Trust Me- Chapter 5
Series Masterlist
Peter doesnât remember a lot but he remembers enough. He remembers going to the park with his family. He remembers Mary Parker throwing her head back and cackling away with Aunt May and Mrs. Watson. He remembers Uncle Ben and Mr. Watson gathering up MJ and him to tell them stories about how they grew up. Richard Parker sat to the side only speaking to defend his younger selfâs actions. MJ and Peter would run around, giggling as they blew bubbles and did their best to convince their parents to let them have a sleepover.
He remembers when suddenly their afternoons in the park or at the library looking at books on astronomy became piling into one of the couple's apartments or the Watsonâs condo, pretending not to notice the whispering amongst the adults. He remembers MJ and him continuing to run amok, playing hide and seek in the Watsonâs kitchen instead of their favorite playground. Â
Peter held a hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut tight as he waited for the footsteps to pass.Â
âGotcha!â a voice cried as a little hand reached to lift up the cloth that hid him from sight. A bundle of curly hair ducked down to join him under the table, MJ with a twinkle in her eye and smug smile looked at Peter triumphantly.
 âYou cheated!â
 âNo, I didnât-â
âYes you did! Your eyes were open when you were counting!â
âNuh uh!â
âYUH-â Peterâs eyes went wide as MJ slapped a hand over his mouth.
âShush, I hearâŚâ MJ began to say as Peter noticed heavy footsteps getting closer.
âThey arenât coming here.â He said barely muffled by her hand, only to be shushed again as the steps didnât pass but instead enter the kitchen.
âListen Ben, I think youâre going about it wrong-â
âReally I couldnât tell?â Ben said, knocking on the table as he passed by the fridge.
Richard doesnât stop, âWhat if it does run that deep? What if you get caught up in their mess? Youâll get hurt and-â he stopped speaking suddenly. âPeter, Michelle, come out.â
MJ hit Peter with a look far meaner than any six year old should be able to give.
âWe can see your iron man shoes, Peter.â Ben said exasperated. Peter and MJ slowly emerge from the table, âGo play in Michelle's room, yeah?â Richard said, moving to nudge the two out the kitchen.
A month or two later, in the harsh cold of Queens winter, Richard and Mary would drop off Peter with May and Ben.
âWe got an important business trip, baby. Real boring adult stuff so you get to stay with May and Ben for the weekend, ok?â Mary said as she fussed with his jacket. âAnd bright and early Monday morning weâll be right back here to pick you up, I promiseâ she swore, kissing his cheek gently. âNow, why donât you go ahead and set up in the guest room.â
She lied.
Monday morning came and little Peter was happily eating his Fruit Loops while watching his PBS cartoons when a knock came at the door. Peter leaped off of his chair and dashed to the door only to find Officer Watson and Michelle waiting. Peter's face fell a little before brightening again, âHi.âÂ
âHey, Peter. Is Ben awake yet?â
âIâm right here, Philip.â Ben said, appearing behind Peter. âPeter, go show Michelle the new spoon you got.âÂ
Peter took Michelleâs hand, dragging her to the kitchen to present the new Iron Man spoon that came with his Fruit Loops. Ben waited for the two to start arguing over whoâs spoon was better: Peterâs Iron Man or Michelleâs Captain America before turning his attention to his friend. His friend who was supposed to be working right now, not standing outside his door, âWhatâs wrong?â
Turned out Philip Watson was in fact working. He was doing his job in informing the last living relatives of Richard and Mary Parker that the couple had passed away in an unfortunate plane crash.Â
An unfortunate plane crash that left no survivors.
An unfortunate plane crash that had yet to reach the news.
Ben looked his oldest friend in the face and knew why Philip was the one delivering the news. Not because he was an officer who was available to do so but rather because it was now clear that Richard had been right.
For months Richard had been trying to convince his brother and childhood friend to leave the force like he did. That the corruption ran further down than any of them had imagined. That corruption wasnât an issue that could be fixed from the inside as they had been so naive to believe when starting this career.Â
Now Ben stared at Philip, his brother in everything but blood, and watched as the man who stood up for him his entire life began to cry. Grief and shock began to find home in his stomach as he looked at his friend and distantly heard the giggling of two children. Two children, ignorant to the message that was just sent out to their family.Â
Richard Parker tried his best to save his family. First by doing âthe right thingâ and becoming a police officer. Then by handing in his badge and begging his brothers to do the same. Richard had known something that he wasnât supposed to. Something that made him turn away. Something that got not only him but his wife and several others killed as mere collateral.Â
Of course, Peter didnât know that then. All six year old Peter was told was that his parents had died in a plane crash and that he would be staying with May and Ben now.Â
Peter didnât understand. He didnât understand when May and Ben sat him down on the couch and explained it to him. He didnât understand at the funeral when Michelle refused to leave his side. He didnât understand until months had passed and suddenly he was no longer just a spectator in his own life. He understood when he looked around his room. Not the guest room, his room. He understood when he noticed how every toy and book he had ever known was now here in May and Benâs apartment.
