Before this chapter gets started, I want to clarify a few things. First, I don't know how long I want this story to be, but by the time it's done it will be over 50k words. Second, while this story will be taking heavy inspiration from the Ultimate Spider-Man TV show, I'll be adding multiple aspects from different Spider-Man mediums if some of you can tell already. All right I think that's it for now please enjoy the chapter!
However, on the other side of Midtown inside the library was Peter, Harry, and MJ the original trio of friends, as an outsider looking in you could see that the three of them were enjoying each other's company, Peter especially as he didn't get many moments like this, not with these guys, but even though he was with them, his mind was still somewhere else, "Damn it, Ben! You came here too early, now we're probably going to have to deal wit-"
"Peter!" Both Harry and MJ call out to him in unison, instantly breaking him out of his thoughts. "Geez dude, why is it that you're always present but a million miles away at the same time." Harry joked, to which Peter was happy to see, as Harry didn't joke much, especially not after "the situation", but it would seem that Harry had finally started working past it and no longer bore any ill feelings towards him. "Haha, so guys, how's being Midtown seniors?"
Peter found that question very interesting as he hadn't thought about it before, because between Venom, Jackal & his C-words (take that as you will), Doc Ock, and Norman turning into a glorified troll doll, the past three years had been really hectic and school kind of became a 10th priority, so for the first time Peter came to the realization that by May of the next year he would finally graduate high school and he'd be a liar if he said the thought didn't scare him a bit, but he had to admit, it seemed a lot less scary when compared to Harry's situation. Thanks to his dad deciding that he wanted to have a green thumb, literally, Norman was deemed legally insane and unfit to run Oscorp, which put Harry in a predicament, where his choices were to either A) Stay in high school, but lose his family's company to the shareholders or B) Drop out and become the new CEO of a multi-million dollar company, yeah, let's just say that this wasn't a hard decision, now that didn't mean Harry was it still going through his education, he just couldn't physically be in school anymore.
Harry claims that he's fine and has everything under control, but Peter had known him better and longer than anyone else, so he could tell when he was putting up a front and that was exactly what he was doing right now, he may have had a smile on his face, but Harry was stressed, the bags under his eyes told a story, a story Peter knew all too well. "Well it's fine I guess, but what about you, how have you been Harry?"
"Oh you know, just running this huge company called Oscorp, you may have heard of it, but I'm fine, thank you for asking, Pete." The reddish brown haired CEO responded, his facial expressions telling Peter that he did not want to talk about it at this time, especially not in front of MJ, she tends to worry. "But enough about me, let's talk about you guys, any new things happen? Could someone in this friend group actually be in a stable and loving relationship for once?"
Peter and MJ looked at him awkwardly then at each other and then burst into laughter, it was a running joke that none of them could get into a relationship and actually stay in one, MJ couldn't make it happen ever since she broke up with Flash, Harry could have probably succeeded with Liz Allen if both their dads weren't total supervillains, and Peter remained romantically stunted ever since the death of Gwen Stacy, which Norman deliberately caused and Harry knew that, but the duo never really addressed that issue which was another reason as to why they didn't talk as much anymore.
Harry somehow felt responsible for his father's actions, but to be fair to him, he had no idea what his father would be up to at work as he would never tell him anything, but that didn't stop Harry's guilt, as time passed he found himself talking to Mary Jane more than he did Peter, everyday he spent as the CEO of Oscorp, Gwen Stacy's death at the hands of his father was a topic that always failed to slip his mind and with his mind constantly going back to it, Harry started subconsciously believing that the further he stayed away from Peter the better and that in that way he would be safer from his family, not just that but he also so consciously realized something else too, but it would be some time before that came to the forefront of his mind.
"C'mon Harry, that was just plain just distasteful, you know just as well as we do that no one in this friend group can get into a relationship and stay in one, it's always just some sort of fling with us, especially Peter." MJ said as she called out her brunette friend, Peter had built up a reputation for being a very…..
….promiscuous person, both as Spider-Man and Peter Parker with his body count including people like Felicia, Kitty Pryde twice no less, Gwen, Betty Brant, and even Mary Jane once, although Harry didn't know about the last part, no one knew about the last part nor are they ever going to know, especially since it was only considered an experiment.
"Hey! I can manage a stable relationship, I just have a tendency of getting dumped, the Parker Charm can't last forever, y'know?" He quickly went to defend himself as his statement wasn't really a lie, none of his flings were actually flings, they were all serious relationships, they were just relationships that his his duty as Spider-Man wouldn't allow him to have, the one with Kitty looked like it was going to last, that was until she realized she loved Bobby Drake more than she did him, but there were no hard feelings him and Bobby were good friends before and after so no true harm done, but it's still stung. "Besides, you two were pretty much in the top 10 hottest people at Midtown, so don't look at me for a high body count."
"Hey now, don't downplay yourself Tiger, don't think we didn't notice your little glow up three years ago." She stopped Peter in his tracks, finally calling him out on his Puny Parker narrative.
"She's right Pete, after your glow up I didn't know what you were anymore, but you definitely weren't Puny Parker that's for sure." Harry chimed in, "Hell Pete, you made a complete 180, you ditched the glasses and started wearing contacts, grew a few more inches taller, and somehow managed to bulk up overnight because even when Flash still bullied you weren't pushed around as easily anymore, nor did the things he would do actually seem to hurt you, you even seemed the more annoyed than hurt."
