Peter Parker

I slowly rose up and eyed the three of them. There was Betty. There was Michelle. The girl with silver skin… I assumed that was the same Mercury that Scott was telling me about. I took in a breath. As much as I wanted to chew them out, there was a more pressing issue at the moment.

"Spider-Man, step aside!" a voice ordered from what I assumed was the helicopter's speaker system. Slowly, I turned around and looked up at the aerial vehicle. I saw the door on its side slide open. I already knew where this was going. "We have it from here! We don't want to have to arrest you!"

I almost chuckled. I really wanted to see them try. With a quickness, I shot bursts of webbing towards the spotlight until the light was hit. I heard the lens and bulb shatter. After that, I shot two strands of webbing towards one of the helicopter's skids. As soon as they hit, I pulled on them before I slingshot myself towards the aircraft. My eyes locked in on an officer with SWAT gear on trying to ready his rifle to get a shot off. It was almost hilarious to me. I crashed into, tackling him onto the floor of the helicopter. I straddled the officer, grabbed his rifle with my left hand, and pinned the side of it to his chest. With my right arm free, I webbed the rifle to his chest, then I webbed him to the floor. I stood up and glared down at the officer. I then jumped off of the helicopter and dove back towards the roof of the building. After flipping and landing on all fours, I looked at all three of them as I stood up before I looked at who I assumed was Mercury.

"I take it you're Mercury," I said.

"I am," she replied with a nod. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet. I just need you to do me a favor. We need to split up." I nodded towards Betty. "Go ahead and take her home. I'll drop off Silk here."

"Wait," Michelle said as she took a step back. "You're not thinking of webslinging me home, are you?"

I looked at her and glared. "No, I'm going to call you an Uber."

"Spider-Man, you know I don't do heights like that!"

"You also don't do infiltration like that, yet here we are." I shook my head. "Look, either we websling or we go out the front door, and I'm 100 percent sure that the NYPD aren't waiting up front to give us a gift basket." She took in a breath. I saw it in her eyes. She wanted to argue. I really did not. Instead, I moved to her right side, put my arm around her abdomen, and pulled her close against me. As Michelle protested, I looked at Betty. "Call me when you get home."

"I will," Betty agreed.

"Also, best believe we're talking about this in the morning."

"…Fair."

I nodded. I then looked at Michelle. "Hang on."

"Drop me and I'll kill you," she warned.

"You promise?"

With that, I ran towards the edge of the roof. Once I reached it, I jumped off. I then shot out a strand of webbing and started swinging away.

I didn't go straight to Michelle's building. I took the long way back to Queens, going through buildings and doing everything I can to duck the police that was pursuing us. All the while, I was doing my very best not to tell Michelle to shut up as she screamed, yelled, and complained along the way. At one point, she accused me going through the train tunnel on purpose just to annoy her. I didn't say anything in response to thar. I wasn't sure that she was wrong.

After a while, I finally found my way to Michelle's building. I landed on the roof and set Michelle down gently. She took a few steps away from. She huffed out a breath.

"…I guess I should say thank you," Michelle grumbled. She looked at me. "So, thank you." I didn't respond. I turned away and brought my arms upward, ready to swing away. "…So, you're still going to give me the silent treatment?" Slowly, I lowered my arms. In the back of my head, there was a voice telling me to swing away. Still, I turned around and stared at Michelle.

"I'm not in the mood to talk," I said simply.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "And why's that?"

"I've had a very long day, and I just want to go home and sleep it off like it was a hangover."

She shook her head. "How long is this going to last, then?"

I grabbed the bottom of my mask and lifted it up until my face was exposed. "By 'this', you mean…"

She pulled down the mask from over her mouth before she pointed back and forth between us with her hands. "I mean this silent treatment."

I was quiet for a few moments. I then scoffed as I tried to wrap my around this. "You mean the one you started?"

"I didn't start a silent treatment. I just wanted space."

At this point, I was just angry and confused. "And I gave you that, so what's the problem?! It's not like you've been ringing me up either."

She glared at me. "So that's the reason?" She brought her hands up in confusion. "That's the reason you've been giving me the cold shoulder? Because I'm not ready to talk to you?"

