A Spider's Big Four
Chapter 02
Crashing Waves
The cold and grey interrogation room was still as hazel eyes looked into emerald ones. May Parker stood by the doorway as Peter sat in his metal chair by the interrogation table.
"Hey, Pete..." The woman said softly, quickly moving to stand next to the boy and enveloping him in an embrace.
"Hi, May..." He said back, melting into the hug as he rested his head on the taller woman's shoulder.
He didn't know why but any anger he guessed May would have shown just wasn't there, she seemed more like a mother trying to comfort her son.
Peter guessed that was for the better, he had a long night.
"You alright?" She asked, running a hand through his hair in a soothing manner.
"Yeah, just tired. You're not mad?"
May pulled back and scoffed, an incredulous look behind her glasses.
"What? No! I know things have been... hard recently, without Ben around." Peter winced at the mention, May squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "And harder on you since you got your quirk a couple months back, but I know that you did what you did because you meant well and wanted to do what you thought was right."
Hearing those words brought out emotions Peter didn't know he was feeling, it was a mixture of happiness, relief, sadness, and pure exhaustion. As he sunk into his aunt's shoulders and let his tears fall, she simply hugged him tighter.
"I can't blame you for being like him, Peter." She said quietly, Peter hugged her tighter.
"I-I miss him, may... I really miss him..." He choked out, continuing his quiet sobs.
"I know... Hey, let's go home, alright? You need rest." She told him, stroking his back as Peter pulled back and wiped the tears with his sleeves.
"Yeah, I'd like that..."
He was just so tired.
He just wanted to go to bed.
It's been such a long night.
The sounds of crushing metal, seagulls, and waves crashing onto the sandy shores filled the morning air, Peter wiped the sweat off his brow as he readjusted the scarf he wore.
The boy had come to the beach with black pants, the sneakers that let him use his quirk, black gloves May had made him, the same hoodie he wore as part of his vigilante costume over a long-sleeved black shirt, along with a red scarf.
A cool breeze flew through the beach, the boy shivering and rubbing his gloved hands together for warmth.
He hated the cold.
Picking up a small fridge, Peter used his strength to crush it into a compact cube, throwing it into a pile of random appliances that were also crushed.
Who knew community service would be so repetitive?
It was October 17th, two whole months since Peter's talk with Nezu, he had found himself with a lot more time in his hands since he had been switched to online school due to 'his past actions possibly hurting Aldera's reputation.'
Crazy how they didn't say that when that green-haired kid got bullied every day.
For the first few days, Peter had struggled to figure out exactly how he could get those 400 community service hours, so he, you know, didn't go to jail and all.
He had tried to sign up at places like random orphanages or homeless shelters, but the only ones near had apparently been shouted out by Best Jeanist, making them have so many volunteers they couldn't accept any more.
Which was so stupid, how could you have too many volunteers?
After he had done some digging and walking around, he had finally found a good place a week after his arrest.
Dagobah beach.
Musutafu's very own natural beauty turned dump.
Apparently, the sea currents had been leading thrown away trash onto the shore for the past couple of years, and it had gotten so bad by the time when people had started to notice that everyone just gave up on even trying to clean it up.
That's where Peter came in.
Aizawa had agreed to him getting the hours in by cleaning the beach and giving it back to the community, so that's what Peter has been doing for the last two months.
He's been going from left to right, crushing things like fridges, cars, washing machines, and anything in between, then carrying it all the way to the collection zone at the other end of the beach along with things like the trash he had bagged up.
By his count, he must be at around 360 hours since he's been doing this for six hours a day, every day for two months.
The sad thing was that he had just finished up 1/3 of the beach.
Eh, at least it gave him something to pass the time.
Weirdly enough, Peter had kind of begun to enjoy his time cleaning the beach up. It ended up giving him that feeling of being useful and helping out he had lost when his vigilante patrols went out the window.
By this time, Peter had kind of depended on that feeling to keep him going, it gave him a reason to keep going forward and keep doing what he did.
It was like a small high, you know? Just filled him with pride and accomplishment.
Peter ran a hand through his hair as he grabbed as many cubes he made into his arms and began making his way toward the collection zone, thanking his quirk for giving him a better sense of balance, so he didn't drop any of the things he was carrying.
As he walked, he let the sounds of the ocean soothe him slightly, being alone on a beach always let his thoughts run rampant, and the noise helped to keep him focused.
With a sigh, he let the trash fall out of his arms and into the five square foot outline that was the collection zone, he placed them into a semi-neat pile and began his journey back to the rest of the trash.
At least it gave him a bit of a workout.
