Author's note: Special shout out Superscribe CJ and cornholio4 for your input. Whether it's fixing mistakes or making suggestions for the story!
WEST SIDE OF MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
It seemed like any other night in this one of the nine boroughs that made up New York City. From the sounds of drivers honking horns from their cars that filled the roads to the buildings having their lights on to give a more tranquil and illuminating appearance. And among these skyscrapers that were made visible in the darkness thanks to said lights was that of Peter Parker, who was again in his Spider-Man costume and was now web-swinging from one building to the next. All to meet up with this mysterious Dr. Strange and his so-called associate at a specific location in the city. And thanks to this unusual but fast method of travel, it didn't take long for Peter to swing over and arrive at Hell's Kitchen. At one point, Peter released the web line to fling himself over and safely on the edge of a nearby rooftop right across the street from an old, abandoned building.
While sitting perched, Peter pulled out the white card from his pocket, looked at it, then at the bottom of the building and found its address. Peter would have keyed the card's information into his phone, which was connected to the new eye lenses he invented, and used them to find the location. Unfortunately, thanks to his tussle with the Shocker, Herman Shultz, one of the said pieces was severely damaged. This forced Peter to use his spare mask with ordinary lenses until he got the parts needed to repair the damaged eyepiece. Something which understandably made searching for a simple building a bit more complicated, but thankfully, Peter found that the address of the abandoned building matched that of the card. Thus, he arrived at the desired meeting spot. "Okay, this is the place," thought Peter, grateful that his luck seemed to change when he found the building so early. Afterward, he pointed his hands at the top of said building, shot two web lines, and zipped over to it. Once he was close enough, Peter flipped forward, planted his feet on top of the building, and stood in impeccable balance.
After making such a safe landing, Peter turned around and looked down at the street as he waited for this Doctor Strange and his so-called associate. At one point, he noticed a light-skinned woman in her mid-fifties walking down the street and couldn't help but be reminded of his Aunt May. And he soon cringed when he remembered the last time he spoke with her…
PARKER RESIDENCE, HOURS PRIOR
…Inside their now clean kitchen, Peter nervously talked to May, who had her arms crossed and looked at her nephew with the infamous 'glare .'The reason was that before coming home, May caught a glimpse of the news report regarding the fight between Spider-Man and the Shocker back at F.E.A.S.T.S.'s break area. This caused her to suspect that Peter had snuck out of the house to record and send the video rather than stay home and clean as he told her. The fact that Peter was putting his life on the line recording these fights was already something she hated, but she knew that her nephew was growing to be a man and thus made him promise that he would always call her to let her know that he was okay once it was over. And the fact that she saw the video and he did not call her made her suspect that he wasn't being truthful. All this made the young man's aunt very displeased, which she displayed by staring daggers into him.
As Peter coiled back in fear, he knew he had only himself to blame for this meeting. He remembered that before he went upstairs, he caught a brief glimpse of his phone and saw that May's number showed up as numerous missed calls alongside MJ, adding to his fear of confronting his glaring aunt. Regardless, Peter knew he had to say something to put May's feelings at ease, as well as make her stop giving him the stink eye. "I'm sorry, Aunt May, your right. I did forget to call," Peter said regretfully as he hung his head in shame. "I forgot to turn on my ringer today, and I've just been so busy cleaning that I didn't think to check my phone." At one point, Peter looked at his aunt with a more pleading but sincere expression. "But that video you saw on the news didn't come from me! It was from some other guy. Who? I don't know, and I plan on finding out next time I go to the Bugle. But I swear, I was here all day today and nowhere near the bank!"
Though May maintained her grim expression, she looked into Peter's eyes and could see the genuine honesty in them and could tell that, as far as the news report was concerned, he was telling the truth. As such, her expression softened a little, but not by much. "All right, Peter, I'll take your word for it this time," said May, sounding somewhat resolved, but her strictness soon returned as she pointed her index finger at him. "But from now on, whenever you're home alone, you leave that ringer ON, and when you hear it ring, you answer! And as far as the Bugle goes, not only are you to call me still when you're done shooting videos, but you are also to show them to me to confirm which videos I see on the news are yours or not!"
