34. Monuments




"Why isn't it breaking?" Peter asks Karen as he tries to smash the glass in the southwest window of the tip of the monument.

"It's four inch ballistic glass. You'll have to create more momentum." Karen states as Becca looks around at the remaining classmates in the elevator.

"Okay, who's next?" Becca asks nervously and Flash pushes his way towards her, shoving Ned and Liz aside.

"Me, it's my turn!" Flash shouts as he clings to the trophy and steps into Becca's hands to be boosted out of the elevator.

"Flash, seriously?" Ned states as the elevator shakes slightly.

"Don't worry about the trophy!" Liz shouts to Flash. As he climbs onto the roof of the elevator, it shakes even more than before, glass falls around them.

Flash shouts at the security guards to take the trophy as they grab onto Flash and pull him out of the elevator shaft and onto the floor. Becca then turns to Liz, "You next." She states quickly, "But we need to go fast." She says and Liz nods.

"I trust you." Liz mutters nervously.

Becca nods and grabs onto Liz's waist, "Good, because this won't be fun." She says and as Liz begins to ask what Becca means, she launches Liz into the air and the security guards up top grab onto the senior girl tightly.

Just as Liz lands on the top floor, the roof of the elevator gives way with Becca, Ned and Mr Harringotn still inside. Mr Harrington and his students scream in fear as Becca hears glass break and soon sees a web latch onto the broken elevator roof and sees webbing attach to the broken elevator.

The elevator jostles harshly, knocking the three in the elevator around the small space. Becca pushes hair out of her face as she looks around. She can hear Peter cheer for himself for stopping the elevator but then hears glass break again and the emergency elevator stops in the shaft finally activate, stopping the elevator from moving and Peter comes crashing into the small space which causes the elevator stops to break and it falls even more until Peter shoots out a web that latches onto the broken roof piece that's lodged into the corner of the shaft.

Peter holds tightly as he jumps to brace his feet against the roof of the elevator, hanging upside down as the elevator finally stops. Becca stares at Peter in shock and awe. She knew he would save her and their classmates, she had no doubts.

"Ahem. Hey, how you doing?" Peter asks the group of three in a thick Queens accent to cover his voice. "Don't worry about it. I got you." He assures them.

Ned begins to cheer, throwing around his body weight which jostles the already unstable elevator, "Yes! Yes!"

"Ned!" Becca shouts, gaining his attention, "Don't move around."

"What she said." Peter says in his thick Queens accent, agreeing with her.

"Sorry, Becca. I'm sorry, sir. So sorry." Ned rambles to Becca and Peter.

Peter soon feels like he has enough strength to pull the elevator up he begins to do so. Becca attempts to help but Peter doesn't let her, wanting to save her all on his own and she understands it. She's also a civilian in this moment, not Crystal. She still has her suit on, only in camouflage mode to hide her alter ego identity.

Soon Spider Man pulls the elevator up far enough for the doors to be opened by Becca and the security guards on the other side of the top floor. "Alright, this is your stop." Peter says trying to lighten the mood a bit as Mr Harrington steps off first to help pull his last three students off and guides Ned, and Liz off the elevator. "Go, go, go! Everybody out!" Peter shouts as he feels the metal of the elevator roof he was propping himself on begin to break.

Becca snaps her eyes up to where Peter is as Spider Man as the ledge breaks and her blue eyes widen in shock and fear as she and the elevator begins to fall again. Becca screams in terror Peter feels his entire world stop as Becca falls, this was the one thing he swore to never let happen to his flower. He can't live in a world where she's not with him and his mind quickly snaps into action and he shoots out a web that latches onto her wrist. Becca still whimpers in fear while she dangles in the air as Peter pulls her up. "You're okay. You're okay." He keeps reminding her and himself aslo. "I won't let anything happen to you."

Becca can't form words as her hand touches Peter's. She feels arms wrap around her waist and pull her onto the top floor. She can hear Mr Harrington tell them to stay away from the elevator shaft as Peter hangs upside down still in the shaft. He'll assess Becca how he wants too when he isn't his alter ego, he also knew he couldn't show his true emotions and had to hide the fact that inside, his mind was still replaying Becca falling away from him in slow motion. How his heart and breathing stopped as he watched it happen. As he hangs upside down, all Becca wants to do is pull him inside to keep him from accidentally falling.

