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.
Guest: Thanks for the review. You do realize Willow doesn't know Fred that well yet, right? At best she'd know the basics of Fred currently, while she has seen a lot more of Peter, so she'd consider him smarter based on what she knows.
Chapter 6- Lizard
Next morning
Peter shut his locker and walked off when he heard footsteps next to him and turned to see Gwen, giving him a smile.
"Hey", he greeted her.
"Hi", she greeted him back.
Peter tried to make some conversation. "How's it going?"
Gwen made some conversation too. "Where you headed?"
"Monday, B track", Peter told her, taking his earphones out and pointing in the direction.
"Oh, it's Thursday", Gwen revealed, as Peter stopped in his tracks, surprised and confused.
"It's Thursday?" Peter asked.
"What happened?" Gwen then asked, noting something on his face.
Peter pointed at himself. "What?"
"Your eye, it looks bruised", Gwen told him, as Peter realized what she was speaking about.
Peter dabbed at with a handkerchief, trying to get her attention off of it. "Oh, yeah, no, I don't... Maybe I got a rash or..."
"It's bad", Gwen said, voice full of concern. "Have you gone to the nurse?"
Peter nodded with a 'uhm-hum'. Seeing that was dealt with, Gwen changed the topic completely and asked Peter. "Do you like branzino?" Peter had a look of confusion but Gwen cleared it up with her next words. "Like, a fish."
Peter nodded again and saved face. "No, no. I know. I know."
"Well, if you want..." Gwen wrote something down on a piece of paper, then handed it to Peter, revealing it was an address, "you can come to this address at 8:00 tonight. My mom's making branzino. So..." Peter was surprised, in a good way, as Gwen backed off and added. "It's apartment... 2016. I didn't write that part down. I don't know why I..."
Peter assured her with another nod. "I'll remember it."
The bell rang as Gwen smiled, about to turn around. "Oh, okay. 2016."
And then she walked off to class, Peter not believing it. Had Gwen, the girl on whom he had a huge crush, just invited him to her house?
Did seem like it, yes.
Peter walked off and walked around the corner, only to run into Willow. "Oh…hey Willow."
"Hi Peter", Willow greeted with a smile, then noticed the bruise on his eye. "Uh, how did you get that bruise on you? Anything weird happened to you or something?"
"Ah, right, that", Peter pointed at the bruise, and told her. "That, I'm still trying to get used to playing Tarzan in the big city and all that, ya know?"
"Yeah, that can be hard for a new timer", Willow agreed with a little wince. "So, how are you doing now?"
They walked together and Peter answered her question with one of his own. "How well do you think I could be doing?"
"Good point", Willow agreed. "Anyways, you can always talk to me and all that-"
"I know, thank you", Peter gave her a smile that she returned. "Anyways, I don't think I'm gonna kill anyone now if that's what you think."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I'll just break some bones and leave 'em for the police, better that way", Peter shrugged, as he didn't care about causing any pain as long as it taught the lesson that was needed to be taught.
"Still dark, but I can get that", Willow assured with a sigh, at least he was over wanting to kill the guy, which was an improvement as well.
"Oh, and I think I got invited to a date, or sort of a date I think", Peter revealed excitedly with a smile.
"Really? By whom?" Willow inquired, interested to hear that too.
"Gwen", Peter said, and Willow raised an eyebrow, not completely surprised considering she had figured out that Gwen had a huge crush on Peter too, it was as big as his own crush on her. He held up the address. "Gave me the address to her place too, says her mom is making some branzino, and she wants me there for it as well."
"Well, you do have to meet her parents too", Willow pointed out and Peter groaned. "But still, if she wants you there in front of her parents, that means she likes you a lot and believes her parents would totally approve too."
"Huh? Didn't think of it that way but….yeah, you could be right there", Peter nodded. "Totally right, she likes me enough to introduce me to her parents. I could do that, right?"
"Well, if you want to give it a chance, I say go for it", Willow said with a smile.
"First time any girl has showed interest in me, you know? Of the romantic kind", Peter told his friend, still getting used to the feeling of someone having romantic affection for him.
