Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Look To Your Heart

Chapter 3: Look To Your Heart

They walked together as they traversed the sewers, the girl taking point as she followed the creature's scent. Peter was close behind her as he felt sprinkles of water splash at his side.

They were currently walking down a sewage passageway, which so graciously had space to walk on as water rushed down to the right of it. The velocity of the water put rapids to shame as it traversed at deadly speeds down the designated way, courtesy of the storm. The two of them followed where the water went, coming to a unified agreement that if they followed the way it traveled, sooner or later they would find the creature.

The thing is that the New York sewer system is vast. It spanned a total of six thousand miles, with most of it made with a combined sewer system, making it so that the pipes carried both stormwater and wastewater to the nearest treatment plant. As luck would have it though, the nearest treatment plant was far from where they currently were to his knowledge and all the monster had to do was find a point in the sewers that would allow the tides to carry it and it would be halfway across the city in no time.

Hopefully, it wasn't that smart, Peter hoped as he looked at the girl who sniffed the air, continuing to track its scent through the stench that surrounded them.

The two reached the end of the passageway and were greeted with two options they could take: There was a door to the left of them which they could use or they could go down to where the water was. It rushed into a pipe that was big enough for an average-sized person and past a pair of metal bars that were presumably there to prevent people from falling down into the vast room it led to if they were ever caught by the water.

The girl watched as the boy immediately used his "stick 'em powers," his words – not hers, to cling to the top of the pipe before tearing the bars off. He then signaled her to follow him but she stared at the running water for not even a second before turning to face the door.

She ignored the pout he made as he crawled into the room.

she would prefer a choice that would leave her less drenched than she already was.

Slicing open the lock on the door, she kicked and entered the desolate room. It was dusty and dirty, ilk all over the floor as it contained a singular pipe that hugged the ceiling – clearly a room solely for maintenance, but a room that led to the same space Peter arrived at, without her getting soaked.

"Boo!" Peter yelled from above her as she opened the door, hoping to startle her but only getting a deadpan reaction from the girl who was unphased by his antics.

"I knew you were there," she plainly stated, moving past him to traverse the steps that led down into the large room that water ran through. Peter followed her, doing a flip off the wall and landing right beside her as she finished going down the stairs, once again unphased.

"You are an idiot," she declared as the two followed the river of sewer water that lay in the middle of the room. For once, Peter could say that taxpayer money was being put to good use through the graciousness of whoever designed the New York sewers, there was an area where they could walk, and Two cement walkways that were big enough to fit equipment were what hugged the walls as water flowed down the middle, sparing them from being submerged in water that was intermingled with who knows what.

"It was the nose, wasn't it?" Peter asked the girl, long since coming to the conclusion that her sense of smell was far greater than others.

"A single whiff and I know what you ate, how long you used deodorant, what brand it was, and how much you've been sweating since you put it on," she informed him with a fierce voice that said all that needed to be said, but this intrigued him.

Really?" Peter asked, wanting to learn more.

"You use Irish spring deodorant with Colgate mint toothpaste. You had spaghetti recently and you use Charmin ultra-soft toilet paper," she said in a factual manner, listing off facts that Peter knew to be true.

What else did she know based on his scent alone?

"I'm feeling really uncomfortable right now," he jokingly responded which surprisingly amused the girl who was satisfied by his response.

"You are Spider-Man, aren't you?" she asked, changing the tone of the conversation and turning her attention back to what lay in front of her. "

"What makes you say that?" he sarcastically asked her, knowing that it was obvious at this point.

"The powers, the way you-"

"I was being sarcastic," he said, stopping her from listing off all that confirmed her suspicions.

"I thought you quit," She did not know much about the hero before her, but she did know that he had been gone – seemingly forever, until now.

"I...I did," he lowered his head, regretting the action – the ignoring of his responsibility that left who knows how many without someone to help them.

Someone to save them.

"Then what are you doing here?" she asked as she turned her head to look back at him, the sadness and shame that was in his eyes being something she recognized – something she knew.

Peter pondered her question before letting out a chuckle of both acceptance and resignation, "...Because... some things never change," he stated with a small smile.

She understood completely what he meant.

Some things never change...

She shook her head as memories that were better left forgotten came to the forefront of her mind and needing a distraction, she asked the boy another question.

"What made you quit in the first place?"

"Now, believe it or not, being a superhero is quite hard. I was actually dealing with a crisis just before this whole thing," Peter explained his trial and tribulations in ways that almost made it seem like a joke – which was the point – heck, it even had PointClaws huff.

"You think you deal with things," she said with slight inflictions of a mocking tone behind her stoic voice.

"Wanna make it a competition?" Peter asked with a raised brow, picking up on the girl's tone which challenged if his experiences were really as bad as he put it.

