CH18: On The Road Again, For The First Time

Naturally, I jumped in to help. Who do you take me for?

Within seconds I had five mooks webbed to different surfaces and knocked out. The others were bleeding on the ground from cuts made by the girl (Laura? Probably Laura). I could tell she made sure to keep it non-lethal, so I just nodded at her.

"Hey there! Name's Spider-Man, who're you?"

She ran at me and tried to skewer my face with her claws.

As I dodged, I looked her over.

She seemed-horizontal swipe for my leg, jump-similar to the version of her from Logan-stab for my heart, two steps to the right and lean-with her hair wild and-lean back to avoid the jumping swipe for my throat-unkept.

I caught her wrist. "Could you stop trying to kill me? I'm not with these guys, and it's really hard to build a description in my head with how you're interrupting."

She snarled at me and tried to kick me, but I gave a little skip back.

"Not a talker, huh?"

She snarled some more. I let her go.

She jumped back and remained in a ready battle position. I raised my hands, to show I wasn't going to hurt her.

She approached cautiously, claws first. She poked me, not enough to cut my suit.

"Um," she startled a little at the sound, before giving me an inquisitive look. "Would you feel better if you took my escrima sticks?"

She looked at the sticks in question, and took them for herself, before tearing them appart with her claws.

"Matt was right, buying in bulk is the right call." I muttered.

Probably-Laura poked me again, before huffing and turning around.

"Would you like me to help you out?" I asked, making her stop her retreat. "I know a place where the people that hurt you couldn't get to you."

I memorized the best way to get to the Xavier Mansion a long time ago.

She seems interested, and approaches me.

"If you wait a second, I can make a call, get a transport through some friends, and we can get you to a safe location." I shrug. "I figure that's bound to be better than whatever you're cooking at the moment."

She doesn't say anything, but nods slowly.

"Cool beans," I slowly lower my hands and pull out a phone. I call Natasha. "Hey, Nat? I found someone's lab rat-no offense, kid- and I'm about 90% sure she's a mutant. Can you send me a car or something to get her to Xavier's?"

Natasha doesn't answer for a while, before a five-second sight comes over the phone. "Why can't you call for social reasons?"

"Because you have no life outside of super-spy stuff?"

"Fair enough." I heard some tapping through the phone. "Quinjet headed your way. ETA around ten minutes."

"Thanks Nat, love you lots." I hung up and smiled at her. "Wanna sit here while we wait?"

She didn't respond, but I sat down. Eventually, she sat down too.

"So, know any good-"

[Wheels on pavement, full speed.]

I jumped to my feet and looked down the way I heard the truck. Probably-Laura starts, but then she sniffs in the direction I'm looking and growls.

"Kid!" she snaps to look at me. I point at an alley. "Go over there and hide. I'll take care of it."

She hesitates, before nodding and pulling back her claws. She runs over.

The truck stops in front of me. The same logo that's in the mooks' armor is on the side.

The back opens and four people exit the truck.

A man wearing a skull mask and a white cloak. Taskmaster, capable of copying any moveset he sees.

A woman wearing a red bandana with two sai strapped to her hips. Elektra, the kunoichi.

A white-haired girl, with two pistols strapped to her tights. Probably Silver Sable, mercenary badass extraordinaire.

(And love interest of Spider-Man, a treacharous part of my brain whispered.)

And the last one was...

Oh god, not him.

"Hey! That's Spider-Man." Deadpool said. "Hi Spidey! I'm Deadpool! I'm a huge fan!"

Oh, just shoot me while you're at it, why don't you?

I ignore him and turn to look at the white-haired girl. "I take it you're this motley crew's leader?"

She blinked, surprised. "Most men tend to assume Taskmaster is."

"Not a man," I muttered, before picking up my volume again. "Well, this seemed like an unlikely crew, so I assumed a seemingly-unlikely leader. Who the hell are you?"

"I'm known as Silver Sable," she doesn't look much like the comics. She's got the skin-tight bodysuit, sure, but her hair is shoulder-length and straight, there's no silver bandana-thingie, and she's younger. My age, perhaps? "We are looking for a lost experiment."

"A lost experiment?" it took all of the discipline Natasha beat into me to not show how I felt about that terminology. "Yours?"

"No, our client's," Elektra said, sounding disinterested. "A weapon shaped like a girl."

"Oh, that experiment!" I pointed down the opposite way from the alley. "Yeah, she went over there."

