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It was a thing of beauty.
My suit was done and it looked fantastic. The dark charcoal grey was offset with black accents on the shoulders, the back along the spine, strips on the outside of the thighs, calves, and forearms. I had been pretty liberal with pieces of the ballistics vest and had left small sliced pockets in them to insert metal plates later, once I could get to the mechanical engineering lab and created them.
The special web fluid I created for bonding it together, worked even better than I had calculated. It worked so well that I created a miniature web shooter with a single cartridge, just so I could use it to draw webbing designs on the suit. I did the chest, the shoulders, the outer arms, and the boots. The powdered paint really made it blend well with the suit without standing out too much.
The mask, though. Oh, what an inspiration it was! I thought long and hard about what to use for the eye pieces as both protection from glare and to conceal my identity. I couldn't really come up with anything until I went into my closet and turned on the cheap push light mounted on the ceiling. I searched around for something for several minutes and couldn't find anything.
I reached up to touch the light again and froze. The diffusing plastic cover on the push light was a matte white color. If it was even partially see-through, I could possibly use it for the outer part of the eye hole. I checked it and it allowed 80% of light to pass through it, which was perfect, because I could cover the entire eye hole with it. The dome of plastic was also quite large when I took the thing apart.
I sliced the plastic right down the center and each half was so close to the right size that I had to stifle my laugh. It only took a bit of trimming and the application of a heat gun to flatten them slightly. I used my special bonding web fluid and they fit right into the pre-made eye holes in the mask like they were always meant to be there.
I added ballistic reinforcement around them, using the scraps from the vest, and then decorated it with the same web pattern as the rest of the suit and it was done. It was unbelievable, it looked awesome, and it was done. I was so excited about it that I had completely lost track of time until I packed everything away and saw the clock. It was three in the morning and I had to leave for work at seven.
I held in my sigh and went to bed. I was sure I wasn't getting to sleep with the way I was feeling and my eyes went to my trash can and my thoughts went to the painkiller pill that I had spat out earlier. I remembered how just a taste of it felt to my brain and how free I felt during my impromptu web swinging test.
I shook my head at the thought and closed my eyes. I didn't need an artificial boost to enjoy the feeling of web swinging, even if it was technically a cheat to put myself into a zen-like state where I could leap off of a tall building without a care in the world.
Actually, that's a really good reason to not try it again. I thought with a chuckle and rolled over. Sleep was going to be fleeting and I hoped a nap wouldn't ruin the rest of my day.
*
Adrian came to a stop beside Ben's apartment building and saw the young man yawn. He didn't comment about how tired he looked, because he assumed he didn't get home from the hospital until late and he had worked hard last night. He couldn't give Ben the day off, though. They needed his help and the guys depended on him for all the little things, like tool retrieval and replacement, coffee runs, and keeping the work area clear.
He smiled at Ben as he climbed into the truck and then drove them back to the business building to get their safety equipment and power tools. He wasn't sure how Ben had made himself so indispensable so quickly. Was it his eagerness? Was it that he never complained? Was it because he joked and carried on like he had always been one of the guys and didn't let it interfere with work?
They arrived and met up with the work crew and Adrian still didn't have any answers to his questions. They all went to the work site and began working and Adrian wasn't surprised when Ben perked right up and whatever sleepiness he had shown disappeared.
They worked all day with a break for lunch, then they all went home to their families for supper. Adrian was tempted to invite Ben over, despite his wife's decision to give the kids time to get over their little spat. He didn't want the kid to think he would treat him differently, just because he wasn't dating his daughter.
In the end, Adrian dropped Ben off without making the offer. "Get some rest, Ben. You deserve it."
"I will, Adrian." Ben said and yawned as he climbed out of the truck, reached back without looking and grabbed the backpack with his safety gear, and closed the door. "Say hi to Doris for me."
"Sure thing." Adrian said and waved as the young man walked towards the front door of the building. It wasn't until he was halfway home that he realized Ben hadn't called him Mr. Toomes like he always did.
*
May almost laughed at the exhausted young man that entered the apartment. She led him over to the table she had done up for a date and Ben let out a chuckle and kissed her cheek. They sat down and ate in complete silence until Ben had finished eating. He even took one of the pain pills without any fuss. He seemed to sway a little in his seat before his eyes closed and he slumped down a little.
"I think you better get to bed, Ben." May said and stood up in case he needed her help.
"S'okay. Don feel tired no more." Ben said and stood on shaky legs with his eyes half closed.
"Don't lie to me, mister. Get your butt upstairs to bed." May ordered and pointed.
Ben nodded. "Sorry. Should only lie when for your own good. Night." He said and kissed her goodnight before he started walking towards the stairs.
