Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

Chapter 12: Maternal Love

HI GUYS! This chapter is gonna be all Aunt May.

Just gonna do a quick disclaimer, because I just feel like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon), the show belongs to Disney and Marvel, also Stan Lee, because he's awesome.

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Love is said to be the most powerful and influential emotion a human being can ever experience. It was nerve-racking yet satisfying, terrifying but familiar, painful as well as pleasurable. It drove people to do wild and crazy things, however illogical, for that other person who held their heart and trust.

But love didn't stand alone as one emotion, or even a single shade - it was many different hues, ranging from the light, cool shade of a team, to the rich, passionate shades of romance. Love wasn't just something shared among lovers, despite the obviousness of the name, but it was something that linked so many other people together. Friendships, families, teammates, and, yes, romantic relationships too.

And it was one the toughest stuff humankind has ever felt. People have tried to describe its gripping hold within books and plays and movies, but no one could really explain what it's like, or how it feels. It was an emotion as mysterious as it was widely ranged.

Some would say that the romantic love was the strongest shade, but not to May Parker. Nothing could possibly be as stronger or more intense than her love for her nephew, Peter Parker.

Maternal love. That's what it was. The bond between mother and child. And it was the strongest stuff around. Nothing could top the sheer love a mother held for the baby in her hands, or that of a tiny hand slipping into their own, or the countless cards made and flowers picked in their name.

May Parker may not have been Peter's biological mother, but she'd be damned if he wasn't her child.

And right now, her love for him was driving her mad. Because with it, came that annoying instinct to protect and provide for him and fight off all the monsters that scared him, and to drive herself to the ends of the Earth to keep him safe. But, you see, that was all kind of very hard to do when she didn't even know where he was.

14 days. Two weeks. That's how long Peter's been missing. 336 hours of constant worrying and fretting. 3 days since she was finally told of the circumstances. There were are many superheroes working on this? And yet, her nephew still wasn't found yet. May didn't want to falsely accuse, or look ungrateful, but what in the world was taking so long? What could they possibly be doing this whole time?

Peter was off to who-knows-where, and it didn't seem like anyone was doing anything ABOUT IT! It was frustrating and infuriating and she just wished there was more she could do.

Who could have possibly done this?

Their main suspect was Doctor Octopus. That awful man who was constantly out for Peter's blood, the one who brainwashed Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider and convinced him to betray them, the same man who destroyed her home and nearly killed her and her nephew. The one who threatened HER family, and not just Peter, but Ben, Amadeus, Flash, and Miles too.

And now she was told that it was likely he had Peter, right now.

May was NOT a very happy mama, to say the least.

Tony Stark, one of the people helping find her nephew, theorized that if Octavius DID know Spider-Man's identity, then it was likely he'd attempt to capture May too to gain leverage. So, for her safety, she was moved to the S.H.I.E.L.D Triskelion where she would be surrounded by the best agents and heroes, with little to no chance of any harm.