"And you let her?" Taskmaster asked. "I thought you were a hero. And I can't help but notice the knocked-out mooks around you."

Oof, I forgot about them.

"Look, I have a very punch-clock attitude about heroing," I shrugged. "I thought the mooks at my feet were kidnapping an innocent mutant, then she tried to stab me, so I let her go. I'd offer to pay for how I hurt them, but I'm not made of money, so you'll have to live with a heart-felt 'my bad'."

They didn't seem impressed. Elektra picked up the thread, "Why are you still here?"

"I notice that these guys are wearing a uniform. I figured the company would come looking for them. Now, are you going to look for your experiment and leave my city, or do I have to kick you out?"

"Hm, you tell lies with grace befitting a spy," Sable said, "But you didn't account for one thing. We put a tracker on the experiment."

She pulled up a sleek device, and while she looked at the screen, I shot a Web Line at Elektra, pulled her to me, and punched her into the ground, knocking her out when her head hit the ground.

"Fine," I said, running at Sable, who'd already dropped the device and was unholstering both pistols. "We'll do this the hard way."

I jumped and tried to kick her in the face, but she rolled under me and shot up. I pulled away with a Web Line, but Deadpool was already there, katanas in hand, trying to cut off my head.

"If you keep this up, you're not getting an autograph," I said, dodging his swipes.

"I'll live," he said carelessly, before adopting a dangerous tone. "But you won't."

I hit him with an uppercut so hard it broke his jaw and he flew off a few dozen meters.

"Just to check," I turned around and dodged some more gunfire from Sable. "That guy heals, right?"

"Yeah," I turned around and-SHIT!

I spend the next few moments in a panic, dodging swipes from Taskmaster's sword, until it catches me in the upper arm. I hiss and jump back, right into Sable's line of fire, where I have to dodge again.

"Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-double fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck," I mutter, jumping and rolling and spinning and webbing away from every shot and attack. Taskmaster tries to get in close range again a few more times, but I jump away from him and shoot webs, which he dodges flawlessly. "Dammit, where's that quinjet?"

I ducked just in time to dodge Deadpool's triumphant return, having teleported behind me.

"You're a jerk!" he shouted, stabbing at me.

As a reply, I catch one of his swords, snap it in half, and stick the removed part into his throat.

"So, seriously, he can heal from this?" I asked.

"Yeah, no worries," Taskmaster said, again running for me, dodging away from the webs I shot his way. "But you've got bigger concerns than- GAH FUCK!"

That last part was because of Almost-Definitely-Laura jumping out of the alley he was passing by and drop-kicking him in the side.

"Kid! I told you to stay hidden!" I shout, even as I turn around and fire webs at Sable, who dodges and returns fire. I hear the girl huff and that distinctive sound of Adamantium claws coming out of their sheaths.

She rushed forward and tried to attack Taskmaster, but he wasn't surprised again. He dodged away from the claws and struck with his sword at the soft spots, avoiding her adamantium skeleton.

...

I won't get into details, but if there's one thing that pisses me off beyond anything else, it's assholes that think they can get away with hurting kids.

"HEY, FUCK-SKULL!" Taskmaster barely had a second to look at me before my fist slammed into his head.

The trick to fighting someone that picks up every single fighting style he sees is to keep punching them until they go down, without a second to react.

Again and again, I hit him. Sometimes I jumped back to dodge a shot Sable felt safe making in between dodging Laura, who'd moved on to attack her, but I never had more than half a second between hits.

A punch to the side of the head, an uppercut to his stomach, a headbutt, a kick to the side, a punch to the jaw, a kick to the crotch, a kick to the chest, and finally, a kick to the face, slamming Taskmaster into a wall, where he slumped, completely K.O.'d.

Then I turned to look at Laura, Sable and Deadpool. I could tell Laura was scared, and that neither Deadpool nor Sable looked forward to fighting me.

The first to recover was Sable, and that's why everything went wrong.

She tapped a device to the side of the kid's neck, and I could see electricity discharging against her.

Ever since my first run-in against Electro, I was a little flinchy around electricity. Still, I charged forward, where Deadpool met me with both guns out and the chunk of katana still sticking out of his throat.

He shot at me, I dodged, and tried to punch him in the face, but he dodged and kicked me in the chest, actually making me take a step back.

"Huh, I actually got a hit in on you," he aimed a gun at my face, and was about to say something else, but I grabbed the gun, stuck it in his mouth, and pulled the trigger, before grabbing him by the neck and throwing him at Sable, who punched him aside.

