Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse, Spider-Man or anything else you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Spiritree0513: Thanks a lot for the review, as well as for letting me know about those books, gonna check them out. And thanks a lot for telling the piece of shit off, homie :)
Chapter 3- Loss
Willow woke up next day once more, a bit tempted to use magic for some basic stuff but deciding against it for obvious reasons. Didn't want to go two steps back now, right?
Getting up, she brushed her teeth, then took a shower, and ate her dismal breakfast, thinking about Sunnydale.
How would her friends….former friends be? Dawn would probably be in school by now, hope she was doing well enough, though last Willow had seen, she was getting pretty good at computers, almost as good as Willow was at that age.
Xander, yeah, he and Anya would still be planning how their wedding would go. It was a few months from now at best, based on how she remembered at least. Not that she was going to attend or anything, why would they need her to attend?
Buffy, last Willow remembered, was trying to get a job anywhere. Well, hopefully she had gotten something she could do to earn money until she could get into college again.
And Tara….Willow hoped she was all right. Probably was though, since now she didn't have her addict girlfriend to drag her down. She could find someone better looking who wouldn't betray her like she had, she deserved that much.
Willow noticed the newspaper was here too, so getting up, she got it, deciding to read it on the way as she had one class early today, so she'd have to leave school early, meaning she had to reach there early because of all of that.
Dressing up, she hung her back over her shoulder and walked out with the newspaper in her hand, going down the place and outside, liking the feel of the fresh air on her face.
Walking to a stand, she held up some money. "Could I have that candy bar in this much?"
"Sure ma'am", the guy took the money and gave her the bar. "Good day ma'am."
"Good day to you too, sir", Willow replied, both sharing a smile and nod as she walked off. While people could be rowdy here, a good number of them were quite pleasant too if one talked to them for a bit.
She slightly bumped into a jogging girl and apologized. "Oops, sorry, my fault."
"No problem, good morning", jogging girl ran off.
"Good morning", Willow called back, though she probably didn't hear her now, so she just continued walking, opening the newspaper at last to give it a read.
The headline made her drop the bar though. Fortunately, she hadn't opened it up yet so no chance of it getting dirty.
The headline was quite unfortunate though.
'MURDER IN THE STREETS!'
That was what it read, as Willow picked up her bar and continued walking, reading the text underneath the big and bold headline now.
'Last night, at approximately 22:20, a convenience store was robbed. The cashier went in pursuit of the perpetrator, calling out for help when Ben Parker, age 68, intercepted the thief. A struggle ensued, in which the robber's gun went off, killing Mr. Parker, leaving him in the streets to be found by his nephew, Peter.'
Willow stopped reading, feeling rage at the robber for what he had done, accidentally or not, he had now killed someone. The fact that he carried a gun and had committed a robbery didn't do him any favors either.
She also felt grief, that a good man had died, as it was the same Ben Parker she'd met the previous day. He was nice, and sweet, now he was gone.
He hadn't even died because of anything supernatural, but rather a human, a bad human clearly. And Buffy used to hold them to different standards, Willow thought, slightly bitter now. She loved Buffy as a friend, but she could be annoyingly self-righteous at times, and hypocritical too.
The world was just cruel in general, and horrible to good people, while letting monsters live to commit more evil acts.
Then Willow's eyes widened as she realized something. Peter!
He had lost his uncle! The same uncle she'd asked the previous day to talk to him, and he had agreed.
Poor boy, he was going through something clearly, due to those powers he had but did not understand how to use them fully, and now, to add to it, his uncle was gone.
He had lost one of the only loving family members he had left, only his aunt remained, and she would definitely have taken it very hard as well.
Life was just unfair to good people like Peter.
Willow came to school, passing by the locker room, and saw Peter near his own locker, having opened it to take out something. His movements looked almost robotic, as if he was working because he had to, rather than because he wanted to.
She couldn't blame him, Giles had been the same after Jenny had been killed by Angelus.
"Hey, Parker."
Willow groaned inwardly, seeing Flash walk to Peter. Could this guy not let him be after his uncle had died?
"Not today, Flash", Peter shook his head, not turning out.
But Flash's next words surprised Willow.
"Come on, I just want to talk."
He touched Peter's shoulder, only for Peter to grab him by the collar and slam him to locker, lifting him up slightly, shaking in rage.
The others in the area had stopped to witness it too. Willow kept her hand at the ready. Peter was just as strong as a Slayer, or at least a Vampire, and he was angry right now. She wouldn't let him do something he'd regret later.
"It feels better, right?" Flash asked Peter, Willow thinking about what he said and how he said it. Someone at his home, father or mother, beat him up to feel better about themselves.
And in his anger, he took it out on his schoolmates. 99% of the time, bullying came from somewhere. Why did people have kids if they had to ignore them or worse, hit them?
Her parents loved ignoring her existence, but those whose parents hit them had it even worse. Tara, her scumbag of a dad and brother, well, if they ever showed their faces again, she wouldn't let them off without a broken bone or two.
