I Am Karen - Spider-Man / Peter Parker [1]

Chapter Twenty-Four - Crash Landing

"I've got you; I've got you"

Three words she thought she would never hear coming from a voice she thought she had heard the last of.

"Bloody hell..." Maria muttered as she clung onto Peter tightly, her arms locked around his neck. Somehow by some miracle Peter had finally believed the fact that he was Spider-Man and Spider-Man was Peter Parker, allowing him to lift a building before thankfully managing to scale a billboard in time to catch Maria mid fall.

Maria wasn't really thinking about how he did it but she was glad he had caught her and had found something to stick his webbing too that allowed their fall to be slower and steady. Though the sudden impact of a body and the massive jolt hurt, Maria knew it was all bruises and nothing more. Peter had managed to cradle her neck and body properly upon catching her to minimise her injuries despite everything. She owed him more than she could repay.

Eventually, Maria felt the hard ground beneath her feet once more. It was only once her feet were on the ground that she could feel how shaky her limbs had become. She had very nearly met the ground in a very different fashion.

"Stay here, I need to catch him" Peter suddenly said as he gently pried Maria's locked hands from around his neck. As his words slowly registered, Maria's mouth fell open in shock. Peter was still going after the madman who had just dropped a building on his head. "Phone your dad and Happy, I'm not sure if Ned got through." With that Peter turned and was running up another empty billboard again chasing after the Vulture who was just within his reach.

"No, Peter -" Her opposition fell on deaf ears. She watched in utter shock as Peter was able to just catch up the Vulture and attach a piece of webbing to his wingsuit before he shot up into the sky, his eyes clearly on his prize.

Maria had two options open to her: let the situation become too much and overwhelm her to the point where she became useless ... or push her feelings aside and focus on stopping the Vulture. She didn't really have an option.

Quickly, she was nodding her head and turning around to face the location of her parked car. The only why she was going to catch up with the plane was by car. In under a minute, Maria was throwing open the black car's door and jumping into the driver's seat.

"Phone Happy Hogan" Maria ordered the moment she slipped into the sleek black car. KAREN picked up the demand and swiftly followed orders. The sound of the phone ringing echoed through the car's speakers. It took several moments before Happy's cheery (since he knew it was Maria) voice could be heard.

"Hi Maria, I thought it was your Homecoming tonight what are you doing phoning me?" Maria could just imagine Happy in that moment, happily strolling along with a tablet in his hand, believing that he had successful completed Moving Day.

"Change of plans, you know Moving Day –" Maria started whilst her hands went through the appropriate movements within the car.

"Hey look it's all sorted the planes en-route" Happy said trying to ease Maria's mind unaware she knew more than him.

"The plane's being hijacked" Maria stated bluntly to Happy's great horror.

"What?!"

"Peter's going after it" Maria said before Happy's mind could spiral any further. "A man named Adrian Toomes is the Vulture and he wants Tony Stark's stuff." As Maria was driving dangerously through the city, weaving in and out of cars, she kept an eye on the car's screens where KAREN was operating. Unfortunately, the Stark Cargo Plane had built in reflective panels that caused the plane to turn invisible to the naked eye. Thankfully, not invisible to x-ray scans. Everything was going smoothly until suddenly Maria saw parts of the plane were on fire and two engines were falling from the skies in flames. What was going on?