"I'd win," the girl retorted in a monotone voice.

Peter let out a drawn-out whistle as if he didn't believe her – which he didn't, but he played along, wanting to find out more about the leather jacket-clad girl he was with.

"Does God like to make your life a living hell?" He rhetorically asked.

"I do not know what god is," The place she grew up in didn't really give her classes about religion, "...and my life is hell," she finished in a stern voice which surprised Peter.

He looked at her, bewildered for a second before saying...

"Please don't tell me you were out sulking like I was," Him sulking out on the streets, yeah that was normal, but finding someone else – a girl who had powers like him, sulking out on the street was something only found in corny pieces of fiction.

"That is none of your business," she instantly stated.

"She was," he thought.

She most definitely was.

What were the chances?

Then again, what were the chances of a teenage boy getting bit by a radioactive spider and getting powers?

"...and what if I were?" she looked back at Peter, her voice now more powerful in an attempt to be threatening which was bolstered by the raising of a fist that warned him of razor-sharp metallic claws.

"Can you read minds too!?" Peter asked with pure panic and surprise upon her seemingly responding to his thoughts, lifting his hands up into the air in a juvenile form of surrender.

She looked at him and came up with a very simple realization.

"You are an idiot," she stated as she turned back to face forward.

They returned back to position and followed the monstrous scent of the creature they were hunting. It took them to the end of the room and more, for the water broke off to the right, onto a tunnel that wasn't made of sleek concrete but of old crumbling bricks.

She noticed that there was a wall in the near distance but no place for the water to go, but as she sniffed the air she knew that the creature they were hunting was down that way, so dead end or not, that was where they were going to. She met the boy's blue eyes and moved her gaze in the direction of the crumbling waterway and the boy nodded, understanding what she meant.

They entered the waterway, finally submerging themselves in the running water which contained the filth of a city but at the very least it was diluted by the sheer amount of clean 'water' that rained from the sky.

Clean in quotations because rainwater was acidic.

That was still preferable to fece water in Peter's opinion.

Despite preparing herself, the girl was still caught off guard by the rapids and lack of leveling on the ground which almost had her fall over if it weren't for Peter catching her before she did. She looked at him, surprised by his actions before brushing him off and regaining her footing. The water was running fast and threatening to push her off her footing at any given turn but she would not let it make a fool of her.

She watched as the boy followed suit and entered the water, unphased by the speeds and more concerned about the water that was filling up his boots which caused him to visibly cringe.

"You don't see the Avengers going into sewers..." he grumbled as he got accustomed to the cold water before turning to the girl, wondering how she didn't seem to mind having water in the deep negatives submerge her knee down.

He actually had many questions about her, but one just came to mind.

"What's with all the questions anyway?" Peter said as he looked at the girl, "You a fan?" he asked her with a raised brow, amused at the possibility that she scoffed at.

"Do not be delusional," she shut the idea down, "I do know a few though," she added, perking his interest. "They talk about you sometimes, how you're a hero. One girl even has newspaper clippings of you on her wall. She and the others... are disheartened by your departure but she made a bet with someone that you would come back," she finished, causing Peter to think about the consequences of his action.

Peter looked down.

He didn't fully recognize how much his disappearance really affected people...

He looked back at the girl, his blue eyes burning with resolve.

He'd make up for all of it, ten times over.

"You can tell her that she won the bet when you see her again," Peter said with determination in his voice.

They reached the dead end, looking over the edge where the water rained from towards archaic depths that were unknown. It was at least a ten-story fall from what Peter guessed, and while he could survive such a fall, he wondered if the girl was in the same boat. She had claws that could cut through the monster like butter, an inhuman sense of smell, and healing abilities which made her beyond concern in her words, but he knew nothing of durability.

For all he knew a fall like this could kill her...

"That's not going to happen," he thought as he recalled the event at the bridge.

"No matter what," he vowed as he took a glance at the girl with long onyx locks.

The act of the girl rapidly inhaling through her nostril, detecting the scents nearby would put the boy's vow to test for a familiar soft tingle had begun warning him of danger just as her senses were doing for her.

"Hey..." Peter trailed off, trying to locate the monster both their senses were warning them off, "...we got trouble..." The brunette warned the girl, playing a game of hot and cold with his senses, and right now, he was really warm, "I've got a sixth sense for this sort of thing and..."

His eyes widened as the tingling went full swing, "move!" Peter yelled at her as he turned the other way, just in time to meet the monster who had come bursting through the wall. Instead of dodging, he chose to meet the monster's might with his own, giving the girl enough time to react even with the speeding tides that limited her movement.

He locked hands with the beast, the two glaring at each other as they battled to see who was stronger. It was a stalemate, the two of them being nearly identical in strength but the monster had something Peter didn't.

