Mayday's Hero

Part IV of V

Disclaimer: This story is work of fanfiction, which means that the characters of Mayday and Peter Parker don't belong to me (more's the pity -- I would never have killed off baby May if they did). ;)

A/N: Just one more chapter to go. Thank you again to jjonahjameson for some good hints pertaining to the playground scenes here. Thanks also to those who've read my story and reviewed it so favorably; your reviews keep me writing.

Mayday could not believe her eyes. Right in front of her, stretched out casually on the top of the school wall, was her hero, the one and only Spider-Man. "Is it really you?" she asked excitedly.

"As large as life, and twice as natural," joked the costumed super-hero. His voice was just as cheery as Mayday remembered. She crouched down, turned, and began clambering rapidly down the side of the monkey bars closest to the wall. Meanwhile, the other kids, who'd been momentarily paralyzed into little statues, resumed animation all at once.

Janeen and Angela squealed like scared rabbits, and clutched at each other. "Shut up!" Angela's brother hissed, nudging her. "I want to see what happens."

"Whoa!" said Travis at the same moment from the top of the monkey bars. To Mayday's ears, he actually sounded impressed.

"No way," said Kendall sceptically an instant later. "It's a trick. It's just some guy in a costume."

"Some guy who's lying on top of a wall," Mayday responded scathingly from the side of the monkey bars. She was about halfway to the ground by now, and she jumped quickly down from bars and marched right up to her hero.

Spider-Man was amused at the difference between his fearless little true believer and the other kids with their varied and disconcerted responses. "I know you're not just some guy," Mayday said confidentially, looking up trustingly into the opaquely reflective lenses of his masked eyes.

He leaned down toward her. "I promise you, I am the one and only, accept-no-substitutes, Amazing Spider-Man," he said jovially to her and her alone.

Mayday beamed at him. She found it a strange sight, seeing him reclining on the narrow top of a wall as if he hadn't a care in the world, but, even so, he was just like she thought he'd be – colorful, cheery, larger than life. Wait till she told Mom and Dad about this. She was sure that it was the best thing that had ever happened to her in her short young life.

At these words, the other kids were struck silent again for a moment. But only for a moment. "What're you doing here?" the irrepressible Travis asked in wonder. "Shouldn't you be out somewhere saving somebody?"

Good question, kid, thought Spider-Man wryly, wishing he'd bothered to think of some sort of plausible semi-coherent reason for being at a school. Maybe I should be. He felt a pang. "Uh ... I was in the neighborhood," he said aloud, feeling oddly exposed despite the fact that he was wearing his mask, "doing hero stuff ... and I heard my name being bandied about. I guess I was curious to hear what you were saying." Did that sound as dumb to them as it did to him?

"I still don't believe it," said the other boy crossly, although he sounded a lot less confident than he had a moment before. "How do we know that you're not wearing a special suit, like with tiny little suction cups on it or something?" An elfin-looking blond girl with a sulky expression on her face nodded her head sharply at this comment.

"Oh yeah," Travis said, rolling his eyes at Mayday. "Tiny invisible suction cups." Mayday laughed, an amused gurgle. Travis could be annoying sometimes, but at other times, like now, he could also be really funny.

"Hey, no one says you have to believe in me, kid; it's up to you," Spider-Man said to the chubby black-haired boy, suppressing a chuckle himself at that comment from Mayday's friend, who evidently had the same sarcastic sense of humor as Mayday herself.

Then, remembering Mayday's complaint about her friends, he had a thought. "But maybe this will help," he added. With a soft thwip he triggered webs from both his wrists, and in no time at all he had spun a web ladder that reached from the bottom of the wall, just a few feet from where he was sitting, to the domed top of the monkey bars, where he made sure that it wound tightly around all the three sides of one of the triangles facing the wall. To make the ladder absolutely safe, he anchored it with one more fine, nearly invisible web line to the brickwork beside him.

The whole time he was spinning this web, he felt more than a bit ridiculous, like a clown at a birthday party doing tricks for the kids, twisting balloons into poodles or elephants and making stupid jokes.

