Flash Sentry The Spectacular Spider-Man

Flash had made the whole trip from the Cathedral and back relatively undetected. Now he sat on the floor in the corner of his Bedroom. He'd taken a quick shower and put on some clothes. A black sleeve shirt and jeans. He was relatively quiet, he was speechless to say the least. He'd gotten rid of the symbiote but the realization that Spider-Man was public enemy number one now sat with him.

He had no idea of what he was supposed to do now. If he stopped being Spider-Man, the whole city would go to crap like it did the first time he'd try to give it all up. But if he went out there, what good would that do him. He wasn't at square one again, but he didn't know what to make of Spider-Man's situation.

That was until he'd gotten a knock on his door.

*knock, knock, knock.*

Flash was caught off guard by the knock. He initially ignored it, he just put his head back down and continue to sit there in silence.

But then it happened again.

*knock, knock, knock.*

But it was followed by a faint voice.

"Flash? Flash it's Sunset. Are you home?"

Flash's let out sigh. It already made him feel bad enough that he had a tantrum at her place, but it made him feel even worse that she'd want to check on him, considering he considered himself a jerk right now. But he'd be even more of a jerk if he didn't answer the door. So he got up and started for the living room.

He opened the door. Sunset smiled, "Can I come in?"

Flash mustered enough strength to form a weak smile on his face, "Yeah"

He moved out of the way and let Sunset in, closing the door behind him. Sunset looked around the room, "Well this place is nice and cozy as always." She giggled and plopped down on the couch. "When you left earlier I felt like something was wrong so I just came to check on you."

Flash was silent, but Sunset nonetheless continued.

"How's your Mother doing?"

"She's alright, she's been happy with her boyfriend and well she's invited me over for dinner next Saturday."

Flash knew he had to bring up what'd happen or else it'd be awkward between him and her friends forever. He walked towards the couch and sat next to her. He took a deep breath, "L-Look Sunset, about earlier. I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I--"

Sunset chuckled and cut him off, "Flash. It's fine. I know you didn't mean to do any of that." She got closer to him and held his arm. "You're still that nice goofball that everyone knows and loves."

Flash found himself slowly smiling again. He gave Sunset a look as she basically cuddled with his right arm. It'd crossed his mind once but he kept 'it' out of the picture after they're first breakup. When he took up the mantle again and they got back together he decided to just keep it a secret from her. But now, now he felt that she was gonna find out one way or another.

"Sunset?"

"Yeah?"

"Do-Do you think I can tell you something? Like something you can keep a secret."

Sunset nodded, "Of course you can."

"But you'll keep it a secret, right?"

"Yeah." She looked up at him and gave him a reassuring smile, "What is it?"

Flash nervously gulped, what he was going to say wasn't exactly easy for him. He didn't know how she'd react, would she mortified? would she be supportive? would she plain out just leave him? he didn't know, but he had to take the chance.

"I-I-I...."

Sunset gestured for him to go on.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I'm Spider-Man."

Sunset let all of that sink in, those two simple words. Her eyes widened at the words, "What?"

Flash opened his eyes, he knew he said it. This time he looked Sunset in the eyes, "Sunset Shimmer, I'm Spider-Man."

She looked at Flash. It was more clear to her about what he'd just said. She looked him in the eyes, it dawned on her that he wasn't bluffing. But then she began putting the pieces together, his sudden disappearances, missed dates, his flawless pictures of Spider-Man! She gasped at the realization.

"Flash. Y-You're....."

Flash lowered his head and nodded, "Yup, that's right. I'm 'The Spectacular Spider-Man'." He sounded rather dull.

"So the pictures in the Bugle--"

"Are just pictures of me taken on my Camera on shutter mode."

"A-And all the times you took those long Bathroom Breaks in school were--"

"To go stop an armed Robbery, Mugging, Car Chases, anything really."

"S-So, all the times you've missed our dates were to fight criminals and keep the city safe."

Flash frowned, "Are you disappointed?"

Sunset's shoulders dropped at the comment, she found herself smiling, "WHAT!? No! Oh my god Flash that is so cool, oh now I just feel stupid for always yelling at you when I should've realized you were out just trying to protect us and--" she stopped, she remembered everything that happened earlier in the morning, "Oh. Wow....So when you got mad at us it was because we were trashing you in front of your face."

Flash blushed a little in embarrassment, "Again, I didn't mean to. But it's not like I should've gotten mad in the first place. Besides, the whole city is basically against me. They think I'm a criminal, I'm out for the sole purpose of clout or whatever and they think I murdered a guy. I should've been used to it by now."