It had talons.

Razor-sharp nails that were beginning to dig deep into his hands, but Peter also had an ace up his sleeve.

He endured the pain the creature's claws brought, knowing that the girl who accompanied him would pay it back tenfold. The monster knew it too. It tried to retreat, to back away, but Peter held it in place as she charged at it – powering through the knee-deep tides and slicing the integral parts of its arms to allow the boy to gain ground. Its wailing tail prevented her from outright cleaving through it, and with the tides, she was reduced to dodge the extra appendage which only gave her enough time for limited slashes that could only help Peter in his battle of power.

It still was not enough. Equal in physical power they may be, the monster had size, it had weight, and it was pushing Peter back. She had tried to strike a spot that would be lethal for the creature but its tail prevented her from doing so again and it grazed her leather jacket as she dodged it the first time a second attack came, an attack she could foresee, but not react to due to her hindrances.

And like a crackle of lightning, the sharp piercing whip of its tail hitting her across the face reverberated throughout the small tunnel that they were in, throughout the boy's mind as a familiar scene started playing through his mind as she was flung off the dead end by the force of its appendage.

"No!" Peter exclaimed – he cried, letting go as soon as the scene played throughout his mind to go save the girl from a demise he hoped had not already happened, and to his relief – to everything that was good, she was alive.

She was holding on to a crevice within the floor, feet stabbed into the wall, but the weight of the water was pushing her down, commanding her to either fall or drown for the knee-deep water turned into a crashing stream that submerged her without breath.

She would drown if he did nothing soon.

"Don't let go!" Peter urgently pleaded, every bone in his body commanding him to save her, but the monster stood in his way, wrapping its large hands around his back and throwing him into a wall with a loud 'thoom' that echoed throughout his body in the form of pain, but if the monster was going to stand in his way, if it was going to stop him from saving the girl he had just met – who had helped him out of the goodness of her heart, Peter Parker would run it over if he had to – obliterate it if he must.

He would not fail her.

Not again.

He got back onto his feet, attacking the monster with everything he had, pushing it back as he begged the girl to "Hold on!."

She could barely see what was going on, barely understand or paint a picture with the water that overwhelmed her senses and body, but she could hear through the raging waters that he was giving everything he had to save her.

Her of all people.

She did not deserve to be saved.

Even drowning like this was too light of a punishment...

"Please!" She could hear Peter continue for her to hold on, to continue fighting against the darkness that invaded her vision as his battle against the monster brought him pain he would continue to power through, taking blows that knocked his teeth out, and threatened to floor him, but he refused to be knocked down.

"I won't let you die!" he yelled to her, struggling to fight against the monster that had already considered the unnamed girl to be dead, "Not like Gwen!" Peter roared but was silenced as the creature punched him across the face, knocking the wind out of him, before picking him up – preparing to devour his head like a rabid beast.

Peter refused this desire. With adrenaline pumping through his veins, with the threat of failing once more, with the girl's life on the line, he headbutted the creature as hard as he could – more than he could, bashing his skull against its snout, having it recoil in pain and release him. He didn't stop there though, he relentlessly bashed the creature with his might, preparing one final attack that was fuelled by all his power, his speed, and will, and more, with the goal of flooring the monster and for all.

With burning blue eyes Peters roared, releasing all the power he could muster to punch the monster across the face with a blow that echoed throughout the caverns, that broke through its thick hide with might very rarely summoned.

The sheer impact tore its jaw completely off, but as he did this the creature backhanded him with a force that had his brain rattle against his skull, having the both of them hiss out in pain. Peter eyed the monster as it glared at him with its blood-red eyes, getting up as he did so, keeping his gaze on the girl who was still managing to hold on.

He could fight forever but she didn't have that long.

As the creature roared he instantly moved his head in its direction to see it slowly stumble off the edge, its fight-or-flight instinct commanding it to flee.

There was a choice to make.

Save the girl who was in the process of drowning and let the monster go, or chase after it and let her die.

He knew who he would pick.

Peter let the creature go without so much of a second thought, instantly grabbing the girl's hand and carrying her within his arms as she was repeatedly coughing in her attempt to gasp for air. Bringing the both of them on dry ground, he urgently but gently placed the girl down where she would then put herself onto her knees in her battle to release the water that she choked on.

Assisting her with pats to help with the excess water, through their combined efforts, the translucent liquid of life had been expelled from her body.

With a sigh of relief, Peter placed himself onto his butt, panting along with the girl who breathed heavily, the both of them being pushed more than they expected, but all that mattered to him was that she was alive.

"She's alive..." Peter muttered, basking in those words, in her existence and life that had not been taken. That had been saved. He didn't fail her. He didn't let her die.

Letting the monster get away was worth it.

