The weekend was a long one. After the event with the Rhino, Peter had subtly rejoined Ned and they finished their day at the convention. Jack had elected to stay out, mostly because he wanted to make sure there were no other robotic animals running around, which was fair.
For the rest of the weekend, Peter decided that he would give Jack a much-needed break and take the next few patrols alone. While he loved crime-fighting with his friend, going full-on rage monster was a stressful thing for Jack, and he needed time to recover. Besides, patrolling the city alone was nice. It felt like old times when there was no Vulture or Lizard, back when Werewolf wasn't even a name he knew. But if he was being honest, he rather enjoyed having the anthropomorphic canine by his side. It was comforting that he didn't have to take on the whole city alone.
But sometimes, solitude was nice too.
But solitude also never lasted, for as dusk settled, trouble appeared right on queue, in the form of someone getting yanked off the sidewalk by five huge guys and dragged into the nearest alleyway. Dropping his bagged snack off on a ledge and enhancing his night vision, he swung in and aimed for the nearest mugger and kicked him clear away, webbing him to a dumpster. Peter whirled around and saw the victim elbow a guy in the chest so hard he hit the wall behind him. They were hard to differentiate from the remaining three bad people, for their hoodie and dark jeans made them look like a bad guy themselves.
The last three villains looked between their intended victim and Peter, and one of them had the bright idea to go for Peter alone. He took out a knife as he approached the webslinger, and Peter barely managed to hold back a laugh at the extremely lame attack.
"God, not a knife," Peter said, his tone full of fake fear as he backed away with his hands up, "my one weakness is small knives."
He then webbed up the guy's hand before he got too close, and Peter threw him against the brick wall and stuck him there. He then turned to the victim, who was easily fending off attacks from their assailants. They dodged punches left and right like a trained fighter, eventually drop-kicking one of the bad guys against the wall, knocking them out cold. Peter ran over to see if he could help as the hooded figure got to their feet, but as he drew close, the person whirled around with a raised fist aimed at him instead of the other bad guy. Peter caught it in the palm of his hand, and was surprised by how much strength he felt in the punch. It was like blocking the Winter Soldier all over again.
The person then looked at him with infuriated blue eyes, eyes he recognized only faintly. Then, his night vision focused in on the black and white jacket, black fingerless gloves and white ski mask, and it all came together. The girl ripped her hand from his and looked around. The last mugger had fled down the street, probably not wanting to deal with Spider-Man as well as this spitfire of a girl.
"I had that," Gwen spat, and he looked at her, "I didn't need your help."
"That's a weird way to say "thank you"," Peter observed, and she glared at him.
"Like I'd thank you for messing me up," She retorted, and he gave her a baffled expression, one she couldn't see because of his mask.
"Messing you up?"
"Yeah! I was doing fine until you showed you! You don't think I wanted that to happen? I've been baiting them for the past three blocks!"
"What are you even talking about?" Peter questioned. He knew Gwen was a reckless person who never ran away from a fight, but to ask for one from five guys who weren't just high school bullies was a huge risk. "Who wants that to happen to them?!"
"Someone who's dad won't let them practice in a ring!" Was Gwen's heated retort.
"Practice for what?!"
"Stay out of my business!" With that, Gwen turned and marched away. Peter stared after her, dumbfounded, and decided to leave her be. She was already really mad, and he knew to never push an angry woman, a lesson May had taught him long ago.
So, he left the alley, leaving the webbed up foes in his wake. He reclaimed his snack from the ledge and opted that he deserved a break. As he sat down with his legs dangling haphazardly over the side, he took out his sandwich and his phone, pulling his mask up over his nose. He needed to tell someone about his encounter, but Jack had been asleep when he left the apartment today. So, he went for the one person he knew never went to bed early.
"What do you want, Parker," came MJ's deadpan tone, even though Peter could pick up the slight humor that laced it, "you do realize our generation doesn't usually call unless someone's dying, right? What's the problem?"
"I'm fine, Em," Peter replied with a laugh, "I just wanted to tell you about who I just ran into."
"This better be more important than the Wakandan Outreach Center opening up in Oakland that I'm reading about right now."
"Okay, not nearly that cool," he conceded, making a mental note to ask about that later, "but it was Gwen Stacy, from school. She's crazy."
"Isn't that the girl Jack's crazy about?" MJ asked.
Peter thought he was the only one who knew about her. "Yeah, but how did you know that?"
"I mean, the heart eyes he gives her at school are pretty obvious," she replied, "but seriously, that height difference is something that will definitely set them apart."
"Not everyone are trees like you and him," Peter laughed, and he heard a snicker on the other end as he took a bite of his sandwich.
"You're just bitter because you're tiny next to us," MJ pointed out, then added with a chuckle, "as well as on your own."
