Free Fall [PETER PARKER]

FIVE: HEAD SPINNING

chapter five

Everything in Ana's life was feeling like it was finally going on track. School was going great, she had an amazing group of friends, her family was actually settling into a home that was feeling a lot more permanent, and things with her and Peter felt like they were going in the right direction. But as things were feeling like they were about to get a whole lot better, they turned out to be a whole lot worse.

At lunch on Monday, Ana set her tray down beside Peter's and and sat down next to him. Michelle was enraptured in her book that she held out in front if her, while Peter and Ned seemed to be focused on a video Ned had on his phone.

"Oh, hey, Ana. Check this out." He restarted the video and displayed the screen to her, to show a shaky video of a street with a bus crossing an intersection, then a red onesie wearing vigilante swinging on a rope and catching a van that was about to speed right into the midsection of the bus. He pushed it back then swung off camera, with no injuries to him, or any of the riders in the van or bus.

Ana furrowed her brows and shook her head. "Yeah, what about that video?"

Ned's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me? Everything about this video is amazing! Did you not just see him catch that van like it was a football? No dent on the van, the bus, or him." Ana smiled at him, listening to him ramble on. "People are calling him the Spider-Man."

"I guess he is pretty amazing." Ana glanced over at Peter and nudged his shoulder, causing him to wipe the proud smirk off his face from the compliment. "So, what do you think about this Spider-Man, Peter?"

He blinked and looked at Ana, then Ned, and shrugged. "He seems pretty cool, I guess."

Ana grinned, then looked back over at Ned. "Well, I think that it's pretty cool how much you like Spider-dude, and I can definitely see why. The guy has some serious skills." She quirked her brow then said, "Makes me wonder who's under that mask."

Peter's eyes flickered up to look at her. If only she knew that she didn't have to look very far to find out.

Ned continued to ramble on about Spider-Man and his theories about him, along with the Avengers. Ana and Peter listening to him as he did so, nodding along with whatever he said because Ana didn't know much about Spider-Man, and Peter knew everything. Meanwhile, Michelle had blocked everything out as she scrolled through a news article on her phone, reading intently.

"Hey, speaking of the Avengers, they are all over the news right now." She slid her phone to the middle of the table so they all could get a glimpse of a video attached to an article.

The video showed Captain America, and Wanda Maximoff in Lagos. They watched as Wanda lifted a man's body up with her powers, then as he reached a high point next to a tall building, his body exploded like a bomb, blowing up in fiery flames of heat and taking the building with him from the force it exerted. Ana put a hand over her mouth to hold back a gasp from the devastation of it.