Appreciation

As Silk found out the news about her brother, Spider-Man arrived at the location of the military base where Norman was doing his human testing. However, once he arrived, he found that the entire base was completely empty.

There were no soldiers.

No vehicles.

No life whatsoever.

It was as if the entire lab never even existed beneath the abandoned facility.

"They cleared everything out... it was as if there was nothing here..." Eren said into his comms, in disbelief that they were able to move everything and everyone so fast. It was as if they knew he was coming a day in advance.

"Eren..." Harry spoke into Eren's ear, only transmitting his words to just Spider-Man himself. "Check Cindy's feed..."

Spider-Man immediately pulled out his phone to find Silk outside of her home, as it was on fire. He watched as the young heroine panicked, begging to see her brother before she wound up in front of his body in a body bag, showing the two boys his nearly unrecognizable corpse.

"Albert..." Eren whispered, feeling tears beginning to form in his eyes as his future brother-in-law was no more.

Silk's feed then went dark as she removed the contacts from her eyes. "Wait, Cindy!" Eren tried to stop her, but she removed her comms right after. She'd fully gone rogue...

Hours passed, and during that time, both Harry and Eren had been frantically searching for Silk. Eren, knowing exactly what it's like to be in her situation, knew exactly what she was planning. He knew she was planning to do to Norman what he had done to Fisk.

Both Harry and Eren were adamant about not letting that happen. For the most part, they agreed that Norman deserved what was coming to him, however, neither of them wanted her to cross that line herself.

At least that's what Harry told himself. In reality, he wanted to kill Norman more than anything.

"I can't find anything on them." Harry was desperately clicking all over his computer screen in an attempt to find any information on the whereabouts of the Green Goblin, as well as the whereabouts of their best friend, Cindy Moon.

Eren, on his laptop, was also searching through multiple outlets while spamming Cindy with calls and texts. Harry looked back at Eren's face solemnly as he could visibly witness the extreme desperation on his face. Every once in a while, Eren would mutter something to himself as if he were talking to Cindy.

Suddenly, Harry's phone began to ring and the caller ID said Unkown. Harry hesitated, he was afraid that it was going to be his father, despite the fact that they were looking for him.

Eren could sense Harry's hesitation, staring at him with an ice-cold glare. "Answer it." Eren's voice was stern. Harry could see the disdain for Norman in Eren's eyes as he spoke. Without saying a word, he nodded and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" His worried voice traveled through the phone before being met with a grotesque cackle. The laughter continued for about five seconds, compelling Harry to look over at Eren with an uneasy expression. Eren glared back at him with the same cold stare.

"Harryyyyy." The Goblin's harrowing voice spoke his son's name, sending a chill down his entire being.

"What did you do? Why did you attack her family!? You killed her little brother!" Harry clamored into the phone at his father, shaking with pure rage and provoking the Goblin to merely laugh at him before speaking to him condescendingly.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Harry, it seems you still don't understand. I'm teaching you a lesson here. Your little friend is lucky she wasn't there, I wonder where she went..." He began to cackle once more, and Eren began to become even more visibly frustrated as the Goblin taunted his lover.

"You have social media, don't you? All boys your age usually do..." This was vague, however, the Green Goblin's disgusting cackle that followed after made this vague statement all the more menacing.

"What-" Before Harry could say another word, his father yelled at him through the phone.

The Green Goblin interrupted his son, shouting in a somewhat sing-songy fashion until shifting into a more demanding tone. "Bomb's-a-tickin'! Go ahead and check the Spider-Man Requests page. Do it!"

Harry immediately looked for the Spider-Man Requests page, something that was used for people to report crimes or ask for Spider-Man's help. Eren would check it out when things were slow, so people often posted a lot there if they needed him.

"Oh my God..." Harry was in disbelief as he stared at a post that his father made using an account called @TheGreenGoblin1. Eren shot up out of his seat and looked over Harry's shoulder to read the post for himself.

"Jesus Christ." After reading the horrifying message, Spider-Man quickly flashed out of the room using his Ultimate Godspeed form.

