Jabs shoot out of nowhere, vibrating with the constant pulse of her gauntlets. I can't get a read on them so my dodge timing is off. Not only that but the vibrations also cover the other tells my Sense can get. I'm sure Daredevil never has this kinda problem but with every hit something else gets very, very pissed off. My Spider-Legs burst out and leap us up top with the ceiling slamming onto my feet and hands.
I very quickly scuttle around with the shockwaves blowing holes in the roof. Zeke's still out of it so I can't count on him to bail me out. I doubt Felicia's just up the way too so of course I decided that now would be the perfect time to rush off on my own. Leaping off the ceiling all I can think about is how great it all is that I have to do is knock her out. Webbing goes around one of her gauntlets and in one twist and burst she's sent spiraling.
My Spider-Legs close the distance in a matter of moments. the hit scores home and the crowd goes wild. A rush back and forth. Bam bam! The Shocker slams the floor and the vibrations splinter it into rough-hewn lengths of rubble. I break away from the Shocker as she escapes the mayhem wrecking cars and sending shards of buildings through the air. Gobs of webbing shoot out and catch them, I rip car doors off and get people out.
I can't do all of this on my own.
My muscles jolt with an ache that never really goes away. My head pounds over and over almost drumming with how much my Sense is taking in. Fragments of pavement and cars blast around me and everything sends me flipping and dodging.
I keep swinging on, my powers working in almost perfect concert. The fear in my chest goes away and all I do is trust in the fact that I'm keeping everyone safe. But at the same time The Shocker rounds back and blasts into me like a rocket. But I dodge just in the nick of time with my web lines snapping and getting hit with the backdraft. My ears ring and fuzz fills my head. I had her pigeonholed as a boxer. My spider legs spin up another line and here I am just trying to keep things together.
I'm tired.
I'm so... so tired. The stinger wound still hurts and I could've been back with my girlfriend and cuddling, maybe watching a movie. But no. I'm here dealing with the quilted wonder.
When I hit the ground there's nothing but ringing in my ears and Shocker's gleeful abandon at knowing I'm almost out of it. But something keeps me grounded. Keeps me pushing myself up despite hearing the whine of her gauntlets even through the pain and ringing through my ears. I push off the floor and my legs lift me up. My lens is broken and my jacket is barely hanging on. I stumble towards her trying to keep things maintained but she's absolutely dominating me. More hits thud into me with the vibrations making things even worse.
She keeps the control and all I can do is weather the storm like Ali did during his fight with Foreman.
"What? You don't know how to fight, Spidey?" she taunts, "Maybe it's for the best I'm kicking yer ass solo. That way those two little girls you hang out with won't-" I close the distance and slam my fist into her in a devastating haymaker. She crashes down onto the pavement and I drag her up by the padded collar. She jabs out and I weave to the side, countering with my own. We keep slugging each other with any type of hit we can score.
"Don't bring them into this." I snarl, "This is between you and me!" One slug and she's stumbling. Another hit and she's teeter tottering around.
"hfff... hfff... that's it. That's it!" she crows, "Hit me harder, Spider-Man!" She's probably delirious from my punches but here comes the last one!
I slam my fist into her jaw and she's down, "Hard enough for... you know what that quip's stupid..." I wave my hands and people look at me almost like they're expecting me to finish it but I just web up and go.
I don't know what I was expecting when I got back home but I lean against the door and slide down, looking at my mask and torn up coat. God, what am I doing? I'm just... trying my best. Trying to save lives.
My door shakes from a knocking spree and I open it slightly. Standing there is Zeke with concern on his face, "Kid? Are you-"
"Leave me alone." I snap back, "Just... please."
"Look I know I haven't been fair to you at all. But you got guts. You got that kinda fire in you that I don't and-"
"Can I go to bed now? I got fucking rollicked by a masochist and a scorpion lady, and if I hear another speech from Mr. Deep End I'm going to hurl into your lap." I groan and slam it shut. I don't notice the open window. I don't notice Felicia sound asleep in my bed until I lie down, my arm going around her middle and pulling myself close to her.
"Hhhhmmm..." I groan into the front of her suit, "Heya Feli..."
She hugs me, "Hey handsome..." she mumbles into my hair. I thought she'd be mad like MJ used to be whenever I came back late from anything ever. In the morning I hear her rifling through my cupboards and fridge.
"Noodles, noodles, how old is this hamburger...?" she mumbles then pipes up after her inventory, "Seriously, you're the epitome of a broke college boy."
"Gee thanks." I rub my eyes, "So... any reason why you left your apartment to come to mine?"
"I wanted to see you after the two on one brawl. It's literally all over social media and all that." she takes out her phone and scrolls through post after post, "All of that for your neighbor..."
