Song: Elevate by DJ Khalil. Don't play until I tell you :) The song is going to end before you're done reading the chapter, but replay it until you finish!
I measure the still life again, frustrated at my trembling hands. Clarissa tries to 'help' by swimming a gold fish cracker across my vision, all while whispering "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."
I swat her hand away with a sarcastic look. "Can you grow up?"
"Where's the fun in that?" She laughs. "Hey, so how did you like the party? I realized we never got to talk about it."
"Oh, I left early." I jot down my measurements, trying my best to eyeball it.
"I know," She says, popping the goldfish in her mouth. "But like, where did you guys go? And how bad was the hickey?"
"Oh my god." I look at her with exasperation. "You're just as bad as my sister! I don't do hickeys! Please Clarissa, I'm a man of dignity."
"Dignity... sounds like you're boring." She smiles devilishly, then returns to measuring with her pencil.
"Please shut up." I shake my head. "Besides, all we did was talk."
"I don't want to pry, but you're being awfully vague." She sighs, jotting down her findings.
"We talked about cars," Like normal straight dudes do. "And then... I asked him out."
"You did what?!" She yells, looking over at me.
I hush her. "Please keep it down, I don't want everyone to know. It kinda slipped out, and I didn't realize what was happening... and he agreed."
"Oh my gooooood you two are literally made for each other."
I hope so. "Well, even if we aren't, it's going to be nice. We're visiting his mom at work, she's a waitress for a fancy restaurant? Seemed like a nice thing to do."
"Please tell me how it goes afterward." She pleas, scribbling away on her paper.
"You'll be the first to know." I promise with a laugh. It's nice to have someone who cares so much about my dating life. Without her, I never would have gotten this far. She's the one that introduced us afterall.
When I look up again, I see Kel staring at me. I hesitate for a moment, captured by his angry yet stunningly blue eyes. His glare makes my shoulders drop. Oh great, he's going to beat me up after class.
-
I was totally right. As I walked toward the bus stop, I could hear him coming up behind me.
"Murdock!" He yells.
"I told you, call me-" I'm interrupted when he grabs my shoulder, and spins me around. I force myself not to react, just to wait patiently as his fist hurtles toward my face.
It's a solid hit, and I stumble back a few steps. There was a pop, and I can feel my nose start to bleed. Whoa, nice shot.
His aggression is contagious. I set my art portfolio down, then take a stance. "Alright, Henderson. Let's do this."
He smiles devilishly, and lunges forward. I block his first punch, and evade his next one, but I don't want anyone to recognize my patterns. I let the third one hit me in the gut, doubling over. I had underestimated his strength.
I throw a clumsy punch, and he swats it away easily, hitting me in the face again. He hits me with such force that I am thrown backward to the ground. He kicks me in the chest, flattening me. He then pounces, pinning me to the ground by straddling me and grabbing my wrists. I look into his eyes, heart nearly stopping.
This is the exact same way Drifter pinned me down last week. I remember being in a dark alley, and hitting him with a garbage can to get him off of me. The only difference here is-
Kel puts his hands around my throat, making the Venn Diagram a circle. My heart rate quickens as I see more and more similarities between him and Drifter. There's no way. There's no way! My face feels like it's bloating, the blood is beings trapped by his strong grip. My eyes feel like they're too big, and my tongue seems to be swelling.
The only thing I can do is grab his wrists, and attempt weakly to throw him off of me. It's not working. He's a lot heavier than I gave him credit for. My head is starting to really hurt now.
I stare up at him, fear in my eyes. He's angry. He doesn't want to kill me, but he wants to hurt me. His eyes are practically glowing with hatred. Glowing... Drifter's eyes glow.
Suddenly he disappears, and I can breathe again. I lay there in the damp grass, too shocked to move. I just stare at the sky and take deep breaths.
What. The. Hell.
I sit up, head throbbing. I look around to see someone standing between Kel and I. The stranger is speaking to him.
"I don't think that's a valid reason to attack a classmate. You'd better watch yourself, Kel. I'm not sure if the admissions office would approve of a student who can't control his aggression."
Kel mutters something back, then stalks away.
I lay back down, head swimming. My rescuer comes to stand above me, smiling down.
It's Caleb. "Hey, are you alright?"
"I need a sec." I breathe, closing my eyes.
"Here, lemme help you." He says. I don't see what he's doing, but I can hear him uncap his water bottle and pour it on something. He wipes a wet handkerchief across my face, cleaning up my bloody nose. "There. Is it still bleeding?"
I shake my head a little, then put a hand over his, holding it to my face. "Thanks, by the way."
"Hey it's the least I could do." He chuckles. "That's what friends are for, yeah?"
