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/-\
Beneath the Gargoyles
Gotham never slept it brooded.
Perched high above Crime Alley, Peter watched the city move like a wounded animal, twitching beneath orange sodium lights and the occasional wail of sirens. Rain fell, light but constant, as if the city had long given up on cleansing itself and settled instead into a permanent state of damp remorse.
He crouched on a stone gargoyle with cracked wings, his mask pulled back to let the rain touch his skin. Each drop carried a weight he couldn't name. This place wasn't like New York. It didn't pretend. It didn't hope.
It endured.
Below, a scuffle spilled from an alleyway two men in hockey masks dragging a girl by her arm. She screamed. One of the men laughed.
Peter moved without thought.
Red in the Rain
He landed with the grace of instinct silent, precise. His foot crushed a shard of glass; the noise spun the nearest thug around just as Peter webbed his hands to a rusted fire escape.
"Evening," Peter said, stepping forward. "Did I crash your kidnapping party?"
The man reached for a gun. Peter kicked it from his hand and dropped him with a left hook.
The second man pulled a knife, held it to the girl's throat.
"Back off!" he shouted. "Or I swear !"
Peter didn't hesitate. A web struck the man's wrist, yanking his hand away. The girl scrambled free as Peter delivered a brutal knee to the gut, followed by an uppercut that sent the man sprawling into a wall.
The alley fell silent, save for the girl's trembling breath. She looked at Peter with wide, uncertain eyes.
"You're not the Bat," she said.
"No," Peter replied. "Just a guy trying not to be the villain."
Echoes of the Line
Later, Peter sat alone on the roof of a low-rise tenement, his mask in his lap.
His knuckles throbbed.
Not because he'd fought.
Because he'd hit harder than he meant to.
He kept seeing the man's face the way it crumpled, the momentary crack of bone against brick.
You could've pulled back.
He hadn't.
This city got to you. Not all at once. But piece by piece.
"You almost killed him."
Peter turned.
Batman stood in the rain like a judgment made flesh.
"I didn't," Peter said.
"But you could have."
The silence hung heavier than the storm.
"I've seen this before," Batman said, stepping closer. "Gotham pushes you. Makes you choose. There's no clean victory here. No applause."
Peter met his gaze. "I've fought monsters. Aliens. Gods. But this city…"
"It eats hope," Batman finished.
Peter's voice was low. "I don't want to become something else just to survive it."
"Then don't."
Batman tossed him a small drive.
"Intel on the crime ring you interrupted. You saved the girl. But the men? They were bait."
Peter stood. "For what?"
"A test. Not mine."
The Crime Broker
Deep beneath Gotham's industrial district sat a rusted tunnel-turned-nightclub known only to those who trafficked in favors darker than money.
Peter, now masked, entered quietly.
Inside: a sprawl of neon, smoke, and whispered danger. The DJ spun static remixes over low jazz. Patrons wore masks half for anonymity, half for style. In the center, surrounded by two goons, stood the Crime Broker: lean suit, smile like broken glass.
"I heard you're new," the Broker said, without turning. "You hit my boys."
"They were hurting someone," Peter said. "What'd you expect me to do ask politely?"
"I expected you to kill."
Peter stiffened. "Wrong city."
The Broker turned. "But the right pressure."
He waved a hand. A projector on the wall displayed a series of images: Peter saving the girl, Peter striking harder than necessary, Peter staring too long at a bloodied hand.
"You felt it, didn't you?" the Broker asked. "The temptation to end it."
Peter said nothing.
"That's Gotham's gift," the Broker murmured. "We don't punish weakness we expose it."
The screen went black.
"You'll crack," he said. "Sooner or later."
Peter replied, "Then I'll make sure to fall on you first."
Question of the Code
Later that night, Peter returned to the rooftop where it started. The rain had stopped, but the question hadn't.
He sat cross-legged, thinking of Uncle Ben, of May, of the world he lost. In New York, he'd learned the meaning of "With great power…" but Gotham asked: What if power isn't enough?
His web-shooters were recharged. His body healed. But his soul?
It felt… tired.
A quiet voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"Hard night?"
He turned.
Selina Kyle, clad in black, balanced on the railing like a dancer made of smoke and sin.
"You don't belong here," she said.
"I'm starting to think you're right."
"You're too soft," she added. "Too… good."
Peter smirked. "Is that an insult or a compliment?"
"Both."
She sat beside him.
"You saved that girl," Selina said. "But if you hadn't been there, she'd be gone. That's Gotham math. It's not about the rules. It's about the cost."
Peter asked, "And who decides that?"
Selina looked him straight in the eyes.
"You do. Every night."
When the Mask Slips
Peter found himself walking Gotham's Narrows, hoodie up, mask off, eyes down. The streets here weren't lined with criminals they were filled with desperation.
He saw a boy selling stolen electronics to feed his siblings.
A woman holding two jobs, beaten by a landlord with friends in the GCPD.
An old man sleeping under Wayne Tech scaffolding, mumbling stories about other worlds.
And Peter felt his code slipping not vanishing, but shifting.
Justice wasn't always a fist. Sometimes it was presence. Kindness. Quiet understanding.
Sometimes, Spider-Man wasn't the answer.
Peter Parker was.
The Line Holds
That night, a mugger cornered a father and daughter.
Peter dropped in, fast.
He disarmed the mugger, webbed him to a lamppost, and turned to the man. "You okay?"
"Thanks to you," the man said, voice shaking.
The girl clung to her father's leg.
Peter watched them leave.
Then turned back to the mugger.
He approached slowly, unmasked.
"I want you to remember this moment," he said. "Because it could've gone another way. And one day it might. But not today."
He left the man hanging.
Then walked into the night.
Still himself.
Still holding the line.
/-\
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my Patreon at
" https://www.patreon.com/Its_Zack/ "
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want.