There I was, standing by the entrance of a bank that was currently being robbed. Because the method of entry included breaking down the tempered glass with some sort of explosion, I was standing with glass littered around my feet. Why the robber decided to set an explosion was beyond me. Usually, robbers were a bit smarter and knew that sound attracted attention, like mine, especially if the noise sounded like something detonated. But who's to judge?
Police would be here in minutes, anyways, but I decided to greet the perpetrator and try to keep him from running away in the meantime.
I moved a step forward and the bottom of my soles crushed the glass. I glanced up to see if the figure in the vault turned around to find out what caused the noise, but they continued stuffing money in a duffel bag. I was grateful for the bad lighting as well. Even if he had turned around, he would have had to take a closer look to spot me, unless he pointed that big flashlight currently sitting on the table at me. I, on the other hand, had the advantage of enhanced sight, meaning I could see fine. He finished up, gripped the handles of the duffel bag and took his flashlight, and hurried out of the vault, his horse mask bobbing up and down with every step.
As he finally caught sight of me leaning on the wall with my arms crossed, I announced, "I don't think what you're doing is legal, buddy."
As soon as the words left my mouth, he let out a grunt of surprise, dropping the duffel bag full of money to the ground. He then grabbed a black object on his belt and pointed at me.
Uh oh. It was a gun that I hadn't seen before. In my defense, his coat had covered it.
"Woah. Woah. Calm down." I lifted a hand to web his gun away, but he pulled the trigger. Luckily with my sight, I could see the desks around the room. I dove behind the nearest desk and waited for him to go through his round, crawling on the floor. Each bullet hit the wooden desk, sending shredded wood and splinters everywhere. Well, that escalated quickly. At least the bad lighting didn't allow him to see clearly, the only real source of light being his flashlight and the moonlight. I continued scooching forward with my stomach on the ground, trying to avoid the bullets.
As soon as he ran out of bullets and had to reload, I jumped out of my hiding space and sent a web at his gun. When it attached, I pulled back sharply, causing the gun to fly out of his hands into mine.
"Ew." Holding the gun's grip with my thumb and pointer finger, I placed it on the table. "Now that's much better." While I had been dealing with the gun, he decided to sprint off with the duffel bag in his hand.
"Great." I sighed, groaning. "Don't I ever get a break?" I asked myself before running after him. He sprinted on the sidewalk, trying to get away from me. Within a couple of seconds, I caught up to him. I shot a web at his legs, causing him to trip and fall on the sidewalk.
"Ow! Let me go!" He yelled through the horse mask, trying to rip the webs off his legs. I sent another two webs that covered his body to stop him.
I opened my mouth to tell him that I wasn't going to let him go, and we would wait here until the police arrived, but my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen. Ned was calling me. I should really mute my ringtone when I was out and about. If Ned would have called me a minute ago, he would have revealed me to the horse guy.
I looked at the horse guy, holding a finger up. "One second. This is important." I swiped to answer the call, turning away from the horse guy. "Yeah, what's up?"
Ned said, "Hey Peter. It's almost twelve. Are you almost done patrolling? We've got to wake up early for school tomorrow."
I glanced back at the still struggling horse guy. "I guess I could come back now. Let me finish this up, and I'll be there, okay?"
"Okay, see you!"
"Bye." I ended the call, pocketing my phone at the same time the blue and red flickering lights arrived next to the bank. A police officer came out of one of the cars and spotted us. He called over the other officers, and they started running in our direction.
"You'll pay for this you know? I'll make you pay," Horse guy on the ground let me know.
I looked down at him and snorted. "Stand in line. You're not the only person who wants me to pay." He stayed quiet, and when the police came close, I swung away from the scene without saying goodbye, landing on a roof. I watched them for a couple more seconds, seeing them take off the mask and revealing a young, blond male. Too bad he chose this life. And then I sent a web to the nearest building, jumping off the roof of this one. I traveled like that for a few minutes, going from building to building towards Ned's place until I decided to take a quick break and enjoy the great view of the city.
I sat at the edge of the roof on top of a hotel, Hilson Inn, and watched two women rushing in with their three children, trying to make sure all of the luggage was there. The boy's baggage tipped, so one of them quickly pushed it back on its wheels, and then they disappeared into the hotel.
Suddenly, my spidey sense started tingling, making me jerk. I jumped up to my feet, ready to fight whatever my spidey sense alerted me for.
When I saw Hawkeye standing behind me in his suit with a bow in his hand and the quiver filled with arrows on his back, my eyes widened behind my mask as I froze in my stance. I hadn't expected them to be out for me so soon. I thought I had at least a day or two without having to look behind my back constantly.
Hawkeye shifted the bow to his other hand. "We heard about the sightings of you on the police radar, but it took some time to actually track you down, Spider-man." Not a second after he finished speaking, Iron-man landed next to him, fist to the ground before standing up.
"Sorry, I'm late. I hope I didn't miss anything."
I tried to pretend they didn't surprise me and made my voice more deep and gruff-sounding, but I just sounded weird in the end. "What can I do for you?"
Hawkeye paused, his eyes narrowing and his forehead creasing for a second before he shook his head and declared, "We need to talk to you."
I remembered the words Nick's words during the meeting and took a couple of steps back. Capture him, tranquilize him, stalk him, whatever you have to do. As long as I get the result, I don't care what method you use.
I stopped backtracking and stayed put. "About what?"
Tony stepped out of his suit as he talked, "We have reviewed your actions extensively over the past month and came to the conclusion that you would be a great addition to the team. We would like to invite you to become an Avenger."
