Chapter 1
Miles smiled as he swung through the air, having never gotten tired of the feeling of the wind on his face as he flew over the skyscrapers of New York City. It had been a fairly calm patrol, it seemed that most people were content with enjoying the beautiful weather instead of causing any trouble. He briefly wondered if he should call it a day before a chill ran across his body and his senses exploded.
He landed roughly on a nearby rooftop, his eyes immediately scanning around him to find where the danger was. An explosion went off to his right and immediately jumped into action, swinging as fast as he could until he was face to face with a giant lizard.
It wasn’t the strangest thing he had ever seen, but he couldn’t help but cringe a bit when the monster’s red eyes turned in his direction.
“Foooood.” The creature growled out, reaching up with a clawed hand to try to grab Miles around his waist.
“I don’t think so, Godzilla.” Miles shot out a few ropes of web on the buildings in front of him, easily dodging the giant’s attempt to grab him by running back a few feet until he felt his webs straighten out completely. They were trying to drag him back towards the edge of the building, which only made him more confident in his plan.
“Foooooooood!” The creature growled out, clearly annoyed that its short arms weren’t able to reach Miles from his position in the center of the rooftop. Its long tail thrashed behind it, busting windows in neighboring buildings and flipping cars over on the road.
“I get being hangry, but this is just taking it too far.” Miles joked, only briefly wondering if the monster could understand his quips. He shook his head, focusing back on the fight and preparing himself to launch through the air.
He watched carefully as the beast’s hands thrashed around, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. After a few moments he saw his opening, grinning as he jumped up and flung forward.
He kept his legs straight out in front of him, and his feet connected to the lizard’s jaw with a satisfying crack.
Miles used his velocity to flip in the air and land on one of the buildings, using the soles of his feet and the tips of his fingers to stay connected to the side of it as he watched the creature crumble to the ground.
He hadn’t expected it to be that easy, but he’d never complain about a quick fight. His mom was cooking one of his favorite meals tonight, and he was running out of excuses for missing dinner.
The lizard was unmoving as it lay sprawled out on the pavement, and Miles made his way down the side of the building to check over his handy work. After a few moments he was confident that the lizard wouldn’t be waking up any time soon, and was just about to swing away when a familiar voice spoke up behind him.
“That thing didn’t hurt you right, Spidey?” His dad’s voice was filled with concern and awe, something Miles had gotten used to over his time as Spider-Man. He ran into his father on the job more than he’d like, especially when he was still trying to keep his identity a secret from his parents. There was no way they’d let him keep doing hero work, and he couldn’t take that risk.
“No, sir. It was an easy fight.” He cringed when he finished speaking, scolding himself for calling his dad sir instead of an ‘officer’ or something more casual. The man had already deduced that he was just a kid a few months ago, but he didn’t like to give him more confirmation of that fact. Miles just hoped that his fake-deep voice was enough to mask his true identity.
“Hm.” His father looked him over a few times like he didn’t really believe him but didn’t want to call him out on it. The man let out a satisfied hum when he saw the web-slinging hero was telling the truth, and Miles let out a sigh of relief when he realized he wouldn’t have to sit through another lecture on being safe when fighting villains.
It seemed that their conversation had come to its natural end, and the arrival of more cops on the scene signaled that it was time for Miles to exit the area. He turned and prepared to pull himself into the air, giving his dad a half-hearted wave.
“See you lat-” His words were cut off as his senses went on high alert, causing him to turn around just in time to see the fallen monster's giant tail rising in the air.
“Look out!” Miles yelled before tackling his dad through a broken window next to them. The lizard’s tail missed them only by a few inches, but they had other problems to worry about as they continued to fall through the air. It seemed the building was under construction, leaving a gaping hole in the floor that led to the underground part of the building.
Miles used his webs to lessen their fall, breathing out a sigh of relief when they landed safely on the concrete floor. He let go of his tight grasp on his dad, hoping he hadn’t accidentally injured the man during their descent.
“Are you ok?” He tried to control the concern in his voice, but this entire situation had escalated far too quickly for him to reign in his emotions.
“I’m okay, kid. Those were some pretty quick reflexes back there.” His father gave him a proud smile and a thumbs up, filling Miles with a complex mixture of guilt and pride.
A roar pierced through the air, a sign that the lizard was not as knocked out as Miles had originally hoped.
