Sunflower (or, a Solangelo Spider-Man AU)

Can't Turn Back Now, I'm Haunted (sorry)

Will's eyes snapped open. Where was he? He had been in his room...this wasn't his room. What had he been freaking out about? Everything was blurry. This place was bright. And loud. And-

With sickening clarity, he realized exactly where he was. He was standing in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park. It was the middle of the day. The middle of the worst day of his life. And he was face to face with...some guy.

Will had never actually gotten this guy's name, so he just mentally referred to him as "The Guy" every time he came upon this memory (too often). Kind of an unremarkable name for a dude who had sort of destroyed part of his life, but oh well. It's not like it mattered. Not much if this mattered at this point. It wouldn't change.

For the first time, he noticed The Guy's outfit. All black leather. This shook something in Will's mind, but his brain was too foggy from this whole flashback thing that he couldn't quite grasp onto what it was. Ugh.

The Guy was talking now, shaking Will out of his thoughts momentarily. Will had heard his current evil villain speech so many times that he could recite it, but it still gave him chills to hear. Maybe it's just because he knew what was coming.

"The museum will burn," the guy said. "Thousands of years of history...gone. Inconsequential. I am the future."

Will spoke, without really thinking about it. The words just came out of his mouth like muscle memory at this point. He cringed at the squeakiness of his voice as he spoke. "Dude, what? You got some typa grudge against art? Your third grade teacher tell you that your stick figure wasn't realistic enough?"

The Guy flushed in anger. "Silence! Or the museum burns now!"

Well, we can't have THAT, Will thought. His eyes flicked across the various people standing on the steps, the people watching from close by in the park. The people in the museum...

His chest tightened with anxiety, but he stayed confident. Looking back, Will wasn't sure how he had done this. This had been the biggest thing he had ever faced as a superhero at that point. But hey, he wasn't going to argue with fourteen year old him's logic. He was bold, that's for sure.

"Well...I s'pose you could burn the building now. You got bombs in there?" Will asked nonchalantly.

Luckily for him, the guy was stupid. Or maybe just egotistical. Either way, he took Will's bait. "Oh, it's fully rigged. One press of a button and the building comes down."

"Impressive," Will said. "Quite the statement."

The Guy nodded proudly. "Thank you! It took quite a bit of planning."

"I'm sure," Will said. His mind raced for something else to say, something else to keep the guy distracted as people snuck away. "So, uh...you not a fan of art in general then, or...?"

Will had always thought that his distraction there had been pretty weak, but once again, it was pretty easy to outsmart stupid. The Guy shrugged. "Oh, well. Not a fan of ancient art. People need to look to the future instead of clinging to their past."

Hearing that statement right now in particular really hit home for Will, considering this whole little scene was him living in the past. At the time, though, it had just sounded like some fake deep shit from the internet, so his reaction was simply a nod of agreement as he snuck another glance over his shoulder to watch the people creep away.

Unfortunately, The Guy caught on that time, and his tiny brain managed to connect the dots of what Will was doing. His lips pulled back into a snarl. "Do you take me for an idiot, Spider-Man?" He said, pulling a tiny remote from his pocket. The detonator.