Saving Grace

Fifty Six

So, not everything went exactly as planned.

Okay, nothing went exactly as planned. But at least he didn't get hurt...

Too bad.

First, he hitched a ride on the back of a truck, then ended up at an abandoned gas station, where the weapon guys' van was parked. They were in the middle of a heist, and Peter had... a time trying to figure out all the suit's new features.

(Who needs an Instant Kill Mode? Honestly?)

Then, three big semis came driving by, and the vulture guy swooped down and made a hole in the top of one with a matter phase shifter. Of course, Peter followed, and when the vulture came out of the hole, Peter webbed the bag that he'd been trying to steal. The new web shooter combinations, then, failed him again. He fell into the hole, and then, suddenly, the hole was gone and he was stuck in the truck.

And now he has a mild concussion and he's stuck in the Damage Control deep storage vault — at least, until morning, when somebody should come along and open the door for him. Because neither he nor the suit lady can.

So, Peter makes a web hammock in between shipping containers to wait it out on.

"Hey, suit lady, I kind of feel bad calling you 'suit lady,' you know? I think I should probably give you a name..." he thinks for a moment "... like Grace." He immediately regrets that decision. "No, no, no. Gosh, that's-that's weird."

He starts cycling through names, just listing them off until he hears something he likes while he become restless, moving around the space. Finally, while swinging from a web with one hand, he says, "What about Karen?" Really, it seems obvious once he's said it.

"You can call me Karen if you would like," the suit lady replies.

"Okay, cool," Peter replies. "So, Karen, what else can this suit do?" Suddenly, wings pop out from under his arms, resembling a flying squirrel's, only cooler. "What? Maybe we should run that refresher course."

He stands in front of the large door, his arm extended towards it. "Ricochet web," Karen says.

Peter repeats, "Ricochet web." A web shoots out, then bounces back, forcing Peter to duck. "Cool!"

"Splitter web." Two webs shoot out at once.

"Web grenade."

"Web grenade!" Peter shouts, throwing a ball of webs at the wall, which it explodes on, covering it. He and Karen continue to go through the other web combinations — except for Instant Kill Mode — but it doesn't last very long. He makes a jump rope out of webs, but even that gets boring after a while.

Then, he shoots a web at the ceiling and flips over, hanging from it upside down. After a few moments of this, he decides to pull a book out of his backpack — The Fault in Our Stars. He checked it out of the library at school a few days ago, almost on a whim, since he and Grace had talked about it.

"Guess I could start this..." he trails off, even though he doesn't really feel like it right now. He reads a few sentences, then sighs. "I just- I can't do this right now. I can't focus."

"I could read you a synopsis?" Karen suggests.

"No, no, I'll read it. Eventually. It's just... I've seen the movie, so I pretty much know what happens."

"Then don't read it."

"But it's one of Grace's favorites," Peter replies.

"She's the one you helped in Berlin, right?" Karen asks. "The one you snuck over to see?"