Spider-Man: Marvel Knight

Chapter 10-The Birth of the Spiderman

Sunday night...
Sunday was a rough one. It was really hard to believe. Ben was alive, talking, and smiling today, and now...he was gone. Uncle Ben was dead. She didn't know anything else to do. Peter felt like he needed to throw up constantly. Thinking about the whole thing made him sick to his stomach. With everything that happened this weekend, he just wanted to lay in his bed and cry.
And it wasn't just the fact that Ben was gone that upset him; it was the fact that the man who murdered him walked right by him and Harry.. Peter could've stopped him...no, he SHOULD have stopped him, but he was too grasped by his anger and lack of responsibility last to do anything. He wanted Flash to get what he deserved but revenge had it's consequences. That's the thing that hit the hardest: Ben's words that he spoke today kept echoing in Peter's mind. "With great power, comes great responsibility." Where was Peter's responsibility now? He had a responsibility to stop people like that man, and a good man--his uncle-- was dead because of his lack of it.
Mrs. Watson had come over to comfort Aunt May. She asked her if she wanted her to tell the Stacies and the Osborns about the tragedy, but May said that she would do it. "You shouldn't have to do that, hon," May told her with a tear soaked smile. "I'll do it tomorrow. I don't think that I'm ready to do it tonight. I just need to rest."
"I completely understand, May. You just take it easy. If you need anything, just call me." Mrs. Watson hugged May goodbye and exited the house.
May walked over to her room. On her way, she looked up the stairs and thought of asking Peter if he was okay. She just shook her head and kept walking. May knew that he wouldn't want to talk. She didn't want to talk either. All she wanted to do was cry herself to sleep until she couldn't anymore. She laid on her bed and grabbed a picture of Ben off of her dresser. Tears began to pour down her face as she pulled the picture to her and embraced it like it was him next to her.
Peter could hear her sobs from upstairs. Each trembling noise she made shook him to the core. He wanted to cry, but it felt like there was no point, now. Ben was gone. It was over...and his murderer was still out there.
Something in Peter wanted to pick up the phone and tell Harry, Gwen, and MJ what had happened. He quickly shook the idea out of his head and threw his phone away from him and turned on the the television. He wanted to be alone. Just...alone and relaxed.
CBS was on, and Jeopardy was playing. That was...
Ben's favorite show. Slowly, Pete fell asleep.
Hours went by. Finally Pete woke up. He looked at his clock, and saw that it was 8:00 at night. He was about to fall back asleep, until he heard the breaking news music on TV. Waking himself the rest of the way up, he grabbed the controller and turned the volume up.

"...olice are on a high speed chase with a man in a stolen brown Ford F-150 near the docks in Chinatown. The man, 37 year-old Ryan Miller, is suspected of first degree murder. Tonight, he is said to have shot and killed Queens resident Ben Parker.
Hopefully, the police will bring an end to his crime tonight."

