Spider-Man: No Way Home [6]

1

Queens, New York, 2024

"Spider-Man's name is Peter Parker!"

A large picture of Peter Parker showed on the screen.

"Shit," Astra Hart muttered.

Up on the lamppost, her boyfriend yelled, "What the fu-"

A loud car horn cut him off.

"That's right, folks, Peter Parker!" announced J. Jonah Jameson, a reporter for TheDailyBugle.net. "A seventeen-year-old high school delinquent..."

Peter looked down from the lamppost, straight at Astra. She shied away, avoiding his gaze.

"She knows him!" someone exclaimed.

"Are you Spider-Man's girlfriend?" asked a man. "Are you Spider-Man's girlfriend Do you know the Indigo Fairy?"

"...is, in fact, the vile vigilante villain Spider-Man. There's no telling what he and the Indigo Fairy are up to now..." Jameson continued.

Peter jumped down from the lamppost, earning a gasp from the crowd. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, please don't touch her, sir," he said, running up to Astra.

"You're just a kid?" asked an old man.

"You murdered Mysterio?" someone else demanded. The woman looked over at Astra. "You helped him murder Mysterio? Do you know the Indigo Fairy?"

"No, I didn't..." Peter began.

"Come on, kid, let me see your face," said the woman, reaching for Peter's mask.

"Come on." Peter wrapped an arm around Astra and they walked right through the crowd, accidentally hitting the woman in the process.

"He hit me. Spider-Man hit me!" she complained loudly.

"All this time, people looked up to this boy and called him a hero," Jameson continued as Peter and Astra swung up onto a car and up into the air. "Well, I'll tell him what I call him: public enemy number 1!"

Pictures of Peter's face displayed on the screens around them. Some of them had half his face, the other half being the Spider-Man mask.

"I told you, I don't want to do this again! Why couldn't I just fly us home?" Astra yelled, wrapping her arm around Peter's hand.

"Astra, I'm so sorry, but I can't see anything with your hand in my-"

"Sorry," Astra said, lowering her hand. "Where are we gonna go?"

"Well, you can't fly us home or else everyone will know you're the Indigo Fairy!" said Peter. "We could go to your house?"

"No!!" Astra yelled. "We cannot go to your house, my mom'll kill you!"

"What?" said Peter. "I thought you said your mom really liked me!"

"Yeah, you put me in danger back in London and you could have exposed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reformation in the process, so not anymore!" Astra told him.

They landed on a beam above a bridge, and Peter pulled out his buzzing phone.

"Dude," he exclaimed.

"Dude!" came Ned's voice over the phone.

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

"DUDE!!"

"DUDE!!!!!!" Ned screamed.

"Dude!" For someone who could fly, Astra did not like heights. Especially when it was windy and she was in public and couldn't use her powers.

"I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Peter ran to her.