I stood on the roof of a building nearby HQ, staring out at the scenery all around me. Skyscrapers, high rises, and apartment buildings stretched out all around against the backdrop of clear blue sky. It was close to midday, the Sunday’s summer sun shining down beautifully on everyone. It was hotter than yesterday, and the days were only going to keep getting warmer.

That’d probably get tiring. I frowned. I guess I hadn’t really thought about that. Doing superhero stuff in the summer. All the swinging around. I was already kind of sore from picking up the pace a bit yesterday. Plus a few of my injuries felt a bit more tender than they should have.

It was probably fine.

Yep, I didn’t feel a hundred percent and wasn’t even completely sure I’d be able to keep up for extended patrols, but people’s lives were in my hands. And supervillains might just try to kill me at any point in the day. And they definitely didn’t care about what condition I was in. Hell, they’d probably be celebrating at my poor sleep schedule and diet.

I frowned. There’d need to be work on that front too. It’d be stupid if someone got hurt if I kept getting a cramps because I wasn’t eating right or I was just too tired because I kept having nightmares about my stupid break up.

I bet Kingpin and his stupid police goons would love that. Or some insane spider monster that ate people for a living. Yeah, that’d really make their day. I cleared my throat loudly, as the twisting knot in my stomach grew.

I was fine. All this extra responsibility and pressure? Nothing. I was fine. Totally and completely normal and fine. I wasn’t going to start agonising over every little detail of my life trying to make sure it fit into me being a better superhero. And I definitely wasn’t having small doubts about doing this again.

I looked down to the streets below. But that’s what a good hero would do, right? Agonise over every possible way they could better help people.

I mean, it’s probably what the members of the Vanguard do, it’s probably what Peter does, maybe not Yu and Jess, but they were only kids. I was an adult. Technically. I had to start taking these things seriously. Or else someone would die on my watch, and I’d have no one to blame but myself for not properly thinking about the future.

I clenched my jaw. I thought I’d gotten over this worry, this anxiety, but it was back again. I guess, I’d just have to get used to this.

“You alright?” Peter said suddenly, looking to me.

“Hm?”

“You ok? You were frowning”

“Oh, yeah” I mumbled back. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking”

“About? I mean it’s ok if you can’t say”

“Just… stuff. This whole superhero thing”

“Well your doing amazing so far”

“I guess”

“Oh come on. You rescued those kids from that man spider or whatever, and, I mean, it took me two years to recruit new members for the team and you did it in about a day” he joked. I chuckled in response before sighing slightly.

“It’s a lot though. ”

“… I won’t lie to you, it happens more than you’ll like” he said. “We can’t always save everyone”

Amy’s face flashed through my mind, and my body tensed.

“I know”

He clamped a hand on my shoulder.

“The thing is we can always try” he said, the sincerity in his voice palpable.

Suddenly something crashed into the metal ventilation tube behind us. We both spun around fists raised and watched as the kid pulled himself out of the dent quickly straightening out before dusting himself off. He took a few deep breaths, cleared his throat slightly and puffed out his chest

“Sorry I’m late” he said, voice cracking. “Running up buildings is harder than it looks.”

Peter and I glanced to each other.

“Told you he was too young” I muttered. Peter sighed.

“How old are you?”

“Thi- fourteen” he said

“You said you were thirteen yesterday”

“I forgot. Had my birthday recently, but didn’t get around to having a party”

“…right” I said, crossing my arms as I narrowed my eyes.

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“It’s fine” Peter said, “We can talk about whether your old enough for this later. If you aren’t then we can always train you. So… first off, what’re your powers”

“I can do everything you can do, except the webs. But I’ve got this cool electric thing instead”

“Can you show us?” Peter asked.

“I’ll try” the kid said, readying himself.

“Maybe don’t” I said, before looking to Peter. “Last time he tried it, it looked like he was trying to take a dump. I doubt it’s usable in public”

“Says the guy with the raggedy suit” the kid retorted.

“H-hey!”

“Spider” Peter said, motioning for me to quiet down. ”Just let the kid try”

“…fine” I said stepping back. I frowned as we watched the kid.

Why was I being such an asshole? I’d invited him here, well, it’d been closer to him just tagging along Joshua’s invitation but still. Was it because he felt so familiar? The way he carried himself, the almost childlike exuberance, and carefree tone of his voice.

It reminded of a younger me, right after getting my powers. The same me who’d gotten tonnes of people killed through recklessness alone. I shook my head. I needed to stop projecting my insecurities onto a kid, he probably wasn’t anywhere near as bad as me. Probably wasn't even bad at all.

Suddenly my spider sense blared and I leapt back as a burst of electric blue lightning exploded outwards.

I landed and skidded backwards, before looking back to the kid who stood stock still.

“S-sorry” he said. “Can’t control it yet”

“No” I mumbled. “That was incredible.”

“Yeah, seriously impressive” Peter said, looking to me. I nodded, standing straight as the scar along my front started to sting.

“So, am I in?”

“Well not so fast-” Peter

“Uh… sorry” I said interrupting Peter as I looked to the kid. “This is probably going to sound weird, but is your name Miles?”

