Chapter 2: Life is Confusing
Pain.
That was all Peter could feel. He couldn't see anything but darkness ahead of him. He couldn't move his body or turn his head.
"Did I...die?"
Peter wasn't sure why he'd bothered asking. It didn't look like there was anybody around to answer him. For nearly an hour he sat in the darkness. To be more accurate, it felt like he was floating, as though the darkness was water carrying his body to places unknown. It wasn't pitch darkness however though. There were little specks of white all around him, as though he were staring up at the night sky and watching the stars.
"I think I am. I'm dead." Peter's voice grew unsteady. He didn't want to be dead after all. He was only 15. His whole life was ahead of him.
"...I won though. I sent Grimace back to his world, I kept Mr. Stark and everybody else safe. I did my job. A-and I had to die s-someday, right?"
On the outside, aside from his light stuttering, Peter sounded fine. On the inside he was breaking down.
"I can't be dead. What about Aunt May? What will she do when she finds out I'm gone? I can't do that to her. We already lost Uncle Ben. But...I can't go back."
"I'm sorry May. I really am sorry."
Suddenly, the floating sensation left Peter. Instead, it felt as though he was falling.
"What the hell?! What's going on?!"
Peter retracted the helmet of the Iron Spider and felt wind rushing past his face, but he could still only see darkness and specks of white. However, that darkness gradually brightened to a light blue, then white, then blue again.
Then Peter realized it.
"Did I just fall through a cloud?"
There was another blanket of white far below him, but when he fell through that one as well, he saw it. Lights. Structures. Land. There was a city below him.
Several hundred miles below him.
"OH SHIT!"
Peter started flailing in the air, trying to right himself, though he only made himself spin further out of control.
"Oh go, oh god." Peter activated the Iron Spider helmet and began scanning through subroutines.
"Come on, where are you?" He was scanning for one particular function as he fell closer and closer to the ground.
"YES! Activate this! Hurry!"
Peter focused on one function and a large, spider-shaped parachute shot out of his suit. He was a bit too late though. His parachute was deployed too late to completely stop his momentum, and he continued falling until he hit the street.
While the parachute had definitely helped to keep him alive, it didn't make the impact feel any less painful. There was a sizable crater in the street where he landed, with Peter at the center of it. Somehow, the Iron Spider was intact, with barely a few cracks, and even those were quickly repaired by the nanobots.
Peter groaned loudly in pain, laying on his back for a minute or two. Finally he recovered, picking himself up and crawling out of the crater. All around him were people, staring at him in shock and confusion. Some of them looked strange though. One person had blue skin, another had a large lizard tail, and it only got weirder from there.
Still, Peter had met the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Drax and Mantis looked pretty weird themselves. Deciding not to be bothered by their strange appearances, Peter retracted his mask, to the shock of the crowd, and spoke.
"H-hey everybody. Sorry about your street, but in my defense, I tried to stop. Um, I didn't hurt anybody did I?"
The crowd continued to look on in shock and wariness, though they seemed to relax a little when Peter showed he wasn't an apparent threat. One man, who was bald with strange star-shaped protrusions on his head, even came forward and helped Peter off the ground.
"Thank you. So, uh...where am I? What planet is this?"
"And how did I even get here?" Peter questioned in his head.
He couldn't understand what the man said however. He was speaking some strange language that Peter didn't understand.
"Wait, could you hold on a moment please?" Peter asked the man as he activated his helmet.
"Activate translation function."
The suit's lenses glowed for a second, then returned to normal. Peter gestured for the man to continue, and this time, he could understand him. Sort of. The translation displayed the language being spoken in the top right corner of the HUD and translated the words being spoken as lines of text for Peter to read.
When he and the others had been waiting for Thanos on Titan, Peter had decided to comb through the suit's functions and this was one of the programs he found.
"Good thing Mr. Stark put this in."
Another function of the translator made anything Peter said in whatever language he said it in translate to the language of the suit's choosing based on a scan of the surrounding area, specifically it's signs and books. He asked his questions again, with them repeating in...Japanese, according to the suit.
