Spider-Man 2: Upside Down

Chapter 5: The Soldier

Ever since I joined the Avengers a few years back he's been working on this machine, a lot of trial and error, and yet nothing, not even Dr. Banner or Reed could've helped him. They could've but chose not to. They knew something was wrong and I should've asked them about it. Then when Thanos attacked New York he put his project on hold and we all fought him. For some reason, the Infinity Stones were too strong for Thanos because when he snapped his fingers, he just disappeared, the only thing remaining was the Stones. Even Tony was trying to grab the Reality Stone but Reed suggested that we need to keep the stones separate, in case someone just as powerful as Thanos showed up again. Then after I left he went back to working on the machine.

Seeing Stark this broken over his lifelong goal was just hard to watch. It was the right thing but it still hurts.

I heard Stark say something under his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"I SAID GET OUT! BOTH OF YOU! DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK!" He yelled. Me and Steve tried to comfort him. He just smacked his hand away with his Repulser glove.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I DISINTEGRATE YOU!" He snapped. Me and Steve looked at each other and walked away.

We both walked out of the building and just talked for a minute.

"I don't think I can trust him anymore Steve."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think he can even be trusted with such a weapon. Something that could easily kill us and he's treating it like a science fair project. For the past 6 months I have been dealing with things you couldn't understand, so seeing him screwing up what I have been fixing all this time... it just pisses me off." I explained.

"I'm going to pretend you are speaking English."

"Remember during the holidays the sky cracked open?"

"I remember hearing about that, I was in DC when that was going on."

"That was the result of one of my villains who got ahold of the Reality Stone and created holes to other dimensions, causing them to leak into our universe, which also led to me and Wanda sealing up those cracks."

"My god, so you are just trying to clean up your mess, but Tony kept undoing your mess."

"Basically, but listen, it's been a rough few hours, why don't you get some rest?" Steve suggested.

"But what about-?" I asked.

"Look, I'm sure your friends can cover you while you rest. Just ask if they can."

"That's a good idea, I'll do that when I get back." So that's what I did, I got home and met Andy back at the apartment and explained what happened. She hugged me and told me to rest, and she would too. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep, hearing what Stark told me earlier, 'he created me' he's technically not wrong but he was wording it like he owned me, I needed to clear my head, and had to be quiet because Andy was sleeping in the next room.

I was swinging around when I saw a group of men about to assault a helpless victim. I was about to jump down but then Niko, the vampire ninja spider girl swooped down and took them down! I was a little scared.

The guys were twice her size by the way but she managed. She was a very fast and strong person so I'd hate to be on her bad side. She helped the victim up and talked to them, I couldn't make out what they were saying but I'm guessing she gave them directions to the police station.

The victim walked away and Niko was just standing there, very brooding-like.

"You just going to hang up there or are you going to say hi?" She said out loud.

How did she-?

"How did you-?"

"I can sense your heartbeat, it's beating pretty fast." She said. Little scary but okay. I hung upside down right behind her, right to her eye level.

"What are you doing out? Shouldn't you be asleep?" She asked.

"I could ask you the same thing, plus I couldn't sleep."

"I can't sleep, plus I need to be up." She responded.

I simply asked why and she started to explain.

"These streets are crowded. Hidden in the chaos is the element waiting to strike like snakes at the vulnerable, but I'm there too... watching. Two years of nights turned me into this, my senses have doubled since, and I can practically smell them. I must choose my targets carefully. This is a big city and I can't be everywhere, but they don't know where I am." She said menacingly. She takes this job seriously, I respect her for that. She then used her claws and scraped a giant 'N' on the wall.

"Huh, N for Niko, is that your symbol?"

"It's not a symbol, it's a warning, for them." She responded.

"Fear can be used as a tool, they think I'm hiding in the shadows... I am the shadows."

"Okay, Caped Crusader, but let's go somewhere real quick, I need someone to talk to"

She looked over at me and even though she had a mask on, there was a worried expression.

We both swung to the top of the building and I explained the whole situation.

"Do you feel guilty?"

"What?"

"Do you feel guilty, it's an easy question."

"Yeah, of course, I feel guilty, I destroyed someone's dream to save the multiverse, it's going to eat me up."

"Did you do it for the world... or did you do it for yourself?"

I kind of just stayed quiet because that was a good question, yeah of course I did it to save lives, but I didn't have to destroy it.

"I'm still new to this hero thing, but no matter if you did the right thing or not, someone is going to see you as a bad guy and you can't do anything about that, no matter what. You can explain all you want, even reason with them, but that won't change their view, it might change their perspective but not their view. Sometimes all you really can do is give them space, given time, he'll come around." Niko explained she wasn't wrong but it seemed like she knew what she was talking about, like she's experienced this before.

I know she's my variant, but she understands me, like how Andy understands me.

After grabbing some late-night food I then went back to the apartment, slowly went inside, and fell asleep in my bed, the next few days just kept getting better and better.