Stories Focussed On Spider-Man

Core Memories

Info: Avengers dunno who SM is, obvi

"Come on! Are you heroes? Or just a bunch of cowards?" Mysterio taunted, his voice echoing throughout the seemingly abandoned factory. It was huge, machinery twisting around every which way. Somewhere an illusionist and some other creep with psychic-y powers were hiding amongst the clumps of metal.

In the center sat a brunette teenage girl with less than perfect vision. Her clothes suggested she had been planning on a relaxing day - a sweatshirt and sweatpants - but her expression showed that it had gone horribly so far.

"I can't go in," Natasha said, stoic as ever. It was obvious that she would have too much baggage to handle the mental strain of what would await whoever stepped into the mind-warping trap the two crooks had come up with.

"Are you too afraid to fave your true self? To see what makes you you?"

"I don't want you to see Afghanistan or Howard," Stark hummed metallically.

"I don't think anyone could volunteer for this," Steve sighed eventually.

Spider-Man swung down to see the commotion. "What's the sitch? There isn't anything holding you up, is there? Just go in and grab her and run, right?" He glanced at the crestfallen faces of the team. "Right? No weird bombs I'd activate or anything?"

"You walk in there, everything anyone could want to know about you will be shoved into the limelight."

"They got dirt on you?"

"Mind powers. You feeling like facing all your inner demons and PTSD today?"

"I face them every night, these guys can't throw anything new at me," the vigilante admitted, storming ahead. Immediately, a plane took shape, malfunctioning visual reflecting panels revealing it to be from SI. It was broken and going down quick, and a man in a wing-suit was struggling to hold on. An inexperienced Spider-Man had managed a web to a wing and was pulling it up, aiming for something just out of view of the image. Suddenly, Spider-Man was just a little boy slipping and sliding off of the plane and right onto a tan couch, a man and a woman crouched in front of him.

"Peter, honey," the woman starts.

"There was a storm while Mommy and Daddy were on the plane," the man continued. The couple shared a look. "They're in a better place now, but you're going to stay with us, don't worry."

The small child's face contorted with confusion, then grief, leaning forward to sob into his relatives' arms. They disappeared, leaving Peter to fall on the floor, scraping his knees. He looked up in fear at the slightly taller boy hovering over him.

"Puny Peter Parker. Not even good enough for your parents," the boy spat. "Worthless freak!" The bully picked up the kid, both growing in size until the smaller was stuffed in a locker, one last orphan taunt echoing as silence encased the room.

The real Spider-Man was left trotting forward in the dark, trusting his senses to keep him from bumping into something.

A large crash was heard, words echoing around the ginormous room. "I wasn't aiming for you." A pile of rubble fell, but not on another version of the wall-crawler. No, all several thousand pounds pushed up against the hero's back in a way that could only send his previous schooled emotions hurling back to the fateful Homecoming night that absolutely ravaged him.

His own words vibrated in his ears, despite that he hadn't spoken yet. "I can't- I can't breathe! Someone? Anyone? May? May! Help! I-I'm stuck, I-" The teenager tuned himself out, very aware that listening would only send him into a panic that he couldn't afford, not when someone else's life was on the line.

The illusion cleared, and he stood, bounding over to the girl and ripping off the zip-ties that had kept her in place. She refused to move, petrified by something just behind her savior. He turned to see a giant spider colored with a mic of cobalts and reds looming over the duo, hissing like it was ready to strike.

"The size makes it so much cheesier," the web-slinger stated offhandedly, chuckling slightly. The girl stared at him like he was crazy before laughing and agreeing. "Like, this is supposed to be the spider that unofficially gave me arachnophobia, but it looks so overdramatized."

"Y-you have arachnophobia?"

"Unofficially," Spider-Man confirmed, quelling her fear more with his strange choices. "I can't have the baddies know I have someone else take care of my house spiders."

"Why Spider-Man then?"

"I'd like to say it's some sort of real life Bruce Wayne thing, but what other theme could I have gone with considering my power set?"

"Point taken."

The spider had vanished into a wisp of smoke seconds prior, not that the two teenagers noticed since the boy had gotten her attention from the situation and successfully avoided having to deal with her in shock. But, both heads whipped to the sound of a gun being cocked. There, the size of a human and hovering without a master, was a pistol, ready to fire. A sickeningly familiar face flashed through the shadows, but disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. A bullet fired in slow motion, every head turning to follow its path.

The vigilante sunk to his knees when the projectile ripped a hole in his late uncle's chest.

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"When you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

The hero found it in himself to stand and begin to lead the girl back to the exit, trying to distract his brain with noting down potential hiding places for the jerks behind the entire thing.

"It's all my fault!" Spider-Man's voice sobbed. "I should have saved him!"

"Was killing your parents not enough? Did Puny Parker have to go back for more with his precious Uncle Ben? You're just a parasite who kills everyone around you. Get out of my sight before you infect me too, you worthless bug!"

When Spider-Man emerged with the girl, he gave a brief nod to the seasoned heroes spread out in front of him. "I've got dibs on beating these dudes into next week," he declared, sniffing slightly. He turned to the girl. "Hey, you're out now. What's your name?"

"N-Nicole Sparks."

"Okay, Nicole. You saw some things that I'd appreciate if they stayed secret, okay?"

"O-of course! I won't tell a soul, I swear!"

The young hero turned to Stark. "You should have a professional check over her mental health. Crap went down in there, so make sure it's someone who can keep a secret."

The billionaire nodded. Spider-Man cracked his knuckles.

"I can't wait to put a could dents in their ribs."

"They deserve it," Nicole encouraged.