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Peter crouches on top of a tall apartment building as he sucks in a breath of the summer air through his mask. The city has just gotten a fresh coat of rain and the air is just cold enough to make Peter's breath turn into steam as he slowly exhales. "AHHhhh." Peter slowly pitches down his voice in a raspy gravelly tone as he watches the city from his vantage point. The colors around him slowly begin to fade out into only the spectrum of black and gray. The low and sad blues of a trumpet begins to slowly play in the background of Peter's imagination as a black fedora and trench coast suddenly envelopes him. "New York. Queens. It's a rough borough, but, hey, it's home. My life has changed so much in the recent months that I can barely even recognize myself. My friends, my Aunt May. They can never know of this side of life I have to walk through." Peter rubs his fingerless gloves together to warm up as the back vents of his coat flaps in the wind. "Tonight is just like another night. There's crime happening out there and the police are too slow to stop it. Just a street too far or a minute too late. But not me. Not for Spider-Man, the web slinging detective!" Peter rolls forward and off the ledge of the building before aiming out to swing away.
THWIP!
Peter swings through his neighborhood to resume his patrol for the night. "Sometimes a man gotta look himself in the mirror and ask himself. 'Why Pete? Why do you gotta get involved?' Well if not me then who? Who in their right mind would step out into a burning fire just to help some poor soul they don't even know?" Peter lets out a sigh as he lets go of his web to transition into the next swing. THWIP! "It's the right thing to do, right? The avengers couldn't save Uncle Ben four years ago but now I can. I can be there and help those that the police and the Avengers can't get to. This neighborhood needs a crime fighting web slinging detective, who can help old ladies save their kittens from climbing up trees one day and then end a gang shootout the next day." THWIP! "It's just…"
Peter lands on a building as he returns his voice to his normal pitch. The colors came back into Peter's vision as his detective uniform fades from his imagination. "It's just so hard having to do all of this day in and day out. May is doing her best to help the neighborhood by feeding people. And I should be doing the same thing too if I really want to help people who are down on their luck. But. But it just doesn't feel right to not do anything until people are finally down on their luck. I-I" Peter lets out a sigh as he runs his hands over and down the back of his head. "I just wish I knew what to do. It's been weeks since I saw The Mystic Spider and just a few days ago he was on TV fighting with the avengers. I wish I knew what to do like him. I can only save so many cats from trees before I eventually run out of things to do." Peter tugs on his sleeve slightly to reveal a red piece of paper that's been tucked underneath his left web shooter. "Should I call him?" Peter hesitates for a moment before inhaling a deep breath of air. As he slowly exhaled, his vision became black and gray once more as the fedora and trench coat materialized over his sweats spider suit. "Mhmm…no. A hardboiled detective doesn't need any help. It's simply his job to find his own way and I must find my own path if I want to be as great as the Mystic Spider himself." Peter's noir voice came back as he gazed at the city skyline. The slick mirage of a wet city night drawing him into falling more in love with his city, his home.
"You know. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're in need of an upgrade." A slightly distorted voice calls out from behind peter. THUD. The sound of a box landing next to Peter can be heard at the same time as the voice. This caused Peter to spin around in surprise because he did not sense anyone approaching him at all.
----- Ned's POV-----
"You know. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're in need of an upgrade." I toss a small box at the feet of the one and only Spider-Man as I watch him stare into the nightlight of this city. This must've spooked him because he quickly turned around and was about to shoot a ball of web towards me. I quickly held up my hands to show that I'm not a threat. For I am after all, a curiosity itch that he's been trying to scratch for the last couple of weeks. "How have you been Spider-Man?" I put my arms down as soon as he realized who I was and set his aim down.
"Oh man, am I glad to see you. There's so much that happened and I've been trying to look for you man. Like the other day I stopped this store robbery from going down and then I helped this little girl and her grandma with their cat that's stuck in a tree. Wait, was that on the same day or was that a different cat in a tree? Anyways then I was swinging through Manhattan and saw you on the big screen in Time square man! You were so cool fighting with the Avengers in Sokovia. All the robots were flying around and destroying things and you were like me and swinging around webbing them all up. And your energy swords were wicked, man! I had to stop and watch the broadcast for a while until the screens were turned off. And then-"
I put my hand up for Spider-Man to stop with his rambling. "Peter, breathe. You're talking so fast that I can barely even keep up with you." Spiderman quickly recedes from his superhero persona back into his teenager personality as he fumbles with his arms. "Oh sorry. I got a little excited there. Hehe."
"It's alright Peter. We all get like that every now and then. Now, I don't have a lot of time because I have a funeral I need to attend tomorrow but I can spend tonight with you. I want you to open up the box that's by your feet and tell me what you think." I point to the small paper box by Spider-Man's feet. It looks like a perfectly normal gift box but the bottom seems to not be affected by rainwater that's still sitting on the rooftop that we're on. "W-what you got this for me? How did you know?" Spider-Man quickly bends over to pick up the box. He opens it and a loud gasp escapes from behind his mask. "Did you make sure to get my size correct?" He pulls out the red and blue suit to let it unfold and fan out.
