I don't own Spider-Man, just this story which I plan to build upon in the distant future.
I was inspired by Phillipe363's Spider-Man stories which featured a truly toxic relationship between Peter and Tony Stark for some of the story although we won't see any bashing.
Please let me know what you think.
A Life of Crime.
As he held the jewelled necklaces in his hand, Spider-Man wondered to himself if he was in the Twilight Zone. This wasn't what he did. But this was no dream. This was really happening. Underneath his mask, Peter Parker once more asked himself how this came to this. How had he suddenly gone from superhero to being a super thief?
Ever since he had realised being a superhero just wasn't worth it. Please, on the subject of saving lives and property, Spider-Man had become so tired of it all. He had saved a large number of people; that mess with the train and Doc Ock was one of the biggest and best examples, but 12 times out of 10 he was always blamed for things, shot at by the police, and criticised or ignored by the public and superhero community.
He remembered the humiliating and nasty way Tony Stark had arrived personally to recruit him for the Avengers before he'd kicked the arrogant bastard out of his home because of how insulting Stark was being. Peter had been Spider-Man for a while, and he had fought a number of bastards like Osborn, and unfortunately, the death of Gwen Stacey had come after Stark tried to recruit him. Peter had become angrier and darker than he had before, and Stark's insults towards him, his aunt, and his stupid costume were truly not what he'd needed when he was grieving.
He had tried to tell Stark, but the bastard had not cared. He had just put Peter down.
"Maybe if you'd the right equipment, maybe you could have saved her."
Peter had responded by lashing out with a punch that shattered Stark's jaw. After that Peter hadn't had anything to do with other superheroes, not that he was truly bothered; ever since that disastrous meeting with the Fantastic Four when he'd blundered in and demanded to work with them only to get mocked by Flame Boy and lectured by Mr Taffy (suddenly he had a good idea why Dr Doom ranted about the arrogance of Reed Richards, and he wondered how a super hot woman like Sue Storm would be attracted to someone like that when she could find somebody so much better; still there was no accounting for taste), Peter had done his best to avoid other heroes; he had lasted for a long time as Spider-Man long before the visit, and then suddenly he had the unwanted Iron Man appearing before him, offering to recruit him into the Avengers, so sure he would agree to join up without guessing Peter just wanted to remain in New York and be left alone.
But then again, when had been the last time he had been happy as Spider-Man?
While the loss of Uncle Ben had always been a spectre that haunted him because he had arrogantly paid more attention to himself rather than what the burglar could have done without his intervention, Peter had had some great moments as Spider-Man. But then it all went wrong. He had caused a huge amount of pain to the people he'd claimed to care about, and he'd had enough of it.
When he had first begun as Spider-Man, Peter had come to a decision; on one hand, he could opt for a life of crime. It would have been so simple and so easy. All he would need to do was using his spider powers to break into places without being noticed and use the special wall-crawling abilities he'd inherited from the mutagen in the spider bite which spliced spider genes into his DNA to open up safe doors and steal what was inside.
But he had decided to become a superhero instead.
And he'd had enough.
He had been considering the matter for a while now thanks to advice from Felicia, and Peter could honestly say he had had enough. Uncle Ben had said With Great Power comes Great Responsibility, but there were dozens of ways you could interpret that. What if he stole from the rich and gave to the poor with his powers like Robin Hood? Who was he hurting, the rich? Who cared about them? Peter certainly didn't since one or two of his enemies came from wealthy backgrounds. If Peter stole from places like this, split the money down the middle and gave some of it away, was he doing harm or good? Donations to children's hospitals could do a great deal of good. Was that responsibility? Wouldn't that grant a more far-reaching effect for his powers?
To be honest, when the ideas had struck him in the head, Peter had been amazed he had never considered it like that before. Spider-Man had then taken the logical step back and looked back over his life from the moment the spider bit him. And from there, Peter just could not deny what he had seen.
Thanks to listening to Uncle Ben's statement, Peter had let himself be drawn into a life of pain and self-loathing while he tried to live up to the statement which became his creed, and the excuse he always used when he had needed to put his duties as Spider-Man above the needs of others.
The simple choice was if Peter had bothered to go down the logical reinterpretation of what being a criminal could do since his spider powers would make it possible for him to steal enough money to both live on and provide to others to help them - a few thousand dollars could ensure children or patients in any hospital lived - then he wouldn't be going over this now.
Felicia had spent all of her time as Black Cat trying to make him see he could be a partner in crime, and truthfully the idea held more merit and attractiveness than Peter had imagined or would care to admit; not only was Felicia beautiful, she was also someone who respected him. Peter had tried cultivating a relationship with Mary Jane Watson, but it had fallen apart when he had gotten bored of her feminist rants and how she refused to do as he told her without some kind of stupid argument breaking out.
Well, not anymore.
He knew Jameson was going to rant and rave about being right, but he no longer gave a damn. He could still help people, and he could do it in a major and more far-reaching way than helping little old ladies not get mugged. With that in mind, Spider-Man continued with the burglary and got out of the jewellery store.
He had just climbed to the top of the wall after sticking the webbing ball containing the jewellery to his back in the same way he stuck his clothes on his back, and he was about to shoot out a web-line and escape when he heard a sultry voice from nearby.
"I didn't expect you to do that; I was passing by when I saw you swing close to the store and I watched as you broke in."
Peter looked up and he spotted the svelte form of Black Cat nearby. His eyes drifted downwards, admiring her sexy body. "Why didn't you join me?" He asked, knowing she wasn't going to attack him. His spider-sense would have gone off otherwise.
Felicia shrugged. "I couldn't believe it at first. What made you do this?"
"I'm not cut out being a hero," he said, hoping she didn't probe any deeper, but luckily she didn't. Instead, she chuckled without humour and smiled genuinely at him.
"I always knew that. I always knew that you weren't happy being in that costume and helping fight supervillains. Just like I wasn't," a solemn look passed over Felicia's domino-masked face. "I was never cut out for being a crimefighter. I only became one because of you, but it was never for me. That's why I always went back to crime."
"I'm sorry," Peter said.
"It's okay. I'm just hoping that you've seen that you're not cut out for it either. You're an adventurer, Pete. You always have been, but you were nowhere near close to attaining your potential. Anyway, wanna join me at my apartment?" Felicia sent him a shy smile.
A hundred excuses entered Peter's mind - how he needed to go on patrol, stuff like that. But none of them reached his lips, and he nodded. Together the two costumed thieves swung away into the darkness.
In the following months, Spider-Man stopped being a superhero and instead became a cat burglar, fully partnered up with Black Cat. Spider-Man would still save people from fires and things, but he was now predominantly a thief working with the Black Cat.