I stared out over Chinatown, eyes fixed to the rising white smoke. Light danced across it, parts of the fog cast in alternating red and blue hues from below. I looked down, to the crowds of first responders, news networks and civilians, milling around in a muck, their voices a racket that carried a singular message clear as day. Fear.

  The atmosphere was so strong I could almost taste it. I stepped back from the building’s edge, wincing before instinctively scratching at burned skin. Now that the fight was over, it was a lot harder to ignore. The burns weren’t too bad, but I probably should’ve still been resting.

  With a rush of will I pulled my hand away trying to ignore the pain as I glanced over to Peter. He stood off to the side, closer to the edge of the building on the phone, Jess next to him, anxious, her foot tapping repeatedly as she clutched her arm, eyes fixed to Peter.

  I couldn’t hear the call, but it was clear what they were talking about.

  I frowned, looking back to the chaos in front then to the rest of the city in the distance. Sirens blared almost inaudible given the distance, but still difficult to ignore.

  “Shouldn’t we go out? Deal with stuff?” Miles asked, looking up to me.

  “Just… give it a bit” I said. He nodded and turned away looking back out to the city too. I watched him for a moment, then turned to Peter and Jess folding my arms. Then my phone buzzed, and I pulled it from my pocket, looking to the number. It was Maria.

  My fingers fumbled with the screen before I answered the call, quickly pressing the phone to my ear.

  “Lucas?” Maria said, breathless.

  “Maria? What’s wrong? Is something wrong?” I said, my stomach dropping.

  “You ok? You just got out of the hospital and I-”

  “What? I’m fine”

  “Are you really? I mean we saw on the TV. All the smoke and the bombs and the gunfire. I just- I was just calling to check on you. You’re supposed to be resting”

  “I- is that it? You’re okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine” she replied confused. I let out a sudden sigh of relief.

  “Jesus. Don’t just- you almost gave me a heart attack”

  “What? Why?”

  “It’s- nevermind. I’m fine. Everything’s fine” I lied.

  “Lucas I can tell when you’re-”

  “I heal fast, my skin’s practically good as new already. And what was more fire going to do anyway? Burn it more?”

  “Lucas”

  “I’m fine, ok?” I said, voice hard. A moment of silence passed before I frowned, my face twisting with regret. “Sorry. I shouldn’t-”

  “Just stay safe” she muttered. “It’s dangerous out there.”

  “Alright. You stay safe too”

  “Auntie’s taking plenty care of us. Just make sure to get back before dinner. We’re going to all go visit big Sis”

  “Alright. Though I can’t promise I won’t be meeting you at the hospital”

  Maria let out a half-worried chuckle, before sighing.

  “See you later Lucas”

  “See you”

  My hand fell away from my ear, my eyes looking to the phone. I stared at it for a few moments as a slow panic crawled through me before I hung up.

  They’d be fine. Things were bad, but not that bad. The worst of it had already passed.

  Miles tapped me on the shoulder.

  “Hm?”

  “They’re uh- calling us, down” he said. I frowned, looking to where he pointed and spotted on the ground a group of firemen calling us down, along with some of the civilians. I scanned the area frowning. There wasn’t any immediate threat, and I couldn’t sense any danger. Weird.

  “Stay here” I said to Miles.

  “You sure? I can help”

  “Stay here” I repeated, before swinging down into the street. I landed on the asphalt amongst the firemen, the ground hot.

  “What’s the problem?” I said.

  “News lady over there wants to talk to you” he said with a shrug, “Said it was seriously important.”

  I frowned, then followed the firemen over to a woman, who stood by the edge of the crowd.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “Spider-Man. I- wow” she said before pressing on her ear. “We got him.”

  “What?” I mumbled. She looked back to me, offering a smile, before angling herself towards a cameraman and crew, a few metres away.

  “Could you just look at the camera for me?”

  “Eh?”

  She turned without another word, looking towards the camera .