"You're seriously going to kidnap a kid?" I growled, still a bit out of breath from Deadpool's kick. Fucker hits hard.

"It's nothing personal," Sable replied, pulling some round device thing-a-majig and tapping it, making it glow a soft blue. "It's just business."

At that moment, I learned something about myself.

I already knew, from the moment I decided to become Spider-Man, that I would hate villains that try to make things personal.

But seeing someone kidnap a kid that did nothing but try and defend herself?

"Bitch, I'll make this personal," I growled.

A ball of blue energy emerged from the orb, but I didn't hesitate to jump into it.

And then the world snapped-

-And suddenly we were in a metal room.

My thought process was basically:

'We got teleported? SHIT! Whatever, I can deal with that later.'

And then I knocked out Sable with one punch.

C'mon, she's basic human, and I'm Spider-Man.

I grabbed Laura, and looked around. The room was empty, but there was a door that was opening, and a man with brown hair, combed to the left, entered, holding a spray bottle. I immidiately webbed that shit up, stuck to webs to his chest, and dragged him over to knock him out with a punch.

I rushed out of the room, and came across a dozen guards, all wearing the same uniform as the other mooks.

"Fine," I spat. "Let's do this!"

Something happens, when you fight a lot. Eventually, it becomes a daze, and you kinda disconnect. Your body does what you trained it to do, but you're just moving forward, slamming everything in your way against the nearest wall.

The world's a blur, and you just march on forward until you're where you want to be.

Case in point, I smashed a door open and we found ourselves in...

... some snowy fucking woods.

"... Motherfucker, if I find out I'm in Alaska, I'm going to tear somebody a new asshole."

It took some running, which meant my feet were all wet, but I found a town.

Probably-Laura was still asleep, not that I did anything to wake her up, but she woke up just as we were breaking into a clothing store, with me having webbed the cameras first.

She almost screamed, but I quickly covered her mouth.

"I'm helping you escape from... whatever that place is. I need you to stay calm and not stab me. Okay?"

She nodded, and pulled the claws away from my throat, where she'd almost gutted me like a fish.

I uncovered her mouth, left her on her feet, and quickly ran around the store.

I was tall even in my previous life, and now that I had spider powers and lots of training, I was somewhere around 6'2'', so the clothes I eventually settled on wasn't perfect, but it fit enough.

I eyeballed Probably-Laura's size, handed her some clothes, and told her to get changed in, well, the changing room, while I waited outside.

According to my phone, we weren't in Alaska. Those were the good news.

The bad news were that we were stuck in Oregon.

"Fuck me and my entire lineage," I grumbled.

My phone started ringing, and I saw it was Natasha.

I answered, "Before you ask, we got teleported."

"Of course you did," she sighed. "Spider-Man, the mercenary organization involved is Sable International."

"Really? I didn't read that on the side of their big-ass armored truck."

"Quit being a smartass," she chided me. "This is serious, that company is run by the single toughest teenager that side of you."

"She sounds charming. Is she single? I could use a palate-cleanser."

"Jake, she has diplomatic immunity. The kind that makes her virtually untouchable."

Ah, comic-book diplomatic immunity. The perfect excuse not to get a serious team with the public eye on it, like the Avengers, involved. I see you, universe. I got your number.

"Well, that's fine. We'll make our own way there," I sighed. "How's everything around there?"

"Fury's mad I took a quinjet to do you a favor. Elektra and Taskmaster are mad that we're holding them in containment for as long as we can and that you knocked them out. Good job on that, by the way. I'm very proud."

Something in me got fluttery when she told me I did a good job. The 'notice-me-spider-sempai' instinct, if you will. "No biggie. Taskmaster gave me trouble, though."

"He does that," Natasha said. "Do you have a plan?"

No.

"Yeah, I got this shit on lock."

"Good. I'll trust you on that."

We exchanged a few more pleasantries and then we stopped calling. She adviced me to keep my phone turned off for the rest of the trip, in case Sable International hacked it. I did so, after taking out a marker I kept on my utility belt and noting down the Parker home number and some directions on my arm.

Laura came out of the dressing room, all bundled-up. "'m done."

"Okay, wait here while I change, okay sweetie?"

She nodded, and I did as such.

After that, we snuck out of the room, and she kept watch while I broke into and hotwired a car.

"Let me tell you," I told her, as we drove off. "There's nothing quite like training from two experienced heroes, one of them a spy. You learn a lot of useful stuff on this line of work."

She didn't answer.

