(A Week Later)
Gwen and Ned approached the old warehouse where Peter had set up his makeshift lab. They had not seen him at all this week, and he had not picked up any of their calls. Needless to say, they were both worried about him.
When Gwen had finally gotten through to Aunt May, and Aunt May had explained what had happened. Suddenly it all made sense to them. They hoped they would be able to find Peter here. He was a good friend of theirs, and they did not want him to suffer through something like this alone.
*Clang*
*Clang*
*Clang*
They heard the sound of something impacting metal as they drew closer to the warehouse. When they turned the corner, they saw Peter. He looked terrible. It was clear he had been crying and currently he was punching a broken-down van with all his might, completely disfiguring it.
Gwen ran over toward him. "Peter!" she cried out, though her words did not reach him, and he kept punching. Tears fell down his face with each impact. Gwen grabbed him from behind and held on tightly and resisted when he tried to shake her off.
"Let go of me!" he shouted weakly, but she shook her head and refused.
"Never," she said to him as she held on tightly. He went to reach around from behind to grab her, but he was assaulted from the front when Ned hugged him as well.
"We're here, Peter," Ned said to him with a sad smile.
Finally, Peter broke down and started crying. He allowed them to hug him and be there for their best friend.
Peter had been at his wits' end for a week. They were not allowed to see Uncle Ben, and they only got updates from the doctor who was treating him. The updates were never good news. Peter had tried to stay strong for Aunt May, who was taking it worse than he was.
Knowing that his friends had come for him and cared so much finally got him to break down. He let out everything he had been keeping inside for so long. He wept and he wept. For how long he did not know, but he knew his friends would be there as long as it took.
____________________________________
Peter wiped his eyes as he sat on the old sofa that was shoved against one wall in the abandoned warehouse. "Thanks, guys," he said quietly. "I'm sorry I kinda lost my head back there." He managed a small, tired smile and looked at the two of them.
Gwen held his hand a little tighter and shook her head. "Don't be silly. You'd do the same for us in a heartbeat."
Ned nodded right away. "We're best friends. Always there for each other, right? The Three Amigos." He said it with a half-grin, and it actually got Peter to crack a real smile, even if it was small.
Gwen smiled too, then leaned her head gently against Peter's shoulder. After a quiet second she asked, "How's your uncle doing?" She finally said the thing they had all been avoiding.
Peter felt the smile slide off his face. He let out a long sigh. "It's not good. His medical insurance barely covers the hospital stay and the basic treatment he's getting right now. The doctors say he needs complex neurosurgery, and even after that he'd have to be on medication for at least a year."
Gwen and Ned both winced.
They knew the Parkers were already stretched thin financially. Something this expensive could break them completely.
"Aunt May is already talking to the bank about getting a second mortgage," Peter said. He dropped his head into his hands. "I just feel so useless."
Ned put his arm across Peter's back. "Peter, you're just a kid. You can't put all of this on yourself."
"I'm not just a kid though!" Peter shot back. He stood up fast and started pacing across the cracked concrete floor. "I know I can help. I know I can do something!"
"Pete," Gwen said carefully, "I know you're not exactly a normal teenager, but how exactly are you going to make a difference?"
Peter stopped walking. He turned and looked straight at his girlfriend and his best friend. "I didn't tell you guys this before because I felt ashamed of myself... but remember when I saved MJ from those thugs a couple weeks ago?" They both nodded.
"What I didn't tell you was that they had a big wad of cash on them and... I took it," he admitted. He winced a little as he said it.
"Peter!" Gwen said sharply.
"Is that how you got the new PC?" Ned asked at the exact same time.
They both stared at each other for a second. Gwen shot Ned a glare that made him zip his lips and look away. Then she turned back to Peter. "Peter, you can't just take someone's money," she said sternly. "Especially from people like them. It should have been turned in to the police. That cash is an important piece of evidence."
"I know, Gwen. I know," Peter said. He sat back down on the sofa, shoulders slumping. "But I just thought it could help out at home, you know? It sucks so much seeing Aunt May and Uncle Ben working themselves ragged every single day."
Gwen rubbed his back in slow circles. She didn't like what he had done, not even a little, but she could see it hadn't come from greed. It came from how much he loved his family. She understood that part, at least.
Peter took a breath. "I need your help. I'm gonna start doing what I did a couple weeks ago again. But I won't be able to explain where the money comes from."
He looked over at Ned. "Ned, is there any way we can get the money to my uncle? Like, without anyone knowing where it really came from?"
Ned didn't hesitate. He had never been as bothered by Peter's nighttime activities as Gwen was. His brain was already working. "I could set up a fake charity," he said. "We split the cash into small anonymous donations, then funnel it through the charity and pay for your uncle's treatment that way."
