Where are the heroes?

Peter Parker hasn’t had a good day in a while.

It’s seems like most days recently are whatever can go wrong will go wrong… which is exactly how today was going.

Woke up with a headache like usual because of his long nights as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, stopping thugs, getting shot at, stopping someone from committing…

Neighbours deciding it’s a great morning to blast music and yell about politics, that helps with the headache lots thanks!

Peter grudgingly gets out of the slightly warm bed to the cold air of the morning so he can get ready for school.

After burning his mouth with mint toothpaste (thanks spider bite) and getting dressed and realizing he is late, runs out the door hoping to catch his train on time.

Spoiler alert! He doesn’t.

Peter is certain the world likes to laugh at him sometimes, he forgot his suit at home trying to catch the train on time, so he can’t swing to school even if he wanted to and here comes the gray clouds… with rain of course, way too brighten the mood universe.

Peter finally gets to school late and completely drenched, only to notice he didn’t do his homework for history class that he is currently late too.

So he gets his late slip, gets to history class just in time for the teacher to ask if he did his homework in front of the whole class, to which Peter said he forgot to do it and got an earful about how doing your assignments is important from the teacher (ok screw this teacher the one time he forgets to do it he gets yelled at, like what about Flash doubt he did it!).

Speaking of the devil, Flash decided that after class was a great time to torment Peter and pushed him into a locker making him drop his books and bang his already hurting head against the locker as well (of course Peter could have dogged it, but he could handle Flash’s bullying and he didn’t need someone else possibly being bullied like he was on his conscious).

The rest of the day was painful and slow, but Peter got through it, he always does because he is Peter Parker the boy who lost his parents and uncle, the boy who gets bullied, the boy who always smiles and is a ray of sunshine.

He is Spider-Man, the web slinger who saves people, the hero, the one who works with the Avengers, the one who learned that Spider-Man and his non hero life are one in the same courtesy of Tony Stark and having a building dropped on him.

The one who is now running out of school because the Avengers are fighting some group of robots and Peter should go and help.

He’s the one who’s just watched Iron Man hit a giant robot into an apartment building.

He’s the one who lives in that apartment building.

He’s the one who’s pushed back and out of the way as ambulances and firefighters rush by.

He’s the one who finally gets through to see his aunt May dead in the rubble as people around him thank the Avengers for their service.

He’s the one who starts to break down and is pulled away from his last family member corpse.

He’s the one who briefly makes eye contact with Tony Stark who seems confused as to why the boy was here in his civilian attire instead of his spidery altar ego.

And he is the one who is able to tear a piece of red and blue fabric out of the rubble and run away with tears threatening to spill as he tries to get as far away as possible.

——————————🕷️——————————

Peter collapses far away from the scene in tears, he’s so upset, so… mad.

Why do these things like this always happen to him.

Before Peter could punch a wall luckily or unluckily Iron Man’s thrusters could be heard.

The spider tries to make a break for it, but the metal man grabs him by the arm and asks one simple question, a question that makes Peter Parker break.

“What’s wrong bambino?”

It takes a moment for the spider teen to completely register Mr.Stark’s words.

What’s wrong? He mocks the words.

What’s wrong is life is shit and no matter what he does or what he tries, he wakes up with headaches, he gets bullied every day so that others don’t have to, he fights crimes and saves some people’s lives, every one he loves and cares about dies around him and he can’t stop it.

And sometimes people don’t care about how their actions affect others, some people can just shoot someone dead and don’t care if that person is someone’s uncle, some people don’t care that they give other’s false hope only for it to be crushed, some people don’t care if they belittle or hurt others for some sick personal gain and some people don’t care enough to even think how someone could be affected by having a giant robot dropped on their home and last living family member.

Peter laughs at the absurdity.

“What’s wrong?”

The spider says with the anger seeping through as he actually uses his strength to rip his wrist out of the metal man’s grip.

“What’s wrong is that you think it’s ok to never help out with problems that aren’t considered world ending”

Peter isn’t really thinking as he continues to speak, he honestly doesn’t care in the moment, he just pissed at everyone and everything and if he gets to let out some of that frustration at the man who just killed his aunt, well that’s fine by him.

“What’s wrong is that you like to try and save the world!”

Peter said with the false enthusiasm.

“With no regard as to how much you hurt others”

“What’s wrong is that you decided you wanted to critique me, to push me aside when I only wanted to help save the lives you don’t care enough about to do anything”

“Pete-“

Tony tries to interrupt, but it just makes the spider even more pissed.

“I’m not finished Mr.Stark!”

He waves his hands in faux awe as he walks toward Tony.

“What’s wrong is you decide that it was better to push me down-“

Peter can’t help but laugh as tears start to fall down his cheeks.

“What’s wrong is you thought it was a good idea to knock down a giant robot onto my apartment and kill my only family member I have left!”

Peter puts his hands up as he walks toward Iron Man which, without really thinking about it, makes Tony defensively puts up his mask.

Peter stops dead in his tracks seeing the action and slowly puts his arms down, he curls his hands making his nails dig into his palms, drawing just a bit of blood.

The spider turns and begins to walk away before he does something he knows he’ll probably regret.

“Wait Peter I didn’t mean to-“

Tony tries to speak again, maybe tries to apologize, but the attempt was futile as it just made the enhanced teenager spin around with a look the man had never seen on the younger’s face.

“Mr.Tony fucking Stark please return to your Avengers headquarters before you say something you’ll regret”

But Tony has always been stubborn, so he shows his face again and speaks.

“No Peter just listen-“

Peter interrupts the man again before he could say more and put’s a finger roughly into the metal just above the core of the Iron Man suit.

“No I’m done listening and I’m done being the one who gets screwed over”

There’s a slight cracking sound as Peter’s hand pushes into Tony’s suit causing the man to stumble back and glance down at the small dent in his armour.

“I’m done with your bullshit Tony Stark”

This makes Tony look back up afraid of what he’ll see on the boy’s face, who he thought he knew better, only to see him crying with a slight grin on his face.

“And I’m done being told what to do by people who should treat me better instead of pushing me around”

Peter dusts off his mask and pulls it over his face, not caring as debris enters his lungs.

“And I’m tired of people thinking that they have power over me”

Karen starts to speak to Peter through the mask, but her words are just static to Peter.

“Now I wonder really-”

The spider half laughs, half coughs because of the dust.

“Where are the heroes when people need them?”