Even though I knew this was coming, the question still caught me off-guard. I could become an Avenger. I had always wanted to become a defender of the planet... but that dream died when I became Spider-man and realized the true responsibility it takes to be a hero. All the losses steadily built up in the back of my mind, and I always carried them around. People started expecting my presence around, and if I didn't show up because I was in school or took a night off from patrolling, they would become mad at me and even blame me for not being there.
Still, I was happy with simply helping out the neighborhood. We've got heroes defending the Earth already. They're doing fine on their own. Besides, who would help out the neighborhood then? I was the only superhuman to date, at least to my knowledge, that geared toward helping the little people. Even if I said yes, they needed to know my identity first, and once they realized I'm just a kid (and more importantly which kid), everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D would know, and they wouldn't let me do patrols anymore. No way. That's not going to happen.
"Thank you for the invitation, but while I do appreciate it, I have to say no," I concluded and watched their reactions. Hawkeye seemed confused, and the side of Mr. Stark's mouth tipped down in dissatisfaction.
"Really? Are you sure about that? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here. You want to miss out on that?" Mr. Stark asked me, his head tilted to the side trying to figure out my actions.
"Yes, I am sure." I glanced at my watch. "I had a great time talking to you, but I have to go." I took a step towards the ledge.
"Wait!" Hawkeye stepped forward. "Can you at least tell us who you are?"
Well, there's the question Nick Fury wanted to have an answer to.
I shifted on my feet. "Um, no. I don't like sharing my identity." Hawkeye and Mr. Stark shared a look between them and then turned their attention to me.
"Look, we need to know your identity to allow you to continue your nightly rounds. Don't make us use force when we don't want to. We prefer that this will be done voluntarily," Mr. Stark said, leaving me with two options. Fight or run away, and since I was tired and wanted to go to bed, I chose to run away.
"Sorry, but that's just not going to happen. Bye!" I yelled before jumping off the roof, not waiting for their response. I heard the whistle of an arrow but I was gone. I quickly swung from building to building, trying to put as much distance from them and me. I landed on the streets for a few seconds, ran for a bit, and then sent another web at a skyscraper, hauling my body back into the air. I could hear Iron-man approaching me, so I sped up my pace. I recognized the alleyway where I had stored my backpack next to the Indian restaurant and did a happy dance in my mind. I dropped in, ripped my backpack off the wall, and shook out the clothes to the floor. I changed in record time, my red and blue clothing gone and replaced with a black hoodie and jeans. With a backpack slung on my shoulders, I came out of the alleyway right when Iron-man arrived at the front.
"Hey, you! Did you see Spider-man swing by?" He asked me, hovering above the ground.
I kept my hoodie up and looked at the ground so that the street light wouldn't make my face visible to him. I didn't want him to recognize me. It would be suspicious why his intern was in the middle of New York City in an alleyway all alone just hanging around.
I mumbled, pointing to the right, "I think he went that way."
"Thanks kid." He shot off into the sky.
I sighed in relief, stuffing my hands in my pockets and making my way to the subway. I passed by sleeping homeless people on the sidewalks, feeling bad that I couldn't give them anything. I could be considered homeless at this point, if not for Ned.
Oh! Ned must be wondering where I was. I pulled out my phone and called him.
"Peter! Where are you?" He asked, his voice a pitch higher than usual.
I said, "Okay. On my way. I'll be there in fifteen."
"Alright, I'll wait for you." Before I could interrupt him and persuade him to go to bed now, he continued, "While you were out, I did some more research about those yixons."
I corrected, "Bixons."
"Oh. Whoops. Well, it shouldn't matter. I found this website online that can find out what material you have based on your description. I matched to seven different kinds of extractions from flowers, which is one of the hypotheses we made in class. I tried to search up more information on them but could only narrow it down to four. The rest of the information we need to find in the school library. I already put eight books on reserve for us. We can look through them tomorrow," Ned explained. I could hear him typing on his computer before shifting papers in the background while I entered a subway train.
I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Okay. Let's do that during lunch. Good job, Ned. We really need to figure out what-"
"Ow!" Ned yelped, cursing.
I sat down on a seat, squished between two other people. "What happened?"
"Papercut," He grunted.
I snorted. "Ouch."
Ned exclaimed, "Hey!! Don't mock me! Those hurt."
"I know I know. I'm just kidding." I smiled to myself.
"Uh-huh. Anyways, let's talk when you're back home because I'm having a little bit of difficulty hearing you."
"Probably because I'm underground. Then again, I don't have the best cell service in the world. Either way explains why," I supplied.
"What? What did you say, Peter? I can't hear you."
"Nevermind. See you later."
"What?" Ned asked again.
"Good-bye!" I repeated.
"What are you saying? I can't hear you."
"Byeee." Before he could say 'what?' again, the connection broke up completely, and I turned off my phone. Tired, I knew the first thing I would do once I arrived by Ned's house was go to bed. I didn't care if I even had to sleep on the floor. Honestly, I was lucky to have a roof above my head, and as long as I got my rest, everything was fine.
Hi guys,
Sorry I didn't update for the past three weeks! I was a bit busy with college applications and the usual workload of school. I should return to my usual schedule from now on (an update every week on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday).
Thank you, everyone, for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. :)
Breezebane
P.S. If you see a spelling or grammar error, please point it out for me! Sometimes my eyes skip over the words, and I don't catch the mistake. Thanks!