4633 words losers!
As the machine around me buzzed with life and the coil and tubes attached to my arc reactor worked their magic Happy power-walked toward me and Peter. I lazily looked over at them to be included in the conversation but the machine and nanotech gave me this weird calm, loopy feeling like I just did a shit ton of cannabis.
"Ok, Fury's got the coded message," Happy confirmed with his phone in hand and lifted it. "Your friends are at the Tower Bridge."
"Ok," Peter nodded along with me.
"Your boy called it the London Bridge, but I figured it out. I'm going to go scoop them up, ok?"
"Yeah," Peter answered simply as I lazily nodded again.
"We're close," Happy warned making Peter gulp and nod, trying to appear confident but failing.
"We're close," Peter recited nervously, fidgeting subtly. I walked to the edge of the machine, the farthest the wires and coils would let me go and I grabbed his hand, squeezing it. He squeezed back.
"How're the suits coming?" Happy asked to fill the silence and ease the tension.
"Almost done."
"I feel incredibly high," I muttered to myself, staring at a chair, not ever realizing how orange it was.
"Good— wait what?" Happy did a double-take at my slumped, loopy figure and Peter did the same, giving me a concerned look. I blinked, not a thought behind my dry eyes.
"It's fine. I think," I assured, though not sure if that was accurate. "But yeah, it's almost done." Happy stared at me.
"Ok," Happy said, deciding not to question my state, and turned back to Peter. "You got this," he encouraged but the encouragement fell flat on insecure, scared to death ears.
"I got this," Peter repeated and I squeezed his hand again but for my own sake, to convince my buggy head that he'll be fine, we'll be fine.
"Now, walk me through it," Happy said, reviewing it for the audience so they were caught up.
"We know it's illusion tech, right? All we have to do is get inside the illusion, then Hailey will blast the breakdown voltage at the drones so we can take it down, find him, and he's just a guy, so I can take EDITH right back," Peter reviewed and I and Happy blinked at the half-baked plan. More half-baked than I was which was saying something.
"You make that sound way easier than it is," I noted, quirking an eyebrow at the fidgeting boy.
"Right and last time, you got hit by a train and you almost became fish food," Happy remarked, gesturing to us.
"True, but this time... How do I explain this? I have like a sixth sense," Peter started but he interrupted.
"The Peter-tingle," Happy casually finished and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from snorting at the nickname and Peters blank, unamused face. I had called it his Peter-tingle to May and it quickly became our inside joke about him. Apparently, it had caught on.
"That's what you're talking about, right? It's not working, though. I heard it wasn't working right now. Is it?" Happy continued, snitching on himself and revealing how much May and he talk when we're not around without even realizing he was doing it. Peter closed his eyes, his jaw clenching at the way this conversation sounded.
"I-it, it is working," Peter stammered with embarrassment making me snicker. I had always made jokes about the sticky white fluid that came out of Spider-Man but this might be even better. "Well, I don't know if it's working-" he reiterated but Happy interrupted him.
"Good. Ok, so you got the Peter-tingle," Happy shrugged simply making me cackle in the background. "That's the plan. I'm gonna go get your friends. You get that Peter-tingle back online," Happy planned out, walking to the front to manually fly the jet.
"I got this. I got thi- shut up," Peter hissed at me, blushing mad as I continued to giggle, still high out of my mind.
"Aw, cmon. Don't be ashamed of your tingle, it's perfectly normal for a half spiderling such as yourself," I teased making him roll his eyes at me. I finally stopped laughing but still smiled at him, not knowing how this all would play out. The high seemed to be doing wonders though. "You should really try this sometime, it feels great."
"You mean get high? I think I'm good," Peter decided looking slightly amused at my shit-eating grin.
"Prude," I smirked making him roll my eyes at me. I heard the machine beep around me and the screen popped up in front of me with the large word COMPLETE written across it. "'Bout damn time," I muttered, popping the coil and wires off me.
I quickly hopped out of the machine and stretched, feeling the buzz of the high and electricity course through me. Blue energy fizzed around me letting me know the reactor really did give me a full upgrade. I felt stronger than before, better even. It wasn't completely worth the bonding of me and my fathers' reactor but I'll take all the perks I can get.
