22 Gangs & Riots: Aftermath

"...Fuck me." Peter groaned as he realised that the cat was out of the bag. He just huffed to himself as he removed his pants and stripped to his undergarments totally disregarding that there were two women with him in the room. He shoved his suit inside his now, not-so-secret compartment.

Fishing out some shorts he wore them before turning towards the two females.

"I... Well, I can explain."

"Please do." May nodded in a very sarcastic manner as she gestured for Peter to go on.

"Well... Yeah... I'm Spider-Man." Peter sighed in defeat. "Why are you guys up this late and why are you here anyways, Gwen?"

"After you left I called May to check on you. I was really surprised and worried when May said you had not returned home." Gwen explained. "I was worried and scared that you might have... So, I came here and we waited, praying you'd return. Come home to us safely."

"Logical choice would be reporting to the police station." Peter joked lightly as he turned to close the window behind him.

"Actually I did... I called my dad and told him about this." Gwen replied as Peter's head snapped in her direction in shock.

"You did what?!"

"I suggested it, after talking with George and laying all to him, he was the one who suggested that you might be the Spider-Man. He said he had his doubts, similar attitude, familiar voice..." May explained.

"That's some bullshit." Peter commented not able to believe it.

"My dad isn't the head detective for no reason, Peter." Gwen said folding his arms. "He has had his run-ins with a fair amount of unbelievable things in his youth. He has great insight and his intuitions are mostly right."

"And look how right his intuition turned out to be." May said narrowing her eyes.

"Well, whatever..." Peter didn't know what else to say.

"How long has this been going on?" May asked as Peter walked past her.

"For a while now." Peter replied vaguely as he headed towards the showers with May storming behind him.

"Peter! Don't try to walk your way out of this!" May grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to face her. "Peter! Answer me-Oh my god?! Are you bleeding?!"

"No, it's ketchup." Peter said sarcastically.

"Oh, I see-"

"Of course, I'm bleeding!" Peter exclaimed as he shook May's hands-off and walked into the shower. "I've had a very long day so please let me take this shower in peace."

"Peter. We need to talk." May said as Gwen nodded agreeing with her.

"I'll answer your questions, whatever they may be... But now, please..."

"...hah." May sighed as she rubbed her temples as she walked into the kitchen. "This is going to be a long night."

------

"... He is in the police station right now." Peter sighed as he finished giving Gwen and May a quick summary of his life from the spider bite until now. "And that is the story of Spider-Man... Thus far."

"Wow..." May replied intelligently as she tried to process all that Peter had said. Her heart was filled with mixed feelings as she had a hard time digesting the truth about her nephew.

"So... Spider bite huh? I see..." Gwen on the other hand handled it rather well. "How does that work?"

"That's a story of another time." Peter smiled as he skillfully avoided it.

"So you kill people huh?" May muttered as Gwen winced while Peter just looked at May with an emotional face.

"I do all I can to eliminate the threat."

"That's no fucking reason to kill people!" May yelled back as she stood up.

"It's enough reason to kill the scums." Peter replied coldly as he stood up to face May. "They kill, rape, steal and do all kinds of atrocities. Some do it for greed, some do it for the thrill, some do it due to their circumstances and some do it just because they can. Life isn't black or white, May."

Peter stared into May's eyes as he raised his hands and caressed her cheeks.

"Life is black, white and different shades of grey. You make the most out of the tools given to you, make opportunities for yourself and improve your surroundings as much as you possibly can." Peter said softly as he pulled May for a huge. "That's what I'm doing. Trying to make life easy and comfortable for all of us, to protect us from any harm."

"You... You are just eighteen." May whispered as she buried her face in Peter's chest. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I know. I don't have to. But, I want to." Peter said caressing her back. Pulling back Peter looked into May's eyes and kissed her forehead. "I'll do whatever I can to protect you, no matter what I have to do, I'll do it."

Gwen looked at the scene unfolding before her with a complicated look on her face.