Peter's sadness instantly turned to shock upon hearing this. "What?! But Aunt May-!"
"No buts!" May interjected with a stern tone and a slightly raised voice. After taking a breath to try and calm herself, she continued with her demeanor again softened and showed concern. "Look, Peter, you may be eighteen and becoming a young man, and I don't want you to think I'm trying to control your life. But the fact remains that you're still out there risking your life recording fights involving Spider-Man and criminals coming his way. All for some loudmouth who has a personal vendetta against him, ignores all the good he does and tries to demean him in any way possible! Even if it means using the one person who is the last living family I have in this world! It was bad enough that I lost your Uncle, Peter! How do you think I'd feel if I lost you…?!"
PRESENT
…Those concerned words from his aunt still lingered in Peter's mind as he watched the older woman walk around the corner on her way to her apartment building. Words that were almost identical to those M.J. told him. Words that demonstrated how much his aunt and his best friend have of losing him for the sake of recording fights for Jameson, though in reality, he was taking part in said fights. But what made things more complicated for Peter was May's latest demand to show his videos to her before selling them to Bugle. "Well, so much for my foolproof plan of keeping my secret identity a secret," Peter thought to himself, feeling defeated, then angrily shook his head when he realized how selfish he sounded. "Screw the secret, Parker! It's obvious that what you're doing at the Bugle may get you paid, but it's also hurting the people you care about the most! Besides, the only reason you took the job at the Bugle was to help Aunt May with maintaining the rent. And now that she's doing okay at F.E.A.S.T., maybe this is a sign that you need to move on from the Bugle." Amid his ponder, Peter looked up and let out an exacerbated sigh when he came to this realization. "Which means I'll have to start job hunting. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as the job I had BEFORE the Bugle…."
SIX MONTHS PRIOR
…Peter thought back to when he worked alongside 'Hero Harry,' a performer who dressed up as a superhero for children's birthday parties. And in the backyard of a house of one particular boy celebrating his seventh birthday, Harry was dressed as the boy's favorite hero, The Mighty Thor, complete with a long blonde wig, a plastic armored suit, and a plastic version of Mjolnir, his signature hammer.
As for Peter, he was dressed as one of Thor's enemies, the Destroyer, albeit in a rather large foam costume with a plastic head on top to make him look bigger and with grey, thin fabric on the chest so he could see outward. Sadly, the ability to see was the only positive wearing such a troublesome suit, for it was so bulky it was practically impossible to move. So much so that the young man was struggling to walk, much less act menacing.
It was here that Harry was drawing to the part of his show where he would ask for audience participation. Meaning that he pointed his plastic hammer out at the children sitting on the ground watching him. More specifically, the birthday boy named Gregory was a light-skinned boy with blonde hair, a black T-shirt with Thor's face on it, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes with pictures of Thor's hammer on the sides. "Brave Gregory!" Harry called out in his over-the-top 'Thor voice,' then pointed in Peter's direction. "The Destroyer has arrived to destroy not just the world but your party as well!" During his performance, Harry reached down into a box behind a sign which read 'Happy Birthday Gregory' and pulled out a plastic rod with a ball, which was covered with grey foam that looked like the head of a hammer, on top. "Thus, I require your assistance! Will you aid me in stopping this vile fiend!"
"YEAH!" The ecstatic Gregory yelled, ran past the other kids, and approached Harry, who held up the foam-headed hammer for him to grab.
As this happened, the overcooked and sweating Peter stood there in discouragement about his current situation. He could feel the sweat roll down his face and some of it getting in his eyes, which forced him to shut them for a few moments until he felt moisture, and he opened his eyes to allow tears to roll down his cheeks. "I don't know what's the worst thing about this suit; the heat…or the humiliation." thought the discouraged Peter. "But hey, at least the kids are fun, including the birthday boy himself. Plus, the pay is enough to help Aunt May with the bills, so-." Suddenly, Peter was alerted by something more troubling than heat brought on by the Destroyer suit; his Spider-Sense. "What? Spider-Sense tingling?! Now?! What could possibly be at a kid's birthday party that's so dangerous that it would-?"