He kept his hand on her back as she breathed heavily, ready to help her again if anything were to happen but once her breathing recovered she instantaneously grabbed him, eyes burning with anger, "Where is it!?" She yelled, unaware of what happened or to blind with anger to even care.

"It got away," Peter pointed towards the ledge that led to the depths of the sewers – to the unknown where the monster had long since disappeared too.

It was long gone.

"You idiot! You let it get away!?" she angrily hissed, turning her exponentially growing anger which tunneled her vision for the creature, onto him.

The thing is though, Peter Parker had anger issues too.

"Hey! Would you rather I let you drown and die!?" he asked, rivaling her anger with his, not scared to face off against the girl and her tremendous hate which had no rebuttal to his question.

"I don't know about you, but your life matters much more to me than capturing that thing," Peter stated with the utmost passion and sincerity, standing by his actions and pointing at the girl who was stunned at the sudden outburst, and more so, his words.

"If I had the choice to do it again I would! That monster thing could be The Red Skull or any other world-ender ender for all I care! I'd still choose to let them go to save your life!" He continued, his tangent siphoning his anger and using it as fuel to declare words he meant with all his heart, "I'd choose you again! and again! and again!"

The girl in front of him took a pause, taken aback by words that spurred her to release him in shock at both his words and her actions towards him, "...You do not know who I am," she murmured in a calmer but bitter tone, looking at him through strands which hid her face from his gaze.

She might be seething but even she knew that the boy didn't deserve the outburst.

He did everything he could to save her and she yelled at him for it.

"I don't need to," Peter declared, knowing all he needed about the girl.

"You do not know what I am!" she warned him, but her sullen fallen expression betrayed her foreboding warning, "You do not know what I've done."

She was better off not being saved with what she knew about herself, and if he knew too, he would share her sentiments.

"You're a person!" Peter sincerely stated, pulling the girl's gaze instantaneously with words that surprised her, "That alone makes you worth it," he disregarded her previous word, the temper that was in his voice now slowly dissipating

"And yeah...I might not know anything about you but what I do know is that you went out of your way to not only help me but to save those people from that fire, and to me – that's the only thing that matters," he finished as he flashed her a smile which cemented words which were frantically echoing throughout her mind.

Confident eyes that held the color of the bright blue sky looked into surprised viridescent ones that contained life that had long since been abandoned, disregarded, ignored, and mistreated underneath the shadow of darkness.

Life that had been given light, seen by the glistening of her eye upon hearing words spoken with such passion that it visibly caught her off guard.

She could hear her heartbeat get louder and louder as his words played again in her mind.

"You're a person."

The girl looked at him before instantly looking away, averting her gaze away and onto the dead end the monster escaped to...

"It will come back..." she muttered to the boy, knowing that it would return with a vengeance.

Peter let out a sigh, "They always do..." he relaxed his shoulders, resting his weight onto his hands which supported his preferred seated position,"...but I'll be there to stop it," he promised the girl who returned her gaze back onto him.

"What will you do? Fight it?" she asked with curiosity and a twinge of concern, shifting her body to sit beside him, but opting to hold her knees close to her chest, contrasting with the boy who sat with his heart on full display.

"Probably," Peter guessed with a shrug and huff.

"That did not go so well tonight, now did it?" she took note of the damage the both of them sustained from the battle with it.

"Worried 'bout me?" he joked with a raised brow and grin, taking interest in her sudden questions.

The girl scoffed "No," she said, putting on a good voice and posture which would have convinced him had he not been looking into her eyes which conveyed the opposite.

"Wanna help?" Peter offered, intriguing the girl.

She raised a brow to this, "Like...team-up?" she voiced the word as if it was foreign.

"Yeah, but we never call it that," Peter nodded confirming her question but giving her another one in the process.

"Who is 'we?'" She asked.

"The superhero community," he answered.

"I am not a hero," she staunchly declared, shutting down the stupid, baffling, unbelievable notion before it could even fully form.

"Yeah, you just happened to save my ass from that 'thing' cause you had nothing better to do," he sarcastically quipped with great joy.

She glared at him for this response before looking away once more.

"Who are you?" she spoke up after their small moment of silence, wanting to know the boy's name – his real name.

Peter tilted his head at this, "You know it's called a 'secret identity,' right?" he didn't just give people his name – in fact, he didn't give people his name, like, at all.

This did not please her.

"I already know your name is 'Parker,' and I can track your scent back to where you live and find out then," she flatly declared to the shocked and surprised Peter who was left stuck and frozen when she said the name, "Parker.

Before he could even ask "How," she answered the interrupted question, "It is written on the tag of your jacket."

He raised a finger to say something but dropped as he sighed in defeat.

She was cold.

