Chapter Text
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Chapter One
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Thwip
"I've got to catch these guys, Karen!" Peter Parker panted as he soared through the air on his thin line of webbing.
He was currently chasing a group of thugs who still possessed some of the Chitauri tech that Toomes had distributed. It's been nine months since his final battle with the Vulture, but the tech that Toomes had sold for years was still out there... in the hands of many, many bad guys.
Those very bad guys were now speeding down the busy streets of Manhattan in a white van, pointing their weapons at him, trying to shoot the Amazing Spider-Man out of the sky. Peter had to admit, there were a few close calls, but he had managed to twist out of the way before the cosmic energy had a chance to touch him. Ever since his newfound 'spider-sense' had developed as a new power two months ago, no one could deny that he had gotten significantly better at his superhero job.
No one could touch him. He was too agile, too quick. With his spider-sense, he finally felt that he was the hero he always knew he could be. Even Mr. Stark had to admit it, though he only did so once... begrudgingly.
"You have really grown into your own, kid," Mr. Stark had told him, in that flippant manner of speaking, which gave off the vibe that he actually didn't care enough for Peter to see it as a real compliment.
Still, Peter had beamed at the praise and had jokingly said that he might just be too good for the Avengers, which was another reason he had to turn down Mr. Stark's offer. That comment had gotten him a light slap on the back of his head as Mr. Stark had rolled his eyes.
"I have calculated that the fastest way to catch your objectives is to launch yourself off of the flagpole two hundred feet ahead of you, Peter," His A.I. - Karen - informed him in that robotically warm voice of hers. On the screen in front of his eye-lenses, the very flagpole she had been speaking of had been highlighted to show what she had been referring to.
Peter immediately went for it. Landing on the flagpole and in the next instant, launching himself off from it. He hurdled high through the air until he was right on top of the white van in the sky. Peter shot out a web that immediately latched itself onto the top of the van, and used the taught pull of it to propel himself down on the roof of the moving vehicle, landing nimbly on his feet.
"Where'd the Spider-Freak go?!" He heard one of the goons exclaim from within the vehicle, as they had lost sight of him trailing their van.
Peter grinned as he flipped backward from the edge of the roof, right through the open doors of the back of the van.
"Spider-Freak?" He asked with a sardonic chuckle as they all jumped and yelled out in surprise by his sudden appearance. He leapt out of the way as one thug immediately shot cosmic energy at the spot he had been previously standing in before landing sideways on the wall. "Don't you mean, ridiculously handsome Spider-Freak?"
He flipped off of the wall and kicked one of the men right in the face, using his ugly mug as a backboard to launch off of for another flip.
Peter landed low in a crouch and used his web to pull one of the weapons from another thug's surprised hands. "I mean... because you have to admit that this suit - this suit - is the best thing you miscreants will ever lay eyes on!"
Peter webbed every thug to all manner of surfaces of the van... including the driver, who Peter had pulled out of his seat from the front, before firing off a web to keep the car break down.
The car came to a screeching halt.
Peter clapped his hands together, getting rid of imaginary dust, and beamed with a large grin. "Be sure to rave about how the handsome Spider-Freak sent you all to prison while in your jail cells, boys. That's sure to make you mighty popular with the other inmates."
An obvious panic immediately washed over the crew of criminals, overcome with gasps and the widening of their eyes at his words. One of the seedy men couldn't seem to keep from piping up, "No, wait! You can't send us to jail! He'll kill us!"
Peter, who had been about to swing off on the web he attached to the nearest building, paused.
"What do you mean?" Peter asked, his tone dubious. He's heard many things from criminals after he's happened to catch them - many of those statements included some rather colorful language - but he hasn't quite heard a thug say something along these lines. Murder by capture? It was an interesting tactic, to say the least. "Who will kill you?"
The man who had spoken didn't say a thing, however. Just merely looked at Peter with frightened, imploring eyes. He was the youngest of the bunch, so perhaps he was just scared to be going to prison for the first time and was over-exaggerating his story. But another man piped up from where he was webbed up on the other side of the van. "Please. You call yourself a hero. You've got to save us!"
Peter looked at them, his white eye templates widening in apparent surprise. They were all in on it? Was it a ruse or the truth?
"You've got to be messing with me or something..." He said skeptically, "You're just trying to trick me into letting you all free."
The second man who had spoken immediately shook his head. "No. I swear to you, Spider-Man. You've got to help us!"