Mayday clapped her hands, jumping up and down, and ran eagerly over to web ladder. She was thrilled to the core by the remarkable, delicate, pearlescent structure, which she began climbing on immediately. In no time, she was right up at the top of the monkey bars again.

Spider-Man watched her go, suddenly more pleased than embarrassed. "Was your mom a spider?" a curly haired boy asked him curiously, speaking up for the first time and breaking into his thoughts.

"Uh ... no," Spider-Man responded abstractedly. He pulled his gaze away from his nimble daughter and scanned the playground again, afraid that this last foolish stunt would finally get him noticed. He kept his eyes peeled for the counsellors but, incredibly, they were still chatting amongst themselves under the tree, leaving him and the children undisturbed. He frowned. Boy, he was going to have to speak to MJ about just how beneficial this afterschool program they'd enrolled Mayday in really was.

"Do you eat flies?" Travis piped up, casting a sly look at Mayday, who was nearly finished climbing up the web ladder toward him.

Mayday giggled at that, and Spider-Man smiled beneath his mask. It was obvious to him why these two hung around together, because that was exactly the sort of question his practical daughter would be likely to ask herself. "I'm partial to chili dogs, myself," he said confidentially to the boy. "But, you know, it's easier to be a hero if you eat healthy food."

"Oh, brother," Travis grimaced. "You sound just like my teacher or my mom," he complained. "Next you'll say that everyone can be a hero."

"Travis, shush!" admonished Mayday, although privately she thought he did have a point. Even though he was absolutely awesome, Spider-Man had just said exactly the kind of thing that most grown-ups tended to say to kids. She thought she almost would have preferred it if he did eat flies – now that would've been neat. Freaky, but neat.

"Well, that's true, actually," said Spider-Man, sounding to Mayday like he was trying to keep from laughing under his mask. Then, when Mayday and Travis groaned simultaneously, he added hastily, "I was going to say that believing in heroes might lead you to become one yourself someday, but you know ... chili dogs never hurt anyone either, so maybe you can, uh, do both ... have fun while learning to be a hero, I mean."

The way the two of them exchanged glances told Peter that they thought this strategic retreat was almost as lame as what he'd said before. For a second, he was rather glad his face was covered; it was probably nearly as red as his mask. Who would've thought that a couple of kids could be such a tough crowd?

Meanwhile, the other children, except for a sullen, miserable-looking Janeen, had all gathered round the springy webbing, touching and pulling and tugging at the coiled rope-like strands. "It boings," said Angela to Mayday in a pleased voice, pulling, stretching and then releasing one side of the web, and watching as it bounced back into place.

"Cool," said Eric. "I thought it'd be sticky," said Kendall, with distaste in his voice. "It's bouncy," Travis said happily as he began climbing on it too.

Peter had never done anything quite like this before, and he was feeling increasingly befuddled. Evoking excited responses from these kids was a far cry from webbing up thugs, catching falling people in webnets, or weaving rope ladders to bring the terrified victims of disasters to safety. Then he noticed with a touch of pride that his small, agile daughter was already climbing effortlessly back down the webbing again. In fact, all of the kids, even the black haired sceptic, were either gathered around the web ladder, or climbing up it, or pulling vigorously on it.

All, that is, except for the blond girl with the pony-tail like Mayday's, who hung back from the others and continually cast little agate eyes at him. Something wrong there, Peter thought helplessly, troubled and frowning behind his mask. He wondered uneasily if he should leave now; after all, he'd dropped in, he'd made Mayday's day, and what else was there to do?

After a minute, the little blonde girl finally spoke to him. "We're not supposed to talk to strangers," she said in a chilly, brittle voice. "I'm gonna call a teacher." A couple of the kids stopped climbing, and looked over at her in surprise.

"Whoa, wait a minute, little lady," said Spider-Man quickly. Unconsciously he pulled himself up into a crouching position on the top of the wall, tense and poised to leap away. He raised his gloved hands in an appeasing manner. "I just stopped by to say hello."