Before he could make a move a giant crash rang through the air, and a hail of glass and other debris rained down on them in an instant. A dark shadow swung above him, but through the dust it could only slightly be made out to be the tail of the beast.
“We have to get out of here!” His dad exclaimed, quickly shifting into the voice he used during emergencies as Miles tried to figure out how to get them out safely. The monster’s tail continued its reign of destruction, swiping through the building as though it were made of paper and not steel and glass.
A terrible creaking rang through the air, and Miles only had a second to shield his dad with his body before the building came crashing down on them.
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“-id? Can you hear me?”
Miles’ head felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls, and he wondered why he heard his dad’s voice coming from above him. He couldn’t remember where he was at, or why his entire body felt like a building had dropped on him.
Then it hit him suddenly, he did have an entire building dropped on him.
He sat up abruptly, his hands darting up to his face to make sure his mask was still in its place. As his fingers ran over the material he breathed out a breath of relief, though the feeling only lasted a moment before a violent wave of nausea overtook him.
“I wouldn’t try to learn your identity without your consent, kid. But you need to be careful with how you’re moving right now. You’ve been out for at least an hour.” His dad’s uniform and face were covered with dust and debris, and his worried eyes scanned over Miles’ injuries with guilt.
“I heal really fast, I should be fine in a bit.” He shrugged casually, but he didn’t know how true his words actually were. It always depended on the severity of the wounds, and he wasn’t sure what the extent of his injuries were at the moment. But he hated how worried his dad looked, and he would do anything he could to comfort the man.
“Hmph.” His dad didn’t seem too convinced, but he dropped the subject before filling Miles in on the situation.
By some miracle, his police communicator was still working, which allowed him to contact the police on the ground to find out what was happening. The lizard seemed to have let out the last of its energy, passing out a few moments after the building had collapsed and shrunk back into a smaller form. Since it was a weekend there seemed to be no one in the neighboring buildings, and there had been zero reported civilian injuries or casualties so far.
They were the only two people in need of rescue, something that made Miles’ chest heavy with shame. He was supposed to be the one rescuing people, not the person that needed to be rescued. He supposed he could attempt to lift the debris, but he didn’t want to risk the building collapsing on top of him and his dad. The only thing they could do now was wait, as much as it killed him to do so.
The two of them sat in silence for a while, though his father looked like he was on the verge of making conversation a few times. Miles silently hoped he wouldn’t, as he wasn’t confident in his ability to shield his identity from the man that raised him. It would be so easy to slip up, so easy to lose everything he had been working towards since he got his powers.
His silent prayers were quickly deemed useless, as his father seemed committed to filling the silence with small talk.
“Did you make that suit yourself?” His dad’s tone was light and breezy, but Miles could detect the fear behind it. He wasn’t sure if the man was making conversation for his own sake, or if it was an attempt to make Miles feel more comfortable.
He debated on whether or not to answer for a few brief moments but figured it would be more suspicious for him to remain silent than reply.
“Some parts, yeah. But a lot of it was given to me by Peter Parker’s au-” Miles stopped himself and cleared his throat before continuing.
“Um, his associate.” He corrected, thankful he didn’t accidentally reveal Aunt May’s involvement in his superhero activities.
His father looked at him with surprise, as though he hadn’t realized that the new Spider-Man was connected to Peter in any way. Miles reasoned that this made sense, he didn’t exactly publicize the fact that he was there when the former friendly neighborhood web-slinger was brutally murdered.
“You knew him?” His dad spoke after a few minutes, clearly unsure if this was an appropriate line of conversation or not.
Miles shifted uncomfortably, debating on how much he wanted to reveal about his brief interaction with Peter Parker.
The former Spider-Man seemed more of a myth than a man at some point, a bastion of hope that left behind a legacy that no one could truly live up to. His death had made him a martyr, making him an unofficial saint for the people of New York. Miles struggled to stand up to that legacy every single day, and it sometimes felt like he would never truly live up to the mantle he had inherited.
He realized he had been quiet for a bit too long, based on the look of concern his dad was throwing his way.
Miles supposed it wouldn’t hurt for someone in this universe to know the whole story, and his dad was probably the best person to share it with.
“I only met him once.” He began, before detailing the night he watched Spider-Man die.