Spider-Man: Marvel Knight

Chapter 6-Spider-Practice

Gwen took it easy for the rest of the day after she woke up. She was anxious about tonight. Spider practice was going to be...let's face it...awkard. She thought about the hug that he gave her. Maybe it rubbed her the wrong way but...
No. No she couldn't think about that. Peter was with MJ now. There was no way she was thinking about that.
It was 6:30. Practice usually started at 7. Gwen looked in her closet for something good to wear on a cold New York night, especially hundreds of stories up. She found some black leggings and a white hoodie in her closet. Was it really her style? No, but comfort over style was the way to go.
She slid the hoodie over her shirt and changed from her short shorts into her leggings. For shoes, she put on some Nike slides, because she needed something that she could slip off quickly when it got to wall climbing.
Gwen walked downstairs and saw MJ watching TV. MJ looked up at Gwen and smiled. "Practice time?" she asked her friend.
Gwen nodded. "Maybe he won't be so much of a professor anymore," she said.
MJ giggled. "Oh, I don't think that we'll ever get to the un-professor Peter Parker." She winked at her. "Have fun."
"I'll try," Gwen said jogging to the door.

Peter sat on one of the roofs in the "practice alley." He wore windpants and a black blazer over his Spider-Man suit. God, was he nervous. He was more nervous than Gwen was. Stress was absolutely weighing him down to the point that he was getting headaches left and right. Maybe some time with an old friend would take his mind off things. He was finally getting to have Gwen as a friend again, and it made him feel really good.
Gwen finally walked into the alley and looked up at Peter. She smiled. "Hey, nerd," she said. Peter exhaled and smiled back.
"Hey, Gwen," he responded, jumping down to meet her. "You ready?"
She bit her lip. "As I'll ever be." She slipped off her slides and was ready to begin.
Peter felt his adrenaline rush from trying to keep in his words. "Hey, Gwen," he started, "I just wanted to apologize again...for you know...everything."
Gwen giggled and shook her head. "Peter, everything is water under the bridge right now. Let's just...let's just get this done."
He smiled and nodded. Pete was glad that they were both on solid ground now. He sighed and began to walk on the wall. Pete turned his head to Gwen. "Okay, so I've been treating being Spider-Man like a science lesson," he said. "That's my bad. It isn't something to be learned. It's something that you have to find."
Gwen raised her eyebrow. "That still doesn't help me, Peter. Like, at all."
He reached out his hand and gestured for her to grab it. "Trust me." She took his hand and moved closer to him.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
He smiled. "Don't think about it. When you're doing this, don't think, 'I'm about to climb a wall.' Take a step onto the wall but no hesitation. No climbing. Just walk."
Gwen looked at him with confusion. She closed her eyes anyway, and calmed herself down. She moved her foot to the wall and felt it's bricks under her toes. Slowly, she took her other foot off and was standing on the wall. "That's it," Peter said. She kept taking more and more steps. Soon, she realized what she was doing. She was walking up this wall. Being nervous, she lost her balance and fell forwards in a normal crawling position. She shrieked from being surprised by this sudden change of pace.
"It's alright," Peter said. "That's fine. Just do the same thing you were doing, but this time, your hands are a part of it." Slowly, she began to crawl up the wall with Peter. Finally, they reached the roof. She giggled with excitement after what just happened.
"Oh my God," she said, "I just did that!"
Peter grinned. "You sure did. Now," he said, pulling two objects out of his pocket. "Time for the next aspect of training." Gwen realized what he handed her, and her eyes got wide when she saw them.
"Web-shooters?" she asked.
"Well, Spider-Man swings from a web," he said with a smile. "Spider-Gwen would need to use them, too." She giggled and strapped them to her wrist.
"How do they work?" she asked.
Peter rolled up his sleeves to show her his. "You use your two middle fingers together to press the button in your palm."
"So, rock and roll sign?" she asked showing him an example of what she was referring to.
Peter chuckled. "I've never thought of that," he said. "Yeah, I guess so." He went and pointed to a nearby skyscraper. "When swinging, you want to jump before you shoot."
Gwen looked at him with an eyebrow raised. She pushed her hair behind her ear. "Why not shoot before?"
"Well," Peter started, "you've got to be very accurate before you jump, but, with our powers, time sort of slows down when we jump."
"Because of our spider sense?" she asked.
"Exactly," he said. "And don't worry about it not working. I think it has something to do with the feeling of adrenaline with the thrill of doing it."
She bit her lip and nodded. "Okay, I'll let you go first, then." He smiled and jumped off of the roof. Gracefully, he swung and landed on another rooftop.
He looked over to Gwen on the other rooftop and shouted over to her. "Don't think about it. Just do it!"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Giving herself a running start, she leaped off of the roof. Peter was right. Time did slow down for her, and she saw exactly where she wanted to swing from. She shot a web to the top of a skyscraper and pulled herself up to Peter. Gwen landed in front of Peter. She winked at him. "That's child's play," she said.
"Oh, it's on," Peter said. He leaped off the building and began swinging. Gwen followed him shortly behind.
Peter was a little worried about her. Gwen had never really tried out her powers before, and here she was, swinging away with a pair of web-shooters. He turned for a minute to see her gracefully swing from building to building, and it brought a smile to his face. He really did miss hanging out with her.
Gwen was giggling to herself the entire way. She loved the rush, the adrenaline, the passion that came with being a Spider-Man...or rather a spiderperson. Peter stopped and began running up the side of Oscorp and stopped on the roof. He looked down to see how Gwen was doing. She slowly started crawling up the side, which turned into a walk, which turned into a sprint. She leaped when she got to the edge and Peter pulled her into a hug, both laughing in ecstasy from what just happened. She looked at Peter with a gentle smile. He hadn't held her like this for a while. The adrenaline must've gotten to her because all she could think about was what they used to be.
"Peter?" she asked.
"Yeah, Gwen?"
"Do you still love me?"
Peter's eyes widened at that question. What was she thinking? He backed away from her slowly.
"Gwen, I..." He stuttered as he spoke. "Wh--what do you think is happening here?" Suddenly, they were both interrupted by their spider sense tingling. Gwen's wasn't as strong as his, because Peter knew exactly where everything was going down. "Oh, no," he said shooting his head up in the direction of the danger. "The detox center. Kurt's there." He turned to her quickly. "Go home, Gwen, and tell Harry where I'll be. We'll talk about this later."
"Let me help," she said. "I'm ready."
Peter shook his head. "I can't risk that, Gwen. You can prove to me that you're strong later. My spider sense is telling me that this is gonna be one hell of a fight. Go home... And we can discuss us later. Now go." He pulled off his blazer and windpants and put on his Spiderman mask. Spider-Man leaped off of the building and swung to the detox center.
Gwen felt hurt, but she knew it was her fault. She read the situation entirely wrong; she got too caught up with everything that was going on that she could only think about them being together. She leaped off of Oscorp and began to swing home.

MJ was through watching her movie. It was already 8:00. Liz and Harry were already asleep. Peter and Gwen wouldn't be back for a couple more hours. The only thing she could do was go to her and Peter's bedroom and sleep.
She opened the door and turned on he bedroom light. MJ jumped as she saw the man standing in the middle of her room. His green and yellow getout and bald head gave him away immediately.
"Hello, Miss Watson," Electro said. He let electricity course between his fingers. "Me and a group of my friends need to...borrow you for a bit."