The boy walked on the sands, hands in his pockets before he paused, the familiar light buzzing of his spider-sense in the back of his skull.
It was the type of buzzing that told him someone was near instead of alerting him to actual danger.
"Excuse me, young man?" A voice called; it sounded sure of itself and wise for some reason.
It was safe to say what he saw when he turned around didn't seem like it would have that type of voice.
A few feet away from him, standing in the sand, was a skeletal-looking man with shaggy blonde hair that had two bangs that hung over his forehead, an angular face, along with sunken blue eyes. He wore an All Might T-shirt with the word 'SMASH!' on it in bold letters along with cargo pants and a beige coat, they hung off of his body and were many sizes too big.
Even though he looked incredibly creepy, he gave a small and crooked smile that radiated comfort and warmth.
"Yeah? What's up?" Peter greeted back, giving a small smile.
"I tend to pass by this beach every now and then since I moved to the city a couple of months ago, and I couldn't help but notice someone has been cleaning it lately, was that you?"
"Yeah! I've been doing it for the past two months, I plan on having it all cleaned up in four months or so!" Peter responded, the man instantly lit up.
"Why, that is incredible! Truly a heroic thing to do, giving back to the community! Tell me, what is your name?" The man asked, giving a hearty chuckle.
"Peter Parker."
The skinny man smiled and nodded, his sunken eyes seeming to brighten up. "Toshinori Yagi, it's a pleasure to meet you, young Parker."
The two continued in light conversation, Peter actually enjoying Yagi's company more than he thought he would.
He just gave off some sort of All Might-like vibe, you know? Just kinda calmed you down even if you already were calm.
As they talked, Yagi decided to ask a question that seemed to have been on his mind since the start of their encounter.
"Young Parker, if I may, why are you cleaning this beach? It seems rather strange for someone as young as you to do something like this." Yagi asked, hands laced together as he sat next to Peter on the sands.
Internally, Peter had started to panic.
A part of him was reluctant to just give away the fact that he was a vigilante at one point, yet the other had a weird amount of trust in the man he had just met.
As if he already knew him.
Ultimately, that part of Peter won out.
"I uh, got arrested on vigilantism two months ago, community service was part of the deal to keep me out of jail." Yagi wore a shocked expression, he seemed to want to say something, but Peter continued.
"You know a vigilante called 'Spider-Man'? Dude in a hoodie swinging around?" Peter asked, Yagi nodded and listened attentively. "Yeah, that's me. But don't get the idea I'm only cleaning this beach cause I'm being forced to or anything!" The boy laughed, Yagi adopted a thoughtful expression.
"Well, what is the real reason you are cleaning it?"
"After I got caught, my life lost that feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction when I helped someone, you know? It kinda kept me doing what I did, so I guess this is a way to get the feeling I'm being helpful back, even if I don't get to see the people I help."
The blonde thought about it for a moment before he chuckled and gave a soft smile, his mouth opened as to speak but was cut off by his phone buzzing.
He pulled out the device and opened it up to see that he had received a message, as he started to get up to leave, Peter couldn't help but notice who had texted him.
Nezu.
That... didn't make sense.
"Uh, Yagi?"
"Yes, young Parker?"
"Sorry I looked at your phone and all, but how do you know Nezu?" He asked, he watched as Yagi froze on the spot.
"W-Well, he has offered me a job at UA, and we've been talking about the details. How do you know him?" Peter raised an eyebrow at how he changed the subject quickly.
"He was the one to offer to get the charges dropped after I was caught, Eraserhead brought me in, and he was there to talk to me. Told me I had to attend UA and do community service, so I didn't get convicted."
Yagi's eyes went wide. "He did? That's... quite strange of him."
"Yeah, I guess. What are you gonna teach?" Peter asked, also standing up from the sand and wiping it off of his palms.
The man froze once again as he began to enter a small panic before composing himself.
"H-Heroics. He wants me to teach 1st years, but it might have to wait until after next school year."
"Woah, really? That's super cool! I didn't know you were a hero, what's your hero name?"
Peter watched as he froze once again, this guy was acting kinda weird, wasn't he?
"Wait, are you an underground hero like Eraserhead? You don't have to tell me your name if you are, they like secrecy and all." Peter added, Yagi seemed to visibly calm down.
"Y-Yes! I am an underground hero! I am sorry, young Parker, but I must be going now. I look forward to seeing you clean this beach."
With that, the man gave a small smile and a wave before walking away. Peter simply watched him leave as he tried to answer his own questions in his mind.
That was weird.
Also, why did he seem... familiar?
Maybe he saw him on TV or something.
