A/N: Alright, so this is for anyone who skipped the last chapter because I really dug into some serious darkness. Summary: Sirius and Gwen enter the subway, meet Olivia, who reveals the call George Stacy was called for crosses over with the hunt for Peter. Good news: Pete's not the one the M.E.'s office is here for... it's Ben Parker. Enraged but cooled by Gwen, Sirius goes looking for the killer, only to run into crooked cop Mac Gargan who kills Ben's killer for what is as of right now unknown reasons. Sirius is able to find a clue and calls it a night, but not before Peter finally reaches out. Sirius goes to comfort him for his loss.

Got all that? Okay, great! Because... this chapter's also gonna be heavy. Yeah, next chapter's gonna be way lighter.

Issue Ten: Relative Surprise

It was sunny, Sirius noted. It felt wrong. After his father… at his funeral, it rained. It seemed fitting; a man, too good for this world, suddenly leaving. A man, whose only crime was he loved helping too much, gone – leaving empty hearts behind him. But, no. It was sunny. Why? Who knows. Maybe the universe didn't know how much Ben Parker meant to so many people.

The service was fairly small. May couldn't afford much, but she honestly wanted an intimate service, with close friends and family only. That was how once more Sirius found himself standing in a graveyard next to his mother. Gwen and George were there as well, the older Stacy dressed in full police regalia. He admitted later it was technically against New York State protocol, but Ben… Ben deserved that respect.

Unfortunately, Harry didn't attend; his father, as they learned later, didn't see a need to stop an entire day of work to mourn someone he had no connection to. Harry had mentioned he knew Ben Parker, but that wasn't enough for Norman Osborn. (After hearing this, Gwen had quite a few words to say about the man, and Sirius drew a very rude sketch of him being eaten by zombies. It made them feel vindicated.)

There were two surprise appearances. One of those was some of Ben's old buddies in the army; they had seen the obituary in the paper and had somehow been able to discern it was the same Ben Parker. The second was Mary-Jane Watson and her aunt; apparently, the two older ladies were in a book club, and Ms. Watson wanted to show support.

Having not really interacted with her outside of school, Sirius, Peter, and Gwen didn't know how to respond to Mary-Jane's presence. The redhead did offer her sympathies to Peter, but the bespectacled teen was not very responsive to much after last week's events. He'd missed a lot of school, though Sirius suspected he could finish the week of makeup work within 24 hours.

With Peter's absence, the group never talked about the night at the Baxter; it didn't really feel like the right moment. Harry either forgot or didn't know he had told Pete and Sirius, and the other two weren't in the best shape for it. Gwen had been drumming her fingers more often, seemingly lost in her thoughts, while Sirius had been drawing quietly in his notebook, seemingly blocking out the world.

As he finished a portrait of Ben Parker, smiling wryly at a joke said sometime in the far past, Sirius frowned as he looked up at the sky. "Clear day. It's still too sunny."

During the month after that night, Sirius didn't just sit on his laurels. To better work on his strength (and to distract from the nightmares of eating his friends, or his own mom shot dead in front of him), Sirius tried to test his limits. Unfortunately, he was having trouble figuring out what to do; while lifting trains like Mr. Incredible would be cool, there weren't a lot of empty train yards in New York, and he doubted people would be okay with him trying to dead-lift freight.

His second idea had been to call Gwen… but she was busy trying to keep her dad afloat. As Sirius understood, George and Uncle Ben were old friends; the Parkers supported him after Gwen's mom had died, and Ben was like George's brother. It didn't feel right to impede on their time, so Sirius left it be.

Calling Peter was already out and with Harry grounded from the Baxter party, so there was no way they could be of any assistance as well. Sirius had considered trying to use Peter's hideaway to train, with his old junk as big metal punching bags, but after further thought, it was dismissed. Peter's inventions didn't look much different from modern art at the Guggenheim, so he had no idea which would be junk to scrap or inventions to preserve.

Then, like a spark of inspiration, it hit him during breakfast: eggs! They were fragile, cheap, and easily cleaned up!

…it had taken him two weeks to think of that. Damn, he needed his friends.

One quick jog to the bodega, and Sirius went home with two dozen eggs! Taking the first half dozen up to the roof, the rest sitting in the fridge until he needed them, Sirius picked up the first egg."Ladies and gentlemen!" the teen narrated to himself. "Today, this brave young man will juggle six eggs for your amusement! However! There is a catch! He must do so without redecorating the roof like the Midtown High restroom."