Peter was thirteen when he was filled in on the rest and he was thirteen when Uncle Ben died.
Now at sixteen Peter can confidently say somewhere in the mess of all that is when he became what Ned and MJ like to call, âAn Overprotective Asshole.â
A sixteen Peter could also confidently say that super strength is⌠something.
Incredibly valuable when fighting crime, incredibly inconvenient when doing literally anything else.
Peter was proud of how far heâs come since getting his powers, around 80% of the time he had it under control. There were mistakes here and there, for example when May tells him that two vigilantes showed up to tell her that heâs Spider-Man. Letâs say that while this conversation happened Peter was holding a glass of water and reflexively clenched his hands into fists.Â
âDonât move, Iâll be right back.âÂ
That would result in Peter being surrounded by broken glass and having shards embedded into his hand.Â
Peter sighed, let his head fall back and listened as May rummaged through her supplies to find some tweezers. She came back in some busted flip flops and laid out a towel over the mess for him to step to safety.Â
âMy hero.â he huffed as he waddled over to where she was standing next to the trash can. He held out his hand and she got to work pulling out the glass from his hand. She was one her twelfth piece when Peter asked, âThey didnât hurt you did they?â
âNope.â
âThreaten you?â
âNah. Stay here, I'm going to grab my glasses.âÂ
âDid they mention anyone else?â
âNo, but again they may have just decided not to.â May called back from her room. She came back and started to pick at his hand again. âI imagine if they knew more, they wouldnât tell me after seeing how I responded to you being Spider-Man.â
âMhmâ he let her continue to clean up his hands for a few minutes before he tilted his head, âYour alarm is going off in the other room. Let me grab my jacket.â
May jolted up, âGod damn it.â She ran around the house throwing random shit into her purse. âYou donât have to walk me.â She muttered.
Peter didnât bother answering that nor the fifty variations May muttered as he jogged with her to the hospital. The second he dropped her off he texted Ned and MJ to meet him at the park near MJâs house. 29 minutes into hanging off the monkey bars, they walked up to him.
âI love you dude but like a little more of a warning would be nice. You know my Lola likes to know when Iâm going out ahead of time.â Ned said as he dropped down onto the bench beside the bars, computer in hand.Â
âI know, I know. But this is important.â Peter filled them in on Mayâs meeting. âThe fucking audacity on these people. There are criminals all over New York that they could be stopping or therapists they could be seeing but no instead they show up and fuck with my life.â Peter ranted as he paced on the monkey bars.Â
Ned looked disturbed as he opened his MacBook, âIf you donât want people to notice your Spider-Man maybe stop walking all over play structures.â -Peter jumped off the bar silently- âThey found May, right after you left, right after she got off work?âÂ
Peter nodded quickly, putting bobble heads across the globe to shame.
âThat is perfect timing. Too perfect. Not only do they know you but also where you live and they know your routines.â
Peter turned towards MJ, âI blame you. You said they wouldnât be able to find me.â
MJ yawned from where she was trying to gain momentum on the swings, âI said that under the assumption that they only had what you told them to go off of. I didnât think they were going to go digging to find you. Whatâs important now is figuring out what youâre going to do in response.â
Peter huffed and started picking at the mulch,âI need to make sure they donât tell anyone, obviously.â
Ned hummed unconvinced, âIn theory, you shouldnât be worried about that. I mean if they went searching for you to convince you to stop, then I doubt they're going to sell your address to criminals you know. Kinda counterproductive, to do all that and then just bring the fight to you.â
âCan we all agree itâs safe to assume that if Luke and Jessica know, the other two probably do as well?â Peter asked.
âWell I mean, Daredevil was the one to clock you right. He started this whole mess so I doubt he doesnât know. And then you said Castle seemed to believe it right? I donât see why they wouldnât know.â MJ said slowly as if Peter were a stupid five year old, earning herself a fist full of mulch thrown at her head.
Ned clicked his teeth at the,â Peter stop with the mulch. What we need is to match the energy. We all have our theories about who Daredevil is, but we agreed to leave it alone cause it was the nice thing to do. Right, MJ?â
The girl shrugged while Peter and Ned shared a look, âMJ, how much digging have you done?â
She tilted her head side to side, âI donât know. Enough to have a couple of leads.â
She had way more than just a couple of leads.
