I got that Spider-Man game when it came out on Steam the other day. Gave me a lot of good ideas and made this chapter almost write itself.


After the first night, there was no word about the new vigilante on the streets. Peter expected as much, not that he was doing it for fame. He had only saved one person from a mugging and there weren't any cameras around taking pictures or videos to upload. There wasn't even a mention in the news about the guys he webbed to the wall. But that would change over time.

By the next night, Peter had a better patrol route planned and a slightly better makeshift outfit made from clothes at the thrift store (namely a pair of blue sweatpants and a red hoodie). Peter planned on sewing in or printing on a spider symbol on the hoodie when he got the chance. He was still working on the Hero Name. The current iteration was "Spiderling" but that sounded like a cheap mob monster from a video game. Better than "Wall Crawler" at least.

After making sure he had enough web fluid and that his clothes were snug, Peter once again borrowed Mina's helmet and jumped out of his bedroom window. Not a few minutes later, he was swinging through the streets of Brooklyn. The skyline was a lot lower than Manhattan, but it was good for practicing short swings and hard turns. However, that also came with a unique set of problems.

"Woah! Sorry!" Peter called out as he dodged a truck barreling through an intersection. His body had moved on instinct just as the tingling in his head began, and then once more to avoid the incoming taxi. Peter shot some webbing and pulled himself high above the streets, but the tingling only faded marginally while the noises and lights seemed to barrage his senses like never before.

When the cacophony grew too much, Peter took a detour to a quieter part of Brooklyn and rested on top of an old water tower. The Tingle calmed down to a quiet buzz in the background, along with the usual city noises. "Why is it acting up now?" Peter wondered aloud. He tried reviewing what changed.

"Last night was around Manhattan, but Brooklyn is just as busy, so it's unlikely to be the city itself." Peter's eye caught the skyline of Manhattan in the distance. "Is it because I'm lower to the ground? It's not like there's a lot of traffic around the skyscrapers. I'm swinging through cars, trucks, and traffic lights, and those are triggering my tingle so I don't splatter like a bug. Which might be what's sending my other senses into overdrive." Peter mulled that over for a second.

"Too much input near ground level when swinging. Need to tighten that, but how?" Peter gazed around, and then stopped before scanning his surroundings and facepalming. "The helmet. Of course it's made for wide viewing. How did I miss that? I'll have to find some kind of goggles. That should fix it." And here he had picked the helmet to protect his head while swinging, but clearly it was no longer needed.

Peter sighed. Two steps forward, one step back.

The Tingle tugged at him once, and then the sound of wailing sirens and gunfire approaching followed. Peter looked down to see a nice Corvette being chased by police. Inside the corvette were a couple of guys and duffel bags that were probably not filled with sweaty gym clothes. The two passengers leaned out of their windows to fire upon the chasing police cruiser with little success.

Peter's heart twinged as he recalled the night Ben died, but it was soothed by the knowledge that now he could do something about it. "I guess second chances do come around." Peter shot his webs over to another building and pulled, launching him above the street. With the speeding cars in sight, Peter joined the chase.

The lights and sounds barraged his senses once more, but with the object of his focus ahead, it was easier to brush them aside, but it wouldn't last forever. He used whatever he could to close the distance between them: shorter swings, launching off lampposts, and even hard turns around corners to conserve momentum. Soon enough, the criminals never saw him coming.

"License and Registration please!" Peter shouted as he landed on the hood of the car. He could see the criminal's eyes bulge in shock. In the back, one of the bags had an open pocket and some cash was poking out of it. The first to recover was the front passenger, who leaned out of his window and brought his gun to bear. Peter was on the man before he had a chance to pull the trigger, crawling to the side of the car. "Oh, you wanted to get out? Here let me help!"

Peter pulled the gun out of his hand and threw it into a nearby storm drain. He then grabbed the man's collar and pulled him out a little more before wrapping him in some webbing and attaching it to a passing light pole. Inside the car, the driver was struggling to pull out his own gun while keeping his eyes on the road, but the rear passenger sent Peter's tingle itching as he brought his gun up.

He will shoot. Pedestrians at risk.

Without hesitation, Peter shot webbing into the man's eyes and webbed the gun to his door. "Hey man, don't you know kids aren't supposed to play with guns?" Peter slid across the roof and yanked the man out, throwing him onto a nearby building with webbing to keep him in place. "Two down, one to go."

Crosswalk approaching.

"Huh?" Peter looked up and sure enough people ahead were crossing the street, oblivious to the approaching car. Thinking fast, Peter crawled up towards the driver's window, only to duck back as a few bullets whizzed by. "Hey buddy, don't you know you're supposed to have both hands on the wheel?" Peter webbed both of the man's hands to the wheel, and then grabbed it and pulled into a sharp left turn.

