One Last Time


When help arrived, the Parker family was helped off the roof and the twins were checked up on by paramedics. But, not to Peter or Lois's surprise, there wasn't anything wrong with them. There wasn't even a cut on them after they were discovered.

"All we have is mild concussions?" Mayday asked in shock. "That big fall, and not even a broken bone?"

"Let's just be thankful," Peter stated as he caressed her head. "You both got very lucky."

"A little rest, then you should be fine." The parametric tells them.

"Thank you." Peter sighed as they took their leave.

"Come on, girls. Let's get in the car. You've had a long day." Lois told the girls, who agreed and walked to the car.

Peter saw mostly everyone left, but a handful of people stayed to help the girls. Lois lets him have a few more moments to say goodbye to his friends. Walking over, he saw Charles was waiting and seemed he could hear his thoughts.

"You know what I'm thinking. Literally." Peter told the professor. "Go ahead."

"Thinking they might have powers?" Charles asked.

"Can you...read anything from them?" Peter asked him, looking at his daughters.

Charles knew he couldn't exactly read if they had powers, but he did a quick look into their heads. After a moment of looking into the girls, his eyes closed for a brief moment, he opened them up and looked at Peter.

"If they do, they are not aware," Charles reported to Peter. "But they are scared. I think they need their father."

Peter nodded and assured Charles he already knew that. "Yeah."

"Well, we gotta get heading back," Logan said as he called over their ride. "See ya, Peter."

"Thanks for coming," Peter said as Logan held out a letter. "What's this?"

"From your aunt. Told me to hold onto it for when this happened." Logan explained as Peter took it and the two of them walked off. "Oh, she also left a package for you, I'll have it ready for you in the morning. Come by the mansion."

"Thanks," Peter told him, watching as the mutant walked off.

"We gotta head back, too," Susan said as she and Reed started to walk off. "Gotta go relieve the babysitter."

"A heads up, Pete," Reed warned him as he came up. "Fury's here."

Peter looked down at the corner of the sidewalk and saw the said man standing there. "Thanks for the heads up."

Then he walked over and stood beside Fury as he just stood there and stared out into the open. His coat was blowing in the wind, yet nothing was happening to Peter. It was like even the weather was making his entrance dramatic.

"I came by to give my condolences. Same as everyone else." Fury informs Peter.

"Nick Fury, giving condolences?" Peter asked with a scoff. "Now I have seen it all."

"Despite popular opinion, I do have a heart." Fury replied with an angered tone. "And I heard you heard the news."

"Goblin's back," Peter confirmed he knew.

"Or most likely some imposter pretending to be him." Fury replies.

While the two talked, Mayday and April watched as the two talked with Lois saying goodbye to Susan with Peter and Fury still talking. They watched their parents and wondered what they weren't being told. Something didn't feel right to either of them as they were now wondering what their mother and father are keeping from them.

"I should have been told," Peter replied to what Fury said. "If the Goblin is back, he'll target-"

"He's been targeting OsCorp facilities, building up his armor." Fury informed him. "We have a team waiting at his warehouse, with the Avengers on standby. The power source he needs for the glider is being kept open for him to attack."

"Please keep me in the loop," Peter begged of him.

"Sorry. It's a matter of National Security and the Avengers. You are neither anymore." Fury reminded Peter as he walked away after giving his condolences.

Peter couldn't believe what he was just told, but at the same time knew he was going to say something like that. Looking down at the letter in his hands, he sighed as he opened it and saw two words written on the paper.

COME HOME

"Come home?" Peter questioned, unsure what that means.

Then Lois approached him, the two needing to talk for a minute with the girls out of the way. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Right now, nobody will be able to guess what I'm thinking." Peter sighed, knowing she was thinking of someone else.

"You saw that fall." Lois gestured to the ceiling. "How confused and scared they are. They need to know."

"What is the truth going to do to help them?" Peter asked Lois, getting too much today. "To April? She despises mutants."

But you aren't a mutant." Lois reminded him.

"Not by birth, but my blood and DNA have been mutated," Peter informed her of what he is. "By all definition of the word: Mutant."

"She'll understand that," Lois said, feeling their kids could take the news.

"And what if they can't?" Peter asks, feeling they don't have enough information. "I don't want to lose them, Lo. Not right now. I can't."

Lois saw that he just needed some time and knew that after May, he needs time to heal.

Not wanting to think about it anymore, Peter and Lois took the girls home to where May was staying. A while ago before Peter left, the two moved out to a home a little way out of the city. Meaning that they were secluded, but not too secluded from the city. It'd be a good five-minute walk to get to Manhattan if they needed to.

Up in her bedroom, April was looking out at her parents talking about the letter while thinking of what happened.