Soon, Peters' suit was ready too and he changed swiftly while I simply tapped my nanotech compartment twice, being wrapped in the familiar suit with only a few changes and adjustments. It was a darker color with a retractable eye covering attached to the hood. Darkened fishnets sat at the side of my legs, something that was utterly useless but hot which was reason enough for me to add them.
We were just over London and the plan was about to officially commence. We opened the jet door, the air violently blowing against the jet making Peter gulp.
"Ladies first?" Peter offered anxiously, gesturing to me and the door causing me to raise an eyebrow at him, putting a hand on my hip. "Kidding, kidding," he defended nervously, steeping the edge of the door and latched onto the exterior of the jet.
"Uh-huh. Yeah," I rolled my eyes and flew out the door, keeping up with the jet. I closed the door and kept close to Webs as he crawled to the front of the jet, positioning himself right outside Happys window.
"Alright, comms check. Can you hear me, kid?" I heard Happy through my comm plugged in my ear.
"I can. It's a little loud out here," Spidey shouted the obvious through the wind and into the comm.
"A little?" I commented loudly over the rush of the wind against our ears.
"I like the new suits," Happy complimented looking out his window to check us out and I gave a thumbs up in response.
"Thanks," Spidey shouted into the comms again, looking forward to see London coming up.
"Woah," Happy expressed as we came upon London, getting the full view of the monster Beck had constructed for his big performance. The holographic Elementals seemed to join forces and became a fiery, angry tornado, skull, nightmare monster in the sky, roaring at the terrified civilians that were just trying to escape. Lightning struck the buildings below, seeming to concentrate on one specific area. Our friends.
"You sure that's not real?" Happy questioned hesitantly in concern at the terrifying monster slowly getting bigger and bigger as we got closer.
"Yeah, it's just 100 times bigger than I expected," Spidey said turning back to look at me. "You think you can still pull off the breakdown voltage needed to take down the drones?"
"You doubt me?" I asked with a small reassuring smile that was hidden underneath my mask. I knew I had enough volts to give the 'monster' a massive hit but I definitely wasn't going to get all of them, it was too much of a long shot and technically not physically possible. But it was good enough.
"Still the play?"
"We need to get high enough so Beck doesn't see us coming," Spidey planned and Happy nodded, making the jet shoot upward just before we flew into the illusion.
"Copy. Stay sticky," Happy advised and he nodded. What, was he not going to stay sticky?
"Hey, Happy?"
"Yeah, kid. What is it?" Happy asked Spidey curiously as he looked Happy dead in the eyes through the window.
"We need to have a serious conversation about you and my auNT!" Spidey said before falling from the jet and opening his spider-shaped mini parachute. Happy's eyes widened at his words and looked at me.
"Wear protection kids!" I mock-saluted before letting myself fall directly towards the nightmare-fuel creature. I quickly got up to Spideys speeding figure, flying beside him towards the demon giant.
"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real!" Spidey muttered as we got closer and closer to our target until we collided with its body. Or when we were supposed to collide into it but going through its holographic skin and Spidey colliding with a projector drone instead.
"Woah...that's awesome," Peter gaped at the thousands of drones working seamlessly together to form this giant creature.
"Cool. Shame it has to come undone," I smirked, hopping on top of one of the drones. "We have to work quick before he knows we're here. You know the drill," I said and Spidey started working on the plan, sticking a string of webs on each drone he could get his hands on and connecting the devices together easily. After he got most of them done I got off the drone and levitated beside it, hovering both my hands over a rope of webs.
"Try not to fall to your death or fry your brain, darling," I warned before charging up my hands and letting the energy and emotion course through my fingertips. Blue energy enveloped my hands and when I was finally charged up I grabbed onto the web just after Peter hopped up the drone he was standing on. The webs under my hand sparked dangerously and I could see the electricity flow from drone to drone from the very conductive web fluid. The drones slowly stopped projecting one by one and the monster noticeably dissolved in random spots all around its body. The spots grew bigger and bigger till more than half of the creature was gone and we could see the sky again.
I gasped, choking on air as my levitation faltered slightly as I sucked all the energy out of me and to the drones but by then the damage was done. I felt significantly weaker, feeling myself stumble weakly in the air but I quickly shook the dizziness away. Spidey hopped back on one of the bottom drones when I was finished and it was safe to touch them again without being fried to a crisp. A hole appeared beside Peter that I didn't pay much attention to until I did a double-take. The hole gave him a perfect view of a nearby closed-off bridge with only lightly tinted glass and a metal roof and a figure in the middle of the bridge. Beck, in a tacky green suit.
