thefictionvixens Chapter 21 Reasons for Waking Up Early
Chapter 21 Reasons for Waking Up Early
Chapter 21 Reasons for Waking Up Early
Extensive tendon tears, bone fractures, ruptured alveoli, and capillary necrosis—these injuries would be enough to land an intensive care unit on an ordinary person, but for Spider-Man, they're nothing more than a few nights of deep sleep. Peter Parker won't rest because of these minor injuries; Spider-Man will continue to protect the city tomorrow.
But Peter still didn't go on patrol the next morning, not because he was in a bad mood due to not catching the horror, but because Gwen Stacy caught him red-handed.
Good morning, smart kid.
When the blonde girl appeared at the door with her schoolbag, Peter subconsciously scratched the back of his head, his wavy black hair bobbing like an antenna.
"Um, good morning, Gwen. Up so early?"
"You've already left by the time I wake up every morning, so I want to know how early I have to get up to catch you."
After Gwen finished speaking, she added, "Of course, mainly because my dad was busy until very late last night and told me not to wait for him to come back and to go to sleep first."
"Working at the police station is troublesome? I heard there was a guy jumping around Manhattan yesterday."
"I don't know, he doesn't seem to want to tell me anything."
Having been caught by Gwen, Peter naturally couldn't put on his battle suit for patrol, so he had no choice but to take the subway with Gwen to Midtown Manhattan. The two chatted as they bought their tickets and boarded the subway.
"How's the rock band situation? Any leads?"
"Yes, we found a few classmates: MJ, Liz, Betty... Oh, sorry, you don't know any of them except MJ." Gwen finished speaking and smiled. "I can make more friends than you, just like I told you."
Peter chuckled twice. He never considered himself introverted, but that's just how social interactions are among American students—muscular idiots like football players are adored, while highly skilled lab researchers can't even get invitations to dances.
Since no one likes reading, Peter Parker naturally won't have any friends.
"What are you planning to do about the training? I don't think Uncle George will let you take the drumsticks home, let alone the drum set."
"I think so too."
When the topic came up, Gwen couldn't help but sigh, but then simply said, "We'll see," and moved on. She then asked Peter, "You take the subway so early every day, you don't just go straight to school and then space out until class, do you?"
Peter began to think about how to make up an excuse to justify getting up early, but then he suddenly had an idea.
Have you ever tried getting off one stop early or one stop late?!
As expected, Gwen looked confused.
"What?"
"It means getting off one stop early or one stop late, and then walking to school. We're still early now, so we can go to school like this every day."
"..." Gwen looked at her as if she were an alien: "Is this why you get up so early every morning?"
"No, actually it's the other way around. I get up too early and have nothing to do, so I kill time like this."
Peter sighed, then smiled helplessly. "Want to come along?"
"Anyway, I don't have anything else to do, so lead the way."
This is the decision Peter regrets most today.
It wasn't because there was anything wrong with the road, but as soon as I exited the subway station, a familiar roar came from the giant screen TV on the exterior wall of the mall.
"Just yesterday, our beautiful city was horribly ravaged by two lunatics. Spider-Man was locked in a fierce battle with a madman in high-tech armor. According to the information we have from the police, this self-proclaimed supervillain, who calls himself Thriller, is the same criminal Spider-Man arrested after claiming to be fighting crime."
Jonah Jameson's face turned bright red, almost leaping out of the screen.
"Take a good look, New Yorkers! What have these overstepping masked vigilantes brought us? More masked criminals! I can guarantee that this so-called thriller is a terrifying creation of Spider-Man himself! I can assert that he became a supervillain precisely to seek revenge against Spider-Man and his lawless ways! Imagine if the police or the Avengers had arrested this Herman, would he still have become a criminal?"
Then Jameson simply stood up, grabbed the live stream camera, shoved his face into the camera, and roared, the only thing visible on screen was spitting saliva:
"No! Because he knows he deserves it! He knows he was arrested by qualified people! Not some meddlesome lunatic in a tight-fitting suit wandering around! He doesn't think he was unlucky or shouldn't have been arrested!"
"If only you had said that when we first met, you little bug."
[If only you had said that to Hermann Schulz instead of to horror.]
Peter recalled what Schultz had said to him yesterday, and a headache struck him as he rubbed his temples. He seemed to have grasped another meaning.
If Spider-Man had said to Herman, "Dude, that weapon is awesome," during the original bank heist, perhaps the horror wouldn't have happened. Perhaps it was simply because he didn't say that one line that a supervillain was born.
"This is the first time I've come to think that Jameson's words make some sense."
Gwen was shocked by Peter's words.
"Seriously? Whenever Jameson talks about Spider-Man, even my dad says it's all bullshit."
"Hahaha." Peter finally couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head. "Did he really say that?"
"He never swears in front of his daughter, but I can see it in his expression; he really thinks so. So, where are we going?"
Peter casually pointed to an apartment building: "There, on the rooftop."
A few minutes later, the two reached the edge of the rooftop. Gwen stood on the edge and looked down, saying, "This view is really nice, if we don't fall."
"Do you remember Andrew Derby? We went to the same junior high school."
"I've never known him." Gwen said, then tried hard to recall the name, digging it out of her memory: "When we were in the second year of junior high, a first-year student jumped off a building and committed suicide. Was it him?"
"It's him, right here."
So Gwen, who had been strolling along the edge of the rooftop, suddenly returned to the safety of the rooftop. Only Peter remained sitting on the edge, watching the New York street scene he came here to see for a minute or two almost every day.
"So...you know him?"
"I didn't know him. I just saw him two days before the accident. He looked very depressed, like he'd been through something terrible. Sometimes when I pass by here, I wonder if if I had gone over and talked to him then, would this have prevented it from happening?"
Gwen was speechless for a long time, unsure how to respond. After struggling to organize her thoughts, she finally spoke.
"If you tried to persuade him, and he still chose to take his own life, wouldn't you start blaming yourself for not having a proper talk with him, wondering if you hadn't said things effectively, Mr. St. Peter?"
"but……"
"No, don't talk to me about this." Gwen sat down next to Peter, cutting him off. "Wait a minute, give me a few minutes to think about it."
"Forehead……"
"Okay, I've got it. You're absolutely not suited to work for a suicide hotline, Peter. If you go to work with your saintly ideals, you'll be jumping off buildings the next day because you didn't save everyone the day before." Gwen gave a very impolite but appropriate example: "These things, these kinds of things, are not your responsibility at all. You don't have to be responsible for other people's affairs, especially those of unrelated people."
"Kindness is a good thing, smart kid, but too much kindness becomes a curse. And curses are never a good thing."
After Gwen finished speaking, she sat down next to Peter. The two sat side by side and remained silent for a while. Gwen felt that Peter might think that he did not understand her and could not empathize with her.
It's true that it's impossible to truly empathize with someone who has experienced something like this.
She had no choice but to ask again.
"So sometimes when you think about things like this, you come here to sit for a while. Does it make you feel any better?"
"At least I've never jumped from here."
Well, actually, there were one or two times, but he just swung around again. He tried to find the feeling of freefall a few times, but he felt less and less fear.
"Perhaps you should find a pastor and have a proper confession?"
"I'm not religious, I believe in science."
"Then you can tell me, or Uncle Ben, or Aunt Mei. Don't keep everything to yourself, smart boy."
Peter Parker's response was simply a calm smile.
"I will."
Gwen wasn't sure if Peter had listened, but she knew that Peter would definitely listen to someone else. She would have to have a good talk with Uncle Ben after school today.
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(End of this chapter)