'Peter Parker'

"Of course... Its no wonder something about Cindy felt so familiar." Peter said as he swung back in the direction of Mary-Jane's home, then paused to perch on the ledge of a building, "But, wait. That still doesn't make sense how -"

His eyes widened -

A projectile flying towards him at high speed,

He leapt and the brick of the ledge he was perched on puffed dust and pebbles as a blue dart of some kind embedded itself there. His senses went off again -

Another,

Another,

And another,

And five more -

Not enough time to use his webs to get out of the way.

He twisted and turned his body to dodge the other blue darts that rushed past his body and landed in the middle of the street. The darts that missed lodged themselves in different places, loud enough to make the nearby civilians wise to the commotion and run from the scene.

Peter scanned the surroundings, not being able to find the perpetrators that shot the darts.

"C'mon, guys." He called out, "At least 'wow' me, for once." There was a popping sound from above, he looked up and saw the initial dart had opened and was making an electrical whirring sound that grew louder as a segment inside spun.

"Uh oh."

The seven others popped open, and as soon as the seventh opened electricity shot out of the first. As he dodged the first, the second, third, and fourth arcs of electricity that quickly followed subsequently. In dodging the seventh, the first dart shot another, darting from one dart to another in a sequence before striking Peter and throwing him into a car.

"Okay," He said, his voice hoarse, "Wow."

Flashing lights made his eyes squint -

Error!

Malfunction!

Were the words that were popping off on his HUD.

As he tried to stand, a wave of vertigo washed over him.

"What the..." Peter said as he caught himself on the car.

The heavy footsteps made him look up at the eighteen people in dark suits walking towards him. They were form-fitting with padding on their knees, elbows, hands, and segmented on their torso. Even though they were skin-tight, the material of their suits spoke that they were durable for heavy duty use.

"Some capes and cowls will make you guys look good..." Peter managed to say.

Some of them rolled their arms,

Some of them pounded their fists into their palms,

Some merely stepped forward and approached -

Their intent clear in their confident swagger.

Peter pushed himself up to stand, telling himself, "...You've handled worse."

He thought about how during the Devil's Breath outbreak he was nearly on death's door. How he had nearly died during Kraven's campaign and, through Harry, nearly lost himself. He thought about all of the other things that had happened in his life -

Even the death of Gwen Stacy,

And Aunt May.

He looked at the people in suits again,

Thought about what Mary-Jane had said before he had left,

And put two and two together.

"Huh," Peter said, "Sorry, fellas. Gotta be more than just a suit to beat me..."

There was chuckling amongst the suited people,

Before their speed forced Peter to get his swimming head in the game.

"Misses Morales, while your son is a great student, I would even say a gifted individual, his tardiness and his frequency to just disappear is a result of these subpar grades." The Principal said.

Miles glanced over at his mother, who was putting on a small smile but her hands were in her lap. Her left covering the fist of her right, and he could see how her thumb was tensing.

This was to be expected,

He was Spider man, after all.

But Spider man had no responsibilities outside of what he does,

Miles Morales, however, doesn't have such a luxury.

Even though his mother said that he didn't need to, he helped with her paper work when she had large swaths of it, even going into her office to help with things in the building. Every now and then he still volunteers at FEAST sometimes. Atop of that, he had school work as well, and at most he could only get them half or partially done, which was a growing frustration especially if it was a subject he enjoyed. The worst of it appeared whenever he had to get a project done - most of the time he could get it done at the last minute, but sometimes he had to deal with it, as aforementioned, half done or simply say he didn't have the time.

"For his sake, I certainly hope that he's not doing anything behind your back or others, Misses Morales. Your son is too bright for such a thing."

"Of course," Rio said, "Its just that he can't help but be responsible - "

"Well he has to choose his responsibilities. Sometimes he even falls asleep in class."

Rio looked over and frowned at Miles,

Who glanced around confused, even shrunk a little under his mother's glare - she knew what he had to do, why was she so upset about this?