Peter hesitated for a second, then released a heavy sigh before he let go of his hold on the web-line and approached the man.
"What's your name?" Peter asked him.
"Flint Marko." The man replied, confused at the shift in topic. "The others are Aleksei Sytsevich and Moorie Bench."
Immediately, Peter could see on his screen that Karen had started a database search on their names. It didn't take very long for the results to have presented themselves to him.
"Well," Peter began as his eyes swept and skimmed over the results, "According to all of your permanent records, you don't seem to be very trustworthy men..."
It was true. How had they managed to pull off all of the crimes on this list and still manage to not be put away for life? Even the youngest one had done more than simply dabbled in the criminal lifestyle - did he seriously threaten a woman with a knife while trying to rob her store?
"Please!" Flint exclaimed, sounding even more desperate than before. "You don't understand, The Big Man, he'll-" He cut himself off, his eyes widening, as though he just realized that he had said too much.
"The Big Man?" Peter asked, both dubious and curious at the same time. "Who's 'The Big Man'?"
"No one," Aleksei spat out in a thick Russian accent, "Now, keep your mouth shut, Marko!"
"What's the use?!" Flint argued back. "This Spider-Guy is our only chance of us not going to jail and getting killed!"
Flint turned to Peter, a newfound determination set in his gaze. "I'll talk if you let us go. There's a new Big Man of Crime in the city... Only, he isn't like any crime boss I've ever seen before. He wears a mask, he's super strong like you, and he kills anyone who steps a toe out of line. He'll kill us all for messing up the job and going to jail."
Peter could only stare at the man in shock for what felt like an extended amount of time. The story he told was wild, almost unbelievable, and yet... He couldn't help but to believe him. He was too sincere... But he couldn't just let them all go free! His Aunt May walked these streets sometimes. What if she got caught in the crossfire the next time these guys decided to loot?
'Remember what happened the last time you let a criminal go free?' His thoughts reminded him against his will.
Of course, he couldn't forget. He never could. The last time he let a thief go free without stopping them, was when his Uncle Ben had been shot and killed by the very same criminal... Since then, he lived by his uncle's words...
'With great power, must also come great responsibility.'
No... he couldn't let any of these thugs go free. Not when it could cost an innocent person their life. But... he couldn't also be responsible for knowingly sending these men to their deaths by allowing them to be carted off to prison.
Peter sighed, running a hand over his masked head, uncertain. Marko must have noticed the hesitation in his demeanor and latched onto it. "Please. I'll even tell you where all the crime bosses plan on meetin' tonight."
This... served to pique Peter's interest. Crime bosses? As in- the bosses of all of the organized crime within the city?
"Where?" He asked immediately.
Flint struggled against the webbing that held him firm in his place before saying, "The address is in my front pocket."
Peter stepped forward and fished out the address, which was written on a flimsy scrap of notebook paper.
"Will you help us?" Flint asked, never once straying his sight from his mask's white eye pieces.
Peter paused, and looked at the man in front of him. "Yeah... I'll help. But not in the way you'll like..."
Then he turned his back on him, just so he wouldn't have to face the man's outrage when he did this, as he voiced his attention to his A.I... "Karen? Can you send a message to Mr. Stark to pick up these men for the special holding facility? And let him know about the situation? They will be safe there."
"What?!" Flint and the others exclaimed behind him. "No! You can't do that! The Big Man will still find us there and-"
"At a special holding facility within the Avengers Headquarters?" Peter interrupted, his voice incredulous and not even bothering to hide his amusement, "I think not... But thanks for the address and the information. I promise that you all will be perfectly safe where you're going."
With that, Peter let loose another web and shot off into the air, hearing his alter-ego's name getting cursed behind him.
"Karen?" Peter asked as he swung high in the air. "Can you find directions for the address he gave me?"
"Certainly, Peter."
Peter landed on the corner of a roof and launched himself off of it, following the directions that Karen set out for him.
When out of seemingly nowhere...
"Peter, you have an incoming call from May Parker."
"No, no, no, no, no!" Peter exclaimed. "Don't let her through, Karen, you cannot-"
"Peter Benjamin Parker!" His Aunt May's voice pierced through the earpieces in his mask, almost startling him enough to let go of the web that kept him from falling to the pavement below... "What was it I said about curfew?!"
Peter groaned, exasperated. Ever since his aunt had found out about his secret, things had been a little on edge between them. Since the day she walked in on him dressed in his Spider-Man suit - sans mask - she had been almost too overprotective over his safety. Not that Peter didn't understand why... with what had happened to Uncle Ben, Peter was the only family that May had left. It was obvious that she didn't want to lose him just so he could 'go out and play hero'.