The bald man seemed a bit confused, but he responded politely regardless. Peter read the text on his HUD and his eyes widened in disbelief.
"What are you talking about, kid? You're in Japan. Also, what planet is this? It's Earth of course. Where else would you be?"
This was Earth? How could that be? Everybody was so calm, and they looked so strange. Even if this was Japan, the opposite side of the world, there was no way nobody had picked up what was happening at the Avengers compound and broadcast it around the world.
"But, but what about the battle? The one in America, with Thanos? Wait, the stones! DId it work?! DId everybody come back, or did the plan fail? Please, answer me!"
If the man looked confused before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now
"Battle? Thanos? Look kid, I don't know what you're talking about. I should really take you to a hospital. You just fell out of the sky and you're going on about different planets and battles in America. You obviously aren't well."
"But, none of this makes sense. This is Earth, but nothing adds up. Has anybody come back? Does nobody know about Thanos, or the battle in Wakanda? If I'm on Earth, why does everybody look so strange? Are you guys even human"
Now the man looked insulted, as though Peter had told him to fuck off or something.
"Well aren't you pleasant. Sorry not everybody could look completely human. You know what, find your own way to the hospital. I'm sure you can look after yourself." The man walked away, a cross look on his face. Peter looked around him and saw the rest of the crowd giving him similar looks.
"What? What did I say? I just want to know what place on Earth has people that look like you?"
Everybody was set off by that. The people who had looked concerned only minutes earlier now looked at Peter as though he were trash. Some held up their middle fingers and threw insults his way, but before long they had all left.
Peter was alone on the empty street. Everybody had left him and he still had no idea where he was or what he was supposed to do from here.
"What am I supposed to do now?" He asked himself as he sank back to the ground, defeated.
From afar, a small group of people were looking down at Peter.
"Is that what came out of the sky?"
"It's a person! How are they alive after a fall like that?"
"Those are questions for later. For now, we need to have a talk with him. Thankfully, the civilians seem to have left on their own, so he likely isn't hostile. Shinji, Yu, let's go. We need to have a chat with our new friend."
Chapter 3: Sometimes You'll Be Challenged
"On the bright side, I guess I'm still alive. On the flip side, I have no idea where I am, nobody knows about Thanos or what he did, and I'm pretty sure those people want to kill me."
Peter was still lying on the street, his mask on. He was totally unsure of what he had to do. He knew Karen was still functioning. If she wasn't, the Iron Spider wouldn't be functional. For some reason though, he couldn't hear her. That was yet another problem that needed fixing.
"Let's just go through this again. Karen is working, but I can't talk to her. Or maybe it's the other way around. I'm still on Earth, but the people here are...strange, and Thanos is unknown to these people. I have no money, no home, and the only helpful thing right now is that I know I'm in Japan...home to a language I don't speak. Well...I'm screwed, aren't I?"
While he was staring at the sky, Peter heard footsteps behind him and turned to face the direction they were coming from. There stood 3 people, two men and a woman.
One man had grey hair and a perfectly squared jawline. He wore a thin blue shirt that was open at the top, along with yellow and black bands around his wrists.
The other man seemed to be made of wood.
"Hold up, what? Tails, fine. Blue skin, fine. But this dude is made of wood. How is that even possible?" Peter questioned what he was seeing before he faced the last person in the group.
It was a blonde woman, wearing a beige and purple bodysuit, along with a purple domino mask with horns attached.
The 3 stopped about 30 feet away when Peter stood and faced them. Nobody in their group said anything. The blonde woman looked restless, like she had a thousand questions. Honestly, that was fair given the situation. But every time she opened her mouth to say something, she closed it again and went back to her thoughts.
"Oookay, guess it's on me to start the conversation."
Peter cleared his throat and spoke to the 3.
"Um, hey guys. What's with the weird costumes? If you're looking for a performance stage, I think you're a long way from Bremmertown." [1]
The trio looked confused, but Peter was smiling under his mask. He was still in a hopeless situation, but it made him feel better to be making quips again.
