☀︎︎
𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑅𝑇𝑌 𝑆𝐼𝑋
𝑆𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑝𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑦
☀︎︎
Everything was normal when Split emerged from the darkness, slipping through space. Too normal. So normal that it was all he could think about at that moment.
The fact that he was surrounded by yellow school buses, the school towering behind him, only added to the sense of normality. It unnerved him, so much so that he clenched his hands into fists, letting them drop by his side, wrapped carefully in the black material of his suit. If Spiderman had been with him, they would have joked about that feeling- the hairs standing up on the back of his neck, something Split liked to call the Spidey tingle, much to the boy's annoyance.
Running a hand across the lining of the stomach of his suit, Split pulled in a breath and observed the space around him. There was a chance he'd made a mistake, unable to reach his crime-fighting partner in the same way he hadn't been able to find Steve, Wanda and the rest. Something about the suit seemed to make Spiderman easier to find, at least that was what SPlit believed.
But then a crash came from the other end of the schoolyard, the squeal of a blast of energy quickly following it, and Split could no longer doubt himself. If trouble was there, Spidey would quickly be following it.
Seconds later, Split landed in a crouch on top of one of the buses. Below, stood a man, his hand wrapped inside a clunky, metallic blaster from which the same swirling, familiar, blue power radiated, and there, sprawled out upon the ground, was Spiderman. Though it was not the usual glistening Stark technology, Split could recognise the red and blue of the suit anywhere.
"What's with the crappy costume?" The man said as he let out a bitter laugh, steps falling against the cold ground.
Spiderman's head snapped to the side as he rolled onto his stomach, only just beginning to try to stand. But his attacker raised his arm with stunted speed, his wrist shaking beneath the weight of the weapon that extended from his body like another, mechanic limb. Before he could put it to use, Split jumped forward, teleporting mid-air, emerging from the dark other-worldness not even a second after he'd entered it.
"On your left!" His voice fell intensely upon the scene.
With a sharp swing, Split's foot went swinging into the man's arm, tossing the weapon off-kilter, sending another blast spiralling into the school bus opposite. The man let out a grunt, his legs stumbling backwards as Split threw himself away, landing from his teleportation again, this time beside his partner.
Spiderman reached out a hand and Split caught it, hurrying to pull him toward his feet. "How did you know I was in trouble? I haven't got Karen," Spidey said as they scurried to hide behind one of the buses.
"I don't know. I just... felt it," Split said as they finally stopped moving, backs perching against the crusted metal. Spiderman let out a hardened breath.
"You're gonna have to hit me harder, next time," the man shouted from the same spot where Split hit him.
"I can arrange that!"
Split pushed Spiderman show further until he was concealed beside the wheel and stood slowly, knees bent at a small angle.
He saw the blast before it hit them.
The crunch of metal filled his ears- both coming from the force of the weapon crushing the bus they hid behind and the sound of his head hitting back against the wall that hit him. Behind his mask, Split blinked. Even from beneath the suit, he could feel the dusk that clogged the air flooding through his nose, making him splutter.
"Why did he send you here?"
Split lifted his head at the sound of Spiderman's voice, only to hit it once again.
"Guess you'll never know," the man said.
"Think again."
Split teleported again, drifting through the swirls of colour, dropping down beside Spiderman. His partner jumped slightly when he landed with a hand on his shoulder.
"I have a plan," he said, looking down at his hand and then up again.
"How do you know where we need to be?"
"I have a guy in the chair. He's contacting Mr Happy," Spiderman said excitedly as he jumped lightly, walking away swiftly, expecting him to follow.
"I feel like I should understand that reference."
"Nevermind."
Spidey turned his back away as he pulled a phone from his pocket. Split watched him contently. He seemed different, though not in a bad way. Perhaps it was his suit. Split knew well enough how much confidence a super-suit could give, how much one could change beneath it. Though Spiderman seemed no less himself. The other side of his coin was slipping.
