Peter Parker

When I woke up the next morning, I just laid there for a bit, looking up at the ceiling. I was hoping that last night was just a bad dream, but the gauze on my body ended that hope quickly. Not for the first, second, or a hundredth time, I considered just hanging up my suit for good. I scoffed at myself. What would be the point? That retirement would last for only so many days and I couldn't keep myself from intervening in a crime in progress even if I wanted to.

I was barely 18, but I felt like I can empathize with Detective Murtaugh whenever he said he was getting too old for this shit.

I heard my phone vibrate. Without looking, I reached out and grabbed it off of the night stand. I checked it to see that I got a text from Kitty. I unlocked my phone and opened up the text. After reading it, I set the phone aside before I sat up and got out of bed.

Some minutes later, I was at the X-Men's apartment. Kitty let me in after I knocked on the door. As I took off my shoes, I looked around to see that Scott and Joanna were in the living room. Kitty made her way over there and I trailed after her. With Scott and Joanna taking up the couch, I sat on the sofa next to Kitty.

"Okay, first things first," Scott began. "Peter, are you okay? Kitty told me that you were suffering from burns."

"I'm fine," I said. "I'm healed up already."

"Thank God for that," Joanna commented. "I saw the video. I was squirming when I was watching it."

I smirked. "You should really try it. It saved me hundreds on chiropractor bills." From the corner of my eye, I saw Kitty glare at me.

"While I appreciate your dry wit, I think it's time for us to be serious," Scott said. "Kitty, Peter, please tell me what happened last night."

"Well, as you know, Peter and I were on patrol," Kitty began. "Things were going smoothly. So, we took a break on a rooftop, just shooting the breeze. All of a sudden, we saw this fire out in the distance. Peter carried me as we webslinged over. We get there, and there was this woman screaming because her daughter was stuck on the roof. I ordered Peter to take care of it while I check inside of the building for any people that may have been trapped inside. I got to searching. There was fire everywhere, so I was being careful. I think I got to the second floor when I realized the temperature was off. I should have been sweating bullets, but I felt like I was walking inside of a building with working A/C, no warmer than it is in this very apartment right. That's when I realized that it was a set up. The flames suddenly disappeared and the whole inside of the building looked normal – so sign of a fire or anything. So, I made my way towards the roof. By the time I reached it, Peter was already taken down."

"Yeah, about that," I continued. "I heard crying. I thought it was the woman's daughter. I moved towards the sounds. I also started to realize that it was feeling a bit too cool in the air despite being surrounded by flames. I stuck my hand in one of them –"

"You stuck your hands in one of the flames?!" Joanna interjected incredulously.

"I did. I know that's reckless, but I had to follow a hunch."

Joanna closed her eyes and took in a breath. She then glared at me. "…Boy…"

"I know, I know, I know." I continued before Joanna could really harp on me. "Anyway, I stuck my hand in the flame, and nothing happened. Some seconds later, the flames disappeared and there was this woman covered in flames. She attacked me first. That's when she and I went at it. And she handed my butt to me on a silver platter. I couldn't outmuscle her, and I kept getting burned by her. She ended the fight by tackling me out of the air, slamming me onto the ground, and burning a footprint onto my chest." I shook my head. "What makes this even weirder to me is that she said she wanted revenge and that she was going to make me suffer for taking everything away from her. I never faced her before… but I felt like I met her somewhere. I just don't know when or where."

"This is… unfortunate," Scott said as he slowly shook his head. "…There's a good chance she's working with Beck."

I raised my eyebrows. "I'm sorry, what?"

"What makes you think that?" Kitty added.

"Think about it, you two," Scott said. "The flames weren't real, but aside from the temperature, they were indistinguishable from the real thing. Unless magic or a superpower is at play here, it's likely that holograms were being used. And who else do we know that can make holograms that are highly realistic?"

I tried to think of any other possibility, but I had nothing. Adrian Toomes… Vulture… may have been a possibility since he used quite a bit of tech against me, but was still locked up. The fake Scorpion never used holograms against me. Kraven… For some reason, I had a feeling that holograms weren't up his alley. Maybe Calypso would have been able to conjure up an illusion or something like that, but last time I checked, she was in SHIELD custody. Occam's Razor was in full effect here.

"Great, just great," I deadpanned. "But what did I even do to her?"

"People can hold a grudge for the stupidest of reasons," Joanna pointed out. "When I was in The Marines, one of my own company members – a sergeant – messed around and got himself and others court martialed. He got this group together and jumped this one corporal because this one chick the sergeant liked had eyes for said corporal. What the idiot didn't realize was that the corporal was a happily married man and was staying faithful. Man got himself dishonorably discharged over someone who wasn't even competition."

"…Crazy story, but not surprising," Kitty commented.

"We need to be proactive on this," Scott cut in. "Kitty, I want you to go about acquiring any surveillance footage from last night. Peter, I need you to repair The Black Dahlia Suit and see what you can do about improving its fire resistance." I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued talk to before I could say anything. "Peter, I understand that you and MJ are having issues, but given the circumstances, those issues are going to have to take a backseat. So please contact her as soon as possible so you two can actually get that suit repaired."

I swallowed a lump in my throat as I nodded. "Okay," I replied. Scott was right. I knew that. But I was dreading that phone call.

Later on, I went to work. Almost immediately, I was told to go the conference room. Jonah called a meeting. With so many people in the room, I was standing in the back in a corner of the room. I watched as Jonah told us that we needed leads on who this "new hero" is. I was pretty much tuned out for the most of meeting. I already knew this same old song and dance – Jonah was going to get super hyped over the possibility of this "new hero" being the one to take down the X-Men, especially the wall-crawling menace. I snapped back to reality when I received a text from my phone. I pulled my phone out and looked at the screen. Seeing it was a text from Betty, I quickly unlocked it and checked it.

