Superior Spider-Man: Izuku Midoriya

Reunion

Izuku was once again in intense pain.

The bullet had missed its target, but hit him, and the cold, unforgiving metal ripped straight through his insides, in through his back, and out his left side, but luckily he'd managed to shove Eri out of the way in time, and she was unscathed. Physically, at least. The past seven months probably weren't great for her mental state, and seeing her father get shot like that wasn't doing any favors. But, like her father, she was mature past her years, and she acted quickly.

Tears prickling at her eyes, she struggled to her feet and rushed to Spider-Man's side. Izuku watched through his mask as Eri's horn grew and began to glow. She put her hands on him gently, and turned his clock backwards.

"Let me know when to stop," Eri breathes, and Izuku knows that it's a phrase she'd said to multiple people, including him, multiple times.

"Proud of you," he whispered.

The agony of the bullet wound faded away, and soon the gash he'd woken up with soon melted away too.

"I'm good, Snowflake," he whispers. His voice is so soft that the nickname only reaches her ears, and Izuku can see the relieved effect that it has on her. Not just that he's healed, but that her father is here and he loves her. Izuku smiles under the mask, wondering how different things might be if he didn't use pet names for the people he loved.

Izuku sits up on the sand, and Eri is staring at him, not sure of what to do next, so he reluctantly initiates a conversation.

"Um."

Or he tries to initiate a conversation, failing miserably.

"Did..." Eri starts, before clearing her throat and staring daggers into Izuku's lenses. "Did someone brainwash you, or take over your mind or something?"

Izuku, dumbfounded, nods his head.

"I knew it. I knew it, I knew it," Eri burst into tears and wrapped her arms around him. "I missed you so much."

"I'm so sorry," Izuku managed to get out, as Eri was squeezing him.

"I can't blame you, it's not your fault."

"I don't even know what I'm apologizing for," Izuku admitted. "Last I remember, it was April."

"I-I- Really?" she asked, taken aback.

"I-" Spider-sense spiked dangerously once again, and Izuku yanked Eri's head down. She face planted in the sand, as another bullet whizzed through the air where her head once was. Pain and sadness that he was hiding took a back seat to rage, as his eyes locked in on the building the bullet came from, and the glint of the setting sun reflecting off the scope.

He sprung away, leaving Eri to get up, and spit sand out of her mouth. Izuku was long gone. She looked up to see him zipping away, presumably towards the sniper who'd just tried to kill her.

Spider-Man was seeing red; no-one, absolutely no-one got away with even trying to harm Eri. Spider-sense beeped again, and he dodged, easily.

"With me, you don't get a second shot," he murmured, as he began to make out the form of the gun, and the man lying prone behind it. 

Spider-sense hummed again, this time not warning of danger to him or the beachgoers, but to the assassin. Though he was confused, he pushed himself to move even faster, and when he got there, the sniper was laying eerily still. He crouched near the sniper and pulled off his mask.

"Damn."

He didn't recognize the contract killer, and it didn't matter. He could tell by glassy eyes and the foam spilling out of his mouth that he'd bit down on a pill or something, and he'd committed suicide, taking any possible information to the grave.