Sam walked back to his apartment. This morning unlike the others the past hadn't come to take him and fill his heart with agony. No, this morning there was one question that could not leave him alone: What was he supposed to do with Peter's number?

There were two options and he knew that well but he wasn't sure which was the safest one – should he call or burn it? Sam contemplated the pros and cons of each of the two possibilities.

If he burnt it and forgot completely about the little incidents that had occurred, he could go back to his normal life. Things wouldn't be so complicated. He would be able to focus solely on passing his exams and then he would finally be able to start working at a company. Of course, Sam wasn't an optimistic idiot. He knew how hard it was going to be given the fact that he had only a bachelor's degree and was going to be working for a year to gain enough experience and see if he really needed a major. After all, as long as he could afford all the necessities with his salary and still have a little money left after paying his bills, he would be fine.

But if he did call, what would happen? That was what he was afraid of. Picking the second option was easier – he could go back to the life he was used to. Nothing was going to change drastically. But if he chose to call, he didn't know what would come out of it. He wasn't even sure whether he wanted or even needed to contact his old teammates.

Speaking of them, he hadn't seen either Danny or Luke, only Peter and Ava. For the first time he wondered what had happened to them. It was strange not to see them together. Had something happened? Did they fall out with each other? No, that couldn't be right. Something had definitely happened. Something terrible enough to break them apart. But the question was – what exactly was it? An accident perhaps but of what kind?

His head started throbbing from all that thinking. A million questions raced through his head with a hundred miles per hour and Sam didn't like it one bit. He hated complicated things. Why did people have to go and make simple situations difficult? And more importantly – why did he break another rule he thought he had adapted to – never think about things too much, it will only cause you a massive headache.

The irony of this was quite funny. His brother had told him said rule and Sam thought that both of them had followed it precisely, while in reality both of them ended up breaking it and turning something trivial into an urgent matter. Sometimes he hated how different he had become.

Meanwhile somewhere else:

Peter got up with much difficulty that morning. He had stayed up quite late last night and ended up falling into a restless sleep. Despite that, he still managed to get into the bathroom and get ready for the day. He hated Saturday and still couldn't understand why he had to go to work for just three damn hours. He had suggested working late during three days of the week and taking Saturday off, but his boss, being the ass he was, told him no and even went so far as to say: Suck it up! You're a grown man! It's high time you learned some discipline!

It wasn't that Peter hated his boss but sometimes he really wished he could shut that big mouth of his with one of his web shooters. Too bad he had thrown them away a long time ago.

Peter looked at his wristwatch as he entered the big building of Kenner Enterprises. It was a relatively new company and was fairly successful. And Peter was grateful that he was given a chance to work there around a year ago. Now he was a junior vice president in need of an assistant.

Speaking of searching for an assistant, he remembered that the interviews were today. Great. Just what he needed – to immerse himself into work and forget about the anxiety he felt every time he thought of Sam and the fact that he hadn't heard anything from him, even though Peter had given him his number.

Ava got out of the massive building where she worked as a lawyer and started walking towards the company out of pure instinct. Then she remembered that not only did Peter normally finish hours before her, she also had not told him about her visiting Danny today. She wondered for a few seconds why she hadn't mentioned it, while turning in the opposite direction of Kenner Enterprises. Perhaps she was slightly afraid of his reaction. No, it wasn't that. It had to be something else.

Ava pondered on how drastically things had changed since the accident. Recalling that gruesome day wasn't something she took pleasure in doing, but sometimes in order to figure out what was going on in the present, you needed to look back and trace everything that had led to the current situation.

It seemed a day like any other. Each member of the team did their usual morning routine except there was no bickering or even banter. There was no noise coming from Peter's room or the living room. And as much as each one of them hated to admit it – he truly was gone.

It had been three months since Sam left yet it was still hard to get used to his absence. Normally by noon Spiderman and Nova would be at each other's throats about something and Ava would reprimand them or if that didn't work, Luke would get tired of their pointless argument and intervene. Most of the time he was quite successful. And even if that didn't succeed, then Danny would say something, which would draw Sam's and Peter's attention. The former would not understand anything and would lose interest quite quickly, while the former would grasp every word and would comment. Thus making both of them forget about their pointless argument.

But today everything was deadly quiet. Peter had his nose buried in a textbook, Luke was chatting away with Jessica, while she and Danny ate in utter silence, exchanging a few words once and awhile. They had got kind of used to it, but the nagging feeling that something just wasn't right was still in the air and had no intention of leaving.

The rest of the day had been quite uneventful apart from a few tests, but that was a minor issue. The thing that was going to change their lives completely had yet to happen.

It was when the four had exited the school, did things start to become a bit interesting. Peter was conversing with Ava, while Danny and Luke were at the back, talking rather quietly about something. Ava noticed that they were discussing something that wasn't meant for her and Peter to hear and when she was about to ask them what it was, there was an explosion.

Dark grey smoke clouded the clear blue sky. None of them panicked. Neither even flinched. They weren't even remotely surprised. All of them did what they would usually do and changed into their superhero costumes. They arrived at the scene and started chasing after the robbers. The culprits were five in total, which meant that one of the team had to fight two of them.

The robbers didn't put up a fight. It was quite easy to catch the two that had tried to escape. Now they were handcuffed and were going to be handed to the police in a matter of minutes when it happened. One of the skyscrapers exploded and the earth beneath their feet started shaking. All four members reacted as fast as they could and started helping the people escape the death hole. Unfortunately, there were too many people to save and far too many rocks collapsing or flying in the air. There were also a thousand pieces of glass falling to the ground and hitting innocents. There was even a whole window that dropped to the ground. Its target was ten children, all of various ages, who were too scared to move. Some couldn't even scream.

It all happened so fast. Danny had rushed to save them. He couldn't punch the window because that would put the children's lives at stake. All he could do was jump and move it out of the way, resulting in him falling on ground with the massive window, crashing into him. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces. They hammered on the earth, which too was collapsing. Danny tried to move but a sharp pain in his waist made him scream in agony. Ava immediately turned around, searching for the source of that gruesome scream. Her eyes widened behind her mask. There were two sharp and relatively big pieces embedded deeply into his skin, piercing it and drawing out blood.

Ava screamed and was about to jump out of the helicopter and dive back into that hell hole and try to rescue Danny only to have Peter grab her, preventing her from doing anything impulsive or unreasonable. The White Tiger was grateful that the mask hid her face from view because now hot salty tears were trailing down her face, burning her soft skin with their bitter poison. She collapsed on the helicopter's solid surface and buried her face into her hands.

The next thing that happened only intensified her pain. Luke managed to throw those ten children high enough for Spiderman to catch them, but he hadn't jumped high enough to be able to grab hold of a part of the helicopter thus resulting in his falling down. Ava watched as he dived back into the pool of shattering earth and disappear completely. A few seconds later Danny too followed his fate.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Thank you for reading. =)