My first Ultimate Spider-Man fic. Yay! I kept thinking back to the "Contest of Champions: Part 3" of the Ultimate Spider-Man series and I kept thinking about the scene where Spider-Man's identity is revealed to Iron Spider and Agent Venom. I thought it was an interesting scene because Flash is realizing that the man he picked on and the hero he idolized during school was the same person, so I decided to do a fic on it. This is set a few days after the incident in the Triskelion.

I own nothing. Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors and all its content belong to Disney and Marvel. I don't own the cover image either.

Enjoy the story!

"Spider-Man," came the voice of the black, symbiote-clad hero as he ran down the hall to the lockers towards the red and blue, spiderweb clothed hero by the lockers. Said hero turned over to see the muscled, young man charging straight for him, resembling aside from the superhero armor like the football star he had been in school.

"Hey Venom. What's up," Spider-Man asked as he gathered his books from his locker. Venom came to a halt a few feet before him and panted to regained his breath. It took a few moments before he could speak again. It was clear that by the time he took that he had sprinted a quite long way in order to find him specifically.

"Spidey. I've been looking all over the building for you," he said, still breathing hard. The symbiote peeled back from his face, revealing the man with short cut, blonde hair with the signature lightning bolts shaved into each side of his head. His eyes had an almost blurry grey over their normal green sparkle.

"What is it, Flash? Is something wrong," Spidey asked, staring in concern at the boy before him. Flash didn't say anything, but he then, to Spidey's surprise, took the younger man's arm up, curled his fingers into his palm and held the hand up to his face before standing close by an open locker.

"Go ahead. Do it," he said softly, staring at the curled fist poised towards his face.

"Uh, what," Spidey asked, looking weirdly at the older boy before him.

"Take. Your. Fist. And. Punch. Me. Into. The. Locker," he said slowly, looking at the compressed, dark, small space like it was his salvation.

"Um, why," Spider-Man asked, staring at him like if he had gone even more stranger then he normally was. As normal as a symbiote merged with a high school quarterback now turned hero could possibly be.

"To get even. For all the times I did it to you, Park-, I mean Peter," he corrected, looking saddened at his memories of the past. "I'm letting you get even on me for all the times I've bullied you and thrown you in the locker just for fun, never realizing that you were the same person I looked up to and idolized in life. Go ahead, punch me into the locker. I'm not asking for forgiveness, I'm not going to avoid the attack, just hit me into the locker and shut the door to make us even."

Spidey stared at the sorrowful hero before him. His eyes had a begging look in them. Flash, his high school bully and daily torture in that time, was now asking for him to inflict back the pain he had suffered. He was asking, no begging for atonement, for all the wrong he had done, all by the hands of his former victim. Spidey felt a strong, almost overwhelming desire to comply to the request, this chance to finally return the favor, but all of a sudden, his hero training and lessons kicked in. He let out a large exhale of air before he spoke.

"Listen Flash, all you did back on me in high school doesn't matter now. It's the past and the past doesn't determine the present." Spider-Man slowly ripped off his mask, revealing the blue-eyed and short brown-haired man that Flash had teased and bullied multiple times in their last school.

"I'll admit, sometimes, especially in the beginning when I just got my powers, I wanted to get back on you for all the times, but I also learned early on that holding a grudge doesn't solve your problems. Holding a grudge is like holding an anchor when you're in the middle of the ocean, it's just going to bring it down if you don't let go."

"Yes, maybe some small part deep inside of me wants to do this, make you feel the same fear and pain I felt when I had been shoved into the locker." He paused for a moment when he saw Flash's head dip down in shame. "But at the same time I know I wouldn't be the hero I've been trained and told to be if I did so. That is why I chose to forgive you the first day I donned the mask as Spider-Man, because that's what heroes do. They forgive, even their worst high school enemies."

His final tone was more playfully then contradicting, yet he felt cautioned on the way he worded his explanation. Flash's head still was dipped down and after a few moments Peter began to feel worry rise over him for the older male.

Um Flash. Wha-? Ack," he said in surprise as a pair of strong arms suddenly went over his shoulders and pulled him to Flash's armored chest.

"Thanks Spidey. You're a real hero, and an awesome friend, you know that," Agent Venom said as he embraced Spider-Man in a suffocating hug. After some wriggling and begging from the younger man though, he soon let him go.

"Whoo, you're welcome, Flash," Spidey said between breaths. When he recovered, he held up his thumb up to him. "We cool?"

"Yeah. We're cool." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly though. "But... but could I at least buy you pizza or something. Just to get the last bit of guilt off my chest?"

"Mm, I'm fine with that. After class?"

"Yeah. Sure. I'll pay for it all, I promise."

"I know you will, Flash. Now c'mon. We'd better to get to class."

Just something short I just wanted to do. I do like Flash, I know that he isn't intrinsically bad, just, as explained in "The Rhino", that he seemed to have a rough early life. Just an example that people don't become originally bad because of themselves, but more how they are influenced by the world and people around them. Hope you enjoyed reading, please leave a review and feel free to check out some of my other stories. Sincerely, v.t.7