âMJ, what the fuck is this?â Peter breathed out beside a shell shocked Ned.
The trio had found their way to MJâs condo just a few blocks away from the park to see MJâs notes on her âcouple of leadsâ. âItâs just a few notebooks.âÂ
Ned opened the notebook closest to him with the amount of added pages and notecards glued; it was thicker than a textbook. âMJ, there are at least twenty notebooks here.â, he said as he gently moved the wide cardboard box around to get a good estimate.
âYeah and this is just Box One. Box Two is in the back of my closet with what will be half of Box Three.â MJ huffed hoping on to her bed.
Peter nodded. It was always best to nod whenever MJ was working so aggressively on something. âHow can you afford- how long- what are you telling your parents?â
âDollar tree, since you started Spider-Man-ing, and my parents donât care, it's my money and the books are surprisingly cheap.â MJ said as if she didnât just produce enough information to finally put Manhattanâs most notable vigilantes in jail.
Criminal records, sightings, timelines, known powers, suspected powers, allies, enemies, casualties, common fighting patterns, suspected secret identities, civilians whose prescience overlaps with vigilante work; all of it was here. âMJâŚâ -Peter sighed genuinely tired- âHow the fuck did you get all of this?â
âYouâd be shocked to find out how much of this is public information.â
Ned rubbed his forehead aggressively, âWe agreed to leave it alone.â
âTechnically I didnât agree to shit, you two agreed and I just stood there.âÂ
Peter thumped his head against her bookcase, repeatedly.
MJ continued, âBitch about it later. Whatâs important is that I am like eighty-three percent sure I know where we can start tracking down Daredevil.â
ââ-
For the first time in what felt like years, Matt felt like his life was going smoothly. Not good and certainly not great, but nothing terrible was actively happening in his personal life and that was better than nothing.
Now, Matt was self-aware enough to know that because things were looking up, something was bound to happen.Â
So when he heard a heartbeat coming from inside his apartment, he was mildly concerned. The heartbeat is fast , too fast to be Jones, too fast to be Luke. Matt takes a breath before stepping inside, and pulling off his coat, âI didnât know Spider-Man does house calls.â
âOh, I- I thought that was the new vigilante custom, my apologies.â Peter Parker said from where he was rummaging around in Mattâs pantry. âGo ahead and call up the rest of your group.â
âIt may take them a minute.â
âI have time.â
Having found what smells like the graham crackers Foggy left behind, Peter made himself at home on Mattâs couch, flipping through the channels on the small TV Karen insisted Matt needed.
Matt walks into his room and the sound of plastic packaging being ripped open makes him feel all of his thirty-six years. He liked to think that he was relatively fair to the youth; he wasn't one to get aggravated with Foggyâs cousins and nephews for just existing like other adults do. But Peterâs presence in his apartment was making his blood fucking boil.
He takes a deep breath, âIt's fineâ he thinks to himself quickly sending off texts to the others. It doesnât even take twenty seconds for his phone to go off, âHow the fuck are you so bad that a teenager can find you, Red?â , the automated voice reads out and it takes all Matt's strength not to throw the damn phone out the window.
Twenty minutes later and everyone is in Matt's living room. Luke is quiet as he takes in just how young the kid looks in real life. Micro had provided a photo but it was a couple years dated, definitely pre-superpowers. In the photo the kid looked scrawny, pale, a mop of brown curly hair on his head and big glasses to match his equally big brown eyes. The kid on Murdockâs couch was clearly the same kid, curly hair and yes the same eyes even with the glare he was shooting Frank. But he was less scrawny, more lean and while the photo wasnât of him standing, he was clearly much taller than he was before.
âŚhe looks like a teenager, Luke wouldnât even think twice if he saw him in Harlem.Â
âHowâd you find me?â Matt finally asks as he tries to take away the flask Jessica starts to pull from her coat.