The kid froze and stared at me.

“Is… do you have mind reading too?”

“No, no” I said smiling to myself. “I met an alternate version of you in a different universe. You had the same powers and stuff there”

“Seriously?” they both said at the same time.

“Yeah” I said, smiling to myself. “You sound like him too. I think you’re a bit younger though”

“That’s… cool. Insane, but cool” Miles said.

“Well, I guess know that we know your identity we kind of have to train you” Peter said, chuckling.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. You’re a bit young, so we’ll maybe only take you out on a couple of patrols a month of now, then ramp it up as you get older”

“So, I’m in? I’m a Spider-Man?”

“Yeah” I said chuckling. He stared at us in disbelief for a few seconds, then

“We’ll have to run a few tests first though, make sure your NE is stable, and whatnot. How long have you had your powers?”

“About a month now? Uh… I don’t know exactly.”

“We’ll if it’s about a month, then you’ll probably be fine” Peter said, before offering his hand. “Welcome to the team kid, we’ll see if we can have you meet up with the other members”

“Really? Man, I have tons of questions”

“You’ll have tons more when we start explaining stuff to you” I said shaking his hand. “Seriously, I barely know what’s going on”

“Is it bad?” he said, his tone slightly nervous.

“You’ll be fine. Plus, you’ll probably end up really strong” Peter said. “I mean the bio-electricity is some seriously amazing stuff”

“Definitely” I added before furrowing my brow. “Wait, how is it related to a spider?”

“Like… spider venom, maybe?” the kid said. I shrugged, then frowned.

“So, where’s the other guy?” Miles asked. “Did he come and leave already?”

“He hasn’t shown yet” Peter said.

“Really? But I was like fifteen minutes late” Miles muttered..

I frowned.

“Uh… wait, how exactly is he supposed to get up here? I mean, this isn’t a public building, is it?”

We all looked to each other.

“Crap”

-

We found him by a door, arguing with a lady at the foot of the main stairwell.

“Are you going to pay for this door?! No!” she shouted. “You can’t just break things!”

“Lady, just get out the way. I’ve got some very important people waiting for me and I can talk about this later”

“Hey!” she shouted, grabbing him as he tried to step past.

“Watch it” he said, wrenching his arm away from her. She stumbled back and turned to look to him as he started up the steps. She came face to face with the three of us wide eyed then looked back to Joshua.

“See?” he said “Thank you”

He pushed her aside and stomped up the steps, shaking his head.

“Sorry I’m so late guys. Just… some people, eh?” he said, pointing back at the woman. Peter looked past him, and sighed.

“Sorry about the commotion” Peter said, waving to the woman as we all began making our way back up the steps. “I’ll come back and fix the door”

“O-ok” the woman muttered, still staring at us as we continued up the stairs.

“Sorry about making you come all this way up” Peter said.

“Yeah, I somehow forget how high some of these things are. We should’ve met up on a smaller building”

“For you guys, It’s no problem. I’d walk up the Burj Khalifa if it meant getting this job. Seriously, you guys are heroes”

“At this rate you’re gonna give me a huge ego” I said, grinning.

Peter chuckled to then frowned pulling his phone from his pocket. He froze as the other two continued up the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” I said, looking back to him.

“I… nothing… I have to take this real quick” Peter said, quickly stepping away before answering the phone. “Suse? Y-yeah. Is it Harry? It’s Harry?!”

“What’s wrong?” Joshua called out from ahead.

“Nothing, just… hold up a sec” I said. We stopped and watched as Peter listened intently on the phone, nodding his head. He clutched the phone tightly, muttering quick words of affirmation to the caller before going quiet again.

Then suddenly he hung up. For a moment he simply stared at the wall, the he looked to me and the others, still silent.

“You alright P- Spider-Man?”

“I… I need to go” he muttered.

“What? Like… now?”

“Uh- I- yeah” he said.

“What happened?”

“I- nothing” he said starting up the steps towards us. “I just need to go see a friend. Just… carry on with the lesson. I’ll be back quickly”

“Wa-”

Before I could say anything else he was gone, leaping up the steps faster than I’d ever seen him move before. The three of us watched him go, then looked to each other.

“Uh… guess I’m your adjudicator then” I said laughing awkwardly.

“I wasn’t aware there was a test” Joshua said, paling slightly.

“You’ll be fine man” Miles said. “I passed easy. Just… uh… break a piece of metal or something”

“Nah” I said, “You captured that guy yesterday. Your basically already a superhero”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Just… keep doing whatever it is you were doing. Lord knows I wasn’t that good when I started”

“Ok” Joshua said nodding sincerely.

“Wait… so what now?”

“Uh… guess I could show you the basics of how to fight?” I said. “Then we can practice or something, maybe go for a short patrol?”

“Fighting lessons from Spider-Man?” Miles said, his grin audible. “Man this is going to be so awesome”

“I should warn you ahead of time” I said, as we continued up the steps, “I only know the very basics.”

“That’s fine by me” Joshua said. “If I’m as strong as I think I am, the basics will be enough.”