July 31, 2024: 1:28 PM

"Come on, Peter," Ned pleaded to his phone. "Pick up."

"Hey, it's Peter. I'm probably busy right now. Please leave a message."

"Jeez," Ned said, pulling at his hair. "This is such a disaster."

It had only been a little over twenty minutes since the breaking news was broadcasted all over New York City, and the internet was already exploding with stories and theories. None of them were good.

"Doesn't anybody ever question what they read on the internet?"

Knock, knock.

Ned's head snapped to his apartment window and saw his friend peeking from the side.

"Peter! Thank goodness you're here." He ran to the window and opened it.

"Haurgh, Ned," Peter breathed. "Can MJ and I come in?"

"MJ is here?"

Peter disappeared to the side and reappeared carrying a wind-swept-haired MJ in his arms. She crawled in first through the window, followed by him.

"Oh, MJ is here."

"You got a problem with that?" MJ crossed her arms.

"Nope," Ned said. "Any friend of Peter is a friend of mine."

"But I'm not just a friend of Peter," MJ said nonchalantly with a smug smile. "I'm his girlfriend now."

"Well, then any girlfriend of Peter is a girlfriend of mine."

Peter and MJ gave him a look.

"It made way more sense in my head."

"Anyway, we don't have enough time," Peter drew the curtains over to cover all the windows in the room. "I'm wanted by the NYPD, there's an APB on me, and I have no way of contacting the Avengers."

"Nick Fury isn't answering his phone for some reason," MJ added.

"He gets angry when I ghost him, but now, he's the one ghosting me!" Peter threw his hands up. "Ridiculous."

"Why don't you just turn yourself in and testify the truth? asked Ned.

"I was going to." Peter scratched his head. "But MJ said I should get a lawyer first."

"It's for the best," MJ cut in. "So that we know what to expect and we can plan on the best way to do it. We can't just hand him into them just for him to get an unfair trial with some dumb public defender. I've seen it happen too many times."

Peter nodded and pointed a thumb at MJ. "What she just said."

"Can we even afford an attorney?" Ned asked.

"I'll call May." Peter grabbed his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. "Shit, I forgot I left it on silent. Three missed calls from you, one from Happy, and ninety-seven from Aunt May.

"Yeah," Ned said with a nervous laugh, "you better call her back."

Peter raised his phone to his ears, and even though it wasn't on speaker, Ned and MJ could hear May from the other side.

"PETER!"

-oOo-

"Have you phoned Peter yet?" Pepper asked, frantically shuffling through papers on her desk.

"Yeah, several times." Happy looked around. "He's not answering."

Peter wasn't going to call back regardless of how many times he was sent to voicemail. Teenagers are heartless bastards. They'll only talk to you when they want to. At least that's what he was like when he was Peter's age. One call was enough.

Pepper sighed. "I'm going to make a few calls with my PR team."

She stood up and left the room, leaving Happy to shuffle through the papers on her desk, pretending he knew what he was doing.

-oOo-

July 31, 2024: 3:21 PM PDT

Today was a hot day in Oregon, which was why Liz Allan decided it was a great time to go to the beach with her friends.

Driving her Hyundai Accent, Liz heard Ella gasp beside her. She glanced to the passenger's seat to look at her friend, who was staring wide-eyed at her phone. As expected, then followed the squeals of excitement Ella makes whenever a hot new gossip falls into her hands.

"What is it, El?" Brenda said from the back seat.

"Liz!" Ella screamed, "Stop the car!

"Stop making me jump!" Liz yelled, laughing. "Do you want us to crash?"

She found an exit and parked amidst Ella stomping her foot uncontrollably on the car floor. Her and Brenda's giggling made Liz all the more curious, if not slightly annoyed.

"What's so important that you had to get me to stop?" she asked.

"You remember your high school ex-boyfriend? Back in New York?"

"I never had a boyfriend in New York."

"Urgh," Ella groaned. "I meant your prom date who abandoned you."

Brenda squeaked in mirth.

"Peter? What about him?"

"It turns out, he was an Avenger, but I'm not so sure anymore."

Liz recoiled her head back in disbelief. "What?"

Ella showed Liz her phone. "It says here that he's Spider-Man, but he turned out to be a bad guy and killed the hot new hero, Mysterio."

On the screen was an article showing all the evidence proving that Peter Parker, the cute nerd from her old school, was indeed the person who was promised to attend her house party that one time several years ago.

Proving that Peter Parker, her failed date, was indeed the person who saved her from the elevator in the Washington monument.

Proving that Peter Parker, her old friend, was indeed the one who put her father in jail.

She couldn't believe it, but she quickly realized that it explained why Peter kept disappearing whenever Spider-Man showed up.

Still, she couldn't believe it. Because the Peter she knew would never do such a thing. It had been over six years since she saw him, but she remembered him vividly. He was a sweet, brilliant guy who just didn't have it all together.

-oOo-

July 31, 2024: 5:34 PM EDT

Mac Gargan sat across the table, facing Adrian Toomes in the chow hall.

"Morning, Toomes," he whispered. "Christmas came early."

Toomes raised his eyebrows. "Your boys smuggled the stuff in already?"

"Oh, uh, no," Gargan said. "I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about our…little spider friend."

The hair behind Toomes' neck stood up at the mention of Spider-Man.

"What about him?" he asked.

"It turns out," said Gargan, leaning forward, "He'd been your daughter's ex-boyfriend all along."

And just like that, Toomes felt the blood drain from his face. Gargan's red eye stayed on him. His partly-burnt face made him appear just as dangerous as Toomes knew he really was.

In a deep, quiet voice, Toomes said: "Really?"

"Really."

"I should've known." He did know; he owed his life to the kid. Still, Gargan thought he didn't, so he had to keep that pretense up if he wanted to stay alive to return the favour.

Gargan leaned back to his chair. "You must be very angry right now, eh, grandpa?"

Tooms hardened his face and shook his head slowly. "You've no idea."

"Don't you worry. We'll get him."

Gargan took something from his front pocket and handed it to Toomes. Holding up to his face was a small razor blade resembling a 6, and Toomes knew exactly what it meant. He looked back at Gargan.

"My boys from the outside are ready to get us out of here."

Toomes nodded. "I'd still like have the stuff I ordered."

As he stood up, Gargan softly chuckled. "Relax. There are plenty of Picante Chicken Ramen Noodle Soups in the outside world. You can eat all the street foods you want soon enough."