Chapter 84: Derailed I

His gloved fingers tapped on the cracked screen of his phone as the video began to play, Peter's lenses narrowed as he took in the footage.

A building burning down while both he and Mirko sat there and watched, covered in ash and soot with ambulance flashes going off somewhere off-camera.

The camera zoomed in on his unmasked face, lingering on his tired expression before the cameraman tried to move around the crowd next to him to get a different angle.

Not being able to move through the people, he simply pointed the camera to a blond woman holding a microphone.

'We have just arrived on the scene of a tragic gas leak turned fire, a disaster that the number 7 hero Mirko quickly responded to along with what seems to be the ex-vigilante, Spider-Man.'

The camera looked past the woman and at them, catching Mirko putting a hand on his shoulder while saying something inaudible.

'Rumors have sprouted up of Spider-Man, who is actually UA 1st year Peter Parker, being seen along with Mirko all over Hosu. He was first seen alongside the Rabbit Hero a few days ago where both he and the hero put a stop to an armored bus rampaging through the city.'

Quickly, the video changed to one of him digging his feet into the road to try and stop the bus that someone had taken on their phone.

'Some say that Parker may be currently working under Mirko as her intern, given how UA's internship period is currently taking place, but neither UA nor Mirko have officially confirmed any of this.'

The camera switched back to the reporter, with the woman stepping to the side and allowing the camera a better angle of his unmasked face.

'This, along with a few brief moments during the UA sports festival, has been the only time that the public has seen Parker unmasked. What is his relation to Mirko and what are her reasons to work with Parker? Why does he keep the mask even after his arrest? Is h-'

Peter turned his phone off, putting it back into his belt before sighing.

He hated the media sometimes.

It had been 2 days since he and Mirko rescued as many as they could from the burning building, with today marking his 8th day with Mirko and in Hosu.

And it has been brought to his attention that the fact that he's working with Mirko is a pretty big deal to a lot of people.

A lot, a lot.

Like, enough that he and Mirko had been trending online for 2 straight days once news broke out about the burning building rescue.

And wanna know what's the worst part?

It wasn't the attention he didn't really want, and it wasn't the full-out battles between people saying he was a hero and people saying he was a criminal.

No, those were annoying but nothing he couldn't try to ignore.

For him, the hard part to ignore was how people thought that he and Mirko working together was more important than the burning building.

And the people who died in it.

Yeah, he didn't expect everyone to care about it since it was probably a small-time thing compared to what most of the top ten have going on.

But that's the thing… no one cared!

It was just about him and Mirko on the news and online, not about the people who lost their homes!

Honestly? It was just gross to see how everyone's attention was drawn to them since they were heroes.

Sure, it'd be great if people liked him so he didn't get called a menace all the time, but he didn't want to be overly popular like how Flash Thompson was back in Midtown.

And yeah, it wasn't a thing he could control, but still. When it gets to the point where the fact that he was at a burning building is talked about more than the literal burning building, that's where he draws the line.

That was just… He just didn't like that.

Wanting people to see you as a good guy was different from wanting people to think you were more important than people losing their homes and even their lives.

Peter turned his head slightly, seeing Mirko sitting next to him while her ears twitched occasionally.

Going by how she acted when they got back to her building that day or when she saw the news report about the rescue the following morning, Peter could tell Mirko was pissed.

Like, really pissed.

Pissed about how people died in that building even though she said that they couldn't do anything and about how much the media didn't care about those deaths.

Yeah, she liked to build her reputation and all, but it was obvious she didn't like getting attention where she didn't think she deserved it.

And much like how he could tell she was mad, Mirko could tell he was mad, too.

But outside of that short moment they had after the EMTs got there, they didn't talk about how they felt.

Which was fine.

Peter called May and his friends about it and they helped him feel less bad.

And when he couldn't sleep while his mind was stuck on the image of those bodies covered in blankets? He would just sit there while listening to the voice messages he still had from Ben.

The one he listened to for a while was from a few months before he died, Ben had sent him the message after May told him how Peter had gotten a 97% on some important test or something.

Honestly, he doesn't even remember what the test was about.

What he did remember was how Ben simply told him how proud of him he was and how he'd do great things when he grew up.

For five minutes, Ben just sat there and told him how he loved him and that he couldn't wait to see what he'd turn into when he grew up.

Peter wasn't gonna admit he cried every time he felt like listening to that message again, he wasn't. And he was also gonna ignore the possibility of Mirko hearing him with her rabbit ears or whatever.

It was probably a bad habit, honestly. Holding onto something like that, and a part of him told him he should probably delete them.

And yet, he couldn't. It was probably unhealthy to rely on those messages, but he still couldn't delete them.

Some nights he just needed someone to tell him he was doing good, and those messages were the best way to do that.

He also accidentally overheard when Mirko called Ryukyu and how she yelled and cursed about it for an hour.

After that, he overheard how she went round after round with a punching bag, punching and kicking it out of frustration for at least 2 hours.

Yeah, it was a rough night for both of them.

Even then, they didn't talk to each other about it. They gave each other a knowing look in the morning after, but that was it.

And that was fine. They knew the other didn't want to go into how they felt about that with them, and that's fine.

Maybe it was unhealthy. But for them, it was fine.

Peter snapped himself out of his thoughts, sighing as the sounds of a morning in Hosu filled his ears from his place crouched over a building.

Buildings stood tall on the skyline, the cloudless sky let the sun shine down onto everyone below as people hurried to wherever they needed to be with no thought as to anyone else. in a weird kind of accidental harmony.

He has to admit, this city was beautiful at all times of the day.

"Today is so fucking boring!" Mirko groaned, hopping up to her feet before beginning to pace on the ledge.

And there goes the moment! Every time he tries to appreciate this place, something ruins it.

Behind the lenses, he rolled his eyes as he took a web-cartridge and played with it between his fingers.

"Dude, it's only 8:30 in the morning! We've already stopped 2 bank robberies, someone trying to hijack an armored truck, and a guy trying to flatten an entire block with his quirk, isn't that enough?"

Instead of answering, Mirko simply shot around and scowled at him.

Guess it wasn't enough for her.

"The hell it's enough! We should still be out there, kid! Matter of fact? I don't even know why we're taking a break right now!" She huffed, her foot thumping on the ground impatiently.

Sighing, Peter stood up and gave her a flat look. In the back of his mind, he wondered if an internship under Tony Stark would've been like this.

"Because that guy that tried to flatten a block knocked me through a building!" To emphasize his point, Peter flicked off a tiny piece of rubble on his shoulder.

As Mirko's ears folded against her head, her shoulders slouched a bit.

"Oh, I kinda forgot about that." She shrugged, a part of Peter wanted to groan but he decided it wasn't worth the effort.

"It hurt a lot, by the way."

Again, she shrugged at him.

"Eh, you'll heal."

Inhaling through his nose, Peter narrowed his eyes down at her.

"You suck, you know that?"

"Yeah yeah, fuck you too."

...

If you want to read ahead of the public release, or just want to support me.

You can join my p atreon :

p@treon.com/Huvnn