Recovery With The Mercenary

One

Peter was out of breath as he swung from rooftop to rooftop. He hit the building and sprinted as fast as possible before leaping off of it again.

The robbers sped away in their car, making sudden movements and turns. The spider made the final decision to grab them. He webbed then car and swung down, forcing the robbers to a stop. He quickly webbed the crooks up and swung away, hearing the police sirens in the distance.

He had a big exam tomorrow and it was almost midnight. He hadn't studied at all. But, the city's safety was extremely important to Peter and he put that first. The night grew colder and quieter as Peter swung back to his aunts house and cautiously crept in through the window.

It was hard to breathe under the mask and he whipped it off like it was a tight piece of workout clothing. He quietly slipped into sweat pants and pulled off the spidey shirt before flopping onto bed, neglecting his studies, and passing out.

***

Peter slept through his alarm again. It took about ten minutes for his aunt to slap him with a pillow. The superhero threw on a random hoodie before booking it out the door and to the subway station. He shoved past people with an "excuse me" or a "sorry" every so often but they never minded.

He wore the spidey suit under his regular clothing, always ready to go into battle whenever necessary. He couldn't help but scan every person as he entered the subway and got ready for the commute. A woman held a baby, two teens listened to music, nothing out of the ordinary.

The University that Peter attended was very prestigious and very hard to get into. It was supposed to help him blossom into a technical engineer or something like that. Peter loved science, he truly did, but being Spider-Man took a toll on his life.

He made it into his lecture hall and listened to the teacher drone on and on about things Peter already knew. So, like any bored student would, he pulled out his phone and looked through the news when something caught his eye. A headline read "new red and black costumes superhero. A new Spider-Man?"

This caught him off guard. He didn't own a black and red suit and he was one of a kind. There was no other Spider-Man. He read the article and took note of this new vigilante. He was new to New York, at least. The costumed person seemed to behave erratically, and nobody knew if he was good or bad.

Peters spidey sense went off. He knew running into this impersonator would be bad news. Once he finished with his classes, he ran into the bathroom and changed before sliding out the window. He webbed up his bag onto a wall in a street nobody used.

"Vilgilante," he mumbled to himself as he waved hi to some of the civilians. "I got a bad feeling about this."

It was the afternoon, so the city was mostly quiet. Peter sat on the rooftop observing everyone that passed under him. He listened to the police radio via his mask. It was all quiet.

"Gunshots on 18th street," the radio finally was alive. "Nobody hurt yet."

Spider-Man was faster than the police. He got to the scene in two minutes. His spidey sense started to go haywire and it made it hard for him to focus. Standing above to men was the impersonator, with guns in both hands.

Peter struggled for a moment before climbing onto a wall and jumping at the man. He kicked him in the stomach and went to check the man.

"What the hell, man!"

Spider-Man webbed his guns and shot webs at his shoulders. He hoisted him up. "Who are you?"

"Oh my god, Spider-Man? You're like my idol!" The man exclaimed.

Peter was taken aback. "We're you gonna kill them?"

The man chuckled. "Money is money," before quickly throwing Peter to the ground and shooting the other men in the back as they tried to escape.

"No!" Peter tried to get up but the vigilante struck him down. His spideysense and getting his head hit now did a toll.

"Stay down, webs. I don't wanna hurt you too."

"No-" and then it all went black.