Rise || Marvel

《30》Lets Give It Up For Team Work!

(Song: Fire - Gavin DeGraw)

《 Peter's POV 》

These vents stink. Literally. And they were narrow- almost too narrow for me to crawl through. I couldn't even see where the heck I was going.

"I regret my decision to do this..." I grumbled to no one in particular, unless some ghost or something was stalking me. No, bad Peter. Don't freak yourself out more by thinking about supernatural beings.

That's when I hit a wall.
Well, not exactly a wall. I had evidently reached a turn, and being unable to actually see where I was going, I had crawled face-first into the cool metal of the vents.

"Damn!" I yelped, reeling backwards, consequently bumping my head on the top of the stupid ventilation shaft, too, "Are you kidding me?!"

Grumbling, I continued to wriggle forwards. This new path was slightly more illuminated than the last. I squinted. A square of light was piercing through the darkness ahead. An exit to these ridiculous vents?

With renewed rigor, I scrambled towards the light. As it turns out, I was right. The source of light was indeed an exit. I grunted, shoving my elbow against the metal grate. It didn't budge.

"Oh, come on."

I adjusted my position, and tried again, this time slamming my whole fist into the panel with more force. I winced as the ear-splitting screech of metal on metal rang out as the grate popped right off. Firing a strand of webbing, I managed to catch it before the grate could clatter loudly to the tiled floor below.

Finally!

I dropped down from the vent shaft in relief, then straightened up to survey my surroundings. I appeared to be in a kitchen. Two, long silver benches ran along the length of the room. The walls were lined with pantries and utensil basins. A wide sink was fitted between the two big benches. I breathed a sigh of relief. Apart from myself, the room was conveniently empty. Just behind me, a pair of doors loomed. I gently pushed one open and peeked down the hallway.

Deserted.

I had just slipped into the corridor, when a door slammed shut on the floor above. I froze, listening hard. Muffled thumps were echoing through the floor, following by an unmistakable smashing noise. I began to run towards the window at the end of my corridor, determined to get to the next floor.

"PETER! I FOUND SOMETHING!"

Tia's voice shouted from both the floor above.

"On it!"

I fiddled with the catch on the window, hurriedly sliding the glass pane open. Upon crawling out onto the outside wall, I was pleased to see another window just above me. I shot a web towards the upper outside window frame, pulling myself up with ease. Through the glass, I could see the back of a ginger-haired boy advancing towards Tia.

"Can you get him closer to the window?" I requested through my earpiece, awkwardly waving to let my comrade know where I was.

"I'll try..." Came the reply. There was a burst of fire, and Tia lunged forward, swinging her staff in a wide arc at the intruder. He dodged by leaping backwards and skidding to a halt about a foot away from the window.

"Perfect!"

I pushed off the wall with all the strength I could muster, keeping a firm grip on my webbing. Using the momentum of my swing, I crashed feet-first through the window. The boy half turned, but it was too late. He was knocked forward as I collided with him.

I stepped back.

This guy was most certainly not a resident.

《 Tia's POV 》

Glass fragments sprayed everywhere as Peter burst through the window behind the black-eyed intruder guy who I had decided to call 'Shady Dude'. The force of the younger male's kick sent Shady Dude toppling forwards.

"Commence operation Scorpion!" I suggested as Shady Dude surged to his feet. More of the dark wind was spiralling around his arms, swirling hypnotically.

"Go for it," Peter acknowledged, crouching low to the floor (full disclosure time, neither Peter no I actually had 'operations' actually planned- we were essentially improvising and slapping a cool title over it all).
Shady Dude let out a low hissing noise of frustration. I recognised it as the same sound I made whenever I was doing Math homework. He flicked his onyx gaze between Peter and I, as if trying to determine who would move first.
Shady Dude was standing in about the middle of the long hallway, whereas Peter and I were positioned at either end, blocking the window and staircase.

In an instant, I teleported directly in front of Shady Dude. Flames whirled wildly about as I jerked my staff up. I threw my weight against it, barrelling into Shady Dude forcefully.

Fwip!

I heard Peter swing forward. A moment later, two patches of webbing had covered Shady Dude's hands and wrists, pinning them firmly to the wall I had shoved him into. Edging back, I kept the tip of my staff pressed against Shady Dude's sternum gravely. Beside me, Peter had both arms raised, ready to shoot more webs if needed.

"It actually worked!" I whispered gleefully to the brown-haired male. Peter gave me the thumbs-up with one of his hands.

"What do we do with him now?" He asked.

"We should probably call Tony," I mused, "Judging from this dude's shadow-y abilities, I don't really think handing him over to the police would be the safest option."

"Right, I'll do that now... Karen? Call Mr. Stark, please..." Peter instructed his suit's AI system.

"You know, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to hurt you," Shady Dude sighed dramatically.

"Shut it, you don't get to talk right now," I snapped, "You're trespassing and you tried to harm an innocent citizen earlier. That is not okay."

He sneered at me.

"He picked up!" Peter suddenly exclaimed in relief, "Yeah, hi Mr. Stark! Uh, listen... About the 'errand' you sent us on, something really weird came up over here."

"You should've listened," Shady Dude muttered forlornly.

"What're you talking about now?" I frowned. Shady Dude abruptly lunged forward, the webbing around his hands being rendered useless as he seemingly let his hands drift right through them. In his right hand, the dark wind condensed into a small, double-sided frEAKING AXE, ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

Peter was still distracted, talking to Tony and blissfully unaware of Shady Dude aiming right at him with the tiny murder axe, "Um, yeah. Yeah, we're both alright. So, uh, could you maybe- OOF!"

His sentence was interrupted because I may or may not have thrown my staff down and tackled him. We tumbled to the ground, the 'swoosh' of the metal weapon ringing through the air mere centimetres above our heads.

"Craaaaap..." I cursed under my breath. I groped for my staff, but then remembered I had tossed it aside moments earlier.

Shady Dude straightened up and took a step back, a flicker of a smile flitting across his features. He twirled his axe around his fingers, vanishing it into a puff of dark wind, "You two were lucky what I was searching for isn't here. No walls can contain me, guys. I would advise you not to try and find me again... Just a word of warning."

His gaze met mine. Good, I was giving my best death glare and I didn't want it to be wasted. For a second, he seemed to hesitate, cocking his head to the side.

"Go to hell," I snapped irritably.

"I am hell!" He retorted sassily.

"Take one step closer, and you'll be sorry..." I threatened. Behind me, Peter thrust out his hand. A strand of webbing shot towards Shady Dude. Shady Dude shook his head, grinning. Then, he vanished into the shadows, leaving the web to smack into the far wall.