Peter sat on top of one of the last pieces of trash left on the second third of the beach, a five-foot-tall refrigerator. That, another fridge, and five or six cars in different conditions were all that was left.
He scrolled through his phone, smiling inwardly at the photos he had taken swinging around, back when he actually could swing around.
Patrolling had reinforced his love of photography, he guessed it was because he could get shots he never could before.
I mean, have you ever taken a selfie at the top of the empire state building?
That picture was the one thing that helped him stop fearing heights, it was nice how now he could finally hang it up in his room without hiding from May.
As he looked through the pictures, he couldn't help but notice the snow that hit his nose, reminding him of the date.
December 9th, four months into cleaning the beach and two months before the UA exam. Peter had already checked in with Aizawa once he hit 400 hours, but he knew he just couldn't let the beach half cleaned.
Pocketing his phone, he hopped down from his perch, gripped underneath the appliance firmly, and lifted it with little to no effort while hissing at the coldness of the metal.
The cars would probably make him break more of a sweat, but he should be fine as long as he didn't go over 7-8 tons.
He needed to work on getting his max strength up, it just felt odd not having it be at 10, you know?
Peter walked through the sand, letting his spider-sense guide him to avoid broken bottles or random microwaves that would trip him up.
As he dropped the fridge at the collection zone, he rubbed his hands together to try and get some warmth to his finger; touching the cool metal of the fridge had done nothing to help warm him up.
Once he had come back to where he came from, he started to pick up the other fridge before his spider-sense buzzed lightly, making the boy look up to see a sight he didn't expect.
"Hey, hey, whatcha doing? Is your quirk super strength? You've been lifting fridges like it was nothing!"
Wobbly hovering a foot or two off the ground next to the fridge was a girl; her big curious cerulean eyes looked him up and down as her periwinkle hair that reached to her hips waved in the wind, golden and sparkling spirals come out of her feet; she wore a scarf, a dark blue hoodie, and black joggers.
What?
Before he could respond, the girl hovered herself over the fridge and sat down at the top with a satisfied huff, kicking her legs in the air.
Did... he know her?
"Uh..." He started, quickly being cut off by the girl smacking her forehead and hopping down to the sand. She stood at what must be 5'3 to his 5'6.
"Oh! I didn't even introduce myself, did I? Sorry about that!" She gave a small laugh before extending a hand. "Hi! I'm Nejire Hado, pleasure to meet you!"
Peter quickly glanced around him before he shook her hand, it was incredibly warm even in December.
"I'm... Peter Parker." The girl instantly lit up now that they introduced themselves, she took off the ground with some difficulty and sat back on top of the fridge.
"Great! Now we know each other! Hey, hey, Parker-Kun, do you mind if I ask about your quirk? I can't tell what it is by looking at you, and quirks are really interesting to me! Oh, and you can keep moving fridges and stuff."
Alright... this was kinda weird, but... he thinks he can deal with this? Maybe? She said he could continue cleaning, and it's been a while since someone has come by the beach.
He guessed he could use some conversation every now and then.
"Alright, do you wanna get off the fridge or anything?" He asked, the girl thinking about it before shaking her head, she seemed to be bouncing up and down. "Cool, what did you ask, again?"
Gripping the bottom of the fridge with both hands, he hissed at the cold and lifted the appliance up into his arms, quickly switching his grip, so his hands were digging into the sides.
For some reason, the girl, did she say her name was Hado? Yeah, Hado began giggling a bit when he lifted the fridge.
"Woah, you're super strong! Anyway, I asked about what your quirk was! Is it super strength or, is it more? Telekinesis? I heard some telekinesis can make you super strong! Tell me, tell me!"
As he began his journey to the other side of the bridge, he couldn't help the small smile across his face while he heard the girl ask a question then try to answer it herself before repeating the process.
She sure was weird, wasn't she?
"It's called 'Spider', lets me do whatever a spider can." The girl widened her eyes and began to ask more questions before Peter continued. "Spiders can lift 60 times their weight, so I'm strong, I'm also a bit faster than normal for some reason and can stick to walls by my hands and feet." He said, dropping the fridge at the collection zone and watching the girl hop back down.
"It also gives a sixth sense that alerts me to stuff around me, cool, right?" Peter smiled as he began to make his way back to the cars, Hado floating behind him.
"That's so freaking cool! Hey, do you have fangs? You don't look very spidery, so that's weird. Wait! Can you make webs? What about venom?" Hado began rambling as she did loops around him, letting small golden sparkles fall to the ground.
The two went back to the cars, Hado floating over to what looked to be the front half of an SUV and sitting on the rusted hood.
Eh, he's stopped heavier.
