5: Chapter 5 Spider

"What on earth were you thinking?!" Aunt May's voice echoed in the dining room, carrying an undisguised tremor and anger.

Peter sat at the dining table, his expression calm: "I just wanted to help."

"Help? By leaving Mary Jane all alone and running into a war zone to help?!" Aunt May raised her voice.

"She was safe at the time—"

"I don't care about safety or anything else, Peter!" Aunt May interrupted him, her eyes red, "What you did was extremely irresponsible, extremely dangerous! It's a miracle you survived, and I simply don't understand why you would do that!"

"I... I wanted to save people—"

"Are you the Police? Are you the military? You're just a child, Peter, you—"

"But because of me, a man gets to go home tonight to see his family!" Peter suddenly raised his voice, cutting off Aunt May's accusation directly, "I saved his life, and others too. I don't regret what I did."

Aunt May froze, a flash of fear crossing her face. In her memory, Peter Parker had never talked back to her like this. But the person sitting here now was clearly no longer the timid boy who only knew how to obey.

"Mei, let's leave it at that for tonight." Uncle Ben's gentle voice broke the stalemate. He patted his wife's shoulder lightly, "Go to sleep, leave this to me."

"But Ben, I—"

"It's okay, Mei, go ahead." Uncle Ben soothed her gently. Aunt May sighed, nodded dejectedly, and turned to leave the dining room.

Only the two of them remained in the dining room. Peter softened his edge and apologized in a low voice: "Sorry, Uncle Ben, I didn't mean to talk back."

"It's okay, Peter, I understand." Uncle Ben looked at him with deep eyes, "I just want you to understand that you are everything to Aunt May and me. If we lost you..."

"But I saved people, Uncle Ben." Peter looked the old man straight in the eyes, "Isn't this what you have always taught me? If I have the ability to help others, isn't it my responsibility?"

Uncle Ben was silent for a moment, a hint of gratification appearing at the corner of his mouth: "Yes, I think it is. Go to sleep, Peter, we'll talk more tomorrow morning. Don't forget you have school tomorrow."

Peter nodded: "Okay... Good night, Uncle Ben."

Returning to his bedroom, he locked the door. Peter collapsed onto the bed, letting out a long, heavy sigh. He took the damaged Web-shooters from the fight in Harlem out of the drawer. One could barely function, while the other had completely turned into a pile of scrap metal.

He fiddled with them for a while, then helplessly gave up on repairing them. This thing needed to be remade. If he really intended to continue down this path of being a superhero, his current equipment simply wouldn't cut it. The shooters needed to be more durable, the capacity had to be expanded, and perhaps he could try to develop Webbing with different functions. If he had had various types of Webbing available when dealing with Abomination, the situation would definitely not have been so passive.

Just as he was pondering, the window was suddenly knocked on.

Peter's hand shook, almost sweeping all the parts on the table to the floor. He looked up and saw Mary Jane hanging on a tree branch outside the window, waving at him.

He opened the window with a look of astonishment: "Mary Jane? How did you climb up here?"

"Climbing the tree." She pointed to the old oak tree next to it and blinked, "Can you let me in?"

"Of course." Peter stepped aside to let her into the room, closing the window behind her, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Nothing. Aunt May and Uncle Ben didn't scold you too hard, did they?"

Peter smiled bitterly: "They did, but I deserved it. What about you? Aunt Anna didn't blame you?"

"No, Aunt Anna is reasonable; she even thought I should have gone with you at the time." Mary Jane rolled her eyes, "But she kept going on about how amazing you are, it made my ears callous from listening."

"Amazing might be a stretch, maybe 'spectacular' is a better word." Peter joked.

"Don't get too arrogant, Parker." Mary Jane snorted, but her eyes were full of admiration, "But you were indeed very cool tonight. Especially when you saved that person; that steel pillar must have weighed at least a few tons!"

Peter shrugged: "Maybe. I was too busy saving people at the time to worry about weighing it."

"You look so thin, I really can't believe you have so much strength." Mary Jane looked up and down at his thin body, "There's almost no muscle at all."

Peter's heart tightened, and he laughed dryly: "Adrenaline spike, people can unleash their potential in critical moments." This girl was observing too carefully; that was not a good sign.

"Maybe." Mary Jane didn't dwell on it, changing the subject, "Anyway, I just came to confirm you're okay."

"I'm fine, just a little tired."

"Really? I can't sleep, though." Mary Jane complained, "I'm too nervous."

"Nervous about what? Didn't Hulk run away? The army must have frozen that big green guy in a block of ice."

"Not that!" Mary Jane sighed, "It's school starting! Tomorrow is my first day at Midtown High School!"

Peter chuckled: "Relax, Mary Jane. It's just class, nothing to panic about. You're pretty and smart, those boys will go crazy for you, and the girls will be fighting to be your best friend."

Mary Jane was amused: "Do you really think so?"

"I'm sure of it. So relax, high school isn't the end of the World."

The two chatted about this topic until late at night. After Mary Jane left, Peter closed the window. Having a friend like this was indeed nice; Peter Parker really needed normal human interaction. As for whether it would develop into a romantic relationship in the future, let it take its course; having a good friend right now was enough.

The next morning.

Peter sat at the dining table, flipping through that day's Daily Bugle. The front-page headline was the battle with Hulk, and on the edge of the page, there was a blurry snapshot of him moving through Harlem.

The report didn't reveal his true identity; the media and citizens gave him a codename: "Spider-Man".