"Well, great." Mayday sighed as she got off the phone. "Due to our visit, I might not make the cheerleading team due to not getting my paperwork in on time."

"Really?" April sighed at her sister. "That's what you're worried about?"

"What?" Mayday asked, taking a seat on the bed.

"How are we fine, Mayday?" April asked her sister, feeling they should be injured. "We should be in the hospital right now. Not having a few bruises."

"Like dad said. We got lucky." Mayday shrugged, not feeling anything about it. "Just take it and leave it."

"Somethings going on here." April denied her sister. "I mean, think about it. Dad knows all the Avengers. The Fantastic Four. Even some mutant people I've seen on the news arrived."

"Dad did photography for the Bugle, needed to meet a few of them over the years. Remember?" Mayday reminded her sister.

"No. Something is going on." April stated, looking out to see Peter and Lois sitting on the porch, talking about something they couldn't hear. "Something we're not being told about. And we need to find out what it is."

Mayday sighed, knowing if she didn't go along with it that April would go on her own. "Fine. How about tomorrow we take a look in the attic?"

"Why there?" April asks.

"That's where all of dad's stuff is, and there are those boxes he didn't like us looking into." Mayday reminded her, feeling it'll help both of them.

"Fine." April decided that's a good place to start as.

Peter was talking to Lois about the letter and what her message could possibly mean.

"Come home," Lois repeated and was just as confused as Peter. "Come back home to New York? Why?"

"Don't know," Peter admitted as he looked out to the city. "Or maybe I know exactly the reason."

"Why?" Lois asked him.

"I think because of our talk," Peter remembered the last talk with May. "She knew we didn't have much time for the girls in Metropolis, and how busy I've been. I keep trying to think that the girls will be fine with me gone, but..." He sighed and looked out to the city. "They knew about Goblin. May and Logan talk, so she must have thought...maybe the city needs me."

"What makes you think she wanted you to come back just to be a hero again?" Lois questions, not seeing it.

"We'll just have to find out tomorrow." Peter shrugged, wondering what the package was.

Peter was in the biggest battle of his life, trying to take down the Green Goblin. But he was trying to wrap this up quickly. Lois went into labor a while ago, and he will be damned if he isn't there to welcome his girls into the world.

As he crawled out of the rubble he was currently under, he started to get back up to his feet when his senses went off. When they did so, he looked to see a pumpkin bomb come flying at him. Before he even had the time to react, the bomb exploded and sent Peter flying through several layers of brick.

Slamming into the ground again, Peter coughed up some blood from the explosion and his lungs as he looked to see who threw the bomb. The man who tossed it came flying in on a weaponized glider, which he helped create, coming flying in and landing as he jumped off the glider. What stood there was a man dressed in a dark limestone green armored suit and also has a mask that resembles a twisted demon completed with yellow eyes.

"Misery, misery, misery." Green Goblin mocked as Peter tried to get back up. "That's what you chose. I offered you friendship. And you spat in my face."

As Peter got back up, he was punched by Goblin and sent flying to the ground yet again. But getting an idea, he rolled back to get some distance before shooting out a giant bet to stop Goblin. Getting a moment to get his head together, he goes to punch Goblin, only ending with him kneeing Peter. They have been fighting for so long, Peter was getting too tired to keep fighting on as he was smacked into the wall.

Peter fell to his knees, wheezing and trying to breathe after taking the beating and ripping off his mask. It didn't matter as Goblin already knew who he was, but he never learned who was under the Goblin mask. Yet.

While he was trying to breathe, Goblin grabbed him and slammed Peter's head into the wall. "You've spun your last web, Spider-Man. Have you not been so selfish, your little lady friend would have had a quick and painless death. But now that you've really pissed me off, I'm gonna finish her off nice and slow. Maybe even take those girls of yours, raise them to be better than their father."

But what Goblin missed was the moment that he brought up Lois and his unberthed girls, he felt a spark ignite inside of him. A will that he had never felt before as he raised back up and felt his strength return.

The next day, Peter and Lois went out into the city to try and figure out what they were going to do and visit the X-Mansion. Mayday and April stayed home and started their mission to find out the truth. Opening the doorway into the attic, they made their way up, Mayday going in first. Activating a flashlight to see a bunch of old boxes, some decorations, and a bunch of their dad's stuff from a kid.

"You really think that dad is hiding something from us?" Mayday asked as April followed her up.

"We had a giant fall, a bunch of glass and wood fall on us, yet nothing happened." April reminded Mayday for the third time. "Besides, how did dad survive the drop without a scratch?"

"Adrenaline?" Mayday shrugged, looking into one of the boxes and finding one of Peter's old science kits. "Like how a mom can lift cars to save their kids kind of deal."

