saudade

They swung to the Statue of Liberty where their final fight should take place. They prepared the cures and themselves for the fight.

“You know, Max was like, the sweetest guy ever before he fell into a pool of electric eels”, Peter 3 said. He was obviously nervous because he couldn’t stand still.

“No one of them is entirely evil”, Peter explained. “It’s weird to see what your Dr. Connors became because he was my science professor.” He leaned over the bars of the scaffolding, trying to crack his back.

“You okay?”, Peter 3 asked and raised an eyebrow at the sight of what he was doing.

“It’s just my back. It’s kinda stiff from all the swinging, I guess. Now I know how Aunt May must’ve felt.”

“I suffer from middle back pain, too. You want me to crack it?”, Peter 3 offered.

“That’d be great, thanks.”

“I’m sorry in advance”, Peter 3 warned him and wrapped his arms around him and held him some centimetres above the ground to crack his back.

Peter didn’t really recognise what Peter 3 was doing because he got a flashback to the evening Harry cracked his back after he fell down a building while trying to regain his spider powers. Peter could feel Harry’s soft touches as he rubbed the scratches on his back with ointment. He could hear the things Harry said to him because he was worried about Peter. He missed him so much.

“Did I do it too harshly?”, Peter 3 asked.

“No, it was very helpful. Thank you”, Peter responded.

“But why are you crying?”

Peter frowned. He didn’t know he was crying but as he laid his fingers on his check, he felt the liquid on it. “It’s because …” He struggled to find the right words.

“Harry did it to you once, am I right?” Peter 3’s tone was soft.

Peter nodded and Peter 3 pulled him into a hug. It was a hug that expressed the pain they had to deal with, but it also was a sign that they’re not alone with their grief.

“I always wanted brothers”, Peter 3 said. “It’s so cool. And you make your own web fluid in your body! How do you do it?”

“I’d rather not talk about this”, Peter laughed.

“I didn’t mean to-“

“Are you teasing me, Peter?”, Peter said.

“No, no, no. He isn’t. it’s just that we can’t do that so we’re naturally curious as to how your webs work. That’s all”, Peter 1 interrupted them as he came back.

“If it’s personal, then you don’t have to tell us. I just think it’s so cool”, Peter 3 told him.

“I wish I could tell you but it’s like, I don’t do it, like, I don’t do breathing. Breathing just happens”, Peter tried to explain.

“Does it just come out of your wrists, or does it come out of anywhere else?”, Peter 1 asked.

“Peter!”, Peter and Peter 3 exclaimed, their faces disturbed.

“What? This is an important question, okay?”, Peter 1 defended himself.

“Only the wrists”, Peter clarified.

“You never had a web block? Because I run out of webs all the time. I have to produce them in my own lab”, Peter 3 said.

“That sounds like a lot of work. But I did, actually, just like you said”, Peter answered the question.

“Why?”, Peter 1 asked.

“Existential crisis stuff.”

“Ugh, don’t get me started on that”, Peter 3 said.

“What are the craziest villains that you guys have fought?”, Peter 1 wanted to know.

“I fought an alien made of black goo once”, Peter responded.

“No way! I fought an alien too. On earth and in space. He was purple”, Peter 1 told them.

What the hell?

“I wanna fight an alien. I’m lame. I fought a Russian guy in a rhinoceros machine”, Peter 3 said.

“Can we take it back to the “I’m lame” part? Because you are not”, Peter told him.

“Aw, thanks. I appreciate it. I’m not saying I’m lame-“

“But it’s just the self-talk maybe we should, you know-“ Peter wanted to give him an advice from his therapy sessions.

“Yeah listen-“, Peter 3 interrupted him.

“You’re amazing. Just to take it in for a minute”, Peter instructed. “You are amazing.”

“I guess I am.”

“You are amazing”, Peter repeated.

“Thank you”, Peter 3 said.

“Will you say it?”

“No, I kinda needed to hear that. Thank you”, Peter 3 declined.

“Guys, we need to focus”, Peter 1 interrupted their therapy session. “Can you feel that?”

“Yeah”, Peter agreed. His whole body was tingling. Their opponents were coming.

Peter 1 left them. “I’ll give you a sign.”

“What’s up, Peter?”, a guy full of electricity said and was flying in the sky. “Give me the box and I’ll destroy it, but I’ll let you live.”

Peter 1 jumped off the scaffolding and Peter and Peter 3 separated.

Peter 3 should catch Electro’s attention while Peter 1 gives the box to MJ so Peter could cure him. But as he was about to do so, a giant lizard caught his foot.

“I got his attention!”, Peter 3 screamed, “And now?”

