Caught In A Web (Peter Parker/Tom Holland)

Chapter 23

Peter changed out of his suit and we went down to find Stark. This was an urgent situation. We walked down several hallways before finding someone, Happy.

"Happy!" I called out. He looked over and smiled. Then he glanced over at Peter. His smile faded.

"What?" He asked annoyed. I approached him, Peter staggered behind.

"We need Stark, where is he?" I asked.

"Why do you need him?" He asks.

"Urgent situation," I say, giving him a convincing look. He huffed.

"He's down the hall in the room on the left," He says, defeated.

"Thanks!" I say happily before signaling Peter to follow me.

We walk down the hall and find the room Happy told us where Stark was. We opened the door to see Stark sitting at a conference table looking through papers. He looks up and gives us an annoyed look.

"Children, I'm about to have a meeting, get out," He says.

"Wait!" Peter says walking towards him. "We have a problem."

"Don't we all?" Stark says.

"You got that right," I mumbled.

"Did you happen to see the creepy live broadcast on TV?" Peter questions.

"What?" Stark asks.

"Yeah, all the missing people were kidnapped by this guy who calls himself the Mangler. He hacked the TV system and sent out a live broadcast of him talking then showing one of the captured men dead. This seems serious," Peter explains.

Stark looks at us, a bit concerned. He presses his finger up to his earpiece.

"Happy, cancel the meeting...I don't care if they're here, cancel it," He says. He then takes his finger off his earpiece. "What did the so called 'Mangler' say in the broadcast?"

"Uh, he said something about making everyone in New York mangled soon," I said. Stark just stared at us.

"Huh," He says before pulling up something on his phone. "Let me guess, Peter you want to stop this guy, don't you," Stark says not looking up from his phone.

Peter gives him a defeated look.

"Is it that obvious?" Peter asks.

"Kid, everything with you is obvious," Stark laughs. Peter looks down at the ground, embarrassed. I look at Peter then back to Stark. "Alright. Why not?"

Peter looks up happily.

"Really? You're going to let me?" Peter asks, excited.

"Yeah, as long as you don't do anything stupid this time," He says looking up from his phone. "I'm just glad this time you actually got my permission."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark, I won't let you down, I promise," Peter says happily. Stark gives a small smile, barely visible.

"No problem kid."

---

A couple of days had gone by and more people had gone missing. It was all children this time. All under the age of 10. It sickened me.

"I don't get it!" Peter huffs next to me. We were sitting on top of a building. Our feet dangling off the side. Peter had been looking at all the last seen places of all the children. They were all places that a child could have been easily abducted. Grocery store, playground, malls. "Why can't I find a single trace of this guy or the victims?"

"Well, all those places were places a child could have easily been abducted. Maybe there are cameras?" I ask him.

"I don't know, I can't just go in and ask, can I?" He asks as he looks over at me. I shrug.

"I don't know, maybe you could?" I say. The eyes on his mask widen.

"I'll go do that! Stay here!" He says before standing up.

"I can't get down, so don't forget me," I say. He nods before shooting a web and swinging away. I watch as he disappears from my view.

I take out my phone and look up more information about all the children that went missing. I scrolled down the news article and saw a picture of a little boy at a playground.

"This picture was taken moments before Kellen Grant was taken from plain sight," I read from the caption out loud. I examined the picture.

The little boy had chestnut hair and had a large smile planted on his face. He was on the slide. He looked so happy. I smile. Then I noticed something in the background.

A van. A black van sitting in the distance. No one is in it. It looks suspicious.

I look at it more carefully. I see a figure near the car. In all black, the face isn't visible.

"Huh," I mumble.

I scroll down more and found another picture that was also taken the same day the little girl in the photo was taken.

They were in their home. She was blowing out candles. It was her birthday. In the background, barely visible, was the same black in the window behind her. It was parked down the street, but this time I could see the figure in the open. They weren't hiding that time.

Those were the only wo pictures of the children and both had a pretty big clue in them. I just had to remember. The black van.

---

An hour had passed before Peter came swinging onto the building again.

"Veronica!" He almost yells as he lands on the top of the building. I stand up, eager to tell him about the black van.

"I found a clue!" I said approaching him.

"I did too!" he says, happily. "I snuck into a grocery store security room and found camera footage. I saw him! He led a little boy to a black van outside the store!"

"I figured out the black van too! There are pictures of two of the missing children moments before they were taken and the same black van is in both of the pictures," I say. "That's what you need to look for, the black van!"

"Yes! We're getting somewhere!" He says happily. He tackles me in a hug. I hug him back happily. He lifted his mask up and kissed me. I kissed him back, smiling into the kiss.

We were happy now, but as everyone knows, happiness doesn't last long.