Throwing another jab, Peter sent the punching away before it came swinging back, the boy quickly hitting it again.
"Keep your wrist straight, brat! Just like I taught you!" Mirko yelled from beside him, in the middle of hitting another punching bag. "And stop holding back on that strength!"
And when he said hitting, he meant violently kicking it over and over.
Also, did you know she was basically the definition of a backseat driver? At least when it came to fighting?
Seriously, he couldn't throw a punch at this thing without listening to her running commentary!
And yeah, running commentary while fighting was his whole thing, she'd been doing it for like an hour!
"I'd rather not send this thing flying across the room! It doesn't look like I'd be able to pay for damages if I did," Peter responded, narrowing his eyes as sweat dripped down his brow.
In response, Mirko huffed something about how he should stop being a pussy before continuing to hit the bag.
Man, what was it with her and getting him to use more strength when fighting? He already knew how to use just enough to make people feel it!
Seriously, his punches as of now weren't 'love taps' like she'd been calling them!
As far as he knew, they hurt like hell! Wasn't that enough? Or did she want for him to leave guys with fractures the second he taps them?
Wasn't like he was trying to be Batman or that guy with horns running around in Hell's Kitchen back in New York.
Well, that depends if 'The Devil Of Hell's Kitchen' was even real in the first place.
Probably wasn't, now that he thought about it.
If anything, the guy was some legend that people made up to get criminals scared if they weren't already afraid of that one Punisher dude.
All in all, he was glad he got to grow up in Queens instead of The Kitchen.
God knew that place was a hell hole.
He has heard that they have some good lawyers over there, though!
Bouncing in place, Peter kept hitting the bag and felt that familiar feeling of an impact on his knuckles.
The kickboxing gloves softened it, he wished he had a pair of these back when he was still swinging around in a hoodie.
Do you even know how hard it was to hide bloody and bruised knuckles from people? Sure, they healed in a day but it was always after he got home from Aldera!
At least he learned how to use May's makeup to hide them a month before Aizawa arrested him.
Huh, who knew he'd feel nostalgic about all that? Wonder what that says about the kind of guy he is.
As the bag came swinging back, Peter kept throwing jabs at it, always a bit harder than the last one.
"Come on, kid! You can hit harder than that, can't ya? Thought you had the proportional strength of a spider or some shit!" Mirko yelled, Peter tried to tune her out as sweat poured down his brow.
Maybe it was the frustration from Mirko continuingly telling him how to punch or the fact that his exhaustion of training for hours straight had been catching up to him…
But next thing he knew? He forgot to pull his next punch and the bag went flying.
"Oh, shit!" He swore, both he and Mirko watched as the bag flew across the room before creating a crack in the wall.
Fuck him, man!
How could he just slip like that?! God, imagine if that was a real person? If he accidentally slipped up and punched some random purse snatcher or mugger that hard?
Yeah, Mirko had been yelling at him for the past hour or so which was… annoying and all, but that wasn't an excuse.
That punch could've… could've killed someone, he needs to get better at focusing.
He has to get better… he has to.
He doesn't have a choice when it comes to things like this
"Huh, look at that! Maybe you should've held back after all!" She whistled while Peter rubbed his tired eyes, quickly hopping over to the bag and inspecting the damage.
She looked it over, holding her chin and then looking at the crack on the wall before chuckling.
"Oi, that was a clean punch! Don't know if that makes ya feel any better that you forgot to hold back, pretty sure you vigilantes got huge guilt complexes or something." She shrugged, hopping back over to him.
Ignoring that comment about guilt complexes, Peter let out a "Thanks, I guess."
God, he was tired.
"Sorry, that… uh, that was probably expensive." He sighed, walking over and sitting on a nearby bench. "Look, we haven't taken a break in like 4 hours! Can we take a breather? It's hard to focus when I'm tired."
Pulling out his phone from the pocket in his shorts, Peter's eyes widened at the fact that it was currently 6:37 PM.
Jesus, man! They've been training for 12 hours? Back when he used to swing around, he kept patrols at 5 to 6 hours! But this? 12 hours of training with barely any breaks?
That was just… he didn't even know a word to describe it!
"Seriously? That's lame as fuck, but whatever." She huffed, Peter resisted the urge to pass out right there and then. "Why'd you have to tap out right before we got to more sparring? I would've let you use your webs!"
This time, a tired chuckle escaped him as he wiped his face with a nearby towel.
For all the talk about not just fighting him for the sake of fighting him earlier, Mirko didn't really hide the fact that she enjoyed their spars.
Maybe a little… too much.
At least way more than him.
"Utterly tragic that I get to miss a chance for you to beat me up, but I'll pass." Sarcasm dripped from his voice, Mirko rolled her eyes and flipped him off.
"Can't you keep that sarcasm for when you put on your dumbass tights?" She snarked back, hopping over to a water bottle and taking a sip.
Alright, was the jab at his costume necessary?
He'd take a jab at hers but he didn't like his chances of coming out unharmed from it.
Yeah, pretty sure just the thought of doing that made his spider-sense go off.
The sound of Mirko snapping her fingers at a sudden realization snapped him out of his thoughts, Peter looking to her as she put her bottle down.
"Aw, shit! Just remembered I still gotta do all that paperwork from when we went on patrol!" She groaned, looking over to him. "Y'know how heroes gotta do reports for crimes they stop, yeah?"
The idea of having to fill in a form for stopping a crime still sounded stupid to him, you know?
It was just a bunch of unnecessary bureaucracy to make doing hero work harder, at least that's what it was to him.
It was one of the main things Peter liked about doing vigilante work, it just let him do good without having to answer to anyone.
But right now? The HPSC wasn't something he could swing around to avoid.
Heh, swing.
Even in his thoughts, he's hilarious.
"Yeah, but don't most big heroes have people who do it for them? Pretty sure guys like All Might and Endeavor just sign them." He said, Mirko rolled her eyes.
"Did you miss the part where I don't rely on anyone? I meant that shit, kid!" She put her hands on her hips, motioning for Peter to get up. "And that includes doing paperwork."
Wait, he also stopped those crimes…
He had to do the paperwork with her, didn't he?
Just as that thought passed through his mind, Mirko began walking away while motioning for him to follow.
"C'mon, brat! We stopped a fuck ton of bad guys two days ago, which means a fuck ton of signatures!"
Damn it.
Not even having it on him to complain, Peter simply groaned into the sky and willed his aching body to follow her.
Vigilantism was a lot less work.
...
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