After about five minutes of waiting for Peter to return, his bedroom door opens. Eloise turns.
"Pete—Ned?" She says, brow pulling forward as Ned shuts the door behind him. He stares at Eloise with confusion and glances around the room.
"Where's Peter?"
She slumps against the wall and checks the time on her phone. He's been gone for seven minutes. She hasn't heard any commotion or loud noises that would indicate any battling or anything going on, so that's good news. Hopefully all goes according to plan—if he even has a plan.
"He's on the seventh floor," Eloise tells him. "You know that guy that disappeared into thin air Peter was talking about?"
Ned's eyes go wide. "You mean he's in the same building as us?" She nods. He runs a hand through his black hair. "He could be plotting to take over the world or his next evil scheme." Ned pauses. "Wait, is Peter battling him as we speak?" He cranes his neck and looks up at the ceiling.
"I don't think so," Eloise explains. "Peter said that he was just going to find out who the guy was visiting and why. He didn't say anything about taking them down."
Ned's eyes linger on the ceiling before falling to Eloise. "How long has he been gone?"
"It hasn't even been ten minutes." Eloise bends down and falls onto Peter's bed. "I have a feeling it's going to take a while, so we should probably get comfy."
🕸
An hour and two Snickers bars later, the only sounds in the small bedroom are the muffled street sounds and Ned's soft, even breathing as he's passed out in the chair.
To pass time and to keep herself from worrying too much, Eloise meanders around Peter's room and just looks at some stuff. There are trophies from spelling bees, science fairs, and an academic decathlon displayed on his dresser in the corner beside his bed. Next to each trophy is a picture of Peter holding the trophy, all of them alone but one with a team dressed in matching yellow coats. Her eyes slide from the trophies to some pictures that look like he drew when he was younger. There are some stick figures, and then some misshapen figures that are dressed like superheroes. The one he's drawn the most is Iron-Man.
It's cool; Peter works beside Iron-Man sometimes and knows Tony Stark. His childhood dreams came true.
With a smile lingering on her lips, Eloise moves to his desk and study the pictures taped to his wall and set up in frames. There are a few of him and Ned, some when they're young and some that are more recent. She looks from a picture of Ned and Peter in a pool to a framed picture of Peter and a man she doesn't recognize. It must be from a year or two ago, because Peter looks somewhat the same but a bit younger. She picks up the frame to look closer. Peter's really scrawny, which means that the picture was taken before he was bitten by the radioactive spider. The man he's with looks like he's maybe in his early fifties, or late forties. They both look really happy.
Glancing at the other pictures on his desk and on the wall, Eloise realizes that the same man is in the rest of them. Every picture is bright with crinkly-eyed and toothy smiles.
She sets the picture back down.
Suddenly, there's a crash and the sound of glass shattering. Eloise spins on her heel as Ned jolts awake, flailing his arms and falling out of the chair with a thump.
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?"
"It's weak. It only works after it charges for a few hours. I can't use it more than once in a row."
"Of course not," he coughs. "It can lose control and kill the user if overpowered. The core is too small."
Russo slams his hand on the counter. His friend doesn't flinch.
"Then make it bigger, damn it."
The man with the cigarette stretches his back. "I don't know ..."
Russo snaps and grabs the friend by the collar of his shirt, pushing him up against the wall. He gets up in his face. The friend doesn't act intimidated.
"Look," Russo spits. "I need to be able to teleport like that—" He snaps his fingers. "And like that—" He snaps again. "And like that—." He snaps again. "By the 22nd."
His buddy takes another drag. "Calm down, man." The smoke comes out of his nostrils. He grins. "I can try, but no promises."
Russo shoves him into the wall and pulls out a small black gun from his jacket. Eloise's eyes widen when he aims it at the other man's face. "If you don't get it done," he snarls, cocking the gun, "you won't see Marlene again."
Peter pushes the pause button and the clip stops. He turns to Ned and Eloise.
"There's about a half hour more of recording. They have roughly..." His hand wavers. "A hundred or so weapons stored in a secret location they were talking about, somewhere down south."
Eloise shifts her weight to one foot and crosses her arms, unsure of the situation. "Who's Marlene?"
"Hank's daughter," Peter answers, then adds, "Hank's the other guy."
Ned scratches the back of his neck. "What do we know about him?"
"So far," Peter says. "Nothing." He turns back to his computer and pulls up a new tab. "But I'm working on it."
As Peter types away at the keyboard, Ned looks down at his phone. He scrolls on his screen. "The 22nd is Thanksgiving." He looks up. "Why Thanksgiving?"
"I don't know," Peter replies shortly, busy on his laptop.
Thoughtful, Ned asks, "Did they plan that on purpose?"
"Don't know."
"What are they planning?"
Peter spins around and exclaims, "I don't know, Ned; I don't know anything more than you do, okay?" He spins back to his computer and continues working. "All I know is that we have less than a week to stop whatever they're planning."
Ned and Eloise glance at each other. Maybe it'd be best if they left Peter alone for a while to figure things out and research. His brain is working and all of this nonstop work is taking a toll on him, but Eloise doesn't see how she could stop him now. Plus, she doesn't think she should interrupt him; he's close and needs to stop whatever havoc Russo is planning before it's too late.
Eloise grabs her jacket off Peter's bed. "It's getting late, I think I'll go home now," She announces. "I'll come by tomorrow if that's okay."
Peter doesn't reply. His mind is trained on researching.
Ned looks at Eloise. "That's okay. I'll stay the night to make sure he doesn't give himself a brain aneurysm or anything."
"Sounds good," She replies. Eloise pulls her jacket on and zips it up before moving over to the—broken—window. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." Eloise climbs out of the window, careful not to cut herself on any loose glass shards, and makes her way over to her window. Once she's inside her warm room, she lies down on the bed and lets her eyes flutter shut.
How long she lies there in her bed, willing herself to fall asleep, she's not sure. Worry for her friends and for her world settle in Eloise's mind, chasing away any chances of having a well-rested night as she tosses and turns. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, Eloise is not sure how Peter is handling all of this. The weight is getting heavier and, eventually, it will crush him.
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Attached Song: Sing of the Moon by The Collection
The song attached is so beautiful.
Also, am I writing this right?? I've never really written anything in this style before. I know how to write scenes between awkward potatoes since I am one, but I don't know how to write serious scenes with what I want to be suspense (just a little) with action and whatnot. Idk what I'm saying because I'm a tired mashed potato but yeah.
Thank you everyone for supporting me and not giving up on my story. Love y'all :)
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