"Got it," he said suddenly, pushing his phone away and turning to look up at him again. "An old industrial warehouse in Brooklyn."
"I'm gonna need something more specific."
"Just head toward the industrial estates, we'll find it."
Spidey wrapped his arms around him quickly, chin lifting so he could see him through the thick lenses of his mask.
"I'm holding on, I'm good. Go quick."
With a grin, Split teleported them away, feeling his arms grip harder around his waist when the world around them slipped away, merging into dark, brooding purple and deep blues. In that blur of time, he looked down, seeing the bright red of his suit against the darkness, and wondered what he saw, and whether the colours splashed against the pitch-black space were as brilliant from his eyes.
He pushed through, heading easily towards the vague place that Spiderman had told him. But time seemed to slow, even more than it already seemed to, and Split's stomach dropped.
Falling. Slipping. Plunging downwards into waves of what felt like water, Split was ripped away from his control. He felt his own hands clutch onto his partner's arms, pulling him closer. Vaguely, he remembered the promise. Hold on tight. Spidey didn't break it.
Split hadn't felt the drowning sensation for months, but here he was, flailing downwards with no destination in sight. Bracing his knees, he closed his eyes and jumped forwards, landing squarely on the pavement.
"What just happened?" Spiderman spluttered out when he'd regained his breath.
"It's moving day," Split blurted out quickly.
"Moving day?" Spidey said, then realisation tensed his shoulders. "Shit! Moving day! He's gonna rob the plane!"
"We need to find that warehouse."
Spiderman checked his phone once before he stepped forward again, thinking nothing of wrapping his arms around his waist, letting him whisk them away again. This time, with his head straight, there was no falling, no drowning. Split emerged into the dark street behind the tall, block walls of a warehouse.
"Okay, so he miscalculated, back up a building."
Under his instructions, Split teleported them backwards.
"This is it!"
Spiderman was sprinting forward through the front doors of the warehouse before Split could protest.
He found him inside beneath the cool glow of the block lights. The entrance room was bare apart from a few computer screens lined against the back wall. Beneath the monitors lay piles of blueprints, the paper bathed in green light.
"Check this out," Split called out to him, motioning to the last screen.
"Stark Tower."
Their suspicions were made clear by the mapped image that lay on the computer.
Spiderman's head shot to the side. "You hear that?"
Split shook his head and strained to listen, only to hear nothing. Spidey led them forward through the dim lights, guiding through the maze of rooms and open corridors in the direction of whatever noise he'd heard.
"Hey! Surprised?"
"Oh hey, I didn't hear you come in," the man at the end of the vast room said.
He turned, a smile playing on his somehow, familiar, aged face as he placed his tools down against the paper-covered bench. This was the Vulture, clearly.
"It's over, I got you."
"You know, I gotta tell you, I really, really admire your grit," the Vulture said as he nodded his head their way, wiping his hands against a white towel, tainting it with grease. "You and your little buddy."
"How could you do this to Liz?"
That explained it. Split swallowed, trying not to give away his surprise. He'd missed a step somewhere. Yet all he could think of was the fact that his partner, somehow, knew of Liz.
"To her? I'm doing this for her," he said, eyes hardening as his fists clenched around the cloth. "Hm, you're young. You don't understand how the world works."
Split let out a scoff that bordered the line of a laugh. "I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say that I'm really sick of old guys with superiority complexes telling me I don't know how things work."
Spidey nodded from beside him. "Selling weapons to criminals is wrong, no matter how you put it."
The Vulture was glaring now. "How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of his little toys? Those people, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want," he said. "Guys like us... they don't care about us."
"We're nothing like you," Spiderman snapped.
"They don't care about us. We build their roads and we fight all their wars and everything but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after them. We have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is."
"Stop comparing yourself. Your actions aren't noble," SPlit said, but the man ignored him. "See I understand things now. Tony Stark wants to make the world a better place. I may not agree with all of his choices, but at least he doesn't hide behind the work of other men and call it fair. You-you're just in it for yourself."
