Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

seven

Peter

Screaming. That was the first thing that Peter heard after the ringing in his ears began to calm down. His hands were pressed tightly against his ears, and he was trying hard not to have a sensory overload. Now would not be a good time for that.

His head snapped towards Ned, who had ducked and covered his head. His friend looked up at him with horror in his eyes. "Dude!" Ned exclaimed. Peter nodded in response. 

Because—yeah—insanity.

Next, Peter looked around for Kai and MJ. They also had ducked and were across the room with Mr. Dorris. Peter and MJ locked eyes for a moment and he noticed her mouth the words, 'go find Alex, idiot.'

Peter's eyes widened. "Alex!" He realized, jumping to his feet. Ned got up with him.

"Peter, wait! It's not safe!" He said.

"I've got to find her, Ned," Peter replied, grabbing ahold of his backpack and unzipping it, revealing the familiar red and blue fabric of his suit.

"She's with Mr. Stark!" Ned countered. "I'm sure she's fine! But dude—running blindly into all of this isn't a good idea—and you know she'll kill you if you die!"

Peter knew Ned was right, he was right about it all—but he didn't care. In that moment, all he could think about was his girlfriend being alone while he sat here sitting on his hands. He couldn't do that to her. He had to protect her—he swore he would. He swore.

So, he ignored Ned and ran. He ran out of the lab and found a place to throw on his suit. The moment his mask covered his face, he was greeted by the familiar voice of his A.I., Karen. "Hello, Peter. It's not 2:30 yet; what are you doing out of school?" She asked.

"Hey, Karen! No time for smalltalk, we've got a problem!" He replied, slinging his backpack against the wall and webbing it in place. "We're at the Stark Compound and there was an explosion. I don't know where Alex is—"

"Tracking her cell phone now."

Peter smiled. Karen always knew exactly what to do. In the mean time, Peter began running through the building, helping people who were trying to get out when he saw them.

"Alexandra appears to be in Ms. Potts' office on the top floor of the compound," Karen spoke.

"All right, thanks, Karen!" Peter turned on his heel and ran. He made it to the staircase and shot a web to the top and flung himself upwards. He didn't have time to run up the stairs. He made it to the third floor and threw the door open. Ms. Potts' office was right down the hall, he was almost there—

"Somebody help me!"

Peter stopped in his tracks. That voice was coming from down the opposite hallway, out of the way of Ms. Potts' office, of Alexandra. Peter stood there, considering what to do. He needed to get to Alexandra—but there was someone else in trouble, too.

"Please, anybody there?!" The person called again.

This snapped Peter right from his thoughts and doubts. He whipped around and sprinted down the hallway towards the voice. The explosion must have been in this area of the building, because a lot of the damage was there. Peter carefully avoided the rubble. "Hello?!" He called out. "Anybody there?"

It took several moments, but the voice responded. "Yeah, hello! I'm trapped in the closet!" The voice replied.

Peter jumped over a pile rubble and found the closet. He pulled at the handle, but it was jammed. "Hold on, I'll get you out!" Peter called. He grabbed the handle and used his strength to rip it clean off. The door fell off its hinges and opened, revealing an older man with graying hair on the other side wearing a custodian uniform.

"I thought I'd be stuck in there forever!" The man said. "Thanks!" He then stared at Peter for a moment and squinted. "Hey now, aren't you that wall crawling hero everybody keeps talking about? What's your name—Bug-Man, right?"

Peter laughed lightly. "It's Spider-Man, actually," He said.

"Ahh, with all you different heroes flyin' around these days, it's hard for me to keep track of who's who!" The man waved him off.

"Here, let's get you out of here," Peter offered. If Alexandra was with Mr. Stark, then she would be okay for the time being—as much as Peter hated to admit that.

Peter used his strength again to bust open a window and grabbed on to the old man. "Don't let go!" He warned and then shot a web out. He swung them down to safety and guided the man towards the group of ambulances and police cars that had gathered outside.

He noticed his classmates had made it out unscathed. He and Ned locked eyes for a moment before Ned nodded to him—he knew what Peter had to do. Peter nodded back.

The old man tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, thanks for gettin' me outta there, Spider-Boy," He said. "We could use more guys like you! You're a real hero!"

Peter had to admit, those words meant a lot to him. He smiled underneath his mask. "It's guys like you that make me the hero I am," He replied, and he meant it. "Now, I've gotta go help my friend. Try to stay out of trouble!"

The old man laughed. Peter took that as his cue and shot another web back up to the window he had broken. He flung himself upwards and back onto the third floor. "Okay, Karen, now we can go get Alex," He said.

"It appears her position has changed, Peter," Karen said.

"What do you mean? Where is she now?" He asked.

"It appears she is on the roof."

Peter internally groaned. The roof. Nothing good ever happened on a roof.

"Well, I guess I'm headed to the roof then," He replied. "Wish me luck."

"Be cautious, Peter," Karen advised.

"C'mon, Karen! This is me we're talking about! I'm always cautious!" Peter headed to the stairwell. "I mean... almost always." He ran up the stairs and made it to the roof access door.

Then he heard a gunshot.

🕷

We lost a great man today. Stan Lee changed our whole universe by creating another. I decided to honor him today with a cameo in this chapter.

Rest easy, Stan. You will be missed... but never forgotten.

~Mads