Orphic | Spider-Man

TWENTY-SEVEN

LATER THAT NIGHT, Octavia heard and saw Spider-Man swinging and flipping before landing on the established building where she called the meeting.
When he landed, Spider-Man waved and approached Octavia, slinging a bag off his shoulder.
"Sorry I'm late, I needed to find something big enough to carry the drone in," Spider-Man held the bag in front of him, and Octavia cackled.
It was a mauve leather Kate Spade backpack purse.
"You have an interesting taste for style, Spidey," Octavia smiled as her actuators Amy and Beth walked her over to him.
Under the mask, Peter blushed. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't have much of a fashion sense," he unzipped the bag and pulled out the drone as Octavia stared at the bag.
"It's a good color. Reminds me of the one Peter's aunt has. She loves that style."
"Is she stylish?" Spider-Man asked.
"Very," Octavia smiled with a nod.
"I don't follow trends," he shrugged. "I make my own,"
Octavia shook her head and laughed. "Tell me about the drone."

Spider-Man set the bag down on the ground and stepped closer to Octavia, holding the drone with both hands.
"I'm picking the insides apart back at my base, one I think is a tracker—"
"You have a base?" Octavia asked, raising a brow. "What do you call it? The Spider Web? The Egg Sack?"
Spider-Man leaned back in disgust. "Ew! No, no, it's just my base," he paused looking back at the drone before looking back at Octavia. "Egg Sack?"
She slapped his shoulder and motioned to the drone. "Go on!"
"So," Spider-Man continued. "I'm sure one of the electronic panels I'm working at is a tracker. I don't think the last warehouse we were at was their base. It was too out in the open, and nothing there looked like storage for them. I think that was just a place to meet and talk. They do this a lot: meet somewhere, business elsewhere. The meetings spots are always new, but the business has to be in a place police haven't looked yet, it has to be a non-conspicuous place, nothing the cops would ever guess—"
      "Inconspicuous." Octavia corrected.
      Spider-Man nodded. "My bad. Anyways, we find out where the tracker has been—an IP address would be the X marking the spot on the map."
      Octavia nodded. "Charles Senior is working with the Mambas to take control of Oscorp to merge Vibrant within it. How does he think my dad will give it up so easily?"
      "The drones," Spider-Man said. "We've both seen what they can do, and Vibrant focused particularly on electronics and ground-breaking technology. Imagine what he could do if he had Oscorp: making high-grade A military weapons, and with the help of the Mambas, he's definitely giving Castiel a cut of the money and weapons,"
The thought didn't occur to Peter until he said the words aloud. "Crime is going to sky-rocket," his breathing was beginning to quicken. "I...I won't be able to do it all alone,"
Octavia looked at Spider-Man, grabbing his shoulder to pull him out of his thoughts. He was nearly beginning to hyperventilate as he staggered back.
"I-I can't do this," he had a hand to his head while the other dropped the drone. Amy was quick to catch it while Beth balanced Octavia before Joe took Amy's place on the ground.
      "Yes, you can," Octavia told him. "You're Spider-Man, you've proven you can do anything. How does the theme song go?"
      Spider-Man took a deep breath in, fiddling with his hands and looking everywhere but Octavia.
      "Spidey, listen," she grabbed both his shoulders.
      He backed away. "No, no, no, you don't understand," he told her. "You're finding it fun now, right? You feel good doing good, and that's how heroes should always feel, right? That's their motive, their motto, the creed they live their life by. Heroes don't ask for anything in return, they give and give to everyone, and that's what's supposed to make them happy, but no one will ever notice how much they're struggling. The happiness, the good feelings, they make you feel on top, and then after a while they snowball into a decline.
      "Soon, everything that made you feel happy, that made you feel on top of the world is starting to suffocate you," he breathed in deeply and shakily let it out. "I...I feel like a rubber band, everything in my life is pulling me one way or the other and...and I'm about to snap,"