faded 🕷️ peter parker [2]

3

Jessica opened her eyes and only saw darkness. She gasped for air, feeling like her lungs hadn't got enough for a few minutes. Breathing was painful for the first exhalations and her head hurt as well. However, she ignored all that once felt something holding her and she immediately pushed it away.

"What?!" She exclaimed, confused. "Where am I?"

She calmed down once she heard Peter's voice. "Shh, Jess, you're with me. It's okay."

"Peter? Oh my God... Why is everything so dark?"

She tried to incorporate herself in a more comfortable position. Her back was beginning to hurt, something metallic was poking her. It wasn't until then that she realised she was wearing her upgraded suit. She had designed herself, with some help from Tony's part, so she activated a flashlight by the side of her helmet. She could see Peter's face now but saw that he was also wearing the suit Stark and she had been developing for him.

"Oh- Okay." He was having trouble getting used to the sudden lighting.

"You wanna tell me where are we?" Jessica asked again and Peter hesitated in answering.

"Not really-"

She remembered what happened. She remembered the spaceship, the battle in Central Park and them being beamed up along with Dr Strange. She put two and two together instantly.

"Oh God, we're in the spaceship, aren't we?"

"Jess..."

"We are on an alien spaceship, leaving earth and flying deeper and deeper into space." Her worst suspicion and also her worst fear were coming true. She couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at the same time that her breathing was increasingly obstructing. "Yeah, I'm definitely panicking."

Peter knew he needed to do something. "Hey, hey, don't worry. Mr Stark is here too, nothing's gonna happen to us. I promise."

Even though Jessica knew he was trying to comfort her, she still felt that was just bullshit. Anything could happen to them. Even if it was part of a plan of Mr Stark's, she still felt reluctant. "Peter we're in outer space."

"I know, but we'll be fine. I promise you." Something told Jessica that he was repeating that not because he was trying to comfort her, which he also was, but because he wanted to believe that. With a great effort, Jessica decided to buy the lie.

She nodded. "Okay."

Peter looked at her before firmly kissing her. It was his way of thanking her for backing him up with this. He then got up. "We can't stay here, we gotta find the wizard."

___

The pair made it out of the small compartment where they initially were and wandered around the spaceship in search of Dr Strange. Eventually, they achieved their pursuit. Peter stealthily crawled the ship's ceiling while Jessica used her powers to levitate. She decided not to use the stabilizers in case the noise they emitted would give away their presence.

Strange was captured by Space Squidward. Lots of needles were being pressed against his body as a method of torture. Close enough to the scene, Tony was silently lurking. Both teens approached him as they heard him talk to himself.

"Wow, you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..." Said Peter as he slipped down. Jessica steadily landed next to him, just in time to see Tony in shock.

"What the-"

Peter cut him off before he could talk. "I know what you're gonna say."

"What are you doing here?"

Jessica frowned. She thought Peter had told her that Stark knew they were there. That this was all planned, so that nothing would happen to them."You told me he knew we were here, that this was his plan!"

"No, I didn't. I just told you he was here too." Jessica's mouth opened when she heard his reply.

Tony was clearly mad at the kid for his decision. "You should not be here."

Peter sighed, trying to find the words to give his explanation. "I was gonna go home."

"I don't wanna hear it." Tony mumbled almost to himself, but Jessica stepped forwards and crossed her arms.

"I do want to hear it."

She waited for the rest of the story with a raised eyebrow. Peter gulped, nervous. "B-but Jess had passed out, it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way and kinda stuck to the side of the ship." He said as fast as he could before turning directly to Tony. "And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So, if anything, it's kinda your fault that we're here."

"What did you just say?" Tony asked in response of his accusation.

"I take that back." Peter quickly added before finishing his story. "And now, we're here in space."

Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers as she processed his words. She started to feel the sharp pain in her chest again as her breathing became more difficult. Stark was rapid to find an argument against Peter's justification. "Yeah, right where I didn't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. This is a one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend you thought this through."

"No, I did think this through."

Tears were starting to form in Jessica's eyes as she thought about all the possibilities this trip could end with. "Oh, I knew you didn't think this through. You could not have possibly thought this through." She fastly panted, what really made Tony worry.

"Hey, Jess, calm down." He walked towards her, examining her face, that was now red and tears were streaming down it. He turned to Peter, perplexed. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's been freaking out since she found out we're in outer space."

"Of course she is! And so should you!" Tony yelled at the oblivious boy. "Hey, kid, Jessica. Look at me." He forced her to make eye contact with him. The scared girl just cried for help. 

"Tony... Tell me we're going back."

The older man sighed, saddened that he couldn't do what she was asking for. "Sweetheart, you gotta keep it together, okay?" He wiped her tears. "I cannot promise you anything right now. But you gotta calm down. Can you do that for me?" 

Jessica stopped crying. She slowly nodded at Stark's question. He was right, the least she could do to make this experience less terrifying was to calm down. Freaking out wouldn't get her out of there. 

Once Peter saw the circumstances had soothed, he tried again to excuse himself to the billionaire. "Look, you can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man... if there's no neighborhood." But that clearly didn't make it better, it just puzzled the man. "Okay, that didn't really make sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

"Come on. We got a situation. See him down there?" Tony finally gave in. He pointed down at Strange, still being tortured. Both teens observed the scene. "He's in trouble. You got any plans?"

Feeling better and determined to get back home, Jessica suggested her idea. "Okay, Peter can web him up for enough time so I can get close to him and poison him." She illustrated. "I can do it from the distance but it will be more effective if I'm able to establish physical contact."

Tony strongly disagreed with the plan. "That's way too dangerous, his powers are much stronger than yours. He would take you down before you'd realize it."

Out of ideas, all of them remained silent while thinking of another possibility. Peter was the first to speak and his suggestion just made him earn a disconcerted look from his allies. "Okay, um, Did you ever see this really old movie, Aliens?"