Spider-Man: Marvel Knight

Chapter 13-Spider-Man: Vigilante

Peter kept himself busy that week in school...
He kept himself busy with homework, but in between classes he worked on his new persona that he gave himself: Spider-Man. He knew that if he was going to be a super hero, he had to at least look like one. Spider-Man couldn't look like Peter Parker; he had to have a suit...a mask...
Pete kept sitting in class and smiled through the stinging pain that was still there from Ben's funeral. He didn't think that he would ever get over it. Gwen and Harry kept trying to talk to him, but he kept pushing them away and trying not to talk to them. He didn't want anybody to get hurt, so he wanted to keep his side hobby to himself. Harry and Gwen had to be out of his life for a while.
They really began to worry about him when they witnessed something really, really strange happen at school in the hall. Peter was walking through, minding his own business, when Flash came and shoved him. Harry was ready to go and stop him, but something unbelievable happened. Peter grabbed Flash by the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the lockers. "Don't do that again, Flash," he told him as he dropped him to the floor. Surprised and scared at the same time, Flash got up and ran away. Peter looked around and saw that everyone in the hall was looking at him. He was about to say something, until he saw Gwen and Harry staring at him in shock. Pete looked away quickly and walked away.
Of course his phone was going to be blown up with their texts.

Harry: whats been going on Pete?

Gwen: Peter please pick up...

Harry: we're ur friends Pete, u can't hide ur life from us!

Gwen: Peter please?

MJ: Peter answer us! We're worried

He couldn't respond. Letting them into his life meant putting them in danger. What if they ended up like Ben: dying in pain with Peter holding them helplessly until they passed away. He wasn't going to let that happen again...not again.
When he walked home after school, he locked his door behind him and got his new project out of his closet. He was making the suit out of flexible carbon spandex. Although it was a bit cheesy, because it was basically a spandex onesie, it could hide his identity perfectly. All he had to do was add the red and blue hues with the magnetic chemical coloring he had. For the eyes on the mask, he grabbed sunglass lenses and stitched them into the mask.
After an hour, he was done. He put it on and velcroed his webshooters to his wrists. Quietly, he climbed to the roof and swung to the city. This was the first time he could actually test the full capacity of his power. How was he going to do this, though?
As if on cue, his spider-sense (what he called his sixth sense now) triggered him. It led him to the sound of police sirens going down the streets. A bank truck had been hijacked and was being chased by three cop cars. "A bank robbery?" he said aloud. "Don't these people know about PayPal?" Peter realized that he said that to himself out loud, and realized it was pretty funny. His friends always thought he had funny quips, but now he thought that he could use them more as a superhero.
Spidey swung as fast as he could to the money transport. The lead police officer was closely following it. "This is car 67," the officer said. "I'm closing in on the truck." Suddenly, he saw Spider-Man land on the top of the truck. "Um, dispatch...what's the code for 'dude in spandex?'"
Spidey thought about the situation. "Truck's moving really fast," he said. "Better do this quick!" He began moving to the front of the truck. Luckily, his powers allowed him to stick to the top of the truck without falling.
The criminals kept looking in their mirrors to keep track of the cops behind them. "Don't worry, bro," the passenger said to the other. "You're about to lose them."
Suddenly, his door flew open and what looked like a giant web grabbed him by the chest. He looked at his partner. "Um, dude?" The driver had enough time to look at him getting yanked out of the truck and into the air. He looked at his mirror and saw him hanging from a lamppost tied up in what looked like spiderwebs. He looked back in the passenger seat and saw a guy dressed in red and blue spandex sitting there looking at him. "What the hell?"
Spider-Man stuck out his hand as if he wanted the guy to shake it. "Hi there! Don't be alarmed," he said. "My name's Spider-Man, and you, sir have just broken about five or six laws just by doing this little stunt. Now I'm gonna have to ask you to pull over or else."
The man reached for his gun and aimed it at Pete. Spidey's reflexes were too fast, though, and he grabbed the gun and threw it out the window. "Hey," Pete said, "no guns, 'cause that's cheating." The man started to panic. "Oh, well. I guess I'm gonna have to stop this thing myself." He webbed the man to his seat. "Stick around why don't ya?" Peter then swung to the front of the truck and clung to the grill. "Oh God, this is gonna hurt.. "
Peter grabbed the front and put his feet down on the street. Gradually, the truck began to slow down, but he was right: the friction from stopping it burned and hurt his feet. Finally, the truck came to a complete stop. Peter was out of breath, and his heart was racing faster than ever. "Holy crap, that was intense," he said. He heard the sirens stop, and he saw the cops come around to meet him. They all pointed their weapons at him.
"Freeze, don't move!" the lead officer said.
Spider-Man straightened up and reached his hands out. "Sorry, officers, this is a big misunderstanding," he said. "Y'see, I stopped the bad guys. Which makes me a good guy."
"It also makes you a vigilante, which is illegal as all hell." He moved closer to Peter. "Wait a minute...you're the guy who caught Ben Parker's killer, right? The one who calls himself Spider-Man."
Peter felt a quick sting from hearing his uncle's name, but he shook it off. "Yeah, uh...that was me."
The officer slowly holstered his gun. "I got to admit, that guy wouldn't have gotten to prison without you," he said. He commanded his fellow officers to holster theirs as well. He was a large black man who just dripped with authority and professionalism. He'd been around the block a while. "We could use some more help around, honestly. And I could keep it from the chief. The name's Jeff Davis...You got a number or something I can call you by?"
"Don't worry, officer," Spidey said while shooting a thread to a building. "If you need help, I'll be in the neighborhood." With that, he swung away back to his house. He turned on the news and saw himself saving those people on the streets from getting hurt by the truck. "I'm a hero..." he said to himself. "You see that, Unc? I'm a hero."

~elsewhere~

Norman...the Goblin... was working on tech improvements on his weaponry. No one had been in those labs for weeks. All he had to say was that everything up there was too secret, and only he had access. The dead bodies didn't get in the way, either. He just piled them up into the corner. He had the TV on the news and something caught his ear. He turned the volume up and heard something very peculiar.

"...oday, a man saved hundreds on the streets of Brooklyn after a money transfer truck was hijacked by two thieves. This strange vigilante was first heard of a week ago when he captured the killer of Ben Parker, the man who was killed in last week's mugging. He is currently wanted by the NYPD for vigilantism and..."

Norman threw the remote at the TV and the screen shattered into pieces. "Avenged old Ben's death, huh?" he said to himself. He grabbed a combustion orb. "I think I need to have a talk with this, Spider-Man..."
What are you thinking?
You'll see, Norman...you'll see.