked, “Why’s that Rich?” 

Richard put an arm around his brother’s shoulder. 

“Because you two are crazy about Peter, this date night is as much about me and Mary having some time to ourselves for once as it is about giving you more time to spend with your nephew.”

Ben laughed. “Is that why you’re going shopping in Times Square?” He asked 

I frowned at Ben’s words. “Times Square, that’s for tourists!” No sensible New Yorker would go shopping in Times Square. 

Richard nodded his head, his expression characteristically aloof. “Definitely. But Times Square means long lines and too many stores, guaranteed to leave us with a night out with plenty of time to ourselves and enough time for you both to get tired of Pete.” 

That comment irked me slightly, I hoped I’d never grow sick of my nephew, the thought made me think too much of my mother. I shook my head and told him, “Never.”

1994, March

Time Square was engulfed in flames and in the center of the destruction a monster the world had come to call Behemoth. The street from under which it had begun emerging, had begun to melt into magma from the heat it emanated. Obsidian like rocks crusted leathery gray skin, its cragged horned face spouted a singular magma red eye. The creature was a monster from myth made manifest, the cyclops roared with inhuman ferocity as its free arm reached out towards the sky. Lightning traced its way up its arm and into the sky from which more bolts rained down onto the city.

An icon and beacon of New York tourism was unmade in minutes. Screams echoed out all around, even from such a distance, the news chopper’s camera picked up the curdling screams as those unlucky enough to not be in the beast’s immediate blast radius watched those that were, die instantly. Their deaths would only be sure to follow, an inevitability some tried to escape. Behemoth’s lightning struck down a man that had almost made it into a car. With ruthless efficiency Behemoth slaughtered what must’ve been almost a thousand people in a matter of seconds and with every moment that passed more seemed to follow.

Blue light struck the side of Behemoth’s head followed by a massive blast of air that seemed to shake the beast. A man had appeared, and he flew beside the news copter. He wore a white and blue bodysuit and a mask that covered the part of his face around his eyes. The hero, Legend, spoke to the pilot. “Back up friend, you don’t want to be here for this one.” Beside him loomed the silent figure of Eidolon channeling some sort of wind power to keep the bringer of the end off balance. 

Legend fired a volley of lasers that seemed to stun Behemoth. He roared out in pain, Legend called out in celebration. “Hero’s Amplifier is working! Eidolon, together we can end this today!” Two of the world’s greatest heroes nodded to each other. 

“This time, the heroes kill you!” Eidolon spoke, he wasn’t one to speak much in public, so the heartening declaration of commitment was something that would serve to inspire others. 

More capes arrived, both heroes and villains, a group of what were classified as brutes led by Alexandria flew directly into the cyclops’s space to lay blows into it. Alexandria and all ten of the capes she’d flown in with, hit the beast and managed to fly back out of its range. The impact was fierce enough that they actually knocked it backwards twenty or so feet.

Somewhere over a hundred costumed men and women had come to fight Behemoth, and this time it really looked like they were winning. “Legend, this is too easy, this can’t be right.” Eidolon spoke, his voice heavy with concern. 

“It has to be.” Legend spoke in that determined way he said everything. Other blasters had joined Legend in firing at Behemoth, the beast roared in pain.

Alexandria and the ten brute’s strong enough to fly with her into Behemoth’s kill aura went for what seemed like what could’ve been the killing blow. That was when Behemoth smiled, an image caught by the news chopper and broadcasted live, that grin that would haunt New Yorkers for decades. Behemoth unleashed all of the energy it had built up from absorbing the blaster’s strikes and turned it on the brute’s.

Only Alexandria and another cape named Blue Marvel were the only two to tank the impact, one of the other fliers managed to blink out of the way. But Behemoth had done what it set out to do, get the heroes confident and take out a majority of the few that were willing to get in close with it like that. “He played us, he played us like a-” The hero is cut off, more Lightning strikes go forth again and the news chopper who’s footage I’d been watching is hit. The footage goes off and I rewind to the start of the tape. 

“May, you’re not going to see anything you haven’t seen on that tape before.” Ben’s hand is on my shoulder, I didn’t realize he was up. 

I spun around to look up at his face, “Ben, what are you doing out of bed? Is Peter okay?” He nodded. 

“Pete’s fine, I tucked the little tyke in for bed hours ago. What about you?”

I turned back to the tv. “It- I think there’s a blur on the ground near the end way off near the back of the street that kind of looks yellow and blue, like Mary’s dress.” 

Ben sighed, plopping down onto the floor behind me. “You’ve watched this too many times in the last three days, it’s almost been a week, May.”

“If Richard or Mary were still out there they’d have come here by now, they wouldn’t leave their boy behind like that.” I cry, I know he’s right but I just can’t let this be true. 

“I’m sure of it Ben, that blur it’s Mary, and she’s gonna come back and she’s gonna take Peter back in.”

My husband's arms are wrapped around me and I can’t stop the sobs that wrack my body. “He’ll be back with his real mother and we’ll go back to our life exactly as it was.” Ben’s hands wrap so gently around my own, I take comfort in the feeling of that embrace, I take comfort in having someone who could hold me like this and make me feel safe. 

“Why are you so afraid? We’d always planned to raise a child together, when it was clear it couldn’t happen anymore we’d accepted that. But now raising Peter is something we owe them. It’s what they wanted if anything ever…” Ben trailed off.

“I’d been younger then, we’d been younger back then.” I lost focus on the tape, it was on the part where Legend first arrives. “I knew I could handle it back then, but now? What if I grow bitter, what if we fall apart and I resent him and he grows up with a hateful old bitty for a guardian who resents him.”

Ben cooed at me gently and placed a gentle kiss on the top of my head. “You’re not her, not every marriage falls apart and not every mother has to resent their child if it does. Not every husband abandons their family.” Of course he knew I was projecting. The man knew everything about me, just as I knew everything about him. 

“I just want him to have the best life he can have.” I turned around to look at Ben, his eyes were as full of love and wonder as the day we were married.

“That’s why I know we’ll do alright.”

2005

Ben, of course, was right. With every year that passed we only found our marriage strengthening. Peter was a wonderful and bright little boy who was growing into such a brilliant young man. Already he was twelve years old and he could tell us things about the way things around the house worked that I hadn’t even known. I’d never thought much about how the television worked before Peter had babbled for an hour about light.

Though Ben would tell Peter everyday how proud his father would be of him, it seemed like the boy was desperate to impress him. Science experiments, engineering projects, and even a week where he’d played basketball before that little Flash Thompson punk bullied him off the team. I’d already given Mrs. and Mr. Thompson a piece of my mind for that debacle.

“May,” Ben started. “I just don’t know how to get through to him, he’s got this chip on his shoulder that’s pushing him to run himself ragged like a workhorse.” Ben sighed. “Everyday I tell him how proud Richie would be if he could see him, I’m telling him he’s done enough but I can’t get him to slow down.” 

I shook my head at him. “Talk to him, Ben.” That was the only way we’d get over this hurdle.

Ben sighed, he placed his left palm on the back of his neck and absentmindedly rubbed at the space there. “Yeah, alright, I’ll go give that a shot.” I followed Ben upstairs and stood outside Peter’s room while he went in, closing back the door behind him as he entered. I listened into their conversation in case I needed to step in to help.

“Peter…” Ben's voice was always so confident that it felt wrong to hear the way it was laced with uncertainty and apprehension. 

“Uncle Ben, Hey! I’m not done with that book yet, but when I am we can talk about it.” Ben had given him his worn down copy of the lord of the rings, he’d finished it already? 

I could hear Ben laugh. “Really? After only a few days? That’s incredible, your father would be so proud, I lent him that same copy when he was your age, devoured it just like you did.” My husband’s voice had regained most of its usual confidence and the deep fondness we shared for our Nephew. 

“Peter what is it?” Peter must have looked unhappy.

“You always say that!” Peter raised his voice, his volume was close to yelling but not quite there. 

“Pete?” Ben asked.

 “You always say he’d be proud of me… but what about you?” 

Ben took a sharp intake of air. “Oh Pete. Of course I’m proud of you, you’re the best kid anyone could ask for.” I could hear them hugging and talking it out, I wouldn’t be needed after all so I walked off to get some chores done.

The Funeral

I hated funerals, hadn’t even gone to my mother’s and I had no idea if father had had one yet. He’d be somewhere in his nineties now if he wasn’t dead. A vindictive ugly part of me hoped he was. It wouldn’t be fair for a man like father to live a longer life than Ben. So many people were here, so many people I hadn’t even known who he’d helped and whose lives he had touched at some point.

Peter needed to be my main priority, I wanted to keep focused on my nephew. He’s been so hurt lately, even before Ben’s death he was hurting. He's been through far too much in a single year than anyone so young should ever have to suffer. I saw him start talking with George, I hadn’t seen him in a dog’s age. Must’ve been two years ago. I considered saying hi, but I saw Robbie approaching the two. I figured Peter would rather introduce himself to the local celebrity without his aunt there.

I saw Ben’s union friends, Danny and Max. They were in town not only for the funeral but also to keep New York’s electrician union alive until a replacement to fill Ben’s position could be found. I figured I’d chat with them for a bit. My plan had been to spend the day with Peter as much as I could to show him I was in his corner, but I didn’t want to crowd him. “Danny, Max. Its good to see you two.” I came up to give them as enthused a greeting as I had in me today. 

Danny softly smiled “May, It's good to see you too.” Max smiled and I took in the fact he’d shaved his head. 

“You shaved your head!” I laughed, Ben had been asking him to do that for years. 

Max’s hairline has been falling out for some time and no matter how much Ben and I assured him that he would look okay bald, he’d never listened. “I owed him that much, and you’d both been right. I look a lot better without the wispy strands on the top of my head.” 

He did. Somehow Max had managed to make himself younger by ridding his head of the last stubborn few traces of hair that had clung there. “B-” ‘Ben is going to be so happy when he sees this.’ A tight knot formed in my stomach at that thought, I shook my head and realized my pause had been taken notice of. 

Max gave a concerned look. “May, are you alright?”

I could only shake my head. Danny spoke for me. “You thought about him didn’t you?” I nodded and my confusion as to how he knew that must’ve been evident because he said. “I was the same way after Annete, I’d see something or hear something she’d have loved and my first thought would always be ‘I have to show this to Annette’ which would always be followed by ‘I can’t, I can’t share anything with her ever again.’ It always stung.”

I clung to the part of his word, the past tense verbiage that implied this would get better. “So those thoughts won’t last forever?” Danny smiled sadly and nodded. 

I asked him the other question I dreaded to hear the answer to. “This pain in my heart, that feeling like there’s something empty inside me… does that ever ease up, hurt just a little bit less?” 

Danny’s voice was soft, he was speaking gentler than he normally did and had something of a distant expression. “No, not ever.”

Max, who I’d begun to forget was here, had his eyes pop wide open. He started to cough hard enough that I thought he might be choking.

Max managed to get enough air to say “uh hey! Peter’s here! Hi Peter!” Max managed to blurt out. 

Peter responded eventually with an awkwardly muttered, “Yeah.”

Now

I sat at the kitchen table with two plates set, I’d almost set three out of habit and was still feeling emotional about that. Peter had missed the service, I didn’t blame him. I’d almost tried to run off too, it was only after running into my dear old friend Anna Watson that I had someone to give me the courage to stay. It was good to see her again after so long. She’d even introduced me to her granddaughter Mary Jane. Apparently she and Peter had actually been penpals for sometime but they just hadn’t written to each other in a while.

Mary Jane had apparently been hoping to meet him, I sort of got the impression she might’ve had a crush on the boy from her letters. She was a very pretty girl but it may have been for the best that they hadn’t met in person today. Peter hadn’t spoken much of his pen pal Mary Jane to Ben and I back when he’d been writing to her. He’d never even mentioned her last name before. But it was clear he hadn’t been as attached to her as she was to him. It would’ve been awful for him to be waving off her affections while he was trying to grieve.

Anna and Mary Jane had left directly after the service concluded, they hadn’t had time to head to the cemetery. Some time later Peter had made it back with the same speech we’d all seen him practicing with before he’d left as if he’d just gotten it from home. I hadn’t said anything then and I doubt I would now. Peter needed space and I had to give that to him.

I was beginning to think Peter wouldn’t be coming down for dinner, but eventually, he did. “Thanks Aunt May, this looks delicious.” Peter and I ate in relative silence, neither of us really having a story to tell. 

I tried to break the silence, what would Ben ask Peter about? I thought of something and asked him. “So, did you finish it?” He gave me that deer in headlights look that told me I’d said something wrong. 

He muttered out, “E-Excuse me?” Drats, I thought maybe he’d want to talk about whatever he was working on, he loved sharing his work with Ben, had always shown him the little gizmos and gadgets he’d made as a kid, but admittedly he had stopped showing those off after Oscorp.

He still made them though, he was always hard at work in his room making new things, I’d seen from cleaning it the past few months that he’s basically made it into a whole little workshop. I should’ve remembered how sensitive he’s been about his work. “Your ‘Tinkerings’” I said using hand quotes. 

Peter spat out his soda. “What tinkerings? I’m not a tinker!” I grabbed a paper towel to clean off the table.

“Yes Peter I know that, I was talking about your ‘Think like a Tinker’ work that you’ve been doing for Oscorp.”

Peter frowned, his face contorted in concentration. He snapped his fingers and smiled at me. “Right, the Think like a Tinker work for Mr. Osborn that I’ve been doing the past few months.” He nodded in and went back to eating. “Yeah, I’m uh done with what I was working on. It should be totally good and up to Mr. Osborn’s standards.” Then in a quiet mutter he said, “Probably, hopefully, maybe.”

After that it went back to being quiet, I couldn’t really stand it for too long, I was reminded too much of dinners alone with mother after father left. “Do you mind if I turn on the tv?” 

Pete shook his head, finished the bite of turkey in his mouth and said, “No, I don’t mind, go ahead.” The TV in the kitchen that hung on the wall between the refrigerator and the cabinets had been something Ben had wanted just so we could all watch baseball at the dinner table together. It was such a needless purchase but it made him so happy to have it.

A well dressed news anchor speaks. “We now cut to our Parahuman specialist and consultant from the Daily bugle, Ben Urich.

A brunette man wearing glasses and a brown overcoat stands in front of a house in the Bronx, the place looked like it had been totaled. “Thank you Patsy.” The man continues. “I’m coming to you from in front of a home in the Bronx today where quite the spectacle went down.” He walked forward and gestured for the camera to follow him. “This was the previous home of Mac Gargon, those familiar with this case will recall that Mac was a big time member of the Teeth and was sentenced to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, AKA the Bird Cage not too long ago”

There was hole in the side of the house’s wall that looked as if someone had pried that chunk of the wall off. “Those who really keep up to date with the cape scene or read my blog on the Bugle’s website “Who’s That Mask?” Know about the Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man. It looks like earlier today he’s made his first move as a more legitimate hero, taking on two of the Teeth’s lieutenants. Though Spider-Man was successful in apprehending them, when the PRT came to arrest the villains, they were ambushed by Animos who succeeded in freeing the captive lieutenants. This is in stark contrast to the NYPD who had successfully arrested and retrieved the three unpowered gun men upstairs fifteen minutes earlier.”

“I’m curious as to what it means for our PRT department that the NYPD and an amateur cape with no experience had more success against the Teeth than they did today. I for one am interested in what Spider-Man does next. The hero has potential and if he’s getting serious… well I guess we’ll see in a week or so if he lives up to it.”

I turn off the tv, “They got out.” Peter commented. 

I gave him a concerned glance. “The villains?” I asked, I hadn’t really been paying attention too closely to the news. 

“Yeah, it just sucks that they got away.” It did, but it was something I think most people had gotten kind of used to. “Yeah.”

Peter glanced at the clock and started putting away his plate. “May, I’ve really got to get to bed, I’m trying to get to school early tomorrow so I need to go get some sleep.” He sounded so responsible.

“Of course, I’ll wake you up.” 

Peter shook his head. “No need, I have an alarm!” He panicked and I shook my head “I’ll wake you up if it doesn’t.”

Begrudgingly Peter nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll need to get up at five.” 

I ruffled his hair. “Alright kiddo, go get some sleep.” 

Peter rushed upstairs leaving me alone. I wished I could do more for him, the way he’d freaked when I offered to wake him up for school. He was worried about me doing too much for him, had been these past few days, trying to do as much as he could for me. It was sweet but has been making me feel somewhat unneeded. 

I sat down on the sofa and my eyes caught a folded piece of letter paper. It had been sitting there for months now that I thought about it. “Dear Mary Jane” Oh! Oh! Peter had forgotten to mail this. The reason he hadn’t mentioned MJ more was the poor boy must’ve thought she’d been ignoring him. He’d written her a letter months ago and just hadn’t sent it. I could do that for him.

I got out an envelope and wrote down Anna’s current address that she’d shared with me today. I wouldn’t read Peter’s letter, that would be rather rude, but I would send it. I needed to be there for my nephew. I needed to be there for my son, because without Ben we only had each other, and if we didn’t have that, we’d have no one. And I would not let my boy have no one in his corner.

Chapter Text

I could still feel the rapid beating of my heart as I made my way back upstairs. That had been too close, I’d almost slipped up when May mentioned my “tinkerings”. For a moment I could’ve sworn she knew. Ben had figured it out and May wasn’t stupid either. She hadn’t mentioned anything after Ben passed so I had to assume that Ben hadn’t told her. 

There was some small chance she suspected I had powers, but no way she knew I was Spider-Man. My aunt wouldn’t have been able to remain so calm if she’d known it was her nephew’s fight with the Teeth that was being reported on. “Ugh,” I groaned, turning the door knob to my room and quickly shutting it behind me again.

I was keeping secrets from my family, again. I felt like such a piece of trash for hiding this stuff from May. If I told her, I’m not sure I could really keep being the Spider-Man that I’m trying to be. My aunt’s heart was weakened and made sensitive by something in her youth. I’m terrified that the stress of knowing what I was doing tonight would give her a heart attack.

But hearing that reporter speak about his hopes for Spider-Man becoming more serious, had given me a sense of validation. His opinion told me that even if Spree and Tumor had gotten away, I was doing something worth continuing. That it was worth keeping May in the dark if it meant doing things like this.

I pushed my moral quandering to the side, after a deep breath in and out I returned to my work. I was very proud of this new suit. It was super fancy compared to my old Itsy-Bitsy suit, the red coloration on the top and the blue at the bottom just really popped. The wires I added on the suit in a webbing pattern, that I had wasted more time making look right than actually tinkering with, really added a lot to the whole spider feel. 

The best part of this new suit was the large spider shaped battery I had suspended on the harness. It was a bit of an overcompensation, but all of this excess power would ensure that my web shooters or lenses didn’t go out at a critical moment. 

And the creme de la creme, was the device that crafted my new secret weapon against Scorpion. The hard-light encaser. Designing it had taken the analysis of DeathKiller’s abilities and the sacrifice of the last of my salvaged materials. I also ended up using the centrifuge I normally used to make my web fluid.

The centrifuge cooked up what I was calling “Blizzard”, an insanely cold liquid compound that rapidly expanded into a gaseous state when exposed to oxygen. The hard light encaser had cooked up a small force field, it was just a little bit larger than a marble. Any bigger than that and I’d have blown a fuse in the house. Thankfully the forcefield was hyper dense, so I could fill the marble with all the blizzard I’d just made. I was calling these Spider Eggs in my head. I was going to try and shatter the shell of Gargon’s breaker form the same way DeathKiller used his mist to break my webs. I just had to hope his shell had a freezing point.

I was proud of my work on this, sometimes being a tinker felt a lot like having a lab partner that was just also yourself. With some projects it felt less like I was using my tinker power and more like I was collaborating with it. Those tended to produce the best results, and this was one of them. The thing that brought me the most joy about the spider-eggs though was the aluminum can for mints that I chose to put it in. It cracked me up so much that I had to stifle a laugh every time I looked at them.

There was the very serious concern that the centrifuge had taken so long to get the blizzard compound the way I’d needed it that I only had the one. If I fumbled the usage of that one, I would end up like one of those cars on Scorpion’s PHO page. On the topic of seriousness, I needed to get my suit on. 

There wasn’t a lot of time before Scorpion was slated to attack Fisk at his casino, and I needed to get there as soon as possible. But even after I had pulled on my new suit, there was something that was still irking me. I was about to walk into a building that bled out the amount of money that I would make in a lifetime every minute. And even if this was my new fancy suit, it would just feel wrong to enter a place so affluent and not dress the part. So I threw on a bow tie and suit jacket over my fancy suit. And looking in the mirror… I looked kind of ridiculous. But thinking back to Kid Astronomy’s messages, maybe bringing some levity to a heavy situation could help someone. 

Maybe it would help me to feel a little less like I was heading to my death. I checked the clock and realized that I did not have any more time to be having an internal debate. With my now fancied up fancy suit on, I opened my window, and in the cover of night, leapt out to swing my way to Wilson Fisk’s Amethyst Rose.

If I had to describe The Amethyst Rose in only one word, I’d say opulent. If I had more I would call it an opulent testament to the power guys like Fisk held in New York. Gambling laws in the state of New York only allowed for a small number of casinos to be built and operated at a time. Wilson Fisk’s business savvy had bought him the city’s only Casino, if you wanted to play the slots in NYC The Amethyst Rose was your only legal option. It was the crown jewel of Wilson Fisk’s business empire.

If you believed the rumors, which I personally did, it was also the beating heart of The Kingpin’s criminal enterprise. The building was so distractingly big, I’d already known that it was big. I’ve passed by the place on my swings around the city multiple times. But now I was taking it in as what would be the staging ground for my battle with Scorpion. So many people were down there, so many lives that could be taken just because Gargon felt like it on his way to Fisk. 