But before he could say or do anything further, two alarming things happened at the same time. First, all of a sudden, he heard an irate "Hey!" from across the yard, as he was apparently spotted at last by the one of the oblivious caregivers, who also alerted her counterparts. The kids all looked around as three adults began running toward them in consternation. And then, barely a split second later, his spider-sense flared almost painfully in warning – not in response to the approaching daycare workers, he realized, but in response to something, some awful thing, that was pulling him like a magnet off in the general direction of the city blocks behind the school. Well, that's convenient, he thought wryly as he stood up.

"Gotta go," said Spider-Man in haste to the kids, grateful to have something that he knew how to respond to for once, not to mention relieved to have a reason to escape the indignation of the children's protectors. He turned to leave, and then he paused for a brief instant. "See you," he said directly to Mayday, who was looking up at him with a heart-wrenching expression of disappointment on her pixie face. Then, his spider-sense pulsating intensely inside his skull, he ran swiftly along the top of the wall, throwing his former caution about being spotted near the school to the wind as he built up momentum to swing out over the playground.

Feeling a mixture of unhappiness and wonder, Mayday watched as Spider-Man caught a light pole with his web and flipped his body straight up into the air, launching himself upward with enough strength and speed that he landed right on the sloping roof of the school. Faintly, in the distance, she heard the exclamations of surprise from some of the children on the other side of the playground as they noticed him for the first time. Then, scrambling agilely up the peaked roof, he disappeared over the other side of school and was gone from her sight.


"Who was that? What's going on?" gasped out one of the program counsellors, a short, stout blond woman named Lydie, after arriving breathlessly on the scene. The other two, a thin, lanky brown-skinned college student, and the middle-aged director of the program had stopped to watch Spider-Man bound over the school roof and disappear. Once he had, they followed the first daycare worker to the children.

"Spider-Man," said Janeen, still looking furious. "He did that." She pointed at the web.

"Get off, get off, children; it's not safe," urged Lydie hurriedly, gazing fearfully toward the school as if she were afraid that Spider-Man would attack them from that direction.

"You know, Hartaj, I thought he had retired," the middle-aged director, Pam, was murmuring to the lanky student in an awed voice. Both of them looked back towards the school roof again. "Oh sure, you hear about him from time to time, but I thought it was nothing serious ... just like those Elvis sightings in the tabloids ..."

Meanwhile, Lydie was herding the children in front of her, away from the monkey bars. "Better come with us, and stay near the other children," she was saying nervously, still looking all around her.

Mayday felt impatient. Everyone knew Spider-Man was a hero, not scary at all. Not to mention the fact that, when the children were all outside, most of the time the counsellors paid almost no attention to them, unless someone got hurt or started a fight. It was unfair that the one time they didn't want the adults' attention, now they had to put up with it. Of course that little sneak, that tattle-tale Janeen, wasn't helping either.

"Best come along, children," said Pam, when she noticed a few stragglers hanging back. The lanky girl, Hartaj, had gone over to inspect the web, and after shooing Mayday, Travis and Eric in the general direction of the others, she went over to it as well. "I wonder what he was doing here," Mayday heard the student mutter to Pam in a low voice. For some reason, the fact that the teachers got to stay behind by the web made her even angrier than she was already. She shoved her way forward past Angela and Kendall, who looked at her in surprise, and grabbed Janeen by the arm, pulling her off to the side.

Mayday had never been so furious in her short life as she was with Janeen at this very moment. "How dare you, Janeen Marysia Gerlach!" she shouted. "You're a traitor, and a tattle-tale, and I'll never ever speak to you again." Her small hand clenched itself into an upraised fist without her even realizing that it had. She glowered menacingly at her adversary.

"Fight, fight, fight," whispered a mischievous voice gleefully. Mayday turned a blazing look on Travis until he subsided, trudging off after the others, and then she returned her glare to her one-time best friend.

Janeen glared back at Mayday just as fiercely and defended herself. "He shouldn't have been here," she insisted, folding her slim arms. "Plus, he's lame."

"What're you talking about?" snapped Mayday, "Didn't you see how he zipped away? And he's real even though you said he wasn't." She paused for a reply, but Janeen was giving her the silent treatment again. It made Mayday madder than ever.

