Walking the Wire | PETER PARKER [1]

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She looks to the now-broken window, then to the boy in red and blue spandex on the floor with glass shards all around him.

"What was that?" May's voice calls from somewhere on the other side of the door.

Peter rips off his mask and shoots up into a standing position. His tousled hair stands up in different spots. "Nothing!" He calls back, voice high, eyes wide, and out of breath. He glances at Ned on the ground and then Eloise standing by his desk. "It was nothing!"

Ned pushes himself to his feet, making sure not to stand on any glass. "Dude!" He exclaims. "Why did you break the window?"

Peter glances back at the glass-less window that's letting all the cold air in. "I thought it was open." He looks down at the glass. "Guess I was wrong."

"No kidding."

Peter looks at Ned with an annoyed look. Ned shrugs.

"Anyways," Eloise says, breaking their banter. "What happened? Did you figure out who Russo's friend is?"

"Something like that," Peter replies. He takes his mask and puts it on. "Karen, download that video of Russo and his friend I just took so I can transfer it to my computer."

Eloise looks to Ned with confusion. "Who's Karen?" She asks, recalling Peter talking to this person before.

"She's an AI in the suit," he explains.

"Ah."

Peter's quiet for a second before he talks again. "Thanks." He peels off his mask again before unattaching his suit to his body. It slips down, revealing his muscular chest and abdomen. Eloise tries not to stare, but then she remembers the pictures in which he looks so scrawny and she can't help but let her eyes linger. When Peter catches her gaze, her cheeks turn ablaze and Eloise quickly look away.

Ned tosses Peter a pair of athletic shorts and he slips them on over his boxers. He picks up a t-shirt and pulls it over his head. Eloise avoids his gaze and sits down on the edge of his bed.

Peter connects the suit to his computer with a cord as he transfers the file containing the recording of the criminals' exchange. A loading bar pops up on the screen, and seconds later, a video pops up with a play button in the corner. Peter clicks it.

The screen shows two men, one of them the man Eloise met in the elevator, talking. The shot is taken outside of the apartment and looking in through a tainted window as they converse in a cluttered kitchen. Their words are hard to hear. Peter turns up the volume.

"—not a threat. But we need to stay out of those freaks' radar; we've worked too hard for the bastards to just come in and take it all away from us. We're too close," the man Eloise met in the elevator, Antonio Russo, says.

The other, who is holding a cigarette with a line of wispy smoke trailing off the end, leans up against the counter. He scratches his back. "What do you need from me?" He asks in a gruff voice. "I already gave you the quantum transmitter."

"I need more weapons." Russo picks up a metal nut from the counter and spins it. "And the transmitter needs fixing."

The friend takes another drag from the cigarette. "What's wrong with it?"