I don’t think any of my previous experiences with the building had really prepared me for how small I felt when I looked at it inthat moment. From the top of the hotel building across the street I stayed focused and kept my eyes peeled for Scorpion.

There’s a really common misconception about having a power like danger sense. People think that because your power alerts you to danger you must be immune to being snuck up on, which is only theoretically true. If the sneaker were intending to harm me, I’d know before they could strike. No guarantee I could do anything about it before they did, but I’d at least know. But if the sneaker doesn’t mean to bring me or anyone else harm? 

A buzzing mechanical hum that I had initially written off as the ancient hotel’s air conditioning grew very loud as its source came up and touched down behind me. “Nervous?” A stranger with a somewhat nasally voice asked.

I was so close to falling off the ledge with the way I jumped that I’m surprised my danger sense wasn’t triggered. I caught myself though and turned to look at the person behind me. He was a few inches taller than me, his face partially obscured by a colorful masquerade bird mask. He had what I assumed was a flight pack strapped to his back that I really wanted to take a closer look at.

The wings were facing downwards and the hinges they were on looked like they could totally take a serious beating. His costume had a lot of exposed wires and screws in places, but it looked cool in an early tinker sort of way. Was this a new hero I didn’t know about? Carradine had been wrong, the heroes were going to do something about Scorpion. “Was it obvious?” I asked him, the relief in my voice was palpable.

“Sort of.” He slowly put a hand on my shoulder, very slow and deliberate, uncertain if I’d accept the act of comfort or see it as a threatening gesture. My danger sense wasn’t pinging so I made no effort to stop him. “You’ve been sitting up here for twenty minutes. Hesitancy, it tends to imply nervousness.” His tone of voice was dry but friendly.

The eyes on my mask widened and I shook my hands out nervously. “I mean I know I put the suit jacket and the tie on over the costume but I kind of thought this was going to be a just me thing so I wasn’t so sure about actually going in an-” I’d started rambling and only cut myself off when I realized how dumb waiting outside would’ve been, what if Gargon snuck in with the crowds and started changing inside the casino already. PHO said his breaker form took time but he could probably still build it up while in a closet or something.

Bird-guy shot me a confused look. “I’m realizing how dumb that was.” I explained to him.

“Ah,” he said. “It's not dumb. I was kind of waiting for you to make your move before I’d made mine, you were just taking a bit too long.” An arm came up to rub at the nape of his neck and I got a good look at a cord connecting something on his gloves to the flight pack. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear the humming.”

The humming? I connected the buzzing I’d heard earlier and the bird theming. “Hummingbird?” I hazarded a guess at his hero name.

“You’ve heard of me?” The hope in his voice and the way his face had completely lit up killed any chance of me telling him the truth.

“Yeah, you’re a real up and comer.” I said, punching him playfully on the arm.

He rubbed the spot on his arm I’d touched as he spoke. “Yep that’s me, Hummingbird the perpetual up and comer.”

Crap, was he not new? I’ve never been big on capes. I didn't know all the local heroes super well, just the really big names. “Oh, uh sorry.” I meekly apologized.

Hummingbird gave me a soft smile as meek as my apology. “Don’t be, you were just saying what you’ve heard.” Before I had a chance to comment on the awkward air, he spoke again. “I think we should go down there.”

My lenses widened again “Through the front door?” I asked

Hummingbird answered. “Yeah, it’s kind of rude to enter any other way.”

Right, this guy was a much more experienced hero than me. He knew whatever organization he was with would be targeted legally by Fisk if one of their members just broke in. I had a little bit of brute power I’d been holding onto and spent it on the leap down. Hummingbird jumped down beside me, and I made note of his boots. He had used those buzzing wings of his to slow his descent but it looked like the material of his boots absorbed some of the impact. 

“Would you want to talk about tech after this? Your gear is giving me so many ideas.” My words made him light up again, it felt cool making friends with another hero like this.

“I’d love that honestly, the battery pack on your harness is bugging me to take a closer look at it… um no pun intended.” He’d responded as we stepped up to the doors of The Amethyst Rose. Two armed guards in white suits and wearing earpieces stood at the doors. When we approached, one leaned into his earpiece to say something. 

Whatever response he got was good and he nodded for us to come on ahead. I assumed it must’ve been whatever hero cred Hummingbird had that they let him on through without any contention. I don’t know if I’d have managed the courage to come inside the front door like that if not for Hummingbird. I also doubt they would have actually let me just stroll in if I’d been on my own. Aside from a few odd looks from staff we entered with no problems.

I marveled at the art piece in the center of the foyer. Other kids had goth/rebellious phases, when I was fourteen I’d had a geologist phase. I’d grown out of it, but I was pretty sure what I was looking at was one hundred percent pure amethyst. It had to have been molded and sculpted down by tinker tech, like lasers or force fields. Standing on a two foot tall pedestal was a presumably to scale statue of Wilson Fisk made of amethyst. The gemstone Wilson was holding a crystalline rose in his right hand and resting his left hand on his cane.

“Impressive right? Uppercrust made that for him apparently, a birthday gift from last year.” Hummingbird told me, I was surprised he’d know something like that.

Slowly I remarked, “Yeah.”

There were so many games that reminded me of the arcades I went to with Uncle Ben. This place was ridiculously bigger than any of those we’d ever gone to. It felt like the building was the length of a football stadium. A football stadium full of slot machines, blackjack, pool tables, and other tables for games I didn’t recognize. This place was massive, and it would be near impossible to keep an eye out for Scorpion down here.

Off in the far distance though I could make out a large upstairs room at the end of the building with a massive glass window looking over everything. From Wilson Fisk’s private office you’d have a view of the whole Casino. That’s where we wanted to be to keep an eye out for Mac. “Bird, when are the others coming?”

Hummingbird shot me a confused look. “Others? I hadn’t known I wouldn’t be the only one here till I saw you on the rooftops.” His words really soured things for me. Hummingbird must be an independent like me who’d gotten a similar clue somewhere. It would just be the two of us tonight. “We should take the elevator up to the office.” Hummingbird pointed to the elevator we were nearing.

I was thankful we were on the same page about it being the best vantage point. “Is that a good idea though?” I asked, concerned about just casually going up and into the Kingpin’s office.

Hummingbird nodded inattentively, and pushed up on the elevator. “Yeah, we’re already running late.” He was technically right, it was already after ten Scorpion would be making his move soon. Did Hummingbird get that same tip I had?

While in the elevator I introduced myself, “I’m Spider-man by the way.”

His eyes lit up again and his mouth raised up into a massive grin. Hummingbird reminded me of a puppy the way he’d light up at the smallest things. “Like Batman?” my fellow tinker asked.

I’d not heard of that guy. “I don’t know who that is.”

Hummingbird’s excitement faded and I could tell he was repressing his disappointment. “He’s a character from comic books, we used to have him here but he grew into obscurity after actual capes showed up.” He kept rambling. “He never grew out of popularity on earth Aleph though, they still make his comics and stuff, He’s cool.”

I remarked, “Right… sounds neat.” 

We exited the elevator. The space outside of Wilson’s office was very reminiscent of a doctor’s waiting room. A couple of black metal chairs and tables on which magazines were sitting. There was what I assumed was a secretary at a desk behind a window counter. 

Hummingbird approached the secretary. In a move that stunned me, he took his mask off as he spoke to her. “Hi, I’m Adrian Toomes and this is Spider-Man, We’re rogues here to see Mr. Fisk about the open positions.” 

Just my luck, I had run into a rogue on his way to a job interview. The two of us had mistaken each other as being here for the same reasons. That was why we’d gotten in the doors so easily despite our costumes. Fisk had been expecting us, well, expecting Hummingbird anyway. I had already come this far with him, maybe I could play along a little bit longer so I could get access to Fisk’s view of the building. 

Was unmasking a thing rogue’s did or was that just a Hummingbird thing? I thought about it for a second, and I was pretty sure they didn't have to do it. “Yeah, what he said.” I spoke leaving my mask on and supporting Adrian’s statement.

The secretary looked at us and said, “Alright.” She then turned back to her computer screen. I sighed in relief, no one expected me to unmask, good.” “Hm,” she hummed in confusion, “this said the meeting was only for one tinker, oh well.” The secretary tapped away at her keyboard. “I’ve updated it, you two should be good to go on in.”

Hummingbird put his mask back on, and we entered the office of the alleged kingpin of crime. If the Amethyst rose was opulence then this office was like  elegance incarnate. If I ever got a base I’d want whoever designed this room to make it. The place just had a professional but comfortable vibe that I really envied. “Swanky.” The word escaped my lips before I could stop myself.

“Quite.” A deep gravelly voice agreed with a hint of repressed irritation. “I’m very fond of it.” The Kingpin himself had been standing in front of the glass window, hand resting on his cane as he gazed over his business. The man was massive six foot seven-ish and he must weigh way over three hundred pounds. He might be a brute if you believed PHO theories. “Hummingbird, you’ve brought a friend.”

Hummingbird rambled out a response “Kind of, I guess, I mean, yeah. Yeah! Spider-Man’s my friend, right Spider-Man?” 

“Yeah.” He was a rogue and not a villain, for all I knew he had no idea Wilson Fisk had any villainous dealings. I’d definitely be more hesitant with what Tinker tech I shared with him now, but Hummingbird hadn’t done anything that made me unable to see myself being friends with him. “We’re pals.”

The way Wilson’s eyes trailed over me, assessing me for value, made me feel slimy and gross. “You’re another tinker?” He asked. I might have tried to lie if Adrian weren’t there to call me out on it.

I kept my eyes on the slots below, keeping them peeled for Mac. “Yeah, I am.” I kept my answer brief.

Fisk had turned back around to look out the window. It took a lot of confidence to turn your back on parahumans. Though no powers had officially been linked to Wilson Fisk or the Kingpin, I was certain he had to have some kind of power to maintain his ironclad reign as the kingpin.

To fight off superpowered criminals that coveted your territory you had to have some kind of power of your own. But what kind? Brute felt right, he carried himself like a man without fear. Plus he was built like a brick shit house. “You’re a cluster cape, correct?” He asked without looking back, I wasn’t sure who he was speaking to.

I’d started to ask, “Me? Or-” Fisk had turned ever so lightly back just to glare at me. 

“You.” He’d said it with an almost tangible amount of irritation dripping from his voice. Cluster? I didn’t know what that was. My silence was too revealing, Kingpin turned around smiling. It alarmed

me that I’d just revealed a gap in my knowledge on power stuff to the Kingpin and now he was smiling about it. “A grab bag.” Ah, That was a term I knew. A grab bag cape was one with multiple

powers. Was cluster just another word for that? “Possibly, why are you asking?”

“Just curious, I recognized your name when Hummingbird spoke it.” Running an empire like Fisk’s you’d have to familiarize with all the local parahumans, even bit players like “The Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man” had been. He turned slightly to take another look at me. His tone grew tighter as he spoke, “This thing with the suit jacket, is that a permanent part of your…” He paused and gestured as if to indicate all of me. “Ensemble?”

I was wearing my suit jacket and bow tie over my new fancy Spider-man suit. “I was heading to the rose, that’s something you’ve gotta dress up for.” To my surprise, that got a genuine laugh out of him.

“Yes! That’s exactly the sort of reputation I’m trying to build here!” Wilson's chuckle was wry and soft. “Hummingbird, why didn’t you put on a suit?” Fisk gestured towards the other cape. I’d been so caught up in the fact that I was talking to the Kingpin I had nearly forgotten he was there.

Hummingbird seemed dejected. “I didn't know that that was something you would want, I could fly home and go get one if you’d like.” Hummingbird placated.

“No need, I’m not serious.” Wilson removed a box of cigars from his desk drawer and took one out. “You both look ridiculous, but at least Spider-man has something more reasonable if he ditches the tie and the jacket. What kind of maniac picked out those colors, Adrian?” Kingpin had satisfied himself with whatever questions he had for me and was now fully focused on poor Hummingbird.

It was a rude comment, but the man’s costume was genuinely awful. Part of why I thought he was a new hero was the terrible body suit he wore. A garish combination of bright Green, red, and Orange that clashed terribly. “I did… It’s based on retro heroes, it’s kind of like a take on Robin, did you ever watch that Batman show with Adam West?”

I think Ben might’ve watched that once or twice actually. “Sounds familiar.” I said trying to throw the floundering man a life preserver.

“No.” Kingpin had preferred to see him sink. “I don’t watch children’s television.”

Hummingbird completely deflated. Fisk sat back down at his desk, took out a matchbox, and lit a match. “You know boys. I’m looking for a tinker to serve as my bodyguard.” With a physique like his it was hard to imagine he’d ever need protection, he had to be looking for someone to help him against Scorpion. If low level grunts like Dennis had known then the bossman had to have a clue as well. “My false reputation serves as an excellent repellent against those that might seek violence against me,” Hummingbird was nodding along, he seemed to genuinely buy that false reputation malarkey.

“And where that fails I have my, Physique, to carry me.” He put a lot of emphasis on the word physique, was he alluding to a brute power? “But there are times where that isn’t enough, I’m looking for someone with the versatility that Tinkers provide.” He finally raised the lit match up to light the cigar in his other hand.

“But if that tinker looks like a clown then I lose the protection of my reputation. I’m not trying to trade one layer of protection for another.” Why would maintaining his reputation matter if he just wanted a guard against Scorpion. The Scorpion guard thing would only need to be a short term position. Was this whole tinker bodyguard thing unrelated? No, couldn’t be. “I thought I had someone tell you to change your costume before coming here, Mr. Hummingbird, Make it look more presentable.”

Hummingbird looked hurt and sort of confused. “I did… the boxers on the outside are new.” God, it looked so dorky. I really wanted to defend him but why would he think that was a good idea. “Your secretary said I should try to look more like an actual Cape.”

Kingpin sighed, raised the cigar to his mouth and took a quick drag. He exhaled a puff of smoke and glared at the man. “She meant  for you to look more like someone who still had a foot in the real world, not one of your fictional characters from bygone eras.”

Hummingbird managed to find some backbone. “They’re not just from a bygone era, they still love them on Earth Aleph!” He had raised his voice at the Kingpin. I was kind of proud of him.

Wilson gave him an annoyed disgusted look, it was like he’d just stepped in dog poop. “Then go take your clown show there, Mr. Toomes.” He stood up again and moved directly in front of Hummingbird. The bird cape took a panicked step back. Kingpin took a long drag of his cigar and blew out the smoke in Adrian’s face. “Make like your namesake and let this Smoke be enough to scare you off, you want another chance at a job with me? Change everything about yourself.”

That was brutal. “Hey, don’t talk to him like that!” I spoke, raising my voice slightly at the Kingpin. 

Kingpin turned that burning hot ire of his onto me. “And you!” He spat out the words like they were a caustic venom. “Next time, pick a better cape friend’s meeting to crash,” Wilson grumbled. Hummingbird started to walk out the door, I was pretty sure now that Mac wasn’t in the building yet so I went to follow him. “I didn’t tell you to leave, Stay.” 

I froze and so did Hummingbird, I didn’t want the other man to leave the casino yet though. I wanted to see if maybe he’d help me with Scorpion. I also wanted to explain that whole “crashing your meeting” thing to him. “Go, I’ll be out soon, and we can talk.” I told him, I noticed his expression had become quite sad at some point, he nodded and walked out of the office.

Kingpin sat back down at his desk. I stood there, and waited for him to get to his point. “Do you know what you are Spider?” he asked.

He set me up for that one, “Bored?” I quipped.

“Cute,” the Kingpin spoke in a tone that told me he thought it was anything but. “You have… four powers, I’m guessing.” He’d done more than heard of me, it seemed like he knew me. Had he watched my videos? Even then it would have taken a lucky guess to know I had a thinker power, I hadn’t talked about it on my videos. Or maybe, he had a thinker power of his own.

“Yeah,” I responded, unable to think of a more clever response.

“Tinker, thinker, brute, and mover?” He asked, a smug smile on his face. How did he know that? “How did I know that?” This was getting uncanny. “Don’t be so impressed, the lenses on your mask are giving you away. Turn those off if you ever play poker in that mask.”

Okay, so he wasn’t reading my mind, Stupid expressive lenses. But he was acting like he knew things about my powers. I frowned, “What, you stalk me on PHO or something? It didn’t go so hot for the last crazed fan I met.” It hadn’t, Spree might’ve gotten away, but I’d beaten him.

“No, no, no.” Wilson waved his hands around chuckling, “I’m nothing of the sort. I just wanted to offer you a bit of knowledge.” We met eyes, it was like he’d found them through the mask. “You’re part of what’s called a cluster.” There’s that term again, cluster. 

“Like a grouping?” I asked

Fisk nodded, “Yes. Do you know what a trigger event is?” I know it was obvious I hadn’t looked too deep into my powers but how ignorant did he think I was? How could someone with powers not know about that? 

“Yeah. It’s a traumatic event, you get powers connected to the type of trauma.” I was getting testy, wherever he was going with this Parahumans 101 lesson I needed him to get to the point. “Are you just fishing for me to tell you about mine? Unless we’re about to swap stories I don’t think I’m gonna just give you something that links you to my secret identity.”

“Oscorp,”  His voice was cold and held a complete certainty that caused me to freeze. Fucking thinker bullshit. “That shut you up. Good.” He took a drag of that big cigar of his, “A cluster is what happens when multiple people trigger in close proximity minutes apart from each other. Powers become linked between each member, a subpower based on the main power of each member.”

Oh, that weirdness with Cindy in the cafeteria was making some sense now, she’d gotten powers too hadn’t she… “So there’s three others with powers like mine? How did you know about Oscorp?”

“There’s more information I could provide, experts I can place you in contact with, the costumed identities of two of your cluster mates, I could give you these things.” Fisk was offering me a lot. “Forget about this move you’re trying to make on my empire tonight and I’ll forget it as well. Come work for me for real, I’ll pay you more than the teeth ever could.”

I was kind of doubting the thinker angle now. “I’m not planning any attacks against you,” I said. He looked at me unimpressed. “Why’s everybody thinking I’ve gotta be making big moves or scheming today?”

“Why else would you come here the same night the Scorpion plans to attack me, if not to scout ahead for him?” He asked that like it were a business matter that we were discussing.

“To stop Scorpion, it’s why I-” he knew? “You know he’s coming and you haven’t evacuated the building?” 

Fisk looked unconcerned. “I wouldn’t risk enraging someone I didn’t think I could handle.” I didn’t doubt he believed he could beat Scorpion, Maybe he was also part of a cluster trigger? A thinker/stranger/brute.

I stepped up to his desk, slamming my hands down on it. “What about the people he’d kill on his way to you?” 

The Kingpin shrugged. “A tragic loss of life.” 

“You’re a heartless bastard, what stops me from going out there and warning them? Telling them to run?”

“Scorpion, who is likely only minutes from crashing through my door, sees the horde of patrons running out and either A.  realizes I actually care whether people live or die and he slaughters as many as he can to get to me. Or B. Mac thinks I’m using the mob as a cover to escape and starts killing them to thin the crowds.”

Fuck, that was kind of a good point. “What about before now? Couldn’t you have closed early for the night?” I asked.

He sighed. And started explaining himself slowly like he was speaking to a child. “If I close then he knows that I know,” He paused “If Scorpion knows that, he’ll realize I have a mole, if he realizes I have a mole he’ll kill the mole and attack on another night, probably a busier night where more die.”

He was rationalizing everything too well, this was a guy who talked with politicians, the only debating I ever did was on chat forums. I didn’t know how to argue with him, only that I was getting seriously annoyed. “And you didn’t ask the protectorate for help?”

“It’s not an option for me.” Not an option? The hell did that mean?

“Too much of a bad ass to ask for help?” I started quipping, I was going to segway into a better joke but Kingpin interrupted me.

“Yes! My reputation is what I have built everything on and the protectorate knows it. If I asked them for help they would flaunt that I had needed their aid until the day that I die. I will not lose what I have built in this city just because Mac can’t accept he’s lost the game.” He was seething with anger, his face would be a comical shade of red if he wasn’t such a scary man. It was a bellowing sort of rage that took the breath out of him.

“I can take him down, I think, without anyone dying.” Fisk took a breath to regain his composure and raised an eyebrow at me, intrigued. 

“Then do it,” he said, re-examining me in that same slimy asset assessment way he had before. “And the job is yours”

I turned around to walk out the office, one hand on the door way I glanced back at the man. “I’m not after some job from you Fisk, I just want to help people.” I slammed the door back shut behind me.

Hummingbird was waiting for me, “Did you have a nice chat without me ?” He sounded pissed, poorly concealed jealousy had found its way into his once friendly tone.

“Spider-man,” He started, “what had Mr. Fisk meant about you crashing my appointment?” His voice was heavy with accusation. I really had to explain all this fast.

“I kind of wasn’t here for an interview, I just sort of tagged along when you thought I was.” I kept my explanation simple.

“Why?”

“Do you know who the Scorpion is?” I decided to ask.

Hummingbird shook his head, “Not really, some big guy in the adepts?”

“No. He’s the big guy in the Teeth though.” I said, putting emphasis on the. 

“What’s he have to do with crashing my meeting?” Hummingbird asked, I could tell he was getting impatient.

“I’m not a rogue, you just sort of assumed that and I let you, I’m a Hero.” Hummingbird took on a pained expression. “I’m here because I learned from another teeth member that Scorpion was going to attack Fisk tonight and people would get hurt.”

Hummingbird stared at me quietly for a moment. “Why not go to the protectorate about it if you knew where he was going to be?” Why hadn’t I? Right, because I’m an unknown fresh cape who’s only previous experience before today had been as an irreverent jokester who made more prank videos than I ever did anything actually heroic. 

