Chapter 6: Back to School

A little girl could be heard weeping quietly as Eren, dressed in his Phantom Spider costume, found himself alone in the dark, rainy streets of New York. He didn't know how he ended up there, as everything leading up to that moment seemed to have been erased from his mind.

Having no control over his actions or his body, Eren walked slowly through the intense rainfall and toward the sound of the weeping child. As the Phantom Spider turned the corner, he immediately stopped in his tracks upon seeing the child, a little girl with long black hair. crying over the body of a giant man.

Eren took a few steps forward, recognizing the man as Wilson Fisk, the man he murdered in hopes of getting revenge for his mother. The boy continued to approach Fisk's headless body and the little girl before stopping just a few feet beside them.

"Daddy..." The girl whimpered as she attempted to resuscitate the Kingpin's body, but to no avail. Speechless, the Phantom Spider stood in the same spot without moving a muscle. Slowly, the child turned around, showing her face to the Phantom Spider.

He recognized her almost immediately.

It was the same child that he saw in the photo in Fisk's office.

"Why?" The weeping child asked the boy tearfully, still trying to use what little strength her small body could muster to bring her giant of a father back to life. "Why did you hurt my daddy?"

Eren said nothing, looking on at the little girl as she continued to press down on her father's chest.

"Why!?" The child screamed, waking Eren up from his trance. "Why..."

"He killed my mother. I have no one left because of him." Eren muttered, looking toward the ground to avoid the child's gaze.

"And now I have no one left because of you." The girl spoke before Eren immediately found himself transported somewhere else.

Eren's eyes shot open, revealing to himself that what he had just witnessed was yet another nightmare. Ever since that day, he'd dream of hellish versions of the night he killed Fisk, wondering if what he did was the right thing.

When he didn't dream about Fisk, he dreamed of his mother. If it wasn't either of those, he dreamed of Harry and Cindy. He often thought about what would happen if he were to grow closer to them. He wondered if he'd lose them too. Those thoughts caused him to push them both away, despite them trying to reach out to him.

A few months had passed since the Fisk incident, as did Eren's eighteenth birthday, which he celebrated alone. Both Cindy and Harry tried to contact him, though he'd rarely respond to either one until he didn't respond at all. He hadn't gone to class for those months as well, since his grades were so high, he didn't need to show up for finals.

In the months he spent away from school, he streamed his antics as the Phantom Spider before getting banned from the platform. He didn't do his criminal hunting on stream, but once the connection to himself and the vigilante assaulting criminals at night was formed, they removed him from the platform.

When he wasn't streaming, he'd go out at night and track down any of Fisk's remaining men to question them about Project V or Herman Schultz. Many had heard of Schultz, yet they had no clue where he had gone after Fisk had died. Many had no clue who the man in the suit was or what Project V was. He was running out of leads.

Despite having no leads, the boy did not give up. Every day he'd look through the evidence that his mother had left behind, and at night, he'd go on his manhunt.

Eventually, Eren had almost no money left for rent and he needed to return to school since Winter break had ended. His obsession needed to cease, as well as his unhealthy forms of grief. His mother wanted him to be educated and his father wanted him to create Parker Industries in his stead, so he decided to honor their wishes and return to school.

In his empty apartment, Eren stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, not wanting to get out of bed. He was exhausted, only getting a few hours of sleep that night. The nightmares didn't help. Eventually, he found the will to get out of bed and prepare for the first day of his final semester of high school.

The boy took the bus to school, as usual, though things seemed different. People on the bus looked shocked to see him, which confused him. 'Why are they acting like they've seen a ghost.' Eren thought to himself as he stared out the window, ignoring the glares from his peers.

The young man soon found himself at the front of the school entrance, glaring blankly at the place which he'd call his own personal prison or hell.

As he walked toward the entrance, he saw Cindy Moon, holding her books to her chest in discomfort as Flash attempted to flirt with her with his arm against the wall above her. Eren grew infuriated briefly before Cindy made eye contact with him. As if she had seen her husband return from war, Cindy's eyes widened before slipping beneath Flash's arm and running toward Eren.

Though his eyes were cold and emotionless, Eren was happy to see her. For the first time in months, he felt something other than insurmountable rage within himself.

