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Peter Parker liked to people-watch. Lately, he often found himself at the outskirts of society, either gazing downwards from the tops of skyscrapers or flipping through city camera feeds in his attic, but he had a habit of walking the streets, listening in on local conversations. It felt nice, almost like he could pretend he was anyone else, just another New Yorker on their way home from work.
Things felt different in person. Even though he could pull up any camera from his desk and run analyses on the emotional trends and rumors from social media, but he still felt restless unless he was patrolling the city in or out of the suit.
In a crowd, he felt invisible.
Sometimes he wondered if he looked like a serial killer, always alone with his nondescript hoodies always long enough to cover his webshooters and tech. Peter knew he was jumpy, twitchy. His eyes jumped from place to place, noticing who was carrying weapons and how to subdue them if ever needed.
He watched two teenagers race towards an ice cream truck across the street. They laughed and playfully pushed at each other once they reached the end of the line. They looked to be young high school students. Maybe 14 or 15 years old.
"Who's your favorite Avenger?" The shorter of the two asked, nodding at the giant menu along the side of the truck. Each of the popsicles were designed to represent a different superhero, from patriotic Captain America to the incredible Hulk.
"Spider-Man!" The boy in neon yellow sneakers made pew-pew sounds while dramatically performing the famous web shooting hand thwips.
Smiling, Peter copied him quietly. He’d seen many kids do the same recently. It reminded him of how he used to carry around an Iron Man mask, dreaming of the days he would be a superhero.
"Spider-Man’s not an Avenger!”
“Yes he is!”
“His name isn’t on the Avengers Memorial.”
"It was! I was at the grand opening, and his name was there.” The taller boy said. “Captain Marvel said Spider-Man helped kill Thanos!"
The teenagers continued to argue.
"Whatever you say. I checked last week, and it's not there now."
"He probably asked them to remove it to protect his secret identity or something."
Peter put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and glanced away.
The Avengers Memorial was installed seven months after the final battle against Thanos and the end of the Blip. The American government carved the known civilian names of each of the heroes who had fought in the war into the face of the stone tower as reminders to all that anyone can change the world, not only as superheroes, but as humans (or aliens) working together.
"He's definitely the coolest." Both teenagers agreed on that point.
They had finally reached the front of the line, ordering an Iron Spider strawberry pineapple popsicle and the last of the Spidey Stealth Suit black cherry popsicles.
"You're not an easy man to find, Peter Parker."
Peter jumped at the sudden statement.
His hand reflectively covered his chest where the gunshot wound was still healing. He turned to find Yelena Belova leaning against the wall to his left.
"Black Widow?"
"I'm surprised you didn't notice me coming. Forget to turn on your spider senses?"
"That's not how it works," he said. "How did you find me?"
"I’ve seen your belly button. And they say footprints are unique.” Yelena said. "Let's walk." She gestured forward and began moving, without waiting to see how he would respond.
Peter followed.
After a moment, she continued. "Kids have a good question. Why aren't you on the Memorial? It's not like they ran out of room. Are they right? You got shy and took it off?"
"I was--but it's a long story." He didn’t like to think about it.
"Keep it short."
"I was--My name was on the Memorial." Peter repeated. He put his hands back into his hoodie, hiding the way they twisted in discomfort. He quickly checked that no one else was listening (not that it mattered since Peter was no one, but maybe he could be someone someday now that Ned and MJ knew. And Jean and maybe the Hulk...).
He didn't feel like an Avenger, not after he almost destroyed the Multiverse with his selfish desires (maybe that was par for the course) but definitely not after May. He failed to recognize Beck and he failed again with Metzger.
"Or Peter Parker was. But Dr. Strange did this spell and erased Peter Parker, so it's not there anymore."
Initially, "Spider-Man" was listed on the Memorial after "Sam Wilson" and before "Steve Rogers". But after Mysterio had revealed his identity, the stewards of the Memorial had replaced the inscription with "Peter Parker." That carving had disappeared along with all other mentions of him when Dr. Strange erased him from memory.
Yelena stopped walking briefly and turned back to look at him. "A spell? I did not know about this."
"Yeah, that's how it worked. It erased everyone's memory of me." He breathed in deeply, feeling suddenly restless again. "Every memory, picture, and written record of Spider-Man’s identity was gone."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Did I know you?"
After a moment, Peter smiled, face crinkling and shoulders relaxing a little. "No. No, I'd heard of you, but we've never met. I've only known you as Spider-Man."
"Well, it's good to meet you, Peter Parker. Finally out of that stinky mask of yours. You should consider washing it more often. Sunlight is good for you."
"Whatever."
Yelena sighed. "Do you have any questions for me?"
He had a lot of questions, but he wasn’t sure how to ask them.
"When I asked you about Sarah Grey, it took you about 30 seconds to access Damage Control's database. Did you really not know what they were up to?"
She scoffed. "That's small potatoes. New Avengers only does--"
"Big potatoes, yeah." Peter said, "I guess it's not aliens or continent destroying feats, but it's still wrong. DODC is part of the government. They tortured and killed someone for the crime of existing and the information was just... there. You work for them!"
They stopped to wait for a crosswalk before continuing. Peter felt his heart rate increase. The New Avengers were sanctioned by the United States. He didn’t know how that relationship worked exactly, and he’d heard it was complicated, but he didn’t know who he could trust.
"Jean was more powerful than expected. She is still young. Someone like that could do a lot of damage in the future. I gave you all the information I knew.”
Peter looked around again and kept his voice low. "Damage Control had weapons and people trained to defeat me! They built EMPs guns just for my webs. Aren't you worried they've done the same for you?"
Yelena rolled her eyes. "Between you and the New Avengers, who do you think would win?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
“Who do you think would win?”
“I think—”
"It doesn't matter what you think,” Yelena interrupted. “You'd find a way. Even with all our preventative measures and maybe not on paper, but I think you win. And that's dangerous."
She continued, "You know, Peter, you were strong before and now you are stronger yes? What happens when you have a bad day? What happens when any one of us has a bad day? We run exercises on what to do if someone goes rogue. It could happen and has happened before. So no, I'm not surprised and they probably do have weapons designed to neutralize me. I'd be more surprised if any government today wasn't actively designing neutralization and containment measures for any so-called hero."
"I wouldn't."
"You severely injured a police officer. You've destroyed one water tower, 17 building signs, 4 windows, and 2 balconies in the past 72 hours. That is not including any collateral damage during your fight on Roosevelt Island. Over 6,000 people lost access to running water for 2 days while the city repaired the water system after you broke it."
Peter didn't know how to respond.
"You're lucky the city will be covering the cost of repairs."
"I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
When they stopped walking, Peter recognized their location. They were about a block away from the Black Widow's office.
Yelena patted him on the shoulder, "Keep at it, and keep in touch. You might be part spider, but humans still need connection." She waved at the passing neighbors and disappeared into the crowd.