“They wouldn’t believe me, I’m a joke guy, they wouldn’t act fast enough on a tip like this, and from what I hear they want to avoid fighting Gargon at all.” I hated that the thing I was basing my actions around was the worldview of the man that killed my uncle. I wanted to think the heroes were people who when faced with the trolley problem would choose neither track and instead would try to stop the train. 

But stopping the train had risks, stopping the train was almost always going to be nearly impossible. Even if you have the strength to stop a barreling locomotive you have to do it gently enough that you don’t bring harm to anyone on board the train.

Mac Gargon was the train. letting him get out his bloodlust for Fisk and then foaming the bastard was the track with fewer people. Risking a fight with the whole teeth by attacking him while he was with the gang and getting a lot of people killed in the crossfire, was the track with the most people. And option three was stopping Scorpion here, somehow beating him at his strongest without anyone else getting hurt.

Hummingbird coughed awkwardly and it pulled me out of my brain. “Okay, so Mr. Fisk is in danger?”

“Yeah, everyone here is. Any minute now Scorpion could show up.”

“Then I’ll help you, I’ll help you stop him whe-” The voice of my new ally is cut off by one of the sharpest twinges I’ve ever felt from my danger sense. 

I can hear him outside, metal scraping on concrete, the sound is deafening even if I know I shouldn’t be able to hear it over the music and ringing of all the slot machines. “He’s here, he’s gonna-” the men guarding the doors fire their guns. Using some high up balcony as an anchor point I swing myself up, use a web zip to further my momentum, and do another swing off of a balcony. I landed on the amethyst pedestal in the entryway, and perched beside the crystalline Kingpin. 

The higher society element, the tourists, and the down on their luck hopefuls were all erupting into the exact same panic. It didn’t matter who you were, when powers got involved it was just smart to start running. The moment I had started swinging and the gunshots had rang out they had started making for the exits and hiding under tables or behind slot machines.

Through the glass doors I saw him for the first time in person. I’d seen the images of it before when I’d done my PHO reading, but that had failed to prepare me for how terrifying his breaker form was. Outside the amethyst rose, scuttling up the stairs towards Fisk’s doormen was a mass of green chiton. 

Its head was featureless with the exception of two curved bits of yellow chiton on either side that might’ve worked as eyes. It was bigger than it had been in the pictures by another foot or so, he might have made it ten feet tall this time. The Scorpion walked forward, undeterred by the bullets bouncing off of his shell. “FIIIISK! YOU AND I HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS!” His voice was booming and distorted by the breaker form around him.

Hummingbird managed to buzz over beside me. It felt weird that I had outspeeded someone who could fly. “What do we do?” I didn’t have a very good answer for him. I was still figuring that out for myself, but I knew where to start.

“We fight him, we save these people,” I tapped the web shooters to adjust the nozzles then leapt off the pedestal. I fired two strands of webs at both sides of the doorway, these were much more compact than my usual webbing, spun together by the teeny tiny mechanical spider legs into cords of rope. “Then we go home and sleep like babies.” Ropes in hand I started sprinting backwards, pulling on the stretchy elastic webs. I stop pulling and let myself be slingshotted through the glass doors.

Glass shards litter the concrete stairway, I’d landed between Scorpion and the two gunmen who had been firing on him. I’d expected Hummingbird to follow after me through the hole I’d made in the glass, but he stayed behind to fiddle with his left glove. Scorpion had been taking his time with his approach, slowly climbing up the stairs. He could’ve gone faster but I think he was delighted in seeing the doormen come to grips with their imminent deaths.

The breaker stopped his approach, the shell tilted its head at me in a silent question. “Scorpion! You're a little underdressed for this place.” I took my steps forward very carefully, the breaker had a lot of reach with his shell’s claws and tail, I wanted to avoid entering that range until after Hummingbird finished with whatever he was doing with his gloves. “I don’t want to alarm you, but I can kind of see your stinger.”

I heeded the danger sense and took a step back. Scorpion’s tail shot out at an insane speed, mere inches from my face. It hung there, it was as far as it went and he began to slowly pull his tail back. The doormen took that chance to run inside. “That’s kind of what I mean, Scorp. You’re gonna make the other gamblers uncomfortable if you go in there swinging that thing around like that.”

“You’re Spider-Man, I’m guessing.” That echoey distorted voice asked. “Spree said you were looking for me… You’ve done a good job figuring out I’d be here, but I’m busy. Get out of my way and I’ll let you test your might against mine.” It was the typical “try and recruit the tinker by going soft on him” thing that Tumor and Spree had tried at first. He sounded somewhat distracted though.

I glanced back and saw that Hummingbird had finally come outside. He held out the palm of the glove he’d been tinkering on, his other hand was holding his arm steady. He started yelling something about backing up, I quickly did as told. The bird themed rogue shot down a blinding light from his palms. Just seeing it from an angle made my vision feel a little spotty, I couldn’t imagine what it was like for Scorpion to be caught in that light.

I’d expected him to be at least stunned by the attack, had hoped perhaps that he would be genuinely blinded for a moment. Instead Scorpion’s tail whipped outwards and smacked the too close Hummingbird onto the ground. It sounded like the cracking of a whip. Scorpion scuttled towards him, Hummingbird’s flight pack was stuttering as he tried to get it to start.

I channeled whatever small bits of brute power I’d built up into a leap towards Hummingbird, I got an arm under his shoulder and web pulled us up to a roof seconds before Scorpion could slam his claws down on my fellow tinker. 

“Spider-man thanks, give me a few seconds and I’ll be back in the fight.” He’d taken off his backpack and started fiddling with it. Scorpion was already back to making his way into The Rose.

“Do you have anything other than that light?” I asked.

Hummingbird frowned. “I can up the intensity more, and I could flap my wings in his direction to hit him with the wind.” Gusts of wind weren’t very likely to make Scorpion budge, and I wouldn’t count on a brighter light affecting him. Scorpion was seeing through his shell’s eyes, and it probably couldn’t be blinded.

“Just focus on getting people out of here and then maybe go get some help okay?” My tone was a lot more tense than I intended, Scorpion was already smashing his way inside the Amethyst Rose. I needed to get back down there. Hummingbird started to speak, his voice sad. I didn’t hear any more than “Spider-man, I can-” before the sound of gunshots forced me to leap down. “Adrian, just do as I said!” I might’ve sounded like an ass but I didn’t have time to be nice.

I swung down and followed after Scorpion and back into the casino. The two doormen who had escaped inside hadn’t gone very far, and for some reason they’d gone right back to firing on Scorpion. “Guys! He’s kind of  bulletproof!” I yelled out and tried webbing up Scorpion’s legs. It slowed him down for a few seconds but he easily tore through the webs.

It wasn’t much of a distraction but one of the doormen did manage to run further back thanks to Scorpion’s stumbling., The other man was much less lucky, Scorpion's claw pinched into the man’s side and he was flung in the direction of Fisk’s big office window. I swung up with a web zip and just barely managed to catch him before he slammed into the window. I sat him down, up on one of the balconies I had swung on earlier. 

His sides were bleeding, my webs were technically sanitary so I used them to stop the bleeding. He was still breathing, but Scorpion had practically caved in his sides. I’d done what I could for him and I just really hoped that Hummingbird could get someone here quickly enough that something could be done for this guy.

Most of the people had fled but a few stragglers were still hiding or in the process of getting out. I needed as few people here as possible before I threw down the Spider-egg. Scorpion was making his way towards a slot machine I’d seen an old woman hiding behind. I swung down, scooping her up into my arms before Scorpion smashed his way through her on his way to Fisk. 

It was weird carrying someone while swinging, I’d have to get better at it. “Sorry about that Ma’am.” I sat her down by the fire escape, she looked vaguely familiar to me. “It’s alright, I’ll survive a little rope swinging, I won’t survive that.” She gestured to where Scorpion was stampeding Through the slot machines, he preferred to go through over going around it seemed.

With her taken care of I could swing back into the action. I leapt down and stuck a tightly corded web rope to Scorpion’s back, I tugged on it with my brute power and tugged him backwards. He snipped the rope with a claw and turned around.

The echoey distortion effect his voice had was great for yelling the names of your enemies. But it made longer sentences like, “Ah, The Spider-man Returns, I didn’t not realize you had such an interest in me.” A pain to parse through, it was just barely comprehensible and took me a minute to wrap my head around.

“An interest?” I asked confused, the rest of the sentence took me a second to understand. Right, Spree and Tumor had escaped, he mentioned earlier that Spree had warned him I was after him. “Eww, gross. You’re making it sound like I have a crush on you.”

“I’m sorry” Scorpion reared back his massive claws. “I only meant that you seem intent on having me crush you!” I leapt out of the way of the clearly telegraphed attack, if he kept it up like this we’d brawl long enough for the last of the people here to evacuate.

Still coming out of the slam, Scorpion was wide open, as soon as I took a few steps towards him to capitalize on his mistake my danger sense blared. I flipped backwards, and saw the tip of his tail had shot out right to where my throat would’ve been had I not jumped back. Scorpion had pulled a feint with that slam, but I knew from before that it took time for him to pull his tail back before he could use it like that again. I took stock in my head of what I’d seen so far of his power.

His breaker form was strong but slow, every part except for its tail. Scorpion’s tail could stab out and slam down at incredible speed, but then had to be moved back into position before he could strike again. “Watch where you point that thing.” I quipped, then ducked under the tail to to start punching his side, even with my brute power I just felt like I was only hurting my own fists. I slid down and leapt back out of his reach.

Scorpion dragged his tail along the ground as he pulled it back, scratching away at Fisk’s expensive carpeting. Scorpion raised up his tail and pointed to where a well dressed black man had been helping to organize the fleeing patrons. He was helping the last three people get out and leave through an emergency exit “You’re fast, can those people say the same?”

Scorpion’s tail skewered into a row of slot machines and hurled three of them towards the small group. “They don’t have to, not while I’m here!” I ran forward, shot a web onto one of the slot machines and ignoring my dangersense I pulled sharply to the left, it slammed into the other two machines and all three went smashing into the wall.

“Corny!” Scorpion exclaimed as a claw grabbed onto my waist, his echoey voice breaking into fits of laughter. “Gotcha!” He did, he had me. But I’d prepared for this fight, my brute power’s durability and strength held up long enough for me to push my way out of the right grip of his claws, but not before I managed to stick a surprise there. I leapt back and away from Scorpion.

The breaker raised a claw up to his head to see what had been stuck onto it. “A marble?”

I shook my head, and took a few steps away. “A hyper dense miniature force field encasing and condensing a gaseous ice effect.”

Scorpion stopped looking at his hand and moved his claw far away from himself. “A what?” The man asked again, confused by the tinker babble.

“It’s a Death Killer Skull, but Spiderized. I’m calling it a spider egg.”

“Looks nothing like a sp-” the ‘egg’ exploded into a large cloud of ‘Blizzard’ that encompassed the Scorpion, I was sure it would take time to get his shell to the freezing point, but I was sure ‘blizzard’ would get it there if I could keep him exposed to it.

“He doesn't need to breathe in his breaker state, are you sure that gas is going to be effective?” observed the Kingpin. his voice once more ringing through the casino. What was he still doing here?

“Give it time, It will!” I didn’t really care about convincing Kingpin, but I did want to convince myself that this gamble would work. 

Scorpion ran at me and it was time to go back to dodging. “Anyways Mac, if your boys were talking about me then you must know I took a swing by your place.” Claw and tail lunged after me but I noticed he was avoiding using the one that took the direct hit from the Spider egg

“And I’ve gotta say, I’m worried about you Mac.” Claw slams down onto the table, he’s much too slow, I’m already leaping onto the next table. “Seriously, pal. You have to move a couple of the tanks out of the living room, how are people supposed to get into the kitchen?”

“They can just climb over the love seat, everybody said they didn’t,” Scorpion drew back his tail “MIND!” He slammed the tail down and split the table in half. It was hard not fuck up and get slashed withe table when I was laughing so hard at the Scorpion losing his composure because I dissed his floor plan. 

Tail far enough away, I now dived for the claw that was most frozen. “I think they might’ve minded pal, someone sold you out.” Drawing back my fist I hit it with all the breaker juice I could muster. I dented the arm slightly, it wasn’t the arm shattering victory I’d been hoping for, but it was something. Maybe if I focused all my strikes there and could kite him back into the cloud of blizzard I could whittle it down, get to the Mac inside the shell by punching a hole in its arm.

I leapt as far as I could manage away from Scorpion. Either the comment or the dent on the shell had really pissed him off. I heard something above me on the glass roof, a low buzzing sound. I shot a quick glance upwards, hoping to see Hummingbird back with help.

Instead the person I saw looking down at me was a young black woman, not much older than me. She had beautiful long braided black hair. She was wearing a black Catsuit and she had a stylized mask that went above her nose, it had little cat ears and yellow lenses you could still make out her eyes from.

Our eyes met and I felt the sensation of two of my powers activating at once. The first was my Mover power, like somehow against my will my tether had decided to turn on and latch me to the ground. The girl above me had been using some sort of laser saw to cut through the glass roof, she’d stopped, seemingly stunned by something. In a way it reminded me of Cindy on that first day back at school, in the cafeteria. The other power to activate was my danger sense warning me that The Scorpion’s tail was mere seconds away from skewering my distracted body.

Chapter Text

Seconds away is in fact not nearly enough time to undo my power’s weird sudden activation and get out of the way of Scorpion’s tail. It stabs into the battery on my harness. He’d have impaled me even deeper if the impact with my tinker tech hadn’t triggered a small explosion. The electrical discharge caused by the battery stabbing didn’t seem to affect the breaker, but it did send me flying into a row of slot machines.

I’d spent all that built up brute power on a hail mary strike, which meant when I slammed into those slot machines I was feeling the impact almost as badly as a normal person would. “You should’ve kept your eyes on me, Spider.” The breaker began scuttling his way to me, careful to go around the large cloud of blizzard that was still very slowly expanding. It would expand for another four or so minutes before it dispersed completely.

The Catgirl dropped down from the ceiling with an impressive speed, one second she’s up there on the roof and the next she’s touching down on the ground floor. Scorpion turned around to face the second intruder. “A new Black Cat?” 

The girl hummed a noncommittal response. “I guess I am,” She drawled out. She seemed completely uninterested in either me or Scorpion, just looking around the casino like she was trying to find something.

The Breaker’s shell gestured a claw to where I was slowly pulling myself off of the still sparking remains of the slot machines. “You a friend of his?”

The apparently new Black Cat shrugged, and walked over to a stool where a woman had left her purse  “No, never met him before, the suit’s nice though, kind of dorky but it's cute.” She fished around inside and pulled out a small handful of nice jewelry.

The distraction of having another cape here gave me enough time to stand up and start shaking off the impact of the shock. My suit had a large gash on the chest and I definitely had an electrical burn there too. The suit jacket was torn in a few spots and I’d have so much sewing to do if I was going to ever make it wearable again.

I gave my web shooters a quick test fire and got nothing, without my harness battery I didn’t have the power to use the web shooters. The rest of the fight would have to happen without my webbing. Great.

“So you’re a thief?” I asked, “Just here to take advantage of the chaos?” If Fisk was right about that cluster stuff, then this girl was probably where my mover power came from. It stung to think she was using her powers for personal gain the same way I had. Not exactly the same as I never stole from people, but I had been a jerk.

“Pretty much, I had been planning an actual heist tonight, but then I saw all this going on and I thought,” she placed a hand thoughtfully under her chin. “Cat, why go to all that trouble when you could just swoop in here and grab a couple of things.” She plucked a shiny necklace from the center of a poker table, she held it up into the light before putting it on. “No one here minds, right?”

“It doesn’t get in my way, go right ahead.” Scorpion went the extra mile in kiss assery and had his breaker shell approximate a little bow. It was stiff, but got the intended message across.

Kingpin’s voice called out over the intercom. “I’m properly insured, go right ahead Ms. Cat. Perhaps after this is finished we can discuss matters of employment?”

She feigned bashfulness. “For little old me? I’d be so honored.”

“There’s not going to be an after this for you Fisk! You humiliated me and now you die, Tonight!” Scorpion had raised a claw ruefully towards Fisk’s office as he spoke. Before he spoke again, the breaker turned back to face the thief. “But maybe I can have that conversation about employment in your stead.” It was like they’d forgotten I was here.

I threw a wooden stool leg at the back of Scorpion’s shell, the breaker had already started back on his way up to Fisk. “Hey, I get she’s pretty and all but I’m still right here!”

Scorpion turned his attention back onto me. “Let’s take care of that then.”  He began charging towards me and I responded with a charge of my own. I needed to start building up my brute power and the fastest way to do that was by just straight up running at the villain, meeting his attack with my own. Instead of leaping into a punch though, I slid under his legs and leapt upwards. 

Spinning my body in the air, my feet collided with his carapace. I channeled what I could into the impact, the kick had knocked him off balance. As I landed from the strike, I refused to give him a chance to steady himself. Ducking to avoid his claws, I charged at Scorpion, and slammed into the breaker with my shoulder. It was enough to get him skidding on the now slick floor into the cloud of gas. 

Scorpion had gone sliding into the center of the cloud. “You really think that some cold is-” Before his taunting could really get started, Scorpion was interrupted by the cracking noise of his shell stiffening, his joints freezing solid. “Oh! I can feel it from within! You’ve got brains” he audibly shivered, “After all, Spider.”

I began backing up. The blizzard cloud was taking up a good chunk of the area around it now and was still expanding.It would keep expanding for another five or so minutes before dissipating. “Just hang tight in there, once the cloud’s gone, I’ll pry you from your now fragile shell.”

I actually had him beat. Once the cloud dissipated I could get in there and shatter the shell. “Haha! I did it!” I had exclaimed, still reveling in a real victory over an actual supervillain.

The black cat who was still pilfering abandoned valuables looked up to see what I was talking about. “Sure seems that way Spider.” She walked over to where I was standing at a safe distance away from the cloud. “Pretty nasty way to go out though, isn’t it?”

That confused me. “Huh?”

“Being frozen to death inside your own power, kind of a nightmarish way to die.” The thief, who I really needed to start making an effort to stop soon, made me realize something incredibly distressing. 

I’d been operating on the assumption that Scorpion’s breaker state inside his armor would keep him safe from the cold, but what if it didn’t? What proof had I had for that assumption other than just a generalized understanding of breaker powers? The man wore shawls and had jackets in his closet after all. He had even shivered a moment ago. “Crap.”

Scorpion had, after some effort, tilted the head of his breaker form up to face the exposed sky through the glass roof. He was very slowly moving his massive arms to an outstretched position. It gave the implication that he might genuinely be dying over there and was actually reveling in it. If anything the villains seemed almost giddy to be entombed inside his own power.

Kingpin’s voice crackled to life through the various speakers around the casino. “Before you do something rash and undo the victory you’ve just secured. Let me remind you that Mac Gargon is a violent murderer slated for a fate that many consider to be equivalent to death.”

“Yeah, but that’s not for me to choose.” These powers weren’t so I could play judge, jury, and executioner, they were for helping people. Even murderous bastards like Mac Gargon. “Blizzard,” I stopped to explain “The gas.” Then continued “Won’t start to dissipate for another four minutes, which will probably kill Scorpion if he’s vulnerable to the cold while in his breaker state.” His dramatic posing inside the cloud was either confirmation he was vulnerable or a sign that he was incredibly dramatic. It was probably both.

Black cat stared at me, a confused look on her face. “And? What does that have to do with me? I pity the guy but I’m not gonna dive into that for a stranger.”

“Not much, I'm explaining why I need you to give me whatever powers your laser saw. Scorpion totaled my harness, and I need to be able to use my webs if I want to save him. I know from my own tinkering you need a serious powersource for anything lasery.” 

Black Cat still didn’t look very moved. “And what do I get out of this? I give you my battery and then what?” Seriously? I glared at the girl, did she not get that someone’s life was at stake? She laughed at me, “Your little lenses are so angry right now, it’s cute. If this was just some random guy I’d let you have it.”

I sighed, annoyed that she felt the need to do this now. “It’s not that different, a life is a life. Heroes don’t pick and choose who they save.”

“I’m not some naive little hero, I don’t see the world in blacks and whites. So if you want my tech to save a monster, I’d better be getting something out of it.” She’d gotten closer as she spoke, coming up to stand in front of me. It was difficult to not feel a little flustered by the proximity. This close I could see the little claws on the tips of her white gloves.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like this.” She brought one of her gloved hands up to rest it on my right shoulder. For one unfathomably stupid moment I thought she was going to pull up my mask and kiss me, stupidly I kind of wanted her to. Instead of that hormone fueled delusion, her other hand unscrewed the left mounted web shooter off of my harness. “This’ll do.” She stepped back, letting go of the gentle hold her right hand had held on me.

She took out the laser she’d used to cut through the roof, she unlatched the back of it and took something out. “Catch.” She tossed it at me.

It took an early warning from my spider sense, but I managed to catch the battery and looked it over. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Inside a translucent tube bouncing back and forth between two metal discs was a small metal ball, but it was bouncing so fast my eyes could only process it as if it was just floating there. “Is this perpetual motion?”

She laughed, smiling in a way that I thought might be genuine. “Almost, it bounces like that for a few days before it goes kaput. Haven’t found a metal strong enough to last forever yet. Pretty nice though right?” She spoke proudly.

I smiled back, hoping my lenses were able to convey that. “It is. You’re a genius, cat.” I meant it, cracking perpetual motion? Even with the help of powers that was impressive stuff.

She coyly brushed a hand through her hair, “You say that to all the capes you meet. And it’s really just my power’s work.”

“No, I mean it.” I had to lean on my tinker power to get Cat’s battery connected to my web shooters, I patched it into the remains of the spider battery. The lights on my web shooters flashed blue. “This is incredible, You’re incredible.”

“I know.” She started walking backwards. “I’m gonna leave now, before the scary monster guy gets out. I don’t think I want to risk the chance he overheard

me suggesting that you let him die.”