Cindy dropped her books to the ground and hugged her friend, burying her face in his chest as the many students walking past them looked on. Immediately, he felt bad for keeping her in the dark for so long. He'd been ignoring her calls and texts for the last month, as he did with anyone that tried to contact him. The only human he interacted with was the landlord, only handing him the rent without saying a word.

"I thought something happened to you! You stopped responding to my calls and texts. I heard about what happened... I thought you'd-" The entire school knew about Eren's mother's murder. Flash even spread a rumor that Eren killed himself over it and many people bought it since the only two people that had his number, Harry Osborn and Cindy Moon, both claimed to not be able to get a hold of him. Cindy didn't want to believe the rumor, but Eren ignoring her didn't help.

Eren hugged her back, looking around awkwardly at the glares from the other students. "I'm sorry. I couldn't handle leaving the house anymore. I didn't want to ignore you, but I just couldn't bring myself to speak to anyone."

"No, don't apologize. It's okay. Everyone grieves differently." Cindy's muffled voice brought Eren at ease. He feared she'd be upset with him, due to the fact that he basically pushed her away for so long, but she understood him. She always seemingly did.

"Yeah." Eren said quietly.

In the distance, Eren could see Flash glaring at him hatefully, though Eren's reciprocated hate no longer existed. His anger was reserved for more important matters.

Both Cindy and Eren walked into the school together, as Flash continued to look on with jealousy. Having nothing better to do, Flash taunted Eren, one final time. "Hey, Parker! How's being an orphan been treating you."

He said this loudly, causing every single person in the hallway to turn around and stop whatever they were doing. It was dead silent.

Eren stopped in his tracks as everyone in the school looked on to see what he'd do next. Leaving Cindy behind, Eren walked over to Flash and looked him in the eyes before talking to him without any signs of real anger in his voice, he spoke plainly. "I'm done with you, Flash. I don't know what your deal is or why you truly hate me but it needs to stop. Today." Eren knew the reason, but he chose to withhold what he truly wanted to say. He was giving Flash the chance to not embarrass himself.

Flash was baffled, looking around at everyone in the hallway as if to say 'Y'all seeing this?'. He laughed before speaking to Eren with a mocking tone. "Yeah? Why would I stop? Because you said so? Huh?"

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Eren nodded. "Yes, exactly. You're a pussy, Flash. I understand that now. You're weak. You're privileged. You have no real friends. Girls don't like you. You're imbecilic. You're a second-string quarterback, and that's just scratching the surface. You're jealous of me, Flash. You always have been so you make up for it by hitting me. You know I can't hit you back, in fact, you probably want that. I'll never give you that, though."

The entire school remained silent. Flash's face was red as he was fuming after hearing those words come from his punching bag's mouth. Flash smiled before using the comeback that he thought would end it all. "Why would I be jealous of an orphan, huh, Parker?"

Eren looked up at his bully with the blankest expression he could possibly show. His eyes were dead and looked deeply into Flash's soul through his blue eyes. Coldly, Eren gave his answer. "Because my parents actually loved me, unlike yours that couldn't give a fuck about you. That's why. You're a disappointment and you know it, a disappointment to the Thompson name. Isn't that right, Eugene?" The students in the crowd all looked on with wide eyes. Many of them had no clue that his name was actually Eugene, the ones that did know about it knew to never say that name to him unless they wanted a punch to the face.

"That's why you go by Flash, right? Eugene was a disappointment so you thought changing your name would change that." Eren paused before saying the next two words with malice. "It didn't."

Once again, the hallway went dead silent. Flash was speechless, he had been read like a first-grade level book. Eren had always known the reason why Flash hated him, every time anything good happened to Eren while Flash was around, Flash would try to bring him down. This was especially evident just a few seconds prior when Eren finally felt any sort of positivity in months, only for Flash to try and ruin it.

Flash, furious after being read, raised his fist and sent a punch directed toward Eren's jaw. Without even flinching, Eren caught the bully's fist with his hand. "No, Eugene. I told you, this whole thing we got going on here is over." Hearing this only angered Flash further, causing him to send a punch with his other hand. Once again, Eren caught the fist with ease.

