mrs. yoon couldn't seem to believe anything that came out of siwoos mouth. she swore over and over again she had no idea how she did what she did but the woman wasn't buying it, growing more and more angrier.
"have you always been like this?" siwoo breathed, watching mrs. yoon practically break a sweat trying to get what she wanted out of her.
"when you said i'm not who you thought i was, i really am not who you thought i was. mark wasn't the only person that got through the multiverse." she replied, tone almost mocking as if it was obvious.
siwoo gulped, blinking blankly through fearful eyes. she glanced to the door as the lights began to flicker again, the same as they did during lunch. she could spot a few students walking past the door, but the bell had rung again long ago so the halls would be empty in just a few seconds.
"okay... i'm just gonna," not saying nor thinking anything else, siwoo made a break for the door, barely getting a chance to open it when she heard the clear sound of someting smashing into the window and breaking it.
this was enough of a reason for the girl to move her legs faster down the halls, just looking back once for a moment to see mrs. yoon following not far behind. the only difference is, she'd gone a good 5 feet into the air and something other than her own legs was carrying her.
siwoos heartrate sped up, her legs going faster and her breathing getting heavier. at this point her books had went flying, not caring enough to hold them anymore as she moved down the now empty halls. the sight of mark soon came into vision, him leaned against the lockers casually, head low and kicking the ground with the balls of his feet. she could see perfectly how his head lifted, his eyes came in contact with hers, a smile fighting at the corners of his mouth before it dropped open in fear as he looked behind her.
"what the fu—"
"just move," grabbing onto marks wrist, practically yanking him away as they turned the corner and into the girls bathroom.
"siwoo... tell me i'm hallucinating." the boy sighed and watched as she placed her hands on her knees, catching her breath.
he knew he wasn't imagining it, she knew he wasn't imagining it. "no? okay. cool."
"what do we do?"
mark didn't say another word as he unzipped his sweater, throwing it to the side before pulling off his shirt. in any normal case of a guy suddenly stripping in front of you, you would avert your eyes immediately to prevent seeing him naked. mark however, was not naked. he came fully prepared with the spider-man suit stuck to his skin underneath the layers of clothes.
when he noticed siwoo looking at him like he had two heads, he laughed. "rule number one of being the friendly neighborhood spider-man, you always gotta be prepared."
siwoo shook her head in disbelief, "right, but i have nothing to be prepared with."
the ground shook just the slightest underneath them, the lights flickering again as if urging them they needed to go. "hood up, head down, don't let anyone see your face. let's go."
the hero pulled the mask over his head, big black eyes covering his face before running out the door. siwoo silently swore to herself as she was sure simply keeping her hood over her head wouldn't do much. on top of that, she was so positive she was absolutely not ready to do something with her abilities other than swinging off two story buildings like an amateur.
however, now was just not the time to be arguing with herself. it was now or never. if she decided it to be never, she'd never forgive herself for not stepping in especially when it's all really her fault.
with a frustrated and hesitant sigh, the girl bolted out the door before she began to second guess herself. the top of her shirt covered half of her face while the hood of her sweatshirt hung loosely over her eyes, making it difficult to really see anything.
"ah, look who it is." the sound of mrs. yoons voice rung through their ears. "i only thought i would have to deal with siwoo today but i guess i'm gonna knock out two birds with one stone. it's my lucky day."
siwoo could spot what appeared to be two metal claws gripped to the floor, long spine-like appendages that mimicked octopus tentacles. "holy shit, she's doc ock?" she breathed, voice louder than she wanted it to be.
"it's just doctor, to you," the woman sneared, snatching up mark with her free tentacle.
"hey, hands off the suit, lady! this is high-quality fabric!"
the boy squirmed around in her arm—tentacle, siwoo watching in horror as the grip progressively got tighter. she did the only thing she could think to do, which is shoot webs at her face until she couldn't see anymore. it may not have been the brightest idea, but it successfully made her drop mark and stumble around.
mark quickly took this as an opportunity to attach his webs to the arms, gluing them around her body so it was impossible for her to move. siwoo took a quick look around, watching as two students shuffled around the corner right into the hallway, where the three happened to be standing.
"people are coming," she warned mark as she watched her classmates stop in their tracks at the sight of them.
"we'll lead her out of here," mark replied, mrs. yoon shouting chants of curse words to the youngers as the webs slowly began to rip at her using all her strength to pull herself out of them.
"run." they only had seconds for a head start, the two of them turning on their heels and full force sprinting the other way.
eyes of pure confusion and disbelief watched them, the same students not moving their feet as mrs. yoon came lunging in their direction. siwoo shouted as loudly as she could for them to run, and when they didn't listen, she took it upon herself to shoved them into the wall to avoid getting trampled by their biology teacher.
mrs. yoon was red at this point. you could practically see smoke coming out of her ears, her teeth gritting with an angry huff and slamming her tentacles into lockers, creating much larger dents than they'd like to admit. in all honesty, it was horrifying being chased by her.
"she's catching up!" the girl shouted again. mark didn't waste a second swooping her into his arms, swinging away at a faster pace than their running. siwoo clutched onto his body for dear life as they managed to leave the school.
"don't look down." aside from the chaotic situation, mark somehow managed to keep his words slow and calm. she hated to admit it, but siwoo really felt her fear floating away.
they swung into the beautiful city, and the sight would be so easy to admire if there wasn't a psychotic octopus lady chasing after them.
"okay," the boy finally breathed, setting siwoo off at the top of a building where they both remained unseen, "you stay here, i deal with her."
"wha—no! mark, this is my mess to clean up. are you crazy?!"
"our mess, and yeah, maybe. but i've done this before with her, i got this. please just stay here and stay safe."
even over the mask siwoo could see his strong sense of stubbornness, one that would never allow him to hear her out in this moment. "...if i see her even a quarter of step over you, i'm jumping in."
confident that the woman could never outsmart him, mark nodded before swiftly turning around and swinging away, landing his feet right in front of mrs. yoon herself.
she looked as if she were to explode in a second, a wrinkle in between her eyebrows creating a frown. she grunted through her teeth in frustration. "where is she?"
"whoa, aren't you happy to see me?"
"i would be. i would be so happy to see your despicable face slammed into concrete, if it weren't for that unnecessary chase you put me through. now i'm just irritated."
"if you didn't like tag, you should've just said so," mark couldn't stop himself from witty comments rolling past his lips like it's all he knew how to do.
"enough. tell me where she is."
"no. she doesn't know how she opened the multiverse and that's that. you're going home as soon as we fix everything—"
"fix?!" mrs. yoon interrupted, scoffing, "no, no. nothing needs fixing. i need the world like this. i need everyone in agony. don't you see it? look at me, i'm unstoppable. and you... you're just you. boring. plain. all of you."
"i'd rather be boring than power hungry like you. trying to destroy the world is not going to bring your husband back."
the sentence made something in mrs. yoons mind snap. as if she didn't seem crazy already, her eyes only got more dark as a hand flung around marks neck in the blink of an eye, pushing and squeezing tightly. "don't you ever say that again."