He furrowed his brow, stuck on a crossroad he'd never been on before.

Give his identity to someone who practically already knows it, or don't give it to someone who practically knows it and could find it out completely with ease. Peter sighed a long sigh.

She was right.

She could easily find out who he was.

She'd already seen his face, knew his last name, and she could track him.

He looked at her.

There was a softer expression dawning on her face this time, different from the stoic or the scowling he'd only seen from her. Like her powerful and angry voice, behind the flat face she put up was a girl that gave him an odd feeling, an attraction you could say, and it wasn't because she was pretty.

She was pretty – in the moment they shared, Peter Parker could not deny that fact, but as he looked into her green eyes, he couldn't pinpoint it, he didn't fully understand it, but he could just feel a sense of...safety? Similarity? Trust? Inside those eyes of hers which quelled his paranoia, his fear, his worry.

She looked at him, she watched, she waited for the answer he struggled to come to, but with the meeting of her gaze which was then constantly broken only to be repaired, the odd brunette boy scratched his head.

"Peter..." he answered with uneasiness in his voice. He was never good at introducing himself, "...Peter Parker."

"Spider-Man," He added, holding her gaze permanently this time as he confidently declared the piece he had been denying prior to this moment – prior to meeting her.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

"You?" It was his turn to ask her for her name, "and you better not say 'that's none of your buis-'"

"X-23," she declared, voicing out her name which had the boy look at her with complete disbelief.

"Really? I give you my real name and you give me your super-hero one?" he asked with utter bafflement which she did not understand.

"That is my name," the girl staunchly defended as she furrowed her brow.

"Really?" he asked again, not believing her for a single second even though she nodded to reaffirm that it was indeed her name, "That's the name your mother gave you?" he questioned the girl, his skepticism.

The girl met his gaze before looking down, doing the same thing he did as she went back and forth between holding, breaking the stare they held, unsure if she too should answer – if she should give out a name she gave only two others...

She muttered something after a moment of silence, holding herself tightly as she held a gaze with the boy who raised a brow.

"What?" he exclaimed, unable to understand what she said, prompting her to repeat herself in the same hushed whisper that he once again could not understand.

The boy turned his ear towards her, trying his best to genuinely understand her mutters but upon having her attempts be fruitless, the girl whose name Peter Parker did not know – a name which only one other person in the girl's life knew – the same girl who had tendency of reacting volatilely when things did not go her way, yelled.

"My name is Laura!" she yelled in annoyance that sparked from miscommunication preventing the sharing of something sacred, "Laura Kinney! You deaf-dullwitted-dolt!" She declared so fiercely that it caught Peter Parker off guard, causing him to lean back as her face nearly crashed into his.

In the heat of her anger, Laura Kinney found herself regretting making Peter Parker the first person she's told her name to in this new chance of hers.

But upon being met with a smile, she found that regret quickly subsiding.

"Well, Laura Kinney, it was nice meeting you...all things considered," Peter honestly declared with a whole-hearted toothy grin.

Laura thought about the events that transpired, "Can't really say the same, Parker," She was soaking wet, almost caught up in an explosion, battled a giant sewer gator, and was on the precipice of dying but...

...She saved people.

And was saved herself.

"If you're gonna use my name, at least call me 'Peter,'" he exhaustingly begged, not too fond of being referred to as "Parker."

"No."

"Please?"

"Fine...Peter..." she put extra emphasis on the syllables as if she was mocking him, "When are we doing this?"

"Doing what?" he asked, mind blanking on the important event he had asked her to take part in.

"The team-up," she reminded him, unsure if he had genuinely forgotten or was simply joking.

"Oh yeah...what happened to not being a hero?" he asked as he looked at the girl, a playful grin crossing his face once more as she scowled at those words.

"I am not! and shut up about that!"

With all the things she's done, how could she call herself anything but a weapon?

Peter laughed.

He took time, trying his best to figure out a good spot for them to meet up, "...Washington Square Park...at... seven o'clock," he said, before adding something else, "in the afternoon," he looked at her with a furrowed brow. "I once had a team-up with someone who thought I meant the morning," he clarified to Laura who gave him a look of skepticism.

"He sounds like a bigger idiot than you."

"He is," Peter grumbled, but he smiled as he thought about that flaming idiot.

"What is your phone number?" she asked much to his confusion.

"Why do you need my phone number?" he simply asked her, not threatened or uncomfortable by the notion but genuinely curious.

"So I can contact you when I am there or if something comes up."

"Good point."

"You have your phone on you?" he asked the girl who pulled out her mobile device from the inner pocket of her drenched jacket. She gazed at it, remembering that all the pain and troubles she had faced in this past hour had also been experienced by the phone which was also submerged alongside her by the repugnant sewage water. She doubted if it was even still functional but upon pressing the side buttons and met with the glowing lights of her LED screen, she was left proven wrong – again.