But then that got Peter thinking, even after all this time he still hasn't told them nor has he told Aunt May, before Peter believed that the only way either one of them would find out that he was Spider-Man is if they figured it out themselves, but he was now starting to realize that maybe it would be better if they heard it from him because they were definitely going to figure it out eventually, especially Harry, with the resources he has he could figure it out just as easily as his father did, but Peter doubted that Harry even remotely cared about Spider-Man as much as Norman and if Harry was ever going to use his resources to figure out Spider-Man's identity, he'd probably only do it because he was getting egged on by Mary Jane, who can be quite persuasive and by that it meant that she was very annoying.
But before he got the chance to go on it more, Peter's phone started going off, he looked at the number and didn't recognize it, so it was likely coming from a burner phone, so that only meant one person was calling him.
Times Square, New York City, NY
Monday, September 6th, 6:11 p.m.
Nova just had been sent flying into the set of stairs before a red figure with a blue hoodie came and landed on his chest knocking all the air out of his lungs. "Y'know, when I tell you this is probably going to start getting repetitive so-" he interrupted himself as he jumped out of the way as to avoid White Tigers flying kick aim towards his head.
"Whoa, incredible! you almost got me there." To which then she stopped and looked at him disapprovingly. "Okay, I lied I just didn't want to be too mean." he said as he dodged once more as Luke tried to grab him from behind, but that caused them to be able to land their first hit on him as before his Spider Sense could go off again, Danny was already right above him with his Iron Fist charged and ready to be unloaded.
The figure tried to block before Danny did a mini spin in the air and landed the punch to the figure's side, calling him the grunting pain and bite down profanities as he did so, sending him back towards the stairs and utilizing his temporary stunned period, white tiger used opportunity to claw at the spot at which Iron Fist had punched the figure and did a flip in the air as she finally landed that high kick, causing him to hit the ground head first. "Hehe, now it's time to squash you like a bug, who….ever you are!"
The figure groaned in pain once more, while clutching onto his side tightly, The Figure taking into account all of their positions as they all moved into surround him, but stopped in their tracks as soon as he began talking yet again. "Okay so three things."
"1. I'm not a bug, I'm an arachnid," he said as he definitely stuck some webs to his injury. "2. You can call me The Scarlet Spider."
"3. But right now? I'M PISSED!" He yelled as he sneak attacked Power Man by webbing his hands and feet to the ground, immobilizing him, as that happened Nova tried to fly high in the sky to keep the high ground, but Scarlet shot a web line at his foot before he completely took off and let him fly up until he got high enough, Scarlet Spider made his grip on the web line even tighter as he yanked Nova all the way down to the ground and as the pavement cracked when he made contact with it, making sure he wouldn't get back up, Scarlet flipped over Sam and webbed his entire body to the ground, shooting a web line at his helmet and pulling it off, therefore depowering Sam, but to protect his identity Scarlet also made sure to shoot some webs over his face too, making sure his nose was still uncovered so he could breathe.
After Nova was dealt with, he turned his attention to White Tiger and Iron Fist as they both came out him at the same time, the double team action seemed to prove effective as both combatants landed multiple hits on the Scarlet Spider only to land more after the last, but Scarlet managed to get a roundhouse kick in on Danny, drawing blood from his now busted lip, but some of the blood went flying and managed to get on Ava's mask as she immediately began trying to breathe through her mouth so she didn't breath in the smell of Danny's blood and sweat, unfortunately it proved too difficult and left Ava momentarily stunned as she tried to get herself under control.
That left Iron Fist and the now free Power Man, the duo looked at each other and nodded as Scarlet Spider once again got tag teamed, this time even worse than the last as he took multiple attacks to his head and gut, deciding that he needed backup, Scarlet shot a web at a nearby light pole and pulled himself towards it, using his powers to climb on top just to put some space between him and the duo as he began jumping from light pole to light pole because Power Man and Iron face were knocking down each one he landed on.
Pulling out a phone, he quickly typed in and dialed a number that he remembered from memory, it rung as he fling himself on the side of the building sticking to it automatically, he kept evading Power Man and Iron Fist as he repeated the mantra "C'mon, pick up! C'mon pick up!"in his head with a sense of relief flushing through his body when he heard a "Hello?" on the other end.
"Peter!" He exclaimed.
"Ben." Peter responded unemotionally over the phone, completely ignoring his brother's tone of voice in the amount of stress and shock that was in it, "What do you want?"
"I want for you to get your pasty ass over here and help me deal with your psycho friends who are trying to kidnap me!" He demanded as Iron Fist landed another hit, this time this one to his jaw. "And it would be preferable if you hurried the hell up!"
Ben could hear the sound of Peter sighing over the phone. "Fiiiiiine, I'll be right over." Peter said right as Ben got tackled by Luke.
Back at the library, Harry and MJ had just witnessed Peter get on the phone and hang up as Mary Jane was the first to speak up. "Was that Ben? Is he in trouble or something? If so let's go help him right now!"
"Oh it's nothing, Ben just needs help moving his crap into Aunt May's house, I'll see you guys later, k?" Peter said as he waved goodbye to his best friends, already turned around before he could see them wave back, quickly running out of the room and ducking out of a window when no one's going was looking, getting outside he took the chance to put his mask on and he took off slinging to Times Square changing into his costume on the way.
"Geez, not even a year and S.H.I.E.L.D is already trying to replace me, Damn it Fury!"