Peter nodded quickly. "Could you do it?"
Ned looked at him and smiled. "Of course, Peter. Anything you need." He clapped Peter on the shoulder, stood up, and walked over to the PC setup in the far corner of the warehouse.
Peter let out a long breath of relief and leaned back against the sofa. He glanced at Gwen and saw the small frown still on her face.
"I don't like it, Peter," she said quietly. "But I don't want your uncle to die. I'll do anything you need me to do." She gave him a small, determined smile.
"Start getting information on the different gangs in New York," Peter told her. "If we hit all of them, they'll have a tougher time figuring out who's behind it or catching on to the pattern."
Gwen nodded. "Okay. I'll get on it."
Peter stood up. He walked over to the corner where he kept his gear. He pulled out the plain black balaclava he had bought a few days ago. He couldn't risk the hood slipping off anymore. He tugged it on, then stepped into the rest of his outfit. He checked the web shooters strapped to his wrists, made sure the cartridges were full, and flexed his fingers.
He was ready.
He looked back at Gwen and Ned. Gwen was already pulling out her laptop to start digging for info. Ned was typing fast at the PC, setting up whatever fake accounts and charity pages he needed. Peter felt a knot in his chest loosen just a little. He wasn't alone in this anymore.
He took one last deep breath, pulled the balaclava down over his face, and headed for the side door of the warehouse. Whatever it took, he was going to save Uncle Ben.
No matter what.
__________________________________
(Two Weeks Later)
Peter swung through the streets of New York, moving from one rooftop to the next. For the last two weeks he had been going around and systematically taking down and robbing every criminal he came across.
While swinging he angled downward and spotted five guys closing in on a couple in an alley below. The couple backed against a brick wall, hands up, clearly scared. The five thugs had them surrounded.
Peter shot a web line to a streetlight, swung in and dropped right into the middle of the group, landing in a crouch between the couple and the thugs.
The thugs turned toward him fast. One pulled a pipe from his jacket. Another grabbed a chain. The third already had a knife out.
The guy with the pipe swung first. He aimed for Peter's head. Peter ducked under the swing, felt the air move over him, then came up with a quick jab to the guy's stomach. The thug doubled over. Peter followed with an uppercut that caught him under the chin and sent him flying back into a dumpster.
The second thug charged with the chain. He whipped it forward in a wide arc. Peter flipped backward, using his hands to push off the ground, and the chain missed by inches. While he was still in the air, Peter shot a web at the thug's wrist. He yanked hard. The chain flew out of the guy's hand and wrapped around a fire escape railing. Peter landed, spun, and kicked the thug square in the chest. The impact lifted him off his feet and slammed him against the alley wall.
He slid down and stayed there.
The third thug lunged with the knife. He stabbed straight at Peter's chest. Peter sidestepped, grabbed the guy's wrist with one hand, and twisted. The knife clattered to the ground. Peter drove his fist into the thug's nose. Blood sprayed and the guy howled and dropped to his knees, hands over his face.
The first thug who had gotten up tried to grab Peter from behind, but Peter heard him. He dropped and swept the guy's legs out from under him, and the thug hit the pavement hard on his back. Peter then flipped backwards and when he came down he stomped on the thug's hand, cracking the thugs hands making him scream.
Peter turned to the couple. "You guys okay? You should probably get out of here. Cops will be here soon."
The couple nodded fast, grabbed each other's hands, and ran out of the alley.
Peter knelt by the closest thug and patted down pockets. Wallet, phone, keys. Then cash. He pulled out the bills, counted them and saw about a hundred and fifty. He moved to the next guy. Another two hundred. The last guy had three fifties and some twenties. The others added up too. Total came to around five hundred dollars. Not great, but better than nothing. Peter stuffed the cash into the small backpack he wore.
He sighed.
Patrolling random streets and hitting small-time crews wasn't cutting it anymore. He needed bigger scores.
"Hey Pete, can you hear me?" Ned's voice came through the earpiece.
Peter jumped, shot a web upward, and zipped to the nearest rooftop. "Yeah, Ned. I hear you." He ran across the flat roof, leaped to the next building, and kept moving.
"How did it go? Score big?" Ned asked.
Peter let out a long breath. "I've made about two thousand tonight."
"That's not too bad," Ned said. "You've had worse nights."
"I know, but it's still not enough." Peter swung to the next line. "The second mortgage is being processed. Soon we're gonna be up to our eyes in debt, and even then we won't be able to afford the medication after he gets out of surgery."