"Excuse me? Do you not know who we are?" The wood guy asked incredulously.
"...Should I? I've never seen you before in my life? Don't you guys know who I am? I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. You know, the hero?"
"Our what? No, anyway, we haven't heard of you. And you shouldn't be the one asking the questions. Take off your mask so we can see you better." The grey-haired man spoke, sounding annoyed.
"Well, see, there's a few reasons I can't do that. For one thing, my identity."
"Don't worry," the blonde lady spoke up. "There's nobody around and you can trust us. We're heroes."
"You are?" Peter asked a little too quickly. The "heroes" looked offended, so he rushed to correct himself.
"I-I mean, I'm not saying you can't be heroes, it's just that I know a few heroes myself, and we have a lot of connections in a lot of places, but I've never heard of you guys."
The grey-haired man sighed as though he'd already had enough of this conversation. "Listen, just drop the mask, alright? We won't tell anybody who you are, so please just comply and make our lives easier."
Peter thought for a moment. He didn't know if these guys were really heroes, but they didn't seem to be lying. And his spider-sense wasn't alerting him to anybody else in the area, so he complied.
"Alright, fine," he said and his mask shifted, revealing his face. The heroes looked on with faces of surprise, and...anger?
"Damn it, not another one."
"Why do we always have to deal with people like this?"
"How does he even have a suit like that?"
Muscles, blondy, and tree guy spoke one after another, all looking equally frustrated.
"Wait, what's wrong? Did I say something I shouldn't have?" Peter asked as he brought his mask up to translate their words.
"How old are you kid?" the tree man asked.
"15, why?"
"Son of a - "
"Hey, no swearing around children Death Arms, you know better."
"I don't understand. What's wrong with my age?"
"You said you were a hero, but you're only 15. Do you even have a license?" Blondy asked tiredly.
"Um, I don't have a driver's license yet, but I don't really need one since I can just swing around. I don't think I'll ever get one honestly."
"I'm not talking about a driver's license kid, I mean your hero license!" Blondy angrily yelled at him.
"My...what? I need a license for that? Mr. Stark never mentioned this."
"Forget it Mt. Lady. He's clearly a vigilante. We'll bring him in for questioning, so just give it a rest for now."
The trio then continued walking towards Peter, and the tree man spoke up again.
"Look kid, we have a lot of important work to do, so I'd appreciate it if you just made this easy for us and come quietly."
"WHAT!? But I didn't even do anything!"
They said nothing, only continued walking forwards.
"They're not going to listen, are they? I really don't want to do this to fellow heroes, but they aren't giving me much choice."
The nanotech on Peter's wrists pulled back to reveal his bare wrists, leaving him free to shoot his webs.
"Hey, what are you doing? What is that?" Muscles demanded.
Peter only raised his fists and spread his feet, assuming a fighting position.
"Damn it, they always want to fight. Kamui, Mt. Lady, back me up. I'll try not to hurt you too much kid."
Blondy and the tree man pulled back while Muscles charged towards Peter, his fist raised. He moved very quickly, hoping to knock the boy out with one punch. What happened next surprised all who were present.
Peter, not shifting his stance at all, simply held out his hand and caught Muscles' punch, not even budging from the impact.
"What the hell?" Death Arms screamed in his head. "I can catch falling cell towers! How did this kid stop me so easily?"
He tried to pull his arm back, but couldn't. Peter had retracted his mask and was staring at him with a deadpan expression that seemed to scream "really?" as Death Arms used his other hand to try and pry his arm free, with no results. While his expression was blank, Death Arms had a feeling the kid was doubled over laughing on the inside.
"Listen buddy, I get that being a hero seems cool, but it's really dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I didn't know what I was doing at first, but I had my powers and made myself a suit. It's fine to want to be a hero, but you really shouldn't risk it if you don't have powers or experience."
