Spider-X: A Spider-Man Story

Chapter 20: The Truth

The trick with being Spider-Man in this universe is not to be seen. He's Spider-Man, he has to keep up patrol, and especially keep looking for that man with the tattoos that made Peter stab his own hand. But he respects the status and desire of mutants to stay a secret. So he has to keep out of sight.

That means webbing up criminals from a distance, striking from the shadows, and not displaying his true strength or powers. Luckily, the common criminal didn't warrant any displays of awesome spider powers. 99% of the time they didn't even see him before he webbed their hands together, and even then they never even saw his mask. The only time he'd had to use some supernatural abilities was when he found a man in his thirties, clearly a mutant, trying to melt off the tires of cars.

He was just about to turn in for the night when hears the sirens a few blocks over. Then he smells the smoke. He immediately changes the path of his swing and finds the cause of the smoke in no time: an apartment building engulfed in flames.

Spider-Man catches himself on the side of a building over one of the firetrucks, still  hidden by the shadow of the night. He stays just long enough to hear the rundown of the building: the first six floors have been evacuated, but there's four people still on the seventh. The foundation of the building has become unstable and the fire chief can't risk sending in an entire team of firefighters for four people. Approximately five minutes before the roof caves in.

Spider-Man springs into action, leaping through the air and crashing through a window on the seventh floor. He crouches immediately under the smoke and starts casing the floor, listening as hard as he can for the four people stuck up here.

He knocks down a locked door and is rewarded with two young children huddled under a blanket in the corner. When they see Peter, ski mask on his face, they start screaming. Peter rips off his mask to calm them down, showing them his hands and bending down in front of them.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay. My name's Peter, I'm here to help. We don't have a lot of time but I'm going to get you out of here." He can't wait for them to stop crying so he scoops them into his arms, his mask forgotten, and carries them through the halls.

He hears the next person four doors down. An elderly man. Unconscious. He's laying on the floor in front of his window, but the window is closed. The smoke but have gotten to him before he could open it. Peter sets the children down and tells them to stay low. He forces open the window. He has to get these people out of here. He shoots down a web and attaches another another web to the man's chest. He lowers him to the ground.

He turns to see the kids's wide eyes. He doesn't have time to explain, so he just brings a finger to his lips and lowers them both down after. As an after thought, he shoots a web to a nearby ladder. Maybe the fire department will find the three people and assume they climbed down.

Spider-Man takes off right after, aware his time is dwindling. He can hear the roof creaking, groaning under the stress of staying upright. He needs to find the last two people now. Screams sound from the end of the hall. Familiar screams.

Angela and her mother, Rosa, are so shocked to see him they stop yelling. They stop moving.

"Peter?" Rosa rasps out before stricken with a coughing fit. He needs to get them out of here.

He surges forward and covers Angela's nose and mouth with a nearby t-shirt. "It's going to be okay. I'm going to get you both out here."

"All the exits are blocked," Rosa explains, panic raising her voice. "The windows don't open. There's nowhere to go, Peter!"

"Stay low and close to me," Peter instructs. He shoots two webs to the outside facing wall and yanks, rupturing a hole right in the middle of it. He tunes out Angela and Rosa's surprised screams. He can hear the ceiling groan again.