Spider-Man: Close To Home

Chapter 12: Dangers

Time really began to fly for Peter after that first day of patrol. One day turned into one week. One week became two weeks, which became a month, than two than four months. Yes, after four months of being Spider-Man, Peter was really starting to find his groove.

Spider-Man was starting to find his groove too. Videos of his exploits and heroic deeds were taking YouTube by storm. He was starting to become a trending topic amongst New York as they city was becoming acquainted with their newest web-based hero.

Especially in school, Peter could see that Spider-Man was being noticed, which to him was a mark of success. He would occasionally overhear students talking about him while watching one of his videos. Peter was sometimes able to get a conversation in about it too, although Ned was the one that would usually humor him more often than not.

As summer came and went, Peter was free to spend more time doing what was quickly becoming his favorite thing to do. Of course, he couldn't be Spider-Man all the time, but he always looked forward to putting that mask back on.

He was actually on his way to hang out with Ned when something crazy happened. He was just minding his own business, swinging down one of New York's many streets when suddenly he felt a surge in his head and a chill down his spine.

Almost like his instincts were giving him a warning…

He looked down and saw that there was a black van that was speeding like crazy down the road. It was swerving a bit, and people on the sidewalk were ducking towards the nearest walls in order to get out of its way.

Peter immediately dove a bit, picking up speed and coming up alongside the van. All at once, he noticed several things, and he would only have maybe a second to react to what was going on.

As a man stepped towards the wall to dodge the speeding car, Peter looked ahead and saw that there was a bus coming across an intersection; the van was going to slam directly into the bus unless he did something to stop it.

With no tricks up his sleeve to utilize, Peter did the only thing he could think of. He quickly swung towards the bus, turned his body, and held his hands out to stop the van. It slammed directly into him, its back end going upwards.

The driver inside hit his head on the wheel, immediately being knocked out by the impact. The van came to a dead stop. Peter had successfully stopped it with his bare hands! He didn't even wait before jumping off of its hood and swinging away.

"That was insane! Did I really just do that?!" Peter laughed to himself.

Peter was in a high for the rest of the day, replaying the events over and over again in his mind. He was incredibly impressed with himself, and he was feeling pretty good about what he had done. He kept checking YouTube to see if any videos had gone up about it: none yet.

"Hey, hun?" Aunt May called to him. Peter looked up from the computer that he was working on constructing, removing one of his earbuds and turning towards the door as she walked in and stood in the doorway.

"Yeah? What's up?" He asked, setting his screwdriver down.

"I'm hungry. Are you hungry?" She asked.

"Psshh… Yeah, I'm feeling pretty hungry." Peter answered slowly, nodding his head a bit.

"Great! Let's go get some dinner then. Thai? You good with Thai?" She offered.

"Sure, sounds fine," Peter agreed, getting up from his chair. "Let me just throw on a different shirt." He said.

"How's your computer thing coming along?" Aunt May asked as they sat and ate. Peter shrugged a bit as he chewed his own food.

"Pretty good so far, I think. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to find a different monitor, like a TV monitor or something. We'll see though." Peter said.

"Just be careful with that dumpster diving stuff you do. You never know what kinda animal could getcha and bite ya." Aunt May warned him with a hint of amusement.

"I will, uh, keep that in mind…" Peter said with a slight cough.

Aunt May's attention was diverted as she looked up a TV posted on the wall behind Peter. He turned back to look at it too. They were running a news story about Spider-Man, showing pictures and videos from off of YouTube.

"Oh man, looks like there's a new superhero in town, huh?" Peter said with a faint smile as he turned back towards Aunt May. To his surprise, Aunt May's expression was much more serious.

"Yeah… We could really use them. Things have been really getting more dangerous around the world lately. Have you noticed?" She brought up.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrow slightly.

"Well, ever since those aliens came out of that wormhole in the sky, it's really been one thing after another. I mean, there was that whole thing with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, there was Ultron in Sokovia; things have really been getting hectic everywhere." She explained her thoughts.

"Yeah, that's true… But I mean, we have the Avengers, right? We don't gotta worry that much because we have them around, right?" Peter pointed out.

"They handle a lot of the big things, sure, but there's still all sorts of dangerous things going on a smaller scale. Even here in New York, there's still a lot of crime that goes right under the Avengers radar. Does that make sense?" Aunt May explained.

"Well… Yeah, that's true." Peter agreed. He wanted to reply by pointing out that people like Spider-Man helped offset that, but to him that wouldn't seem to help his side of the argument that much.

"I just want you to be careful out there, okay? Stay safe; don't wander too much on your own. I don't want to see you get hurt, is all, alright, baby?" Aunt May said, reaching across the table and taking Peter's hand for a moment. He nodded.

"Alright. I'll be careful." He agreed, managing a small smile…