Peter started to walk home, a bit dejected over his interaction with Daredevil. He was still wearing his vigilante getup, just without the mask.
Suddenly, he heard someone yelling, "HEY!! Stop that guy!!!" Excitedly, Peter snatched his mask from his backpack and started to put it on.
However, Daredevil's voice began to run through his head, "You should let one of us pros handle things from here on out..."
The boy hesitated, and with those words in mind, did nothing. Seconds later, a man in black ran by with some sort of briefcase before rounding a corner. A moment after that, two men ran by, panting heavily. "Why didn't you stop him!?" One called back.
Feeling irritable, Peter yelled out, "You should let the pros handle it!"
An hour later, Peter made his way back to Queens. But as he went back to his street, a police car sped by. And then another. The boy looked the them in confusion, and his eyes widened as they appeared to stop in front of his home. A small crowd had gathered, and he began to fear the worst as he pushed through. A police woman stopped him from getting further.
"Kid, you've gotta keep back," she said.
"That's my house! What happened??" Peter replied.
"Your house?" Asked the officer, "Are you Peter?"
He nodded hesitantly, "Yeah, Peter Parker, what-"
"Ok, you can come with me," she said gently, before motioning to another officer. "Hey! I've found the nephew!"
Now Peter was getting antsy, "Please just tell me, what's going on here?"
The officer sighed, "About a half hour ago, we got reports of shots fired in your home. Someone saw a guy drive off in a car, but we don't know what he looks like yet. Your aunt and uncle- hey, wait!!"
Peter sprinted frantically into the house, ducking under the police tape. The sight made his eyes widen and his heart sink. Aunt May was on the couch, a shock blanket over her shoulders with another officer by her side, tears streaming down her face. She looked absolutely devastated.
And on the floor, was tape outlining where a body once lay. Within the outline, was a dark stain on the floor. Blood had been spilt, and from the look on May's face, it was obvious who's.
"...Aunt May?" Peter said hesitantly.
Aunt May looked up, and went over to Peter, hugging the boy tightly. "Peter... Something has happened..."
"Alright Mrs. Parker, I know this is difficult," said a detective. "But I need you to recount everything as best as you can remember."
"Y-yes of course," May replied, haltingly. "We were having dinner when we heard a noise. Honestly, we thought it was Peter, he usually comes in through the back door. But when Ben called for him, there was no answer..."
"And you knew something was wrong," the detective finished, May nodding in response. "Were you both in the living room?"
"Yes, w-we would sometimes eat with the tv on," said May. "I called for Peter, but still nothing. Then we heard a pan drop, I must've jumped a foot in the air. After that... he came from the kitchen, with a gun pointed at us..."
"And then what happened?" Asked the detective gently.
"H-He asked where our money was," she replied. "Ben told him we had no money. And the guy just got agitated, screaming 'Give me all your money!' And Ben just..."
May looked down for a moment, and smiled briefly, "I guess it was just the tension of the situation, but he-he kind of just chuckled, and he actually said, 'You probably have more money than we do.'"
Tears started to stream down her face again, "And the chuckle kind of- it really made him mad. And then... Oh God..."
She completely broke down, Peter did his best to support and comfort her. He was barely holding it together himself. For a moment, nobody could say anything.
"Is there anyone who you can stay with tonight?" Asked the detective, sympathetically putting his hand on her shoulder.
May looked up, "My neighbor Anna, maybe. But I can't-"
Just then, a voice cut in. One of the officers waiting outside had his radio out. "They've got the shooter. He's headed south on Fifth," he said. "We've got three cars in pursuit, and we alerted the local hero agencies just in case."
"Ok, let's see if we can corner-" At that moment, Peter rushed out of the house.
"Peter!? Peter!!" May called after the boy.
"It's ok ma'am," said the detective. "Kids take these things the hardest. He's just got to find a way to let it all out."
Jamming on his mask, Peter rushed down the street. He jumps up and climbs a building, leaping across rooftops to gain ground. Eventually, Peter started to hear sirens and he saw a beige car being chased by 3 squad cars. The problem was, even with his enhanced strength and speed, he was having trouble keeping up, and started to get tired.
At one point, he jumps with reckless abandon to grab at a crane hanging over the road, but he missed and starts to fall. In a moment of panic, Peter shot out his arm and a thread of webbing burst from his wrist and attached to a nearby building. The web tightened and the boy found himself swinging without control into a wall.
Yelling in fear, Peter shot out his other arm, and a web managed to catch hold of another building, slowing the speed and changing his direction. Peter released the first web, and swung with the new one. His speed and momentum increased and he did it again. Peter's adrenaline fueled anger helped to mask the pain in his wrists, and gradually, he began to gain ground on the car chase.