And Flash's parents, or at least one of them, was a scumbag. The other might be an enabler too though.
Flash continued being the voice of sympathy, Willow's initial opinion of him revaluated due to realizing his own horrible home life.
"Look, your uncle died. I'm sorry. I get it. I'm sorry. Okay?"
Peter finally let go, shaking in grief, and wiped his face before picking up his things and shutting his locker, then walked off, not sure how to respond.
Gwen then came up to Peter, eyes shining with sympathy and grief for him. She gave him a hug. "Peter."
Willow saw Flash had been watching Peter all this time, and only now did he start walking away. He may be a bully, but he had a heart deep down.
Peter didn't respond to the hug, and walked off, Gwen watching after him sadly.
As Peter walked past her, Willow started. "Peter, I'm so-"
He started walking off as Willow added. "If you ever want to talk, I'm here to listen to you." That made him pause a bit, seeming like he was considering.
Then he walked on around the corner, Willow sighing sadly. Losing his uncle on top of those powers he had just gotten was clearly a doing a number on him. She hoped she could help.
At night, Peter sat on his bed, covering his face, glaring ahead in rage. It was his fault, he'd neglected to pick up Aunt May, then he had fought with Uncle Ben when he'd brought up Richard while lecturing him over his mistake, and then he'd stormed off, then let that store robber go because the store owner had mocked him for not having enough money to pay for the milk.
And then Uncle Ben had gotten shot trying to stop him.
He was going to find that guy, how dare he?
Walking out, he saw Aunt May sleeping on the couch, her blanket a little off, so he put it over her properly. She was suffering and in grief because of him, he was such a horrible nephew to her.
He walked to his room, looking at the police sketch of the guy that the cop had let him keep. A tattoo on his right arm.
Oh yeah, he was going to pay for his actions.
At night, an abusive guy was harassing his girlfriend in an alley, grabbing her by the face and slamming her to the wall for having talked to another guy. "Stay away from him. You understand?"
"Hey!" She tried to argue.
"Stay away from Joey."
"Hey!"
The guy turned to see Peter arrive, wearing a cap, hidden in the shadows.
Peter glared at the guy, he looked like the robber, probably was him. It had to be him.
"You like beating on girls? You like beating on old men?"
The guy pointed to the street. "Hey, pal... keep walking. You're in the wrong place."
Peter was very close now. "When were you in Queens?" He shoved the guy, pushing him back. "I asked you a question."
The guy took out a gun as his girlfriend tried to stop him. "Vicky, no!"
Peter grabbed his gun hand, twisting it as he cried out in pain while the gun dropped. "That the gun? You gonna kill me too?"
He punched the guy hard twice. The girlfriend, clearly a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, cried out. "Hey! Stop it!"
Peter threw the guy off and as he was down, started pounding on him. "Hey. Get off!"
Now the guy's friends appeared, trying to hit Peter, but all were tossed away.
"Wait, oh, don't hit Nicky!"
Peter tossed one guy into another, throwing both down.
"Back up! This guy is crazy!"
Peter now realized there were quite a bit of them, and so he ran off, the guys all chasing him. He leapt onto the wall and flipped away, using his powers to jump around like an acrobat.
He effortlessly climbed over the fence, leaving the others behind, though one was still after him. He leapt over a dumpster and used it to climb up on the wall, the other guys coming after him again now.
He climbed up, then leapt onto another wall, sticking on it, and climbed like a spider now, getting onto the rooftop.
One guy managed to come up there via door, and Peter ran again, jumping onto a wall and kicking two guys down, then kicked a 3rd down as he reached the rooftop, the main guy, his uncle's killer, appearing at last.
Peter leapt towards him, ducking to avoid his swing and punching him as he fell down, about to fall off the rooftop at this point.
Peter grabbed his right hand in time, and removed the sleeve, only to see it was a completely normal arm, nothing else on it.
'He has a star tattooed on his left hand.'
Not the guy. Peter pulled his hands to the rooftop, letting him grasp them, and climb back up as he backed off.
By now, the other guys were at the nearby rooftop. "Oh, yeah? Come on!"
Peter walked on a weak spot of the roof and it broke, making him fall inside right into the wrestling ring of a gym on his face.
As he groaned, the guy who'd been after yelled at him from above. "I know what you look like! You hear me? I've seen your face!"
Peter picked himself up, shaking his head and twisting his neck, realizing the guy had seen his face, and others could too.
That was when his eyes fell upon a luchador wrestling poster with a red mask on it.
Well, now no one else would see his face.
And Chapter 3 done, next chapter is where I can finally have our two protagonists talk properly, plus I loved the fight scene against Ben's supposed killer so I kept it in.
Honestly, with the tone these films had, if they were part of the MCU, I could see them take place alongside the Netflix shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, since this would fit right alongside them.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.
