The Stark Internship // Spider-Man [Book 1]

eight {Peter's POV}

Crouched down on top of Liz's roof, I stared at the party that was still going on inside the house. I spotted Arya and Michelle outside, talking over drinks. They were too far away for me to hear but I heard Arya laugh at something Michelle had said. I realised I hadn't seen Arya laugh once since I'd met her. She had a nice smile, though.

I shook off my thoughts and pulled my shirt over my head, revealing the red material of my Spider-Man suit. I dumped my shirt along with the rest of my clothes in a pile on the roof before grabbing my mask out of my backpack. "God, this is stupid," I muttered to myself.

Looking around, I saw an ajar window on the roof of the living room, a perfect entrance for Spider-Man to swoop in. Just when I was about to jump, a loud crash in the distance caught my attention. I rose to my feet and saw a glowing, blue cloud of smoke rise from the woods. I glanced back to Arya, only to find out that she was gone. 

I quickly put on my mask and swung in the direction of the explosion. I landed in someone's backyard and shot a web to swing myself along, but the web didn't stick to anything and when I looked up, I saw that I was standing at the edge of an empty field. Right... Suburbs.

I sighed deeply to myself before I started running. "This sucks!" 

I followed the sound to the woods at the edge of the suburbs. Without making a sound, I hung upside down on the side of a bridge and peered over the edge to see where the explosion could have come from. I saw three men standing next to a van and I didn't have to listen to their conversation for long to figure out that two of these men were arms dealers, selling something to their client; the third man.

"Oh, this must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff," I whispered to myself.

My phone started blaring my ringtone and I hurried to get it to stop, but the men already heard it. How could they not? My phone had been at full volume.

"What the hell was that?" one of them said while they looked around in confusion. One of the sellers raised his gun at the buyer, who in turn raised his hands in defence. "Did you set us up?" 

 I quickly put my phone back and jumped to the ground. "Hey, hey, guys! If you wanna shoot at someone shoot at me!" I called out. Their heads shot in my direction and it wasn't long before they aimed their guns at me. 

"No, shoot at me!" a familiar voice called. I saw Arya standing behind the men, also in her suit. The men turned around in confusion, their eyes shooting between me and Arya, giving me the time to stick my webs to their guns and yank their guns from their hands. 

I didn't notice one of the sellers grabbing a big gauntlet that sparked electricity until he slammed it into my back. Along with sending me crashing to the ground, my muscles tightened with electric shocks, leaving me to groan in pain on the ground. "Look out for those weapons!" I called out to Arya, but I was too late. 

The man raised the gauntlet to prepare for the blow but Arya caught it midair. Instead of the electricity shocking her, it flowed right into her fingers and up her arms, making the blue details of her suit glow brightly. She tilted her head at the man and lifted a leg to kick him away from her. 

He landed on his back on the ground and quickly scurried to his feet, jumping in the back of the van as his partner drove off. The buyer was long gone.

I quickly shot a web to the back door of the van and it yanked me off my feet. I was dragged through the dirt and bushes we passed but I kept holding on, refusing to let these guys escape. 

"Need help?" Arya's voice caught my attention. I looked up and saw her sitting on top of the van, watching me with a grin. 

"Sure, why not?" I replied sarcastically. The guy in the back of the van grabbed a weapon and shot off the door my web was sticking to. I rushed to shoot another web but I missed. Thankfully, Arya was quick to grab the web and I felt a surge of power - electricity? - run up my arm, giving my muscles the strength I needed to pull myself toward the van. She stuck the web to the top of the van. 

"Would you mind helping out?" I told her, motioning to the man who was still shooting at me. 

"I can't! You have to get closer!" she replied. 

"Why no-" The van took a fast turn and my web broke. I skidded into someone's garden, knocking over a few trashcans as I came to a stop.

I scrambled to my feet again to rush after the van. I sprinted through backyards, scared a couple of kids, and nearly fell in someone's pool, but I managed to reach the van right in time. "Right where I want you!" I said before jumping towards the van, seeing that Arya was still sitting on top. I had almost reached the van before two sharp metal claws closed around my upper arms. 

Arya was quick to grab my ankle, but she too was dragged into the air. I didn't want to, but I looked down, seeing the buildings on the ground getting smaller and smaller. I then looked up to see who the hell had abducted us, but only two green, glowing eyes looked back.

The spider emblem on my chest started beeping along with the circle on Arya's chest and two parachutes shot from our backs. The wind caught in the material of the parachutes and my arms were ripped free from my kidnapper's grasp. Arya's parachute folded open and she let go of my ankle, leaving me to tumble through the air. My body got caught in the parachute and instead of it opening over my head, I got stuck inside it. I couldn't see what I was falling toward but all of the air was slammed from my lungs as I hit the water. 

I struggled against the parachute but the more I moved around, the more my legs got tangled up in the material that seemed to weigh a million pounds now that it was wet. I sank toward the bottom of whatever body of water I had ended up in and slowly but surely, water got inside my mask and I was left with no choice but to inhale. My consciousness started slipping away.

Wildly coughing, I woke up again. It took me a few seconds before I could breathe normally again and I sat up, looking around. My soaked mask was on the ground next to me, right beside Arya, who was also soaked to the bone. She'd taken off the hood of her suit and droplets of water dripped from the ends of her brown curls. 

"W-What happened?" I croaked, my voice raspy from all the coughing. 

"You got tangled up in your parachute and ended up in the water. I got you out," she said softly. Her chest rose and fell significantly with every heaving breath.

I reached up a shivering hand and shook the water from my hair. Arya grabbed my hand and before I could protest, she pushed a button on the side of my web shooter. The next second, a warm gush of air exploded inside my suit and an involuntary shiver ran down my spine. Within seconds, I went from freezing my butt off, to actually regaining some feeling in the tips of my toes and fingers. 

"Thanks," I muttered. 

Arya nodded before taking off her mask, lying back in the grass. 

"Are you okay?" I asked softly. 

"I'm fine. It's just... Watching someone nearly drown isn't fun," she said quietly. I only noticed now that she was shaking from top to bottom. "We should go." 

Before I could say or do anything, she got up, put her mask back on and flipped the hood of her suit back over her head, leaving me behind as she walked off.