Ok so it's been a long ass time since I've done a multi-chaptered story, my other ones are kind of on hiatus. It's a bit fast paced probably. It'll probably be a slow (ish) update though since I'm working on tons of other stuff [mostly art]. My sister is working on this with me so hopefully there won't be too much grammatical errors O^O. They might be a little ooc but I'm not sure. I haven't read a whole lot of comics (only some deadpool ones and Spider-man ones) so most of it is based of the movies. It's so much easier to draw them out ;-;
Summary: Sometimes, no matter how much you give, people will never give back. They will take and take without a second thought, until you have nothing left. Sometimes walking in the light is more painful than walking in the dark. After all the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
Spider-man aka Peter Parker has finally reached that breaking point. Dangling over the edge with only a single thread keeping him from falling into the depths of despair and anguish. Of course our friendly neighborhood spider-man can't be seen in such a state, he had a city to protect after all- it was his responsibility. Normally when people hide behind a mask for strength they mean it metaphorically, in Spidey's case, it's literal. Spider-man was the only thing that kept him from falling. The strong protects the weak, but who protects the strong?
You do such great things, but what good do you do? Save lives? The lives of whom? Those people? The people who care nothing about you? The people who make you look as if you were the criminal? Those ungrateful assholes of society? What do you owe those people? What have they ever done for you? Unlike other heroes who are rewarded with gratefulness and praise, you are trashed—insulted—and when you can't save them, they blame you. You save lives; they aren't happy. You don't do anything—and you aren't responsible—and they blame you. They are—those people are—so infuriating!
Peter had felt this way so many times; it had become a common occurrence. Guilt. It was such a heavy, painful feeling. He breathed in deeply, his eyes were shut tightly, and many thoughts ran through his mind, quickly followed by memories. There were so many times he felt this way-too many times. The first, most memorable time was the death of his uncle. He could've saved him. The guilt he felt was so heavy that day. It wasn't something that disappeared with time, either. It stayed with him-that feeling. It was always on his guilt would never leave, and it hurt.
Then, there was the death of Gwen's father, soon followed by Gwen's death. More guilt piled up from this. He couldn't get rid of that horrible feeling. He clenched his fists and breathed out. Over and over again, he felt guilt. Many people died. There were many lives that he wasn't able to save. The guilt of not being there when someone needed him weighed heavily on him.
Sometimes the pain felt too real, almost like he was literally being stabbed in the gut or something. He breathed in again. His head hurt. His chest hurt. He wondered why he was suffering from so much pain. Why couldn't he save his uncle? Why couldn't he have saved those people? Why wasn't he stronger? Why?
He inhaled sharply. Those people...There was a pregnant woman who fell from the roof of a burning building. He couldn't save her because he was occupied with getting the villain who created the fire away from all the other buildings. He thought the firefighters were capable of saving everyone. He thought that they could handle the fire while he distracted the villain. Why? Why did they have to die? Why couldn't he save them? How could he have let this happen? He was drowning in guilt, and there was no way to rid himself of this feeling.
Later that day, Peter found himself at the Stark Tower. He was still suffering from the feeling of guilt, but he covered up all traces of pain upon seeing Captain America, Tony Stark, and the rest of the Avengers. He smiled in greeting at them. Clint Barton was sitting on a couch playing some game with Thor.
"Peter! Come on. You have to play against me. Thor sucks," Clint muttered the last part. Peter laughed and ran over to them.
"I do not understand this! Man of spiders! How does this strange contraption control these figures on this screen?"
"Uh, how about we enjoy this instead of trying to take apart my console, yeah?" Clint groaned.
"Alright guys, whatcha playin'?" Peter asked before Thor could question him again. He really didn't want to get into the science behind technology and all that.
"COD Black Ops 3. Zombies." Clint replied, grabbing Thors controller and handing it over to Peter. Thor grinned and leaned back on the couch.
"Ah yes Man of Spiders, I would like to see your skills in this game of killing the undead."
Peter let out a light chuckle.
"Try not to die too much alright?" Clint laughed and resumed the game.
"If you're so good then your partner wouldn't be dead." Peter quipped.
Halfway through the mission-neither of which had died- Tony decided to step in front of the screen with his arms crossed and a sly smirk.
"Hey!" Clint grunted, clearly annoyed, as he paused the game. "You're kinda blocking the view…"
"Yeah well, you guys are gonna need to turn it off. I need Peter. Cap called you in."
"Rodgers? What's he want?" Clint asked.
"What does he ever want?"
Peter set his controller down after turning off the console, leaving the TV to Clint.
"Should I suit up?" Peter asked, standing up and jumping over the couch to catch up with Tony.
"Might as well, Steve says you've got a small mission. Nothing big though, so it'll just be you and me." Peter already had his shirt off, revealing his spider-man spandex underneath, by the time they exited the elevator.
"So where to?" Spider-man asked, as he and Tony ran down the block. Spider-man swinging from building to building further ahead.
"Not too far fortunately. There's a robbery at least four blocks down."
"And we need two people for just a robbery?"
"Electro is the one robbing the bank. Plus I thought it'd be nice to have backup."
"Wow, sparky's back?" Spider-man said over the com. "And here I thought he'd finally retire. And hey, I do not need backup."
Spider-man landed on a rooftop across the street from the bank. Watching as the front door bursted open with an explosion of electricity. Peter took that as his cue to make his appearance. Stark not far behind.
"Sparkles! Long time no see, what's up man?" Spider-man waved at the man. Electro shot at his feet with a growl.
"The name's Electro, you stupid bug!"
Spider-man dodged a beam of electricity, jumping over Electro and shot a string of webbing at his back. He yanked on it, causing Electro to fall backwards.
