Peter had of course, heard of rhino stampedes, heck, he had even fought a rhino on a few occasions. But when there was a stampede of hyped up high schoolers running thru the hallway he just couldn`t take it. Peter looked around at the looks of pure ecstasy on the faces of his peers. There was only one thing that could make them so happy. Harry Styles and Hannah Montana were performing their new hit single (F-U-Z) in the auditorium at noon.
Peter rolled his eyes, he wasn't sure why Harry decided to perform here at Freeport High, but he really wished he hadn`t. The crowds were insane. But hey, he couldn`t complain, his best friend Harry Osborne Styles, pop star, retired member of a world-renowned boy-band and the heir to the multi-billion-dollar Oscorp corporation was coming to perform at his school, he was so psyched.
And then of course there was the matter of Ms. Montana. Peter found it highly comical that Harry would collaborate with her as he had told him plenty of times that he hated her music style. Which could mean only one thing: Harry fancied her. A lot. Peter made a mental note not to let Harry live this down. Although Peter knew that this was just because he was jealous of Harry. After all he was the one with the 2007 vintage condition Hannah Montana poster hanging from the ceiling over his bed. (So, it`d be the first thing he`d see when he`d wake up in the morning.)
More people brushed past Peter in the hall, nearly knocking him over. He took that as his que to get to the auditorium and find a spot. The auditorium was even more packed then he thought it would be. People from other schools and colleges had come to take part of the concert.
There was a wave of cheers from all the girls as Harry entered the stage and another from the guys as Hannah showed her face. Peter cheered along with them. This was the school event of a lifetime he couldn`t believe that- the hairs on the back of Peter`s neck stood strait up. His Spidey-sense started ringing a second to late.
There was a high-pitched cackle as the far wall of the stage exploded open to reveal the Green Goblin soaring thru the auditorium on his glider. And this time an orange bomb wasn`t the only thing he was holding. A struggling Hannah was held steady in his grip.
"Say hello to the sinister six kids" he said letting out a maniacal laugh. Sure enough, true to the goblin`s word there were three silhouettes emerging from behind the smoke from the late wall. Peter knew those figures all too well. Venom, Carnage and the silver sable, three focal members of the sinister six.
As soon as Peter`s Spidey-sense had gone off, he had donned his mask and stripped off his jacket and jeans to reveal his tight-fitted spandex Spidey suit (The real thing, not the iron-man rip-off that was given to him by Mr. Stark last summer) and charged the supervillains. Spiderman prided himself on being quick and agile, but right now compared to the sinister six, Peter had nothing to brag about.
They had all split up to each cause havoc in a different direction. Goblin made off with Hannah, Silver Sable and her goons had gagged Styles and taken him backstage and venom and Carnage were taking down security. At first, Peter wasn`t sure which one to take but then his hormones spoke for him. He shot a web at the Green Goblin`s glider just in time. Peter soared into the air frantically holding onto his web for dear life.
Even with the wind rushing in his ears he could hear Hannah's screams and the Goblins maniacal laughter as he dropped one of his gas bombs onto a passing police force. Peter attached another web to the glider and surged forwards, feet first, kicking the goblin off the glider. Unfortunately, that meant kicking Hannah off too.
Peter saved Hannah from a great fall just I time with a web to her torso. He was now suspended in the air, hanging from a Bloomingdales. He brought her up to him, and placed his arm around her waist, securing her tight. Even through the mask, he could smell the scent of her, sweet, intoxicating. He lowered them both slowly.
The Goblin was waiting for them.
"Spiderman! I should have known you would show up"
"Just keeping things interesting" Peter shot a web directly at his face. He dodged it, but the web was only a distraction. He shot a web to the top of a lamppost and swung into the goblin. The goblin kicked him off, but Peter came back swinging. He pummeled the goblin again and again with his fists. With the Goblin`s enhanced agility, however, he managed to duck or parry most of them.
