Chapter Five

When I made it home, the first thing I did was pass out. The adrenalin had left my body and I was feeling mighty tired. Even though I didn't really exert myself, it was all that happened that made me feel so weak.

Sleep consumed me.

Nightmares met me.

Of a monster, all in black. Ruthless and unending.

Of innocent people, running in all direction. Terrified.

Of me, killing without remorse.

I was the monster.

Then I awoke, the images of my nightmare fading already. I had kicked off my blanket during the night and my bed was wet with cold sweat. My breathing was short.

I felt sick.

I was intelligent enough to know that when you get your jaw punched off, you probably wouldn't be surviving. In the moment, I didn't understand that concept. But hours after the fact?

I killed a man. I almost killed two men. Two, terrible animals, but they were people all the same. I was supposed to save innocent lives, not scar them! That kid was going to be having worse nightmares than me and I caused them.

I felt nauseous. I opened my door and ran into the bathroom. I fell to my knees in front of the toilet. What little was in my stomach was now in the toilet. I heard a rushing of feet coming my way from the living area.

Ben appeared in the doorway with May right behind him. I waved weakly, before puking again. He chuckled and May swatted at him. Wiping the bile from my mouth with a wad of toilet paper, I grinned at my family. "How ya"- I coughed, -"doin'?"

May crouched beside me and said, "Let's get water into ya, Pete. Then you can go back to bed and take a sick day."

"Nah," I giggled hysterically, a high-pitched and ugly thing, "I'm all good, Aunt May. I'll go to school."

Aunt May and Uncle Ben schooled their expressions. "You are not going to school, Petey," Ben said sternly. He left the bathroom, presumably to get me a glass of water.

When Aunt May finally had me standing, I was swaying in place. Fuck. I really wasn't feeling good. Still nauseous, but now dizzy as well? I looked at myself in the mirror. There were dark bags under my eyes and I was pale as all hell.

Holy fuck, why was I being so affected by killing a man?

Uncle Ben returned with a glass of water. I took it. I was dizzy and nauseous and I looked like shit, but at least my hands weren't shaking. My spider-body had it's uses I guess. Too bad it couldn't deal with more psychological and emotional afflictions.

I sipped my water slowly as May guided me back into my room. Before I laid down, I grabbed my blanket and covered my bed. I really wasn't in the mood to sleep on damp sheets.

"I love you, Aunt May," I said when my head was on my pillow. My eyes were closed and my arms were around my knees, pulled up close to me.

"I love you, Pete," May replied.

She left my room so I could sleep.

And I slept for quite a while.

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When I woke up for the second time, I was groggy. I was feeling a lot better, but I was groggy. And hungry.

Mostly hungry.

I jumped up from my bed. Holy hell, I was feeling so much better! I grabbed a shirt from my closet and blitzed my way into the kitchen, looking for mad food.

"How're you feeling, Pete?" Came Aunt May's voice from the actual living room. I heard her stand up from where she was sitting and make her way toward me.

I looked at her when she was a few feet away from me and smiled. "I'm feeling mighty hungry, Aunt May," I said. "Other than that? I'm feeling a whole lot better."

Now that I was feeling better (it showed too, probably), Aunt May grew suspicious. She poked at me, asking, "You weren't drinking were you?"

Huh. "Nope," I answered truthfully. Then I lied without hesitating, "I ate some sushi yesterday. Food poisoning or something probably."

She was still looking at me weirdly. I shrugged uncomfortably. "If I do drink, or if I plan on drinking, I'll be completely honest. I promise," I tried reassuring her.

Her smile was somber as she hugged me. "I'm glad you're feeling better," was her response.

Fuck me, man. Tears welled up in my eyes as I hugged her close to me. I lost one family. The family I had eighteen, almost nineteen, years with, but now I had a new one. A new family that I already had years with.

So much was happening. I was terrified.

I had to stay strong though, so I blinked my tears away and grinned. Laughter filled my voice as I said, "Alright, I need to eat. I'm starving."

Aunt May let go of me and laughed.

I knew right then that I wouldn't want to lose the family I had right now. I was going to do my damnedest to keep May and Ben safe.

As I started making myself food, I breathed in.

When I exhaled, it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

May and Ben were my family now. Ned was quickly becoming a brother.

Family was family, that was an absolute truth. Wherever we end up, we would always find and make a family. While I would never truly enjoy the situation I was in, I had to make the best of it.

I was going to always miss my ma and pa, my brothers and my sister. They were in the past now and I was living a different life.

I needed to move on.

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Days after my freak out, I was reading the Daily Bugle. On the front page was the heading, The Arachnid: Heroic or Homicidal? and it was a pain to read through. It was by J. Jonah Jameson, the fucking patriarch of the family I saved a few nights ago. Not only was he lying about me in his article, he didn't even thank me for saving his wife and son!

Ungrateful bastard, but I understood why. He was scared of me. From his point-of-view, it definitely did look like I was there just to kill some random douchebags.

I really messed up. The article just cemented that fact.

Now I had the dislike of Triple J already and as soon as I went out as Spider-Man? The man would be making connections between 'The Arachnid' and Spider-Man. I wouldn't be able to defend myself either, except through my actions.