  “Hello everyone, I’m here with one of the Spider-Men at the scene of the Chinatown gang bombing.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Well shit.

  “Spider-man, is there anything you can tell us about this incident? Many are saying it was gang related but there have been some reported sightings of metahumans involved in conflict.”

  “Uh… well ‘m not exactly sure” I muttered still off balance. She continued to stare at me expectantly, mic pointed held in front of my face as camera flashes flickered to life in the crowd. “Uh… but we’ll be sure to look into it.”

  “And can you speak to yesterday’s events with the bomb? I’m sure like many others we’re wondering how exactly something this devastating was allowed to happen?”

  “I… we did our best, but it wasn’t enough” I said, my voice faltering. “I’m sorry.”

  A silence filled the space between us as the reporter glanced between me and the camera, caught off guard by my response. I frowned, a sudden mixture of disappointment and anger rising from my gut.

  “I’m sorry” I said stepping away. “I need to go.”

  “Wait-”

  But I was already stepping away, a slowly building ring filling my ears. With a quick leap, I fired a web into the air and swung up back to the rooftop. As I landed down next to Peter, I spotted Miles and Jess swinging away in the distance.

  “Where’re they going?” I asked.

  “HQ, from there it’s home. Miles was a little shaken, and he doesn’t need to get caught up in all this cleanup anyway. Jess’ arm’s hurting her so I told her to go. She needed to drop something off to Liz anyway. They weren’t too happy but… yeah.”

  “Right” I said, before looking to him. Even with his mask on he looked miserable. “Sorry about George and… well everything I guess.”

  “No it’s-” he trailed off before half chuckling, the sound barely humorous. “It’s fine.”

  I nodded, looking away before frowning.

  “It’s okay if it’s not. I mean you’ve known him your whole life” I said.

  “Well I… guess I kind of just expect stuff like this now. When George and I spoke it was always either info or safety. Kingpin’s guys were getting close. This whole thing might have even been to get at him or other guys who weren’t paid for.”

  “You think?” I said frowning. It certainly seemed like a Kingpin thing.

  “Yeah I… I don’t know to be honest. Maybe I’m just looking for meaning here. These past few days have just been…” he trailed off, his tone. ”Sometimes I think what this is all for? So much work, so much fighting for this?”

  “I know it’s bad Pete, but we saved people too today” I said. “I know it probably doesn’t feel like much right now, but it’s something.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe if we’re not here to mess things up, the villains don’t have to do all this. They just operate in the shadows, and the average guy doesn’t get hurt. Doesn’t have to see shit like this on the TV, right after their entire city nearly gets blown to bits. Hell, maybe the city doesn’t even get nearly blown up.”

  “Evil not seen is still evil” I said. “You can’t think like that man.”

  “But I do. And I think about a bunch of other things. I think about how I could be doing so much more if I actually had time to focus on my work. I think about how much time I spend apart from Liz because I’m out here doing this shit. Then I think about all the people who’ve died waiting for me, to come help them. How we can never win. Not really. How there’ll always be people we can’t save. Always be more evil. More things to beat. And they’ll get closer and closer to winning, and one day, when they do, it’ll all have been pointless. Sometimes I just think it’d all be better if I just…” he trailed off unwilling to say the rest. But I could feel the meaning intrinsically. It’d been one I’d considered if even for a moment before. But this was Peter. Sure he was human, but was he really thinking about that? He was Spider-Man. I guess he’d quit that one time when his mental health had gotten bad but had he been spiralling again or was it just the grief talking? I didn’t know. Maybe I’d just been so absorbed in myself as not to notice.

  “Pete-”

  “Sorry” he interrupted. “Ignore me. I’m just rambling man, you d-”

  We both perked up at the sound of sirens, far closer, followed by gunshots. We, glanced to each other, shared a knowing look then started for the building edge. But as Peter went to leap from the building, I stopped him. I couldn’t just not say anything. Especially now.