"Wow, and I thought Stark Industries was lying about their waterproofing," Peter mentioned, admiring the technology behind the device which was still functioning through means he would remember to find out about, "How could you even afford that?" he asked, curious as her model's retail price was at least in the thousands to his knowledge.

"I have over a hundred thousand dollars in cash," she stoically declared, but her statement which carried no value to her seemingly had a large one to the boy who was left with his eyes threatening to leave their sockets with how far they bulged.

"What?!" He questioned the girl in an over-exaggerated voice, unable to fathom how Laura had a hundred thousand times more money than he did despite being the same age.

"Your number?" she asked, going back to the subject.

"Oh, it's, 718-080-1963," he said off the top of his head, to the girl who took note that the area code of his phone told her that he lived somewhere in Queens.

A new contact was created, "Peter Parker" was the name, the second one she had with the first being 'Logan."

Peter yawned, relaxing himself more – leaving himself more open beside someone he just met which confused the girl who ironically did the same, shifting in place to get more comfortable on the hard and rough cement ground.

Today's events were...tiring, to say the least.

She silently gazed at the boy who spurred all of this to happen.

In her mind, she considered all the things that had transpired today, and she couldn't help but silently agree with his sentiment.

It was nice meeting Peter Parker.

All things considered.

She wondered if this was just another day for him, as she gazed at the boy.

"You happen to know the time? I left my phone on my bed," Peter spoke through the oddly comfortable silence they shared.

"It is ten-forty," Laura told him as she pulled her phone to fulfill his request but her gaze was quickly averted by the sudden and brisk movement from Peter who seemingly jolted upon hearing the time.

"What?!"

"It is ten-forty. What are you so concerned about?" she repeated, curious as to what panicked the boy so greatly.

"I told my Aunt I'd be back by Eleven! She's going to kill me!" He sprung up to his feet as soon as he could, "We gotta go like yesterday, Laura," He urged her to get up, which she did – slowly albeit she was more focused on the information that his urgency gave her.

Spider-Man had a curfew.

She watched in amusement as his eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets as he said, "C'mon!"

Peter and Laura bolted through the way that they came, their wet boots and leather squeaking and making noise throughout the now peaceful sewer system. As they reached the manhole however she stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder before saying, "Cops."They were right above them, probably investigating the scene, which prompted them to go further and find another manhole to escape from a good distance away.

He jumped up, scaling the wall opposite the ladder as the girl climbed it, lifting the manhole ever so slightly to scan the area, making sure it was clear of anyone and anything before exiting. Peter got out first, his spider powers obviously giving him the advantage – an advantage he shared by an outstretched hand he gave to the girl as she nested the top.

Laura paused, eyes locked on both the hand and the boy who was offering it, mind contemplating what she should do as he expected her to ignore it as she did prior, but Laura Kinney surprised him, for after a moment, she took his hand, allowing him to lift her out from the shadows of the sewers and onto the streets which were now lit up by the light of the sun which reflected off the full moon. It cast a pale glow that gave the darkness of night shades of blue in a beautiful atmosphere that complemented the eyes of those Laura was holding hands with.

They turned to each other, hands returning to their sides but still feeling each other's lingering touch, "So...tomorrow?" Peter spoke up first.

Laura nodded, confirming that she would be there.

"Washington Square Park?" he added in a questioning manner, she knew what he was doing.

"Yes, at seven," she stated, understanding that he was trying to confirm the plans.

"Go on..." he gestured for her to continue.

"In the afternoon," she added in an irritated manner.

He was giving her a headache.

"Good," he said as did a finger gun gesture towards her, "Until then!" he yelled as he turned around to run towards a building.

She looked at his fleeing figure before turning the opposite way towards "her," motorcycle.

"Bring a mask!" Peter Parker's juvenile, energetic, and excited voice abruptly spoke up from above her, prompting her to cease and turn around to the boy who stood on a wall as if it were ground.

"Why?!" she yelled back, unable to understand why he wanted her to bring a mask when it would serve no purpose.

"It's essential to the whole hero gig," Peter explained with a chuckle, arising a reaction he knew would come...

"I told you I'm no-"

"And I'm telling you that you are!" Peter Parker declared, interrupting and silencing Laura Kinney with a voice that left no room for argument. Heroes saved lives, they did good, that's what Laura Kinney did, and that's why she was a hero.

Emerald once again widened as they stared into blue, and Laura found herself remembering that she had not done something she should have, "...Thank you – Parker...for saving my life..." She thanked the boy who saved her.

It was Peter's turn to be surprised, by the thanks given by the girl who expressed it with a face that was touched by his words- - by his actions.

