Talons of the Bird || Spiderman Fan Fiction

Chapter 8

It was now the next day, and Ned was knocking on the door to Peter's apartment. May opened the door, still in her pajamas as it was quite early for a Sunday. "Hey, May! Um, Pete asked me over," He said, unsure if he was expected. "Sure, thing, come on in, he's just in his room," She stood aside, letting him in before closing the door behind him. He walked quickly to Peter's room with his backpack in his arms. He opened the door and saw Peter hunched over his desk working on some electrical equipment. "Hey, you're here!" He swung around in his chair, throwing his arms up in the air. Ned put his bag down on the desk. "So, what's the plan?" He asked, pulling his toy drone out of his bag. "This baby is gonna help his find Emily," Peter said, taking it off his hands. "I've tried to replicate the heat sensors in my suit from Mr. Stark, and now I need to modify them to find electrical currents, then amplify them to cover a larger area," He explained, taking a screwdriver out of a case on his desk. "Woah, just remember these things aren't cheap, I've only got the one of these!" Ned jumped forward, taking the screwdriver from Peter's hands. "If you'll let me do the honors..." He readjusted his posture and took the drone from his friend's other hand. Peter surrendered it to him. "By all means..." he held his hands up in the air before pulling his laptop forward and opening it, revealing some sort of coding program on his monitor.

A few hours passed before Peter's door opened, to reveal MJ stood there in her usual oversized jacket. "What are you losers doing?" She said on her way in. "Oh, hey, MJ," Ned responded, not looking up from his hard work on his drone. It was at this moment, Peter realized the kidnapping hadn't hit the news, as MJ would be more panicked by now if it was. "Oh shit, promise not to freak out or anything, but..." MJ crossed her arms as she sat down on his bed. "Try me," she said with a monotone voice. "You know those masked guys at the bank over the past couple of months..." He turned around to look at her, wondering how he was going to word what he was about to say. "They kidnapped Emily!" Ned blurted out, loudly. "WHAT?" MJ's expression dropped, while Peter kicked his friend's leg. "Dude, don't be afraid to sugar coat it next time!" Peter hissed at him. "Sorry! It's just so important and you were taking forever to say it!" Ned retaliated with a whiny voice. "Why aren't we out looking for her? Do the police know? Who knows?" MJ questioned after recomposing herself. "Relax, dude! The police know, and don't worry Spiderman's on the case," Ned said with a wink. "Well, I don't see Spiderman anywhere, all I see is two losers hunched over some stupid toy," She said, walking over to see the mess of wires and sensors on the desk. "Hey, don't say that about my sick-ass drone! We gonna use it to find her!" Ned yelled, spinning away from her while grabbing more components off the desk.

"There!" He shouted, holding it out in front of him as he jumped out of his chair. Peter had an excited expression on his face and took the controller out of Ned's bag. "First test, does it fly?" He asked, turning it on from the controller. Ned held the drone out on the palms of his hands while Peter carefully used the controls to fly it out of his reach. "Yes!" Ned cheered. "Now see if it connects to your mask!" Peter reached for his Spiderman mask and slipped on. "That's affirmative! I can see out of all four cameras," He replied. "Four?" MJ asked, curiously. "Yeah, so we can get a top-down view of the city and the horizon," Ned explained. "Okay, now we need to test its reach..." Peter asked, unsure of how they were going to test it. "Hey MJ, do you still have that taser you stole off that policeman at the protest last year?" Ned turned to MJ, "You what?" Peter was knocked back. "Duh," MJ responded, pulling it out of her messenger bag. "Woah, I wasn't expecting to have it on you!" Ned exclaimed, not even noticing Peter's dumbfounded expression. "What's wrong, gonna tell on me?" She joked, pointing it at the boys. "What? No!" Peter laughed, sticking his hands in the air. "Listen, I'm gonna swing to the other side of town, and when I call, I need you to zap it out of my window," He explained as he proceeded to grab the rest of his suit. He was just about the change before he remembered he had an audience. "Guys, turn around please?" He motioned with his hands. They both sighed as they spun around. "Dude, it's not my fault you're totally ripped," Ned said with his joke-flirty voice. "Well, next time I'll ask the spider to bite you, then you can do what you will with it," Peter joked back. "Right I'll see you guys in a bit," The two turned around, to see him sitting on the fire exit beams with the drone under one arm, before zipping off between the buildings in the distance. "You regret breaking up with him, yet?" Ned asked, turning to MJ. She shook her head. "Nah, you get pretty tired of the superhero gimmick quite quickly," She laughed.

"Okay, I'm at the other end, fire away," Peter said down the phone to MJ. He was perched on the spire of one of the churches in the area, with the droner flying above him by a couple of meters. He tuned into the live feed from the drone, and could still see through all four cameras. He saw a flash in the distance, with the coordinates of the electrical current appearing on his screen, matching his address. "Guys, it's working!" He could hear Ned cheering on the other end of the line "I still don't understand how this is going to help us find Emily?" MJ asked. "We need to wait for another robbery and let them escape. While I'm making sure everyone inside is safe, Ned's going to fly the drone outside the bank and look for any electrical readings, and that will be wherever they end up, hopefully where Emily is as well." Peter concluded. Mild concern was still present in his tone of voice. "Hey, man. We'll find her, don't stress," Ned said reassuringly.