Death Arms' face turned red as multiple veins popped in his forehead. This kid didn't sound sarcastic or condescending at all. He sounded concerned, worried even, like he genuinely thought Death Arms was powerless.
"What the hell are you talking about?! I have super strength!"
The boy only groaned and spoke again, all the while Death Arms tried to free himself while his partners were unsure of what to do.
"See, that's what I mean buddy. Look, I've fought guys with actual super strength. I know what people who have it are like and trust me, you don't have it. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Trying to be a hero is already dangerous enough, and it becomes even worse when you believe you have powers you don't have. What you're doing is brave, but you should stop now before you get seriously hurt. I'll let you off with a warning this time, but you should really leave being a hero to the pros."
Death Arms was livid. He was so angry that several of his veins popped through his forehead and burst, causing a small amount of blood to run down his face. It didn't help that he could hear Mt. Lady laughing uncontrollably behind him.
"I am a pro you damn kid! I'm Death Arms, a pro with years of experience!"
"Death...Arms? That doesn't sound very heroic. Then again, I know a guy named War Machine, so I guess it isn't that bad."
The kid continued to look at Death Arms with pity and concern.
"Damn it. Kamui, Mt. Lady! Help me out here!"
At his command, the two finally took action. Tree man extended his arms into several branches, trying to grab the kid. Peter, careful not to hurt the "delusional civilian" gently forced him to the ground and webbed him down. His attention was now on Kamui Woods.
"Oh, I get it. It's a suit. Hey man, that's really cool, but kinda impractical. As awesome as it is that you managed to make a suit that controls wood, it would have been better to make it out of something stronger, like metal. Otherwise somebody could just break it. Like this."
Peter cocked his arm back and threw a half-hearted punch. He was sorry to destroy a fellow inventor's work, but who knew what the guy would do if he let his suit remain intact. Peter's punch destroyed all the branches, reducing them to splinters, followed by a scream of pain from the tree man.
"AGH! MY ARMS!"
"Really man? Look, I get the suit was probably important to you, but you really shouldn't have it in the first place. At least not until you know how to use it better. You guys are just rushing in with no plan."
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! YOU BROKE MY ARM YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"
"Well, I guess if these two are useless, it's my time to shine."
Mt. Lady then grew to her full height of 67 meters, towering over Peter.
"What do you think of my quirk 'Spider-Man?'" She asked almost mockingly.
"Another suit. I'll admit it's impressive that you made this stuff, but you shouldn't have done that in the first place. Also, I guess it's kind of cool, but the other guy was bigger last time I saw him."
"You- wha- how dare you?!" Mt. Lady angrily spluttered.
"I'll try not to hurt you Ms. but it might be difficult to restrain you otherwise."
Now it was blondy's turn to go red with anger. She didn't even bother speaking, instead opting to throw a punch straight at the boy.
...A punch that Peter easily dodged by jumping high into the air. He held out his arms and shot one web line onto the giant lady's face and another onto her still swinging fist. Pulling himself forward with the first webline, he flew over her shoulder as he dragged her fist behind him. Unable to resist his pull, she punched herself square in the nose and immediately passed out, falling to the ground and reverting to normal size.
"Whoops. Might have pulled her a little too hard. Oh well, too late now. Anyway," Peter talked to himself as he turned to a struggling Death Arms and a groaning Kamui Woods. "You guys have potential, I'll give you that. Your friend over there could modify her suit a bit, and you, tree guy, you'd benefit from learning to make better use of your suit. But overall, you guys could probably be pros if you work hard to better yourselves."
Peter then turned his attention to the grey-haired man, who was still trapped under his web. "Except you buddy. I know it might be hard watching your friends be heroes, but as you are now, I just don't see it happening. You don't have powers, a suit, or any gear. But you shouldn't worry. I know a few people who don't have any powers and are still great heroes. It'll be hard and require a lot of training, but you can be a hero someday."
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WE ARE HEROES" Muscles shouted furiously.
Peter only sighed. "You might be someday, but not today. I don't feel comfortable just leaving you guys here, so I'll bring you to a police station. You didn't hurt anybody or cause too much damage, so they probably won't punish you too severely."
