First Night

The night was quiet. That would soon change, but the currently swinging Peter only cared about the silence and the not letting go of his webs. Dying again already would be bad.

Night owls and insomniacs on their balconies, or the hordes of people still out at this time of night all watched as, again, Spider-Man came soaring through the air in yet another new suit. The four arms were withdrawn at the moment, so it was just him, but they still saw the absence of his most iconic color, red. Did he not like the merchandise? No, that's not why he changed the color.

He would forever acknowledge the fact that he wasn't the true Peter Parker. Nor would he be anything like Otto's Spider-Man, with the brutality and tyrannical tendencies. Instead, he would create a whole new Spider-Man, and earn the reputation that the name of Spider-Man deserved.

He swung high in the air, latching onto the needle at the top of a building, swinging around it and to the top, perching there and surveying the city of New York. Until he heard a voice behind him.

"Hello Spider. I see you have new threads. Are you an approachable person again?" The voice of Felicia Hardy spoke, seemingly guarded. Otto hadn't been very kind to, well, most of the people in the original Peter's life. It made sense that most or all of them would currently have a negative view of him.

He sighed. "Yes, I'm...approachable again." The arrogant and haughty lilt to Otto's voice was gone now, replaced by an even more different Peter. This Peter's voice almost sounded...confused? Yet also far more confident than the old Peter ever sounded. "It's a very long, confusing, and actually improbable story."

Felicia, still relatively untrusting, rose an eyebrow. "Really? Well, I've got time. Tell me why I should ever trust you again after what you did." She herself sat down with her arms crossed, waiting for the story.

Peter turned to look at her, his mind buffering for a second at the sight of her. "I...literally wasn't myself. I've lost essentially all sense of time, but whenever I started being a total dick, right before that, Pe-I, I fought Octavius. His body, as I knew, was dying. He pulled a tactic I didn't expect, nor should I have ever expected: He pushed me into a corner of my mind and took over completely." He came down off of his perch, laying himself back on the wall of the stairwell exit. Behind the door of said stairwell exit, sat MJ Watson, listening to all of this.

Felicia sat stunned for a second before she narrowed her eyes. "How can I know you're telling the truth?" She was ready to accept it, but she needed assurance that he wasn't lying.

With a sigh, Peter raised his head. "Do you really think I would ever actually make spider-bots like that? That's a whole new level of tyranny shit." This was enough to convince both Felicia and MJ that he not only wasn't Otto anymore, but that he was still a different Peter than before. Their Peter never cussed. This one did. Otto didn't curse either, so this had to be at least some other Peter.

Peter tilted his head to the side. "MJ, you really shouldn't spy on conversations." He had heard her shuffle a little, plus Otto had installed a function in the mask that allowed for slightly better hearing. Following this, Peter took off his mask and tucked it away in his pocket.

MJ jumped a couple feet, but came out nonetheless. Felicia didn't even twitch, suggesting that they coordinated this. "P-Peter?" He turned his head only to mentally catch his jaw from dropping at the sight of her. [Dear god, she's hot. Or is it just the suit?]

He let go of his wall and landed on his feet. "Hi, MJ, how-" He was cut off by a flying hug and tears seeping through his suit.

MJ was now crying on him. Felicia felt immensely uncomfortable, and Peter had no idea what to do with himself. He settled for just wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

She then started punching his chest as hard as she could, which didn't really do anything to him. "Why would you put yourself in that danger!" She proceeded to send a few more yells at him, which he took, before she calmed down some. "I'm just glad you're back." She returned to crying on him.

He gave a light sigh. "I am too. But now I need to get back in the...swing...of things. I didn't realize that joke was coming until it was here. Sorry." He laughed. She punched him again.

She let go of him and Felicia came up behind to hug him. "I'm glad you're back and all, but maybe lose the bad jokes." She gave a light kiss to his cheek and left.

MJ gave a pout in Felicia's direction, before turning to Peter. "So, now what?" She wanted to just spend time with a Peter who didn't treat her like the plague anymore, but she knew he had duties.

He took a beat to think. "I have patrol to do, so I can get used to this stuff again, but come to my office tomorrow. Bring...bring May with you. And whoever else I hurt. Pull whatever strings you have to, I know you're good at it." He gave her a smile before turning to leave. Before he could though, she repeated Felicia's action, leaving down the stairwell. Peter smiled and put his mask back on, swinging through the streets again.

~~~~~~~~~~

Soon enough, the night was a bit louder. Rhino had somehow escaped and he didn't care about anybody's sleeping hours. Peter grinned and let his arms out, swinging to stand in Rhino's path. "Hey! Didn't I just put you away a week ago? I know you didn't get out on good behavior!" He let his arms loose, sending nets flying to the side to stick to the buildings before he took many steps back, creating a slingshot. He let himself go, catapulting in Rhino's direction.

In mid fly, he flew over Rhino and shot a web behind him, without looking, to snag Rhino's lowered horn. Using the momentum, he swung himself around Rhino to nail him in the face with both feet. Rolling on the road, he came up into his classic stance, one knee down, the other bent, one hand on the ground with the other arm out at a slight bend.

Rhino, now furious, charged forward horn first. Spider-Man laughed. "Same tricks, Aleksei! Get creative!" He jumped to the side, shooting a web bomb between Rhino's legs, tripping him and sending him face first into the wall.

Said wall was connected to the bathroom of an attractive Asian woman, who tripped out of her shower, completely naked. Spider-Man, on Rhino's back and punching him in the side of the face. "Sorry, pretty lady!" He dragged Rhino out of the woman's bathroom and left him webbed to the wall with a web net.

Dusting his hands off, Peter went home to think. Less about what happened with MJ and Felicia earlier, and even less about Rhino, but more about the naked woman.

That wasn't just any woman.

That was Cindy Moon, better known as Silk.

AN// Yes, I am adding Cindy to the harem. Canonically, she was his first rebound after regaining control of his body, so it made sense to still keep her in here as an homage to the comics.