Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Forty-Eight

It was like the White Whale all over again.

From the expression on Sam Wilson and Bucky's faces Peter could already surmise that they had completely forgotten their close friend. The only issue, Peter had watched the White Whale die and even played a pivotal role in that death. One of the last times he had seen Steve, Rem, and Elsa they were preparing to ride back to the capital with proof of the White Whale's demise.

Had the decoy Whales been real all along? Peter supposed there could be a possibility where the White Whale's cloning technique acted as more of a self-preservation technique than a self defense one. Nothing anyone had found in the days and repeated loops when they were doing research ever indicated there could be more than one of the White Whales, but then again most people who came in contact with the beast were completely erased.

How did you study a thing that left no survivors and that erased many of those who got near it from existence?

Except for in his case. He remembered Steve the same way he had remembered Emilia. Julius clearly remembered Steve too. When he heard Bucky and Sam ask who Steve was, he had looked at least as dumbfounded as Peter.

"I'm not sure that we really have time to sort all of this out." Julius pointed with his weapon toward the spot where Petelgeuse had erupted from the mountain. The invisible to everyone save Peter hands were lifting boulders, poising them to be launched through the air as attacks.

Ferris had moved Sam away from the mayhem and was trying to see to it that he was completely healed before he returned to help. "A minute ago you said that you could see those things?" Sam asked. "Back there in the cave when we were running, I mean?"

Peter nodded solemnly. "Not a lot of good it will do us. There's a lot more of them now than before."

"We have him outnumbered. I would imagine his invisible attacks still count on him being able to see who and where he is attacking." Julius spread his stance, readying his sword.

"The hands can't see," Peter uttered. Julius had a good point. "Just because I can touch my back," Peter started, doesn't mean my hands allow me to see where I'm reaching." A single unseen hand or forty, Petelgeuse would have to be able to see where or who he aimed them at for his attacks to be effective.

A rock flung by the unseen hands sailed up in an arc, headed for Bucky. Peter webbed himself over to Bucky and caught the boulder, using his shoulder and back to brace the rock before tossing it off to the side. "Rush him, look for openings in his defense. He can't see in every direction!"

Peter zip webbed to a rock, doing a handstand off of it to flip onto the next and then web himself up to the next and tug it down. He gained altitude, flipping and sprinting over the falling rocks to bound off them in an attempt to get to Petelgeuse. If Peter could see them, it would take more of Petelgeuse's effort to go after him and that would draw some of the heat off the others.

As he flipped around through the air, webbing himself to the unseen hands to swing around and off of them, he could see the others on the ground working at getting closer. Bucky punched his way through a rock midair and Julius's deft sword strikes felled dozens of the boulders.

"I'm not going to let you do anything to Emilia!" Peter yelled, breathlessly as he dove into the air high off the back of one of the rocks and spread his arms to use the gliding part of the suit to close the gap. Peter could web his way around the hands and debris to adjust trajectory. His spider-senses tingled, warning of danger above, behind, to the right.

Peter curled, tucked, contorted and flipped in a bid to slide past all obstacles. Petelgeuse was dead ahead and just below him, so Peter fired both webslingers at spots on the ground to the sides of Petelgeuse to yank himself down. It wasn't that he was sure the trick would work a second time as much as he wanted to see if he could outrun the unseen hand.