"... right," I cleared my throat. "So! What's your name?"

"... Laura."

"Cool! I'm Jake." I'd taken off my mask and utility belt, and hid them under the back seats. "Jake Fletcher, in case you'd like to know my surname too."

She didn't answer.

I grabbed a disk from the dashboard and put it in without looking to see what it was..

"Oh, sweet!" I smiled, as Queen's awesome music started filling the room. "I love this song!"

I hummed and nodded along, as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' rang out. It was probably a greatest hits album, or something the car owner made themselves.

Laura seemed a little weirded out at first, but eventually she started copying me and nodded along to the song.

"Hey," I pointed at the speakers at both sides of the dashboard. "If you pay attention, you can tell that some of the song is made to come from the right speaker, and some of it from the left."

Laura's brow furrowed, and she leaned in to listen more closely, before her eyes widened when she heard it and she turned to look at me.

"Cool, right? That's one of the things that set Queen -that's the band- apart." I smiled with bittersweet nostalgia.

It had been a long time since I was in my old life, but some little things reminded me of it.

I spent a lot of time, sitting in the front with my dad driving us through the snow and him telling me cool stuff about bands we liked.

He always felt eternal.

I sure missed him.

"Are you okay?" I looked at Laura out of the corner of my eye, and I realized my expression was probably wistful or some shit.

"Oh, yeah," I forced a smile and kept driving, as the snow storm started to pick up. I turned up the heat. "Just some memories."

She nodded with understanding, and she leaned back. Her eyes fluttered close, but she shook her head to stay awake.

"You can sleep if you like," I smiled. "I'll wake you up when we get to a diner."

She nodded, and closed her eyes.

"D'awww," I couldn't help myself. She looked so cute and peaceful.

Until she opened her eyes and glared at me.

"Sorry, I'll be quiet."

She closed her eyes again.

Can anybody find meeeeee~ somebody to love?

I paused the song, softly shook Laura awake, and we walked into the diner, after pulling some loose money from the glove compartment.

We sat side by side at the counter, with a trucker looking at us weird until we stared him down. Then the burly guy turned back to his meal.

Belatedly, I took off the hat I'd been wearing since the clothing store and combed my hair with a hand distractedly. I glanced at the T.V., which was showing the news.

Some coverage of the fight, apparently a few hours ago. I'd lost track of time on the road.

"Hey, sweetie," I turned and saw a kind-looking woman smiling at me. Clearly a very practiced smile, from lots of time on the service industry. "What can I get you?"

"Oh, yeah," I quickly looked through the menu. "I'll have some coffee, bit of cream and lots of sugar. Laura, anything to drink?"

She pointed at a drawing of orange juice on the kids menu.

"Right, some orange juice for her," I looked at the food. "How are your pies?"

"Best in the state," she said, proud.

"That's what they said at the other generic diner," I joked.

"Yeah, but their secret ingredient is rat poop," she answered easily, and I snorted.

"Fair enough, I'll have some... cherry pie. Laura? You gotta eat something."

She looked at the menu, which I titled towards her, and tapped the apple pie.

"Apple pie for her."

The waitress' smile seemed more genuine now. "Coming right up."

"Oh! Before you leave, our map got kinda ruined. Do you know where I could get a new one?"

Without a word, she reached under the counter and handed me a map.

"Oh. Thanks!"

"No problem, hun." She winked, and sauntered off.

Laura looked at the menu, and saw that there was one of those labyrinth puzzle things. She started looking around for a crayon, and I handed her my marker that I'd moved from the utility belt to my pocket.

Soon enough, Laura was keeping busy with the puzzle, and I was trying to decyphre the road map.

"First time taking a road trip?" the burly trucker guy that was sitting with us asked.

"Pretty much," I said, still looking at the map. "Laura's birthday's coming up, and I wanted to treat her with a trip to the Big Apple."

The guy nodded, and switched to the seat next to mine to help me plan out the route.

Honestly, it was a bit scary how easy manipulating people got after Black Widow's training.

After we planned our trip, Jimbo the Friendly Burly Trucker bid us goodbye, wished Laura a happy birthday, and walked away.

The waitress came with our food and drinks, and she told me she heard what I was doing and what a good big brother I was.

"Wish my brother had been like that when we were young," she huffed.

"So, yesterday?" I said, and she laughed, smacking my hand. "By the way, is there a phone here? Cell's out of batteries."

She gave me some change and I dialed the Parkers on a landline payphone.

