The Parker home- Queens, NY- Monday night
It started with the Home Shopping Network. Peter was out doing superhero training, Johnny and Bobby were out, and so Gwen and Aunt May were having a girl's night in, with snacks and TV.
"Do you have any of the pink ones?" Gwen asked the woman on the other end of the HSN's line. "In what size?"
"Find out if they have medium," Aunt May said quietly.
"Do you have it in medium?" Gwen asked.
"One small, one medium," Aunt May said.
"'One small.' Rub it in."
And then Peter ran in, still in his Spider-Man costume, startling them both. "Peter," Gwen said, hanging up, "what are you-"
"Aunt May, Gwen, grab whatever you need and get out of here," Peter said, very seriously. "I mean it. Grab whatever you need to get in the car and drive out of the city."
"What's happening?" Aunt May asked.
"Norman Osborn is alive and he's coming for us."
"I thought you said he was dead!"
"I thought he was. It's on the news he escaped from prison," Peter said, his words coming out in a rush. "nd- and- and it's a bunch of the guys that I've beaten up over the years- they are all out. And they know. They know!"
"Know what?" Gwen asked, though she had a bad feeling about this.
Peter pulled his mask off. "They know who I am and they know where I live."
"Oh, man, I told you this would happen," Gwen said, throwing up her arms as she started towards the stairs.
"I know," Peter said.
"I told you."
"I'm sorry."
"Ugh!" Gwen said, stomping up the stairs, more worried than mad.
"I'll call you when it's time to come back," he promised.
It took a couple minutes to pack a suitcase, since Gwen hadn't fully unpacked from Fandom yet. She was lazy, okay? She put on real clothes instead of the stuff she'd been lounging around in, and met him and Aunt May at the bottom of the stairs, where they were both waiting.
"What about Johnny and Bobby?" Aunt May asked.
"They're the Human Torch and freakin' Iceman," Gwen said. "They can handle themselves."
"Exactly," Peter agreed. "Text them and see if they-"
"You come with us," Aunt May said, and everyone should have really expected that.
"Let me help the police or whoever stop this," he said.
"No."
"When I know it's stopped, I'll come back."
"No."
"Aunt May-"
"No. You come with us."
"Aunt May," Peter sighed, "I- have to do this."
She didn't answer at first, but had to know he meant that. If he didn't, the guilt from letting other people deal with all his enemies would probably kill him. So after a long moment she pulled him into a tight hug, and didn't let go until he finally had to push back and say, "Go."
Gwen left it simpler, glomping onto him when he wasn't expecting it. "Don't be stupid," she said, hugging him. "Kick his ass, nothing fancy."
"I know," Peter said, and pulled his mask back on before going back outside and swinging away.
Gwen tried getting in touch with Bobby and Johnny, but calls went straight to voicemail and texts went unanswered, so Aunt May left a note telling them to get out and go somewhere safe, and then she and Gwen got in the car and started off.
"Are you okay, Aunt May?" Gwen finally asked when the silence was too much.
"I am not" Aunt May said immediately. "No, Gwen. I didn't want this life. No, I did not. I wanted- I didn't- Damn it. I'm running away and letting a little boy fight a fight no little boy should have to fight. He's just a little boy."
"He'll be okay," Gwen said, feeling extremely bad when she saw Aunt May was crying. "He's always okay."
Aunt May's phone rang, and she answered it in what might actually be record time. "Hello?"
"Is it Peter?" Gwen hissed.
She couldn't hear what was being said, aside from May's part of the conversation, which went, "What happened?... What is it?... Is he okay?... What's happening? Tell me exactly what's happening!"
Whatever was said on the other end of the line got Aunt May to slam on the brakes and take an immediate left turn, speeding down the street back towards the house, with Gwen screaming the whole time because warn a girl before you did that.
When they got back to the house, it was chaos. Gwen could see Bobby and Johnny powered up and in the air on the way, though they didn't seem to be around now, and there were several bad guys she recognized from the news, including one guy made out of sand? And all the neighbors were outside, watching the fight, apparently helping when they could, even though parts of the lawns were on fire. And then there was Peter, unmasked, beaten, with webbing on his side where it looked like he had tried to patch up an injury. There were screams, and as they got out of the car it looked like guy made out of electricity had just taken out the sand guy.
