Spying on Spider-Man

Chapter 20

"I'm sorry about dinner," Flash said as I saw the bright lights of the school. "But I know when branzino's fresh, and that was not fresh, ok?"

"Whatever," I said, annoyed.

As soon as the word left my mouth, Flash hit the brakes. On the hood in front of us was Spider-Man, wearing a pre-Tony suit. "Flash, I need your car and your phone," Peter said in a gravelly voice.

"Uh, sir, technically this is my dad's car, so-"

I cut him off. "Just let me in the fucking driver's seat. Spider-Man, get in the passenger seat."

Both of them did as told, and as soon as Peter's butt hit the seat I tore away from the school, almost knocking over a row of bikes in my haste. "Where am I going?" I asked.

"You're gonna pull over and let me do this," Peter said.

I pulled into an alley and slammed on the brakes, sending Peter head-first into the dashboard. I turned to him. "Enough of this shit. You're not going to protect me by dumping me and going to homecoming with Liz. Whatever you think it's going to accomplish, it's bullshit. We're a team, we have been since kindergarten. So what's really gonna happen is this. You're gonna drive in a straight line for a little bit so I can change, then you're gonna let me back behind the wheel and tell me where I'm going. Understood?"

Peter nodded. "Yes ma'am."

I crawled into the back with my bag, and Peter pulled out of the alley and used my phone to call Ned as I started changing. "I'm a little busy right now, Allie," Ned said.

"Ned, it's Peter," Peter said.

"Oh, shit, ok. Go for Ned."

"I need you to track my phone for me."

"Yeah, but where is it?"

"I left it in the backseat of his car."

"What?! Wait, the vulture guy is Liz's dad?!" I asked as I took the wheel back from Peter and he got in the passenger seat.

"Yeah, crazy, I know!" Peter said.

"Genius move on the phone, Peter. He just passed the GameStop on Jackson Avenue," Ned said.

I took a hard right, then realized that everything was a little darker than I was comfortable with. "Hey, where are the headlights on this thing? We're in Flash's car," I asked.

"Hold on, let me pull up the specs," Ned said.

I weaved in and out of cars, going as fast as I possibly dared. "Hey, have you gotten through to Happy yet?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, I'm working on it. I just gotta backdoor the phone system," Ned said. Ned disappeared for a while as I continued driving and dodging traffic.

"Hey, Ned, how we coming with those headlights?" I asked.

"Uh... round knob to the left of the steering wheel, turn clockwise," Ned said.

I turned on the headlights. "Perfect. Where's Peter's phone now?" I asked.

"He stopped in an old industrial park in Brooklyn," Ned said.

"What? That makes no sense. I thought he said he was going out of town!" Peter said.

I narrowly dodged a car as I made another turn. "Weird. Oh, I reached Mr. Happy. Don't think he likes you, by the way, Peter. It sounded like he was catching a flight. He said something about taking off in nine minutes," Ned said.

"What?" Peter asked.

"He was surrounded by a bunch of boxes," Ned said.

"Shit! It's moving day! Toomes is gonna rob that plane! We gotta stop him," I said.

"Ok, slow down. You're getting close. It's on your right," Ned said.

"What?" I asked.

"Turn right! Turn right!" Ned said frantically.

I whipped the steering wheel all the way to the right. The car tipped onto its side and slid for a while before finally screeching to a stop. "Peter, Allie, are you guys ok?" Ned asked.

"Yeah, we're fine," I said as I fished the comm case out of my backpack. "Just keep trying to get through to Happy. Mention me if you must."

Peter and I hopped out of the car. I handed him a comm, and we each put a comm in our ear. "It's been and honor, Spider-Man and Brown Recluse," Ned said before he hung up the phone.

I looked at Peter. "No matter what, we stick together, ok?" I asked.

Peter nodded. "No matter what. I love you Allie."

I smiled. "I love you too, Spidey. Always and forever."

"Always and forever."

We found an open window and dropped in. "Hey! Surprised?" Peter said as we walked into view.

Toomes turned around. "Oh, hey, Pete. I didn't hear you come in." He turned to me. "Holy shit, it's Allison Stark. I remember you from Liz's birthday party last year."

"It's over," I said. "We've got you."

"You know, I gotta tell you, Pete, I really, really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you. And Allie, I see why Liz was jealous of you. You're a beautiful young lady, and obviously you're loyal to Pete over here," Toomes said with a smirk.

"How could you do this to her?" Peter asked.

"To her? I'm not doing anything to her, Pete. I'm doing this for her," Toomes said.

"I'll believe that when hell freezes over," I said before shooting a web at his left hand, sticking it to the desk behind him.

Toomes sighed. "You guys are young. You don't understand how the world works."

"Yeah, but we understand what's right and what's wrong," Peter said.

"Exactly, and selling weapons to criminals is wrong," I said.

"How do you think your uncle Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys?" Toomes asked angrily. "Those people, kids, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do what they want. Guys like us, like you and me, they don't care about us. Hell, I doubt Stark even cares about his own goddamn niece. We build their roads, we fight all their wars and everything, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after 'em. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is.I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter."

"You're wrong!!" I yelled. "You're wrong about him!!"

"Why are you telling us this?" Peter asked.

"Because I want you to understand. And.. I needed a little time to get her airborne."

Toomes took a folding knife out of his pocket, but before I could react, his suit came crashing into the building behind us. The wings flew around the room, Peter and I dodging them and them crashing into the pillars surrounding us.  "I'm sorry kids," Toomes said.

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked. "That thing hasn't even touched us yet."

"True," Toomes said.

"Peter, I don't think it was trying to," I said.

Before I knew what was going on, the building collapsed on Peter and I and Toomes ran out. I tried to move, but my leg was trapped under a huge chunk of debris. "Allie?!" I heard Peter yell. "Allie, are you ok?!"

"I'm fine, just a little trapped! What about you?!" He was silent. "Peter?! Peter, damn it, answer me, please!!"

I heard the rubble move somewhere, and seconds later Peter appeared next to me. "What took you so long?" I asked.

"Slight internal struggle. You ok?"

"My leg's trapped. I could use some help from Spider-Man."

Peter went over and threw the debris off my leg, then came back and helped me up. "You ok? Can you walk?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, trying to catch my balance. "Let's go get that son of a bitch."