May stared at him as he wobbled a little and then he used his hands to pull himself up the stairs using the railing, because his legs weren't quite working. She hadn't thought it would affect him so much and she followed closely behind him as he stumbled and entered his room. He didn't try to take off his clothes at all and flopped down onto his bed and started snoring right away.
She walk into his room and made sure he wasn't sleeping face down and she softly laughed at his half-buried face that was mostly covered with a pillow. She reached for him and his head twitched away from her hand. She ignored that and lightly stroked the bald spot where his old scar was only a thin line. She moved his head a little and fixed his pillow and Ben's loud snores changed to deep breathing.
May nodded and left the room. She thought about shutting the door, then decided that she needed to listen in case he started snoring again, which would mean he had buried his face again. She went downstairs and grabbed his work backpack and brought it up to his room, left it by the door, and went back downstairs to the kitchen to clean up.
She finished up half an hour later and walked up the stairs to go to the bathroom. May let out a little sigh because the tub wasn't filled like it had been all week, and she let out a little laugh as she stripped off and stepped into the shower. She was definitely getting spoiled if she felt like that.
May dried off and dressed in a lacy nightgown, put on her robe, and checked on Ben. He was in the same position and she suspected that he was going to stay there until the morning. She went downstairs and sat on the couch and turned on the television. She knew she wasn't going to enjoy it as much without Ben there for company, so she sighed as she laid down and closed her eyes.
She eventually drifted off to sleep and didn't hear it when there was movement upstairs. There was some noise as well, then the door to Ben's room shut with a soft click.
*
"BEN! COME HERE QUICK!" May's voice yelled.
"AH!" I jumped out of my bed and felt oddly restricted, like I was completely covered. I looked down to see that I was wearing my Spider-Man suit. "Crap, crap, crap!" I whispered and quickly pulled it off, along with the boots, and tossed everything under my blanket and shouted. "I'll be right there!"
I gave myself a once-over and didn't notice anything else that would give me away, and tried to walk to my bedroom door. I kicked several things and looked down at the floor to see dozens of broken apart cell phones, two torn apart microwaves, cases for six of the specialized two way radios, hundreds of movement sensor casings, and a whole bunch of metal pieces and scraps from things that I didn't recognize.
"Jesus, what did I do last night?" I asked myself in a whisper and hopped over to the wall by the door and landed, carefully opened the door, and slipped out.
"Ben! You're missing it!" May exclaimed.
"I'm here!" I said and jogged down the stairs and hopped over the back of the couch to land beside May.
"I'm not going to yell at you for doing that." May said and pointed at the television. "Look!"
I grinned at her and then turned to look at the television and froze. It was a live camera shot of Stark Tower and on the side of the building were words printed in ten foot tall letters made of webbing.
'New York will be Attacked by Invaders on April 11. RIP 74 Innocent Bystanders & Phil Coulson.'
I almost groaned at the sight, because that wasn't the shocking part. What was written underneath was.
'Spider-Man Was Here.'
"Can you believe it?" May asked, her voice full of disbelief.
"No, I can't." I said and managed to not rub my face in frustration.
I had just outed Spider-Man to the entire population of New York and probably put myself on every secret agent's radar with that stunt. Just doing it by itself might have marked me as a person of interest; but, naming Phil Coulson specifically? SHIELD was going to be searching all over for my web-covered butt.
"That's not all." May said and changed the channel to another news station. "Look at that!"
I stared at the screen as thirty men of different ages were carried into a police precinct. Their wrists and ankles were tied with zip cuffs and they each had a brick of cocaine 'glued' to their foreheads. I didn't even need to guess what the glue was, because I knew it would be my new bonding web formula.
One of the younger men struggled as he was carried. "I didn't do it! I swear!"
The crowd watching laughed, because the brick of drugs on his forehead had 'Believe me, I am a Liar' written on it.
"As you just saw, an entire gang of drug pushers was captured last night by this mysterious Spider-Man." The pretty news anchor said as the camera cut to the newsroom. "Normally, evidence not gathered by the police is inadmissible, mainly because the trail of eventual discovery can't be followed or proven."
"That's understandable." May said while I remained quiet. "Those guys are going to get off because..."
"However, proper evidence bags, notes, and photos of the warehouse, the drug distribution set-up, the men's faces involved, and their cell phone records were submitted to the police following standard procedure." The woman said and smiled. "It was honestly the best police work I've seen at a crime scene and I've worked a few crime scenes in my time as a field reporter."
"No way!" May and I exclaimed at the same time.