"Dad can't even walk down the stairs of our house without tripping on himself." April reminded her sister, looking in an older box. This one had a few notebooks with some chemistry equations on them. "Hey, come over here."

Mayday stopped when she picked up one of her dad's yearbooks and groaned. She walked over to her sister and took a look at the equations.

"You're better at chemistry than me. What does this look like?" April asked as she went back into the box.

"Well..." Mayday started to look into it and started to put some of it together. "If I had to guess...looks like the equation for some sort of synthetic spider silk."

"And that's supposed to be something dad was working on?" April questioned, picking up another notebook.

"I don't know, dad's always been a science geek. Mom said that was the reason she fell for him." Mayday shrugged, remembering the stories from when they were kids. "Maybe this is something he worked on when Spider-Man was around. This doesn't really mean he's hiding something."

"Oh, yeah?" April asked, looking in another book. "What about this?"

Mayday took the book and shined a light on it. When she saw what was inside, she got a little worried. What was inside was a bunch of sketches of alternative Spider-Man suits. There even were notes around them as she kept turning the pages.

UTILITY BELT?

MASK IDEAS?

MAKE LENSES BIGGER

SYMBOL?

As she kept looking through them, April took out a box inside the box to find something momentous inside. "May?"

Mayday then put the book down to look to see what her sister was holding. When she saw what it was, it shocked her and her sister to their core.

Spider-Man's original suit and mask. The one he wore in the early days before it got too beaten up to wear.

Peter and Lois just showed up back at the house and looked at the package that Logan kept for May. Neither of them had the strength to open it yet as they thought they should do it at their home. At least Peter thought so, Lois was always chatting with Reed or Tony over the phone, talking about what's going on with Carlton Drake, who was showing interest in F.E.A.S.T. lately.

"Something doesn't feel right," Lois said, looking at everything on the news about Drake. "I mean, why is Carlton so interested in a homeless shelter?"

"I don't know, but now with May gone, they don't have anyone left to run it," Peter informed her. "And he did loan a lot of money to keep it open, offering the people who needed them, jobs."

Lois nodded, seeing what he was saying, but the reporter of her was showing. "No, something doesn't smell right. You might have super senses, super strength, but I have super smell."

Peter nodded, knowing that when Lois smells something, to let her sniff it out. "I actually do have heightened senses, including smell." Lois laughed at that, forgetting about it. "I just don't use it very often, especially with an athletic daughter in the house. And April is a dirt kind of girl."

Lois then looked out the window and noticed that the girls in question were walking over, holding something that looked like cloth. "Those girls in question look awfully irritated by something."

Peter looked over to the girls and noticed them carrying his Spider-Man mask. "Oh, god."

The two of them then got out of the car, making their way over to the girls as they walked over to their parents. April held out the Spider-Man mask for her father to get a good look at.

"So that's why? That's why you never wanted us to see the attic?" April asked as she waved the mask. "Because you have an entire superhero storage up there?"

"Look, I can explain," Peter promises, making his way over to them.

"Can you?" April asked as she shoved the mask into his chest. "Can you explain how we fell 30 feet, and nothing happened? All you said we were lucky."

"Just please, give him a chance," Mayday asked of her, wanting her dad to have a minute to explain.

"But that was a lie, wasn't it?" April asks.

Peter knew his secret was out and he might as well come clean. "Yes. It was a lie." He then looked to Lois and saw the time had come. They needed to know. "That mask was mine. One of my first. When I was fifteen, I was on a field trip to OsCorp when I was bit by a radioactive spider. That bite caused me to gain abilities. Those sketches were made for me. I sketched them, I designed them. Those chemicals were for me. So, I could swing around the city faster. That suit was so I could hide my identity."

Mayday started to piece together everything and was left in shock. "You're saying...you're Spider-Man?"

"You?" April asked, not buying it.

Peter sighed and looked at Lois, seeing they need physical evidence to prove his claims. Walking over to the house, he grabbed two spare tires and leaped onto the wall. Sticking to it, he looked over to his daughters, who were left in shock.

Lois saw her daughters didn't know how to take this and tried to reassure them. "When I first found out, I was confused, too."

Peter then dropped off the wall and walked back over to his girls and hoped they took this well.

"Are...are you saying...that you're...one of them? A... mutant? And I'm a...mu...mutant? A MUTANT?!" April cried in shock and terror. "Like those freaks out there with powers, cause destruction, and bring nothing but pain and suffering?! I'M A MUTANT?!"

"Sweetie, please just calm down," Lois asked as she tries to hug her daughter.