"Okay, how many times do I have to say this? Spiders are arachnids not bugs." He pulled on the web again swinging Electro around before he let go. The electric powered mutate flew right back into the bank he'd robbed, crashing through the wall. Spider-man crawled through the newly formed hole and as his feet touched the other side his spider-sense went off, sending a shock down his spine, and he jumped to the ceiling barely dodging the beam of electricity.
The small amount of civilians that had yet to make their way out of the bank screamed. Those that weren't behind the counters rushed to the giant hole where the doors used to be and made their way into the streets. Peter was sure that Stark would make sure they got away from the scene safely. In the meantime, he focused on taking down Electro before he could get away.
Alright, what are you up to Volts. Usually you're with the sinister six. That or Doc Ock, Peter thought as he sped along the ceiling, avoiding each bolt of electricity the villain shot at him. As soon as he reached the wall behind the bank counters he jumped down, landing in a crouch. His spider-sense tingled again and he swerved to his right just in time to avoid another beam of electricity that tore a jagged hole through the counter.
"I can't believe he was right," Electro muttered as he threw a punch, "I thought some random avenger would come and take care of this."
"Why so surprised? This is my city after all, of course I'd be here to knock you into next week. Although I'd prefer it if I didn't have to deal with you next week either. I've got things to do ya know."
Mostly dates with Wade.
Spider-man wasn't quick enough to dodge the next round of electricity beams. His body twitched violently from the aftershock as Electro hit him point blank in the abdomen.
"JESUS F-" He gasped,"And here I was hoping I'd build an immunity to electricity by now."
His spider-sense was going crazy but before he could move there was a sharp stinging feeling in his neck, he swatted a hand at whatever it was. However, the object had already been removed and he ended up hitting himself.
"Well then, happy birthday Spider-man." Electro laughed. He tossed aside an empty syringe.
"Ugh, first of all, it's not my birthday." He responded shooting out a string of webbing. Using it to propel him forward, he kicked the man in the chest. "Secondly, even if it was, pointed objects are not the greatest gifts. Unless of course you're Deadpool, he'd love them. Although I'm pretty sure he wouldn't like to be stabbed with said gift. Now normally I'd appreciate the gesture, but seeing how you just basically stabbed me with a needle I'm gonna have to give you a gift of my own. I mean it would be rude otherwise. Receive a gift, give a gift."
With that said, Spider-man threw an uppercut, hitting Electro square in the jaw, sending him flying across the bank once again. He shot a strand of webbing and swung himself over to the villain, chasing him out of the bank and out in the open.
"What was in that thing anyway?" I don't feel sick, so it can't be poison… His spider-sense wasn't tingling anymore.
Before Electro could answer, that is if he was going to anyway, the sound of Iron Man's repulsors crackled and shot him. With a heavy thump, Iron Man landed and aimed his palms out towards the unconscious Electro again.
"So are you going to wait until he gets away before you web him up or what?"
Spider-man rolled his eyes behind his mask and snorted, webbing up the finally unconscious man.
"So you just decided that instead of coming to help me, you'd wait to steal the moment of glory? Is that how Tony Stark operates now?"
"Kid, that's how it's always been." Tony said with a smirk, the Iron Man mask lifted revealing his face.
As Tony helped the cops with Electro, Peter rubbed a hand against the back of his neck, slowly pushing up the mask there. He didn't get an answer yet. Whatever Electro injected into him, if the syringe even had anything in it to begin with (could've been a scare tactic for all he knew), he felt nothing. Other than his skin turning cold as he thought about it.
"I hope that wasn't some weird mutant stuff. The last thing I need is to turn into an actual spider." He muttered.
"You okay kid?" Tony asked as he made his way back to Spider-man. The cops had cleared out, save for the few that stayed behind to close off the scene for safety.
"Yeah, peachy." He answered, "We're done here right? I've got some things to do, people to see."
"Oh?" He smirked, "Gonna have some fun tonight?"
"W-what...no! Oh my god Stark seriously?"
"So who's the lucky woman? Or man."
Right...haven't told anyone yet. Ugh, how the hell am I supposed to tell them I'm dating Wade? They'd either kill him - well as close to kill as they can get - or they'd give me a lecture about how it's supposedly a bad idea, every day of the week for the rest of my life.
Wade's a good guy.
Peter sighed harshly and glared at older man who simply winked back.
"None of your business."
"Oh ho! So there is someone!"
Before he could reply, the large TVs that were attached to some buildings echoed with that familiar and extremely annoying voice of the one and only J.J. Jameson shouting his lungs out.
"That menace has taken out yet another building! How much property damage is he going to have to make before someone does something about it?! You call that being a superhero? Face it New York! Spider-man is just a kid in a costume playing dress up! He causes nothing but trouble and you're all letting it happen! He's making a mess of our city! Spider-man is a MENACE!"
Peter gritted his teeth and swung over to his apartment, or rather- his and Deadpool's- leaving Tony behind without a word.
God that man never shuts up. You save people and you get a giant fuck you in return. Would it kill anyone to be more appreciative?
He opened the window and slid in legs first.
But then again, maybe if I never took up this responsibility none of this would be happening. Maybe there wouldn't be these super animal themed mutated villains, maybe Gwen…
"Ugh stop it," Peter whispered slapping his cheeks, "Not the time to be self-deprecating yet. The day's not over."
"Hey Wade? Are you home? "He was met with silence for an answer, "Still on a job I see…"
What was he going to do? He still had a good three hours before his usual Spider-man patrol, and he wasn't going to head back to Stark's Tower. Not with the high probability of Tony informing everyone that he's probably sleeping with someone, which he was.
"Guess I'll take a nap then…"