Finally, the goblin tried attacking him through a savage kick, but Peter caught his leg and threw him into the front windows of Bloomingdales. He did not get up. Peter would have finished him off if he hadn`t been suddenly tackled by a large black behemoth.
Venom had gotten even stronger since they last met and so he couldn`t break out of the symbiote`s grasp. His lungs started to fail as Venom`s hands throttled his throat. Peter frantically tried to overpower Venom`s grasp. As it turned out, he didn't need to. Venom went slack for a second, it was enough for peter to make his move. He backflipped, his heel catching venom`s jaw and then he webbed Venom`s face to the floor. Peter looked over at Hannah who had discarded the metal beam she had used to hit Venom a minute ago.
"Run, this won`t hold him for long"
'S-Spidey ggot a new ggirl yes?" Venom broke the web and made a run for Hannah. But no one foresaw what she would do next. She broke out into song. It was one of her earliest hits, Nobody`s perfect and she was performing it with full cerography.
"Hannah run! What are you doing- "
"Nobody`s perfect, I gotta work it, again and again, till I get it right…" Venom started screaming. He raised several tentacles to his ears to block out her voice, but Hannah's vocals were really strong. The Venom symbiote started to disappear, melting like heated plastic and with it`s remaining energy, the symbiote launched Hannah into the air via tentacle.
With no time to waste Peter jumped into the air and caught her just before she made impact.
"Thank you" she said, she was breathing heavily.
"Don`t even mention it, that`s your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man always there to- Hannah you're shaking"
"I know, I`m just not used to this sort of thing'' she paused, "of course this is probably a run of the mill sort of thing for you, isn`t it?"
"Well, it`s not every day I get to rescue a world renown pop star"
She smiled, "You`re the Spiderman, I've seen you on YouTube, That`s how I knew to use a high pitched noise to beat Venom, at least that`s what you did last time, anyways, everyone in the world is dying to know who you are and you`re flattered by meeting me?"
"Well I didn`t know I was on YouTube" Hannah flashed him a look that said yeah, right.
"Okay, maybe I did know, a friend may have told me- okay fine I google myself all the time are you happy now?" She laughed then, and he pulled her close just taking in the scent of her. She rested her head on his chest. And that was when he noticed the blond wig that had fallen to the ground next to them. He took in Hannah`s brown hair.
He took several steps back from her, "What the-, who are you?"
Hannah put a hand to her hair and her eyes widened. "Okay, I know how this must look but – "
"Who. Are. You?"
She sighed. "My name is Miley Stewart, I live on a beach in California and to preserve my privacy I have been living half my life as a teenage-idol pop star named Hannah Montana"
Peter was stunned. All that time he spent crushing on her, all that time he spent reading about her online, she was this whole other person. And she looked even more beautiful as a brunette.
"So, all his time…"
She grimaced, "Yeah". They stood their awkwardly for a moment before he said:
"I think that`s kind of hot, I mean cool, I mean… I kind of do the same thing.'' She laughed then, for some reason.
"It kind of sucks doesn`t it? Not being able to tell anyone who you are, not even your closest friends.''
"Well it isn`t all bad, at first it`s nice, being able to live a whole new life without letting go of the old one, but after a while…yeah it does kind of suck". She sat down on a rock and he joined her.
" My best friend, her name is Lily, she knows, but I was only able to tell he after a long time and it led to some trust issues between us, but I figure better that, then not being able to talk at all because I have some stupid concert every other night" They sat there in silence for a few moments before he placed his hand on hers.
"My parents died when I was young, so I live with my aunt. She`s a frail old woman so I worry what would happen if I would ever tell her" he paused, and she looked at him curiously as he considered saying what was on his mind.
"What?" She coked her head "You know you can tell me anything, I won`t repeat nothing"
"It`s just that…I`ve honestly never told anyone about my being Spiderman, my parents are dead, my aunt would freak and the kids at school… well they never liked me much anyway" Silence.
"I like you" Peter`s heart missed a beat.
"I like you too" They sat there for a minute in blissful silence.