“Wait!” I shouted. “Were you at os-” Black Cat interrupted me.

“I was, we’ll talk about it next time.” She spoke, getting into some sort of leaping stance.

She knew something about this cluster stuff it seemed. “Next time? I don’t understand.”

“We're clustered Spider, we’ll run into each other again.” She laughed like she’d just told a cruel joke. “Can’t stay away from each other now. None of us have much choice about it..” Were cluster capes drawn to each other? Was that why she’d happened to come here tonight?

She sprung up through the skylight like the very ground was launching her up. Maybe it was? Instead of attaching to a surface maybe she could repel and attract herself to and from them like magnets. That was cool. She was cool. She… was a thief I’d just let leave without trying to stop.

Kingpin may have been fine with it, but those weren’t even his things, they were mostly his customers’. There was also the matter of the slowly freezing to death Scorpion that I was trying to save. “Focus.”

My webs restored, minus one web shooter, I put together another slingshot. I didn’t want to get stuck in the blizzard cloud for very long, and trying to pull him out with a web rope wouldn’t work, the gas was already too cold for my webs at this point. I’d have to fling myself in with enough force to push us both out.

Kingpin’s voice echoed out again. “The two of you were sickeningly sweet.” 

I pulled one web rope into place and started on the next. “Don’t get the wrong impression. I’m not dating a criminal.”

“But you certainly seem to want to.” The big bastard was laughing. I could see him sitting at his desk behind that stupid massive window. 

I was blushing behind the mask, I shouldn’t have responded and just focused on pulling back the slingshot. “I don’t, I just… think she could change.”

“Are you saying you can fix her?”

Peter, I swear to god, shut the fuck up. “Maybe!”

Fisk laughed even more, not a light controlled chuckle, but real unrestrained laughter. “You’re such a kid, Spider- Man .”

“So naive to the world of romance. Let me give you some advice, Spider-Man.” When I glanced at his window I could see he was twirling a pen in his hand.

The sling shot had started to get harder and harder to pull back, I was as far as I could push it before letting go would send me flying. “I want to be clear that I meant ‘fix her’, in like a ‘my friendship could help her not be a villain’ way. And not in a ‘my love will make her a better woman’ way.”

“Right.” Kingpin sounded unconvinced. “Sure, but simply in the spirit of giving advice.” He spoke his next words with a surprising bit of softness “Don’t pursue someone you think you have to fix, it’s unfair to both parties.” 

“I’ll keep it in mind.” 

I stopped pushing, and placed all the exertion I had built up into my brute power. The strength and durability it granted seemed to offer some slight resistance to the elements as well. I thudded into the chest of the Scorpion and pushed him flying with me. I shoved him against the wall on our way out of the cloud. I had half expected his shell to shatter from the impact, but it hadn’t. After all of that I still hadn’t managed to crack the breaker’s shell. 

But I’d need to get him out of there somehow. “Mac, you’re freezing to death, I need to get you out of there so we can warm you up.” I placed a hand on the head of the shell while I spoke. He didn’t respond initially, so I took a step back to try and decide on my options. That was when the light in the breaker form’s yellow eyes went dark. 

I’d killed him. I had foolishly allowed a man to die because of something I’d created. I was almost too busy berating myself to notice that light come back on. “Gargon?” The relief in my tone must have been palpable. His breaker form had started to glow a faint green color, all of the ice and frost that had accumulated was slicking off of him now.

“A cool bit about my power that I almost never get to use in a fight, is that when I leave my breaker state I revert to the state I was in before I entered it.” Ah crap. PHO had said he took just as long to leave it as he did to enter it. “So, before my armor fades, I’m gonna gut Fisk, and since I’m now back to 100% you’re gonna fuck off. Because you saved me, I’m gonna be nice and let you run.”

I rested my hand on my chin, as if I was actually considering his offer. “Run away so you can kill someone, or finish kicking your ass all the way back home? I think I’ll take the latter.” It was becoming a pretty predictable song and dance at this point, Scorpion swung down with his claws and I leapt out of the way.

I had one final thing I could try. It was kind of a little bit risky, but that’s the job. “Hey, if you do kill me, can I go on the pin board with the Pinky Yellow Moths?”

That pissed him off like I’d hoped. “THEY’RE CALLED ROSY MAPLE MOTHS, YOU CLOWN!” He raised his claw up, about to swing it down on me, I rolled quickly to the left just as he was bringing it down and fired out a web at the claw. I tugged the claw to the left and it came slamming down on his other hand instead of the spider themed hero he’d been intending to hit. To my endless delight, it worked, Scorpion shattered his own claw into pieces.

“Woah there Mac, I think you’re crumbling, need to talk about it?.” I had him now! Scorpion went for a strike with his tail, I side stepped around it and leapt atop his back. He tried to get me with his one remaining arm, so I webbed it to his hip. If I hadn’t grabbed hold of his tail he might’ve been able to use it to free his claw in time to throw me off. But I had hold of the scorpion’s stinger and I brought it slamming down into the breaker shell cutting it open.

Glowing the same faint green as his shell had been, I saw Mac Gargon in his red shawl, his eyes were closed. And even though he was right in front of me his mouth didn’t move as he spoke through the shell. “NO!” I grabbed the guy, and as soon as his body left contact with the shell he stopped glowing, and the armor just disappeared.

His eyes opened wide and he pulled a knife from his pants as he went to stab me. I dropped him onto the ground before he could, my danger sense had given me ample warning to avoid the strike. “Not nice.” I grabbed the knife out of his hand and threw it out of reach. I then webbed his wrists and feet together. “This is over.”

“I guess it is.” Mac Gargon spoke in his actual voice, it was the first time that I had heard it. “For tonight. But my Teeth will rend you limb from limb for this in the days to come.”

“They’ll try.” I can’t help the petty impulse that leads me to web his mouth shut. I know it’s perfectly safe, but it makes me feel like a jerk if I resort to it everytime. I propped Mac up somewhere I could keep an eye on him, and sat down on the stairs to Wilson Fisk’s office. I was positively exhausted at this point.

I heard creaking behind me, despite the lack of any warning from my powers I still reflexively tensed. If he wanted to throw down, I would. “Relax.” The Kingpin of crime sat down beside me, I didn’t have it in me to make him go away. “He told you the truth.”

I tilted my head at the man, he was absolutely enormous, with him sitting beside me we took up the whole of the stairwell. “What are you talking about?”

“The Teeth. He’s not making empty promises to scare you. You have made yourself the primary target for a group of murderous thugs. They’ll flay the skin from your bones if you carry on on your own.” 

I shrugged. “Like I said before, they’ll try.” 

His mouth opened but it was ten seconds too long before he found the words to speak again. “You’re nothing like I expected. Based on your past I expected someone more carefree and irresponsible, what has made you so different?”

Ben, The mountain of Spree corpses I’d nearly been buried under, this fight with Scorpion. “I don’t know, life I guess.” I shook my head. “All I know is that it doesn’t matter what comes next. I just have to keep doing what’s right.”

“I’m a beacon of community whose businesses have provided for the local economy. What if what was right was working for me?”

That got a small dismissive laugh out of me. “It wouldn’t be.” I told him.

He chuckled in agreement. “Can't blame me for trying, I’d be stupid not to make an effort to hire the Young man who saved me and my employees from the dastardly Scorpion.”

I frowned, he was so full of it. “I saved a lot of people here today, but I’m not so convinced you ever needed saving.” 

He grinned, bumping me in the shoulder. “I’m powerless Spider-man, what would I have done?” He held out his hands as if showing off his unarmed status

I laughed. “Even if that’s true, you knew he was weak to his own armor, didn’t you? It’s why you wouldn’t be scared if he came for you. Big guy like you could slam his claws  back into his chest and be done with him quickly.”

He smiled and sat his hands in his lap. “I might have suspected it, you learn a lot about how powers work and their various tricks the longer you’re a player in this game.”

Once the exhaustion had receded enough for me to think, my first thoughts were of the wounded man I had left lying on the balcony. I was too exhausted to web swing now that the adrenaline was no longer pumping through my body. I walked up the stairs to the balcony, the Kingpin walking with me. 

Once we were up with the man I was able to check his pulse. I had to take a second to remind myself how to do it, but I felt a heartbeat. “He’s alive,” I told Fisk.

“Good.” The kingpin gently lifted up the man. “He held his ground for me, it was idiotic. But even when foolish, loyalty is a characteristic that deserves to be rewarded.” 

“That was kind of sweet. Ya know, for a ruthless criminal you’re kind of a big softy.” I snarked

“Ruthless criminal? Where did you get such outlandish ideas?” He asked the question with an almost joking tone.

I held back the worst of my irritation and said, as dryly as I could.  “The world knows what you are.”

“Can the world prove these accusations? Is there any evidence to embolden your claims?” We were walking back down the stairs now, I walked backwards down the stairs, so I could continue to face him while he spoke.

I took too long to think of a response. “I imagined not. I am only that which I can be proven to be.” I hated his smug, condescending face. 

We made it back down to the ground floor, I could hear ambulances outside, and through the hole in the glass doors I saw a few PRT squad cars. 

“I’ll take him to the paramedics. Just try and stick to legitimate business for a while.” Wilson offered no rebuttal and I took the door guard from him and carried the man out of the building. 

The PRT could be pretty jumpy, one of them pulled their gun on me as I came out. “Are you with The Scorpion?” One of them yelled through a megaphone, a sort of squat trooper in tactical gear.

I stopped walking. “Standard fare when people raise a gun at you is to raise your hands up, but mine are kind of occupied trying to get this guy to that ambulance.” I nodded my head to where the ambulance was. “So like, don’t shoot me!” I yelled at the troopers. 

The guy with the megaphone yelled out. “Where is the Scorpion? Is he still inside?”

“Yeah? He’s still in there, probably angrier than he’s ever been, but he’s in there.” I explained

“How many dead?” The Megaphone guy asked again.

“None. About to be one if you don’t drop the weapons and let me get this man some help.” I was starting to get impatient with these guys.

The man whose gun had been raised shared a look with the smaller guy with the megaphone, he gestured to me with his gun to be quick about it and lowered the weapon.

The squat guy jogged up to walk beside me as I made my way over to the ambulance in the parking lot. “I’m Officer Weele,” I wasn’t going that fast, but he seemed to have gotten a bit winded catching up to me.

“Yeah?” I asked, questioning why he felt the need to come up and talk to me.

“Yeah,” He replied chipperly. “I’m something of a liaison between the PRT and independent heroes like yourself.”

That explained why he’d want to talk to me. We’d made it over to the ambulance, the paramedics pulled out a stretcher. I recognized one of them as being there the day Ben died, he was the one that had tried to brandish that scalpel. He nodded at me and smiled. I placed the man down on the stretcher. “Scorpion grabbed him with his pinchers, tried to throw him at a window. I got to him before he made impact and bandaged his sides with my webs.” 

I didn’t like mentioning this in front of the freaky PRT liaison guy, but they’d need to know. “It dissolves with hot water, not exactly warm, but not boiling either.” 

He nodded in thanks. “You’re making him proud, Spider-Man. Loving that new suit!”

Weele’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Who exactly is he making proud? Do you know this man?” He was asking the paramedic, gesturing to me.

His eyes traced over the squat man in front of him for the first time and looked back at me, the person he’d just spoken to. “Who? That guy? I ain’t ever seen him before.”

“But you just said-”

“I say a lot of things, now scram little dude. We got a man to get to the hospital.”

We got out of their way “Thanks-”

“Call me Vinny. See you around Spidey.” He gave me a salute and got back into the ambulance.

Officer Weele finally accepted he’d not be getting any info about me from the paramedics and settled into walking with me back to the entry way steps. “It’s a great thing that I got to run into you tonight. We’ve been hoping for an opportunity to approach you for a while now.”

The smaller man had kept talking but I had started tuning out. A list of my next steps before I could leave ran through my head. Make sure they secured Scorpion, offer to help them with transporting Scorpion, and then…

My train of thought was completely derailed, Fisk was standing outside the Amethyst Rose speaking to two capes in front of a gathering crowd of journalists and cameras. Something about Wilson’s physical appearance had felt off to me, the zoom on my lenses let me see a small cut in his suit that hadn’t been there before I’d left with his doorman. What had happened to him?

But more importantly than that, the capes he was speaking with were Legend and one of the Wards, she was new and from what I knew she was part of the team that patrolled around queens. Her name was Silk, which I only knew because she was the seeming favorite of my sometimes lunch partner Liz Allen. Whenever she sat with me and Cindy she’d often bring up the Ward, asking me what I thought of her.

Oh. What if Cindy was Silk? She had some little tinkery gadgets on her suit, her power was some kind of super reflexes. Called Silk not only for the cloth on her suit but also because she was “smooth as silk” in a fight. Powers matched up for the most part, even if I didn’t know what her brute or mover power could be. The hair and the height were dead giveaways too.

“Stunned speechless?” I snapped out of my revelation, turning my attention onto what Weele had just asked me.

I was, honestly. “Yeah.” I didn’t have any other words to respond with, just ‘Yeah.’

“Legend has that effect on people.”

“Right, Legend, totally.” While not the reason I was stunned, if it weren’t for the Cindy revelation he certainly could have been. Legend was someone that everyone knew, the living epitome of what heroes are supposed to be. There was a reason even a kid who preferred the dramatics of cartoon villains like Kid Astronomy had idolized the hero enough to wear one of his Halloween costumes.

I approached the crowd to get a better look at what was going on. I saw Hummingbird, he was just standing at the back of the crowd. I could see he’d traded his earlier gloves for a pair with clawed talons on the end. They looked impressive, had he gone to get them after he got help? “Hummingbird, nice claws man.”

Hummingbird glanced at me, his expression and tone were frigid. “I thought they were, but I guess it’s still not good enough.” 

“HB what are you talking about?” What was going on with him? He seemed terribly off compared to how he’d been before everything went down.

Kingpin must’ve caught sight of me through the crowd. “Speaking of above and beyond, I really must thank a special individual. Spider-Man, come on up here!” The Kingpin called out, gesturing for me to come up.

 The crowd parted enough for me to make my way up. A few awkward claps, one or two cheers from guys in purple tank tops. Hummingbird glared at me, he took a step back and gestured to the path that had been made for me. “Go on, you earned it.” There was a weird sort of pressure that he placed on the word “earned” like he didn’t think I’d earned whatever he thought I was getting.

I wasn’t sure what to do and just walked through the crowd, coming up to stand on the top few steps. Maybe I should’ve just swung away, it wasn’t like there’d be any trouble with Legend here. Kingpin came over to stand behind me. “I know many are concerned for my safety, especially after this ridiculous attack by a delusional mad man. But I want to assure the public,” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “that with my new personal bodyguard Spider-Man, I am in good hands.”

…His new what?

Chapter Text

Neon light shone down on us from the big gaudy sign on the front of the casino. ‘Amethyst rose’ in dazzling neon, the word amethyst glowed a purple color and rose was red. The lights had been something I had ignored before but now felt like an irritant I couldn’t escape from. Even though my danger sense was quiet, the grip of Kingpin’s hand on my shoulder felt suffocating. A silent reminder of not only his sheer physical strength but also of the knowledge he had.

Kingpin knew about Oscorp, how hard would it be for him to find out who I was? If I corrected him here, and told everyone I wasn’t his stooge, what would happen? Would he out me? And what about If I go along with it. What happens to Spider-Man’s hero career if everyone, Legend included, thinks he’s a bodyguard for the most elusive villain to ever operate. 

Too many lights on me, the signs, the cameras, The faint soft glow around legend’s costume. Had to speak up, had to say something. “I-” public speaking was so much harder when your audience was actually in front of you. “I’m not-” Wilson’s grip tightened, he wanted me to think if I continued he’d squeeze hard enough to break my shoulder. But my danger sense never pinged, even if I did correct him he wouldn’t be foolish enough to make a move like that in public.

Still, he might out my identity in the future. Why would Wilson insist on making me his new bodyguard, I know that’s what he had Hummingbird come to interview for. If he was willing to just strongarm a tinker into the position why bother with interviews at all and not just nab someone? More importantly, was Wilson Fisk really the kind of guy to put his life in the hands of someone who he’s forcing into that position?

No, he’s too smart for that. Then why? I took a step forward shrugging off his grip. It was like he’d said before, his reputation would take a hit if Wilson Fisk was seen as needing help/rescue. So he had to spin it as showing off his newest asset. If I wanted to make it out of this with Spider-Man’s reputation intact and my identity not revealed by the Kingpin someday, I needed to find a new spin. 

A spin that satisfied Kingpin’s narrative and kept Spider-Man independent. I glanced at Legend, the man was a personal hero of mine, probably a personal hero of everyone in New York. I think every family in the city has some sort of Legend story at this point. I had a narrative in mind, but… Ugh, I just had to get this over with and Swing out of here.

“I’m really thankful for the praise Willy, but I think some wires might’ve gotten crossed.” I hoped he’d figure out where I was going with this soon. The look on his face was barely concealing his irritation.

“Were they?” His tone of voice was challenging, inviting me to keep talking and invite my doom.

I refrained from gulping. “Yeah, but it’s not your fault. I really should’ve been more clear. Before, I had said ‘I’ll always be here to protect you’ -” I had said no such thing “-is that I’m the only one who will come to the rescue of anyone, no matter what. Regardless of their reputation or the risks of the situation, I’ll do what’s right.”

Kingpin smiled. “Yes, it’s a shame the protectorate couldn’t be here to assist sooner, but thankfully Spider-Man was around. So sorry for the confusion, but thank you for clearing it up for us.”

Silk bristled at that, she did that same angry shake of her shoulders that she does all the time as Cindy. I wondered briefly if she knew it was me behind my mask, and if she’d figure me out as quickly as I had figured her out. “What is that supposed to mean? We did our best to get here as fast as we could.”

I had to counter her argument. “Legend can fly around the world in less than a minute, he couldn’t get here sooner?” It was a jerk thing to say, I knew already that legend’s blasts weren’t effective against Scorpion, and that he’d have to actually know about it sooner to be there sooner.

“He has to actually know that something’s happening, he’s not psychic. We left as soon as we heard on our patrol.” She crossed her arms in annoyance.

“Enough Silk.” Legend spoke up and faced both Kingpin and I directly. My childhood hero was speaking to me and it was to address me as part of the same group as a super villain. “I’m sorry our response time was inadequate for you two, most of us were off on special assignments tonight. It's only thanks to Silk that we wrapped ours up early enough to be here.”

Cindy practically keened with pride, It was adorable. She noticed me staring and discreetly flipped me off where none of the cameras could see. I kept myself from laughing because Legend was still talking. “I’ll be making an effort to make sure we don’t become stretched thin again.” Something about his voice sounded pissed, I wondered for the first time if it was maybe more the PRT that wanted to avoid stopping Scorpion and not the Protectorate. A pretty nasty divide there I’d be willing to bet.

Eventually the sudden press conference had ended, and I was free to swing off back home and crash. I swung off but instead of going home I waited on a roof for a few minutes before swinging back to the rose. I saw the kingpin's limo driving off and swung down onto the street in front of it. The car came to a sudden stop and a window was rolled down. “Get in before I ask my driver to run you over!” The Kingpin yelled.

He opened the door for me and I got in. It was really nice, frustratingly comfortable leather seats. “What was with that back there?” 

Kingpin frowned in confusion. “Didn’t you already figure it out? I needed to protect my reputation, you found a way to protect ours both. I didn’t even end up needing to threaten you, great job.”

“My identity are you…” I couldn’t bring myself to verbalize the question. I was so nervous.

“Relax, I don’t know your identity. I know you triggered during Oscorp, it was the only event recently that could’ve produced a cluster trigger. You could be any one of the staff or students that were around during the bombing.” His words eased the nerves in my gut. 

“Okay, good.” That was honestly the only reason I’d wanted to check back in with him. He opened his mouth to speak and I spoke before he could. “I’m not going to work for you.”

“Fair enough.” At the next stop sign he opened the door for me to leave. “Go on, just know that you impressed me tonight.” I didn’t like that, I wasn’t very enthused about the idea of being someone that interested a criminal mastermind. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I got out of the limo and swung my way back home. I could not wait to sleep, I crept back into my room and crashed onto my bed.

After somewhere around three hours of sleep I was woken up early by my incredibly kind and supportive Aunt May. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to be a cranky jerk, but I managed to be normal and civil that morning. “Oh, by the way Peter.” Aunt May began, “I mailed out that letter for you, the one you must’ve been meaning to send to your penpal.”

My fork stabbed into a slice of sausage with more force than intended. “You did?” Through gritted teeth I forced a smile and a polite “Thank you.” Before I retreated to my bedroom to scream into my pillow. Mary Jane would actually read that incredibly vulnerable vent letter I’d written. I couldn’t let onto Aunt May how much her actions had bothered me. She was trying so hard to be helpful, she wouldn’t be very happy if she knew she’d messed up.

I got up and went back into the kitchen. May was staring at me with a look of concern, I’d probably worried her with my abrupt retreat to my room. “Peter, is everything alright?” She asked.

“I’m fine, I’d forgotten something in my room and needed to get it before school, since I’m uh going in early.” I’d nearly forgotten about that lie I’d told May last night at dinner until she’d woken me up early. I was getting too used to lying to my aunt lately, I promised myself that I would start telling her the truth once things got a little less stressful with my double lives and we were able to put some time between us and Ben’s death.

After breakfast that morning, May took me to school a whole hour earlier than usual. I’d planned to just kind of go and wait in solitude, but after a few minutes of standing around outside I saw Flash’s truck pull up in the parking lot. Liz was sitting in his passenger seat. Were they dating again? I could never keep track of their whole on and off thing.