"Electro," Peter was saying, "I always meant to tell you... you were my greatest adversary and it was an honor to battle you. Oh, wait, that wasn't you. I barely ever gave you a second's thought."
"Hope you enjoyed that," Electro snarkled, "We-"
He never finished that, because Aunt May had reached into her purse, whipped out her gun, and shot him through the chest from behind so he never saw it coming. And then when he turned around, she fired another two shots, until electricity crackled everywhere, shocking all the baddies that seemed to still be in play.
"Aunt May?" Peter asked, stunned.
"Oh my god," Gwen breathed. "That was... the definition of awesome."
"It's okay," Peter said, coming over to steady Aunt May.
"What did I just do?" Aunt May asked. She apparently hadn't even really realized what she'd been doing.
"It's okay, I got it," Peter assured her.
With things settled, Gwen looked around to see where everyone else was. "Oh my god, Johnny?" she said, going towards him. Bobby wasn't far away, both of them unconscious.
"Is he still ali- ow," Peter said.
Until he said that, Aunt May hadn't realized that he was hurt aside from the beating he'd gotten, which sadly wasn't that out of the ordinary from what usually happened to him. "Peter? What happened to you"
"Well, I know I'm probably going to get grounded for this," he said, and now that he'd stopped it seemed like he was having a harder time of things, "but I've been shot."
"Please, somebody call an ambulance!" Aunt May yelled at the bystanders.
"We already did," one of them said.
"We called everybody," said another.
"They're okay," Gwen reported when she'd checked on both boys. "Bobby's breathing. He's got a pulse. Both him and Johnny are okay, I think."
"Is anybody here a doctor?" Aunt May asked the crowd. She'd gotten Peter settled on the ground and was holding him, because he couldn't seem to hold himself up anymore.
"We called," said Doris from across the street. "I called myself. They're coming."
"I'm so sorry, Aunt May," Peter said.
"What are you apologizing for?" she asked.
"I know this... this wasn't the life you... wanted."
"You crazy boy," she said, smiling.
"But... cute," he said.
They were totally caught off guard for the Green Goblin, who rose up, green and on fire, slamming the ground with his fists seconds before Peter snapped back up, grabbing Aunt May and Gwen and swinging over the house onto the next block.
When they landed, Peter said, "Listen to me. Gwen, you listen to me. I don't care what Aunt May says, I don't care what Aunt May does, you get her as far away from here as you possibly can. I don't care if you have to hit her on the head with a hammer and carry her over your shoulder! You get her out of here."
"Peter, you're bleeding," Aunt May said.
Peter didn't care, and the Green Goblin was bounding over the house. Peter pushed Gwen away and said, "You hear what I said, get her out of here!"
Gwen wanted to help somehow, but if superheroes couldn't hold their own against Osborn, she wasn't going to be able to do a thing. So she grabbed Aunt May's hand and started running back to their house so they could get back to their car.
"Come on, Aunt May, listen to Peter," Gwen said, though she was practically having to drag her. "We have to get out of here. We have to call the police."
"He's bleeding!" Aunt May said.
"We have to get out of here." Gwen hated being the rational one. Hated it. She was so bad at it. But she had to listen to Peter, and if she didn't listen to Peter, she was going to freak right the hell out and then she'd be good to absolutely no one.
The problem was that Peter had come back for help, trying to wake Johnny up, and once the fighting started again it got harder to pull Aunt May away from things. Johnny flamed on, and he and the Green Goblin faced off, only it was bad to pit fire powers against a guy with fire powers who absorbed fire powers and so Johnny was out of it again pretty quick and it seemed like everything was exploding again, with the Green Goblin screaming Peter's name down the street.
Peter grabbed a mailbox that had come loose and smacked him with it. "What's the plan, Osborn?" he asked, hitting him again. "I'm dying to know... what next? You kill me, then what next? Your son you killed won't magically come back to life. Your world as a captin of industry won't magically go back the way it was. And your hair won't magically come into fashion."
