MAGIC TRICKS [PETER PARKER]

EIGHT

"OKAY, KAREN," Peter said to the A.I inside his suit, "Activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode." A small drone detached itself from his chest and zoomed off. I found myself grinning. "Oh my God, that is so cool..."

We were perched on the top deck of the Staten Island Ferry, where we could see a few shady looking men standing on the parking level. Peter asked the lady inside the suit, Karen, "It's the guy from the bridge, right?" I pursed my lips, eager. I really wished I had a suit lady. "Who's the other guy?"

"Uh, Pete, mind filling me in?" I asked, shifting my knees to where I was in a small squat. "Yeah, gimme a sec- No Karen, stop it with the instant kill already..." he muttered, holding a hand to his ear like he was tuning me out. I sighed, keeping my eyes on the men waiting on the lower deck. "Oh, this is too perfect..." Peter said to me finally, "We got the weapons, the buyer, and the sellers all in one place."

"Looks like we might actually do this, Parker," I grinned quietly. He glanced my way, and I couldn't exactly tell, but I thought he was smiling back. "Wait, no no no, Karen- uh, hey Mr. Stark!" he exclaimed suddenly, turning away from the criminals. I kept my eyes trained on the men, watching as the dealers and buyers began talking. "Uh, hey, Pete-" I turned and slapped his shoulder lightly. One man pulled a huge wad of cash from his pocket. The other revealed the keys to a pickup truck- the one carrying all the weapons. "We should, uh- Peter..." He was still talking to Mr. Stark and I soon realized I couldn't wait for him to give the OK.

With a moments hesitation, I leapt off of the deck into the air, landing on the parking level with the heavy thud of my boots. The men spun around to face me suddenly, startled.

One of my favorite parts of a mission was getting to be someone else behind the mask. It was like acting in a play almost; I got to forget about my screwed up life and beat some dudes up. It made for a good day.

"Sorry guys," I said, an enormous amount of snark coating my voice, "The illegal weapons-deal ferry was at 10:30." Making a small motion with my hands, I swept the man holding the keys off his feet, and grabbed the keys with my free hand. I smirked. "You missed it." They drew their guns and I thrust my hands forward again, picking the nearest man off his feet and slamming him into the railing. Peter swung down over them and shot two with a web, sending them flying into the parked cars behind them. He flipped over, pushing himself off the ground again to kick a man in the chest, only to grapple him with another web to keep him from falling overboard.

"Watch out!" I shouted. Peter ducked just in time to avoid a punch to the head from a tall, burly man wearing some sort of weird, electric-taser version of the brass knuckles. He slid out from underneath the mans arm when he missed and collided with the fence, sending off a wave of sparks. I held the man in place, my glowing white energy surrounding his body as Peter quickly shot webs on his hand to keep him attached to the fence.