"I get the feeling, didn't have any romantic partners until junior year, he was a nice boyfriend, we were good for a time", Willow recalled Oz fondly, and how he had showed her romantic affection, but the werewolf thing had ruined it. Though she felt even without it, it would have been temporary at best because she kept changing as a person and he was right only for the older version of her that was a meek high school girl. She didn't feel she and he would fit together now after how much she had changed, they could still be friends, but she didn't think they could ever be together again, even without the baggage.
"Then, stuff happened?" Peter inquired.
"Well, yeah, a lot of stuff happened, and we broke up, then my ex-girlfriend, I got a crush on her in college which made me come out", Willow smiled, and Peter could see the almost blissful expression she had on her face. Whoever this ex was, she had made Willow really, really happy. "And then we were together, we were really happy, it was amazing." Her expression darkened. "Then I ruined it completely, and also hurt my friends."
Peter wanted to ask what had happened but it seemed to be something really private so he decided Willow would tell him the details of this if she wanted to, it was her own choice.
"So I decided to be a coward and leave it all behind and come here where they don't have to bear me as a burden again, and now here we are", Willow gave a smile to indicate she was chipper but Peter could tell it was an act. The same way he had taught himself to smile by looking at the mirror.
"I'm sorry about whatever happened, though if they're your friends and all that, they'd still care about you, maybe you can try to talk to them sometime, right?" Peter suggested.
"Do the things I did, then we'll talk", Willow muttered.
"Okay, sorry, didn't mean to pry, its just, you're a really nice and sweet person, and I want things to be good for you", Peter assured Willow what he truly wanted for her.
"Thank you", Willow smiled gratefully. "That's-that's really sweet of you, Peter. I appreciate it."
"And I mean it."
Willow gave him a little hug and a kiss on the cheek, one that he ended up returning, and then she walked off. "Good luck with class, and the date."
"Thank you", Peter told her, then walked off, feeling better than he had before.
The branzino thing had gone well…mostly. Gwen's dad George Stacy was the local police captain, and was leading the manhunt for Peter's vigilante alter-ego.
And the vigilante had been brought up in conversation. Peter had tried to defend his alter-ego by saying he was doing something the police could not, only for George to turn it around and point out that the vigilante was going after people who looked the same like he had some sort of personal vendetta, so he was not a hero of any kind.
George Stacy wore a badge and stood for law and order, while the vigilante wore a mask, and was an outlaw.
Gwen had stopped the argument and now she and Peter were up on the roof to get some air.
"Well, that was something", Gwen commented with a sigh.
Peter apologized to her. "I'm sorry. I thought he was going to arrest me at one point."
Gwen assured him. "No, I wouldn't have let him arrest you." They were on the edge now, looking down as Peter shook his legs and leaned down for a bit.
"What happened to your face?" Gwen asked again as Peter stood up straight.
"I wanna tell you something", Peter made a decision, Gwen chuckling a bit.
"Okay."
They stared at each other. Peter hesitated a bit, then said. "I've been bitten..."
Gwen was confused but still gave him a smile. "So have I."
The two just stared at each other, smiling, as Peter tried to decide. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I gotta tell you this one thing. I gotta tell you this one thing about... ...the vigilante and the car thief."
Gwen was weirded out now and backed a little, disappointed. "Oh, okay. What?"
Peter sighed, realizing how bad he was, and shook his head. "No, no, no. I don't want to talk about that. Forget that. I won't talk about that. I'm gonna talk about me, okay?"
"What about you?" Gwen asked.
"It's impo... I wish I could just... I can't. It's hard to say." Peter leaned on the roof again, deciding against it all of a sudden.
"Just say it", Gwen urged Peter.
"I don't know."
"Say it." Peter looked at her as she asked him. "What? What? What?"
Peter stared, then turned away and shook his head really hard and fast, disappointing Gwen.
"Okay, then forget it." She started walking off. Only, in that moment, Peter finally made the decision.
Aiming his wrist, Peter fired from his web-shooter, catching Gwen at the waist as she turned to him in surprise, and he pulled, spinning her into his arms.
"You...?" She asked in shock as their lips crashed into each other, both kissing and making out passionately, letting out the feelings they had for each other for quite a while now. It felt so good for both of the teenagers.
They parted as Gwen finally said. "You're Spider-Man."
"Shut up."
They started kissing again like there was no tomorrow.