"I see you," Spidey whispered to himself before hopping off the drone and played hopscotch with the drones to get to Beck.
"Webs, wait-!" I tried to stop him but he didn't listen and came straight for him anyway. He jumped off the last drone and was about to crash land right at Beck but was immediately rammed by one of the stray drones. My eyes widened, expecting him to swing himself right back up again but when he tried to no webs came out of his shooters. Of course, he runs out at a time like this.
Before I could catch him with my force field he landed ribs first onto the concrete street making him groan. Yeah, he definitely broke a rib or three. Or six.
I dropped next to him and leaned down to help pick himself up but when I looked back up to fly us a whole herd of drones paced through the sky, waiting for us to come up and join them. Great.
They dramatically turned their lens down to us and before I could register what was happening Spidey reloaded his web-shooters, grabbed my waist, and swung us away from the firing drones.
Explosions set off behind us as we narrowly avoided them, swinging over the Tower Bridge before hopping down and behind a flipped, abandoned car as a shield.
"Happy, say something, please, to let me know you're alive!" Spidey begged into his comm piece and silence could only be heard for a moment before an out-of-breath voice graced us with its presence.
"I'm here. I'm here," Happy reassured, breathing heavily into the mic like he just ran a marathon.
"Take longer next time, why don't you?" I snarked quietly turning my head to see the shooting drones getting uncomfortably close to us. Before they could get to us I drew up a force field and wrapped it around them before throwing them over the bridge and into the water.
"Happy, thank god," Spidey sighed in relief at the man's voice and I relaxed slightly knowing he was okay.
"I bought us some time," Happy informed just before we heard a loud buzzing in the background like a chainsaw and screams of terror from our friends. "But not much," he stated making our eyes widen. We looked at each other knowing what we have to do but I refused to accept it.
"We have to split up-" Spidey started but I stopped him before he could argue his case.
"Peter-" I interjected with panic apparent in my voice at the idea but he stopped me next.
"Hailey, they have drones after them with no way to stop them and we have no idea how many are coming after them soon. You need to get them out of there and fast," he argued fairly in a hurry as the drones continued to fire at us.
"I am not leaving you here! I can't-" I refused stubbornly but he cut me off again.
"Hailey!" Peter shouted making me shut up. "I have to do this," he whispered with determination making me gulp apprehensively.
"Fine," I gave in harshly, looking back at the incoming drones in regret already about my decision.
"Hey," Spidey piped up, cupping my cheek with one hand and turning my head back to make me look at him. "I love you."
"I love you too," I returned and if I could've given him a last kiss right then and there I would've. I tilted my head up to look at the incoming drones' positions, already figuring out a plan to get out of here.
"If you die, I am so killing you!" I snapped at him before flying out of our hiding position making the drones immediately snap their attention to me. They began firing their guns at me but I easily dodged them before I grabbed my metal staff in its travel-size form before I clicked a button and it expanded into its normal form. I smacked each and every drone that came at me like baseballs and used my force field to slam them down to the ground, crushing them.
Finally, I have a reason to use my staff again.
"Happy, where are you?" I demanded, flying above the broken jet and looking around to where they could've gone.
"We're in the jewel vault in the tower and, uh, it ain't looking good," Happy answered nervously causing me to nod even though he couldn't see me.
I zipped through the streets before going through the tower's doors, whipping around till I found a room full of medieval artifacts. At the back of the room, there was a gold vault door being beaten down by drones. They turned to me menacingly slow before coming at me instead, shooting wildly. I dodged their shots, flying up above them, and smashed one with my staff. The others started swarming me as I twirled the rod in my hand before swinging it around me, bashing all of them to the ground.
A stubborn drone still refused to stay down and shot at me desperately but I dodged it again but my hood accidentally slipped off my head, revealing my bright blue hair. Thankfully, the door was still closed so no one saw.
I slammed my staff as hard as I could making it drop to the ground, whirring loudly as it tried to fly up but failed. I grabbed it and looked into a camera lens in the front, tilting my head at it and narrowing my eyes, knowing Beck was watching.