The car swerved, but kept going straight. It started to roll on its side. Peter did not keep still as the world seemed to move in slow motion. He crawled onto the car's roof once more and when it started to face the ground, He webbed the car to a couple anchor points and then dug his feet into the ground. He could hear the panicked shouts behind him, which pushed him even harder to stop the two ton paperweight. Peter had slid back about twenty feet before coming to a stop, and then he set the car down on its side. Looking back, Peter saw the crosswalk was hardly ten feet away.

'That was close. Almost thought I wouldn't make it.' A flash caught Peter's eye and he noticed the surrounding people had pulled out phones to take pictures and videos. It was at that moment that the cops chasing the criminals showed up.

"Hey guys," Peter greeted as they walked up, "Don't know if you saw, but there's two dudes I pulled out a few streets back. You'll find them-!" Peter dodged to the side as two sets of taser prongs flew past. "Whoa! Hey! I'm on your side!"

"Can it, punk," one cop said. "I don't know what you did to stop these guys, but I'm not having vigilantes on my watch."

"Hey lay off, man," someone from the crowd shouted, "He just stopped a car from running people over!"

"Vigilantism and Reckless Endangerment." The cop looked at Peter. "Anything else I need to charge you with?"

"My terrible sense of fashion?" Peter said. "Look, you guys got your hands full with this so I think I'll leave."

"Oh no you don't." The cop began to pull out his hand cuffs.

"Oh yes I do." Peter hopped on top of the wrecked car and catapulted himself up before swinging away. After sending a couple anonymous tips about the two thugs he had webbed up, Peter went over the chase again and again in his head, picking out what he could have done better. He had done the best he could, but the cop's second charge made him wonder if anyone nearby had gotten hurt.

Peter retraced the chase discreetly, but saw no signs of bystanders being carried away on ambulances or worse. He might have gotten lucky this time, but if Peter was going to be some friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, then he needed to be more aware of others.

"Hm, 'Spider-Man'. Yeah, that's got a nice ring to it."


Peter was in the middle of sketching out some suit ideas when he sensed someone walk up to his lunch table. He turned the pages to something that looked like homework and saw Ned sit down next to him with an excited look on his face.

"Hey Peter, guess what?" he asked.

Peter shrugged. "What?"

"So we were waiting for the teacher to show up for class and one guy was showing this video of a crazy car chase. He was saying that it happened the other night, but it just looks like really good special effects, like Hollywood level." Ned pulled out his phone and started going through it. "Here, watch it!" He hit play and the video showed a shaky phone camera footage of a familiar scene. Peter saw himself move like an acrobat after sending the car rolling and then catching it like a giant beach ball with webbing attached to buildings.

Peter winced as a couple pieces of the car went flying off during the roll. He definitely needed a safer way of stopping cars. The video continued to show the police's arrival, their argument, and then Peter's escape. "Looks pretty dangerous. You think it's for some kinda movie?"

"Totally. Looks like some kind of action ninja movie," Ned said. "But it'll be hard to beat seeing the Avengers run around, or just any of Stark's fights."

"Yeah, that one on the racetrack was easily the best," Peter replied.

Ned nodded, and then gave Peter a concerned look. "Hey, are you doing better?"

"Better?"

"Yeah, I mean…" Ned gesticulated as he tried to come up with the words, "You've been kinda not all there for a while. I mean, since your uncle passed away. You've been looking like a robot up until a week ago but now you seem to just be super distracted. I couldn't figure out how to cheer you up until I saw that video. Did it work?"

"Ned…" Peter smiled and was filled with gratitude for his best friend. "It did work a bit. I've just been so busy with the paperwork, packing, and the funeral arrangements that I barely have time for homework. And yeah, I guess I've been distracted a bunch lately with some projects. I wasn't trying to shut you out or anything."

Ned held up a hand. "Say no more. I know it's gotta be tough but if you ever need to talk, I'm here." Ned raised his fist.

Peter smiled and fist bumped him, then went into their complex handshake. "Oh, by the way, I may be moving after the funeral to live with my new guardian." Seeing the alarm on Ned's face, he quickly added, "Not out of New York, just to another neighborhood. I'll still be coming here for school."

"Oh, okay. Where are you going?"

"I think it's on the other side of town? I don't really have an address yet. I just know it's a bit isolated and has a bunch of green yards."

Ned whistled. "Wow. Is he rich? Or she?"

"She, and I guess so? She mentioned trying to mail my uncle a bunch of support checks but he wouldn't take them. I just know she's a recluse due to some kind of medical condition. I haven't even met her yet."

Ned started to respond, but the lunch bell rang and everyone started heading to their next class. "Gotta go, but remember what I said! I'm your twenty four-seven support."

Peter grinned. "Thanks, I'll be sure to call at three in the morning tonight."

Ned paused as he processed the thought. "Uh, maybe eighteen-seven support?"


A/N: This chapter was going to be longer, but the scene I wanted to write kept growing and growing until I figured it was best to make that it's own thing.

Doppel just has a way of making things difficult, but it'll be fun to write her.