Muscles let out a scream of fury, so Peter webbed his mouth shut. He then webbed him, tree man, and the blonde lady together and carried them on his back. He swung around until he found a police station and left them in front of the receptionist. He left after asking the horned woman to "Not be too hard on them, they just wanted to be heroes."
Later that day, half the news stations in Japan talked about how 3 well known heroes had been brought to the police station by a vigilante for "illegal heroism."
Chapter 4: Misunderstanding Brings Fear
At UA High School
"And that is the situation ladies and gentlemen." Principal Nezu said as he finished his presentation to those assembled. Sitting at the table with him was MIdnight, Snipe, Thirteen, Ectoplasm, Eraserhead, Present Mic, Hound Dog, Recovery Girl, Power Loader, and All Might himself, along with numerous pros from around the city. Among them were Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady.
"Over the past 2 weeks, this, 'Spider-Man' has been causing trouble for numerous pros. The good news is that he does not seek out and attack heroes. The bad news is that he attacks heroes who are trying to do their jobs. He defeats them with little to no effort, then takes them to a nearby police station for illegal heroism, yet always asks that they are not treated harshly because they want to be heroes."
"This boy is either arrogant, clueless, or simply so powerful that he genuinely does not see these people as professional heroes." Eraserhead said.
"Indeed, though it may be a mixture of all of them. Backdraft, you are the most recent victim of Spider-Man. Would you mind telling us what happened?" Nezu asked politely.
"Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but sure," the firefighter hero agreed. "There was a gas explosion in a residential area. I was nearby, so I went to help. I put out a few fires then went inside to help. But when I searched the place, there were webs everywhere. I ran outside and saw that Spider-Man had already saved everybody inside."
He sighed heavily before continuing.
"I'm not proud to admit this, but I was a bit jealous that he had shown me up. So rather than trying to detain him, I went into another burning home to find the last of the people. Once I was inside, however, I felt something silky touch my back and I was yanked through a window. Then he shot some type of web at me and stuck me to the ground. Whatever that stuff is made of, it's strong, I kept upping my water pressure but they wouldn't weaken. I spent the next 6 minutes just watching as he went into house after house, regardless of how bad the blaze was, and pulling everybody out."
"So it's the same old story as with every vigilante. A kid with more power than he needs who wants all the glory." Snipe growled.
"Not necessarily," Backdraft cut in. "There are 2 things that lead me to believe otherwise. The first being cluelessness. After he made sure all the houses were empty, he came down to me and started talking. He sounded calm but I could tell he was annoyed. His mask was down and I could see it in his eyes. He said that I was brave for wanting to help people, but that I shouldn't have been there in the first place. I may have 'a cool suit' he said, but what I did was still incredibly dangerous, and that I should leave stuff like this to the pros next time."
Most of the people in the room looked shocked, except for Aizawa, Nezu, and the assorted 'criminals' Spider-Man had caught.
"The second reason is that he has no desire to earn glory. Even us pros tend to stick around after stopping a crime or rescuing somebody so we can live it up on the cameras, but he didn't. As soon as everybody was safe and he had finished his little lecture, he left and took me to the police station. Also, along the way he told me my 'suit' was awesome and asked if I'd be willing to talk about design details."
Aizawa's expression changed slightly, his eyes widening just a tiny bit.
"And that is what leads me to my theories," Nezu said. "This Spider-Man has told every pro he has encountered that they should work on their 'suits' or that they were creatively made, meaning he likely somehow believes all their powers are coming from their suits and not from their quirks."
"That's ridiculous. Quirks are common knowledge, taught to children as soon as they're able to learn. How could he possibly not know about them?" Midnight questioned the principal.
"I do not know Midnight. Secondly, he is not your run of the mill vigilante. He has no drive to gain fame or money, he only stops pros he believes are endangering themselves, he clearly has plenty of experience, yet we've only recently learned about him, and then there's his suit. Mr. Power Loader, your thoughts?"
