Saving Grace

Sixty Five

Peter shoots off down the hallway, counting the lockers as he passes them. Once he reaches the one he needs to be at, he lifts a whole row of him. Underneath lay his old suit. He'd stored it there for the seemingly unlikely event that he'd need it, and he is now insanely glad that he did.

Quickly, he changes, hiding the tux where the suit had been; it was Ben's, and Peter isn't going to risk it getting stolen or ruined.

His suit now on, he sprints out of the school through a side door, ending up in the bus parking lot as he attempts to put his web shooters on.

Suddenly, there's a blast of electricity from his left, and it sends him flying, then hitting the concrete hard and rolling as his web shooters clatter away from him.

A man holding a high-tech weapon walks up to him. "He gave you a choice. You chose wrong."

Peter looks up, still reeling from the shock and the hard fall, but he recognizes the man from the ferry. "What the heck...?"

The man casually points at Peter with the weapon. "What's with the crappy costume?"

Peter makes no answer, and the man charges up his weapon, sending Peter into fight mode. He looks over, spotting one of his web shooters about ten feet in front of him.

He springs up like a sprinter shooting off starting blocks, his hand quickly finding the web shooter. The man punches the front of a nearby school bus with his weapon, causing it to spin, the back-end hitting Peter and knocking him into another school bus. He dropped the web shooter when he was hit, and the eyes of his suit aren't in line with his actual eyes anymore, so he can't see — but he can sense the things around him.

He hears a clatter as the man kicks his web shooter, then the weapon charging and the man's footsteps. The man, before Peter can fully get his bearings, says, "I wasn't sure about this thing at first, but... dang," and hits Peter with it full-force, sending him crashing right through the back of a school bus. He lands on the floor inside, near the driver's seat, then manages to adjust his suit. He looks over and sees gum under one of the seats.

"Gross."

Then, there's a charge, then a bang, and suddenly the bus is flipping over, glass shattering and anything loose inside flinging around like pinballs. Peter shouts, then the bus finally stops upside down, and he tumbles out of the main doors.

He looks over and spots his web shooter on the ground and, despite the pain, crawls towards it as the man calmly walks over to him.

"Why did he send you here?" Peter asks, half actually wanting to know, half trying to buy time.

"Guess you'll never know," the man replies, and Peter hears a charge behind him, from where the man stands. He tries to force down the bile in his throat and the panic in his chest. If he could just reach his web shooter...

Then, he hears a familiar thwip. He turns, seeing a web attached to the front of the weapon, the strand leading to none other than Ned Leeds, who looks totally shocked as he holds Peter's other web shooter.

Peter is absolutely elated. "Nice shot!" he shouts, grabbing the web and pulling down, sending the man to the ground. At the same time, Ned numbly lets go of the web shooter, allowing Peter to snatch it back and slip it on his wrist. He shoots another web at the man and attaches him to the side of a school bus. Thoroughly.

Peter turns to Ned then, rushing over to him. "Dude, that was so awesome, but I'm so sorry."

Ned looks at him strangely. "For what? MJ isn't-"