skulls

012, A BRIEF INQUIRY!

SKULLS / CHAPTER TWELVE
A BRIEF INQUIRY!

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SPIDERMAN IS SHOUTING AS THEY SPEED towards the Washington Monument, something about how his phone won't work and it's important. Silas' idea of important is new song leaks on Twitter, and he clearly isn't bothered about that right now, but Silas shrugs it off and carries on moving as fast as he can.

"He won't pick up! Silas?" If there was ever a point in time that someone's voice could sound like pure fear, it was that moment. Silas nearly misses a beat in his running rhythm while trying to think of something reassuring to say or one of his many solutions to this problem, but nothing.

"No, Ned, listen! The glowy thing is dangerous!"

Silas does stop running then, as a tide of absolute realisation floods over him. He knows a Ned. Ned Leeds. And, oh my god, if mystery Ned is Ned Leeds, then that means that the glowy thing is whatever they were experimenting on in bio that time, and then that means that they're in Washington because of the Midtown Tech competition.

Spiderman is Peter Parker. Exactly who he didn't expect. Hell, Silas was, and still is, trying to convince himself that it wasn't Peter, and yet all the evidence is stacked completely against him.

"Skulldude? Come on!" Peter shouts back, and as if on auto-pilot, he starts to run again, still trying to comprehend this whole turn of events. It doesn't seem realistic to him - how could someone so alarmingly innocent and nerdy fight people on a daily basis?

"Sorry! Sorry, I'm coming." He says as he catches up to the other boy, making some sort of attempt to analyse the face of the masked superhero through the Latex. There's no way for Silas to tell if it is Peter underneath it, but now he thinks about it, his voice does sound vaguely like the boy who tries (and fails) to stick up for Silas in bio.

The two of them skid to a stop in front of the monument, staring up at it in sheer panic. Silas can almost see Peter shaking as he thinks about scaling it, and he almost unconsciously steps towards the other boy to comfort him. But he doesn't. He can't make himself do that.

"OK. OK, right, Skulldude. Got to... Got to go up there. Right. Right, I can do this."

The most disconcerting part of the whole thing is how Peter refers to him: how does Silas deal with this change of power dynamic? He was so used to his confidence and upper hand being fake, for show, but now... Now it's real, and he doesn't like knowing so much more. It feels so uneasy.

When he finally comes back to reality, Peter is halfway up the monument and Silas goes into a small panic as he watches the figure getting smaller and smaller as he travels higher up. He knows it isn't really on him if Peter falls and dies, but the superhero responsibility overrides that a little.

Silas has never tried to levitate himself up that high before, but there's no time to worry about his own death now. The screaming and shouting from around him as people film and watch Peter climbing the monument is distracting him too much to focus, and it's only made worse by the helicopters now circling him like bloodthirsty sharks.

All he can do is sit and watch in fear as Peter shoots a web at the wall, before steadily stepping backwards until he's directly parallel to the ground and 165 metres in the air. Silas' fight or flight response is absolutely on fire at the moment; he's straining at his inability to help him (thanks to gravity) and have some sort of effect.

In the helicopters, they're shouting at Peter, and Silas realises with a jolt that one of them has a gun. Peter is literally a boy in high-school who just has a suit and an internship with Stark Industries, and now he's going to get shot, he's going to die. It should be Silas up there.

He sighs dramatically to no-one in particular, and flicks his fingers. The little girl from a few metres away jumps as her skateboard flies out of her hands and comes shooting towards Silas, aiming for his feet as he jumps to land on it perfectly.

It takes far more concentration than Silas is comfortable with in this intense of a situation, but he's steadily surfing on the wind currents with all the skill of a professional, pressing his foot back to lift the board upwards and eventually towards where Peter is stood on the window still. The little girl is faintly cheering, as are many other people, as Silas comes face-to-face with the Latex disguising Peter.

He could kiss him right now. Theoretically, of course.

"Ready to save some people?" Peter grins, and Silas opens his mouth to reply, when another voice cuts in.

"Do it quicker. The imminent danger is getting steadily higher."

Silas can't help but smirk as he sits down on the ledge and throws the board back down to their spectators, while Peter jumps one last time to finally break the window. "I'm doing it, hold on, Kar--"

word count: 888!
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