Doomed

Chapter One

Sunlight cast angular shadows into the concrete canyons of Manhattan, but even on a cloudless summer day the blue flashes of energy weapons robbed the sun of its rightful duties, if only for split seconds.

It was around these plasma blasts that Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, dodged, flipped, ducked, and somersaulted, working his way through a group of private soldiers from Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M. Man, today is one of those days when I really love my job.

"Hey, I just met you," he said, punching an A.I.M. agent in the face, shattering the black glass of the cylindrical helmet.

"But this is crazy," he continued, dodging more energy blasts before webbing two opponents together, then kicking them into an air conditioning unit and webbing them to it.

"You're hurting people," More blasts flew around him as he slid underneath an A.I.M. agent, webbing the man's foot as he went. The agent tried to turn around and fire, but tangled himself in the web and fell, leaving himself open for Spider-Man to web him to the rooftop.

"So stop this, maybe?" he finished, flipping over an agent's head and mule kicking the man as he landed.

"I can't believe you just quoted that song," a woman's voice said, just as the final two A.I.M. soldiers' bodies fell out of thin air, landing on top of the man Spider-Man had just knocked out. "That is just… so dated."

Peter smiled beneath the mask. I love my job today because I get to bust up A.I.M. nerds with the lovely and awesome Ms. Carol Danvers, AKA the new and significantly improved Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel smirked at him, placing her hands on her hips. "And now it's stuck in my head."

Spider-Man bounced over to the edge of the roof. "That's a song?" he said. "I thought it was just a meme."

"What the heck is a—NNG!" Captain Marvel's face squeezed together in pain as she started to freefall.

"Carol?" Spider-Man half-yelled, leaping over the side. He watched her unconscious form fall toward the earth, her arms and legs spread, offering some resistance in the air. Pulling his extremeties in as tightly as possible, Spider-Man dive bombed toward her. I'm only going to get one shot at this, he thought, reaching out with his left hand toward the sash that was tied around her waist. His fingertips grazed the red cloth just before she struck the pavement, but fingertips were all he needed. "Got you!" Spider-Man said, sticking his fingers to the sash and firing a web line into the nearest building. He pulled Captain Marvel into the safety of the crook of his elbow, but swinging with unusual weight threw him off balance, and his Spider-Sense rang out a warning. Spider-Man looked up just in time to see a taxi in his path. "Oh, this could be bad," he said.

It was too late to prevent the impact, but the warning gave Spider-Man enough time to turn his body so that Captain Marvel was protected from the brunt of the damage. Glass flew in a cascade around him as the windshield buckled, and the metal creaked as the roof gave way. He would've screamed if the air hadn't been robbed from his lungs. He laid there for what seemed hours before turning his head to check on Captain Marvel. Slivers clinked as they slid off his neck and mask. His body had protected her from any severe external damage, it seemed. Grabbing her shoulder, Spider-Man shook her gently, trying to rouse her. "Carol," he said, "Carol, are you alright?"

The street around him was deserted, though he could see people standing in the windows of the nearby offices. The reflection from one of the buildings gave him a perfect panorama of the street, and he saw the Stark Industries armored car that A.I.M. had been trying to rob. They'd managed to shoot out the tires with their energy weapons before Spider-Man confronted them on the rooftop. He took out a few in the fight early on, but most of his energy was being spent dodging their shots. At least, before Captain Marvel showed up. She'd just happened to be flying by, and saw the blue lights of their weapons.