“Heyo Parker!” “Hi Petey!” Flash and Liz called out at the same time, both of them calling me over. Liz was a friend of a friend and Flash was a pseudo friend. Spending an hour hanging out with the two of them couldn’t be that bad. 

“Yeah, hey guys. What’s up?” I waved limply and smiled as they approached. I was actually sort of relieved to not be without something or someone to distract me until classes started. I was nervous about speaking with Cindy again, worried that she’d know who I was. Especially after I’d said those things about the protectorate.

Flash looked more frazzled than I was used to. “Kind of a lot, my mom was at the casino last night when it got attacked.” That woman I’d thought looked familiar, that was flash’s mom wasn’t it?

“I saw something about that whole thing on TV this morning.” I wasn’t lying, May had turned the TV on again during breakfast, it had been big news. “Is she alright?”

Flash nodded, he seemed to appreciate that I’d ask. “Yeah, a tiny bit shaken up about it. But Spider-Man saved her, he’s like my new favorite superhero.”

I knew that I had fans, but aside from Spree (who I really didn’t feel like actually counted) the only one I’d ever met before in person had been Kid Astronomy. So it felt weirdly kind of awesome to hear Flash of all people say I was his favorite Superhero. “Yeah? He uh seems pretty cool.” I muttered, I didn’t have the ego necessary to not feel like a loser for hyping up my alter ego.

Liz scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Here he goes again…” Did Liz have a problem with me, err, Spider-Man?

Flash groaned. “Here I go again? He saved my mom, I’m not supposed to like the guy who saved the only adult in my life who sometimes cares about me?” He held out his hands dramatically. “Why’re you so dead set on hating him?”

Liz shrugged. “He’s an asshat jerk who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, that stuff he said about the protectorate and the wards was uncalled for.” She looked down at her feet. “They’re doing the best they can.”

“I don’t really give a crap about them, the protectorate didn’t save my mom, the wards didn’t save my mom, Spidey did.” Flash stated.

“It’s not like he called them out by name, I mean he was kinda vague with the whole save anyone regardless of risk thing, I’m sure he probably wasn’t even talking about either.” I rambled, “Yeah, I Bet Spider-Man was talking about like The Ultimates or something.”

“Petey, the ultimates haven’t been a team in years, keep up.” Liz said. “And also, he was absolutely talking about them, he came up and started that, shortly after Fisk had condescended about response times.” She was getting awfully upset, but Liz did seem to be a big cape fan, Cindy might’ve even told Liz she was a Ward and that was why she was being so defensive.

I hadn’t actually known what he was talking about before I came up. “Oh, and he blew off the Prt trooper just trying to get him to sign some independent hero stuff, so he’s more like a vigilante than really a superhero.” Liz let out a nervous laugh, “That’s what I read on pho anyways.” She must’ve been embarrassed to admit she was browsing forums in front of her boyfriend.

Flash sighed. “I’m not gonna change my mind, and you’re not gonna change yours, let’s just agree to disagree. Yeah?” 

Liz nodded and gave him a peck on the cheek. “Yeah, alright.” 

I looked away awkwardly which caused Flash to laugh and me to feel more embarrassed. “Relax dork, we’re not gonna start making out in front of you, don’t want to disturb your innocent Nerdlinger sensitivities.” He teased me.

“Innocent? Do we even know the same Petey? Have you seen the way he looks at Cindy?” I missed when they were arguing about Spider-Man, I’d actually prefer it if Liz went back to badmouthing Spidey.

“I hate both of you right now.” They laughed, and something about it made me laugh too. 

“Sorry, that was actually kind of mean, but I tease for a good reason though.” Liz spoke hurriedly. “You’re not hearing this from me, but Cindy definitely likes you too, you should ask her out.”

“You should.” Flash added. “She stood up to me for you. She’s gotta like you if that’s happening. Maybe now’s the time to have something new in your life that’s actually a good change.”

That was actually a profound piece of advice that resonated really personally. There have been a lot of changes in my life. Maybe that was something new that I should consider. “I’ll keep it in mind, but please stop teasing me. I’m gonna invent new shades of red if I start blushing any more.” 

Eventually the time to start the actual school day came and I separated myself from Flash and Liz. My classes went well, I didn’t have any I shared with Cindy until after lunch. How much does Cindy know about our powers? Did she know anything about this cluster stuff Kingpin and Cat had mentioned? The Black Cat had seemed pretty confident that our powers guaranteed we’d meet again somehow. 

I really needed to do some research on this stuff, maybe I could email Ned. Ned Leeds had been one of the finalists at the Oscorp competition and I knew he was taking some classes on Parahumans at ESU. 

I cleared my head of all of that and braced myself for lunch, I waved to Cindy at the cafeteria. She waved back and I felt myself commit to a plan. Even if Cindy didn’t know who I was, I resolved to tell her. The whole point of attending the Oscorp expo as a competitor had been so I could stop lying to my family, and in the aftermath of the attack I’d only gained more lies and more secrets.

Just this once I wanted to tell the truth, wanted me and Cindy to be on an even playing field. Cindy smiled and waved back, which with how pissed she’d been at Spider-man, I doubted she’d be doing if she knew we were the same person. I made my way over to her to chat before getting our food.

Cindy shot me a sad smile. “Hi Peter, I’m really sorry I couldn’t make it to your uncle’s funeral yesterday, I know how much he meant to you.” God, the funeral was yesterday… so much had happened in such a small amount of time.

“Thanks, it’s alright. I kinda had to leave halfway through and missed most of the service.” I frowned, Cindy looked so sad on my behalf. I weirdly didn’t feel bad about leaving, I’d been doing what Ben would have wanted me to do, saving Gloria had felt good. 

“That’s awful. I’m sorry that happened Pete.”

“It’s alright…” I was committed to talking about the cape stuff but it would need to happen somewhere discreet. “Hey, can we talk after School? I have some stuff I need to get off my chest.” 

She smiled, and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, I almost melted into the touch. “Anytime Peter, I’m here for you.” She really seemed to know the exact right thing to do or say in moments like this.

The idea that she might be using her thinker power to cheat at social interactions hit me like a splash of cold water. I pulled back just a tiny smidge, it wasn’t like that was a bad thing necessarily. But the idea of being manipulated into feeling a certain way gave me the heebie jeebies, even if I knew she wouldn’t do that. 

Cindy jerked back like she’d burned herself. “Are you alright? Sorry, I thought it would be a nice gesture?”

I shook my head. “It was. It was really nice. You're amazing, truly. Just a lot on my plate and in my head.”

Cindy’s little devious smile was one of my favorite sights. “But we haven’t gotten our plates yet.”

I laughed louder at the joke than would ever remotely be deserved. “Then let’s go do that.”

After school, Cindy and I met up behind the building. “I’m so sorry this is happening somewhere so close to the dumpsters, I just don’t want anyone to overhear what I’m gonna say.”

Cindy gave me a patient smile, “it’s alright Peter, what girl doesn’t love the smell of garbage?”

“I know that’s sarcasm, but you have such a genuine tone of voice it can be hard to read sometimes.”

She crossed her arms, “Pete get to the point, please. I’m happy to be here for you, but it reeks.”

Okay, go on Peter, just be honest. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, when I was done I met Cindy’s eyes. She looked so excited and hopeful. “Cindy, I lied to you.” She seemed shocked, but gave me the chance to keep explaining myself. “When you asked me if anything weird happened to me during the explosion. I lied and said nothing had… but the truth is, that I got powers just like you did.”

Cindy went completely blank for a moment. “Powers? I don’t-” I cut her off, there was no point in denying it.

“I know this is like a cape taboo, but I realized you were Silk last night and you deserve to know the truth about me.” She was still shocked but was beginning to ease up, losing some of the tension she’d been building.

Cindy looked me up and down. Eventually she came to a conclusion “You’re Spider-Man?” I nodded. “Pete what the hell?” She shouted in a low whisper. “You made us look like fools last night.”

I sheepishly brought my right hand to rest on the nape of my neck. “I didn’t have a lot of options, Fisk was gonna let everyone think I was a supervillain’s bodyguard.”

Cindy frowned. “So you just throw other heroes under the bus?”

“Yes.” I stated. “Scorpion had been out for days riling up Fisk’s people, my uncle died, what was the protectorate doing?”

Cindy got quiet, I could tell she was offended, but she stayed quiet. I realized she was trying to find the right words to respond with. “I don’t know everything, the whole story isn’t one I have. But I know Scorpion was complicated, all the thinkers in watch dog were saying direct engagement was a bad idea, casualties would be negligible if-”

I interrupted. “No casualty is negligible.”

“I agree” I was… I wasn’t exactly surprised to hear her say that, I knew Cindy would agree with me. but some part of me had expected her to give me some sort of company line. “But it’s not up to me to decide what we do or where we go.”

Cindy continued, “Last night Director Fury had us all over the city on different assignments. Eventually I realized something was amiss and used my power to figure out the real source of danger that night.”

“Why would Fury have you… Oh.” It made sense, ever since Directory Fury had taken over as PRT director in New York he’d been very vocal about his intentions to drive out the villainous elements. “Two birds…”

“One stone.” Cindy finished for me. “Legend gave him the shouting match of the century, it was great.”

I laughed, what I wouldn’t give to see something like that. “I’m really glad I can be honest with you.”

Cindy smiled. “Me too…”

At some point during our talking we’d started getting closer to the other. “In the spirit of honesty…” Cindy trailed off.

“Yeah?” I’d asked dumbly.

She wrapped her arms behind my neck. “I like you a lot.” 

“I… uh…” Screw it. Let me have just this one nice thing. “Me too.” We kissed, I think it was both of ours first kisses and it was messy and terrible but also sweet and perfect. We pulled apart. 

Cindy’s smile was so bright and infectious, I found myself smiling and laughing, the two of us just so overjoyed I think to have the other feel the same.  “We’ll have to do that a lot after you join.”

I frowned, Joined? “Join what? The debate club?” I did actually want to join debate club with Cindy, I wanted to be better at arguing with people the next time I ran into someone like Fisk. 

She tilted her head, her eyes full of confusion. “Debate Is mostly just a cover for Ward stuff, I barely go. I’m talking about when you join the wards.”

“I’m not.”

My reply had shocked her. “You’re not going to join the Wards? What team are you joining then? Don’t even think about joining the Adepts, I’m not going to date you if you start calling your powers magic and join a pyramid scheme.” She placed a hand on my shoulder. “You do want to date right? I wouldn’t kiss someone I didn’t want to date but…” she trailed off

“I do, I totally do,” I reassured her. “Don’t worry about any of that stuff, I’m really stupidly interested in you.”

Seeing that seemed to calm her, I returned to the main concern at hand. “But what’s with all this team stuff? I’m not planning on joining any, it seems like they kind of get in the way.”

Something I said had horrified her. “Pete, do you know how short the life expectancy of a cape on their own is?”

I frowned. “It can’t be that bad.”

She shook her head. “It’s bad, real bad.”

I can’t help people if I’m wrapped in red tape, but I also can’t help anyone if I’m dead. “Okay, I’ll think about joining the wards. Is that good enough?” I conceded

Cindy nodded, “for now? Yeah.” She wrapped her arms over my shoulders again and whispered, “I’m never forgiving you for making us have our first kiss by the dumpsters.”

“Seriously? It’s not like I was planning on asking you out yet… but since the first already happened here it’s not that big a deal if the second-” I had been leaning in to kiss her again but she blocked my mouth with her hand, pulling away. 

“We’re going on an actual date before you kiss me again, and it has to be nice.” I nodded emphatically.

“Yes ma’am.” I gave her a salute, she laughed at how dorky I was being, and then I followed her out from behind the school. Once we went our separate ways I called my Aunt.

Maybe it was a bit of a loser move that this was the first and only person I’d be calling to share the news that I had a girlfriend with. But hey! This loser had a cool girlfriend now who liked me for the loser that I am. She picked up on the fifth ring. 

“Peter, I’m glad you called. How are you?”

I smiled, pumping my fist in the air. “Aunt May, you’re not going to believe the day I am having.”

Chapter Text

Clint was waiting for me when I arrived outside the mansion, the building wasn’t far from the home I was staying at so I’d gone ahead and walked there. The older cape was wearing a prt emblazoned cap on his head, a shirt that read ‘Coolest Guy Here’, and a pair of dark sunglasses. Somehow, he really looked the part of just some random guy. 

I liked Clint, the wisping threads attached to him that my power always beckoned me to reach out towards, to examine were soft and natural. His fate had gone mostly untampered with. He was easier to look at than most other capes I’d met since getting burdened with my powers.

“Cindy.” He called out, pulling me from my thoughts. “Thanks for coming, I know unmasked stuff can be sort of uncomfortable. I’ve got another pair of shades if you want them.”

It was kind of scary to be meeting my new team out of costume, but it had been explained to me that it was a sort of rule for the manor that no costumes were allowed outside the underground base. “No, I’ll be alright, that wouldn’t really hide anything,  and I think the whole point of this is not to be hiding anything right?”

Clint shrugged. “I guess it is, but the sunglasses are nice for people who’ve gotten too used to a mask that hides your eyes.” 

“Is that directed at me?” My costume did hide my eyes, I wondered why he'd bring it up though. 

“You have a bit of a tendency to stare at people pretty weirdly, Poor Legend thought you hated him after he met you.” Clint laughed at the groan inducing memory.

“That was different, I just… I was Star struck and my power was getting complicated stuff from him.” The complicated stuff were the wispy black strands where the hero’s future was being woven in a particular way. It had been hard not to look away from things like that, how frightening it was knowing there were somethings changing people’s lives however they saw fit. “It’s not because I’m used to staring at people through my mask, I don’t do that.”

Clint shrugged again and I was really starting to hate that gesture. “If you say so kid.” Clint led me to the entrance to the manor and opened the door. “Welcome Cindy Moon to Queens’ illustrious Wards manor.”

An older man in a suit holding a feather duster and wiping down a mantel place stopped what he was doing to greet us. His threads were more solid than Clint’s or even my own and I’m not sure what that meant. But they weren’t the number stained threads I sometimes saw or the crystalline string or that horrid inky blackness that was in so many threads. So I figured solid was good. I’d take a look at them to understand better, but that felt like an invasion of someone’s privacy. “Salutations young Lady, I am Edwin Jarvis. I’m both the butler of this estate as well as your team’s Youth Guard representative.”

“We get a butler?” I asked Clint.

He laughed. “The manor has a butler, you have a Jarvis.”

“A Jarvis?” I asked, confused as to what Clint was getting at.

Another figure stepped out and I had to shake my head to try and clear the vision of inky blackness wrapped around the boy’s throat. I really needed to change how I visualized and processed the information my power gave me before I started having nightmares. ‘Unless it’s something really really big, don’t show me the threads, this is too much.’ and just like that the threads were fainter. they were now barely there things that I’d really have to focus my full attention on to see. ‘That works.’

The boy was dressed in a blue cardigan sweater with a white shirt underneath. “A snarky old British man who makes you do your homework before you can go patrol.”

“That’s correct, yes. Excellent summary of my Character Mr. Drake.” Mr. Jarvis responded with a clap. “Now try using some of that wit in your English paper.”

I think I’m really going to like Jarvis. “That’s awesome, I’m Cindy.” I held my hand out towards the boy, doing my best not to think about anything my thinker power wanted to show me.

“I’m Bobby, I’m kind of going through a bit of a cape name change right now. I was icicle but they’re letting me try out IceMan.” I could not believe how happy he sounded about getting to use what sounded like an objectively worse name.

“You’re happy about that?” I asked

Bobby smiled kind of obliviously. “Of course I am, I’m trying to see if I can get some of that Spider-Man clout.” Bobby’s voice got a little louder the more he talked and the greater his excitement became. It was kind of endearing.

“Spider-Man? I’m a cape geek and I don’t know who that is.” It really was saying something if I’d not heard of him before.

“He’s new, he’s like this online prankster guy, he’s freaking hilarious, I’ll show you this great one where he’s in this big Jack in the box in Times Square and he pops out of it. It’s so freaking funny.” It didn’t really sound all that funny, but he seemed like he really liked it.

“And he’s a hero? It doesn’t really sound like he does anything heroic.”

Bobby frowned. “He does sometimes. He’s just having fun with it ya know? Enjoying his powers.”

It was my turn to frown. Enjoying your powers? Was that something other people got to do? I glared at the faint outlines of the tempting branching threads wisping off of Bobby. If I looked I knew I’d only see things I’d wish I hadn’t. And if I tried to change anything too much I risked… her noticing me.

Better to do small things, the subtle simple changes that came from my power’s influence on my subconscious would just have to be enough. I hoped for Bobby’s sake I was right. I hated this stupid terrifying power, it was just too much.

I was really enjoying the Oscorp expo, I’d made a new friend and everything. Peter was the type of friend I was sorely missing, no offense to Liz but I severely needed someone I could talk nerd stuff with who didn’t ask me to ‘translate into English’.

I’m a tiny bit paranoid due to some issues in my past, so when I saw a figure in a large duster walking behind a column During Peter’s competition I decided to get up and investigate. It was probably nothing but the coat was familiar in a way that I really did not like.

When I came around to where the man had gone I got a good look at his face and froze.

It’s him, I don’t know how he got out but it’s him it’s him its him it’s him it’s him it’s him it’s him it’s him it’s him it’s-

I was paralyzed with an intense bout of fear that felt all consuming, I recognized the man in the coat. Of course I did, I’d never forget the face of the man who’d taken me from my life. Ezekiel was somehow out of jail and here at Oscorp… was he here for me? To abduct me again? I couldn’t move, even though I wanted to sprint far far away.

Was that a bomb under his jacket? I wanted to scream but my mind was trapped back in the bunker, screaming would get me punished, I couldn’t scream. I tried to tell myself I wasn’t there and that it wouldn’t happen like that. But it was all too too much.

I snapped out of the memory. Bobby was looking at me concerned, Jarvis and Clint were as well. “Did I say something wrong?” Bobby asked.

It was easier to tell, now that I was really looking at the boy, that Bobby was two or three years younger than I was. “I’m fine, just a little lost in thought there, sorry, Spider-man sounds interesting.”

“Yeah,” Clint nodded before stepping over to Bobby. “Can you go get June?”

“My ice buddy? Sure thing, Arrow-Guy.” Bobby nodded and ran off to go get June. 

“Not my name!” Clint called out with a sense of levity that made me think this was a running joke between them. “Are Lily and Liz here or are they on patrol?” Clint asked Jarvis. Liz? My brain jumped immediately to my friend from school Liz Allen. I hadn’t seen her sense before the Oscorp attack, but there was little chance that this Liz was the same Liz.

The British man smiled, “At this time of day? No, they're here. I think they were playing a game in the entertainment room.”

“Can you go get them? I want to take all the kids down to the base after they get introduced.” Clint asked Jarvis, the butler nodded in response and walked off to do so. Soon after, Bobby returned with a young girl who had light brown skin. She was maybe a year younger than Bobby if not the same age.

Being a cape geek I could match her to one of the wards pretty easily. I recognized her as being Snowbrawl, she was the right height and skin tone. The threads were still faint enough that I could just completely ignore them. “Hello June, My name is Cindy.” I held out my hand for her and she came over to shake it.

“It’s cool to meet you.” The little smug smile on her face told me the pun was very much on purpose.

“I know, it’s so very ice to meet a hero like you.” I wasn’t proud of the joke, but the way the girl broke out into a giggle did fill me with pride.

“You two knew to chill out with all the ice puns.” Bobby joined in, “Don’t you snow it’s gotten Cuh- old by now?”

June let out an annoyed sigh. “Bobby, you're the one overdoing it. You have to do one joke at a time.”

“Says who?” Asked Bobby

“Me!” June declared, she crossed her arms and looked to me for my approval. “I’m correct though, right?”

It felt weird to be kind of in the middle of what felt like sibling banter. “Yeah, it was a little bit over-sold,” I offered up my perspective. 

Bobby didn’t get to start his retort, Jarvis had returned to the foyer with the last two members of my new team. The glimmering gold around the girl I figured was Lilly was a new kind of thread, I couldn’t understand what it meant without looking and I wasn’t about to do that.

The other sight my power assaulted me with was threads, white ones this time, dripping from the eyes of the other girl like tears. I could barely recognize her as my Liz Allen with the way her face was veiled by her own fate. 

Poor Liz… I wouldn’t let myself know the details, but unless I stuck around her to change her path only misery would await my friend.

I couldn’t move, Ezekiel’s face looked as frightened as mine. It was an uncanny expression for a man that always composed himself as in control. Even when he’d lost in court and had been sentenced to life in prison, he’d seemed nothing more than mildly annoyed. Now he looked ready to piss himself.

I needed to say something, to scream. I needed To warn people about what I was seeing. A woman running behind me bumped into me. I turned around ready to explain everything to her. She was a young Black girl around my age with really nice hair. She seemed winded from running. “Are you okay?” She asked me.

I couldn’t find it in me to speak so I just shook my head no. The girl put her arm around my shoulder and began walking me away. I had to warn people, I had to say something, but I couldn’t… I let her start walking me away. “I- he-” 

The girl shook my shoulder comfortingly. “You’re gonna be okay, you’re safe from whatever guy bothered y-“

There’s a sudden explosion that chains with a sudden collapsing of the architecture of the building. It was all my fault, my stupid stupid fault. I’d let him get to me had failed to do anything about the situation… The girl beside me collapsed seconds before I did.

Suddenly, I was seeing stars

“CINDY!” Liz ran over to hug me, I let her pull me into the hug, I really needed it after that memory. I pushed on my thinker power and how I perceived it so I could see Liz normally again. Anytime I tried to make it so I didn’t have to see my power at all I’d feel like I’d just drank a hundred iced coffees until I flipped it back on. Powers wanted to be used after all.

