Ben Reilly (teamclone) wrote in the100, @ 2015-10-18 22:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, ben reilly / spider-man (94) |
WHO: Ben Reilly and Benjy Parker
WHEN: This evening! Oct 18
WHERE: Casa de Parker-Reilly-Angel
WHAT: Ben falls into old habits from home while with his nephew and gets hit with feels.
WARNINGS: Spoilers from Scarlet Spiders?
STATUS: Complete, but open to those who'd be passing through Casa de Parker-Reilly-Angel
“So where was I?”
Ben glanced down at the small child toddling in front of him, his tiny fists gripping the weblines tangled around Ben’s fingers, as they made their way around the room. The tiny redhead paused long enough to look up, that ever present grin taking up nearly half of his face as he giggled out a string of gibberish, before taking a big stomping step forward.
“Ah yeah, that’s it! He was monologuing.” A hiccup, gurgle interrupted and Ben sighed heavily. “I know. They never learn. You’d think super special vampires with a taste for spider would know better, but nope. There Big Red and Spidey are in this creep’s super secret lab and he monologues.” He smirked as he went over the memory, the storytelling always giving him a different viewpoint, letting him gloss over the nastier parts. “Ok, starts monologuing. Y’know how Scarlet is with all the yap, yap, yap-” His right hand opened and closed, bobbing Benjy’s arm up and down as the boy giggled. “-especially when the yapping’s coming from a jerk who likes experimenting on people way too much.” He paused, waiting for a gurgle in response, even if the conversation was completely one-sided. Hey, he was a pro at the one-sided conversation, just ask any super-villain. Or super-hero for that matter. The wait wasn’t long though, Benjy providing a very well timed giggle-sqwuack. “You are correct, sir! Scarlet webbed that bad man’s mouth right shut and got us right to the good part…”
A wide grin spread over Ben’s face. Just a little more tension on the webs to lift little Benjy just that teeny bit up so… Success! Toes under itsy bitsy feet achieved. Granted, he still couldn’t take the large sweeping steps he did with May, but he had more control over the movement, so he could…
“And bam, Scarlet goes right in for the first blow!” A little jump forward met with an excited squeal. “And Scarlet just keeps going at him. Dodge.” A step back. “Dodge.” Pivot. “Then right hook.” Right foot sliding forward with flick of the webline to sway lil Benjy more. “Left hook.” Same motion just left foot this time, each motion being met with happy giggles as he danced around the room. “And don’t you worry. Scarlet wasn’t getting all the action. Spidey was right there with him, keeping this guy busy. ‘Course, they had this jerk beat, but he’s a cheat, y’know. It’s why they all went there in the first place, remember? ‘Cause he figured out how to make real life like a video game and gave himself the unlimited life cheat code. And Widow - not the spy, but the cool one that’s like Scarlet and Spidey - she was trying to figure it out, but she got all distracted by evil Torch.”
A sneeze from the little redhead brought a laugh to Ben’s lips. Halting in his movement play-by-play, he bent in half to check on the child. Pulling a sleeve down over the heel of his hand, he dabbed at Benjy’s nose even as he tried to squirm away.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But this one was actually evil. Not your normal brand of Torch evil.” Straightening up, he wiggled the weblines. Yup, and there was that giggle worth all the gold in the world as Benjy tugged back on the webbing. “Anyways, this jerk, he had Spidey, Scarlet, and Widow on the ropes. No matter how many times they knocked him down, he’d get back up thanks to that cheat code. Only way to win the day was to get rid of that. So…” Another pull on the weblines, lifting Benjy slowly into the air, his focus intently on the boy and his spider-sense to make sure the grip held. “Up.” Past his knees. “Up.” Past his waist. “Up.” And up to his shoulders. “Spidey climbed, all the way to the top of the tower where the cheat code broadcasted out across that world and all the other worlds.” A flick of his wrists and Benjy twisted through the air, turning that 180 so that he was facing Ben when his hands caught the child in a firm grip. “But the control panel was completely melted, so Spidey-”
His brow slowly furrowed as he bounced Benjy. “Spidey, he…”
Ben was back in that moment. Looming at the top of the tower, sensitive bomb in his hand. Yelling taunts at Jennix, Ben’s mind set on his one-way trip plan even as it whirled, searching for some way out. There had been that hope, even as he was giving his good-bye pep-talks so that the team would keep going. Inspiration would hit. There’d be some way out. Something. Anything. Any moment an idea would hit him upside the head and then…
… and then...
… he hadn’t thought this through…
Back home, the storytelling was habit. So much habit that he could practically hear little May bouncing and wiggling impatiently and ready to egg him on to stop with the dramatic pauses. What’d he do? C’mon, Uncle Ben, tell us. Just a harmless habit that MJ tolerated whenever he saw the kids and that Pete would inevitably take part in. The two of them swapping back and forth, his new adventures for Peter’s old ones from that five year gap. And then sometimes they’d team up for the ones they both remembered, which May seemed to like the best, even if that sometimes ended in arguments over who was remembering right and threats of raiding the Daily Bugle stacks for proof. So, really, it was no surprise that as soon as he had Benjy alone to watch, the words would just started flowing. Storytime with Uncle Ben. Habit. Even if this was a Benjy from a different universe. Even if they were both far, far away from home. Habit. And now…
“He…” Ben cleared his throat, his grin edging towards forced. “Well, y’know, it’s… it’s a work in progress.” Wrapping his arm around Benjy, he pulled the little boy closer. He didn’t know the ending. At least the details. But he could piece enough together. Kaine’s words. You’re gone. You knew what you were doing. Even Peter’s. You need to stop taking hits meant for me. It painted a clear enough picture. Not the best story for the kids though… especially when…
… he didn’t want to think about that. So instead, he bopped his fingertip against Benjy’s nose, his smile softening as stubby fingers quickly captured the digit. “It’ll be a good ending though, just you wait and see. Spidey’ll make it out. He always makes it out somehow.” He pecked Benjy on the forehead. “You remember that, ok? The hero always wins, yeah?”
Even if winning was hardly black and white and there were so many different ways to win...