But Karen has other plans.

"This is your chance, Peter. Kiss her." Karen says into Peter's com only.

And as Peter contemplates kissing Becca in this moment, he knows he can't. That would mean Becca would be seen cheating on Peter, or that Peter was Spider Man and they couldn't do that.

But before any of them can do anything, Peter's webbing snaps and he falls down the elevator shaft. Becca screams briefly, looking down the shaft, "Spider-Man!" She screams but the faint down of thwips indicates to her that he used his webbing to stop himself from falling to his death in the shaft.

"Thank you!" Mr Harrington shouts to Spider-Man.

Flash then shoves his head into the elevator shaft, "Are you really friends with Peter Parker?" He shouts into the shaft.


After the Washington Monument incident, Mr Harrington wanted to get them all home to their families. Becca knew Aunt May would be there waiting, but what she and Peter both didn't know was that Tony and Pepper were waiting for Becca. So as Peter and Becca are being hugged to death by Aunt May, a voice startles Becca into tears.

"Reebs?!" Tony's voice shouts over all the other worried parents and guardians. The sister breaks away from her boyfriend and his aunt as she grips Mr Stuffington tightly and races through the crowds of adults and tightly wraps her arms around Tony's shoulders. She knew she was bottling up her emotions for the sake of her classmates, but once she's in her brother's arms, the dam breaks.

She's sobbing into his embrace as Pepper stands beside them, her hand on Tony's back and her other hand smoothing down Becca's hair. "You're safe now." Tony mumbles softly to his sister as she continues to cry hard. "I've got you."

Tony looks over to see Peter being hugged by his aunt and the older man nods in appreciation, mouthing 'thank you.' to Peter and the young boy nods. There was no question as to whether or not he should save his classmates and Becca. She was his entire world. He would give his life to keep her safe.

"Who's this you got?" Pepper asks with a soft smile as Becca lifts her head off Tony's chest and Pepper wipes her eyes gently. Tony's eyes fixate on the teddy bear in Becca's arms. He remembered seeing that bear in their mom's room when he was a child and teen.

"Mr Stuffington." Becca says, holding him tightly in her arms. "He's a teddy bear I've had since i was a baby."

Tony nods, "I remember seeing him in Mom's room on and off when I was growing up." He adds, still holding his sister close. "Where did you find him?"

"Mama and Uncle Steve's old apartment in D.C." Becca answers, "I used the lock pick kit you put in my new backpack.

"Her what?" Pepper questions her boyfriend, arms crossing over her chest and Tony pales as he looks over at his girlfriend.

"Uh.. I thought it would be useful. She's a teenager of many traits, as you know." Tony rambles, causing Becca to smile weakly as she leans into her brother's embrace. Just happy to be with her brother, knowing he was at the school waiting for her.


Becca and Peter walk hand in hand down the hallway as the tvs in the hallways play the news footage of Spider-Man saving the decathlon team. She clings closely to her boyfriend as they both hear Betty and Jason speak.

"This past week, Midtown's Academic Decathlon team defeated the country's best to win the national championship. Later that day, they also defeated death." Jason says and Abraham appears on the tv.

"Explosion! Sally scream. Flash scream. All screaming! Rebecca was the only one trying to not freak out!" Abraham shouts to the interviewer and the camera jumps to another decathlon classmate.

"There were purple lasers and smoke everywhere. It was [BEEP] tight, like a Bon Jovi concert." The decathlon classmate states in a gangster voice.

Then Mr Harrington's face appears on the tv screen, "As you know, we made it out alive, and that's the important thing. I don't think we would've survived had it not been for Miss Barnes's quick thinking to get us out of there." He states but then his voice and face fall, "I couldn't bear to lose a student on a school trip. Not again.." he whispers the last bit as the student holding the camera zooms in shakily onto Mr Harrington's face.

"Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. Thanks to Midtown's very own, Rebecca Barnes and The Spider-Man." Jason states awkwardly as a picture of Peter as Spider-Man on the side of the Monument appears alongside Becca school picture from the past year.

"Thank you, Spider-Man and Rebecca." Both hosts say in unison.

Peter smiles slightly to himself as Jason begins to speak about how the school is showing their Spider-Man pride and as they walk past students, they're thanking Becca, congratulating her on helping save their classmates.