But April stands back and starts to cry. "Don't tell me to calm down!" She then looked at her father in disbelief. "You lied to us, and you..." looking at her mother, tears formed in her eyes. "You lied to protect his secret! You guys have been lying to us for years and you thought it would be best not to tell us?! You know this whole time, I thought I was just like everyone else but at the same time, I felt like I was different, and I didn't know why. But now I do." She pointed at her father, who was looking down in sadness. "Because I'm a freak, just like him!"

"Your father isn't a freak, and neither are you," Lois stated, defending Peter.

"You don't know that!" April cried in anger.

"Do not yell at your mother." Peter finally found his voice again. This not being Lois's fault but his. "This is not her fault. I'm the one who didn't want you girls to know."

"Why?" Mayday finally spoke out. "Why didn't you want us to know?"

"Because I knew what kinda burden it would be if you both have powers," Peter explained to them both. "Or worst, if one of you has them and the other one didn't."

"One of us?" April asks.

Peter and Lois look to one another, sorry to say this could break their entire family now.

"The only way that you both survived that fall back at F.E.A.S.T. was for at least one of you to be like me." Peter was sorry to say. "It could be either of you or both of you. I don't know."

Then a thought occurred to April as she wiped the tears. "Wait, if you had powers this whole time, then why didn't you save those people on the bridge?" She was referring to the accident ten years ago. The one that caused her to fear and hate mutants. "That day, you just pretended to be a normal endangered civilian trying to help them rather than using your powers to save them! If only you used your powers back then, maybe..." Peter knew exactly what she was going to say but knew she couldn't bear to bring it up. "But they're not. And it's all your fault. Spider-Man."

The way she snarled that name at him hurt Peter to the core. April then stormed off and walks away from the three of them. Mayday was left there, not as broken up as her sister was, but was torn up between the two.

"Girls." Peter tried to call them back.

"Don't try to talk to me, alright?" April stopped him from apologizing. "You may have been some hero back then, but you sure as hell weren't meant to be a father!"

With that, they both walked away, leaving their parents to take in what they said.

A while later, Peter is thinking about what his daughter had told him and wonders if she's right. Maybe he was never meant to be a father. All he did was ruin his daughter's lives with them now needing to live with this over their heads. As he thought about it, his phone went off and he saw it marked T and knew who it was as he answered.

"You called at the perfect time," Peter informed the woman on the other end.

"I would have called sooner, but I was on a deep undercover operation in the middle of Spain." Teresa Parker, the younger sister of Peter Parker, informed him. "Some snot-nose billionaire got his hands on some alien tech."

During his time as Spider-Man in S.H.I.E.L.D., Peter was introduced to Teresa through Fury, who informed the two who they were. Peter was shocked he had a baby sister he was never told about, and Teresa was thrilled to have a family.

Over the years, mostly during or after missions, the two would talk and hang out to get to know one another. Teresa was a sweet person, always willing to help others. Probably why she became an agent for a top organization. Not only that, but she's one of their best agents. As well as one of their brightest.

That's probably what led her to Fitz-Simmons. Two of their other best and brightest.

"Everyone okay?" Peter asked.

"Everyone's fine," Teresa confirmed as she took a seat on the Quinjet. "I should be in town tomorrow. Think you'll be there?"

"Me? Yes. My family? Might be in shambles." Peter sighed and knew this was gonna be hard to explain. "They know. Everything."

"Oh." Teresa didn't expect Peter to have told them that. "And how'd they take it?"

"Pretty good." Peter shrugged, thinking back to the argument. "Mayday is just trying to get her head on straight, and April told me to go to hell."

"Ouch." Teresa didn't know how to respond to that.

"And I heard Goblin's back," Peter informed her what he learned.

"Sorry. I was under orders not to share." Teresa apologized to him.

"I don't blame you," Peter promises and he started to feel worried. "But if he's back, or if some copycat is out there, he might find out who I am."

"Then target your family." Teresa understood where he was going. "What are you planning?"

"Osborn never fully got the power source for his glider to work, which means he won't be going for OsCorp tech," Peter said, thinking of where he'll be going. "I might know where he's going to."

"Then I think you know what you have to do," Teresa tells her brother, feeling he knows what she's saying. "Come on, Spider-Man. One last fight. Show the girls what kind of man you used to be."

Peter thought of it and knew that if the Goblin was back, he was the only true expert. If he lets the others handle it, then it might be better. But if others get hurt, that'll be on his head.

It wouldn't hurt anyone, would it?

One last fight.

"I'll see you tomorrow. I got a Goblin's ass to beat." Peter said, hanging up the phone and walking into the house.

When he made his way upstairs, he found Lois was talking to the girls, and he was able to walk right past without being noticed. Making his way into the bedroom, he took out the suitcase that held the Spider-Man suit.

Pulling it out of the suitcase, he saw it didn't even look like it aged a day.

It was time.

The return of Spider-Man.

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