"We're coming for you next, Beck," I smirked, spitting out his name before running the end of my staff into the lense, officially killing it. Next on the kill list: Beck.
I pulled up my hood to hide my hair and walked up to the broken door, heat marks around the frame like a laser beam burnt through the entire door frame. No, I think that's exactly what happened. I barely touched the old timely bank vault when it fell onto the ground with a loud bang revealing a group of shaking individuals. MJ had a medieval mace ready in one hand and a death grip on a cooing cage covered with a white sheet, Betty had a halberd, and Flash had his phone pointed at the door, probably for his Instagram "fans," while Ned and Happy were empty-handed.
"Are you serious, Ha- Mr. Hogan?!" I hissed at the terrified man, trying to regain his posture. "You are the Head of Security for Stark Industries and you didn't grab a weapon?! You have one job!" I lectured, furious that I had to leave Peter for these idiots. "I mean seriously, even these very pretty girls had enough common sense to get a weapon and you have nothing. How have you not been fired yet?" I demanded, gesturing to MJ and Betty taking them and the rest of the group back. Betty looked at me before smiling shyly at the compliment while MJ didn't seem dazed as I have complimented her 173 times since I've met her.
"Wha- she almost killed us by grabbing that thing!"
"You were going to die anyway, you idiot!" I rolled my eyes before turning to the rest of the group. "You guys alright?" I asked genuinely, putting on my serious, superhero voice.
"Yeah, yeah I think so- Miss Circuit! Behind you!" Ned exclaimed, pointing behind me making me turn around to see a still online drone coming at me as it sparked wildly and stumbled in the air. I kicked it away from me and the ground making it whir loudly but it continued to slowly come at me.
"Go. To. Hell. You. Fucking. Manipulative. Arrogant. Evil. Motherfucking. Asshole!" I yelled, every word being punctuated with a wild hit from my staff.
He was the reason Peters going to have to go to therapy for the rest of his life. Or at least part of the reason. He was the reason I was going to be forced to go to Dr. Reese for the rest of my miserable, long life, the reason Peters or I will never be able to trust anything or anyone ever again, the reason I had to face Nicholas again, the reason Peter will forever have nightmares, the reason I have to deal with this crippling fear right now, the reason I had to get into contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. again, the reason I had to face my longtime mental abusers again, the reason I got scREWED OVER AND THE REASON I WON'T GET A PROPER VACATION TILL I'M TWENTY-FUCKING-FIVE-
"Circ- Circuit, I think- I think it's dead now!" Happy stammered, drawing me out of my thoughts. I realized I was still beating the drone, now a pile of shattered metal bits, and I was breathing fast and heavy breaths. I looked over to the group of wide-eyed individuals and smiled awkwardly, though they couldn't see that.
"Right. I knew that" I huffed awkwardly and clicked a button on my staff making it go back to its travel-sized form and stuffed it into one of my belt pouches. "Uh...do you guys need an escort or...?" I trailed off, not knowing what to do next. More drones could be coming for them right at that moment but I needed to make sure Peter makes it out alive. Before any of them could answer I heard something odd from outside. Silence. No explosions, no gunshots, no roars from the holographic Elemental. Nothing.
"Probably, you should stay Circuit-" Flash urged with his phone still pointed at me but I shushed him harshly making him shut up instantly.
"Do you hear that?" I whispered to them causing Happy to look around and MJ scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion.
"Quiet," MJ answered simply making my eyes widen at what that could mean. Peter.
"Is it over?" Betty asked hesitantly like saying that was jinxing us. Everyone looked over at me as I waited to hear the Elemental or the whir of the drones but got nothing.
"Webs," I said suddenly before I flew out of the artifact room but I heard Flash shout something on my way out.
"Are you really friends with Peter Parker?!"
I zipped out of the tower and looked around frantically. The streets were full of people looking around fearfully, realizing there were no more monsters. The drones stood complacent in the sky causing me to scrunch my eyebrows in confusion until all of them started to fly up into the sky, probably back to their satellite station where they belong, hopefully forever.