Sunset's eyes narrowed on Flash, "Hey! Don't let them get your head! They don't know anything about you! If anything they should just be grateful that someone cares enough to protect them."

Flash looked at Sunset and the two both exchanged smiles, "Thanks babe. I needed that."

A few moments of silence went by. They didn't say much to each other. Sunset was curious however, she wanted to know Spider-Man's full backstory everything. So she asked.

"Flash?"

"Hm?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your story. Like, were you born with all of this or how does your powers work."

Flash smirked a little, "You want Spider-Man's backstory?"

She blushed a little and nodded, "Yeah."

Flash put her arm around Sunset and reminisced. "Well for starters, I wasn't born with these powers. I was born just a normal person. Anyways, it all began at he beginning of senior year. You recall the CTU Trip, right?"

Sunset chuckled, "How could I not, Twilight had been on and on about it before school even began."

"Heh. So anyway, at The CTU trip. Well, it basically when we arrived, an emergency protocol had been let out because of some missing project or something. Turns out, that missing project was some sort of Genetically Altered Spider or something. And well, during the whole radioactive showcase. I guess the Spider just happened to stumble onto my hand because the next thing I knew, I was bit by it."

"Woah!" Sunset exclaimed, "So what, you then suddenly just had a huge power surge and began climbing on walls and stuff?"

"No." said Flash, "I felt like crap afterwards. Then the day after I began feeling all uh...strong and stuff. I mean you wouldn't believe it. The day after, I woke up with a six-pack and felt completely great as if yesterday didn't even happen. But then later on, I kinda discovered that the Spider Bite left more than just a six-pack."

Sunset got closer, getting more and more intrigued by the story, "Like what? Please, you gotta tell me."

A small giggle escaped Flash. He rolled his eyes, "Okay calm down. Sheesh you're like my cousin when she found out."

"Wait, what?"

Flash's eyes widened, "Uh...I'll explain later. But back to the powers, well I was at the Library just studying when for some reason, the my pencil was stuck onto my wrist. When I inspected it I saw a bunch of whitish grey sticky stuff. I was a little confused at first so I tried to pull it off but instead I ended up shooting a bunch of it out in the form of...I guess you could say a rope or something, I'm still working on a name for it, but anyway I shot it onto another book. It really, really freaked me out so I left the library in a hurry."

"D-Do you think you could show me?" Sunset asked.

Flash arched an eyebrow, "Wait, in here?!"

"I just want to see it in person."

Flash was about to argue the fact that she'd been there for his first encounter with Goblin, but he knew if he did than Sunset would immediately think he was lying. He let out a sigh and took his arm off of Sunset. He got off the couch and searched for something he could fire a webline at.

He spotted a wrapper near the garbage can. He looked back at Sunset, "You're absolutely sure you want to see this up close?"

Sunset nodded her heard. Very interested.

Once Flash knew she approved, he turned his attention back to the chip bag. He narrowed his eyes on it and outstretched his arm. He flicked his middle and ring finger on his palm, letting out a webline. It wasn't anything dramatic for Flash, the webline had traveled quickly and struck the chip bag. Sticking onto it.

"There. It's not really that special or anything but, well here it is."

For Sunset however, it was probably the most coolest thing she'd seen tonight, possibly in her whole life. She quickly got off the couch and ran to Flash. She inspected the webline and looked at Flash's hand to the piece of litter.

"Wow so that's how you shoot your...web ropes? Just like that?"

"Y-Yeah?" Flash nodded.

She looked up at him, even more intrigued and excited, "So what else can you do?"

Flash snagged the webline and caught a hold of the chip bag. He set it down, the webbing still on it and off his wrist. He looked up at the ceiling. He jumped up and clung onto the ceiling. Surprising Sunset even more. She backed up a little but looked at him with amazement.

Flash smirked a little, "Well I mean, I think you know the rest. Heck you were there for one of my fights. Wall-Crawling, Enhanced Speed and Agility and this little thing I like to call my Spider-Sense."

"Spider-Sense?"

"It's kind of like a sixth sense, well I mean technically it's been proven that we have more than five senses but you get the picture. The Spider-Sense basically allows me to sense danger in my surroundings a few seconds before they happen. It's kind of my trump card."

Her eyes lit up in amazement, "Wow. That's so cool! So what? You found out you had all these powers and decided that you needed to use them for the greater good?" she chuckled a little. However, the comment made Flash frown a little.

"That's...not exactly the full story."

Her smile basically faded away. She saw Flash not laughing. She watched as Flash let go of the celling and. Flash took a deep breath and lowered his head.