There was another explosion of fire, and then the Green Goblin was struggling to get up, and Peter was on the sidewalk on his knees, sweating and bleeding and not looking like he was going to get up again.
"You'll be dead," the Green Goblin said.
"Well, yeah," said Peter. "There is that."
That probably would have been it, if not for the bright lights of a van that came barreling down the street to hit the Green Goblin and pin him between the grill and another car. If Gwen thought she was getting Aunt May out of here after this, she was so, so mistaken. But she tried, she really did. She kept trying to pull her towards the car, even after the sounds of Peter somehow managing to pick up the van and hit the Green Goblin with it until there was another burst of flame, and he went flying.
Aunt May finally pulled out of Gwen's grasp and took off back towards where everything was happening. "We can't be here, Aunt May!" Gwen yelled after her.
"Leave me alone!"
"He specifically told us-"
Her words stopped when they got through the crowd of neighbors and she saw the scene before them. Peter was laying flat on the ground, with Mary Jane and Johnny next to him. Even Johnny was crying.
Mary Jane was screming for someone to do something, and when she saw Gwen and Aunt May, she said, "He's really hurt."
Aunt May rushed forward, holding Peter's head in her hands. "What did you do, boy? What did you do?"
"It's okay," Peter said, so quietly. "I did it."
"Just... hold on. The ambulance is-"
"Don't you see, it's okay," he told her. "I did it. I couldn't save hi,. Uncle Ben. I couldn't save him, no matter what I did. But I saved you. I did it. I did..."
He closed his eyes, and never opened them again.
Johnny moved Aunt May a bit to check for a heartbeat, and when he sat up, he didn't say anything, because he didn't need to.
"No!" Aunt May shrieked, "Not him too! Please! Not him too!"
Gwen pulled her into a hug, and that was when she lost it. She'd just watched her best friend die, and there wasn't anything she could do about it except this.
[From The Death of Spider-Man, NFB, NFI, OOC including hugs and puppies okay because I turn into a sobbing mess even thinking about this.]
"Do you have any of the pink ones?" Gwen asked the woman on the other end of the HSN's line. "In what size?"
"Find out if they have medium," Aunt May said quietly.
"Do you have it in medium?" Gwen asked.
"One small, one medium," Aunt May said.
"'One small.' Rub it in."
And then Peter ran in, still in his Spider-Man costume, startling them both. "Peter," Gwen said, hanging up, "what are you-"
"Aunt May, Gwen, grab whatever you need and get out of here," Peter said, very seriously. "I mean it. Grab whatever you need to get in the car and drive out of the city."
"What's happening?" Aunt May asked.
"Norman Osborn is alive and he's coming for us."
"I thought you said he was dead!"
"I thought he was. It's on the news he escaped from prison," Peter said, his words coming out in a rush. "nd- and- and it's a bunch of the guys that I've beaten up over the years- they are all out. And they know. They know!"
"Know what?" Gwen asked, though she had a bad feeling about this.
Peter pulled his mask off. "They know who I am and they know where I live."
"Oh, man, I told you this would happen," Gwen said, throwing up her arms as she started towards the stairs.
"I know," Peter said.
"I told you."
"I'm sorry."
"Ugh!" Gwen said, stomping up the stairs, more worried than mad.
"I'll call you when it's time to come back," he promised.
It took a couple minutes to pack a suitcase, since Gwen hadn't fully unpacked from Fandom yet. She was lazy, okay? She put on real clothes instead of the stuff she'd been lounging around in, and met him and Aunt May at the bottom of the stairs, where they were both waiting.
"What about Johnny and Bobby?" Aunt May asked.
"They're the Human Torch and freakin' Iceman," Gwen said. "They can handle themselves."
"Exactly," Peter agreed. "Text them and see if they-"
"You come with us," Aunt May said, and everyone should have really expected that.
"Let me help the police or whoever stop this," he said.
"No."
"When I know it's stopped, I'll come back."
