Web-Slinging in DC

New York

August 11, 20:06 EDT

With a graceful flip, Peter landed in his backyard carrying all the materials he needed to make his suit. Since he didn't think he would be crime-fighting this early he didn't have any of the materials he would need to make one so he swung by an arts and crafts store on the way home to pick up what he would need. 

'Better put these away first.' 

Unlocking the shed, he went down to his lab and put the materials on his workbench before taking off the web shooters. He gave them a quick once over to make sure there was nothing wrong with them. Seeing nothing wrong with them, he removed the nearly empty cartridge and placed it on the workbench.

'I'll fill it back up tomorrow. All that swinging around got me hungry.' he thought as he pocketed one of the web shooters.

Unfortunately because of their design, Peter couldn't wear them all the time since it would be obvious to anyone looking that he had a device on, but he also didn't want to be caught off guard. So, he decided to have one of the web shooters in his pocket, just in case.

Exiting and re-locking the shed, Peter made his way inside to the kitchen, where his mother was putting the finishing touches on dinner while his father and sister set the table.

"There you are. Where have you been all day?" she asked as she plated the food.

"Taking in the sights of this beautiful city we are so lucky to call home." he said, beelining for the fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Uh-huh." she said suspiciously, eyeing him as he downed the entire bottle of water before she put what she had in her hands down and moved to inspect Peter.

"What are you doing?" he asked, confused.

"Let me see your eyes." 

"My eyes?" he questioned as he crouched, acquiescing to her request.

"They're not red." she said, inspecting his eyes.

"He might've used eye drops." Teresa chimed in with schadenfreude.

"You think I'm high?" he asked, amusedly as Mary started sniffing him.

"Oh?" she said, intrigued.

"Oh, what? Does he smell like reefer? Do I need to drive him around Hunts Point and let him see what happens to druggies? Or worse, Gotham?" asked Richard.

"Reefer, Dad? Really?" said Teresa, rolling her eyes.

"What? Do people not call it that anymore? Are they calling it jazz again?"

"Richard!" said Mary, quieting him down, "He doesn't smell like pot."

"Why'd you say 'Oh?' then Mom?" asked Teresa.

"He smells like perfume." she said with a smile, "Expensive perfume at that."

"Perfume?" said Richard and Teresa simultaneously.

'It must've been when that lady hugged me for saving her.' thought Peter.

"Is that where you were? With a girl? Why didn't you say so?" said Richard, walking up to Peter and putting his arm around his shoulders, "Is she pretty, son?"

"I wasn't with a girl. I got sprayed with perfume by one of those perfume hawkers." said Peter, quickly coming up with a lie.

"That makes way more sense than you hanging out with a girl." said Teresa.

"Don't listen to her, son. After high school, the nerds become the cool kids." Richard said, patting him on the back before moving back to the dining table.

"Right. Thanks." he said, shaking his head in amusement, "Anyway, why'd you think I was high? I would never do drugs."

"Because of everything you ate after you came out of the shed earlier today." Mary explained as she went back to plating the food, "You've eaten more than a regular person ever since you started martial arts, but that was excessive. I thought you were hotboxing the place down there. I was worried."

"More like smartboxing. Am I right?" said Richard, looking at his deadpanned family, waiting for them to laugh.

"Let's eat." said Mary, breaking the silence, "Peter, help me out will you?"

"Yes, ma'am." said Peter, picking up the two other plates and taking them over to the dining table, placing one down in front of Teresa, who was engrossed in her phone, and the other where he would sit.

"No phones at the dinner table." said Mary as she sat down after placing a plate in front of Richard.

"I'm watching the news." said Teresa.

"And I'm sure it's a fascinating think piece, but we're about to eat dinner, so phone away. Now." 

"Ugh." said Teresa, putting the phone in between her legs, "I was watching a video about this guy with a bag on his head stopping a couple of bank robbers and saving a lady and her baby."

At that, Peter's fork paused in midair for a split second before continuing into his mouth.