This one wasn't even moving!
"I can't make my own webs, but I made a chemical that acts like spider webs, check it out!" With a flick of his wrist, a white line of silk shot out and stuck to the front bumper of what was left of the car, Peter gripped the strand firmly and began tugging it across the beach over his shoulder.
The sound of the groaning metal moving through the sand and the waves of the ocean filled the cold December air, a girl's excited giggles could be heard over the noise.
"Oh wow, that's so cool! You must be like, crazy smart!" Hado called, Peter giving a slight laugh as he kept pulling the car along.
Man, he missed the feeling of his web-shooters being on his wrists, he had started to wear them all the time due to force of habit and simply because they made everything easier.
He could just web a soda can over to him from across the room! They were so cool.
Besides, it wasn't his quirk, so it wasn't illegal to use them, you know? Too bad Aizawa had banned him from making any new models.
Peter pulled the sleeve of his black undershirt back to check the time on his watch, he sighed when seeing it was 2:31 PM already. He missed his break by half an hour again.
Who knew moving trash made you lose track of time?
Not him, that's for sure
As he walked, he shot a web to his backpack that laid on the hood of a car and pulled it into his hands, he opened and let the smell of t he burgers that May had made him before he left his house, good thing his payback was great at keeping heat in so they hadn't gotten cold.
"Oh, that smells good! You taking a break?" Hado asked as she floated around him, he gave a nod as he sat down on the hood of the nearest car and watched her do the same.
"Want one? My aunt makes pretty good burgers." He offered, taking out a wrapped burger and offering it to her.
"Does it have pickles?" She tilted her head, Peter scoffed.
"We aren't insane, Hado."
The boy handed her the burger after she made a gimme motion as he took out his own, the two simply eating together, listening to the waves hit the shore, and watching the occasional bits of snow fall down.
"Hey, Hado?" He called mid-bite, Hado turning her head to him.
The girl simply gave a hum, tilting her head, so her long hair fell to the side.
"What were you doing here? I haven't seen anyone actually come by here in a bit." He asked, the blue-haired girl perking up.
"Oh! Well, my quirk takes stamina to use, so I run a daily 10K to train for UA! I started a bit later than usual and then saw you lifting fridges and stuff, you know? So I got curious!"
"You're going to UA?" Peter asked, taking another bite of the burger.
It was amazing how good of a cook May was.
"Yep! It's always been my dream to be a hero, so I gotta get better at my quirk to do that! How about you? Are you going to UA, Parker-Kun?"
A small chuckle escaped him for some reason. "Yeah, I have to so I don't go to jail and all."
Hado raised an eyebrow in confusion, Peter could see the gears turning in her head, so he decided to explain himself before she got the wrong idea.
"I did vigilante work for five months until two months ago, a guy working at UA brought me in, and the principal told me I had to go there, so I didn't get convicted. Cleaning this beach is also part of the deal, but I'm just doing it willingly at this point." He took a bite of the burger, savoring the taste of bacon in his mouth.
The blue-eyed girl widened her eyes, getting excited and shooting off into the air by accident. She did a quick loop before she came back down, bouncing up and down where she sat.
"Oh my gosh!" That's so cool! I can't bel- Wait, you said your quirk was called 'Spider', right?" He nodded, Hado seeming to realize something on the spot. "Oh! I knew I saw that jacket somewhere, you were that spider guy that Eraserhead caught a couple months back!"
She knew scarf man? He hadn't met many people who did.
Also, he couldn't help but be relieved that she hadn't called him a criminal and left or something, that would've killed his mood.
"You know Eraser?" The girl nodded up and down so fast her head nearly blurred.
"Yeah! I love heroes with super cool quirks, so I try to know as many as I can! How was he like?"
Peter thought of a moment, thinking back to all the times he had run into scarf man.
He smiled softly before he responded. "Grumpy, but pretty cool. He's one of my favorite heroes."
They sat in silence and ate for a couple of seconds, you could basically see the amount of curiosity coming off of the girl.
Peter sighed and pulled out his phone. "Wanna hear some stories about the stuff I did?"
"Awesome!"
Peter showed her the different pictures he had taken while on patrol or swinging around, some ranging to him taking a selfie mid-fight when he could afford it, and others were just him doing different things such as swinging between cars or running away from a hero chasing him. The girl looked at a single photo and began to spout out question after question about it, trying to figure out what he was doing or where he was.
Oddly enough, Peter enjoyed her company quite a bit, she just had an aura that warmed up a room or something. As they sat there talking about quirks, she pulled out her phone to check the time,
"Woah! It's 5:52 already! Oh jeez, Parker-Kun, I gotta go!" The girl shot up from the hood of the car, Peter doing the same as he figured he might as well get home, so May didn't worry.
