Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

*Chapter 1: You Call This a Fun House?

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Reticent: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.

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Being in charge sucked.

People like Dr. Doom, Goblin, and Ultron - or basically anyone bent on world domination - were crazy.

How was it even possible to be so power-hungry?

Why in the known universe would anyone fight, scheme, and kill just to be in charge?

What was so great about leading? It was a mystery they didn't crack under the pressure just thinking about it.

You see, the thing that bothered him was that, sometimes, it wasn't just New York or America, or even a country or two, they wanted to control.

It was the whole. Entire. World.

How does someone even decide they want to own the Earth, anyway? Does life beat you down so badly that your thought process defaults to, "Know what? I'm gonna rule the world! That's right. Every single citizen, city, state, and continent - all riddled with their own cultures, nationalities, and religions - will be mine. Ha! That'll show 'em all!"

Newsflash: No. No, it won't. You look like a jerk.

Seriously, is there nothing better to do with your spare time? Maybe try your hand at origami, or collect old mail stamps, and if that doesn't work, maybe - just maybe - you can think about overpowering a small local town and becoming their high overlord. Start with easy, manageable goals, because otherwise you're only setting yourself up to fail.

You see, if there was one thing Peter Parker couldn't stand, it was world-dominating wack-a-doos with questionable life choices, and being in charge of SHIELD Academy.

Alright, make that TWO things.

Okay, so he didn't particularly hate running the Academy. It was fun sitting in Director Fury's chair and pretending to be a master of espionage and the world's greatest leading spy. But past the pretend and imaginary spy-games, and into the real work, it was not fun. It was stressful, and scary, and overwhelming, and soul-crushing.

His teammates always looked to him for orders before, of course, because that was one of the "perks" of being a team leader. But now, things were bumped up to a whole new, very scary level.

It wasn't just his team he was looking out for anymore. It was ALL of SHIELD Academy, which included its mission agents, security guards, and staff.

All those lives in his hands. People who had families to go home to; wives and husbands. Someone waiting for them to come home. These people now looked to him for answers.

Their very lives depended on the decisions he made, which is an overwhelming load to carry.

Peter was just thankful that Dr. Curt Connors was there to share the burden with him because if it was just him, he would've cracked like thin ice a long time ago.

And yeah, maybe they both had dark bags under their eyes and looked and trudged around like physically exhausted zombies; and maybe they were getting a little too intimately acquainted with coffee and high-risk energy drinks, but they were doing their best.

Thank goodness Dr. Connors took on a majority of the adult-y issues that went along with SHIELD, because otherwise, Peter would've chucked himself out of the Triskelion weeks ago.