The whole place kinda had this outdated charm to it.

After some panicked questions from May, I gave her the quick notes of the situation.

"I'm proud of what you're doing for that girl," she said, as I watched Laura try to inhale her apple pie. Girl was obviously a fan. "But are you sure no one else can do this?"

"Doesn't seem like it," I admitted. "I'll just try to look at it like an intense road trip."

She huffed, but accepted it and said she'd pass the news along.

I hung up, and almost left until I saw what was beside the landline pay phone.

A jukebox. I'd always wanted to use a jukebox.

And then I saw what the sign said.

[Three plays for a dollar.]

"Oh. My. God." I whispered, almost venerating.

I looked through the selection. Tom Jones was there, in all his vaguely-greasy glory.

'I have to do this,' I thought. 'This is a sign from the Great Web of Fate to tell me I'm doing the right thing.'

I put in seven dollars and selected twenty 'What's New Pussycat?'s and one 'It's Not Unusual' in the eight slot.

So I sat down next to Laura again, and we waited.

What's new, pussycat?~

I smiled as the song kept playing, and then I had to hide my smile behind my coffee when it started ending.

Everyone was weirded out when it played again, but ignored it. By the fifth play, even Laura looked annoyed.

Then, my senses picked up on a vehicle to small to be truck and too big to be a car approaching, about two blocks away.

I asked the waitress for a refill, and instead of drinking, I just ate my pie as fast as possible.

"Laura?" she looked at me. "I'm gonna need you to hide in the bathroom for a sec, okay sweetie?"

She blinked, before realizing why I asked that. She nodded and marched dutifully to the bathroom.

I looked over my shoulder. Five mooks came out of the truck, as well as a Cape, if the skin-tight bodysuit and creepy smile were any indication.

I took a slow sip of my coffee. Damn, it was really good, too.

The mooks entered, and surrounded me, weapons aimed at my head.

The Cape slowly walked, and smiled at me. I looked at her in the reflection of some metal from the kitchen.

"The experiment?" she asked.

"You're never going to lay a hand on her," I told her. "Matter of fact, you're not going to lay a hand on anything if you start this."

"On account of you chopping them off?" she asked, and did something that I barely picked up.

[The floor straining as she became suddenly heavier]

Hm, what could she do that makes her heavier, and presumably tougher, without changing her appearance?

I took a sip of my coffee to buy time, as the answer came to me. Density control, like Kitty Pryde.

"On account of you being dead, actually," I looked at my coffee mournfully. I definitely had to sacrifice it, then. "Density control, right? That's what you just did?"

Her smile dropped. "Wha-?"

'What's New Pussycat?' faded out.

'It's Not Unusual' started.

When she opened her mouth, I tossed the coffee over my shoulder, and it landed on her mouth. She choked and fell back as it went down the wrong tube, into her lungs, and I took the opportunity to slam the cup into a mook's face, breaking it. Then I used the chunk I was still holding to cut the lower part of his face before kicking him into a wall, where he slumped, unconscious.

"Okay," I smiled, as the weapons were reaimed, Smile-Lady threw up the coffee on her lungs and the instrumental intro rang out and ended. "Let's see who holds out the longest."

I rush forward, before anyone can pull the trigger, and straight up kick the second mook in the dick so hard his head got stuck on the ceiling.

The third mook pulls a knife, but I catch his wrist and judo-flip him into the ground, where I kick him in the head so hard he's knocked out.

The fourth shoots at me, but I snap my head sideways to dodge the shot and slam a hand to his throat, leaving him to choke.

The fifth throws his weapon on the ground, so I just hit him in the stomach and let him pass out peacefully.

Except for the throwing up. Ew. My bad.

Smile-Lady finally finishes coughing the coffee while I put on my mask. Every other patron had left, and I moved too fast for anyone to really see my face, so my identity was presumably safe. She stands up straight and wipes the coffee from her chin. "You think you're clever?"

"Rarely," I smiled under my mask. "So, density control, that's nifty. Does it protect your inner organs too?"

"Yes," she hisses.

"Heartrate says otherwise," I smiled even wider. "It's not nice to lie, smiles."

She lunged for me, and I punched her in the head three times as I moved away, adopting a boxer's stance.

"You've got a good power, I'll give you that." I said, making some footwork. "But even the toughest helmets can't keep you from getting concussed if you're punched in the face enough times. Ask the NAFL."

She growled and tried to hit me again. She moved like an amateur, and I had to laugh. Thugs that got powers never bothered to train to cover other bases.

