Going Through Changes -> Peter Parker

19.

" One hundred meters from destination and closing.", the female voice of the spider suit told Peter, who was riding on top of a truck, his body tensing in its superhero position. There was nothing to see, only grass beside the highway and the dark shadow of a building in the distance. "Jump now.", the suit spoke up, and Peter chose to trust her. He leaped off the truck and rolled down onto the patch of grass. As he stood up, partly hidden from the tall greenery, he could make out the abandoned gas station more clearly.
The boy approached carefully but fast, covering behind one of the old gas pumps. The station was dark, with only a couple of trucks in the driveway. "Detecting three individuals," the suit provided him with more information while he crouched and observed. "Their secret lair is a gas station? That's so lame.", the boy huffed to himself while crawling on top of the empty gas price sign. The interface of his suit began to chance. "Hey, suit lady, what are you doing?", he asked confused, having never seen that feature before. "Do you want to hear what they're saying?", was her response. Peter was baffled. "I can hear what they are saying? Uh, yeah." "Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance mode."

The display changed again, zooming in on one of the trucks, showing three silhouettes talking to each other quietly. "I got the gauntlet from the Lagos cleanup. The rest is my design" Peter knew the voice that was bragging about their new toy. It was one of the criminals he had encountered before. The new suit mode was just unique. "That's so cool!" Peter voiced his excitement in a whisper. He could only imagine what other things his suit was now capable of, and he was thrilled just thinking about it. "Can't believe they're still cleaning up that Triskelion mess.", another voice responded to his colleague. It also sounded familiar. "I love it.", the third person joined the conversation. "They keep making messes and, we keep getting rich." The other two hummed in agreement.
"Getting rich?", Peter asked himself. His interest was now peaked. Suddenly, the first man signaled for his friends to stay quiet. "Target inbound.", he announced what they had been waiting for. Realization hit Peter. It was a heist. He crept closer to get a better look at what was about to happen. "Would you like me to engage Enhanced Combat mode?" the suit lady asked, having read his intentions. Peter had no idea what that meant but answered, " Uh, yeah?", anyways. "Activating Instant Kill." Targets plopped up in his vision, and he could feel how the suit changed its appearance. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" Peter quickly corrected the suit. "I don't want to kill anybody!" The suit immediately accepted his instruction: "Deactivating Instant Kill." The suit changed back, and the red blinking dots on his display disappeared. Peter jumped down the sign with his usual lightness, but instead of catching himself with his webs, he landed face-forward on the hard asphalt. He grunted in pain. "Did you hear that?", one of the criminals caught the sound vaguely, but his colleagues denied it.

"What the hell just happened?" Peter asked the suit, confused. "You jumped down the sign and landed on your face.", the suit gave him a perfect summary, but Peter ignored it, busy trying to identify the problem with his web-shooters. Instead of his usual strings, web pellets shoot out of them, looking like little snowballs as they fell in the grass. "Suit lady, what is wrong with my web-shooters?". It was impossible to fight with this.

"Rapid-fire is the default for Enhanced Combat Mode.", the suit lady happily explained while he tried his best to hide behind another sign. Peter was even more confused: "Why would I need rapid-fire?" "Would you like to see more options?", as before, the suit was unfazed by his confusion and showed him its 576 possible web-shooter combinations without waiting for an answer. "Mr.Stark really overdid it.", Peter muttered to himself, viewing the options. Now he understood why Liam had been against taking down the baby monitor protocol. Then, the criminals started their operation, oblivious to the spider-man struggling in the background. "You seem very unfamiliar with your web-shooter settings. Would you like to run a refresher course?", the suit asked after several failed attempts to find a web he could actually use. "no, just ...you choose.", Peter sighed as an answer. "Sure thing." What a Tony Stark thing to say. Peter rolled his eyes at that and sat down on the roof, sick and tired of the whole situation. Maybe this was the time to call for help.

While Peter was watching and debating on whether to call Liam or not, three new trucks approached the gas station with the Vulture hot on their heels. Peter immediately spots him. How impressed would Liam and Tony be if he managed to catch that guy? He observed as Vulture dropped a cube on the roof of the last truck. It splits into four pieces that great a blue, glowing portal leading inside. Peter couldn't help but be impressed. And just like that, the Vulture dropped from the sky, right through the portal, the convoy's drivers utterly unaware of what was happening to them.

The spider-man needed more time to climb the trailer. As he reached the portal, he carefully touched it, his fingers going right through."Woah! Cool. It's some kind of matter phase shifter!", he awed at the marvelous technology. But the marveling was cut short as the Vulture rose into view again, making Peter back off. The villain kneeled down to zip the duffle bag he had just filled with whatever tech was in that truck.
"Alright, coming up!", he told his accomplices right before he jumped back through the portal, landing right next to Peter, who took the chance and shot a web at the bag to take it away. "Hey, Bird Boy! This doesn't belong to you!" Vulture's green eyes glared at Peter, and he immediately knew this wouldn't be fun and games but an actual, challenging fight. "Oh, god.", Peter let out as he realized that calling Liam for backup would have been a good choice. Now he had to face the intimidating villain all by his own in a suit that didn't work anymore. Oh, how he wished he could be in the pool with his teammates right now.