The Unexpected [1]

Chapter 8

I was eating potato chips and reading Carter's notes when I got a phone call. "Parker, you gotta get over here! There was a blue explosion like ten blocks away from Liz's house." I sighed and got up from my spot. "I'll check it out." I ended the call and put on my suit. I opened my window and stepped onto the fire escape. I shut the window and jumped off, letting the fire take over and flew towards the spot. As I was flying, I saw Spiderman get taken into the air by a man with metal wings. Honestly, he looked like a human vulture. I followed the two as close as I could without being seen. I was about to shoot fire at the man but remembered what the nurse said. So I did the next best thing, I called Tony. As soon as he hung up, Spiderman's parachute came out and he got tangled in it. He fell into the water and not long after, an Iron Man suit went in and got him. I followed them and landed on a tree just far enough to see the two but not hear them talk. The suit set Spiderman down on a park jungle gym with the masked hero's back towards me. There was arm waving from Spiderman and crazy hand movements from the Iron Man suit. The suit started to fly towards me and I stood up on the tree limb. "Hey ashes, how are you feeling?" I shrugged. "I'm alright. Thanks for showing up."

I pressed behind my ear and my mask disappeared. "You know you could have called Happy, right?" I rolled my eyes. "He tends to not answer when we need him." I heard a car and I looked at the suit confused. "Are you driving?" He laughed. "Why didn't you burn the strings on his parachute or throw fire at the bird guy?" I sat down on the limb because my hip started to hurt. "Well, the nurse at Avenger tower told me to take it easy and to try not to use my powers." I looked behind the suit and saw Spiderman start to walk away. "You actually listened to her?" I nodded, still watching Spiderman. "Yes, I did. I usually don't but seeing as I almost died again, I figured I should." The suit turned around to see what I was looking at and I heard him sigh. "I need you to do me a favor, kid." I nodded. "Watch over him. Make sure he stays out of trouble." I looked at the suit confused. "You want me to babysit a superhero?" I could hear the smirk in his voice. "Exactly ashes, exactly. Now, I must be going. Have fun but not too much fun." I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." The suit left and I sighed. I'm babysitting a superhero now? What did I sign up for?

I teleported back to my room and changed into my regular clothes. I heard the apartment door open and close and I walked into the living room to see Carter doing her I'm-worried-about-something pace around the living room. "Do you remember Flash?" I nodded. "Did you know that he picks on Peter?" I think everyone but Carter knows Flash picks on Peter. "I mean, it's not surprising." She turned around to look at me. "What do you mean?" I shrugged and sat down on the couch. "He's an easy target. He's nerdy, doesn't play a sport, doesn't have a lot of friends, doesn't have a lot of money and he has the body of a twig. Perfect person for a popular person to hit." She sat down next to me. "I just don't understand why. Peter and Ned are the nicest people ever. It doesn't make sense to me. It never has." She looked down at her lap then back at me. "So how did the blue explosion adventure go?" I shrugged and grabbed a chip from the bag. "It was ok. I got to see Spiderman get dropped into a lake so that was fun. I called Tony and he came and got him. Now I'm babysitting Spiderman."

"You're doing what now?" I shrugged. "I'm just supposed to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, I think." She nodded. "Geez, Parker. What did you sign up for?" I sighed. "I have no clue, Carter. No clue."