"W-When I'd discovered I had all these new powers I had a billion ideas just pop up in my head. And all of it had to do with becoming some sort of Media Icon. I wanted to prove everyone who had doubted me wrong. I kinda started neglecting school because of it. Then...….Then there was this televised wrestling competition at the Coliseum. I thought it was my perfect shot, my one chance at getting recognized and maybe getting a big break. So I jumped on the opportunity and created a costume with the time and budget I had. My plan was to secretly enter it, win the cash prize and eventually tell my parents. I even had a good decoy to cover it all up and evade suspicion from my parents. I did end up winning the cash prize, but when I walked off with the cash a robber had made it's way into the building and he robbed the manager of the whole event. I had become so full of my own pride that when I saw that the robber was running my way I....I moved out of the way and let him go. I ended up paying the biggest price that night, the same robber who I let go ended up gunning my Dad down in front of the downtown library. It...It hurt me a lot, I wanted one thing that night and that was revenge. I chased the robber down into an old warehouse, but that was when I learned that he was the one I had let go. After that, after that one event occurred it became a turning point in my life. My Dad had told me one thing that I always lived by and that was 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.' That's why I became Spider-Man, to protect innocent lives for the greater good."

Sunset felt so bad for thinking about Spider-Man's story with a grain of salt. She hugged Flash, embraced him. "Flash, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you sound like a joke."

"It's fine." Said Flash, "It's not like it's public knowledge or anything, you didn't even know."

She rested her head on Flash's chest. She was letting all of the information sink in. She looked up back at Flash, "Flash, why are you telling me all of this?"

Flash let out another sigh. He held Sunset a little tighter, "Because I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."

"Why?" Flash was silent however. It worried Sunset even more, so she insisted. "Come on Lightning, What's wrong?"

Flash's eyes narrowed, he took a deep breath. "Sunset. The suit, the black suit I had. It wasn't something I created or even intended to have, it was an alien life form."

"An alien life form?"

"Yes. It was like a symbiote parasite. It took complete control of me, I couldn't even make my own decisions without it's influence. To make it worse, I was so blinded by all the power I didn't even realize the harm it was doing to me. Now that everything is said and done, what use will it make if I put the costume on again. This time the city is really against me and it's all my fault."

Sunset placed both her hands on Flash's cheeks after listening to all of that. She now put it upon herself to console him, "Hey, I know where you're coming from. I know what it's like to have all of that power. You think it feels good, like you're on top of the world. But deep down, you know it isn't right and when you've finally realized it, you feel like you deserve the most harshest and cruel punishment imaginable." Flash was about to lower his head but Sunset lightly pushed it back up so they'd face each other one on one, "Flash, redemption isn't an overnight thing. It's a long process that could take months maybe even years. But before any of that, the first thing you have to do is forgive yourself."

"F-Forgive my self?"

"For all the harm you truly believed you caused." She gave him a reassuring smile, "You've always been a good person Flash and you always will be. And the whole city needs you whether they like it or not. You just have to see it." She got on her tippy toes and gave him a meaningful peck on the cheek, "I'll see you tomorrow."

She broke the hug off. She started for the door and exited the apartment room, closing the door behind her.

Flash stood there. The only thing residing in his head was Sunset's words, especially 'Forgive Yourself'. He walked towards his balcony of his small studio apartment and stared into the distance. He began recollecting one promise he'd made to himself.

"As I long as I live, I will never forget these words! 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.' I won't let these powers go to waste! I'll make sure no one has to go through what Dad did."

He leaned against the side of the balcony wall and crossed his arms. He let out a sigh, so many times had he try to go back on his word. So many times had he given up. Especially in the beginning of it all. But then he remembered something else, something of when he was in that symbiote cocoon.

"The people that actually care about you should mean more to you!"

Flash's eyes narrowed. He couldn't let Spider-Man go out like this, he had to make up for what Symbiote caused and he had keep his promise alive no matter what.

He turned around and headed for his bedroom. He closed the balcony door behind him and stormed into his room. He started for the closet and pulled the doors opened. There he found his Spider-Man costume on top of a pile of clothes. He grabbed it with both hands and held it up.

He gazed at it's red and blue. The "OG colors" as he would put it.

"Time to finish some unsettled business."

Sunset Shimmer had got into a taxi. "Take me to 81 Magnus Street please." The Cab Driver nodded and began driving towards the location. She got onto her phone to listen to some music. But in doing so, she saw a shadow completely jolt past her.

It caught her off guard. She rolled the car window down to see what that had just been. She poked her head out the window and what she saw began bringing her a smile to her face. She could make out a red and blue figure holding onto what appeared to be a rope.

She knew exactly who it was beneath the mask.

"Go get em' Thunder."