By Moonlight (P.P + M.J)

13. I'm No Hero

Personally, Peter thought she'd smack him. As he swung away from Michelle, he whooped joyously, not being able to keep his emotions in. His stomach was on fire, and yelling seemed to help release some of the tension.

I thought that went well.

"Yeah, Karen, good call," Peter said to his A.I companion, who was the one that told him to kiss Michelle.

She's special, isn't she? Like Liz was.

Peter hadn't given Liz much thought recently. He felt like he could officially say he was over her. Around her, Peter would stumble over his words. But with Michelle, he felt like he could've talked all night. And she had been wearing his glasses! That was a big surprise. He remembered throwing them away after he found out he could see perfectly without them. Had he missed the trash can and she just happened to pick them up? Still, that had been the most surprising thing to him. It was also unexpected that she didn't immediately call out his identity. He figured Michelle would recognize him, because she was pretty smart despite what she made herself out to be. Maybe she did know, maybe she didn't. There was no better poker face than hers.

"Yeah, I think so," Peter agreed as he rounded the corner, remembering her fascinated face when he told his stories, or the way her eyes sparkled when he said he had lifted an entire building. He could have very well talked to her well into the night. He didn't realize how much he wanted her attention until then. She truly had given him everything.

He came up to a street where the fire truck had stopped. A five story office building was completely consumed in fire, and people were causing a panic, crying out to workers stuck inside. The firemen were aiming a powerful hose at the building, trying to extinguish the flames. Others tried to break down the main door. Cops were surrounding the perimeter, forming a line to keep back the growing number of pedestrians.

"I'm going in. Scan the floors so I can pinpoint where everyone is," Peter told Karen. Not waiting for her response, he shot a web and slung himself across the street, diving through a flaming window. He thought he may have heard a someone call out to him in joy, but he wasn't sure.

Thanks to Mr.Stark's genius, Peter's mask filtered out most of the smoke, and his suit was fireproof. It was still hard to see, even with all the features of his mask. Karen couldn't even do much to help him except for pinpointing where people were, but he ended up stumbling blindly through the burning building.

He found three people within a few minutes, and carried them out of the window down to the waiting firemen. He went back and forth two more times, but saw that he wasn't even to the third floor yet. He needed to move faster, but he was only one guy. The building was losing stability, and he feared that he wouldn't get everybody out in time.

These thoughts coursed through his mind as he tried to lift a flaming wall off a trapped civilian, whose legs were stuck. The man cried out in pain, but Peter couldn't get a good grip on the wall, and the flames that struck out at him made him recoil. He was wasting time, but he couldn't just leave the man.

Suddenly, a large figure appeared beside him, fixing their hands bravely under the wall and lifting it up with ease. At first, Peter thought it was Mr.Stark coming to help him out in his Iron Man suit. He was quickly proved wrong by the lack of blinking lights and much more powerful frame, and mainly, the waving tail. Peter could only watch in a mixed reaction of both awe and confusion, recognizing the stranger to be his strange new nemesis, Werewolf, wearing black sport shorts with a blue streak down the side.

But he wasn't being very nemesis-y. In fact, he was being helpful. Werewolf heaved the wall back and pointed at him, gesturing for Peter to take the injured man. Wary of his new-found help, Peter did as he was told, taking the worker outside, where paramedics had begun to arrive. Peter remembered telling Happy about Werewolf, but he had just brushed him off. Why did the glorified bodyguard never believe him when it came to bad guys? Was it that he said he had  fought a werewolf, or lycan according to Ned. Either way, he wasn't sure Happy had told Mr.Stark.