"Peter," SUSANNA alerted.
Peter finished laying the drunk man on his balcony on the third story of a large apartment complex. The guy was a decent person, just going through a tough time. Peter had found passed out in an alleyway a little ways from a bar. He'd had SUSANNA find the man's address.
He straightened up and slid into the shadows.
"What's up?"
"Stark just activated the tracker on your phone."
Peter stilled.
"Do you know why?"
"JARVIS won't tell me. I suspect that it has to do with your disappearance from the party."
There was a disapproving tone to her voice. Peter knew she wanted him to socialize, but he didn't agree with her this time. Within the ten minutes he'd been out, he'd already stopped three crimes.
"I'm not going back. You told me to give it a chance-"
"You were there five minutes!"
"-and I did." Spider-Man shrugged. "Parties just aren't my thing."
"Spider-Man…"
"Why are you getting on my case? I just caught three criminals!"
SUSANNA huffed.
"You need a vacation. Just take a break. Just tonight. Please?"
In the distance, there was a loud, shrill scream. It was abruptly cut off. Spider-Man tensed. He double checked to make sure the drunk man was safely concealed in the shadows, then leaped up. His hands and feet easily navigated up the side of the apartment complex.
"See what I mean?" He hissed. "Please turn the tracker on my phone off. I'm more useful out here than I am at a party anyways."
He reached the roof of the building. Without even the slightest hesitation, he leaped off, and shot out a string of web. Thwick. Spider-Man gracefully free-fell for a moment, before the web caught him. He jolted, and swung above the quiet street below his feet.
"Fine," SUSANNA grumbled. "Just don't ask me for help if Steve lectures you on manners and the importance of rest."
Spider-Man didn't respond, focused on the task at hand. Thwick. He landed on the top of another rooftop, this one overlooking a dead-end alleyway. Sharp eyes scanned for the smallest movement, and sensitive ears listened for even a minute sound.
Shadows near a door shifted. Noisy, frantic breaths became audible. There.
Swift and silent, he slithered down the back of the fire escape, to the big dumpster below. He perched himself on top, concealed by the darkness.
"I told you I needed you home."
The sound of a slap. A muffled gasp. Spider-Man's lips thinned. His hand clenched into a fist.
"Why'd you sneak out Michelle?" The man mocked. "Was I not clear enough?"
The shadows shifted again. A tall man swung a teenager around. She was sent flying onto her back, landing with a nasty thump on the hard ground. Tufts of curly brown hair went flying every which direction.
She had to be at least four years younger than Peter.
The man's black eyes glittered. He raised his foot up in the air and aimed it at her chest. The girl- Michelle -scrambled backwards on her hands and feet, eyes wide.
The next moment, the man was hanging upside down, ankle in Spider-Man's red hand.
"I think you've made yourself perfectly clear." Spider-Man's voice might have been deceptively light, but his movements were more forceful and lethal than usual. "You're a coward. Pick on someone your own size."
He dropped the man. The heavy figure awkwardly landed on his stomach with a painful fwhomp. Two swift globs of webs had the man's hands pinned to the ground.
"Mind your own business, you bi-"
Another thwip, and the jerk's mouth was satisfyingly webbed shut.
Spider-Man ignored the thrashing and muffled curses, and went to help up Michelle. She climbed to her feet before he could, leaning on the dumpster for support.
"You okay?"
She turned at him, eyebrows bent down in a heated glare.
"What were you thinking?" She hissed. "Now he's just going to beat me up more."
This wasn't the first time he'd encountered a situation like this. Kids and teens stuck in nasty situations they were unwilling to get out of, either in fear of the system or because of another family member that needed their protection. Spider-Man encountered it regularly and it infuriated him. He hated it when there was nothing he could do to guarantee that these kids wouldn't end up with more abuses because he'd stopped one.
Spider-Man remained apathetic to her venom. He reached into his pocket for a pen.
"Hand."
She eyed him distrustfully before offering him her palm. The wrist already had bad bruises. It looked like a bad sprain. He scribbled a number in blue ink.
"If you ever want to get out, call that. A Susanna will answer. She's got resources available for you, including ways to make you disappear for a little while if you need to and places to stay, and she can contact me."
