Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

one

Peter

A lot had gone down during Peter's sophomore year. First, during the football Homecoming dance, his date's father had attempted to steal Tony Stark's—just, stuff. All of his stuff. Then, a few months later, a whole new problem had presented itself when his best friend, Alexandra Wallace had discovered his secret identity as Spider-Man and a crazy new villain that Ned called 'Doc Ock' had emerged. And sophomore year wasn't even over yet!

Not only that, but Peter had learned that, even though he was under the impression that his Aunt May knew his Spider-Man secret, Mr. Stark had apparently used some sort of crazy alien magic or whatever to wipe her memory—he claimed it was to protect her, and to make sure Peter would be allowed to continue being Spider-Man—but Peter was still pretty upset with him. 

After Peter had discovered what his mentor had done to May's memory, he had to convince her to let him continue being Spider-Man. She had been hesitant at first, but with a bit of convincing (and tears, Peter wasn't afraid to admit) May had agreed to let him continue his web slinging ways—but she had a few conditions, and rules.

Rule #1: Peter's curfew on weekdays was no later than 11 o'clock, and on weekends it was 1 o'clock. If Peter was ever late, or kept May up worrying, he was grounded from patrols for a week.

Rule #2: When he was out on patrol, Peter had to check in with May every hour. Whether it be a text or a phone call, if May didn't hear from him each hour, there would be consequences.

The last rule was the most important to May.

Rule #3: Let May deal with Tony Stark.

May was very pissed at the billionaire, and she didn't want Peter speaking to him. Peter was a bit conflicted at times—on the one hand, he was really mad at Mr. Stark for what he had done to May (without even consulting him about it!), but on the other hand—Mr. Stark was still someone he wanted to be able to look up to. It was a lot easier to be Spider-Man when he knew he had someone like Iron Man in his corner. 

Not only that, but Peter had been looking up to Iron Man since he was a little kid. It was a tough habit to break—no matter how mad he was at Mr. Stark. 

Other than that, Peter's life hadn't changed much. He was still Spider-Man, he was still in school, and his life was still crazy.

When his friends, Ned and Alexandra, had heard about what happened between him and Tony Stark, they were also angry. But they didn't stay that way for long.—once May had agreed to let Peter continue to be Spider-Man, Ned wondered when Peter would forgive Mr. Stark.

"Are you being serious right now, Ned?" Peter demanded as he shut his locker and turned to his friend. "I'm not going to talk to him! I'm not even supposed to, dude."

Ned sighed and pulled his backpack over his shoulders as he followed Peter down the hallway. "Yeah, but c'mon, Peter! I mean, Mr. Stark's the whole reason you got your suit in the first place—he's had your back the longest!"

The teen hero sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew Ned was right, but he still couldn't help but feel betrayed. "I'll put it like this," Peter turned to Ned. "Let's say you trusted someone—you gave them everything to prove yourself to them, to make them proud of you—and then let's say you find out they wiped your mom's memory just to avoid a hard talk. Would you be super keen to forgive them?"

Ned thought this through for a moment before shaking his head. "No." He agreed. "But this someone is Tony Stark!"

Peter sighed and shook his head, but laughed slightly. Ned was still Ned. "I know," Peter replied softly. "Look—I don't—I don't want to be mad at him, Ned, it's just—" He sighed again. "He really messed up this time. Even if his intentions were good, he really messed up. Even when I really messed up—I didn't mess up like this."