"Meet me at the basement after the meeting."

I quickly locked my phone before I went back to pretending that I was paying attention to the meeting.

After the meeting, I made my way to the elevator. A bit to my surprise, David came along – he got that same text from Betty. After we took the elevator down, we met Betty in the basement.

"I'm sorry for not asking earlier, but are you okay?" Betty asked right off the bat.

"Yeah, seriously," David added. "I don't mean to rub it in, but the way she slammed you down to the ground and placed her foot on your chest…" He shook his head. "I have to say, that was extra disrespectful."

"I'm fine," I said.

"What happened?" Betty said.

I shook my head. "Kitty and I were out on patrol. There was this fire out in the distance. We arrived. This woman was about to run in because her daughter was on the roof. Kitty ordered me to handle that while she checked inside to see if anyone else that was trapped. After I got there and did some navigating, I realized the flames were fake – they were holograms. They disappeared a split second later and then there was this fiery figure. Like, she was covered from head to toes with fire. She said she wanted revenge on me, but I couldn't recognize her, even though I felt like I've met her somewhere before. She attacked her, we went at it, and, as you saw, she got the upper hand. She burned a footprint into my chest while she said she'll make me suffer for what I did to her, whatever that is. She then flew off."

Betty shook her head. "That's not good."

"Would you believe me if I said it gets worse?"

"I know I'm going to regret asking this, but… how?" David groaned out. While he was saying that, he used his left hand to lift up his glasses as he pinched the bridge of his nose with fingers and the thumb of his right hand.

I grimaced. "Well, as I said, the flames were holograms. But they were super realistic. Because of that, Scott believes that there's a good chance she's working with Beck."

Betty scoffed as she shook her head. "Of course," she deadpanned. "So what's the plan?"

"Well, for now, Kitty's rounding up surveillance footage from that night, if there is any." I frowned as I looked away. "…Scott ordered me to call Michelle so we can get the Black Dahlia Suit repaired."

Betty narrowed her eyes. "You should have been calling her a long time ago." I glared at her. "Don't give me that look. You know it's true. When do you plan on calling her?"

"I guess tonight." That was a lie.

"…Hold off until tomorrow night. I'll soften her up for you."

I nodded. "Okay." A part of me was glad that I had an extra day until I had make that phone call. A part of me wished I could just get it over with.

"I know you and MJ have your issues, but right now, Craig and Carmilla are out of commission, so the X-Men need all the help they can get. And more importantly, I don't want you getting hurt… or worse."

"I get that, I really do." I decided to change the subject. "Speaking of Craig, I should probably go check up on him, if he's where I think he is."

"If you go, let me know," David said. "I'll tag along, just in case."

After work, he did just that. We made our way to Harlem. Once we arrived, David asked to stop at a bodega to grab a drink and a snack. We were at one of the fridges. As David held it open, we both looked inside of it.

"Should I go with the regular Coke or the Coke Spiced?" David asked.

"I never had the Spiced before," I replied. "I say give it a shot. Or you can go with the Y3000."

"Yeah, screw that. I had that Y3000 before and, to me, it tastes like someone tried to make the flavor of gummy bears from memory… which isn't surprising, considering the flavor was made partially with A.I."

I glanced at him. "Think it's true?"

David shrugged. "There are people out there who have more respect for the art than they do for the artist and the artistic process, especially when money's involved."

"Um, excuse me," a voice said behind us. "I don't mean to be rude, but can you two hurry up? I have somewhere to be."

I started to turn around. "I'm sorry, we'll be ready in just a…" I paused when I recognized who it was. "Oh, hi Claire!" I smiled at her. "It's been a while."

The woman stared at me for some seconds. She then smiled. "Peter, hey!" she greeted back. "It has been a while. How have you been?"

I shrugged. "I've… I've been." That was all I could really say. I couldn't tell her all of the things I've been going through. It's not that I didn't trust her. Well, that was partially the case. But it wasn't like I didn't find her trustworthy. After all, she helped Craig and Scott considered her an ally. I just didn't know her as well as I knew the others. "What are you up to?" I saw David move to my left side.

Claire shrugged at me. "Oh, you know, just taking it easy before I have to head back to work. You know how that is. You?"

"We –" I was about to say that David and I were going to check up on Craig and I wanted to ask if it was okay to see him at her clinic and he if was doing okay. I figured Craig was at the clinic since Claire was, for all intents and purposes, his primary care physician for all stuff vigilante-related. I didn't get to ask her, though. Before I could even get more than a word out, David cut in.

"– were just grabbing something to drink before we swing Pop's Barbershop," he interrupted. "As a matter of fact, I think we need to head out now before I lose my appointment. I hate to cut this short… no pun intended."

Claire nodded. "Well, hopefully we can sit down and chat some time. Until next time…"

"Likewise." With that, David gently pushed me forward, and the two of us walked out without buying anything. As soon as we exited the store, I looked at him.

"Dude, what was that about?" I asked.

"Just come with me," David said. "I just want to get to a safe place." He looked at me. "Trust me. I'll explain when we get there. It'll also be a good opportunity to explain my powers to you."

I raised an eyebrow. He smiled at me. I tilted my head briefly in acceptance. I was a bit worried about the sudden change in itinerary, especially since I wanted to see how Craig was. But I guess I had time.