Chapter Text
The sun was merely peaking out today from its hideout, it was a rather cloudy day at Hell’s Kitchen. Matt couldn’t feel the heat of the sun on his face, or on his hands which were gripping his cane, swinging it from side to side while walking the streets of his old neighbourhood.
Matt doesn’t come round here often anymore. Not since what happened. Not since the Nelson, Murdock, and Page days. Every once in a while he’d wander the streets though. It was a walk down memory lane if anything. The times when the three of them huddled closely at Josie’s, drinking that cheap alcohol and discussing everything and nothing after a long day at their firm.
With a sigh, Matt hailed down a cab on this fine weekend, and gave him the address of his new home. There’s no use mulling over what-ifs or what-could-have-beens. There’s no use remembering….well, yeah. And there’s gotta be a better way to spend his day off work than reminiscing about them, about the days.
It was later that evening that he heard it. There, in the middle of the night, amid the hustle of the city, a fast, erratic heartbeat. A young one, coming from the rooftop of his loft. Matt sits upright at once, concentrating on it, trying to gauge the situation, and there it is. A very faint word, repeatedly being uttered by somebody in distress: “No.”
Peter Parker can be an idiot sometimes. And this moment right now, as he crawls through a vent opening, definitely qualifies as idiotic. Although in his defense, he was trying to do the right thing.
It all started an hour ago, when Peter saw a robbery in progress during his usual round of patrol. And, being the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman, he went to stop it.
It was going great. Peter got the truck waiting outside the jewelry store first, taking out the driver and the lookout. Then he went in and crawled around in the ceiling, straining his ears to hear where the rest were. Having roughly located them, he went in. And as per usual, he got them tied with his webbing and proceeded to call 911 to report the crime.
Except once he was far enough that the burglars thought he was outside earshot, they started talking.
“Boss is going to be angry.” The gruff voice said.
“Fuck your boss man, I wasn’t even supposed to be here, I just need some extra cash, and you said this was safe!” shot back the other guy.
“It fucking was! I told you, this is the usual routine. The Postman picks the store, after surveilling it for a few days and you know, all the fancy brain work they do. And we just come and pick up whatever Boss wants.” Gruff replied back, struggling against the restraints.
The other guy grunts in response.
“Can’t believe that insect guy can bind us so tight with this…..whatever this is.”
“Gus, what’re the jewels for, anyway?”
“Them pretty girls boss rounds up for the clients, Johnny.”
By the time the police sirens could be heard, Peter has gotten enough information to figure out where this “Boss” character was holding the young girls for “the clients.” Which is how Peter found himself crawling through the ventilation vents without backup or anyone knowing where he was.
Peter wasn’t intending to fight his way in, or out, of this. The plan was to sneak in through the vents, drop in the correct room where the girls were at, and get them back out through the vents. An extraction operation, if you will.
The operation was going well so far. Peter managed to locate the girls, managed to get them up through the vents and well on their way to the outside. The main vent lead to the back of the structure, and there were no guards there.
“Yeah? Pretend you’re a ninja! There’s a rope when we reach the end, and we’re gonna use it to drop a few feet to the ground!” Peter tried reassuring them. Visually, there was nothing wrong with them, but Peter could sense their hurt and pain, in the way some of them obediently did what Peter said, and in the way the other hesitated out of fear.
Just as Peter help the last girl up the vent, one of them spoke.
“Mr. Spiderman, Lily is with Mr. Holden, we can’t leave her!” Said the girl, roughly 11 years old.
“Alright, don’t worry, I’ll go and get her. In the meantime, I’m gonna tell you what to do.”
Peter instructed the girls on how to navigate the maze of the vents, and how to use the rope to get to the ground, and which way to take to get away the fastest.
Peter realized that he should have called the police, tipped them to what’s happening. Instead, the girls will be out alone soon enough, and he’s in here trying to find Lily before they do anything to her.
Once again, Peter is good at what he does. He manages to track down the room where Lily was being held at, waiting for the client to show. He managed to successfully reassure the girl, got her up and started crawling out of them. They rounded the corner just in time to hear the door open, and a man cursed and yelled.
That’s when all hell started breaking loose. Shouts and yells, the sound of guns loading and machetes against the walls.
The criminals soon discovered that the rest of the girls were missing, considering theres no way the girls could have unlocked the shut door, she must have escaped through the vents.
Miraculously, Peter and the girl made it out safely. Peter closed the vent up and hide the rope. Before they managed to completely leave the premises, a shot rang out, followed by the men shouting that they spotted the girl with Spiderman.
A fight broke out. Peter managed to get Lily somewhere safe, temporarily, until he neutralized the threat. And that’s when the explosion happened, by accident. Peter grabbed one of the rifles with his webbing and threw it away, but it had fired directly at the gasoline barrels.
It was a few minutes until his ears stopped ringing, and another few minutes that he realized Lily was by his side. It took all his strength to get up and walk to the hideout that held the girls, he told them they’re safe, and that someone called the police. His hearing picked up a 911 call from one of the nearby buildings.
Peter stayed with them until the sirens drew closer, and then with all his might, despite his aching chest and the bits of metal in him, he swung away.
After ten minutes of swinging, he could do it anymore, his shoulders ached badly, and he realized he’s bleeding.
Peter Parker landed on a rooftop, he didn’t even have time to survey around, to make sure he’s alone.
His chest ached badly, and that’s when he remembered he was binding since he went out on patrol earlier that night. That’s when he truly panicked.
He’s alone, far from home, injured and bleeding, and he had great difficulty breathing due to a combination of his injury and the binder constructing his chest. He started muttering to himself repeatedly, the same word. “No, no, no no.”
Even though Peter would deny it later on, his eyes teared up and he started silently crying, because there was no way for him to take his binder off right now, on this public rooftop, a few miles away from his bedroom, with little strength left to make his way there.