What It Means to Wear the Mask

After a grueling day at school, Miles quickly made his way over to his dorm where he dropped all of his things and prepared to leave through the window.

He shot his web at his backpack and pulled it toward him and as he jumped out, Miles turned invisible. 

A few minutes later, Miles landed near an empty rooftop where he pulled out his suit and began to undress. 

"I guess I should start wearing it underneath." Miles groaned as he fitted into his tight suit. 

Finally, in his suit, Miles searched around the rooftop for a place to stash his backpack. Can't have his stuff on him when he's swinging around the city. 

"Now then, I should head back to my place and get the USB and then try finding Peter. Who knows where he could be." With a small hop, Miles dropped off the edge of the roof, where he began to swing down the streets of Brooklyn.

But as he was mid-swing Miles' spider senses began to tingle. Following that tingle, MIles arrived at an overpass where he noticed a car was hanging off the edge of the overpass. The only thing keeping the car from falling was the parts of rebar holding it back. Making his way over there, Miles landed beside the car where he saw that there was a lady in the seat and a child in the back seat.

'Okay, Miles. Nice and easy.' Miles took a deep breath, reaching toward the car. But as he took a step, the ground beneath him began to crack, tipping the car forward.

"Crap!"

Miles went to reach over to grab the car but his hand wasn't long enough and he missed it. Quickly, Miles' mind began to work in overdrive. He started to shoot webs at the trunk of the car and stuck them to the overpass. Once he made sure that the car wasn't going to fall into the water, Miles began to climb down the line of webs he had made. 

Carefully, making sure not to shake the car, Miles arrived at the front door and looked at the lady who had fallen unconscious at the wheel. With his hand, Miles shattered the window and went to unbuckle the lady. Pulling her out of the car, MIles shot a web at the overpass and stuck it to the lady. While not ideal, she wasn't in any danger of falling into the water.

With her out of danger, Miles looked toward the backseat where he saw the kid staring at him with hopeful eyes. With his hand, Miles motioned to the boy to step back before he shattered the window.

"Alrighty, kid. Come over to me, slowly." Miles explained in a calm voice, completely masking the panic he was feeling in his heart.

The kid nodded as he crawled over to the window. Once there, Miles grabbed the kid and began to climb back up to the overpass. With the kid safe, Miles went back down to grab the lady. As he went back up with her, Miles heard his webs holding the car snap and he watched as the car fell into the water with a hard splash. 

"Damn, it's a good thing I didn't bring them up one at a time," Miles muttered to himself, climbing up with the lady in his arms.

When he reached the overpass, Miles saw that a group of paramedics had arrived. Passing the lady over to them. The kid who was standing beside them walked over to Miles.

"Thank you, Spider-Man!" He exclaimed, hugging Miles.

"Don't worry about it, kiddo." Miles smiled, patting the kid's back. "Now then, I gotta get going. There's still work to get done."

"See you later, Spider-Man."

Miles gave the kid a salute before he swung away.

...

Heading over to a nearby building where he took off his mask to take a deep breath. 

"Nice job, kid." Miles could see from the side of his eye as Peter plopped down on the edge of the roof with him.

"Wait, you were watching?!" Miles asked before he glared at Peter. "You could have helped me, man. I was stressing the whole time."

Peter chuckled, waving MIles off. "I was ready to step in if things went south. I just wanted to see how you'd handle things and I must say, you did exceptionally."

"I don't know how you do it, Peter," Miles said, resting his hands on his knees. "Had I messed up, I'd be responsible for the death of two people."

"It's something you have to deal with," Peter replied, placing his hand on Miles' shoulder. "That's what it means to wear the mask, Miles."

Miles looked at the mask in his hands. "I knew that being Spider-Man wasn't going to be a cakewalk."

"Being Spider-Man never is. Even for me, and I've been doing this for ten years already." Peter responded. "The only thing you can do is try your best. And if you fall, you get back on your feet. That's what it means to be Spider-Man."

Miles nodded, turning to look at Peter. "Hey man, has anyone told you that you're pretty good as a mentor?"

Peter smiled, shaking his head. "Can't say that I have. Most people in my line of work tend to kill me."

"Heh, guess that's just part of the job." With a smile, Miles stood up, looking out toward the city. "So, should we head on over to Aunt May's? I still need to go back home to get the USB stick."

Peter nodded reluctantly. "Might as well. The longer I stay here the worse these 'glitches' are getting." As he said that, Peter began to glitch a bit before returning to normal.

"Right," Miles smirked, putting on his mask before he jumped off the edge. "Let's see if you can keep up, man!"

"Keep dreaming, kid!"

...

After a half hour, both Peter and Miles arrived at a house in the streets of Queens.

"You were a bit slow there, Miles." Peter grinned, putting his hands inside of his jacket.

"Eh, I let you win." Miles shrugged.

"That's what they all say." Peter chuckled.

"Right, well are you ready?" Miles asked turning to look at Peter.

"Yeah, I think so." Peter nodded, but the expression on his face showed everything but confidence.

"Alright, I don't want you running away on me," Miles said, walking over to the door. 

Peter watched as Miles walked over to the door, his eyes glancing over to the candlelit vigil sitting in front of Aunt May's porch.

"Miles, I don't know about this," Peter called out to Miles in a hushed tone. "I can't do it!"

"Come on, man! We need this Peter's equipment if we're planning on taking down Kingpin." Miles said as he rang the doorbell. 

"No, Miles!" Peter winced as the doorbell finished ringing. Peter felt his heart rate start to rise. It continued to beat fast until the door opened. From inside, the two were greeted by Aunt May, who at the moment was holding a baseball bat. "Sorry, we're not looking for any visitors at the moment."

"I never took you for a Yankees fan, Aunt May," Miles said, stepping back.

"Miles?! What are you doing...here?" Aunt May's voice broke when her eyes landed on Peter. Her hand let go of the baseball bat and it rolled down the stairs of her porch. "Peter?"

"Hey, Aunt May," Peter replied with a haggard voice. "This may sound weird, but I'm pretty sure that I'm from an-"

"An alternate dimension." Aunt May finished for him.

"Yeah?" Peter raised a brow, surprised by how Aunt May had been able to figure that out.

Miles smiled, realizing that meant that the other Spider-People were already waiting for them in the Spider-Cave. But that got him thinking about Gwen. If he was following the progression of the story then after Gwen saved both Miles and Peter from Doc Ock outside of the Alchamex facility, the three of them should have arrived at Aunt Mays at the same time Peter and he did. 

If she wasn't here by now, then that meant that she was still at Alchamex. Or, in a perfect world, she would be chilling with the other Spider-People in Peter's Spider-Cave. But for some odd reason, Miles didn't believe that to be the case.

"You look tired, Peter." Aunt May said, taking a closer look at Peter. "And older, and a lot thicker too."

"Ouch." Peter feigned being hurt by Aunt May's words.

Aunt May's eyebrows narrowed as she looked at his lower half. "Jeez Peter, are those sweatpants?"

"I think he fills those up pretty nicely." Miles joked, getting a chuckle from the two. 

"So, what brings you two here? I'm sure it's not to come visit an old lady."

"Come on, Aunt May. If I didn't have school, I'd make sure to come visit you every day."

"How sweet of you, dear." Aunt May chuckled.

"That's enough flirting with my aunt, kid," Peter said with a frown. "Show her the thing."

Miles nodded as he showed Aunt May, Peter's flash drive. "We were hoping to see if there was anything in Peter's man cave that could help us make extras of this."

"One of Peter's goobers?" She muttered, giving the two a serious face. "Follow me."