“Uh. Liz! Holy crap, I didn’t think I’d see you here.” I returned the hug and was eventually able to pull away from her. “Does your boyfriend know?” I wouldn’t say it to her face but I hated her boyfriend, Flash Thompson was a Grade A jerk wad of the highest order.

Liz frowned, her eyes raking me over. “God no! He’d never let me hear the end of it. What about you? You and that Parker kid were getting awfully close on the bus. You talking to him?”

I felt my face go flush. “We’re not dating, and I don’t know if I’d talk to him about this if we were.”

Clint coughed to remind me he was present and my embarrassment skyrocketed tenfold as I remembered where I was. “I’m Cindy,” I introduced myself to the other girl.

“Lilly.” She held out hers and we shook hands. “I’d be the same way if I ran into a friend like this, it’s a pretty crazy thing.”

June nodded. “I’d throw up if I learned one of my friends was a cape and hadn’t told me, straight up barf chunks.” She smiled brightly at me. “So you’re handling it great!” She gave me a big thumbs up.

Bobby gestured with his finger looping around his head that June was crazy, she shoved him with her shoulder and they both started laughing at each other. I really wished I could have had someone like that again in my own life. I missed my brother…

“Alright.” Clint clapped his hands together. “Let’s have everyone suit up and meet me downstairs.” 

Liz volunteered to show me to my room. “C’mon I’ll show you around.” The red head pulled me away and showed me to what must’ve been a guest room when this was a normal manor. 

“Liz…” I started slowly. “What exactly is the deal with this place? I mean I know cape bases can be pretty interesting places, but a manor?”

Liz laughed. “Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous,” she playfully tossed her hair. “Mr. Jarvis has apparently been working with capes for decades, his charge was one of the first wards, I guess he got gifted the manor and donated it to the PRT with the catch that he be the base’s Youth guard representative.”

“First wards? So this guy’s been working with capes for decades?” He probably knew more about capes then most capes if that were the case, maybe this was my chance to talk to someone trustworthy about my powers.

“Yeah, pretty much. Even Hawkeye adores him.” That wasn’t the high bar Liz seemed to think it was, I’d been working closely with Clint and the man seemed to like everyone.

“Cool. Um… thanks Liz, I’m gonna get changed now.” 

Liz nodded and turned to start walking away. “Anytime, I’m so happy to have a friend here.” She froze then turned back to hastily add “Not that I’m happy you triggered, that part’s awful.”

I gave her a small smile. “Same, but I’m happy you’re here too.”

Liz left me to my room and I shut the door. On the bed I found a bag with my hero costume waiting for me. I’ve been working with the pr team on the costume since basically the day after I got my powers. Happy to see it, I change into the outfit and then find my way downstairs.

Clint was a different beast entirely now that he’d changed into his costume. Purple cowl and tinker tech vest, his arms were exposed to allow more freedom of movement as well as to show off the man’s impressive physicality. He’d mentioned once that he’d grown up as a circus performer, he certainly had the body of a seasoned acrobat. “Okay! Gather up kiddos.”

Snowbrawl, Flechette, IceMan, Firestar, and I all gathered around Hawkeye. He was standing in the center of a cluster of computers and monitors. “Alright, the first thing we’re gonna do is a little game. I know most of you already know each other or have worked together in costume before, but Flechette is still relatively new to this team and Silk is brand spanking new.”

Snowbrawl groaned loudly. “No. Jouster said you were supposed to be cool, don’t make us play that lame game, I’ve played it so many times.”

Lame game? Where was Hawkeye going with this?

Hawkeye crossed his arms defensively. “Two strengths and a weakness isn’t lame.” He defended.

Liz groaned “Nobody ever even shares interesting weaknesses, it’s always the same ‘lacking in precision’ non answer everyone uses to avoid being honest.”

I held my hand up, Hawkeye quirked an eyebrow at me. “Yes, Cindy?”

I was kind of nervous speaking up about this. “I’ve never played this ‘Two strengths’ game before, it sounds fun. How does it work?”

Hawkeye gave me a smile. It was hard to see with her mask but I felt like June was glaring at me. “It’s a training slash introductory exercise to let you guys get to know each other better. We go around in a circle, introduce ourselves and describe two strengths of our powers and one weakness.” Okay, I could do that without being too honest and distressing people. Hawkeye continued, “I’ll go ahead and start us off.”

“I’m Hawkeye. My power is the tinker specialty to replicate powers in projectiles, I craft specialized trick arrows” he held one up for the purpose of showing off. “One strength of mine is Versatility, I can make use of a lot of different kinds of arrows based on different capes.” He was right about that, he seemed to have an endless stock of his trick arrows.

“A second strength is I have an incredible sense of aim, always had but the lab guys think my powers heightened what was already there.” Hawkeye placed his arrow back into his quiver. “And a weakness of mine is that I’m as vulnerable as anyone else, it takes a lot of effort to compete with guys like Legend, and it took me way too long before I could see him as a man like anyone else.”

“My turn!” Snowbrawl exclaimed, apparently eager to get the game over. “I’m Snowbrawl.” She did little jazz hands. 

June’s costume was probably the most striking of any of the wards, a sort of road warrior meets arctic explorer vibe. Not what you’d expect from a little girl. She wore green goggles underneath a snow globe helmet, led screen making it appear as if snow was falling around inside of it. It was badass, surprised they let her get away with the costume though, they usually tried to make younger wards more cutesy.

“One strength is destruction, I’m super good at destroying stuff with my snowballs.” Her power was a blaster one that launched big projectiles of ice and snow. “I’m also really good at switching between rollerblades and ice skates.” I guess that was her second strength, not really a power thing but was probably helpful. “And my weakness is a lack of Precision.” Snowbrawl finished

Iceman scoffed, Firestar flicked him on the back of the head. “Her weakness actually is a lack of precision, Ice for Brains.”

“Hawkeye Hawkeye! Firestar is Bullying me!” He rubbed the back of his head. “I think I’ll have to sit out of the game to recuperate.”

Hawkeye crossed his arms. “This is important for Silk and Flechette, play along.”

“Okay,” Iceman took a breath. “I’m The Chilltacular Iceman!” He accented his introduction by entering his breaker state. Bobby was dressed in a white jumpsuit with a strap across his shoulder, little LED disks on the Strap kind of like it was a bandolier. Each disk had a different letter and together spelled out I.C.E.M.A.N. Without the strap I’d be worried about him looking too much like Scion.

In his breaker state he and his entire outfit had shifted to be made of ice. “One strength is in this form I run cold, so cold that even fire can’t melt me, which is great cause I’m on a team with a fire girl.” He laughed. “Another is I’ve gotten really good at that Frozone thing from that earth Aleph cape movie.” He mimed sliding on ice.

He took a deep breath, I’m not sure he even needed to breathe in his current form though. “A weakness would be that while in breaker form things feel kind of off to me, like I know everything that’s happening is real but it feels so eerily dream-like, like I’m lucid dreaming.” Iceman dropped his breaker form.

Firestar went next. “I’m Firestar.” Instinctually I took a step back, she ran a hand through her hair and it ignited into a passive blaze. The fire in her crimson locks completed the look of her costume. Yellow and red jumpsuit with a flight jacket and crimson red goggles covering her eyes. “My strengths are fire power and Flight.” To sell the point she hovered a little above the ground.

Firestar set her feet back on the ground. “My weakness is… a lack of precision.” She winked at Bobby who had started to boo her. “I’m kidding, a real weakness of mine is that my power burns my fat storage to create my fire. I have to eat a lot of calories.”

That’s how she did it? How she ate cheeseburgers and milkshakes and still had that absolutely to die for figure? That cheater had told me a story about a bogus exercise plan when I’d asked. Firestar was staring at me, as were the others. Even Hawkeye was giving me a concerned look. 

“You good, Silk?” Flechette had asked. 

“Yes, just a normal amount of jealousy,” I explained

Firestar’s hair went back to normal, “it’s not as cool as it sounds, there’s a whole spreadsheet I have to fill out and I still have to count my calories. It was fun at first but now it’s a whole job.”

I could see that being hard. “Sorry, I feel bad for being weird about it. I just had a sudden image of all the times I’ve seen you eating cheeseburgers and milkshakes in my head and it all just made so much sense.”

Snowbrawl had moved over beside me and tried to grab my exposed hand with her own, at the last second I smoothly slid out of the way. She stumbled and I caught her shoulder to steady her. “No fair, thinker bullshi-” she caught herself before finishing the swear “-z, Bullshiz”

I frowned behind my scarf, “what were you trying to do?” I asked.

“Gonna touch you with my hand, if I start like I’m about to make a snowball and then stop right away, my hand gets really cold. You’re taking too long to get back to the game.” The rude little thirteen year old explained.

“Okay, okay.” I moved up to speak. “I’m Silk.” My costume was mostly body armor and the scarves I’d be using to fight with. “I guess a strength of mine is that I’m a grabbag cape, I have a thinker power that heightens my reflexes with an occasion premonition of danger” A necessary lie, no one could know about the true extent of my pre/post cognition, especially when I had no intention of using it.

“A tinker power that specializes in alarms and sensors, I have this mover power that lets me jump higher than normal and slows down my descent.” I considered doing a little jump to show off, but there wasn’t that much room. “I also have a brute power that makes me stronger the more times I evade something.”

“That’s badass” Snowbrawl said, could she say ass without issue but Shit was off the table? Strange girl.

“Um, a second strength I guess is that sometimes my other powers will be stronger for a day.” I continued. “No idea why, there’s no real pattern to it that we’ve observed yet. But when my mover power is its strongest I can glide with my scarves.”

“A weakness…” I’m terrified of using the full extent of my powers without being killed by a scary lady in a fedora I saw in my visions when I wasn’t too scared to use my visions. “My tinker power isn’t nearly as strong as my other two, I’ve made a few little things, but I haven’t… pulled off anything impressive yet.”

Flechette had seemed to have had her interest piqued in me since I mentioned being a grab bag. It was her turn in the game next. “A strength of mine is I’m able to use Hawkeye’s arrows thanks to my power’s precision and trajectory.”

I had known about that, the protectorate marketing team was really pushing for the girl as a sort of Hawkeye sidekick, her action figure came in a two pack with Hawkeye’s. I knew about that because I owned it… I felt embarrassed realizing I owned multiple pieces of merchandise for my new teammates.

“Another strength,” she continued “is I’m able to apply my power to my clothes and ignore friction, letting me run faster.” She struggled to think of a weakness before settling on. “A weakness, I guess I have to be careful not to use my power on any of the arrows I get from Hawkeye without his approval, it could have bad results.”

That wasn’t exactly a weakness of her own, but I could understand keeping things close to the chest. “Alright!” Hawkeye clapped his hands together. “With that done, feel free to get to know each other some more and hang out, I’m gonna discuss the patrol schedule this week with Jarvis.” 

Hawkeye left and we were free to socialize.

Another four days had passed and I’d been volunteering for monitor duty pretty much every day. I wouldn’t have my first solo patrol till the end of the week and I had nowhere else to be. School felt those of us who’d been directly present at the attack on Oscorp needed time to heal. Something like a month or two away from classes. 

The others had gotten back from school and were doing their homework, Bobby and June had insisted on joining me in the lair so I didn’t ‘die of boredom.’ Liz and Lily were the ones out on patrol, Jarvis was around to help them with their work when they needed it.

“Firestar, Flechette, Can you go to the bank at the address I'm sending? It’s close to the manor and it seems like they’re being robbed.” I asked them over the dispatch. “Somebody named Deathkiller…”

“DK!?!” Bobby sprung up, dropping his papers onto the floor, Jarvis quickly and neatly picked them up. “DK is robbing a bank near us? We have to go! What if Spidey’s there?”

Bobby’s questions were directed at Mr. Jarvis, as our youth guard representative, had as much authority as a protectorate member when it came to what we could or couldn’t do. “My distaste in this obsession of yours aside, I think a whole team outing could be lovely, fetch me the paperwork and I’ll approve the operation.” Jarvis spoke, answering Bobby’s query.

“For real? The wards vs DeathKiller? I’m getting my camera out for this one.” Bobby was quick to get the proper paperwork, this must not be too uncommon a thing. 

“More like the Wards vs DeathKiller and friend. Report says he’s not alone.”

“Oh?” June scoffed “Whoever it is can’t be that tough if they’re with a loser like this guy, easy mission here we come!

Turns out they could be that tough. Snowbrawl and I had taken cover behind the same car, its owner having already run off by that point. On the roof beside the bank a tinker was stationed with a large gun-like pipe device hooked up to the water tower. DeathKiller, usually the victim of an internet prankster, stood triumphantly on the domed roof of the bank.

DeathKiller would send his skulls floating over to the pipe tinker who would then fire them at incredible speed from his jets of water. Firestar was still recovering from being hit by one of their combined attacks moments before we’d arrived. Iceman had made a large wall of ice for her to hide behind.

“I’m fine, just uh really-” she paused to catch her breath. “-winded” pain seeped into her voice as talking aggravated her injury. 

DeathKiller danced atop the domed roof, his skulls lifting up and down in time to the rhythm and beats in his head. He’d point out towards us and a few of the legion of tiny skulls he’d already summoned would fly towards us, then point towards the tinker with a call of “Pipez more ammo!” And craft a larger skull for the tinker to fire.

If I timed things right I could probably sneak my way onto one of the roofs but which one? I lifted my head up to look and saw my teammate Flechette already making her way up the fire escape to the tinker’s roof. Her sense of timing power probably made this a cinch. I’d go for DeathKiller then.

I looked to snowbrawl. “Can you fling something big into the air to cover me? I’m going for Skull kid.” Her power should give me the covering I’d need to get there, otherwise I’d just be relying on the chance that every one of those Icey skulls would be dodgeable on a battlefield already slick with ice and snow. 

Even without DeathKiller our team tended to make things very wintery it seemed. Snowbrawl nodded. “Aye Aye Silk!” She conjured forth a ball of snow behind her and flung her arm out, a sheet of ice and snow covered my ascent over the car. 

I ran as fast as I could to keep up with my cover fire, the sleet Snowbrawl had flung, giving me ample opportunity to sling my scarf around a flagpole and flip up onto the roof. “That is the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

DeathKiller nodded, “definitely one of the coolest I’ve ever seen.” He flung one of his skulls at me, I dodged out of the way, my subconscious/instincts acting on knowledge of the future I didn’t consciously have.

I glanced over to the other roof where Flechette was battling with Pipez. She had the upper hand, I focused back in on DeathKiller “I’m gonna have to kick your butt now, you understand that right?”

“Yeah.” He sighed, getting into a fighting stance. “But this was fun for a while.” I moved in to finish it.

It was one of those barely kept secrets that the wards got to go to a fancy charter school called Brooklyn Visions Academy. Because it was a barely kept secret and I’d already been going to Midtown high I elected to stay at my old school. A month had passed since I’d last been here and it hadn’t changed at all.

I’ve hated crowds for a long time. Before my powers I was always scared of him, of the man who’d abducted me and kept me locked away for three years popping out from the crowd and taking me again. It had taken years before I could face large groups of people without any fear. 

My powers had taken that from me, Ezekiel Sims had stolen that from me again. Now crowds were a writhing mess of threads and destinies interlocking that if I dared to peek at, dared to interfere with could lead to me dooming everything.

Somehow I made it to lunch… maybe if I told a counselor I was struggling to adjust from the attack I could get out early, get a grip on my powers. Someone came up behind me in the lunchline and I turned to look.

Peter Parker and I weren’t friends before, but we’d struck this connection on the bus ride to Oscorp. I had three sudden thoughts at the sight of him. The first was the sudden tinker inspiration for a monitor that could use a dna sample to alert when a specific person was nearby. The second was that he seemed as lost in thought as I was. And the intense relief that I couldn’t see his threads. It hadn’t been since the attack that I’d met anyone else without threads again.

“Peter? You’re okay.” I blurted out, eager to get a sentence out. 

“Yeah.” He said, then quickly added. “And so are you, I didn’t see you again after everything, so I wasn’t sure.” He was cute when he was being awkward.

I nodded in response and grabbed my tray of food, I walked off and noted that his gaze was following me as I walked away. Was I seriously about to be happy about a guy staring at my butt? I needed a win but that felt too much like the kind of thing I made fun of Liz for enjoying.

He got his tray and sat down, I walked over to sit across from him. His gaze was following me the whole time… That totally meant he liked me right? Did I like him like that? Maybe, but I’ve never dated anyone before and-

“Hey, You don’t have to sit with me.” He’d said, “I’m not in desperate need for friends or anything.” His voice was sad but an attempt at reassuring. “I’m doing alright with everything.”

I nodded, okay so maybe I was reading into things. “I know I don’t have to,” I began, watching as his eyes lit up with a pleasantly surprised expression. “I just want to, maybe I’m the one needing friendship.”

He looked so embarrassed, “right, sorry.”

I smiled and shook my head softly, I hadn’t been trying to make him feel bad. “It’s fine, I’m not actually hurting for more friends right now either, I just wanted to talk with you again.”

His face lit up, “Yeah, I’m still kicking myself about how we never hung out before, I would’ve loved your help in that Chem lab last semester.”

“I seriously can’t believe I didn’t figure it out when you were using that fire extinguisher like a seasoned pro.” I laughed. “Of course the fiery redhead with a passion for fire Safety was Firestar.”

Liz frowned. “It’s not that obvi- shush! here comes your boyfriend.” She playfully motioned for me to shut up.

“He’s not my-” I started to protest and stopped when Peter had entered earshot. It was the second day back and Liz had decided to come see where I’d gone yesterday.

“Liz?” Pete exclaimed, surprised to have a popular girl at his table. “Is Flash putting you guys up to this?”

I was slightly hurt that he thought I might do something like participate in a prank on him. Liz laughed it off however. “Seriously Petey? Even when I dated him did I ever really participate in any of the bullying?”

Pete shook his head. “No, but that’s not what I meant.”

“What like he asked us to be your friends? As if! Flash hates your guts.” She huffed. “He’s a jerk.”

I could tell he was picking his words carefully, “Have you talked to him since the trip?” 

Liz frowned, “not really, no. What’s that got to do with-” she was interrupted by Peter.

“You should talk to him. Flash and I are… peaceful now even if it might not entirely look like it all the time.” 

“Really?” I asked in surprise, that’s such crazy news. Those two have been feuding since forever. “That’s like-”

“Cats and dogs?” Liz asked

“I was going to say like Legend and the Siberian becoming friendly.” I joked

“It feels like that sometimes.” Pete agreed.

Liz and Flash ended up getting back together, turned out all they needed was to talk. Liz told me the same things flash’s threads had. That his past wrung heavy around him and he sought to use his reputation to shield and uplift those he once let down. 

Of course I’d only gleamed that because the symbolism of the dark gray threads that chained his arms together being adorned with glistening white shields was enough to make guesses without delving deeper into any visions.

Pete and I were getting closer in a way that kind of felt like it could be something big given time. I’d just have to wait and see but it seemed like everything was coming up for us.

Chapter Text

Height and elevation were an advantage I held, my powers made reaching rooftops easy. From here I could sit and watch with my prey none the wiser. Arms dealers, the kind of scum responsible for moving explosives into the city. This was hardly the biggest operation in the city, but it was the biggest I’d hit tonight.

Already I’d knocked over a few smaller fish and ran into the same issue, they were all middle men operations, low time arms dealers who sold to the same guys every time. What I needed was the source, where all these guys were getting their stuff. That search had led me here, to the warehouse building beside this rooftop. 

I felt my hot breath bouncing off the plastic of the sugar skull mask I wore. My breath was bounced off of the mask and back onto my face. It reeked of sweat and hard plastic behind the mask, a noxious combo I was growing increasingly accustomed to dealing with every night. This was the life I led now, a ridiculous and deranged mockery of my old one.

The world had made me this, the people below no doubt played a role in that, if not for a part in the incident that changed me than in some incident that changed some other poor bastard into another monster. In a city of so many capes, there were probably countless broken men and women like me.

I secured my arm Blades onto my coat sleeves, tightened the straps connecting them, I didn't want to risk losing them in a jump again. Lunging out and pulling on space I pulled myself across the gap between buildings with my mover power and stabbed into the opposing wall with my arm blades. 

They slid into the concrete smoothly like a warm knife into butter. The impact was quiet and left me hanging right beneath a window where I could peer in at the people inside. I counted the three men and two women preparing for a potential buyer who wouldn’t be coming. Instead they’d be dealing with me.

One of them looked off though, one of the women wore a yellow leather jacket, had yellow hexagons painted on her cheeks, and a little domino mask that looked like something from party city. She was young too, in a way that made me uncomfortable, probably not even eighteen yet and she was hanging around arms dealers? She was probably a cape hired to guard them.

I’d try sticking to the reason I came here, take out the arms dealers and hope the violence scared the girl off. I didn’t want to hurt a kid. I took a deep breath to psych myself up for the violence ahead of me and pulled myself up and slammed through the window.

I lunged downward, pulling on space and minimizing the distance between me and the ground. That’s the best way I could describe my mover power, it’s like I could pull on space itself to lunge forward, as far as I could tell it looked like a short distance teleport but felt like vaulting myself over nothing. Touching down I pressed a tiny button on my blades to spin them around so they were no longer pointing outward.

I ran for the first armed man I saw, slamming into him with my open palm into his face. My main power was a brute one, I figured it was my main, because when my adrenaline begins to pump my body gets bigger and stronger in ways that are extreme. I slammed him back into a wall.

My awareness of everyone around me flared to life, my thinker power kicking in to tell me the armed woman behind me was an imminent threat. I released the man,throwing him to the left and turned around leaping into the air, my altered muscles pushing me higher up than was remotely normal. I leapt over the barrage of bullets and landed on top of the woman, knocking her over and grabbing the gun out of her hand. I bent the barrel so that it pointed back at the person holding it. A stupid cartoonish gesture that made me want to laugh.