When they walked down the stairs, the couple can see that Becca's locker is still decorated from the students wanting to show their gratitude. And they make their way towards the lockers but Ned's voice stops them in their tracks.

"Dude, dude, dude dude, dude." Ned mutters repeatedly and MJ and Harry follow behind. The redhead breaks away from her boyfriend and wraps her arms around Becca. Ever since the couple had gotten back from D.C. MJ and Becca had been clinging together. Neither wanted to lose the other, they were sisters in their eyes. "What's it like being famous when nobody knows it's you but no one knows it's you?" Ned asks quietly in glee.

Peter smiles as his eyes travel from Ned to Becca constantly, "Crazy."

"It's crazy." Ned agrees then looks at Peter dead on, "Should you tell everyone?"

"No." Peter replies instantly.

"Should i tell everyone?" Ned asks happily and Harry rolls his eyes.

"No, Ned. That's not a good idea." Harry states from behind Ned.

All Peter can do is chuckle at his friend's antics, sure he wanted to be celebrated as Peter Parker, but to him, in this moment, being celebrated as Spider-Man was enough.

"Oh, okay. Well, come on, we'll be late to class." Ned says as he begins to jog away, Harry, MJ and Becca following but Peter stops them.

"I'm not going to class." Peter states and he looks over at Becca.

"What?" Becca questions.

"Peter, you're already in trouble for ditching the decathlon. Becca didn't get in as much trouble because she showed up at the monument." Ned reminds his friend.

"Dude, listen, i figured it out, right?" Peter whispers and walks up to the three. "The wingsuit guy is stealing from Damage Control. What he takes from Damage Control, that's how he builds the weapons." He says quickly, Becca was beginning to be worried again about her boyfriend. He had figured some things out, but not all of them and yet he still wanted to break school hours to pursue this lead. "So all we gotta do is catch him." He finishes, motioning between himself and Becca.

"But we have a Spanish quiz." Ned mutters in reply.

"Ned, i'm probably never gonna come back here. Mr Stark is moving the Avengers upstate so.. when Fia and I bring this guy in-"

"Dude. You want to be a highschool dropout?" Harry questions sternly. The hallways had cleared, leaving just the five of them.

"I am so far beyond high school right now." Peter says as he backs away from the four, leaving Becca stunned.

"Did you know anything about this?" MJ asks Becca who simply shakes her head.

"No.. I didn't." Becca responds and as she walks over to Peter she's stopped as Principal Morita is in the hallway.

"Parker, my office." Principal Morita states quickly as he walks past, "You too, Rebecca." He adds and Becca hesitates. She was sure this was about missing the Decathlon.




"So, you got detention. You screwed up. You know what you did was wrong. The question is, how are you going to make things right?" Becca's Uncle Steve says on the tv in the classroom where detention is being held. She and Peter both were serving time in detention for skipping out on the decathlon. She giggled softly as she watched her uncle on the screen speak. "Maybe you were trying to be cool. But take it from a guy who's been frozen for 70 years, the only way to really be cool is to follow the rules."

Becca laughs softly. It was ironic now as she watched this video of her uncle from 2012 about following the rules. When he himself just shy of a year ago had forsaken the new rules of the Accords and fought against them. Her uncle continues to speak but Peter had had enough. The teacher groggily shouts at Peter to come back but he walks away.

"I'm sorry, Coach." Becca mutters softly, "Should i get him to come back?"

Coach sighs, "Just make sure he stays out of trouble." He grumbles and Becca nods. She stands and rushes off to follow her boyfriend.

When she catches up to her boyfriend, he's lifting a set of lockers to grab more web fluid. "Benji? What the heck are you doing?" Becca asks as she jogs over to him.

"I don't need to be in detention, Fia. I have more important things to be doing, we have more important things."

"Do we? Because we might be superheroes but we're still teenagers, Benji. You can't just give everything up to pursue that." Becca retorts but Peter doesn't want to hear it right now.

"Now's not the time to talk about that, Fia. Do you want to help or not?" Peter questions. He knew Becca would be against him leaving highschool to chase after being a superhero full time, but this was what Peter wanted to do. What happened in D.C. scared him, and he took a lot of thought into whether or not he should continue bringing Becca with him. She was more focused on school rather than pursuing the bad guys.