Suddenly, Peter received his answer by feeling significant pain between his legs, all thanks to Gregory using the hammer Harry gave him to nail Peter right in the groin. The foam that covered the hammer did little to nothing to cushion the impact, which a pain-stricken Peter showed as he let out a high-pitched squeal and, like a tree being chopped down, fell on his back to the ground.
This led Gregory to continue using the hammer and hit Peter in the head and chest while he was down. This also caused the rest of the kids to run in and start kicking the fallen Peter while he was down.
"Ow! Ow! Oof! Wait, don't kick, ow!" said Peter as he took hit after hit and could not stand up due to the bulkiness of his suit. The defenseless Peter decided to ask for help, but for the sake of his job, he tried to say it in character. "Oh great, Thor," said the fallen Peter in a deep voice as he continued to take such savage blows. "You, Gregory, and his friends have defeated me! The victory is yours, so please call them off! Thor? Thor!"
'Thor' did not hear Peter's pleas for help, mainly because he was in a flirty conversation with Gregory's mother. She was an attractive brunette woman and caught Harry's eye when he and Peter arrived on her property. "You know, I do respect and appreciate hard-working women," said Harry in a flirtatious tone. "Especially when they're as attractive as you."
Gregory's mother could only respond to Harry with a returning smile of her own, followed by a wink as a way to see that she was more than happy to get to know him once her son's party was over.
Even when getting pummeled by a horde of kids, Peter could see his employer getting friendly with their client and couldn't help but be repulsed by how he was paying attention to her rather than his job. "Seriously?!" Peter thought, disgusted with his boss' actions, then felt great pain in his groin once again as Gregory used his hammer to hit that exact spot, all with an excited smile on his face as, in his mind, he was helping Thor defeat a monster. And while a happy Gregory thought of this as the best birthday ever, Peter will remember this as one of the most painful days of his life, both figuratively and literally…."
PRESENT DAY
…And the memory of that day caused Peter, now Spider-Man, to cringe in agony and bend down slightly as if feeling those blows to his groin all over again. "Geez, to this day, I can't even look at a birthday cake without getting nightmares afterward," thought Peter as his entire body shook upon recalling such a traumatic event. However, he then shook his head as a way to shake off the fear once he remembered what he was there for. "Okay, need to focus! Need to wait for this Strange guy to show up! So, I'm guessing some fiery ring will appear out of nowhere, and he'll step right through."
Suddenly, a rather unusual arrival occurred, but not the one Peter was expecting, one that caused his Spider-Sense to tingle. "O.H., M.A.N.!" The alarmed Peter thought with wide-open eyes, then jumped and flipped forward in the air, thus allowing a strange red silhouette to come down and plant his feet into the spot where Peter stood previously instead of kicking the young man's masked head. Once he landed safely on the middle of the roof floor, Peter instantly spun around with his hands, ready to shoot more webbing at who had just attacked him. However, what Peter saw left him even more confused than the first time Dr. Strange showed up in his house.
Namely, the red silhouette was that of a tall, masked man dressed from head to toe in crimson red. His body suit, gloves, boots, and belt looked comparable to that of a SWAT officer but less bulky to allow him freedom of movement. His mask covered the entire top half of his head, revealing the lower part of his stubbled, light-skinned face, and resembled that of a devil, complete with horns about the brow and red eye lenses. He held two red metal billy clubs in his hands, each containing a strong steel cable that he used to swing from one roof to the next. Because of the fearless way he swung from the top of buildings and the brutal way he fought criminals, the press and news outlets dubbed this masked man 'The Daredevil of Hell's Kitchen. And at that moment, the Daredevil turned in the direction of where he somehow heard Peter's rapid heartbeat to address him. "Peter Parker, I presume?"