I smile, opening my eyes to see him. "Yeah."
"Let's get you up." He says, standing and hoisting me to my feet. "Damn, you weigh as much as a box of kittens."
"Shut up." I roll my eyes, using his handkerchief to wipe my face one last time. "Um, I'm gonna take this, and wash it up for you."
He hands me my portfolio and backpack. After I'm all set up, he offers to walk me to the bus. I accept, figuring I could use the company.
"Don't you have class?" I ask, looking over at him while we walk.
"Yeah, but I've got a half hour break in between. I was actually headed for a hotdog when I saw you out the window."
"Oh, sorry for interrupting your lunch."
"No no, don't worry. I'm glad I could help." He says, bumping my shoulder as we walk. "This way I can keep you out of trouble, even for a few minutes."
I smile tiredly. "That's where you're wrong. I'm always in trouble."
He laughs. "You're weird."
"It's a little late in the game for that." I say as we make it to the bus stop. The bus is already here, so I hurry to join the crowd.
Caleb grabs my hand, making me turn around. "Hey, text me when you get home safe, okay?"
I smile, giving his hand a squeeze. "Of course."
I sit in a window seat, and wave to him as the bus takes off. I rest my head back, nearly dozing off as the vehicle sways back and forth hypnotically.
-
(Play song) I slip my mask on, and launch myself off the bridge. There is not a better feeling in the world than hurtling through the sky. Maybe if I could actually fly, then that would be better.
Speaking of flying... I can see a tiny pinprick in the distance, hovering above the city. I use my mask's zoom feature to get a good look. It seems to be a fight. A mid-air battle. Fantastic.
I swing in that direction, hoping to get in on the action. As I approach i can see one of my fellow heroes- the earthquake guy- caught in a fist fight with a villain.
I've never seen this villain before, but she definitely has the bad-guy look. A sleek black suit with mesmerizing reflections, and a high-tech wing pack. The wings are almost invisible to the naked eye, nothing more than a yellow blur in the air behind her.
She throws a mighty punch, launching earthquake guy (i can't remember his name) directly at the ground. I yank on my webbing with supercharged strength, and manage to intercept him before he can fall between the buildings. The impact isn't pretty, and momentarily steals my breath. We skip across a rooftop, toppling over one another painfully. Once we skid to a stop, I bounce to my feet, shooting webs at the new villain.
"Hey, what's your name?" I call, attaching her to my webs and pulling her in.
"The name's Queen Bee!" She shouts, voice warped by a modulator. She grabs the webs, and yanks me toward her. My eyes widen as I lose balance, suddenly the victim of my own fighting style. She's really good.
She propels herself into the sky, dragging me along with her. By the time I am able to detach myself, I'm already too high in the air. I hold on tight, praying that she doesn't drop me.
"You're that spider-twerp that keeps getting in everyone's way, right?" She yells, halting her ascent.
My momentum still flies me toward her. "So you've heard of me?" I ask, coming to eye level with her.
"I've heard that you interfere with other people's rivals, so I'm not surprised that you managed to waltz in during my first real fight." She throws a punch, and I'm unable to dodge. She hits me square in the chest, launching me through the air.
I hold tight to the webs that connect us, and soon enough they pull taught, dragging her through the air with me. The gravity and lack of stable ground is disorienting, but at least I've had experience with my web slinging. That poor earthquake guy...
I yank the webs, pulling her toward me. She adapts quickly, using the momentum to super-kick me in the stomach. I go hurtling in the opposite direction, unable to stop myself. I hit the roof, bouncing and skidding until I hit the railing. Ouch. Oh fu-I get on my hands and knees, then lift my mask over my mouth so I can vomit onto the concrete. She just kicked the puke outta me. That's actually awesome lol.
She descends onto the rooftop, landing in a stance. "Stay in your lane, spiderling. Stop meddling in things you don't understand."
"I... understand..." I pull my mask back down, then flick my wrist to attach her to a line of webbing. "Plenty!"
I yank her to the ground with a quick downward flick, then push myself off the railing into a sprint. I run, and land a kick to her helmet. There's a cracking sound, but with a painful cry, I realize that it was my own ankle.
"Is that the best you can do?" She asks, grabbing my wrist and squeezing as tight as she can. Webbing sprays out randomly, and my eyes widen. "You don't deserve the title hero." She says, then swings me over her head, tossing me off the side of the building.
My ankle still hurts, but not as much as my wrist. I manage to slow my fall, but I still land on the sidewalk with a THWACK! I lay on the concrete for a second, breathing deeply.
"Spider-Man?" Someone asks, looking down at me.