"I- Of course i do." Becca mutters in reply, slightly offended Peter would even need to ask. She might not agree with him right now but she always wanted to help him in any way she could.

"Good." He mutters.

Soon, they reach their apartment, Peter calls for May but receives no answer from his Aunt, indicating that he and Becca were alone. The couple discard their backpacks on their beds and Peter pulls out his mask, "Grab yours." He tells her. Becca nods, but is still unsure of what was going through Peter's mind.

Normally she could read him easily, she knew his ticks and the way he moved under every emotion he felt. He could do the same to her. It's what made them such a great duo when they would fight people. But in this moment, Becca couldn't read her boyfriend, and it worried her.

"Hey, Karen. What's up?" Peter mutters through his mask as he swivels in his desk chair as Becca puts on her mask, pulling it over her nose and her glasses appear over her eyes.

"Hi, Miss Karen." Becca greets the AI.

"Hey, Peter, Rebecca. How was your Spanish quiz?" Karen greets the couple.

"Good-"

"I was wondering if you could help us. I'm trying to figure out who the guys under the bridge were that night, but i can kind of remember part of a license plate." Peter states quickly, cutting off his girlfriend. Becca feels a pang of hurt in her chest as Peter so blatantly cut her off from speaking with Karen to get to the point of why he even ditched detention.

Karen pulls up a list of names in Peter's mask and Becca's glasses, "I can run facial recognition on the footage of that encounter."

"Footage?" Peter asks.

"Yes, Peter. I record everything you and Rebecca see."

"Everything?" Becca asks softly.

"Like all the time?" Peter questions.

"Everything." Karen responds and Becca knew that if Karen had a face, she would be smirking right now, "It's called the Baby-Monitor Protocol." She states as she pulls up videos from everytime Peter and Becca were in their suits.

Peter tosses the pen he had in his hand onto the ground upsetly. "Of course it is." He grumbles and then sighs, "Um, yeah, just roll it back to last Friday."

"With pleasure." Karen responds softly and instantly both Peter and Becca see Peter talking in the mirror with the mask on.

"Hey everyone. Yeah, kick ass party. Hey, what's up?" Peter in the video says, trying to act cool.

Becca giggles as Peter waves his hand in the air, "No, no, no. This is just me messing around. Go later in the day, later in the day."

"It is I! Thor, son of Odin!" Video Peter shouts as he holds up a meat cleaver in his hand to pose as Mjolnir. Becca laughs out loud at this video.

"No, no, no. That's definitely- that's not what we wanted to watch." Peter rambles nervously, his head turning around to look over at his girlfriend who cannot contain her laughter.

"Uncle Thor would love this." Becca giggles out.

"Your impressions are very funny." Karen compliments Peter.

"Fast forward to the arms deal." Peter says slightly annoyed. Quickly after his Thor impression, which Peter was pretty sure Karen played on purpose, both Becca and Peter then see the footage of the arms deal. The two thugs they remember and then the buyer. "Alright, the two on the right, who are they?"

"Searching law enforcement databases." Karen says and soon she pulls up nothing, "No records found on the two individuals." She states.

"Nothing?" Becca asks, confused.

"One individual identified." Karen says as the face of the buyer comes up, "Aaron Davis, age thirty-three. He has a criminal record and an address in Queens."

Peter looks over at Becca who knows what he wants to do before he even asks, "Let's pay him a visit."

"Would you like me to activate Enhanced Interrogation Mode?" Karen asks Peter and Becca. The girl declines but she knows Peter won't.

"Uh, yeah." Peter responds.



Becca and Peter watch as his little spider drone hovers where Aaron is walking towards his car in an underground parking lot. When Aaron opens his trunk, Peter jumps down, followed by Becca, and shoots out a web towards him. The webbing attaches itself to Aaron's hand that's on his trunk, startling him slightly as he eyes the flying spider drone.

"Remember us?" Peter's altered and deep interrogation voice startles not only Aaron but Becca as well as the teenagers walk over to Aaron's car. "We need information. You'll give it to us now." He threatens.

"All right, chill." Aaron says cooly, unfazed by Peter and Becca.

"Come on!" Peter shouts.

"What happened to your voice?" Aaron asks, confused.

"What do you mean?" Peter questions.