He heard Ned sigh on the other end. "Listen... Gwen will kill me for telling you this, but we have something. She thought it was too dangerous and you could get hurt, but we found a drug den up in Harlem. There should be at least a few thousand stashed there."
Peter felt a spark of hope cut through the frustration. "Give me the address. Tell Gwen not to worry, if it's too dangerous, I won't do anything."
Ned laughed once. "Pffft. Like hell I'm telling her that. That woman scares the hell out of me. The most you'll get out of me is the address."
Peter chuckled despite everything. "Fair enough. Send it."
...
Peter Parker landed silently on the fire escape of the apartment building and looked carefully at the address that Ned had given him. The outside of the building looked completely normal. Nothing about it suggested what might be happening inside, but Peter knew better than to trust how things looked. He moved carefully and climbed the wall.
As Peter got closer to the window, he noticed how quiet it was. The silence felt wrong, like someone had soundproofed the place. He pressed his hand against the wall and felt vibrations coming through it.
Something loud was playing inside.
He moved closer to the window wnd looked through the glass and saw an empty bathroom. For a second he saw nothing and hoped the whole thing might go smoothly.
Peter pushed the window open quietly and slipped inside.
He started to climb to the ceiling and get his footing when the door swung open with a l creak.
A man stood in the doorway with shock on his face, let out a startled yell that broke the silence. "Who the hell are you? What are you doing here!?" he finally shouted, no doubt alerting everyone in the apartment.
Peter's face tightened into a frown. "Fuck it," he said. He punched the man straight in the face and sent him flying down the hallway.
Chaos broke out in the drug den, as various thugs. looked towards the man that had just come flying from the bathroom. The man Peter had punched lay in the hallway and groaned in pain.
The people in the room reacted fast, they jumped out their seats and immediately pulled out weapons and started shooting. Bullets flew through the air and hit the walls and furniture and leaving holes everywhere. Peter's instincts took over and he flipped and darted around the room and dodged the bullets as fast as he could.
The thugs moved in closer. "Get the bastard!" one of them shouted as spit flew from his mouth and he pulled the trigger again and again.
Peter lunged forward and punched the closest thug in the face. The man's nose broke and blood sprayed out. "You think you can stop us, you piece of shit?" another thug said. He swung a metal pipe at Peter's head.
Peter ducked and the pipe went past him, he then hit back fast and hard. His fists connected with faces and bodies and bones broke under the blows. He didn't have any time to hold back his strength or regulate it properly.
However in multiple instances he wasn't fast enough to avoid the gunfire and several bullets grazed or hit him directly. The main room was too open, Peter needed to bring it into a smaller space so he ran through the apartment building. He dodged more bullets and ducked into different rooms while he took them out one by one, webbing them up or brutally knocking them out.
In one room three thugs came at him at the same time. Peter ducked under a swinging bat and twisted the man's arm until it broke. At the same time he grabbed a nearby table and smashed it into another thug's face. The third thug got a hard knee to the stomach and folded over in pain.
Peter breathed heavily, his whole body was stinging as either bruises formed or bullets had hit into him. He looked up as the sound of thudding came down the corridor. More thugs entered and all of them had much bigger weapons than the other ones. Peter flipped backwards over a table as the shots fired out and ripped through the entire room.
He took several more gun shots to his arm and leg before he managed to deal with all of them, but unfortunately for him he wasn't done yet. A huge thug over seven feet tall and built like a brick shit house charged at Peter. The floor shook with each step as he ran towards him, when the giant slammed into him they crashed through the wall and into the hallway of the apartment building.
Peter felt the hit through his whole body even with his strength and durability and it only made the bullet wounds and cuts hurt worse.
The giant stood over him. His huge fist came down. Peter caught it in mid-air. The thug's eyes went wide with surprise.
Peter twisted the giant's arm and kicked him hard in the chest with both feet. The big man flew backward and crashed into the stair railing. The building shook as he fell down several steps. Peter did not wait. As the thug tried to get up Peter shot webbing from his shooters. The webs wrapped around the giant's legs and Peter pulled hard and sent the man tumbling the rest of the way down the stairs.
Taking a breath he listened around, but he didn't hear the sounds of anymore thugs. "Thank god..." he muttured to himself as he pushed himself off the wall and started searching the place for the cash. He looked under beds and in closets until he found a safe hidden under one of the beds. 'Pretty bad hiding spot,' he thought. He lifted the safe and ripped the door off with his hands.
Hsi eyes widened as he looked inside and saw nothing but stacks of cash. He started moving the money into his backpack as fast as he could as he heard sirens in the distance getting closer. The police were coming which made sense considered all the damage and noise.