Pissed off at the glorified opinion piece, I threw the newspaper away. Thank goodness I was going to a one-day free Taekwondo class today. And hey, I could see the building from where I was. Nice.

I jogged toward the dojang (I still remembered some terms from my time practicing Taekwondo when I was a kid). When I entered, there were about twenty people attending. The ages ranged from me, who was probably the youngest, to an older looking woman who was with her daughter.

Farther down into the back was a young woman with striking platinum-blonde hair talking to a bald man.

Of course I would meet Felicia Hardy here. Of course.

As I arrived only five minutes early, I had to quicken my pace to get to the changing rooms in the back. I had to go past Hardy and the bald man, so I waved awkwardly.

After I changed, Hardy was waiting for me, with the bald guy at the head of the class (who were already lined up neatly). Yikes. Yet before I could place my bare feet on the soft mats of the dojang, Hardy placed her hand on my shoulder. She spoke, "You need to bow before entering. Then you'll wait by Master Hargreaves before he allows you to take a place."

Right. I remembered this. I bowed then entered. Then I walked to Master Hargreaves and stood at attention. He stopped speaking, turned to me and bowed. I bowed as well. He pointed me to a place that I took without complaint. This dude held the room at full attention with ease.

He looked powerful and he felt powerful.

Soon, Hardy did the same thing as me. The difference was that Master Hargreaves said, "I welcome you all to the dojang. This is Felicia Hardy and she will be taking over for the time being."

He bowed, Felicia bowed. They switched places, then before Hargreaves stepped off the padded floor he bowed.

So much bowing. Damn.

What followed after Hardy's introduction was an hour of going over the basics of Taekwondo. White belt stuff.

I did well, performing everything that was taught with almost perfect efficiency. Not only were the memories of the forms I was being taught came back, but with Peter's spider-enhanced body and genius-level intellect allowed me to truly understand the how and why of everything I was being taught.

After twenty minutes, Hardy came to me. She asked, "Have you done all this before?"

"Yeah," I said truthfully. I was hoping she wouldn't recognize my voice, but if she did…whoops, I guess. "But it was a few years ago."

"Right," she paused, thinking. "What belt were you when you quit?"

"Green."

"Do you remember anything?"

This time I paused. Speaking slowly, I said, "Not much. I remember the names! Alpha, Sun, Earth. I'm pretty sure there was Sky for blue belts?"

"Alright, kid. Let's bring you over to the side and we'll go over what you've forgotten," she said, before suddenly pulling my arm.

I almost followed my first response, which was to stick to the ground and not be pulled along. She did feel the tension of not being able to pull, but only for a split second.

For the rest of that class, I was being retaught everything that I forgot. This time around I did everything practically perfect on the second or third try. I was being mighty suspicious, but what was I supposed to do? Handicap myself? No. I was trying to learn control and the people who trained me needed to know how much skill I possessed.

Otherwise? I personally wouldn't want to go through all of the promotions again. That would suck.

When the class finally finished and I had changed, I heard Felicia tell Hargreaves, "I'll see you tomorrow, Stan!"

As I exited the changing room, Hargreaves was waving goodbye to Felicia. Was this a coincidence, that Hardy and I were leaving at the same time? Probably not. She looked like she was waiting for me at the entrance of the building.

Huh. I bowed out of the dojang and slipped on my shoes. Hardy opened the door for me.

I was the one with the suspicious, narrowed eyes this time. "Thanks," I said as polite as I could.

She was following me. Hardy was also making it obvious. She called out to me to stop.

I stopped and waited for her to catch up. "Hey Pete," she said, her voice very much taking on the tone of her Black Cat persona. "You were really good today!"

I shrugged just as she said, "Too good."

She grabbed my shoulder with a strong grasp and whispered into my ear, "You're the Arachnid, aren't you?"

I froze. My fears had been realized and she recognized me.

Man, Hardy wasn't only well trained physically, but she was also pretty dang smart. The whole package. The question now was how I was going to deal with her?

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Note: I wrote this in about six hours. I had a fairly different "first draft" that I scrapped because I really didn't jive with it. It wasn't very friendly to the whole "how do I deal with killing a dude," and I disliked how I handled it. This chapter right here is much better in my opinion.

Anyway, a few questions. One being who should play Felicia Hardy? Which actress could work?

Second, is on the villain for the second arc. I have a theme in place, which is "being Spider-Man is not a joke. It shouldn't be taken lightly." I need a silly Spider-Man villain that could work in the earlier stages of the MCU, a few months before the first Avengers. Who could be that villain?

And third, would anyone want to write the article that goes with The Arachnid: Heroic or Homicidal by J. Jonah Jameson? It would be interesting to read and I would put it in the Side-Story thread.

Other than that, I'll be producing a post that I'll stick in the Informational thread about how I would introduce the Fantastic Four, but that will be later tonight some time. And with introducing characters from other Marvel comics (FF, X-Men, etc.) I will be writing side-stories to explain how they're in the MCU. Though any plot points that could involve the FF right now, won't happen until later. I'm just explaining how they could possibly appear in the MCU, not writing the side-story just yet.

Other than that, I would love to hear any criticism. I hope you enjoyed the chapter