She said something but I’m wearing industrial grade ear plugs, my senses ramped up like my body did with adrenaline. Eventually they’d be strong enough to hear through the ear plugs, but if someone fired a gun when they got like that, without them I’d be paralyzed by the sound.

Speaking of my hearing. I could finally hear, albeit faintly, as the cape girl yelled “What the fuck!” I looked up at her and saw she was building up a layer of hexagonal forcefields around her, she made a new one every two seconds and they looked to be three inches tall and wide. She must’ve started building them up as soon as I crashed down into the warehouse. She brandished them like a shield on her arm and struck up a pose that reminded me of older heroes, when shields were really big in the late nineties. 

She probably could stop me if she had more. I leapt up and ran at her, rather than go for her shield I crouched down to kick at her from below and sweep the legs. It worked, she fell on her shield and the hexagons shattered. I stood to my full height and yelled “RUN!” I don’t know how loudly I yelled that, earplugs, but it was enough to get the girl running and that sent the other armed people running too.

“You’ll never (something) again (something) Cowards!” The other woman yelled, she must be their leader. I made my way back to her and grabbed her by her collared shirt. “Names! Everyone you’ve sold to in the past month, and anybody you know with a grudge against Oscorp!” I removed an earplug. 

“Did you just fight us with ear plugs in?” She asked

“Answer.” I roared.

She did. She provided me with a list of names, any of which might be responsible for the death of my baby girl.

Whether it was as a brother or as a father I’ve always seen myself as a protector. Always been a protector. I’ve been there and I’ve been enough anytime Gabriel needed me as kids, and I made damn sure to do the same for my Gabriella, my daughter. It’s not enough to simply be there for someone, you have to be solid and dependable. Strong when strength is needed and soft when they need comfort. 

My therapist thinks that view is unhealthy, I think Gabe pays her too much for a service I don’t need, we both have opinions we disagree on. I think we all play roles in each other's lives and that’s just the one I’ve always played. Never really got to be someone’s son, ma was always sick and dad was never around, I stepped up for Gabe’s sake and was the best big brother I could be, was everything for him we didn’t have.

When Dana couldn’t be a mother it didn’t matter, I’d be everything our daughter needed, I’d stepped up. That’s what protector’s do, we step up. I’d not let a day go by where my little girl felt like she was missing out on anything. Be the man my family needs me to be.

I work as a biochemist for a company called Oscorp, I know the real reason my boss is putting on this puff piece competition and it’s not to encourage the next generation or out of desperation. The company needs good press if it’s gonna survive.

I told them none of our work was ready for human trials and they still- I cut that train of thought off. I was here with Gabriella, I focused on the feeling of my kid’s hand in mine. If I got too angry and accidentally squeezed, I might risk hurting her. “Are you having fun yet?”

“Kind of.” Gabriella answered. “The hoverboard thing was cool, with the magnets and stuff.” There were booths where Oscorp technicians were displaying potential future innovations. Half of these would go undeveloped at all, a fourth wouldn’t be anywhere near ready to be what’s been promised for another decade.

I had to hand it to whoever decorated the place; they'd pulled out all the stops in transforming the ground floor of this place into something inviting. Bright colored streamers hanging up and beautifully painted signs pointing to different attractions.

That final fourth might actually be something if the company weathered the storm coming. Even if no one else spoke up, I’d try to leak something, at some point. “Yeah, Dr. Leshner’s work is incredible right?”

“I thought her name was Dr. Dane?” Gabriela asked, the question reminding me to explain myself.

“Her name is, but the project she’s working on is all based on the work of another colleague. So it’s still her work it’s just the principles wouldn’t-” what was I even going on about. “Okay, I’m going out of my way to give an old mentor more credit than he deserves this time. Lorna’s work deserves the praise.”

“Now there’s a Lorna? Doctor this or doctor that? Who am I supposed to be thanking for the hoverboard ride?” Gabriela gestured frustratedly with the hand not holding mine.

“No, no, no. Dr. Dane is Lorna.”

My explanation earned me an “Ah” and a nod of understanding from my daughter. “She had green hair, can I get green hair?”

“When you’re older, sure.”

“By how much?” She asked, and I had to stop walking to consider

“Two years, you can start dying it when you’re thirteen if you really want to.” That was the normal time for that sort of thing right? I needed to look into whether dying hair too early caused any damage to the roots. Maybe I could ask Lorna if I got her one of those muffins she liked. 

“Okay.” Disappointed, Gabriela tugged on my hand and we started walking towards the audience for the big competition. I had a reserved seat near the stage that my boss had reserved for me. He’d made some mistakes that higher ups had pushed him into, and I felt conflicted on whether to hate Tyler or pity him. 

Gifts like this made me lean more towards pity, he knew Gabriella was excited for today and got us seats for this. 

Norman eventually came out. Despite working for his company I didn't know the man extremely well. Alchemax being a subsidiary of Oscorp it was more that I worked indirectly under him. The man gave a speech or two. At one point he compared the work being done here to endbringer relief, bad call.

After some talk about a practical demonstration an awkward looking high schooler was brought out, he kind of embarrassed himself on stage but Norman was able to bring the crowd back. As someone who worked in the chemistry field I had doubts his water cooler and hose contraption was actually going to accomplish anything.

A loud boom went off suddenly, interrupting the demonstration. The canister was knocked over and had begun spilling, my attention however was fully on my daughter.

“Dad! I’m scared!” I wrapped my arms over her and felt as rubble from above us came crashing down on us. Some structurally integral piece of the architecture had exploded and now the building was collapsing. A chunk of roof fell down on top of us.

Adrenaline coarser through my body as I focused on holding up the debris, just a little more strength and I could toss it. Just a little more and I could save us. I was strong, I had to be strong.

I was being crushed alive, I couldn’t do this, I wasn’t some kind of Superman. My daughter was going to… “DADDY IT HURTS!” My body was crashing down on hers, there wasn’t enough room to push her. We were going to die and it was my fault I wasn’t strong en-

[destination]

[Agreement]

When I came to, my vision was dark and my chest was wet. I felt this impossible surge of power running through me, my muscles incredibly tense. Gabriella! I pushed the rubble off of me and struggled to hold in the bile building up in my throat. Underneath me was the bloodied mangled body of my daughter. “Gabi?”

I tried to shake her awake, even crushed as she was some part of me prayed she was just unconscious. Some completely irrational part of my brain couldn’t accept the reality before me. “Someone help her, she’s only eleven! please God, Jesus, Scion, anybody please! A doctor! ANYONE!” 

A hand touched my shoulder, he was kneeling down beside me, it was Norman. In front of us on the stage a column of white foam like webbing had been shot out after a chunk of debris had hit the canister. It must’ve held up the roof of the stage. I hated the man in that moment for being so lucky. “She’s gone Miguel… I’m so sorry, but your daughter is dead.”

“She’s not she’s-” I looked down at her form, he was right. “Oh god.” Norman helped me prop up her head and helped me carry her. “What are we even.”

“We’re carrying her body outside so nothing else happens to her. You’ll want the chance to bury your child, it’ll kill you if you don’t get that chance.”

We took Gabriela outside.

I hadn’t fully noticed it, but I’d gained powers during the attack that claimed the life of my daughter. Anytime my adrenaline spiked now my body went into a sort of hyperdrive. I had some sort of thinker power that let me sense the presence of people and what direction they were going. A tinker power for smelting metals that shouldn’t exist. I also had a mover power that let me lunge forward in a way that pulled me through space.

I’d trade every single one of these powers for another five minutes with my daughter. When you hear about trigger events nothing prepares you for how it would actually feel to have powers tied to your worst moment. Everything I could’ve needed to protect my daughter from attack on Oscorp and it all comes too late to help her. 

I resented the powers for that, hated that I was alive and she was dead. If Gabe hadn’t come over I probably would’ve killed myself already, I think he knew too. That his presence in my apartment was the only reason I hadn’t blown my brains out. 

“Hey, it’s been a few days now, I think I’ll survive a night on my own.” I placed a plate down in front of my brother, cooking had helped make me feel normal for a few minutes. “You should go back to work.”

Gabe took a knife and cut his quesadilla into fifths. “I took a week’s vacation to stay with you, I’m staying the full week.” He took a bite and locked eyes with me after sitting his food down. “If there’s something you’re wanting to do that can’t be done with me around, is it really worth doing?”

Fucking brothers. “Yeah, probably not.” If I wasn’t going to be joining my daughter in the afterlife anytime soon I should figure out how the hell I was going to live like this. “I have powers.”

“What?” Gabe sat his food down. “If this is some scheme to get me out of your apartment so you can use that gun in your underwear drawer you’re gonna have to-”

I pulled on the air in front of me and yanked myself through the table and past it. “It’s not, you want me to live, fine. I’ll stop trying to kill myself, so I figure there’s no point in acting like I don’t have powers if I’m gonna have to live with them.”

“What in the- you’re being way too nonchalant about killing yourself and the fact you have powers.” Gabe crossed his arms. “This is a lot to take in.”

“You already knew I was suicidal, that’s not news.”

Gabe gestured like he wanted to strangle me. “You being honest about it is! I thought I’d have to yank teeth to get you to admit that, and now you’re telling me you’ve got powers.”

“Yeah, I-” The ringing of my cell phone interrupted me. I didn’t have many people who’d be calling me, I answered. “Hello, who is this?”

“Miguel, it’s Norman,” The name and voice were a reminder, the steady voice that had gotten me out of there after the explosion. “I got your number from your boss Tyler stone, some press is about to break about the incident at my building, I think it’s best if you hear it from me.”

If there was something to know about what happened to my little girl I needed to know it. “Talk.” Gabe raised an eyebrow at me, I ignored him.

“This isn’t typical over the phone conversation, can we meet in person?” I mulled over the request for a moment.

“Sure.” I told him my address. “How soon can you be over?”

“I’ll take a company car and be there in fifteen, I’ll see you soon Miguel.” Norman’s voice was calm and reserved, I hoped whatever news he had to share was the good kind, like ‘the bastard who caused this was dead’ or something.

I hung up the phone and put it away in my pocket. Gabe was staring, “what?” I asked.

“Nothing, just who the hell did you just invite over.” Gabe had fully abandoned his quesadilla at this point.

“Norman.” I huffed out. “That’s not that important.”

“Like Osborn?” Gabe’s expression was joking, I nodded.

“Wait for real? Norman Osborn coming here? That’s insane Mig” 

“He has information for me.”

“He has information for you, oh that makes sense, that makes sense that a billionaire is taking time out of his day to deliver you information… did you master him or something.” Gabe had started pacing around the table.

I came over to place a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe.” I took a deep breath in and performed a long exhale. “In and out.” Gabe mirrored me, taking a breath of his own. “I can’t do master stuff, that’s not something my powers do. Something’s coming out about the incident he wanted me to hear before it gets broken to the press. He’s just doing me a kindness as another father who’s lost their child.”

The death of Harry Osborn at a very young age was a widely known thing, it had been a very public tragedy. It was, I imagined, the reason he’d helped me in the aftermath and was helping me now. He related to me, wanted to help me, and I was in no state to reject help from anyone.

Norman arrived in a disheveled state, he looked over my shoulder as I opened the door to see my brother. “You have company, I should go.”

“No, anything you need to tell me, you can say in front of my brother.” I meant the words with all my heart. “I don’t do secrets, not from family.”

“A commendable but dangerous quality in our business Mr. O’Hara.” Norman spoke as he entered my apartment, he stood at the kitchen counter.

“How much does he know already?” Norman asked.

“He knows about my powers, and he knows some of the stuff about Alchemax.” I answered quickly.

“He knows!?! You told Norman Osborn about your powers before me?” Gabe’s voice was raised in outrage, I was lucky the walls were thick.

“I didn’t tell him, he saw… the adrenaline power, is kind of obvious when it’s ramped up.” I did my best to explain, Norman had basically known I had powers before I did. 

“Jesus Mig, Did anyone else see?” Gabe asked, he’d come to sit on a stool, I sat down at the one beside him

“No.” Norman Spoke, “not that we know of. As far as I ascertained it ramped down before anyone else noticed. Singular benefit of the chaos that afternoon.”

“What’s the news that’s breaking?” I didn’t mind catching Gabe up to speed but I wanted to know what was so urgent. “A suspect has been identified.”

“Suspect? So it wasn’t an accident like you kept claiming.” Of course, my blood itched at the thought there might be a use for my powers after all. If they couldn’t save my daughter they could at least avenge her.

“No.” Norman swallowed. “It was not an accident like I had hoped, it’s as you’d feared and suspected this whole time. Police are finally coming forward with the fact that this was a suicide bombing.”

That made the beast inside me shrink, suicide? Bastard took all those lives and couldn’t stick around to stomach the responsibility. “That’s bullshit. Who? What was his name? Was he working with anyone?”

“Ezekiel Sims.” Norman’s voice was cautious.

“The serial abductor?” Gabe asked, I could tell he was about to start hurling accusations.

“And the man whose position I replaced at Alchemax? What did I fucking tell you Norman, it’s about the human trials, somebody leaked it and now someone is getting back at us for what Tyler-” as the words left my mouth the thought entered my brain. “Tyler Stone, has anyone checked on him? He’d be as much of a target if not moreso”

“That’s the other thing, last night he was attacked on his way to visit you. A cape saved him, one of the slightly more heroically inclined members of the Adepts but he’s been hospitalized.” Norman explained

“Visit me?” I asked.

“His car had a condolences card and a teddy bear with a heart you could slide a picture into.”

“I’m almost glad he was attacked, that shit is tacky and would’ve only pissed me off coming from him.” I stated, Norman nodded in agreement and Gabe winced in disapproval. “So I was right, it is a conspiracy.”

“It certainly feels like one.” Gabe commented.

“I’m thinking I'll look into it,” I said.

“That’s not a bad idea.” Spoke Norman, his face taking on a gentle smile. “Get a mask or something and look for a lead or two.”

“Hold on, just like that? You’re moments from blowing your brains out earlier and now you’re gonna go do vigilante shit with Norman Osborn? This is the most mutually self destructive bromance I’ve ever seen.” Gabe had crossed his arms and gave us both an expression that said we were being incredulous.

I ignored him and turned my attention back to Norman. “I have a mask from a day of the dead party two years ago in my closet.” I’d been wanting to get more in touch with my heritage for my daughter’s sake. Mom had been so sick all the time and then she’d died, never had a chance to really fully forge a connection to my Hispanic heritage. It had been a nice party, so welcoming even though I barely spoke any Spanish.

Norman nodded, “That could work.”

I stood up and walked over to the closet where it was sitting on a shelf rack. “I can pair it with a long coat and…-” I dug around inside a cardboard box to retrieve a pair of arm blades. “-these.”

“Jesus Mig, how many weapons are in your apartment? When’d you even have time to make those?”

“While you were sleeping.” I answered Gabe’s question.

“Yeah, this is something.” Norman nodded in approval of the makeshift costume we’d put together.

That moment had been what led me to investigating more and more every night as Noir, that’s what Gabe calls me, thinks it’s almost funny his brother’s so dark and brooding. For the past month that’s all I do, I barely live a half-life as a shell of a man and then at night, I go out as Noir and search for answers.

Chapter Text

I took a deep breath as I opened the mail slot, it was becoming a routine ever since May revealed she sent that embarrassing letter to my pen pal Mary Jane. I’d written it just to get my feelings after Ben’s passing off my chest. Having never intended for her to actually receive it, I was sort of terrified to see her response. It’d been three days and I hadn’t gotten anything yet. I was hoping maybe she’d just ignored it.

That hope was dashed by the envelope waiting for me in the now opened mail slot. “Oh man, this is gonna suck” it wasn’t like MJ and I were super close so I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she’d respond to what I’d written. I braced myself and opened the envelope to start reading her letter.

She’d started it with a crossed out section, it mimicked my own indecisiveness. It felt a lot like the friendly sort of teasing Flash had started leaning more and more into.

Camp was great, learned so many things. I’m like 50% sure our counselor was a cape, but that’s not important. Thanks for being curious, and don’t feel bad I could’ve written too.

A theatre camp counselor as a cape wasn’t actually that hard to imagine, in my experience so far we all seemed a bit dramatic.

I wouldn’t forget you, and despite some friends at camp, things are still the same at school. I’m gonna be taking you up on that being around thing.

“Oh, crap.” I’d have to write her a response back, and not forget about it this time.

Thanks for sharing about your uncle, it means a lot that you reached out. Craziest thing is my grandmother actually knows your aunt, I was hoping to catch you at the funeral, but I’m glad you were able to help someone.

I know kind of what it must’ve been like with your parents, everyone expects you to be distraught, but it’s hard when you never knew them, feel that way about my mom, she died in childbirth. I think my dad resented me for it, part of why I grew up with my grandmother.

Does May know you were there when he passed? I didn’t know you’d been there, not sure anyone did, I’m glad you felt safe talking to me about it. That sounds terrifying Peter. From the way you described it I can’t imagine he thought you failed him… that guilt you feel for not doing something you can’t possibly have known would be so dire is proof you’re the person he wanted you to be.

I saw some of what you’re talking about with the life’s he touched when we stopped by, your uncle was amazing.

Thanks Tiger, for sharing all of this with me.

Sincerely, your rocking PenPal, Mary Jane Watson

Ps. are you a fan of Spiders? ;)

I nearly screamed as I finished reading and closed the letter. MJ knew way too much, I had to talk to Cindy about this. Hopefully the wards had some kind of training on how to handle a completely bungled Secret identity.

It was Thursday so I climbed back upstairs to our apartment to let May know I’d checked the mail and was ready for school.

School went by like normal, Flash pretended to shove me in front of Kong and I had to pretend a fake shove was still too much for me. “Ow!” I fell dramatically, Kong laughed and walked off.

“You okay Parker?” Flash offered a hand to me, I took it.

“Yeah, though I’m not convinced this political theatre is necessary, You’re Flash Freaking Thompson, no amount of being a nicer guy is gonna change that.” I told him.

Flash frowned and shook his head. “You don’t know this place like I do, it’s dog eats dog man.”

We walked and talked. “But we can hangout in the hallways and no one says anything?”

Flash laughed. “You do remember how much of the time we spent arguing in the halls right? You were always my go to target cause you could snark back.”

That was fair enough, I guess things with Flash and I were a little more two sided sometimes than I ever liked to admit.

“And sitting together at breakfast?” I asked, getting my tray.

“That’s new but I just tell people I’m putting up with you cause your girlfriend is pals with mine.” He smirked as he talked and I had really needed to get used to the fact this smug asshole was my friend now.

“Holy shit I have a girlfriend.” I said, sitting down beside her at the breakfast table.

Cindy looked between flash and me, “Did you break my boyfriend?”

“Ah boyfriend… I’m never gonna get tired of hearing that.” I sighed dreamily

“He does that to himself.” Flash defended while sitting down

“He’s right, I do, anytime I’m reminded we’re dating I drop a few iq.”

“It’s sweet.” Cindy smiles, grabbing hold of and hugging my arm.

“Sickeningly so.” Flash added.

Cindy and I were hanging out on a rooftop after school, in costume Incase someone saw us coming up, we weren’t up there as Silk and Spider-man though. We were just Cindy and Peter dressed like them “So I wrote this girl a letter-”

“A letter? You’re cheating on me old school style?” She joked, “three days and you’ve already moved on.”

“Haha.” I spoke in monotone. “I messed up but not that kind of messed up, alright? Ben had just died and I missed my chance to speak at his funeral so I wrote all my feelings down in this old letter I never finished to my pen pal.”

“You actually did that sad penpal thing?” Cindy was laughing but her tone was curious. 

“Yeah, I did. Nice girl Mary jane, goes to a fancy prep school. Has a hard time making actual friends cause she’s an awkward theatre kid. Not the point though.” I shook my head and pulled out the letter she’d written back. “I got kind of loosey goosey with my identity in it and wasn’t gonna ever send it. But here’s where the Parker luck kicked in…” I began pacing at this point, waving the response around. “It turns out May recognized the last name Watson on the letter cause she’s old friends with MJ’s grandmother so she decided to go ahead and mail the letter I’d ‘forgotten’ to send”

“Now she’s sent you a letter back and it makes you think she knows?” Cindy asked, taking the letter from my hands. “What’s with all the marked out bits?”

“I did that in mine, she’s making fun of me.” I shook my head. “Skip to the ps bit.”

“That’s kind of flirty.” She commented

“Mj isn’t flirting with me, we just have a rapport like that.” I helplessly explained.

“Uh-huh.” She responded flatly

“Just skip to the ps bit, please.” I begged

Cindy did. “Oh, I see why you’re freaked now. That’s a pretty damning implication she knows right there.”

“Right?” I exclaimed, letting out a bit of the panic I’ve been feeling since receiving the letter.

Cindy moved to stand by my side, her presence had an almost soothing effect sometimes. Sometimes just by being around she made me think so much clearer. “Take a breath Spider.” She instructed, and I did as she told. 

“Better.” I said. “I’m better… it could be nothing right? I won’t know unless she pushes it.”

“Exactly.” Cindy folded up the letter and handed it back to me.

“I’ll write her back and just play it cool.” I planned aloud “Spiders? Yeah they’re cool.”

Cindy stepped away from me and began to stretch. “Okay, now that your identity crisis is as handled as it’s going to get today, you owe me some instructions on these web shooters.” She playfully pressed her fingers into her palm mimicking my webs. “Thwap Thwap”

“It’s more of a ‘thwip thwip’,” I corrected. “and we don’t even know if you’ll have success with my stuff for sure yet, how linked exactly even are our powers?” I’d been retrofitting what left over pieces I had of the old models of my webs and thanks to Max still being in town for some union business I was able to get some scrap parts from him to build Cindy a Pair of web shooters.