"They don't care about us," the Vulture pressed, disregarding him with the wave of his hand and the turn of his back. "I know you know what I'm talking about."
"Why are you telling us this?"
"Because I want you to understand. And-" He raised his chin above his shoulder, revealing the dangerous glint that lay behind his eyes. "I needed a little time to get airborne."
A wave of wind wafted against their backs before the crank of wings whipped the air. Spiderman flipped himself forward, using his feet to knock Split from the path of the wings before he could jump over their span, landing firmly in the centre of the room.
Split slid against the floor, turning himself midmovement to land facing the two.
"I'm sorry."
"What do you mean, that thing hasn't touched one of us yet!" Spidey called.
"True, then again, I wasn't really trying to."
Split threw himself forward, teleporting to land squarely in front of the Vulture, hitting him backwards, watching as the controlling device fell from the floor and landed a few metres across the room. But below him, the man grinned, holding back a burst of mad laughter.
"You're too late for that."
He threw out a shout as the ceiling behind him gave way. Hurtling from the broken pillars, rock covered the space his partner had once stood in. In one rageful movement, Split flung the Vulture backwards and sprinted forward to the heaps of rubble.
"Spidey! Hey, come on, say something," he screamed as he began to dig up the edge of the rocks. "Shit, come on."
There was no response.
"No. No. No." He tried again. "Spidey? Where are you?"
He's never felt fear as raw as this. Not when he was spiralling through space into a foreign time, not when Steve had left to find Bucky during the war. Then, he'd had faith- he held the true belief that good would persevere and that they could find their way through anything. But Split was all out of hope.
Then his voice called out, landing like a kiss on his cheek.
"I'm here, I'm stuck, I- I can't move."
Relief flooded through Split with a wave of warmth.
"Shout again."
"I'm here. I'm here," Spidey's voice came weakly. Split rushed forward to the sound of his voice. "Wait! No! Don't come closer. I don't have my mask."
The adrenaline that coursed through his body as he heaved the rubble from the floor seemed to dip as Spiderman's pleads met his ear. The large rock fell from his arms, smashing into smaller pieces by the base of the pile. From there, Split could see the flood of red. It was blood at his first glance, glistening liquid spilling from beneath a large boulder. But that was only the fear clouding his judgement. A foot stuck out from somewhere in the centre of the pile.
Split swallowed back against the dryness of his throat. "Knowing who you are beneath the mask won't change anything."
"It doesn't matter," Spiderman shouted, voice pained, almost a cry. "Go. Happy needs to know what's happening!"
Even from his stone prison, he could sense his partner's hesitation. "I'll get out of this."
"I'm not leaving you like this!" Split yelled, only to be refused.
"Please, just go. Please," Spiderman said, his tone becoming softer as Split's resolve broke down. "I'll get out of this."
Split was moving backwards before he could convince himself otherwise. The rocks piled around the centre were already trembling under the boy's pressure beneath it.
"I'll be waiting for you. Don't forget that."
Then he turned away, eyes closing, breath held, and left him.
The air outside the warehouse was colder now without Spidey's presence near him, the warmth of his arms still lingering on his waist. He was running. Running, feet pounding against the earth like quakes, feeling the power building within each step. Then he was screaming, screeching an inhuman sort of sound that drifted into the high pitch ringing that gripped the space he fell into.
The colours of that middle state he slipped through seemed brighter now, pulsing and ebbing, flowing around the darkness that clung to his feet and dispelling it altogether. It was as if they were responding to his heavy presence. Split only had seconds to watch it.
Eddy landed on the landing pad of Stark Tower and heaved in a breath, pulling the mask from his face. His cheeks were damp and dusty, remnants of both smothered over his face. The brown boxes he'd expected were absent and the workers were already packing away their equipment. The plane was already on route, flying without a single worry of a flying villain.
"Happy! "Happy!" He began to scream his name. "Please, Happy!"