"I heard you by the bridge, her too. I know what a girl sounds like." Aaron states calmly and Becca can't help but laugh under her breath.

"I'm not a girl. I'm a boy! I mean- i'm a- i'm a man." Peter rambles nervously but his voice is still altered deep because of the interrogation mode which makes it funny to Becca.

"I don't care what you are. Boy, girl."

"I'm not a girl! I'm a man!" Peter shouts as Aaron casually places the bag he was carrying into his opened trunk, his hand still webbed to the roof of his trunk.

"Look, we just want to know who is selling these weapons." Becca says, speaking for the first time since the interrogation started.

"We need to know. Give me names or else." Peter threatens and Aaron slams his trunk shut, startling Peter and his drone. The two back up slightly but Becca stays put where she had been standing the entire time.

"You ain't ever done this before, huh?" Aaron asks, then looks over at Becca, "But you have." He comments and the teenager hesitates, glancing down as she shifts her footing.

Peter glances at his girlfriend, he was concerned because Aaron was probably right about her. She had interrogated people before, back in the Red Room possibly. He glances down at the ground as he tells Karen to deactivate interrogation mode.

"Look, man, these guys are selling weapons that are crazy dangerous." Peter starts and Becca nods in agreement.

"They can't be out on the streets." She inputs.

"If one of them can cut Delmar's Bodega in half-" Peter mutters but Aaron cuts him off.

"You know Delmar's?"

"Yeah, best sandwiches in Queens." Peter says surprised.

"Sub Haven's pretty good." Aaron retorts.

"It's too much bread." Becca mutters.

"I like bread." Aaron quips with a slight smile that fades just as fast as it appeared.

"Come on, man, please." Peter mutters, as he turns to walk away he grumbles to the couple's AI, "Stupid interrogation Mode. Karen, don't ever do that again." Peter gripes.

"The other night you told that dude, if you shoot at somebody, shoot at me.' It's pretty ballsy." Aaron says, calling the duo back over. "I don't want those weapons in this neighborhood. I got a nephew who lives here."

"Who are these guys?" Becca asks, "What can you tell us about the guy with the wings?"

"Other than he's a psychopath dressed like a demon, nothing. I don't know who he is, or where he is." Aaron tells the duo and Peter sighs, leaning onto dejectedly on Aaron's car. "I do know where he's gonna be."

Both Peter and Becca perk up slightly, "Really?" They ask in unison.

"Yeah, this crazy dude I used to work with, he's supposed to be doing a deal with them." Aaron answers.

Peter grins underneath his mask, jumping slightly in the air. As he begins to walk away from Aaron, Becca and Aaron look at each other. "Spidey, we don't know where the deal is happening." Becca points out.

Peter laughs nervously as he walks back over to Becca and Aaron. "Right, of course. My bad." He says then eagerly looks at Aaron, "Where is it?"

"Can i give you some advice?" Aaron asks Peter, and the teenager tilts his head, "You gotta get better at this part of the job."

Becca nods in agreement with Aaron, "I don't understand." Peter counters, leaning against Aaron's car and crosses his arms, "I'm intimidating." He says innocently.

All Aaron and Becca do is shake their heads in amusement but then Aaron nods slowly, "Staten Island ferry, eleven."

"Oh, that's soon." Becca mutters as Peter begins to jog away.

"That's going to dissolve in two hours." Spider-Man says, pointing to his webbing as Becca begins to walk towards where Peter is.

"No, no, no. Come fix this." Aaron states, pointing to his webbed hand.

"Two hours. You deserve that." Peter states.

"I got ice cream in here."

"You deserve that. You're a criminal. Bye, Mr Criminal." Peter waves goodbye but Becca stays behind and pulls out one of her knives her father gave to her before she left to go back to Queens when her little brother was born.

She begins to cut the webbing around Aaron's hand and he watches her carefully, "He's more than just your partner in all this, isn't he?" He asks Becca.

She hesitates but nods, "He is." Becca says as the webbing breaks away.

"Watch him. It seems like he dives head first into things without thinking them through." Aaron detects casually.

Becca nods in agreement as she backs away from Aaron to catch up with Peter, "He does, and i will. Thank you for helping us." She says with a smile even though Aaron can't see the smile underneath her mask. She turns around and then rushes to catch up to her boyfriend.
















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