"Yeah, he seemed real thankful." I answer, "Still, I have fans?"
"Oho yeah, you got a little Spidey-Cult going." she wanders over and drapes herself on top of me, "You wanna see?"
"No. I just wanna sleep." I answer, "Maybe actually have my life restart for once, you know?"
"Aww, you're no fun sometimes..." she sighs and I glare at her, "I mean, whatever you wanna do, do it you know?"
"Felicia, I have responsibilities..." I sigh, "I can't just be Spider-Man all the time." the way she looks at me is like she didn't seem too pleased by it. Like I could just say 'fuck it' and be Spider-Man full-time.
"Come back to me when being a superhero is a paid profession, Felicia." I smile and she leans against her hand.
"Well, you COULD steal." Her hand rocks me a little on the shoulder but what she doesn't know is that even if I could I wouldn't want to, "With your strength and powers you'd be unstoppable."
"That's even worse, no thanks." my tone shoots that down, "I just wanna be a hero, you know?"
"Because your dad died?" That rhetorical question makes me fall silent. She wraps her arms around me and squeezes.
"My dad told me to do my best, no matter what. If I make that mistake, fine. But chalking it up to 'he died' just makes it so simple. So... what I'm getting at is... I'm gonna take that leap of faith and hope my life turns out well." I look up at her with a wan smile like I know that it's weird or cheesy.
"But you keep getting hurt over and over again, just last night you almost died trying to save someone." Felicia says, "How is that living?"
I sit up and point at the scar on my side, "It proves I can handle myself. That for once in my life I can be fully independent." My smile's met by a soft huff and a kiss to my cheek.
"You're an optimistic dork." at least I'm not dead but sometimes I don't like the fact that she's so patronizing, "Sometimes you need to admit that you need help though." Of course I listen, and deep down I know that she's right.
"I'll be okay, I promise." I mean it with all my heart and soul, getting up and getting into the shower to wash off the grime. My scar is healing nicely. It's not discolored and while it's still a puncture it's not bad.
When I get out of the shower there's no sign of Felicia anywhere. She probably left as I was getting ready for school. She needed to as well after all. My sense thrums and I grab my stick. Even though my body can just course correct me if I fall there's this feeling I get after a fight that always bugs me.
But I get to the station to get closer to campus. Minding my own business was never an issue but everywhere I could see the news had my bright red masked mug plastered on it. Headlines all over the place with varying things like...
Who Is Spider-Man?
Webbed Wonder Stops Malicious Menagerie!
Spider-Man, Hero or Menace?
Was on the Daily Bugle's front. A paper/online talk show that sometimes posits some wild theories about things in the city. Stuff like people who live in the sewers, a weird vampire guy, and the school upstate that sometimes hits the city and gets into-
"Jack! How're you doing?" MJ all the sudden shows up almost like she's never too far away no matter what. I give her a smile just to be nice. Less being nice and well just because I'm glad to see her regardless.
"I'm doing good, just kinda tired sooooo..." I rub the back of my neck and it immediately gets awkward. Just the baggage between us about the whole kiss at the dinner after the funeral hangs in the air before a wave of heat blasts by.
A guy made of fire skids to a stop as MJ's gaze shifts from me to him and it cuts the awkwardness like a hot knife through butter. In fact an entire crowd of people starts gathering because hey he's gotta be a famous hero.
The flames extinguish and MJ happily goes up to him. He's tall, blond, and has the energy of a cool dude that just wants to party and get high. Probably be like Everclear's Rock Star if he was a person. He shakes the ash out of his hair and grins at MJ's hug.
"Johnny!" she exclaims, "What a surprise!"
"Aw c'mon babe. I'm not that surprising." he grins and kisses her like I'm not even there. Then he sees me and his blue eyes spark orange just for a bit.
"So this is the famous Jack Parker! Put 'er there," he holds out his hand and I take it to shake. His grip is pretty strong and I smile at him.
"Hey." my tone's flat but I let go and look towards MJ, "Take good care of my best friend." He's everything I'm not and it sucks. I can just *feel* the money oozing out of him. I just have to stop worrying about her. Johnny Storm may be a celebrity and a pretty famous heartbreaker but MJ knows exactly how to keep a guy like him in line.
The way she looks at him is almost like she doesn't admire the hot-shot smile and the debonair charm at all. More like she's trying to ignore the pain of something but I want to walk away.
She can take care of herself. That's when I spy Harry trying to rush by without so much as a word as the crowd tries to crush Johnny for autographs and pictures. I run to catch up to him and he smiles.
"So, what's with Medusa and the Torch?" he asks.
"Search me, Harry. He just showed up to see her and she saw me first..." I explain, "Look, before you chalk me up as a pathetic case of missing her, I don't. We just have a lot of history."