After a moment, Mayday continued passionately, "I think it's great we got to meet Spider-Man. He talked to us, he even spun us a web ... until you ruined it." She stopped a second time and swallowed hard, because her anger and hurt were nearly choking her. "I thought you liked Spider-Man," Mayday accused at last, her voice cracking a little, "And instead you chased him off."

Janeen looked away and shrugged. "I guess I don't any more." Then she turned hard grey eyes back on Mayday. "You know, he's not such a hero."

"He saved me and my mom!"

"Yeah, well, he doesn't save everybody!" retorted Janeen. She glared back at Mayday, until, after a few seconds, her small, pointy faced crumpled, fell ... and all at once she burst into tears.

Mayday hesitated a moment, completely floored. Her anger disappeared and was replaced by confusion and uneasiness. Dimly, she perceived that not only was Janeen acting very oddly today, but that she had been for the last while, in fact. She didn't know what it meant that normally Janeen never cried, she never tattled, and she never badmouthed Spider-Man, and now she was doing them all.

Janeen sobbed some more, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. Then, unable to stand the uncertainty an instant longer, Mayday instinctively did something that Mommy, Daddy and Aunt May always did whenever she felt so bad that she couldn't help crying herself. She put both her arms around Janeen and hugged her. For an instant, Janeen twisted in Mayday's hug, but Mayday was too strong for her and held on tight, until she soon stopped struggling and put her own arms around Mayday as well. She snuffled miserably on Mayday's shoulder for a few moments. "Why wasn't he there? Why didn't he save her?" she wept.

"Save who?" asked Mayday, releasing her friend and looking wonderingly at Janeen.

"My cousin," mumbled Janeen. She looked down, and swiped at her wet eyes with the heel of a grubby hand. "You know, Chantal..."

Comprehension started to dawn. Mayday knew that Janeen's cousin Chantal had been killed in a car accident while crossing the street to catch her school bus in front of her school about two months ago. Janeen had told her about it one morning at recess, and then Mommy had taken her to the funeral home a few days later.

Mayday had been more bewildered than sad about the death of Janeen's cousin, even though she'd met Chantal a few times at Janeen's place during playdates and birthday parties, along with many others from among Janeen's numerous cousins. She remembered that Chantal had looked almost like a duplicate of Janeen, being just as blond, just as impish and just as silly. Mayday had liked her, except for the fact that Chantal had pretended to have difficulty remembering Mayday's name, slyly calling her names like Marigold, Maybell, and Madison whenever she had got the chance.

Mayday hadn't known what to say on the day when Janeen had first told her about Chantal during recess. She hadn't known what to say, either, on the day when Mommy had taken her over to see the small closed white coffin, which had Chantal's smiling picture and some flowers on top of it. Janeen's mother and her aunts had all been crying and hugging each other, while Janeen had stood, white-faced, a little apart from them. When Mom had taken Janeen's hand and spoken softly to her, Janeen had remained silent, so Mayday thought she should remain silent too.

And, once more, she didn't know what to say now.

"It's not fair," said Janeen forlornly, her eyes like two pearly grey puddles. "He's saved you, he's saved lots of people. Why couldn't he have saved her?"

Mayday furrowed her brow in confusion. This was the first time she'd come across somebody who had died because Spider-Man hadn't saved her. "Maybe he was off saving someone else," she offered half-heartedly. She thought about Spider-Man picking her and her mom up on that long ago afternoon, and then, today, running swiftly along the wall, bounding over the school and disappearing to who knew where. She groped after something, some half-formed idea. Everyone was always telling her to do the best she could; maybe that's all Spider-Man did too. "I guess he can't save everybody," she finally admitted aloud. "He's only one guy."

"I guess," acknowledged Janeen. She was drying her tears, this time with the hem of her shirt. She eyed Mayday. "I'm sorry I was so mean."

"It's okay," said Mayday uncomfortably. "I'm sorry 'bout Chantal."

"You wanna go play with Travis?" asked Janeen.

"Sure," said Mayday with relief. She was finding all this emotional stuff really overwhelming.

End of Part IV

A/N: Why not feed a poor, struggling fanfic author's starving ego and review? It'd sure be nice ...