Peter filled his backpack with the cash and ran to the window and jumped out and swung away into the night. Hsi whole body heard, but he couldn't help but feel both happy and thrilled, though he knew that it was in some part due to the adrenaline.
"Peter, you there? Did it go okay?" Ned asked through the headset.
Peter groaned. "I'm a little injured, but it was worth it," he said through clenched teeth.
"How much did you find?" Ned asked with excitement in his voice.
"I counted at least $100,000," Peter said. He tried to sound enthusiastic but the pain made it hard.
"Oh hot damn! That's what I'm talking about!" Ned shouted through the headset.
Then Ned's voice changed. "Are you okay though, Peter? It's nothing serious, right?"
"No, just a few bruises and scrapes," Peter lied. He had no choice. He couldn't stop now. Not when he had found such a better way than picking up random thugs on the street.
"Listen, Ned, I'm going to call it a night and get some rest. Thank Gwen for me, will you?" Peter said. He hung up.
He tore open his sleeve and dug his fingers into his shoulder. He pulled out the bullet. He did the same for the ones in his arm and leg. It hurt a lot but he had to get them out. His left leg could not take much weight now but he could still swing home.
"Just a few more scores like this and we'll be okay," Peter thought to himself. He pushed off the edge of the building, shot a web line, and swung away.
__________________________________
Nick was coming very close to shitting himself, he'd been called in by the boss to explain why one of his Drug Dens had suddenly been raided by the police and he was the only one who managed to make it out.
"The Boss will see you now," A woman said as she opened the door to an office, They were currently in a warehouse where they were storing 'product'. It also happened to be where the boss had his office.
Nick walked in and was greeted with the sight of a nearly seven-foot-tall man with a bald head and pale white skin; he wore a suit that almost looked comical on his large frame "Nicholas, I'm glad you made time in your day to visit me," he said in a soft deep voice.
"O-Of course Boss I'm here whenever you need me," Nick said nervously as he walked to the desk where the man was sitting.
The large pale man gestured for him to take a seat, "Now Nicholas, please inform me as to why one of my businesses seems to have gone under," he asked as tapped his large fingers on the table.
The sound of wood being pounded beneath his thick fingers sent shivers through Nick's spine "W-Well Boss things were normal at first ya know, we were partying having fun, dealing and shit, I needed to take a piss but when I opened the door to the Bathroom some guy wearing a balaclava and dressed in black was standing there, I ask him who he is and he just knocks me the fuck out," He explained.
The boss just sat there and watched him.
"By the time I woke up the joint was fucked up and the cops were almost on my ass so I ran," He continued.
"I see... thank you Nicholas for informing me of this... person," He said as he stood up and went to a window in his office that overlooked the warehouse floor. "Come, Nicholas, there's something I want you to see," he said.
Nick feeling he had no say in the matter got up immediately and walked to his side.
"Tell me what you see here..." he asked as they both looked down to the warehouse.
Nick looked and all he could see were various cages that had been set up, and in each of them were children ranging from 5-16 "A bunch of kids, in cages?" He stated though it seems more like a rhetorical question.
The boss shook his head. "No Nicholas, this is 'Product', Now look over by the door and tell me what you see."
Nick followed the Bosses command and looked over to the door and saw two fierce-looking men with guns and Kevlar vests "Enforcers?" He stated once again in a questioning way.
"Almost, but no they are brave and loyal soldiers ready to defend my product to the death," He explained
"They have spines to do what they do, Tell me Nicholas do you have a spine?" He asked as he looked down at Nick with an emotionless stare.
Nick felt himself start to tremble uncontrollably at the boss's gaze "Y-Yes boss o-of course" he stuttered.
"Then where is my product, Nicholas? Where is my money?" The Boss asked.
Nick feels his trembling get worse. "You s-see I-It's complicated I—"
but he couldn't finish as the large man grabbed him by the head and yanked upward while keeping his other hand on his shoulder.
As if he was doing a magic trick the Boss ripped the man's head off and his spine along with it. Nick didn't even have enough time to scream and only a look of confusion could be seen etched onto his face.
"It seems you did have a spine Nicholas, though it seems weak," The Boss said before tossing it to the ground and using a handkerchief to wipe the blood off his hands. He then sat back down on his desk and sighed deeply.
"Mr Lincoln, I have Fisk for you on line one," A woman said through the phone on his desk.
"Thank you Darlia put him through"
(AN: So the first villain has been introduced finally, tbh I went through a lot of trouble deciding the first major villain, I went back and forth between Kingpin, Taskmaster, Electro, but decided on Tombstone, he's a big enough threat for Peter now especially since his powers are still developing plus this is the prologue arc so Tombstone is better than wasting a cooler villain like taskmaster)
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