"So, How does that work?" Gwen asked making Peter look at her in confusion as he pulled back from the hug.

"Umm, as I said, that's a story for another-"

"No, no. I didn't mean that." Gwen shook her head as she flashed Peter a really, really sweet smile. "How does tried to bone an older woman, who happens to be your aunt, while simultaneously trying to woe a teenage girl, who is the daughter of a law enforcement officer work? Take your time to process the question and answer that."

"...May?" Peter turned to look at May who looked away avoiding the betrayed look Peter was giving her. "You did not..."

"This was the only way." May said as she looked at him with a strained smile. "I... I have acknowledged your feelings but I also cannot ignore what you and Gwen feel for each other. I want nothing but happiness for you but I... I don't want to be left out of that happiness. So, I decided to tackle this issue head-on and try to figure out a way we can all... Not hurt each other."

"May..." Peter was speechless. He never saw this coming.

"Peter, we need to talk." Gwen said folding her arms.

"Ugh, I just want to sleep already." Peter groaned as he cursed his typical Parker luck.

------

"Ugh. I need another coffee." Peter moaned as he massaged his stiff shoulder. As May had predicted last night was probably the longest night of his entire life.

After a long discussion, negotiation and argument the ladies were able to come to a simple solution. Sharing.

Peter had made it very clear to them that he was a very lustful person and he had a barely functional or more life a malfunctional moral compass and he would most likely not deny advances from women with a character if they ever fancied and went for him.

He was selfish, twisted and possessive but he promised that he would always treat them better and they would always be his priorities.

So he was going to propose to them after he took them out on a date.

After the conversation ended there was a lot of sexual tension but Peter decide to duck down as he was really exhausted and May and Gwen understood him well. So nothing happened.

"Sadly." Peter muttered as he yawned once again. By the time the conversation was over, it was already five in the morning and Peter and only managed to get three hours of sleep which led to his poor condition right now as he downed another cup of coffee while he worked on the redback spider. He had begun the process of engineering the spider as he tried to create this spider the ultimate enhanced spider.

Peter had fused his base spider with spiders of different genus like Caerostris darwini and Portia Fimbriata for their peculiar and unique abilities so that when the spider-bite does happen he will most likely be able to inherit those abilities as well. With the data, he had from OsCorp and Eryl's elaborate calculations things were proceeding at a very smooth rate and he would be done with the Spider in a few weeks if everything goes well.

Peter finished entering data into his PC as he turned towards a different workbench as he resumed working on developing his new suit. He was working on developing this suit when we would inevitably gain new abilities. His previous suit would be simply limiting him from going all out.

Peter's research on developing nanotech had reached a bottleneck as he was unable to progress after a certain point but he had progressed enough to create more intricate and sophisticated micro-circuits in his latest suit that would surely prove to be a blessing to him.

"Sir, just to remind you they will be holding Bart's funeral in an hour." Eryl reminded Peter gently who sighed as he rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.

"Yeah, I know." Peter replied in a small voice. "What is the weather forecast today."

"Expecting rain today." Eryl replied.

"Of course, it's the rain." Peter muttered to himself as he got lost in his thoughts.

"You cannot ignore this matter." Eryl urged as Peter leaned back into his chair staring blankly at the ceiling.

"I know. But I... I'm having a hard time facing this." Peter said.

"I am still in the process of learning and understanding human emotions, desires and psychology and I have much to learn but I can understand your feelings to a degree, Peter." Eryl consoled Peter. "There isn't much you can't do. It would be a bad and illogical decision to waste your time thinking about what you could have done or how you could have avoided it or how it could have been different. Instead, you should learn from your failures and make sure this does not happen again. Move on. Improvise yourself till you reach as close as you can to perfection and even perfection is never enough. Keep evolving into a better version of yourself."

"I can see how you still have a lot to learn about human emotions." Peter cracked a smile. "Emotions aren't exactly logical and this is what makes a human, human."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Peter said smiling gently. "Even your advice was as mechanical as possible it still helps me a lot to direct my thoughts."