"A bag on his head?" said Richard.

"Yeah. He was swinging around with a brown paper bag on his head. He called himself Spider-Man but people are calling him Bombastic Bagman." said Teresa.

'Life's being real funny again.' thought Peter, grinning as he heard that name.

"Spider-Man?" said Richard, chewing his food while thinking, "If Batman dresses like a bat, then does that mean he's going to dress like a spider with eight appendages and eyes?"

"Ew." said Teresa.

"His costume would probably be brown right? I mean most spiders are brown and black and if he's going for the whole spider shtick then it has to be brown or black." continued Richard.

'Well, if Spider-Man wasn't printed during a time when printing primary colors was easier than printing other colors his costume might've been black or brown.' thought Peter.

"And what about the web aspect? Spiders shoot webs. Does he shoot webs? And if he does, where do they come from?" 

"He does shoot webs." said Teresa.

"He does?"

"Yeah. He webbed up the bank robbers." answered Teresa, taking her phone out and pulling up the picture of the webbed-up thieves, "See."

"Oh yeah." said Richard, taking Teresa's phone and zooming in, "Wonder where it comes from."

"Enough." said Mary, taking Teresa's phone away from Richard, "You can have this tomorrow."

"What? That was Dad's fault, not mine." said Teresa, indignant.

"I told you no phones, and you used it. It's your fault. End of story. Now eat your dinner."

"That's so not fair." she replied, stabbing her vegetables.

"Sorry, sweetheart." said Richard, apologetic while Peter just smiled before remembering something.

"Mom, do we have a sewing machine?" 

"There should be one in the attic. It was a wedding present from some relative or other, but I've never used it. Why do you ask?"

"Need to sew something for a project I'm working on."

"It's all yours."

"Sweet. Thanks, Mom."

'And with that, I have everything I need to make my suit.' 

~

New York

August 12, 16:14 EDT

CLACK CLACK CLACK 

In the underground bomb shelter that doubled as a lab, Peter was hard at work and deeply focused on the task at hand. He was hunched over in front of an old sewing machine, carefully moving around the fabric and putting the finishing touches. 

"And done. Phew. Finally." said Peter, excitedly standing up.

He removed the fabric from the sewing machine, careful not to catch it on the needle before splaying it out and looking at it.

"It's perfect." he said with a smile.

The suit was nearly a 1:1 copy of the classic suit. The spandex suit follows a blue and red color scheme. The body, head, outer arms, upper hip, and below-knee-high boots are red and covered in a black webbing pattern, while the inner arms, upper legs, and outer torso are blue. Emblazoned just above the chest is the fist-sized black spider insignia that appears on the Classic Suit in the Insomniac game, while on the back is the classic round red spider.

"It's a good thing I had the foresight to buy a lot of extra material. Sewing is a lot harder than I thought." he said as he looked down at the multiple incomplete and messed-up suits scattered on the floor. "It looks perfect, but now I'll have to see if it fits."

After taking off his clothes and putting on the suit, he set up his phone on the workbench so he could see himself. His emotions began to swell as he looked at himself in the form-fitting suit. With shaky hands, he took a deep breath and put on the mask, completing the ensemble.

Clad in the complete Spider-Man suit, looking very much the part, his emotions peaked, and he began to tear up.

First, he had the intelligence, then the powers, and now he had the suit. Everything had come together perfectly for him. He had taken the next step in truly becoming Spider-Man.

'To whomever or whatever gave me this second chance at life, gave me these abilities, I have big shoes to fill, but I promise to strive every day to fill them. I will use my abilities for good, to be this world's Spider-Man.'

He took off the mask to wipe a tear away, and as he did so he looked at the time on his phone, remembering he had something to do.

'These past three days have been a whirlwind. It almost slipped my mind that I have to train with Dragon at 5. I was hoping to take the suit out for a spin, make Spider-Man's debut official, but I can't skip out on training with Dragon.'

~~

Author's Note

Shorter chapter than usual but it felt like a good place to end it.