  “Uh- Lucas the-”

  “You’re not alone you know. Were here. And I don’t really know Liz that well but I’m sure you can talk to her. Aunt May and MJ too. Harry even.”

  He paused looking to me from the wide white lenses, his eyes fixed to mine. The moment seemed tense for a second, then he looked away nodding to himself.

  “Thanks” he muttered, his voice sincere. “But that can come later.”

  I nodded, and together we leapt from the building, descending into the street before zipping past the at the close of our webs. I fired another as we turned a corner, arcing through air before glancing up at Peter a frown crossing my face. But before a thought could form we were upon the chaos. A police cruiser chasing after a van that swerved around what little traffic there was in the area.

  Without a signal or word, Peter descended from above, slamming against the front of the car, crushing the wheel-base into the ground. It skidded violently then flipped, and we caught it with webs, stopping the car mid-air. The cruiser skidded to a stop as we landed down, the criminals and the electronics they’d stolen half falling out the car.

  We pulled them from the wreck and handed them to the officers before, bringing the car down. In the distance even more sirens blared.

  “Looters man” I muttered, sighing as I readied to swinging away.

  “Wait, it’s probably better if we split up” Peter said, stopping me.

  “Right” I nodded. “I’ll take here, you go Midtown.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. You’ve had a rough day” I said.

  “I- alright” he sighed, readying to swing away, before looking to his web-shooter. “Dammit.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “They broken?”

  “No. I’m out of web cartridges. I could call Spider-Woman but I don’t know if she’s left yet. It’ll be quicker if you take me back-” Peter paused before looking behind me. I frowned, turning to look at a window filled with TV’s a face I recognised dominating the screens. Wilson Fisk. Peter jogged past me over to the screens, looking at the footage intently before rushing into the store. I followed after him, pausing to read the headline as it passed across the screen, underwriting Kingpin’s smug grin.

  PROMISING NEW MAYORAL CANDIDATE

  I followed into the shop after Peter, coming face to face with a shocked clerk and Peter, his focus fixed on the TV in the upper corner behind the main desk.

  “W-what channel did you say?”

  “Uh- local news. Channel 41 I think. The Bugle’s thing”

  The clerk grabbed a remote and quickly changed the channel, Kingpin’s face appearing once again, but from a different angle this time, in the middle of a speech.

  “-and I have served as a policeman, school administrator, businessman and charity owner for this great city. And that is why, as of today, with the support of Senator’s Jonathan Mann, and Joanna Smith and congresswoman Erica Newman, I would like to announce the start of my mayoral campaign to serve you the people as Mayor of New York city. I know in these trying times it’s likely many of you are not even considering such things. But I implore to remember the importance of the very systems that uphold this great nation. This is how we rebuild. Through a continued effort and respect for the position of power that oversee the governance and management of this great city. With a change in legislation, culture, and a reassessment of the normativity metahumans hold within certain spheres of our city and society, I believe we can rebuild not just the buildings, but a wonderful culture for our home. Restore it to a glory before rogue metas began terrorising the streets, before crime and lawlessness was permitted to reign over the lives of each and every hardworking man and woman. Which is why as the main focus of my campaign, rather than provide empty legislative promises, I will show you my dedication to this city through action. I will be donating one million dollars to all the aid management and wellness shelters throughout the city and taking part in the cleanup of this city myself, continuing onwards irrespective of the outcome of my election. If you wish to join our clean-up and aid efforts feel free to call the number on the banner behind me, to volunteer at the Fisk Fellowship, where we aim to rebuild this great city for you.”

  The hulk of a man smiled brightly as he waved to the now cheering crowd, a thunderous applause taking the space.

  “That’s all for now. I wish you good day, and may god bless y-”

  The TV shattered, a thousand shards of plastic, and glass spraying across the room before the body of it fell to the ground. The clerk cowered on the floor, and Peter stood, taught, his fist shaking as he looked to the flickering screen, each breath loud.

  “Today” he said, turning to me. “We’re taking that fuck down today.”