“Open the cage”, Peter yelled back. “And just for your information, that lizard guy is here too!” The next second, the lizard threw him into a crane.

“Peter, I need the lizard cure!”, Peter screamed.

“I’m coming”, Peter 1 yelled and jumped towards him, but he was caught by a giant fist made of sand.

Sandman was there.

Peter wanted to help him, but he was occupied by the giant lizard slapping him. They fought along the edges of the crane, and he almost fell off multiple times. Before he knew what was going on, the crane fell directly onto Sandman. Peter prayed that Peter 1 could get away fast enough.

Then he jumped onto the scaffolding as the crane continued to fall.

Peters 1 and 3 were already there.

“We’re clearly not very good at this”, Peter 1 said.

“I know we suck. I don’t know how to work as a team”, Peter 3 told them.

Peter remembered the fight on the scaffolding against Sandman and Brock. Harry was at his side, and they were successful. But at what cost? “The last time I was part of a team someone died so I guess I don’t really know how to do it either.”

“Well, I do. I have been in a team before, okay? I was in the Avengers”, Peter 1 told them. He said it as if that was something important.

“The Avengers?”, Peter asked, not knowing what it was but if it was important, it must be good. “That’s great. But what is that?”

“You don’t have the Avengers?”, Peter 1 asked in shock.

“Is that a band? Are you in a band?”, Peter 3 wanted to know.

“No, I’m not in a band. The Avengers are the Earth’s mightiest-“

“How is that helping?”, Peter interrupted him.

“It’s not important”, Peter 1 said, “All we gotta do is focus, trust your tingle and coordinate our attacks, okay?”

“Okay, let’s pick one target”, Peter agreed.

“We take them off the board one at a time”, Peter 3 added.

“Now you got it. We’ll manage this”, Peter 1 said.

They wanted to separate but Peter 3 held them back. “I love you guys.”

“Thank you”, Peter 1 and Peter responded in unison.

They put on their masks and jumped off the scaffolding.

But when they found a good place to attack, the lizard, Sandman and Electro were standing in front of them.

“Sandman’s first”, Peter 1 instructed.

“I lead him inside the statue”, Peter said and turned his plan into reality.

“I’ll meet you at the top”, Peter 3 yelled.

As soon as he got Sandman’s attention, Peter started running. He had to be fast because the sandstorm caused the scaffolding to crash. Just before he could fall, he jumped into the Statue of Liberty and climbed up the inside. “Flint, we’re just trying to help you!”

But Sandman didn’t stop. The statue’s inside filled with sand and Peter reached the top soon while the amount of sand increased steadily. “Guys, I’m at the top. I need the cure!”, Peter yelled desperately. Sandman got caught of him and pulled him into the sand.

“Here it is”, Peter 1 called and threw the cure right into the statue.

Peter caught it and activated it. The sand started to vanish, and Peter could breathe again. “It’s okay, Flint, we’re gonna get you home. Just stay here.”, he told him as he saw the anxiety on Flint Marko’s face. He was human again. And maybe Flint could help his daughter once he was back in Peter’s world.

Peter met the other Peter’s on the helmet of the statue. Electro was in front of them.

“How do we stop him? I’ve never seen him this powerful”, Peter 3 admitted.

“It’s the arc reactor. We need to get it off him”, Peter 1 explained.

“You’re not gonna take this away from me”, Electro said.

The electricity forced them to split up.

“Peter 2 go right, Peter 3 go left. On me”, Peter 1 instructed.

They did as they were told but all of them were thrown backwards.

As Peter caught himself with a web, he saw that Peter 3 was tied up by electricity and that he was close to being grilled. The cure slipped out of his hand.

Peter shot a web and pulled the cure to him so he could help his younger brother. But metal arms that were very familiar to him wrapped around him. “Doctor Octavius, no”, he begged. He knew Octavius was good at heart.

Dr. Octavius freed both Peter and Peter 3 and turned around to catch Electro. Then he took the cure and slammed it right into Electro’s chest. “There you go.”

Peter 3 took care of Electro and led him some metres away. Peter was now alone with Dr. Octavius.

“The power of the sun …”

“In the palm of your hand”, Peter completed the sentence.

“Peter?”, Dr. Octavius asked. Peter took off his mask. “It’s good to see you, dear boy.”

“It’s good to see you.” And Peter meant it. It was good to know that after all these years of failure he achieved to cure people that were victims by scientific experiments. Uncle Ben, MJ, Harry, Aunt May … they didn’t die for nothing.

“You’re all grown up. How are you?”, Dr. Octavius asked.

“Trying to do better”, Peter said.