'Should I or should I not be friends with Peter? On one hand, being friends with Spider-Man is a cool thing to write about in my future biography. On the other hand, he is literally cursed to suffer, and most people near him are often suffering.'
'What to do?'
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'At the end of the day, thinking about that right now doesn't really matter. Whether or not I even interact with Peter is entirely up to chance. For now, I have more important things to think about.'
'I have an entire week to acclimate myself to this new identity and to determine how to best use my power.'
All in all, he adapted quite quickly to the idea of having a new chance at life, forgetting the four panic attacks, of course.
His old life hadn't been the kind that inspired nostalgia. He didn't have close family, romantic interests, or even friends. Just an apartment with a recurring mold problem and a landlord who treated maintenance requests like personal insults.
He wasn't going to cry over losing that.
After enough introspection, he decided to take advantage of his last week with no lessons to start enjoying this enormous city that was New York.
But first, he showered. The water pressure was taking away most of his stress, which confirmed that the universe still maintained certain constants. He dressed in the nicest clothes he could find in his closet and took his wallet, phone, and keys before exiting his apartment.
New York was as magnificent as he had imagined it. He didn't think there was another city somewhere in the world quite like this one, as diverse and cosmopolitan as it was.
For each person he passed on the street, he amused himself by trying to guess what their lives looked like. Had they had a morning as panic-inducing as his own? Was theirs maybe worse?
The charm of a big city is in its multitude of people and cultures, and in its unpredictability.
Still, Arthur didn't just go out to appreciate New York. He also wanted to test Fading with actual people and not just with his camera.
He needed to know more about what he could do in order to plan according to his own potential. Planning against the apocalypse has little point for an ant, no matter how strong or smart it is.
'Let's see what exactly Fading can do.'
He thought before walking into an alley, away from the gaze and attention of passers-by. Once properly hidden, he thought:
'FADE.'
And he immediately disappeared from the view of everyone except himself.
'Okay, so let's see if my theory works.'
Arthur slowly started walking towards the main street to see if anyone could see him.
Nobody seemed to be able to see him. Even the space that he occupied seemed not to exist for the nearby people. They naturally avoided his entire existence.
Arthur was getting giddy from the feeling of being invisible, feeling daring and untouchable. He quietly identified a man who seemed to be quite rich, judging from his suit and polished shoes. Quickly walking beside him, he reached into his suit's inner pocket and calmly took his wallet.
Once the wallet was in his hand, he opened it to reveal five hundred-dollar bills, which he took and put in his pocket before replacing the wallet in its original place.
On Arthur's face was a grin that had absolutely never been there before in either of his lives. The euphoria of stealing seemed to be overwhelmingly pleasant to him.
'I never really got what characters like Black Cat or Catwoman gained from their passion for stealing when both were already quite rich to begin with. Besides some pocket money, I mean. But fucking hell, this feels soooo good.'
Now walking with a spring in his step, Arthur quickly went back into the alley and deactivated his ability.
"SHOW."
He reappeared in the world.
Exiting the alley, he decided to go get a coffee to reward himself for feeling good.
He obviously paid for his coffee with one of the bills he had stolen and started walking aimlessly again.
'I mean, I know "making money" is one of my goals, but I didn't think it would be this easy to do.'
While continuing his walk, he started thinking about his goals again. Now they seemed quite small considering the freedom and capabilities his power gave him.
'I could literally steal anything from anywhere. Even a bank. I only have to follow one of the tellers or higher-ranking bankers to the vault before taking what I want and simply walking out.'
'The same goes for anything I want.'
'Maybe I could steal the Iron Man armor, or Captain America's shield, or some vibranium from Wakanda, or even the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Mind Stone from HYDRA.'
The more Arthur thought about it, the more excited he became, and the constant grin on his face grew again.
He continued walking, and unconsciously, his steps took him in front of a bank.
He stood there, looking at the neat building, and for a few moments, the only thought going through his head was:
'Should I do it?'
But his choice was taken from him when a gunshot rang out from inside the bank. A second later, screams were heard from outside, and the world froze for him.
'Is it karma?'
'I was just considering robbing the place, and it's already been robbed.'
'Should I intervene?'
While Arthur was thinking about the implications of whether he should intervene or not, Spider-Man just entered the bank through one of the side windows.
For Spider-Man, a hold-up was just a routine thing. There was one at least once a week, and it was usually easy to resolve for him.
Identify whether there were hostages or not, how many robbers there were, and whether they were heavily armed or not.
Create distractions to isolate them, web them up one by one until none remained.
Twenty minutes after the start of the heist, five thieves were left webbed together at the front door of the bank, and Spider-Man was already swinging away in his red-and-blue pajamas.
Arthur was still standing a few meters away from the bank, watching Spider-Man go away, envy and respect shining in his eyes.
He thought,
'Maybe I can do both, hero and thief.'
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