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Spider-man stood tall in front of his teammates.
“Good job today, guys! First ever serious mission of the New Warriors and we’ve managed to recapture the prisoners, recruit new people”, he looked towards Cloak and Dagger and nodded in their direction, receiving two smiles back, “and all that with minimal damage. I’d call that a success!”
The room erupted in cheers. Everyone got together and started complementing each other, jumping around or hyping themselves up for future missions. Spider-man sighed lightheartedly and shook his head, a fond smile forming under his mask. He raised his hands to try and calm down both of his teams.
“Alright, alright, calm down now.” Everyone looked towards him quieting down. “I know you’re happy, so we”, he gestured to the rest of the classic team who moved to stand behind him, “have a little surprise for you. You know, as a treat.” Spider-man crossed his arms across his chest and grinned seeing the excited reactions of the New Warriors. Power Man walked up to stand next to him.
“Yes, as your reward you’re getting some tech updates.”
White Tiger also moved closer to be more visible. “There won’t be any training today either.”
The rest had no time for reaction as Nova quickly flew in, rested his hands on Tiger’s shoulders almost pushing her down and with a huge grin yelled, “We’re gonna have a party instead!”
Now the excitement was over the roof. Venom looked towards Spider-man with stars in his eyes.
“Did you hear that? We’re gonna have a party!” Spider-man smiled and waved his hand dismissively.
“Sorry guys, I’m gonna have to sit this one out.” That statement seemed to sour the mood slightly as it surprised everyone in the room. Iron Fist spoke up first.
“Why is that?”
“Ah, you know. Got a lot of stuff”, he tried to send Iron Fist a pointed look, “going on that I have to take care of today. You guys have fun though.” Danny seemed to understand and just nodded in agreement.
The excited talking started once more when Spider-man walked out of the room. The heavy doors closed behind him and he sighed heavily letting his confident facade fall. He started walking down the halls of the tri-carrier finally being able to think about their last fight.
He made it look like he had to go deal with his civilian life, but really he just wanted to find a roof to sit on and sulk for the night. The last fight was a great success for the new team, but… not for him. It was his job to take down the Goblin and yet he not only let the man go, he also let him take something as dangerous as the Siege Perilous. After all this time he spent training he should’ve been able to capture him, but no.
He absentmindedly turned on the spider-cycle and drove it over the ledge letting it plummet towards the ground before shooting out a web to catch himself between two buildings. He stopped on top of one of the tall skyscrapers that let him see all of New York and sat down on the edge letting his feet dangle in the air. He pulled off his mask and turned it around in his hands to look at the white lenses staring back at him.
Was he really the Ultimate Spider-man? According to Fury yes, but what if he was wrong? The man tried to act all-knowing and stuff, but he also made mistakes in the past. What if he was one of them? As he was thinking about that he heard a sound of a door opening behind him and quickly pulled the mask back on.
“Spider-man? What are you doing here?” Peter turned in the voice’s direction and quickly corrected his mask that in his panic he put on backwards.
“Ah, Harry! What are you doing here?”
The teen walked up closer, but still wary of the ledge. “This is an Osborn Industries’ building. I saw you swing over here from my room, but not leave so I just thought something might be wrong.”
Peter sighed and turned around to face his friend. He didn’t even notice where he landed and now he had to explain himself somehow.
“Right, sorry. Everything’s fine, I’m just taking a little breather is all.” He jokingly flexed one of his arms and patted it with his other hand. Harry was still unconvinced. “Uh… you should probably get back inside. It’s not very save for regular people to be standing on roofs.” He tried to lead Harry towards the exit, but the boy swiftly avoided his embrace.
“Spider-man, I know we’re not particularly close or anything, but even I can tell something is wrong. What is it?” Peter stared at Harry for a moment meeting the teen’s firm scowl. He looked at the ground admitting defeat.
“There was a… security breach on the tri-carrier.”, Harry walked up closer to stand right in front of Peter, who looked back up at him, “Taskmaster tried to break out the prisoners.”
“What?! You managed to stop him, right?” Harry grabbed Peter by the shoulders forcing the other to look him directly in the eyes. Peter shrugged the hands off before answering.
“Yes, we captured Taskmaster as well as other prisoners, but…”
“But?”
“I was supposed to deal with your dad, the Goblin, but I got wrapped up in fighting Taskmaster and was too late. Because of that he managed to escape with something very dangerous and it is all my fault.” Harry’s expression flickered between worry, fright, anger and finally landed on a soft grimace that he hoped was reassuring.
“But you still tried to stop him, right?”
“Of course I did!” Peter flung his arms in the air and turned around to crouch beside the edge of the roof. “But it’s still my fault he got away.” Harry looked at him unsure of what he should do. Finally he put on a comforting smile and walked up closer behind Peter to place a hand on his shoulder.
“I wasn’t there, but still I know you did all you could. You always do.” Peter didn’t turn to look at him.
“It wasn’t enough.”
“True, but it was something. You can’t beat yourself up for not being able do to something that was impossible.” Peter perked up at that and looked at Harry over his shoulder. “You need to focus on the good stuff instead. You said that everyone else was captured, right?” Peter focused his eyes on the city, still bright and full of life despite the late hour.
“That was my team’s doing. Without them it wouldn’t be possible.”
“Aren’t you their leader or something?” Peter’s head shot up again and Harry took that as his cue to continue. “I saw how you lead them on TV. I’m sure they would have a much harder time without you.”
“That’s my classic team. I’m talking about New Warriors, new heroes I’m currently training.”
“That’s even better!” Peter turned around at that, surprised by the exclamation.
“What?”
“Your new team managed to do all that, thanks to the training. Your training. Can’t you see it’s thanks to you they were able to do what they did?” Peter stood up and walked up closer to Harry, making the boy back away slightly.
“Why are you even telling me this? You have no reason to care, so why are you trying to make me feel better?” Harry let down his hands that he hasn’t even noticed were lifted in a surrendering motion and smiled.
“I think Peter’s getting to me or something. I’m not sure if you remember him. He was the one my dad kidnapped and turned into that monster thing he called Carnage.” Peter looked a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t like that memory.
“Yeah, I remember. What about him?”
“He’s always talking about doing the right thing and stuff. He’s wimpy and can’t do much of anything in PE, but when something happens he’s the first one to react. Sometimes I think he would jump in front of a truck if it meant shielding someone else.” He chuckled at the thought. “He worries me sometimes. We haven’t been talking that much lately.”
Peter deflated at that. While dealing with the new recruits he started to neglect their friendship again. And somehow Harry still used him as an example of a good person. Peter sighed.
“You’re right, I shouldn’t beat myself up like that. It’s not helping with anything. Thanks for that, Harry.” Harry smiled and nodded. “I should head off now, but maybe I’ll see you again sometime.” Harry watched as Peter sat on his spider-cycle and clicked a button to shoot a web, connecting it to a nearby building.
“Bye, Spider-man.”
“Bye, Harry.” He waved the boy goodbye as he revved the engine. “And don’t worry about your friend. I’m sure he just has some stuff to deal with and will come around soon.” Harry slouched a little and looked at the ground.
“I hope so.”
“Well, I ‘ve got to go now. Bye!” Peter half yelled as he started driving off. Harry waved one last time before turning back and heading inside.
As Peter drove back home he appreciated Harry’s words. He had to focus on what went right rather than what went wrong. He should come over tomorrow to hang out with Harry as Peter. Maybe do a bad movie marathon?
But first, he wanted to use the extra time to finally get a full night of sleep. Lately those were becoming a luxury and he wasn’t about to waste this oportunity.