And really, that's the thing about Spider-Man.

Individual villains can be stronger, tougher, faster, smarter or flat-out more powerful. But Spider-Man is a jack of all trades.

Invulnerable and enough strenght to punch a tank into orbit? Good luck hitting me.

Every attack she made, I just dodged out of the way, and no matter how much she tried to defend herself, I kept dancing around her attacks and through her defense, punching and punching and punching.

My knuckles hurt like hell, but I kept going, used to the feeling.

"ENOUGH!" she screamed. "You can't stop me from getting Laura back!"

"Huh, I'm surprised you acknowledge her name," I admitted. "But I'm not going to do that unless you give me a good reason."

"A good reason? She's mine! She is mine to play with, and hurt, and break!" Spittle flew out of her mouth. "MINE! Do you hear me?! MINE, MINE, MINE! ALL-"

I didn't let her finish. I just grabbed her by the throat and tossed her through a wall into the kitchen.

Density control meant she was extremely heavy. I didn't care, I picked her up with one hand and tossed her like garbage.

I ran in, and checked out the sink. It was one of those big metal ones made to put in a lot of dishes at once. Lucky me, it was empty. I set it to be filled while the bitch stood up.

"Who in the hell do you think you are?" she snarled.

"I'm Laura's guardian," I growled, lifting her up by the back of the neck with her facing away, and held both her hands behind her back. "And you will never touch her again."

I held her with her head in the sink as it slowly filled with water. She tried to hold her breath, but my grip on her throat tightened and she opened her mouth, letting the water in. Bubbles came up as the sink overflowed and spilled to the ground.

It was a while, with the cunt still alive and conscious, but fading, that I realized Laura was looking at me.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eyes.

From her expression, I could tell Laura recognized her abuser.

And then I realized, this moment would shape everyone involved.

Laura was seeing me, the man that crashed into her life and started looking after her, killling her abuser, the woman that did God-knows-what to her. If I actually killed her, what would she become?

What would I become?

The Avengers wouldn't be that mad at me for killing someone that tortures kids. They'd force me to register, but that wasn't a big deal compared to everything else. I highly doubt Laura would mind either, beyond some expected emotional shock.

But Spider-Man doesn't kill.

I waited until the bitch was completely knocked out and released her. She coughed up water but, stayed passed out.

I took off my mask. "Let's go, Laura."

She nods.

We walk to the car, I take the map on the way out and leave some money to pay for the pies, juice and coffee, we sit down. I turn off the music before it gets two notes in.

We drive for a while.

"You should have killed her," Laura tells me, eventually. The snow storm is raging quietly. I always liked thunderstorms more than snowstorms.

For a while, I don't answer. Eventually, I admit, "I thought about it."

"Why didn't you do it?" she demands, her voice rising. "Why didn't you kill her?!"

"... I know she hurt you, Laura-"

"You don't know anything!" she cried. "You don't know what it's like!"

"I don't," I admitted. "And I'm sorry, Laura."

She looked like she wanted to stick her claws in my head, but stopped when she saw the tears streaming down my face.

"I'm so, so sorry." I said. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner."

I wiped my tears. Visibility was bad enough without me crying like an idiot.

"... Why didn't you do it?" she asked again, calmer this time.

"Do you know what that mask I was wearing means?" she shook her head. "It's what I wear to be a hero. I wear it so I can't get in trouble for executing vigilante justice, and so the people I fight can't tell that I'm scared.

"When I wear that, I'm not Jake. I'm Spider-Man. And being Spider-Man means that I have to be... better."

Laura didn't look like she understood, so I tried to explain. "I mean, the reason I started trying to be a hero was that I wanted to do the right thing. I got these powers, and I made a decision. With great power there must also come great responsibility.

"I have to be better than people that use their powers to hurt innocent people."

"So you didn't kill her because of this responsibility?" Laura asked.

"Pretty much."

Laura didn't say anything, before speaking with that typical self-assuredness children posses. "Responsibility sucks."

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah it does, Laura. But someone has to do the right thing. Save civilians from muggers, help old ladies cross the street..."

I smiled at her. "Help little girls escape the bad guys."

And that changed it for her.

Because at first, she saw my whole 'power/responsibility' as something bad. As the thing that stopped me from killing that bitch back at the diner.

But now it was different. Now, it was the thing that lead me to take her away. And she was starting to realize that I was going to save her.

So, she sat there, with a thoughtful expression.

And we drove on.