Beside the gracious form of Laura Kinney, there was Gwen Stacy.

Smiling.

"...it's what I do!" Peter Parker declared to the girl with a smile, "...It's what we do!" He confidently added with a laugh before disappearing into the night.

Laura looked on, surprised how he included her in that sentence.

She didn't glare, however.

She did not deny it at this moment.

She huffed.

She smiled.

Laura Kinney let out a small smile at Peter Parker as he did the same for her.

Line Break

She reached the institute by eleven forty, the hour drive from New York to where she resided allowed her to fondly ponder and think about the events which had just transpired. Everyone by then was already fast asleep as she pulled into the large garage to park 'her' motorcycle beside a bright red car and other vehicles that did not belong to her.

Her nose told her that someone was standing at the entrance to the garage but she ignored him. He wore his typical white wife beater that clung to his heavily muscular form with dirty unclean jeans.

"Where were you?" His gruff and stern voice demanded to know.

"Out," she answered with tamed ferocity as she took off her helmet.

"You smell like shit," he bluntly declared, his nose being able to smell the same things hers did.

She refused to look at him, finding it somewhat satisfying that he suffered the stench of the sewers just as she did.

She only turned to look at the scruffy hairy man when he asked, "Who is he?"

He could smell the boy's scent on her.

"No one," she sharply stated, not wanting to give information about things that did not concern him.

She got off his motorcycle, ignoring his gaze and presence as she walked past him, but a hand on her shoulder – a gentle touch and a long drawn-out sigh kept her in pace, "At least tell me what you were doin' in the sewers," was all he asked for in his exhausted voice.

She looked down for a moment, contemplating what her answer should be.

She remembered the words of Peter Parker....

"I told you I'm no-"

"And I'm telling you that you are!"

"Saving people," she wholeheartedly answered, leaving his reach as she paced towards her room. The man was surprised, not expecting the answer she gave which only prompted more questions – more things he wanted to know, but he decided not to pry.

He turned around, looking at his motorcycle before turning once again to look at the direction Laura went in.

As her figure turned the corner she looked at him briefly, "You lost your bet with Pryde," was all she said before she left.

The widening of his eyes showed that she knew what he meant.

She was out saving people with Spider-Man.

Things were most definitely going to get troublesome from here...

"That's tomorrow's problem..." the man sighed as he scratched his mutton chops.

Laura took a shower immediately, trying her best to wash off the stench off her pale and petite body to the best of her abilities. By regular standards, she accomplished that long ago but it would take longer than she wanted to get herself smelling cleanly to herself.

She changed into clothes that were not hers, evidenced by the colorful designs that contained heroes of old. They had been given to her a week ago, along with the room that she slept in, but that was all she used it for. Her room had no decorations, no utilities of her own, just drawers full of clothes she wore two bags underneath her bed, one containing her money, and another containing undisclosed items.

In the shadows of her room, the girl looked at her reflection in her mirror. She looked at her own ugly visage which brought nothing but shame, regret, hate, and a lifetime of mistakes and horrible memories that had her glaring as she began loathing herself more than anything...

"...Don't leave me..."

Pain.

That was all she brought, all she knew, all she was good for.

She extended a singular arm, resting it on her thigh as her forearm faced her...

She hears within her mind as she begins to draw her arm out, her forearm facing her.

"When are you gonna realize that you aren't a person X?"

She could hear a loathsome dreadful voice that played with the faces of those in their last moments.

Of lives she had stolen.

Of people she had hurt.

They commanded her to unsheathe her claws.

"You're a weapon."

Tears welled up in her eyes as her face couldn't hide the pain, the hurt, the desperate expression that was on her face that expressed all these things.

Shame, hate, regret, pain, desperation to be anything else, to do anything else, but at the end of the day, she wasn't.

She hurt people...

She killed people...

She was a weapon...

"Then let's change that!"

A new voice commanded – it roared, spitting in the faces of those who commanded her to be punished, preventing her cold claws from going no further than just grazing her flesh.

The voice of Peter Parker rang through her mind, leaving her perplexed and confused.

"I don't know about you but your life matters much more to me than capturing that thing."

She began trembling, unable to fight against the voice that compelled her to stop, which told her that she was not what they thought – what she thought.

"You're a person," she heard him say, being able to see his smile which had her claws go back into her body. Conflicting words and memories played within her mind, but the memories of today, of the last couple of hours...

"You went out of your way to not only help me but to save those people from that fire, and to me – that's the only thing that matters!" The acts and words of genuine care given to her gave her the strength to overpower those that haunted her – to fight against her need for self-punishment.

It gave her the ability to let things go, to release emotions bottled up for far too long, and though she trembled, though she cried tears filled with lifetimes of pain, the unbearable weight that crushed her was relinquished for a moment, by words and actions of a fool.

