𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

xl. mysterio

chapter forty,
mysterio

    NINA was smart. She knew she was smart. She was valedictorian, she had a high gpa and she was already nearing the top of her class in college with an internship at OSCORP that was already promising a long-time job. But being book smart, and self-preserving was perhaps two different things. Any normal observer of the lights that exploded out from Times Square would turn and run the other way. But after knowing and dating Peter Parker for the time that she did, Nina lost all self preservation and ran straight towards it. 

    She darted around pedestrians who cared little about her. They only cursed her and returned to their phones, or didn't even notice as she slipped past around them and rushed down the sidewalk back towards the centre of the city. Nina glanced upwards at the buildings, following the light of Central Park and searching for a blink of red to dart past her. He was ahead, by a while, but she was catching up. 

     When she started getting a phone call from Gwen, she knew something was very serious.

     Still running through the busy street and hearing something cliche like: "HEY! I'M WALKING HERE━!" Nina answered her phone and pressed it to her ear.

    "Yes, yes, I'm coming," she told Gwen without even saying hello, darting down an alleyway for a shortcut. She startled a homeless man trying to sleep under the shadow of a fire escape. He watched her go and called, "Yeah, you go, girly!"

    "Hello to you, too," chided Gwen Stacy, but she was used to it. Nina could hear the sound of chaos on the other end, and realised that her friend had made it there before her. It didn't sound too good━she heard the shouts of people, startled in being parted away by the orders of police. "You need to get here. Police have this ... guy surrounded but it doesn't look good."

    "Peter's on his way," Nina didn't need to hear it over the phone now. The shouts and the sirens echoed in her ears from just a block away. She saw the lights, and through the alleyways, she caught sight of the screens stretched up across Times Square. She skidded to a stop, her breath hitching in horror as she saw the sight of a man that was not a man. Hooded in dark clothes, it placed a shadow over skin that was glowing in a sparking yellow━pulsing against his cheeks and from his lips, static and electrical, almost forming a star across his face. 

    "What in the hell ...?" breathed Nina, and her heart jolted with sudden fear. 

    "Yeah," agreed Gwen. "Get over here."

    She ended the call and Nina broke back out into a run. When she made it to Time's Square, it was crowded. She pushed through shoulders and shoved her way to the front. The sky was still lit up in colours━and she could hear buzzing in her ears, vibrating right down to her toes, like she was treading upon a carpet of electricity, ready to ignite at any moment. 

     She started to see what was happening as she reached the front of the barricade, searching for a blonde head of hair. Police cars surrounded the same man she had seen on the screens from afar. He was small, but the wide berth around him made him seem like a vicious giant. Everyone was too scared to get closer, eyeing the way his skin glowed and dimmed in an unnatural manner each time he breathed━and each time he glowered, like he was charging up something within. Policemen hid from their windows and behind their doors, holding their guns like soldiers out of trenches. A truck had been scattered━turned upside down━to the left where emergency rescues were working to pull the driver out from the shattered glass widows. He looked burned; his clothes steamed and Nina felt sick at the sight of it.