"No that's not the reason!" I noticed the raise in the volume of my voice. It was at this point I decided that this conversation was going nowhere. "You know what? Fuck this. I'm done with this conversation." I turned away once more. I brought my arms outward, ready to websling away.

"Of course you are! Go ahead, Peter. Run away like you always do! While you're at it, why don't you cast another spell so I can forget who you are again? You'd be doing us both a favor!"

I lowered my arms. I felt my heartbeat quicken. I turned back towards her. I didn't even bother trying to hide my anger. She looked a bit surprised. Maybe she realized that what she said was screwed up. Maybe she didn't think she'd strike a nerve. I almost wanted to stop myself from speaking. Had this been any other night, maybe I would have just left without saying a word. But this wasn't any other night. I was tired, both physically and mentally, from Craig being missing and not knowing where he was or what was being done to him. I didn't even know the last time I ate. Whatever filter I would've had on at this moment was not fitting properly.

"You know what, Michelle?" I started. "You want to know why I don't want to talk to you? Fine, I'll tell you. You broke up with me. And as much as I hated it, I get it. You went through a whole personality merge and the part of you that remembered the old timeline resented me over what I did, and now you got feelings of distrust towards me over it. That's my fault. I own that. But then I saw you with Brad walking out a restaurant and –"

Michelle scowled at me as she interrupted me. "I'm sorry but do I need your permission to hang out with other people?"

"No, you don't. You're your own person." I then chuckled bitterly as I shook my head. "But it's funny to me, you know? See, while what I did was stupid, I did so with the best of intentions because I thought all I did was make things worse for the people close to me. But Brad? Brad literally stalked me and Kitty through the halls of Midtown, snapped a picture of us hugging while we were in the bathroom, and tried to show that picture to you to break you and me up, all for the sake of stealing you away from me. And yet, there you are, having lunch with him. So let me get this straight. You break up with me because you lost trust in me over what I did, but you got enough trust in Brad to have lunch with him?"

Michelle raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you're mad? Or are you just jealous that I can be happy without you being around?"

That did it. I was done. I was done with Michelle. "You know what? You want space? You'll get it. When this is all over, you'll have all of the space you want!"

I didn't wait to see her response. I pulled my mask down over my face, turned around, and webslinged away.

When I got home, I barely took time to get out of my suit and stash it away before I went to bed. As I lay on my back, I looked up at my ceiling in thought.

I had conflicting feelings. On one hand, I didn't feel the least bit bad about what I said to Michelle. It was something on my chest since the day I saw her with Brad. I felt it was unfair. What I did wasn't right, but I did what I did because I thought I was doing the right thing. There was no way in hell that Brad thought what he did at the Valentine's Day was okay, and yet she was eating with him. If that wasn't a double standard, I didn't know what was. On the other hand, for some reason, I felt some type of way about going off on MJ like that. I still cared about her and I really didn't want to burn that bridge. Plus, I didn't even know if I was that upset at MJ. Don't get me wrong, I was definitely mad at her, but I was angry at a whole lot of things.

I gave up trying to sort things out. I just closed my eyes and went to bed.

Early next morning, I was on the phone with Scott. I explained what happened with Craig. I didn't feel the least bit good about breaking that news to him.

"…and that's when I knocked out Chameleon," I said as I paced back and forth in front of my bed. "David and I, with help from Ned, dropped him off to SHIELD. Then we got dropped off back in New York."

"I see," Scott said quietly.

I frowned as I stopped my pacing. "I'm sorry Scott."

"Peter, you and David did the best you could, given the circumstances. While finding Craig is now a top priority, you managed to remove someone who potentially could have been a huge thorn in our side in the very near future, to say the least." He paused for a moment. "It does make me wonder how long he was impersonating Claire for."

My eyes went wide a bit as I was reminded of her. "Is Claire okay?"

"She's alive. At this moment, that's all I can really say with any kind of accuracy. Buford is keeping watch over her as she recovers in the hospital."

"Do I really want to know how bad it is?"

"…No, you don't. But she will be fine, I'm sure. As it is now, I need you to get the Black Dahlia suit repaired and upgraded ASAP."

I took in a breath through my teeth as I grimaced. "Yeah, that's going to be easier said than done," I muttered.

