Maya Stark

Chapter 36: The wizard

Peter and I make our way into the ship. He was crawling on the ceiling, and I was hovering next to him when we saw my dad. He was talking to the cloak that the wizard was wearing.

'Wow, you're a serious loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?' dad said to the cloak.

I land behind him softly. 'Uh, yeah. Speaking of loyalty...' I said. Peter drops down next to me as my dad and the cloak turn.

'What the—'

'I know what you're going to say,' I said quickly, cutting him off.

'You should not be here,' dad said.

'We were going to go home—' Peter rambled.

'I don't want to hear it,' said dad.

'But it was such a long way down and I just though about you on the way—'

'And now I gotta hear it.'

'And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So, If anything, it's kinda your fault that we're here.'

'He didn't mean that' I said quickly. I tap my ring to take off my mask.

'Right, I take that back,' Peter said. 'And now we're here in space.'

'Yeah,' my dad walks closer to us. 'Right where I don't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. Neither of you could have possibly thought this through.'

'No,' I said. 'We did think this through.'

'You could not have possibly thought this through,' dad said.

'Its just...' Peter said. 'You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-man if there's no neighborhood.' He pauses for a second. 'Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say.'

My dad takes a deep breath. 'Come on. We got a situation.' He leads us over to where we can see the wizard. He didn't look very comfortable. 'See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go.'

'Um. Okay. Okay...uh...' Peter mutters as he assesses the situation. 'Okay. Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?' I roll my eyes.

Despite his stupidity, Peter's plan was a pretty good one. Blast a hole into the side of the ship and then leave it up to Peter and me to get the wizard. I was going to get there first. Not that it's a competition, of course. We stay hidden until dad needs our help.

'I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend,' dad said to squidward. 'Saving his life is more a professional courtesy.'

Squidward walks towards him slowly, beckoning two very large metal objects to float behind him. 'You're saving nothing. Your powers are inconsequential to mine.'

'Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies,' dad said.

He fired a rocket from his shoulder and pierces the side of the ship. It begins to suck everything out with depressurization. The wizard is pulled loose of the needles and also heads for the hole. The cloak tries to help but it doesn't do anything, not being strong enough to stop the wizard. I jump down and use my powers to keep the wizard in place, forgetting the fact I would be moving closer to the hole. A web wraps around my feet keeping me in place and my dad plugs the hole. I let the wizard fall gently to the floor and crouch down, summoning energy to just my finger and cutting the web off my feet. I double tap my ring to get rid of my suit as I look around the ship. I walk up to stand next to Peter as the wizard gets up and the cloak goes around him. That thing is very loyal.