"Rude." Peter could almost hear Eryl pouting.

"Haha." Peter chuckled as he turned towards his suit. "Thank you, Eryl."

"You are welcome, Peter."

------

As Eryl has predicted it was indeed raining. George, Harvey, Yuri and her whole team was attending the funeral of John 'Bart' Sanders. Yuri stared blankly at the gravestone as the priest departed. The rain made it hard to tell whether she was crying or not.

Trish and other officers were crying openly as they leaned onto one another for comfort.

George sighed sadly as his heart grew heavy. His eyes widened in surprise slightly as heard a familiar sound of web zipping whenever a certain web-swinger was around.

A soft thud sounded as Spider-Man landed on the mudded road of the cemetery. He stood tall and strong as the rain hit against his form. His mask betrayed no emotions but the gloomy atmosphere around him was undeniable.

A bouquet of white lilies in his hand he made his way towards Bart's final resting place. Standing in front of his grave, Spider-Man opened his mouth but no words came out.

Steeling his emotions he crouched and rested the flowers on his grave.

"I... I'm sorry." Spider-Man said as he patted the grave gently. "Please rest well, we will join you shortly."

(A/N: Quick info, so I'm from a fairly religious background. Like my grandfather and mom are really, really religious whereas me... I... I am an unfortunate product of the 21st century trying to find my place in this vast universe. This is something I really struggle with as I have no sense of purpose whatsoever. This may be the reason I resonate with NF's music so much but that's beside the point. "Please rest well, we will join you shortly." Is a small prayer we do for the departed in hopes they find comfort and rest in their final destination and afterlife with the belief there is one. And honestly, the prayer is bittersweet for me. I know nothing is permanent in this world hell this world isn't permanent and when I inevitably join them I don't want to die as a lost person who has led an uneventful life and died a meaningless death. Sorry for this weird input. Let's continue with the story!)

"We will miss you." Spider-Man said getting up. Yuri embraced Spider-Man from behind as she buried her face into his back. Spider-Man felt her shaking as she quietly sobbed into his back.

"Spider-Man." George called out as he approached him.

"Not today, Captian. I'm not in the best mood today." Spider-Man said.

"Neither am I." George said as which made Spider-Man turn his head towards him. "Relax, I don't want to antagonise you. I just want to talk."

Yuri pulled back from the hug as Spider-Man turned towards George.

"I'm resigning."

"What?"

------

"You... What have you done Osborn!" Alexander Pierce yelled in front of the big screen in a thrashed lab. On the floor was broken equipment littered across with dead bodies of Hydra agents. In the middle of the room stood a big, ugly green monster.

"Kukuku!" Green Goblin cackled to himself as he lifted the last hydra agent over his head and snapped his spine in half like a twig. "You should have killed me when you had the chance Pierce, hahaha! Now I'm coming for your head!"

"This threat will not go unanswered Osborn. You will pay for this betrayal!" Alexander grimaced.

"Call me Green Goblin." He grinned evilly as he threw aside the dead man. Alexander snarled before he cut off the connection. "But before that..."

Green Goblin turned towards another smaller screen which displayed J. Jonah Jameson daily bugle reporting Spider-Man with the label Spider-Menace.

Green Goblin grabbed the screen and crushed it.

"...I have an insect to care of."

------

Alternate Titles:

- Birth Of The Harem

- Farewell Bart

- An Ugly Premonition

------

So, there you go. Harem is established. I couldn't think of any way else to establish it. Let me know if there was some way else I could establish it and I'll try to do it once I start editing this story.

I'll also make some more corrections and provide more background to character backgrounds so it will be a completely different experience for a reread and that way I'll be able to make Bart's death... Less meaningless and seem less forced.

I'm still learning as an author and trying to grow as an individual. I'm well aware of my flaws and holes in my writing style and your criticism is helping a lot in this.

Anyways, look forward to next chapter.

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