"Spider-Man, whoever you are... retired cop, rookie tired of the red tape, vigilante, or whatever... don't expect the NYPD to thank you for doing their jobs for them." She said and then smiled. "I will, however. Well done, Spider-Man. Well done."
I turned my head to look at May and she turned her head to look at me. We had similar shocked looks on our faces. "I didn't just hear what I thought I just heard, did I?"
"I don't know. Did you just hear a reporter encourage someone to take the law into their own hands?" May asked back.
"Contact the station if you want to get a hold of me." The news anchor said. "I would love to interview you."
"...and now we know why." May and I said together, then we laughed.
"In an unrelated story, a woman was saved from being assaulted when she was carjacked." The news anchor said and another video played.
"One moment, I was being dragged out of my car at gunpoint, then I heard a weird whip-like sound and I was all alone." A dishevelled woman said and used a hand to comb her hair. "I would file a police report about it; but, there wasn't really a crime. I don't know why he left, though. Maybe he saw a nicer car?"
The video ended and the view cut back to the news studio.
"The police are still investigating the incident and we will share further details when they become available." The pretty news anchor said and turned to the side. "Now on to the weather. Janice? How is the forecast looking for today?"
"Bright and sunny." Janice said and then proceeded to give the forecast.
May changed it back to the other channel and it showed window cleaners trying to scrape the webbing off of Stark Tower. "That's going to take forever."
I chuckled. You have no idea. That webbing is as much a part of the windows as the glass is. I thought and stood. "Any requests for breakfast?"
"Whatever you make is fine." May said and looked up at me, then she waved me closer. "How are you feeling?" She asked and cupped the sides of my face as she examined the bump. "It's gone down."
"I don't really remember anything from last night." I said and she looked worried. "I mean after I ate. I'm sure I went to bed and then nothing until I heard you yell."
May nodded and let my face go. "You almost didn't make it to the bed."
I nodded, because my memory seemed to fade away during the meal. She must have given me a pain pill and I went to bed to sleep it off, only I couldn't have. "I'll have pancakes ready in a few minutes."
May smiled at me. "There's still some blueberries left from when you made the cobbler."
I chuckled. "Blueberry pancakes coming right up." I said and went to the kitchen. I took out the pancake mix and quickly did up a batch, then I went to the freezer of the refrigerator and pulled out the small bag of blueberries. I added them to the mixture as I heated up the pan at the same time. A dab of butter slicked up the pan and I added some of the batter mix.
I was tempted to make a dozen little ones and shook my head. Today felt like a big pancake day, so I filled the bottom of the pan and waited for it to rise before flipping it without using the spatula. I knew that it was an odd use of my spider-sense; but, it let me practice with it without letting anyone know I was. I made three pancakes before serving them on a plate for May.
"You're killing me, Ben!" May said with a laugh as I added another dab of butter to the top of the stack and then drizzled maple syrup over it.
"You're lucky we're out of strawberries and cream." I said and she grinned at me. "That wasn't a challenge!"
May laughed again and started eating while I cooked up a small stack of pancakes for myself. I joined her at the table and we ate the great tasting pancakes.
"We need to go shopping for groceries. We're getting low on ingredients." May said.
"Well, someone needs to stop showing off their lunches at work." I joked and she smacked my arm. "No? I guess that means we're splurging a bit this week."
"Oh! That reminds me." May said and hopped up from the table and went over to the small table near the apartment door. "Doris gave me this for you."
I stared at her as she brought over an envelope. I knew what it was, just from the size and shape of the envelope. "Already? I thought they always kept the first two weeks of pay for taxes or something."
May chuckled and handed it to me. "You're only part-time and a student. There's a lot of leeway for workers like you."
I grinned at her. "You mean they want to encourage young people to enter the work force early."
"That's what I said." May responded and walked around behind me to hug me. "Go ahead and open it."
"I know I shouldn't expect a lot. I know I shouldn't." I said and carefully opened the envelope.
May whistled at the amount. "Even with the taxes taken off, Adrian must be getting supplemented if he can afford to pay you that much for a part-time job."
I looked at the amount, just over five hundred dollars for a two week pay period with two full work days, last Saturday and the past Monday, and eight evening shifts between, it was a decent pay. It would be a bit more than that from now on, because I would have two Mondays and a Saturday for full days added in.
"We are buying fresh mushrooms!" I exclaimed and May laughed before she kissed my cheek.
We quickly changed into casual clothes, put on our jackets, and left the apartment to enjoy a morning of shopping and spending time together. Haggling over grocery items was becoming a regular thing and neither of us wanted to change that. It was half the fun of going shopping together, after all.
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If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 50+ chapters at patreon.com/Darkphoenix11