The Girl Behind The Mask• P.Parker

•Chapter Eighteen•

Peter's POV
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Right after I avert my gaze from Laney, MJ flips me off and then walks away with her. The moment I took pictures with Liz at her house made me realize that I picked the wrong girl. And now I have to go fight the Vulture, leaving both of them behind.

3rd POV
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As Peter leaves the dance, Ned distracts his friends from his absence by dancing with them. They all take turns for a few songs and then dance together while the Cupid shuffle plays. For some reason, Delaney feels like something is wrong and she could feel it in her. Literally. Her hands start to heat up like she's on fire. She turns to both of her friends in worry. "I think something bad is going to happen. I need to go I'm sorry." And as she slips into the hallway, Ned goes to the computer room to get in touch with Peter.

Delaney runs through the hallway, careful to make sure she's the only one, and puts on her Sorceress mask. She looks at her Tracelet she put on Spider-Man yesterday and heads towards his location.

[The "Tracelet" was a bracelet Delaney created and wears at all time that she can remove a bead and place in any surrounding. Once taken off of the loop, it is activated and will immediately track the location from when it is activated, and when it is put back. The data is live on Tony's tech and Delaney's.]

Her GPS takes her to a location by the beach but when she gets closer, she realizes the building is destroyed. The fire she felt was scattered on debris almost the height of a one story building. She could see him. The Vulture, in the distance with his mechanical glowing eyes and his wings. She looks at the GPS again and sees red and blue under some rocks. She starts to run to him, but stops.

As much as she hated to do this, she couldn't help Spider-Man. She helped him with the ferry. And if he can't finish a fight by himself, he'll never be ready for something worse. So, she hides away from Vulture's sight and anxiously waits for Spider-Man to rise from the rubble.

She could hear some grunts and shouts and watches in awe as he pushes a huge column off of him and goes to fight Vulture.

As she looks up she could see Tony's moving plane take off. Looking back at the fight, it looks like Spider-Man was winning, so Sorceress goes to a familiar roof.

Some time later, she could hear the webs of her friend and turns over to him. She looks at him and rushes over. "Oh my gosh, your suits all ripped up." But he doesn't respond because in front of him was a girl in a dress. A dress he knew from that night. He slowly takes his mask off and they both look at each other.

"Peter?"
"Laney?"
They say at the same time, finally discovering their real identities. Delaney laughs as she finally put all of the dots together.
"The disappearances from school, DC, you leaving homecoming, it all makes sense."

"And you! You're some new kid from "New England" he makes air quotes.

"Technically I lived in New England. I'm from an island but then my coven was attacked and then Tony found me."

"TONY? TONY STARK?"
"Yes you're aware with your internship." She laughs.

"So, Liz Allen?" Peter grimaces. "Yeah, about her." He pulls out something from behind his back. It was a single flower that Delaney gave him. "I'm really sorry. I should've really went with my gut. Before you came I liked her. "Liked her? Peter, you worshipped her." She laughs and he scratches the back of his neck. "Yeah I know. But then I realized that there was someone else. Someone right in front of me that likes me too."

Delaney's cheeks turn a dark pink, thanking the gods it was the nighttime so Peter couldn't see her blushing. She looks at him and sighs. She could hear beyond the city noise, music was playing in an apartment below them.

"Peter, do you want to dance?"

They join hands and dance to the slow music nearby and all of their stress leaves them. Delaney's head was on Peter's shoulder holding his hand while Peter's was on her back, absentmindedly rubbing tiny circles with his finger. Everything was perfect. Until Delaney's phone rang with the name Tony on her screen.

"For the love of Thor."

The song ends and she apologizes to Peter. "Hey Tony, how are you this fine evening?" She says sarcastically into the phone. She turns to see Peter trying to stifle his laughter.
"You're on your way? Um okay I'll... alright."
She ends the call looking at Peter. "Tony is about seven minutes away from the school. Is there any way you could... pew pew" mimicking his webs " to get us back?" He nods and pulls her close and they sling their way back to school.

When they get there, Peter quickly goes to change back into his suit and wipes off the dirt from his face. Delaney meets back with Ned. She then sees MJ's text saying she left early. Typing a quick message, she looks back up at Ned who has a weird look. "What?" She reaches her face to make sure she still wasn't wearing her mask and takes a deep breath of relief. "Your cheeks are red." And she could hear loud footsteps behind her. She turns to see Peter almost tripping on his feet. Ned's eyes go wide and Delaney makes a cut-it-out signal with her hands.

"I have to find Liz." Delaney nods understanding and waves goodbye. He makes his way to Liz and pulls her aside. "Liz, I just want to say I am so sorry for leaving you." She nods and sighs. They talk for a little more until she gets a phone call from her mother with her saying her dad got arrested. Peter walks her to her car and gives her one final wave.

Delaney sits in the car with Tony who seemed to be tired from the move. They make small talk as they go home. As they pull into the driveway, she gets a text from Peter.

P: So, a crazy night tonight?
D: Definitely.
P: So would it be crazy to ask you out?
D: Would it be crazy to say yes?
P: Not at all.

Delaney smiles at her phone and turns it off, getting out of the car at her home and her dad. This year is turning out alright.

Fin