"You're embarrassing us both, Flash. Look how many people are watching us. Please stop before you hurt yourself. Hurting me, even though you can't anymore, won't change the fact that you're unhappy with yourself. This won't make people love you, Eugene." These words did nothing more but cause Flash to reach the peak of his anger.

The blonde oaf reeled his head backward and slammed it down on Eren, headbutting him with everything he had. Not a single mark was left on Eren's brown skin, however, Flash's forehead began to bleed as he fell to his knees.

Before Flash could even begin to think about abusing his privilege and making threats to get Eren expelled, Eren spoke. "Before you try to lie and say I beat you up, look around."

Both Flash and Eren looked around to see that almost every student in the hallway recorded what happened. Usually, they'd pass by Eren getting bullied as if it were nothing, but this time, they wanted to record the would-be fight. "You see?" Eren pointed toward the group of spectators beside them. "There's no point in trying to lie about it. Leave me alone, Flash. Just give it up."

Flash said nothing and the Parker boy walked away with Cindy Moon beside him. Cindy was impressed, looking up at Eren with admiration as he finally stood up for himself in the coolest way possible in her eyes.

"That was really cool, Eren. You were like... Giorno when his piano music would play after beating up the bad guy." Cindy praised Eren using her pop culture references, as usual, managing to make him smile slightly. He did feel sort of cool, but he only had the confidence to say what he did due to his powers.

The rest of the school day went on normally, in fact, it was better than normal. Flash no longer even looked in Eren's direction and the students looked at Eren with a bit of admiration, a far cry from their usual glares.

__________

Eren, sitting by himself in Dr. Connors's after-school program, was lost in his own thoughts. This would happen often as he'd begin thinking about his mother's killer, who was involved, and the secrets of Project V.

'Who's the guy in the suit?'

'Where's Herman.'

'What the hell is Project-'

"Yoooooo! Helloooooo, Eren." Harry, sitting next to Eren, waved his hand in front of his friend's face to gain his attention. "Are you going to ignore me in real life too?"

Eren snapped out of it, looking at Harry's worry-free expression before speaking back to him. "Oh, no, I was just spaced out. I'm sorry about that, also. The ignoring stuff, I mean. I'm sorry, I couldn't bring myself to talk to anyone."

Harry's bright smile transformed into a more sad one as he reminisced about his own past. "Don't worry about it, man. I was the same way when my mom..." Harry hesitated, still not fully recovering after his mother's death that occurred nearly four years prior. It was ruled a suicide by investigators, though he never believed that story himself.

Before Harry could finish speaking, Dr. Connors began the day's lesson. They discussed energy discharge, giving Eren a few ideas on how he could use his powers. At the end of the program, Dr. Connors made an announcement to the class.

"Before I let you guys go, we will be having a little competition. I will email you the rules, but we will be having a sort of Drone Olympics, where you will all be submitting your own homemade drones to compete. You will work with a partner and the prize will be a full ride to Empire State University with housing."

The students grew excited, as did Eren. He couldn't pay for his tuition by himself, nor could he continue paying rent. This would be incredibly helpful.

"Hey, wanna be partners?" Harry whispered to Eren. Despite how Harry led on, he wasn't an idiot, so Eren was more than fine with being partners with him.

"Yeah, bet." Eren whispered back, causing Harry to pump his fist in victory. Again, Harry was no idiot, but he was also no genius so he couldn't make anything advanced on his own. However, the Osborn technology combined with the Parker intelligence was a match made in heaven.

The program ended and both of the boys said their goodbyes to each other as they exited the classroom.

"You better not disappear on me again." Harry teased.

"I won't. I promise." Eren replied with his hands in his pockets as he looked to the ground shyly. He looked up at Harry and put on a half-fake smile. "See ya, Harry."

Eren walked away and left school with an odd feeling within him. Usually, he'd feel drained and exhausted, however, he oddly wished the day was longer so he could talk to his friends again. He didn't realize it until that day, but he truly did miss them.

He didn't want to be alone, the loneliness was painful, too painful. However, grieving hurts far worse than being alone. He feared that once they all grew closer, he would once again feel the pain of grief consume him.

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