"Gwen?" Gwen's mother Helen Stacy appeared on the rooftop now. "Gwen..." She stopped on seeing her daughter making out with their guest, and turned away awkwardly for a bit as Peter and Gwen parted, embarrassed.
Peter looked down from the roof as Helen told Gwen. "Your father wants you to come inside."
Gwen panted, coming to her senses. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah."
Gwen was still standing as Helen urged. "Gwen." Though her face didn't look disappointed or disapproving either, to Gwen's relief.
"I'm coming." Gwen walked off, sharing a look with Peter, then continued walking when police sirens were heard.
Down below, George Stacy walked out of the house, the police cars collecting him as it was an emergency situation.
Peter looked at the police cars leaving, and leapt off the roof, leaving Gwen alone there now.
"Oh, I'm in trouble."
Willow was returning home via an alley, and looked around to see if there were any Vampires to attack her or not.
It seemed not, so she sighed in relief and continued walking when suddenly the manhole before her burst open and out popped a giant green creature with a tail, making Willow's eyes widen in horror and shock.
"Okay, what?" She wondered, taking in its appearance. It seemed like a giant Lizard of some sort, nothing compared to Godzilla of course, but that's what it was. It looked down at her and screeched.
Willow stood, ready, as it came closer, and she chanted in Latin as suddenly, a lot of water burst out of the manhole and drenched the Lizard completely, making it screech and trash around as it roared at her, then jumped back into the manhole.
Willow ran to the edge and looked down but it was gone already. All right, a giant Lizard, basically a wannabe Godzilla, after she'd met a teenager with powers like a spider who'd gotten those powers from the bite of a genetically mutated spider.
New York was getting a lot stranger than she thought.
"Great, I've brought Sunnydale with me."
At the same time, Peter in his vigilante getup was trying to save a kid trapped in a car hanging from a bridge via his web, and he'd done it to many cars as the Lizard guy had thrown them down.
"Dad!"
"Hey, hey", Peter called out to the boy. "Hey-"
The boy looked at him and was even more frightened. "Help!"
"Hey, buddy. It's okay."
"Get away. Help!"
"Hey", Peter took off his mask, revealing his face as the boy calmed down, "look. Just a normal guy, all right?"
The boy looked at him as Peter held out his mask. "Wanna hold this?" The boy gave a shy nod as Peter gave tossed him the mask. "Hold my mask. All right. What's your name?" Peter saw it was written on his seat. "Jack?"
Jack nodded. "Yes."
"Let's get you out of here. Okay, stay very still. All right. Okay, I'll get you out of here", Peter leaned down, ready to do more. "Okay, look. I'll undo the belt. You hold on... to that seat in front of you. On three? All right. Okay, one, two, three."
Peter undid the belt as Jack held onto the seat. "See how easy that was? You did a great job. All right, okay."
The car set on fire and that moment and started falling as Peter held on to it, urging Jack. "Jack, climb now."
"I can't."
"Yes, you can. Put it on, the mask. It's gonna make you strong", Peter encouraged the boy. "Jack, trust me. Put it on."
Jack put it on at last. "There you go. That's it. That's it, buddy. Okay, now, climb. Come on, Jack."
Jack started climbing up now as Peter urged him. "Do me a favour. A little faster, okay, bud? You're doing great, buddy. You're doing great. That's it. Keep coming. Keep it coming. Keep coming."
The car then started falling down as Peter yelled. "No!"
But he fired a web and caught Jack in time, sighing in relief that he'd saved the boy as he pulled him up while hanging onto the bridge with another web. He took his mask back and put it on, then came up, handing Jack to his father.
"Jack", Jack's dad held him and hugged him lovingly. "Oh, God. Thank God. You okay?" Jack nodded as his dad stroked his face. "My son. My son. Oh, my son. My son."
Peter during this time looked down, depressed, many thoughts passing through him. He'd never have a moment like this….with Richard…or with Ben.
And now he'd saved a life instead of going on a vendetta. That made him feel….like himself.
The dad turned to him, unaware of his inner monologue. "Who are you?"
Peter looked up at the father-son duo, finally accepting what he had to do with the gift that he had been given.
"Spider-Man."
And then Spider-Man fired a web, swinging away into the night.
So Lizard is here, Peter/Gwen are together, Gwen knows, and Spider-Man is born while Willow knows of Lizard.
Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.
