After the events of No Way Home, Peter Parker had the chance to restart his life and start fresh. But without his family, friends, mentors or fellow Avengers, his life began to spiral into darkness.
His new neighbour however, seems to make that dark...
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PETER PARKER
72 hours. Only a mere 72 hours and the entire city became aware of the fact that Spider-Man had returned. Plastered on every billboard and broadcast across every news channel photos played shitty iPhone footage of me swinging through Midtown in my old suit. I didn't fight any crime whatsoever that night, but you bet there were dozens of people claiming I saved their life.
I sank my teeth down into my warm and crispy churro, the paper crinkling against my gloves as I looked up at the gigantic screens of Times Square to see my masked face looking back at me.
'Our Masked Hero Has Returned'
The last time my face was on those very same jumbo screens was after Mysterio had died and my identity was exposed to the world. I can tell you now though, the words were of a very different sentiment back then.
'Public Enemy #1'
It's amazing how fast media outlets circulate news these days, especially when it involves a superhero. I remember when Tony and Pepper got married. I was only a kid but it was publicised like a god damn royal wedding where half the population tuned in and people on the other side of the world stayed awake to watch. What can I say? Civilians love supers.
A group of teenagers posed on the infamous staircase in front of one of the billboards, mimicking my pose as one of their friends took a photo. I couldn't help but smile to myself seeing that one of them had an old beaten up Spider-Man backpack, the red leather starting to peel and the bottom scuffed from being thrown in and out of school lockers.
Why do the people of New York still trust me after all of this time? They still love me and let me watch over their city. Why? Because they need me. And maybe I need them just as much. I need their support and their confidence because for all of these years, I haven't felt the warmth of either of those things.
"I like your backpack!" I called out to the boy as the group jumped down the stairs after their photo was taken.
"Thanks man!" He grinned back, extending his hand out in front of him like he was pretending to use pretend web shooters. It was like a silent sign of respect, that the two of us acknowledged that we were fans of Spider-Man.
I guess it's kind of like how Hitler made everyone salute with that weird forwards straight arm thing. Except I never told people to copy my pose and I never committed genocide. I just uh, save lives instead of take thousands of them.
The city was painted in red and blue, stores stocking Spider-Man merchandise in their front windows and rumours of Spider-Man's return being linked far and wide to different world crisis' and crimes. The most common theory (and the most accurate) was that I had returned to defeat the gang beheading people. And that was mostly true except the gang that was in fact an alien parasite - Venom.