I fly up towards the tower bridge, whipping my head around for Peter but only seeing broken cars or scattered tiny fires all around until finally, I spotted a limping red dot in the middle of the destruction. I flew down and carefully landed twenty feet in front of him, jogging weakly toward him. His mask was in his hand which revealed a sweaty, bloodied-up boy who was practically shaking from adrenaline and broken bones. No one was around since everyone evacuated so I pushed the button behind my ear and pulled down my hood as I scurried as fast as I could to him with my tired, worn-out body.
"Peter!" I called out making him look up and his eyes widen, a small smile of relief gracing his bruised face.
"Hailey," he breathed out, limping considerably faster toward me and I met him in the middle. I practically jumped onto him but stopped when I realized he would probably crumble.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my head in his neck to convince myself this was real. That he was alive and fine. But when I felt his warm arms envelop me and his head buried in my hair, I knew it was.
"Look at you, working that Peter-tingle," I teased into the crook of his neck making him laugh weakly and separate our embrace only to cup my face in his hands and rest his forehead on mine. We leaned in to kiss but before my lips even grazed his, a piercing ring filled the air coming from my pocket making both of us groan.
"You've got to be kidding me," I complained, leaning my head back to the sky, composing myself. I fished my phone out of one of my many pockets to decline it. That was until I saw who it was.
"Who is it this tim- oh," Peter stopped when he saw the caller ID in bold. Pepper 🌶
I clicked the accept button hesitantly and before I could put the phone to my ear I could hear Pepper yelling into the mic.
"About time you answer your phone! I just saw on the news you blew up London! What did you do?" Pepper demanded into my ear making me cringe.
"Technically Beck blew up London but he's...uh, gone now," I answered looking at Peter with wide eyes.
"Oh my- Hailey did you kill someone again?! I don't nee-"
"Okay, first of all, we already had this discussion years ago, I didn't kill that guy!" I started and Peter's eyes widened, giving me a bewildered look. "I said I didn't kill him," I defended quietly away from the mic at him before turning back to my phone. "And second, I'm kinda dealing with something right now," I muttered, glancing at Peter who's ears turned pink.
"Oh no, we are not done! Do you have any ide-"
"Oh no the fire is spreading I have to go, love you, byeee!" I lied, not even trying to sound convincing and taking the phone away from the side of my face.
"Hailey—!" I heard briefly before pressing End Call and feeling the crushing weight of instant regret and fear fill me. I am in deep shit when I get home.
"You do realize you just hung up on your step-mom and boss right?" Peter emphasized like I was insane, which I was.
"I'm slowly coming to the realization but I'll...deal with that when I get home," I decided and if I could sweat, I would be sweating bullets right then and there. "But for now, we need to get out of broad daylight so we don't expose to our entire class that we're superheroes cause we have enough people who know," I decided pointedly, grabbing his hand and dragging his broken body away from this wreckage that was London. And also life itself.
"Wait, wait, wait. I need to give you something," Peter stopped us as I gave him a incredulous look.
"Seriously? Right now?" I asked in disbelief at this boy as he fished for something in his secret pockets at his sides before taking a black box out. He planned it gently in my hands as I quirked an eyebrow at him but opened it revealing a broken glass necklace sitting on a cotton blanket. I could still tell it was a blue orchid even with its two separated petals completely detached from it leaving only one left.
"No..." Peter groaned at the necklace while I continued to stare at it. "Hailey, I'm so sorry. I had this plan, this stupid plan. I wrote it down, I was gonna buy you this and give it to you in Paris at the top-" I rolled my eyes as he rambled on before deciding to kiss him to stop his tangent, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"I love it. Orchid, you remembered from the-" I insisted when we pulled back but Peter stopped me this time.
"Greek story, yeah," Peter finished, smiling sheepishly. I told him after we met that orchids were my favorite flower because of the Greek myth about Dionysius, my favorite god humans have ever founded which includes Thor, who ripped apart a rapist by his limbs and his blood sprouted the orchid. A little grotesque but still my favorite story of all time.
I wrapped the silver chain around my neck and clicked the ends together, wearing it proudly and hummed.
"I don't know...I like it broken. Gives it personality," I pointed out honestly making a relieved smile spread across Peters face. "Okay I love so much right now and so relieved you're not dead but we need to go," I nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling him off the bridge.
"Right, right, yeah," Peter nodded along with me, letting himself get dragged by me to safety.