A New Hero - Peter Parker (BOOK 1) | Spider-Man: Far From Home

Chapter Eighteen - Charles Bridge

"Peter! Oh, my God." Ned rushed forward to embrace his friend, not noticing Clara using Peter as a human crutch. Her legs still felt like jelly, and although she was no longer tired, she still didn't trust herself with walking. "Oh, hi Clara."

"Hey, guess what? I'm done with the mission." Peter informed him.

"Dude, the trips over." Ned said, breaking the news to the two of them.

Peter gawked, a scowl appearing in his brow. "What?"

"There're monsters coming out of the ground everywhere we go; of course our parents would want us home." His friend explained to him, the words making perfect sense but Peter not wanting to except them.

"Please don't put me on hold!" Mr Harrington exclaimed, walking from one of the hotel rooms. "Oh, Peter! You're not dead!" He pulled Peter's head into his chest, most of the relief the teacher felt came from the chance of him getting fired greatly decreasing with the students reappearance. "Yes, good. Stay here – Don't die. Put some clothes on, we're booking flights!"

"I'm good too, thanks for noticing." Clara said with a roll of her eyes.

"We came for science; we're leaving because of witches." Mr Dell said, stopping only briefly to talk before continuing down the hall. "Welcome to the new dark ages."

The three students watched him leave with disbelief written on their faces. "What is going on, Dude?" Peter asked Ned.

"We're going home in the morning." He winced.

"No, no, no. All the Elementals are gone." Peter said, as if his statement would make any difference at all.

"Ned?" Betty called out from across the stair well.

"Coming sweety!" Ned said, dropping their conversation and leaving Peter and Clara in the hall, another door opening next to them.

"Hey, can you guys keep it down? I'm livestreaming." Flash told them, waving his phone in front of them before going back into his room.

MJ was next on the scene, opening her hotel room door to find out what the raucous was about. "Hey." She said to the both of them. Brad appeared behind her, looking out to see who she was talking to.

"Hey!" Peter said, spinning to face her. Brad looking him up and down as if to size him up.

"Where were you?" She asked.

"We got lost." He answered confidently, any nerves he had ever felt near MJ had vanished and he didn't bat an eye when he spotted Brad behind her.

"We were worried about you. Good to have you back." She said. Peter nodded, turning to head back to his own room. "Wait! Can I speak to you?" With a glance back to Brad and another to Clara, she added: "Alone?"

Peter frowned. "Er, sure. Here?"

"Actually, could we maybe go for a walk?" She asked, fiddling with her fingers.

"Oh." Peter looked towards Clara who nodded enthusiastically, giving him a thumbs up and mouthing 'yes'. "Sure."

~

She waited downstairs, the bustle in the lobby surprisingly busy for the time of day. Looking over at the television, she saw a video playing across the screen, a man speaking in Czech at the side of the images. "Night-Monkey, help!" She heard the familiar voice from the speakers, Betty calling out Peter's new alias, as created by Ned Leeds in a moment of panic.

The video showed the fight beneath them, a purple glow orbiting Night-Monkey and offering protection from an onslaught of blow raining down on him from above. Clara swallowed a lump growing in her throat. Someone had been filming - had they seen her appear? She watched with bated breath and was relieved to see the video cut out, an error message appearing over the video behind the man.

She wondered idly if that had been the work of Fury's team, or if the video had truly stopped there. Her thoughts were interrupted as Peter and MJ strolled passed the invisible girl. Luckily, being invisible didn't take too much energy out of her.

Clara slipped out of the exit behind Peter and MJ, following them down the street as they walked in silence. MJ clearly had something she wanted to say, but she was struggling to say it. Keeping her footsteps as quiet as she could, she stayed close to them. "So..." Peter started after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"You know, they used to execute people on this bridge?" MJ said, her nerves taking over her speech. "They would, like, be put in a basket and they would drown in the water." Peter didn't say anything to that. "Sorry." She apologised, thinking that maybe she shouldn't have brought up such a hard hitting subject.

"It's okay." He reassured her.

"Uh... Look, there was this thing that I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while." MJ blurted, Clara coming to sudden stop to prevent herself from walking into Peter's back.

"Yeah?" Peter asked dubiously.

"You're Spider-Man." Clara felt her jaw drop open and she had to force it shut again.

Peter's eyes were wide with panic. "What?"

"I just figured that you're Spider-Man and I wanted to let you know that I know."

"No." Peter shook his head frantically. "I'm not Spider-Man."

"It's kinda obvious." She told him.

"I'm not Spider-Man. I mean, what would make you think that I was Spider-Man?"

"Peter; Washington?" MJ raised an eyebrow. "The fact that you like, disappear? Out of nowhere? For no reason?"

"No, that was - I was sick." Peter reminded her, his heart hammering against his chest. "Remember? I had my... the tummy...?"

"You know Suzan Yang thinks that you're a male escort?" MJ said. Clara pushed a hand against her mouth as a spout of laughter escaped. "What was that?"

MJ span around, trying to see who was listening in to their conversation. Peter looked around too but having heard the exact direction the snort of laughter had come from, he playfully pushed a hand against Clara's shoulder. She hadn't warned him she'd be following him so the moment had caught him off guard and he pushed the girl a little harder than he had meant to.

She stumbled back, loosing her grip on the bridge and she felt herself connect with the barrier. The barrier was low though and at the speed she was going, she fell over the edge. Seen as he couldn't see this happening, Peter had no clue she had yelped because of that, and assumed she was just reacting to the small shove he had given her.

Clara instantly guarded herself, a bubble forming around her as she fell, the recent memory of MJ's words coming back to her and for a moment, Clara knew how the prisoners felt. Though, she knew she wasn't going to drown so the fear wasn't quite as high. Peter's eyes widened as he heard something hit the water and he rushed to the edge of the bridge. "What was that?" MJ asked again, this time referring to the splash they both had heard.

Peter sighed in relief as he looked down at the water, Clara floating on the water's surface, suspended in her warm purple light as if gravity didn't exist with in it. He stifled a laugh when she stuck her middle finger up at him. "Just fish, I think."

"Was it Clara?" MJ asked, moving to bend over the barrier next to him. When she looked into the water, MJ saw nothing but the dark blue waves reflecting streetlights. Clara had managed to dip out of view just in time, walking in the orb of energy as if she was zorbing.

"What?" Peter asked again with absolutely no clue as to how she would know that. Clara reached an old rusted ladder that ran up the side of the bridge and, with the risk of developing tetanus, she climbed it, just happy to be away from the river. "Why would you think that was Clara?"

Clara almost fell off the ladder at the sound of those words, her head peering over the side of the bridge. "Er, she's the new girl - you should always suspect the new girl." MJ explained. "Plus, I saw her saving you at the bell tower in Venice."

"She saved me at the bell tower?" Peter muttered, trying to locate the invisible girl again, freezing when he realised what he had implied. "I mean... what bell tower? What are you doing?"

Peter watched as she pulled something metallic from her backpack, his webbing strewn across the surface.

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