Family Doesn't End with Blood

Chapter 1

Peter loved being Spiderman.

The adrenaline, the satisfaction of saving people; nothing in his life seemed to compare to unbelievable feeling of being a superhero. Although, the downside was the people he loved were always at risk to be harmed or worse. That's why his identity really needed to be kept a secret, of course minus the fact that the law would be on his ass. He couldn't risk his remaining family or his girlfriend Gwen.

Peter let these thoughts fly away as he slung through the sky, searching New York for petty crime, his expertise. He respected the Avengers, he really did, but they didn't do anything about low level crime, which separated families every day. Petty crime is what tore Uncle Ben away from Peter and his Aunt May. He'd let the Avengers take care of alien invasions, and other threats on that level. He just wondered where they were when Doctor Conners attacked in full out lizard.

In that situation, if the Avengers had come to the rescue, he still would've stayed to finish the problem. The Lizard was his creation and, for all intents and purpose, his responsibility.

The wailing of sirens captured his attention. Peter changed his course, following the ear rattling noise. It led him to the base of the Avengers' Tower, formerly known as Stark Tower.

A man, smartly dressed as someone who would strike an observer as a mugger, held a young girl, maybe fifteen, at gunpoint. The police surrounded him, all guns held steady. Her backpack was tossed on the ground a few feet over; iPhone and wallet lay near an abundance of bills. As far as Peter could tell, she was no average New Yorker. She was someone with cash waiting at home.

Money or not, Peter felt obliged to save her. With great power, after all, comes great responsibility. Even without his spider abilities, he would take his Uncle's words to the grave with him.

Peter landed on the side of the tower, not to many floors up. He hoped it didn't have many defense mechanisms to outsiders, seeing as the Avengers often resided there. When nothing happened, he continued a slow crawl down the side of the building. The last thing he wanted was to be knocked off the building by some stupid defense, resulting in the life of an innocent young girl. He looked up, half expecting to see the infamous Iron Man fly out to the rescue, and then realized the chances of that happening were one to zero. Besides, he probably had more important things to attend to, like maybe building another suit or new tower. It's not like the life of a teenager directly affected the Tony Stark.

Peter threw the resentment behind him for now. Without the Avengers, everyone would be dead or wishing they were, as they'd be under the rule of aliens. Peter couldn't have done anything; he didn't have any powers at that point. Even if he did, he'd have been able to do about jack shit.

"Hey!" Peter called. "Watcha doing buddy?" The mugger quickly craned his head to look at Spiderman, without leaving his back open to the police. "Didn't you hear it's not nice to pick on girls?"

"Mind your own business, Spidey!" the man retorted. The girl whimpered as he tightened his grip. Peter fumed, quickly thinking of some way to distract the man from hurting the girl further. His first priority was to eliminate the gun from the fight. Peter hated guns and found they generally didn't mean good.

"You know, I hear you live longer the less you mug!" Peter yelled. The man growled, his eyes darting between the police and Peter.

"Stay away!" he yelled. "Stay away or I'll shoot her!" He cocked his gun in assurance.

"Now, now," Peter chided. "Guns are for cowards." Before the man could blink, Peter had the man's gun dangling from his own fingers, after switching the safety off, of course. He stuck it to the tower with his webbing, so it was out of the fight for good. "Tucked nice and out 'a sight," sang Peter.