"And why is that?" Scott demanded.

"…Michelle and I… we got into a huge argument after I dropped her off on the roof of her building."

"How bad?"

"…I basically told her that, once this situation is over, she doesn't have to worry about seeing me ever again."

"So it's that bad. Did you mean it?"

I paused for a moment as I thought it over. "…I don't know if I did. When I said it, I was upset and... I don't know."

"I'm sorry you went through that. I'd offer some advice, but I never went through a breakup where things were still heated between me and my significant other. So, I don't think I'm the right person to get advice from. However, if you want to skip school today, I can mark you down as an excused absence."

I almost wanted to tell him that it wouldn't be necessary, but I figured I could use the day off from school. I really wanted to take the whole day off from everything, but I still had bills and rent to pay so I still had to go to work. I decided to take what I can get.

"Yeah, I'll take that offer," I said.

"Alright. I'll mark you down with an excused absence today. If you can manage to do so, try to give Spider-Man a break – easier said than done, I know. It's merely an ask, albeit one I highly urge."

I almost laughed. "I'll try."

When I got ready for work, I thought about just leaving the suit home. However, the memories of yesterday were still fresh in my head. I couldn't help but wonder if things would have went differently if I actually had my gear on me. Maybe I could have taken them down and save Craig without even leaving Harlem. Maybe David and I wouldn't have spent time unknowingly pursuing a decoy car. Then again, we did end up taking down Chameleon. So, I guess that was a silver lining?

…Barely.

With those memories in mind, I decided to put on the red and blue suit underneath my clothes.

"Thank you, Peter 2," I muttered to myself as I checked myself in the mirror, making sure the suit and web shooters were well hidden underneath my clothes. After that, I headed out.

As I made my way to work, I figured I'd just get through my shift at The Daily Bugle then go home. There was also the matter of me chewing out Betty, but that was just going to be part of the day's agenda. Things changed when a vehicle sped by me, being pursued by three cop cars. I sighed. I didn't want to intervene, and I knew that I probably wasn't the NYPD's favorite person after last night. But I had to help. A couple of minutes later, I was climbing out of an alley and onto the roof of the building.

"Let's do this," I said.

I ran towards the edge of the building and jumped off of it. I then started webslinging. I moved as quickly as I could so I could catch up to the speeding vehicle. In a couple of minutes, the vehicle was in view. I already knew what to do. If I did everything right, I'd still be able to make it to The Daily Bugle with some time to spare. It was going to be a piece of cake.

Or, so I thought.

As I was ready to make my angle of attack, I felt the tingling up my spine. This one was rather intense.

"Oh what now?" I muttered to myself as I looked around. Before I knew it, I was suddenly falling. I turned in the air and looked up at the strand of webbing I was swinging from. I could barely make it out against the sky, but I saw the burnt end. I turned shot out two strands of webbing towards a building. Once they hit, I used them slow my decent before I landed on the street below on both of my feet. As people around me ran, I saw a streak of fire appear from around a building and zoom towards me.

"…Of course."

The streak of fire stopped some feet short of me. It was the woman in flames from a couple of nights ago.

"Hello, Spidey," she greeted with a voice full of contempt. "How's your chest?"

"Oh just fine," I replied simply. "You really loosened up the pectoral muscles that night, so thank you."

She tilted her head. "Apparently, you're not taking me seriously."

I took in a breath. "Lady, I don't know who you are, or where you come from. What I do know is that I've been having a very bad couple of days and, right now, one of the biggest reasons behind that is standing right in front of me. This is your one and only chance to walk away."

I didn't expect her to heed the warning. But I certainly didn't expect her to tilt her head back and laugh. For some reason, that annoyed me a lot more than it should have. Have I really gotten so irritable? After a few seconds, she looked back at me and sneered.

"You're cute, Spider. I outclass you in every single way. As a matter of fact, the only reason why you're alive at this point is because I'm allowing you to live. But if you want to die today, then I'll grant that wish for you."

She brought her hand out. A fireball formed in her hands. In response, I moved into a three point stance. I really should have been trying to run away and or at least try to hide and contact the others. A part of me figured it was too late to do any of that. For the most part, though, I didn't want to do any of that.

I was itching for this fight.