"Alright, Egg-bert," Sirius smiled at the egg he had taken time to draw a face on. I even sported a pair of sketched-on goggles like his costume. "Today, you and over 20 of your friends will be the first eggs to be used in my Hero Training. You may be scrambled, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few… well, you."

By the time night fell, Sirius had made decent headway. Sadly, Egg-bert had not made it, but Egg-gar, Eggward, Eggy Sue, and Eggly had. They had a few cracks, but success didn't happen overnight. As Sirius smiled and nodded at his success, his phone buzzed. "It's Mom… Pizza or Chinese? Do I want Five Pepper Pizza or the Super Schezwan Chicken? Or, which level of internal distress do I want to stomach tonight?" As Sirius went downstairs to their apartment, he found an interesting man waiting outside. He seemed to be thinking quietly as he stood motionless at the door. "Um," Sirius began-

"Apologies, young man." Without turning, the man spoke to Sirius like he knew he'd been there the entire time. He spoke with a foreign twang in his delivery, although Sirius could think what it was. "I suppose this does seem irregular, standing here with no movement. I was… contemplating how to approach this."

"Uh," Starting smart once again, Sirius blinked at the address. It was formal and polite like the stranger was some sort of businessman. "We don't… do solicitors in this building."

"I am no solicitor," the gentleman turned around to look at Sirius and-

Sirius frowned as his Super Sense kicked in. It tingled not like there was danger, but almost like it was picking something up. Both he and the man stood there, eyes locked; Sirius noted that they both shifted fluidly, mirroring each other's stances – one shoulder tucked back, arm ready to lash out, and knees softly bent to move in any direction quickly.

"…Interesting," the unnamed stranger's expression broke for a moment before he smirked… in a very familiar way that set Sirius' mind on fire. "You… look just like your father."

"My father-" Sirius' comment was ended abruptly when the door opened. Olivia stood in the doorway, her face falling as she looked between the man and Sirius.

Clearing his throat, the man assumed his previous stance of professionalism. "Olivia-"

"No," Sirius' mom gave the man a hard look that he could only recall if someone really made her mad. "You, leave." She turned to Sirius. "You, get inside."

"Mom, what's wrong?" Sirius' brow creased at her reaction. "Is everything alright-"

" Sirius, I said get in here now!" Olivia snapped, surprising her son. Sirius had gotten her cross before, but never to get her yelling at him.

For his part, the stranger just chuckled at the aggression. It was like a pet owner amused by his hissing cat. "Olivia, I know things have been… distant, but can't we put the past behind us?"

"For you?" Olivia sneered. " Never. After all this time- when he needed you-!"

"I was out of the country. My business is impossible to-"

"You missed Major's-!"

"Uh, hey!" Sirius cut into the conversation, confusion evident on his face. "Hi, no clue what's going on here, but… unless you want the entire apartment to wonder what's happening too…?"

Following Sirius' gesture, Olivia and the stranger looked over to see a few people looking out from their doors at the scene. Olivia smiled in an uncomfortably forced way at all their nosy neighbors. "Sorry, everyone. Just… just a misunderstanding. We'll be quieter."

As people began filing back into their apartments, the man picked up a bag at his feet. "I understand I'm not welcome, but in the spirit of peace, I brought you dinner. "Super Schezwan. You still eat spicy foods, right?"

Olivia's jaw clenched as she looked back and forth between the man and the bag. "…I like the taste." Sighing, she looked over at Sirius. "Sirius, meet-"

"Allow me." Smiling politely, the man extended his hand to the teen. "Ezekiel Sims. Pleasure to meet you, Sirius."

And that was how Sirius found himself sitting in the now-too-small flat, between his mother, glaring quietly over her delivered meal, and Ezekiel, casually eating a much milder Orange Chicken with udon noodles. As it turned out, the older gentleman had seemingly bought the entire restaurant's menu, as there were boxes of Egg Foo Young, fried rice, and more.

Despite his hunger, Sirius had not eaten anything on the table; he was stuck looking back and forth between the two adults and their different emotional scales, mind still stuck on why his Super Sense rang like a dull bell in his head around this Ezekiel Sims. "You should eat, boy," Sims said, not looking at Sirius, but apparently feeling the eyes boring into him. "A young man such as yourself needs nourishment. Can't stay strong without it."