"We should probably go rescue Harry''
"Yep. Sorry, let`s do that"
The auditorium was a total wreck. Debris littered the place and there was sawdust everywhere. But there was no sign of Carnage which was good. The cops must have taken care of him. Hannah and Peter went to explore backstage where there seemed to be a lot of ruckus going on.
Silver Sable`s goons had bound and gagged half the police force. They were now disposing of them. (In a non-lethal way) It said quiet a bit about the quality of muscle that Sable hired if the same cops who had just captured carnage had not been able to beat the mercenaries.
Peter hung from the ceiling, watching closely. He had left Hannah (Or Miley, though Peter still thought of her as Hannah) back in the auditorium as it was too dangerous for her to be here. It was a lot easier not having to watch out for her. Still they had really bonded back at that Bloomingdales storefront. After this was all over, he planned on getting her number and asking her out himself. He knew that he would need to eventually unmask himself to her if they would continue to bond like they just had, but not yet. Peter already had something in mind for the first date.
After a few minutes of crawling on the ceiling and silently taking down goons, Peter had finally found Harry. He had been bound up in a small cubicle that was meant to be an office. Despite the goons surrounding him, twirling their clubs threateningly, Harry had never looked braver. He was shouting in defiance.
"Do you even know who I am, I`m huge, I`m tremendous, when my lawyer gets' here, ya know what? forget about my lawyer when the cops get here, you`re going to have heck to deal with and- "
Silver Sable slapped him across the face.
"Quit whining, dog. You rich boys make me sick, always thinking that no one could ever touch you, that no one could lay a hand on you, well guess what I just did what are you going to do about it?"
Harry spit at her feet. "The cops- "
"We dealt with the cops, there tied up in the back, waiting to be ransomed back to the city.'
Harry looked aghast. "What? But…look, I`m plenty wealthy, and my influence is tremendous, whatever it is you want just name it and I`ll make it happen, whatever this is about I`ll make it up to you, just tell me" Then he smoldered. Peter had to give Harry credit where it was due, that man could smolder in a way that any woman would want him, but the only language Sable spoke was money.
She merely shrugged, "You`re going to have to take it up with him" she said, pointing behind her.
A dark silhouette emerged from the shadows.
"Been a long time Harry'' Styles' eyes popped open.
"You!''
"Me"
Harry`s face turned purple.
"You`re behind all this? Capturing me? Destroying the concert? Letting the sinister six out upon New York?''
"Capturing you? Yes, trashing the concert? Yes, though the sinister six I have little to do with, they just wanted to be part of the fun"
Peter realized that the voice was extremely familiar, but he just couldn`t pin it down. Then the figure emerged dramatically from the shadows. The man wore ripped jeans and a loose shirt with a bracelet on his wrist. Peter could not hold back his surprise and gasped.
Everyone in the room looked up at him and Peter realized his mistake a second too late. Sable shot an electric bolt at him before he could even move. Peter fell to the floor directly before Harry, squirming in pain.
Liam Payne didn`t even look fazed to see him.
"Ah, Spiderman I was waiting for you to show up although I confess that I was hoping you would stay out of this one, ah, well" Peter received several savage kicks to his gut. Peter looked up at the former member of the world`s most popular boy-band. Payne had changed since the years that One-Direction had split. He looked more on edge, crueler even and ready to take out anything in his way.
"Why Liam, why are you doing this to me?'' Payne turned back to Harry, enraged.
"YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" spittle hit Harry`s face.
"The band, that`s what this is about? You`re upset because I left the band, right?''
"How dare you Harry, the band was my family, my life and you took that away from me"
"You`re just blaming me because you don`t know where Zayn is, blame him he was the first to leave"
"The band lived on without him, it didn`t need him but you? Once you left there was no more band, how could the band live on without its star Harry Osborne Styles? you said you quit o you could spend more time learning about the Oscorp corporation but that wasn`t it was it? You left so you could have all the fame to yourself, you selfish whelp"
"I left because I didn`t belong in a boy-band any longer, but if you won`t accept that truth at least listen to this one. You just hate that you`re not big enough to get any girls on you`re own without being my friend"
"SHUT UP, YOU DON`T KNOW ANYTHING-"
"I know all I need to"
The conversation quickly fell into a shouting match and Peter had had enough. He webbed Liam`s legs together and jump-kicked Silver Sable in the chest. Sable got up quickly to return the attack, but he was already moving.
