The Girl and the Superhero{Peter Parker}

Part 22(Peter's POV)

          The cords around Kenzie's arms and ankles were insanely strong. Unlike any other metal I had felt before.

          "Karen, do we have anything that can cut through this stuff?" I whispered through my voice modulator. My arms burned from trying to pry the cords off of her hands.

          "There is nothing we have that could free her from her bonds without harming her wrists or ankles," Karen responded.

          Cursing under my breath, I looked down at Kenzie. Despite the situation, she was still smiling. She looked up at me like I was the only thing she could see. Even though I knew that Spider-Man has been her hero for ages, I kept forgetting that I was Spider-Man. The only thought running through my head was that Kenzie was safe.

          Now, my job was to make her feel like it.

          "However, the metal seems to have weakened since you've been pulling on it. I could magnify the pulling force in your suit so that the cords might dislodge faster?" Karen offered.

          Groaning, I said, "You could have done that the whole time? Yes. Yes, please do that."

          I pulled on the cords around her ankles once again, and they snapped after a few seconds. Annoyance and relief did a relay race inside of my stomach. Wish I would have known the suit could do that earlier, I thought bitterly.

          The bonds around her wrists broke in a similar fashion to the ones on her ankles. As soon as she was free, she stared at me in amazement and enveloped me in a hug. I hugged her back, my throat burning in an effort not to cry anymore. She's okay, Peter. She's okay.

          "Thank you for saving me. I don't even know why you came for me or how you found me, but thank you so much. I don't even know what to say." Kenzie's arms tightened around my neck, her head buried in my shoulder. I felt a sudden wetness on my collarbone. I pulled away from her slightly and wiped away the tears that were falling, grateful to my suit for hiding my own.

          "It's okay, it's okay. Of course I came." I responded breathlessly.

          Kenzie laughed softly. "What are you going to do with the guys you knocked out and stuff?" she asked with a small grin.

          Oh. Right. "Um, I'll call back to HQ and someone will come and get them. Probably." I decided.

          Kenzie offered to walk, just like she did back at camp. One look at her, though, and I knew that wasn't going to happen, regardless of if I would let her or not. Her ankles were swollen up around the white line where the cords had suffocated them, a purplish tint barely visible in the darkness. I assumed that because she had been so focused on escaping, she hadn't even registered the pain that should have been exploding from her ankles.

          So we compromised. Meaning that I told her that I would not make her walk in a million years, and she decided she would let me take her home.

          We ended up hitching a ride on top of a train for most of the way back, because I needed some time to calm my pounding heart and racing mind.

          Kenzie stayed close to me as we watched New York fly by in a whirl of grayscale. Her tattered red dress and my suit were the only spots of color in the otherwise monochrome world surrounding us.

          "So, what's it like being a superhero? Rescuing people all the time, making them feel like they are worth saving?" she asked me.

          "It's crazy. I guess I've always wanted to help people because there was a, um, certain person that was a hero to me when I was a kid. And it changed my life. I'm really not the best person to ask, though. Mostly, I feel like I just screw everything up." I said. That 'certain someone' was Kenzie, of course. She was proof to me that even the smallest acts of kindness can truly change the world.