"The suit is a masterpiece of engineering. I've only seen it through snippets of videos and blurry pictures, but even then I can practically feel the power and grace oozing off it. One pro asked him where he got his suit and he only said 'It's called the Iron Spider, and it was given to me by my mentor.'"
"WHAT?!" Aizawa yelled in fury. "So you're telling me not only is this kid running around in a high tech suit, but it was given to him by his mentor, somebody who likely trained him to be the vigilante he is and gave him the tools to succeed at it?"
"That is correct." Power Loader responded.
"So we're looking for two people then. Spider-Man, and his mystery mentor." Thirteen cut in.
"Yes. He cannot do this forever though. We will track him down eventually, though I would prefer we find him soon" Nezu said darkly. "The news has picked up nearly all of his adventures, and they're spreading like wildfire. People are going to doubt the effectiveness of our heroes if a 15 year old child can easily beat and detain them. I suggest we work together and - Mr. Aizawa, may I ask where you are going?"
Aizawa had stood up from his chair and was leaving the meeting room. He turned over his shoulder to face the principal. "There's nothing to be overly concerned about. He's just a kid who's a little too full of himself. I've got my own people to turn to for this. Give me 3 days and I'll have him in a cell."
Saying no more, Aizawa turned towards the door and left the other pros behind."
Chapter 5: With Fear Brings Conflict
"What exactly is the plan here Aizawa?
"It's simple Mic. You disorient him with your screams, and then Kamui and I will move to restrain him. If he's still capable of fighting back, we send in Mt. Lady and Mirko."
"I'm still not happy about this Aizawa." Mirko grumbled. "I finally got a day off and planned to spend it relaxing, only for you to cash in your favor for this. And to make it worse, you called a damn news helicopter."
Overhead there was indeed a news helicopter, along with several vans full of cameramen and reporters on the ground.
"Believe me, I'm not happy about it either. You know how much I hate news coverage. But Spider-Man has been causing chaos lately, and it'll be good for public favor if we take him down and detain him on live TV."
"Hm." Mirko snorted, unimpressed. "Fine then. If it's for the ever precious 'public favor' I guess I'd better not hold back."
"Yes you should," Kamui broke in. "We're capturing him, not killing him."
"Hey Kamui, where's Death Arms?" Present Mic asked curiously.
"Probably still drinking his sorrows. After Spider-Man easily caught his punch and knocked him out of the fight, then gave him that lecture of his, he's been pretty depressed. He's spent all his time at whatever bar is open spending all his money on cheap beer."
"Cut the chatter. There he is."
The group turned and saw Spider-Man swinging towards them.
"He really is gullible," Aizawa internalized.
Using a plan that had to be cleared by several government offices. Aizawa had submitted a bomb threat notice to a new station for them to broadcast on every big screen TV throughout the city. He figured if Spider-Man really was the selfless vigilante he was made out to be, then he would come to the location.
Spider-Man landed in front of them, Retracting his mask to show a surprised look on his face. [1]
"Aren't you...tree man? And blondy? Wait, no, don't tell me you guys turned to villainy just because I beat you too bad. Look guys, you can't give up on your dreams after one defeat. Being a hero takes a lot of work. If I gave up every time I lost at something, I wouldn't have even been Spider-Man for a full day."
""THAT"S NOT WHAT THIS IS!"" Kamui and Mt. Lady yelled indignantly. Aizawa only rolled his eyes, Present Mic chuckled, and Mirko looked amused by his concerned expression.
"They already are heroes, boy." Mirko stepped towards him threateningly. "Which is more than I can say for you. You parade around without a license, putting yourself and others in danger, and you do it all while making jokes. You're a disgrace."
Peter looked strange, an odd look on his face. "Is that...are you...a rabbit? I thought the ears were a suit, but this is the first time I've seen you up close."
Of all the things she expected to hear, that was not it. Mirko was caught totally off guard by his nonchalant response, as though he didn't understand the situation he was in. Also, what did he mean this was the first time he'd seen her up close? Had he been watching her? Her surprise quickly turned to anger.