"No."
"Aunt May-"
"No. You come with us."
"Aunt May," Peter sighed, "I- have to do this."
She didn't answer at first, but had to know he meant that. If he didn't, the guilt from letting other people deal with all his enemies would probably kill him. So after a long moment she pulled him into a tight hug, and didn't let go until he finally had to push back and say, "Go."
Gwen left it simpler, glomping onto him when he wasn't expecting it. "Don't be stupid," she said, hugging him. "Kick his ass, nothing fancy."
"I know," Peter said, and pulled his mask back on before going back outside and swinging away.
Gwen tried getting in touch with Bobby and Johnny, but calls went straight to voicemail and texts went unanswered, so Aunt May left a note telling them to get out and go somewhere safe, and then she and Gwen got in the car and started off.
"Are you okay, Aunt May?" Gwen finally asked when the silence was too much.
"I am not" Aunt May said immediately. "No, Gwen. I didn't want this life. No, I did not. I wanted- I didn't- Damn it. I'm running away and letting a little boy fight a fight no little boy should have to fight. He's just a little boy."
"He'll be okay," Gwen said, feeling extremely bad when she saw Aunt May was crying. "He's always okay."
Aunt May's phone rang, and she answered it in what might actually be record time. "Hello?"
"Is it Peter?" Gwen hissed.
She couldn't hear what was being said, aside from May's part of the conversation, which went, "What happened?... What is it?... Is he okay?... What's happening? Tell me exactly what's happening!"
Whatever was said on the other end of the line got Aunt May to slam on the brakes and take an immediate left turn, speeding down the street back towards the house, with Gwen screaming the whole time because warn a girl before you did that.
When they got back to the house, it was chaos. Gwen could see Bobby and Johnny powered up and in the air on the way, though they didn't seem to be around now, and there were several bad guys she recognized from the news, including one guy made out of sand? And all the neighbors were outside, watching the fight, apparently helping when they could, even though parts of the lawns were on fire. And then there was Peter, unmasked, beaten, with webbing on his side where it looked like he had tried to patch up an injury. There were screams, and as they got out of the car it looked like guy made out of electricity had just taken out the sand guy.
"Electro," Peter was saying, "I always meant to tell you... you were my greatest adversary and it was an honor to battle you. Oh, wait, that wasn't you. I barely ever gave you a second's thought."
"Hope you enjoyed that," Electro snarkled, "We-"
He never finished that, because Aunt May had reached into her purse, whipped out her gun, and shot him through the chest from behind so he never saw it coming. And then when he turned around, she fired another two shots, until electricity crackled everywhere, shocking all the baddies that seemed to still be in play.
"Aunt May?" Peter asked, stunned.
"Oh my god," Gwen breathed. "That was... the definition of awesome."
"It's okay," Peter said, coming over to steady Aunt May.
"What did I just do?" Aunt May asked. She apparently hadn't even really realized what she'd been doing.
"It's okay, I got it," Peter assured her.
With things settled, Gwen looked around to see where everyone else was. "Oh my god, Johnny?" she said, going towards him. Bobby wasn't far away, both of them unconscious.
"Is he still ali- ow," Peter said.
Until he said that, Aunt May hadn't realized that he was hurt aside from the beating he'd gotten, which sadly wasn't that out of the ordinary from what usually happened to him. "Peter? What happened to you"
"Well, I know I'm probably going to get grounded for this," he said, and now that he'd stopped it seemed like he was having a harder time of things, "but I've been shot."
"Please, somebody call an ambulance!" Aunt May yelled at the bystanders.
"We already did," one of them said.
"We called everybody," said another.
"They're okay," Gwen reported when she'd checked on both boys. "Bobby's breathing. He's got a pulse. Both him and Johnny are okay, I think."
"Is anybody here a doctor?" Aunt May asked the crowd. She'd gotten Peter settled on the ground and was holding him, because he couldn't seem to hold himself up anymore.
"We called," said Doris from across the street. "I called myself. They're coming."
"I'm so sorry, Aunt May," Peter said.
"What are you apologizing for?" she asked.