As he stretched where he stood, a slip of paper was pushed into his chest. Hado was holding the piece of paper and smiling brightly at him, as he looked down at it, he saw that there was a series of numbers on it.
Where did she get a pencil?
Wait, where did she even get the paper?
"Here! That's my phone number, call me so we can hang out sometime! You're a super interesting friend, and I wanna keep talking to you! Bye, Parker-Kun!" The girl told him, quickly waving and jogging off of the beach, onto the sidewalk, and out of view.
They were friends now?
He guessed he was fine with that.
Wait a minute.
Did a girl just give him her number?
Peter Parker walked the streets of Musutafu, his hazel eyes looking at his phone as his spider-sense guided him through the early morning crowds.
February 26th, the day of the UA entrance exam
He had already texted May that he was on his way to the train station to meet up with Hado, and she wished him good luck in that motherly way she did things in.
He wore that same red scarf he wore when meeting Yagi, along with the backpack he had when patrolling and the Aldera middle school uniform.
Oh, he couldn't wait to take that thing off.
Aizawa had already confirmed that the community service was done, even though Peter would still need a few more weeks to finish cleaning the beach.
All that was left was to take the exam.
His hand unconsciously reached up to touch the bags under his eyes, he frowned at seeing them in the reflection of his phone.
May had tried to help him break out of the bad sleeping habits he got from going out at night, but nothing had worked yet, he was thankful he actually got a full night's sleep before today.
That familiar buzzing appeared at the back of his skull, Peter moving out of the way of someone about to bump into him. Weirdly enough, that person had also moved at the same time and crashed into the brunette, all the same, the shorter boy falling on the ground.
"Oh, you alright, man?" Peter outstretched a hand to the green-haired kid on the ground, his wild green hair seemed familiar for some reason.
Had they met before?
The green-haired boy looked up with a frightened expression, quickly stuttering before muttering out an apology and running away while gripping what looked to be a notebook.
Huh.
Weird guy.
Peter began to walk again, seeing how the crowds began to divert towards what looked to be All Might punching a villain with some sort of panda mutation, wasn't he supposed to be in Tokyo? When did he start hanging in Musutafu? he saw how that green-haired kid ran towards the fight and vanished into the crowd.
The feeling that he's seen him before was still fresh on his mind.
Now that he thought about it, weren't they wearing the same uniform?
He couldn't help but feel some sort of... sadness when looking at him, you know?
Shaking his head, Peter continued walking, soon reaching the train station that would take him to the next big step in his life.
The next big step for Peter Parker.
The next big step for the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
"Oh, Hey! Hey, hey, Parker-Kun! Finally, you're late!" That bubbly and excited voice reached his ears, soon enough Nejire Hado had appeared out of nowhere and was now standing in front of him.
Her hair seemed a bit longer than she remembered, she was also wearing a typical middle school uniform. but from a different school from Aldera.
It took him what must have been 40 seconds to realize that Hado had been talking that entire time and that he had tuned her out, he really needed to stop doing that.
Also, when did they get on the train? He realized he was sitting down in a seat as Hado kept talking while seating in front of him, had she been talking that entire time?
"And then this guy with like 9 eyes s- you tuned me again, didn't you?" She stopped mid-sentence just as he started to listen and gave him a flat look.
"Uh... no?" He gave a weak chuckle as she rolled her eyes.
"It's fine, Parken-Kun. Hey, you excited about the exam? I bet there'll be so many cool and interesting quirks in there! I just hope we make it in!" Hado was back to bouncing in her seat, rattling off all the interesting things that could happen.
Peter himself felt both nervous and confident, was that weird? He believed he could pass the exam easily but part of him still feared failure, even more so than normal due to the consequences of him not getting into UA.
Snapping him out of his thoughts, Hado had suddenly smiled brightly at him and held out her fist.
"We'll probably fine, anyways! We both gotta get in, you know? UA buddies!" She said, Peter found himself smiling at the girl as he returned the fistbump.
"Yeah, UA buddies."
Just like that, Peter stared out the window as his worries slowly melted away.
Another chapter! Yay!
We check back in with Peter cleaning the beach, running into Yagi, and meeting Nejire! I had a lot of in writing their interactions in this chapter, idk why, but I just love writing Nejire.
Anyway, next chapter is gonna be the entrance exam, where we'll probably meet Mirio and Tamaki, so I hope you guys are looking forward to that!
I don't really have too much to say on this author's note, so imma just end it here.
Like always, thanks for reading and see ya next time!