"Sorry," Sirius said flatly, like a kid who isn't really and is being polite for their parent's sake. "It's just… who are you? And how do you know Mom?"

Ezekiel swallowed, before regarding Sirius. "I suppose Liv doesn't talk about me much-"

"Olivia to you," the pale woman cut in icily. "And don't bother. He'll be leaving, and I assume back to traveling to God-knows-where. Eat some Schezwan, Sirius."

At that, Ezekiel snorted. "If he's anything like Maj, he can't take anything over two-alarm. Try the Foo Young. Gravy's got a savory kick."

"I know my son, and he loves spice!" Olivia snapped. "Eat the damn chicken, so he can leave, Sirius."

"Uhh…" Sirius looked back and forth between the two adults in the room, who seemed dead set on making him choose sides for something he still knew nothing about. "Well, I am hungry. But, he did bring, like, everything from the Jade Palace. Don't have a chance to eat their whole menu often…" As he rambled on, he took some of every dish on the table, paying special attention to the fried rice.

Olivia's expression was unreadable at the reaction, but Ezekiel nodded with approval, smirking in that damn similar way that bugged Sirius' brain. "Earlier, you had some questions."

"Hm?" Sirius blinked at the man, cheeks stuffed with lo-mein.

"Well, for starters," the quiet yet tall man put down his chopsticks, before lacing his fingers and nesting his chin on them. "Major Lillywhite was my brother-"

That got Sirius to choke on his eggroll. After sipping some water, he coughed out a "S-sorry, what!"

"Major and I are brothers," Ezekiel repeated calmly, like recalling the weather. "Admittedly, we haven't spoken in some time-"

"And you missed his funeral," Olivia stabbed a piece of chicken, ripping it to pieces with her teeth. "And never called, wrote, or emailed from wherever the fuck you were."

Sirius' head whipped around to his mother; the woman hardly cursed around him, and the list of weird inconsistencies to her usual demeanor was starting to grow. "I admit," Ezekiel's face softened somewhat. "I wish I could have been there. My job… it takes me to rather remote places. When I learned about what happened, I… it was a bit late to send condolences. When I heard what had happened to Ben Parker-"

"How could you possibly hear that!?"

While Olivia's raised voice startled her son, Ezekiel sat cool and steady. "I've had some friends keeping an eye on you since you moved to New York. In case you needed help-"

"What?" Olivia's glare somehow got worse, and this time Sirius swore her eyes did turn red. "You've been spying on us!?"

"Just asking some friends to keep an eye out. You might not care to remember, Liv-"

"You are being too personal for someone who knows so little about me!"

"-But we are connected. We need to protect each other." Ezekiel looked over at a flummoxed Sirius with that familiar smirk. "We need to protect our family-"

" You have nothing here!" Olivia snarled, standing up to loom over the calmer man. "Get out! And if you come back, I will throw you off the roof!" Olivia was shorter than the other males in the room, but with the level of righteous fury pooling off her in waves, it felt less like a threat and more of a promise.

Despite being threatened, Ezekiel didn't react with anything except a defeated sigh. "I suppose this isn't going to be handled today. Fair enough." With that, he got up and began to walk to the door. "I'll let myself out. Keep the food, I won't have room where I'm staying for all of it."

After he exited, Olivia stood there and glared at the closed door, before pushing away from the table and storming into her room. Sirius just sat there in their wake, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

After putting away the mountain of take-out, Sirius went to his mother's closed door and knocked. "Hey, Mom? Everything okay? I… I don't know what that was all about, but… I just want to make sure-"

"I'm-I'm fine, honey," her voice sounded out from behind the door. "I just… I'm gonna get a nap in, okay?"

"Um, sure. Okay. Let me know… if you need anything." Sirius frowned at the door barring his way. Considering how open she was about everything, including her work and a lot of grizzly details he may be desensitized to, he had never been stonewalled by her so thoroughly. Thinking back to his own secrets, it wasn't like he was telling her everything either. 'I guess… I'll leave this be for now. It's probably not a big deal. I have an uncle… a possibly rich, distant uncle. The only family that cared to even call, let alone show up… with food. Yeah… nothing worth talking over…'

With that slightly bitter thought, Sirius puttered around the apartment, getting ready for bed. By the time he was brushing his teeth, Olivia still hadn't opened her door. First thing in the morning, Sirius woke up to her already gone for work. The only greeting he got that morning was fried rice as his bagged lunch, and the shortest note Olivia ever penned: 'Have a good one!'