Family

"Hi, Aunt May."

Benny spotted May standing beneath a streetlamp in the distance, huddled close to its faint pool of light.

"Benny?" May cried out. Surprise gave way to relief, and even her graying hair seemed to droop. She hurried toward him, her wrinkled hand gripping his wrist.

To keep the family afloat and raise the two children, she and Ben had endured countless hardships.

Aunt May had little education. For all these years, she could only take exhausting, dirty jobs like washing dishes, earning pitifully little. Yet she had never complained.

"Why are you here?"

Because I was worried about you, Benny thought.

For Spider-Man in most universes, the Spider-Web Incident was as unavoidable as fate. Sometimes, even if one event was prevented, others would be triggered one after another.

Benny had worried that stopping Uncle Ben's death would put Aunt May in danger, so after school, he had specifically reminded Peter not to forget to pick her up. Even so, he still could not put his mind at ease.

Now, it seemed he had been right, because Peter had still forgotten.

The thought irritated Benny, but not wanting Aunt May to worry, he said, "Peter went to Osborn Corporation to see Connors, so he didn't have time. He could only send me to pick you up."

The moment Aunt May heard Connors's name, her heart skipped a beat. Of course, she knew the doctor had been close to Peter's parents. Peter had most likely gone to him to learn about them.

Ever since Peter had found the suitcase his parents left behind in the warehouse, he had become obsessed with it. That could not help but make Aunt May, who had raised him and was gentle and sensitive by nature, feel distressed.

She had always treated Benny and Peter as her own sons, but Peter's behavior lately had left her worried.

Maybe the children did not see it that way.

Maybe...

More importantly, after Peter's parents left young Peter behind and hurried away all those years ago, there had been no word from them to this day. She and Ben had tried reporting them missing, but they had never received any news. They had clearly become involved in something terrible, and she and Ben had been powerless to do anything about it.

That was why May worried even more that Peter would sink deeper into it and put himself in danger. If that happened, they might be unable to do anything.

"Don't worry, May." Benny put an arm around Aunt May's shoulders and comforted her. "It's just that this is the first time in all these years that Peter has come into contact with anything about his parents, so he's a little too fixated on it."

Aunt May nodded. Her eyes were red as her rough palm tightly clutched Benny's hand, as if the instant she let go, her two children would fly away into the distance and vanish.

She truly wanted to ask Benny whether he, like Peter, desperately wanted to find his biological parents.

But she did not dare say it.

Because she knew it was only natural for a child to want to return to his parents. She had no reason to stop Benny, just as she had no reason to stop Peter from investigating his parents now.

But if that day really came, if she might lose Benny or Peter, she feared she would not be able to bear it.

Fortunately, Benny squeezed her hand firmly. "Let's hurry home, Aunt May. I'm starving!"

In the night, Benny and Aunt May walked home side by side.

When they arrived, Uncle Ben had already been anxiously waiting outside the house for a long time. Seeing Benny and Aunt May walking back together, he hurried over at a jog.

"Benny, May?" Uncle Ben looked surprised. He clearly had not expected Benny, rather than Peter, to be the one bringing May home.

"Where's Peter?" he asked.

"Peter went to see Connors, so he had me pick up Aunt May." Benny could only repeat what he had told Aunt May earlier.

But Uncle Ben was not as easy to fool as Aunt May.

He gave Benny a complicated look. Clearly, he had realized Benny was lying for Peter. In the end, though, he did not expose the lie or criticize Benny for it. Instead, he felt comforted.

Lying was certainly wrong, but he understood that Benny had done it for family.

His two children had always been very sensible, but Benny had never been like Peter. He was far more mature. Many times, Ben felt that Benny's arrival had been a gift from heaven to their family.

"Thank you, kid," he said.

"It's nothing. This is what I should do," Benny said. "You can leave these things to me from now on. I'm free every day."

"I'd like that, but you left too early this morning." Uncle Ben smiled with reddened eyes, his heavy hand patting Benny's shoulder. "All right, take May inside first. I'll wait for Peter."

"It's so late. Wait inside." Benny hooked an arm through Uncle Ben's, trying to pull him into the house.

But Ben pressed down on Benny with his other hand. His tone was gentle, but his gaze was firm. "No, no. I'll wait for him right here."

With Benny's current strength, he could have dragged Uncle Ben into the house with a single pinky finger. Yet as he held Uncle Ben's arm, it felt as though he were trying to pull a heavy mountain.

He knew Uncle Ben was staying out here because he wanted to have a serious talk with Peter. He also knew that Peter, who had just gained his powers and had his parents filling his mind, might lose his head and hurt Uncle Ben and Aunt May during that conversation.

And it was precisely because of that argument that Peter would storm out and slam the door, while Uncle Ben, searching for Peter, would be shot dead by a robber. Though Benny had dealt with Dennis beforehand, when the moment truly came, he still could not feel at ease.

Without Dennis, perhaps there would be Sandman...

He wanted to stop this conversation, to eliminate the danger in advance just as he had killed Dennis.

But this was not as simple as killing someone.

In the end, he could only nod and enter the house with Aunt May.

Compared to Benny, May looked even more worried. She had clearly realized what was about to happen.

"It'll be fine." Benny quietly comforted her by her ear. "I think we should go prepare something in the kitchen. Those two will probably argue themselves hungry in a while."

Aunt May laughed at his joke. "No, you and Peter would never argue with us. Never."

She said it with complete certainty, but her feet honestly carried her toward the kitchen.

Benny watched her thin back and nodded seriously as well. "You're right, Aunt May. We wouldn't. If Peter dared do that, I'd show him what I'm made of!"

"Don't fight." May opened the refrigerator as she spoke. "What do you want to eat tonight?"

"How about something simple?" Benny sat down at the dining table. "Fried chicken or Pork Chop? I'm hungry enough to eat an entire pig!"

Benny was not joking.

Because of the Omnitrix, he had gained spider abilities just like Peter. But these Superpowers had not been complete from the start. They continued to grow stronger over time. Clearly, Benny's Superpowers were still rapidly developing.

The changes this growth brought to his body far exceeded everything he had experienced throughout puberty, and it inevitably meant he needed to eat huge amounts to replenish his energy until his spider abilities stabilized.

Repeatedly transforming into Alien Hero, on the other hand, did not drain much of his stamina.

That consumed the Omnitrix's own energy.

Just then, a sound came from outside.

Peter was back.