"Have you heard from you PI friend yet?" He heard Bruce ask from his side of the lab.
Peter sighed, and waited a moment to shake his head.
As far as he was aware, she had nothing.
He didn't blame her, honestly, the Man did didn't really anything to track him by.
He knew that- he knew it was a lost cause, that if Natasha couldn't find him, then Jessica for sure couldn't- hell if Bucky couldn't...he knew it was a long shot
-
He stared out of the window and huffed.
Crime rates had gone up since he last put on the mask...
"You don't have to do this," Tony said, in a soft tone- one that Peter had become accustomed to.
Peter nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat when he caught his own reflection.
"You know that right? You don't have to push yourself." Tony added, and Peter turned, to face his mentor. "No one's going to-
"I know- bu-but I- I need to- for me- for me." Peer said, taking a breath then looked up at Tony, who had a concerned look on his face, which morphed into one of understanding.
"Okay." Tony said, and smiled at Peter before bringing him into a hug, and for once, Peter didn't flinch.
He didn't lean away- instead he hugged Tony back.
"I'll be back." Peter assured... he assured himself.
He knew the possibility of getting kidnapped again was slim- but they weren't zero...
-
"Is this an imposter?" The newscasters voice rang heavy in Peter's ear. "Spiderman has been sighted once again in his normal territory- but is this the same masked man that once swung through the streets?"
Stopping in his steps, Peter looked at the T.V. where a man in a grey suit talked alongside a blonde haired woman- neither of them did he recognize, but that was besides the point.
"After serval months of being MIA, Spiderman appeared out of blue- only this time he seems to have a new gimmick." The Blonde woman followed up.
"Witnesses say has taken a new- more violent, silent and to-the-point approach with criminals-" Peter gulped and saw something shift in the side of his vision, and after a second Scott came into focus.
Scott met his eyes, with a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, obviously not knowing Peter was there, and also now watching the news with them- he was sure Scott would've told them to change it if he had know, but Peter didn't stay long to hear the rest.
Instead he walked off, even as Scott called after him.
-
Was he going cold and merciless?
Probably.
He knew that he wasn't the stupid naive kid he was before..
And sure he wasn't talkative- but that didn't mean he wasn't Spiderman?
He didn't lose his identity just because he didn't talk-
That wasn't how it worked-
The Man couldn't just take that away from him too!
But he did...
The Man took away his identity...
No-
No, that's not how it works!
-
"-New approach might be work, with crime rates having gone down drastically-" Was all Peter heard a few days later, before Steve put mute on the T.V.
The silence didn't faze Peter as much as it had a couple weeks back- sure it made him antsy, but he no longer was desperate to fill the void.
No, instead he stayed quiet and waited for Steve to say something- because of course Steve would say something.
"Have you been see Dr.Quinn?" He asked, proving Peter right.
"You already know the answer." Peter muttered, meeting Steve's disapproving glance.
"Peter-" Steve said, sounding like a broken a machine, about to start another lecture. "You can't keep pushing yourself-"
Blah blah, he needed to be careful- he needed to slow down-
He couldn't- He couldn't slow down, he couldn't clam down- He needed a release from-
-
Peter hadn't meant to punched the guy so hard.
"Did you-" The skinny teen being robbed started to ask, and started shaking as he looked back and forth from the body on the ground to... well Spiderman.
And Spiderman... Spiderman stood frozen.
Peter on the other hand freaked out internally as he replayed the events.
"...illed him-" Peter didn't believe what the teen was saying.
"No-" Peter tried to deny the sobbing teens accusation-
"...Inform Mr.Stark-" Did he hear the correctly?