"Boy, I am the number 5 hero in Japan, and you will treat me with respect."
"I would love to ma'am, but respect is earned. I've heard about you, I can honestly say that you are a true hero. And I think it's really cool you're willing to help those two learn," Peter gestured to Kamui and Mt. Lady as he said that. "But I haven't personally met you until now, so have no opinion on you. By the way, there's no bomb, is there?"
"No," Aizawa shoved into the conversation, cutting off Mirko's angry yell and Kamui and Mt. Lady's indignant retorts. "And this conversation has gone on long enough. Mic, do it."
Present mic opened his mouth to scream at Peter and catch him off guard.
Peter's view
...And his mouth was immediately webbed shot before he could even make a sound.
"Sorry, but could you not? You look like you're really loud and I'm trying to have a conversation with this lady...rabbit...rabbit lady."
Present Mic's eyes were wide with surprise, his mouth completely covered in webs. Aizawa, realizing the beginning phase of the plan had failed, moved in.
"Kamui, with me!" He ordered.
The two charged towards Peter, still about 12 meters away.
"Honestly, nobody has any respect these days. I try to have a conversation with a nice lady and now everybody wants to fight." Peter sighed, not even bothering to summon his mask, something Aizawa took note of.
Aizawa along with Kamui realized they couldn't move when they were only a short distance from Peter. They looked down and saw their legs had been stuck to the ground with webs.
"When did you- " Aizawa began.
"Don't watch the mouth, watch the hands. Listen man, I've had a really long day. I had to stop 3 car robberies, an assault, and rescue a cat from a tree. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I just want to eat a sandwich and go to sleep. I really just want to get this over with fast. I'm usually much nicer than this, I swear, but I just don't want to deal with this today, so...sorry."
He then jumped and swung his right leg around his body, kicking both Kamui and Eraserhead in the dome, knocking them both out.
"Maybe used a little too much force there. Sorry guys." Peter turned to the rest of the group, which consisted of a hippie with his mouth webbed shut, the blonde lady he's already beaten, and the rabbit lady he had tried to have a conversation with.
The blonde lady had already grown big and tried to kick Peter, but he simply jumped to avoid the hit and walked up her leg. Whenever she tried to sweep him off, he simply jumped to her other leg and continued walking.
When he reached her knee, he suddenly bent his legs and jumped with tremendous force. For Mt. Lady, it felt like somebody had just punched her very hard in the leg, making her fall to one knee. As Peter was rising through the air, he gave her a soft (soft for Peter anyway) punch that caught her directly below her chin. Her head cocked back and she reverted to normal size in mid-air.
Peter, tired and annoyed as he was, wasn't about to let this hero in training fall and hurt herself, so he webbed a cocoon around her to soften her landing.
Looking to the remaining two, he didn't even bother with the muted hippie. He simply shot a condensed web to knock him over then webbed him to the ground before turning to face the rabbit lady.
"So, before you attack me, any chance we can talk this out like civilized people. Talking is always better than fighting you know."
Mirko looked a bit surprised, but also unimpressed. She could see just how much Peter was holding back, pulling his punches by an extraordinary amount, moving much slower than he could, and generally not being at his best. She hated people who didn't always perform at their best.
"Nice moves Spider-Boy. But you're not taking me down that easily."
"Um, it's Spider-'Man' actually, but it's cool, it's a very common mistake rabbit lady."
"That's it. I'm gonna kill him." Deciding she was done with talking, Mirko dashed towards Peter, jumping and attempting to perform a flying kick on him.
Peter was ready for it though, courtesy of his Spider-Sense. He bent the top half of his body back so far his head nearly touched the ground and Mirko soared straight over him, demolishing the street where she landed.
"So, I still don't know much about how you heroes do it here, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to kill people unless you have to." Peter remarked while still bent over, looking at Mirko upside down. "That attack right there...probably couldn't kill me, but would definitely hurt a lot."