Those had been her words... when she had outright forbade him from being Spider-Man. It hadn't been until Mr. Stark had come over and managed to persuade her differently with a bit of smooth-talking where she finally relented... only with more than a few rules that Peter had to follow. One of them being that he couldn't stay out past curfew... even if it was summer vacation.
"H-Hey, Aunt May..." Peter tried to say casually but even to his own ears, he sounded guilty as hell, "How's your night been?"
"Do not change the subject, Peter," His Aunt said, her voice terse. He was in deep shit now. He knew that tone, and when it was one that May adopted, it never led to anything good for Peter. There once was a time when he went years without hearing it - back when he was simply a young, nerdy kid who kept his nose out of any semblance of trouble. But ever since the secret of his alter ego was revealed, he's been subject to her disapproval more often than he liked. "Where are you? Are you on your way home, now?"
Peter sighed. This whole curfew rule made it plenty difficult to be New York's personal, friendliest superhero. "I-I'm sorry, May, but I'm actually chasing a lead right now."
There was a beat of silence, before, "Nooo... What you are actually doing is making your way home, mister."
Peter gritted his teeth in frustration. "But, Aunt May! If I follow this lead, then I just might be able to take down all the crime bosses, and-"
"Wait- Crime bosses?!"
"-and then, maybe crime will slow down and I'll be home more often! Don't you see? Win-Win!"
An indignant noise came from the other end of the line. "Did you call Tony about this? It seems... too big for just you."
Peter frowned. It was another one of those 'rules' that Mr. Stark and his Aunt May made up - but Peter saw it more as a punishment. His Aunt May had been adamant that if he ever found himself in over his head, or dealing with anything bigger than a simple, petty thief, Peter had to immediately call Mr. Stark for assistance.
Peter didn't much like this rule. He didn't need a babysitter. Especially since his spider-sense made him better than ever with his super-heroing.
"Y-Yeah," Peter lied, "He told me that he's on his way now."
It was simple in Peter's mind - what better way to break free of the constricting bonds of being constantly monitored than for him to outright prove them wrong? He was a hero. Not a sidekick. Not an amateur. But a full-fledged hero in his own right. If he stopped these crime bosses and toppled their empires in one night, then he's more than confirmed that he's established enough to venture past these constricting regulations - and move forward to be able to do as he pleased when it came to his crime-fighting duties.
There was a long beat, where Peter held his breath before he finally heard May sigh in acceptance. "Fine. But I want you straight home right after, understand?"
Peter grinned at his victory and happily replied, "Absolutely! Love you, Aunt May! Gotta go!"
The line disconnected before his Aunt May could get another word in.
It wasn't long before Peter got to the abandoned building where the address on the paper said. And Peter realized that his destination wasn't too far from his apartment that his Aunt May was sitting in right then... almost too close for Peter's comfort.
At this thought, a newfound determination settled within him as he crawled up to the roof of the building. He had to stop these power-hungry maniacs before any innocent people got hurt...
But, unknown to Spider-Man, he was being watched from the building from across the alleyway...
"It worked boss. Those low-lives got caught by Spider-Man just as you said."
A long, cackling, maniacal laugh sounded from within the shadows. "But of course, my dear Hammerhead. It was only too easy to catch Spider-Man within this very trap. Now tell me Hammerhead, how do you catch a spider when out of its web?"
Hammerhead grinned slightly as he turned back to peer through the window, "You blow it up."
..............
As soon as Peter stood on the roof of the abandoned building, his spider-sense started going off like crazy.
He supposed that it had something to do with all the crime bosses inside, but the tingling was more urgent than that...
Almost as though...
Peter's eyes widened.
He had to get out of there, now!
Peter leapt from the very spot he had been standing, just a moment before the entire building exploded.
And though he had been fast enough to avoid the flames, he hadn't been fast enough to avoid the force of the blast that sent him hurtling through the air... until he plummeted, head first, into the corner of a metal dumpster.
His body landed heavily on the pavement in the middle of the abandoned alleyway... limp and unresponsive to the surrounding world.
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A/N: Please leave a review if you want me to continue. This story has been in my thoughts lately, and I decided to write it out. Let me know if you like it so far or have any suggestions! :)
Up next is the "mysterious" redhead that finds him. Though I'm guessing that you all know who it really is... ;)
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