They had set up the number months ago. SUSANNA would answer calls and get them out of the situation. A few times, Peter had had to make quick excuses to people in his normal life to go help these kids get out of immediate danger. About fifty percent called eventually. Spider-Man did his best not to think about what happened to the rest.
"Put some ice on that wrist," he commanded softly. "The webs will dissolve in a few hours."
Michelle opened her mouth like she was going to retort, before she shut it again. The tension went out of her shoulders. She went from bold and ready to fight, to a puppet only being held up by fragile string.
"I will," She muttered.
That was the best he could do… with her. Spider-Man stalked back over to the man. He knelt down so his mask was almost eye level with the man's face.
"Touch her again," he threatened in low tones, "and I'll hurt you. I will find out about it and I will be watching."
Spider-Man waited until he was a safe distance from the alley to talk to SUSANNA.
"You see what I mean? The rest of them might be out there having fun, but there's always somebody who's holiday isn't going so well. You can't ask me to enjoy a party when I know there's people in situations like that out there." He slumped back against a wall and shut his eyes. "She couldn't have been older than fourteen."
There was a few moments of silence. Despite the fact that he'd heard it many times, he couldn't get the sound of the slap out of his mind.
Eventually, SUSANNA spoke. Her tone was gentle, and all traces of humor had left it.
"You're right, mijo. This is a much better way to spend your fourth of July. I'm sorry for pushing you."
Spider-Man felt a tiny smile slip onto his lips.
"Did you just admit that I'm right?"
SUSANNA scoffed.
"For the first time in ten months. And you still need to take a vacation at some point. Too bad they we can't hire substitute Spider-Mans."
His phone dinged. Spider-Man pulled it out of his pocket.
"Bank robbery on 39th! Stop complaining, SUSANNA. I've got work to do."
Spider-Man shot out a web and swung away.
Steve watched Spider-Man's rapidly retreating figure with a frown on his face.
He'd followed Peter from the street as the young vigilante had made his way to the alley. Steve had patiently waited outside the alley for Spider-Man to finish confronting the criminal. Then, morbid curiosity peaked, he'd peered into the gloom.
Just in time to watch the big man throw the young girl to the cement. He'd almost stepped in right there, but then Spider-Man had intervened. The man was successfully webbed to the ground, and Peter had gone to help the girl.
"What were you thinking?" The girl had hissed. "Now he's just going to beat me up more."
Steve didn't like bullies. This man, who was probably the girl's father, was a bully. The only differences between the gap-toothed, overall-clothed bullies of the 50's and this man here were physical.
He'd felt anger rise up in his chest, anger at the injustice of it.
Spider-Man had handled the situation well, like he did it daily. With a jolt, Steve realized Peter probably did.
Steve hadn't had the courage to confront the teenager as he stalked out of the alley. Steve had slid into the shadows, and waited until the kid was a safe distance away before he followed him.
He'd caught up just in time to hear the conversation with SUSANNA.
"You see what I mean? The rest of them might be out there having fun, but there's always somebody who's holiday isn't going so well. You can't ask me to enjoy a party when I know there's people in situations like that out there."
Suddenly, the pancakes, the 'Code Web', and everything else the Avengers had prepared to get Peter to overcome his antisocial tendencies and attend the party, had seemed cheap and shallow.
Suddenly, Steve knew what to do.
"Change of plans," He muttered over the comms. "I want everyone to meet at the bank on 39th. Fourth of July can wait."
This was an ending to the short story Code Red White and Web (which I'm attempting to finish by the fourth), but I was really trying to make that story lighter, and this bit was pretty dark.
Go check out nikki_ofshadows, who recently wrote an epic 3 part story on AO3. It's called Peter's Never-ending Stubborness. It's about Peter being stubborn, and Tony trying to deal with stubborn Peter, and Peter being even more stubborn. I loved reading it!
I'm on Tumblr! My personal tumblr is gammathetaalpha and I have one created specifically for Infiltration, called InfiltrationbyGamma. Go check that one out for updates on how Infiltration's coming, tidbits, and other random stuff.
