Spider-man, Spider-boy and Spider-El |Stranger Things AU|

~part III., chapter 6.~

The new villain was labeled as 'the homophobic bad guy of Hawkins', while he called himself 'the Reformator'. El was trying to come up with a way to catch him, but he was always one step ahead.

"Let's see if this Spider-girl lasts longer than Spider-boy did," Mr. Creel said, looking through his notes. "With the medic course we were trying to recreate the radioactive spider, I won't do that with you, it's a waste of time and I won't even have to teach your lazzy arses next year."

"Good for us," Max commented, loud enough for the whole class to hear.

"Better for me," Mr. Creel gave her a grin, she made a face back.

"Best for me," El let out quietly, mosty to herself, but she caught Will looking up from his notebook at her as she said it, but when she turned to face him, Will was already looking into his notebook, ignoring her.

The classes ended and El with Max met up with the boys, Max greeting Lucas with a kiss while El greeted Mike and Dustin with a hug.

"So, I was thinking about the new villain you mentioned and what the media made him. And I came to think, wasn't Billy like gay?" Dustin said as they began walking towards the cafeteria.

"Yep, the gayest," Max shot him a finger gun.

"So, he can't be it," Dustin stated, giving El a winning smile.

"Apart from the fact he's already dead, yeah," Max said sarcastically.

"Okay, so we're just looking for homophobes in Hawkins?" Mike asked, Dustin and El slightly nodded, "Then come over to my house, there's one in every room."

"Mike, what did we say about family issue jokes?" Lucas gave him a concerned mother look.

"We said that to Max and Will," Mike said with a shrug.

"We said that in general, Michael," Lucas said, still giving him the look.

"Fine, sorry, but it's true," Mike said, El gave him a smile, she found that funny, Lucas didn't.

"Sometimes joking about your asshole relatives is a good coping mechanism," Max shrugged with a smile.

"Especially if they're dead, right?" Lucas gave her a glare.

"He had it comin' I ain't sayin' shit 'bout that, just the facts," Max shrugged.

"Didn't you literally have a breakdown when you found out he's dead?" Dustin asked with concern.

"Nope, I had a breakdown 'cause he was Dark Knight and I didn't know," Max said with an innocent smile.

"I hate you sometimes, you know that?" Lucas sighed.

"I know you love me, bish," Max said, giving him a bright smile.

"I love you, but stop trying to make everything a joke," Lucas let out a sigh.

"You gotta love me with all my flaws," Max shrugged, "including the Venom attack."

"I do, but please stop making jokes about your trauma, it's not a coping mechanism, Max," Lucas said, kissing her cheek.

"For me it is," Max prostested.

"Some people cope by making jokes, some people cope by shutting everyone out, don't shame them Lucas," Dustin said, earning a glare from Lucas.

"I said it a million times already and I'll say it again, you people need therapy. Every single one of you here, and Will. But y'all need therapy," Lucas said, Mike and Max just laughed at that, El and Dustin shrugged, Lucas let out a sigh at their reactions.

"You guys have issues," Lucas stated.

"You act like you don't," Dustin gave him a look.

"To be fair, his parents are both together, he doesn't bully his lil sister and they seem to get along in the normal sibling norms. He's got a cool gf and awesome friends," Max shrugged, "I see nowhere the issues could bring up," Max said, looking over at Dustin, "Grew up with mom and cousin, who died. Boom issues," Max said with a shrug, "Grew up with just dad and some unresolved trauma she doesn't talk about. Boom issues," Max pointed at El, "A lil gay dude with homophobic parents and bad relations with sisters," Max pointed at Mike, "not mentioning the random break up with his kindergarten crush. Boom issues," Max added, then pointed at herself, "Divorced parents, abusive step-father and step-brother, who was by the way a villian and died. Boom issues."

"That... was exactly what I was talking about," Lucas let out, Max shrugged. "Please all of you go to therapy."

"Therapy is expensive, making jokes about my trauma is free," Max said with a smile.

"Therapy is expensive, hyperfixating on Spider-man and everything along that is free," El shrugged.

"Therapy is expensive, hanging out with Robin is free," Dustin said with a shrug.

"Therapy is expensive, writing angst on wattpad is free," Mike said with an awkward smile.

"For the love of lord, how am I friends with you people?" Lucas let out.

"You know, in every friend group there has to be that one mentally stable friend, that's you," Dustin explained with a smile.

"Yeah, without me you'd all die, I take no critism for that statement," Lucas said, Max just nodded, so did El and Mike.

"Actually I don't think we'd die, but we'd most certainly wouldn't live," Dustin explained in his usual 'yes and no' way only he could.

"I'm done with you," Lucas sighed, making the rest of the group laugh.

El later that day scheduled a meet up with Robin Buckley, taking Mike with her to Spider-man's statue. Robin was already standing there, staring at the statue.

"Hey, how are you?" El asked, standing next to her.

"Despite the situation, I'm okay," Robin gave her a smile, noticing Mike behind El.

"That's Mike, my right hand man, or something like that. He's working in the lab, so he finds important informations for me, worked on it since last year," El explained.

"I'm Mike Wheeler, nice to meet you," Mike said, reaching his hand towards Robin.

"Robin Buckley, think you know me," Robin said, shaking his hand. "Did you say Wheeler? Do you know Nancy?" she suddenly said in realization.

"Unfortunatelly, she's my sister," Mike explained with a frown.

"I'm her coworker, but we don't talk much," Robin said with a shrug.

"I hate her, she hates me back," Mike explained.

"Right, well I'm an only child, so can't relate," Robin said, turning back to the statue with a sigh.

"It's nice they made him a statue, isn't it?" El asked to break the awkward silence.

"Yep, brings back the good memories. Back during Spider-man's time everything seemed easier, and better... not that you'd be a bad Spider-man, I just.. miss those old times when it seemed like just a game, like nothing could go wrong, no weird mutants. We were on top of the world, me and Steve, we felt untachable. I miss those times," Robin explained sadly.

"How long did it take you to get over his death?" Mike asked, El shot him a glare.

"It wasn't easy, I didn't lose just Steve that day, I lost everyone I cared about. But I needed to pick myself up pretty fast if I didn't want to lose everything I had left, I did have to move to a smaller apartment, though. Your sister helped me out, I think she felt like she owns Steve that, at least," Robin let out. "It took me three months to be able to function as if nothing happened, but just because I had to."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Mike said quietly. "Nancy talks about you a lot, she's glad you were there for her after Jonathan.. you know."

"Yeah, I felt like it was only fair since she's been there for me," Robin said with a smile.