He chuckles, "Is it because of you and Felicia?" and that hits the nail on the head. I should be over MJ and be absolutely happy with Felicia but it feels like so much was left unsaid or undone. Ever since high school wrapped up we were thrown onto different lives but whenever we're together I clam up.
"Well, no. I just feel guilty." Harry's my friend, I can talk to him about this, "Just some unresolved feelings and issues piled up like firewood I guess." He smiles and pats me on the shoulder.
"You're with Felicia, she'll understand."
"You sure, Harry?" I ask with an almost fear because from where I'm at right now I'm shocked she was treating it like it was no big deal. Either she was planning something or she really just went with the flow.
"Yeah, we're suits. Of course we'd all understand." he pats my shoulder, "Plus you really gotta hide yourself better."
"You're one to talk Mr. Discount Henshin." I laugh a little and he barks out some laughter too.
"I like it though! It works."
"Yeah, sure." I sigh, "Listen, you hear anything about this mysterious sixth villain you let me know, okay?"
"You got it." he hits me with that billion-dollar smile that his dad has too.
Class whips by with not much aplomb. Just the constant underpinning of Spider-Man fending off Scorpion and Shocker in the same night. I almost feel like they're talking about someone else. Wild theories on what I can do are all I'm hearing around me.
Attracting away from the fact that I can't put my full energy into being a student were the rumors I heard around me.
"I heard he lays eggs in back alleys." (Wrong. Also ew, gross.)
"I mean I heard he was a mutant so I guess that tracks." (Maybe?)
"He's got eight legs... sounds hot." (Thank you.)
Felicia falls into step with me between her last class and the next with barely anything keeping her from being down about any of this. MJ's with Mr. Hotshot, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, and this day couldn't get any more of a downer.
"Can we talk?" she asks.
"I mean... you're here so... sure." I say as I sit down on a bench. My Cooldown is really bugging me and the way my Sense feels like it's fuzzing my entire brain out doesn't help at all. I just don't know what's wrong sometimes and even my amazing spider powers can't help me.
She reaches over and grabs my hand, "Are you okay?" she asks.
"Are you?" I echo with a soft smile.
"Yeah. Just... don't do that again, okay? That whole... 'running off to fight a boxer in a grandma quilt' thing." she smiles and lays her head on my shoulder, "Can you do that?"
"Sure." I look up into the afternoon sky and my mind drifts back to how I thought Felicia would be angry at me. Angry at how I went against her and well... I shouldn't be so cautious around her. MJ's moved on and I've moved on.
But why do all those assurances sound so empty? Every time Spider-Man gets a win there's something just around the corner to bash my confidence to smithereens. In moments my Spider-Sense picks up something a few blocks back.
Not Rhino.
Not Scorpion, she's away.
This signature isn't as strong as they are. But it's like a lot at once. Countless fighting styles all together in one guy. Fancy shoes click on the pavement as a warm voice pipes up, "Heya, kitty cat." I resist the urge to sling off and run away as an older man around Dad and Mom's age walks up. He's got silver hair and glittering blue eyes wearing a fancy suit. He's built pretty well and looks like he's been through his fair share of scrapes. But my Sense keeps screaming at me to run.
Felicia darts to her feet, "Dad?!" she looks a little surprised but he gives her something in a suitcase.
"You forgot this at my place, Felicia." he states, "Remember, the best weapon you have-"
"Dad! Ixnay on the weaponay!" she nudges me forward, "This is my boyfriend, Jack Parker!" Those sparkling blue eyes dim their light as he fixes me with a stare.
I hold out my hand, "Hey." I start.
"You're dating my daughter?" his tone's flat as a board and I can't blame him at all. I nod and smile.
"She's honestly amazing, Mr. Hardy." I laugh a little out of nervousness, "I mean she's super talented and all that. I'm... uh... really lucky to have her."
"You should be, Jack. If I heard you mistreated her even *once* your ass would be grass." he hisses as he brings me close, "You got it?"
"Yessir." I answer, "Loud n' clear."
"Good." he backs up and turns to leave, "Have fun, kids! Learn a lot, do the things you want, and whatever whatever!"
What a weirdo. Felicia's cheeks redden and she covers her face almost like she's ashamed of him but he gives me a soft smile and pulls me along with her. I don't mind it actually. Little did I know that Walter Hardy was going to be yet another guy who'd mess with me. At least I didn't know it right now. All I knew was that my girlfriend had a dad she didn't like talking about or being around and considering how he just showed up out of nowhere I can tell he'd done it a lot more times than this.
Felicia smiles, "At least we've got each other, right Jack?"
I kiss her on the cheek, "Yeah."
Spider-Man and me are dead even. It's only a matter of time for it to split apart.