The message on the website read as follows:

'Hello, Spiders! I have a little bit of a surprise for you. Since you all want to play the hero, how about I show you why being a hero and saving the weak-minded fools beneath us is waste of time. I have placed four bomb packs in four locations! They are on the map attached below! How many lives can you save in the next five minutes? Better hurry! :)'

The bombs were located in four areas on opposite corners of the city. There was one in the ESU library, another inside a children's pizza playhouse, another in a hospital, and the last one in a retirement home. Eren decided to go in order from closest to furthest, starting with the library and ending with the children's pizza playhouse.

Spider-Man dashed into the library and screamed as loud as possible to alert everyone to exit the building. "There's a bomb! Get out!" Through all of the panic, he flashed around throughout the entire first floor until he found a backpack filled with bombs right next to one of the main support beams. 'There's enough bombs in here to bring the whole building down...'

Once Spider-Man retrieved the bombs, he sprinted out of the library and threw the bomb pack into a nearby body of water. Without taking a moment to breathe, he dashed through the city once more to the next location, the children's hospital. With each step, he attempted to push himself faster, knowing that he didn't have much time left.

Once he arrived, he yelled for everyone who is able to move on their own to evacuate as he searched for the bomb. He found another bomb pack hanging on the ceiling beneath a floor full of child cancer patients. The sight of it made Eren sick. 'What kind of despicable human being would do such an egregious act?' He thought to himself. Spider-Man left this location with the bomb packs strapped to his back, zipping his way to the next location.

At the children's pizza playhouse, a group of kids was playing in the ball pit. The boys were pushing each other around playfully and performing wrestling moves on each other as they messed about in the pit. One of the boys performed a suplex on what appeared to be his brother, causing him to cry in pain.

"Ow! Something hard is underneath the ball pit." He rubbed his head, holding back tears. This child was wearing what appeared to be a custom-made Spider-Man shirt with a circular version of his mask in the center of it. Wanting to be a hero like him, the boy held back his tears and continued to play with his brother.

Eren continued dashing across to the west side of the city toward the assisted living facility. He burst into the building and ordered the nurses to try and get as many people out of the building as possible while he searched for bombs. Within a short amount of time, he found one of the packs inside of the cafeteria before taking it outside to throw it and the pack on his back into the water nearby.

At that point, he knew it was just a matter of seconds before the last bomb exploded inside the pizzeria. He immediately used everything he had to dash his way over toward the final location, sending all of his energy to his legs as he did before when he attempted to stop Namor's wave.

The child at the pizza playhouse held up a pumpkin bomb in his hand and showed it to his brother. The two looked at the pumpkin bomb with puzzled expressions as it chimed in at a constant rate. They looked down to see a couple more of them peeking out of the pit, beeping louder by the second.

"Mommy, what's this?" The Spider-Man fan said as he held the bomb in his hand. His mother looked up at him slightly, without looking at the item closely, and dismissed him.

"It's a ball, honey." The young mom continued to scroll through her phone nonchalantly as she spoke before she began reading a story about bombs being placed in four locations. She wasn't alarmed at all, no one would bomb a children's playhouse, she thought.

The pumpkin continued to chime in the boy's hand. The older brother left the balls pit and ran over to his mother to get her attention, pulling on her arm.

"Mommy? Why is it beeping." The beeping on the bomb grew to the point where even the adults outside of the ball pit could hear it. Once it gained their attention, a few of the parents stood up out of their seats and began running toward the ball pit.

The mother's eyes widened upon reading that the bombs were reportedly planted in the very children's pizza playhouse that her family was in at that very moment. "There's a bomb threat!" One of the employees shouted, bursting into the room to see the boy in the Spider-Man t-shirt holding the bomb in question.

Spider-Man then crashed through the entrance, seeing the child holding the grenade in his hand."Everybody move!" He shouted, knowing he only had a couple of seconds left as he dashed toward the boy in the ball bit.

Spider-Man knocked the bomb from the boy's hand as he used his arms to grab the child, hugging him tightly and turning his back to face the bombs as the countdown reached its end.

𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈!

The explosion was followed by the nightmarish shrieks coming from the parents and children who witnessed everything happening before them. All that could be seen was smoke coming from the ball pit, along with a bit of fire that was being extinguished by the sprinklers from above.

As the smoke began to clear and reveal what was on the other side, the child was seen wearing a miniature version of Spider-Man's costume, being embraced by a teenager. The child looked at his arms, then at his body, seeing that he was completely unscathed thanks to the Spider-Matter covering them. Spider-Matter was by no means invisible, but it could withstand being next to an explosion.