"Eddy? What are you doing?"
"You've got to listen to me, I don't have time. He needs me- he needs me."
Happy steadied him with a hand on the shoulder.
"What is it? Aren't you supposed to be at homecoming?"
"They're going to rob the plane," Eddy said quickly, pleading for him to understand.
Happy shook his head and gestured to the pad. "The coordinates say the planes are right on track."
"It's the Vulture. He has wings."
"What are you talking about?"
Eddy stepped backwards, the image of Spiderman buried beneath the rocks flashing in his mind once again.
"Please, just tell Mr Stark. I have to go. I have to go," he said. "Please, Happy. Believe me."
The earth was burning in a blaze of violent red. The sky was angry, pummeled by clouds of smoke that extended from the fairground out toward the darkened city. With bent knees, Split landed in the middle of it, fists clenched tightly at his side. There was nothing left but broken poles and singed material.
"I'm too late," he muttered, glancing around at the charred scene.
His partner was nowhere in sight. The Vulture lay passed out, webbed to one of the only standing walls, a messy note pinned to his chest. It was signed by Spiderman- he could have told as much by the choice of words- but the relief that washed through him was only brief.
"Spidey!" Split shouted out, knowing it would not be long before Happy and his entourage showed.
To his surprise, a response came back. "I'm here."
Spiderman was perched on a low roof of the nearest building, watching over the setting below. His suit was scorched a thick, charcoal black and the lower part of his mask was ripped away, revealing a sharp jaw and the very bottom of a lip. Spidey turned his head slightly as Split gingerly stepped beside him.
"I think your mask is missing a piece."
He let out a light laugh. "It kinda got lost in the explosion," he said.
Split swallowed again, removing the anxious lump that was building in his throat. "I'm sorry I wasn't here."
From the crease of his lower lip and cheek, he seemed to be smiling. "You managed to convince Happy something. I think that's an achievement in itself."
"It must have been the panic in my voice. I was acting mental.
"I'm sorry," he said after a short pause. "You should have let me help you. The mask doesn't mean anything, anymore."
Spidey's only response was the movement of his head, directing even further away from him.
"See-"
There was no hesitation as Split brought his hand up to his own neck, digging his fingers beneath the lining of his mask, reaching to pull it upwards. He barely made it past his chin before Spiderman stopped him with a hand around his wrist, holding on tightly. Split caught his breath, slowly unfurling his fingers from beneath the mask. His partner still held on, hand warm against his skin. For a moment, Split looked down to the grip around his wrist, and then up again, to the boy in front of him.
"I can't..."
His arms were around his shoulders in two seconds, pulling him closer, feeling the other boy's arms wrap around his torso. It was so easy, to feel this way. God, they'd been through so much. They were partners. Friends... He could feel his arms pulling tighter. His hands gripped the base of his suit. It was so easy. So easy that their lips were joining before they could contemplate what was happening.
They kissed quickly, with a sudden desperation that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere. It was in one movement, the joining of their lips, that the yearning had suddenly been made obvious. The boy's hand was still wrapped around his wrist but it now hung at their sides, squashed between hips.
The two were pulling away as quickly as they'd fallen together, staggering away as if surprised at their own actions. From up so close, Split could see the blood on the collar of his own suit, the red liquid splashed against the bare skin beneath the jagged rip of his mask. He glanced up from it, finding eyes that looked as if they didn't even know who it was standing in front of him. As if mirroring, they both shook their heads and stepped backwards. Split teleported before he could see another of the other boy's moves.
☀︎︎
How these two boys can be so smart but so stupid is beyond me-
Sorry for the wait! In case you didn't see the notice on my message board, updates are gonna be a little slow over the next two weeks due to mock exams :(
In other news, I made a Spotify for this account and I've made two playlists for this book. One for Eddy and Peter, and another for Split and Spiderman. I've attached a screenshot of one of them below if you'd like to check it out xx
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