Run Boy Run

Peter startled awake. A gasp ripped through him as he shot out of bed, clinging to his ceiling. He panted heavily and looked around. His spider-sense was intense but starting to fade along with his jack-rabbiting heartbeat. It was a panic attack from a reoccurring nightmare. In it, he was trying to get his work done as Peter Parker. But people needed Spider-man and he could never save anyone. The dream woke him at least once a week. More if it was an awful week.

He usually had awful weeks.

He dropped so he was hanging from his fingertips and then landed on his bed. He put his head in his hands. He took a deep breath and grabbed his phone off his nightstand. He got about 6 hours of sleep. Better than usual. He tapped the phone against his leg. He didn’t have work. He didn’t have class. It was morning and while he could swing through the city, he wasn’t sure there’d be much actually to do. He took a moment to doom scroll on Tumblr, letting his mind forget that it was worked up.

He decided to take the longest shower, hot water burning the dirt and sweat off from his patrol last night. He showered until the water ran cold. His stomach twisted a little bit as anxiety about work crept in but he swallowed it down. He should swing through the city. Get these thoughts out of his head. He had to do something otherwise he would spiral. He put on headphones, so loud he couldn’t hear himself think, and stepped outside as Peter Parker.

Hood up, eyes down. He didn’t feel like being around people too much. His one goal: get to his favorite coffee place and get back home. Maybe stop by the thrift bookstore. Yeah, that sounded like a good day.

He got to enjoy a few slurps of his frappe, delicious sugar, and cold before it happened. His spider-sense peaked sharply and he whipped around in time to hear the gunshots. He got a few weird looks from his fellow New Yorkers. They were too far away for anyone in his vicinity to hear. It was coming from a neighborhood. He could hear screaming, a child struggling against multiple people.

The frappe dropped, forgotten completely as he slipped down an alley. The adrenaline already spiking. He lived to be Spider-Man. Saving people felt good. It blocked out all of the rest. He slipped on his mask as the negative thoughts started to peek through. The faces of people he failed, didn’t get to in time. No, focus. He couldn’t do anything about them but he could save that screaming, terrified girl he could hear. He would save her.

He got to the roof of the nearest building and threw himself off of it. He could hear sirens now but knew he would get there first. He was fast, which left little time for his torturous little mind to weigh too heavily on him.

He arrived as the van with the child started driving away. He could hear her screaming and struggling. Peter briefly looked at what must’ve been the girl's home. The door was hanging off the hinge. No noise came from the home. Too quiet and it made his stomach twist, acid rising into his throat at the implication. It made him mad.

He hit the van hard, causing it to wobble and swerve. He ripped the doors off and webbed up her kidnappers. He ripped them from the van and let them roll onto the pavement behind them.

The girl was young, maybe 6. She had dark hair that curled around her face. She looked at him, free from anyone holding her, and then grinned. A single tooth missing.

“Spider-man!” She yelled and ran at him. He caught her, pulled them to the roof, and webbed them away.

“My dad loves you!” she said. “You’re our favorite superhero.”

“Am I?” He asked amused. He dodged as a bullet came at them. He looked wildly around and realized his mistake. The would-be kidnappers weren’t just in the van. They were everywhere. Someone wanted this girl badly. Fear zinged through him. “Hold on tight!”

He didn’t think they were aiming for the girl, but they wanted him and it would be so easy to make a mistake. Dodge one bullet but get hit by another. He moved like liquid and the girl screamed, terrified in his ear.

“I want my dad!”

“Who are you?” He asked a bit more forcibly than he intended. His fear was mounting. The gunmen were everywhere. The bullets flew closer because there were so many of them. He twisted in the air, keeping his body curling protectively over her as he evaded dozens of bullets but took one to his side. The pain was bright and he missed his next swing, dropping a few feet before catching them on the next web.

“I’m Ellie,” she said into his chest, small voice muffled but he heard her all the same. He needed help. He could feel his blood running down his side, probably leaving a trail behind him. His spider-sense wouldn’t stop screaming at him.

“Hold on!” He yelped.

“I’m telling my dad - “ she screamed as he let them drop suddenly a few feet. He couldn’t evade every bullet, there were gunmen everywhere and his spider-sense wouldn’t stop screaming at him to move, move, MOVE. He jerked to the left, avoiding two bullets but another sunk into his left shoulder, knocking him back and slowing his swing.

“Dad!” Peter looked down at the little girl. She had a phone out. He blinked dumbly at her for a moment, nothing she said registering in his pain-addled mind and his spider-sense blared. They were on them again he let them drop and used the momentum to web them out of reach.

She was still yelling into the phone but Peter was too focused on where they were going, the Baxter Building within a hundred yards. “Prepare yourself!” He yelled. He dropped, curling around the girl as they rolled. As they came to a stop he let her go and slapped a button on his wrist. The roof door audibly unlocked.

“Go,” he urged. “Johnny will help you.”

She sat up on her knees and pressed her hands against his shoulder wound. He turned his head away and bit back a scream. “You need to stop the bleeding,” she said. “I want my dad.”

“I’ll get you back to your dad, you have to go though. I need to lead them away from you.”

He moved her hands off of him.

“You would be helping us both by going through that door.”

She stared at him hard.

“My dad is coming. You should stay with me. He’ll save us.”

She sounded so confident but they didn’t have the time to wait for anyone and there were so many gunmen. He wanted to find out who they were. He webbed up the wound on his shoulder and then the one on his abdomen.

He pushed her towards the door. “Go.”

She scowled and he watched her stomp off into the Baxter Building and smiled. She was safe. He walked to the ledge. They were catching up to him. As long as they continued to follow him that child would be safe. He let himself dramatically drop.

Free of the responsibility of keeping a child safe from the gunfire Peter cut loose. He started to take out the gunmen, webbing them up and leaving them hanging as he moved on to the next. He suddenly felt exhilarated. This is what made his life mean something. Little girl safe and he was taking out these baddies.

He webbed up one and let him dangle from a roof. He clung to the building side. “So why are all of you big tough guys after a little girl?”

The guy smirked a little. “Not just a little girl. We needed her to draw in someone else.”

“Who?” Peter demanded but before he could shake an answer out of him, his spider-sense told him to move. The air was suddenly riddled with gunfire. The guy he was interrogating now hanging dead. He dropped to evade the bullets and swung to the next building, trying to get eyes on everyone firing at him. He knew he made a mistake a second before the air around him exploded. He was thrown into a building, his head cracking sickeningly against the stone. He dropped with the rubble of the building as it buried him.