"After we finish buying the new property, I need you to continue with Project Renaissance. Once we are done here, I will give you some specifications for the project," Peter instructed Cortana as he entered the Baxter Building, possibly for the last time.
Keeping his head high, he headed to his lab. "I just hope we do not run into Susan. I am really not in the mood today."
"How can I put this...." Cortana started to say, only to be interrupted when the door to his lab opened, bringing him face to face with Susan Storm. "She is waiting for you."
"Susan," he greeted her with a nod, which she returned.
"Peter," she greeted. He looked at her for a moment before walking past her. "I will be gone before you know it. I only came here to get a few things."
"Is that what you are going to do?" she asked mockingly as she followed him everywhere he went. "Run away from your mistakes instead of fixing them."
"Oh, believe me, I had plans to do it, definitely," he replied in the same mocking way.
"But you can thank Richards and your brother for ruining it."
"So it is Reed and Johnny's fault?!"
"Is it not? Maybe yes, maybe no, who can say. Maybe Richards manipulated him, or maybe your brother is the author of all this. The fact is that they screwed me over, they almost revealed my identity and they almost killed someone I care about and love."
"Maybe you should have told us it was Spider-Man the whole time! Things could have been different!"
"He wore a mask for a damn good reason!" he said in frustration as he paced back and forth and occasionally fiddled with some machines he had used, all while Susan followed him.
"If I wanted to reveal my identity, I would dance the hula in broad daylight, wearing an orange suit and shouting complete nonsense."
"You wear a mask because you want to hide your bad deeds!"
"He wore a mask so people like May, my girlfriend, Yuri, and even you would not get hurt! Tell me, how much good have you four done by revealing your identities to the world as if you were Starks?" He asked, narrowing his eyes just to make Susan go quiet. "There has always been some incident in this building, one problem after another after another after another! How many people have been hurt? How many have lost their lives?"
Susan said nothing.
"While you were causing trouble, I was out there cleaning up the city of your filth. If Richards were not half as much of an egomaniac as he is, he would have secured the streets first, and with the help I had here, it should not have been a problem."
He finished picking up some things. He had already come a few days ago to collect most of them. All the times he had come, he had never run into Susan, but it was only today that Parker Luck came to screw him over.
"I never said I was a hero, and I never will be, but I will not accept idiots coming here to criticize me because they do not know how to do their job properly and feel the need to lecture me on how I do things, just because they fail as heroes."
Susan remained silent as she watched him grab several things and put them in boxes. "What you are doing is not right, this ma-...."
"Who decides what is right and wrong?" he asked, stopping what he was doing. "Who decided that? You? Or Richards? Kidnapping an officer and using her as bait is okay, but killing criminals, eliminating threats, that is wrong?"
Susan said nothing.
"Singh." He sighed. "Look, I did not come here to lecture you. You are old enough for that. You are old enough, independent, and intelligent enough to know who is right and you still choose to ignore it just like Richards, which I am not going to question. I did not come here to argue anyway." He put the last thing in the box.
"I just came here to get my things."
"What.... What are you trying to say?"
"What I am trying to say is...." He smiled to himself. "That I plan to quit."
"You cannot, you cannot leave!"
"This is for the best, Susan. I do not want you to get hurt," he said as several of his future villains came to mind, villains that Susan would not be able to defeat.
He froze when he felt Susan's arms wrap around his torso, as she pressed her face against his back.
"What are you doing-...."
"I am sorry! Please...."
"I am scared, do not leave me," he felt Susan shudder, only for him to clench his teeth, ready to push her away.
"My second-best friend is gone.... they took Johnny, Ben will not talk to me.... and they found my father dead under some rubble from one of the Goblin's explosions.
The same day all of this happened to you, I got a call from the morgue notifying me of his death. Now I am alone! I am scared! I do not know what to do! Please!
I did not mean to say any of those things! I cannot afford to lose you too!"
"Susan.... I am sorry about Sir Storm...."
"Please, Peter.... Please."
He finally gave in.
Turning around, he hugged her tightly, only for her to finally break down, crying and sobbing silently.
He raised his head slightly and saw Him giving him a smile and a nod, only for Him to blink and disappear.
That was enough to make his whole body freeze. It took him a few seconds to compose himself.
'How did He get here?' he thought. 'How is He here?'
Several questions came to mind when he saw Him, and none of them could be answered. How was He here? How....
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Peter is here.