Mirko was livid. Her face was contorted in fury, and smoke was practically coming out of her ears. She charged again and Peter dodged again. She didn't stop this time. She continued attacking, going under and over him, over and over. Finally, she gave up on powerful, slow attacks and switched to weak, fast attacks.
Her hands and feet (paws?) blurred as she attacked, yet still Peter dodged. They practically danced around each other until finally Mirko landed a hit on him. It was a tiny hit, barely creating a cut on his face. For Mirko and Peter, it meant nothing. For everybody else, it meant everything.
Spider-Man had spent 2 weeks terrorizing pros, easily defeating them and handing them to the police (only for them to be released) without so much as a scratch. And now, Mirko had managed to hurt him. For everybody watching the live news report, this was very exciting.
For Peter, it just made him happy. He began laughing right there in front of a very confused Mirko.
"What's so funny?"
"You're actually making this hard. I can't hold back on my speed. I'm doing everything I can to dodge here. Man, you're almost as fast as Morlun."
"Who the hell is Morlun?"
"Eh, not important. Alright, I've been dodging for long enough. My turn."
Mirko couldn't possibly react in time to dodge the punch that was coming. All she could do was raise her arm to protect her face. Peter's fist struck her arm hard and Mirko was pushed back several meters, falling to her feet at the end of the push.
"What...the hell?" She muttered, utterly shocked at what had just happened.
"You okay? Do you need some help? Sorry, I might have hit you a bit too hard there, but I was just really excited."
Peter extended his hand down, offering help. Mirko glared for a few seconds, then sighed. She couldn't win. She knew it. Even with that punch she barely saw coming, that sent her, HER, off her feet and nearly broke her arm, she could tell he was still holding back considerably.
Just because she lost the fight, didn't mean she had to take his hand though.
"I can stand on my own," She said crossly.
Peter raised his hands and backed off as she stood herself up. She could hear the reporters talking behind her.
"Mirko's given up?"
"He beat her in one punch?"
"What does this mean for Spider-Man?"
This was why she hated the press. Always making a big deal out of everything. She opened to mouth to tell them to clear out, but was cut off by...Spider-Man?
"Hey, knock it off!" He yelled, causing the reporters to immediately go quiet. He had a cross look on his face as he walked towards the reporters, making them fear for their safety. Everybody watching from home looked on with bated breath to see what would happen to the reporters.
"This doesn't 'mean' anything for me. You tried to jump me and I defended myself. What's going to happen is I'm going to web up everybody except Ms. Mirko, and drag them to the police station for unaggravated assault. After that I'm gonna eat a sandwich, take a nap, and go back to fighting crime like I've been doing. Which hasn't been very easy lately since I'm always against these people you call 'heroes.'"
He stopped for air after his short rant. Nobody said a word as he paused for a few seconds.
"I'm guessing your news stations have told you that I attack heroes for no reason, or that I take credit for stopping crimes. What they should be telling you is that while I'm trying to do my job, I'm constantly attacked by your heroes just because I keep them from looking good. I'm tired of dealing with it. You've seen for yourselves what I can do, so just leave me alone. Please"
He added the please in a desperate tone. In just a few seconds he went from angry warrior to tired traveler.
Peter turned from the mob of reporters and was about to leave when one reporter yelled at him.
"But you're a vigilante! An illegal quirk user! You're no better than the criminals you stop!"
Peter stopped and turned to face the reporters again. He heaved a sigh and asked in a tired voice "Who said that?"
The reporters parted to show a small man, with mouse-like ears and whisker marks on his face. He looked terrified as Peter walked towards him.
"Fair enough. You're taught from day one that people like me are villains who need to be put in jail. So how about you hear my side of the story. The perspective of one of your 'villains.'"
The sea of reporters instantly perked up. All the watchers at home lost their sense of fear and were filled with anticipation. Mirko looked slightly curious. And, in a certain bar somewhere, a small group of people looked at their small TV with interest in their eyes.
"Let me tell you all the story of Spider-Man."