Havent decided yet, but PSA to download my fic if you care, I'm considering deleting it
too much work right now to curate it properly, here's a band-aid draft of the "final" chapter. Just a summary or what was supposed to happen. I'll deal with Ao3 later maybe
i'm too tired. we had another death in the family, no one fucking replies to me. im not having any sort of fun or enjoyment out of fandom, i don't know why i can't just enjoy what everyone else does, or why i seem easy to leave behind and forget, sick of people saying one thing and then doing another
so spoilers for Proactive Measures
In summary May and Peter make it out, saving Vulture along the way. May and Vulture had parallel arcs, Peter’s arc was realizing it was Peter that made Spider-Man a hero, not his powers. May and Vulture had three-ish “missions” together, including one where they battle Hydra. Vulture was my emotional support villain and it was important to me that he punch hydra-nazis with Aunt May. I hadn’t decided the final form of this, because I was considering what I wanted the villain underworld to look like/who I wanted to bring in. Scorpion was probably going to show up, wanting revenge on Vulture for the ferry deal. Due to circumstances May and Adrian have to rely/trust each other and they both hate it. Adrian is the only one who tells May the truth, and May has become the only person Adrian can actually be truthful with, because he’s hiding things from his family and his own men. They’re supposed to become kinda messed up mirrors of each other, and they’re both a little aware of it.
There was a sub-plot going on with the Midtown kids and to a lesser extent Tony Stark. The growing tension between Liz and everyone causes more problems. Basically MJ is too honest at the wrong time, says “we’re not friends” and Liz takes it to heart. I won’t explain the whole set-up of the scene except that it was a tense moment in front of a crowd, Liz is frazzled and Flash slightly injured. MJ embarrassed Liz greatly. Another character who was a fellow senior to Liz (and was named Lily Hollister, just as a comic easter egg) and clearly doesn’t like her, antagonizes Liz. Liz snaps and punches her, paralleling how Adrian sucker punched the Damage Control guy. This incident marks Liz’s departure from the rest of the Midtown kids, and she begins getting into trouble/digging into things on her own.
Because Liz has been worrying him/Adrian is getting paranoid as the story goes on at some point he gifts her a pocket knife for self-defense. Giving someone a blade can be considered bad luck because it can be seen as cutting ties with a person.
Tony was supposed to come in almost as an antagonist. To stretch out some of what I saw in HoCo I was going to have Tony keep projecting onto Peter. It leads him to get suspicious of May Parker, because in his head he’s comparing her to Stane. Tony figures it was someone close, etc., etc. He also goes snooping in the Parker apartment, much to Ned and MJ’s displeasure (especially Ned’s). We were going to get some of May’s background this way. In an attempt to lure out Vulture, Tony lays a trap (and fancy weapons) as bait. Except it isn’t Vulture (who is retiring) who picks up the bait, it’s Hydra. And they get away with it. Hydra is in competition/an enemy of Vulture’s gang. Hydra has been established as wanting what Vulture stole off the Avengers jet. So Tony accidentally helps Hydra, who then turn those new resources on Vulture. Unfortunately May is part of Vulture’s crew now so she’s caught up in it. I hadn’t decided how tangled up the Midtown kids were going to get in all that, but I had a conversation between Tony and Harrington I had been trying to fit in.
There were a couple of big “twists” that were going to come up. The biggest one: It was going to be revealed that the man that killed Ben had purchased the weapon from Vulture. Vulture didn’t know this, when he finds out he battles with whether he feels guilt or not. He keeps this from May, of course. Another thing that was going to be revealed was that the weapon was Stark Industries made. Which Tony was going to find out and use as another reason why he should be suspicious of May. So it becomes this question of who killed Ben if S.I. made the gun, but Vulture sold it, and the killer fired it, and Peter didn’t save him.
Another twist was going to be the reveal that Liz is a type 1 diabetic. This storyline got stronger as my own frustrations with the American healthcare system multiplied. Adrian mentioned insulin, both Adrian and Doris have mentioned eating when speaking with Liz. When Liz was talking with MJ this is why she doesn’t like Halloween: memories of being a kid and feeling left out because of all the candy.
The knife that Vulture gave Liz was going to come up again. I hadn’t ironed out how or all the details but I was going to make it where, somehow in the same place+time, Adrian as Vulture and Liz in a disguise of her own don’t recognize each other. He nearly shoots her and Liz almost stabs him but May (not knowing it’s Liz, she just didn’t want someone to die) gets in the way. Which is how May ends up with Adrian’s knife in her back, a reference to their earlier conversation and she called him a backstabber. May thinks she just threw away her chance (and Peter’s) as she’s bleeding out. Meanwhile Vulture recognizes the knife and begins to have a mental breakdown over almost shooting his own daughter. He ends up saving May because in between Ben and Liz he can’t quite bring himself to let her bleed out. He ends up locking May and Peter in the bathroom together with a bunch of supplies so he doesn’t have to deal with them/until he decides what to do. Unfortunately May develops an infection and this is the bulk of Peter’s arc. [Insert reasons/stuff here] Peter is able to make a way for him and May to escape. Building is collapsing/on fire. They run into Vulture, there’s the final battle. Peter gets the gun away from Vulture but without his powers is losing/getting his arm burned. This is notably the first time May ever sees Adrian strike Peter, half-dead and feverish it’s a beserk button. May and Vulture finally get to duke it out, she keeps her word and tries to strangle him and almost succeeds. She gets hold of the gun and Vulture tries to goad her into killing him. May refuses, not wanting to take a father away from a family, not wanting to give Adrian what he wants. Hadn’t quite decided on his reaction, some type of almost-remorse perhaps. But right after this the vulture wings crash through the building to bring it down on all of them in a murder-suicide situation.
Peter’s burned arm is revealed to be the one with the power-supressing cuff (and it got burned off) so he gets his powers back as the building collapses. He’s able to shield May, when he wakes up she’s unconscious. Peter has his “come on, Spider-Man” moment with the building debris like he does in the movie. He’s able to carry May out to safety, and realizes he can hear another heartbeat. After realizing Vulture is still alive and in the building Peter has to make a decision whether to go back and save him. He does, because he’s Spider-Man.
Later at the hospital I was going to re-write a comic scene where Vulture is like “I want to die” and Peter tries to suffocate him with a pillow to prove a point.
So at the end Vulture keeps quiet about Spider-Man. Peter and May go home.
And then Strange fucks up a spell and May has to die for Peter to "actually" become Spider-Man and erase everything. And it’s okay for Peter to lie to his friends and go back on his word because he knows better or something.
The end.