He blinked,

Rio's face softened,

And the Principal dipped her head and sharpened her gaze when his phone buzzed.

He looked,

It was a message -

Ganke:

Really hope this isn't a bad time!

There was a link, tapping it opened a live feed of Peter fighting a large group of people in dark suits, moving just as fast as him and striking just as hard as he and Peter could. There was something wrong with Peter as well, he was moving slower and his movements sluggish, and on more than one occasion he put a hand to his head, even shaking it.

Miles gave a knowing look to Rio.

"Again?" Rio said, and Miles picked up the cue.

"Yeah. I'm the one who set it up. They need me."

"This another responsibility, Mr. Morales?"

"Its a new system he put on my office's computers with his friend. It works great, but, sometimes it hiccups every now and then. Most of the time, his friend can stop by and make sure everything is working, but, if he's not available Miles has to do it."

"Mm-hmm. And this friend is...?"

"Ganke."

"Ganke."

The Principal looked at her computer, clicking the mouse, humming in thought.

Meanwhile -

"This important?" Rio whispered.

Miles merely showed the live feed still on the screen on his phone.

Rio winced and clicked her tongue.

"...Very well." The Principal said, bringing Rio and Miles's attention back to her, "If it can't be helped. Go. But you have to come back, Mister Morales. We aren't done talking about your problems. How long will this take?"

"Uh... If everything goes well, if I go as fast as I can, uh... forty five-ish minutes?"

The Principal shoo'ed with her hand and Miles jumped up from his chair, giving an apology to his mom before leaving the room.

"We all think we can do everything when we're young, don't you think so, Misses Morales?"

"Uh... well," Rio shifted in her chair, nervously chuckling, "I don't... want to talk about the stories of my youth..."

"Of course. But you and I know that at that age we thought we could handle everything thrown at us so long as it proved our individuality and independence. Bridges, roads, the wires that hold up towers - they need maintenance every now and then. Nets break, you fix it or get a new one - that boy is holding too many responsibilities for his own good."

"He is a very capable young man, and I'm proud of him for it. Especially ever since his father died -"

"And since his his uncle got on the news, I presume?"

"Yes. He's been handling all of this very well."

"Is he?"

"He's talks to me about his troubles, what's on his mind."

"Not everything, I bet. Something about your son, Misses Morales, just tells me he's... well, he's going to crack soon."

Rio blinked, "What, makes you say that?"

"I've been in this position for six years now. I've seen the best students explode, the worst become better or worse, and the middling go either way. Even my own family - I had a brother who had high marks, degrees, and such. Compared to me, he was the golden child in my family. Then, boom. He suddenly exploded, took his own life and his wife's."

Rio opened her mouth to say her condolences, but -

"Don't. I don't need it. Accepted it and moved on a long time ago. Its just something I have with me, now. That being said - your son is juggling a lot on his plate."

"I, will, be there for him." Rio said with a hardened gaze, "I know just as well that his friends will, too."

"I certainly hope so. Because you weren't the only parent that said that same thing."

Miles swung through the city, going towards the last pin-pointed location of Peter.

"Ganke. Talk to me. What's going on?"

"Based on what I could get, these guys in these suits just started attacking Mr. Parker out of no-where. Someone had even said that they saw some sort of lightning hit him before that post suddenly disappeared."

"Disappeared? But, wait, Pete's been hit by a lot of things. Even Electro's lightning, what makes this so different?"

"Whatever that lightning was its making him slower. I haven't gotten any calls from him either so its possible his tech got jammed."

"Think its Fisk or even Hammerhead?"

"Fisk hasn't done anything since you stopped his operation. Hammerhead has gone silent, too. Maybe it was the symbiote invasion that's made them back off. Be careful, Miles. If whatever they got is affecting Mr. Parker like this, they'll know how to get you, too."