Eventually, he came across the police cars blocking off a warehouse. Shots were being fired from the second floor window and one of the officers was yelling below using some kind of voice enhancing quirk. Moving quickly, Peter leapt over and snuck into the warehouse from the roof.
The boy kept to the shadows, looking for the shooter. And there he was, crouched by the window and reloading his gun. He used a quirk to stretch his eyes out the window, monitoring his situation. "Damn pigs are everywhere," he muttered, retracting his eyes and making his way towards the back door. "Gonna get out of here one way or another..."
"That's exactly what I was hoping to hear," Peter called out, leaping down from the rafters. "You murderer!!!" The man naturally freaked out and began shooting. Peter dodged every bullet with his Spider-Sense and the man threw the empty gun at him.
"What the hell's a hero doing here!?" He yelled, trying to get to the exit. "Must be out of-" The man is knocked over, however, by a tire thrown at his back. "Gotta get up... I-I've gotta hide..."
Peter hopped out from the shadows, "Mister, there's nowhere on Earth you can hide from me!!" The man charged at Peter, but the boy swung a punch that knocked him to the floor.
He spat out a few teeth before trying to crawl away, "Ya... Ya can't..."
Peter yanked him off the floor, "Yeah well, you should've thought of that before you... b-before..."
Peter's eyes widened under the mask. The man he was clutching in his arms looked eerily familiar. It was the same person he let go by earlier that evening. The same man he could've easily stopped if he hadn't been so consumed by his own self-doubt and poor attitude. An overwhelming wave of guilt washed over the boy. If I'd just stopped him before... He looked back down at the man, his uncle's killer, now at his mercy.
Outside, the police kept the warehouse blocked off. There was no way the criminal was getting away. Just then, Daredevil leapt into their midst, "What's the situation?"
"Got ourselves a robbery gone bad," said an officer. "Broke into a family's house, killed a man and stole a car. But we've got him trapped now, nowhere to run. The doors are being watched on all sides."
Daredevil nodded as a squad car pulled up, it was one of the men from Peter's house. "Captain Stacy, it's been a while," said the hero, extending a hand.
"Nice to see you, Daredevil," the Captain shook his hand before acknowledging another of his officers. "Is he still in there?"
"So far," said the man in charge. "He fired off a few rounds before, but now he's quiet. Almost too quiet, starting to wonder if he offed himself. How'd it go at the Parker house?"
Captain Stacy sighed, "Victim's wife was in rough shape. And the kid ran off during questioning..."
Daredevil turned quickly to the Captain, "Did you say 'Parker'? And there's a kid?"
Stacy nodded, "Yeah, Peter Parker, victim's nephew. The guy was like a father to him, poor kid..."
The blind hero's eyes widened under his mask, "I'm going in ther-"
But before he could say anything else, the sound of a window breaking interrupted the conversation. A man was thrown through the glass, but he stopped mid-fall as if something was holding him. "Officers, move in!" Called Captain Stacy, and they ran over to investigate, Daredevil with them.
"Hey Cap, get a load of this!" Said one, looking over the man. He was wrapped up in a sticky, thread-like substance, the same stuff that kept him from hitting the ground. Daredevil had sensed this before, and he went to check on the man.
He was still alive, but barely conscious. "S-Somethin' up there..." he slurred through a mouthful of busted teeth.
Daredevil didn't need to look up, he knew exactly who was there. And indeed, hanging off the side of the building, a figure shrouded in darkness watched the proceedings briefly. A moment later, he jumped out of sight.
"Hmm?" Captain Stacy looked up briefly, as if he noticed a flicker of movement. "You see something up there?"
Daredevil sighed, as if contemplating how to answer, "I don't see much of anything, Captain..."
Peter was crouched on top of a building. The adrenaline that had been fueling him had finally broken. Pain was shooting through his wrists from overuse of his webs, and Peter had torn a bit of his shirt off to wrap around the wounds, stopping the bleeding.
A flooding of emotion was taking over, what he'd previously repressed during the hunt for his uncle's killer. Tears streamed down his face, his hands clutched at nothing as he rocked back and forth, nothing felt like it was ever going to be right again. Thoughts were racing in his head over what was and what might've been.
I should've been there... I-I should've stopped that guy before when I had the chance! What the hell's wrong with me!? The one time I needed to be a hero, and I did nothing!!! Peter let out a howl of anguish, it echoed through the dark, empty night.
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Barber's Chair
• So this chapter was heavily inspired by the Ultimate comic origins, with a mix of Rami movie added in.
• Little cameo from Spider-Man supporting character, Captain George Stacy. Does this mean we'll be seeing Gwen anytime soon?
