A Little Unsteady
“So, you boys trying to have all the fun without me?” The man's head snapped towards the voice, he growled, and pulled a knife out of his pocket. He charged towards the figure, who dodged and slammed the man to the ground.
The man went limp, unconscious, and the figure stared at Peter, with deep blue eyes full of questions. The girl had a tight long sleeve t-shirt on, with black leggings and a utility belt clipped around her waist. Half of her face was covered with a black mask (Kinda like a covid mask) And she had a hood on, that of which made it hard to identify her any facial features.
“Are you okay?” She asked Peter. Peter was shocked. Who was this girl? Why did she save him and why- “Uh spider boy, you good?” Peter looked back up at the girl.
“Yeah.. yeah i'm fine” Her arms were crossed and she had shifted so her weight was on one leg. “Ok, well, my work is done here.” The girl grabbed something from her utility belt, a grappling hook, and aimed it at one of the buildings around them.
She went up, and disappeared from Peter's sight. Peter froze for a moment, before flicking a web to the top of the building. “Wait!” He called out as he ran after the figure, who was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. She stopped a few rooftops down and sent an icy glare at him.
“What?” She spat. Peter felt stupid. He had stopped her for literally no reason.
“Oh um… thanks for saving me” He stuttered out.
“No problem,” She replied quickly. “You wouldn’t have gotten in that mess if you were more skilled in combat.” The girl adjusted her utility belt, putting the grappling hook back on its clip. She looked up at Peter,
“And why are you still here…?” Peter could feel his face heating up underneath his mask.
“Oh, nothing, thanks again” He lied, looking down at his feet.
“Once again, no problem” The girl checked a watch that she had “Shit, I gotta go.” She looked up at Peter. “See you later… Spiderman” She held out her hand. He shook it
“You too…. What's your name again?” She had turned around, and was beginning to walk away.
“You can call me Nightmare.” Then the girl stepped off the roof, leaving Peter absolutely shocked.
After a few more minutes of patrol, Peter went back to the tower. He was still in shock about the whole incident, and found himself replaying the conversation in his head. What really stuck out to him was her name, or her vigilante name. Nightmare. How peculiar.
Peter swung back to his room, quickly going into the bathroom to bandage his wounds. The fight had resulted in multiple scrapes, he had been through worse. As he looked at his arms, he realized that the scars had faded to almost unseeable.
He grabbed a razor, moving unconsciously. As he lightly pressed the razor to his skin, something stopped him. You don’t have to do this. A small voice echoed through his mind.
Peter put the razor down, the voice was right. He had to stay strong, because he was spiderman, and nothing was going to stop him.
The teen walked over to his desk, where he had left his phone earlier. He grabbed it in his hand, and opened messages. Ned and MJ haven't responded yet. Peter held back a sigh as he decided to open Instagram. Huh, that's odd. Peter thought as he saw a new post from MJ’s account.
There was a funny feeling in his stomach as he saw that the caption read, ‘having fun with my friend at the science convention’ with tags like #bff and #BestiesForever. The funny feeling grew when Peter saw the picture.
It was Ned and MJ, looking happy, and the background confirmed that they were really, at the science convention. The science convention Peter had wanted to go to for years. The science convention that they had ‘forgot’ to invite him to. Peter practically threw the phone down, a small fire of rage pulsing through him. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and recollected his mind.
His stomach grumbled and he remembered how hungry he was, so he decided to go to the kitchen floor to grab a bite. He walked to the elevator, still clinging to the many events that had happened today.
It was almost sad, the way that Peter only really had two friends, both of whom were giving him the cold shoulder. Peter stepped on the elevator. He was currently on floor 58, and the main floor was floor 50, so it was an easy ride down.
Once he stepped out of the elevator, he heard voices coming from the kitchen. His curiosity peaked as he walked over to the kitchen, keeping quiet so he wasn’t detected.
“-he’s so useless” Peter heard someone saying, and with a strain of his ears, he realized it was Bucky.
“I know” Another voice cut through the air
“Why didn’t you just send him to the foster system Tony?” That voice sounded like Sam. Peter felt a cold, numb feeling pulse through him, it got worse when Tony responded.
“I’m trying to work on that, but his stupid aunt left me in charge of him in her will.” Peter had to dig his nails into his palms to stop himself from breaking into tears. He silently took a deep breath, shutting his eyes.
“How long do you think it'll take to get him into foster care?” A deeper voice asked. Steve. Peter really thought he was better than this. He thought all of them were better than this.
“About a week. It’s be good to finally get him out of our hair.” With those words, Peter ran away from it all. The disappointment, the sadness, the sorrow. He had his concerns before, but he knew what to do now.