"Right. I'll be in touch, Ganke. Oh, by the way, my mom and I sorta name dropped you when I had to give an excuse to leave during my meeting with the principal."

"Oh, god... Its fine. Do your thing."

What was she doing?

She had gone all this way to help Peter,

Yet she was hiding in an alley, ducking behind a dumpster and trying to stay out of sight.

She could do it,

She could go out right now and save him from these people in black suits,

But she was still in her regular clothes, and she had just dropped Peter's own name mere moments ago. Not to mention that he and Miles were both trying to look for her mother and her, as the Imposter that they chased around the city that one time.

Besides, Miles would come here soon, right?

He was going to be the one to save Peter, she didn't need to do anything.

Yet she could feel what Peter was experiencing right now -

Nausea from the vertigo he was experiencing,

The slowness caused by the vertigo made his spider sense the only thing that was keeping him on his feet. But even then, his condition was only getting worse because he wasn't getting a moment to recover or even catch his breath. All of the people in black suits were as swift and are striking just as hard as either Peter or Miles could, she could hear it in the swish of their swings and see the blur of their movements.

Peter was holding up against them, but he wasn't going to last long without help. Cindy looked up at the sky with a concerned frown -

"C'mon, Miles... Where are you...?" She whispered, anxiously shifting.

She felt weight lift off her shoulders the moment she saw a black figure swooping in the from sky. Miles touched down, webbing, throwing fists, and even using his bio-electricity to propel him forwards to throw one of them away.

"You alright, Spider man?" Miles said.

"...Careful. These guys did something... I need a moment, Coach..." Peter said, falling to one knee, he even pulled up his mask to breathe.

"I got this." Miles fronted the group of black suits.

He rushed forward, his fist arching with electricity,

He lunged,

He swung -

THUD!

The black suit he hit slid back a few feet,

A char mark was left where his fist impacted their chest.

Miles's eyes widened,

Peter glanced up,

Cindy's heart sank.

The black suit dusted off their chest, "Not this time, Spider man."

"O-kay..." Miles assessed the group of black suits with more apprehension.

"Oh, boy..." Peter pushed himself up from kneeling.

"Oh no..." Cindy whispered.

The street devolved into chaos.

Peter was gradually recovering but he was still somewhat slow, but nonetheless he fought on. That moment's rest proving a world of difference by how much was able to fight back at least four of the black suits at once. Even using his gadgets to web multiple at once.

Miles was having more trouble. With his bio-electricity made moot by their suits, the black suits ganged up on him. One after another or at once. It was only by his spider sense that he was not yet caught, being forced to bounce off one another to attack or dodge. He still used his bio-electricity to get a moment's worth of breathing room. But with the suits they were wearing, their opponents were evenly matched with both Spidermen.

The only thing against them was endurance. For even though they could easily break out of their webs with the suits and catch up with them, they were still normal people, their durability limited by the protection of the suits themselves.

She could do it.

She could help.

She took a step forward,

Then a step back.

Forward,

Back.

Her chest heaved at the memory of that night in the shipyard -

She shook her head, closing her eyes, backing away, "No no no no no..."

She gasped when she backed into a metallic trash bin, knocking it over.

Its contents fell out -

A green jacket with a hood,

Black and white sneakers with red string,

And a Spider man costume complete with a mask.

It were as though someone had abandoned them here, maybe even the jacket and shoes were old things put away by the same person.

She stared at the mask for a long moment before tentatively going to it and picking it up. It was worn, slightly dirty, and it rank with sweat, telling her that whoever wore it last probably ran a marathon in this thing.

Her eyes shifted in her gaze,

She ran her thumb over the eye of the mask.

She glanced back hearing Peter cry out in pain when he was thrown into another car.

She looked into the mask again,

Then closed her eyes.

She flexed her hand.

"...Just a little bit. Just... let go, for a little while."

She took a deep breath, already feeling something crawling up her spine.

She snatched the costume and articles of clothing with her webs.