"I'm not tiny, I'm fun-sized!" Peter retorted resentfully. She knew how self-conscience he was about his height, but it only added to her arsenal to tease him with.
"Don't worry, I don't like you for your height," she conceded, and he noticed how her tone had turned thoughtful.
"What do you like me for then?" He asked, both genuinely curious and eager to hear all the mushy thoughts she had about him. He knew she hated talking about lovey-dovey stuff, but he always liked when he got her to do it.
"Never knew you were the kind to fish for compliments," was her sarcastic reply.
"Please?" He asked as he devoured the rest of his sandwich.
Suddenly, a new voice came up that made Peter put his phone hastily on the ledge and yank down his mask. He looked around and saw Gwen approaching him. Her mask was off and her hood was flipped back, and she almost appeared... remorseful.
"Okay look, I'm sorry I was a jerk back there," Gwen started and Peter jumped down from the ledge so he was standing, "I just needed to work off some tension and I didn't mean to take it out on you."
Peter glanced back at his phone. He wasn't sure if MJ was still there or had hung up. Gwen stepped closer to him and he felt himself take a mental step back, even if his foot in reality didn't budge. He was about to speak but the girl swept on.
"I get that you were trying to help and that's like your job or whatever but you have to understand that I didn't need it."
"Just because you say that doesn't make it true," Peter felt himself say before he even had a chance to stop himself. He found that he had just echoed that same words that Jack had said to him.
Gwen narrowed her blue eyes at him before shrugging her shoulders. She suddenly looked really tired, and she walked past Peter to lean on the ledge. The webslinger watched her curiously, and he walked over to the ledge himself to retrieve his phone. He noticed the call hadn't ended, and he laid it facedown on the wall. If MJ was listening, maybe she would help him with figuring out what was going on Gwen later.
"Do you ever feel out of control?" The blonde suddenly asked as she flipped her hood up and crossed her arms against the ledge, "like, you ever just... lose it?"
Peter was so surprised by the question that it took him a few seconds to think of an answer. He never really had felt whatever it was she was thinking of, but another person came to mind that might feel that way. "N-no, but I know someone who does."
She turned her head to look at him. She seemed a little suspicious, and Peter didn't know what else to say. So they kind of just stared at each other, waiting for the other to say something more. But she remained quiet, and it was somewhere in the silence, with only the traffic as their background noise, that Peter realized that he could actually learn something about this mysterious girl. Gwen Stacy was a complete enigma, a puzzle that refused to be pieced together. Someone with a surprising amount of strength and boxer-tier fighting abilities. Peter never really had a conversation with her except for that one time back at Harry's, but he hardly thought that counted. But now, he had a real opportunity.
"Alright it's officially awkward," she suddenly said as she pushed off the ledge to walk away, "I came here to apologize and I did. Good for me. I won't bother you anymore."
"Hey, wait a second," he called after her with a step in her direction, "is there something going on with you? Because if you need to talk to someone, I can-."
"Right, because the last thing you want is some civilian talking to you about their existential crisis," Gwen scoffed without breaking a step.
"Werewolf would."
The statement was a firm one, and Peter definitely believed that it really would be something Jack would want, especially with Gwen. Thankfully, his reply had been enough to halt Gwen's stride. She turned her head just slightly to look over her shoulder at him.
"Why the hell would he care?"
"Because he might know whatever it is you're going through, and be able to help. Or relate, at the very least."
Gwen was silent for a moment more, and he heard her heave a heavy sigh. Finally, she said, "if he wants to talk, he knows where to find me."
Without another word, she dropped off the ledge and into the alley below. Peter's stomach dropped with her, because it's not like there was a fire escape below her because the ladder was on the other side of the building. He ran over to the now-vacant ledge and looked down, but didn't see anyone splattered on the pavement of the alley. Gwen had disappeared entirely.
Peter was now convinced that there was something off with her, that she might be... super-powered. But was that too crazy an idea?
He went back to his ledge and retrieved his phone. Pulling his mask up, he put it back to his ear.
"Em, you still there?"
"Did you just set Jack up on a date?" Were MJ's first words through the receiver.
"I didn't intend it that way..." Peter groaned. He dropped down the fire escape and crouched on the railing. He couldn't see Gwen walking down the road, and the darkening sky was no help. She had vanished entirely. "Did you hear everything?"
"Yeah, now get over here so we can talk about the fact that you're playing matchmaker with a werewolf and lunatic."
Give me that sweet sweet Spider-Gwen, especially with Into The Spiderverse! Gotta say, it's given me some ideas. Anyway, 27 is underway and I know I took a while to update. I always get cold feet right before I publish because I never know if you'll like it. And I always want to do right by my readers. With that said, love you all! <3 :)
~Fargone5