Our hope was that she’d be able to use them since our powers were seemingly linked, she’d be able to make use of some of my tinker tech. Tinker tech was usually volatile and hard to use for anyone but the tinker, sometimes those with similar specialties could make use of it to lesser results or get inspiration from another tinker’s work.

“Linked enough.” Cindy responded, “do you have them with you?” She asked

I removed the extra web shooters from my costume and handed them to her. “Do they make sense to you? Do you know what to d-” I stopped talking as she skillfully pressed them onto her wrists exactly as I would’ve.

“Yeah, they’re really simple, surprisingly, my tinker power is buzzing with ideas right now.”

“Really? Maybe we skip the practical testing and we could go to my place and tinker?” I offered

“Pete are you inviting a girl to your room?” Cindy asked, scandalized

“Uh yeah, to tinker.” My voice cracked the tiniest bit at Tinker

“We won’t be making out, you still owe me that date.”

“I know, I’m not trying to be smooth, I genuinely think tinkering with you would make my week.” It seriously would.

“Okay, let’s get down from here and change, I’ve been wanting to meet your aunt.”

May was out looking for a job, something about a feast center. I’d read the note she’d left on the door a little too quickly to actually process it. Worried I’d maybe left something embarrassing sitting in my room. I had a dragon suit model collection. Was that lame nerdy or cool nerdy? “Pete, you're panicked already? I’m not upset that she’s not here.”

“It’s not that or any other reason I’d be nervous bringing a girl over unsupervised, I’m freaked out you’re gonna see my room and realize what a dork I am.” I explained pitifully 

Cindy stated flatly, “I’m a dork. I like you because you’re a dork. Relax and let’s go be dorky tinkerers.” She grabbed my hand and I led her to my room/workshop space.

Cindy and I were like two chefs in a kitchen that was way too small. Too excited just having her here I leaned into my power a bit more than usual. Letting it guide the inspiration as Cindy discussed plans for an alarm for the webshooters that would alert you when running low on web fluid, an auto targeting system that could tap into our danger senses, and most fascinatingly a method of weaving the web fluid into a wider variety of objects on the fly. 

All completely impossible with the materials we had on hand aside from the alarm. That one had been easy enough. After an hour of experimenting and theorizing Cindy had to leave for a wards thing. Which left me alone to go through my PHO messages. I sent another reminder to Kid astronomy that I just didn’t have time for races anymore in response to his most recent request… feeling bad I added that I’d try to make time to hangout soon, I owed the little guy something.

Startlingly I had one message from an (Unverified Cape) Wingsofvengeance demanding I meet him in Central Park for a ‘battle of the century’ I ignored it. Probably some troll seeing as the account was made today.

Promisingly someone sent a request for help moving furniture up into their new apartment… it wasn’t exactly major heroics but somebody needed help and I had super strength. They were probably asking as a joke but I wasn’t doing anything and helping a stranger move was just what Ben would do.

I arrived at the requested address and saw a man carrying a six pack of cola and an open pizza box sitting on top of a large cardboard box. Leaning on a rented moving truck a woman in a beanie jumped. “Oh shit! You actually came? I thought maybe you were joking when you messaged back.” 

Again this was maybe silly, I could’ve sent a thing about my civilian friend being willing to help and showing up as Peter… I could hardly imagine Alexandria or Eidolon helping somebody move. But maybe that’s what made Spider-man different, more involved in the neighborhood, friendlier. “Well, you did offer to buy me a pizza.”

“Yeah, still…” she paused. “Thankyou for this, I’m new in town and don’t have any friends yet.”

“Well that’s not entirely true anymore.” I lifted up my mask and took a bite of cheesy pizza. “Next time you’re ordering pizza you should try Sal’s, way better stuff for your money.”

“Okay, yeah.” She held out her hand. “I’m Betty Brant.”

“Nice to meet you ms. Brant.”

I finished off the crust. Did a couple jumping jacks and stretched before picking up the first of her boxes. “You lead the way?”

“Sure thing, dude.” Betty lead the way up to her apartment, and I followed.

After helping Betty with her move I thwipped off to start a patrol. Hearing sirens I saw a prt patrol car speeding in the direction of a bank, which meant one thing. Another bank robbery. Most banks didn’t even have that much money physically anyways, due to all the bank robberies… weird what people have to adapt to.

I swung ahead of the squad car, I could get there faster. God, I loved my webs. The bank in question was one that had a better reputation than most, a higher tech security and vault situation that must’ve made it all the more tempting for the villain looking to make a statement today.

A tinker tech bike unlike anything I’d seen up close in person before hovered fifteen to twenty feet above the parking lot. Riding atop it was a recognizable hero in a purple cowl, he was holding an arrow with a rounded tip. A microphone arrow? I knew he called them ‘trick arrows’ but that was a silliness that impressed even me.

I landed on the side of a nearby building to just wait and see if I’d be needed by the protectorate hero. “C’mon out pal, I’m sure you’re plenty impressive busting in here, but you should know what happens to flashy capes who bite off too much too soon.” Hawkeye’s voice rang out a solid distance from the microphone arrow.

On closer inspection with my zoom lenses the microphone was just that, a microphone stylized to look like an arrow connected by wire to speakers on Hawkeye’s bike.

An angled projectile made of energy was flung out the open bank doors. The responsible party was decked out in a black leather jacket and ski mask combo with a white boomerang on his forehead that might’ve been hot glued on. He looked ridiculous, it was always kind of comical when new villains fought veteran heroes, the difference in the quality of outfit was just always so noticeable. 

The angled projectile, a boomerang, flew outward and towards Hawkeye’s sky bike, it shook with impact but stayed steady in the air. “You’ll have to do better than that rookie.” Hawkeye removed an arrow from his quiver and shot it down into the ground in front of the now wide open double doors. A shockwave erupted from the arrow’s impact launching the villain backwards into the bank.

Hawkeye could handle this on his own, but this could be an opportunity for me to mend the gap I’d accidentally created between myself and the Protectorate. I swung closer to the other hero to get in a range he might hear me. “Hey great job with the arrows, it’s pretty sweet what you pack into them.”

Hawkeye glared at me, his response came in a measured and annoyed tone. “Little busy Spider-man, not looking to trade tinker tips with a guy who’d bad mouth the protectorate.” 

I was a little bummed that my stunt at the impromptu press conference was staining my reputation. “It wasn’t like that. I’ve got nothing but respect for you guys.”

Hawkeye notched an arrow onto his bow string aiming for the villain again. “Sure didn’t seem like it.” Satisfied with the shot he had lined up he released his bowstring and let another arrow fly into the building. He turned his head to me. “Make yourself useful and the containment foam you stole on the doorway.”

“It’s webs, it’s different.” I was genuinely taken back by that accusation, my webs stolen? Not only was it an insult to my character, but an insult to my webbing to compare it to containment foam like that. 

“It looks like you copied a Prt formula and changed enough to make it behave in ways we can’t yet…” The boomerang villain was back up and making his way to back out of the bank, another projectile charging up in his hands. “Just web the doorway!”

“Aye Aye Arrow-man.” I thwipped my way down onto the street level and strung together a web wall onto the doorway. 

Hawkeye floated down on his hover bike behind me. “Arrow-man?” He asked, his tone bemused. “You give out bad nicknames to every hero you work with?”

I shrugged. “Maybe… haven’t really done the partnering thing much, maybe just for the ones that get on my nerves.” 

Smoke began emptying from the latest arrow that Hawkeye had shot into the bank. A cloud of blinding gas? It was a viscous fog that almost swam out of the arrow the way it weaved in the air. 

“What the heck is that stuff?” I asked the other hero.

“A slowing agent based on the powers of a cape called Slow-mo.” He placed his bow onto his back. “That should keep him occupied, the impact of his projectile was a physical one. If it follows physics he won’t be able to throw it very fast through that soup of fog.”

“Smart.” I commented, the strategy was good. 

“I know.” Hawkeye touched down his sky bike and we both began to approach the bank together.

“He’s still charging the boomerang.”

“Ignore it, he doesn’t know what the fog does yet, it won’t reach.”

My Spidey sense began to tingle and I suddenly had doubts in Hawkeye’s judgement. I went to leap up out of the way, but a wave of energy was flung at us in the shape of a massive boomerang. The lights on my suit and my mask’s OS shut down instantly. I squeezed my web shooters to no response.

Hawkeye looked as stunned as I felt. The villain yelled out loudly “Thought I was a one trick pony!? I don’t care what goopy tinker crap you throw out! My thunder-rang stops all technology it runs through! You tech bros are freaking toast!” 

“Toast? I love toast, we having breakfast?” I used the charge of brute strength I had and leapt into the bank, through a window. no use fighting outside without my webs. I had other powers, aside from his aim Hawkeye would be next to useless in a fight without his tinker tech. 

“You’re brave coming in here where I can squish you Spider.” The boomerang villain I decided to mentally call just Boomerang for sake of convenience had that melodramatic delivery down in a way that made me think our newbie had some experience hamming it up before this.

“You practice this in front of the mirror this morning? Honestly, I’m impressed.” No webs, my only option was to start making my way to boomerang. Closing the gap was easier said than done when facing off against a blaster. Every time I gained more than a foot closer I’d be forced to dodge another attack. This time my Spider sense was more on point, each attack was easier than the last to dodge. I wondered why that would be.

“You’re never getting any closer Bugboy, just keep dodging, I don’t run out of these like your pal does arrows, I bet he can’t even string his fancy bow right now without the power running through it.” Boomerang taunted between volleys of projectiles, the guy was right that I just couldn’t get any closer without risking a hit. Maybe I could go for it, try and use all my brute charge and just shrug off the boomerang.

My danger sense buzzed from behind me this time and I ducked to avoid being hit, a cut appeared on Boomerang’s mask and through it I could see blood. His cheek had been cut. I glanced back where Hawkeye was holding shards of glass from the window I’d shattered. “I don’t need my bow for a guy like you, debris will do just fine.”

Ignoring that Hawkeye had been counting on me to dodge without any warning to make that shot, I rushed Boomerang and made use of the opening the archer had given me. “Night Night Boomerang.” I channeled so much brute power that my danger sense tingled and then reduced the power enough that it stopped before my fist was making contact with Boomerang’s face. 

The villain went down but I was sure he was still breathing, that trick I’d done with my danger sense had just kind’ve come to me during the fight. I felt good, impressed with how I’d handled that, satisfied with the way I’d used my powers in conjunction with each other.

Hawkeye grabbed me by the shoulder, an annoying but non threatening gesture my danger sense hadn’t warned me about. “You did good, this time. But how many times do you think you can just barge in without a plan before someone gets the better of you?”

“What if Boomerang had had hostages?” I asked, “there’s not always time for a plan, a hero just does what’s right.”

“In the comic books he just does what’s right, in real life you can die, be smarter, how long could you have kept that up before you went trying to tank one of those attacks?” He’d let go of my shoulder but the man was still invading my personal bubble.

“I’m a brute, I’d be fine.” I had argued, irritated that this guy was intent on lecturing me after we’d saved the day together.

“You’d survive that?” He pointed to where a concrete pillar had been melted through by one of the boomerangs I’d dodged. “Your brute power works on super hot energy projections?”

I felt my face heating up under the mask, so stupid, he was right that I had no idea what he could do and had just dived in like an idiot. Crap, Cindy was going to probably hear about this and scold me later.

“I… Thanks for stepping in.” I painfully admitted

“Not my decision but you should consider talking to my friend Officer Weele again, he can come off pushy but you should really consider at least signing up with the prt in some capacity, right now you’re basically a vigilante.” Hawkeye advised, but I really couldn’t be bothered with that guy. Maybe I’d sign up eventually or even join the wards like Cindy wanted, but I’d be avoiding Officer Weele like he was a biblical plague.

“I’ll think about it.” I lied to Hawkeye, walking out of the bank. My webs were still down, would be until I got new batteries in my suit. No change of clothes available and half the city away from home. How in the hell was I gonna get back home before Aunt May?

I climbed my way onto a rooftop and checked my phone, being under my suit must’ve protected it from the ‘thunder-rang’ cause it still had power. I could call Cindy but she had wards stuff and wouldn’t be able to bring me batteries from my workshop. That left only one real option. A terrible option I never thought I’d ever consider. I opened my phone and gave Flash Thompson a call.

Chapter Text

I waited for around half a minute before he answered. “Hey Peter, what’s up?” He had to be curious about me calling out the blue like this. I hesitated a little too long in finding a good way to ask for his help. “Yo Nerdlinger, are you there?”

I found my voice and answered him, “I’m here, sorry.” 

“So what’s up? Did you just call to talk or is something going on?” Flash asked. “I owe you Parker, if you need me for something I’m there.”

“Ugh.” I groaned, he was making this harder. I really did need his help but roping him into Spider-man stuff felt like such a bad idea. I’d seen some of the horror stories and knew that cape life and personal life was something best kept separated. “I know, that’s why this is hard to ask…” I trailed off

“What is?” Flash asked.

I settled on a story and decided to go with it. “My uh friend got into some trouble, I met him on pho, he needs help.”

“What kind of trouble did this cape geek you met online get into? I’m serious about helping you out but I’m not gonna drive to some cape fight because-” flash was right to be cautious, but I really needed to get him on his way over here faster.

“It’s Spider-man!” I interrupted. “He’s saying some villain messed up his web shooters, he’s asking me if I knew anybody with a car that could come pick him up and I thought of you.” I lamely explained, trying to hit the right level of awkward Peter Parkerness.

Flash was quiet, he took his time to ask me, “Are you sure it’s actually him and not like a pervert?” 

“What?” I’d asked him incredulously.

“You know what I mean, like, how do you know this isn’t some creep trying to lure you or a friend to a second location? The internet is full of creeps, you wouldn’t be the first kid some pedophile got with a fake Cape account, that kind of thing happens man, watch the news.”

I sighed, of course when I needed him to act and ask questions later he’d suddenly develop caution. “It’s him, it’s from the same account-”

“You can fake that.” He explained, “I was watching Sixty minutes a few days ago with my mom, they did a piece on this it’s a scam they do now.” Curse his newly discovered desire to learn

“Flash please, Spider-man really needs a ride and I don’t have a car.” What could I say that makes him believe me? It seemed like time for the nuclear option. “I can’t believe I’m gonna have to tell you this…”

“Tell me what? Peter…” he paused, clearly lost in thinking “Oh shit!” He whispered into the phone. “I’m so stupid, your science project…”

I stared off into space, had Flash figured it out? “You piecing it together?”

“You make his webs, that’s why he’d reach out to you, you’re Spider-man’s tech guy… is he even a tinker?” Flash was whisper shouting into his phone.

Okay, this worked too. “No.”

“Are you? Cause it’s kind of unethical if you entered that competition with powers.”

New story decided on I answered, “I wasn’t then… I found him online before he started doing videos, he was just looking for a camera thing at first but then I had more ideas for gadgets and we realized since he already had multiple powers we could just pretend tinkering was one of them and he could just use my stuff.”

“So you’re like a rogue, right? Do you have a rogue name?” Flash asked, getting excited.

“Spidey calls me Web-head, look can you please just go pick him up?” I asked.

“We’re talking about this tinker thing later, but yeah. I owe him too for saving my mom, I’ll be there, text me where he is.” Flash committed.

“Okay, thank you!” I texted him the address of the building I’d been hanging out on.

I sat in Flash’s passenger seat in my full Spider-man costume, I got fewer looks from people on the street than expected. “Thank you for this.” I’d decided to speak. “you’re a friend of Webhead’s?”

“Yeah,” Flash answered. “do you know his real name? Should I have worn a mask for this?”

“Yeah, I do… he’s undecided on having a secret identity or doing anything other than helping me with his power.” I thought about it for a second before answering his next question. “Probably wouldn’t have hurt, but it should be fine that you didn’t.”

“Right.” Flash swallowed nervously. “I wanted to say thanks for saving my mom.”

“Peter mentioned that, I’m just happy no one died that night.” Honestly, I was lucky that the injured man from that night seemed to be recovering fine.

“Right.” Flash’s eyes narrowed as he watched the road ahead of us, we had clear stretch where our view of the sky wasn’t blocked by buildings and the setting sun managed to be a bit too bright. “I’m having a pretty insane day already, but are you seeing that thing in the distance too?”

“Hm?” I took a closer look up, without power I couldn’t zoom my lenses but up in the air there was a glimmering thing. 

A metallic box with three sets of wings, the wings were almost blade-like appendages sticking out from each face of the cube. It rotated and spun as it descended slowly in our direction. “Target detected: setting path for Spider-man.” Spoke a robotic voice coming from the death cube.

“Flash buddy I’m gonna need you to speed up.” I advised, the cube was coming at us and it looked like those wings could plausibly cut through the truck.

“On it!” Flash floored it at just the right moment to avoid the path of the biblically accurate Angel drone that was trying to turn me into a spider smoothie.

When the drone got down to car level we’d already passed it, now behind us the cube began giving chase. “What’s with this thing? Who’d you piss off?” Flash asked.

That’s something I wanted to know, what had I done that got this winged thing’s owner to sick it on me? Winged thing? Oh crap! That stupid Wings of Vengeance guy on PHO, he was real? “I think it’s ticked that I skipped out on meeting its owner.”

“You cannot escape vengeance Spider-man” the same robotic voice from before spoke. It sounded kind of like a default voice program. Likely programming wasn't the specialty of this tinker.

We escaped vengeance pretty easily, as intimidating as the blender from hell was, it just couldn’t keep up with a speeding teenager. “I think we just lost it.” Flash said, taking another right turn.

“Good, I did not want us getting diced by that thing.” I said. “Thankfully it only had eyes for me, I’d hate to have to do more than run without my webs.”

We were nearing the destination I’d told Flash when he suddenly asked. “Do you pay him?”

I’d zoned out thinking about what I’d do next about this drone tinker, Hummingbird’s specialty was flight. Maybe I could reach out to him on PHO, see if he knew anything about this drone guy, maybe they swam in the same circles. Probably not, but it was worth a shot. “Pay who?”

“Webhead ya know, Peter? You’re using his gear, do you pay him? He just lost his uncle so money’s gonna be tight for him and his aunt.”

“I’m not exactly wealthy under the mask, if I had money to pay him I would.” That was the downside to being completely independent. “This isn’t like the wards or the protectorate, he’s not gonna get a trust or a materials budget. It’s what it takes to do things the way we’re doing things.” A small part of me had been beginning to seriously consider joining the wards with Cindy just for the money, but Flash didn’t need to know that

“Okay, we’re where you wanted to stop. If you want to get out, I need to swing by Parker’s and talk to him about all this.” Flash gave me a nudge on the shoulder. “Stay safe out there Spidey.”

I’d gotten out of the car, climbed up a building and ran my way back home across the rooftops. I made it home in time to see Flash’s truck park from the window. Quickly changing out of my costume I prepared myself mentally and opened the door for Flash as he came crashing into the living room.

“Spider-Man doesn’t even pay you!” Flash groaned as he plopped down onto the sofa. 

“Hi Flash, it’s good to see you too,” I snarked.

“Pete, you're a superhero’s unpaid intern, how are you fine with that?” Flash asked. “You have powers, you could be like Hawkeye or that Armsmaster guy in Brockton!”

“I might also end up like Stingray.” The animal themed tinkerer Stingray had famously died during the filming of a movie, his tinker tech suit had malfunctioned during a prolonged underwater shoot and he’d become lost to the ocean.

“Hey! You don’t know that.” Flash was upset on my behalf. “Spidey seems like a great guy but are you sure about not just going to the wards?”

“Are you kidding? Aunt May couldn’t handle that kind of stress, better off keeping this tinker stuff a secret. And it’s like you just said Spidey’s a great guy. He’s changing his act around and doing the right thing with my stuff.”

Aunt May chose that time to come walking through the door. “Peter, I’m home!” She glared at Flash for a moment before relaxing her gaze. “I see we have company.”

“I was just leaving. Can we talk more about this later Pete?” He asked.

I nodded, “Yeah.”

Before Flash left he turned to May, “Have a nice night Mrs. Parker.” 

“You too, Mr. Thompson,” May wished him a nice night as well and Flash was out the door.

May found her way onto the sofa and thudded gently as she plopped down. “The FEAST center was amazing, there’s a reason Ben loved volunteering there.” She said.

“Yeah?” I asked

“Yeah,” She sighed wistfully.

After dinner I’d gone to my room for the night, I needed to take measures to prevent something like what happened with boomerang from happening again. However with an abysmal amount of materials left I couldn’t do anything tonight. If I had some additional income maybe I could buy more materials.

Searching online for local jobs I found the Daily Bugle was paying freelance photographers for pictures of up and coming capes. That was definitely an option, Ben’s old camera was sitting on my desk, he’d given it to me before he’d passed and I could never bring myself to tear it apart for pieces.

Hummingbird had called himself a perpetual up and comer, Incase they wanted more than just pictures of Spider-Man or Silk in action I should try getting a more indie cape. Surely he’d appreciate that. Finding Adrian on PHO didn’t take very long and I sent him a message.

♦  Private messages with Hummingbird_Rogue

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: Hey Adrian, I was attacked today by a winged drone… do you know if the teeth has a drone/aviation tinker like yourself or if you’d want to team up on this?

Hummingbird_Rogue: Sounds like a dangerous foe… 

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: Yeah, they could be. Hey this photographer working with the bugle is getting pictures of capes, what do think about meeting up with him tomorrow? He’d asked me about you and I figured I could set up a meeting between you guys.

Hummingbird_Rogue: Midnight, SuperSpace Storage.

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: That’s kind of a school night and he’s still a high schooler. Can you do earlier?

Hummingbird_Rogue: Nine?

ItsyBitsy_Spider-Man: yeah that works.

With a meeting setup with Hummingbird and plans to take some pictures of my alter ego for the paper I felt like I had a solid plan for the next day.