"GET HIM" Payne`s voice was frantic now. Peter leapt to the celling and webbed Harry up there, leaving him hanging far out of the mercenaries' reach. Now he just had to deal with the gunshots. The next few minutes were spent dodging bullets.
Peter could dodge a bullet or two just fine. His enhanced spider-like agility made it easy. But when you were dealing with a dozen mercs, each armed with automatic weapons it was a different matter. He had several holes in his spandex and his left shoulder had been hit. He couldn`t continue this fight, not like this. He hid behind a large crate, using it as cover.
He slouched down in exhaustion. This fight was not going in his favor, large over muscular monsters that were born in a lab he could handle, those kinds of things tended to be wild and thoughtless. These mercs however where smart, always shooting in a volley, forming a circle so that he couldn`t approach from any direction.
This was not a fight he could win, not alone. But he also couldn`t leave to get help, they would cut Harry down as soon as he left. What choice did he have?
With all his remaining strength, Peter leapt out from the crate and used a web to swing it in a 360 circle as hard as he could, he released it upon the mercenaries before they even knew what was happening. Peter`s arm screamed out in defiance. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his bleeding shoulder.
When the dust cleared Silver Sables, goons were scattered everywhere and Silver Sable herself was lying unconscious on the tiled floor. Payne was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, up here, think you could get me out of this?" Harry said gesturing at the webbing that covered him. Peter`s arm hurt too much to swing so he climbed up the wall and started yanking off the webbing the old fashion way.
"Just don`t drop me ok?"
"No worries I`ve got you Mr. Styles"
"Thanks, by the way, for all this" he said gesturing all around him.
"Well that`s just you`re friendly neighborhood Spiderman always there to help" Harry nodded, looking back at the cubicle.
"Where do you suppose he went?"
"Who? Liam? Oh he`ll turn up eventually don`t you worry about it; those kinds of folk always turn up"
Thirty minutes later, Harry was getting ready for the concert. The cops had waned to cancel it, but Harry had insisted on letting the show go on. Peter sat in the school infirmary, the bullet had been taken out, now Hannah sat next to him, bandaging his wound.
"That was a pretty dumb thing you did, going in there by yourself, you could have died" Peter turned to her
"You didn`t seem this concerned when I was fighting the goblin"
"And when exactly was I supposed to lecture you? Maybe when the Goblin was holding me by the throat or when Venom was pounding your face"
"All right, all right, but hey I`m here aren`t I?" She nodded
"You are here" Silence.
"Miley, I want to ask you something" she froze at the mention of her real name, but she had nothing to worry about, they were the only two people in the infirmary.
"Would you ever consider…"
"What?'' Peter got lost in her eyes for a minute and forgot what he was going to say.
"Nothing, you`re just putting a little too much pressure on my shoulder right now"
An hour later, the concert was going full force, Peter even had a front row seat. Although after what happened today, that wasn`t as hard as it would seem. There were only around two hundred people there, a miniscule amount compared to the initial ten thousand.
Peter still had a hard time enjoying himself. He had Miley all to himself back in the infirmary and he still couldn`t ask her out. He was doomed to be alone forever. Plus, his shoulder still throbbed. Even with the medication he took, it would be several weeks before he fully recovered. He clenched his shoulder and tried massaging it, though of course, that just made it worse. He tensed up in pain.
That was when he noticed Hannah staring at him from the stage. She was still singing but her eyes were directly on him, on his shoulder, on the unusual puffiness that was because of all the bandages he wore under his shirt. She smiled then, and he realized that she knew.
"Call me" she mouthed. Peter let out the goofiest smile he had ever given anyone.
"Will do"