Peter smacked his lip, âBelieve it or not, Micro isnât the only one who can find people.â Snapping another cracker in half he continued, âI was going to show up to his house to really catch your attention, but he has a family so I decided to be nice.â Peter shrugged as if he was just asked about homework and not the address of someone the authorities couldnât even track down.Â
âShare my location with anyone?âÂ
The kid had the nerve to shrug again. âNot yet. But if I see any of you near my aunt again, Iâll leak enough information to get all of you sent to the Raft permanently.â
Jessica didnât even flinch- now pulling out a second flask hidden in her coat much to Mattâs disappointment- âYeah? And what happens when they decide to throw you in there with us, Spider-Kid?â
The kid's face broke into a genuine smile, all teeth and dimples in view, âI know a guy.â
Frank doesnât like that at all, âYou trying to tell me someone with that much weight in the government knows youâre a kid and has just been sitting on that info? Someone you think you can trust?â He turns to look out to the neon billboard, âLet me tell you kid, they are just waiting to use you. They've been trying to make another Captain America since the guy went in the ice and you think they just let you exist?âÂ
Peter can practically feel the look Luke and Jessica share. The moment they told Ned about Peterâs ability, he immediately started working on finding all the unreleased info on what exactly happened with the two adults. It looks months to get through all the security, only to find that the scientists were so damn paranoid they didnât even write their shit down. But even that was enough to know that the two were considered âfailed experimentsâ, closely monitored but quiet enough to let it slideâŚat least unless Peter decides to point it out.Â
âI would love to see them try and stop me.âÂ
This kid. âYou been to the Smithsonian recently?â
The brat starts eating again, âUh huh.â
âYou see what they did to Isaiah Bradley?âÂ
The kid flinched. Good.
âPaint him like a good soldier, huh? War veteran turned willing lab Guinea pig. Youâre smart enough to realize it's bulllshit. Bradley had one of the best records and they still tortured him for thirty years and he doesnât even have a fraction of your ability.âÂ
âThatâs enough.â Luke said. âYou canât keep doing this. What? Go to school all day, do your homework till it gets dark and then stay up all night roaming the streets? What happens when you get hurt?â
The kid rolled his eyes and started picking at the small tears in Matt's couch, âI have enhanced healings, at most takes me like six hours to get back up to speed. And lets just say I do quit yeah? All the people I save end up getting hurt, everyone knows all the supers are in Manhattan. I am all we've got out here, crime would spike so bad the good cops would be overrun immediately.â
âTheir job is to cope with it.â Matt said clearly unamused.Â
âRich coming from you.â Peter said looking at him with the most distinct what-the-fuck look.
âIâm not a minor.â
âYeah we can tell. Getting real slow with your punches, Daredevil, must be the old age. Also, you all are talking about me, aging to let you handle it. What? Like how youâre handling Fisk?â
The room was silent. Two months into Fiskâs mayorship and the Anti-Vigilante Task Force was in full swing. The citizens were sick of it, everyone was expecting the vigilantes to come back ten ties harder and get those vicious cops off their streets, but it had been practically silent. Except for Queens. The Task Force were in the borough for all of two days before Spider-Man beat the shit out of them for trying to stop him from aiding in a hostage situation. All the hostages were rescued unharmed and the perpetrators were expected to spend five months in the hospital. The Task Force hasnât stepped into Queens since and Fisk refused to speak on it.
At that point the civilians had been trying to give the vigilantes the benefit of the doubt as to why they werenât doing anything about Fisk. But for Spider-Man, the newest of the vigilantes to handle the situation quicker than Daredevil? Harlemâs Hero? The Punisher?Â
The people of New York arenât very happy with their vigilantes right now.
âYeah, exactly.â Peter pointed at Matt âYou put him in jail; he got out.â He turned to Frank, âYouâre over here judge, jury, executioner and yet when people are being wrongfully convicted and beaten in the streets by the police.â Peter looked around mockingly. âYou-â he rounded on Jessica âyou arenât in the streets as much as us bt ou had a pretense underground. Nowadays people got give a fuck, they set up their trafficking rings, blatantly commit crimes and just walk around.â He turned to Luke ââŚyour own community is turning its back on you, on all of you. And you want me to stop? Abandon the people like how you all did? That stupid warehouse was the first time youâve even sighted in months, years,I-â he cut himself off.
Yeah, Peter was tired. Sure, itâd be nice to go to school and come home and Ned do homework, sleep, and repeat. But everyday there is someone screaming for help and no response unless Peter shows up.Â
âIâm not arguing about this anymore, cause at the end of the day you won't do shit. Youâre not going to tell anyone and youâre not going to hurt me. What you are going to do is leave my family alone.â The kid became deadly serious, âI canât have vigilantes hanging out on the rooftops near my apartment. I canât have you in my apartment. Canât have you near my aunt or my friends or Delmarâs or my school or anywhere else. Stay out of Queens, keep my name out your mouths. Because if you harass my aunt or bring people to my home-â he stopped.Â
Jessica has seen a lot of hurt kids. What with work and work. This kid wasnât all that different. Fist clench, back straight, head down, fair covering his face, voice trembling like heâs physically resisting the urge to lash out. Angry kids were easy to deal with normally, angry kids that could throw her through a wall (probably multiple walls) were not. A quick glance at Frank and Luke told her that they were on the same thought.Â
The kid walked to the door, steps purposefully measured, he opened the door, âStay away.â He walked out, closing the door with a quiet click.

