It was him. He killed Ben. The police had him on a chase. Would they be able to catch him. From the aerial footage, it looked like he was getting away.
Peter got up from his bed and moved over to his desk. He grabbed his web shooters and strapped them around his wrists. His mind was raging now. He had to stop him at all costs.
He was about to climb out his window, until he thought about something. He couldn't let the police see him, or at least who he really was. Pete went over to his closet, grabbed a red bandana, and tied it around the lower half of his face. Then, he grabbed a red hoodie and let the hood over his head.
He snuck out of his window and carefully climbed to his roof. For a split second, he thought of aborting the mission. He could get hurt tonight, or worse...get killed. He didn't want to leave may with two dead loved ones; but, he had a sort of confidence. Pete had made up his mind.
Carefully, he aimed his web shooter at a lamppost and shot a thread. He breathed slowly to amp himself up for what was about to happen. Then, he swung, but this time he left his eyes open. As he swung, the world slowed down around him, which allowed him to shoot multiple webs to different lampposts. He was doing more than just swinging; he was practically launching himself with the webs.
As he reached the city, he used that weird sixth sense to try and detect where the chase was. Soon, his spine got that ice cold tingle. That tingle was leading him towards the docks. He ran off of a roof of a skyscraper and swung through the crowded streets. He didn't care about the heights now; all he cared about was his responsibility to stop this man.
His tingle led him to a warehouse on the Chinatown docks. Police cars were lined up outside. The chief kept talking through his megaphone.
"Ryan! We don't want this to go down in violence! Come out with your hands up, and you'll be safe!"
Of course there was no answer from him. Peter scoffed at the chief's pleas. If he wanted it to not end in violence, then he shouldn't have killed Ben. Pete quietly swung over the officers and made it onto the roof of the warehouse. Climbing down one of the walls, he found an open window.
Ryan sat there with his gun in his hand. Something in him wanted to put it to his head and end it right there. He had been a petty thief his whole life, but he really messed up this time: he killed a man. Blood was on his hands. All he had to do was put the gun to his head and pill the trigger, and it would a be okay.
Suddenly, he heard banging inside. He checked the door to see if police had gotten inside. Of course, they didn't... He had boarded the doors up. What was that noise then?
"What the hell..." he said to himself.
A voice echoed through the warehouse. It sounded like it came from all around and close around him. "It ends here, Ryan," the voice said.
Ryan cocked his piece, ready to defend himself from this unseen enemy. "Who the hell are you?" he asked the darkness. He heard a strange sound echo after his question. It almost sounded like a "thwip". And then there was a sound that sounded like something was swinging in the air.
"I'm the consequence of your actions," the voice said. "You did something bad tonight..."
"Listen, man, I don't want any trouble," Ryan pleaded to the unseen threat.
"You should've thought of that before you killed a man in cold blood." Suddenly a knee came and landed hard under his chin and threw him back. He looked up and saw a man in a hoodie and bandana. His eyes were covered with sunglasses.
Ryan pointed his gun at Peter and was ready to pull the trigger, but Pete's senses were too fast. He shot a web at the gun and yanked it out of Ryan's hand. "Please," Ryan said while putting his hand in front of his face. Peter picked him up and punched him in the gut. He fell to the ground, but Pete picked him back up again and let a fist fly into his face. No matter how many times he fell down, Peter picked him back up and let him feel the pain over and over again.
For the first time in his life, Peter fought back. He didn't hold back. He let punch after punch fly...and it felt good.
"Please," Ryan said out of breath and with a mouthful of blood. "No...no more!"
Peter picked him back up by his collar. He threw off his glasses and bandana, and then threw off his hood. Ryan immediately recognized the face: It was the kid who was getting beat up last night. Confused, he tried to say something, but it didn't come out.
Peter had him. The man who killed his uncle was right there...in his grasp. One squeeze of his neck and it could be over... just like that. Just before he could do it, he thought of something. He imagined Ben standing right beside him. Pete wanted to look, but he was ashamed. What would Ben think of him, killing this criminal? His uncle would never want revenge under any circumstances. Peter looked at Ryan in his eyes and began to tear up.
"Did you think?" Peter asked as the tears hit his lips.
"Wh--what..."
"Did you think about what you were doing before you did it?" Peter pulled him closer to his face. "Before you killed my uncle?"
Ryan shook his head and guilt came over. He didn't think whether the man he killed had a family or not. "Kid... I--I'm really sorry." Peter held up another fist, ready to hit him again. Ryan kept speaking. "Those kids that I robbed called the cops, and they found me out. I thought I could get his car and drive off... He told me...he told me, 'You don't have to do this, kid. Put down the gun and give up. You don't have to run anymore.' He...he reached for my gun...and instinct just came.... He... He was just trying to help me...." He began to sob as he thought about it. "I'm...I'm so sorry kid."
Peter felt more tears pour from his eyes. He wasn't sobbing with him, but he couldn't hold them in. "I'm sorry, too," he responded. Before Ryan could say anything more, Peter pushed him into a wall and webbed him to it. "You deserve worse than this, but this is your penance. You'll go to jail, and while you rot in there, I want you to think about what you did last night. And how it'll change your life, forever." He pulled his hood over His head and began walking away.
"Who are you?" Ryan asked, still terrified of what just happened.
Peter turned to him slightly before he lept out of the window. "I'm Spider-Man." He shot a web to the next building and swung back home. He thought about staying and watching the police take him to jail, but he had put the sad man through enough already. He didn't have the stomach to see what happened next.
Finally, he made it to his house. Without thinking, he stopped in front of his front door and walked right in. May walked out of her bedroom and Peter realized that he made his mistake. "Peter!" she said. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Out," he said. The hood was still over his head to hide dust and dirt that was on his face. He also cut himself on his cheek on accident while climbing around the warehouse.
"When did you leave?" she asked him sternly.
"Couple hours ago," he said facing away from his aunt.
"And you didn't tell me you were going?!" she shouted.
"May I'm fine," Peter said trying not to cry.
May moved closer to her nephew. "Peter, take off the hood and look at me." Peter threw his hood off and looked at May. Tears began to come to her eyes when she saw his face. "My God, what happened?"
"I just needed some air, May...Please don't cry...I'm fine...just don't cry..." Peter said while busting into tears.
May pulled him close to her and hugged him. She tried to fight her tears back, but she couldn't stop them from rolling down her face. "I know it's hard, Peter. Ben...He wouldn't want us to be like this," she said.
They held each other for a couple minutes, until finally they cried all they could cry. Peter kissed his aunt goodnight and walked up to bed. "Ben loved you, Peter," she said.
"I know," he responded with a teary smile.

The next day...

Gwen decided to go to school earlier this morning. She felt good about herself. Plus she was excited to see Peter again. There was just something about him.
Gwen parked her car in the student parking section and walked to the entrance of the school. There was a boy sitting in front with his head down. Soon, she realized who it was: it was Harry. His eyes were red. Was he crying?
"Harry?" Gwen asked concerned.
He looked up at her slowly. "Hey--hey..." he said while wiping tears from his face.
"You okay?"
"Ye--yeah... I'm fine..."
She looked around. "Where's Peter?"
He looked at her with a surprised and sorrowful look. "You didn't hear the news?"
"What?"
Her eyes welled up with tears at Harry's next words.
"Uncle Ben is dead..."