A fool who did not know who she was. A fool who did not care.

Who saved lives. Who helped them, who cared about them...who had them hold on for just a second more...

A fool who did the same for her...

She wiped the tears away.

She laid down on her bed.

For the first time in her life, demons and ghosts were not hovering over her, screaming at her, yelling at her, clawing at her in her slumber.

For the first time in her life, Laura Kinney slept peacefully to the tune sung by memories of a boy named "Peter Parker..." she mumbled as she drifted off into the welcoming embrace of sleep.

The boy who saved her life.

Line Break

Peter Parker made it home by eleven twenty-five.

His Aunt scolded him.

She wouldn't have if he simply called to tell her that he was coming home, but he didn't have his phone so scolded him on that too along with the stench that was originating from him.

But instead of a sulkish disheartened reply, a small chuckle from him had his Aunt forgive him for all his mistakes. He took a shower, of course, a long and hot one before eating the dinner his aunt made for him.

It was a nice meal.

When 'good nights' were given and the lights were turned off, Peter Parker was once again in the darkness of his room, but it was not cold, it was not lonely, for a bedside lamp gave enough light to warmly illuminate his surroundings.

Warmly illuminate the costume he held in his hands.

He looked into the lenses which glistened in the light along with his eyes, the realization that dawned upon him from previous events casting their twinkle and a solemn chuckle.

"Despite all my vows and promises, I turned back on them the first chance I got," he found amusement in his actions, "I can't ever give up on being Spider-Man, Gwen ...it's who I am. Who I'll always be," he turned to meet the ghastly form of the girl who stood in front of him, keenly listening to every word, "I can't let people get hurt when I can do something about it – and I can always do something about it...So I'm always going to have to...no matter how unbearable it can be..." he sincerely told the ghost girl.

"Yeah...it's my fault you died, because I was Spider-Man, because I do what I do..." He admitted with a pained expression on his face, accepting the role he had to play, "...and I guess...In my own twisted way...it was me who killed you..." he stared at her broken neck, "...But it's because of me that countless others get to live another day..." He remembered the people he saved, lives that were returned to the people they loved, lives that were allowed to see another rising of the sun and falling of night, "...and it's why I'm never going to stop being Spider-Man," Spider-Man battled evil. He saved lives. He gave meaning to his Uncle's life, "But...for your life to have any meaning...for your death...I promise you that I will be better," Peter solemnly vowed to the ghost with all his heart.

"So I won't fail anyone else like I did you," he finished, tear-stained blue meeting cold dead eyes that nodded with his words, accepting the promise she would hold him too.

The ghost got what it wanted.

Her question had been answered.

The boy in front of her was a boy named Peter Parker, and as the aberration left his now freed mind, or as the ghost left this realm for the next, he cried tears that were imprisoned for far too long.

And those tears were wiped away.

They were wiped by a loving hand.

Eyes that were once dead were now full of life, and a neck that was once broken had been healed.

"Peter Parker," The voice of Gwen Stacy declared as she left him, taking the heavy burden that was crushed away, leaving him with the sight of his own reflection.

He saw the boy she was looking for.

He saw Spider-Man.

He chuckled.

He smiled.

His vision was beginning to blur.

His consciousness was fading.

Was he really that tired?

Who knows?

His final thought, his final memory that drifted him to slumber was the picture of a girl getting a beast off of him, releasing him from its grasp.

A girl who saved lives.

"Laura Kinney..." Peter Parker muttered fondly, falling asleep to the memory of her and the promise of seeing the girl again.

The girl who saved him.

Who marked a new point in his life.

A point where everything he knew would change.

For the third time in his life.

Chapter End.

How did you guys like this?

We're just getting started here so I hoped you enjoyed the show because you have alot to look forward for if you did.

I've reworked these first three chapters to be on par with my current writing styles, which believe have gone far. How do you like my interpretations of Peter and Laura? or is it too early to tell? regardless, leave a review if you liked this and I hope you continue enjoying my story.

I know I say this later but I'll say it again.

Peter Parker created by Stan Lee (1922 - 2018) & Steve Ditko (1927 - 2018)

Laura Kinney created by Craig Kyle (1971) and Christopher Yost (1973)

To Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Peter Parker is someone really important to me. Someone who has taught me valuable lessons, who made my childhood, who got me into superheroes and comics which I love with a passion.

To Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, Though I haven't been with Laura Kinney as long as I have with Peter, her character is someone I resonate with just as I do with Peter, for reasons both similar and different, reasons I hope to show and explain why I think the both of them work really well with eachother.

Both Peter Parker and Laura Kinney inspire those who have been hurt or wronged to do good - to be good, and I hope I can to that in story.

Thank you all for creating these characters I love so much.