Eren Parker, holding onto the kid, was trembling as he looked forward. His body was in immense pain, but he didn't care. As long as everyone was safe, the pain could be ignored.

"Is everyone okay?" Eren asked, still quavering as he still had the child in his embrace. He looked around, seeing that everyone was okay before his vision began to fade and he collapsed onto the ground due to his injuries. As he fell, everyone could see that the back of his clothes was completely shredded and the skin on his back was charred from the explosion.

"Is he dead?" One of the kids whispered. An adult walked over and felt Eren's pulse, letting out a sigh of relief upon feeling that his heart was still functioning. "He's alive."

The people in the crowd began to murmur amongst each other, in disbelief that this was the man beneath the mask after all this time as they gazed at his exposed, young face.

"Is that really him?"

"He's just some kid..."

"I knew he was Black!"

"He's so young."

As the fire sprinklers rained down on them and the employees began putting out the ball pit fire with a fire extinguisher, the people lifted the hero and placed him atop one of the tables. One of the mothers removed her sweater and placed it under the boy's head to act as a pillow.

After a few moments, Eren Parker opened his eyes and leaned up to see that dozens of people were surrounding him, along with the child wearing his Spider-Matter. Eren reached for his face, feeling that his mask was gone, and started to panic.

The child walked up to him and extended his hands outward toward the hero. He wasn't sure how it worked, but he assumed that the suit would be transferred back to him via touch as it did for him.

The kid pressed his hand against Spider-Man's chest, forming a black spider symbol that was soon surrounded by red. That red shifted into blue once they reached the sides of his torso, continuing up and under his arms. A red waistline formed, wrapping around his entire waist as his legs were then covered by blue. The blue continued all the way down before the shoes began forming with the same, radiant red as the main portion of the suit.

Lastly, an all-red mask covered his face, concealing the boy's identity once again. "We won't tell anybody." The boy wearing the Spider-Man shirt told the hero.

Spider-Man looked around at the crowd and they were all in agreeance.

"Yeah, your secret's safe."

"My lips are sealed."

"No one saw a thing."

A big smile formed on the little boy's face as he began to jump around and cheer after finally meeting and being saved by his hero.

"Mommy, mommy! It was so cool! It was pew!" Then the other brother joined in. "And then boom! And then bam, bang!" The kids continued on with their onomatopoeias as Eren looked on with a slight smile under his mask. The mother, with tears streaming down her face, hugged both of her sons tightly before looking up at the hero.

"Thank you." Her sincere, motherly voice resonated with Eren. Sometimes, when things are rough, he'd forget why continued to be a hero, however, moments like these acted as a reminder to him.

"Yeah." Spider-Man responded, hiding his pleased face under the mask. However, his expressive lenses showed that he was glad to be of help.

"Thank you."

"Thank you so much."

"Thank you, Mr. Spider!"

The entire room showed their appreciation to him for saving the children. He jumped from the table and began waving to everyone awkwardly as being praised like this wasn't something he was used to. It'd been a while since he last felt appreciated like this, it almost made him forget the dire situation he was in.

The kid with the Spider-Man shirt rushed back to him with a piece of paper and showed it to him. It was a crayon drawing of the boy next to Spider-Man, punching bad guys in the face together. Spider-Man was wearing the red and blue costume that was currently on his body, it was a design that the boy made himself.

The hero crouched down to get on the boy's level, smiling at him from behind his mask.

"I drew this earlier, see!" The kid held the paper nearly an inch away from Eren's face, causing him to let out a little laughter.

"That's amazing, buddy. I bet that one day, you'll grow up and be a world-class artist."

"Mhm! You can have it and sell it when I'm rich and famous!" The kid had a confident smile on his face while gesturing for his hero to take his art donation from him.

Eren hesitated for a second, as the gesture caught him off guard. Despite his hesitation, he reached out to grab the paper from the boy. "What's your name, kid?"

"My name is Chris!" The boy said excitedly.

"Thank you, Chris." The kid's eyes widened upon hearing the hero say his name. Spider-Man took the paper, folded it, and held it up to his chest.

"I'll keep it with me at all times. That way, we'll stop the bad guys together."