I had to make a rough estimate of his body measurements based on when I was carrying him back in chapter 42. And since these measurements were based on my memories, well they're not as accurate as what they could be if I had just taken a scan of his body. "Try it on and see if it fits. I still have a little while before I can give us both some major upgrades but I figured I should give you something now so you won't die from swords and bullet wounds." I reach out and point my hand towards the direction of the box that's on the floor before pulling it back to me with a little magic. The box quickly flew over into my hands, I gave the box a quick flap with the flick of my wrist as the paper quickly dematerialized from our view. "How and why did you do that?" Spider-Man looks at me while holding his suit in one hand and a new mask in the other.
"It's just a simple magic trick, nothing big. I might not look like it but I heavily believe in reuse, reduce and recycle. Plus I don't think you'll use the box ever again so I have decided to take it back for a future project." I put on a smile that he can't see. Spider-Man slowly nods his head before turning around to look for something. "You want some privacy to change into the new suit?" I remained silent as I summoned a portal straight into his room. "I'll wait here but if you're not back by the next half hour, then I'm afraid you'll have to miss out on our first training session." Spider-Man tries to say something but I quickly wave my hand to make the portal swallow him whole before closing up. As the portal closes I finally let out a breath of relief to break my hard and mysterious persona. I ah I don't like the way that I did that. I don't think that's how I should be treating my best friend just because we're both in our alter egos. I feel like I'm Stephen toying with Thor and Loki during the beginning of Ragnarok. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the comfortability and convenience of magic that I sometimes forget to care about other people's first experiences with it. SIGH. I need to be more mindful in the future if I plan on recruiting and building my own base of power.
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After what feels like twenty minutes had gone by, I finally hear the sound of a pair of feet landing on top of the roof access door. I turn around to look at the source of the sound. "Mr. Silk, this suit is amazing! It's a little tight around the legs area and a little loose around my neck but otherwise it's perfect!" Around five meters away from me and roughly three meters above me is a young and inexperienced Spider-Man wearing a variation of the Dark suit from the Sony game. The design is almost exactly the same. It's sleek and fitted with minimal armor pads to allow for our usual mobility and agility while also providing some form of bullet resistance. The only difference between this version that I gave to Peter and the game's version is that the spider emblem is black, the eyes are black and in the style of the Amazing suit, the armor pads are red while the majority of the suit is blue. Of course it's not just one solid paint of blue, there's some reds mixed in to give Peter that classic Spider-Man look without it being entirely the same suit.
I swing my arms in a mini half circle to cast a spell before crossing my arms as the new and slightly improved webslinger makes a somersault off the ledge and lands in a typical spider pose. I let out a scoff as he quickly stood up on his feet. "He-hey I thought I was going to slip on that one." Peter walks up to me while stretching his arms and getting a proper feel of the new suit. "So when are we going to start?"
"How about now?" I point my finger down the street as all of the buildings begin to rise up. "Whoa whoa whoa." Spider-Man's senses seem to be going off as he was not expecting a skyscraper to suddenly form around him. Sure these apartment buildings are normally four to five stories tall but now they seem to be rivaling the giants in Manhattan. "Uh Mystic Spider, what the hell is going on?" Spider-Man turns to look at me as I turn my hand into a fist to stop the rising of these buildings. "This is the beginning of our training. We spiders thrive in the cities, especially ones with high rises that are close together. And as you may have guessed Peter, we are not in the real world anymore. This place is known as the mirror dimension. A layer of reality so close to our own that it is shaped by the affects of the real world. But because it exists parallel to our reality, anything that happens in here will not affect our world."
Spider grabs onto his head as he tries to keep his brain from exploding out of his skull. "You mean parallel universes exist and you can move in and out through them?" I remain silent as I open up a portal next to me; down the street a tiny yellow circle can be spotted on the rooftop of one of the new skyscrapers. "There's a lot of things that I can do but moving through universes is not one of them. Now to begin your training we first must sync up your body with your mind. Our new enhanced senses are currently too much for you to bear and so." I snap my fingers as a blind fold materialized onto my hand. "You will be wearing these to help build your focus. They will act as blinders to allow your eyes to take in only a small portion of your normal field of vision." I hand over the item of cloth for Peter to put on. "The goal today is for you to reach the roof of that building at the end of the street as fast as you can. But do be weary of the path that you chose because I will try to stop you from getting there. Our senses work the best when we sense danger and I will attempt to kill you to keep you from getting there but don't worry Peter."
I step through the portal to get to the randevu building before turning back to look at him. "I won't let you die in here." I wave my hand to close the portal as we begin our training session. I turn to face down the street that Peter will be swinging from as I set my arms out in front of me. I grab on to the air to begin my spell as I push and pull my arms to manipulate the very fabric of this dimension. The buildings begin to move and shift as they disintegrate and rebuild themselves. Random parts of the buildings will swing out to attempt to swat the spider out of the air or to cut off his line. Room by room, piece by piece the buildings are stripped and rebuilt within seconds as they try to confuse and overwhelm the sense of the one and only Spider-Man.