Close Call

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Adding this part here for my own benefit.

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Chapter 10

"Hello! You must be the Parker brothers!" The slightly pudgy man said with a radiant smile as he shook their hands. For once, Xavier was the quiet one, preferring to look around at what was in the workshop. He had been set into a depression because of his thoughts of Uncle Ben, so much so that Cindy took notice and started coming over to his house to keep him company. 

"Yes, we're both very excited to see where our time here will lead us." Peter said with an equally bright smile.

"Good! Let me show you around then." Dr. Oc. walked over to a station to the immediate right of the door. "This is where we will be planning and drawing up blueprints. Over there," He pointed to the back right of the room, "Is where we will do the building."

He then led the boys over to the back left where three laptops, and at least ten different smaller tablets were next to them. "This is the programming area. Hence the amount of screens in front of you. And the last area over there is the testing zone." He pointed to the front left corner. 

"I have high expectations for the both of you. With you here, this project will be well known in no time." Octavious said, with another blinding smile.

'Well known? Yeah, you will be in no time. But under a different name.' Xavier thought to himself.

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Tonight was the finale of the tournament. Of course Peter had been doing amazing for lack of a better term. Xavier had fallen deeper into his depression as the time was drawing closer. Aunt May was incredibly worried, but Cindy said that she would help him. 

It was getting late that night and Cindy was still sitting next to him on his bed, watching a movie. He noticed how dark it was getting and checked the time, it was already 8:30 and she was still here even though she usually left by 8.

"Cindy, don't you have to go?" She just looked up at him with one of those looks that made him feel stupid all over again.

"What do you mean? I'm staying the night." She said, fixing him with a sly look. 

"...You're what?!"

"I'm staying to make sure you're okay Xavier. I'm worried about you. Is that okay with you?" Cindy was beginning to sound annoyed.

"Y-Yes." Xavier got up and closed the door before sitting back down on the bed. He was feeling a lot of different things right now. His thoughts of his late grandpa conquered his mind, while he felt both nervous at having a girl sleep in his room, and happy that she cared. 

Aunt May swung the door open, interrupting his rapid mind battle. She just stood in the doorway, her body cocked to the side, and fixed Xavier with a look that said 'You really think that'll slide?' May looked at the door, then back at him before shaking her head and leaving without a word. 

A few hours later both of them had lied down to sleep, with Cindy sleeping on the bed and Xavier having moved to the floor. Suddenly, Cindy spoke up. "You're worried about something."

Xavier was caught off guard when she said this. "What?"

"You're worried about something that's going to happen soon, right? I can tell because you're constantly sitting there like you're contemplating going to fight or something." She explained. Xavier chose to stay silent, thoughts about Uncle Ben's fate flying through his head. 

"Can you do something about it?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"...Yeah."

"Then why fuss about it and stop whatever it is from happening." She told him. 

"But-" He started to say that it needed to happen but a sudden thought stopped him. 'What if I can let it happen AND stop it from happening?' He jumped up from the floor and kissed her cheek before running out of the room. "You're the best, I'll be back!" 

Cindy sat frozen for a moment, drinking in the fact that Xavier had kissed her cheek. Knowing him, it probably meant nothing, but it was a kiss nonetheless. She smiled, then Xavier ran back into the room and over to the dresser, grabbing something before running back out the door. "Forgot this!" Seeing his antics, her smile grew into a grin. 

"This idiot, what'll he do without me around nowadays?"

===

In a big building, there was a wrestling tournament just finishing up, and currently, a man in a red outfit was fighting with a big brute. The masked man had been evading the brute's blows for about a minute, and the brute was getting increasingly frustrated. 

"Why don't you sit still, you bug!" The brute said, throwing another haymaker with his right. The masked man stepped into the blow, raising his left hand to deflect the blow to his right side. The masked man was obviously Peter, and he did this to throw off the brute's balance, taking advantage of the fact that he was putting his full strength into his blows. After all, he had taken some advice from Xavier while growing up in case he ever got into a fight. 

The brute stumbled forwards, right into Peter's fist. Landing a clean hit to the brute's jaw, Peter held back so as to not knock him out. He had been stressed lately and he wanted to let off some steam. 

The brute, having taken a hard hit to the jaw was shell shocked, stumbled around for a few seconds. Peter just stood in front of him, hands in his pockets. "I'm not a bug, I'm a spider. That's an arachnid." 

Hearing his voice, the brute snapped his attention back to Peter. "You know- Eight legs, eight eyes. The legs are the important part, if a spider has six legs, technically it's a-" He was cut off before he could finish by an incoming fist. 

"Shut up you damn bug!" 

"Sigh, never mind then." Peter led the brute around the ring for the next minute or so before having enough of holding back so much. "Let's end this shall we have a big gut?" Peter asked, standing on the brute's shoulders, crouching down to talk into his ear. 'After all, how else could this dunce understand me?'

"AARRGH" He reached up for Peter, but he had already jumped off onto the mat. And when the next punch came in, Peter performed the same counter as before, the brute too angry to think about what had happened. This time Peter hit harder, not full strength, but enough to put him to sleep for at least a day. And if you looked closely enough, you could almost see a haze like fog covering his fist, following Peter's blow a split second afterwards. 

After the winner was announced, Peter was taken up to the manager's office where he was supposed to get his payment for winning the tournament. When he walked in, the manager was sitting in his chair with his feet resting on top of the desk. He looked up at Peter. "Ah, here you go, it's your payment for tonight." He said, with a sly grin. 

Looking in front of him, Peter saw a hundred dollar bill. "What's this"?! Wasn't I supposed to get $3,000?!"

"The poster said $3,000 for three minutes, you pinned him in two. That's what you get for cutting me short, champion. It's not my problem you didn't read it closer."

Peter was so pissed off as he walked out of his office that he just watched as a man rushed by him into the office. He could hear some yelling behind him, but he paid it no mind. He ignored him still as he rushed past him again, holding a bag of money. The manager rushed out right after him and yelled at Peter. "Hey! Stop him!"

Peter turned back to him and said, "It's not my problem." Before walking away. 

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Sometime later, Peter was strolling around, still angry that he had been cheated out of his money, when Uncle Ben appeared in front of him. "Young man, do you know how long I've been out here looking for you?! May's worried sick!"

Peter began to walk around him saying, "Sorry Uncle Ben, but I need to blow off some steam."

"What, come back here so I can take you ho-" Ben was cut off by a man running into him, knocking both of them over. 

When the man had gotten back up, he leveled a gun at Peter, "Give me all the money you have!" His hand was shaking, and he was glancing in the direction he had come from. 

"I-I don't have my wallet on me!" Peter stammered. 

"Give me the money now!" He leveled the gun at Peter's head. While this was going on, Uncle Ben was off to the side, frozen in place. Though a second later, he rushed forwards to shield Peter. 

Having lost his patience and seemingly panicking from Ben's movement, he pulled the trigger. 

BANG