"Uh hey, what's up?" I wave, then get to my feet.
"Oh my god can I get your autograph?" The girl asks, digging in her purse for something.
"Uh, I'm flattered, really. Maybe another time." I jump on top of a car, then throw myself across the street onto the side of a building. I kick off, swinging through the air and up onto the building.
Earthquake guy is up on his feet, engaged in a close fist fight. I help by shooting webs at Queen Bee's wing pack, jamming the whatever-it-is. She yells out my name, then -at the speed of light- whips out a laser gun, and shoots me directly in the chest... all while fighting the other hero.
The laser crackles on impact, electrocuting me. My muscles spasm, and I scream. I fall back onto the rooftop, convulsing as the electricity continues to course painfully through my body.
The electric shock eventually stops, but it has sapped away all my energy. How did she do that? I think, head swimming. That was embarrassing, she just no-scoped me like a frickin boss.
The building rumbles, and I tilt my head to watch the battle. Earthquake guy stomps on the ground, shattering the concrete. Whoa. He uses hand gestures to raise some of the displaced rocks, then shoot them at Queen Bee. Whoa! She deflects some, and dodges others, but takes a volleyball sized chunk of concrete to the helmet. She stumbles, but remains on her feet. She flicks out a baton, and slashes away the other assailing rocks. WHOA!
She runs at him, baton raised. The black stick has yellow stripes on the end, which I can only assume are charged with the same energy as her laser gun. She swings, but EG evades quickly. He on some precision evade shit. He brings up his arms in an X shape, and the ground in front of him rises to shield him from another attack from Queen Bee's stun baton.
EG pushes the shield at her, slamming her between two concrete slabs. He leaves her there for a second, and runs to my side.
"Are you alright?" He asks, just looking at me.
"I've been better." I admit, lifting a hand.
He helps me to my feet, and together we take a stance, ready for battle. This is going to be the team up of a century. Spider-Man and a real life earth bender. Fantastic.
But there's one problem... Queen Bee is nowhere to be seen.
"What?" I yell, fists dropping heavily to my side. "But we were finally ready!"
"If you wait for the perfect opportunity, you're going to wait your entire life." Earthquake guy says wisely. "My uncle taught me that."
I turn to him, raising a hand for him to shake. "I don't think we've been properly introduced, I'm spider-man by the way."
"I know who you are." He says solemnly. Wow, so serious. "Like She said, you need to stay in your lane. You can't keep tipping the balance of justice."
"Balance of justice?" I ask, taken aback. "I just saved your life."
"Every hero has a villain, and every villain has a hero." He walks away, inspecting the damage he'd done to the roof. "If I die, then a stronger hero will take my place as Queen Bee's nemesis." He stomps on the ground again, and puts everything back into place with some weird hand gestures. "That is the balance of justice."
I'd heard Demmy say something similar to that once upon a time, but this dude is taking it way too seriously. "Oh, uh okay."
"If you continue interfering in other people's balance, then you will be the one to suffer." He says, stepping up onto the edge of the roof. He walks off, and disappears.
"A simple thank you would have sufficed." I grumble, taking off my shoe. I roll up my pant leg while searching the sun baked roof for something strong. I find two pieces of... metal pole (weird) and stick them to either side of my leg. After webbing it up, I stick my shoe to my belt, then take off toward my side of town.
While I swing I think about what he said. If I die, then a stronger hero will take my place as Queen Bee's nemesis. It was pretty odd that they were paired up in the first place. Earthquake guy is at a disadvantage because his powers can't reach Queen Bee, and she has a bunch of cool alien weapons and a mesmerizing costume. All he has is his dumb ninja outfit and proverbial opinions.
Who declared them as nemeses? Was it the earthquake guy? Surely he wouldn't have been dumb enough to choose a villain of that caliber. But maybe it was Queen Bee? That would've been a criminally low move, even for a villain. She clearly outranks him in skill and experience... even though I've only ever seen her fight once, she sure knows her stuff.
Then again, who declared Drifter as my nemesis? Was it him? Did he think I'd be an easy hero to defeat? Hmm... probably. But I'm going to prove him wrong. He's going to have to work hard if he's going to defeat me!
What if Kel really is Drifter? Does he know that I'm Spider-Man? His fighting style was pretty similar, but I didn't see enough to consider it evidence. Plus, how peachy would it be that my rival is actually my nemesis?
I guess I'll have to get closer to him to find out.
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Lol skylar really just got his ass handed to him all chapter long. I hope y'all liked the song, it's one of my all-time favorites!
How was the chapter? Did you hate it? Love it? Think it could be better? Tell me in the comments! As always, thanks for reading!