"I know this... this wasn't the life you... wanted."
"You crazy boy," she said, smiling.
"But... cute," he said.
They were totally caught off guard for the Green Goblin, who rose up, green and on fire, slamming the ground with his fists seconds before Peter snapped back up, grabbing Aunt May and Gwen and swinging over the house onto the next block.
When they landed, Peter said, "Listen to me. Gwen, you listen to me. I don't care what Aunt May says, I don't care what Aunt May does, you get her as far away from here as you possibly can. I don't care if you have to hit her on the head with a hammer and carry her over your shoulder! You get her out of here."
"Peter, you're bleeding," Aunt May said.
Peter didn't care, and the Green Goblin was bounding over the house. Peter pushed Gwen away and said, "You hear what I said, get her out of here!"
Gwen wanted to help somehow, but if superheroes couldn't hold their own against Osborn, she wasn't going to be able to do a thing. So she grabbed Aunt May's hand and started running back to their house so they could get back to their car.
"Come on, Aunt May, listen to Peter," Gwen said, though she was practically having to drag her. "We have to get out of here. We have to call the police."
"He's bleeding!" Aunt May said.
"We have to get out of here." Gwen hated being the rational one. Hated it. She was so bad at it. But she had to listen to Peter, and if she didn't listen to Peter, she was going to freak right the hell out and then she'd be good to absolutely no one.
The problem was that Peter had come back for help, trying to wake Johnny up, and once the fighting started again it got harder to pull Aunt May away from things. Johnny flamed on, and he and the Green Goblin faced off, only it was bad to pit fire powers against a guy with fire powers who absorbed fire powers and so Johnny was out of it again pretty quick and it seemed like everything was exploding again, with the Green Goblin screaming Peter's name down the street.
Peter grabbed a mailbox that had come loose and smacked him with it. "What's the plan, Osborn?" he asked, hitting him again. "I'm dying to know... what next? You kill me, then what next? Your son you killed won't magically come back to life. Your world as a captin of industry won't magically go back the way it was. And your hair won't magically come into fashion."
There was another explosion of fire, and then the Green Goblin was struggling to get up, and Peter was on the sidewalk on his knees, sweating and bleeding and not looking like he was going to get up again.
"You'll be dead," the Green Goblin said.
"Well, yeah," said Peter. "There is that."
That probably would have been it, if not for the bright lights of a van that came barreling down the street to hit the Green Goblin and pin him between the grill and another car. If Gwen thought she was getting Aunt May out of here after this, she was so, so mistaken. But she tried, she really did. She kept trying to pull her towards the car, even after the sounds of Peter somehow managing to pick up the van and hit the Green Goblin with it until there was another burst of flame, and he went flying.
Aunt May finally pulled out of Gwen's grasp and took off back towards where everything was happening. "We can't be here, Aunt May!" Gwen yelled after her.
"Leave me alone!"
"He specifically told us-"
Her words stopped when they got through the crowd of neighbors and she saw the scene before them. Peter was laying flat on the ground, with Mary Jane and Johnny next to him. Even Johnny was crying.
Mary Jane was screming for someone to do something, and when she saw Gwen and Aunt May, she said, "He's really hurt."
Aunt May rushed forward, holding Peter's head in her hands. "What did you do, boy? What did you do?"
"It's okay," Peter said, so quietly. "I did it."
"Just... hold on. The ambulance is-"
"Don't you see, it's okay," he told her. "I did it. I couldn't save hi,. Uncle Ben. I couldn't save him, no matter what I did. But I saved you. I did it. I did..."
He closed his eyes, and never opened them again.
Johnny moved Aunt May a bit to check for a heartbeat, and when he sat up, he didn't say anything, because he didn't need to.
"No!" Aunt May shrieked, "Not him too! Please! Not him too!"
Gwen pulled her into a hug, and that was when she lost it. She'd just watched her best friend die, and there wasn't anything she could do about it except this.
[From The Death of Spider-Man, NFB, NFI, OOC including hugs and puppies okay because I turn into a sobbing mess even thinking about this.]