As Luck Would Have It

15) Heated Heist

Peter rushed to the roof as fast as his arms and legs could carry him. The sense of urgency was growing as his adrenaline spiked. He arrived at the edge of the roof where he observed the damage. At first, he couldn't see anything, the smoke of the explosion was too thick and wide to make anything out. It slowly rose into the air dramatically, letting its image invoke a sense of fear into those that gazed upon it.

As the smoke cleared, Peter hastily jumped down from his ledge to look for any survivors. He cautiously walked forward through the street littered with debris and noticed someone standing up ahead of him. He started to jog toward them, but soon found himself falling to the ground. After realizing that he had tripped, he looked back to see what tripped him. He saw that he had fallen into a crater punched into the asphalt street that measured about a yard or two in diameter. This must be where the bomb was planted, he thought as regained his footing, and continued to the person that he was rushing to.

Peter came upon a middle-aged man that wore a torn-up jacket and sweat pants. His beard was all messy and his face was all bloody from the impact of the explosion. "Hey, you o.k." he asked the helpless man, to which the man just twitched his head in shock of what happened. Peter couldn't help but observe his eyes. He held a hand to one eye to brace some cut or burn, and the other eye was wide-open, almost like he was experiencing the whole event over again.

Peter looked back to see if there was a safe path for him to carry him through and saw a clearing near the community center wall. He faced forward to observe what other damage had been done. An electronics shop had received the most damage from the blast and was now a raging inferno within its walls. Next door, the front window of a children's daycare was shattered and the carpeting behind it was in flames. Being in the middle of the day, Peter knew that there would be people in each building, and it was up to him to get them out. He quickly shifted his attention to the bodies of other struggling survivors that were scattered around him and knew that he couldn't abandon them either. He huffed in frustration and lifted the gentleman in front of him to his feet and slung his arm around his shoulders to keep him up.

He carried the gentleman to the clearing he saw before, which was starting to fill up with people from inside the center that wanted to see what happened. As Peter and the gentleman were clear of the smoke, Mr. Jones came out and rushed to the two of them.

"Hey, we got you sir, come on" he said with a comforting voice, as he slung the gentleman's other arm over his shoulders. The man coughed heavily as the two Samaritans walked him to the steps of the center. Jones helped the man sit down while Spider-Man kept him from falling over. Michelle soon made her way out into the chaos and marveled at the sight of her father and Spider-Man helping an injured civilian.

"Thanks for the help" Spider-Man thanked, which earn a respectful nod from Mr. Jones. He checked the man for any major injuries before reengaging with the web-slinger.

"Can we do anything to help" he asked, feeling the urgency of the situation. Peter was thankful that  Michelle's father so willing to help others, even if it meant possibly getting hurt in the process.

"Yeah," he responded quickly, not wasting time for the tech shop to burn any further before someone died, "call 911 if no one has already, and clear any survivors out of the streets before things get worse."

He turned around to shoot a web at a nearby streetlight but was stopped by a final question from Mr. Jones. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going in" he anxiously said, as he propelled himself into the air toward the blaze, and the father and daughter watched as he swung himself through the blasted window and into the fire. Once the hero was out of sight, Michelle and her father rallied as many bystanders as possible to help them get the surviving bodies away from all the carnage.