To Honor A Fallen Hero

You Can't Save Everyone

We waited a few hours to return to Aunt May's house. Miles was still traumatized. His uncle, someone he looked up to, was working for the enemy. "My uncle!" Miles cried. "Hey, where have you two been?" Peter asked. "My Uncle Aaron, he's the Prowler!" Miles began to hyperventilate from all the trauma. "Slow down, Miles." Peter reassured him. "He works for Kingpin. He tried to kill us!" Miles continued. "This is a pretty hardcore origin story." Peter Noir said. "It's okay, we're gonna figure it out." I explained. "Were you followed?" Gwen asked. "No, I don't think so." Miles replied as the Peter tingle kicked in again. We all masked up to prepare for an incoming attack. Olivia rang the doorbell and busted the door open. "Cute place. Real homey." She commented. "Oh, great, it's Liv." Aunt May said sarcastically. "I guess we were followed." I replied. "Oh, no." Gwen gasped. "Get out of here, kids." Peter warned. We ran toward the kitchen, only for the entry to get blocked by Tombstone. "You messed up big time, kids. Very sloppy." He said. Scorpion was right behind him. "Let me guess, you're Scorpion?" Peter asked. "Well, we're the Spider gang." "Would you mind taking this outside?" Aunt May asked. "We don't pick the ballroom, we just dance." Peter Noir explains. "Ooh, I think I'll be taking that." Olivia said, trying to steal a new device from Peter as a fight breaks out in the living room. Aunt May even got in on the action with her baseball bat. While the others kept fighting, Miles and I could both sense that Aaron was here. "I got this, buddy." Peter said. "Leave the kid alone!" Miles got a hold of the goober, and ran. While Aaron was chasing Miles, I used my web shooter to try and slow Aaron down. I was able to give Miles a little more time to escape.

Miles and Aaron were on top of Aunt May's roof. "Nowhere left to run." Aaron said, holding Miles on the edge of the roof. Miles quickly removed his mask as Aaron stopped. "Miles?" "Uncle Aaron." Miles whispered in fear. "Please, Uncle Aaron." Aaron pulled down Miles's mask and stepped away, only to get shot by Kingpin. Before he could shoot Miles, Peter made the gun out of target. "Get out of here!" Peter shouted.

Miles and I swung to an alleyway with Aaron barely grasping to life. "Miles." Aaron said, weakly. "Uncle Aaron." Miles whimpered. "This is my fault." Aaron disarmed one of his claws, grabbing his hand. "No, Miles. I'm sorry." Aaron apologized. "I wanted you to look up to me. I let you down, man. I let you down. You're the best of all of us, Miles. You're on your way. Just keep going." Shortly after, Aaron passed away. All I could do was comfort Miles and hug him. "I'm sorry, Miles." I whispered. All of a sudden, the PDNY showed up, which means Miles's dad was here. "Hands up! Put your arms up, now!" Jefferson shouted as we listened. "Turn around!" Miles turned invisible and escaped as I followed him.

Back in his dorm room, Miles was basically destroying the place. I couldn't blame him, though. He threw one of his journals out the window as it came right back. Peter and the rest of the spiders came in through the window. "Hey, bud." Peter greeted. "You okay? We've all been there. You know, for me... for me, it was my Uncle Ben." "For me, it was my Uncle Benjamin." Peter Noir said. "For me, it was my father." Peni explains. "For me, it was my best friend." Gwen added. "For my dad, it was Uncle Ben, and for me, it was my dad." I frowned. "Miles, the hardest thing about this job is you can't always save everybody." Porker explains. "Look, it was my fault. You wouldn't understand." Miles sighed. "Miles, we're probably the only ones who do understand." Gwen said. All of a sudden, Miles's roommate, Ganke, walked in with his headphones on. We all hid on the ceiling, hoping he wouldn't notice, but he saw all of us. "Hey there." Miles greeted. "Hey, Ganke." I said. "Do animals talk in this dimension? Because I don't want to freak him out." Porker asked, causing him to faint.

While Miles put Ganke in bed, everyone else was leaving. "What's going on?" I asked. "Bye, guys." Gwen said, leaping out the window. "We came to say goodbye." Peter explained. "We can say goodbye at the collider." Miles said. "You're not getting it. You and Phoebe are staying here." Peter continued. "We need to be there. So you can all go home." I recalled. "They are going home, Phoebe." Peter explains. "I'm the only one staying." "You're taking our place?" Miles asked. "If you stay here, you'll die." "I'm doing what needs to be done." Peter said. "I just wanted you to hear it from me." "What about MJ?" I asked. "Not everything works out, kid." Peter replied. "I need the goober. Please don't make me take it from you." "That's not fair! You gotta tell them we can do this." Miles argued. "It wasn't their decision." Peter confessed. "You don't believe in us, either." I said. "I gotta make Kingpin pay! You have to let me make him pay!" Miles shouted. "Guys, you're going to get yourselves killed." Peter warned. "But we're both ready! I promise you!" Miles shouted as Peter kicked us and caught us by the costume. "Then venom-strike me right now." Peter said to Miles. "Or turn invisible on command so you can get past me." "Let him go, Peter!" I shouted. "Don't push him!" Miles tried all he could to fight back, but he was still unable to control his powers. "Look, I know how much you want this. But you don't have it yet." Peter sighed, webbing up Miles to the chair and me against the leg of a desk, taking the goober from him. "You can't just leave us here!" I shouted. "When will we know we're ready?" Miles asked as Peter webbed our mouths shut. "You won't. It's a leap of faith." Peter replied. That's all it is, guys. A leap of faith." Peter leaped out the window with the rest of the Spider-People.

Miles and I sat in the dorm for hours in silence. We tried to break free, but Peter's webbing was too strong. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. "Miles. Miles, it's your dad. Please open the door. Miles, I can see your shadow just moving around." Jefferson said. Obviously, neither of us could do anything but listen. "Yeah, okay, I get it, you're still ignoring me. Look, can we talk for a minute? Something... Something happened to... Look, sometimes, people drift apart, Miles. And I don't want that to happen to us, okay? I know that I don't always do what you need me to do or say what you need me to say. But I see this spark in you. It's amazing. It's why I push you. But it's yours. Whatever you choose to do with it, you'll be great. Look, call me when you can, okay? I love you. You don't have to say it back, though." After his dad left, Miles sat in silence again, until I noticed that he was using his powers to set himself free. I focused on my strengths and was able to break free along with Miles. Or maybe that was just his powers. "Nice." I complimented.